The Ghost in the Rockhouse

The camera is not level because it's an action cam on my head and I'm getting like Stevie Wonder but, wtf, no-one can see anything with all the lasers firing.  The yellow lines show the rough proportion and orientation of the door.  There are no images on those doors and there's no chance of light coming in from outside.

You can see the ghost's head and he's wearing a dark-colored shirt and a tie with a light sports coat.  Most importantly he's wearing RayBans.  That fookin' ghost is me, Jack.

Even more importantly than the RayBans, there's a laser sniper sight on the middle of me forehead and it's a warning.  If I say one more bad thing about Hillary Clinton and her dishonesty, her corruption, and her wholesale marketing of Democratic principles, she will put a cap in my head.

Well, I sure got that warning, huh.  Fookin' ghosts.


Note:  the image came from "The End of the World in Fort Worth" and the laser didn't draw it because they only do geometric patterns.

(Ed: like mushrooms?)

Ain't that a shocker, huh!  (larfs)


I went forward to tell Yevette about this ghost and warned her this is going to freak yer shit out.  It hardly even surprised her and she said, oh yeah, there are three ghosts upstairs and two more downstairs.

Well, make my fookin' dreams come true, huh!  It's not just one ghost, the place is crawling with them!


Those ghosts don't seem to be a problem but this Hillary Clinton demon wraith wants to put a cap in my head.  That is so fucked up.  All I ever did was call her a hypocritical waste of oxygen who talks of her service and measures it by the millions of dollars she takes home.

(Ed:  correction on that, Rant King.  She has taken tens of millions home.)

Right you are but there's some comedy in it.  The same people who busted Bill and Hillary Clinton for Whitewater have forgotten about it and now she's a picture of the healthy wealthy, best of fuckin' breed, man.  If not for that pesky Benghazi, they would make her a goddess.  Cripes, it's a fookin' joke.

(Ed:  a joke with a laser sight on yer head)

Right, there's that as well.  Fuckin' bitch.

What's Hot on the Blog 1/31

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Carol Kirkwood Gives Best Weather Report of All Ti... Jan 17, 2016, 2 comments	53
Too Much Musicking Turns Me Arm Into a Fish Jan 31, 2016	45
Green Screen and the Marlboro Challenge Jan 31, 2016	39
Zero Morningness Numbulosity in the Strummish Wing... Jan 31, 2016	34
"Andromeda Weeps" From Sublime to Spectaculous Jan 31, 2016	34
Five-Laser Pak for the Galaxy Guitar Jan 30, 2016	30
An Oak Tree in My Hand Jan 31, 2016	26
"Andromeda Weeps" is Smokin' Jan 30, 2016	25
Four Times At Bat in the Rockhouse Jan 31, 2016	25
More About Green Screen Video for Cheap Jan 30, 2016, 5 comments	22

This is novel because everything up there, other than the first with Kirkwood, is about making music. The Kirkwood article is funny and it got many hits but mostly it showed the blog was way off the track so this pulls it back to where the passion really lives.

It dawned on me earlier I haven't had an actual explosion in a video since "Anthem for the Dead" and that one goes back fifteen years.  Part of the discipline in what I do with video now is effects of that nature are not allowed but explosions sure are a giggle.

The Five-Laser Pak is ready for action but Yevette is seriously crashed so lasers and electric guitar probably would not be her first choice just now.  Think five red lasers shooting out of the head of the Galaxy Guitar.

(Ed:  what about shooting them out of yer own head?)

That would be like making an electronic Medusa and turning people to stone just from the sight.  That story didn't turn out at all well for Medusa.  There's a problem with being Medusa, see ...

(Ed:  what's that?)

Jason chopped off her head.

(Ed:  our Jason from Jason and Andromeda in the song?)

Well, he's not exactly ours but he did chop off the Medusa's head.

(Ed:  bring Hillary Clinton into the song and make her the Medusa so Jason can chop off her head!)

You know, Rambo.  I'm not so sure you're really getting a handle on this antiwar concept.

(Ed:  it's virtual!  Whack the bitch.  You know you want to!)

