I have always been a MAKER (to use the currently popular term), so modifying something to make it better/usable is normal to me. An engineering career, designing, fabricating and getting things to work is a more traditional way to say that too. That Eddy Van Halen was very DIY makes doing that even more valid for guitars. I had to modify this Harley Benton to make it stay in tune. Still an incredible value though. Considered 3 times I should change the tuners too, but ordering specific GOTOH tuners is a special order that takes many weeks, and haven't bothered. Would have if they were off the shelf parts. The article "Harley Benton R-458MN WH MultiScale: My Setup and Modifications" on our Blog goes into all the details.
I say "encouraged" by guitar god Mattias IA Eklundh in the video, but inspired maybe a better word. I was very interested in getting his ULV8 until finding out it was ¥900,000 in Japan and not the class of instrument for little old grandfather me. Turned out playing an 8 string wasn't as amazing as I had expected. Finding that out at a reasonable cost made the effort needed on this instrument worthwhile. 7 string guitar is the sweet spot for me. I have synthesizers as well, for really low sounds if arrangements call for it. Have made a few video blogger-ish videos over the last weeks. Learnt I really aren't into talking to camera much. It requires a mind trick to be "an actor" and pretend you are talking with a friend for the video to be watchable. Made a few that are really terrible.
But doing things with video, rather than animation is a nice change:
Other Things
Anbaric is a Melodic Hard Rock/ Metal 3 piece that I know about as Mattias IA Eklund, Guitar God, is there drummer for like the last 4 or more years.
Their lyrics like Digital Depression, Clickbait,Keyboard Warrior are very much in the vein of Freak Kitchen's Freak Of The Week or Saving Up.
Also similar to my own in songs like THE BOTS ARE AT IT AGAIN, BAIT AND SWITCH SUPREME and INTERNET-ing. Catchy, straight forward tunes.
Known about them, but didn't gone and actually listen to all their material till this week. I hope they do well.
Found out a guy I knew way back in the Fairlight days has passed away. He was murdered leaving his Sydney studio. 75 years old. Just a few years my senior. He was one of those guys that we chatted with over lunch and coffee at the Rushcutters Bay Fairlight Instrument offices every so often. Quite regularly at one point. I assumed he was in visiting Kim or Peter over something or other, I think he was an old school friend. He did talk about his video synthesizer studio, but I never saw it or anything he created there... remember, there was no YouTube or internet back then.
He apparently became an artist and SEVERED HEADS was quite well know. I remember him as a rather down kind of guy. Not a happy camper, but friendly enough to me.
An acquaintance, not a friend. Makes me remember you don't know how much time any of us have.
I have a few different interests/hobbies that I rotate through. My whole life I did one of them for awhile, then burnt out on it, and moved on to one of the others and repeated that cycle. Am I done with writing and singing songs for the time being?
I think I might be... I really can't tell. Been spending time with our visiting daughter and that has been enough for me.
Ukraine bombs Russian Data centers in the last few days and much of the far right supporters of social media go quiet. So it was proclaimed all over social media. Some of the biggest MAGA supporters. All Russian bot activity.
And Americans couldn't tell they fell for Russian propaganda???
This wasn't a clue? Zero critical thinking skills...
And then, America turned off Starlink so the Russians could retaliate. And America and Russia coordinated their actions. So why are the treasonous American(s) not being found for this?
Guess...
Closed our website, even though still paying for the hosting for the next year, as they wouldn't give me a refund, despite the hosting mostly being down the last weeks of my service period, unusable, and them being unresponsive to support requests. Not in a position to do anything about that. Australia does have a within 30 day refund consumer law that may apply. The service from HostNetworks and their American owners of the last few years, Edge Centres. has been not good.
But, I think there is no point in having a website at all now in this age of no click though AI summary search. Posting your work to your website is just letting the AI companies steal it to use it in their training systems.
