This week, I’m working on the coverart for the upcoming next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP, Once Upon a Dream. The AI art images I used as inspiration back in episode 406 were helpful in confirming the kind of look I was going for as well as the color scheme – mostly an 80s palate of hot pink, blues, purples, and the obligatory rainbow trail.
At the time, I’d done a quick sketch using the ideas I had:
I used the pixelart creation software Pix2d and Photoshop to make the cover. One of the first things I did was make a pixelart cliff, castle, and sunset.
Then I added Aurora to the pixelart Logan I made back in college:
Together, with some tweaks in Photoshop and a pixelart Palace of the Winds, here’s what I have so far:
I’ll keep working on the rest of the coverart while letting this one marinate for awhile. One step closer to the next LP release! Thanks for listening!
This week, I’m working on the coverart for the upcoming next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP, Once Upon a Dream. I’ve had ideas percolating for a number of years about what I wanted it to look like but as an experiment, I decided to see if one of the many AI art generators (in this case, a very cool, free app called Diffusitron) could provide additional inspiration. I’m fairly new to using these programs, and I would never call myself an early adopter of such things generally. However, they are really cool! As mentioned in the episode, I take a more optimistic view of these programs that some do. Yes, there are issues in terms of potential changing or loss of work, copyright and compensation issues, and so forth, but I suspect it will just give artists new tools to work with, kind of like how electronic music production programs gave musicians additional means to create music that would have been much more time consuming and expensive to produce in years past.
In any event, if the future really is now, I wanted to see if it could provide some inspiration and perhaps amplify the current ideas I had for the cover. Here are the keywords I fed into the program initially:
synthwave, TRON style grid, 80s, ballad, purple mountains, sandy beach with tan and green rocky cliffs, sunset sky with pink, purple, and blue clouds, rainbow, unicorns, dragons, fairies, medieval castle, love song
And here is what was generated:
When I added the kyword, pixelated, I got ones that looked a bit more 8 bit.
When I took out TRON style grid and synthwave and added The Neverending Story, Labyrinth, Rocketeer, Back to the Future,Flight of the Navigator, The Last Starfighter, here’s what I got:
This last one is perhaps my favorite, as it looks like the cover of an 8-bit NES game.
I did a quite sketch using the ideas I already had and some of these new ones below which I will make in a pixel art creation program and in Photoshop over the next few weeks.
Also, this month, I committed to doing 3000 push-ups for St. Jude’s Hospital, which offers free treatment for children and young adults for conditions once considered terminal / hopeless (hence, St. Jude – apparently patron saint of hopeless causes)! Please consider contributing to the cause here! https://www.facebook.com/donate/1287747998791772/?fundraiser_source=external_url
I’m also matching all purchases made of the handmade resin 3.75” Rocketeer action figures on my Etsy store (all of which normally goes to the Hairy Cell Leukemia Foundation in memory of Rocketeer creator Dave Stevens) with a matching donation to St. Jude’s. Each figure comes with its own protective case and access to an exclusive interview with Billy Campbell, the Rocketeer from the 1991 film. https://etsy.me/3ZXRPq
This week, I’m working on the coverart for the track that I was working on in episode 402. The track itself is now done, and you can actually listen to it at the end of this episode or on Bandcamp. However, the picture to go with the track was not. I wanted it to be pixelart and decided to give a nod to some of the 80s and 90s films that influenced the story and themes in The Thirteenth Hour – films like Flight of the Navigator, The Last Starfighter, Back to the Future, The Rocketeer, and The Neverending Story. I used the silver ship, Max, from Flight of the Navigator, the Delorean from Back to the Future, the Gunstar from The Last Starfighter, Atreyu riding Falkor from The Neverending Story, and Cliff Secord from The Rocketeer – all fliers – flanking the pixelart Logan that I made decades ago. In true form, Logan is flying through the air leaving a rainbow exhaust trail (where the track gets its name).
