This week, I’m making another repeating chord progression in C#m for a little collaboration with past show guest Jeff Finley, who recently told me about an instrument called a handpan, which is kind of like a steel drum you play with your hands, that, at least to my ears, sounds a bit like a synthesizer. He did an amazing job with accompanying and arranging the track I started in episode 352, and this is another track that hopefully we can work on together.
This track ended up having the chord progression C#m B C#m B C#m B / C#m B C#m B A B over and over. Like the last one, this track was recorded at 100 bpm to make room for the handpan and allow it to breathe.
This was our last collaboration, by the way:
You can find out more about Jeff on his previous appearances on the show (episode 101, 102, and 176).
Today, we are again working on the start of a new music track, this time with the iOS app Auxy (laying down the backing percussion and some notes in the verses) as well as watching the Rocketeer cartoon episode number 16, one of my kids’ favorites. Some pictures from the episode …
I don’t know if this was written intentionally, but the part where Kit and Valerie go back and forth about stealing / borrowing a statue remind me of the part in the 1991 movie where Cliff and Peevy do the same thing (though the statue they “borrow” if of Charles Lindburgh, not the Rocketeer).
It’s hard to see in the above screenshot, but the dinero Kit and Tesh are holding in this scene has Rocketeer helmets on it where the Presidential head usually is 🙂
Lastly, about a year ago, there was a tragic explosion in Beirut, Lebanon (the country where half of Kit’s family comes from). Things had been bad for some time, but the explosion and COVID really have done a number on the people of Lebanon. Last year and recently, I made little posts on Twitter about it, mainly to raise awareness in a positive light (things on Twitter seem to have a habit of turning negative / political very quickly). As I mentioned there, although Kit’s obviously not a real person, if she were real, she would be trying to help in some way, and if it’s one thing the world needs more of right now, it’s more everyday people who embrace their inner “heart of a hero,” just like our friends, Cliff and Kit.
When I think of those sentiments, I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes from another high flying aviator, astronaut Ellison Onizuka (RIP).
“… the people who make this world run, whose lives can be termed successful, whose names will go down in the history books, are not the cynics, the critics, or the armchair quarterbacks.
They are the adventurists, the explorers, and doers of this world. When they see a wrong or problem, they do something about it. When they see a vacant place in our knowledge, they work to fill that void.
Rather than leaning back and criticizing how things are, they work to make things the way they should be. They are the aggressive, the self-starters, the innovative, and the imaginative of this world …
Your vision is not limited by what your eye can see, but by what your mind can imagine. Many things that you take for granted were considered unrealistic dreams by previous generations. If you accept these past accomplishments as commonplace then think of the new horizons that you can explore …
Make your life count – and the world will be a better place because you tried.”
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There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #311 and Like a Hood Ornament #35: Watching The Rocketeer Cartoon Episode 15 with Production Coordinator Esther Gonzalez Murray
Today, Esther Gonzalez Murray rejoins the show (she was last on for episode 294) to watch and discuss one of her favorite episodes. Both of the segments that make up this episode are a lot of fun. The show has really hit its stride by this point, as just about all the characters and villains have been introduced at least once, so even though each episode is generally meant to stand alone, there is some collective sense of history at this point that is nice.
Some pictures from the episode … the first two involve a plot where the rocketpack is malfunctioning and gets captured by The Great Orsino (Cliff’s NY Adventure reference), who covers it for his stage act. His assistant Deany, takes control of it for a short time and uses it to do good, but, ever helpful, not before first helping Orsino try to fly it in circles by holding him down with a tether (reference from the film where Cliff and Oeevy try something similar with a Charles Lindbergh statue).
Thanks, Esther, for rejoining the show!
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There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
Awhile back, I ordered some lenticular 3D cards from the French company, Pops, which did the lenticular wiggle cards for the resin figurines I made. They now have smaller form 3D cards that will serve as contest rewards. What’s the contest, you ask? It’s a review contest. If you can help the show get more Apple Podcasts reviews and are the 5th or 10th listener to write in, I’ll send you one of the cards!
I also start working on a slow instrumental synth track for next The Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP.
Thanks for listening!
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There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #306 and Like a Hood Ornament #33: Watching The Rocketeer Cartoon Episode 14, Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of The Rocketeer (6/21/1991)
The day this episode releases will mark the 30th anniversary of The Rocketeer. In celebration, I have a few special things for this episode, including a few accompanying video segments.
The first is the opening of the Diamond Select version of the Rocketeer figure:
The next segment is annotation of a short part in the film where the Rocketeer is caught in between G-men, gangsters, and Nazi storm troopers, eventually leading to those iconic scenes where he’s taking off by the American flag.
Although he is shown in both the comic (on covers mostly) and in pictures holding a Mauser C96 pistol, he never actually gets to use it in either the film or the original comic (more next week). This clip shows how he obtained it in the film:
This week, I’ll finish a little Rocketeer one screen game made with the app Pixicade. It will be a shooting game, since those are very easy to make the the built in physics engine the app has. Here is a preliminary drawing:
Now onto more family friendly things! Some pictures from the Rocketeer cartoon part of the episode:
Lastly, check out episode 43 of I Used to Like This One for a guest appearance I made on the show to discuss the 1991 film version of The Rocketeer for the 30th anniversary of the film.
