Originally published at shanesemler.com. You can comment here or there.
When science fiction ceases to be about the future and attempts to be “relevant” to the present, it ceases to be relevant at all.
- Sci-fi and Relevance
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shanesemler- January 7th, 2007
- The Seniority of Assholes
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- shanesemler
- December 4th, 2006
Originally published at shanesemler.com. You can comment here or there.
On the internet there is a Seniority of Assholes. If you’ve been around long enough, communities grant someone the privilege to be a total asshole. And they will defend Senior Assholes to the death. Senior Assholes believe that because of their precieved help to some community or other, they have not only the privilege but the right to be an asshole and will exercise that right any chance they get. I have zero respect for that “rule” or those people and their communities. Maybe that is simply the way groups of people work so I guess that’s why I don’t get along in groups very much.
- Rasputina
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- shanesemler
- September 19th, 2006
Originally published at shanesemler.com. You can comment here or there.
I love them! I have a couple of (legal) mp3s of songs off of A Radical Recital and I want the rest of the album bad! No, I need it!
In other news, it appears I can cross-post to LiveJournal once again. Cool!
- RE: Hey
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- shanesemler
- May 7th, 2006
Originally published at shanesemler.com. You can comment here or there.
The following is my response to a message I got asking about progress on my album:
Hi! It’s good to hear from you. Atm, it’s not going at all. I’m sort of fighting with myself on the direction of the music. I don’t want it to be an Industrial album. I don’t think most the tracks I have fit into that genre anyway. The two big influences I have are 90’s-Industrial/Coldwave and Stoner/Doom/70’s Metal and I’m attempting to combine them. A couple of the tracks sort of get there. The thing is, they don’t fit into any genre. I’ve found that many people, especially those into a “scene” or specific genre are more close-minded than those who are not about things that don’t fit neatly into the sound they like. Everything is about fitting in somewhere. When someone tells me my music or art is unique, I tend to be skeptical of it being a compliment. Other than myself, I have serious doubts anyone will like it much.
I lose interest in Gothic/Industrial people with their twisted obsesesions with BDSM, blood and nihilistic attitudes more and more. I think it’s quite disgusting to be honest. Maybe I’m getting conservative in my old age or maybe just more sensible. I don’t mind a little twist of darkness but to obsess over it, that’s not healthy. I like the best of the music but the people and the most excessive of it’s related imagry doesn’t interest me. I just don’t see how me or my music fits in. I guess the bit of Romanticism that makes it way into Goth is appeals to me, that and the anachronistic pieces that make it’s way into the fashions. The aural experiance (not the attitude) of Industrial appeals to me. The best of Industrial is an amazing sonic feast. Romance and the immersive experience - that is what I like about Goth and Industrial. I can do without the rest.
I’d love to share my music with people, I just don’t think it’s what anyone wants. And I don’t know if I want anything to do with people who might want it. You might take this as a personal attack because of the nature of your art and your interests - it’s not. This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while now. I don’t know what to do now. I guess the only thing I can do is to make the album I want to hear and try not to think about the rest.
- Second Life RPers
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- shanesemler
- May 1st, 2006
Originally published at shanesemler.com. You can comment here or there.
Is it just me or are the RPers in sl even more fucked up and insane than other games online? I swear, they are all batshit, fruitcake with nuts crazy.
- Shadowjack News
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- shanesemler
- March 24th, 2006
I'm getting ready to record my semi-live musical video podcast. I figured out a way to do it using only one computer. I have to practice the songs some more and get a few other technical details hammered out but it's not that far off at this point. However, I do need to make a Shadowjack website. It won't be anything terribly fancy. Also, I now have 6 songs 100% complete for the new album "Sidereal."
In other news I'm fucking sick of motherfucking comment spammers! I might just turn off comments since hardly anyone comments anyway. Before I do that though, I'm going to try a WordPress plugin that requires people to input a number from one of those funky graphic thingies. I know it's annoying but the tons of spam I'm getting is more annoying.
- I was wrong
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- shanesemler
- March 17th, 2006
I thought that salespeople were the lowest form of life next to lawyers. I was wrong - spammers are. Spammers are sort of like sales people, except spammers don't care about what they are selling. In fact, spammers don't even care if they sell whatever it is they are selling. Many are outright scammers. At least the old fashioned kind of salespeople had the guts to knock on your door and bug you face to face. Spammers are the lowest form of life on the planet. They don't even deserve the word "spam," it's an insult to fatty, salty processed meat.
No matter how bad I feel, I can at least say to myself, "it could be worse, I could be a spammer!"
- eBay - Waste of Time and Money
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- shanesemler
- March 7th, 2006
Listing my painting "Thirsty Wold Finds Tea" was a big waste of time and money. These people are high if they think they're going to get one of my paintings for $40. I put roughy 10 to 20 hours into each piece. For example, if I had sold "Thirsty Wolf" for $40 and I estimate I spent around 15 hours or so on it - that would be like $1.33 an hour. Fuck that. It's not worth it. It's worth more hanging up on the wall behind my computer monitor.