Speaking of Flight of the Navigator, the slow intro that I used for this track was meant to be a direct ode also to the most excellent soundtrack of that film done by Alan Silvestri (who also did the Back to the Future soundtrack). You can actually find the whole soundtrack on Youtube:
This week, I’m starting work on another music track that I’ve been meaning to make for a long time. There’s this section of The Thirteenth Hour where the main character, Logan, who is shipwrecked and bereft of anything to help him on his mission, encounters a magical flying hoverboard he calls Lightning that he can communicate with that can play also play music as it flies.
Just at that second, I tried to scream as Lightning shot upward suddenly, but my voice was still somewhat hoarse. All that came out was some kind of croaking sound. Then she hung a hard right, shot into a loop with a couple of twists thrown in, and straightened out high above the clouds. My stomach, however, took a little longer.
“Guh … give me a minute to recover,” I panted.
“Okay. It’s pretty much a straight trip from here, so we’ll take it easy so you can get used to doing turns and things like that. Of course, you can always count on me to fly, but I thought you’d like to give it a shot yourself.”
By shifting my weight left and right, I was able to make turns. By leaning forwards or backwards, I could either climb or dive. I even tried a tentative loop with all the grace of a one–legged stork.
“Hey, not bad!” flashed the message board. “See, it’s not so hard!”
“I guess …” I said.
“Logan, I know what you need! A little attitude! How about some music? ‘Cause there isn’t much to see up here. Just clouds, and when you’ve seen one, you’ve pretty much seen them all. And there’s nothing like music to boost your confidence!”
“Music?” I asked, a little surprised.
“Yes. One of my unsung talents.”
“Hey, Lightning, that was a joke! Well, kind of, anyway. I think that’s called a pun.”
“Really? Well, see, things are looking up already!”
I heard a sound suddenly. Or sounds, rather, but they were like nothing I had ever heard before. The music sounded slow, at first, then it picked up pace, until the speed of the music matched the speed of our flying. It was strangely futuristic, but at the same time, it seemed like I had always known the melody.
There were words sung, too, but in a language that I neither understood nor wanted to understand; somehow, the mystery of the words added to the mystique of the music. In a way, this is in vain, as my description here will do no justice to the melody, because there are some things that are perhaps impossible to describe in words and are better left unspoken.
I felt, at that moment, an incredible rush of energy and indescribable exhilaration. I felt ready to take on the world – or, at least, a dragon or two. All my fears of flying vanished like the mist of the rainbow behind us. The feeling of gliding through the air with the wind rushing through my hair, sleeves and pant legs flapping back and forth, and the music rushing up to meet my ears was indescribable. But it is perhaps best compared to that day, long ago, when, as I stood at the top of the hill near the castle, looking out at the landscape around – I let the wind take my hand and lead me to dance.
The music I envisioned at the time was When in Rome’s “The Promise:”
So I’ve always intended to make an upbeat, fast paced synthpop song for this segment of the book. I decided to make this one with a steady beat at 120 bpm with the chords of The Thirteenth Hour theme in the key of C – more of less the same chords used in “The Promise” and “Forever Young” by Alphaville (another one of my favorites from that era and still, now). I’m still working out the lead, but you can listen to what I came up with so far on this episode. Hopefully, when it’s done, it will make good background music for the DnD Patreon episodes we’ve been doing, perhaps for a battle or a chase or another time upbeat music is required.
This week, I’m finishing the battle theme I started in episode 399. When that episode was done, I tweaked the theme a bit more but it just didn’t feel finished. However, I couldn’t put my finger on what it needed. I experimented with a few ideas, some in my mind, some digitally or on the keyboard … but it never quite worked. Shortly before I recorded this episode, the muse finally came. I was inspired by imagery around the Armorer character in the Star Wars show, The Mandalorian.
