Posts from June 2016

Mmmm… so steamy…

My excellently-talented friend (since kindergarten) Geoff is an excellently-talented musician. Until recently he was the bass-playing part of Julia Massey and the Five Finger Discount (he can be heard on all of the FFD albums released up to this date). He is also the singer and 1/2 of the composers (I’m the other 1/2) of The Crazy Boy Floyds. He also produced a bunch of Trevor Peach’s recent musics. And a bunches of other stuffs.

Now he’s written the musics for a commercial for Slayer Espresso’s new steam machine! Here’s what Geoffs says:

Hey guys! Not only is Slayer an awesome company that I have loved since it’s inception, but a while back Arthur Allen started working in their marketing department and asked if I’d be willing to make a little tune for the promos of their upcoming products. Of course I said yes! And of course Arthur has done amazing things with it! Thanks for the opportunity, man! I hope I get to work with you moooore!

Watch the ‘mercial here and wissen to da musics within!

Also, that looks like a pretty kick-ass machine. If only I thought coffee had a good flavor taste instead of tasting like burnt bits you’d scrape off the bottom of an oven!

It’s true!

Details:
Fools Play Summer Improv
Saturday, June 18th 9:00 PM
@ 924 Broadway, Tacoma, WA (map)
All-Ages, $10

I’ll be there, up on stage! So can you (be in the audience).

Book of the Month:

Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson
My second “Of the Month” in a row for G. Willow Wilson! I think that might be a first. Anyway, yes, apart from writing amazing comic books, Ms. Wilson also wrote this novel, an urban sci-fi/fantasy mashup that takes computer programming and djinn and wraps them up in a fascinating yarn that is ultimately about the importance and power of language. It’s rather fast-paced and its unnamed middle-eastern city setting is exceedingly well-drawn. Ms. Wilson certainly has a gift for descriptive prose. It’s like a cross between William Gibson and Neil Gaiman (particularly in one thrilling sequence where coding a program becomes an hallucinogenic vision trip). I wish the protagonist were just a bit more likeable, though; he tends to get pissy and mean when he’s under stress, and he’s under stress pretty much the whole entire book. Overall an excellent read.

Musicians of the Month:

Aivi & Surasshu
An amazing duo made up of two composers: an organic girl named Aivi and a machine boy named Surasshu. They make beautiful, lush compositions with classical instruments and chiptunes interwoven. They’ve written an album, but also music for video games as well as music (and songs) for Steven Universe! Yes, much of the mind-blowingly-awesome compositions from Steven Universe came from Aivi and Surasshu. So give them a listen, fo’ realsz.

TV Show of the Month:

Puffin Rock
When you have a toddler, you end up watching a bunch of TV aimed for the toddler market. A bunch of it is, let’s face it, crap. So when you find a great show, it’s like finding a diamond in the rough. Puffin Rock is an Irish-made cartoon about a small island off the coast of Ireland populated by shrews, seagulls, seals, crabs, and (of course) puffins. And it’s frikkin’ gorgeous. Seriously, this series has some of the best artwork I’ve seen in a cartoon. It’s like Little Golden Book come to life. And the characters are rather charming (their little Irish lilts do help quite a bit), especially main character Oona and her little brother Baba, who is undeniably one of the cutest cartoon characters in existence. The stories are light and breezy and never hit you too hard over the head with a moral or message. It’s fun. And oh-so-pretty.

Plus it’s narrated by Roy (Chris O’Dowd) from BBC’s The IT Crowd. Seriously. So that’s just a hoot. He gets flustered and tongue-tied sometimes, and sometimes even tries to interact with the characters and influence them in spite of the fact that they clearly cannot hear him. It’s some of the more enjoyable narration I can think of.

Puffin Rock is only available on Netflix in the states, but it’s worth it to seek it out if you have wee ones.