This week, I’m starting to make a few last tracks for the next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP – just when I think it’s done, I realize there are things I wanted to stick in there but forgot to. They’re all quite short but since realizing that I can incorporate music in the the mini DnD Thirteenth Hour campaigns over on Patreon, these tracks will also serve another function as well – becoming the real time soundtrack to the gameplay. This track is for one of the main characters from the book, Aurora, and it combines two pieces of music that involve her that I have actually already written. If possible, I have been trying to time musical themes together into a more cohesive whole rather than making distinct tracks that do not seem to relate to each other musically. I hope that will tie the different albums together but also make it a more cohesive listening experience. This track ties in a piece of music I made back in 2017 (episodes 120 and 122) with another piece I actually wrote many years ago that I have since reworked a bit and intended for a future album also in the key of G. This week, they are joined together instrumentally as Aurora’s theme!
Will post the updated tracks once I finish recording them.
This past week, I worked on finishing a track started back in Episode 364 accompanying a short segment from The Thirteenth Hour where Logan meets his crewmates again in a dream. When I finished the episode, I put it aside since it didn’t quite feel done, but I couldn’t put my finger on what it needed. I tossed around a number of ideas for a time, but it was not until recently that I hit on the right sound – the additional of a choral backing track and modifying the bell-like lead with a wah-wah sound to make it sound more ethereal. I do think this is the last track for the second Thirteenth Hour soundtrack! Now, I have to put it all together, make sure it has the finishing touches, and make the packaging. I think the Thirteenth Hour action figures (basically done!) and the magnet dolls will be accompanying this album.
This week, I’m making one last track for the next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack album. Just when I think it’s done, I think of another track I want to make. I think that’s because I really do think of all these tracks as accompaniments to various sections in the books. The nice thing about that is once you find a central theme (e.g. elements of The Thirteenth Hour theme is one), you can repeat and vary it throughout depending on the needs of the scene. This one goes along with a short segment from The Thirteenth Hour where Logan meets his crewmates again in a dream:
For awhile, all was dark, and I could hear nothing. Then the familiar elements of my recurring nightmare aboard the ship came into focus. But this time, I wasn’t afraid.
And there before me, were all seven members of my crew, smiling, looking down as I lay in my bed. It was like I was in the hospital, recovering from an injury, and they’d stopped by, flowers and get–well cards in hand, to wish me well.
“Guys?” I ventured. “You’re … okay?”
“We are now,” Jake said softly, laying a hand on my arm. The other men nodded. I looked for traces of resentment or anger in their faces, but I saw none.
“I’m sorry, guys, I don’t know what to say … I …”
“It’s okay,” they said.
“You’re not mad?”
“Why would we be mad?” Ben asked.
“I … I dunno. I’m here, you’re not … it just seemed like it should have been the other way around.”
“But it wasn’t,” said Phil, shrugging. “We’ve been watching, the whole time, and in some ways, we’re glad it’s you, and not us,” he said, laughing. The others nodded.
“We’re … we’re really proud of you,” Jake said. “The cards were stacked against us from the beginning. That asshole, Darian.” Other nodded vigorously. “We’ve been amazed you’ve made it this far. I certainly don’t think I could have, not alone.” More head nods.
I wasn’t sure what to say. “Thanks,” I said finally. “I’m glad we could meet again.”
“Well, we’ve been trying to get in contact with you as soon as we could, but … it never quite worked until now.”
The nightmares. “I’ve been having the same nightmare over and over since the ship went down. It always ends the same way.”
“Well, now you know how it ended. Here. Today. Now.”
It felt as if a weight had begun to be lifted from my chest.
The track we’re making today is basically a slow reworking of The Thirteenth Hour theme, similar to what I did with Empty Hands and the meditative theme that became the music video of pixelated Logan flying through the clouds. This track is most similar to the latter but won’t have the angelic accents that that track ended up with. I’d like to give it a more somber tone to fit with the nature of the passage above so will be thinking about which sounds would best pair with the base layer I made this week. I was thinking of something haunting, kind of like the sounds of a Theremin, but am not sure I can make that with my midi keyboard. But I may be able to find something close. We shall see! Stay tuned!
This week, I finished the music video I started recently using the two synth – handpan tracks Jeff Finely and I worked on together. I finally figured out enough of Adobe Premiere to accomplish pretty much what I was going for in the video – i.e. flying through fantasy landscapes with a trail of smoke coming out of Lightning. Now, in the book, it’s actually three rainbow smoke trails, but sometimes, I will just draw it as one large rainbow that trails afterwards. I couldn’t quite get the rainbow effect but did get the smoke trail to change to the colors of the rainbow, which is good enough for now. Here’s a short clip of what I started with (pixelart Logan superimposed over stock fantasy landscape animations I purchased off pond5.com):
And here is the full video:
This was the last collaboration Jeff and I did, by the way, based on some ideas originally conceived by Brent Simon:
You can find out more about Jeff on his previous appearances on the show (episode 101, 102, and 176).
And, of course, the film that started it all with Brent Simon.
I also recently rewatched the 1984 film Night of the Comet to prep for a conversation with one of the leads from the film, Catherine Mary Stewart about the movie. This is a little addition to the Lego Friends minifigure package I made of Sam and Reg from NOTC, but if you’re on the Patreon, you will be able to find the interview there. If you’re a regular podcast listener, you will also be able to unlock the interview to listen to it. Yes, that’s right, gameification! Since Regina Belmont was an avid arcade gamer in the movie, it only seems right. Stay tuned for details. The Night of the Comet figures will be auctioned off starting in August, most likely, all proceeds to benefit the nonprofit Alliance4girls.org.
I also recently went back to my parents’ house and brought back a few things from my childhood for my own children and took pictures of some of the things I wanted to remember:
A collection of some of my and my brother’s old figures to share now with my kids.
Remember some of these guys?
We saved a bunch of the boxes from the computer games we had as kids. Little did we know that ot only would most games not comes with big boxes anymore but people would collect these things for exorbitant prices on eBay! 🙂
More on Patreon … but in the meantime, let it be known that 7/8/22 is “Be a kid again day!”
In other words, a great excuse to play with some toys!
This week, I’d adding to the second repeating chord progression in C#m that I did with with past show guest Jeff Finley on the handpan. We started this track in episode 354. This track ended up having the repeating chord progression C#m B C#m B C#m B / C#m B C#m B A B at 100 bpm. In this episode, I’m adding to Jeff’s arrangement with a little synth layer to hopefully complement what is already there.
For the first track we did, Jeff did an amazing job with accompanying and arranging the track started in episode 352. That track is showcased in a music video on Adobe Premiere I started this episode with pixelart Logan superimposed over some stock fantasy landscape video I purchased off pond5.com. Here is a preview:
I’d like to try to figure out how to add some rainbow colored exhaust to Lighting’s tail like I envisioned in the book:
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).
