Dragons Of Our Minds | ex-Apple Designer Does a Car

 

A recent X discussion was metal songs have lyrics with dragons 😀

Carl Sagan's 1977 book discusses "The dragons in the dungeons of our mind", related to the "lizard" brain will still have. That isn't quite how they discuss the brain these days, but it works for some song lyrics with dragons that isn't cliche.

The evolutionary oldest parts of our brain is responsible for the lowest level fight/ flight/ pattern finding aspects of ourselves. The pattern finding appears to be the thing responsible for Superstition. And in recent years "Conspiracy Theories".

Lyrics:
The Power Of Intellect Power riding the sky
Power taking you high
The mind taking control
Superstitions will fall Power riding the sky
Power taking you high
Feel the current rise
Beneath digital skies The dragons in the dungeons of our mind
Bowing down to magical thinking Though dragons still linger inside,
Across the cosmic ocean, we stride.

I want my lyrics to mean something. Freak Kitchen and Rage Against The Machine have meaningful lyrics, but most bands don't. The only old Deep Purple song that meant anything was Mary Long, but their hits don't really say anything. The recent albums in 2025 and 2026 have changed that though.

But is my song here "metal"??? Sections with more RAMMSTEIN-ish riffing would help..

It isn't any common metal genre I know of. The guitar tones are metal though...

I keep coming back to Carl Sagan's writing. The pale blue dot. The dragons in the dungeons of our mind. Maybe as his TV series COSMOS had such a big impact on me when it aired in 1980?

The music here started as trying out YouTuber Glen Fricker's EQ before and after NEURAL DSP MODELER  on a quick 8 string guitar thing.

I did like the result I was getting. I then came back and added a little 6 string to the synth and drums. I made a MUSIC+COMIC and that, that included the above screen shot of reaper.

So expanding that with lyrics was my next thought. Something Cyber PUNK was my first thought, but the discussion on X a few weeks ago that much of metal had Dragons in the lyrics or something else cliche had kept coming back to that thought. DIO had a lot of that, and "kill the king" too. I had also drawn an original dragon and posted it to that thread.

So I did a quick test with 2 verses and liked that. Used my old dynamic Aston DM-50 microphone (a cheap Shure SM-58 look alike that isn't available any more) I had bought in a kit with a mic stand when I started using Reaper some 15 years ago. It was promising.

I had bought an "amazing for the price" Condenser Audio Technica AT-2020 many years ago as it was recommended in Sound On Sound Magazine and in Sydney Australia I had a large space and some acoustic treatment to use it in.  Used for a fair few things, but found it kind of resonant with my voice in that space, even if "bright and airy".  It picked up all the noises in the room though.

Now in Japan, in a tiny acoustically untreated space, I thought I should get a better dynamic microphone and see how that goes. Noise inside and outside the house is also a problem. The SM7B is the go to for everyone now days, but I didn't want to spend ¥64,900 as an old retired hobbyist.  I did consider carefully a SM-57 ¥15,253, rather than a SM-58 though.

Had looked at the prices of candidates on Amazon and Soundhouse and was considering them all. Then after a trip to a Mall Cafe, I visited the Shimamura Music there and they had the Sennheiser e945 for as good a price as anywhere, in stock, I could take home with me.  Another live vocals microphone, a bit brighter than a SM-58, that I had preferred in the few mic comparison videos I had seen on YouTube. More expensive than a SM-57 or SM-58. A more condenser sounding dynamic, but with the restrictive pickup pattern I needed.

So bought that. 

Seems good to me, so that is what the above MUSIC+COMIC uses. 

I probably need to investigate vocal setups more, but me actually singing is the biggest struggle. I "can sing", but part of being a real singer is the breathing, and that is something I haven't got a hold on.  I record a verse at a time, and have to edit out all the huge taking a breath sounds I make.  Another rabbit hole to go down.

Double tracking the vocals gives a tighter sound than triple tracking them. One track just seems too thin, without lots of processing. I have only a light vocal plate reverb on these.

But what really struck me about how I sing the verse "Power riding the sky Power taking you high " is it having a Ian Anderson of  Jethro Tull sound to it!

Could anyone tell the difference between the vocals in my MORAL CONSTIPATION and this with a different microphone?  I think I can. It is a bit brighter, may even cut through the mix a bit better. No one else would notice though.

So will I get more serious about the singing side? Yes, maybe...  still not bothering with a registered record label, associated costs or Spotify though.

In my GENRE, I am number1! I am also the only one my genre!

Other Things

Wife is off with an old, well travelled, school friend to Poland for a bit over a week. Hope that all goes fine.  She has had a Polish pen friend for 50 years and will finally meet her.  International flights aren't something I want to take anymore!

After the 50th Anniversary of Fairlight Instruments, some of the people behind the ill fated 30th Anniversary CMI 30A have introduced the FI-50 CMI during the week

What is in the process of being released now is a CMI I-II-IIx "Raspberry PI" on a CMI compatible card that replaces the CPU, Floppy, Graphics & MISC boards of original systems and can drive original channel cards with updated and modernized version of the last CMI IIx software release.  The system software and sound library all fits on an SD CARD.

