Club Silicon

New domain name

Greetings all,

A new level of legitimacy! Club Silicon is now at the address www.clubsilicononline.com. Thanks to our devoted readership for your support.

-Alex

Legend Update

I promised another Legend update and here it is. At the moment I've rekindled my ties with Bryan Rudge, who I've written music with for the past ten years or so. He insists that he drags my kind of talent down, but it was once predicted by one of the greatest composers I know (Andrew Sega aka "Necros") that Sirrus (Bryan's "handle" in the MOD scene old days) would be a great artist one day. That day will soon come.

Bryan and I wrote an album under the band name "Era's End" about five years ago that was close to being published by Warner, but the company that was acting as our representation went bankrupt. This wasn't surprising considering that their offices were in Beverly Hills and they spared no expense at anything while most of their content was trash. Mars Lasar, who has worked with artists such as Seal, also was signed with this company (XSIV Music) and was due to release several albums, but he also got the short end of the stick and I finally met him later, where we shared a laugh about our previous solo efforts.

Enough of the side trip. Back to business. Bryan will be using a Yamaha EX5 keyboard and Nuendo to put some finishing touches on a group of songs we've identified, and I'm going into the Midway studio at night to also work on a group of songs. The next step is to put actual instrumentalists and vocalists to perform the music. We'll be requiring the services of a guitarist, a percussionist, and a male and female singer (Tenor and Soprano, respectively). We'll put up a website with a few demos to whet appetites and I will be using my now fairly extensive record industry contacts to drum up marketing, but we'll be publishing ourselves through CD Baby, possibly Amazon as well, just as Andy Sega does with his Alpha Conspiracy albums.

The plan is to release an eponymous album in mid to late 2007. Tomorrow I'll be heading back into the studio to work a bit more after a month long hiatus due to holidays and family care. Anyone interested in providing the "real" music part of this effort definitely contact me.

Podcast Voice #1: The Griptonite Session

One of my oldest surviving friends is Jason Emery, though we don't talk much these days he was the reason I entered the game industry, so he'll of course show up in "Heroes" (not to be confused with the great NBC series of the same name) later. I had a penchant for recording everything, and some of the funniest things I recorded were gameplay sessions (on PC, NES, etc..) with Jason.

I'll go into more detail in the Heroes post but briefly, Jason was and is a truly gifted programmer. He was in the leagues of such greats as John Carmack and Tim Sweeney, and not because he wrote a ground breaking 3d renderer, but because he had the best imagination of just about anyone I'd met. Writing complex board and paper games when other kids were collecting G.I. Joes and Garbage Pail Kids, this guy now works at Griptonite Games; a subsidiary of Amaze Entertainment (who just joined Foundation 9). He was the lead programmer of Lego Star Wars for the GBA among a handful of other successful GBA and DS titles.

My second orchestral recording session took place at Bastyr University Chapel last year for "Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows" and on the way up I visited him. This is the most recent in a long line of recordings, the best of which I plan to actually edit together in a more entertaining, shorter podcast. This one is rather tame but at least you get some insight into what was happening at Griptonite at the time along with the occasionally funny banter between myself and Mr. Emery. Enjoy!

Download JandAGriptonite.mp3 

Therapy for a midlife crisis

I have a redo the "Intangibles" title for white so in the meantime a simple category assignment in Typepad will suffice. Check the menu bar to the left to see all the Intangibles.

There comes a time in a person (man or woman)'s life when they realize that they serve others far more than they serve themselves. At that point a number of things happen, and one of the most general behaviors that take place is that person forgets how to have fun themselves.

This doesn't mean they don't experience joy. Joy with their own children, watching them grow, joy at others' happy experiences. But their own life is but one small reward after another that is perhaps a small amount of time on their own, which is usually only spent to recuperate from the servitude of others, whether it is a full time job spent in an office or raising children.

Oftentimes hope for one's personal goals vanish during this period, and when children grow old enough to mange themselves far more and time becomes more available, a midlife crisis erupts, in which this person realizes their time has come at last. For men, it can mean hair replacement and a new car. For women, decorating a house, getting into a more social environment such as dancing any number of groups. The adult is free at last in their own limited way, but at least there is freedom.

This is an illusion. There is always freedom, it just must be measured as a value and placed into one's daily life. I think this is why one of the most stern recommendations by other parents when we had our children was to "get a babysitter", which has happened only twice in three years here in San Diego. It's a good recommendation. Find the time to spend for yourself, not doing things for others, when the time is available, even if you are at work. Responsibility of course must be in consideration first, but not to the exclusion of the self.