This week, I’m making a 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 mentioned that his handpan is in the key of C#m, so we thought it’d be fun to make another piece of music together. So this is me just starting something, and then I’ll send that over for him to add to, and we can go back and forth and see what we come up with, kind of like a remote jam session.
After playing around with a few, I ended up liking the descending chord progression C#m A E B and thought it might be fun to see what we could come up with around that. Though there is a bit of a melody, for the most part, I purposefully didn’t add much. It is just those 4 chords repeated again to allow Jeff to add to it. (Jeff – recorded this at 100 bpm with each chord held for about an 8 count.) Looking forward to what we can make together!
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).
And, of course, the film that started it all with Brent Simon.
In other news, I’m almost done painting the Beverly Switzler figurines for Ernie Trinidad’s postproduction backers for his Howard the Doc film. These were tough! I used reading glasses to see the tiny details and am glad I chose to make her eyes closed rather than open since trying to paint eyes on a figure this small is always a headache in more ways than one. I didn’t realize I’d made so many – nine painted ones and four glow in the dark ones. There’s definitely more than I need, so I may auction some off for charity like I did with the Lego Rocketeers. Speaking of which, this past week, it was Star Wars Day (5/4), which is also United Nations Anti-Bullying Day (as of 2012). Combined those two things and the Lego Rocketeer in a little skit. There are some stills below the ones of Bev.
This week, I thought I’d make a little piece of music as an unsolicited surprise for my friend Jeremy over at Whistlekick, who also does a little morning show called First Cup where he and other martial artists often congregate over his livestream (weekdays at 6 AM EST) to discuss various martial arts things as well as giving each other encouragement for the day. It’s a nice little group (check it out on Youtube, Twitter, Twitch, and FB!), and lately, I’ve been trying to get up early to work out and do other things at that time to start the day with them. I, as a perennial night owl, have always loathed mornings, but, you know, I gotta say, it’s nice to get your workout done in the morning, since at least then it gets done. Time tends to slip away later in the day. First Cup has thus been a motivating factor in helping me drag myself out of bed :).
Anyway, lately, Jeremy has been using some instrumental music to accompany a screen where he shows the countdown until the livestream starts. I think he’s had a few difficulties where Youtube will flag his intro music as being proprietary even though he used royalty free stock tracks, so I figured I’d make a ~30 sec track to accompany that bit so if he wants, he can use it. But even if not, no music ever goes to waste here at The Thirteenth Hour podcast! I can also use it later for something else – e.g. I sometimes use musical bits to bookend podcast tracks (like into between the intro and an interview).
This track was made entirely on the synth and was comprised of 5 different layers mixed together. It is also one off the few times I actually used the pitch bend effect there to simulate electric guitar note bending.
Next week, we’re going to start covering Masters of the Universe from 1987!
This week, I’m working on the last piece in the upcoming second Thirteenth Hour soundtrack. The track, called “Homecoming” is an incidental piece of music I made back in the summer but wasn’t sure how to finish. But today, I’m wrapping it up by adding two additional layers – a short melody for the “verses” using a xylophone sound (to invoke the feeling of nostalgia/childhood) as well as a choral vocal overlay. The draft plays at the end of the episode. A few pictures from part of the book that inspired this piece:
Next week, we’re going to do another Q and A episode! If you have questions or things you’d like to share, feel free to email me them at writejoshuablum@gmail.com.
This week, I’m working on two music pieces – one of the last tracks from the upcoming second Thirteenth Hour soundtrack. The song, called “No Hero (The Future is Here)” is basically the equivalent of the soundtrack’s ending track (like a song that would play over the ending credits). Some previews:
I’m working on the backing synth track today. The version on the podcast was an early warmup. At the time of this writing, many, many frustrating recording attempts (and hours) later, I do have a version of the backing track that is 95% done.
Speaking of ending tracks, I’ve also been playing around with the ending song from the US release of Legend, which we’ll be talking about in the coming week. The song playing as the movie ends is “Loved by the Sun” by Tangerine Dream and sung by Jon Anderson from the band Yes. I’m just messing around with on the guitar with my kids in the version on the podcast, but here is a much better orchestral version of the song done by kids with the O’Keefe Music Foundation, a nonprofit that provides free music instruction to children.
Look for more on Legend next week and the release of Once Upon a Dream later this year!
This week, I’ve got a few quick updates and will be digging into the second set of questions that came in. I really appreciate all the thoughtful questions!
Before we begin, I have finally finished the Lego Rocketeer including their boxes. Now just need to list them and get them ready for auction for two charity organizations in Dave Stevens’ name.
1) What was it about films like The Neverending Story that resonated with you as a child and served as fuel for the style of ’80s fantasy that The Thirteenth Hour represents? In your mind, what do you think is stylistically different about ’80s fantasy films as opposed to the stuff that came after? (like The Lord of the Rings movies or modern day shows like The Witcher).
2) The Thirteenth Hour straddles a lot of genres and defies classification – you could call it a fantasy/young adult book, but that doesn’t quite hit the mark. What are some of the restrictions and quirks of these genres that bothered you as a kid and still bother you as an adult? (i.e.: the tendency for fantasy series to be long multi-book affairs that get a little drunk on their own worldbuilding and politics; the fact that most YA books have to fit within the mold established by Harry Potter or The Hunger Games to survive)
3) Did you ever envision The Thirteenth Hour as a comic? In a perfect world, what would a comic adaptation of the story look like in your eyes? Would you go for a long running series that expands on the mythology that you wrote, or maybe a big one-shot a la Dave Steven’s Rocketeer work that’s self-contained?
Check out Jeremy‘s work over at Pixel Grotto, CBR.com, and Classic Batman Panels on IG. You can support his work on Ko-fi and get access to in-depth, exclusive Batman content here. If you are of the DnD persuasion, his articles on DnD Beyond may be right up your alley. Thanks, Jeremy, for coming on the show!
These first five comes from frequent show guest Adam from @mom_gave_them_away, who was just on the show for episodes 340–341 on Rambo/First Blood.
4.) Favorite Gene Wilder role, not necessarily favorite movie?
5.) Favorite toy line as a kid?
6.) Within that favorite toy line, what’s your favorite figure?
7.) Can you nail down your favorite year of the 80s?
8.) Did you take piano lessons, and if so, do you remember your first lesson?
Find more of Adam’s work on the interwebs at ACtoydesign and his shop of original resin toys. He does a number of podcasts as well – I Have Spoken (a Star Wars podcast), Death by Podcast (a vintage horror podcast), and You like Toys (a Patreon exclusive podcast about toys and nostalgia).
Two of my favorite GI Joe figures – Lady Jaye and Snake Eyes from the GI Joe 80s cartoon.