An original Fairlight programmer wrote a script in his spare time, over the last almost 2 years to convert the original 6809 ASSEMBLER SOURCE to C++, handling all the memory mapping, and floppy drive schemes the original system did, and get it to run on a Raspberry Pi. He said he didn't implement a 6809 emulator at all, and left much to the modern C++ compiler to optimize. He then added a few new pages and features appropriate to the UI all existing computers use, but the CMI didn't.

This all runs much faster than the original system did.

Now that would be nice for maybe the 300 CMI IIx owners that still care about their ancient system, but doesn't seem like much of a win to me.

BUT, they also demoed a CMI II in a 3U 19" box during the 50th Anniversary Party they had in Sydney, that also has CMI-I channel card simulation (probably a single card) , including optional switched capacitor lowpass filters.  

Technically interesting, but I was never a CMI owner or user.  I developed some of the boards of earlier systems and the core electronics of the CMI Series III, but I feel rather distant from the cheering of this new version.  I don't need it. Doesn't have anything to do with me. 

REAPER does all I can use.

The EX-APPLE Designers EV car is here. It does not look as much like an Apple mouse as we had expected in 2022.  Expect the charging port is underneath  though 😂... (That would explain the tanking stock price!)

The cartoon I did on the day it was released, referencing a page from my 2022 HEAVY METAL GARAGE comic:

Hyogo Prefecture Museum of Art has the Ghost In The Shell Movie artwork exhibition from 2026/07/27 ~ 2026/08/30. Will be going to that, and the is a ROYAL HOST after, on the way back to the station😎.   

When I saw it on in Tokyo, I didn't think it was worth going to Tokyo for an overnight trip for it. Glad I didn't now.

The Masamune Shirow exhibit I did an overnight trip for last year ended up being in Osaka for a while and I should have just waited and gone to that. The exhibit was great, but the trip just knocked me out and I didn't have any energy to do anything for the time I spent in Shinjuku. 

A problem getting old.

Boomerang III Phrase Sampler PCB silkscreen: 

"May the music passing through this device somehow help to bring just a little more peace to this troubled world" 😍

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology  KYOTO JAPAN

Distortion & Other Guitar Pedals

A YouTube SHORT scheduled for 8:30AM Japan time Saturday 23rd May, on rating the guitar pedals we still have. I sold my Chorus, Delay and Compressor when I started using a PC based recording production system. Those are applied in the DAW now using Vallhala DSP and other plug-ins.  

Mostly using the POD EXPRESS BLACK at the moment. I don’t use any delay or the other effects in any of my patches for it. Just Amplifiers with and without Cabinets.  If no cabinet I use an IR in the DAW for more variety. 

I updated my last blog about the Sound Messe Osaka 2026 during the week, so don’t need to add more about that. But there were many pedals, and I didn’t try any of them. A guy I met at the evening event is a PEDALBOARD COLLECTOR & GUITARIST, it says on the name card he gave me in exchange for my stickers. A huge collection by the look of it some 2m x 3m when laid out on the floor! The only pedals I have been interested in for many years have been distortion, and am happy enough with the options I have now, and don’t need more.

Last year I did this water color storybook version of my Sound Messe Osaka 2025 experience:

It has had 11 views. I do like the look and character design and have considered doing a Sound Messe Osaka 2026 version of my day. The lack of views isn't a discouragement. 

Rick Beato first interviewed Billy Corgan a few years ago and that was when I heard SMASHING PUMPKIN's tracks like Jelly Belly for the first time. I then bought some 3 of their albums. I only got the Orange BIG MUFF some time after that and used it for a few things, then decided I prefer distortion over that kind of fuzz.

The music in this comic, rock I guess, in this short is only 55 seconds long. It has a break in the center, to change the feeling when the synth melody comes in and so not feel as repetitive.

All the stats I have on views is that that this is still far too long, and most bale at 2~ 5 seconds and 18 seconds is the limit for the current POPCORN BRAINED mass population. 

But who cares about what morons want?

Thing is, 55 seconds is still a really short piece of music that isn’t just an intro theme and not that satisfying to only be used in a short.  But even for this short thing, this is like 8 versions after the quick comic I made with it and posted to X a few days ago.  The more I listen , the more I find wrong with it and need to fix it.  Loose all perspective on it.

I could come back and make it longer with additional sections and lyrics. We will see how I feel.

Had wanted this to be heavier and more METAL, but that didn’t happen. Maybe next time. Thing is that isn’t the type of thing that is particularly popular to throw on a SHORT, so am conflicted to not reduce a possible audience even more.  

Other Things

It took me the week to recover from last Saturday’s Sound Messe Osaka 2026. Not sure I am over it even today. Glad I didn’t catch any nasty lurgies, so that was good, even as the percentage of mask wearers is way down now in such a crowded space.  

There are still lots of daily X posts of the demos, products and the happenings taken there. Exhausting following them all.  Just gets too much for me.

FB reminded me of an old comic strip I tried:

1)THE UNIVERSE IS A VAST PLACE…

2)LIFE IS EVERYWHERE. EVEN IF MUCH IS JUST AN ORGANIC OOZE CREEPING ALONG THE ROCKS.