Lastly, thanks for all who joined in for the live Facebook concert of Thirteenth Hour music with the custom Logan action figure that happened on 5/30/21. You can replay it here:
Set list:
1.) The Thirteenth Hour Theme*
2.) Empty Hands+
3.) Dragons’ Eyes*
4.) Forever Young (by Alphaville, acoustic guitar cover)
5.) Dreams Go Far*
6.) I Will Remember You (by Amy Grant, acoustic guitar cover)
If you would like to grab a little piece of The Thirteenth Hour, pick up a patch of Logan flying off into the sunset and bask in many of the things we discussed in this episode – silver flying machines, cloudscapes, and the sun setting on another day signifying a hope for a better tomorrow. The patches come with a high quality mp3 download from Once Upon a Dream, the next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP.
If you still have a cassette player, take advantage of the following deal and be transported to another world! SALE! While supplies last, grab Long Ago Not So Far Away on cassette! Just $1/tape – last week only! https://ko-fi.com/s/5579db9b27
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, I’m continuing to work on the new custom action figure of Logan from The Thirteenth Hour, this one made by a character from from the show PJ Masks that I had to fix. I’m also in the process of painting the Lego Friends Rocketeer. My progress so far:
Some pictures from the episode:
Lastly, check out episode 43 of I Used to Like This One for a guest appearance I made on the show to discuss the 1991 film version of The Rocketeer. Next week, it will be the 30th anniversary of his film!
Lastly, thanks for all who joined in for the live Facebook concert of Thirteenth Hour music with the custom Logan action figure that happened on 5/30/21. You can replay it here:
Set list:
1.) The Thirteenth Hour Theme*
2.) Empty Hands+
3.) Dragons’ Eyes*
4.) Forever Young (by Alphaville, acoustic guitar cover)
5.) Dreams Go Far*
6.) I Will Remember You (by Amy Grant, acoustic guitar cover)
If you would like to grab a little piece of The Thirteenth Hour, pick up a patch of Logan flying off into the sunset and bask in many of the things we discussed in this episode – silver flying machines, cloudscapes, and the sun setting on another day signifying a hope for a better tomorrow. The patches come with a high quality mp3 download from Once Upon a Dream, the next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP.
If you still have a cassette player, take advantage of the following deal and be transported to another world! SALE! While supplies last, grab Long Ago Not So Far Away on cassette! Just $1/tape! https://ko-fi.com/s/5579db9b27
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, I started working on a new custom action figure of Logan from The Thirteenth Hour, this one made by a character from from the show PJ Masks that I had to fix anyway. I used Aves Apoxiesculpt clay to add to the base figure’s clothes to make them look more like what Logan wears in the book.
On the left, you can see some progress on the Lego Friends Rocketeer. Speaking of the Rocketeer, there is a Rocketeer game I alluded to in the episode you can download for your phone. More details here:
Lastly, check out episode 43 of I Used to Like This One for a guest appearance I made on the show to discuss the 1991 film version of The Rocketeer.
Lastly, thanks for all who joined in for the live Facebook concert of Thirteenth Hour music with the custom Logan action figure that happened on 5/30/21. You can replay it here:
Set list:
1.) The Thirteenth Hour Theme*
2.) Empty Hands+
3.) Dragons’ Eyes*
4.) Forever Young (by Alphaville, acoustic guitar cover)
5.) Dreams Go Far*
6.) I Will Remember You (by Amy Grant, acoustic guitar cover)
If you would like to grab a little piece of The Thirteenth Hour, pick up a patch of Logan flying off into the sunset and bask in many of the things we discussed in this episode – silver flying machines, cloudscapes, and the sun setting on another day signifying a hope for a better tomorrow. The patches come with a high quality mp3 download from Once Upon a Dream, the next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP.
If you still have a cassette player, take advantage of the following deal and be transported to another world! SALE! While supplies last, grab Long Ago Not So Far Away on cassette! Just $1/tape! https://ko-fi.com/s/5579db9b27
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, I started working on a few of the action figure projects I mentioned the episode before last. I got a chance to do some of the preliminary clay sculpting. There is a little more to do, then some fine tuning with files and Dremels and such.
The figure on the left that currently looks like it’s wearing a diaper is from the show PJ Masks, which my kids occasionally will watch. If I can puff out the pants to resemble to baggy fatigue trousers Logan wears, sculpt in a belt – perhaps the yellow one Logan usually has on as part of his base uniform or the utility belt he is issued with lots out pouches and a sheath knife (more of a challenge but more interesting to sculpt those small details), puff out the sleeves of the arms a bit, then add a head than is not so disproportionately large, I’ll have another Logan custom.
On the right in the picture and in the video above, you can see some sculpting going on to make a Lego Friends figure look more like the Rocketeer.