I don’t a lot of the toys from my youth currently with me, but have found a few in later years. The little blue Prius from Japan is there representing Micro Machines and the Japanese import that was my first GoBot. The blue robot is a GoBot that was my favorite as a kid, and the Air Raider pilot (which was one of the ones I had as kid), represents all the smaller size figures I liked playing with as a child.
Thanks, everyone, for your contributions! It was a good time. We’ll do it again next month (for the episode to be released on 3/28/22). If you have questions, feel free to email me them at writejoshuablum@gmail.com.
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.
As with last week, I’m joined by actor Lance Guest (The Last Starfighter, Jaws 4, Halloween 2) to talk more about his favorite project, the 1988 film, The Wizard of Loneliness. We wrap up talking about the film and also touch a bit on some other aspects of his life, including music and on a 2001 Disney Channel film Lance was in featuring a juvenile chimpanzee, The Jennie Project.
If you missed the first part of the interview, you can find it here as well as catch a video segment that gives you visuals for the video clips we’re watching and commenting on together:
Here’s a little clip from David Letterman where Lance (who is portraying Johnny Cash) performs with his bandmates in the show Million Dollar Quartet.
There isn’t much out there on The Jennie Project, but here’s a little promo clip that I vaguely remember playing on The Disney Channel. Interestingly enough, the movie itself is not on Disney+ last time I checked, though you can find it to buy on Youtube or as a part of Amazon Prime (again, like The Wizard of Loneliness, only if you have a subscription). I don’t think it was ever released on DVD, though someone uploaded it here (you may have to sort through the three links to the right to find one that works, though; beware of popups).
Speaking of not having much out there on Youtube, The Wizard of Loneliness has very little there. There is a nice trailer, though, as well as a snippet someone uploaded on a scene with Sybil Oler (Lea Thompson) and Duffy Kahler (Dylan Baker). The scene is very close to how it occurs in the novel of the same name by John Nichols, which was written in 1966.
Above is the cover of the novel, which, interestingly, features two different scenes from the film and merges them together in and outside the Oler house. Unless I’m wrong and this was a deleted scene, not sure why they did that and didn’t just use the movie poster/VHS coverart made for the film (a portion below), though it’s a nice image that works well enough.
Anyhow, thanks to the support of the fine folks on The Thirteenth Hour Arts Patreon, I reached out to Lea Thompson on Cameo to ask about her work on The Wizard of Loneliness and if the novel was helpful in portraying Sybil. I think she is a more complicated character in the film than she is in the book since they merged an additional character (that of the town librarian, Marty) into the on-screen version of Sybil.
In both book and film, Sybil had a short relationship with Duffy, bore their child out of wedlock, married, then lost her husband in WW2. But in the novel, the relationship with Duffy is portrayed as a not very serious adolescent fling, and Sybil’s husband’s death happens during a few brief paragraphs of exposition. We don’t really see it as actively as we do in the film.
In the book, the town librarian, Marty, is a lonely figure that finds a kind of awkward connection with Wendall over books and photography. It’s hinted that there is a kind of mutual attraction there, though I don’t think it was meant to be sexual in nature (more just two lonely souls finding solace in their mutual misery). However, I’m guessing the filmmakers probably felt it best to avoid material that would lead to questions about the age difference between Wendall and Marty, especially if the attraction – however platonic – was to someone of the same sex. In the movie, you kind of get the sense that Wendall has a crush on his aunt (which, to be fair, is also kind of weird), but maybe they felt that was preferable to the former.
In the book, it really is the whole community that helps Wendall come out of his shell, whereas in the film, though the family and community role is definitely there, it seemed like they were going for Sybil becoming kind of a surrogate mother figure for Wendall (even hinted at in the cover art below). In any event, both versions are good, and it was great to get Lea Thompson’s take on the film. Look for more on the novel in the last part of the podcast.
Thanks to Lance and Lea for providing the guest spots for this episode and for the Patrons and all the listeners for their support.
In the coming weeks, we’ll get back to more 30th anniversary Rocketeer celebrating. We still have a handful of Rocketeer cartoon episodes to discuss as well as a number of other guests and other fun activities in the works.
I know we didn’t talk much about The Last Starfighter here, but if you look for The Last Starfighter group on Facebook, you can find many more interviews and pictures from the film, including all those speculations about sequels and so forth. (Just with like The Rocketeer, I will believe it when I see it! 🙂
Speaking of those two properties, if you every wondered what might have happened just prior to The Last Starfighter, should our hapless hero Cliff Secord (a.k.a. the Rocketeer) live to 1983, check out the shenanigans and misadventures that follow in the fanfic short story, “The Last Rocketeer”!
What would happen if The Rocketeer collided with The Last Starfighter? What would happen if Cliff Secord, our hapless hero from the 1991 film and the Dave Stevens comic from the 80s really did live in the 80s? Say, 1983? He’d be about 71. What if Centauri, the fast-talking game creator from the 1984 film, recruited Cliff for a special mission? What if, knowing Cliff’s luck, it all went bad? Will he reluctantly don his antiquated rocketpack and helmet for one last flight? Will his jodhpurs even fit after all these years? Read on and find out as world collide! Cliff’s back may not take the strain, but at least you can do so from the comfort of your favorite chair!
Thanks for tuning in!
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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 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
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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’s show takes a small passage from The Thirteenth Hour and extrapolates it into an exploration into what it means to want, to need, and what really is compassion to ourselves – needing, wanting, or both? In this passage, Logan, the main character of The Thirteenth Hour, is having a dream where he talks with a former mentor, Wally, the wizard who originally recruited a reluctant Logan into all the shenanigans that resulted in the story.
Did I not say you’d be great hero someday?”
“Ah, Wally, I …”
“Okay, I get a little carried away sometimes, but look how far you’ve come! You’re just in a little rut now.”
“You know, I don’t care much about that now. The quest and all that. It’s, well, other things that are starting to seem more important.”
“Oh, yes, of course. I know. You’re starting to understand.”
“It doesn’t feel like understanding. I feel more confused than ever.”
“And that is always how one must begin. Besides, Logan, if I had all the answers, I could call myself a wise man. Maybe there’s fate, maybe there are gods, maybe there’s just chance, but you know what? Does it really matter? For all intents and purposes, your life, your world, your own story, is really what you make of it. We all start life with the same blank sheets of paper, the same quill, and the same bottle of ink. Our hand is guided to the pen, then to the inkwell, and then the first page. That’s where we all start. But how we write, and what we write, is largely up to ourselves. Your world, Logan, can be whatever you want it to be. The things around you, well, they’re just things. But how you see them, that’s what you can change. Now, what is it that you really want?”
I thought for awhile. “No one’s really asked me that before.”
“Well, I’m asking you now.”
“I think I’m going to have to get back to you on that.”
