flimsy films

Yikes.

2011-03-25T19:33:00.000-07:00

Long time no update. Sorry Dave! Well, 2011 RPM is already done. The listening party is tomorrow, and my song, "time warp" will be playing at Foobar in Portsmouth, NH between 8:15 PM and 9:00 PM tomorrow (March 26th). I thought I'd be able to make it, but I have a prior commitment to hang out with some of my cousins. I'll just have to leave the RPM party after the opening celebration, which is okay.

I thought my RPM album this year was better than last year, but there are still some things I want to rework and rewrite and rerecord. I'll get to that... sometime. Right now I am making a music video for Dave Richardson. The song is called "Sally Sea Anemone", it is a fantastic little folky pop song, and it is very fun. I am trying my hand at paper cut-out animation, and we'll see how it goes. I've got the opening titles done, and it's been fun imagining different scenes I want to make. Any suggestions? You can listen to the song at Dave's RPM page, which is here: http://DavidRichardson.rpmchallenge.com/

Oh yeah, my RPM album is here: http://samuelmulligan.rpmchallenge.com/

-sam

Get Damp!

2010-09-27T17:39:00.000-07:00

I've been plugging away trying to come up with something good for "Tonight", with no luck. Something will come, I just need to keep working at it. In the meantime, check out Dave's newest Damp Wrags album, "Get Damp!" It's wicked good, and there is a lot of variety, so there is something for everyone to enjoy. Personally, I really get a kick out of the experimentation with acapella on "Starting Place", the hard edge to "Safety Revolution", the attitude of "Rut". The lyrics and melodies in "Bogo City" are very nice too. Overall, I think it is a much tighter effort than the first Damp Wrag's album, and there are lots of spots on it that really shine, and it's really fun to listen to from start to finish. You can download it on Dave Richardson's bandcamp page for free, so check it out! The website is http://dave-richardson.bandcamp.com.

Harumph...

2010-09-14T17:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry, lack of updates. I apologize Dave! hehe. Well, I never really worked on that project so I might as well tell you what it is. I thought it would be a really cool sound to remix Van Halen songs. Diamond Dave era of course, because anything else isn't really Van Halen. I wanted to have gameboy music and guitars and hip hop big drum beats and DLR samples of his really funny stuff (OOoooh la LA!; Reach down, between my legs... ease the seat back) with awesome Van Halen harmonies and also some of Eddie's guitar work on top. Not so much remixing, but taking away some parts, emphasizing the drums, and the awesome parts (EVH guitar licks, Dave's squeeks and swagger), and adding bleeps and bloops. Imagine this: http://8bc.org/music/hpizzle/Jump+%28Van+Halen+Cover%29/ mixed with this: http://8bc.org/music/PizzaPastaTime/Baking+in+Eggs/ , and this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kxqMpGAL3I. Basically, it's out of my league. I would be forever grateful if HPizzle (wicked awesome), Pizzapastatime (a visionary), someone who could shred, and with someone who could sing, would collaborate and remake these songs:
Everybody Wants Some, Ice Cream Man, Hot For Teacher, Panama, And The Cradle Will Rock, and Ain't Talkin' Bout Love. And maybe Dance the Night Away, Unchained, and OH MY GOD I FORGOT MEAN STREET. Mean Street. Just make it Mean Street, Hot For Teacher, and Panama. That's all I need. Thanks guys, 'preciate it.

Hm... let's see. What's going on? Dave and I are working on a split EP, which according to our correspondance isn't going all that well. We have titles. I came up with some lyrics that suck. Dave said he isn't doing much better, but he probably secretly has an opus in the works. I just know it. I am going to contribute something like "Girls and Beer" and he'll come in with a "Mike Dashnaw Loves Riding His Bike". He ALWAYS does that!

I suppose I should be concentrating my efforts and time on finishing my parts on the Compost Shark album, since that is now over 2 years in the making... which is far too long. Okay, I'll update soon hopefully with some progress on something. Thanks for reading!

Oh wait, in NEWs, I got a job! And I'll be moving back to Boston-ish. Soon, hopefully, as I've already started working in Boston. I am also setting the goal of busking in the subway once a week, which at the moment seems a little lofty, but possibly only because I have never busked before, haven't played ANY music in front of anyone besides Britches in almost 2 years (has it really been that long? No, I am forgetting the Dave/Sam open mic night in CO Springs a year and couple of months ago), and also am on my 3rd glass of 8.5% Belgian Style Ale. Thanks for reading this too. Here's to your patience, my alcohol, and everyone else's other stuff! Blahrag!
-Sam

New Project

2010-06-08T05:47:00.000-07:00

Missed the bus this morning, so I had to drive all the way to Boston. I was really looking forward to relaxing, reading a book, maybe making some tunes on my gameboy... but no. It wasn't all for naught. I did get to listen to TWO Van Halen albums (Diamond Dave era) in their entirety, and that was awesome. 1984 and Women and Children First. This sparked an idea for an E.P. that I want to make, inspired by Pizzapastatime's music. I can't wait until I can start working on this, because I think it might be the best thing I ever do. More details later, but not too many because I want it to be a surprise.

