8.5 hours in - TN

6.5 hours in

New WKW

Check out this article on My Blueberry Nights:

My Blueberry Nights: Nicely Told


The similarities to Chungking Express are amazing. Notice that he's using a pop star making her film debut (a la Faye Wong). A key left with a diner owner. Romance. A desire to travel. I'm sure there's more, that's just from reading the review.

MOC Doco, Part I

Today we shot the first interview footage for the upcoming MOC documentary. The documentary will cover the fun and experiences of making our first seventeen films. It will be included on a DVD release featuring those films.

Today's subject was Gabe, who did great. Next weekend, Brock. Later, Angie and I, and as many of our friends and enemies as we can round up. We'll hit the streets at some point to revisit the locations of a number of our films, and dig up all of our raw footage to show some of the behinds-the-scenes antics and movie magic.

The Peoples' Champion, Part IV

The Peoples' Champion has been officially selected by the TucsonFilm.com ShortFest for their 2007 festival. The film will screen Saturday, April 14, 7pm, at the University of Arizona's Gallagher Theater. Festival tickets are $10.

Update

So, here's what I've been working on the last week:

• John Philip Sousa Gets a Haircut - Got the project files from Bruce, did color correction, and output a nice digital master and MPEG's for DVD. It's looking very slick. Hopefully the new version will air this Wednesday on Screen Wars (if the film makes it through). If not, the final version will screen at the Phoenix Film Festival. Also got permission to include it on future MOC DVD's.
• Flim Flam - The film has largely been done for many months, but had some audio problems and the audio never got a polished mixdown. I used some new techniques (from the DV Rebel's Guide) to reprocess the color correction for better quality, fixed the audio issues, and did the final mixdown. The finished product turned out really great. As with all of our films, you never know until everything is nice and polished if you have a good film or not. It's very good, some of Brock's classic cynical comedy moments.
• The Peoples' Champion - After having a month to distance, did a few tweaks here and there and cut the digital master.
• Wildilfeless - The score is a "lamb's hair" from completion, so I've brought up the footage again and am reprocessing the color correction for better quality (the Rebel's Guide again), awaiting the audio files. All we'll need when it comes back is to record and mix in a few grunts and groans, and this film is done. It was January 2005 when Brock originally posted the screenplay on Leonard Hughes. We'll all need to celebrate this one.
• Days of Being Wrinkle Free - Reprocessing the footage, will have a final cut by the end of the week. I made the decision to find a native Chinese speaker to do the voiceover. Any suggestions on where I might find someone?
• Tim Nm, CPA - I'll get the footage reprocessing once DoBWF finishes up. I'm going to take a whole new approach to this one. I'm going to get some outside opinions on what is and is not working with this film. It needs to be drastically cut down. Particularly, the opening scene is weak, and it gets better from there, but perhaps too late to keep peoples attention, so I have to keep it snappy. So, sadly not a feature after all, but it'll be much better off for it.
• MOC DVD - We've got a nice featurette in the works for our first official DVD release. We'll go through the behinds-the-scenes action of our first seventeen films, bringing in all the outtakes, production stills, and artifacts we can dig up. Will feature new interviews with the whole crew, and we'll return to the scene of the crimes for some new on-location footage. Should be a lot of fun over the next couple months pulling it all together.

Oh, and did everyone catch these cool behinds-the-scenes pics from JPSGaH? Picture 1 - Picture 2

The 39 Best Moon Is No More Songs - Recap

From August through February, Jeremy counted down his ranking and comments on the "The 53 Moon Is No More Songs." Here is a convenient set of links to those posts:

• It's The Children That Are Hurt The Most, Part II - 1
• $545.78 - 2
• Inheritance - 3
• Business - 4
• Popularity - 5
• Come and Gone - 6
• Implode - 7
• Balance - 8
• Such Things To Such People - 9
• The Substance Of Nothing - 10
• The "Fuzzy Edge" Songs - 15-11
• The "Dangling Off The Ledge" Songs - 20-16
• The "Sitting On The Fence" Songs - 30-21
• The "Living On A Prayer" Songs - 40-31
• The "No Chance" Songs - 53-41

Now it's my turn, and I'm going to get it done in one shot. This is my Rope.

Let's start with some definition. What is a Moon Is No More song? Really, anything that involved Jeremy and I collaborating musically could be called a Moon Is No More song. Yet, bear in mind that TMINM has always been a literarily-leaning project. It's all based on narratives, and it is in the narratives that we can really start to classify the TMINM catalog. It breaks down this way:

• This Is Normal - 39 songs based on Sans Hands that Jeremy wrote in mid-2001
• Schoolyard - 9-song EP Jeremy wrote in 2002
• Twelve Brothers - 5-song EP Jeremy wrote in 2003
• Yanco, William, Officer - Unfinished concept from 2004
• Bad Larry - 3 jams beyond the scope of This Is Normal

It has become obvious that the This Is Normal 39-song 3-album concept will never come to fruition, nor should it. Successful bands tend to write at least this many songs just to produce one album. You write many, play around with them, select the best, and move forward. In retrospect it was almost TMINM's fatal flaw to get stuck on forcing the original 39, regardless of quality.

However, after This Is Normal, the situation gets significantly better and more managable. Since the narratives got shorter (and the participants more experienced), the songs were more precisely crafterd. The Schoolyard songs are generally very solid lyrically and musically (so far). Twelve Brothers is all around rather good. All of the completed songs involved from those narratives ranked very high in Jeremy's ranking, proving that those deserve to stand on their own.

The Bad Larry jams ended up cross-polinating (Anti-Global Rotation became 12 Brothers' Sunsets and Half a Loaf of Baldwin became TMINM's Pitying Bowls of Saucy Lovelessness), and Y,W,O never really got off the ground. So, that leaves us with a very specific problem to solve: the original 39 represent probably one good album, but which songs will we include? Let's take a look at Jeremy and my rankings of the original 39 only, and a combined average ranking.