“Well, you work on that. Just remember, there’s a difference between wanting and needing, and it’s okay to want things. See, Logan, the things you want don’t always have to be real to be true. You can paint the canvas of your life in whatever colors you choose … if only you wish it so …”
And sometimes, wanting and needing can result in the same action. But at other times, what we really need is exactly opposite of what we want. For example, take the song “Many Miles,” that debuted last week. It’s a song about one of the main characters of the next Thirteenth Hour book, Aurora, as she struggles to make decisions. In other words, it’s about wanting vs. needing! She does not want to leave a home she has built with her husband, a life she has created for herself that is comfortable and safe from the chaos of the world. But there is a small but growing part of herself that feels unfulfilled and a bit empty, like something is missing, given the lack of knowledge she has about her family and the early (unknown) parts of her life. What she actually needs is to shake up the status quo to learn that information in order to feel fulfilled enough to really appreciate what she has created. So – the compassionate choice – leaving – is actually the more painful one. But it’s the one she needs in order to move forward in life, even though she doesn’t want to. Complicated, isn’t it? 🙂 But, so often, our lives are. That’s encapsulated in the song (which is why it took son long to finally get right) and also in this episode.
And, as mentioned before, the patches I mentioned a few weeks ago are now ready and available for purchase here! They 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’s show piggybacks off last week’s episode and the Patreon exclusive episode that came out last week. We’re making the slow, meditative Thirteenth Hour theme that was playing in the background of last week’s episode and then creating a visual for it in Adobe Premiere. I always thought that cloudscape scenes were peaceful and naturally meditative, so I’m using that a stock footage first person cloudscape as a background as well as some pixelart animations of Logan that I created years ago.
And, as mentioned last episode, the patches I mentioned a few weeks ago are now ready and available for purchase here! They 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 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, synthwave musician Miguel Iniguez, a.k.a. Starfarer, joins me on the show for a conversation all about music, the creative process, his influences, and his self-titled debut album (which reminded me of the soundtrack to a dark and fast space shoot’em up, like Gradius for the SNES:
Speaking of influences, the excerpt of the instrumental piece right before the interview called Crack of Doom was influenced by the Terminator theme. As you might imagine, Starfarer has an 80s sci-fi feel … so count down with me as we initiate the launch sequence. 5 … 4 … 3 … 2 … 1. Engage!
Next week, stay tuned for more retro 80s, but this time, in action figure form – Adam from the Instragram account mom_gave_them_away joins us for a multi-part interview. Stay tuned!
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Between Two Worlds, the synth EP follow up to Long Ago Not So Far Awayis now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
The bonus track, called “Flight of the Cloudrider” has a 80s movie mashup music video (see if you can identify all the movies!) which is available on youtube. This app was largely created with the iphone app Auxy.
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.
My brother and I recently connected with European game developer team Dev9k (Massimiliano ‘Haematinon’ Nigro and Antonio Scacchetti), the creators of the recently released 80s anime inspired video game, Nirvana Pilot Yume, which answers the question – what happened if the 90s shareware game Skyroads were a visual novel with a synthwave soundtrack?
Given the misadventures my brother and I had making games in our youth, we were both looking forward to the conversation with Massimiliano and Antionio. We covered a wide range of topics, from the creative process, aspects of game development, working within technical limitations of technology (and how that sometimes fosters more creativity), and 80s era Japanimation – case in point below:
Check out the synthwave group Retroxx, who did the soundtrack for the game, for more synth action. And if you don’t recall what the game Skyroads looked like, here’s a quick runthrough:
Interested in learning more? Check more about the game and its developers on IG and Facebook.
You can now find the game for the PC on Steam. Grab it while it’s still on sale! There is a demo available for webplay/download here so you can try before you buy. Even if you’re not into video games, it’s worth it just for the art, concept, and music alone. Supporting an indie game developer is also good for your karma 🙂
And if you’re at all interested in game development or collaborating on making a game out of The Thirteenth Hour, let me know! Read more here.
Next week, in time for Christmas, Brent Simon and Jeremy return to discuss the 30th anniversary of Robocop! Stay tuned!
The bonus track, called “Flight of the Cloudrider” has a 80s movie mashup music video (see if you can identify all the movies!) which is available on youtube. This app was largely created with the iphone app Auxy.
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.
Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to the retro 80s soundtrack!
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.
After finishing the instrumental theme in episode #120, lyrics started coming. That’s the thing about the muse. Sometimes, unbeknownst to you, she starts doing her own thing at a time you least expect. If you recall, this was a little love theme written for a scene in a Thirteenth Hour sequel book when our two main protagonists, Logan and Aurora, are reunited after a long time. Since the course of true love never runs smoothly, it’s meant to convey a mixture of bittersweet yearning and a desire to push everything else away for just a few moments alone with your heart’s desire.
This song is dedicated to my wife. When writing the lyrics, I was reminded by the short love songs on the collection 69 Love Songs by the Magnetic Fields (that was a car CD we’d listen to a lot in years past) and some saccharine, mellow, haunting songs from a different time, like “Such a Woman” by Neil Young and “If” by Bread.
Today’s backing track was done on the synthesizer and electric guitar with the vocals done afterwards. Mixing was done on the synth and in Audacity. You can hear the final version at the end of the show. Download this song and the instrumental version on bandcamp. You can also stream them below.
Here are the lyrics:
Because We May Only Have One Night
G
If I had one day
Em
Before the world was through
C
I’d spend it all with you
D
No looking back
If we had one night
Just one night to hold you tight
And be there close to you
Never let you go
Bridge:
G
And all those things
Em
That get in the way
C
Make them disappear
D
Forever and forever …
Just one day to
See the world in your eyes
Capture all the memories
Never let them fade
Just one night
One night to hold you tight
And be there close to you
Never let you go
Bridge:
And everyone
Who won’t let us be
Make them go away
Forever and forever …
Just one night
To hold each other tight
Maybe just one night
What are we waiting for?
Coming attraction: watch out for Dev9K discussing their 80s anime inspired video game, Nirvana Pilot Yume, which answers the question what happened if the 90s shareware game Skyroads were a visual novel with a synthwave soundtrack? The game releases on Steam on 12/13, so check it out and find out more next week!
The bonus track, called “Flight of the Cloudrider” has a 80s movie mashup music video (see if you can identify all the movies!) which is available on youtube. This app was largely created with the iphone app Auxy.
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.
Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to the retro 80s soundtrack!
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.
Today’s show is a reading from an illustrated children’s book version of the fairy tale, “Swan Lake,” accompanied by the music from the suite by Tchaikovsky. It comes from a book written by ballerina Margot Fonteyn and illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman, whose work has been featured many times here. Although maybe not a fairy tale with the same vintage as, say, the Grimm’s tales, at this point, I think the tale penned by Tchaikovsky for the ballet has all the elements of a traditional fairy tale, and at this point, is sufficiently old and famous enough to be timeless. This version has Hyman’s usual beautiful illustrations, some of which are below:
The reading is set to a truncated version of the Swan Lake Score (was looking for one that was about 30 minutes):
The bonus track, called “Flight of the Cloudrider” has a 80s movie mashup music video (see if you can identify all the movies!) which is available on youtube. This app was largely created with the iphone app Auxy.