3)JUST THING, WE EVOLVED FROM SOMETHING LIKE THIS…

4)AND IN A GALACTIC EYE BLINK, THESE GUYS WILL DEVELOP SOCIAL MEDIA AND BE MOANING AT EACH OTHER…

1)宇宙は広大だ…

2)生命は至る所に存在する。たとえその多くが、岩の上を這い回る有機物のドロドロした塊に過ぎないとしても。

3)考えてみれば、私たちもこんなものから進化したんだ…

4)そして、銀河の瞬きほどの短い時間のうちに、こいつらはソーシャルメディアを発明して、互いに愚痴り合うようになるだろう…

Having a successful strip in a newspaper would have been a dream come true for most cartoonists, then actually having to do it everyday would become an incredible burden for many years. But then there were many strips that started great, then become something that wasn't worth reading too.   

John Carpenter and Band have a HORROR Metal Album and matching Graphic Novel Coming out in August. Love the sound of the current track:   

I have bought 3 of their previous albums and need to add this.

Was planning to go to the opening session Friday morning of THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU. I hadn’t seen any of the streaming TV, so watched a  "YouTube catch up on Mando before seeing the movie" and the endless repeating "set out/ get double crossed/ get captured/ battle / escape/ rescued" with cute baby Yoda got really dull for me. Star Wars setting, Western Tropes and a powerful cute 50 year old baby. 

I didn't care to see it after that, or at least bother to get to a cinema for it. It gets reviewed as 2 TV episodes run together, the last one being dull.  

I didn’t bother to see the last 2 AVATAR movies either. Just don’t care about some things...

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology  KYOTO JAPAN

Enfants Terribles | Sound Messe Osaka 2026

 

MORAL CONSTIPATION the Short.  

The making of the music was discussed in the last Blog. It is all about the vocal meaning...

The comment on it from an old Jazz Muso colleague, TOM: 

"You're certainly moving in to a new era, with your music & lyrics fit. Well done!"

Which is as good as an old musical cartoonist can expect! 😎

Music is just a Hobby, and I am still so new to song writing, even if I sang in school.

Sound Messe Osaka 2026 

Out to ATC HALL today for the Messe, which is actually a Guitar Show. Acoustic/ Electric and Accessories  like pedals/ amps with a lot of artist performances on several stages and in some of the booths.  

I am not particularly interested in those performances and have no idea who most of the artists are. Seemed to me last year that many of the attendees where just there for the performances.  Or is that just where the most seats are to take a rest?

Cosplaying today as an oldman. 😁

I have ZERO interest in Acoustic Guitars and will not even walk through that part of the exhibit.  

It opens at 11AM, but I have to leave home at 9:30AM to get there by then as it is by the water at Osaka bay.  Reason to get there when it opens is to try and get one of the 35 tickets for the 3 guitarists gig in Shisaibashi's MUSIC BAR M from 7:30PM that evening. That was the deal in 2024 to get in. Maybe can just buy at the venue tonight? Not sure now...

That will make it a very long day for me. I expect to crash at my son's apartment for awhile between the Messe and Bar Show, if I get a ticket.  It is also expected to be 29°C, so a long hot day. Not sure I will last. 

People involved with metal guitarist TOKYO METAL CITY were promoting a bunch of his shirt and hat merchandise . I wasn't interested in getting any of that, but could have made a hat for myself at the same POD place. Like this:  

May do that for the next event, but I do have cards and stickers to give away. Having a hat would make identifying me a bit easier. Maybe that doesn't matter at all.

Just strange that way I guess... 😆

UPDATE: 2026/5/18 

Attended the event. Much good, but also some that isn't.

2 minutes of  what I went for:

The ELECTRIC GUITAR HALL is mostly the ceiling as Japan privacy means I don't want to show people in it. The noise is ridicules as people playing through amplifiers in the booths can't hear themselves, so it gets louder and louder.  Many "old style" guitarists need the volume to play and feel it.  Guitar/pedal booths need Amp sims and headphones, the same way it is in the PEDAL exhibit area, and the way the German Guitar Show did it this year. They put guitar amps in another location all together.

Fender/ Gibson don't bother with the show. They made their own stores, the way BOSE did to sell  their poor audio gear, so customers could not A/B compare to a better product next to it.

There are so many talented guitarists about! Guitar is also such a big thing in Japan.  

Seems to me, that Sound Messe is all about low quantity, quality handmade products.  Few well known names.  Almost COMIKET (self published comics) or WONDER FESTIVAL (models & garage kits) in scope. 

The highlight for me though was the event put on at MUSIC BAR M.  Brilliantly MC'ed by TOKYO METAL CITY with BABI (Mr. Ishida of Zanshin Instruments, Zanshin Records).

Kelly Simonz is awesome. He seems to be very influenced by Yngwie Malmsteen, and I don't know why I had never heard of him till attending last years Sound Messe Osaka. 

Luke came down with flu and blues playing Akihiro took his place at the last minute. 

TOKYO METAL CITY, as well as being the brilliant MC and interviewer finished the evening. His SANDBLASTER is in the video above.  But unfortunately, I had to leave to get home after only 2 of his tracks.  Seems the event finished over an hour after I left.  These kind of events aren't targeted at those near 70 and over with a long train ride home😂.  

I wish TOKYO METAL CITY all the best making his way on the path he has chosen.

I managed to give away a few of my stickers, and even got one in return from ZAKKsan, THE NEXT SOUND.