Weee! New instruments!

2010-05-02T15:26:00.000-07:00

My moms gave me sum dough fors my birfday to go towards music stuffs, and that combined with a couple ebay giftcards made it possible for me to get two keyboards! Both circuit-bent, one is totally awesome and the other is alright. The totally awesome one is a Casio SK-1, bent by the guy at benstruments.com. You can see it by clicking here. It is really fun to play with, and it functions as an untouched SK-1 as long as no switches are flicked. You can change up the pre-programmed drum beats with a couple switches, and there is a neat little opto-theremin thing that changed the pitch depending on how close your hand is to it. There are also a bunch of other switches that change the sound into crazy noise and glitchy beeps. I like it a lot and can't wait to record some stuff with it!

The other one I got is a Casio SK-5 bent by some guy named "Westicle". This one isn't as cool, its only got two knobs, one of which does something weird to the battery. I asked about it and it is called a "battery starve" knob, and it doesn't do anything except allow you to turn the keyboard on. If it isn't in the right position, you can't turn it on. Why is that there? I don't know. It also doesn't seem to work right unless there are brand new batteries in it. I take the same batteries from the SK-1 and pop them in... and it doesn't sound right. It was working a couple of days ago, but now I am considering opening it up, and removing the modifications. We'll see. My next plan is to get an AC adapter so I stop running through batteries.

Learned how to play "Party in the USA" on the guitar today. Woo Hannah Montana!

New Instruments

2010-04-04T16:19:00.000-07:00

So, I was really into gameboys for a bit. I guess I still am. I traded some of my collection plus a little cash for two AWESOME gameboys a while ago, and used them on my 2010 RPM album. They are both custom painted like Eddie Van Halen's guitar (but painted to look like brushed aluminum), one has a half-speed clock switch on it (for really low notes), and they both have additional sound jacks installed so the output is clearer.

But now I have recently become very insterested in old Casio keyboards that have been "circuit bent". If you haven't heard about this, you should check it out. Here is a video of a musician who has circuit bent his Casio SK-5 and painted it to make it a whole new instrument. Pretty impressive stuff.

And then I do some more research and find out that the guy who made the soundtrack for the movie "You, Me and Everyone We Know" relied heavily on a circuit bent SK-1!

So, I want to get one. I'll keep you updated.

My next music plans are to re-work some of No-Plan Hombre and try to make that into a solid, nice-sounding little E.P. Any suggestions?

Exciting Opportunity!

2010-03-22T18:46:00.000-07:00

Hey!

I got a call a couple weeks ago from Ed Johnson. Ed Johnson wanted to talk to me about my music! I called Ed Johnson back a few days later, and he said he worked for a musician/artist representation company in New York and had listened to my music on SonicBids. Ed's company is A&R Unlimited, and they work with musicians and bands to do a number of things. These things include but are not limited to, having people in the music industry listen to and critique your songs, getting in touch with people from record labels, and promoting your music with compilation cds and stuff.

It was pretty exciting talking to Ed because someone I had never met listened to some of my tunes and said nice things about them. He was enthusiastic about my chances getting music into films and television, which was also exciting. The only thing that really got me was that he said signing up was going to cost me $695 a year... which is just too much for me right now. If I was in a better spot financially, and I had some better songs, I might have done it.

Ed said I could think about it for a day or so, and to call him back the next evening. For a couple hours I thought I was going to do it. My thoughts were that I could spend my whole life making music in my bedroom, sharing it with 6 people, playing one open mic night a year... or I could plunk down that chunk of change, and get my music heard by people who place it in movies, and then "If We Were Kitties" would be playing in Juno 2, and I'd be rich and play music for a living. Then I realized I had to pay my taxes, and I'd like to re-record a lot of my songs because I know I can make them better.

So, it was really nice to talk with Ed, and the prospect was very exciting, but now is not the right time for me. I need to spend some more time working on my music before I make that kind of financial commitment. When I first got the call, I thought it was a scam, but I don't think that anymore. It's a company that helps people get their music heard, and if you are serious and confident about your music, I think it could really make a difference in your career. Maybe I'll call Ed back after I get some more songs under my belt.

Submitted!

2010-03-01T09:17:00.000-08:00

Just got back from the post office, my receipt reads the time was 11:55:17 AM. I made it!

Had to scrap together one song together at the last second, but there are 10 tracks, at a whopping 19.9 minutes. I am pretty happy with it, but I still need to record vocals for one song, and I'd like to write a couple more to make it a little longer on the whole, but we'll see.

Here's the track list for "Break It v.1.1"

1 Let's Go

2. Don't Need Much to Rock

3. Tying Knots

4. Interlude

5. The Visitors

6. Interlude

7. Conversation with a Pirahna

8. Make it

9. Or Break it

10. Let's Go Now

I was running up and down the stairs to get things done this morning, files were taking a long time to save, and then I had to e-mail all the files from my computer to Brigi's computer. She has the cd burner in hers, which is necessary for burning cds.

I'm glad to be done, but I am excited to work on polishing the little things over the next couple weeks to make things really sound nice.