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.
Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to the retro 80s soundtrack!
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.
I’ll freely admit I’ve always been partial to love themes from movie soundtracks. Especially if they came out in the 80s, when there were plenty of synthesizers to give it that 80s feel. So today, we’re creating a track like that for the third Thirteenth Hour book for a scene when our two main protagonists, Logan and Aurora, are reunited after a long time spent looking for each other, not knowing if their true love was even still alive. I wanted it to be a mix between some more traditional sounds (mostly) to evoke tender longing and just enough synth to fit in the rest of the soundtrack.
It’s called “Because We May Only Have One Night,” and while this one is mainly instrumental, I think I may add some vocals for a separate song later or do a reprise which takes some of the elements of this melody, such as the chord progression (G Em C D) or the main riff and intersperses it for later introspective scenes. That’s the great thing about making soundtracks! You can rest assured that if you have one melody you like, you can dress it up and change a few things here or there and use it for a new piece somewhere else, kind of like using the leftovers of Sunday’s dinner for Monday’s lunch!
Today’s track was done all on the synthesizer with a small vocal part (whistling) added to the intro. It was mixed on the synth and in Audacity. Look for it in the near future on bandcamp. You can hear the demo version at the end of the show.
While we’re on the subject, one of the tracks featured on the show a few weeks ago, inspired by Chad Derdowski’s book, Fortune Favors the Bold, is now a feature on the Youtube channel Synth Heaven. Check it out:
Here are the original tracks embedded in the page for your playing convenience:
Speaking of which, Chad has a sequel just out – Fortune Favors the Bold 2! More Scissorwulf! Like the last volume and the Choose Your Own Adventure books that inspired it, it comes with black and white line illustrations that Chad drew to complete the experience. Click on the cover below to check it out on Amazon.
Lastly, Missy Sheldrake, who was on the show this past summer, is also releasing a book in the near future – just a few days from when this episode will be out. As with her previous volumes, this one is richly illustrated. Click on the book spotlight below to get a copy of your own, and check out her social media links following the illustrations as well as the following book excerpts (one and two).
The bonus track, called “Flight of the Cloudrider” has a 80s movie mashup music video (see if you can identify all the movies!) which is available on youtube. This app was largely created with the iphone app Auxy.
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.
Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to the retro 80s soundtrack!
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.
Today’s episode is a discussion on rewatching the animated film, Fire and Ice, directed by Ralph Bakshi and produced by him and Frank Frazetta, who provided many of the character designs. My brother, Jeremy, and author Chad Derdowski came on the show after watching the film to give our reflections (click on the movie poster below, painted by Frank Frazetta, to get a copy of your own):
-Not that it needs one, but Fire and Ice may get a remake (allegedly … supposedly … possibly … you know how these things go). Some concept art here.
-Dark Wolf later inspired a similarly clad comic hero called Jaguar God … the first issue cover was a borrowed Frazetta painting.
-Despite different directors and different studios/animation styles, you can buy the whole (well, kind of) animated Lord of the Rings saga:
And a bit on the Dark Wolf character from the film, which we touched on during previous episodes Chad featured in (hear parts 1 and 2 here) – a combo of a “sword and sorcery” Batman (as Jeremy put it) crossed with the Death Dealer character Frazetta created and painted numerous times:
Lastly, I leave you this image of Blackstar, a similarly clad figure that went with a sword and sorcery cartoon of the same era about an astronaut that lands on an alien planet. He has a tagline that reads “Astronaut defender of freedom with glow in the dark star sword.” Does it get any more 80s than that? 🙂 (You can watch the series on youtube.)
And if you like sword and sorcery, check out Chad’s books! The following tracks were inspired by them:
I’ll end with more info on where you can find the book that inspired these tracks:
The bonus track, called “Flight of the Cloudrider” has a 80s movie mashup music video (see if you can identify all the movies!) which is available on youtube. This app was largely created with the iphone app Auxy.
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.
Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to retro 80s soundtrack!
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.
Not long after author Chad Derdowski came on the show this summer (hear parts 1 and 2 here), talking about his brilliantly humorous … oh, how shall we say, R-rated Choose-Your- Own-Adventure-style book, Fortune Favors the Bold, I wondered what a soundtrack to the book might sound like. Something out of an 80s movie, I thought, like Ladyhawke or Legend. And then, the muse struck. Of course, it was in an inconvenient place (in the shower), but as soon as I could, I found a keyboard and tapped out the little theme that formed the backbone of these two tracks.
I got Chad’s input and okay to proceed, then went to town. He didn’t put me up to this or anything, and I didn’t want him to think I was trying to steal his creations … I guess in the tradition of fanfiction, you could call this “fanmusic?” =) Anyway, I talk more about the creation of the tracks, called “Gleam of the Widowmaker” and “One Adventures Ends, Another Begins” on the episode and read a few choice bits from the book which inspired the tracks, which you can listen to below or by clicking on the song titles above.
The latter track was made on the iOS app Auxy, like “Flight of the Cloudrider” (listen here or see the music video below) and “There is Magic Inside.” You can learn more about Auxy, download a copy to your phone, and Henrik Lenberg, the creator of the program, by clicking on the highlighted links.
By the way, in case you are curious, here is a youtube tutorial that shows a little about how to use Auxy:
And here are some screenshots from “One Adventure Ends, Another Begins”:
If you enjoy synthesizer music, creating it, or just living your life as if it were accompanied to an 80s soundtrack, check out this great synthwave playlist on Spotify curated by Preston Cram.
I’ll end with more info on where you can find the book that inspired these tracks:
The bonus track, called “Flight of the Cloudrider” has a 80s movie mashup music video (see if you can identify all the movies!) which is available on youtube. This app was largely created with the iphone app Auxy.
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.
Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to retro 80s soundtrack!
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.
When I was a kid, I really wanted to like comic books. I really did. But I ended up having about as much luck with them as I did with fantasy novels – meaning that, aside from a few isolated one-shot deals, it was a mostly a miasma of confusion and disappointment. Of course, I had a few tattered Spiderman and Superman comic books, but for the most part, I didn’t have the fainted idea what was going on in them. I’d mostly just look at the pictures and sort of guess what was happening since I was usually missing part 1 of whatever story arc it was and probably only had issue 3/7, like how someone who doesn’t understand the language might feel when watching a film without subtitles … one can appreciate the art … but everything else is kind of a gamble.
There were a few notable exceptions, though – Dave Stevens’ The Rocketeer and the only Daredevil comic I had a kid, a collection of stories in an arc dubbed “Born Again.” Ripe with heavy Christian symbolism (sacrifice, redemption, Armageddon) and rendered in mostly dark primary colors depicting a grim and seedy vision of pre-gentrification NYC, writer Frank Miller and artist David Mazzucchelli created a world that you didn’t exactly want to inhabit, but like watching a train careen into a mountain, man, oh man, you couldn’t look away from, either.