And after thinking about it for a day or so, these, THE HOT WATER TRADE:

And one in Japanese, お湯売:

Some exhibitors know what they are doing, actually trying to get customers to like them and have them try/ buy their  product.  BUT not all are like that and some musical instrument companies and staff are just Chimpira (チンピラ)🤬 . 

And, just to show how true that thought is, FENDER comes out attacking the Guitar Industry.

TIM PIERCE ( was an LA SESSION player) drawing the same conclusion as everyone else. FENDER is killing themselves in this legal attack, and showing their real problem is they don't make good guitars anymore...

In the late 1980s YAMAHA tried to stop even the originators of samplers from manufacturing and selling their systems. Showed me how really broken the patent system is.  YAMAHA would see a demo on an instrument, make a patent on the tech they saw with a trivial improvement,  then tried to use that to attack other manufactures.  

THE DX-7 & CS-80 were amazing instruments back in the day, but YAMAHA aren't really relevant to anyone but fan boys and girls these days. 

FREAK GUITAR LAB JAPAN

One of the main reasons for me to go to Sound Messe Osaka 2026 was to see how Mattias's Made in Japan guitars were going.  I had been interested in buying his Made in Sweden 7 string till I was told it was 900,000yen! That due to poor yen exchange rate and taxes.

Units closer to production were on display at Sound Messe Osaka May 2026.  I expect their release later this year.  I was told price to be around 380,000yen.  The first models will not have True Temperament Frets as that would make them even more expensive. Expect a TTF model later.

In 2025 when I was looking at the first prototype (made by dragonfly) and thinking to myself "that body shape isn't cool", Mattias came up behind me and said, "we are working on making a better Super Strat Shape!" .  He read my mind.  

So they are a much nicer looking guitar now.  But that price is high and it doesn't have true temperament frets, even if the true temperament fret improvement is far too subtle for the way I play guitar to notice. 

What isn't mentioned much is true temperament are for STANDARD E tuning, but support down tuning all the strings.  Not going to help in Open G or C or whatever strange tunning you may want to try though. 

Seems to me they are marketing that to someone who would pay that because it is a low volume, limited edition, Mattias ( an awesome musician and great guy!) product, rather than buy a similarly spec'd Ibanez for 1/3 ~ 1/2  the price.  Japan does have lots of collectors. 

Note that Tokyo Metal City played a FREAK GUITAR LAB Made In Japan guitar during his set in the video above...

My Best Pick

¥323,400 for the bottom fixed bridge, headless, multiscale, 7 string Strandberg, is "my pick" for current best guitar, even if setting Intonation, 12 fret tuning, is really tedious. BUT, as a retired hobbyist synths & guitarist for 50 years, I still feel like a beginner that can't justify cost/ benefit of it🥴

Was a professional inventor/ designer/ programmer/ manager in the electronic musical instrument industry for 25 years (before changing to safety/ training/ medical things), but only ever an amateur musician. No one cares what I release.  Been a "pro" (as in getting paid) cartoonist for 25 years though, hence I feel more comfortable describing myself now as a Musical Cartoonist 😎.  The careful/ cheap Scotsman  in me I think 🤔 

Enfants Terribles

Was out to Nakanoshima Museum Of Art for the Enfants Terribles exhibition of 3 local artists on Tuesday.  

It is Yanobe Kenji with his Space Cats, ATOM HEAD suit and such that was the attraction to me though.  Even got a 500yen SPACE CAT from a BANDAI Gashapon Machine outside the museum shop, rather than the  30cm tall Orange SPACE CAT artists figure of the 3m tall one that guards the outside of the Museum going for 49000yen! 

Was a nice warm fine day. This is the best time of year

Love the whimsical pop art ness of Kenji's work. 

It isn't that far out to Nakanoshima, and I only walked around for about 90 minutes total, but came home and slept for an hour or so, I was that tired.  This getting old and needing Grandpa naps is very true, and a concern for me. Managing my energy  seems to be getting more important as the weeks go by.

I can see how going out far just gets way too much trouble as you age. 

映像研には手を出すな！Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

The bluray arrived and this was the first time for me to see that a US region disc would not play in a Japanese player, despite being "the same region".   So used a different player...

The interactions between the 3 main characters, each with a skill & a social disability,  PRODUCER, DIRECTOR/ CONCEPT ARTIST and ANIMATOR are utterly glorious.  

The issues are EXACTLY the same designing and building anything, and I have been all these rolls in my engineering career.  All real world issues discussed, but about Animation Production here.  

I can see why Elvis Costello, 3 years my senior, a musician, also loved it too. 

What a glorious thing Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! is. 

What Retired People Found

YouTube has shown me so many of these recently. I don't watch many, but found many of the same things myself.  

- Not having to go to an office and deal with problems and the people, and the commute is such a huge relief.  No performance reviews or dealing with arseholes. The stress from your life vanishes. 

- Looking inward, not money or promotion or those types of external goals, makes you realize what is really important to you.  

- Sometimes not achieving anything at all in a day is great too.

- So much of the advice thrown out in the world has been by loud extraverts, that does not apply at all to the rest of us.  

There is this thing where you can judge someone's character from how they treat the waiters and waitresses and such people. Even possible customers.  If they aren't treated with respect, you know you can't trust them.  Avoiding those people is a good thing to do.  