The Armorer is a mysterious helmeted character who serves as the spiritual mentor and historian of her tribe and is not only the leader but also the tribe blacksmith, making their weapons and armor. The are a number of scenes that show her at the forge, working with molten metal, pounding into shape with her tongs and hammer, and sometimes even using those same tools offensively with great skill. I think this is from the first season of the show (as an aside, if you have not seen the series but are a fan of the Rocketeer, this show is probably about as close as we’ll get to a modern day show of helmeted heroes flying around on rocketpacks, of which there are many most excellent scenes):
In any event, since the track was partly inspired by the rhythm of the 1984 Terminator theme by Brad Feidel, which has metal on metal machine noises, I thought that what the track needed was not addition melody; it needed percussion – specifically the sound of metal hammering on metal. I experimented with a number of sounds until I decided to use a tuning fork hitting a metal weight. I added that part with some reverb and echo effects to the latter part of the track. To be uploaded to Bandcamp once I’ve listened to a few more times to see if there needs to be any last minute tweaking.
This week, I’m starting the process of creating a battle theme for the next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP. It will also serve as one of the pieces of music playing when there is a fight during the Thirteenth Hour mini DnD campaigns over on Patreon. During this episode, I experiment with a number of voicings as well as melodic parts added to an underlying driving bass/drum backing part. I was influenced by the 1984 Terminator theme done by Brad Feidel which has a similar mix of a melody laid on top of a distinct, metal on metal percussion track.
Will post the updated tracks once I finish recording them. Next week, episode 400!
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 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’m wrapping up “Once Upon a Dream” and discussing more on the idea of creating a creative arts collective. Last week, I created a private Facebook group called Thirteenth Hour Arts – For Creators, Not Haters. Many thanks to all who joined!
This week, I’m launching a Patreon of the same name and idea – a place to share in the creative process, though more specific to things related to the creation of The Thirteenth Hour books, music, podcast, pictures, figures, and the like, as well all the other things that have influenced those properties. Hopefully, people will be able to share what they do as well so we can all build off each others’ creative energy.
You can go to the Pateron by clicking the picture below of going here:
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There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, I’m adding vocals to “Once Upon a Dream” and discussing more on the idea of creating a creative arts collective. To start, I ended up creating a private Facebook group called Thirteenth Hour Arts – For Creators, Not Haters.
Here’s the premise I’ve copied from my inaugural post there:
Welcome to The Thirteenth Hour Arts Collective – a place to create, not hate!
There are so many ways to be creative in the world. Although I publicly create books, music, and toys for The Thirteenth Hour stories, those are informed by a number of other things, like 80s films, new wave music, martial arts, dance, and so forth.
I’m sure you have or had many things in your own life that are kind of the same. Please share them here – you may inspire someone else (or yourself) to make time and space for creative pursuits!
When Logan’s hoverboard flies in The Thirteenth Hour, it emits a cloud of rainbow colored smoke. There were rainbows all over the place in the 80s (Rainbow Brite, Skittles, Reading Rainbow, etc), and if not exactly rainbows, plenty of kids’ shows used the idea of different colors coming together to represent strength or unity through diversity and/or teamwork (Voltron, Captain Planet, etc). Rainbows encourage us to look off into the distance, towards that ephemeral spot where the rainbow ends. To me, they have always represented hope and possibility for the future, so I’m using them as a symbol for this group to represent creativity, especially the diversity of creative pursuits and people that practice them in hopes that it can be something we all share in and benefit from.
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There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, I’m continuing to record the backing tracks for “Once Upon a Dream” – the solo, the chorus, and so forth. Next will be the vocals, the outro riffs, and maybe a few electric guitar accents here and there.
