Crushing Krisis

The Newest Oldest Blog In New Zealand

Archives for November 2010

autodidact to the death

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I am sitting on my couch, gradually tearing my hair out, trying to figure out why various PHP MYSQL Update queries that worked in PHP4.x don’t work in PHP5.x.

Because, on the list of “things I am” in addition to being a communications professional, songwriter, blogger, novelist, and bass player, I am also an occasional software engineer.

Remember how I started the month with a post about specialization? Well, I am not especially specialized in hard-core PHP programming. I know the equivalent of a Cure2 spell in PHP. And, to continue a wobby analogy, this is a website with a lot of hit points to recover.

“Nerd” was implied on that list, right?

Video Demo: “End With Me”

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Last night Gina and I held an epic Arcati Crisis rehearsal with our drummer Zina. We’ve worked our way up to eight drummed up tunes, and now we’re adding other special features like electric guitars and effects pedals.

We’re going to figure out this band thing, one way or another.

Meanwhile, I spent seemingly every free moment of yesterday singing the arpeggio D-F#-A-D-F#-A-D, which spans all the good bits of my singing range. However, on a weird set of vowels the top D can be a bit of a beast to get on top of, and of course I wrote myself just such a troublesome set of sounds when I penned “End With Me” shortly after posting about Eric Smith on Sunday night.

Can bad vowels stop me? Hell no. I mean, have you heard some of the audio on here from ten years ago? Not even bad singing can stop me.

Anyhow, here is a late-night first take on “End With Me,” another song from my soundtrack to Eric’s novel, Textual Healing. This tune has a slew of references to the book, including some specific lines. The recording has plenty of rough edges, but it sounds right, and I’ll take rough and right over mannered and plasticine any day of the week.

(Okay, not really, but let’s just think that for the purposes of this post.)


(Watch the video on Facebook, where I occasionally demo brand new tunes for my likers. Also, you can read the lyrics there.)

Things to do in Philly, 11/9 edition

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It’s another week of things to do in Philly!

If you’re a fan of me and you do one thing in Philly this week, it should be this one:

Filmstar playing the Blame-a-Thon, as shot by me.

Friday, 11/12
Who: Filmstar, featuring E on vox and me on bass!
Details: The M Room, 15 W Girard Ave, 9pm, $8
Why? After almost four months of rehearsals, my official Philly debut as a bass player has arrived! Witness a set of brisk set of 80s-influenced electric rock, including a ton of new songs I loved even before I was one of the people playing them. Especially recommended if you dig The Cure, The Pretenders, James, or Elastica.

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Otherwise, here’s a handful of other awesome stuff in the city that I’ll be endeavoring to attend.

Wednesday, 11/10
Who: Shearwater w/Damien Jurado
Details: Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 N. Frankford Ave, 9pm, $12
Why? Shearwater is indie rock that’s not a wreck – compelling vocals and crackling guitar arpeggios. I’ve been a casual fan for a while, but I’m sure seeing the show would make me more serious.

Saturday, 11/13
What: Philly BarCamp
Details: 211 S Broad, 8am
Why? BarCamp was one of my favorite Philly events last year – an unconference full of smart people with unique ideas. Right now it’s sold out, but you can put your name on a wait list at their website, and it’s worth the wait.

Saturday, 11/13
Who: Christie Lenee and friends
Details: Naked Chocolate, 31 S. 18th Street, 12-6pm, w/a canned food donation
Why? Do you want to see a slew of the most talented songwriters in Philadelphia for the cost of a can of food? Christee is one of my two favorite guitarists in the entire city (the other is Greg Sover), and she’s hosting a day that includes many of my favorite songwriters, including Victoria Spaeth, Ally Cat, Dante Bucci, Andrea Nardello, and more. So worth attending.