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology  KYOTO JAPAN

Venus Photobombed: Home Studio Vocals

 

How quick the American Artemis II fly around the moon with a brilliant diverse crew of 4 is old news, and this is a very different take on it!

A variation of a previous track with the drums and rhythm guitar taken out and made more ambient I did about 4 weeks ago that I hadn't posted.

Started a new track, and used an earlier version in the music+comic on my JBASS with Wilde pickups

I then went back and am extending the track with lyrics. Up to version 5 now and still not happy with the lyrics and how it fits together.  

My Process:

I write some lyric. 

Sing it. 

Come back and sing it with more feeling. 

Listen to it on repeat for awhile, then decide I don't like some things in it. 

I change a part. 

Keep a line or 2 of the lyrics  and write some other lyric. 

Repeat until I am really sick of the track.  

All rather trial and error for me in this case, as I don't want it to be too much of a downer.  Making something more uplifting, but with criticism is hard.  The first few versions had "THE Moral Constipation", but removing THE makes it simpler and easier to follow what is being said. 

Been asking GEMINI AI for variations of lyric phrases I have written. I have used a word or 2 it suggests, but it generally goes in a different direction than I am after.  Is nice to have an assistant and someone to bounce stuff off, even if it makes me ignore its suggestions as it makes me come up with something more appropriate my self. 

I am just using the first microphone I ever bought now. An SM58 clone in a kit with a mic stand. A dynamic with a built in pop filter  that doesn't pick up any room tone in my tiny, 2 tatami mat, un-acoustically treated studio/ office. It doesn't pick up any sound that isn't directly in front of it. It is plugged into a Mackie 402VLZ4 mixer.

I triple tracked the vocals with COMPRESSOR -> EQ -> DE-ESSER chain plugins.  

EQ can make a significant difference in the sound.

Having the right mix of the backing tracks, at the right volumes is so important for being able to sing and get the pitch right and expression when recording. The vocal recording mix is NOTHING like the track mix!

I do have a "better" Audio Technica AT-2020 condenser microphone in a shock mount with pop filter and back absorption,  but I don't use it any more.  I found it ringy and resonant between 1~2 Khz with my voice, and it just picks up the room tone and noises, even if "brighter, open and airy" . 

So a "better" microphone doesn't always mean "better" under all situations.

The current, version 7.

Could the mix be better? No doubt.

The singing could have more emotion and have harmonies too, but for all of the 5 people that will hear it once, none of that matters. I just have to be happy enough with it myself.

Moral Constipation: AI, Environmental Issues. Politics. Racism. Fascism. Vaccines. Energy. The odd war or two. A long list of things filled with disinformation...

But, society and diplomacy needs "white" lies to function. The universal answer to the question:

 "Does my butt look big in this?" is "No! Darling you look wonderful".

It is now the state of the world that the majority of charities are now FOR PROFIT, where  maybe 10%  of donations end up with those needing it.  Most just ends up in the organizations executives pockets.

I had a manager that retired and his wife did too. She was skilled at administration/ accounting and thought she should help the world at a charity, so she contacted the most well known organizations. They all told her "we only need people out door knocking and getting donations", and then she discovered what was really going on...

Learnt of Chuffed dot org this morning, with a comment on a music post of mine about donate to save the children. Chuffed itself isn't even classified as a charity, but is involved in raising money. So same as Spotify?  I wonder how close their business model is to Spotify with their approach to paying musicians?  These places talk about $XX Millions paid out, but on what income, and on what %of income is that?  If there isn't any transparency, it may as well be a scam, and go find a place that is transparent and not mostly doing it for themselves.  

Other Things

Golden Week is over for many so I can start going out again. The crowding will be back to normal. The views of the short posted 8:30AM Saturday were really poor though, only a single digit.

Resident Alien came to Netflix May 1 and I am onto season 2 already. Alan makes the show.

Volume 19 of Five Star Stories will be released tomorrow, May 10. It has been going for 40 years. I am sure he must be sick of it by now. I know I would be.

Sound Messe Osaka is next weekend and I need to prebuy my ticket as it is all SMARTPHONE digital ticket entry this time. That is how the FREAK KITCHEN and ASTERSIM concerts were last year so I have been through the process.

Mattias IA Eklundh will not be here this year though, so I don't have a clinic to spend the day in. Not sure how long I can spend looking at guitar gear I don't need. The best thing about last year was the people I met, and that is the reason to go this year and hope I bump into them, and meet new folks (that maybe OI follow up on social media with).

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology  KYOTO JAPAN

COVERS MY WAY | GOLDEN WEEK Holidays

 

Golden Week is one of the long Japanese Holidays, that means I stay home to avoid the crowds. Make music + comics and consider doing something in one of our other hobbies.

Did this COVERS MY WAY  MUSIC+COMIC, reusing a music cover I used previously, this morning.  I don't do many covers, and consider the time better spent making something original, that I own and can do whatever I want with. 

But when I do "do" a cover, I don't try and copy the original very closely. A sound alike in my style is what I am after.  Metal guitar tones, power chords and monophonic lines is what I will do.

Not all think the way I do though.

