Category video and the Theater for the Insane!

The prospect of The Necro Tonz getting back together gave me mixed feelings
When Colleen first broached the subject, it was that I would sit in on a few songs but I felt like I wanted more involement
I set about looking for ways to use my skills to do a variety of things
The first thing that came to mind was that I could provide backup vocals and harmonies
This was soon followed with the idea that I would use my Roland SPDS as a percussion pad (bongos, timbales, triangle etc…)
The ideas that I have been brewing for Tiki Torture would also come into play with video
This would give me a real world application for my ideas concerning backgrounds
In addition, I also recognized the chance to handle compromise more effectively
After all, these were all musicians with egos and quirks equal to my ...

William had decided to move back to Minneapolis so I crashed at my sister’s house in Mc Kinney
I was there a couple of months when Darren from Voytek told me of this D.I.Y warehouse just south of downtown at Cockrell Ave and Lamar St
They had a room available and it was cheap

The last time I was in that area (before it became “Southside”) was when the Sex Pistols played at Dallas Music Complex but what I didn’t remember at the time was that I had been there when it was a place called “Dune Buggy Headquarters”
On that night, I watched the Austin band “Crust” perform for the first time
They had diapers on and had filled them with worm dirt from a bait shop
As they performed, the worms would fall out of the diapers
They finished by dropping their diapers and lighting their pubic hair on fire

The Necro Tonz have been asked to do a reunion show which will also serve as a KNON benefit
The venue will be LaGrange in Deep Ellum and the night will be Halloween!
We all met together at Colleen’s to discuss the plan
Firstly, the lineup will be exactly the same as when they stopped with one addition, and that’s me
Right off the bat, I decided that it wouldn’t be very fun to just sit in on a couple of songs on the drums
Robin Graves is without a doubt the most qualified of all the Tonz drummers in that he has such a rich jazz background so I had to justify my place on the stage
Nekkie had already asked me if I would compose video for the stage so I had the idea to utilize my musical multi-media skills during the entire evening
The Roland SPDS sampler pad will make a perfect array of bongo...

Street performance has become more and more of a priority
Up until last weekend, I had just played my drums on the street but last weekend, I got to bring a full elelctronic configuration
I got permission from July Alley to use their electricity
I was expecting to set up over at Kettle Art (run by the eternally cool Frank Campagna) which had a different set of parameters to consider so I didn’t plan on getting electricity to MY SPOT
I had to locate some tape at the last minute to tape down the electrical cord
Saturday I brought some rubber slip mats

This was the first time I have ever gotten to put my electronic ideas to the test and I think I did fairly well
The setup consisted of the SPDS looping pad, a Kaoss pad and the BR864 multi-track as well as the Brock Spock electric Harp guitar (...

I managed to get all of my barrage edits from Countrockula’s Theater for the Insane! organized and posted into a neat little playlist on Youtube

youtube.com/rockulaproductions

Just finished my latest barrage edit
It was culled from a 45 minute compilation which means I cut a lot of really cool footage in order to keep it as brief as possible
Enjoy!

I recieved a message from a guy named Vance who says he’s been watching my Theater for the Insane and The Hypnotic Eye uploads
He sent me a link to his new TV show called “Spook Show” and it is pretty good (especially for the 1st episode)
http://www.archive.org/details/SpookShowEpisode1itPaysToAdvertise

There has been an explosion of DIY video in the last few years but most of it is under the official title of “youtubepoop” and I must say that it lives up to it’s name
Mostly, it is people screwing around with cartoons from their childhood and not showing much imagination
However, this guy Vance is using the same concept that I have embraced and what Zappa called “Conceptual continuity”
Digital editing has made it possible to make video jump around and do tricks for you but that’s not enoug...

I had taken on quite a few projects for the Halloween season including several video performances but I really wanted to do a Halloween episode
There were some delays in the beginning but once I got on track it took about two weeks because of all the other editing I was doing
I placed the barrage edits differently in this episode and I chose to combine the main feature (The Necro Tonz) with the outro
I just wanted to fit as much stuff as possible in there without too much interruption

The host segments are a further exploration of the video projection technique
I like how the whiteface lends itself to blending with the video sometimes

Not sure if I’m gonna do a Christmas episode in the next few months but I will include some cool holliday commercials
It looks like the episode uploaded succ...

enough distractions
I am back at editing vids for the Halloween Episode of Theater for the Insane!
Most of the clips have been edited, now I just need to put together a skeleton and start planning host segments
Need to get decent white face for Countrockula
Just got a tux and shirt, need bow tie
I am very amused with myself for the intro I just put together

I have had a breakthrough with my ability to convert my DVDs to files I can manipulate on the laptop
When I first got the laptop, I had some people give me some programs that they thought might work for my simple basic needs
In this case it was a DVD decrypter and an Mpeg streamer
decrypt, then stream, then you get a file in your “videos”
However, the streamer was fickle and didn’t always wanna work on certain discs with copy protection or those that were just too scratched or from weird sources
I thought to myself that one day I would get something that would rip any disc I put in the laptop
I didn’t know I already had it

Fast forward to a few months ago and I have just installed the VLC Media player
This thing plays waaay more types of files than my basic windows media player
However, I ...