The second part of the episode is watching The Rocketeer cartoon, episode 11, which is one of my favorites, as there is a toy Rocketeer in it!
Some pictures from the episode:
Lastly, thanks for all who joined in for the live Facebook concert of Thirteenth Hour music with the custom Logan action figure that happened on 5/30/21. You can replay it here:
Set list:
1.) The Thirteenth Hour Theme*
2.) Empty Hands+
3.) Dragons’ Eyes*
4.) Forever Young (by Alphaville, acoustic guitar cover)
5.) Dreams Go Far*
6.) I Will Remember You (by Amy Grant, acoustic guitar cover)
If you would like to grab a little piece of The Thirteenth Hour, pick up a patch of Logan flying off into the sunset and bask in many of the things we discussed in this episode – silver flying machines, cloudscapes, and the sun setting on another day signifying a hope for a better tomorrow. The patches come with a high quality mp3 download from Once Upon a Dream, the next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP.
If you still have a cassette player, take advantage of the following deal and be transported to another world! SALE! While supplies last, grab Long Ago Not So Far Away on cassette! Just $1/tape! https://ko-fi.com/s/5579db9b27
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, I’m watching episode 10 of The Rocketeer cartoon and welcoming vocalist Tammy Infusino to the show (click on the picture below to go to her website).
Tammy did the vocals for many of the songs in the show, including the intro song, the suit up sequence, and a number of songs in the playlist below.
One of the songs Tammy sings, “A Beautiful View” comes up in the episode we are watching this week and also has a great visual to go with it. Check it out below!
Here are some of the other songs referenced in the podcast
Exchange – “Where the Truth Lies” (from the Prince Valiant cartoon intro)
Berlin – “Take My Breath Away” (from Top Gun)
Now that you’ve heard her belt out 80s style songs for The Rocketeer, check out Tammy’s original music on Spotify.
Here are some pics from episode 10, which has lots of great cloudscape shots.
Speaking of cloudscapes, pick up a patch of Logan flying off into the sunset and bask in many of the things we discussed in this episode – silver flying machines, cloudscapes, and the sun setting on another day signifying a hope for a better tomorrow. The patches come with a high quality mp3 download from Once Upon a Dream, the next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP.
Speaking of Thirteenth Hour music, join Logan on 5/29/21 at 10:30 PM on Facebook Live for a Thirteenth Hour concert! Mostly originals from Long Ago Not So Far Away, the Thirteenth Hour soundtrack, but also a number of covers of songs that inspired the music.
If you still have a cassette player, take advantage of the following deal and be transported to another world! SALE! While supplies last, grab Long Ago Not So Far Away on cassette! Just $1/tape! https://ko-fi.com/s/5579db9b27
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, I’m discussing a few upcoming custom action figure ideas (a few Rocketeer ones, another Logan one) coming this summer.
A few pictures:
This little lady from PJ Masks has a broken hip. But if I can fix it, I think I might be able to use the body to make a custom Logan figure, since the tunic is pretty similar.
I’ve slowly been collecting pieces to make a 3 3/4” Rocketeer custom figure as well as a Cliff and Jenny set (made of Lego Friends pieces and a few other accessories).
The second part of the episode is watching The Rocketeer cartoon, episode 9.
Some pictures from the episode:
There are lots of great interior shots of the Bulldog Cafe in this episode!
Lastly, thanks for all who joined in for the live IG concert of Thirteenth Hour music with the custom Logan action figure that happened on 5/15/21. When I figure out how to get it onto another platform, I’ll have another concert there as well.
If you would like to grab a little piece of The Thirteenth Hour, pick up a patch of Logan flying off into the sunset and bask in many of the things we discussed in this episode – silver flying machines, cloudscapes, and the sun setting on another day signifying a hope for a better tomorrow. The patches come with a high quality mp3 download from Once Upon a Dream, the next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP.
If you still have a cassette player, take advantage of the following deal and be transported to another world! SALE! While supplies last, grab Long Ago Not So Far Away on cassette! Just $1/tape! https://ko-fi.com/s/5579db9b27
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #300 – Special Anniversary Podcast Edition and Like a Hood Ornament #27: Watching The Rocketeer Cartoon Episode 8 with My Daughter
Welcome to episode 300! This show has been going in some fashion since 2014 and continuously since early 2015 so in commemoration, I’v gathered together a few clips from past episodes and time when I’ve been guests of fellow podcasters discussing some aspects of The Thirteenth Hour.
We start off with a short clip from my first podcast in this format (since the first 15 had been just reading aloud from an earlier draft of The Thirteenth Hour pre-publication to try to catch errors). Here is the full episode:
Some years before, when I was living in New England, I was interviewed on his radio show, The Author’s Hour, fellow author Wayne Barber hosted me on his show. There’s an excerpt here about what The Thirteenth Hour is about and what so many of the things touched upon in this show have been about over the years. The full interview is here, back on episode 31 of the show:
Just one episode before, my brother, Jeremy, had just been on (my first guest!) to talk about the homebrew games we attempted to make in the 90s (which we circled back to in episode 298 with Ric and Paul). The full episode (#30) is below, but Jeremy comes on the show briefly today to talk about what he’s been up to. Find more of his writing over at https://pixelgrotto.tumblr.com/.
