This has been bugging me a bit. Everyone is going on about this trailer, and don’t get me wrong, it’s dizzying and eye-popping and all that.
WOW… scary, right? I totally cringe when the shuttle takes a hit. But now I know what’s been bothering me. What is it? … Read more
So I’ve been listening to the recently remastered, reissued and expanded version of the soundtrack of the Star Trek: The Next Generation two-parter The Best Of Both Worlds lately. Wonderful stuff. The original 1991 release of that soundtrack was one of the first compact discs I ever bought, even though I didn’t have a CD player at the time. What I did have was two worn-out cassettes I’d bought (because I was listening to it that much), and a job at a radio station that afforded me access to a CD player and a cassette deck that would allow me to make as many tape copies as I needed (so I could wear them out too).
In listening to the reissue, with its crisper sound, I was struck by how, if ever there was a point in ST:TNG’s normally staid musical landscape (though not by the composers’ choice) where they needed to break out of the producer-imposed box and use some blaster beam, this was it. So I tried a few subtle amendments to a few key points in the soundtrack from part one. (During the infamous cliffhanger music, however, I was a bit less than subtle. There’s nothing about that cue that’s subtle.)
Listen and enjoy!
[audio:https://www.thelogbook.com/earl/podcast/beamofbothworlds.mp3]
If you’ve been following my other music project at all, you’re in for a treat next week. Not only will the next Kasatochi release land with a resounding digitized thud on Monday, but it will be joined by a similar effort from Rhindle The Red, so you’ll be getting twice the hits-to-bits treatment that you would get on a typical Monday. (Let’s face it – Mondays suck so hard, it’s not a bad idea to call for backup.)
In both cases, both Kasatochi and Rhindle will be embarking on an interesting experiment: each release will turn an entire classic album into chiptunes, from the first track to the last, in 
the original running order. Suffice to say, if you like either of the groups in question, you’ll probably get at least a chuckle out of this. Further full-album chiptune conversions are also in the works, though how many more depends on how well these go down. Be here Monday – chances are, you already know the track listings! … Read more
Just in time for the release of Star Trek: Into Darkness, I thought it’d be fun to reach into an alternate universe and whip out a soundtrack from that mirror universe’s vastly superior library of Star Trek video games. (I make little secret of my opinion that a lot of licensed Trek games are big piles of steaming salt monster excrement.) In this other universe, virtually every movie and series has had a knockout video game based on it, with outstanding music from some of the big screen’s finest composers. Here, then, is an entire full-album-length chiptune tribute to the Star Trek universe from Kasatochi, free for download. … Read more
…and both are named Voyager. Inspired by the recent announcement that Voyager 1 is rapidly approaching starship status. (Click for larger versions that you can slather all over your desktop.)
After I did that one, I thought I’d have a bit of a giggle with it. … Read more
By the Prophets, has it really been 20 years? I remember it like it was yesterday – a contact of mine at a local TV station bringing me a fresh-off-the-satellite raw feed of the pilot episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine… just before New Year’s Eve, 1992. (Strange as it may sound, the episodes fed well in advance of the usually-over-the-weekend broadcast dates, to the tune of “at least a week”, so yes, I got to see the first episode of DS9 before 1993.) It was an awesome sight to behold. It was an intensely moving story, especially since I was 20 at the time and could relate to the sense of not-having-moved-on-from-something-really-bad-happening. It was a story that I needed to see; I suspect it was a story a lot of people needed to see. I was working in radio at the time (but was a few months away from transitioning to TV), so I was still a viewer (with inside info), although one of my last radio tasks was to interview Dennis McCarthy about the remixed version of the show’s theme. Deep Space Nine wasn’t my job yet.
… Read moreWarning: if you’re not up for reading a lot of stuff about Star Trek, the local end of broadcasting syndicated shows, and inter-office warfare, you probably don’t want to go past the jump.
I recently got a new phone (way before Black Friday, mind, so no, I haven’t taken part in any retail stampedes), the first one I’ve had where the whole thing’s basically a touchscreen. It’s ridiculously customizable as far as caller images, wallpapers, event sounds, etc., so I’ve been, as they say, geeking out.
If you’re actually in my contact list, then believe it or not, you’ve got one of these graphics with your name on it:
Hey, my cat calls me a lot. 😆 (It’s pretty quick work to apply the individual name to the basic template. I may have had some free time on my hands today, but not that much.)
I whipped up a couple of geek-a-licious animated wallpapers as well; suffice to say, they’re in the same “universe.” I’ll show them off another time.… Read more
What a long, strange couple of weekends it’s been.
Last weekend I went to Darkon in Tulsa (a first-year horror-themed event put on by the folks behind Tulsa Trek Expo), and this weekend I was at another first-time event, ComiCon-Way in Conway, Arkansas. But more than just the latest stops on my tour of nearby conventions to promote VWORP!1, these were Little E’s first conventions. Whereas previous conventions were “daddy is gone this weekend,” now he wonders what we’re going to do, and what we’re going to see, next weekend. … Read more
I’ve been talking for some time about tearing down my man-cave, only for a variety of reasons it hasn’t been happening as fast as I’d like. Today I emptied out, moved, and refilled one of the heaviest, most awkward pieces of furniture in my house, a 6+ foot tall bookshelf that my folks got for me, and my dad built for me, one Christmas in the ’80s. It matched a computer desk and printer table which are no longer with me. It’s still in one piece, reasonably attractive, and it’s damned solid. And yeah, the fact that I remember watching my dad build it while knocking back a beer and cursing a lot has something to do with it. I do the same thing with build-it-yourself furniture, minus the beer (though as I get older, and the printed instructions gradually become more incomprehensible, I have to admit that the temptation is sometimes there). … Read more
For the “about the author” photo in the back of VWORP!1, I constructed a “set” using plastic shipping crates that a local store’s been getting rid of fairly cheaply; they’re awfully handy things to have around. For lightweight items, they actually make pretty nice shelving. I threw a few knick-knacks from my vast knick-knack collection in there, set them up next to a window where I already have marquees from old arcade games set up, and boom, it looks like I live in a warehouse full of geek-a-licious relics. Which, of course, I do.
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