I have changed my mind since posting this last sample image to our now closed website a few months ago with text all over it. Having a website now, or posting to any social media site, even Bluesky, or this blog, is just giving your work to the AI companies. No one looks at your online portfolio anymore.
A Man with a Cat: Story Shaped Beats, has word salad lyric about events of the first 5 months of 2026. This is 45 seconds about part of that, with a clip of the song as the soundtrack.
Finally deleted that Facebook Art-Tech page had for ages. It had so little activity for years. I went to delete it a few years ago, and the activity dramatically picked up, so didn't delete it then. But all from none English speaking "3rd world" countries so all fake bot stuff.
It has been a total waste of time even looking at it for all the years I had it. Surely Facebook will go the way of MySpace, with no humans left on it. Only bots posting, scrolling and trying to scam each other.
YouTube algorithm changes keep on making it worse for me as a viewer and creator. There isn't any competition so it isn't going to get better any time soon. All seems like a scam.
YouTube/Google (same company, remember) is all focused on advertising. And there is a creepy grifter ecosystem based around that:
From that perspective, makes sense a grandfather creator like myself isn't worth anything to them.
I am just not part of the grifter economy
I get shown so many Westerner Takes On Japan videos on YouTube recently. So I tried something that looks like that, but I'm not going to lecture anyone on Japanese Culture or language. Not what I am interested in. This was just a one off video. I should have walked much slower and not be puffing as much. As it is now it is in SHAKE-O-VISION.
My Collection Of Memories is as far as I want to go into the things I've done. I like the comic format of images and text, rather than a talking head video.
DIGGER started this week in Japan. First session, very unusually, not till late afternoon. There were about 15 people in the session. A man with a cat applies to the protagonist in this too.
Digger has 4 big moments or twists, that throw you, but it all comes together as the credits roll. Awesome movie. Extremely cleverly put together. Saying much about it is a spoiler, so I will not. See it yourself.
Yes it has an environmental plot. But what seems most bizarre to us not in the USA is that the new HollywoodEstablishment after Paramount (owned by a pro TRUMP wealthy) took over Warner Brothers in the last week, is very much in the CLIMATE CHANGE IS A HOAK camp and it looks like they have tried to bury this fantastic movie with bad reviews and reports.
"As a sticker designer, can you change the world with a particularly pithy bumper sticker?" is a rhetorical question I have thought to myself over many years. The answer is NO.
I thought the same thing about the ability of political cartoons to cause change for the better too, no matter how fantastic and on point they are. I did some myself.
They maybe an artistic expression of frustration, but contribute NOTHING to the change required.
I have two wonderful books of the Ron Cobb's politca1 cartoons, and feel the same about those too.
They aren't an effective way to bring about change.
Not sure DIGGER is saying the same thing directly though, as read some claim it is. It does help with the frustration though, and that is made clear in the movie itself.
A few quiet words about INTERNET-ing and our song with that name in 45 seconds.
I am no YOUTUBER, but a few things like this talking to camera around the MUSIC VIDEO SHORTS I made couldn't be too bad, right? The sound of the DJI MIC MINI is way better than just using the camera.
Since recording this video I canceled our website hosting and DNS I had for 20 years and am now just using this BLOG and X, mostly. On Facebook and others too. I was going to close our website sometime, but had our hand forced in the last week.
The whole MUSIC VIDEO SHORT referred too:
The changed YouTube algorithm treats these differently now, thinking I should try long form content again. The same videos on X and Facebook get 3+ times the views that YouTube gets.
I expect YouTube does exactly the same thing UBER does to its drivers. Some get special treatment and rates, get huge channel growth, then talk about how great being a YouTuber is. But most get less promotion and payout if they are monetized, and this all changes over time. There is no transparency. When I started my channel in 2010, I was soon monetized and it was cool, but with changing requirements I moved down their ranks of promotion and payout worthy, to being almost invisible now.