- Hollywood is Doomed
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- shanesemler
- March 7th, 2006
When I saw the Oscars over the weekend, I thought âœwow, this is lame.â And apparently, Iâ™m not alone. Mainstream journalists pointed out Jon Stewart was the best part of the show and the these Hollywood celebrities are way out of touch. I have to agree. Despite Stewartâ™s valiant efforts, the show was more like a funeral service than a glitzy celebration of movies. And the acceptance speeches were as stiff and wooden as a corpse laid out on a slab. Reese Withspoonâ™s acceptance speech was nauseatingly fake and obviously practiced. This is not what we want or care about from movies.
I donâ™t give two shits about Crash or what ever the âœimportantâ movie du jour is. The movies I saw and liked were totally snubbed â“ King Kong, Batman Begins, Mirrormask and â¦The Goblet of Fire. Yep, Iâ™m a geek and you know what, weâ™re the only ones who even care about movies anymore. They ignore us and yet Hollywood canâ™t figure out why no one is buying tickets.
Anyway, back to the awards show. They kept showing montages over and over again of Hollywood classics. I couldnâ™t help but think I was watching some old geezer getting out his photo album to say âœlook how cool I was in my prime!â And speaking of living in the past - the pres of the Academy blathered on about how great movies are in the theater and that no one will ever want to watch movies at home. Wow, didnâ™t anyone tell him, TVs came out in the middle of the last century? Once Apple gets around to fully launching their movie download service and set-top media box, movie theaters will die. And you know what, most people wonâ™t care.
The movie industry, as it is today, is doomed.
- Musicians...
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- shanesemler
- February 27th, 2006
...are assholes. Generally speaking. I mean, you always hear about what total pricks rock musicians are. Like many stereotypes, there's a little grain of truth. Well, in the case of musicians, it's a big fucking boulder.
- (no subject)
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- shanesemler
- December 29th, 2005
sick
I'm beginning to feel like a Luddite. I'm becoming more and more disgusted with digital art. I had a short debate with an Iron Maiden fan in which I commented that the only reason Maiden was so popular was because of the cool artwork that illustrator Derek Riggs did for so many of their album covers. I did a Google search to see if he is still around and working and cooler than cool, he is!
My excitement was quickly replaced with a sinking sensation â“ he doesn't work traditionally anymore, he's gone digital. I'm sorry to say, I think his digital work is sterile and totally lacking feeling and character. And this is the way a lot of digital art is. In my own work, I've always tried to avoid the sterile aspect that so much digital art has, with mixed results. I've been screwing around with digital art since high school. I majored in computer art in college. You know what? I've only ever produced one digital piece that I think is any good â“ ironically, no one else ever seemed to like it. It's a piece titled âœSoldier,â you can see it in my personal website gallery if you're interested.
Anyway, the point is, I think it's sad a great illustrator like Riggs gave up traditional media for digital. The worst part is, it didn't enhance his work at all. It hurt it. Now it looks like any of the Poser/Bryce disasters you can see on a daily basis on a website like DeviantArt, as opposed to looking like the work of a seasoned professional illustrator.
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In other news, I'm terribly sick with a cold.
- King Kong
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- shanesemler
- December 20th, 2005
I'm not going to type up a lengthy review. I'm just going to say I loved it. I love the original King Kong but I think Jackson pulled off a rare feat, he made a remake that is better than the original. The best thing of all about 2005 Kong - not a drop of post-modern irony. No campy wink-wink, nudge-nudge moments. You can tell Jackson & Co. are not the spawn of Hollywood, they are the heirs of Hollywood.
Naomi Watts had the hardest role in the film and she pulled it off brilliantly. She is a real movie star and I mean that in the best sense of the word. Jack Black was no slouch either. His Carl Denham was one of the most complex and realistic (yes, you read that right) villains I've ever seen in a movie. He's likable and you want to see him succeed but at the same time, you know that what he's doing is selfish and greedy. He gets people killed and he spins the whole thing in his mind to sluff off responsibility. In a lesser movie, Denham would have seen the error of his ways and done the âœright thingâ in the end. Thankfully, he never gets cuddly and he never loses his edge.
That's actually what makes this movie unusual, the characters are very consistent. That's not to say they don't grow but none of them ever do anything that is out of character. That's not to say what they do is logical but it makes sense for who they are. That's a rare thing in Hollywood movies these days when every âœheroicâ character makes the PC choice and the villains die a horrible death. It's a truthful movie, it's a sincere movie and that is a rare thing in any genre of film.
- Denial
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- shanesemler
- December 3rd, 2005
We don't want to acknowledge our darker personality traits, we never think of ourselves as bad guys - even when we do bad things. What we feel inside really doesn't matter though, it's our actions that define who we are to the rest of the world. It amazes me how people (me included) lie to themselves constantly. Sometimes I think the human race is doomed to spend eternity in denial.
- The Path of Least Resistance
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- shanesemler
- November 26th, 2005
We are at a critical juncture in human history. Science and technology have been the driving force for change for the last 200 years. In some cases, they've made more problems than they have solved. However, I do believe that science and technology can save us. It's a race now â“ will the world descend back into another dark age ruled by religion and superstition? Will the environment support the burden we've put on it long enough for our technology to advance past the point where it can exist without the heavy impact. Will science and technology finally live up to it's promise to really make things better for all of humanity? I don't think society can deal with the constant upheaval that technology and science have instigated for very much longer. Something has to give. I believe that that something is the choice between devolving backwards or advancing forward â“ humanity, like electricity trying to find a circuit, will take the path of least resistance. The next 20 years will reveal which it will be.
