Sunday, August 30, 2009

Pep in the Step

So...

Despite the fact that I'm still very, very tired, I've gotten energized about what I've been doing with this project. I pretty much forced myself to sit down, on Saturday, and finished the animated music video, as if The Goblin King himself would crown me Princess of the Bog of Eternal Stench. (Yeah, I just recently watched that movie...classic)

Like I've posted a million times before, it consists of 834 frames and I did it all by myself. Whoo hoo!

I probably shouldn't brag too much. It totally looks like children animated the video. But I kinda like that look.

The people who's already signed up on my mailing list has already received the video...except some of you Hotmail peeps... Apparently the attachment is "too large" and I have to resend the email to you. Lame...


In other news, I shipped out some disks of the album to local press and I'm sure I'll be playing the waiting game until the very last minute of hearing anything back. Thanks to all who wished and wishes, and continues to wish me luck.

The next step is to send out about 10 more disks to local noteworthy bloggers...I know of about 4, if any of you actually read music blogs in the area and dig them, send me a link! I need to get on this pronto!

But first, I need to wash my hair...

...it stinks...

...that's all I got...
..except...

♫♫You remind me of the babe
What baby? baby with the power
What power? power of voodoo
Who do? you do
Do what? remind me of the babe♫♫


~Syrhea

Sunday, August 23, 2009

This Case is a Jewel

So...

I'm not going to lie...

This blog is dated 8/23/09 but it was actually written today. (8/25/09)

My head is spinning, face pale, eyes swollen, appetite gone, liquid drained, and joints aching. I feel so far behind when in actuality I'm doing fine. I guess the sensation of being overwhelmed is hitting me...pretty hard. Somehow, on top of putting out this disk, I've managed to be responsible for building my company a website, and making fliers for a co-worker's baby shower.

*inhale*

*exhale*

But, on to the task at hand...

Somehow when ordering jewel cases and printable disks...instead of receiving 100 of each, I received 200. That's great an all, but geez, what the hell am I going to do with all of these? It literally took me an hour and a half to paste, cut, insert, assemble 5 disks...

FIVE!

Still no progress on the animated music video, as well as actually practicing any of my songs...

And I'm still tired as hell

I need a vacation, and needless to say, a little bit of help. If any of you fine folks could find the kindness in your heart to donate you house, home, shack, garage, whatever you have to a CD Assembling Party for my benefit, I would, greatly, greatly appreciate it. And obviously, throw in an album and some beer for free.

Let me know!

And thanks to all who made it to the Jovian CD Release Party...

...it was neat...

Anyway,

I've gotta jet...

...that is all...


~Syrhea

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Slow Burn...

This past week has been pretty interesting...

I pretty much stopped working myself ragged from Wednesday to earlier this afternoon. This wasn't by choice. I suddenly feel like my mid 20's body has been replaced with the body of a frail and frigid 60 year old man. I find myself being hungry, getting something to eat, and falling asleep before I even finish my meal, and waking up confused as hell and still hungry. I fell asleep from sheer exhaustion twice (that's right twice) this week before 9pm.

I'm yawning right now...and it's barely 9:30pm.

Friday night I went to El's place to catch up on new mailing list subscriptions (You guys are awesome!) and a little Linux education only to fall asleep on the couch while watching Arrested Development at around 10:30pm. I mean seriously, who the hell falls asleep on Arrested Development? And once again I have to thank the person who invented the striated concrete on the shoulders of interstates. If it wasn't for those loud, god forsaken vibrations, I would have sustained serious injuries trying to drive back home, on Friday, while sleeping.

Saturday I made it a point to actually get out of the house and act like someone in their 20's. Had a few beers, hung out with a couple of friends, saw a few bands, and was in bed by 12:30am. Still a bit early for a Saturday, but baby steps...

...baby steps...

I'm pretty much burn out on this music video. I've got one more minute to animate, but I can't bring myself to do anything with it right now. So I ended up doing what this project is supposed to be about...playing music. Practiced for about 2 1/2 hours today (too tired to go longer) working on some new stuff and trying to perfect the old. And jotting down a wave a lyrics that came from nowhere..as if they were there the whole time. I was going to post some new music here but... yeah, I'm effing tired...

But I did make a couple of paintings that will be printed on the album discs.

I dig it...

Took a wooden turn table, taped paper to it, got a few colors of watered down acrylic paint, spun the table, dropped some paint and Voila!


Test 1


Test 2


Combination of tests with the aid of Photoshop


I dig it a lot...

Another quick reminder that Jovian's CD Release party is this Friday @ the Firebird... It would be cool to see some of you out. Let's hope I can stay awake for the night of music...

*yawn*


*smack* *smack*

...

Yeah, I'm going to bed...

~Syrhea

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Listeners and Parties and Releases OH MY!

