Monday, January 15, 2007

MUGEN

This is probably the most fan-girly article I'm ever gonna write.

Before you read this entry, I think you should read this:

Wikipedia of MUGEN

Assuming you either have read the article, or have prior knowledge of MUGEN, I now propose tis idea (if it hasn't been done already).

Wouldn't it be cool if there was a J-Rock version of this?

Think about it, you can create you own characters, special moves, music, backgrounds, everything really. You'd get to live fights you always wanted to see, such as Yoshiki vs. Toshi, Kiritio vs. Aiji, Gazette vs. Morning Musume, Gackt and Hyde vs. Jay and Silent Bob, Atsushi vs. Jesus, the list goes on.

Now, here's what I picture to be the ultimate match up:
The background is the stage of Family Values, and there are 2 fighters. On the left side of the screen is Kyo. On the right is Marylin Manson (who is very noticably taller than his opponent). The opening lick to IIID Empire is heard as the word "ready" appears on screen then just as the song punches in: "FIGHT!". What ensues is a Guilty Gear style bout with over the top acrobatics, flashy special moves, spashes of blood everywhere, and Dragon Ball Z inspired super moves which include Kyo's "AgitatedScreams of Maggots" super move. I'll let your imagination run with that.

Wow... this sounded way more fan girly that I originally thought.

-Roger

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Gary Numan

So, I was talking with Kathy of purple Sky the other day, and I jokingly said "I want BLOOD to tour with Gary Numan", and she laughed it off a bit more than it was meant to be laughed at. So I asked "What's wrong with Gary Numan?"

"Not my style of music"

"What? Goth/industrial"

"Wait, are we thinking of the same guy?"

This is when i hung my head. This is when I had to inform her that for the past 12 years, Gary Numan has been pumping out phenoenal goth/industrial albums and has more than moved on from the 80's synth pop sound that he pretty much created.

I'm not sure how many of you out there actually know who Gary Numan is period. For those of you who don't know him, he is who Trent Reznor and David Grohl have considered the father of electronic music. He started in the late 70's, but his most familiar work came out in the 80's. His biggest hit was a song I'm sure everyone's heard called "Cars", which I think many of you would recognize better coming from Fear Factory's cover of it (which Numan did vocals for). However, around 1993, he had grown disgusted with his music, and decided to write music that was more true to him. He released "Sacrifce", which took on a much darker tone, and a certainly more gothic feel. Ever since, he has presistently put out quality albums within this genre. I even played him during the goth show last month!

What is disheartening is that most people still recognize him as "the Cars guy" and almost consider him a one-hit wonder. Nothing could be further from the truth. So, when people say that, and don't know what he's gone on to do, and have much success in, I go into full education mode! But, I wrote this for you guys who may not know him at all, so i'll include some links for ya. Please give him a shot! You wont be disappointed!

Cars - Old Gary Numan

Cars - The Fear Factory cover

Dominion Day - The New Improved Gary Numan

Rock Start Journalism Interview - An indepth interview with the man

-Roger

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Disappointment

It's sad when the major news story of the day is not the president changing war plans, but Trump vs. O'Donald.

-Roger

Frustration Part 2

I can see this becoming an on going series.

First, I don't want you guys to think I'm writing about TCST, coz I'm not.

But I can't stand it when bands don't return e-mails. See, I'm an insecure twit and am no where near proffesional yet. So every time I have to wait a few days for a reply, I start getting nervous. My Japanese isn't anything fantastic yet, so when I write a letter myself, I'm like "Oh fuck, did I just call his mom a whore?!". Or when I have Becky translate a letter for me, when I have more fine details, and they don't reply, I start thinking "Oh fuck, did I just call his mom a whore?!".

There's usually two different scenarios here.

1. There's the bands that don't even think the initial e-mail deserves a reply. They can't send an acceptance or even a rejection. They just don't reply, period. No matter what I do, no matter how much I yell "Look at me", no matter how much I throw Yoshiki out there, they just don't reply. More of an nnoyance than anything.

And then there's the scarier one.