This Is Normal Ranking (Jeremy)

1. 1. It's The Children That Are Hurt The Most, Part II
2. 2. 545.78
3. 3. Come And Gone
4. 4. Implode
5. 5. Such Things to Such People
6. 6. The Substance of Nothing
7. 7. Last Resort, Part I
8. 8. An Ambitious Attempt At Failure Before One's Birth
9. 9. Pity Versus Sympathy
10. 10. A Homo Sapien's Mass Of Flesh, Bone, & Muscle
11. 11. An Automobile's Mass Of Steel, Plastic, & Rubber
12. 12. Room 203, Part I
13. 13. A Good Conscience Is One You Have Yet To Find
14. 14. Pitying Bowls Of Saucy Lovelessness
15. 15. Three Fingers
16. 16. Standard Issue
17. 17. Quality Over Quantity
18. 18. La Fin, Part II
19. 19. It's The Children That Are Hurt The Most, Part I
20. 20. Allowing Oneself To Neglect Responsibility
21. 21. G.O.D.
22. 22. Last Resort, Part II
23. 23. Ghetto Gap Gay Guy
24. 24. On Account Of The Abuse
25. 25. The Gradual Progression of Loss, Part I
26. 26. A Telephone Conversation On A Cold September Morning
27. 27. A Common Path To A Common Problem
28. 28. The Root Of All Sorts Of Injurious Things
29. 29. Last Resort, Part IV
30. 30. A Thick, Wet Snow On A Cold January Morning
31. 31. A Study Of Human Possibilities Through Household Decoration
32. 32. Allowing Oneself Time For Reversible Reflection
33. 33. Driving Faster Than One Should On A Wet Road In A Thick Midnight Fog
34. 34. Moment And Moment II
35. 35. Morality
36. 36. The End, Part I
37. 37. The Gradual Progression of Loss, Part II
38. 38. Last Resort, Part III
39. 39. Room 203, Part II

This Is Normal Ranking (Josh)

1. 1. An Ambitious Attempt At Failure Before One's Birth
2. 2. An Automobile's Mass Of Steel, Plastic, & Rubber
3. 3. Pitying Bowls Of Saucy Lovelessness
4. 4. Standard Issue
5. 5. Implode
6. 6. The Substance of Nothing
7. 7. It's The Children That Are Hurt The Most, Part II
8. 8. Such Things to Such People
9. 9. 545.78
10. 10. A Good Conscience Is One You Have Yet To Find
11. 11. Room 203, Part I
12. 12. Quality Over Quantity
13. 13. Pity Versus Sympathy
14. 14. A Homo Sapien's Mass Of Flesh, Bone, & Muscle
15. 15. A Common Path To A Common Problem
16. 16. On Account Of The Abuse
17. 17. The Gradual Progression of Loss, Part I
18. 18. Allowing Oneself To Neglect Responsibility
19. 19. Ghetto Gap Gay Guy
20. 20. Three Fingers
21. 21. The Root Of All Sorts Of Injurious Things
22. 22. Come And Gone
23. 23. Last Resort, Part I
24. 24. La Fin, Part II
25. 25. It's The Children That Are Hurt The Most, Part I
26. 26. Last Resort, Part II
27. 27. A Telephone Conversation On A Cold September Morning
28. 28. G.O.D.
29. 29. The Gradual Progression of Loss, Part II
30. 30. Room 203, Part II
31. 31. Moment And Moment II
32. 32. Last Resort, Part IV
33. 33. A Thick, Wet Snow On A Cold January Morning
34. 34. A Study Of Human Possibilities Through Household Decoration
35. 35. Allowing Oneself Time For Reversible Reflection
36. 36. Driving Faster Than One Should On A Wet Road In A Thick Midnight Fog
37. 37. Morality
38. 38. The End, Part I
39. 39. Last Resort, Part III

This Is Normal Ranking (Average)

1. 1. - 4.0 - It's The Children That Are Hurt The Most, Part II
2. 2. - 4.5 - An Ambitious Attempt At Failure Before One's Birth
3. 3. - 4.5 - Implode
4. 4. - 5.5 - 545.78
5. 5. - 6.0 - The Substance of Nothing
6. 6. - 6.5 - An Automobile's Mass Of Steel, Plastic, & Rubber
7. 7. - 6.5 - Such Things to Such People
8. 8. - 8.5 - Pitying Bowls Of Saucy Lovelessness
9. 9. - 10.0 - Standard Issue
10. 10. - 11.0 - Pity Versus Sympathy
11. 11. - 11.5 - A Good Conscience Is One You Have Yet To Find
12. 12. - 11.5 - Room 203, Part I
13. 13. - 12.0 - A Homo Sapien's Mass Of Flesh, Bone, & Muscle
14. 14. - 12.5 - Come And Gone
15. 15. - 14.5 - Quality Over Quantity
16. 16. - 15.0 - Last Resort, Part I
17. 17. - 17.5 - Three Fingers
18. 18. - 19.0 - Allowing Oneself To Neglect Responsibility
19. 19. - 20.0 - On Account Of The Abuse
20. 20. - 21.0 - A Common Path To A Common Problem
21. 21. - 21.0 - The Gradual Progression of Loss, Part I
22. 22. - 21.0 - Ghetto Gap Gay Guy
23. 23. - 21.0 - La Fin, Part II
24. 24. - 22.0 - It's The Children That Are Hurt The Most, Part I
25. 25. - 24.0 - Last Resort, Part II
26. 26. - 24.5 - The Root Of All Sorts Of Injurious Things
27. 27. - 24.5 - G.O.D.
28. 28. - 26.5 - A Telephone Conversation On A Cold September Morning
29. 29. - 30.5 - Last Resort, Part IV
30. 30. A Thick, Wet Snow On A Cold January Morning
31. 31. Moment And Moment II
32. 32. A Study Of Human Possibilities Through Household Decoration
33. 33. The Gradual Progression of Loss, Part II
34. 34. Allowing Oneself Time For Reversible Reflection
35. 35. Room 203, Part II
36. 36. Driving Faster Than One Should On A Wet Road In A Thick Midnight Fog
37. 37. Morality
38. 38. The End, Part I
39. 39. Last Resort, Part III

A couple things jump out at me. There are six songs that are consensus Top 10's. Those songs are obviously in. Then, there are the songs that show our individual taste. Jeremy seems to like JLA songs much moreso than I do (Pity Versus Sympathy, Homo Sapien, Come and Gone, Last Resort 1), while I favor our odder, later work (Automobile's Mass, Saucy Lovelessness, Standard Issue). Based on the average ratings, some of each make the Top 10.

