| Show Friday! |
[Dec. 2nd, 2009|09:35 am] |
After almost a year, Shadow at Morning is back playing shows again. This one's in Bellevue, so no shame if you skip it, Seattleites, but if you happen to be stuck on the Eastside with nothing to do, the other bands we're playing with are *really* good, and it's our first outing with J, our new vocalist. Wish us luck! |
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| Today we live forever. |
[Aug. 18th, 2009|05:28 pm] |
Today is a good day. Not just because we sold a $&%@-ton of Pathfinder RPGs at GenCon, partied with our favorite industry folks, won a bunch of ENnies, and signed autographs like we were rock stars (and I mean *actual* rock stars). Not even because I had folks I'd never met before recognize me by sight at the bars and want to buy me drinks. No, see, today I got an email I've been anxious about for a while now.
I wonder a lot about what it takes to really call yourself an author, and frequently find ways in which I don't think I can truly lay claim to the term. I've written a lot of gaming material and countless journalistic pieces, but there's a gray area between "writer" or "designer" and "author" in my head. I've got an anthology coming out, but that's as an editor. I've sold a bunch of short fiction, but a lot of that has been to offbeat (albeit cool) and little-known markets, or else projects with which I'm already involved editorially. All of which adds up to somebody who writes words for a living, but sometimes still feels like he's faking his way to the top.
And then today Allen Ashley, the British Fantasy Society award-winner editing PS Publishing's forthcoming post-apocalyptic anthology Catastrophia, sends me this email about a zombie romance story called "The Long Road to the Sea" that I submitted six months ago:
This is a beautifully written story with a genuine artery of tragedy running through it. Your lead character Jimmy - essentially a zombie or reanimated corpse - comes across as the very human heart of the tale and, as I read on, I knew he was going to die again but I found myself hoping that he would somehow be spared. It's quite an achievement to evoke so much sympathy for a character who is basically not fully alive, mute and never expresses any clear emotions. Then there's the girl Alma May, the Juliet or Desdemona in this tragic drama. I like the way that you didn't disclose every detail of their earlier relationship, just enough to illuminate her suffering. Also thrown into the mix is the mysterious doctor Mischa - an intriguing mix of philanthropist, medic, shaman and Baron Frankenstein. It's a bleak world view that you paint in this story. How long before almost everybody in the convoy is a "walker" or reanimated mute? One could take a different slant on Mischa's positive and life-affirming / life renewing actions. Perhaps the real catastrophe is not "the Collapse" that changed the lives of everyone 10, 15, 20 years ago; perhaps there is a subtler catastrophe in that no one is really allowed to die anymore, they are too valuable to Mischa's cause. Just a thought.
So why have I taken so long to make up my mind? Well, one problem was that the story is more post-catastrophic rather than set in the middle of a given disaster. The references to "the Collapse" are slightly vague and don't entirely explain why this near-future convoy of survivors travels from town to town with an updated medicine show. But, the effects of whatever constituted the actual catastrophe are still being felt in the hereafter, so, on balance, I've bent my rules. The other factor that held me back was that the plot template is pretty much based on the old Wild West scenario of settlers pulling their wagon train across the country and then being ambushed by bandits or so-called "Red Indians". But I think it was Plato who indicated that there are seven basic plots (don't ask me to name them!) and every set of ideas needs some sort of coherent narrative in which to explore them. Your story is beautifully written and empathetically engaging. The unfolding nature of both the ongoing struggle in the post-Collapse world and the encroaching tragedy that will befall Alma May and Jimmy (again) kept me reading and left me emotionally drained at the close. I think that readers will remember this piece for a long, long time and several will shed tears. I arrived at the conclusion that I like to reach as an editor: this story is so good that I have got to snap it up now before somebody else nabs it. So, "The Long Road to the Sea" is a must for "Catastrophia".
And there you have it. No industry connections or string-pulling. Just a highly respected editor who loved my story enough to pick it up, and to put it on shelves around the world in winter of 2010.
