NEWS:
Started working on a couple of new tracks. Here’s a preview, still in rough sketch form–essentially undeveloped ideas that needs to be fleshed out and taken somewhere:
They’re Coming – Cue for an action/thriller story, during a scene when the antagonist are approaching and they came prepared to end it all. (That synth wailing sound isn’t a mistake–it’s there to create a dissonant feel for agitated tention.)
Just One Reason – This track I limited myself to using only Reason 3 for everything–my way of learning a new piece of software by doing a complete project in it.
WEBLOG:
I rarely have freetime to work on music, and it’s been my number one frustration for many years now. The problem is more complex than simply not having the time, it’s also that whatever little time I have to work on music, I use it to record new ideas that’s been swimming around in my head since that last time I’ve had time to do music. In the end, I accumulate a bunch of unfinished sketches that I never have time to finish (as you can tell if you browse the music section of my site). Maybe one day when my life becomes less hectic I’ll find the time to actually finish and polish some of the works in progress.
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I went to Borders to flip through Spectrum 13 the other day (my copy was sent to my brother’s house, and I haven’t had time to pick it up yet), and I was ecstatic over the print quality of my piece. It is one of the best printings of my work I’ve seen in the last fifteen years of my career as a professional artist, and part of the reason was because Spectrum asked all the artists to do their own RGB to CYMK conversions. I slaved over mine and made it look as absolutely pristine as possible, and it really paid off. I should strive to do my own conversions from now on, as I’ve had my work butchered in the past by publishers that had no idea what the hell they were doing (I’m not going to mention any names–they know who they are).
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Elena’s back in Fuzhou, China to take care of some business stuff, and this is the longest we’ll be apart in the last five years since we’ve met. Previously the longest was a week, but this time she’ll be gone for 10+ days. I used to have a hard time sleeping when she’s not home (same goes for her when I’m not home–she becomes an insomniac, staying up late watching DVD’s), but this time I managed just fine (partly because I’ve been dead tired from all the crazy all-nighter deadlines for Spiderman 3). Now that she’s been living in the States for five months, she’s gotten used to how clean, organized, spacious, modern, and quiet things are here, not to mention how curteous, professional, and compassionate Americans in general are in public places. These qualities are a sharp contrast compared to China–where all the values we treasure here simply doesn’t exist, or are extremely rare. I had lunch with the VP of the studio I’m freelancing for recently, and they have partners in China and need to travel there periodically. His impression of China was exactly the same as mine, and it was a shock for him to see the level of dishonesty, rudeness, apathy, and utter lack of scruple displayed by nearly everyone he came into contact with. Now that I’ve been back in the States for a while, I’m not nearly as frustrated and angry as I was about everything as when I was in China. That whole experience is now in the past, and it’s simply a different world I would never want to return to.
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If you haven’t seen On the Edge of Bladerunner yet, definitely watch it if you’re a fan of Bladerunner. It’s a 50 minute documentary about the film’s history in retrospect, and contains some really interesting interviews with the crew.
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I finally broke down and purchased Half-Life 2: Episode One over the Steam network. HL 1 & 2 are some of my ultimate favorite games ever, so there’s no way in hell I’ll skip anything in the franchise; however, I had my doubts about using Steam (although I support the idea) since I heard so many horror stories. Now that I’ve used it to purchase the Holiday Package (which includes a bunch of other HL-related games) I’m relieved that it was a delight to use. The videos you can download on Steam are also much better quality than you could find elsewhere–Valve’s video player for Steam is one of the best I’ve seen in terms of image quality. I can’t wait to get my ass back to City 17–I just know it’ll be an exciting ride.