Our next guest for today, Adam from @mom_gave_them_away, who has been on the show a number of times before (see below for one of those times) comes on to share what he has been doing and what he is passionate about. One of the great things about the show (and the reason I’ve kept doing it these past 6 years) is that through it, I’ve met so many talented, creative people I probably wouldn’t have encountered otherwise.
At the same time we recorded the show linked above (#220), we also recorded one for Adam’s show. I’ve included a clip in this episode (about Spacecamp and other 80s movies), and you can listen to the full episode on Spotify above or on his Patreon.
I picked flying scenes to represent so many aspects of The Thirteenth Hour since I think that is what so many of those 80s films and songs did in a way – it was escapism in the purest sense, and I think the idea of flying, or rather the freedom of the open air, has always been something that I have found attractive (probably one of the reasons I liked and still like the Rocketeer so much). I recently finished a painting of Logan and the Rocketeer zooming through a lilac purple cloudscape getting at exactly these images called “Wingmen.”
I just recorded for this episode a little video going of me opening a new Rocketeer action figure that recently came out. Man, what I would have given for something like this as a kid!
To do the next episode of The Rocketeer cartoon (#8), this week, my daughter joins for the whole segment. It was a happy little coincidence that in the first clip on this show (from episode #16), she was an infant, and here, she’s almost 7. It was a great thing to be able to do with her.
Some pictures from the episode:
Lastly, stay tuned for a concert involved Thirteenth Hour music, a custom Logan action figure, and Logan stories next week, 5/15/21 at 10:30 PM EST on Instagram Live @the13thhr.ost. It will look something like this:
If you would like to grab a little piece of The Thirteenth Hour, pick up a patch of Logan flying off into the sunset and bask in many of the things we discussed in this episode – silver flying machines, cloudscapes, and the sun setting on another day signifying a hope for a better tomorrow. The patches come with a high quality mp3 download from Once Upon a Dream, the next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP.
If you still have a cassette player, take advantage of the following deal and be transported to another world! SALE! While supplies last, grab Long Ago Not So Far Away on cassette! Just $1/tape! https://ko-fi.com/s/5579db9b27
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, we’re continuing to go through episodes of The Rocketeer cartoon, one at a time, this time with Episode 7. As before, you can watch along with the episode as I go though it in real time.
Some pictures from the episode:
I also found a new Rocketeer podcast! Check out Rocketeer Radiofor more great Rocketeer info. I listened to all the episodes in like a day and am looking forward to the next one.
If it weren’t for hopeful films like The Rocketeer, there probably wouldn’t a Thirteenth Hour, and you probably wouldn’t be reading this blog. In the pixelart patch below of Logan from The Thirteenth Hour flying off into the sunset, you might be able to spot some of those influences – the silver flying machine, the cloudscape, the sun setting on another day signifying a hope for a better tomorrow. The patches come with a high quality mp3 download from Once Upon a Dream, the next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP.
In the meantime, you may be interested in a few select Rocketeer related episodes :
If you still have a cassette player, take advantage of the following deal and be transported to another world! SALE! While supplies last, grab Long Ago Not So Far Away on cassette! Just $1/tape! https://ko-fi.com/s/5579db9b27
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, Paul Korman and Ric Highbury from the Classic Gamers Guild Facebook Group and Classic Gamers Guild Podcast join my brother, Jeremy, and I to talk about a point and click pixelart adventure game they are making coming out next year. We had a great conversation about a number of wide reaching topics related to game design – story creation, influences, pixelart, art, music scores, and more. They sent me an advance version of the demo (which is coming out this week), and it was great fun – a throwback to some of the adventure games we played as a kid. Here are a few screenshots:
If you’d like to learn more about The Phantom Fellows, check out the following:
Paul does the intro and outro music to the CGG podcast, by the way. Listen to more of Paul’s music on Bandcamp. Read more of Jeremy’s thoughts on games on Tumblr. And if you have a desire to experiment with game making and introduce game making to children, check out Pixicade.
The built in physics with it allow you to make some fun and surprisingly advanced games. I made a Thirteenth Hour archery game with it. The set has you make everything with makers (different colors for different game mechanics), though can also do it on the computer and print it out in color. I made the archery game with pixels. You can play it here.
If you still have a cassette player, take advantage of the following deal and be transported to another world! SALE! While supplies last, grab Long Ago Not So Far Away on cassette! Just $1/tape! https://ko-fi.com/s/5579db9b27
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There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, we’re continuing to go through episodes of The Rocketeer cartoon, one at a time, this time with Episode 6. In this one, my daughter (who is dressed up like Kit for Halloween in the banner above) joins for the last few minutes at the end to talk about an episode where Kit goes chasing after her piggy bank.
