Canadia Beats

I had coffee with original rad dude James Gates yesterday, and he reminded me of a video clip we’d worked on back in 2008. A friend of a flatmate need to shoot incidental TV for Go Girls and figured he could get someone to do the work for free by also making a video clip. He was right, and I did it, with James helping out as director Marcus Palmer’s crew.

It was a pretty long day of shooting, and not particularly rewarding, and James and I laughed about it later. When I did eventually see the clip I didn’t like it at all, and kind of forgot about it.

Until yesterday when James told me he’d seen it online.

This is where things get fun, though. In the Related Videos section was a show reel from a YouTube user called theashleynoel (OMG same name!), an actress and host of a show that had Joey Lawrence on a judging panel. Best related video suggestion ever? A bald Joey Lawrence sure ranks up there.

I followed my namesake to her website, and from there to a website she runs called UNYTED! I have no idea what it does, but as I scrolled down the page I came across this amazing image:

Untitled Candace Cameron movie OMG!!!!!!!1

Can anyone say best day ever? Not only am I internected (patent pending) to Joey Russo and D.J. Tanner, but we all get a Candace Cameron movie! No more information yet, but I’ll be sure to follow this one up.

The internet failed me today, or maybe I just didn’t look deeply enough, but I could not find a still or movie of the game over scene from Dune 1. And when you have an itch for a 1992 computer rendering of Kyle MacLachlan dead and becoming a skeleton, well, you’ve just got to scratch it.

I would like to thank the following trusty tools for making this 10 second video a reality:

• DOSBox for letting me boot up Dune and do a video capture
• Handbrake for letting me convert the video capture to a locally friendly format
• iMovie for letting me make a small edit

It bugs me that everyone can’t just got and get iMovie, but it doesn’t bother me a lot because I already have it. Get a flash as Mac, dog!

One of the rules for NaSoAlMo is that one of your songs can be a cover, as the Ramones had a cover on their first album (the gold standard for our purposes). So I opted to include a cover to finish the month off, my only exception, ‘The Only Exception’ by Paramore.

I’m majorly in love with Paramore’s brand new eyes. Just waiting for my one-of-5000 copies of the album on vinyl to arrive in the mail. They’re playing in Auckland next year. Sometimes things just work out.

And just like that NaSoAlMo is over. Kind of an Endless Sky clocked in at 32:51, meaning a win for me on the last day, and a bunch of tracks for you to listen to. The whole thing is up at Bandcamp to download for free. I’ve even worked out a track order.

‘The only exception’ [Bandcamp]

I may be wrong, but the first time I ever heard my band Gestalt Switch on the Radio was when we were number seven of the Radio One Top 11. Sam and I were driving to band practice and it came on. Of course we pulled over and listened.

I don’t often talk about what my songs are about, but this song is definitely about that, way back in 2002. Good times.

‘Not some number eight’ [Bandcamp]

A few times this month I deviated from the plan I’d made and started writing a song before working out where it fit in. This was one of those, and possibly doesn’t fit its intended topic at all. The good news is it’s exactly the kind of song I might have written at the time it’s supposed to be about, so yay.

‘Put the stars in line’ [Bancdcamp]

I think the title of this song was a pretty fundamental rule in my first ever band, but Blair disagreed. We were in different forms, though, so our memories will differ.

‘Don’t play Hootie’ [Bandcamp]

Way back at the start of the month this track was the first song I wrote for NaSoAlMo. It was also the first track to be shelved as not working out. Of course it was fine, and I was just letting my Inner Editor have a say. He’s gone now, and here’s a song.

‘Missed alarms’ [Bandcamp]

I am now officially in backlog mode, dudes. This is the eighth song written this month, but only the fourth I’ve recorded. Translation: a busy week for me. Yay!

Another uke jam, this chorus came to me quickly then refused to let any verses in. So then I put some in.

‘Clothes that don’t fit’ [Bandcamp]

Having just released Beg Steal and Burrow I was looking for my next challenge, so I decided I’d give National Solo Album Month (NaSoAlMo) a go. All I have to do is write and record a solo album of at least 29:09 in length during November. That couldn’t be too hard, right?

I had the best of intentions last year, but only ended up writing three or four songs. What I did do was write a 50,000 word novel. It’s possibly I was trying to do too much.

Follow my NaSoAlMo efforts at Kul Wahad.

I’m happy to report that the first of four tracks I’ll have to write over four days to get back on track came with some surprise harmonies, and a second guitar part. I was intending to keep everything very simple, just guitar and voice, to get things done on time, but I won’t complain when more occurs to me.

Another song in open G tuning. It turns out a lot of songs are. I know this because I keep working out how to play things when I’m trying to write.

Broadly speaking I’m now at 40% of my goal, and based on today’s date I should be at just over 43%. Getting caught up, though.

‘Next year’ [Bandcamp]