Updates and whatnot

So, this is my final day of vacation.

Of course I also get the weekend, but I guess that doesn't really count. Though I'll be busy working on my projects, nonetheless.

Speaking of projects, this is where I am:

Laid down the rhythm tracks for a new tune, "Inside," (see previous posting for lyrics). I'm very happy with what I have so far. So far it's shaping up to be something special.

Got about half the cast in this spec script I'm working on killed off now. Most of the rest will be shuffling off this mortal coil soon.

Also, at the suggestion of a friend I sent a story to a small press editor who is putting together a horror anthology and wanted some entries--even though my story is too short he let me submit it anyway. He did like it, a lot, apparently, and suggested I expand it to meet his length requirements. I may do that, I don't know yet. Always good to get positive feedback, especially from an editor and a published author. So, that's encouraging.

So, next up on the tune--some synth lines and some guitars. Got to track a guitar solo. Fills and whatnot. Then, last of all, the vocals. I hope to be done with it by next weekend, but we'll see. I may finish sooner. Or later. Depends on what else happens. Going back to work after being off a week will be a challenge--I know I'll have all kinds of catching up to do. It may leave me too worn out to do much when I get home, for a couple days.

As for the weekend, nothing special planned. Gonna continue working on my projects. Giving Atari a bath. Buying some groceries. Watching some TV--I went DVD shopping yesterday and got season one of Warehouse 13, the film Let The Right One In (haven't seen it yet--I plan to screen it tomorrow), and a disk that had four really awful horror movies on it. For inspiration, don't you know.

How about you? Any weekend plans?

Baldy again

Let's get the subject of my hair out of the way, now and forever, okay?

I just had my head shaved again. That's what I do--I let it grow out and when it starts getting on my nerves, I go and get it shaved off.

I hate getting haircuts. Always have. Only haircuts I ever enjoyed were the ones my friend Cortney used to give me, but that was because she was a good friend and we always had a lot of stuff to talk about. She's gone now--we sort of lost touch a few years ago.

But, anyway, I hate getting haircuts. I always feel like I'm wasting so much time just sitting there. It's awkward for me--I feel like I should be talking to the person cutting my hair, but I don't really know what to say. Three things made me decide that from now on I was just going to get my head shaved:

1. In the men's room at work one day I encountered a colleague in the terminal stages of comb-over, standing in front of the mirror and carefully rearranging those last four really long strands of hair for maximum coverage. Gods. Just kill me.
2. As I was leaving after getting a regular hair cut--where I'd told my stylist I wanted it cut short--my hair fell down into my eyes. Which is what it was doing before I got my hair cut. She cut it short, all right--on the sides. She didn't cut anything off the top. Apparently that's "the style" these days--which explains why nobody reads anymore. They can't see the text. They have their hair in their eyes.
3. The young lady who I always go to for the head shaving is really really cute.

Don't get me wrong. I've got plenty of hair. A beginning bald-spot in the upper rear area of my scalp, but that's about it. I don't really care, though. It can all fall out if it wants. I will not have a comb-over, though. As I said, just kill me.

The way I see it, it really doesn't matter. I am going to be fat and ugly, hair or no hair. So it really doesn't make a difference, from an aesthetic point-of-view.

I do notice some differences in the way others act around me, though. Women are normally just skittish around me before--now they out-and-out bolt. People go from thinking I might be  a serial killer to thinking I am most definitely a serial killer. Criminals think I'm a cop. Cops think I'm a criminal.

All-in-all it makes things interesting. I could use a little of that, I think.

An open love letter to my addiction

I can't describe it. Really.

A few years ago I recorded a cover of the Beatles' "Let It Be," using a digital eight-track recorder, an electronic drum kit, and my (then) brand new Gibson SG guitar. I just wanted to practice guitar soloing and had an idea for something for that song. I also liked the idea of attempting the vocal.

When I finally finished mixing it and listened to the finished product, I was stunned at how I felt. No, I wouldn't say it's better than the original. But I thought--and still think--that it was pretty good, especially since it was the first time I'd ever done anything like that. No, you won't find it online anywhere because of copyright issues--there's only a couple of people besides me who have ever heard it--but I listen to it now and then.

But I was astonished at the rush I got, listening to it. Burning it to CD, listening to myself through a stereo. Hearing it in my car. Me. That's me, singing that song, playing that guitar, that piano, nailing that guitar solo. Maybe it's not great, but it's me. Silly? Probably. But I don't care.

The feeling was intensifyed when I recorded this little instrumental I made up myself--"Hail, Anubis," using my (then) brand new Ibanez Iceman guitar, which I named Anubis, natch. It came out sounding exactly like it did in my head. There is no way on earth I can describe the feeling I got, listening to that thing.

Since then I've written and recorded a lot more stuff. Some of it I'm really happy with and hope you'll indulge if you haven't. In fact, some of it I'm extremely happy with (check out "Necrotopia", "Beast of Love", "On The Slab" just for starters). I listen to my own stuff all the time and I still get that feeling, every time. It still gets me off when I listen to my solo on "Ready" or "On The Slab" or the dark humor of "Beast of Love" or the power of my Gibson SG on the rhythm track of "Contact." I always relive the sweet sorrow I was feeling when I recorded the solo for "Contagion." It doesn't lessen. I don't need higher dosages as time goes by.

Which makes music a much better drug of choice than . . . well, anything. Don't you agree?

Vacation--the halfway point

So, today my stay-cation is half over.