Some pictures from the episode:
If it weren’t for hopeful films like The Rocketeer, there probably wouldn’t a Thirteenth Hour, and you probably wouldn’t be reading this blog. In the pixelart patch below of Logan from The Thirteenth Hour flying off into the sunset, you might be able to spot some of those influences – the silver flying machine, the cloudscape, the sun setting on another day signifying a hope for a better tomorrow. The patches come with a high quality mp3 download from Once Upon a Dream, the next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP.
In the meantime, you may be interested in a few select Rocketeer related episodes :
If you still have a cassette player, take advantage of the following deal and be transported to another world! SALE! While supplies last, grab Long Ago Not So Far Away on cassette! Just $1/tape! https://ko-fi.com/s/5579db9b27
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There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, we’re continuing to go through episodes of The Rocketeer cartoon, one at a time, this time with Episode 5. In this one, we meet a boy genius / mad scientist / dumpster diver by the name of Rolland, who fancies himself a metal clad character named Dr. Doodlebug as as well as a pilot-less plane still being beta tested named Ava.
Some pictures from the episode:
If it weren’t for hopeful films like The Rocketeer, there probably wouldn’t a Thirteenth Hour, and you probably wouldn’t be reading this blog. In the pixelart patch below of Logan from The Thirteenth Hour flying off into the sunset, you might be able to spot some of those influences – the silver flying machine, the cloudscape, the sun setting on another day signifying a hope for a better tomorrow. The patches come with a high quality mp3 download from Once Upon a Dream, the next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP.
In the meantime, you may be interested in a few select Rocketeer related episodes :
If you still have a cassette player, take advantage of the following deal and be transported to another world! SALE! While supplies last, grab Long Ago Not So Far Away on cassette! Just $1/tape! https://ko-fi.com/s/5579db9b27
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There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, we’re continuing to go through episodes of The Rocketeer cartoon, one at a time, this time with Episode 4. This episode is actually available for free on Youtube so even if you don’t have access to the full season, you can watch this one in full and follow along in real time as we watch it.
Some pictures from the episode:
Assistant Writer (a.k.a script coordinator) Dan Salgarolo joins today to talk about some behind the scenes insights into the creation of the show, the music, the animation, and much more. For example, on the “Songbird” episode above, Dan shared some insights into how studio execs thought it might be too complex of a story for young child to understand, and yes, though it does deal with some adult emotions (daredevil flier has a traumatic experience in the air, gets saved by the Rocketeer, but loses her nerve and doesn’t fly again until Kit and Tesh wheedle (i.e. bribe with pie) their way into her life.) I don’t think that kind of story is too complicated for kids to understand, since childhood is an array of dealing with things you don’t understand, are too complex for you to do, or that might scare you, but I get their concern about the part where May Songbird falls out of the sky. The upside is that we get to see a return of Cliff Secord! (The character animation in this episode and the first episode are the first time Cliff returns to the screen in almost 30 years). If you ever had any desire to be part of the writing department on a TV show or a movie, tune in to see what day to day operations look like. We also get to talk about the process of writing and what happens as ideas go from conception to their final forms. Thanks so much, Dan, for joining the show and look forward to talking to you again for a future episode!
If it weren’t for hopeful films like The Rocketeer, there probably wouldn’t a Thirteenth Hour, and you probably wouldn’t be reading this blog. In the pixelart patch below of Logan from The Thirteenth Hour flying off into the sunset, you might be able to spot some of those influences – the silver flying machine, the cloudscape, the sun setting on another day signifying a hope for a better tomorrow. The patches come with a high quality mp3 download from Once Upon a Dream, the next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP.
In the meantime, you may be interested in a few select Rocketeer related episodes :
If you still have a cassette player, take advantage of the following deal and be transported to another world! SALE! While supplies last, grab Long Ago Not So Far Away on cassette! Just $1/tape! https://ko-fi.com/s/5579db9b27
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There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #294 and Like a Hood Ornament #22: Watching The Rocketeer Cartoon Episode 3 with Production Coordinator Esther Gonzalez Murray
This week, we’re continuing to go through episodes of The Rocketeer cartoon, one at a time, this time with Episode 3. As before, you can follow along in real time. This is my son’s favorite episode! The Rocketeer’s best friend, Tesh, gets a gear upgrade and ends up with a shiny trike he dubs the Sonic Flash. We also see a great art deco statue of the original Rocketeer.
In one part of the second episode, a plane Laurel and Harley (above) steal, looks remarkably like the Boeing P-26 (below).
I’m doing the first part of the episode solo, and then production coordinator Esther Gonzalez Murray joins me for the second half to discuss more on the making of the show. Unfortunately, there was a recording glitch during our interview where my mic was doing weird things, so in a lot of parts, I sounded like the teacher on Charlie Brown even after a lot of post production editing. So, in the end, I cut most of those parts out so your ears don’t bleed. But – you don’t really need my occasional comments (you can hear me talk in like almost 300 podcast episodes, after all), since Esther’s insights and memories stand well enough alone. Thanks, Esther, for joining the show to offer your insights. Look forward to taking with you on future episodes! Learn more about her on Twitter.