Sunday, 11/14
What: Conquer Philly Showcase
Details: World Cafe Live, 7pm, $10
Why? Conquer is a start-up by a handful of smart folks who are anything but new to the music business, and they want to help Philly artists find a platform for their talents. Conquer’s monthly showcases are part of that, and this one presents Barbara Montgomery & the Women of Jazz, Zair Baily, Jan Alba & Rust, Sandy Hall, Elizabeth Salvatico, and (one of my personal favorite artists) Cris Valkyria and the Opponents.

Monday, 11/15
What: Geekadelphia presents Scott Pilgrim v the World
Details: Trocadero, doors @ 6:30pm, move @ 8pm, $3
Why? Want to see Scott Pilgrim with an appropriately geeky crowd who’ll appreciate all of the video game references? You could do no better than the Geekadelphia crew, presenting their weekly Monday night flick at the Troc.

As always, if you know about a cool upcoming event that you can personally endorse, comment away! I’ll include it in a Things to Do post with your personal stamp of approval on it.

New Boots and “Fall from the Sky”

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Hi. This is my first NaBloPoMo default – I’m not missing a post, but I am way off the grid of my editorial calendar.

I spent all of my writing time today plugging away on my NaNoWriMo novel, which means no elucidating new post. But, hey, my book is now over 20,000 words long!

However, never let it be said that my filler posts are not awesome. So, here’s your default post.

First, these are my new Kenneth Cole boots. They are a little urban cowboy for me, but I’m excited. Part of my non-blogging time was spent leather conditioning them.

When did I turn into a guy who spends my non-blogging time leather conditioning boots?

In other news, here’s the further development of one of my favorite Filmstar tunes, “Fall from the Sky.” We have a few bobbles on it, but this is pretty damn close to what it’s supposed to sound like.

We’re playing The M Room this Friday night. I may post a few more of my recent favorites.

How Eric Smith rocked my world.

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Story time.

A few weeks ago Britt Miller, my partner in all things FAME, posted a link to the first segment of Eric Smith‘s “podiobook” – a podcasted audiobook version of his forthcoming novel Textual Healing with Britt contributing a special voice-acting appearance.

Eric Smith was one of those people that everyone I know knew, but I did not. Still, I occasionally followed his adventures on Twitter, which is what one does these days when you don’t know someone everyone else knows and you want to know why they all knew him already.

It turns out they mostly know him from running Geekadelphia, editing uwishunu, and working for Quirk Books (of Pride and Predjudice and Zombies fame). Eric’s also a professor and a music photographer who spent time touring with a number of bands.

I knew about a lot of those things separately, but didn’t know Eric connected them. I was intrigued – by Eric, by the idea of the advance podiobook, by Britt’s appearance in it, and by hearing Eric’s voice read his work – so I listened. And in the span of about an hour of my on-and-off listening to the podcast, a song popped out…


(watch the video on Facebook, where I sometimes demo sneak peeks of new tunes before releasing them anywhere else)

…so, doing what any DIY songwriter would do after midnight having just moments ago written a new song for a book by someone he knew only through his extended circle of friends, I recorded my first run-through, posted it to my Facebook page at two in the morning, and tagged Eric in it – off-handedly suggesting it was the first of a number of songs I’d write for his novel.

That resulted in Eric commenting “♥!” about eight hours later, which in turn lead to an email exchanges with the extremely genial Mr. Smith, who now I suppose I finally know directly instead of just knowing of via the knowledge of other people I know. Eric sent me an advance copy of Textual Healing and I am now committed (personally, not by contract or gentleman’s agreement or anything) to write at least four songs for the soundtrack of his book.

I just finished my second tune a few minutes ago, but this time there’ll be no insta-video. The phrases are so darn long that I’ll need to do voice exercise for a few days before I can get from breath mark to breath mark on the verses.

I’m happy to finally know who Eric is, and to have his passion project inspire some passion mirrored in me. Head to his blog, Eric Smith Rocks, to catch up on the first few episodes of the podiobook, and keep your eyes and ears open here for more tunes.

PS: About ten minutes after I posted this I wrote another song. Three down! One to go!