Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

krisis

Krisis has been creating Crushing Krisis since 2000, writing songs since 1996, and reading comics since 1991. He is a Customer Success and Digital Brand Strategy executive, serial organizer, parent, and feminist, among other things. Based in Philly through 2017, he now resides in Wellington, NZ.

voiced concerns

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Last night at about 9:10pm I lost my voice. I have yet to locate it this morning.

I’ve learned that discretion is the better part of valor when it comes to rehearsing while under the weather. It happens to everyone, and it can feel good to make some music when you feel run down, but better to have your voice for a performance than blow it showing off at rehearsal.

Except, we were rehearsing “Better.” It’s nowhere near the highest or most-difficult vocal I’ve written for myself, but it has an obscene degree of difficulty for me when fronting the whole band. Lots of words. Lots of quick melodic jumps. And then there are the Bs – I have to hit three of them dead on during each chorus to support our new three part harmony – 12 in total. Due to where that note falls in my range, I tend to both be flat and push too hard. (Contradictory, I know).

Anyhow, last night by 9:10pm I had maybe noticed some chinks in my voice when I had no falsetto to switch to in “Dumbest Thing I Could Do,” but on the whole I thought I had been relatively cautious. Then came the final “Better” of the night. Verse one went fine, but in the chorus the Bs were murder. Verse two was raspy and kindof hot sounding, but the second chorus pushed my voice to the brink. I was barely getting on top of the Bs, and it was a Herculean effort to sustain them and keep them nice and sharp.

Afterwards, in the bridge, my voice was barely there, even with my face pressed right up against the microphone, absorbing tiny electric shocks. By the time we reached the third one I was kindof just emceeing the song. “Cause we were so!” I would bark, and then Gina and Jake would chime in harmoniously, “high!” Then, I would call “and I?” and they would respond like an elite military corps, “tried!”

By the time we crossed the finish line, my voice had completely disappeared. These things have been known to correct themselves overnight, but I awoke this morning with not even the barest squeak in my throat – and it even hurt to do that.

No talking for me today, or really over the weekend as a whole. Hopefully I get some semblance of it back by Tuesday for our spotlight at Studio Luloo.

Even if I do, I think I might stay away from “Better.”

Remainders, 11/10 Edition

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Things my network of friends and blogs shared that made me think twice, at least.

Shared by James Gunn on FB.

(via @brimil. See the end of the post for the finished product. I think this is cooler, personally.)

The INFMETRY DIY Romantic Star Projector

I am totally buying this star projector as Arcati Crisis’s first official stage lighting equipment. Bonus points if I can figure out how to turn it on from my pedal board (via NotCot).

Seth Godin posted the only job interview questions that matter. Seth’s is a “every post is amazing” sort of blog.

An efficient post on how beginners and experts are the same. (via Karl Martino)

A solid and realistic plan for an indie, DIY band to begin promoting themselves via social media. A lot of familiar conversations and steps portrayed here. From How to Run a Band,  fantastic blog.

A brilliant kerning game made its way around our office recently; Kottke posted its sequel – a letter shaping game that simulates typed design.  Also via Kottke, we totally had this 1970s Chevy Nova  when I was a kid. Maybe this is why I am so obsessed with speedometers.

Shared by the artist, Leon Keer, I think it was cooler when they were invisible soldiers.

I thought The three biggest myths about women in tech was an interesting read, partially from a feminist perspective, but also because I have been alerted as recently as today that I rely too much on non-existent meritocracies to promote me and my creative work. (via Ma.tt)

 The handy “Is It Old?” website helps you keep up a supply of freshly caught links by sussing out the dusty ones. I plugged in this week’s popular Drinkify.org and it informed me: “Reall old. How did you miss this? DO NOT SEND. It has been tweeted 1981 times already, and the first time was 4 days ago.” (Via Meg’s Tumblr)

Disaster Recovery

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I like to be in control.

Does this come as a surprise to anyone?

I have a petulant OCD Godzilla tromping around in my gut making demands that must be met. The best way to keep him satisfied is to be utterly in charge of every situation. Things have to be just so. Otherwise, he starts breathing radioactive fire on my gall bladder.

Thus, the utter trainwreck of the past week of my life has me off-balance. OCD Godzilla is not pleased.

It all started when not one, but two of my external hard drives died within a day of each other. Kaput. The end. No chance of data recovery outside of a clean room, a magical place that exists entirely out of my budget to deal with this sort of disaster.