Many things to say but only 2 things are really important.

First the unimportant stuff. (In my opinion...not that's it's unimportant, you've already heard or knew it was coming...I don't know...who cares/ SHALL WE?)

I'm proud to say that I've successfully animated 318 frames to my music video!

Oh yes!

Is it finished?

Well...no but it's halfway! BOOYAH! I've got 1 minute and 20 seconds (and counting) of it finished, and I'm very confident it'll be entertaining your beautiful eyes in about 2 weeks.

The mastered disk is back in the hands of Jack. There were just 3 small things that weren't sitting well with me. Although I've had a few close friends listen to the album,and they have no idea why I'm sending it back, I know I'll never be able to listen to two songs without shaking my head. I would never forgive myself.

Having regrets like,'What did I see in you?', 'Why did I eat that chili before this meeting?', 'Why didn't I slap that bitch in the face?' is one thing, but this?...nononono. No regrets.

Jack did an awesome job and I'm lucky he's willing to work on the changes.

The album art. Well it's done...kinda. You know it looks nice and stuff. But my poor band mate Jim is totally slammed at his job. He's been slammed for a while and I feel bad for him. So for now, I'll print maybe about 10 cd's or so for the press and promotion and save the REAL ONES for you listeners.

And speaking of you listeners... the first of you who signed up on my mailing list last month will be receiving a free mp3 from this album next week. Think of it as a thank you for putting up with my weekly emails and reading this blog. I appreciate every last one of you! If you aren't signed up to the mailing list but you want to receive a free mp3, you can either send me an email @ synasoloproject@gmail.com or simply sign up on my mailing list by visiting http://www.synasoloproject.com/contact.html

Soo exciting!



The Important Stuff!





The Jovian Chorus will be having it's first CD Release Party this month (08.21.09) @ the Firebird! I think you all should come and give Mr. Moseley a big pat on the back. He pretty much recorded all the instruments (except a few) himself as well as arrangement and composition of the songs. (Trust me, that shit's meticulous) With Mr. Jones at his side pounding out the mixes, and production, I can very well say the record sounds pretty sweet. Plus Jack did that whole magical mastering thing again!

You're wondering where I come into this equation, and the answer is simple: I don't. I'm just the bass player for the live shows.

You can stream his whole album via myspace @ http://www.myspace.com/thejovianchorus. And I've heard something about T-shirts and digital downloading directions can be purchased at the show. It starts early (9:00pm) and I hope to see you all there!

And last but not least!

Syna So Pro (that's me) CD Release party will be on Sat, October 10th @ The Luminary Center for the Arts. (10.10.09) It will be a night of live looping with Glass Waves and a Light Sleeper from Chicago. I'm pretty excited/scared/anxious/nervous/relieved/stressed and any other adjective you can think of. More details as the date approaches.

And...

some pics...

Glass Waves


a Light Sleeper


...that's all I got...

~Syrhea

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Deadlines in Sight

A few of you may have seen that I just spontaneously decided to make my own music video...

This is proving to take up more time than I had originally anticipated. I thought I could make a little cheap video with pictures and toys in frame by frame movement, but I decided not to deal with issues of lighting and scenery etc. So I'm drawing it. Got the story board finished in about two hours and started the animation right away. Story board images are below...


click to enlarge












It will have ducks, water, cliques, planning, motivation, excelling, and back packs...Don't ask, you'll see.

So, I'm not too terrible of an artist...I can dabble a little, but what I can't do is dabble with a mouse. The software I've been using requires me to draw with a mouse and only with a mouse...I don't even have shape tools to my advantage. I could just open up photoshop and import the frames in that way, but I actually like the way the video looks in it's childlike cartoonish form. I've animated about 120 frames so far...which is about 20sec out of the 2:38 seconds of the song.

Will it be done before the release of the cd? With everything else that's going on, I can't make any promises...but I really should fine time to practice while I'm doing all of these promotional projects.

In other news, I got the mastered disk back from Jack yesterday. El and I had a little meet with him at his effing awesome pad! I must say, I'm pretty impressed with his work and I'm excited that the rekkid actually sounds like a record. I'm going to let the disk soak into my brain for about a week before I decide if it's a no or a go. Just like what my boss says,
"Take your time, go slow, and do it right!"

Plus I still have a crap ton of research to do, as well as the finishing touches on the album insert...I need to clone myself like Michael Keaton in Multiplicity, so I won't be so exhausted from working my 9 hours, then going home and working the remaining 7-9 hours on this release. I'm tired! But like Mrs. Schwartz says, "You've got to get off of your butts and your buts!"

Hmm...but if I were to clone myself...it's best to clone 5 of me...

...then I'd really be my own band...

I'm off to do more research...

...I've got deadlines to meet...

...that all I got...

~Syrhea