Where do we draw the line? 10 songs seems a little short. 15 seems a bit long. 12 songs is probably just right. Do we just take the Top 12 as listed? Or do we take the Top 10 and grant each person one exemption to include any song of their choice, perhaps a sentimental favorite?

Let's see what everyone thinks about the rankings and select our songs. I'll take care of putting together some monster posts on each song, with scans of the original lyric sheets, lyric changes oevr time, and full recording history. We can open it up to some constructive criticism from Brock and Gabe, tear the songs apart and put them back together again.

The 39 Best Moon Is No More Songs According to Josh

39. Last Resort, Part III
38. The End, Part I
37. Morality
36. Driving Faster Than One Should On A Wet Road In A Thick Midnight Fog
35. Allowing Oneself Time For Reversible Reflection
34. A Study Of Human Possibilities Through Household Decoration
33. A Thick, Wet Snow On A Cold January Morning
32. Last Resort, Part IV

Music was never written for this group of songs. These were the last songs on Leonard Gardner, and the band was basically drifting at the point we got to these songs (I was unemployed, Jeremy was dating, Carl was kicked out, Vin was on the prowl, and eventually I moved back to Arizona). So, we never got a fair shot at completing these songs. Nevertheless, they would have been challenging songs because they were incredibly wordy and in a free verse style. I think we originaly envisioned that musically we would probably be in a different place by the time we got to these songs, and they would fit better with a more adventurous electronic and ambient style such as Radiohead's Kid A. We just never got that far.

31. Moment And Moment II

There is a single recording of an abstract guitar riff Jeremy played that supposedly goes with this song. It was a rare occurance for Jeremy to pick up the guitar. Usually, he'd come back to this same riff, which is actually tabbed out on the back of the lyric sheet, I believe. It's not great by any means. It's only advantage over the previous songs is the fact that it has any music associated with it.

30. Room 203, Part II

This is an LG song that we actually spent some time on. It had a sort of Pablo Honey-era Radiohead type of riff going on. Unfortuately, although we were at the computer desk as we always were, this one was not recorded, though the lyric changes were written down.

29. The Gradual Progression of Loss, Part II

The lyrics to this song are identical to the lyrics to Part I. Only the music was intended to change. I wrote and personally recorded the alternate music performance for this song, but that was as far as it got. I'm not sure Jeremy ever heard me play this version in the flesh.

28. G.O.D.

This song is really at the genesis of TMINM, and actually ties together an even earlier era of recording history. This song was created based on samples recorded in the living room of my first Arizona house, in late 1999. Mike Palermo came over with a vision of a song in his head. He rotated between the drums and organ, and in a way directed my creation of a biting guitar. It was only after TMINM was founded that these recordings were dug up, assembled, and a small vocal sample from Jeremy was recorded. The resulting 45 seconds of noise certainly has sentimental value, but questionable musical value.

27. A Telephone Conversation On A Cold September Morning

This is the lowest ranked actual song from JLA. The song started out as somewhat of a picked/strummed folky song with alternating verses by Jeremy and me and ended up an annoying sequenced keyboard and drums affair that became an instant skip-ahead everytime I listened to our JLA demos. It simply illustrates that the song never really had any direction, and doesn't have a ton of potential. The lyrics don't very impactfully get across the failing relationship, but do capture the malaise involved. Malaise isn't a great thing.

26. Last Resort, Part II

This is a simple riff-based song that never had a very strong riff. The riff just sort of goes back and forth in a narrow range, and has grated on me over time. In terms of bombastic riff-based songs, this is the worst out of a numebr that we wrote. The final recorded version did have some interesting aspects to it, but in the end it leaves me cold.

25. It's The Children That Are Hurt The Most, Part I

This is one song where the first take may very well be the finest. Regardless of which version we're talking about, this songs weakness is the fact that the only riff in the song is basically four variations on E chord. Many of our songs lack for variety, but having one riff based on one chord really takes the cake. The final recorded version added some crazy drums, multi-tracked vocals, and even a solo, but it can't compensate for a weak structure and musical grounding, along with run-on lyrics without a real signature phrase. The original version shines above all for its spontenaity.

24. La Fin, Part II

This song has a simple but catchy three-chord acoustic guitar riff and is sung in French. In English, the lyrics just wouldnt' stand up, I think. Neither does our French.

23. Last Resort, Part I

Here is another song that has some interesting details, but has gotten very old with time. Jeremy told quite an interesting story about the progression and meaning of the choruses to this song. Great. We "sampled" our young cousins playing and incorporated that into the song. Cool. Beyond that, the song lacks for variety and has little in terms of melody. It rates this high due to the finer points, along with having a more adventurous baseline than some other, but all in all another very old, very annoying song.

22. Come And Gone

This is the song that started it all, and it hasn't changed much since the steamy day in July of 1999 when we wrote it. A nice start, but I've moved on long ago.

21. The Root Of All Sorts Of Injurious Things

Here is another riff-based rock song, this one more along the lines of The Rolling Stones. It rates higher than a Last Resort, Part II, for instance, because it has a more complicated riff, and when played had some interesting aspects to the interplay and coming and going on the bass and drums. The most transendant version of this song was one night with Graham joining in, and a five-man round-about of the "money money" bridge. So, while perhaps never captured in its glory, this song has potential.

