Soooo I just got this Google Wave invite. Next step should be figuring out what Google Wave is, no?

It's a N00 Day is coming out on December 17th.

The Preview is coming out December 22nd.

Those dates are concrete, and NOT changing for ANYTHING.

For all my creative types, you ever get writer's block so bad it drives you insane? That's what I'm going through right now. This isn't my first slump; most people will tell you I'm more known for being in slumps than out of them. But I've got ideas swimming around in my head and they just won't come out, and it's driving me CRAZY!

With all the stuff I was supposed to do, this dilemma doesn't help me at all.

If you'll forgive a little shameless promo, I just did an interview with The Sweet Lyfe Blog, check it out!

link!

FUN FACT: The guitar I was (poorly) playing in that pictured belongs - or at least, belonged - to Pete Berkman of Anamanaguchi.

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In other news, I have a MASSIVE headache. I may have to stay in bed for a few days. Groan.

This may very well be the coolest Halloween costume I have ever seen:

It's Urbanizm Music's 5th birthday, and as a result I wanna celebrate it all month long (mostly because I didn't realize this fact until it was too late to plan anything...but let's not let the facts get in the way of a good story.)

Celebration started last night with Josh Morse's Sonata of the Damned project hitting OC ReMix. Other fun times in November will include:

-The end of Noodle's "Ride Wit Me" contest - any remixers on my flist are encouraged to submit!
-First Thought, the third single from The Preview, is gonna drop in a week or so, and the whole album will (hopefully) follow suit.
-And a couple more goodies. :)

</shameless-plug>

Most people lose a lot of weight when they're sick. Not me, apparently.

I have a LOT of catching up to do now. :(

It seems, much to my chagrin, that my dreams of destroying my computer upon replacing it will not be coming true...at least not for the time being.

It seems that the old computer still has some usefulness, at least until NiCOLE properly acclimates to her new surroundings.

Yeah, I named my new computer NiCOLE (funky capitalization). There's actually a funny story behind it; remind me to tell it someday.

So, today was my 25th birthday.

No matter now many "breaks" I take from my LJ, I always make it a point to post on my birthday, so I can remember what aims I set for myself on the previous bday, and see if I met them. I don't think I met any of the goals I set last year, as this has been a year I'd rather forget.

I still have a set of goals I want to set, but I'm not gonna be all "I'm gonna do this, that, and the other thing by the time I turn 26" about it. Some of these goals include:

-Get a decent job
-Release an album (The Preview is almost done!)
-Get an apartment

Those are the main ones; let's see how everything plays out.

I just removed from my closet, all the items from the "baggy clothes" phase of my early teens. I can only imagine how ridiculous I looked back in the day...I don't even think MC Hammer has pants this big. D:

Well, I hope The Salvation Army can find some large human being to give these clothes I wore when I was 130 pounds of nothin'.

So as I've posted about in the past, Noodle's working on his album It's a N00 Day...which was supposed to be available Tuesday but that's not happening unfortunately. Anyway, he and I have decided to put on a remix contest for one of the album's tracks, entitled "Ride Wit Me." Here's some info for those on my flist who might be interested in participating:

ATTENTION PRODUCERS, DJs, AND REMIXERS: Urbanizm Music wants to hear your remix of Noodle the Innocent Child's "Ride Wit Me." The 5 best submissions will appear on a special EP presented by Urbanizm Music, with the very best submission appearing on the Urbanizm Music website, the Urbanizm Music and Noodle the Innocent Child official MySpace profiles, and the iTunes release of Noodle's upcoming album It's a N00 Day. Additionally, the 5 best submissions will all receive iTunes gift cards!

The selected tracks will receive the benefit of the full weight of Urbanizm Music promotion. This is not only a great opportunity to remix a great performance off of It's a N00 Day, it's also an opportunity for aspiring producers, remixers, and DJs to get exposure for their often-underappreciated work. Good luck to all entrants!

More in-depth info is available on the project website. So now you know I haven't been slacking off!

I don't know if anyone on my flist saw Kanye's latest rant at last night's VMAs; if not, here it is: http://www.mtv.com/videos/misc/435995/taylor-swift-wins-best-female-video.jhtml#id=1620605

Now, I don't think it's a secret that I don't like Kanye West - I never have, and it's for reasons like this. Despite his blatant display of assholery (is that a word? it is now.), does it really give people carte blanche to drop N-bombs?



I mean seriously, if people really wanted to let out their closeted racist feelings, I'm sure The Barack is gonna be having a speech soon.

Y'know, I don't think college is gonna be happening. Blasted student loans. =(

I didn't even realize I let a week pass by without posting. Been pretty busy though:

As I've said a bunch of times, I have been working on getting The Preview finished up and released to the public. Originally carrying a release date of September 1 (my brother's birthday), it will now be released "whenever the hell it's done" (which honestly may not be long after.