We'll see, Rambo.  We'll see.


The mania in pursuing this song and "The End of the World in Fort Worth" may give the impression the Snow Queen has been about but she doesn't hang here.  There are zero stimulants and nothing has changed in that way of things.  Sometimes the Lemon Skunk smiles but I don't screw with anything else except curry chicken sometimes.  Some of you know my history so that's the only reason for a comment.  I don't repress any desire in that way, it's just not a good trip and I don't want it.

(Ed:  Lemon Skunk?)

The finest in non-corporate reefer.  You won't mind at all how this skunk smells.  He doesn't come around all the time but when he does you definitely want to be there.

Four Times At Bat in the Rockhouse

There's been a whole lot of musicking today and this last was the fourth time so me corpus is feeling it.  One bit of advice on this: if you want to played a stringed instrument, do not ever break your left thumb.  Do what you like with the others, Django played with two, but do not mess up your thumb.  Nothing else can make enough pain to stop me but that can because the hand stops working.

That matter is germane because the soft instrumental part has attracted some pretty acousticness with electric and I'm liking it more and more but it hurts one flaming bitch to do it.  This type of playing takes a different pressure as in more of it to get the right sound so that's why it's relevant.

The intro to "Andromeda Weeps" is instrumental so that's a big thumb demand right off the top.  I also like using it for an outro because that gives the gentle lift-off and the gentle landing which presents a peach of a contrast to missiles blasting off and blowing things all to hell.


Some people compose but, for me, it's like taking a sheet out of the dryer and shaking the wrinkles out of it.

(Ed:  you compose based on which keys are broken or based on your laundry experiences?)

Both, apparently.


The sound of the arpeggiation bit got a bit fatter because I put another layer on it and the combination with the guitar is luscious ... and loud.  There's a call to war, to launch the missiles, to kill the fuck out of every damn thing.  The music for this part has to be aggressive.

The music is structured but insane at the same time in part because the generals have a process for destroying the world and they are determined to follow it.  The arpeggiation is everything which can happen from every single step, something they usually ignore.

The visual on this bit is vague because there's the likely possibility of harvesting a virtual missile silo in Second Life.  Unknown if it's possible to get video of a real one.  If that were the case, there would have to be another layer of green screen with The Raven and Suitable Squeeze to isolate them and then drop them into the setting with the real silo, something of that nature.  I know I can do that but logistics are difficult.


Some Trips parts have been tried with the thinking simple is good for wild jams so maybe even a monochord because that permits playing just about anything you like for lead.  I tried with two chords and it was ok and most of this is about getting in and out of it of this particular phrase.  Go off and trip for a while and then come back but keep it on the beat, bucko.

The breakaway from the primary bit can't be like you just got hit by a fish, you should realize what happened and then it connects immediately so you think, yah, of course it did that.  If that doesn't happen then the song sucks and/or the musician tried an experiment which did not work.  Same thing coming back out of it.

Trips has to be there.  We need the mad-in-love part because, well, they are and this is an improv bit on both sides.  If, say, I get The Raven and Suitable Squeeze into this then this is where they play it out while I go ripshit in some trippy way on the guitar.  Everything is marvelously groovulous at this moment because they don't know yet the alert to war is coming.  That makes this bit free-form lovey.

(Ed:  what if they get naked?)

I wouldn't reject the clip on that basis.  That visual is their art and, unless I just think it flat-out sucks for some reason, it's really not for me to dictate too much the content.  I need to portray a particular thing but how they choose to do that is at the discretion of the artist.  The Raven and I worked that once before and it was excellent.  It was like he had an intuitive feel for dance theater.

(Ed:  what if they don't want to do it?)

Then all of the story part needs to be virtual.  The green screen aspect still applies because that brings the virtual into the real Rockhouse.


The part which needs the storyboard is during the actual reading or singing of the lyrics.  That's the immediate story telling and the visuals must follow that, whether real or virtual.