I was reading something about customers playing popular riffs in a music shop and shop staff demanding it be played exactly like the original or not at all.  I guess with a lack of imagination like that, working in a music store is all they maybe able to manage  and may not move on to doing something striking themselves. 

I don't consider myself much of a musician though, and all I do is rather simple. Musical Cartoonist is apt. I do want to do original stuff though, and consider this STORY SHAPED BEATS to be one I like most recently.  

It has an unusual word salad approach to lyrics as well as the song structure itself and the arrangement of synths and heavy guitars.  I like it! 

I was watching a video The Problem with Music | The Aspiration Expectation.  

That video is a love letter to doing what you like to do and not worrying about what anyone else thinks, or even being good at it!  

I agree with everything he goes on about.  What is it about making music that many think, unlike for example building a spaceship model, you need to try and be making a living from it and your doing something wrong if you haven't joined all the composers organizations, created a record label, pay all the fees to register all the music you make and release it professionally?

Making this ALIENS: SULACO spaceship model here is also one of my other hobbies.   

It has been made with the proper tools, and painted with an Airbrush, and so looks pretty good. Still just a hobby though, even if done to an almost "professional level".

I even did this more pro original design for my own multi media productions. 

So, my own original music is probably some of the least professional stuff I do!

 

Expect the Bluray of Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! to arrive at the end of the week.  It is an award winning "kids" anime, and was interested to see Elis Costello write this in THE GUARDIAN about it after watching it with his son:

A Japanese series about three girls negotiating petty school bureaucracy to protect their anime club. Each girl balances a skill with a social burden: 

the first, painfully shy but brilliantly imaginative; 

the second, easy in her fame as teenage lifestyle-model; 

the third, a cynical and almost sinister presence, is the business brain and necessary politician. 

Each episode uses different layers of animation as the girls’ creations leap from the page into their life. The series in total is a tutorial about every component of film production, from storyboard to sound design. It also has a very cool theme song.

Elis Costello went on to collaborate with the duo in the Theme Song:

As used in Anime:

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology  KYOTO JAPAN

Musical Instrument Innovation

Music+Comic on Musical Instrument Innovations that haven’t really gone anywhere. This is just 3, but there are many others. Roger Linn’s LinnInstrument touch sensitive grid keyboard and  Lumatones isomorphic keyboard too. I am sure they have some ardent fans really into them, but a very niche product.

I was involved in the development of the A-50/80, the first Roland Polyphonic after-touch midi keyboard controllers. I learnt from that how conservative musicians are.  Polyphonic after-touch isn’t something that any body used then.  Roland didn’t bother with Polyphonic after-touch since.  It isn’t something pianists can use, and it is they that loved the A-80s heavy piano keyboard. 

The A-50 with the semi weighted keyboard, I think, was more appropriate to take advantage of a synthesizer that supported  Polyphonic after-touch, but few did.  

The JANKO Keyboard layout, even though invented around 1887, is new to me. It just addresses the issues of different keys need different finger arrangements for chords and scales. It is just a modification of the existing 12 keys in an octave key layout, which I see as an advantage. But if you already play the piano, it is irrelevant. I find the idea really interesting though.  But I also realize I only write in 2 different keys, and my stuff is mostly multiple monophonic lines and 2 note power chords. It was interesting to watch the Hans Zimmer documentary and hear him talk about that is what he does too. 

The keyboard keys can be arranged in different ways, but they just look different. Like this hex arrangement with 2 connected pads per note. This project has the cad and production files available.

Would such a keyboard inspire new things? I think it might…

Way back in 1984/1985 the firmware guy developing the SynthAxe firmware from the UK was in the Fairlight Instruments offices in Sydney for a week or so and I got to try the SynthAxe for all of 10 minutes. In that time, I couldn’t play it as it was just all too different from the technique I knew.  

If I had one that would probably have changed, but at 10,000 British pounds in 1985, that wasn’t going to happen, and they stopped manufacturing in 1988. Some 200 produced. I was never interested in any Roland guitar synthesizer.  

Other things

It is the GOLDEN WEEK holidays here. Being retired, that just means stay home more to avoid the crowds, but as the forecast is also mostly rain, I would be doing that anyway. 

I have yet to get to the Nakanoshima Art Museum, as I wasn’t up to it last Tuesday before Golden Week started. Just didn’t sleep at all the night before I was to go. So will get to it after the holidays are over now.

I have a few music playlists and DJ mixes I made that I listen to when out and about, and the one I play more than anything else is of my own music. Things from the Assorted Bits albums. I think it is because they have that mix of Sequencers/ Synths and Heavy Guitar I love. More so than John Carpenter Albums.  

Band MISEX guitarist Kevin Stanton and keyboardist Murray Burns did the Beyond 2000 music in the 1980s. I always loved that and this must still be a significant influence on me still:

That makes me realize how rewarding making those bits of music have been. Make the music you want to hear. Make the Art you want to see. Make the comics you want to read. Write the articles you want to read. I can hear my music on repeat a lot and not get sick of it. I don’t go back and look at my other art often at all though. 

All just a grandfather entertaining myself with his hobbies. No professional musician, and consider what I do compositionally very unsophisticated, but I like that. I like many of my MUSIC+COMICS too when they actually say something.  

