Hi there! I’m just checking in since it’s been since February since I last said hi. It was encouraging to see that some of you still come around to my blog- yippee! I have and still am super busy in real life. I’m doing tons of remodeling…still and it feels like there’s no end in sight.  I think that’s pretty common when it comes to remodeling though.  I’m taking a break from staining and polyurethaning the stairs to the master bedroom (I think I just made up a word) to post. Guess what color I stained it?  If you’ve downloaded my custom content, you should know that it was a dark coffee color!  Heehee.  The stain is actually called coffee brown and I had all the wood floors in the house stained that color. Lovely…

I’ve actually been sort of wanting to work on my next machinima project which I’ve had on my mind for a looong while.  I might have mentioned it before so forgive me if I do so again but I want to do a Sims 2 video for “Passenger Seat” by Death Cab for Cutie. Yeah, yeah, another Death Cab song but as I’ve always said I don’t pick the songs, the songs pick me.  Their music just really speaks to me on an emotional level and that’s how I listen to and respond to music.  I’ve always had such strong imagery to this song and have 2/3rds of the song conceptualized which is enough to work on it.  But, alas I have absolutely no time and I’m worried I won’t be able at all to work on it.  Oh well, wish me luck on that.  Here are some of the lyrics that make me think about the journey of life we take with our loved one:

I roll the window down
And then begin to breathe in
The darkest country road
And the strong scent of evergreen
From the passenger seat as you are driving me home…

With my feet on the dash
The world doesn’t matter.
When you feel embarrassed then I’ll be your pride
When you need directions then I’ll be the guide
For all time…

It’s a pretty simple song but incredibly meaningful (Ben Gibbard is an amazing lyricist) and I see the movie in very cool, intimate blue tones.

I’ve wanted to share some music with you but I’ve hardly been keeping up on the new music out there so for now I just have one song I absolutely love.  It’s from one of my favorite bands, The National, who just released their latest album.  Nothing close to Alligator or The Boxer which I highly recommend but High Violet is very good.  The song is called “Conversation 16″ and no one does  middle class, middle aged angst better these days than these guys (to me anyway).  Err…does this mean I’m middle aged now?  Crap, I guess so.

The National – Conversation 16 (to save, right click and save as)

I’d love to do a video for a song by The National but I have a hard time with imagery with their music.  I respond to them emotionally but their lyrics are oftentimes cryptic, very metaphorical and dare I say sometimes ugly so I have a hard time seeing clean, film-able images.

I don’t think many of you are making Sims movies anymore.  I’d love it if you remarked in your reply what you’ve been doing- i.e. still making movies, still watching movies, using different medium, engaged in a different hobby, etc.  I’d love to know since many of you quit your blogs!

So that my blog doesn’t look like a desolate warehouse, I’ve got some music for you.  You may preview them and if you like and download them by clicking on the song names (zip format).  As usual, I’ll take these songs down after a little while so I don’t have strangers leeching my bandwidth so get them while you can!

Wrapped Up – Picture Atlantic
1901 – Phoenix
Lovers Who Uncover – The Little Ones
Midnight Fires – Pilot Speed
Sant Feliu De Guixols – Jeremy Enigk

If any of the songs has piqued your interest enough into buying the album, my recommendations are as follows:

-Picture Atlantic, Kleos:  A good solid album worth getting if you can find it since it had limited distribution.  They are sort of like Coldplay so if you like them, you’ll definitely enjoy this album.

-Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix: I would say that the entire album is enjoyable and rather perky but hasn’t completely grown on me yet.  The song I posted and “Lisztomania” are the stand-outs to me.  I probably have to listen to it some more before making a final judgment but for now, I would say it’s an ok album but a must-have for you Phoenix fans.

-The Little Ones, Sing Song: Well, I don’t have the album and just this one song.  I only know a handful of songs from this band so at this point, I can’t give a recommendation.

-Pilot Speed, Wooden Bones: Pilot Speed is definitely one of my favorite bands.  If any of you remember at the end of AinD ep. 7, I used the song “Travel Song” by them (under the band name Pilate) and also created the music video “Alright” using the song by the same name.  Both songs were off their first album Caught By the Window which is hard to find now since it was an import;  I had to pay extra to get it but it’s an extraordinary album worth every penny.  If you can’t get that, they repackaged some of their songs from that album along with some new ones to an album called Into the West for distribution in the U.S. and abroad which is also excellent.  Wooden Bones is their newest release and, although not as amazing as their previous albums, is a very good solid album I’d definitely recommend.