I think this is what I've been waiting for. |
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| Parents and Computers: A Survey |
[May. 5th, 2009|03:25 pm] |
Hey folks! My parents want to upgrade to a laptop, and they're looking to me to help them decide what to get. My problem is this: I know what computers I think are good, but I don't know what's best for two almost complete novices. Once caveat is that it has to be a PC (I can't make them learn a new operating system this late in the game), and it has to be available with XP (see previous statement, plus I'll be damned if I'll subject my own parents to Vista). Personally, I really like my Thinkpad, but they keep saying things like, "Oh, the tech guy at my work says to get a Dell, because of the great customer service and tech support." (My experience with Dell, on the other hand, is that they jam your computer full of useless crap you don't want that slows you down, and definitely takes advantage of the "don't know any better" market.)
So what say you, interwebs? Have you had this same conversation with your parents? What laptop will have me fielding the fewest panicked tech-support calls? (Bear in mind that my mom recently called to get me to "fix" their computer, when the problem was that she'd forgotten her password....) |
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| Pants Required - A Musical |
[Apr. 17th, 2009|11:54 pm] |
Remember last post where I talked about how my amazing friends made a musical about a fictionalized version of my life, in which I battle an evil Senator Jon intent on banning nudity, assisted by my bandmates and an assortment of sexy ladies? And how they used their own interpretations of my music (okay, and two covers) to write the score? And how they devoted months to writing and rehearsing, while keeping it a total secret from me? Well, now you can see it all, in full youtube glory!
SEE James get impersonated in an extremely flattering and eerily convincing manner!
HEAR his friends perform his music better than he ever has!
WITNESS the sheer power of writer/director Michelle Burce, and those brave individuals who followed her into the abyss!
PONDER the meaning of seemingly nonsensical in-jokes!
REALIZE too late that it's not safe for children!
The best way to watch it is to use this playlist to watch the whole thing.
You can also jump to any scene or song (brackets indicate a nonmusical scene). For the general viewing public, I'd recommend "Of Loss" as the prettiest song, and "The Wake" for the filthy shadow puppets...
Also, see me get my script and realize how many people were in on the joke in the after show wrap-up.
Thanks to Jrd for the meticulous and no doubt mind-numbing filming, editing, and uploading work.
My friends are the best. |
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| I live a fairy tale. |
[Apr. 6th, 2009|02:05 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  there are no words | ] |
I have been alive for just over 25 years, and I can honestly say that tonight was one of the best nights of my life.
This evening a bunch of us biked over to some friends' house to see a super-secret theater performance they'd been working on. I'd heard rumors that it was some sort of musical, but that was it. When I got there, the place was packed, and I squeezed in among a bunch of wonderful folks and prepared to be entertained.
The lights came up, and the curtains opened to reveal my friends Andrew and Chris, dressed kind of rocker-ish, on a couch. After a moment, I realized that Andrew's shirt was familiar - was, in fact, my favorite t-shirt. "Weird," I thought. "They must have needed help with wardrobe. I wonder why they didn't mention it."
Then the doors behind them opened and the backing musicians began to play. Something seemed strange. Andrew stood up and began to sing...
...one of my songs.
"Oh wow!" I thought. "They're using music our friends wrote! Awesome!"
Then some more characters entered, and greeted Andrew as "Jimmy," and his bandmates as "Shadow at 5 o'Clock."
"HA!" I thought. "They made me a character in the play! Amazing!"
Then they launched into another musical number - also one of my songs.
Let it never be said that I'm the brightest bulb in the box. Only gradually did it sink in that, not only was I a character, I was in fact the main character.
You guys, my friends wrote me a musical.
I cannot find words to express how I feel right now. Some people's friends throw them parties. Some even throw them surprise parties. My friends wrote, directed, arranged, rehearsed, and performed a 45-minute musical, in which they strung together every one of my solo acoustic songs (and a hilarious do-wop cover of a Shadow at Morning track) into a story about a slightly fictionalized me trying to overthrow the evil Senator Jon while navigating a conflicted and amorous web of sexy ladies. There were spot-on impersonations (I never realized I have so many hand gestures.) There was shadow puppet sex. There was a part where everyone in the audience threw their hats and underwear at the main character, and another where countless plants in the audience took off their outer garments to reveal Shadow at Morning t-shirts.
