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.

Holy Grail – Arcati Crisis, Live @ Rehearsal

by

Welcome back from your hopefully restful holiday weekend, and to a hopefully equally-restful post-holiday week! I’ll continue to rock you with new Arcati Crisis Live @ Rehearsal videos all week.

Today’s song is a web debut – Gina’s “Holy Grail.” It started as a simple strummer about a year ago, but both Gina and I heard something more in the chords. After a few listens I came up with the entirety of my insane lead line, which in turn pushed Gina to play her rhythms harder and punkier. We wound up with an awesome, poppy, rock tune:

That’s the first-ever digital version of “Holy Grail,” so I don’t have an MP3 to share with you. The best way to find out about new Arcati Crisis music is to become our fan on FaceBook.

Tomorrow I have a Peter classic for you…

What I Tweeted, 2009-12-27 Edition

by

My best and most-interesting tweets of the last week.

Quotes of the week:

Chipotle must be very high in umami. That's the only possible explanation for how I could love something more than ice cream. #

Great post. RT @trevor_neilson: RT: @kanter @socialentrprnr What can Pepsi learn from Chase Fail? http://bit.ly/6XXxxb @socialcitizen in reply to trevor_neilson #

Agree/Disagree: Any best songs of the decade list that doesn't start with "Since U Been Gone" is badly calibrated. #

1,000 True Fans, a fantastic article: http://bit.ly/568LhN (re: last night, @brimil) #

Dying of LOL listening to "I Sure Hope I Don't Have To Beat Your Ass This Christmas." Master Shake is my #1 Role Model. http://bit.ly/6NXn1q #
This is the greatest X-mas song ever. I wish Master Shake could be my internal monologue. Did I mention it's live & you can DL for free? #
Oh. "Christmas is a time for forgiveness." "Forgiveness does not turn chicks on like Old Spice shower gel." #

This is BS. Vick does not deserve to be a public figure anymore, let alone win awards: Eagles vote Vick Courage Award – http://bit.ly/8Ceyx8 #
I swear, if by some outside Phillies-blessed chance the Eagles win the Superbowl I AM NOT GOING TO COUNT IT because Vick is on the team. #

Nothing puts me in the Christmas spirit quite like the last half of the first act of RENT. #

Oh: "Your a very special family of nerds that I fit in with so well." #

You should follow me on Twitter so you can read my tweet action as it happens.

[Read more…] about What I Tweeted, 2009-12-27 Edition

Religion / Falling Slowly – Arcati Crisis, Live @ Rehearsal

by

Today you get two songs in one post!

The first is one of our two brief single-minute tunes – Gina’s “Religion.” The fun fact about this bitingly sarcastic little agnostic ditty is that it’s one of the first songs Gina ever wrote. Its original demo was featured on CK during the first ever Blogathon in 2001.

We always joke that people probably like the 2001 demos better than our current stuff, because they are so warbly and indie rock. Oh, fickle tastemakers.

If you’re in the slice of audience “Religion” doesn’t offend, feel free to download our most recent demo.

Today’s second song is “Falling Slowly” from the movie Once; I shared our demo of it last week. Ultimately I wound up playing piano at our appearance at the holiday revue, but I was still simply singing when we shot this rehearsal footage:

The Arcati Crisis Live @ Rehearsal concert will be back with five more installments next week, including our two newest songs, a Peter deep cut, Gina’s magnum opus, and a new 80s cover.

Love Me Love Me Not – Arcati Crisis, Live @ Rehearsal

by

The second song in our Live @ Rehearsal concert is my “Love Me Love Me Not.” LMLMN is infamous in that I spent several months actively writing it – like, daily – before it was finished. And then my amazing vocal instructor Dr. Emily Bridges turned it upside a bit, and then Gina turned it upside down a bit more, and then we arrived at this:

That’s the first-ever video of “Love Me Not”! If you love it, download a high fidelity Live @ Rehearsal recording of it, for free.

If you missed the first song, it was Fisher Price. Tomorrow I’ll have a brand new cover, and after the holiday another week of videos!

Monday Evening Remainders

by

I really need to get better at discharging links more expediently. At the moment sifting for true gold is an all-evening prospect.

Kevin Smokler highlights eight awesome facts about Michelle Lynn Johnson, AKA Me’shell Ndegeocello.

Do you feel like your eyes are bigger than your stomach? Well, maybe your eyes and stomach are the same, and the food just got bigger.

Andre Torrez establishes seemingly unattainable resolutions, like not buying books for an entire year. For 2010 he is only listening to newly released music. I will gladly abet him in that quest.

James Franco, on Soap Opera as performance art:

I disrupted the audience’s suspension of disbelief, because no matter how far I got into the character, I was going to be perceived as something that doesn’t belong to the incredibly stylized world of soap operas. Everyone watching would see an actor they recognized, a real person in a made-up world.

Genius. I love anything that alters an audience’s perception of art based on peripheral factors. See also: Brecht, Dresden Dolls, Lady GaGa. (via Kottke)

Also via K: a couple paints what they want, then sells the painting for the price of what they want, then buys what they want. Ingenious, no?

Stumped for a gift for a precious or precocious kid on your list? Get them a pad and some crayons, and spend some time with them on Christmas drawing monsters. Then, have their favorite monster made for them.

Debbie Millman, one of my favorite bloggers and role models, is launching both a book and a television pilot. Both worth seeing.

Who Sampled lets you figure out where that sampled hook came from (or, if the song you want to sample has been oversampled already). (via Fresh Arrival)

Seth Godin’s blog is a goldmine of best-practice thinking and tools. Recently, a post chock full of personal to-do list web apps. Loves it.

Speed Tracer is a Google Chrome extension that can help you figure out what’s slowing your page load. Remember when every page had to be smaller than 20k? Good times (via Lifehacker).

PS: I have switched over to Chrome full-time for personal browsing. LOVE. And this is coming from a lifelong Mozilla devotee.

Time for bed; another AC video in the a.m.