Since I don't know where else to upload music so you can listen to it, here is a link to one of the songs that has some gameboy in it: http://8bitcollective.com/music/flimsy/The+Visitors+%28RPM+Challenge%29/

Conversation with a pirahna

2010-02-28T11:29:00.001-08:00

Done! For now. I'd like to add some reverb-y electric guitar, a la "Hey Marina?", but we'll see if there is time. Lunch break!

Up next... Make it? Or work on Tying Knots?

I am trying to get the short and easy ones out of the way.

2 down!

2010-02-28T10:58:00.001-08:00

First two tracks in submittable condition are done!

The Visitors

What You Get (For Being A Satanist)

Up next:

Conversation with a Pirahna

Oh no.

2010-02-27T17:50:00.000-08:00

Well, it happened. I saved pretty much all recording for the RPM Challenge album until the last 36 hours.

At least 85% of the lyrics and music is written. I think. Also, I might have a bonus track!

As of right this second, I have no songs done. If I had a twitter account, tomorrow might be a fun day to sit at the computer and observe my many updates. Too bad twitter is laaaaame and that's not going to happen. I am hopeful that my album will be decent, because I like the musical ideas I have come up with this year. Putting a lot of work into the lyrics too, which is always the hardest part for me.

3 songs written completely with words and music. (The Visitors, What You Get, and Make It)
2 songs with all music done but more work needs to be done on lyrics (Tying Knots, and Conversation with a Pirahna).
2 with majority of lyrics completed, with music ideas mostly done. (If I Was Eddie Van Halen, Gazul the Possum Boy)
2 that need LOTS of work on lyrics, and music needs help. (Loser, and Don't Need Much to Rock)

Oh, whats that? You were counting? That's only 9 songs and you know that I can't write songs more than a minute and a half long? Well, I am a lazy guy and always plan for a couple instrumental songs, so there. Sorry to be rude. Please, forgive me.

I think the catchiest song will be "The Visitors", the most heartfelt will be "Make It", the most likely to not make the final cut is "Gazul the Possum Boy".

Even if 9 of the songs are only one verse and have farting solos, I will be done by the end of tomorrow.

Don't Need Much To Rock

2010-02-16T15:18:00.000-08:00

Did some good brainstorming with a new song just now, which gave me some confidence that I can still finish and not do a terrible job. I don't think my album this year will be as "thematic" as last years... but time will tell. I am hoping to get some good seeds going, which will be the starting point for something I work on through the Spring and finish by Summer. I guess that's not important right now, I just need to crank out some songs!

Lazy!

2010-02-16T04:18:00.000-08:00

For some reason, I think that I have many posts on this blog about my laziness. A trend? I still haven't done much for my RPM album. That weekend that I was supposed to write a whole bunch, remember that? Didn't really happen. I am getting scraps of things together for lyrics done, a verse here, a title there, but I still feel way behind. Any suggestions for song ideas? No? Okay.

Weekend.

2010-02-05T13:48:00.000-08:00

Ahhh. So tired. I've been working outside this week, and it has been COLD. When I get home I just want to sleep. I had the house to myself yesterday and I still didn't get any music done because I was so tired. Blah blah. Waaaah. Boo hoo. Excuse, reason for not writing anything. The one thing I came up with was an idea to write a song about how I would do things differently if I was Eddie Van Halen. This was partially inspired by my decision to send 9 of my gameboys to Oregon. How is that related, you ask? Well, time will tell, my friend. Time will tell, sellers will sell, the Berlin wall fell? My shoes smell.

But the weekend is coming! And on this weekend, I shall... write music! Yes, I will come up with at least 5 different song-pieces. By song-pieces, I mean bits of different sounding music, and a couple words to go with each of them. Or, I will lyric brainstorm a whole bunch. We'll see.

Good bye old friends...

Damp Wrags! RPM!

2010-02-02T12:41:00.000-08:00

RPM! Woooo hoooo!!! I've come up with two guitar things I think I will use so far, and they are both pretty upbeat with a focus on rhythm. Words are coming slow, but they always do. Singing in the car about moving from Boston to Austin... even though I don't live in Boston anymore. Fictional! I LOVE fiction! Speaking of fiction, have you heard of NON-fiction? I bought two beat-up copies of some of my favorite non-fiction books the other day. Harry Potter: Prisoner of Azkaban, and Goblet of Fire. $3 for the pair. I love history books.

Dafe digitally released a new album on amiestreet.com today, and I gotta say, it's pretty much totally awesome. Haven't had a chance to listen to it in it's entirety, but the few songs I have heardso far are catchy, rockin', and clever. He told me that he recorded it in a weekend, but I think he's been working on it since Axl started working on Chinese Democracy. Go get it here.

First Gameboy paint job!

2010-01-31T16:34:00.000-08:00

I finished my first gameboy refurbishing project! About a month ago! I didn't post any "in-process" pictures because it was for my sister. It is a Little Prince themed Gameboy, and is made from parts of two broken gameboys I bought off ebay. There were some lines of missing pixels on the LCD screen, so I opened it up and used a soldering iron to reheat the strip on the bottom of the screen, which fixed it. Then I took all the parts out, and washed the shell/case and buttons. Used one of those computer keyboard dust cans to clean out the circuit boards, and a q-tip with isopropyl alchohol on some of the metal parts to clean those.