2. The bands that reply almost immediately to your first e-mail. Then, after one or two e-mails, the replies just stop. And then you start anylizing what was in that last e-mail, and if you find even the smalles thing, you're like "Oh fuck, I shouldn't have said that".

For this e-mail in question, it was "Please send some promo CD's so I can play your music on air."

My fear here is that they think I'm some devious fan boy looking for a free handout, as our reputation in Japan is not firmly established just yet. A few bands here and there know OF us, and a few others actually work with us, but thats about it.

Now, I'm telling myself that these guys are probably just busy, and they'll get back to me when they can. But still, the waiting is a nail biter.

-Roger

P.S. And now, for some reson, I'm on a Sneaker Pimps binge.

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Frustration

I'm kinda kicking myself in the ass today. I have a week left in break, and I really haven't done all of the shit I wanted to, namingly Otakon 2006 and Sailor Moon. I was really planning on working on both projects extensively this break, but other things have come up. Some DAMN good things for you guys that I can't mention yet, but those two are personal projects that I really wanted to do some work on this break. Well, like I said, the stuff that took their places are good thing that I think you guys will really dig, so I REALLY hope you enjoy it!!!!!

-Roger

Thursday, January 04, 2007

UnsraW

What do you think of them?

-Roger

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Reminiscing

I was cleaning up my room today. On one part because I was looking for something, on another part because we're selling the house soon and I wanted to know where all of my stuff was, and the last third because I'm sick of living in this mess.

Now a funny thing happens when I clean my room. See, I'm one of the most nostalgic people you'll ever meet (I'm a sucker for those "I Love The 80's/90's" shows), and when I clean up my room, I dig up alot of shit from my past. My goal today was to get my dresser squared away (Which indeed is a dresser, but does not hold my clothes. Instead it has all of my videogames, DVD,s and miscellaneous knick knacks), and for the first time in, I dunno, 7-8 years I cleaned under the thing. I just reached my arm under the fucker and scooped out all of the shit under there. First thing I found was my Dark Light limited edition box that I lost soon after it came in the mail. After sorting all a few more "Ah! that's where that went" items from the junk, I came across my old binder from high school.

Alright, for any of this to make sence I have to explain alot so bare with me.

Now, how I passed high school is beyond me coz I was a horrid student until half way through my junior year, so most of my binder was filled with sketches, short stories, simple drawlings, notes, and momentos. One thing I came across which made me chuckle a little was an old "akilatem Records" calendar for January of '02. akilatem Records was basically the precursor's precursor to Tainted Reality (before TR, I had Eternal Pictures). What it was was a moch company built around my mix CD's. In highschool, alot of people knew me for my mix CD's (mainly because I was one of the few with a burner back then). I would compile mix CD's consisting of music I really wanted to expose people to, such as foreign rock acts (mainly from Europe), techno remixes, orchestral peices, but mainly, videogame music. I handed out this mix CD's to alot of people, most memorably, giving many many people their first taste of a band called HIM.

As the mix CD's became more popular, I became more ambitious. I started creating CD art, booklets with info, and even compiled CD's with themes or messages. Along with that, I kept up the facade of akilatem Records being a company, despite the fact that everyone knew it was a joke. The furthest it went was the production of my first film, "Hornet Football 2002", which contained alot of the music typical to these mix CDs.

Well, I came across this calendar, and if I remember right, was actually a project for my Word Processing class. Today, 5 years ago, was "Back To School Day", tomorrow was "Nudie Magazine Day", the 11th was "First Senior Project Deadline", the 13th was "Grand Theft Auto III Day", there's a mention on here about Max Payne being named "Game Of The Year" (Which if I remember right, it was actually Serious Sam that beat it out on the Gamespot awards), and the 29th would be the day the Martians were scheduled to invade.

However, what got me was something I almost forgot: the akilatem Records slogan, which appeared on this. I thought it was funny, coz I think even 5 years later, it still applys to what I'm doing, in a very satirical way.

"akilatem Records: The Kind Of Music Your Parents Think Is Stoopid"

-Roger