Maybe all the rot about musicking is a drag for some but I fried on what's on the news.  It's all so damn stupid and/or angry and/or evil.  The biggest reaction on Facebook has been a storm of memes mocking Sarah Palin as if there is yet another mother lode of stupid things to say about her.  There hasn't been much of anything she said but loads and loads of people quoting things she didn't say.  Mountains and mountains of rubbish.  She speaks and it's rubbish and they react to make yet more rubbish.  Pfft.

So, lotta musicking happening and yet more coming but the Silas is gassed after four rounds.

Green Screen and the Marlboro Challenge

A carton of Marlboro cigarettes will cost a large part of the anticipated seventy dollar cost of a green screen big enough to really deliver what I want.

There is a carton about half-gone just now so it's easy to say, well, I'll just quit.

Yah, so that's easy but the Marlboro Challenge is clear:  how badly do you want this green screen.


There's always the need for more lasers and there's also an endless need for more cameras but both of those types of functionality exist here already, I just want more of it.  The green screen offers a radical change and nothing of that nature exists here now.  It's also tremendously flexible as lasers do one thing really well but it's still only one thing whereas the applications for a green screen are limitless.

I guess I don't need disclaimers about knee jerks since the regulars know I study this sort of thing before making a move.  We can't afford a mistake and reading costs nothin'.  The seventy-dollar solution looks like the best value as one can spend hundreds on the supremo solution or minimal on paint but neither of those is a good value relative to what this will deliver.

Part of the reason for locking on this solution is relative to others I have tried in the past.  I've had some success hanging sheets over things, etc and the result was interesting but not sharp enough to be fully satisfactory.

So nothing remains but the Marlboro Challenge.  Unknown if this has any potential but there's huge reason to do it.

(Ed:  that's not the only reason?)

Nope.  The regulars know it already and no point in flogging it.  You know what smoking does.  Actually, it probably won't give you cancer unless cancer runs in your family but it will sure make a stinking sewer out of your lungs.


Quitting smoking goes in some kozmik cycle and in-between times you don't even consider it but then the stars align or some such and you know it's time to give it a go.  That cycle is coming to its zenith just now so we shall see.


Meanwhile there are all kinds of bubbles to blow inside what video collaboration means.  I don't want to see crap videos shot on cellphones because they're, well, crumby.  If you're using halfway decent kit and the camera is producing a real HD image then that video could be easily imported into Final Cut here if you're willing to do it.  I am NOT looking for volunteers but I am getting quite a delight from considering the bubbles.  If you can do this then what will you do this.  It looks like soon I can so, ok, let's make some bubbles.


There will likely be complications with light.  There is no way to green screen in the day time because there would be light coming through the doors behind the screen.  Shooting at night means artificial light or laser chaos so shooting outside with available light is not going to match.  That's not any kind of a killer, it's only a consideration but an important one.

This sounds like something from the Silas movie concert with the Silas doing a show inside the Rockhouse and the green screen is the window to the movie.  However, that's not all of it because there is still the plan to exploit different camera viewpoints within the Rockhouse rather than playing it like it's a dream sequence and we got lost in it.  Such a cinematic trick would make it seem it's not real and that's not satisfactory.

So the overall storyboard is there's a Silas show happening in the Rockhouse and we will look out into this other world as it's necessary to tell the story.  That should integrate it as much as can be done without going berserk with effects and I'm not willing to do that.  No need to keep flogging the nature of reality but the consideration is equally large in this video as in "The End of the World in Fort Worth" insofar as it presents something which is absolutely real but it does so in a seemingly unreal way.  It's a delicious balance to try to maintain.


Jason and Andromeda don't have to be sailing since all I need is to change the lyrics and they could be in a '57 Chevy but where is universal romance bumping around in the back of a Chevy.  She's the most beautiful woman who ever lived and we want to give her respect.

The sailing is a consideration also for the light since we doubt people sail them at night too much.

Maybe we could have them roller-blading together and that's somewhat elegant sometimes but that's not a vibe the same as sailing.  Maybe they could be dancing but that's sooooo obvious and, besides, it's an imminent nuclear war and they're doing a waltz?  WTF!

They can get away with sailing because they don't know I guess.  That would also be true for dancing but waltz ... schmaltz ... ain't happenin'.