The paint job was a little tricky. This was my first time painting a gameboy and I learned some things. Number one. You don't need to sand them unless there are little gouges or scratches. The paint will stick just fine. I put two layer of white primer spray paint on, and then some yellow (bad idea). After the yellow had dried, I cut out little stars and put them on in a couple places, and then sprayed the whole thing glitter dark blue. The blue looks awesome, but I should have stenciled the stars on after that coat, it would have looked a lot neater. Next time, I will know this. So, Brigid was really nice and hand painted the stars after, and I popped a new screen protector on, giving it a very crisp, and brand new feel.

I also made a travel bag for it made out of several small pieces of felt. My Mom helped me sew it with the sewing machine. She sewed it for me is probably a more accurate way to describe it. Anyway, I finished it, bundled it up with Tetris, and wrapped it up for my sister for Christmas. She liked it. I've got some more ideas for my next gameboys, but those will have to wait until after the RPM Challenge I think.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I also glued a piece of a cd case cut into a rectangle on the back. This had two purposes. The first was to cover up a bunch of text on the back that I think is ugly. The other, more important reason is that I wanted to have a personalized mark on it, so my sister knows it is hers. It is a picture of a cowboy hat. Are you scared of it?

RPM CHALLENGE 2010!

2010-01-31T16:21:00.000-08:00

Whoa, sorry for the lack of updates. We just got the internet in our apartment, so I've only had sporadic access for a couple months, but now that has all changed!

It's almost time! Do it! I don't really have a direction yet... but I do have a couple new instruments to play with, for example, Dave let me borrow his acoustic guitar, so it's the first time that I have a nice acoustic guitar to play, and I have my gameboys too. I am very excited about working with those. My hope is to make some rock songs that don't feel robot, or lame. No lame robot songs. Just some fun tunes, with fun sounds. Depending on how the songs start turning out, I might consider recording some of them in a REAL STUDIO! We'll see. That might be fun, but it depends on whether or not the studio I want to record at is finished. I think there is one moving into a renovated shop in Dover... but the last time I drove by they were still working on the soffets and the inside looked like there had been some demolition with no clean-up. And the poster advertising rates for RPM artists has not been up for at least a week. More updates to follow. Who else is doing the challenge this year?

SHAME!

2009-12-07T04:18:00.000-08:00

I caved! I read the last Harry Potter book! At least I started and finished it in one week... What a beautiful story. Seriously, the best. Really inspiring for "Mack the Elephant and Mr. Flea". I'm pretty sure that they are now going to be wizards. I've been writing some music on the gameboy, but not too much otherwise, getting pumped up for the RPM Challenge!

http://8bitcollective.com/music/flimsy/Too+Many+Vowels.../

Gameboys and Gamegirls

2009-11-12T04:42:00.000-08:00

Hey all!

I've been experimenting with making music on my gameboy, and its really fun to do on bus rides and things like that. I've been using programs called LSDJ and Nanoloop for Gameboy and Gameboy Advance, respectively. In my research I also found a really cool website (that almost 13,000 other people have also found!) where "chiptune" artists upload their songs for people to hear for free, and download, and comment on, and rate and all that stuff. So, I joined and uploaded a couple gameboy songs, and it's been fun to listen to lots of different people and what they can make their gameboys sing. If you like video game music, or retro synth sounds, or experimental music, I'd highly recommend checking it out, because mostly everybody on the site is nice, and some people are making really cool music on it.

My next gameboy song will feature my drum machine, and I really like how it is coming along so far! By clicking the title, you can check out my most recent song! (my artist name is "flimsy") Word.

Dave is also doing some awesome work on the Compost Shark album, this is going to be so awesome!!!

Plastic cement

2009-11-06T05:22:00.000-08:00

Got some plastic cement, cemented the plate to the gameboy after roughing up the surfaces that touch eachother, then dumped all the rest of my plastic cement on the floor. Ran out of basement to avoid brain damage from inhaling fumes. I am okay. The Gameboy is okay. I have eleven total now, probably can save/fix 8 or 9 of them. A few are FUBAR, there is sometingting on the screens (not the screen protectors)... either ink, permanent marker, or broken LCD stuff. Lots of corrosion on some of the battery contacts, but I think I can remove it with sandpaper or something. OOH, I also got a sheet of 600 grit sandpaper for the final coat of paint before the clear shell.

Halloweener

2009-11-01T14:46:00.000-08:00

Last year I was a sexy wizard for Halloween. The year before that I was Han Solo. This year I was Link from The Legend of Zelda. As late as Friday I was considering being a ninja, because ninjas are cool. I wanted to have a sword and throwing stars, but I didn't want to buy black sweatpants. Brig had been working on her unicorn costume, and it was coming out really nice. This inspired me to put forth a little more effort. After spending a good chunk of Saturday working on things, I ended up with a sweet tunic, hat, bomb, rupee pouch, boomerang, magic potion bottle (filled with Red Cherry Brandy), sword and shielf. Oh yeah, I had heart containers too. No pictures of the whole costume, but here is a pic of a few items. REALLY proud of the shield and sword.

