off-topics

Gina’s Bachelorette Adventure, Pt. 3

August 16, 2011 by krisis

When I left off last week we had a video game theme, an instruction booklet introduction, and a visual concept of 8-bit goodness – all for my best friend and bandmate Gina’s highly unusual bachelorette party.

Here I am shown negotiating something – possibly our surrender – with two park rangers while our live action video game was in progress. No, I am not threatening them with a baton, that’s just a trick of perspective. Still, they seemed to find me rather intimidating. Notice how the one on the left has his hand near his utility belt, while the one on the right is making an exceedingly obvious attempt to reach for his radio receiver.

As for what we’d be actually be doing during our human video game, that was another story entirely. A story with no plot or structure. Or mini-bosses.

We had to start somewhere. Since Gina is a chemist by day, we decided she should be challenged to put her chemistry knowledge to the test. I originally wanted to her to conduct a chemistry demonstration in the middle of the street with everyday groceries, but we eventually decided that might look a bit too much like an act of terrorism during 4th of July weekend within a few blocks of The Liberty Bell.

(At the time there were legitimate questions being asked, like “Do we need a permit to do that?” and “Can you even legally buy that in Pennsylvania?” We fully anticipated losing one or more attendees to some mix of boredom, drunkenness, heatstroke, or tasing by park rangers.)

With a mind to not being detained under the Patriot Act, Kelly devised an insane chemistry challenge to fulfill our needs that we could all understand as laypeople… and, possibly as drunks, depending on how the day was going at that point. [Read more…] about Gina’s Bachelorette Adventure, Pt. 3

Gina’s Bachelorette Adventure, Pt. 2

August 11, 2011 by krisis

When I left you hanging a month ago I was planning my best friend and bandmate Gina’s bachelorette party with two of her other best friends, and we were all determined it had to be the best party in the history of all parties.

On a Rt. 36 trolley during the actual bachelorette party, as shot by Kelly's partner Gudrun. Wondering what the pins are and what our shirts say? Keep reading. (Oh, and is that Gina in the background? What is that thing she's wearing as a hat? Hmm...)

One month out from the event we were still trying to piece together dozens of ideas for an Amazing Race-style event when I had an epiphany: Gina’s party would be a video game. Here is my actual verbatim pitch to fellow BFFs-of-Gina Kelly and Mikki:

I know I am completely insane and you can say no to this, but what if the way we put a wrapper on the entire day is not that it’s Amazing Race but that it is a giant Gina-themed video game, a la her lyrics in “Fisher Price”? It wouldn’t change any specific task, but it would give us a way to theme the events. We could even make up a little “Strategy Guide” to give to her at the beginning with hints and stuff :)

Or, I am insane.

Even if I was insane, Kelly and Mikki are equally so, and they immediately bought into the idea without a moment’s pause and continued to fire off increasingly more ridiculous plans for the day, such as:

I was thinking it would be fun to get gina a labcoat for the chemistry [demonstration]…decorated and bedazzled of course.

Kelly's party favors, all based on 8-bit video game graphics. I have one of these pinned to my book bag and I still have not the slightest idea of how they were assembled or how Kelly worked out the patterns.

While I was excited that they liked my idea, I was also terrified that I now had to transform a day wandering the streets of Philadelphia with 20+ guests into a live action video game. Not just any video game, but a decidedly retro one that would click with a group of people who grew up on classic Nintendo – and, for many of them (including my co-planners), hadn’t played a video game since!

It was at this juncture that I pulled out my Nintendo and SNES and started skimming through instruction booklets.

Most old-school video games share a basic architecture. A character has to accomplish something (return home, free the princess, kill all the zombies, etc), defeating increasingly difficult challenges (monsters, puzzles, etc) along the way. Their victories yield rewards (points, items, etc) that serve to increase their sophistication (levels, powers, etc).

Gina’s journey was clear – she had to complete all of the previously disconnected Amazing Race challenges to move through the city. We were lucky to have a starting point on South Street and an end west of the city, making a sensible (if not linear) world map.

Mikki's stencils, corresponding to our various city challenges. Note the mix of incredible realism (the amazing camera, the pig silhouette, the Kanye glasses) with pixelized video game ephemera. Click through to see a larger version of her handiwork.

