Look Out, World!

I've decided to promote myself more aggressively. By that, I mean that I will try to promote myself. Because so far, I haven't done that. At all.

The #1 topic among jazz musicians I talk to is that there aren't enough gigs, and gigs we get usually suck. I'm finally sick of whining. I'm going to go get some good gigs.

I saw a band play this weekend and they were playing ALL THE SAME SONGS THAT EVERY OTHER BAND PLAYS, and nobody was listening. I really think most people are sick of Brown-Eyed Girl and Margaritaville. BUT I bet if you were at some weekend fair and you were walking past some tent with your sno-cone and you heard some really good jazz, you might actually look inside to check it out. I see no reason why MY band can't get a few of those gigs.

Don't get me wrong -- playing background music for cocktail parties or corporate dinners can be fun (provided you don't get treated like crap by the snobs who frequent those events), but I want to play for some crowds who actually listen. And I want to get paid for it.

I'm good enough; I practice hard. And people enjoy the music I play. I just gotta get out enough damn business cards and meet the right people. Some of my goals -- which should have been goals long ago -- are to hand out cards to at least 3 people at every gig and make conversation with at least 1 non-musician at every gig.

Yes!

Your results:
You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man 75% Superman 70% Robin 58% Green Lantern 50% Iron Man 50% Supergirl 48% Batman 45% Hulk 40% The Flash 35% Wonder Woman 28% Catwoman 20%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

Moviemakin

I haven't blogged in forever, but a few people have asked about the movie I'm making, so I'm posting some clips and info here.

This film will be a little over 10 minutes and is about a group of neurotic 3rd-graders who save the world from alien invaders. I'm writing the music and doing most of the animation. Jeff Messerman wrote the screenplay and did storyboards.

This is the teasy-trailer. It is set to music I wrote and features pictures that I drew and also pictures I stole from various sources.


Here are some shots that I came up with. Some of this will appear in the film pretty much as-is, and some of it will be re-done.


Here's a walk cycle with two of the main characters, Tammy and Conrad.


Here's a tiny little clip with two more characters, Tiger and Ernie.

Me and My Flubb

I joined Weight Watchers a few months ago. For anyone interesting in shrinking his or her wobbly parts, I recommend this method. This week, I hit -14 pounderonis. I'm pretty sure this has never happened before.

Also this week, I had a colonoscopy. The procedure itself was no big deal; they pretty much put me out for it. But the night before, you have to drink a Fleet Phospha-Soda, which is a mega-laxative that wipes you clean so they can get good video footage in the morning.

You haven't lived unless you've drunk one of those. And as a Buddhist, when I say "you haven't lived," I mean "you haven't suffered." That shit is pure evil. I literally shudder when I think about it. I have to drink another one in about a year, and I'm already feeling dread. I swear, I bet whale piss tastes exactly the same. It's like a Kenny G album in liquid form.

Diversions

So, I haven't touched this blog in decades, but here's why. Well, here's partly why, anyway.

Kinda been working on a humble animation project. Here's a few samples:



<

<

And I made this.

TURN THE SOUND DOWN BEFORE PLAYING. I don't know why it came out so loud.

Anyway, I made this with Movie Maker, as usual. It took a while, because I scanned each frame and the "photo-negatived" it. 60 frames, total.

Then I saved that into a file, put THAT file back into MM, and made it double the speed. So THEN, it was actually 16 fps, double the usual 8 fps. Enjoy.

A Major Milestone

Well, earlier this week, the last copy of my CD at CD Baby.com sold out. 30 copies! And it only took 3 years. Fortunately, I sent them 2 more copies and it's back in stock.