20. Three Fingers

This song is most interesting for its Pedro The Lion-esque guitar line that cooncides with the vocal melody. Woah, did I say vocal melody?! Sweet. Beyond that it feels somewhat thrown together due to a poor structure where there are no clear verses and what sound like choruses are sometimes sung over the gutar chorus part, and sometimes during the guitar verse part. It feels askew.

19. Ghetto Gap Gay Guy

This is a fine, somewhat atmospheric guitar song with an interesting bit of guitar and vocal interplay towards the end. The problem is that it takes forever to get there. The verses leading up are long and entirely devoid of variety. It's just the same thing over and over again. It has potential for something interesting combining bass and drums, provided it can be tightened up.

18. Allowing Oneself To Neglect Responsibility

Also known as Heaven Express, this song is single plucked guitar sequence with a back and forth vocal between Jeremy and I. It's very interesting, but unfinished. It needs to go somewhere to close out the song, but we never figured out where. I envisioned a booming Hum-like space-rock explosion at the end, but never worked it out.

17. The Gradual Progression of Loss, Part I

Here's the original GPOL. It has a Cat Power-style guitar part, but suffers from line lengths that varies wildly. Somehow we pulled it together nicely when we played it as a band, and the song that started out with bongos and plucking transformed into a jazzy jam. Very nice.

16. On Account Of The Abuse

This song is also known the "I am ill" song. Here is a song that was really only played once, as a jam with Carl and Vin present. It has an interesting meandering guitar riff with a number of modifications throughout the song. Carl experiments on bass throughout, Vin gets random with the drums and other percussion. Jeremy does some stellar spoken word, and eventually everyone is cuing off Jeremy's words and jumping in with harmonies and chants. It was a lot of fun and provides a lot of options for what the song might become if given some time. This song is representative of the style of music that pleased me the most. There are others in this vein that are more polished and thus rank higher, but this is maximum potential to me.

15. A Common Path To A Common Problem

This is a later era song that nearly fell into the realm of our earlier songs in general style. Yet, there is something about the lyrics and melody that is so captivating to me. While I thought I had given up on this one long ago, I realized while assembling this ranking that it continued to creep up. It was stuck in my head and compared to the songs that have come thus far, I simply wanted to hear it more than any of the others.

14. A Homo Sapien's Mass Of Flesh, Bone, & Muscle

This is our original riff-rocking song. It actually has a number of parts, including the much-loved "ska" part. What it doesn't have is any verses, or a whole lot to say. It's just chorus after chorus, if you think about it.

13. Pity Versus Sympathy

This is one song that began and ended up very differently, yet both version are loved. The original had a lot of heart, the final version ended up pretty solid (and recently appeared as the cornerstone of The Peoples' Champion soundtrack). Yet, there is something mechanical and overly long about the final version. I'd like to find a middle ground where keep the heart and the listener's interest.

12. Quality Over Quantity

Come and Gone aside, this is the original TMINM song. It essentially forged our style of picked verses and strummed choruses. It lacks melody, and it ranks as high as it does because it has some very interesting and varied guitar parts, lots of potential to take the spoken word parts and melodicize them, and in a way is a song more akin to those later more adventurous songs. It's strange that in a way we ended up where we started.

11. Room 203, Part I

This is an interesting case of the variety in some of our early songs. It has sort of a jazzy feel to it. It has a simple but solid guitar part that varies at key points. It had a standout among Carl's early bass progressions as well, sort of a circular pattern that diverted from the guitar for a time only to return at a later point. Finally, when played live, it ended strong and built up in a little jazz jam. Lots of fun to play, and I haven't even mentioned all of the great lyrical points in this song.

10. A Good Conscience Is One You Have Yet To Find

It has been mentioned before that this is one of those songs that was sort of perfect from the moment we wrote it. It has a good intro and outro style, with a riff that includes some bends and a break that includes some slides. It has gourds, it has attitude, and what became a signature of our dual acoustic/electric attack. What's not to like?

9. 545.78

Musically, this is an incredibly simple song. It is just two chord in progression over and over again, with some accents during the choruses. In a comment on Jeremy's thoughts on this song, I called it the best acting that TMINM ever did. The emotion of this song was perfectly conveyed through the style, rythym, and intonation of guitar and the feeling that Jeremy put into the vocals. If there is one song that makes the TMINM album in its original incarnation, this is it.

8. Such Things to Such People

Here is another rather simple song that gets big points for emotion. It is two slightly augmented chords for the verses, and two other chords for the choruses. What makes it unique is that instead of being quiet/loud, it's subdued/intense, if that makes any sense. There is more of an urgency to the playing than a simple change in volume. It builds, and at the end of the chorus releases nicely.

7. It's The Children That Are Hurt The Most, Part II

In an attempt to improve the Part I version of this song, I came up with the riff that we used in Part II. It's always been a favorite, and, being that it lays it all on the line with regard to divorce, is something torn from the heart. It has an urgency, intensity, and realism that lacks in some other songs.

6. The Substance of Nothing

This may well be our most popular and requested song. If a hypothetical TMINM fan were to be singing a line from one of our songs, it would mostly likely be "we could make/we could make ammends/we could be/the best of false friends/the best of false friends" or a creative variant thereof. This song has a lot of parts to it. After first rearranging the song into convenient verses and choruses, tossing out much of the lyrics, we added the other lyrics back in at the back half of the song. After coming up with an original version, than a new version, we added the original as a bridge of sorts to the final song. Basically, we took every idea and put it together. This is good in a way, but the song is overly long, and not even that much to play in parts. The main riff itself is a fairly conventional progression that has been used in tons of rock songs, such as All Along The Watchtower. My thought here is to keep that feel and sound together in the bassline, but vary the guitar part a great deal in this song. Particularly of need are some tearing guitar variations during the back half of the song, to underscore the intensity of all and maintain interest so deep into the song.

5. Implode

The word urgency comes up again here. This is a very explosive and urgent song. There is a certain throbbing and writhing quality to it. The bassline is intentionally a step down from the guitar riff, which creates an interesting sound that is just off-kilter enough to disarm the listener. This song is an absolute blast to play and perform. We never quite recorded in up to its full potential. Polished up, this could easily be our most memorable and popular song.