In today’s episode, I reflect a little on this fine example of storytelling.
Daredevil, sans costume, takes on one of the Kingpin’s enforcer’s trying to ventilate him. Nice kick! Time to visit the dentist …
I read this story around the time I was starting martial arts and liked that it included some martial arts techniques for Daredevil, here fighting an impostor in his costume). Another nice side kick above and a variety of spearhands below:
At the time, when reading this story, I had no idea Daredevil was blind and always marveled at how he managed to not kill himself jumping all over the place. I guess that is why he is the man without fear.
I thought this quote was the coolest thing as a teenager.
At their very core, superhero stories laud the best and worst of humanity. But while they serve as idealistic examples of wish fulfillment, it can be hard to relate to a superhero. By making him fall to new lows, this comic did a great job making Daredevil into a relatable human being. It’s symbolic he spends most of the story arc without his trademark costume and that the last page shows him as a regular guy walking down the street. For those of us who haven’t quite fallen to those gritty depths, there is still hope. Maybe that means we then have something to lose and thus, something to fear. But in a world where danger seems to lurk around every corner (if you believe what the news says), feeling no fear may not be realistic or even prudent. But it doesn’t mean we can’t put our best selves forward, one foot in front of the other, and at the very least, fake being unafraid. In the end, who can really tell the difference?
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Between Two Worlds, the synth EP follow up to Long Ago Not So Far Awayis now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
The bonus track, called “Flight of the Cloudrider” has a 80s movie mashup music video (see if you can identify all the movies!) which is available on youtube. This app was largely created with the iphone app Auxy.
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.
Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to retro 80s soundtrack!
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.
Today, we’re doing a short reading from The Thirteenth Hour accompanied by a corresponding part from Long Ago Not So Far Away, the soundtrack written for the book. “The Imperial Ranger March,” which is playing in the background, can be heard on the podcast here , where there is more info about the track. You can also find it on Bandcamp. There is also a short video you can see on IG.
I used the same theme in a little short video to showcase the throwing of a large sheath knife that reminded of the similarly large sheath knife the Imperial Rangers were issued to clear brush and chop wood:
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Between Two Worlds, the synth EP follow up to Long Ago Not So Far Awayis now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
The bonus track, called “Flight of the Cloudrider” has a 80s movie mashup music video (see if you can identify all the movies!) which is available on youtube. This app was largely created with the iphone app Auxy.
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.
Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to retro 80s soundtrack!
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.
Today, we’re going to make a music track for one of the Thirteenth Hour book sequels with a combination of digital and analog technology. It goes with a part of the story where Aurora, one of the main characters, is just starting to discover that she has the ability to generate magic herself – something that is surprising, wonderful, exciting, and a bit confusing all at the same time. I was trying to capture that feeling in the music.
I’m using a app called Auxy to make the backing track and adding in a few electric guitar parts as accents. The track was 95% done prior to adding the guitars, and best of all, I did it all in the palm of my hand when I was doing something else (in this case trying to get my son to sleep by bouncing on a exercise ball – that works wonders, by the way).
I made a previous track with Auxy, “Flight of the Cloudrider” (listen here) or check out the link to the EP and music video below. You can learn more about Auxy, download a copy to your phone (only iOS so far, I believe – my error on the show), and Henrik Lenberg, the creator of the program, by clicking on the highlighted links.
Here is a youtube tutorial that shows a little about how to use the program:
And here are some screenshots from this particular track:
If you enjoy synthesizer music, creating it, or just living your life as if it were accompanied to an 80s soundtrack, check out this great synthwave playlist on Spotify curated by Preston Cram.
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Between Two Worlds, the synth EP follow up to Long Ago Not So Far Awayis now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
The bonus track, called “Flight of the Cloudrider” has a 80s movie mashup music video (see if you can identify all the movies!) which is available on youtube. This app was largely created with the iphone app Auxy.
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.
Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to retro 80s soundtrack!
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.
Today, we’re finish the track we started in episode #112. As mentioned, it’s a short atmospheric piece to accompany the third Thirteenth Hour book and centers around Aurora, who has assumed the part time role of someone called “The Midnight Phoenix,” a name generated by the local papers from the legends of old after she unwittingly saves a man while on a brooding nighttime walk above the city’s skyline. This is not a particularly happy time in her time, and her one real solace is playing a magic lute on the rooftop outside her window, high above the city, allowing her to see the sea, the horizon over which her home lies, and even if she can’t get back there, see an exit to her current trapped state.
Today. we’re finishing the backing track and adding the guitar part in. In the future, I’ll finish the accompanying artwork, which will likely show her up on a rooftop (Batman style), silhouetted against the sky.
This is the tabulature and chord structure of this short piece:
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Between Two Worlds, the synth EP follow up to Long Ago Not So Far Awayis now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
The bonus track, called “Flight of the Cloudrider” has a 80s movie mashup music video (see if you can identify all the movies!) which is available on youtube. This app was largely created with the iphone app Auxy.
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.
Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to retro 80s soundtrack!
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.
Like last week, today, we’re going to create more music together. In order to finish the piece we started last week, I needed to finish some backlogged music projects that I have had sitting around first. My synthesizer only allows you to store two songs at a time, so this is one of them. Like last week, it’s a mostly atmospheric piece to accompany the third Thirteenth Hour book and centers around Aurora, who has assumed the part time role of someone called “The Midnight Phoenix.” At this part of the story (at least according to the rough outline I have envisioned), things get a little out of control, and part of the city she now finds herself in is destroyed. She is standing on top of a tall building overlooking the city and the smoldering ruins. As she does so, this theme plays in the background. Like the tune last week, it’s intended to be slow and a bit mournful.
Today, we’ll be combining the synthesizer backing track that I’ve had in the can for a number of weeks with a guitar part that I recorded more recently. There is a post on IG that shows some video of the guitar part in the draft stage. At the end of the podcast, you’ll hear the more or less finished version.
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Between Two Worlds, the synth EP follow up to Long Ago Not So Far Awayis now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
The bonus track, called “Flight of the Cloudrider” has a 80s movie mashup music video (see if you can identify all the movies!) which is available on youtube. This app was largely created with the iphone app Auxy.
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.
Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to retro 80s soundtrack!
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.
Today, we’re going to create some music together. It’s a short atmospheric piece to accompany the third Thirteenth Hour book and centers around Aurora, who has assumed the part time role of someone called “The Midnight Phoenix,” a name generated by the local papers from the legends of old after she unwittingly saves a man while on a brooding nighttime walk above the city’s skyline.
