Posts from July 2013

Here is the latest video from Julia Massey & The Five Finger Discount, for their song “Marquee Malarkey” (Carrie’s favorite song from the “5 Letters from Far Away” album, incidentally).

Julia Massey & the Five Finger Discount – Marquee Malarkey OFFICIAL VIDEO from Julia Massey on Vimeo.

Fools Play is no longer at Mud Bay Coffee, but don’t count us out yet! We have a guerrilla-filmmaking-style show this Saturday the 20th, a preview show at our new venue on August 10th, and then regular weekly shows start up again on August 24th!

It’s pretty exciting. But we might be getting a little melodramatic about it:

As always, www.FoolsPlay.net is your source for more info.

Hey, folks,

For some reason in one of the busiest times of my life, I have decided to do a re-design of thisischris.com. It’s not so much a visual re-design (though there will be some changes) as much as it is a back-end CSS overhaul. I’m making thisichris.com a TRULY responsive-designed site. That means that you’ll be presented with 100% of the same content no matter what screen you’re using to look at this website, but the layout will change automatically based on the resolution of that screen.

I haven’t done a major code overhaul since I switched to WordPress many, many years ago. So it’s time. Unfortunately I’m already like four movie reviews behind (soon to be five), and, y’know, my wife is practicing Pregomancy and that takes up a lot of both of our times. Growing an entire person from scratch is a lot of work!

I probably won’t be done any time soon because there’s so much going on (including Fools Play getting a new venue and all of the promotion that needs to be done for that).

This is one of my favorite things Josh has done. It’s very NSFW, but completely hilarious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOMfSKz5td8

I really hope all y’all can make it to Fools Play this Saturday! It might be your last chance to see us for a while (until we get another gig or venue lined up). More info: http://foolsplay.net

Welp, I’m off to go camping now! I’ll be coming directly from camping to perform in this Fools Play, then afterwards I’ll head back to the campground.

Album of the Month:
Robb Benson & The Shelk: Cursive Falls From the Sky
Two Albums of the Month in one year from the same artist? Yes, it’s Robb Benson, Seattle mainstay and frontman of The Glass Notes, who had my Album of the Month back in February. This time it’s The Shelk (as in part shark, part elk) and it’s another very good, catchy album. The styles are much more varied than the hard-rockin’ Glass Notes, including some interesting synth-poppy stuff. I enjoy it!

Game of the Month:
Animal Crossing: New Leaf
Easily the best Animal Crossing game since the original for GameCube o-so-many years ago. This time not only do you own a house, but you are actually the mayor of the whole town and get to build “public works” that improve your town. There’s a city section like in City Folk, but it is actually useful and necessary unlike in that game. Tonnes of new features make it hard to stop playing, and the 3DS allows you to do some really cool thinks, like making hanging out with friends over the internet super easy. And also you can tweet screenshots of the game!

Went clubbin' wit hottie @leiapico and @mikey_oops #ACNL pic.twitter.com/QoLrdqDrYD

— Christopher Harris (@angrybeef) July 3, 2013

Book of the Month:
Slan: A Novel by A.E. Van Vogt
Though it’s almost unheard of nowadays, Slan is the book that really ushered in the “Golden Age” of Science Fiction. It is the book that all of the great authors of that era looked to as a shining example of a favorite SF book. It’s a fascinating read: extraordinarily fast-paced and incredibly pulpy with a protagonist who is so superhuman that it’s impossible to relate to him. But the ideas fly fast and loose and the science is ridiculous and sketchy, and it’s a lot of fun in the way that 1940s serials are a lot of fun.

Things are changing quite a remarkable amount at Fools Play Improv… watch this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY3z2UKVeCM

Well, that isn’t REALLY my brother or me in that video… that’s Kalum and Andre, two prospective Fools Play Apprentices. But part of the video is true: Fools Play’s final show at Mud Bay Coffe is THIS SATURDAY at 8:00 PM! We don’t yet know where our next venue will be (or when we’ll be able to start performing regularly again), so this might be your last chance to see Fools Play for a little while.

In the meantime you should keep up with any Fools Play news at foolsplay.net or on Facebook.

I know I posted about this before, but this is new: KEXP has put up video footage of JM+FFD’s in-studio performance! It’s one thing to hear the songs, it’s another to watch Geoff B. Gibbs’s hands as he actually plays the music. It’s one of my favorite things about seeing JM+FFD live. Now you can enjoy it, too, in this series of videos!

Jesu Christo, these guys are gorram rockstars.