Before I forget, at a few points the music and outro sequence get discussed. Here’s the outro – I could watch this sequence all day! I’ve talked about the first person point of view of flying into the clouds on this show quite a bit (like the cloudscape meditation video we made episode 290)
Also, one of the things Esther mentioned on the episode is a real life Bulldog Cafe (like in Dave Stevens’ comic and the 1991 film)in LA. See the Idle Hour Gallery for more info! Next time I’m in LA, sometime after this pandemic, I know where we are going … !
If it weren’t for hopeful films like The Rocketeer, there probably wouldn’t a Thirteenth Hour, and you probably wouldn’t be reading this blog. In the pixelart patch below of Logan from The Thirteenth Hour flying off into the sunset, you might be able to spot some of those influences – the silver flying machine, the cloudscape, the sun setting on another day signifying a hope for a better tomorrow. The patches come with a high quality mp3 download from Once Upon a Dream, the next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP.
In the meantime, you may be interested in a few select Rocketeer related episodes :
If you still have a cassette player, take advantage of the following deal and be transported to another world! SALE! While supplies last, grab Long Ago Not So Far Away on cassette! Just $1/tape! https://ko-fi.com/s/5579db9b27
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There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, we’re continuing with going through episodes of The Rocketeer cartoon, one at a time, this time with Episode 2. As before, you can follow along in real time. In both parts of episode 2, the dogs steal the show.
I’m doing the first part of the episode solo, and then show writer Brian Hohlfeld joins me for the second half to discuss more about one of the episodes he wrote as well as more on the making of the show. Thanks, Brian, for joining the show to offer your insights. Look forward to taking with you on future episodes! Learn more about him on Twitter.
If it weren’t for hopeful films like The Rocketeer, there probably wouldn’t a Thirteenth Hour, and you probably wouldn’t be reading this blog. In the pixelart patch below of Logan from The Thirteenth Hour flying off into the sunset, you might be able to spot some of those influences – the silver flying machine, the cloudscape, the sun setting on another day signifying a hope for a better tomorrow. The patches come with a high quality mp3 download from Once Upon a Dream, the next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP.
In the meantime, you may be interested in a few select Rocketeer related episodes :
If you still have a cassette player, take advantage of the following deal and be transported to another world! SALE! While supplies last, grab Long Ago Not So Far Away on cassette! Just $1/tape! https://ko-fi.com/s/5579db9b27
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, I’m wrapping up “Once Upon a Dream” and discussing more on the idea of creating a creative arts collective. Last week, I created a private Facebook group called Thirteenth Hour Arts – For Creators, Not Haters. Many thanks to all who joined!
This week, I’m launching a Patreon of the same name and idea – a place to share in the creative process, though more specific to things related to the creation of The Thirteenth Hour books, music, podcast, pictures, figures, and the like, as well all the other things that have influenced those properties. Hopefully, people will be able to share what they do as well so we can all build off each others’ creative energy.
You can go to the Pateron by clicking the picture below of going here:
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There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, I’m adding vocals to “Once Upon a Dream” and discussing more on the idea of creating a creative arts collective. To start, I ended up creating a private Facebook group called Thirteenth Hour Arts – For Creators, Not Haters.
Here’s the premise I’ve copied from my inaugural post there:
Welcome to The Thirteenth Hour Arts Collective – a place to create, not hate!
There are so many ways to be creative in the world. Although I publicly create books, music, and toys for The Thirteenth Hour stories, those are informed by a number of other things, like 80s films, new wave music, martial arts, dance, and so forth.
I’m sure you have or had many things in your own life that are kind of the same. Please share them here – you may inspire someone else (or yourself) to make time and space for creative pursuits!
When Logan’s hoverboard flies in The Thirteenth Hour, it emits a cloud of rainbow colored smoke. There were rainbows all over the place in the 80s (Rainbow Brite, Skittles, Reading Rainbow, etc), and if not exactly rainbows, plenty of kids’ shows used the idea of different colors coming together to represent strength or unity through diversity and/or teamwork (Voltron, Captain Planet, etc). Rainbows encourage us to look off into the distance, towards that ephemeral spot where the rainbow ends. To me, they have always represented hope and possibility for the future, so I’m using them as a symbol for this group to represent creativity, especially the diversity of creative pursuits and people that practice them in hopes that it can be something we all share in and benefit from.
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There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, I’m continuing to record the backing tracks for “Once Upon a Dream” – the solo, the chorus, and so forth. Next will be the vocals, the outro riffs, and maybe a few electric guitar accents here and there.