The Interneting-ing on Bandcamp. Mostly there for my own entertainment. Not a place ordinary music listeners visit at all, who always just stick to their Spotify. You have to really be an Independent music purists to care. To me, Spotify is a pay to maybe be played site and I am not playing that game.
I took some timelapse video at the Mall and made a very different HD video of the song too:
Other Things
Another great Billy Corgan guest with Scott Ian of Anthrax.
Have one Anthrax CD. Never played any of their stuff enough to know it well. More familiar with his SOD ( STORMTROUPERS OF DEATH). Knew he was just a rhythm guitarist, but cool that he doesn't drink and has an interest in a variety of no-metal music. An interesting guy, and he married MEATLOAF's daughter!
Daughter showed me a large series of illustrated books on many subjects in the bookstore. This THE ANATOMY OF SUMO WRESTLING PICTURE BOOK looks interesting.
I enjoy Sumo, but no expert on all the goings on. Or what the refs fan like thing is called. I could get to learn the Japanese terms I don't know, or have missed in the commentary if I get this. A big job to read it for me though. I watch sumo with the Japanese commentary and follow most of what is said, but I couldn't put a number on it. Depending on what they are talking about, it varies between 100% to maybe 75%. Partly my hearing and partly sumo specific vocabulary.
But I find watching British Bake Off Season 12, I can't catch what some of the contestants say either, And they are all speaking, nominally, English! Many movies and shows are the same, and find English subtitles very useful.
Notebooks: To change things around, I thought I should carry a small A6 sized note book when out from now on. I have put Google Keep on my phone as well. Just jot down ideas and draw what ever comes into my head, so I don't forget anything. Something different from my home A5 spiral bound Diary.
I bought to try a few cheap A6 sized notebooks, but found most of them lacking in paper quality and durability. And the pages don't lay flat. MUJI has a series with an optional canvas cover, but not very nice, the cover means the writing surface has a step in it. The MUJI 0.5 ballpen makes a thicker wet line compared to my preferred UNI 0.5 JETSTREAM pen.
On Amazon, the Chinese MOLESKIN copy at almost 1/3 the price of the real thing seems okay so far. Has a tree embossed in the leather hard cover and a pen holder. Yet to see how durable it is when carried around in my shoulder bag.
But I also thought I should get a real MOLESKIN just to check. They do seem very nice. Expensive though!
I do like my A5 spiral bound notebooks I use for my diary. The pages lay flat, they have a heavy cover, paper is good and available in lined, doted and plain. Only problem is the wire spiral gets mangled and doesn't open properly if you take it out and about in a shoulder bag.
I didn't know that these A6 notebooks, the makes and way people use them for journaling, were such a big thing on YouTube till this week. Part of it seems a reaction to smartphones and a way to get away from the world of doom scrolling. I can understand that.
Yet to see if carrying a notebook and not having a traditional website anymore works for me. But A NEW ERA anyway.
Life without our own website is kind of like retirement. Something I haven't done before. In many ways it is a relief to not have to deal with it and the SPAM and bots any more.
With the changes to Internet use in the last 3 years in general, I don't think not having one will make any difference to me now. So few people looked at the webcomics or rock opera I had there, and other things I was most interested in now, that I may as well not have had a website.
I was so busy in 2020/2021 with people wanting illustrations and graphics. The opposite now, and I expect into the future. I also don't want to spend my time in retirement doing illustrations for others anymore.
Not being able to renew our 20 year old domain name as I was now retired with an expired registered business number was what forced the end. Having moved our website to 2 previous domain names since 1995, I was very aware it took years to be findable in search engines, and with AI and no-click-through search now, it never would again if starting from scratch. There was no point in continuing with a new domain name.
A VIDEO BLOG on YouTube is probably more popular as a creative outlet for many recently, but I'm not really that personality type to enjoy doing that very often.
We will see.
The statistics on this blog indicate it is mostly bots stealing the content of it by a very large margin. And me.