Today I just worked on a gameboy thing. I made a little plastic plate to engrave with a hot needle, fix to the back of the gameboy, and then paint. It took awhile to get the plate a perfect rectangle the right size. Probably an hour, total?

Lazy

2009-10-20T04:12:00.000-07:00

So, I haven't been recording much but I have been getting ready to paint my gameboy. Took it all apart on Sunday, thoroughly washed it, lightly sanded the case with some 220 sandpaper, and then popped the screen out. Replacement screen protectors and a battery cover are in the mail and should arrive sometime this week. I also got a can of plastic-bonding "Fusion" spray paint, just satin white to paint the base coat as soon as there is a warmish day outside. Can't spray paint in the house, too fumy and too spray-ey. Here is a pic of the sanded, taken apart GB.

Oh yeah, I also bought a book about plot and plotting for stories. Hope that will help me get some ideas for some good stories, it seems like it is geared for novelists, but I am sure that it will apply to any story, whether it be short, children's books, comic strips, songwriting, or animated film. It has helped my storyline for "Mack the Elephant and Mr. Flea", so I'll keep reading it.

I was really tempted to buy Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows when I was at Barnes and Noble the other day, but managed to get away with only reading the dedication and one chapter title. I tossed it back on the shelf and scurried away to buy a hot chocolate, feeling guilty. Hopefully this will motivate me to record a bunch of vocals later this week for the Compost Shark album.

Kafleen!

2009-10-06T20:11:00.000-07:00

Not sure if this will work...

I am attempting to upload an "ogg vorbis" audio file via the video upload option...

Now, I am thinking, "Gee, this probably won't work."

Will it?

Still waiting...

Hmm...

Nope. Didn't work. How do I upload an audio file to one of these things?

Shirty

2009-10-05T04:10:00.001-07:00

Found some time to record acoustic guitar for "shirty" yesterday. I think it came out pretty good, it sounds in tune and a lot nicer than the first take, which is because I used Dave's alvarez instead of my old 3/4 size guitar. Hoping to record some vocals this week! Sing sing sing.

Acousticles

2009-09-23T04:00:00.000-07:00

Recorded some acoustic guitar for "Antonio" and then threw together a new song. It's called "Bleeding from the Head". Submitted them both for review by Dafe. What should I work on next?

Ugh!

2009-09-21T04:24:00.000-07:00

Failed. Totally failed at adding keyboard parts. Sorry Dafe. I suck, so couldn't figure out the part to "Ode to Maria Shriver", and then Arlo (one of our new kittens) played a solo on "Soda Can". Sure, it sounded nice, but not exactly what I was looking for.

Burned a cd of the songs I worked on last night to review in the car on the way to and from work. Looking forward to trying out some more things tonight.

Bassin' in a basin

2009-09-20T17:49:00.001-07:00

Hey! I did more recording tonight! More than I planned! And I'm not done! Dafe is gonna be so proud of me!

I fixed bass for "Prisoner", got a better bass track for "Ain't No Phony", added a bass part to "Odor of Maria Shriver", and added bass to "Soda Can"! Now, I am going to go get my keyboard and try to add some delicate keys to "Odor of Maria's Dive Bar" before I go to sleep.

I also spread a bunch of gravel! And ate ice cream! And skipped dinner! Unintentionally!

This album is gonna be so good.

Goals for tomorrow:
record Antonio guitar
re-record backup vocals for 'ain't no phony'
play gameboy
do some experimenting!

p.s. I really want to start reading the Deathly Hallows... MUST RESIST.

A little bit...

2009-09-01T04:10:00.000-07:00

It's amazing what an absence of Harry Potter can help achieve. Instead of reading last night, I worked on bass parts for Compost Shark songs! I spent most of my time working on "Prisoner", which has a tricky little part right in the middle and right at the end that kept messing me up. Thankfully, after a few tries I think I got it pretty good. Then I threw on a bassline to "Ain't No Phony", but I don't think it came out as good. Hopefully I'll be able to come up with something a little better tonight.

HP break!

2009-08-29T19:17:00.000-07:00

Just finished Order of the Phoenix! Gonna take a short break before starting Half-Blood Prince, seeing as how I just saw the movie and have spent the better part of the past two months reading Harry Potter books. So addictive.

I've been playing around with remixing some of my songs on the gameboy with LSDJ. We'll see how that comes out, it's a pretty cool little music sequencer, and I am looking forward to getting an OLD gameboy, I heard that the sound they produce is a little bit better.

Also, I took apart my drum machine today and cleaned it out with one of those cans of compressed air. The stop button and +/- buttons work much better now, it must have just been a bit of dust getting in the way. Wahoo!

