Shameless Plug Time!

Just letting followers of my blog that I have finished my Zafina combo video and it is available in two different locations.



The YouTube version is the modified version, with non-licensed music (which still ended up being music claimed LOL). I like this version and I stand by it.

YouTube Version

The Blogger version through is the 'director's cut' with the music I always wanted to use for it. Sure it is in two halves but it is still the definative version of my vision.

Blogger Version

More to come... I even have a cool name for planned for Vol. 2 'Another Way to Die'.

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Kismet

I am currently enjoying a new show on CBS called 'Three Rivers'. It is a medicial drama but as a twist it mainly about organ donation, not nurses/ doctors and surgeries.

One of the reasons why I am enjoying said show is because of Daniel Henney. Regular readers of my blog know that Daniel was casted by me as the lead actor in my 'Homecoming' film so I was already a fan of dude. He is doing a great job on the show through it seems he is a background player right now, whilst the two other main leads are getting the focus. Hopefully this changes as the show continues and we see more of him instead of ladies man/ food obsessed smart surgeon we already have.

In the first episode, Three Rivers actually had Marina Sirtis as a guest-star. This was a pleasent surprise because I am a fan of Marina but also because she was also casted by me in my 'Homecoming' film as Jackie, the mother of Patricia (the lead female character) and good friend of Jacque (Daniel's character). Unfortunately they did not have any scenes together but I did thought that was cool.

In last nights episode, it happened again. This time Daniel was interacting with a young Indian/ Arabian girl played by Summer Bishil. Summer has previously starred in a critically acclaimed movie called 'Towelhead' but she is still a new-comer to the game.



The minute I saw her, I thought about Patricia and how she would play the role of younger Patricia perfectly and to see her on screen with the older Jacque was blowing me away. It was like fate, kismet.

Now all I need is a younger Jacque... which will probably be casted on Three Rivers in the next couple weeks or so, knowing their track record.

Sad news is that Three Rivers isn't doing so well ratings wise. I do hope I get at least one season of this drama. I really like it.

Also link to the original casting blog:
http://apocryphicvisions.blogspot.com/2009/02/hauntings-casting-homecoming.html

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Rave: Strictly Business

It almost been a week since the first money/ major Tekken Bloodline Rebellion tournament in Cincy. In hindsight, I have to put in my 2 cents on how it went down.

First, one can't ask for a better venue. We had good space, machine was on free play. Game Works has been treating us extremely well thanks to Mike and the workers there so I can't write a rave without giving them their just dues.

Second, organization. Once again Mike delivered here. We had more then enough drinks for everyone (paid from Mike's own pocket so kudos there too). The tournament was run extremely well. Sure we had only 11 people but it was still a smoothly run tournament. No confusion with whom was next. We had a couple late-comers but in the end, the tournament went off without a hitch. We also had pizza for days as well. The $10 venue fee was more then adequate for everything we recieved.

The actual tournament. Now one thing I really liked about this tournament was it brought out all the serious players. We had 11 people but everyone was good and brought their A game. People who some thought would be a push-over brought a new level of gaming. Damon (CoCoIchi) and TRKT (The Real KT) both went above and beyond in bringing some good games.

On top of that, our established players brought the fire too. Skeez beat Derrick in the losers. Derrick beat me in the winners. LOC was wrecking shop as well. I even played some of the best Tekken I have played in awhile. The magnus opus was the inclusion of HaiGuy from MI. We had a bonafide talent come through and give us some seriously solid matches in casuals and the tournament. It was nice to play against a player of this calibur and I felt I was playing better by just hanging out with him.

In the end HaiGuy won pretty comfortably over me (forgive me Nati) but we all had fun. It was a great tournament and in the end it only makes me look forward to more.

With T6 immenient release on console. I feel Cincy/N. Ky/Dayton as are a gaming community are going to shine at lot more this time around. We all have what it takes to get the same level HaiGuy is. Now it's up to us to realize our potential and run with it.

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Seeing Sounds

Recently I learnt about a rare phenomenon called Synesthesia where a person can mix certain senses, one of these can be 'seeing sounds'.

One of my favorite band/ producers N.E.R.D recently explored this by naming their third album 'Seeing Sounds' (which is how I learnt about it and the origin of this blog entry) so it is ironic that one of the shows that I watch and enjoy, Heroes also explored this phenomenon as well. One of the new characters in the show can actually see sounds. Everything is connected indeed.

Well for me, it is nowhere near as crazy (thankfully). I choose this title mainly because the music I picked this month for my blog are forever linked with images and when I hear these songs, I see associated images.

For example, Original Sin by Taylor Dayne. I am a massive fan of Taylor. The girl can sing and after I watched the movie 'The Shadow' starring Alec Baldwin (and enjoyed it) I was treated to this epic ballad in the ending credits. It stuck with me forever and even a couple years later I was still interested in the song. Thanks to YT I was able to find it and saw the accompanying music video for the first time. The music video reminded me of many scenes from the movie and reminded me again why I liked the movie. It was way ahead of it's time, a superhero flick with a dark hero who sticks to the shadows *cough* Batman Begins. Oh and Pennelope Ann Miller was one of my favorite actress back in those days. Well now I listen to this song I can't get images of the video or the film out of my mind. They are forever married together and does the job of a good music video.

It is ironic then that the other two songs are not memorable because of their music videos. No, these songs are forever etched in my mind because of a show called 'So You Think You Can Dance'. This show (Judgesss as me and my wife like to call it thanks to the way UK host Cat Deeley says judges) has been helped me find a lot of music to enjoy over the last 3 seasons I have watched the show. Because of the show I found a love for Adele's Hometown Glory but at the same time I also find appreciation for other songs I already know, like Closer by Ne-Yo, Alone by Heart and so many more. It is quite a show and because of these memorable routines, the songs become associated with the images, the dances.

Hence the inclusion of 'If It Kills Me'. This song was used during a routine in last season and featured the winner of the show Jannine. In a passionate and emotional performance all done to the beat of the song, I grew to enjoy the song. It was later this same year when another performer danced to the same song, that me and my wife realized we really liked this song and it has now become one of our favorite current songs. Now also ironic is the fact that the performer Jason Mraz has never been on my radar as a artist I liked. He had a couple cute songs but nothing really shouted at me until this song and now I think I might listen to a couple of his other tracks and see if has any other gems like 'If It Kills Me'.

Another song we discovered due to a routine on 'Judgesss' was 'Gravity' by Sara Bareilles. Again Sara really wasn't on my radar. I knew of her but I was not really a fan. This song changed that through and it was all thanks to another routine. This one was by Kapuno and Kayla. Now me and wife both admitted we weren't big fans of the performer Kayla but she did perform her booty off for this performance and it has stuck with us as one of our favorite performances from the whole season. So this song and routine not only made us ignore the fact that Kayla was a brillant but boring performer but also made me enjoy an artist I previous ignored. Also ironic is unlike 'Original Sin' I don't associated Gravity with it's music video (which actually exists) but more with this routine.

Such is the power of 'Seeing Sounds' and 'Judgesss'.

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