Another good news/bad news posting.  Our podcast feed is back online.

But while we were fixing that, there is one less person working in the lab.  Bobby “Boris” Pickett died yesterday.  Long live Boris and “The Monster Mash.” 

My first memory of “The Monster Mash” might make you laugh.  And maybe it should.  I was about five or six years old.   One Saturday morning, the day’s joyful shockwave of cartoons had played out.  I was basically flipping channels and landed on KNTV-11, one of the local stations in San Jose.  The screen was dark.  A single beige rectangle framed an antique gramaphone.  Then a guy in a gorilla suit stepped into view.  A sensitive and sheltered child, I feared for that gramaphone’s safety.  But the gorilla put the needle down on the record.  And to my innocent horror, the gorilla started dancing to “The Monster Mash.” 

It was the opening for a monster movie show.  I don’t remember what it was called.  It scared the bejeezus outta five-year-old me.  And it just seems funny now.

When Halloween comes around, raise a glass to Boris and tell ’em Gorey sent you.

We have a good news/bad news entry this time.   The good news:  We have a one-minute promo for Volume 3.

The bad news:  We’re experiencing technical difficulties.  The Afterhell website is still live, but our updated pages and links including the podcast feed aren’t behaving.

But while we’re banging on that problem, you can still hear the promo.  You can go to our MySpace page, click on the promo, and listen to the stream.  (Come to think, did we ever mention our MySpace page?  I mean, if you’re reading this on MySpace, mentioning it there would’ve been pointless, wouldn’t it?  But if you’re reading this from our website or the LiveJournal feed….  Okay, I’m confused and tired and my wrist is still smarting from that lame-a$$ spill I took days ago…  Come to think, did I ever mention that?  I’m not pain-killers, I swear.  Wait, where was I? )

If streaming on MySpace doesn’t work for you, we have a very enthustiastic friend coming to everyone’s aid.  Dani Cutler, she of the Truth Seekers, has a copy for download on the SFF Audio website and her own Sonic Society fansite.

Meanwhile, technical difficulties to fix.  Off we go.

So, um… beeeeeeeep.

…late one Saturday night, she who is

ayeshalan

and I became an item. We got engaged a month later and were married two years after that.

These last few days, especially this day in this year, have been sad ones. And this choice is especially, unexpectedly, bitterly fitting.

But here we are, left to make the best of it.

“And So It Goes”
written by Billy Joel
Storm Front (1989)

In every heart there is a room
A sanctuary safe and strong
To heal the wounds from lovers past
Until a new one comes along

I spoke to you in cautious tones
You answered me with no pretense
And still I feel I said too much
My silence is my self defense

And every time I’ve held a rose
It seems I only felt the thorns
And so it goes, and so it goes
And so will you soon I suppose

But if my silence made you leave
Then that would be my worst mistake
So I will share this room with you
And you can have this heart to break

And this is why my eyes are closed
It’s just as well for all I’ve seen
And so it goes, and so it goes
And you’re the only one who knows

So I would choose to be with you
That’s if the choice were mine to make
But you can make decisions too
And you can have this heart to break

And so it goes, and so it goes
And you’re the only one who knows

Here’s a little synchronicity, in light of what we’re working on now.  Amidst all the mobsters and walking dead, we have a couple of washed-up rockers made an appearance in Volume 3.

So imagine my dark bemusement when I saw this:

Keith Richards Snorted Father’s Ashes

Been a while since I posted.  Afterhell is keeping me busy.

For those I haven’t kept in the loop, I decided to make the big plunge and get a MacBook to do my own sound editing.  I try not to talk about it much.  I don’t want the grief that comes with the user interface wars. I don’t want to hear about how great it is that I’m “leaving the Dark Side” or “making the big switch.”  If I wanted to hear that kind of crap, I’d hang out with neocons.

Meanwhile, for the last week or so, one thought has been haunting me, for want of a better word.  Nothing critical, nothing earth-shattering or cosmically important.  Just a memory.