Brokeback Beach

2009-08-28T05:45:00.000-07:00

We decided it would be fun to go to the beach and experience some of the Hurricane Bill waves on Sunday the 23rd this week. They were really awesome, probably 8 or 10 foot high in some instances, and were just too tempting to resist jumping around in. Things were fine just bodysurfing and examining the 8 foot lengths of kelp that had been ripped up by the storm (found one root system with two baby starfish in it!), but then I got the bright idea to just hold my nose and let the waves do whatever they wanted to me. This was very fun for 2 or 3 big waves, and then a BIG wave came and flipped me upside down and I was pushed into the sand hard on my neck and thankfully my head just bent to the side (filling my ear with sand) and then my back twisted at a weird angle and I heard a sound like you make when you crack your knuckle somewhere in my right side lower back. This was shocking and I thought for a second that I had been paralyzed, but thankfully was able to stand right up. After a wince and one moment of self-pity, I continued to play in the waves.

I got home and found that it hurt a lot to get in and out of cars, blow my nose, get in and out of bed, run, walk quickly, or shake out towels. What the crap! I went to the chiropractor on Tuesday and he re-aligned me, but things are still sore and I suspect I separated a rib and pulled a muscle. I missed work all week. On the upside, I have been able to almost complete Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in one week. This is good because there was a gap in my Harry reading due to it not being available at the library. Oh well. THE OCEAN IS POWERFUL. BE CAREFUL WHEN PLAYING IN WAVES.

Unsuccessful!

2009-08-23T05:23:00.000-07:00

Agh.... I tried to record the guitar part for "Antonio", a Compost Shark classic, on Friday night, but could not get the guitar to sound nice enough. I could also not get it "right". Hopefully a few more listens will yield some workable results so I can send it along to Dave for him to add harmonica and sing on it. He mentioned that he had a surplus of free time this weekend to work on recording and I don't want to feel like a failure. So, I think I'll try miking the guitar instead of plugging in direct to try and get a better tone. Dave, if you're out there, did you plug-in your acoustic or mic it for the tracks you've recorded so far?

Maybe I'll add some twangy bass to "Prisoner"...

bikes not bombs

2009-08-22T05:34:00.000-07:00

Gameboy music

2009-08-20T20:34:00.000-07:00

Hey!
Also, I was lucky enough to receive a Gameboy Advance SP for my Bananniversary present, along with a Nanoloop cartridge! That means I can make sweet drum beats with the sounds of a gameboy. I am also working on getting a Little Sound DJ cartridge for classic gameboy. My goal is to figure out how to sync up a classic grey gameboy with my gameboy advance, and then run GB Advance with nanoloop, and greyboy with LSDJ, and then maybe sync them with my drum machine somehow. And I want to custom paint both gameboys. Because that would be cool. And noisy. With all the noise.

Here is an example of a Gameboy with LSDJ making some music.
*edit 11.28.09 - This video and music was made by a person who goes by the name "assgroos" on YouTube.

seaglass/blue-tacky stuff

2009-08-20T20:29:00.000-07:00

Just had an idea and wanted to make sure I don't forget it. Seaglass mosaic, unglued, animated fish? Some watercolor painted water in the background, maybe some flowing kelp in the foreground.

You know that blue-tacky stuff that is used to stick pictures to walls? That stuff looks really cool when scanned on a scanner. I want to experiment with that.

Obsessed

2009-08-16T07:53:00.000-07:00

Soooo, I have been taken brain-hostage by JK Rowling. I've read the first four Harry Cotter books in the past month! 459,975 words! As I am sure you can guess as to what I've been doing outside of work. No need to guess, I'll tell you. I've been reading lots of Harry Po-Po outside of work.

I was going to resume my extra-workicular activities tonight, but the library didn't have The Order of The Phoenix in! What the fraggle! Thus, a short Potter break must take place.

In other exciting news, I got a Gameboy Advance SP and Nanoloop for my Bananniversary! (definition: two-year dating anniversary) Nanoloop hasn't arrived yet, but it will soon, and then I can make bleep-bloop songs. Dave is going to be so pissed when I send him back his recording of "Ode to Maria Shriver" with 14 tracks of bleep-bloop!

Speaking of Dave and Maria Shriver, we are still working on the new Compost Shark album! Dave did a whole bunch of recording over the past month, and it all sounds wicked nice. We successfully transformed a song that we had improvised outside on Dave's porch after midnight... into a beautiful pop gem! Dave has sent me a bunch of tracks to add my touch to, but I have been hanging with Harry Potter too much lately to have been any help... YET! This is the week! THIS IS THE WEEK!

Tomorrow I am going to add some touches. I guess that's all the news I have?

Is it?

Back!

2009-07-18T07:20:00.000-07:00

I am back from the road trip, have been for a week as of this morning. It was a lot of fun, I highly recommend quitting your job and driving around for a month. Had an interesting dream the other night about killer whales and scratching their chins.

Hmm...

2009-06-10T19:19:00.000-07:00

Sorry, it seems like it has been a long time... but it has only been three days I suppose. I've been busy with adjusting from the move out of Boston, finalizing resumes, and working with my Pops. Getting all geared up to drive across the country, figuring out where Brig and I want to go, and how long it'll take. The first list of destinations was something like: DC, Tennessee, Louisiana, Austin TX, Carlsbad Caverns/White Sands/Grand Canyon, San Diego, LA, Big SUR, Redwoods, Seattle, CO Springs, Dakotas, Chicago, Upstate NY, and then home. We'll see how that changes, we might be trying to get back by July 4th, and that is A LOT of stuff to cram in 3 weeks...