Speaking of which, I thought it might be a nice thing to add some of the magnet dolls I talked about recently as part of the special edition of the Once Upon a Dream LP. Here are the magnet dolls, by the way, of Logan and Aurora plus all their stuff:
In the latter part of the podcast, I talk about the idea of trying to create some kind of online community to showcase the creative process. I touch on that in many of these podcasts, and I’ve been thinking about trying to help people showcase the creative things they do in their own lives. In may ways, that’s one of the messages of The Thirteenth Hour – creating the world you want to inhabit. You may have noticed that on my Instagram posts, I have little emoticons before the post, kind of like these: 👾🎤📖🎸🍓🎨🕹🏹🙋🏽♀️🤸🏼♂️🌈🎭🎬
I’ve organized the different kinds of art types by sense, more or less, to showcase them
Sight
🎨 – visual art (e.g. paintings, illustrations, sketches, sculptures …)
🕹- digital worlds
🎬 – films
📖 – stories
Sound
🎤 – audio entertainment (e.g. podcasts, audiobooks …)
🎸 – music
Taste / Smell
🍓- food, gardens
Touch
⚒- tools made of metal, wood, plastic, ceramic …
🪑- furniture
🏕- places to live
📟 – electronics
💍 – jewelry
🧣- clothing
🧸- toys
Movement
🏹 – safety, confidence, inner peace (e.g. through martial arts disciplines)
🤸🏼♂️- movement, health (e.g. dance, gymnastics …)
Mind
🙋🏽♀️- knowledge (e.g. through teaching)
🎭 – characters (e.g. acting)
👾 – memory
👨👩👦👦 – community
🌈 – hope and possibility, freedom of expression
Especially in 2020, when there is so much turmoil in the world, we could all use a little positivity to bring out the better parts of humanity – our desire to explore and create – rather than human drama and politics.
I’ve been thinking about creating a Facebook group for this for awhile or perhaps a Patreon community to do this. What do you think?
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There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, I’m working up and wrapping up few concurrent projects – starting the recording of the backing track for “Once Upon a Dream” discussed last on episode 261 and finishing up a little “kitbashed” minifigure of Aurora from The Thirteenth Hour discussed a bit last episode. The magnet dolls discussed last episode are in the editing process, so I’ll be printing those out soon!
One of Aurora’s costumes is this one from a picture in the book:
I’ve been working on a custom miniature of Aurora in this outfit made from a few different Wonder Woman mini figures.
I ended up using parts from all three different verions of these little Wonder Women to make the figure, plus some Apoxie Sculpt clay and paint. These are the pics from last week. Here’s what the finished figure looks like:
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There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, I’m working on the title track from the next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP, Once Upon a Dream. I have the keyboard riffs and the lyrics mostly done and am now trying to figure out how they go together. I’ve recorded a bare bones version here with just the vocals and the piano chords, which is how many of these songs start. In the coming week’s, I’ll be refining the skeleton of the song as I figure out how the different riffs work into the song, where the backing beat will come in, how the solo will sound, etc.
In the Like a Hood Ornament segment, I’m talking a bit about how my kids and I have been working on a costume paper mache rocketpack for my daughter for Halloween (she’d like to be Kit Secord from the cartoon, who you can see at the bottom of these images below).
We still have to figure out how to attach straps, and I’m wondering if it might be fun to figure out how to light up the engines and/or attach the little banks of purple LEDs on the bottom that this version of the pack has. Maybe we’ll make an electrical switch wired to the gloves, like in the movie.
Also, the next segment of the fanfic short story, “The Last Rocketeer,” describing a team-up between Centauri from The Last Starfighter and a 71 year-old Cliff Secord who has long since given up being the Rocketeer (but secretly wants one last flight) is up.
There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, I’m talking about some ideas why the main characters in The Thirteenth Hour decide to leave the society they have grown up in and try to make their own place in the world. I couldn’t have articulated the various reasons why that idea was compelling at the time, but over the last few years, it’s made more sense in terms of my family background, the way people in our society typically respond to racial ambiguity, idealistic (often unrealistic) American ideals, and a certain teenage optimism of my own.
In the Like a Hood Ornament section, I’m tying these ideas to the loneliness and isolation the elderly Cliff Secord experiences in the story.
Some pictures from this chapter. These, by the way, all started life as quick sketches and watercolors done with my kids during our quarantine home schooling sessions. So, I don’t spend a ton of time on them but (maybe because of that) they’ve been fun to do!
Stay tuned for Chapter 3!
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There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, I’m talking about a short story I’m writing for fun called “The Last Rocketeer.”
Here’s the premise:
Cliff Secord was a pilot who stumbled upon an experimental rocketpack and became a high flying reluctant hero, The Rocketeer.
That was in 1938. But now it’s 1983.
Retirement is no longer an option. The fate of the universe hangs in the balance!
