I have noted with some considerable distress that the various chapters of The Curse of the Rhino King have received somewhat less n the way of accolades than would seem its due. I don’t now exactly what to attribute this dearth of positive attention to; certainly no lack of quality on the part of the narrative itself. I’ve read it aloud to any number of friends and seen with my own eyes that they’ve enjoyed it. I’m willing to entertain the possibility that there’s a large number of you who have something physically wrong with the pleasure centers of your brains which renders you incapable of experiencing joy, but for the many times you’ve expressed it at other appropriate times.

To me the most likely scenario is one which revolves around the labour involved with actually reading large blocks of text. Peter David on his blog has lately been running a serialized story entitled “Potato Moon” which is up to something like chapter 55 now, and which I have yet to read even a single chapter of; when I’m reading my friends page I’m not necessarily in the right mood or head-space to entertain that sort of focus or effort. It is my expectation and hope that some significant portion of those of you who have not been reading or commenting upon this opus are of a similar mind-set.

There is a ready cure for this deficiency, however! A detour around this speed-bump. A monkey wrench by means of which this nut may be tightened. A lubricant by means of which this penetration may take place with a minimum of tearing and strain. In this I speak of the magic of audio. For some time I have planned to re-create my narrative success in reading these thrilling tales aloud to my friends for the benefit of my readers and indeed had enlisted the aid of my good friend lenimonkey in narrating those parts which are too feminine for the booming issue of my own throat to manage.

I had at one time planned on creating YouTube videos from this material (with some minimal graphics to supplement the audio) and I may yet do so (which would also serve the purpose of giving those dozens-or-hundreds- I -don’t-even-now-anymore of people who subscribed to my channel after my penis videos something to loo at). However, with the discovery of this delightful audio tool things become a great deal more streamlined and convenient for all involved.

Anyways. if this is more warmly received than the text-only versions (which is explicitly meant to be read as “If I receive more comments posted) then you can be certain that more will be forthcoming.

This having been said, and without further ado...

For the benefit of those of you who for whatever missedyesterday's post, or else didn't pay it the attention it only-in-the-loosest-possible-of-terms-deserved, I present it once again, in a much more easily-absorbed form, since I have just now mastered a charming little applet which ought to make these audio posts significantly more satisfying for all involved.

In an act of nearly unmitigated cockpunching irony, I shall require my readers in this singular instance not to look, but to listen, as I wax poetic on the topic of looking, rather than listening.

Edit: Upon review, I do believe this may actually be my most bizarre blog post ever, finally displacing my previous title-holder, which among other things contained visions of a giant, orgasming space-bear made up of stars and human souls.

Some year or so after I recorded the voice acting for this vieo game character, apparently he's just about ready for release, and I must say, I'm pretty happy to see how well he's turned out; a very smooth-playing and well-realized effort here.

As with one of my previous efforts in this field, Crashman here is a character who originates with Mega Man 2, which was the first Nintendo game I ever bought, back when I was a wee tyke of 12, and as such, there's some considerably pleasing nostolgia involved here.
 

After many hours of work, I have a little something to share with you folks; a video suppliment to yesterday's post which I've spent the better part of the evening working on.

It's the first video I've ever produced, and so I do hope you'll be kind in your appraisal of this effort.



Edit: 

The Mighty Professor PZ Myers of Pharyngula has done me the sublime favour of posting my video on his outstanding blog. It is an honour which surpasses all others, both actual and potential.

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/03/hey_those_arent_terrifyingthos.php

Once again, the world is as cold and as dark as ever it shall be, blanketed, on the majority of its landmasses, by snow and shadow and a cold which seems to seek to leech the warmth from your very bones themselves.

It is with this in mind that it seems to me it is time to revisit a time honoured holiday tradition; the annual telling of a tale which was first recorded two years ago, and which I feel it is only meet and fitting to share with all of my livejournal friends, both new and old (a number which is now well over a hundred!), that they might be duly warned and terrified of the grim portents which this coming night always brings along with it.

With this in mind, pull up a seat for storytime, dear friends, and harken well, for I have a tale to tell...

Unlike last time I posted on the topic of music, this time I have music which is actually good and not just personally validating to me.

I've been turned on to a site called 8BitPeoples, which seems to be a showcase of different albums made in the style of those great old tunes from 1980s-era video games, but which are entirely unique and original in composition. It hits your nostolgia button pretty hard (or at least it does if you're of my generation and roughly my demographic, I guess), while also providing an entirely fresh experience.

I have by no means had a chance to listen to all - or even a small fraction - of what's here, but of what I have listened to, my favourites are from this group: 



And in particular, this tune, http://www.8bitpeoples.com/mp3/get/543/8bp087-04-paza-teen_hipster.mp3 , which had my head bobing about rythmically, and which I've listened to about eight times since.

On an only slightly related note, there's some more music I've lately enjoyed enough for me to be willing to pay money for it.

Francine Poitras, who is apparently best-known as a singer for Cirque du Soleil, put out a solo album a while back, and among the songs on it was a cover of Hijo De La Luna, which is a song which has been covered by at least a dozen other artists already, but somehow I found her rendition to be the most hauntingly beautiful I'd ever heard. I encountered it when I was listening to Radio Canada (which is entirely French, and which thus works for me, since I don't tend to enjoy music with lyrics I can understand), and when I dicovered there was nowhere online I could download it for free (so to speak), I broke down and ordered her CD. I do not regret this; I find her stuff to be about 90% great, and worth checking out.

(sadly, her site is all flash-based, which makes direct linking to the content in quesion difficult, so just go here http://www.francinepoitras.com/ , click 'english", then "music excerpts" and finally "hijo de la luna" for a sample of the song which so entranced me)

So, this morning I saw posted in one of the many communities I'm a member of a link to a goofy christian site: 

http://www.goodpersontest.com/

It's pretty familliar material; I've seen it enough times before, in only very slightly different forms (such as in this extremely grating video by the human embodiment of the concept of smarminess; VenomFangX). I've long found it to be pretty vacuous stuff, and I've long considered writing up my response to it, but I knew that doing so would be a lengthy and not particularly rewarding experience. Fortunately, the medium of audioblogging provides me an alternative! 

Listen, enjoy, comment at will. 

People who know me well know that I am not normally one for listening to music with lyrics I can comprehend. The primary reason for which is that I never NEVER feel as though I'm the one the song is singing to or about; I can never sympathise or empathise with the lyrics, and it tends to irritate and frustrate me that the song is about concepts and experiences I don't share and wouldn't care to. 

This having been established, I have just now been SHOCKED to hear a song which sounds as familliar and as relevant to me as the beating of my own heart. I've never before felt the need to share music via this journal, but today I make an exception. I hope that you will be able to share with me this transcendant experience.