-Jeremy Enigk, Ok Bear:  Of Sunny Day Real Estate fame, Jeremy Enigk is an extrememly talented song writer.  I’ve used his music before- the music video “One and One is One” is based on his song by the same name as well as “River to Sea” in AinD ep. 14.  Like all of his previous work, this latest album is very solid and I’d recommend it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah…I know my blog’s been broken for over a month and I’ve only finally gotten around to fixing it.  I had to contact my host because there was some technical glitch.  Anyway, the blog is back and I’ve decided to bring some gifts- i.e. music.  ‘Blech!’ some of you might say who don’t like my musical tastes but I know there are some of you out there who do enjoy it so here are some songs.  You can preview them before downloading.  To download, click on the name (files are in zipped format).   As always, I will takes these links down in a little while so snatch them up when you can.  Let me know which ones you like.

Big Bills – Flosstradamus featuring Caroline Polachek
F’ked up Kid – Broken Social Scene featuring Andrew Kenny
Train Song – Feist and Ben Gibbard
The Wrestler – Bruce Springsteen
The Broadcast – Cassettes Won’t Listen
Thanks for Your Time – Goyte
Wraith Pinned to the Mist – Of Montreal

I also have a special treat for you.  Mark Joshua from Brazil attended the Sims 3 Creator’s Camp as a news site representative and I found out that he has several songs in Simlish – yes, they are written and sung in Simlish and they are dance club mix style.  I thought it’d be fun to put some of the songs on the radio in my game and thought you might too so here’s one to download.

Bugersnot – Mark Joshua

So, I guess some of you are wondering what’s next.  I won’t go into detail right now but yes, I am in the process of writing some new scripts and would like to update and work on some more hacks.  I really don’t know when I’ll get around to ’simming’ again so don’t hold your breath- my real life has kept me preoccupied.  I haven’t even installed all the stuff packs I bought at the Creator’s Camp (they were only $10 a piece which was perfect because I wouldn’t pay more than that).  To answer your anticipated question, I bought H&M and Kitchen and Bath.  Even for just $10, I couldn’t get myself to buy the rest because they weren’t worth it to me.  Also, I took the password access off the AinD Backstage site since the series is over.  I’ll eventually get around to writing the production notes for the last episodes- I do have thoughts to share.  Tootles ’till next time.

EDIT:  Music is no longer available.

First, I wanted to let you guys know I took the radio blog down. It was causing a virus warning on some of your computers and I got tired of people emailing me or writing blog comments about there being a virus on my blog. There obviously is no malicious code on my blog and I didn’t want to deal with it anymore. So, the radio blog is no more.

Second, I wanted to comment on some of your responses to the last episode of AinD. A few of you commented that you were disappointed Emma didn’t wait until marriage to lose her virginity. I wanted to make it clear, as I have all along, that Emma refraining from sex was NOT about waiting until marriage. She doesn’t believe in waiting until marriage; none of the characters do. It was always about finding the right person and she came awfully close with Ben, her first love, but hadn’t found real love since. So, I think it’s odd to be ‘disappointed’ in her when she didn’t violate any of her beliefs by sleeping with Eli. For goodness sakes, she resisted her natural urges for so long already- she’s 29! So, good for her for sticking to her guns for this long. Goodness knows I wouldn’t- I think she’s crazy and I made up her character.

I am sitting here still waiting for my new computer. It’s supposedly being sent today so I should have it by the end of the week or early next. I’m excited because it’s been tested for a week and it’s apparently clocking in at super duper speeds. I actually am getting in the mood to work on AinD now but what’s the point of doing it on my old computer. I shall have to wait.

In the meantime, I wanted to share some of the songs from AinD with you which some of you may want. I chose one per episode and you can download the mp3s. I will take the music down though after a couple of weeks since I don’t want to get in trouble for sharing mp3s with my webhost or have strangers plunder my bandwidth looking for music. Click on the song or download them all at once below.

Ep. 1. “Frustration” – Creeper Lagoon, Cellophane
Ep. 2. “Dreams and Expectations” – Aimee Mann, It’s Not
Ep. 3. “The Barry Manilow Factor” – Idlewild, Roseability
Ep. 4. “Working Relationships” – Badly Drawn Boy, I Love N.Y.E.
Ep. 5. “Reality Check” – Elbow, Great Expectations
Ep. 6. “New Territory” – Guster, Come Downstairs and Say Hello
Ep. 7. “A Different Perspective” – Pilot Speed, The Travel Song
Ep. 8. “Signals” – Nada Surf, Paper Boats
Ep. 9. “Between Choices” – Tracy Bonham, Something Beautiful
Ep. 10. “Crossing Lines” – French Kicks, Only So Long
Ep. 11. “Searching” – Surface of Atlantic, Lights Out
Ep. 12. “Letting Go” – Buddy, Blindsides
Or you may download them all in one file here (warning, it’s a 67mb file).

Please, no requests for other songs from the series and remember, once I take them down I won’t put the links back up. I hope you enjoy them and also check out some of these awesome bands! I’d love to hear which song(s) you especially like.

EDIT: Added Poor Old Ben, In Dreams