I got the idea from my daughter, who asked if we could tweak some of the lyrics of the song, “Superman” by Five for Fighting to be from the perspective of the Rocketeer.
I initially wasn’t sure it would work but the more I thought of it, the more I liked the idea of an older, jaded, Cliff Secord worn out physically and mentally by years of tough landings, crashes, altercations, and other traumatic events. So I tweaked the lyrics a bit to fit that idea, recorded here:
I also really liked the idea of the bitter older man still grappling with his past. The film The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot is a great example of such a character – a man with a violent past trying to make sense of what he did decades later. Mike from the book It by Stephen King had a similar feel, so much so that I used Mike as a model for another character, Alfred, in The Thirteenth Hour sequel.
Since I had to figure out a way to work the 80s in, I figured what would happen if Cliff runs into Centauri from The Last Starfighter? What if Cliff were recruited to help Centauri and in the process, you know, save the world? Ahem – the universe!
There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
On this week’s show, I’m continuing the recording process to a song I started a number of months ago, “The Last Dance,” last discussed on episodes 223, 224, 225, and 256.
We’re discussing the recording of the vocals as well as additional synth tracks, like a simple instrumental solo.
Speaking of which, I added a voiceover to a track that I recently finished, “The Land of Dreams” (see below for the video or here for the audio track) to make the animations match up with the part of the The Thirteenth Hour the track accompanies.
There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
On this week’s show, I’m starting the formal recording process to a song I started a number of months ago, “The Last Dance,” last discussed on episodes 223, 224, and 225.
I got stuck for awhile since the original way I’d conceptualized the song was much slower. It took awhile for it to evolve in my mind and to work out how to play certain parts and sing some sections within my vocal range more comfortably.
The song starts out without no accompanying beat, and although I knew I wanted to fold one in later in the song, the original tempo felt too slow, and I wasn’t sure how to make it work. I eventually stumbled on the right speed (120 beats/min), which in may ways felt right, as it fit the 80s new wave songs that I’ve always liked. (E.g. “If You Leave” by OMD from the Pretty in Pink soundtrack is also 120 bpm.) The original, stripped down, slower version I had originally envisioned may still work but probably not with my vocals or this arrangement. This speed probably also fits better with the other songs on the upcoming album this one will be on.
In the next few weeks, watch for the final iteration of this song once I record the vocals and a few other layers for the chorus and outro. Once that’s done, I think it’d be fun to add a pixelart visual for it since there are no pictures of this part of The Thirteenth Hour, and it’d be a fun illustration, with lots of fantastical creatures (faeries, elves, griffins, unicorns, a backflipping chimp, and many other dancing animals) besides our protagonists, Logan and Aurora, awkwardly trying to navigate the beginnings of young love, with all its stops and starts, trials and tribulations, and bittersweet awkward moments familiar to anyone who’s been there and/or watched a teen movie.
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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 is all about flying, both in the traditional part of the podcast as well as in the Rocketeer segment. I’ll always aim for them to be related if possible, since, after all, The Rocketeer was one of the things that influenced the writing and creation of the Thirteenth Hour world.
In the first part of the show, I’m reading from the chapter where the main protagonist, Logan, is gifted a silver hoverboard he calls Lightning that has its own onboard magical “computer” (though that’s never exactly stated), allowing for a kind of magic artificial intelligence, and runs off the power of the sun (again, never exactly stated, at least not in this one).
Just to get us in the mood, I thought I’d include the intro from the 1984 film, The Neverending Story, for the quintessential audiovisual cloudscape experience:
Here is the passage from The Thirteenth Hour:
Lightning beeped cheerfully and drifted slowly forward down the lighted blue pathway that I had walked down earlier. She really picked up speed in the windy section near the entrance. I crouched down low, white–knuckling the board with both hands. Maybe I should have practiced a little first, I began thinking to myself. But Aurora was in trouble, and I needed to concentrate on that. The flight to Cordel would have to be my practice. Lightning shot out of the Palace and began to climb steeply. My heart plummeted into my stomach, and I prayed that we would slow down, eyes shut, knuckles even whiter as I gripped the edges of the board for dear life.