4. Standard Issue

This is the part of my ranking that will get extremely controversial where Jeremy is concerned. Where Jeremy favors many of the JLA songs we wrote in the first couple months of our collaboration, what really excites me are the song that developed as a full band after we had more experience. These songs have a strange night music quality to them. Them exude desparation and morbidity, and I love them for it.

Standard Issue specifically, has a snaky off-timed guitar progression, with a number of unique parts. Originally the highlight of this song was Jeremy's freestyle violin solo at the end of the song. Later, Micah added some random drum stylings throughout the song that really captured the essense of the song, and I added an more intense jam at the end of the song. As of yet, the two unique aspects of this song have not yet been combined. When they are, this song will become our dark indie world-beater.

3. Pitying Bowls Of Saucy Lovelessness

This music for this song came out of a Bad Larry jam entitled Half a Loaf of Baldwin (an homage to the jams of Half Visconte also called Baldwins). It is a haunting guitar motif with a loud and messy riff explosion and then back into quiet creepiness. Combine this with an absolutely nonsensical spoken word and screamed verse repeated a number of times at varied paces and you have one of the most unique and memorable of TMINM songs.

2. An Automobile's Mass Of Steel, Plastic, & Rubber

This is a song that ranks so high for me because the music and lyrics just really came together from the first playing. Despite the lyrics being quite a rambling narrative, it somehow meshed perfectly with the guitar progression. At times it has an uplifting quality that is odds with the dark subject matter in a beautiful way. Additionally, the song got better with age as Micah came into the fold and variations of the guitar parts were developed. "Headlights/feel the headlights" is a transcendent moment for me.

1. An Ambitious Attempt At Failure Before One's Birth

This song represents the pinnacle of what it is to be in a band. This was the last song the Josh/Jer/Carl/Vin combination wrote together. After nearly a six months of playing together at least once a week, we arrive at this song. I introduce he riff and structure of the song to the band, and from the first try, Carl and Vin intuitively nail this song in a way I couldn't have imagained. The bassline and drums were a 180 from what I might have come up with on my own, but the resulting song was the best we had ever done. For these reasons, the song best represents the band as a whole at a time when we were at our individual and collective best, equal partners in forging our sound. This song has all four members fairly represented, which can't be said of many our songs.

The lyrics to this song are about suicide. Like most of the This Is Normal songs, they are based on Sans Hands, yet this song can truly be said to be culled from events that were real, current, and personal, at the time they were written and sung. Of all of our ironic song where the music and delivery was happy or excited when talking about failure, dissapointment, and death, this is the one song that really delivers on that contrast in a meaningful, not simply mocking, way.

Despite Angie's moral objections, I have to believe this is the best TMINM song ever.

The Peoples' Champion, Part III

The Peoples' Champion got some recognition at the A3F Top 20 Screening on March 1. The film placed 5th among dramas and 10th overall (among over 60 competing films). The big award was 2nd place for Acting. Good job by Gabe and Angie, the MOC newcomers Aaron, Jennifer, Matt, and Bob, and all those who composed the Champions Street Team!

The film is currently screening at undergoundfilm.org, and we'll have a neatly polished final version on DVD soon (any fine tuning suggestions, anyone?).

The Peoples' Champion, Part II

The Peoples' Champion has been selected among the Top 20 in the Almost Famous Film Festival. It will screen with the other top films on Thursday, March 1 at the AMC Arizona Center 24 theater at 7pm. Tickets available here.

The Peoples' Champion, Part I

It's about time we rundown our latest 48-hour film, The Peoples' Champion.

This was our third year in the Almost Famous Film Festival challenge. The first year we were surprised to place very high and win a number of awards. Last year, we made a much better film in all regards, but didn't place as well. It's been tough to figure out what the judges are looking for, and the competition has certainly improved as well.

I was really excited coming into the challenge, and I think everyone else was as well. We had more experience this time around, and I've upped the ante in camera and sound equipment. We have a full-time boom operator now. Gabe and Brock seemed to be doing some serious skill sharpening leading up as well. We even set up a bunch of guidelines for things we'd like to accomplish in terms of story structure, dialog, and look of the film.

We also had a couple great locations available, the Stop N' Look and Soul Invictus galleries, on Grand Ave downtown. We scouted these locations on this months' First Friday art walk, and got permission to use both free of charge.

The Stop N' Look is basically just a white art space with a super-long hallway, but it's got a lot more style than that. The art space has a big window facing the road with intricate ironwork covering it. The space is white, but it has some well-worn character to it. The hallways takes a bunch of twists and turns, with little seat groupings along the way. The first stage of the hallway is very colorful, with vertical stripes of alternating colors set off by wood stripping, and the color alternations switch up a couple times along the way. Further back and around a corner there is a long, straight stretch with gray block on one side and corrugated aluminim on the other. Earlier in the night Brock had pretty much described this hallway as his ideal vision of a location, and there it was! Highly unlikely. In the far back, a dark section of hallway with a large sliding steel door leading out to a back patio area. Basically this place was a lot of cool locations in one.

The challenge guidelines were a little late in being posted to the web site, so there was a bit of tension building up and it seemed like we were losing time. Around 7:15 I called up Jae Staats the festival founder and he gave us the rundown:

Theme

Heroism

Line of Dialog

I don't believe you.

Prop

Paper (a character must crumple it)

We really wanted to embrace the theme this time around (in past years it could be said we came up with an idea first and tried to wrap the theme into it later), so Brock began to dig into what it means to be a hero, looking up the definition. We tried to play around with what heroism could be about. It could certainly be about a super-hero, but the more interesting ideas were about people that didn't know they were heros, or people that were looked at as heros but were not. We thought about anti-heros, and people in situations where they could have been heroic, but failed to act, and how that would effect them.

The main two ideas that shook out were about a band about to call it quits that comes to realize that they are in fact heros to other people, and about an American Idol-style competition called American Hero which put hopeful, yet wofullly unprepared, normal people in harms way. The later one would have been a satire on how America sets people up as heros. In the end, the band idea "won out," but that itself is controversial.

