Gareth – Page 68 – The Designer Monologues

December 22, 2015

Ultra Christmas!

Long-time readers (from back when I actually regularly blogged) will remember my Friday Music series, where every Friday I’d give you a set of links to mp3 files of music that I thought was nifty. Sort of a “mixtape of the internet” — it ran for years, and people seemed to dig it. For a while there, when Christmas rolled around, I’d do a special collection where I’d assemble a full album of cool/obscure/weird Christmas music, complete with a custom cover, and offer it as a zipped file for download.

Well, it’s been too long, so I decided to do it again. Without further ado, here is the 2015 “Friday Music” Christmas collection: Ultra Christmas! (Click on the graphic to download the zipped file.)

Liner notes:

Track 1: Funky Little Drummer Boy, by Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings: A nice re-working of a holiday classic by my favorite Soul revival act.

Track 2: I Know What You Want For Christmas, by Kay Martin & Her Bodyguards: An early-60s titillation novelty album by singer, Playboy model and Reno, NV lodge-owner Kay Martin.

Track 3: Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), by Darlene Love: The best version of this song, ever. Nobody comes close.

Track 4: The Coventry Carol, by Alison Moyet: I’ve always loved Alison Moyet’s voice, and here she is on a very 1987 version of a 16th century carol.

Track 5: Bad Boy Christmas (feat. Richie Loop), by Bad Royale: How about some Jamaican dancehall Christmas? You’re welcome.

Track 6: Wonderful Christmastime, by The Shins: One of those instances where a cover of a song is better than the original. McCartney’s version irritates me; this one doesn’t.

Track 7: I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, by The Civil Wars: A very cool version by an Alternative Country duo I first discovered through FAR WEST (they were suggested to me by a backer).

Track 8: Green Grows the Holly, by Calexico: Another act that is on my FAR WEST playlist, doing a lovely rendition of a far-too-little-heard song.

Track 9: May Ev’ry Day Be Christmas, by Irma Thomas with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band: I’m always in awe of New Orleans’ Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and this track is no exception.

Track 10: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, by The Punch Brothers: One of my favorite “dark of the year”/haunting Christmas hymns.

Track 11: Cant Wait For Christmas (feat. Idris Elba), by Loose Tapestries: Loose Tapestries are a side project of Kasabian’s Sergio Pizzorno and surrealist comedian Noel Fielding. Here’s their take on a Christmas single, featuring some late-in-the-song rapping from Big Driis.

Track 12: La Fille du Père Noël, by Les Deuxluxes: The Jacques Dutronc original is where Bowie lifted the guitar riff from for “Jean Genie” — this is a more recent cover by an indie group from Montreal.

Track 13: God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, by Annie Lennox: What better way to close than with Ms. Lennox singing the only Christmas song to feature Satan?

Anyway, there ya go. I hope you enjoy. Merry Christmas, everybody!

November 19, 2015November 19, 2015

Insurgent Creative: The Changing Business of Webcomics.

I know, I know — it’s been ages since I’ve posted. The realities of life as a Creative: Time gets away from you as you get busy, and things need to be prioritized. The ol’ blog here has been largely ignored, as I’ve concentrated on three things: One, getting the famously-delayed FAR WEST finished. Two, working my side-gig as a Game Design teacher at the Kansas City Art Institute. And Three, EVERYTHING ELSE.

But, I saw this earlier today, and it definitely falls into the sort of information that I’ve provided here as part of the Insurgent Creative series, so here we are again.

Over on The Observer, they’ve done a four-part series about the changing business model of Webcomics — from it’s beginnings in the early days of the internet, through it’s early-2000s advertising-monetized boom, through the days of merch and T-shirts, and now, in the post-merch, social-media era. It’s definitely worth your time to read, not just if you’re interested in webcomics, but if you make a living offering any sort of creative output online. Remember: the biggest problems that various media have had in the internet age has been failure to look outside of their own silos, and learn the lessons of what other media have gone through.

So here are the articles (there are also links to all at the end of each article):

PART ONE: The Webcomics Business Is Moving On From Webcomics.

PART TWO: Patreon, Webcomics, & Getting By.

PART THREE: The Changing Internet Through Webcomics.

PART FOUR: Lessons In Creativity From Successful Webcomic Artists.

There ya go. Read. Absorb. Add the info to your arsenal.

Go forth and create.

August 31, 2015August 31, 2015

#RPGaDay2015, Day 31

We’ve reached the end of 31 days of #RPGaDay2015. I’m pleased that I managed to stay in the habit of getting regular content up on this blog (even if it required writing in batches and scheduling posts in advance). The final topic is: Favorite Non-RPG Thing To Come Out oF RPGing.

This one is going to be pretty easy for me, as the far-and-away favorite non-RPG thing to come out of my RPGing is, without a doubt, my career.

I write and design games for a living, and in recent years, I’ve added “teaching others to design games” to my career mix as well. And all because I started playing Top Secret and Dungeons & Dragons during the latter half of 1980.

It’s more than that, though — most of my friends have been met as a result of gaming (whether recreationally, or as industry colleagues), and I met my wife, Laura, when we were members of the Kansas University Gamers and Roleplayers club (KUGAR).

Not a bad result for a nerdy little hobby.

Let’s check in one last time with Dave Chapman: