Last week I mentioned a top secret project in the works. I'm sure you assumed it would never appear and I would never mention it again in hopes that you'd eventually forget all about it. Today is the day I prove you wrong. In a never-ending attempt at finding my niche in life I've decided to see how the title musician fits me.



I'll admit it's all very DIY at this point but it's a start. With the power of the internet anything could happen. If the right person happens to hear my stuff something bigger might come my way. To be honest though, I'm not really expecting much to come out of it other than the experience of trying.

I'm still working on getting some song samples together, but I wanted to get the track list out there and talk a bit about it to help build some anticipation. Look for the samples and probably a shameless self promoting myspace page sometime next week.



Before I get into talking about the tracks let me say my musical style is what you might call extremely experimental. It's probably less music and more performance art. I expect 90% of people to call it garbage and deem it not even worthy of using the CD as a coaster. So let me dedicate this to that other 10%.

but do not forget - The idea behind this track is what inspired me to put a whole album together. I was cleaning the basement when I came across my old Simon. Anything to get out of cleaning I started to play. After a while it hit me that this would make an interesting song. It took me a few play-throughs to find sequence that was musically interesting. The end result is a sort of a dueling banjos feel. Was I able to beat the machine? You'll have to listen to find out.

tears over old griefs - A lot of the tracks are a combination of simple melodies juxtaposed with spoke words or real life sounds. Here a sad tune is combined with sounds of water, from single drips building to trickling streams and culminating with a raging waterfall.

of its ugly side - I tried to experiment a bit with a kind of musical evolution. I would write two short pieces that were quite different and then try to work my way from one to the other. Here a pleasant uplifting piece devolves into something that grates the ears, but the change is slow and subtle that is put both pieces into a new light.

even in his silence - This is probably one of my favorite tracks. A friend and I sat down to hold a fake improvised interview. I then stripped out all of my friend's responses leaving only my questions and reactions. It's interesting how people interpret the silence.

acquaintance, or a stranger - Familiar songs played in unfamiliar ways. To say anymore would ruin the surprise.

exactly fits the newspaper - Some might tell you a crumpled newspaper is not an acceptable instrument. I say those people aren't trying hard enough.

enough to rule others - How far would people go if you said "Simon says" in front of all of your commands? Probably not as far as the things in this dark track, but the wartime march/propaganda tune is pretty catchy though.

you can do today - Another fun track. I headed to the nearby grocery store with a micro cassette recorder and asked people to recite some of the items off of their shopping list. I was surprised with the number of people that went along with the idea unfortunately one of the ones that didn't ratted me out and the manager who asked me to leave. Luckily I caught it on tape for the perfect ending to the track. The store's piped in muzak makes an interesting backdrop of sound.

facts are stupid things - A simple tune backs some neighborhood kids reading some of the more strange (and untrue) items from snopes.com, a great urban legend reference site.

thorns, don't go barefoot - Prickly is the best way to describe the music of this track, which is interspersed with friends and family giving me their most convincing "Ouch." Those that weren't convincing enough got pinched. They should have tried harder the first time. Papapishu!

larger experiences of life - Another evolutionary track. From birth to the grave I tried to capture the important moments in life. It's harder to do than you think in three minutes and forty-nine seconds.

come back from it - You won't be able to tell from listening to it, but I probably spent the most time on this track. I focused all my "talent" into creating the best song I could. Then I revered the whole thing. I probably should have listened to it reversed as I was putting it together but like everything else it was a learning experience.

So there you have my first step into a new world. The samples should be up shortly and soon after that I plan to have CDs available for purchase.

If you actually managed to read this far you're probably wondering if I've gone crazy. The answer is yes, but not the way you think. I'm sorry if it comes as a disappointment but I have no forthcoming album. I was actually taken by an internet meme, something I've managed to avoid all this time. The meme is to create a CD cover and the rules are simple.

1. The first article title on this page is the name of your band.
2. The last four words of the very last quote on this page is the title of your album.
3. Finally, the third picture here, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4. (Optional) Using the rule from #2 above, create a track list of 12 songs.