Speaking of which, I thought it might be a nice thing to add some of the magnet dolls I talked about recently as part of the special edition of the Once Upon a Dream LP. Here are the magnet dolls, by the way, of Logan and Aurora plus all their stuff:
In the latter part of the podcast, I talk about the idea of trying to create some kind of online community to showcase the creative process. I touch on that in many of these podcasts, and I’ve been thinking about trying to help people showcase the creative things they do in their own lives. In may ways, that’s one of the messages of The Thirteenth Hour – creating the world you want to inhabit. You may have noticed that on my Instagram posts, I have little emoticons before the post, kind of like these: 👾🎤📖🎸🍓🎨🕹🏹🙋🏽♀️🤸🏼♂️🌈🎭🎬
I’ve organized the different kinds of art types by sense, more or less, to showcase them
Sight
🎨 – visual art (e.g. paintings, illustrations, sketches, sculptures …)
🕹- digital worlds
🎬 – films
📖 – stories
Sound
🎤 – audio entertainment (e.g. podcasts, audiobooks …)
🎸 – music
Taste / Smell
🍓- food, gardens
Touch
⚒- tools made of metal, wood, plastic, ceramic …
🪑- furniture
🏕- places to live
📟 – electronics
💍 – jewelry
🧣- clothing
🧸- toys
Movement
🏹 – safety, confidence, inner peace (e.g. through martial arts disciplines)
🤸🏼♂️- movement, health (e.g. dance, gymnastics …)
Mind
🙋🏽♀️- knowledge (e.g. through teaching)
🎭 – characters (e.g. acting)
👾 – memory
👨👩👦👦 – community
🌈 – hope and possibility, freedom of expression
Especially in 2020, when there is so much turmoil in the world, we could all use a little positivity to bring out the better parts of humanity – our desire to explore and create – rather than human drama and politics.
I’ve been thinking about creating a Facebook group for this for awhile or perhaps a Patreon community to do this. What do you think?
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There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, I’m working up and wrapping up few concurrent projects – starting the recording of the backing track for “Once Upon a Dream” discussed last on episode 261 and finishing up a little “kitbashed” minifigure of Aurora from The Thirteenth Hour discussed a bit last episode. The magnet dolls discussed last episode are in the editing process, so I’ll be printing those out soon!
One of Aurora’s costumes is this one from a picture in the book:
I’ve been working on a custom miniature of Aurora in this outfit made from a few different Wonder Woman mini figures.
I ended up using parts from all three different verions of these little Wonder Women to make the figure, plus some Apoxie Sculpt clay and paint. These are the pics from last week. Here’s what the finished figure looks like:
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There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, I’m talking about a side project – making little magnet dress-up dolls of Logan and Aurora from The Thirteenth Hourfor my kids. The idea is that you start with a 2D character (that is magnetic or metal) in their underwear and then add clothes (which are thin, flat magnets) on top. Basically, it’s a dress-up toy.
I actually did a little research into what people from ancient cultures wore for underwear, and the results were quite fascinating in a way, since they tended to mirror social attitudes of the day, especially for women. (If you’re curious, here are some of the sources I looked at. Given that not many of these undergarments have survived, it’s mostly historical speculation, but learning about what might have been worn in ancient Greece and Rome, ancient China, and the European middle ages was still quite interesting).
In any event, since the world of The Thirteenth Hour is fantasy (with a few intentional anachronisms like matches, flush toilets, and flying hoverboards thrown in for convenience or self referential humor) and not really based on anything historical, I figured I could take whatever artistic licenses I wanted. Still, when I was originally designing the costumes, I did give some thought to working around things we sometimes take for granted in our world (like elastic, which requires rubber – not always so easy to come by, and zippers, which requires a mechanized world or at least factories capable of mass producing intricate parts to the point that they can be found on clothes for everyday people).
So – that’s a long way of saying that I gave Logan and Aurora rather generic skivvies that might have been found in the ancient past but could still have been something that would have offered equal measures of comfort and support. If nothing else, I wanted my characters to be comfortable!
I’ll post more as I make progress in production. Eventually, I’ll scan in all the pictures to edit them digitally and figure out a way to print them out on magnetic sheets.
One of Aurora’s costumes is this one from a picture in the book:
I’ve been working on a custom miniature of Aurora in this outfit made from a few different Wonder Woman mini figures.
More in the coming weeks!
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There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, stunt performer Jazzy Ellis joins the show. She is a Screen Actors Guild Award winner with many film and TV credits you may have seen or heard of, like Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, The Walking Dead, Bad Boys for Life, Chaos Walking, and more. She is also a former teacher, ballet dancer, and a tireless crusader for equal representation for people of color in the stunt and film world. It was great to have her on to discuss her circuitous journey to where she is now as well as how she prepares for stunts and keeps in shape for the very physical job she has. We also had a chance to touch on issues of race in the film industry as well as the country at large and what she’d like to see for performers of color in the industry.
For the “Like a Hood Ornament” section of the show, we’re looking at this clip from The Rocketeer, where the Rocketeer takes off:
Coincidentally, the music – a short version of the theme done I think with a French horn with chimes in the background – that plays right before, about 0:53 in, happens to be my favorite part of the entire soundtrack. It has always seemed to me that it embodies the spirit of entire film, a little snippet of pre-war optimism for a better tomorrow where rocketpacks wouldn’t be experimental and flight would be commonplace.
