However, the main factor in the slowdown of Chrontendo has been my project of making some cosmetic improvements to my office, the room where Chrontendo is recorded in. Almost everything I own had been crammed into that room for some time now, and I've been sorting through stuff and moving it out slowly in my spare time. Finding things in the back of your closet that you haven't seen in years always brings on feelings of melancholy nostalgia. Here's a few pics I snapped of old things from the 90s. Some of these pics already appeared on Twitter.
Old art class exercises. This is the sort of exciting thing art students do all day, studies in light/shadow/color, etc. Yes, Dr. Sparkle used to paint years ago. I had exactly one piece hang in a gallery, which never sold. One thing you should know about watercolor: getting smooth transitions is a bitch!
I had huge piles of this stuff packed away in the closet. My real paintings remain safely hidden away where no one will ever see them, thank goodness!
When I was young enough to stay up all night I used to go to a lot of shows. My now-wife wrote for a free music rag - a job that didn't pay but got us into a lot of free shows. I still have a number of old posters.
The Deftones/Far show was one the most crowded concerts I've ever been to. This was back when Deftones had long hair. Far was a pioneering local emo band, and folks around her claim Dashboard Confessional ripped off his style from Far's singer. If you were not going to see shows in the 90s, then you might not be aware of how many fucking metal/funk/rap type hybrid bands their were. Red Hot Chili Peppers was the hugest one and Faith No More was also mining that vein, but there were tons of smaller bands doing similar things, like Fungo Mungo. Oddly, the opening act, No Doubt, impressed me the most, but you have to realize that this was before the huge 90s ska revival, back when ska bands were still novel. We talked to the band after they played and Gwen gave me some ND stickers and a cassette. Also we mercifully arrived late to the Oingo Boingo show and missed 311.
Here's an alligator head. My wife's uncle used to have an alligator farm. He was an interesting character it seems, he did amateur preaching and had a mail-order bride. As for The Knot Book, it is an actual mathematics textbook, one that had not been printed yet, so we used a hand-assembled photocopy with the author's hand drawn diagrams. If you're wondering what post-calculus math is about, well, it involves weird stuff like knot theory.
At this point, the office is completely empty, the nasty old carpet ripped out, and my PC offline. Even if my computer was put back in the office, I wouldn't be able to record since the echo is insane. But hey, everything will be back together in no time at all. I'll actually be posting an update on the office status before to long, because as you know, I'll blog about anything on my videogame themed blog, as long as it's not videogames.
One last thing. Since I'm not doing this at my real computer, hopefully the formatting on the photos and text is not all screwed up.
24 comments:
Just wondering if you were intentionally evoking Peter Max in the third painting there.
I don't think of FNM as a 90's metal/funk/rap band. They may have been that in the late 80's to around '91 or so, but they evolved into a pretty eccentric Mike Patton show pretty quickly. It probably hurt their popularity, but they released some pretty strange albums from '92 on that spanned almost every rock genre. I think of them more as an alternative fusion metal band, if there's such a thing. I think their hit song, "Epic" makes people think that's their style.
KM - No, that was just the assignment: a simple line drawing with as many different colors and transitions as you squeeze in.
Skymaster - I know what you mean, the last couple albums were a little different. But their big selling albums and the songs that got played on the radio all the time, from the Real Thing/Angel Dust era fit in really well to the whole funk/metal genre. I saw FNM sometime in the mid 90s, and it was a pretty straightforward rock show where they played the hits. On the other hand, Mr Bungle played at a much smaller venue, and got really weird. I didn't go to that show, but heard later that Patton ran into the club's restroom and smeared feces on the walls....
Wow. Hadn't heard that one before. Although it doesn't surprise me much because he famously poured a bottle of pee on his head that was thrown on the stage after he told the audience to throw as much trash on the stage they could. This was during the Angel Dust era around 1992 in Europe. Keep in mind that this is more mainstream, commercial version of Patton in FNM. Makes sense his unedited version would move up to feces.
They were opening up for Guns N Roses and he was supposedly standing on a piece of Axl's equipment when he did this. I have a feeling Axl didn't receive that in good humor.
Out of curiosity, are you not playing Animal Crossing because you don't like it or is it that SMTIV is that good? I've sunk a ton of time into other games in the series so I can completely understand. That said AC:NL is consuming my life. If Buttland needs any help the town of Diarrhea would be happy to help.
Skymaster - Well, it's just what I heard. Never saw any actual evidence or solid documentation. Also, I saw Green Day once at that same club, and heard later they got beat up by skinheads after the show. Again... only hearsay.