Once I got started I got a bit carried away and you can see the end result. After having written all this if I had any musical talent at all I'd actually consider making this into an actual album. Maybe I should anyway. I might be sitting on the next big internet hit.

cravipat escaped the blue labyrinth long enough to write this.

11 adventurers found their way to the golden castle.

Words uncovered in the catacombs : music

I have a top secret project in the works that may see the light of day this week or the next but I didn't want too much dust to settle on this place before then. Unfortunately I don't have much to say other than exposing myself as a giant nerd. Not that I was kidding anyone with the site design around here.

I recently stumbled upon The Backloggery. The site tracks your video game collection and which games have been completed. Its goal is to make you feel guilty about spending money on something that was never even removed from its shrink wrap. It's probably meant to be used for games you have some intention of actually finishing but just for fun I entered everything I had laying around.

I've come to the conclusion that I own way too many games considering the list doesn't even cover my Atari 2600, NES and any floppy disk based PC games. What's even worse is that at least half of those games aren't even very good. Like movies, for the most part, games in a bargain bin are there as a warning, yet somehow a few managed to infiltrate my collection. Thankfully it seems that trend peaked a few years ago. I guess that's one good thing about having less free time.

cravipat escaped the blue labyrinth long enough to write this.

0 adventurers found their way to the golden castle.

Words uncovered in the catacombs : video games

Disclaimer: This article is filled with "facts" about state history and the U.S. Mint's 50 State Quarter Program. If you write a research paper using the information provided here you're likely to get an F. Don't write an angry email just because you're even lazier than the author to look up the real information.

In 1999 the United States Mint unleashed their 50 State Quarter Program on a confused public wondering why there was a guy on a horse on the back of their quarters. Eventually people caught wind of the plan to release quarters celebrating each state over the next ten years. (That's five new quarter designs every year in case you're bad with math and it's late at night and your solar calculator won't work.) Each state's quarter has it's own unique design filled with images and text detailing that state's history and accomplishments. Unfortunately there isn't much room on the back of a quarter, so that history and accomplishments may seem a bit cryptic. That's where I hope these articles can help.

But before we get into all of that I'd like to take a look the program itself. How did it come about? You only need to look at the fads sweeping the nation only a few years earlier, Beanie Babies. Yes, it seems far fetched that small plush toys caused the US Government to redesign one of it coins but consider this. Beanie Babies ignited a huge following of investing collectors, people willing to spend large amounts of money to hoard things that may not even interest them in hopes that they can eventually cash in on a big profit. The government saw an opportunity.

This is the point where thinking about how money actually works makes my brain ache but stick with me anyway. The cost of the materials in a quarter is five cents. The public is willing to pay twenty-five cents to possess a quarter leaving Uncle Sam with twenty cents in profit. Most of the time this isn't a problem because the public is inclined to spent that twenty five cents on something useful, let's say a vending machine rubber ball. But with the state quarters, people aren't going to spend them. They'll "buy" one to keep and another to spend. The collectors are likely to keep even more.

So there you have it, the truth behind the 50 State Quarter Program. If you don't believe me spend the day in a bank lobby and watch how many people come in waving a ten dollar bill demanding to know if the new state quarter is out. I'd be willing to bet you see at least one before the cops are called and questions are asked about why you're loitering in the bank's lobby.

cravipat escaped the blue labyrinth long enough to write this.

1 adventurer found their way to the golden castle.

Words uncovered in the catacombs : quarters

It wouldn't be the start of a new year without some sort of list either marking the best things of the year past or the best to look forward to in the future year so here you go.

• stick of butter


• jug of milk


• carton of eggs


• loaf of bread

Don't ask me what it means. I found it lying on the sidewalk. It could be a grocery list or maybe a French Toast recipe. I figure I have all of 2008 to find out.

cravipat escaped the blue labyrinth long enough to write this.

2 adventurers found their way to the golden castle.

Words uncovered in the catacombs : oddities