This would cost zip:  they could be hiking about in those Tennessee mountains which are absolutely gorgeous, have zero schmaltz, and make an excellent setting for young love, deep and true love, eternal things.  Yah, this could be good too.

In fact ... I'm thinking those lyrics need to change.  A hiking situation could be perfect for a number of scenes.  There's only a small part which specifically mentions sailing so this could work.

We still have zero nuclear missile silos at our disposal but thinking, thinking ...


NOTE:  I am not locking on the idea of a collaborative video but I am determined to find out if it's garbage.  For that one, see Walter Matthau in "The Odd Couple" and you probably didn't have time to do that ... so ... Jack Lemmon was the fastidious and annoying half of the odd couple and Walter Matthau was the cranky but lovable one.  Lemmon makes a big deal out of preparing linguini for dinner and Matthau gets fed-up, throws it against the wall where it drips in a horrendous ooze of pasta and spaghetti sauce, and then turns to Lemmon and to say, "Now it's garbage."

(Ed:  so this is throwing stuff against the wall to see if it's garbage part?)

Righty right, matey.

"Andromeda Weeps" From Sublime to Spectaculous

Andromeda is really starting to dance and her name is the root of all my music because she's the most beautiful woman who ever existed and music has at least try to meet her in that.  She was just a girl and her mother, the Queen, caused all the commotion with the gods and brought vanity and pride into it.

Probably you already know the story of Jason and Andromeda or you don't really care except for what is she in this story.  We assume you are interested in the last or you probably wouldn't still be reading.


For the Early Session today, there are three clear modes for the main part of the song.  One is solo on a sweet and clean guitar sound which is oh so sublime but, wtf, it's pretty.  The main part is Phrase 1 so that kicks off with strummy guitar, still with a clean sound.  The spectaculous part is doing Phrase 1 with an arpeggiator and that now has a Hammond B3 organ sound in the mix which all make a wide sound when distortion guitar chords come into that.

The strummy loop and the spectaculous loop are recorded as different phrases within the Andromeda song and switching between them goes well.  That was bumpy yesterday but much smoother so that's solidifying nicely.


The three parts flow nicely one into each other so now I want the Trips part to see how that integrates.  I know it will but the question is of the best how to do it and that pends in a most interesting way.


All of those modes are different aspects of Andromeda.  She's mad in love, happy as a young maiden can be, and the music is sweet, soft and instrumental.  Strummy Andromeda is getting the story going because she's with Jason so a maiden she ain't anymore but she's definitely mad in love.  There's the terrified but also forthright and clear Andromeda when the missile launch alert is given.

It's still in question how Colonel Kurtz will come into this but maybe the Trips part is swirling.  I want the delicious dream state of first love but this is an awful time because the order really is to launch the missiles to blow up the world.  That aspect mustn't be marginalized for the benefit of it being only a love story or it just winds up being "Springtime for Hitler" which was brilliant but not at all the purpose in this.  So that delicious dream state swirls in a mix with Colonel Kurtz ... man, I doubt it.

Next time out, that Trips part will materialize and then structure becomes more clear.

(Ed:  what happened to the No. 1 priority storyboard?)

The priority hasn't changed but that priority only applies when the story exists!  Once the structure of the song is clear and the lyrics are working within it, the storyboard will map out the scenes within that.  The object is NOT to map them down to seconds they will play but rather what they will deliver.  Some information comes quickly since we see two Young Beautiful People looking all goo-goo at each other and we can assume almost instantly this is a love story.  Since the information comes fast, the scene doesn't need to be that long unless it tells us something else.


(Ed:  aren't you forty years ago?)

Nope.  The world lost its way forty years ago.  I ended up with my music and the world got Donald Trump so you tell me who screwed the pooch (larfs).

They made gods of greedy swine
and they wonder why the rivers
don't now flow with wine

An Oak Tree in My Hand

Just add water, you know.

A lot of things you add water and they only turn into things which chop down oak trees.  You know where to find those too and you know it's best to avoid them.

Every time they chop down an oak tree, all of them sing to one another and lament for it took a hundred years to get to know that spirit but now it's gone because something thought its wallet was more important than that soul.

If you don't believe there's a spirit in the forest, you must never have been in one.

Zero Morningness Numbulosity in the Strummish Wing

There was much axe-whacking and keyboard-slapping yesterday which also brought numbolisity in me strummish wing, the non-busted wing.  This is numbulosity to the no-typing point because me digits ain't diggin' so this yields a wtf situation of unusual dimension.

The axe-whacking continued hard up until the Silas fell to the sofa last nightish but there's no remindingness of numbolisity in the morningness now.

(Ed:  did that mean anything?)

Yah, sure it did.  Whatever causes that is a weird combination of things.  It's intermittent and hard play does not by itself trigger it ... so it don't mean doodley squat.


There was early with the Raven and I asked him about his greenness, not his skin but his room.  It was interestingness but he said he does not use it for photographology and I would be surprising if it worked, except on one plane.  Any angle in the surface means instantly two colors or keys.

(Ed:  are you even trying to speak proper English?)

I've seen texting.  Do you really think it would make a difference if I did use the Queen's English properly?

(Ed:  prob'ly not)


More newsish is the song because it bubbles cheerfully like fudge which the tribe is brewing but which has to be volcanic hot at one stage of that for reasons which we have no idea.  We like volcanic and definitely in this song so fudge and rock present a nexus of high-calorie goodness.

(Ed:  high-calorie makes you fat!)

Eating too much makes you fat.  Fudge is just fine, homebre, and don't you be fuckin' with this skinny guy's share of it neither.


From the actual news bunk, we didn't find nothin'.  It only reminded me of when I called some CDC technicians 'rat bastards' and got away with it.  This was all-out Samuel Jackson ... these CDC motherfuckers tell me three disk drives I prepped have all crashed by lunch-time because of volcano dust from fucking Mt Saint Helens.  Those worthless rat bastards should jump into that volcano or, better yet, let's chuck those motherfuckers in there.

Management was not pleased (shrug).


We have been sighting lots of privileges flying about.  There's yer white privilege, yer man privilege, karaoke privilege, and yer ...

(Ed:  whoa, whoa, whoa, what's karaoke privilege?)

That's when Kaley Cuoco does lip-sync karaoke like a white girl Milli Vanilli and they put her on the first page of CNN.

(Ed:  yer white privilege is when Ammon Bundy does terrorist things but cops don't unload their magazines into his arrogant ass?)

That's one example of it but there are many.

(Ed:  so what's yer man privilege?)

That's when men get paid more than women for doing the same thing.  This is where you get into yer privilege poofery because some believe this privilege is real but don't believe white privilege is real and, ooh, they just love Kaley Cuoco.

Fuckin' people.  We should send those cranks a CARE package full of monkeys because it doesn't look they ever have any fun.

(Ed:  the monkeys?)

Nah, the cranks.

Too Much Musicking Turns Me Arm Into a Fish

There's been a lot of musicking today.  There is even more obsession with "Andromeda Weeps" than The End of the World.  There were four sessions for sure and maybe one more.

The object is to ensure the Phrases for the song flow from one to another in a way I want.  That develops and it's feel highly damn good to lead it with the keyboard because I haven't done it that way previously.

In-between there's a whole lot of thinking of how the storyboard works for what scenes need to be in it, what's the sequence of them, etc.  The lyrics need work too because I'm still not sure how well they fit.


The oddity is some numbness in my strummer wing.  The other one is the metal shoulder so this sensation is unusual.  It's happened every so often and it looks more and more that it's musicking doing it.  I'm suspicious it's the keyboard as the ergonomic aspect of things is important and both shoulders have been whacked all to hell, I just didn't break this one.

It seems more logical for the other arm since it muscles the hell out of the fingerboard out of the guitar but that isn't the one which gets strange from it.  Most unusual.

It doesn't happen very often but it happened today so that's why musicking gets attention for the cause of it.


Something else which occurred to me about the video is I'll switch from a soft version of the main part of the song to a hammerhead part.  In sync with that, the view out of the back of the Rockhouse will change.  It wouldn't work for this story but it would be just as easy to put an atomic explosion back there as kids in the park.  If I can shoot the video or find it somewhere then it will work as a background like that and there are loads of atomic explosions online.