My mom is training for her CDA credential. It involves a lot of typing, buying materials, and makin' copies, so I'm helping as best as I can.

I found my sister on Facebook...which apparently she'd just made, hence me not being able to find her before. I also finally got to see my niece after two years!



Cutie supreme if you ask me, but I'm a little biased.

And as of last night, SonicSkillz.com is back! Well, sorta. I spent much of the early morning only-weirdos-are-awake-at-this-time hour adding some stuff to it. Over the next few days and weeks will come a new bio and some of my older songs (there would also be some new ones but my computer is dying a slow and AGGRAVATING death). Perhaps I'll even make YouTube vids of my songs, as many of my contemporaries are doing.

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BTW, this computer shut down right in the middle of me doing this entry, as it often does when I'm in the middle of something important. Mark my words, as soon as I buy a new one, this piece of garbage is getting thrown off a bridge.

Got this from hillarygayle. Using songs by ONE artist, answer the following questions. I picked Skyzoo since he's one of my favorite performers and his official debut album is (finally!) coming out on September 29th. BTW, this was a LOT harder than I thought it'd be.

Here we go:


1. Are you a male or female?
That Dude

2. How do you feel:
So Close

3. Describe where you currently live:
Ghetto America

4. If you could go anywhere, where would you go?
All Over the World

5. Your favorite form of transportation:
The Chase is On

6. Your best friend is:
Mirror Mirror

7. What's the weather like?
On Fire

8. Favorite time of day:
When I Rhyme

9. If your life was a TV show, what would it be called?
The Bodega

10. What is life to you?
Appreciation

11. Your fear:
They Don't Want It

12. What is the best advice you have to give?
Get it Done

13. Thought for the day:
Never Sleep

14. How I would like to die:
Left 4 Dead

15. My soul's present condition:
The Beautiful Decay

16. My motto:
Stop Fooling Yourself

Okay, so it's approx. 3am and I am WIDE AWAKE. Why, you may ask? I have no earthly idea. I was tired a couple hours ago, but now... *shrug*

I've tried to make this night of unrest a productive one. I threw together a new rap beat - a sampled track a la Cookin' Soul (my apologies if that link doesn't work, I'm typing this from my phone), and I finally got to check the newspaper to see if anywhere's hiring...a couple prospects which, if I don't sleep all day, I'll have to follow up on in the morning. And I've also updated my journal! So I guess insomnia can yield benefits.

BTW, I think I took care of all the typos. If I missed any, cut me some slack...it's 3 in the morning, I had a LONG day and I'm typing this on a cell phone.

I just listened to the tracks for The Preview, and it's pretty awesome. It's got the old school boom-bap sound I grew up on, and I'm glad it's near release...cuz putting it together was a pain in the ass. A labor of love, I guess you can say. So hopefully it will be out around the end of this month with a pretty reasonable price tag (it's free!).

Those are the names of the albums I've been working on, and also the three demons that are driving me nuts. The Preview is an Urbanizm collaborative album formerly known as Party Favors (thanks go out to endblink for convincing me to change the name; BTW we should get some work finished up with that cover if you have time). This is the one that's been giving me the most stress just because I've been working on it the longest. All the tracks are done now, so it will probably be out in the next couple of weeks. I've been trying to release "singles" to generate a little buzz for it, but I wasn't able to promote the second single, Memories, properly, cuz of the incident with my mom -- wait, I don't think I wrote about that. My bad. My mom had a stroke. She's on the mend now, but naturally my attention was diverted from album stuffs.

The Future is an album I've been working on with Khakolak Boy. This one hasn't been as hard to put together as The Preview because KB is pretty self-sufficient (he handles the recording/mixing/mastering himself, as well as many of the beetz), but it's just hard to get him to remember and adhere to deadlines. I know I'm probably the last guy who should get on everybody for procrastinating, but our tentative release date of August 25 is not far away at all.

It's a N00 Day is Noodle the Innocent Child's debut album. I wasn't involved in this project from a musical standpoint, but I've been playing the role of Noodle's manager as well as coming up with promo and marketing ideas for the album; neither one is my forte as of yet, but I'm trying.

And apart from those projects, I have a vg arrangement project that I've been working on in my spare time, and am also trying to get UrbanizmMusic.com back up and running. *sigh* LOTS of work to do...

If I do a Michael Jackson tribute album, will I be looked at as some starving artist that's capitalizing off the man's death?

I mean, I'll probably do it anyway (to hell with what *they* think), but I don't just wanna come off as some kinda opportunist. MJ was a big personal influence whose death has affected me more than I've cared to comment about, and I wanna pay adequate tribute to him. I mean, that's the same reason I remix people's songs and arrange video game music.

I guess the quality of said project will determine how it (and I) am received.

Oh that's easy:

Hottest day of the summer of '03. I'm working in a restaurant where everything NEEDED to stay refrigerated. And by a magnificent stroke of (bad) luck, the power goes out! Fun times.