I’m a triple-redundant data keeper, which was the entire point of the extra HDs, so I haven’t lost anything critical. But the time I put in to organizing data, and the cost of the drives … I could have produced an entire new album and then taken a brief, very relaxing vacation.

Next, Gina’s trusty, unbelievably loud Fender amp up and died in the middle of rehearsal last night. Gina’s theory is that it simply could not deal with the power of our rock. That’s flattering, but we only rock at about 3 on the volume knob, so I don’t think that’s the cause. It’s always had a little extraneous buzz, probably indicative of a larger speaker problem.

Lest this rebellion be limited to electronic devices, my body is also rebelling against me. This is OCD Godzilla stomping on my soul, creating havoc from whence there was healthy. He went rogue over the weekend, and then I got super-sick on Monday night as I drove around the wilds of Chadd’s Ford PA, idling in ditches at the side of the road to try to get my bearings.

I typically live such a semi-charmed life that I don’t know what to do with myself in these situations. I can’t carry my data around, which has slowed down my blogging (long story – just trust me). The amp is working intermittently, which is inhibiting rehearsal. I feel like crap, which is putting a damper on all of life in general, and going to the gym in specific.

I don’t know what I’m more afraid of – how many more things can go wrong in a single week, or the state of my insides once my internal control-freak monster is through with his tantrum.

X-Men Hardcover & Trade Paperback Review, Late September Edition

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Back after a while in mothballs, it’s my X-collections recap!

Marvel hardly lets a single comic book issue go uncollected in book form, which means every week brings new hardcovers and trade paperbacks packed with their most major heroes – including The X-Men.

Read on for capsule reviews of the X-books out in the second half of September, which were unusually focused on past stories. Plus, get the skinny on all of Marvel’s other new collected editions from the latter half of the month.

If you’re looking for more X-info, head over to my Definitive Guide to Collecting X-Men Graphic Novels. Or, for a more basic approach, my Intro to X-Men (on a budget). New to the X-Men? Try my Where to Start Reading X-Men to pick a place to jump in.

X-Men Collection of the (latter half of the) Month:
New Mutants: Fall of the New Mutants TPB

CK Says: Buy it! When I first picked up the hardcover version of this collection earlier this year it was out of habit, but I quickly discovered the book was impossible to put down. Writer Zeb Wells capitalizes on a dangling plot thread from 80s blockbuster Inferno anda year of slow-boil character development to deliver a complex saga worthy of the X-Men’s rich dramatic history.

It’s hard to imagine a story more harrowing or epic than what the team had just endured in Second Coming, but Well’s pulls it off with art from Leonard Kirk, an efficient, unflashy penciler I’ve grown to love. I don’t want to spoil the story – if you enjoy this team of characters you’ll love it, particularly developments for Cannonball, Moonstar, Karma, and Magik.

[Read more…] about X-Men Hardcover & Trade Paperback Review, Late September Edition

#MusicMonday: “Sorry I’m An Asshole” – Sunshine Superman

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In the past year or so the frequency with which I receive pitch emails has risen.

I’m sure that’s not some sign of my rising status as a blogger (as if), but more the general trend of people realizing blogs can help spread the word about the thing they’ve been toiling to produce.

A lot of the music pitches whiz by unnoticed, because they’re asking me to do something I don’t have time for – read up on some obscure artist, or come to a show with just a few days (or hours) notice.

The pitch I got from reader Lewen on behalf of local band Sunshine Superman was different:

I’m a long time reader/supporter of your blog and thought that you might like to check out a band I work with.

Here’s a video of ours that has been well received and gotten tons of views … I’ll keep this brief as I’m sure you get tons of emails.

Pretty simple: a person who claims to be a steady reader wants me to watch a video. I can do that. You can too – here’s their hyper-catchy, DIY-recorded, track, “Sorry I’m An Asshole.”

I am so freaking in love with this song! It appropriates a Ronnettes handclap rhythm, strips it of the wall of sound, and tops it with a slightly icy sing-song vocal that immediately made me think of Sia (aided by the up-close shots in the video, which are similar to her “Buttons”).

It’s not just the song that’s awesome. Let’s talk about all the awesome in this pitch: [Read more…] about #MusicMonday: “Sorry I’m An Asshole” – Sunshine Superman