I'm getting backlash about my undue influence on this decision. In my defense, this was the story that would fit the location we had, the location that had Brock's ideal hallway in it, and it was an idea that everyone could relate to in our collective interest in music and bands. Everything pointed to this being the film to make. (OK, in fairness everything pointed to us making a film about the game Guitar Hero, but that didn't get off the ground) On the other side, no one really made a case for the American Hero film that made it seem like anything more than an outrageous physical comedy film (Brock later revealed the satire aspect of it).

Truthfully, I would have much preferred to just have Brock and Gabe hole up in a room and emerge four hours later with a screenplay. At least then its in finished form, and there wouldn't have been anything to debate about it. Whatever came out, it would have been great, and we would have found a way to make it. If we do one of these challenges again, that's the way I would like to set it up. That way everyone else gets a few more hours of rest, and everyone just gets to do what they do well.

In any case, the main roles were Gabe as the lead singer/guitarist/songwriter Shane, Angie as bass player Haley, and Aaron Meyer as the drummer Marley. The other roles were Angie's cousing Jenifer as Laney the devoted fan, the very accomplished Bob Dolan as the club manager, and Matt Gieger as sound mixer DJ Don Dynamite. Aaron, Jenifer, Bob, and Matt were all first timers with MOC, and Aaron and Jenifer were true first timers to acting.

So, we got up in the morning and packed up both cars. The Camry got loaded with all the instruments: drums, guitars, amps, cables, mixers, etc. The Corrolla got loaded up with the filmmaking gear. Both cars were packed out. We got to the gallery and got access to the space, and were told to keep a really close eye on our cars and gear, as this wasnt' a good neighborhood. Now, I knew it wasn't a great area, but I didn't now the full extent of it. So, the rest of the day proceeded with a fair bit of paranoia about our stuff and our physical well-being.

Honestly, it didn't take all that long to get into the flow of shooting. We shot a scene with Angie and Matt, then the band and Bob, then Bob and Aaron. Eventually we worked out way to a key scene between Gabe and Jenifer, and this is where the first real tension cropped up. Jenifer had a pretty unweidly little monologue to get through, without a whole lot of preperation and experience. Even when she did get it out, it just didn't ring true, and everyone seemed to pick up on that. So, on the fly we all started pitching suggestions of different ways to convey her meaning, and it quickly devolved into confusion and frustration for everyone. It also seemed like time was slipping away, which it was, so we rushed through.

After that, we got some shots of the band members walking through these long hallways. Then, we setup the main room for the band performance. At this point it really hit us that it was still very bright out (the sun hadn't even begun to set at this point) and that it needed to be dark outside for the band performance. So, there we had rushed through some things, only to realize we had to sit around for a while. To top it off, we didn't have a lot of extras for the crowd at the club. So, we chilled at the Paisley Violin across the street sipping overpriced drinks and called around to get some people downtown. Eventually it got dark, people showed up, and we ran the camera for about five minutes and picked up everything we needed for that scene.

We packed up, cleaned up, and it felt like the night was done, it really needed to be done at that point, but we still had to shoot the opening scene of the film in a hotel room. Gabe went ahead and found the nearest Motel 6 (there were some grungier and perhaps more interesting hotels nearby, but too sketchy for Angie to deal with). We checked in and loaded up and it was like we starting all over again. At this point I know at least I was really just pushing myself physically to get through this. I could barely move, and barely had the will to do it. Really, I think everyone was very worn out at this point, and the scene we shot may play a little flat as a result.

We headed back home and edited until around 4am. We got started again around 9am and the rest of the day was pretty uneventful. We found ways to put it all together. We're pretty much solid these days in terms of production value, lighting, camerawork, sound, etc., so there were no major technical problems to overcome. We grabbed some handy TMINM music and laid that into the mix. We had to hustle on the net to find some musical instrument sound effects, since the instruments were locked up in a car we had no key to at the time, but that was the only real hiccup. We finished it, exported it, and had it on its way with lots of time to spare, which is somewhat of a contrast to previous years.

So, what do we think about the film? To me, it's one of the first films we've made that deals with real people. As I think about it, most everything else we have done has been out there in fantasy-land as far as characters go. A lot of genre expirimentation, but very little in terms of normal human characters. So, this is pretty cool to me. It's subtle. Everything else we set out to do in terms of foreshadowing, setting up and paying off, having a backstory for each character, staying tight and character focused, it's all there. It's pretty short, but effective. I think like most of our films, it's tough to watch for a while as the madness of the production recedes into memory, but it will grow with time. I'm just now really starting to enjoy some of the films we made two years ago, so it's a continuous process.

Will the judges get our style this time around? We'll have to wait and see. Results coming soom.

The 53 Best Moon Is No More Songs - It's The Children That Are Hurt The Most, Part II - 1

1. It's The Children That Are Hurt The Most, Part II

It's been a long journey to get to the top. I went back and looked: the first of these posts was on August 17th, 2006. Yep, almost 6 full months ago. Hard to believe, but true. You can get the whole list of songs at http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pk1PbUEtJKRDWSkygODiDPg.

There really isn't much more to say at this point. While it was tough to decide between the top two this one wins. The credit probably goes to the subject matter. While $545.78 has a nice emotional edge, it's false. This song rings true.

Ultimately, it is the core of the Jeffrey L. Allen CD, as we had envisioned it. It was to be the final song that wrapped everything up. Only there's no nice bow to be found. Just more anguish and therapy, on and on.

The rhymes and structure are about as solid as it gets for me. Plus, I've always wanted to put "pre-nup" into a song.

Another thing that's great about this song is it's flexibility. It works great acoustic or electric; works great with quiet or screamed vocals (or both); it works great with minimal or maximum instrumentation. It has a variety of tempo changes to keep things interesting and ends on an emotional high.

Thanks for tuning in everybody. Hope you enjoyed the songs.