But how many more similar to what I have already done do I want to do?  I ask my self that often recently.

In the last 6+ years since coming back to Japan as a retired old guy, I have spent each year or so doing “a project” pretty constantly, while doing background tasks like Japanese study, studying/reading manga and recording my own music.  Been so busy I don’t know how I ever had time for a fulltime job.

Been thinking I should do another multi-page comic project. I am most interested in NON-FICTION stories. A mix of TOPGEAR and AMERICAN SPLENDOR isn’t far off.  It has to be a subject that means something to me. I can reuse existing characters, as I know how they talk and think already, and maybe add some new ones too? 

But on what theme?

It hasn’t come to me yet. Really don’t need to rush, and something will eventually.

It is May 1st as I write this. 2026 will be half over in no time. Wife and I are in our late 60s now. Just chatting earlier about how we spent 19 years in Australia, and that time went past in the blink of an eye. We may have about the same years left, maybe more, maybe less  ourselves and that will go in a flash too.  That makes you think...

The thing have to be so careful about now is the energy I have each day. Conserving that each day to get the most out of a day isn't something I considered when younger.

Really heavy rain so far today, so putting this up now rather than tomorrow. I want to go out for a walk to clear my head and think and will do that early tomorrow instead of posting this.

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology  KYOTO JAPAN

Looking Out The Window

 

Short version of this track and comic, as that seems to be what the algorithm demands and at 49 seconds is still way more than the 18 seconds "best duration".  Just hate all that short attention span is king stuff.

Just wanted to make the vocal sound a significant part in this. Even if the lyrics don't say as much as they could, I wanted to not make it negative. An uplifting vocal sound helps, I think. I should have done more than one take on the melodic guitar, as it is just the default thing I seem to do without thinking at the moment, and it could have been a bit different, even though I love the sound and ending on a high note.

So much happening out in the world that I have no control over. Natural and man made disasters, but also the beauty of Cherry Blossoms.  Not all bad, but it is way too easy to be all negative and be taken down by the News Media that thrives on it.  Hate that current US Administration actions have such a big impact on the us in the rest of the world with their PROJECT 2025 in full swing. The Christian Nationals/ Evangelicals behind that, reject Jesus's teachings on helping the poor and down trodden, calling all that stuff WOKE and BAD, seem to be actually some type of OLD TESTIMENT Jewish Authoritarian cult focused on Israel.  

Project Hail Mary was such a breath of fresh air for not being a downer. 

And YouTube Analytics for the first 37 minutes shows the SHORT's tap being algorithmically turned off after 30 minutes. To never be exposed to the world again...

Other Things

Finished Lucifer. Loved the jokes and musical numbers in this series. Not impressed with how a main character was treated in the final episode, and wonder why writers would do that to a beloved character, but loved the whole series.  Never saw SMALLVILLE and so didn’t get the jokes in Lucifer related to that main actor having a significant part in Lucifer.

QUEENS GAMBIT is fascinating. It is a fictional story about a chess prodigy, based on a 1983 American novel by Walter Tevis, but Netflix did get sued by a lady chess champion. 

Truth stranger then fiction probably, and the cost of a gift.  THE NEW YORKER said "the most satisfying show on television".  One of them, I would say.

Interesting to me the Chica Umino MARCH COMES IN LIKE A LION manga since 2007, has a young orphaned boy Shogi prodigy with problems and also has much on masters Shogi games as well. 

Nakanoshima Art Museum has an event starting today I will probably visit next Tuesday (as it is closed Monday unless a public holiday), and should be a fine day.  The works of 3 modern artists,

Yanobe Kenji and his SPACE CATS being the one I became interested in a couple of years ago after seeing his SPACE CAT guardian out front of the Museum.

I go to such exhibitions to be inspired for my own art creation in some way. 

SOUND MESSE in Osaka will be different this year without Mattias IA Eklundh there, but know other attending there now anyway.  I will be going on the Saturday May 16th, which has a chance of being less crowded than a Sunday here.  Will take ear protection this time. The electric guitar room was so loud in the afternoon with all booths trying to be heard over all the others. 

Heard there will be some event organized by Kogalashi Sound Magic for the Saturday night, probably downtown Osaka, but yet to hear what it will be. Not sure I care to go to a  M響 (M HIBIKI,  M ECHO,  that is a group jam), which is what Tokyo Metal City (東京メタルシティ) seems to regularly do.    Will see. 

Tokyo Metal City  made a joke post on X about the difference between ROCK and METAL where "metal doesn't have a vibe trying to be popular, and has dragons".  So I added a comment:

Recently found out about  映像研には手を出すな  ( Eizōken ni wa Te o Dasu na! Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! )  and ordered the Bluray. Three school girls wanting to make an animated film as a school activity club.  Reminds me a bit of the look of Chibi Maruko Chan, but it is said to be a master class in all aspects of animation production.  

I have no interest in doing real animation though, far too time consuming even using MOHO, but maybe help inspire me in the direction to go with another multipage COMIC, or something. 

After doing my Heavy Metal Garage and In The Next Dimension I have had no drive or idea on another comic. Will this change I wonder?

