収束ゾーンでのライフ: Life in the Convergence Zone

so yeah

out doing shows this past weekend and now I guess I can say I've played a venue where somebody got killed, so

that was different

(some people got hurt too, like, four, but really lightly) (and two at another event) (they were hurt pretty bad)

and also some jackass at an introduction to shieldfighting session decided that the right thing to do was berzerker charge me and when that didn't work do it again from behind

this was touch-and-out combat and the fucker broke his sword literally in half on my knee

(well, just above my knee, i guess he missed a little?)

and it wasn't even his sword, it was some other guy's sword, i'm like

what the fuck is wrong with you

and the guy running it was

"dude don't break my swords!" and i'm all

"he broke your sword on my leg thanks"

and i'm thinking mostly it's a good thing you didn't try that with a normal fragile person you might've fucked them up good you insoluable tryhard

and i didn't even get a photo of the broken sword, which is terrible, because posting that would've been badass even if it was just a wooden (1"x2" roughly) wooden practice sword

and all that's sorted and we get back and then SURPRISE

layoffs

(because fucking game industry honestly what)

so now my partner is looking for work

and this is quite the week so far and it's only tuesday? so i think i would like a do-over.

eta: yay! the car broke on the way to book club! so we got towed to the dealer instead of book club. ffffffffffffffff

Loading out for a weekend set of shows in Kennewick with Leannan Sidhe – if you’re in the area, here’s the Facebook event, c’mon out! Leannan Sidhe is a trad- and trad-style band, so playing a renfaire is something they do on the regular, even if very little of the music is actually Renaissance-specific, and the weather is supposed to be great. See you there!

Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil. Come check out our music at:
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With Leannan Sidhe again. It’s this Friday at Gasworks Park, and to be honest I’m not sure how public an event it is? But it’s at Gasworks Park, so how private can it be? It’s not like they’re reserving the whole park, and there will be amps, you’ll be able to hear it from outside.

We’re on either at 6pm or 7pm, they’re still finalising the order because it’s kind of a big graduation party. And to be honest I don’t know whether I’m even supposed to post about it to other people but, well, I have now, so there. XD

See you Friday, or not!

Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil. Come check out our music at:
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Friday concerts at nwcMUSIC got moved to the afternoon! Except for the PDX Broadsides’ halftime bonus show at the burlesque. That’s something new – I think it’d a pretty good idea tho’. (They have a full show on Saturday.)

Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil. Come check out our music at:
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Norwescon is two (2!) weeks away and that means it’s time for nwcMUSIC and THE BIG BIG BIG BIG GRID!


Click to emBIGgen
It’s a BIGGER GRID than it’s ever been because it’s a BIGGER SHOW! Starting with the return of THE BIG SHOW on Saturday, this time, Saturday night – there are a lot of daytime shows this year, which will hopefully make it easier for everybody.

PLUS! The return of longtime favourite ALEXANDER JAMES ADAMS, here as part of his Canticles tour, with the whole Canticles crew. We have newcomers CELT CHECK and DOGWOOD and NATHANIEL JOHNSTONE with returning favourites like SHUBZILLA (fresh from her smash shows at SXSW) – and KADESH FLOW and longtime HEROES OF FILK favourites VIXY & TONY and BETSY TINNEY and new geekmusic favourites like The PDX Broadsides.

It’s a BIG BIG BIG BIG SHOW!

Daytime programming is back too, with sing-a-longs and how-to panels and meetups and MAD LIBS FILK, making its first return to Daytime since, oh gosh, nwcMUSIC 2012? It’s been a while but there’s room for everything at THE BIG SHOW!

Do I have panels? OF COURSE I HAVE PANELS! It wouldn’t be BIG! if I didn’t have panels. On Thursday, I’m moderating Home Recording I, with Alexander James Adams. On Saturday, I’m with Jonny Nero Action Hero, Alec again, and Stephanie Weippert on “How Big a Fish Do You Need To Be?”, with Jessica F. Herbert of PDX Broadsides on “Songwriting 101”, and “Find Your Instrument” with, oh, probably everybody.

ʕ•̫͡•ʕ*̫͡*ʕ•͓͡•ʔ-̫͡-ʕ•̫͡•ʔ*̫͡*ʔ-̫͡-ʔ
That’s usually how that panel works
Then Sunday, it’s Christian Lipski (PDX Broadsides), Alec, and me up for “Home Recording II: Even More Homerecordinger.” It’s BIG EDUCATION to close out THE BIG SHOW. You’ll be there, of course.

I may bring a secret project. Excuse me, SEKRIT PROJEKT. But I can’t tell you. It’s SEKRIT.

Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil. Come check out our music at:
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We’re off to Conflikt, a filk (geek folk/fan music) convention in the Seattle area. Last year I was Toastmuppet, this year, I’m just one of the crowd. See you there, I hope!