I am looking forward to living somewhere that I am able to set up my animation stand, and music stuff so I can just do stuff when stuff pops into my mind.

Has anyone seen that commercial about "search overload", advertising Bing.com? Very obnoxious.

Compost Shark - New (Old) Album!

2009-06-07T07:03:00.001-07:00

Hey! Dave and I started work on re-recording old Compost Shark songs to put together a new album. We made a list of some of our favorites, and now are re-recording them with improved sound quality. We are doing this because we had always planned on doing it. Many of our early recordings were recorded hastily and we were learning how to record at the same time, so they didn't sound all that super. So we thought we had some good, fun songs, and wanted to get some good sounding versions, especially because we never made many copies of our cds and when Napster got sued and all that Metallicrap, we lost our biggest source of distribution. If it sounds good when we finish, we are going to make some physical copies and also put it up on iTunes and other digital distribution sites.

We started work on Kathleen, Celia, Ain't No Phony, Radishes, Shirty, and Crimson Red Car so far. I am not sure if all will make the cut, but they are sounding better and we are going to keep working on them. Those are all the ones that we are using loud guitars and drums for. The rest are more acoustical, and we are going to try and record them over the internet. More updates soon! Enjoy this video in the meantime to hear some un-mixed samples.

Ablevision - Passion Plunge 2009

2009-05-28T20:03:00.000-07:00

Hey! Here is a video I edited for Ablevision. Unfortunately, probably my last. We moved out of Boston yesterday, and are now living in Maine for the time being. Maybe heading to the Portland area? The Old Port? Home of DIMILLO's Floating restaurant, Bob Marley, and the Rustic Overtones? We will see.

Anyways, this is a video I've been working on for a little while now. Every year, in multiple locations, the Special Olympics has a fundraiser called "The Passion Plunge". People run and plunge into very cold water if they have raised the required funds, and then everyone parties in a tent and eats chowder and sandwiches. It's pretty much totally awesome.

Several things in this video I feel the need to bring your attention to:
1. All the music is culled from instrumental versions of songs I either demoed this winter, or wrote and recorded for the RPM Challenge.
2. The Lower Thirds (a person's name on the bottom of the screen) are introduced by a moving wave, which I animated from scratch. It's 4 or 5 similar wave images cycled and keyframed (FCP definition) to move across the screen.
3. I added the "ablevision" logo bug in the bottom right of the screen at the last minute, which proved to be a HORRIBLE decision because it took about three times as long to render, covered up some people's names, AND was partially obstructed by the YouTube bug. Oh well. Next time, I know to fade it out, or re-position it.
4. The shark fin animation is also made from scratch, and yes, sharks really do not swim that fast.

I hope you enjoy it!

I've been waiting on you.

2009-05-26T19:06:00.001-07:00

WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME ABOUT PHOTOBOOTH UNTIL NOW?!?!! URGH! UghHH!!

Also, hey guess what! I was in a band in high school (1998-2002), and we were awesome. Compost Shark was the name, and silly folkish rock-inspired music was the... music. We recorded on 4-track, and recorded lots of stuff in one take. As a result, our output was vast, and not too polished. Enough of that, the exciting news... we are going to record our best songs and make an album! On June 5th! I don't know which songs yet, or how many, but we had discussed 10 to 12.

Oh yeah. Dave Richardson was the other guy in Compost Shark. That is important, because Dave is an awesome guy, and a very talented songwriter/musician. He's pretty much the main reason you will want to buy this new Compost Shark album when it is done.

You can check out some of his music here: http://www.myspace.com/daverichardson

More details soon.

Butterflies

2009-05-25T06:34:00.000-07:00

This is a photo I took about a year ago in Maine, with my then-new camera. I might delete this later.

Built to Spill postcard

2009-05-21T19:34:00.000-07:00

Hey! Here is a postcard that I sent to my buddy Dan a while ago. The quote is from the Built to Spill song, "Randy Described Eternity". I think it was on a 4 x 6 blank postcard, but it might be a 3 x 5. It's all highlighter, pen, and ink. Something about how the ink moves really interested me at the time. I made a couple other postcards similar to this, but did not photograph them. If I can find them and you are interested, I'll put them up. If by any chance you want me to do some artwork like this for your band or napkins or anything, shoot me a holler.
-Sam

No-Plan Hombre covers

2009-05-21T19:18:00.000-07:00

Finally! The top picture is an image of the cover I submitted for the RPM Challenge copy of my album. The one underneath is a bad photo of the newer version, with the cardboard case and final artwork.