In any event, Jazzy is giving her professional thoughts on the fall that the stunt man does around 1:20, where Peevy is tossed backwards by the force of the rocket’s blast.
By the way, if you’d like to learn more about Jazzy, check out the following clips:
Also, the next segment of the fanfic short story, “The Last Rocketeer,” describing a team-up between Centauri from The Last Starfighter and a 71 year-old Cliff Secord who has long since given up being the Rocketeer (but secretly wants one last flight) is up.
There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, I’m working on the title track from the next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP, Once Upon a Dream. I have the keyboard riffs and the lyrics mostly done and am now trying to figure out how they go together. I’ve recorded a bare bones version here with just the vocals and the piano chords, which is how many of these songs start. In the coming week’s, I’ll be refining the skeleton of the song as I figure out how the different riffs work into the song, where the backing beat will come in, how the solo will sound, etc.
In the Like a Hood Ornament segment, I’m talking a bit about how my kids and I have been working on a costume paper mache rocketpack for my daughter for Halloween (she’d like to be Kit Secord from the cartoon, who you can see at the bottom of these images below).
We still have to figure out how to attach straps, and I’m wondering if it might be fun to figure out how to light up the engines and/or attach the little banks of purple LEDs on the bottom that this version of the pack has. Maybe we’ll make an electrical switch wired to the gloves, like in the movie.
Also, the next segment of the fanfic short story, “The Last Rocketeer,” describing a team-up between Centauri from The Last Starfighter and a 71 year-old Cliff Secord who has long since given up being the Rocketeer (but secretly wants one last flight) is up.
There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, I’m reading from the next installment of the fanfic short story, “The Last Rocketeer,” describing a team-up between Centauri from The Last Starfighter and a 71 year-old Cliff Secord who has long since given up being the Rocketeer (but secretly wants one last flight). He gets his chance in this tale! But as usual with Cliff, it all goes south! Find out what happens this week as the defecation starts to hit the proverbial ventilation!
There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, I’m talking about some ideas why the main characters in The Thirteenth Hour decide to leave the society they have grown up in and try to make their own place in the world. I couldn’t have articulated the various reasons why that idea was compelling at the time, but over the last few years, it’s made more sense in terms of my family background, the way people in our society typically respond to racial ambiguity, idealistic (often unrealistic) American ideals, and a certain teenage optimism of my own.
In the Like a Hood Ornament section, I’m tying these ideas to the loneliness and isolation the elderly Cliff Secord experiences in the story.
Some pictures from this chapter. These, by the way, all started life as quick sketches and watercolors done with my kids during our quarantine home schooling sessions. So, I don’t spend a ton of time on them but (maybe because of that) they’ve been fun to do!
Stay tuned for Chapter 3!
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, I’m talking about a short story I’m writing for fun called “The Last Rocketeer.”
Here’s the premise:
Cliff Secord was a pilot who stumbled upon an experimental rocketpack and became a high flying reluctant hero, The Rocketeer.
That was in 1938. But now it’s 1983.
Retirement is no longer an option. The fate of the universe hangs in the balance!
I got the idea from my daughter, who asked if we could tweak some of the lyrics of the song, “Superman” by Five for Fighting to be from the perspective of the Rocketeer.
I initially wasn’t sure it would work but the more I thought of it, the more I liked the idea of an older, jaded, Cliff Secord worn out physically and mentally by years of tough landings, crashes, altercations, and other traumatic events. So I tweaked the lyrics a bit to fit that idea, recorded here:
I also really liked the idea of the bitter older man still grappling with his past. The film The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot is a great example of such a character – a man with a violent past trying to make sense of what he did decades later. Mike from the book It by Stephen King had a similar feel, so much so that I used Mike as a model for another character, Alfred, in The Thirteenth Hour sequel.
Since I had to figure out a way to work the 80s in, I figured what would happen if Cliff runs into Centauri from The Last Starfighter? What if Cliff were recruited to help Centauri and in the process, you know, save the world? Ahem – the universe!
There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
On this week’s show, I’m continuing the recording process to a song I started a number of months ago, “The Last Dance,” last discussed on episodes 223, 224, 225, and 256.
We’re discussing the recording of the vocals as well as additional synth tracks, like a simple instrumental solo.
Speaking of which, I added a voiceover to a track that I recently finished, “The Land of Dreams” (see below for the video or here for the audio track) to make the animations match up with the part of the The Thirteenth Hour the track accompanies.
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In the latter part of the podcast, I talk about the idea of trying to create some kind of online community to showcase the creative process. I touch on that in many of these podcasts, and I’ve been thinking about trying to help people showcase the creative things they do in their own lives. In may ways, that’s one of the messages of The Thirteenth Hour – creating the world you want to inhabit. You may have noticed that on my Instagram posts, I have little emoticons before the post, kind of like these: 👾🎤📖🎸🍓🎨🕹🏹🙋🏽♀️🤸🏼♂️🌈🎭🎬