Self reflection and action is what will stop a midlife crisis, whether it means a babysitter or just plain getting out into the world and exploring; meeting people and going new places.

Unreal Anthology released

This is pretty huge. Yes, the post will be huge. So get your favorite drink, start a nice comfy playlist on your PC, sit back and enjoy the ride.

The biggest announcement is thanks to Steve Allison, Randy Severin, Tom McClure, Mark Rein, Jay Wilbur, Drew Rydberg and last but not least Mike Larson, the Unreal Anthology "Greatest Hits" music CD is a reality.

It ships with "Unreal Anthology", a collection of the most major Unreal titles ever released, and included is music from yours truly, Andrew Sega, Peter Hajba, Michiel Van Den Bos, and Kevin Reipl, who recently completed "Gears of War".

Fans have been asking for this for years and at last they have it. This phase of Unreal is closed and closed well. After eight years, I have to say my involvement with the "Unreal" universe has been one of the most rewarding and enjoyable experiences I've ever had.

Next up? Did I mention I'm writing articles for Mix magazine under the column name "AudioNext"? Primarily about games, it will also feature other new tech such as cell phones, satellite radio, and more silly things like the upcoming Zune vs. iPod debate.

After that there's a pending interview with Jun Funahashi and Club Kukeiha, who did music for most of the original Castlevania games (actually 1-3, so that's all of them). Jun says he'll try to contact Miki Higashino (Gradius) also, so if I can score that one as well it'll mark the next best Japanese interview I've ever had (next to Tanaka-san).

Right now I'm sitting on the floor next to our television watching some of Jeanette's home movies from when she was sixteen or so. I'm sitting here doing the update because our router is on the fritz and I'm hooked up via ethernet rather than wireless. Fun, but at least I get to catch up with my wife's earlier years and her family life. Honestly her roots are about as all American Norman Rockwell as you can get. Even their family problems might come from a Readers Digest. Those aren't insults, I'm flabbergasted at how much her family has defined a typical American household and lifestyle. Neilsen should be banging down their door! Every time I visit it's not just a vacation, it's an escape from my frantic way of life to the point where, while I'm there, I wish I could be like that. Then I leave and say "eh, nah...maybe a bit, but not too much." There's a piece within all of us exemplified by the Eby way. 

I'm also listening to a stirring baby boy: Conner. Why am I the one with the baby monitor tonight? On to the bad news: Jeanette has had a fever since Tuesday night. We're going in to Urgent Care tomorrow for a second visit. First, after over an hour of waiting (yeah, "Urgent", sure) the doc told Jeanette it was a virus that she should just let run its course and to come in Monday if it hadn't abated. They gave her vicodin to ease the pain, which has helped greatly but when she sleeps the fever zooms back up and doesn't subside until she takes another vicodin. Three days of this, fine, but six? Not good. I've been taking care of the boys in the meantime and have learned a new meaning to the word "respect" (I can't claim credit for that, I first heard it from my boss, Michael Gottlieb, whose grandfather invented the pinball machine). We got mommy roses today and prayed for her getting well soon, as the boys really miss her and I know she's tortured being away from them, especially innocent and ignorant six month old Conner. When he's tired he hates looking at her and not being able to eat and cuddle, so I keep our mommy visits short so they don't get too confused. Nicholas understands I think. Through it all I've bonded with my sons more than I thought possible with my limited "guy" imagination. It's been great, despite the extreme stress of dealing with two boys when one might drown if you take your eyes off him for a second in the bathtub and the other is removing his pants and running around the house with bits of urine dripping all over the floor.

For a guy who thought his whole life would all be about being obsessed with women and video games, I'm glad my life changed (though certainly not 100%, to be sure). I love my wife and I love my kids. I sure hope the fever ends tomorrow.

To conclude my parents will be visiting for Christmas! We're very much looking forward to it. Sadly while we wanted my aunt to visit also she can't travel on holidays with the travel discount packages she has, so we've invited her down around New Years if she can make it. Amama and Papa (as my parents are known to the boys) will get to see Nicholas tearing around the house in the tractor they had Conner get him for Christmas last year, and see Conner most likely crawling a little, since he started rocking a few days ago.

How is THAT for an update? As a postscript, for you 80s music fans, someone send me a copy of Michael McDonald's "Sweet Freedom" from the movie "Running Scared". It is a quintissential vacation / sunshine / full of cheese song. Gotta have it.

Next post will be about Legend and where we're at.