At this point, she is supposed to be learning magic, which she can’t really do or control, and she misses the home she created, far away across the Western sea, on her island with her husband Logan. She supposed to learn magic since her family essentially needs another set of hands to defend against a new mysterious threat. But all she can really do is make flaming blue fire when she gets stressed or angry.
Here is Aurora doing a meditative exercise to try to help herself control her fire making ability rather let it engulf her (what usually happens, making her kind of a danger to herself and others around her).
Her one real solace is playing a magic lute on the rooftop outside her window, high above the city, allowing her to see the sea, the horizon over which her home lies, and even if she can’t get back there, see an exit to her current trapped state.
I was inspired by the rooftop guitar solo scene from the movie The Crow when thinking of this scene:
You can find the track as “Inferno” on The Crow score by Graeme Revell.
My favorite part of that track was always the slow, melodic intro part, so I was channeling that in marking today’s track. To be continued in a future episode!
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Between Two Worlds, the synth EP follow up to Long Ago Not So Far Awayis now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
The bonus track, called “Flight of the Cloudrider” has a 80s movie mashup music video (see if you can identify all the movies!) which is available on youtube. This app was largely created with the iphone app Auxy.
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.
Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to retro 80s soundtrack!
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.
Two weeks ago, we started our three part Brent Simon series (listen to parts 1 and 2 here), and this week, we wrap up by discussing what Brent has been up to in the last 11 years, which it turns out – quite a bit. Check out his further forays into filmaking with the Slow Mutants (a short behind the scenes clip here) and his current project, Aerial Focused.
In case you missed the backstory, in the beginning of the summer, during the interview with Jeff Finley (episodes 101 and 102), we talked about Jeff’s making of a little documentary that rocketed to the forefront of Youtube back in 2006 featuring none other than current guest Brent Simon. In episode 109, we talked about the making of that short film (called “The Brentumentary,”) as well as the media explosion that happened afterwards resulting in a CD of synthesizer tunes. Brent sent me a number of files of song ideas, demos, and completed tracks that weren’t on the CD. You can hear part of one (about collecting lottery tickets) at the end of this track.
You can also see Brent’s drone coverage of the 8/21/17 solar eclipse on his Aerial Focused youtube channel here:
More aerial footage is on the main Aerial Focused channel here. The really cool thing about some of the vids there is they aren’t just videos of the aircraft on the ground – they were filmed in the air, so as one aircraft is flying, you can see it in-pursuit-style, filmed by a drone! There’s also a really cool one of what a motorcross looks like from up high.
If you’re interested in getting into drone or RC planes, the site Brent recommended is called Flitetest; look there for very reasonably priced model planes and drones with walkthrough build videos. Wish this had been around when I was a kid!
If you want to see a “live” performance (11 years ago), there’s a clip Jeff put up on his channel of Brent busting out a 20 min set with friends with a number of songs from the CD (not to mention a short breakdancing bit on cardboard, no less):
And speaking of which, check out Jeff’s Soundcloud page for a number of new tracks he’s produced since coming on the show at the beginning of the summer. His latest instrumental chillwave track:
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Between Two Worlds, the synth EP follow up to Long Ago Not So Far Awayis now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
The bonus track, called “Flight of the Cloudrider” has a 80s movie mashup music video (see if you can identify all the movies!) which is available on youtube. This app was largely created with the iphone app Auxy.
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.
As always, thanks for listening! Thanks for coming on the show, Brent! It was a pleasure!
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Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to retro 80s soundtrack!
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.
Update: Click this link above if you are finding iTunes is playing episode 74 instead. Trying to work out the glitch!
Last week, we had our first episode of Brent Simon’s interview, and this week, we discuss things like bittorrent, movie that were probably inappropriate to be shown to children (but were), how we went around humming John Williams scores as kids, and more. Lots of 80s movies references in this one!
In case you missed the backstory, in the beginning of the summer, during the interview with Jeff Finley (episodes 101 and 102), we talked about Jeff’s making of a little documentary that rocketed to the forefront of Youtube back in 2006 featuring none other than current guest Brent Simon. Last week, we talked about the making of that short film (called “The Brentumentary,”) as well as the media explosion that happened afterwards resulting in a CD of synthesizer tunes. It’s, unfortunately, really hard to find now for some reason. I did manage to track down a copy of another CD Brent talked about last week, the infamously named “Vomit Gold” by the band he was in prior to all this happening, Bellevue:
You can hear Brent’s synthesizer action in the background just like he mentioned last week. I’ll figure out how to get it to Brent. Of all people, he should own this disc.
Speaking of musical things, at one point, Brent references a childhood favorite track, which was a disco version of the Star Wars theme. I’m not sure this is the same one, but here’s one I did find a medley version on youtube, which has the main theme, the cantina theme, and a bit of the Force theme.
We also discuss the notable lack of the Voltron theme in the new reboot, Tranzor Z (finally learned what that robot was called; see below), Transformers, Robotech, G.I. Joe, Thundercats, Prince Valiant (watch the intro here; always thought this was a kickass intro – the full song was done who the synth duo Exchange), and more. We touch on a few movies my brother I rewatched a number of months ago (discussed in episodes 74 and 75) as well as a full discussion of some classic movie scores by folks such as James Horner (The Rocketeer, Willow, The Journey of Natty Gann, etc).
Click on the picture for the original Japanese intro, which, true to form given the time period, has men singing in the background.
At the end of the show, there a clip of one of the songs from Brent’s “Seven of Nine” CD, a very catchy tune with clever lyrics called “Alien Abduction.” If you want to see a “live” performance (11 years ago), there’s a clip Jeff put up on his channel of Brent busting out a 20 min set with friends with a number of songs from the CD (not to mention a short breakdancing bit on cardboard, no less):
And speaking of which, check out Jeff’s Soundcloud page for a number of new tracks he’s produced since coming on the show at the beginning of the summer. His latest instrumental chillwave track:
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Between Two Worlds, the synth EP follow up to Long Ago Not So Far Awayis now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
The bonus track, called “Flight of the Cloudrider” has a 80s movie mashup music video (see if you can identify all the movies!) which is available on youtube. This app was largely created with the iphone app Auxy.
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.
As always, thanks for listening! Next week more on Brent Simon!
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Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to retro 80s soundtrack!
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.
In the beginning of the summer, during the interview with Jeff Finley (episodes 101 and 102), we talked about Jeff’s making of a little documentary that rocketed to the forefront of Youtube back in 2006 featuring none other than Brent Simon. For the next three weeks, he’ll be on the show!
Today, we’re hearing from Brent as he talks about the making of the Brentumentary, how he got into music and playing live, as well as the recording of his CD (in a strange twist of fate, the only actual place I could find to access this CD was through Napster! There must be other venues out there – anyone know of one?)
You can preview the journey by reading Jeff’s words (or just listen to him reminisce about it on the previous episodes). Brent also talks about gear, which is a Roland Fantom model FA76 synth (which you can still find, by the way).