If not, or even if so, this works way better than it has any right to, but it is a bit slow at the start. Give it time.

Watch on YouTube

Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil. Come check out our music at:
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Back from Orycon 38! They certainly kept me busy – panels on building microphones, on orphaned lyrics, on building a recording studio, a bunch of others. I was in fact so busy that I only managed to take one photograph. It’s from the green room balcony, and here it is:

But I’ve seen some other photographs around. Sadly, so far, they aren’t public – if you find any, link ’em in comments! Also, thanks to everybody who turned out for a Sunday afternoon show at checkout time, that takes some goddamn dedication. Cramming six songs into a half-hour set doesn’t sound that tricky, but I wasn’t simplifying anything for anybody, which is why I showed up like two hours early to set up before anyone else. (Setlist: Supervillain For I Love You, Thirteen, Coyote, Shout at the Desert, Kaiju Meat, We’re Not Friends/The Future Has a Place.)

I’m definitely going to keep performing Kaiju Meat as if it were actually a hiphop song, which it’s not really? But that performance approach really helps it work live, so I’m doin’ it. We also did USSR later, in the band scramble, and that nearly started a goddamn riot. EVERYBODY SING ALONG IF YOU KNOW WHAT’S GOOD FOR YOU!

I really only got to one panel I wasn’t running, the hilariously fun Overwatch meetup, wherein… okay, so, there’s a meme, Everyone In Overwatch Is Gay? Because EVERYONE IN OVERWATCH IS GAY. And at the meetup, literally everyone was queer, we actually checked.

It was hilarious.

So, yeah! Thanks again for having me, and special thanks to the createspace crew for the use of their sewing supplies – very much appreciated – and let’s do it again next year. ^_^

Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil. Come check out our music at:
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I’ll be at Orycon this weekend! I have panels and workshops and a concert on Sunday afternoon, so please come out for it!

They’ve actually given me a panel on building old-technology microphones, which is pretty cool, and I’ll let people record themselves on a 1920s-ish carbon mic and a 1940s-ish crystal mic, so hopefully that will be fun. People really seemed to enjoy it when I had the setup running at my dealer table at CBCC.

I need to find time – somehow – to wedge in building a new amp board for the microphone panel, because I don’t want to take apart the existing crystal microphone for show-and-tell, and I think it’ll be neat to show that off. Later today. Hopefully. Assuming nothing else explodes.

Like, Monday, right? Things Happened, and then I got to spend the afternoon pulling unimaginably gross material out of a fluid pump system while going, “oh gods, oh gods, I hope this is only cat litter, please let this just be cat litter,” and when that’s happening, you have officially reached what one might call a BAD SCENE.

Not “darkest timeline” bad scene, but: bad.

so disgusting

Anyway. Thank the gods that’s over. See you this weekend!

Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil. Come check out our music at:
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Back at Clallam Bay Comicon, I did “USSR” for the first time, as a karaoke track. When I got back, I posted a video of the live USSR performance on Tumblr, taken off of audience camera.

And that was fun, but the sound quality was pretty bad, because it was just the on-camera microphone. Plus, the camera did things like make automatic-recording-level adjustments throughout, which means the backing track is pulsing all over the place.

I’m going to be cleaning up some other, similar live recordings for some other people this weekend, so I’ve had a go at this audio, just to warm up and see what I can do with it. That’s meant a lot of level-control automation, heavy use of a multiband compressor (and a high-pass filter to get rid of most of an occasional rumble from… somewhere…), a bit of reverb to smooth out some of the sample rate issues, and a lot of EQ work.

I’m going to massage it a bit more, I think? But I’m reasonably happy with what I’ve managed so far (mp3 link). The amount of surprise audio-level changes is down a lot, I’ve brought back the low end and some of the high end, there’s even a hint of kick to the bassline now – though I wonder if I’ve over-built that at the moment. It mostly sounds okay but I’m not sure it’s so great on anything that does a lot of bass boost, like some gaming headphones.

Anyway, what do you think? I’ll re-upload the live video with the improved/massaged audio if enough other people think it’s better enough.

Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil. Come check out our music at:
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The show at VCON is on Sunday afternoon! They’ve stacked like five of us up, and we each have mini-sets.

Anybody reading this going to be there? If so – got a request? It’ll just be me, as far as I know, so no whole-band songs, I’m afraid. Unless they’re USSR or Kaiju Meat, I’m willing to do those with backing tracks. XD

Also, I’m still a little “woah” that I’m on a panel with Kevin Anderson, Gerry and Sylvia’s son, who does modern CGI and(!) ultramarionation Anderson Entertainment shows. And a bunch of Doctor Who work with Big Finish, too. Awesoooooome.

But yeah, if you’re going to be there and want to hear something I can do solo, let me know. ^_^

Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil. Come check out our music at:
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