The board beeped then; I opened my eyes slightly, and by shielding them against the torrential winds, I was able to see a message flash across the complicated, yet impressive looking front of the board.
“Relax, Logan! There’s no way you can fall. Both your feet are now strapped in. You can let go of my sides if you want. Have fun!”
I looked down; my right foot was now securely strapped onto the board. I stayed crouched low, but let go of the edges, first one hand, then another. As soon as I did, I felt as if I were going to fall backwards and began to flail my arms. Lightning slowed down a little, allowing me to regain my balance. But at every dip, my stomach felt like it was shooting up to my throat. I wanted to grab onto something solid, but I realized that there was nothing but air to hold onto! In desperation, I gripped the side of the board again, but it didn’t do any good.
“This is harder than I thought!”
Another message flashed across the screen.
“Well, it really isn’t too hard once you get the hang of it. Just relax and let me do the work. Now, how about some aerobatics, my favorite?”
“Uh, wait a minute! Aerobatics? Is that anything like acrobatics? I don’t think I’m ready for that!” I yelled.
“Sure you are! You just don’t know it yet! All you have to do is hang on!” flashed the screen.
I yelled a succession of curses as my stomach shot up to my throat as Lightning spun around three times in succession. The screen read, “Barrel roll maneuvers complete.”
Whatever that meant! She ended up in an inverted position, with me looking at the sea, dizzy. I had paid so much attention to the insides of my eyelids that I hadn’t looked around to notice how high we were. We seemed to be traveling at an insane speed. The waves far below flashed by in a blur. The wind kept getting caught in my gaping mouth and bellowing out my cheeks while I struggled to close my mouth. At one point, I felt like I was going to fall out, dangling only by the straps holding my feet onto the board. Instinctively, I grabbed both sides of the board. Lightning rolled back over, and I breathed easier.
“This might help you out. I am going to deploy an invisible shield that will surround you and myself. It’s just like a big bubble. It will cut air resistance and protect you. And just in case you’re interested, it will prevent you from falling should you manage to slip out of the foot restraints.”
“We couldn’t have done this before?” I croaked, as wind caught in my mouth, hard that time, stunning my vocal chords.
“No, my programming instructs us to be at least fifty miles away from the Palace before I deploy the bubble shield.”
“Why fifty?”
“If I overheat, I could self–destruct. The explosion would level anything in the surrounding area within a fifty mile radius.”
“Self–destruct?” I repeated, horrified.
“The shield has never been tested before. There’s a very slight chance that it will overload my systems.”
“Overload?”
“Is it just me or is there an echo here? It’s alright. The shield’s up now. All systems are operating well within normal limits. However, it’s written in my programming to warn all passengers if they aren’t.”
As if they could do anything about it, except maybe jump off and die hitting the ground instead of in a mid–air explosion. The wind didn’t seem to be blowing as hard now, though I couldn’t see the shield, nor could I feel it. But I noticed that it was much quieter, and I could talk without shouting, although there was still a ringing in my ears from the rushing wind.
“It seems to work,” I said, feeling around tentatively.
I looked back; I couldn’t see the Palace. When I asked how far we were away from it, Lightning flashed across her screen, “About 75 miles right now.”
Jeez, we were going fast. We couldn’t have been in the air very long; under an hour, I guessed. I looked back again and noticed a plume of colored, sparkling mist in our wake. It looked just like a rainbow. I looked under the board; the mist was coming out of three separate locations on Lightning’s bottom side.
“Those are my engines.”
I realized that I had been so caught up in the excitement/horror of my ride with Lightning that I had never even questioned how she generated her power.
As if reading my mind, Lightning flashed, ”I can show you the owner’s manual later that discusses more of the specifics, but for now, all you need to know is that there’s a readout on my display that shows how much power I have left.”
I found the icon on her display, which read 95% power.
“You know, I don’t mean to sound ungrateful or anything, because I really appreciate you going fast since you know I’m in a hurry and all, but do you think you could slow down just a little? I think I left my stomach somewhere behind the last mountain.”