I drafted an intro to Gina’s game booklet as a sort of proof of concept of merging 80s video game hyperbole with our shared pithy sense of humor:

Gina F____: Chemist By Day, Rock Star By Night – The Almost Married Edition! is an epic adventure that will take our hero, Gina, on a journey from one end of Philadelphia to the other to transform her from Chemist By Day, Rock Star by Night to Chemist By Day, Rock Star By Night, And Also Bride!

In GF:CBDRSBN-TAME!, Gina will visit key locations of power to defeat challenges, level up, and energize her POWERFUL BRIDE POWERS. Along the way, complete special tasks on the TABLE OF PERIODIC ELEMENTS OF GINA & WES board to complete her special WESLEY QUEST.

Gina won’t be able to defeat GF:CBDRSBN-TAME! alone – she will be abetted by friends and buoyed by special power-ups during her journey.

Powers? What powers?!?

This is where my cohorts saved me from writing our event to death with their amazing creativity. While trying to dream up rewards, Kelly thought of making a grab bag of pixelated party favors. Meanwhile, after hearing Kelly’s idea for the favors, Mikki began to design a series of elaborate stencils. The idea was that each one was based on one of our challenges, and could be sprayed onto the shirts we planned to give to all the guests.

With a cohesive visual interpretation to tie the video game concept together, the layout of our game was suddenly much clearer. Now I simply had to figure out how Gina could play this game along with twenty of her closest friends.

Tune in next time to hear about my concept of gameplay as our preparations became increasingly frantic with less than two weeks until Gina would take the controls of her own personal video game!

Things To Do In Philly, 8/11 Edition

August 11, 2011 by krisis

It’s back! My totally biased, totally nepotistic list of the most awesome stuff you can entertain yourself with in the greater Philadelphia area over the next week.

Take note: though these are events from my favorite artists, you have to be pretty awesome to rank on that list at all. I’m not going to send my dear readers to anything sucky. Or, at least, if I am I’m going to be clear that it might be sucky.

First, I must plug the thing that actually involves me, which I have the most power over making un-sucky:

Saturday 8/13
Who: My acoustic duo, Arcati Crisis, plus bass!
Details: 6pm, FREE & BYOB, All Fired Up, 602 Haddon Avenue, Collingswood NJ
Why? Arcati Crisis habitually enjoys a summer hiatus, but we’ll make a rare appearance outside of our rehearsal cabana to play three-ish hours of acoustic music in this awesome pottery arts studio. That’ll include the entire AC repertoire, plus a few special solo tunes. Plus wine. How can this possibly go wrong?

Now, on the rest of the next week…

Alexandra Day & Samantha Rise

Thursday, 8/11
Who: Alexandra Day & Samantha Rise-Roberson
Details: 7:30p, $10, Tin Angel, 20 S. 2nd Street, Philly
Why? It physically pains me that I cannot attend this show due to rehearsal, so you should go in my place. Alexandra Day is one of my favorite songwriters in Philadelphia. I know I say that a lot, but how many other people did I ask to play the first dance at my wedding, hmm? Alex has a voice like red wine and an utterly riveting stage presence at the piano. She’ll be backed by a band on this co-bill with Samantha Rise-Roberson, a phenomenal vocalist who I highlighted on CK way back in 2008. This show is a must-see.

Thursday, 8/11
Who: Balkan Dance Party with West Philadelphia Orchestra and the Electric Simcha
Details: 10p, $5, Tritone, 1508 South, Philly
Why? WPO crosses demographics to unite street punks, hipsters, and U-City intelligencia into a frothing crowd of folk-dancing fiends. This is their monthly dance party, with special guest “Hasidic punk band” the Electric Simcha.

Friday, 8/12
Who: Mieka Pauley and Dwight & Nicole
Details: 7:30p, $10, Tin Angel, 20 S. 2nd Street, Philly
Why? You may recall a certain Cosmo-contest-winning alt-folk troubadour Ms. Pauley playing in my dining room for CK’s 10th Anniversary Concert last year. There is video evidence to prove that (a) she was here, and (b) she is 100% awesomesauce. I have a whole live album of hers to mix down and release any month now. Until then, catch her in a rare Center City appearance.