There was video (I'll post the link later, once it's up on youtube), and I can't wait to watch it again, paging through my copy of the libretto and listening to the "original cast recording" CD, hearing my friends put their own spins on my music. I'd say it would cheer me up next time I'm down, but really, I'm not sure I could ever get that down in a world that has these people in it.
Sufficient thanks are impossible. Michelle, for instigating, writing, and directing. Andrew, for being a better me than me. Andy, Chris, Dave, Kaia, Helen, Tim, Mark, Laura, Jon, and anybody else I'm forgetting for the month of work, and the amazing performance. Everyone else for showing up and managing to keep it secret the whole time.
I should wrap this up and go to bed, but I can't stop reeling. Ever see the Richard Dreyfus movie "Mr. Holland's Opus"? You know that part at the end where his music gets performed by all his friends, and it's the big dramatic climax, and everybody gets all teary-eyed (or at least I always did)? That's pretty much tonight, for so many reasons. The most obvious, of course, is that my friends went through such incredible work as a gift to me, with the second most obvious being that the end result was so damned good (turns out my friends are freakin' talented). But the truly astonishing thing, and what I doubt more than a handful of people in the world knew, is that ever since I was a child I've dreamed of someday writing a musical.
And now, in a way, I have.
Thank you, guys. I love you more than I could ever say. |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 24th, 2009|09:50 am] |
I find terms like "love handles" or "spare tire" unduly discouraging. After all, that food has been stored for a purpose, ready whenever I need it.
This? This is my calorie bandoleer... |
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| Truly, I am the king of nerds |
[Mar. 19th, 2009|01:38 pm] |
I love editing. Every time Chris and I solve a difficult grammatical problem at work, I feel awesome. Not the quiet glow of academic achievement, either - I'm talking firefighter-level, swat-team-style badass.
"Heads-up, gentlemen! We've got subject-verb disagreements incoming! Sean, you check the docs for accidental smallcaps. Chris, you hit the E3 on these, I'll take the copy. Watch your tenses, people. MOVE MOVE MOVE!" |
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| Fail. |
[Feb. 22nd, 2009|07:17 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  blah | ] |
Our substitute singer didn't work out, so all upcoming Shadow at Morning shows are officially canceled until we can find our perfect front man... please help spread the word that we're looking for singers and guitarists, as you never know which of your friends and friends of friends might know people. Thanks! |
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| Know any screamers or guitarists? |
[Feb. 19th, 2009|01:55 pm] |
So due to some irreconcilable personality conflicts, my band Shadow at Morning has parted ways with its lead singer. We'll still be playing the King Cobra next month with the help of some guest vocals, but after that we're going to take a break from gigging until we find a new vocalist and a second guitarist (Z's still here, but we decided that since we're already taking some time off to find a singer, we might as well add in another axe and thicken up the sound).
If you know anybody who might be a good fit, please send them over to www.myspace.com/shadowatmorning, or directly to our classified ad at:
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=111626062&blogID=471699955
Thanks folks! And don't worry - S@M is still very much a band, and Z, Eric, and I are more excited about it than we've been in quite a while. Sometimes change is good, and we really feel like this might be the last piece we need to kick us up to the next level as a band. |
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| Oops. |
[Feb. 17th, 2009|01:24 pm] |
My coworkers ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) wesschneider and seankreynolds just came back here and pointed out that "Death Cock" is, in fact, perhaps not the best name for a cockatrice variant. I agreed wholeheartedly—at which point it was pointed out that I had invented it, and had in fact given it a big ol' section header in the forthcoming Pathfinder Bestiary.