So, Joshua, what's next? Ready to hit the studio? How many tracks can fit on the super album? What's in and what's out?

The 53 Best Moon Is No More Songs - $545.78 - 2

2. $545.78

I'm temporarily back in Massachusetts to sell my car. It figures, as soon as I got to Louisiana I found a buyer. Oh, well. Uncie Gary hooked me up with a US Airways buddy pass and I was on my way.

On to the next song...

I really struggled trying to rank these last few songs. Nowhere was the struggle tougher than for the top spot. Ultimately, I decided to go with my first impression and put $545.78 at number 2. This song was written during the infamous creative burst at Cape Cod where half of the William Donovan Junior songs were written in one shot. This was the best of the bunch.

The song details a pivotal turning point in the life of William Donovan Junior. His wife is murdered by an intruder while he was away. The intruder gets away with $545.78 and Mrs. Donovan Junior's wedding ring.

I don't know that the lyrics are really the best. They could probably be better. But it doesn't matter. Joshua's guitar work is fantastic. It hits the perfect balance between rock-pop, sentimentality, anguish, and release. It's hard to explain. When I listen back to it I find that it's the guitar, not the words, especially in the climax of the song, that ends up making me emotional. Unparalleled.

This song has become somewhat of a legend in my own book. After we returned from Cape Cod we sat down to make our acoustic recordings of everything we had written. When we got to this song we nailed it on the first take. I don't believe the song has ever been recorded again. In fact, for the longest time, the song wasn't even played again. Though the recording is far from "perfect" in a technical sense, it was truly perfect in the scope of this song. The music and vocals were so emotional, so true, that I knew they would never be matched again and therefore the song shouldn't be tainted by further attempts at playing it. To be honest, it wouldn't surprise me if Joshua didn't even know how to play it any more. I still stand by the original recording and believe that if this song is ever to be released, it should be this original version.

I will not record this song again. I love it too much.

The 53 Best Moon Is No More Songs - Inheritance - 3

3. Inheritance

Here is my favorite songs from 12 Brothers. Really, this song, Business, and Balance are all so close in my mind. This song gets the edge, though, for a few reasons:

1. It was the first song that I wrote for 12 Brothers. Let's face it, if this didn't go well then the rest of 12 Brothers doesn't even happen. Without this song there is no Business or Balance. That's critical. As it turns out, I was so tickled by this song that I felt the burst of inspiration and quickly was able to get the other songs written.

2. This is probably the only song where I feel I hold legitimate claim to the melody. Right from when I first started writing the lyrics I had a melody in mind. And it was a decent melody. It contained changes, it had a whole two-part chorus, fantastic! And you know what? The version that Joshua recorded is very true to my original melody.

3. The dual chorus ("AT LAST! at last... A SON! a son... that's unlike every other one") is spectacular. It jumps out at me as the type of effective technique we never would have come up with years before.

4. I love how quickly the song turns from a bright happy tale of birth to some strange twisted family drama. The music complements this change in direction perfectly.

5. The song quickly takes you through three points of view in a rather quick manner. Yet it never feels forced or awkward, and you never lose your place, so to speak. I tried the change of perspective in old the Moon Is No More songs without as much success.

6. I finally included an exitlude that worked and actually made the cut ("And all eleven walked away to bide their time for some later date").

Joshua's recording, which includes guitar, drums and vocals (and maybe some hot ash bass, I'm not sure) is great for a quick one man show. In fact, because he did such a thorough job on this demo it probably let me down a bit when the other songs he sent weren't as polished from an instrumentation perspective (guitar-only). Maybe that gives this song another artificial boost. In any case, one of the best!

We're getting so close to number #1. Can you feel the endorphins? I haven't felt this excited since I sunk a birdie at Fore Kicks. Which song do you think will be #1?

The 53 Best Moon Is No More Songs - Business - 4

4. Business

OK, let's see if I can finally finish this list off.

No surprise to see a more recent song near the top. I think both Joshua and I showed a little bit of our experience when we finally got to the 12 Brothers EP. This song is an exceptional example of that.

Some lyrical highlights for me:

- "Our mothers used to say..." The reference to mothers in the plural indicates that various women were involved in the conception of this family. And that lines up with the original story.
- "The customer's right always so stay open late but make sure you get paid." I'll never forget my moment of enlightenment when I changed the word "and" to "but."
- "All's fair in love and war between brothers at the family store." I don't remember when this part was actually written. It almost got thrown away but Joshua showed his skill and worked in. Perfect! With time I like the line more and more and it provides a great ending to the song.

I never get sick of listening to this song.

Overwhelmed 2

I was going to write this as a preface to a 53 Best Moon Is No More Songs post but it got too long so it has become it's own post.

I just want to convey that I have been extremely busy ever since the beginning of December. Molly and I are going to be leaving our cozy little home in Franklin for the next 5 months and heading down to Louisiana. We'll be assisting with the relief work that continues on down there. Once we had been there in October we knew we couldn't resist if an opportunity arose to visit for a longer period of time. The atmosphere is infectious. My final day at work is January 31st, and we'll leave on a three day drive that night.

In the meantime, we've been busy doing everything that could possibly be crammed into two months:

• Thought about selling the house (even having a realtor out twice to evaluate and compare) but that just didn't make sense in the end
• Tried renting the house to people we know, but honestly, who wants to rent for 5 months?
• Had someone in to plaster two bedrooms/bathroom, and add tile above our shower
• Painting two bedrooms/bathroom
• New faucet on our sink because it was leaking (then this morning we found out the new faucet dumped tons of water into our downstairs neighbors' closet - just the thing I need right now)
• Selling my car (which hasn't sold yet; click here to see the Cars.com listing)
• Bought a truck (2001 Nissan Frontier)
• Packing stuff
• Selling stuff on eBay, which is fun but physically and emotionally draining ... kind of
• Trying to have one last "hoo-ray" with people around here
• Watching the Patriots in the playoffs, which is very nerve-wracking this time around
• Found an apartment in Baton Rouge
• Still trying to get the lease officially signed
• Trying to plan finances for the next 5 months without any income
• Canceled unnecessary home services for while we're gone (say goodbye to the excellent Franklin home phone number we've had for the past 4 years; we'll never find a number as good as that one, it was truly a sleeper, underappreciated at first, it took time for the beauty of that number to sink in)
• Watching the Celtics stink it up on a nightly basis
• Planning a route to Baton Rouge
• Got people to help us drive to Baton Rouge
• Getting plane tickets to get the helpers back to Massachusetts (thank you, Gary)
• Putting in a change of address at the post office (but I'm still not sure what the address will be)
• Worked out a leave of absence with my job
• Trying to finish numerous projects before I leave my job
• Three theocratic parts in three weeks leading up to our leave (demonstration, highlights, and book study conducting, the last one just two days before we leave)
• First snow of the winter just hit

Whew! I can't wait, though!