(Ed:  that's not sci-fi.  That's just grandstanding.)

Roger that, Cap'n.  It would look cool but so what.  The object in this story is there will be no explosions so it wouldn't happen in this one anyway.


A big thought came zooming out of nowhere ... you have to quit smoking so you can actually finish all the crap you are thinking about filming.  This one has been flying around all day.  It's like a guilt drone but at least it doesn't make that annoying buzzing sound.

Unknown if this can really happen but you know the insanity and I hope you don't know the addiction.

Nothing weighs heavy about the idea, the only consideration is the practicality of it.  The logic of it is entirely clear, the capability to do it is questionable.  The drive is also clear because it's shit if you're croaking and thinking, man, I sure wish I had finished that project.


Holy mackerel ... there could be a Knoxville Unit to film the Young Beautiful People.  The video needs to be HD 1080p at 1920 x 1080 resolution and I can't use 4K so I would only sample that down to the project resolution.  A halfway decent camera should be able to do it so then the only thing needing to be transferred is the digital data.  Since that will be multi-gigabytes, it might be best to mail the SD cards back and forth.

The thought came from the lyrics since Jason and Andromeda will be all lovey on a sailing boat but we're short on them here at the Rockhouse.  Then came the thought, what if Young Beautiful People could rent one in a park up in Tennessee and the Knoxville Unit could film them.

I wouldn't even need to be there.  So long as the Knoxville Unit films it in some kind of cool way and the video clip meets the specs from the storyboard, it will work here.  That would make it a collaborative deal but that would be swell.  I've done various collabs previously and they have always been a good challenge.

Hmm ... definitely a possible twist.


In fact, what this means is maybe there are other Remote Units.  If any of the close regulars have a suitable video camera and could get some footage in someplace cool then maybe that could end up in one of the videos so long as there's a reason for whatever that cool thing may be.

Typically, the shot will be best from a tripod because the camera can't be moving or the whole back of the Rockhouse will move and then people will start hurling their lunch.


The storyboard needs to be together immediately.  From that it becomes clear what is required and from that how and where to shoot it.

I am so jazzed to the Moon on this.   The idea of collaboration spins it into a whole 'nother orbit.

Five-Laser Pak for the Galaxy Guitar

Check out this masterpiece of backyard electronics in the wiring job to connect the lasers to a battery pack.  The medicine bottle will give you scale and you will see these things are tiny.



Is that a rubbish job or what (larfs).  The wires were already butchered for something else and this is an ugly attempt to connect them which, surprisingly enough, works.  It only looks like the ground wires are connected to the hot wires.  It's not really like that.

(Ed:  they are not grounded?)

Nope.  No chance I would get juiced by this little thing anyway.




This time it's sitting on the computer keyboard so maybe that shows better it won't be difficult to use a rubber band to secure them to the Galaxy Guitar.  They will fire along the plane of the head of the guitar so it will look like a laser machine gun.  It looks highly cool in smoke.  These ones won't make any patterns but rather each will fire a single continuous laser beam into the smoke.

The unit will look obscene in the attachment to the guitar but you won't see that in the dark or, at most, a silhouette.


Everything has been so ambitious lately, so maybe some jams without a huge plan ... with lasers ... would be could be cool for trips just because trippin' is a grand thing with electric guitars ... and lasers.

Somethin' still killin' me is I haven't really captured the twinkling of the stars on video.  A video of these lasers will be hugely focused on the guitar from multiple angles so hopefully that captures it twinkling.  It's not they're so rare but rather they're really hard to film.

Inverting Real and Virtual Video with Second Life

The blazing reveal comes in a flash from the Necromancer: Second Life could be brought into the Rockhouse with a large-scale green screen.  The back of the Rockhouse will disappear but that will reveal a Second Life sim and it's important in this context to keep the spacial relationships as close as possible (i.e. keep the floor consistent, etc).

(Ed:  this is what brings the missile silo into the Rockhouse!)