This is what happens when you freelance while sleep-deprived, kids. Death cock. |
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| Success (more or less) |
[Feb. 2nd, 2009|09:44 am] |
So last night I saw the DVD of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (the musical commentary is well worth watching) and discovered that our video application for "The Senator" officially made the list of Dishonorable Mentions for the Evil League of Evil. Huzzah!
If you haven't seen it a million times already, allow me to present... The Senator!
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| Show next Saturday! |
[Jan. 29th, 2009|09:17 am] |
If you go to one show next Saturday, go see Incogneato! at Ground Zero.
If you go to two shows, though, come see Shadow at Morning at the Rendezvous/Jewelbox Theater in Belltown. It'll be possibly the longest set we've played (45 minutes), so it's sure to be a good time. And if you can't make it, stay tuned - we've got an even BETTER show coming up at King Cobra on March 13th.
THE DETAILS:
Saturday, February 7th
Rendezvous/Jewelbox Theater (2322 Second Ave, Seattle, WA)
9:30pm
$5 / 21+
with Underdose and Ken Parker
THE POSTER (not designed by me this time)
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| Feelin' artsy |
[Jan. 27th, 2009|12:46 am] |
Designed two new fliers for upcoming shows. I wonder if there's still time to give up this whole "writing" thing in favor of graphic design...
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| *Ding!* |
[Jan. 25th, 2009|07:15 pm] |
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Secret project status report: 10,000 words. |
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| Wait... what? |
[Jan. 24th, 2009|10:45 pm] |
Guys, I just had a terrifying and mind-blowing realization:
Civilization is roughly 6,000 years old, as measured by the rise of the Mesopotamian proto-states.
Let's say the average age of procreation is 15-20 (I realize it may be slightly younger than that the farther back you go, but bear with me).
That means civilization has existed on earth for 300-400 generations.
The older I get, the easier it is for my mind to be blown by the relativity of time, but I feel like this is absurd no matter who you are. If I stand next to my grandparents, that's 3 generations in one room. Three generations... and one percent of human civilization. That's statistically significant.
We're not approaching the singularity, we are the singularity. |
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| Put that Christmas money to work! |
[Dec. 29th, 2008|02:48 pm] |
So as some of you may know, I'm on the board of directors for The Power of Hope, a truly amazing nonprofit organization that runs arts/diversity/community-building/positive social change youth camps. I went as a kid, and it totally changed my life, both artistically (first place I ever played guitar publicly) and in terms of my values (being a white-bread, middle-class suburbanite, it was the first place 15-year-old me ever met and befriended a black kid, a gay kid, a homeless kid, or really anyone who had a substantially different viewpoint). I attended for years as a camper, went back after college and helped run the show as Camp Manager, and now I'm on the board. I can honestly say that I think Power of Hope's programs have the potential to change the world... I can't tell you how many kids - from nerdy suburbanites to hardcore inner-city gangsters - I've seen do a total 180 and come out of the week-long summer camps with new passions, a new sense of what it means to be in a community, and a desire to make positive change in the world. (No, I mean, I really can't - both because I don't have the words, and because you wouldn't be able to believe it unless you'd seen it. I sure didn't.)
But times are tough, and PoH, as always, is in serious need of funding. This whole operation runs on a shoestring, and the employees are running themselves into the ground to keep helping kids. (As an example, last year when we were facing a budget crunch, several of the staff voluntarily quit their jobs in order to keep doing the same work for free. Talk about commitment.)
I know we all get a lot of charity asks, and a lot of us are on shaky footing with our own careers just now, but if you can spare even five bucks, please click below and use our new PayPal donation system to show your support... it helps more than you might imagine. If you want more information, head over to www.powerofhope.org or feel free to comment and I can deluge you with anecdotes. (Gentleman Jon, Jen, and Elise would happily do the same, I'm sure.)
Thanks, folks!
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| NadaMucho update.... |
[Dec. 20th, 2008|10:34 am] |
Exchanged a few polite emails with Matt, the editor for NadaMucho. He explained that they trashed us because "some bands need to be clubbed to death." He was then very surprised and offended that I didn't want to write more free articles for them.
Wow. |
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