Life and How to Live It - Project Updates

With the regular television season wrapped up and BSG on hiatus until 2009 (grrr...), I have a little more time to focus on my various projects (when I can pull myself away from Team Fortress 2 on the Xbox 360).

Old Man: The new Old Man line-up made its debut the weekend before last. We played in a bar that Neil and I had never performed at before. Melissa and Jana had played there before in other groups. It was loud, sweaty, drunken, and very rock 'n' roll. I loved it. The crowd was enthusiastic, too, which always helps.

We've got another gig set up at our old stompin' grounds, the Rudyard Kipling one July 1st. It's with a band from the UK, I think, and on a Tuesday night, but I'm sure it'll be fun. We'll probably use the same setlist. If it ain't broke...

Comic Addiction: I've got a couple advance reviews up at the site this week (another one pending until Chris comes back from his vacation). I'm also working on an article which is an overview of what the X-Men titles for the first half of the year.

I'm still editing reviews by other writers and co-hosting the podcast every week. It can be hassle at times, but I'm still enjoying the responsibility and the work. I'm going to Wizard World Chicago this weekend, so it'll be more comic book overload for me.

Fan Fiction: I'm still having a ton of fun with my take on the Uncanny X-Men. The first issue was well received, and I posted the second story last night. The third issue has been scripted out and is ready to be translated into prose format, and I've begun work on issue four's script.

I don't read much fan fic, if any, because it's usually pretty bad. People tend to replace the regular characters with their own creations or it devolves into slash/erotica. The other folks involved in this project with me have done a great job. I think it helps that most of us are new to writing fan fic, so we'll hopefully avoid those typical pitfalls.

nerd[heart]geek: I've still got the rest of the New Order catalogue to discuss (the last three albums and a single, I think). I'll hopefully get at least one review posted this week. Also, I'll continue to review the new Cure singles that come out on a monthly basis, which will lead to the full length album's release in September. Maybe I'll write and overview of their catalogue next.

Less... Than I Used To...

I must put in a plug for the new Blonde Redhead album, 23. It is quite excellent and very different from their last two efforts. 2000's Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons had a stripped-down, art rock vibe that ran counter to their earlier noise rock sound. 2004's Misery Is a Butterfly was a neo-baroque offering full of lush keyboards and synth-strings. While 23 takes the band in yet another direction, it does have somewhat of a tone from an earlier musical era.

To be specific, it feels like a record that could have been recorded and released in 1998. While this is still very much a Blonde Redhead album, there are some hints of the Caridgans' Gran Turismo and Garbage's Version 2.0. A few tracks even callback to early 90s shoegazing acts like My Bloody Valentine and Lush. This is not necessarily a bad thing; Blonde Redhead still manage to craft these styles into a record that very much their own.

Also worth noting is that Kazu Makino (guitars/keyboards) handles the bulk of the lead vocal duties (seven out of ten tracks). She and guitarist Amedeo Pace (here with only three lead tracks) split the voice work fairly evenly on past albums. This is still a very strong album, but may turn off those who could view it as a more "commercial" piece of work. B+


I didn't intend for the entire post to turn into a record review. I guess that's the mode of writing I've been crafting, as of late. Speaking of which, an article I wrote for Comic Addiction seems to have been the inspiration for someone else's article, which is pretty neat. This means people are actually reading my work. (Just discovered a quote from my review for Phonogram #6 at that comic's official site!)

I had a scare yesterday when I found out that somebody was about to publish a comic book with a premise similar to the eleven page story I'm writing for an anthology. My artist and I realized that the differences in direction and tone were enough to keep moving forward with our project (Robert pointed out that this is a world where the movies A Bug's Life and Antz can come out in the same year without much of stink being raised). Also, we really, really want to complete it. It's shaping up better than I'd ever expected.