Fuckin' A, Bubba.


In case you're not seeing it yet, visualize the Rockhouse with a view looking at the wall at the rear of the room.  That wall becomes transparent and reveals some type of mash-up of a virtual missile silo in Second Life.  In this way, the song and the story can play at the same time.  The PA monitors will still be visible but that will give the impression of a concert inside the silo.


The inversion is to shoot footage in Second Life in which the Rockhouse is the stage in a venue or some such.

Note:  this part won't really happen except for shooting the video.  Making the Rockhouse appear in this visual will be something I will create in Final Cut.  It could happen in real-time but it would be a nightmare syncing it with the other video.

So there's the virtual video from Second Life which shows the Rockhouse is the stage.  Within that window into the Rockhouse is the view from a second camera pointed back to the opposite end of the room.  That will be a complete inversion of the original view from the Rockhouse into Second Life.


(Ed:  stoner skywriting)

Oh, really.  Just watch me, Cap'n Jack.  All of this is feasible and only waits for an idea to drive it.  There is no technical difficulty in any of it.  I know these spells ... I can do this.  Take another look at "The End of the World in Fort Worth" and see it for yourself.  I know the spells and just need to scrounge up the jingle to make them happen.  Add another $100 to license Camtastic to capture virtual video.


(Ed:  doesn't that inversion just make gratuitous mindfuckery?)

Yes and no, Cap'n.  Yes, it's gratuitous piffle if there is no reason to do it.  If it's genuinely germane to the story then it must be there.  Maybe the regulars followed the work-up for "The End of the World in Fort Worth" and saw I won't permit anything if it doesn't have a reason to be there.  Just because it's a cool trick doesn't make it necessarily a valuable one although it might be required in some later video.

I require a story of my videos now.   Others have had stories but not like this one.  I'm ruined for life after "The End of the World in Fort Worth" became a mini-movie because I expect them all to be at least that now.  I'm sure "Andromeda Weeps" will be because it's not vapor but I'm not going to release teasers of it.  The song exists and lyrics exist but the lyrics are still rough and coalescing.  I'm sure the concept is sound.


Visuals come to me like I just ate some Sunshine.  Some may dismiss that sort of thing as artificial trips but I've watched "The End of the World in Fort Worth" multiple times and it's really not a test to see if I will end up hating it.  Actually I like it and I'll be thinking, holy mackerel, you really did that.

There's only one rejoinder to that:  do it again.

(Ed:  what if no-one watches it?)

That doesn't change the need to do it.  If they don't watch it then it makes me think I need to make a better one.  If they do then I think I need to make another one so either way it comes out the same.


This is percolating in a huge way.  Popcorn is flying around all over the place and it will come shooting out of the windows like in "Real Genius" at this rate.

(Ed:  are you a genius?)

No but I have a lot of popcorn.

More About Green Screen Video for Cheap

The discoveries on eBay were a stand which is 12 feet by 9.2 feet for about thirty dollars and there's a muslin green screen for about $40 which is 13 feet by 10 feet.  My concern with the stand is what potential for sagging in the middle of it because sag means wrinkles, wrinkles mean shadows, and shadows really stink up the effect.

This isn't something which can happen this minute but it's moved up to Required for the "Andromeda Weeps" video.  The possibilities this offers are tremendous and I have done some green screen experiments previously but they have been limited whereas this will take out the whole end of the room.

Note:  this not pro chroma key masking because a sheet for that green screen may cost hundreds of dollars or more.  However, the quality will be sufficient for rock'n'roll because of the aggressiveness of the visuals within the Rockhouse.  For example, the green screen won't make the laser patterns disappear on the wall and they will still appear, in effect, painted on Sundance Square.

This is not sci-fi and I know already I can do it.  The questions are how much and how soon.  It looks like a good, as opposed to professionally-excellent, kit for this is about seventy bucks.  I know already that will get it done at a satisfactory level so this campaign is charging forward.


In effect, the Rockhouse in relative darkness will be a window into whatever world I choose to place behind the green screen.  Spacial perspective is not important and there is complete freedom.