Friday, 8/12
Who: York Street Hustle at World Cafe Live w/DJ Apt One
Details: 9p, $7 advance, World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut St, Philly
Why? Spend less than $10 on a Friday evening dance party with a Motown-fueled 10-piece cover band fronted by one of my Philly vocal crushes, Aaron Brown. Shall we watch them sing my favorite Marvin Gaye song? Yes, let’s:

Better (excerpt) – Arcati Crisis, Live @ Rehearsal

August 9, 2011 by krisis

I keep crowing about how we have a new bass player in Arcati Crisis, but what I have been slightly mum on is that Jake the Bassman is also a formidable singer. He was the other baritone in our erstwhile professional acappella group, and one of my go-to companions for heading out to open mic nights.

Gina and I being the hardcore harmony freebasing addicts that we are, it was only a matter of time until we used Jake to upgrade one of our duets to three-part harmony.

Behold, our first successful attempt on “Better,” with harmony as arranged by Arcati Crisis with the help of my dear wife, E:

When I first started learning to play music I had a free guitar tab notation program, and I would spend endless hours entering my favorite songs into it. In many cases I was notating them in ways that would be unplayable by one, two, or even three guitars.

I didn’t care. I wanted to hear the harmony. I would set the midi patch on “vocal oohs” and pretend that a group of singers were crooning the song back at me. How amazing, I thought, that people could make chords with their voices like I do on my guitar.

(This perhaps explains my obsession with acappella groups.)

That version of Peter barely knew what notes were portrayed on a treble clef, and couldn’t hit one if his life depended on it.

Fifteen years later, three part harmony, exactly like my speakers sang to me back in the 90s.

I love making past versions of me proud to be grown up :)

Crushing On: WordPress Editorial Calendar plugin

August 7, 2011 by krisis

If CK frequently seems like bursts of organized, topical posts followed by droughts of randomness and silence … well, that’s because it is.

Not that it’s meant to be that. As CK has transitioned from a personal blog to a blog about my music, Philly, and other specific topics, I finally settled on the perfect mix of posts for the current incarnation. I even made myself an Editorial Calendar – basically, a forward-looking schedule of what content is in which stage of readiness for the weeks ahead. EdCal’s are traditionally a tool of newspapers and magazines, but in recent years they’ve become an important resource for bloggers.

The WordPress Editorial Calendar Plugin is a drag-and-drop calendar that lives in your "Posts" screen. It's also my communications-nerd dream come true.

Then I hit a barrier: how would I keep the editorial calendar updated?

It was a barrier I couldn’t overcome with blogging as a part-time exercise, fighting for time against my three musical incarnations and dealing with the new house. Paper EdCals were a chore and got lost. A Google Spreadsheet was great for planning, but I just kept planning and never wrote. Penciling drafts into WordPress was meaningless without some structure, and I wound up with endless lingering drafts since I couldn’t see an overview the lineup of an entire week or month.

I thought, maybe WordPress has an EdCal plugin! It seemed like the sort of plugin motivated bloggers would create. Alas, I searched and searched, to no avail.

I keep re-drafting my own EdCals, but they never lasted more than a few weeks as they were interrupted by actual work and my musicianship. Despite a myriad of ideas for CK, I just didn’t have the spare time to wrangle them, write them, schedule them, and post them.

Then, in an actual work meeting about WordPress during actual work hours, Mel & I were glibly showing off our personal blog plugins to the social team at the office. I showed some of my favorites (Yet Another Related Posts Plugin being primary among them), and the she whipped out WordPress Editorial Calendar.

Screenshot of the quick-draft screen in action, from the WordPress Editorial Calendar Plugin page.

WHAT IN THE WHAT NOW!?

(I may have actually screamed that in the middle of the meeting with our Director. Luckily, he is already well aware of my insanity.)

Yes, about 13 months ago someone came up with a fully-functioning EdCal plugin for WP. Set up a schedule of posts, start a draft right on the calendar, and drag and drop them to your heart’s content. When a post is ready, just move it over to “Publish” status via a dropdown – or, edit it the way you’d normally edit.

Ta-Da – instant blog organization.

Needless to say, the next time I logged into CK I immediately installed the plugin. I’ve been working with it all weekend, and for the first time ever I have a month of planned posts. That doesn’t mean I wrote them all today – it just means I finally have a living schedule of what I hope to talk about and when I hope to say it.

I’m positively aglow about it. I hope you dig my first week of EdCal content, starting tomorrow morning!