If I can think of anything else (and I'm sure there's something else) I'll add it to the list.

Overwhelmed

From the beginning, Try Avoidance posts have usually been about things going on. Film production notes, vacation logs, etc. Very rarely do they stray into Josh's current mental state territory. Somehow it seems there is a lot going on lately, but very little of it has been posted. Mostly because the big project Wildlifeless has had some air of secrecy around it from the very beginning. Like it's too big and important to talk about and needs to be under wraps until it's absolutely done and ready to premiere at some big film festival. Either way, this blog is crying out for a post (Jeremy has forgotten how to count backwards), so here goes.

Right now, I'm absolutely overwhelmed. I've been like this before. There is so much to do, that it paralyzes me, and I can do absolutely nothing. I've got a clear picture of what needs to be done: promote and release NMWG's sophomore album, finish the audio for Wildlifeless, start the audio for Days of Being Wrinkle Free, do another edit pass on Tim Nm, work on an MOC DVD release, etc., etc. TMINM/12 Bros. recordings. Ha! Yet, I sit down in front of the computer so intimidated by it all that I end up just playing Conquer Club (used to be TipTop, but now on to CC). It's a sad and depressing cycle. It's joyless.

Now it's getting to the end of the year, and I look back and it doesn't feel like I've accomplished much. I'm sure I could dig around and show how I've at least made progress on things, but it seems like a lost year to me. I still can't believe I sat on NMWG's album all year. That's not only sad, but a real let down to people that depend on me. Just when they really settled in to a local touring routine and are selling CD's like never before, I can't even get the new product out the door.

Add to this that I'm in a new job and don't have any vacation time around the holidays for the first time in a long time, and I basically feel trapped. I need to get away and clear my head for a while. If I could get over some of these hurdles, things would really turn around. Once the NMWG album hits the streets, I know it's going to take off, and that'll be a real boon for the label (though it's probably too late for it to make a big dent and take 2006 into the realms of profit, unfortunately, though 2007 should be good). Wildlifeless is going to make a big splash on the festivals and Matter of Chance will really be on the map in 2007. Wrinkle Free and Tim Nm, though I don't think they have a big market, would be sentimental and artistic achievements for me at least.

There's a lot of fun ahead. I have fun just thinking about making White Bread and Filmic. It makes me happy. Thinking about those films seems more like thinking back on a good experience than anything else. Sierra Maestra seems like the right film at the right time. If all goes to plan, we'll finally take Brock on the big cross-country road trip to Boston next Fall. That should be a trip to rival the Winter 04/05 trip where so many adventures in filmmaking and music were hatched. To get to all that, I have to get through my current drudgery.

Man, I feel like if I start one new paragraph I could start ten of them. It's all empty complaining, though. I actually updated the MOC and 727 web sites last night. More work tonight. I might be getting on a roll or sorts.

The 53 Best Moon Is No More Songs - Popularity - 5

5. Popularity

Two songs in two days. What a treat!

Popularity is the highest rated (and really the only) song from the Schoolyard EP.

This was a rare song where I played a part in the musical development of the song. My part? Basically, I told Joshua to create a Pedro the Lion riff. He nailed it while maintaining his originality. It's more of a long, lumbering riff than was typical of earlier Moon Is No More songs. The length of the riff allowed for the words to wander a bit more than normal, instead of having to be crammed in tight.

As with all of the post-trilogy songs, I spent a little more time thinking about lyrical structure. To me, the words flow better, the rhymes make more sense, and there's a nice sense of inventiveness. Of note is the tone of the song. There's something happy and dark going on at the same time. It creates a beautiful balance and makes this quite different from some of our other songs.

Popularity never gets old.

The 53 Best Moon Is No More Songs - Come and Gone - 6

6. Come and Gone

I know it's been a long time since I last checked in. Things have been pretty busy with travel and other things. I'm posting this from the Refresh 06 conference in Orlando, FL.

We finally come to the first song that Joshua and I wrote together, Come and Gone. I know this story has been told before (and probably better), but anyway... I believe it was the summer of 1999. Joshua was really starting to dabble with creating and recording songs. I was staying with him for the summer, spending most of my days alone as he went off to work. I must have been running my mouth about something, saying that I could write a song in short order. Joshua made the challenge and I took him up on it.

The next day he went off to work and I went off to write. By the time he got home I had Come and Gone. He whipped together some guitar chords for it in short order and wham! Instant song.

And somehow it has stood the test of time and remains one of my favorites. It is 90 seconds of bliss. The combo of our dueling (not dualing) vocals makes up for my lack of ability. The lyrics manage to be interesting as a love song by taking a fresh look at things and presenting some different angles.

As a matter of chance, it just happened to fit perfectly into the Jeffrey L. Allen concept. It conveys this sense of on-again/off-again struggling relationship perfectly. In fact, we didn't do a thing to it, lyrically or musically to get it to fit. The final recording that we had made of this remains one of my favorite polished recordings we've done.

Wildlifeless Final Shot

At long last, we shot the final shot of Wildlifeless tonight. A simple object spinning in the air. It seems so simple, but it's held us up, if only mentally, for quite some time. By this time next week, we should have a locked picture.