And in the good news department, it seems that I am finally recovered from all the small medical procedures I started in January.  😊  So I don't have to worry about the WAITING ROOM BLITZ of getting an online reservation number at EXACTLY 8:30AM and rushing off to Shijo Station Kyoto any time soon again, OR the almost 2,000yen return train costs OR the discomfort of the procedures.  

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology  KYOTO JAPAN

So Much Common Advice is Inappropriate…

 

60 second MUSIC+COMIC on the 2 versions of O What A Waste I did.  HARD ROCK and SynthPOP Remix interwoven for 60 seconds.  Japanese & English lyrics. Replaced Guitars and Drums with Synth/Techno instruments in the remix, based on the original Reaper Project.

Our original HARD ROCK VERSION and SynthPOP remix done 2 years later:

I like the result. Maybe I should do a single song combing those different sounds.

I also think even shorter tracks do better with the algorithms.  Read anything longer than 18 seconds is too long on TikTok.  Things like the Openings to TV shows like BONES and NCIS are 30seconds, and the theme music is written, so there is an ending at 30seconds, but the track actually continues. I did try that many years ago, but that was before shorts existed. Maybe have an ending at 18seconds, but continue.

I have thought back about all kinds of things since retiring, and yes, so much common advice I now see as inappropriate. Much is just wrong for me. What schools are focused on, the emphasis of being outgoing, eager to debate, pushing some types of activities over others. 

When I was in school in the 70s, having a dark tan "was cool". I just burnt so was always pale, so uncool.  But many of those cool kids have Melanoma of some kind now. Melanoma and skin like a crocodile isn't cool.  

Then yesterday YouTube showed me a recent Miranda Hart video that goes on about some of the same things she has written a book on.   Miranda Hart on being an introvert, medical gaslighting, body image 

Miranda Hart thinks part of her problems stemmed from that common wrong advice. Being an introvert and being told you must be outgoing has an impact on your health and well being. 

There is a spectrum between Extroverts and Introverts.  And much of the advice comes from the Extroverts that is just completely wrong for others.  I’m not talking about the Myers-Briggs Personality Type rubbish.  That is the worst pseudoscience with the validity of Astrology & Tarot Cards.  

The same type of thing came up with much MEDIA angst during COVID shutdowns around the world how that was just so bad for everyone's mental health.  What those stories should have been is the shutdowns were bad for the mental health of Office Space Landlords and Extroverts (who relay on the energy of others). The rest of us didn’t have a problem at all. 

I didn't have a problem at all. Japan didn't have real shut downs, but I didn't mind staying home at all.

I look back and see a school subject I did, Commerce as just being propaganda.  It didn't teach Financial Literacy or the way the financial system actually worked at all.  Much of school seems it was just a child minding service.. 

I am sure I would have had a better, more productive time at School without all the bad advice thrown around. 

Other Things

Of to Central Kyoto today to visit the 400 Years of Western Art Exhibit with an ex Roland colleague, then lunch (I expect). 

I use so few of the tools in the applications I have. Why CorelDraw v12 is still perfectly fine for me. I think I take pride in just using the simplest tools.

I have used the Reaper DAW to make my music for many years too, and don’t use many of it’s  features either. But I have thought more than a few times I wish it had MIX snapshots, so that when I went to do an overdub, it would disables all the effects and tracks not needed to improve latency and give me the track mix I need, then go back to a snapshot with the normal mix setup after finishing. Doing it manually gets tedious. 

Found out this week it can do that, but it is in the SWS/S&M EXTENSION plug in. So I have gotten that and while I was at it, I also installed the ReaPack: Package manager as well. I had been using ReEQ from that for ages, but getting the latest version and other useful things couldn’t hurt.

I don’t have to use all the tools in these extensions. But I see SWS/S&M EXTENSION has a GROOVE QUANTIZE and that is something I loved back using the MIDI Sequencer MicroLOGIC. 

Only in the last year or so am I now okay with the way my mixes sound on a Smartphone speaker in mono.  I have changed my guitar tone and main synth sounds, but I think is is partly to do with the way 

masterdesk changes the stereo width and mix. Along with that I have changed the PAN law in Reaper away from the default 0dB, which didn't help with mono compatibility either.

In investigating the disappearance of an 11 year old boy in a remote Kyoto mountain village over the last 3 weeks, the police used the step fathers phone location tracking data and found the boys back pack, a few days later his shoes, and a few days later again, his body, over a few kilometers of the mountain around his remote home & school. 

No one saw the boy at school the day he was reported he went missing. The step father's initial story, that he dropped the boy off at school by car rather than him taking the bus like he always did, didn't fool the police. It was only after the body had been found left face up on the ground, and identified that he confessed, it seems.  

That is a good use of the tracking data, rather than just targeted advertising, but I am sure it was an un-intentional side effect, and not planned by Apple or Google that way! 

On Android this is the Timeline feature, and you can see where you have been in Google maps with the correct settings. I have just seen that I have all that tracking and storing stuff turned off on my own phone.   

The Banality In Social Media has no limits. Saw this post and see it has 10K likes and been retweeted 332 times. The top buns are intentionally set a little to one side.

So designed to catching the OCD flipping out about buns not being straight in a marketing photograph?   

And not even mentioning anything the Orange Felon did this week (edged on by his lunatic supporters  ) that is now dramatically impacting all of us in the rest of the world. 

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology  KYOTO JAPAN