Again, if you've forgotten, the website for the RPM Challenge is www.rpmchallenge.com .
And my album's website on RPM is http://samuelmulligan.rpmchallenge.com/
-Sam

*edit* I replaced the poor quality photo with this MUCH more detailed and pleasant scanned image. Ooooooh. Aaaaaah.

rotata-anima-spot

2009-05-19T04:43:00.000-07:00

Just had an idea. Get a long background, paste it onto a wheel. Hold a window pane/frame above in a stationary place over the wheel. Rotate the wheel in the background of the window, and place a cutout on the window. Spotlight the cutout with a flashlight or something. I think it would look neat?
-Sam

Apologetic

2009-05-15T20:32:00.001-07:00

I am sorry again. I haven't had computer access for a few days, so no album art is available for upload. I'll describe it. It's a 2 fold cardboard case, like a book cover, but cd case size. There are pockets in both sides. I mod-podged matte photos for the cover and back artwork, and I will (not done yet) print out some (hopefully color) paper inserts with lyrics to go in the left pocket on the inside, with the white cd on the other side. On the cd I have stamped my name, and the name of the album. I like how it came out, and it is pretty easy to replicate. An idea that popped into my head today is the image of a timelapse photographed cloudy sky, with rolling hills of paper moving across the bottom half of the screen, and running characters zooming by. Not sure where they are going, but I'd like to make that soon.
-Sam

Toes, toes, toes

2009-05-11T19:55:00.000-07:00

I said that I'd post a picture of my album art today, but am on a different computer and cannot. As a result, here is something else. I did not make it, but someone else did. From the credits I gather that it was Lindsay Small, an animator who went to MassArt. I think it is very nice and very cute. I would watch a show that is comprised of stuff like this.

No-Plan Hombre

2009-05-09T05:56:00.001-07:00

Oh hi there,
You caught me eating my breakfast. Have you heard of the RPM Challenge? It is a challenge to write and record an entire album (10 songs or 35 minutes) in a month, February to be exact. My friend Dave (http://DavidRichardson.rpmchallenge.com/) has done it the past three years and I finally jumped on to do it this year. I came up with 10 songs, clocking in at about 27 minutes. The main instruments I used were my ukulele, drum machine, elec/bass guitar, and maracas. And kazoo on one song. Much of the inspiration came from learning the uke, hip hop drums, and not working much that month. It's called "No-Plan Hombre". Now I just want to finish up writing another two songs that either were cut early on or thought up shortly after, and re-record one whole song and a few tidbits of the album here and there. A couple bass parts and maybe some vocals here and there. Not going for perfection, just want to make things a little better. Anyways, you can listen to what I came up with in February here: http://samuelmulligan.rpmchallenge.com/

I'll upload a picture of the cd case tomorrow.

Paper/lightbox test

2009-05-03T05:15:00.000-07:00

Ah-HA! Another short test with my copy stand. What I did to make this one was I manipulated two sheets of construction paper that were positioned on top of my lightbox while it was turned on. Later on I cut up some smaller pieces and moved them around. Then I switched to black and white and put some pinholes in some paper, moving it around under the camera, letting little leaks of light peek through. No flash on the camera, at night, venetian blinds closed, and that's about it. The letters are from the cut-outs I made for the FIimsy Films sign that you can see at the beginning of "Snail Tales", which is in the post directly beneath this post, unless you are viewing it on another page entirely, or you have reached the bottom of this page, which means I've made several posts since this post, which I is inevitable, unless I forget about this blog or forget my password, or never find a computer again, or I get hit by a bus.

p.s. Oh yea, the music in the background is an instrumental version of "Kea", a song by The Oh! My Gods.

Snail Tales test v.1

2009-05-03T04:46:00.001-07:00

I made this a few months ago... January I think. Just a test to get some use out of my copy stand that I was gifted. Nothing fancy, these are just some rough drafts from homework to make a character and background I did for the animation design class I took last summer. Not exactly how I want the snails to look in the final piece, and it is pretty sloppy. I like the music though, it's a rejected piece I made for a radio commercial about a year ago. It's gotten some use in a few Ablevision stories, and I am using it again here. I threw this together with Windows Movie Maker, which is not the best but it was what I had at the moment. Hope you enjoy it?

Not that busy.

2008-11-25T17:58:00.001-08:00

So... I am lazy. I have written some parts of a script for SNAIL TALES and purchased materials for VAN ON FIRE. Also, I have been reading a lot of animation books and took a hand-drawn animation class taught by Karen Aqua and Ken Field at Somerville Community Access Television. It was a good introduction to animating and it was fun to work with a bunch of different people on the same project. We finished a short video and it is this:

p.s. The parts I am responsible for specifically are the man with big teeth who is waving his arms and pointing, the T symbol turning into the cup that spills and then transforms into the garbage truck, and the guitar in the background music. Those are also my guitar picks.

Day one.

2008-09-22T10:10:00.000-07:00

Hello,

So, I thought it might be a good idea to start one of these again just in case I start up another website. It's always good to have a record of these things, right?

I have been brainstorming for a while now about all the films I want to make and I think I have been postponing long enough. Time to get started. I am going to shelve the Nobodies for a bit, push off the Boombox-man piece, and maybe forget about a bunch of other ideas.

First on the table will be "VAN ON FIRE", and "SNAIL TALES", and a music video for one of my favorite bands. I'm hoping it will be conducive to work on a couple things at once, to keep me busy and then when they are all done I can show them as a trio and everyone will be super impressed. We'll see.

sincerely,
Flimsy