For example, there's nothing to stop me from rotating the background image such that it appears the Rockhouse is spinning relative to the background.  There's no particular reason to do that but I easily could.

Regrettably, there isn't much video footage from Greece ... so ... that means go to Sundance Square in Fort Worth to get more on-location footage and the reason for that specific site is it's where they shot part of the sci-fi movie, "Logan's Run," so the look is there.  It would be an easy thing to shoot and to put at the back of the Rockhouse so that would create a window looking out onto it.

It's all very well to make a window but there are some details.  We want the plane of the floor in the Rockhouse to be roughly the same orientation as that of the video from Sundance Square because that will give visual continuity out 'beyond.'  It can't be dark in the Rockhouse and light in the video on Sundance and still have convincing continuity but it could be interesting for some other reason.


(Ed:  won't this be too much CGI?)

In my definition, this isn't CGI since that's a different kind of fakery in adding light sabers, etc.  The lasers in this are real.  It doesn't curdle my thinking of aesthetics to do that.  "World War Z" still remains the worst movie of all-time because of abusive CGI, tho.


This has all been splendid revelation since I thought green screen was impossible, costs too much, no way to do it.  Well ... let's see about that.

"Andromeda Weeps" is Smokin'

It's rockin' out.  It's passionate in this love song.  That's what Yevette said so I said, yah, what is more rock than that.  They're total lost in love with passion and nuclear weapons.  Without an interdimensional warp drive, you're not to get any more wild in it than that.

Now it steps up to the nuclear war aspect.  The song has enough punch to make it credible that, yep, we're screwed.  We're all going to die in a big blinding flash.  At least it won't hurt, right?  (larfs)

Previously "Andromeda Weeps" was trying out a B3 organ and you know the sound even if you don't know the name.  Every rock album worth a damn had one on it somewhere.  Playing the song that way wasn't turning out so cool but then the magic flash ... arpeggiation.

Arpeggiation is a weird but cool form of electronica in the ability to play multiple notes in a sequence after pressing only one.  The sound it makes is complex when you play a sequence with the arpeggiation triggering from each note.  It gets compound strange if you play a chord because that will set off an arpeggiation for each one of them.  The result sounds like chaos in prose but the sound was cool in using that for "Andromeda Weeps."

The song with arpeggiation was recorded into the looper and then it went back to the guitar and this is the part which surprised me.  I thought I'd be going for krautrock cool with electrotrips but it turned out to be really bangin'.  Distortion guitar may seem like it would be too much for that but the combination was smashing with a fat concert hall synth behind it.  Grandulous, it was.


This complexifies things but it shouldn't muddle the structure.  The part I was doing just now is the main song and that can vary from sweet guitar up to hammerhead as the dynamic needs.  There still needs to be the breakaway for love and trips and that works just fine.  It's a bit wobbly about how to get Colonel Kurtz into it but the concept is clear, it's only a matter of timing.  There's only one point at which he can break out so when will he do it.


After some more puddling about, using soft guitar chords as the base loop works also and this gives the Big Drama because this can switch up the Fat Metallic for the alert.  Phrase 2 is for the Trips part so Phrase 3 will be a copy of the main song in Phrase 1 but with different voicing.  That makes an orphan out of a part with Colonel Kurtz but the the Phrase 2 Trips part could work for him as well.

I hadn't anticipated thunderous out of this but I sure do like it.  There's some concern songs are pop even if the themes are not but "Andromeda Weeps" will bury that.  The song needs that kind of drama because the call to arms is to blow up the world.  Surely that merits some dramatic effect.

The Trips part becomes the gentle reprieve from the horror, the horror.  I'm not going to steal the things Kurtz said or do a low-down imitation of Marlon Brando's voice but the things he said were true and the concept has the same validity now when we see pseudo-wars everywhere with no clear objective, no end in sight, and no view of what it takes to achieve any kind of objective except perfunctory bombing to make pictures for CNN.  Complete madness.


Got a good bit of mania going and the biggest variable for shooting it is what about a green screen.  With that I can use public domain video of missile launches and put them on the back wall.

I think my mind works a lot like Jiffy Pop.