Australian Nepotism & Jobs for The Boys
I have no way of telling if Nepotism is far worse in Australia compared to other countries or not, or just that is the way much of the world works. Only looking back at my life now do I realize how much I saw of it around me, despite me being told often, it isn't what you know, but who you know. The 2017 book GAME OF MATES goes as far to say that Australia is much more like Columbia than America, Britain or Europe with its insiders in business and government.
So it was a surprise to see the RAYGUN BREAK DANCE disaster wasn't that kind of insider opportunism.
Does show another issue where THE BEST may not get to be involved in something in Australia due to arbitrary rules and timing.
To even attend the selection events for the Australian Breakdance team, you had to already have a Passport. An expensive thing now, something like A$450. And the announcement of the selection events and them being held was very short.
A good way to eliminate young, excellent break dancers, but not well off.
But it is like a recent Rick Beato video where most artists that made it have rich families supporting them. Taylor Swift and The Slash being in a long list proving the theory.
They all still have the now dead website .com.au url and watermark on them and it is just way too much trouble to change that. But one comic in particular I will put here too:
Where The Smoke Comes Out
46 pages. Name is from the inscription musician Peter Gabriel put on an Album he gave me. Inspired by the Historical/Autobiographical work SHOWA, by Shigeru Mizuki, Has historical and personal memories of looking what influenced me to end up where I did. From Sydney Australia, to Japan, to Australia and back to Japan, with 20+ years in the electronic Musical Instrument development Industry, then not. Not an Autobiography at all, just a few memories. Combines Narrative Captions, comics and Black & White photos mostly.
Here are the links to download all our free .cbr formatted comic books. I use the YACReader.
These were on our website. They all still have the now dead website url and watermark on them and it is just way too much trouble to change that.
Where The Smoke Comes Out
46 pages. Name is from the inscription musician Peter Gabriel put on an Album he gave me. Inspired by the Historical/Autobiographical work SHOWA, by Shigeru Mizuki, Has historical and personal memories of looking what influenced me to end up where I did. From Sydney Australia, to Japan, to Australia and back to Japan, with 20+ years in the electronic Musical Instrument development Industry, then not. Not an Autobiography, just a few memories. Combines Narrative Captions, comics and Black & White photos
31 pages. Bright, colorful very simple vector graphic SF stories in the next dimension. Done in a style I have not used before so that the art is quick to do. Most of the Vector Illustration I get commissioned to do is very different and more time consuming than this to do. Kind of a fun break.
A 20 pages car based comic. Maybe inspired by old Topgear or The Grand Tour, just a little. Pen on Paper drawn cars and vector old guys. In glorious gray scale, black and white. Mostly.
14 page book. 8 pages on how I wrote and recorded 6 songs in 2021 in our studio, 2 pages on Headphone thoughts and 4 pages on the history of Listening To Music In Stereo. Black &White comic.
56 pages of the comic strips and comics I did over the 2 years mostly around living in the time of covid in the outer suburbs of Kyoto Japan. Mostly off the cuff thoughts. Black &White comic. We moved back to Japan just before the Pandemic hit.
17 pages. The first actual comic book I tried to write and draw in 2017, after many years of just doing single panel and strip joke cartoons.
After reading all 40 years of the French SF graphic novel "Valerian and Lareline" by writer Pierre Christin and artist Jean-Claude M zi res and the 6 volumes of the amazing "Orbital" by writer Sylvain Runberg and artist Serge Pell, I wanted to try something along those lines. They mix world building, amazing SF tech and their world view, into something truly amazing
It is inspired by Japanese Manga and the French Album approaches, rather than Marvel or DC Comics. "A Contract with God" has also been a layout influence. I'm sure "Orbital" would have taken a month per page with his elaborate oil pastel artwork, so I cannot say I'm trying to be the equal of those works at all.
It was hard to do this quite traditionally. Took months working just with spare time on weekends. Just finishing it become the goal. I do like some of the ideas in it, even if things are more just stated rather than evolve as they should in a story.