At the end of this week’s show, Brent references the lyrics from “The Bittorrent Song,” the lyrics of which you can find here:
Hear a clip of Brent jamming out with full synth action at the end of the podcast (from this CD)!
If you want to see a “live” performance (11 years ago), there’s a clip Jeff put up on his channel of Brent busting out a 20 min set with friends with a number of songs from the CD (not to mention a short breakdancing bit on cardboard, no less):
And speaking of which, check out Jeff’s Soundcloud page for a number of new tracks he’s produced since coming on the show at the beginning of the summer. His latest instrumental chillwave track:
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Between Two Worlds, the synth EP follow up to Long Ago Not So Far Awayis now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
The bonus track, called “Flight of the Cloudrider” has a 80s movie mashup music video (see if you can identify all the movies!) which is available on youtube. This app was largely created with the iphone app Auxy.
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.
As always, thanks for listening! Next week more on Brent Simon!
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Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to retro 80s soundtrack!
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.
Jeff Finley is back this week to pick up where we left off. If you happened to miss last week’s show, find episode 101 here.
Today, we talk about a lot of fun things – e.g. travelling in a new country and discovering not only new cultures, foods, and languages but aspects of yourself that come from putting yourself outside your comfort zone. Travel naturally does this, as we’ve talked about before, fine tuning your senses and kicking you out of whatever routine day-to-day stuff you have going on. There definitely comes a point when that gets to be too much of a good thing (as Jeff discusses here and on his blog), but like a spice, sprinkled here and there, it can do wonders for keeping things interesting in your life.
We also get to learn more about Jeff’s long career as a music producer (see below) as well as how he got into bboying. It’s so rare that I find someone with as many diverse interests that it was such a pleasure to discuss these aspects of creative life with Jeff.
Check out Jeff’s portfolio here. If you’d like one of this patches for your own, check out his etsy site.
Click on the covers of Jeff’s below to find a copy of your own.
Just for podcast listeners! Get early access to a new upcoming EP, called Between Two Worlds, the sequel toLong Ago Not So Far Away. Go here to download the album:
Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to retro 80s soundtrack!
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.
For the next two weeks, we’ll be having a special guest on the show, so please welcome Jeff Finley!
I first came across his work when he and his friends made a little documentary about their friend, keyboardist and bit-torrent user extraordinaire, Brent Simon, back in 2006, when Youtube was just in its infancy. (Believe it or not, you can still listen to a few of his songs on myspace). It was a fine example of “day-in-the-life” style indie film making. Brent was not only a captivating subject, but he was unabashedly himself, much to the delight of the many people who saw the film, identified with his interests (the original PSP, computers, bittorrent, Spacecamp, synthesizer music, etc), and propelled him to stardom. If you’re interested in any of those things, you can and should watch (or rewatch) the film by clicking on the screen shot below. Brent, if you ever come across this, know you’ll always have a warm welcome on the show.
Brent rocks out without looking at the keys.
Jeff served at Brent’s manager while continuing to pursue his own projects, which spanned a variety of fields, many of which we discussed on the show, such as writing a successful book on creating a t-shirt business (see Thread’s Not Dead below) and starting the creation of the Weapons of Mass Creation multimedia art festival (still going on today).
Of course, if you talk to many a creative soul, they’ll often tell you that making art isn’t “work” in the traditional sense. It certainly can be hard, time consuming, and frustrating – don’t get me wrong – but it’s yours. The “work” part comes from getting other people to notice and/or care, and for many, the business and promotion inevitably leads to disillusionment and/or burnout with the whole process. We talked about this, too, and Jeff shared how those experiences led him to adopt a slower pace more in tune with maintaining a more centered existence.
Since the recording went on for about 90 minutes, I’ve broken the interview into two parts since there was a natural transition about halfway. This week, we’ll focus on Jeff’s filmmaking days, his time with Brent, and experiences starting his own business, writing books, and repairing his mental health by getting back in touch with the important things in life.
AS you might imagine from the title image above, he is a skilled artist in many ways, so check out his portfolio here as well as the patches he sells (click on the picture below to go to his etsy site). We’ll talk more about them at the start of next week’s show.
We’ll also touch on travel, Jeff’s own music, and breakdancing next week, so in the meantime, check out some of his books and music.
Click on the covers of Jeff’s below to find a copy of your own.
Just for podcast listeners! Get early access to a new upcoming EP, called Between Two Worlds, the sequel toLong Ago Not So Far Away. Go here to download the album:
Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to retro 80s soundtrack!
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.
I recently uncovered an old notebook that had ideas for a Thirteenth Hour game (which I wrote about here). Since I was trying to do it from the ground up, I wrote a number of songs (or at least tried to, anyway). I also found an old animation sequence of Logan flying Lightning through a rising sun cloudscape.
Those images must have inspired these ones:
Episode 100 also marks somewhat of an occasion. Podcast listeners get early access to a new upcoming EP, called Between Two Worlds, the sequel toLong Ago Not So Far Away. Go here to download the album:
The album will be available for one month (7/10-8/10/17). The access code is on the podcast (you can skip to 31:30 for the code).
Coming next week, we’ll have artist, musician, and filmmaker: Jeff Finley. His documentary about his friend Brent Simon, who sang songs about Spacecamp, means that there’s only one thing to be done sometime in the near future: rewatch the 1986 film, Spacecamp, and do an episode on it. And if that happens will Howard the Duck be far behind? Until then, we’ll be hearing from Jeff soon.
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.
Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to retro 80s soundtrack!
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.
In the upcoming sequel to The Thirteenth Hour, one of the main characters, Aurora, becomes caught between the home she has made and one from her distant, unknown past. They literally are oceans apart and are different in just about every conceivable way.
One is wild and free, existing in a world she has known as far back as she could remember, a world that, while savage and primitive, has love, understanding, and a beauty of its own. It is a world far removed from the fast paced, technologically / magically advanced world she was originally from, the one she only gets to know as an adult by force when she is kidnapped to join her family as a Protector of the Wellspring – the magic source that powers all, the one being threatened by nightmarish forces no one can fight. Her husband is from the first world; her estranged family, whom she hasn’t seen since infancy, is in the second. She feels pulled in two directions – between love and obligation, between a destiny of her choosing and a destiny of bloodlines. This is her theme.
It takes the four note progression from “There’s a Wild Heart Beating” and slows it down, accompanied by a mournful electric guitar.
You can download a high quality version on Bandcamp, where you can find other tracks from the same upcoming album.
As always, thanks for listening!
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Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to retro 80s soundtrack!
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s instagram pages: @the13thhr and@the13thhr.ost for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art, 80s music, movies, and pictures or songs from The Thirteenth Hour books.
This week marks the release of a new track for a new album that goes with a new book. How’s that for a lot of newness? It’s for the unnamed album that accompanies the unnamed sequel to The Thirteenth Hour!
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