An episode of the new Battlestar Galactica series brought it back for me.  It’s been a few weeks, so I figured it’s fairly safe to mention it now.

At one point, Starbuck flashbacks on the day she told her mother that she’d become an officer.  Proud, quiet moment.  She’s the first in her family to do it.  She was in the top five of her class (or something to that effect.)

Then her mother says, “Why weren’t you number one?”  Starbuck’s face just collapses.  Crushed.  Confused.

My father once did the same thing to me.

Hard to believe.  After all these years, I’m still going down in flames.

Here’s something you haven’t heard in a while:

Principal recording on the next Afterhell is complete.

The story is “Bloodbath at the Giallo Hotel,” written by DJ Chiles and Joe Medina (yup, dat’s me, dat’s me).  It’s twice as long as the average episode, so it’s going to comprise all of Volume 3.  But before the CD release, we’re going to podcast it. 

People keep bugging us about podcasting.  We keep meaning to do more of it.  Some have gone as far as saying that any hope of success — nay, the very fate of the cosmos — depends on it.  Well, if a podcast is all it takes…  And hey, it’s a lot less complicated than all those blood sacrifices my ancestors used to make… mostly.

Anyway, a download-friendly mixdown of “Giallo Hotel” will be sliced into ten parts and podcast for free.   Look for it in a few months.  That might seem like a long wait, but we’re juggling a few other things at the same time… including Volume 4.

It’s only going to get darker.

While ago I got to read a script for the upcoming volume 3 (awesome), and got to work on tossing around ideas on the look for the next CD’s art. I love playing around with reality gone askew, and this one’s working up to be a real laugh! If you enjoy seeing this peek, I’ll be sure to post more work as I can.

A quick rearing of the head. We’re not dead, just feeling halfway there.

I wanted to thank Dani Cutler for her kind words on the last entry. I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, but yeah.  We felt sucker-punched.

I exchanged a few e-mails off and on with a production assistant on the radio show in question. While she was sympathetic and actually rather nice, all things considered, she didn’t explain until much later, several days after the hatchet job on us was already done, the real point of their Podcast of the Week segment:

“I hope it will make you feel better to know that it is just the style of the programme, and that a lot of people actually have the piss taken out of them!”

A line from the film All The President’s Men seems appropriate:  “In my day, we used to call it a double-cross.”

Anyway, apologies to everyone who’s tried to stay in touch with us.  The last month or so has been rough going.  We’re juggling several different things at once, trying to keep all those plates a-spinning.  We had a recording session for the next episode a few weeks ago.  This weekend is the next one.

So yeah, we’re still at it.  We just smolder a bit more.

Well, the “Saturday Live” folks had us on, all right. 

Wow…so that’s what fondue forks feel like.

A forty-second clip, taken out of context.  And boy, did they have a laugh at our expense.

Well, I walked right into that propellor, didn’t I? 

Anyway, I’ll keep my personal copy…a little reminder to watch my nose.

Very little.

This time it’s not the Fab Four.  Or the Daleks.  Or the Cybermen.

It’s us.  Afterhell is invading the UK.  And our first beachhead… is BBC Radio 4.

Ha!  Didn’t see that coming, did ya?!

A few days ago, I got an email from the Radio 4 program “Saturday Live.”  One of their regular segments is a Podcast of the Week, showcasing the not-so-regular, the at-the-very-least-interesting audio gems on the net.  They had found our flimsy, flabby, flippity-floppity podcast feed and asked if they could run a short clip.

Us on BBC Radio?  Wellllllll, I dunno, let me think aboutOKAY!

Hey, you.   Not you, the other guys.  The doubters, the naysayers, the skeptics, and the braggarts.  The ones whose faces go glacial when the work is mentioned.  Whose backs are permanently tide-locked away from us.

In…your…face.

No, it’s not professional.  And yeah, it tastes pretty darn sweet. 

Fleeting…but sweet. 

Anyway, I’ll try to get a personal copy.

Ha.