I always take stay-cations. I rarely go anywhere. There are a couple of reasons for this:

1. I don't really have the funding to go anywhere.
2. I hate to travel.

Oh, I will travel, for business or to visit someone, but I rarely go somewhere just to see the sights or anything. Like a few years ago I spent nearly a week in Vegas visiting a close friend who lived there. Didn't set foot in a casino the whole time I was there, though--I wasn't there for that, and I don't gamble anyway, and the vast majority of those shows they have are . .  ugh. I had a great time just hanging out with my friend and her daughter, who is also my goddaughter. I didn't require anything else.

Usually I have projects I want to work on while I'm on vacation. This time it's a spec script--I have an idea where I'd like to be by the end of this coming weekend. Maybe I'll be there.

I'd also like to get at least one new song posted but I'm not so sure about that one. The one I want to do is going to be a little dicey--it's "Inside," lyrics posted here yesterday. It'll be really good, if I can make it come out like the version I hear in my head, but it'll take some work to get it right. It's a bit tricky because it's just me--sometimes it poses technical difficulties, let's say.

That friend I visited in Vegas a few years ago has started a production company with her partner, and they are working on producing a short film. However, they need help with it, and by that I mean financial help. Yes, I've donated, as have others, but it's not enough. You can click the widget in the upper right if you want to help them out yourself. Or just go to http://www.dracoequus.com/ and click "Donate." No amount is too small. The film they want to do would be wonderful--the story is charming and will make a splendid film. But if they don't get the money it won't get made. Which would be tragic. The project is called Hearts on the Knee.

So, help my friends out, keep your fingers crossed that I reach my goal and also get this tune recorded. I hope your own week is progressing well and you're getting a chance to have some fun!

Inside

The world sent you to me not long ago


and you took me inside

fresh meat for the street you were

and look at you now



Not much left of you to chew on

soon I'll need a new place to hide

someone desperate and full of despair

someone fresh to take the vow



Soon you'll finally be free

(no more pain or nightmares)

soon you'll finally see

(no more lies just the truth and nothing but)

soon you'll get what's happened to you

(are you ready for this?)

soon you'll see what you have now become.



Don't call your friends you have none now

and you have nothing left to sell

nobody cares what's become of you

nobody cares that you're living in hell



Now you're finally free

(no more pain no more nightmares)

You can go your own way

(plain unvarnished truth you finally see)

Where there's life, there's hope, they always say

(one foot in front of the other walking away)

Now you'll see if that's true.



words and music by J Franklin Evans

A Return to Malachi

He never said he needed anyone


Self-contained, an island to himself

Cold and hard as a stone

He could always find his own way



She found her way inside

past all his defenses

she took up residence in his mind

and now she rules his world



He would die before he'll admit it

He doesn't want it any other way



For a brief time, too brief, they were together

Fate and a monster then ripped them apart

He defied his fear to find her again

In a fortress at the end of time



Horrors and horrors he found

at the end of his journey

worst of all, he soon discovered

what had been done to her



He swallowed his fear

He found it in him to face the monster

He won his battle though he bears the scars

then he had to face her again



He'd made a promise he didn't want to keep

to her and the others he'd found

there was nothing else they wanted and nothing he could give

except to end their suffering



It goes without saying, I suppose

He was never the same again



He never said he needed anyone

Self-contained, an island to himself

Cold and hard as a stone

He could always find his own way



She found her way inside

past all his defenses

she took up residence in his mind

and now she rules his world



words and music by J Franklin Evans

Character studies - Pralifax

I know, you're asking yourself, "Who?"

This is a character who sort of came together during many Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, back in the day.

Image via Wikipedia

He sort of emerged from that into a more three dimensional character and was going to be the protagonist of a series of novels. Swords-and-sorcery fantasy, to be clear. But, since I've given up on writing fiction, unless I write him into a screenplay he'll never see the light of day.

That ain't likely, as the series I was going to put him into is one of those epic things, a story that would probably have taken around six books for me to tell completely. Not including the short story I actually did write to introduce him and the story. Which was never published.




He is an interesting character, though, so it seems a shame to let him go to waste. Blogging about the guy is the least I can do.

Pralifax is a Paladin, basically a holy warrior. He's every bit as big of a pain in the ass as that sounds like. He began life as a slave and spent most of his first twenty-five years in training to become a soldier in a private army.

I'll skip over most of the details. When he's thirty he wins his freedom in a way that makes him a hero to other slaves and impresses his former owners.

He joins the official army of the Empire and rises through the ranks to become a general, adored by the citizens of the Empire, hated and feared by its enemies. The Empire in many ways parallels the Roman Empire, though there are some key differences, just FYI.

Anyways, Pralifax is a grim, tactiturn figure, covered with scars. In battle he does what is necessary to win. He does not believe in fair fights--he thinks the entire concept is ridiculous.

As a general he's wiped out entire populations that threatened his Empire, to make an example of them. To his fellow citizens he's a hero. To others he's a hated enemy, a war criminal.

Pralifax is one of those people who, once he's convinced he's right, no power in the universe will change his mind. The series of stories is about him becoming convinced that he must commit genocide, and then go to war against a god . . . and win it, for the sake of humanity. It's also about him deciding that the days of the Empire he loves are drawing to a close and it needs to be replaced with something a bit more democratic.

He's difficult to portray in a way that makes him sympathetic, which is one of the challenges of writing him. The intent is to show him as a human being, and to show the reasons he is the way he is. He also does have a sense of humor, though not to the casual observer. He only jokes with those who know him well and that he likes. If you watch NCIS, he's sort of Gibbs in armor with a sword and a lot grimmer.

Maybe, one day, some one will give me the money to do this thing. It'll be a long, complicated story (there are an awful lot of subplots involving peripheral characters and a lot of politics going on, too--like a power struggle between the Emperor and his cousin, with a bastard son of the Emperor coming into play). It'd make a great series of novels, movies, even graphic novels.

Maybe one day I'll be given the opportunity to do them. Who knows?