Anon, I was playing ACNL up until SMT arrived. I guess I just can't deal with two such timesinks at once. But yes, I have been finding SMT IV pretty addictive.
Here's a recent video of Patton swallowing a shoelace of a shoe thrown on stage. Not quite as batshit crazy, but still pretty fucking nuts. Skip to the 6 minute mark......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oNY_oRAZI3c#at=358
Looking forward to the interminable cough/sinus infection Chronepisode, ala Chrontendo 15.
How was that Boredoms show?
I've seen the Boredoms twice, the first time - from the poster, was when they were inexplicably signed to Reprise (if you ever need proof at how confused the major labels were post-Nirvana, look no further. Reprise signed The Boredoms.) It had to been about the heaviest most insane show I'd seen, blowing away any punk or metal band I'd seen.
I saw them later in the early 00s. A good show but sounded nothing like the first time.
Cool facts - I spoke to Yamamotor at that first show, who told me Bore was pronounced as Bo-reh, "like De-vo." Also, he said their genre was "P-Pop" which stood for Pure Pop.
How is Chrontendo 47 coming along? I imagine it will be pretty epic.
Hi Dr. Sparkle! Just wanted to let you know how amazed I am by your work. I discovered your blog and your series after listening to the new Retronauts podcast where you made a guest appearance in june. Since then, I've been watching every single episode and reading the blog.
Thanks and please keep Chrontendo alive.
By the way, this old Nintendo geek was a late adopter of the NES, playing it for the first time in the summer of 1989 at a friend's house and getting my very own NES Action Set in january of 1990. So you are now at the point in Famicom history which tickles my nostalgia nerves the most. I can hardly wait for the next installment.
Thank you again for your devotion!
Okay, after a month, not even an update about your office?
Now I'm worried. Is it something we said?
Chrontendo averages about 44 days between releases, with a standard deviation of about 32 days. This means you can expect most episodes to be released within 76 days of the previous episode. Before now, the longest wait between Chrontendos was for Episode 16, which was 146 days. The wait for Episode 47 has been 238 days, which is about 6 standard deviations above the mean.
Obviously, this is a hobby for Dr. Sparkle in his spare time and he doesn't get paid (though he should!). I'm not trying to attack him, I'm just doing math to help control my worries.
Whoa, I was just in a class last week were looking a defects from standard deviations and statistical analysis. I don't think you can apply this to Chrontendo! Although I will note that since the Dr. (Not THE doctor) has expanded his social media presence the release schedule has slowed down. Thus proving that social media is our biggest time waster. But don't forget various episodes have been uploaded to YouTube in the interim so at least those who only watch episodes through YouTube have gotten 3 or 4 new episodes I supose.
As a measure of central tendency, you can use it. If the distribution is not normal, the usual 67/90/99% rule may not apply.
At any rate, 84% of the data are within 1 "standard deviation" of the mean for Chrontendo. So this a big deviation from routine.
To put it another way, in less than 2 months the wait for Chrontendo 47 will be double the wait for the longest previous time between Chrontendos.
Again, I don't think Dr. Sparkle owes us anything, I'm just nervous.
Missing you Dr. Sparkle. I hope you are well.
Huh, it looks like someone uploaded the "missing" episodes of Chrontendo Dr. S hasn't to YouTube.
Hey Dr. S, long time no see! You probably have heard the news that Yamauchi has passed away, correct? If not, he died on the 19th of September from Pneumonia, aged 85. Only his children survive him. So I was thinking maybe the next Chrontendo would have a "moment of silence" for him, since he was the most influential figure for that time.
docotor scarples we misses yuo !!!!!!!!!
Hey Dr. Sparkle, how are you feeling? How is your cough? I was just wondering if you could give some kind of update, any update. I don't think you've checked in here in a while... I'm starting to see the spam messages accumulate, and you've always usually shot those down within a day or two. I know you're pretty prolific on Twitter, and I check your feed every now and again, but I can't communicate with you there as I've been very resistant toward joining the Twitterverse. I do hope you see this message soon and will let us know how things are going. We miss you.
Kevin - believe it or not, the cough is just now subsiding.
I believe it! I've had coughs last for months. It's totally understandable that you probably didn't want to have a cough-ridden soundtrack on your latest Chrontendo. It reminds me of when TV actors get sick--the show must go on. I just rewatched (well, actually, *listened* to the audio only of) the ST:TNG episode "Elementary, Dear Data" and you can totally tell Levar Burton had a head cold that week. He wasn't sniffling, but you could totally tell his nasal passages were stopped up.
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