“No, according to my scanner, you still have it.”
“Oh … it was just a manner of speaking, you know …”
“A joke?”
I laughed. “Well, almost, I guess.”
“Tell me a joke then.”
“Oh, I don’t know any good ones. When we find Aurora, we’ll ask her. She’ll know some.”
“All right. Nothing like learning how to swim by jumping in the deep end, huh, Logan?”
“Right. Without a lesson.”
“Well, no one ever did learn to swim in a turtle pool.”
“What’s a turtle pool?”
“You never had one of those? One of those little plastic kiddie pools about a foot deep that you fill up with a hose?”
“Plastic? Kiddie pool? Hose?”
“Ehh, never mind. Probably just some stuff that hasn’t been invented yet. One of these days I really have to organize my files.”
“So … how long until we reach Cordel?” I asked.
“About thirty minutes. How do you like flying around like this so far?”
“I like it, especially with the bubble shield.”
“Good! We’ll always fly with it on from now on. I’m glad you like flying! I knew you were a flyer when I first saw you!” flashed the board, with a few friendly beeps.
“We’re going to take a little detour, and I think I’ll throw in a few tricks, just to keep things interesting. Wouldn’t want you to fall asleep or anything!”
“Oh, I really don’t think you’ll have to worry about …”
Just at that second, I tried to scream as Lightning shot upward suddenly, but my voice was still somewhat hoarse. All that came out was some kind of croaking sound. Then she hung a hard right, shot into a loop with a couple of twists thrown in, and straightened out high above the clouds. My stomach, however, took a little longer.
“Guh … give me a minute to recover,” I panted.
“Okay. It’s pretty much a straight trip from here, so we’ll take it easy so you can get used to doing turns and things like that. Of course, you can always count on me to fly, but I thought you’d like to give it a shot yourself.”
By shifting my weight left and right, I was able to make turns. By leaning forwards or backwards, I could either climb or dive. I even tried a tentative loop with all the grace of a one–legged stork.
“Hey, not bad!” flashed the message board. “See, it’s not so hard!”
“I guess …” I said.
“Logan, I know what you need! A little attitude! How about some music? ‘Cause there isn’t much to see up here. Just clouds, and when you’ve seen one, you’ve pretty much seen them all. And there’s nothing like music to boost your confidence!”
“Music?” I asked, a little surprised.
“Yes. One of my unsung talents.”
“Hey, Lightning, that was a joke! Well, kind of, anyway. I think that’s called a pun.”
“Really? Well, see, things are looking up already!”
I heard a sound suddenly. Or sounds, rather, but they were like nothing I had ever heard before. The music sounded slow, at first, then it picked up pace, until the speed of the music matched the speed of our flying. It was strangely futuristic, but at the same time, it seemed like I had always known the melody. [When I was originally writing this passage, I had the melody from When in Rome’s “The Promise” in mind.]
There were words sung, too, but in a language that I neither understood nor wanted to understand; somehow, the mystery of the words added to the mystique of the music. In a way, this is in vain, as my description here will do no justice to the melody, because there are some things that are perhaps impossible to describe in words and are better left unspoken.
I felt, at that moment, an incredible rush of energy and indescribable exhilaration. I felt ready to take on the world – or, at least, a dragon or two. All my fears of flying vanished like the mist of the rainbow behind us. The feeling of gliding through the air with the wind rushing through my hair, sleeves and pant legs flapping back and forth, and the music rushing up to meet my ears was indescribable. But it is perhaps best compared to that day, long ago, when, as I stood at the top of the hill near the castle, looking out at the landscape around – I let the wind take my hand and lead me to dance.
I later wrote a song for Long Ago Not So Far Away about this part of the book that became the song, “I’ll Fly Away.” It has two versions, both below – with varying levels of synth and tempo depending on your mood!
Today’s Rocketeer segment is also about flying – the Rocketeer’s rocketpack!
Today marks the third Rocketeer segment as a part of the podcast. Below are a few previous episodes about the Rocketeer:
This week, we’re discussing three versions of the rocketpack (in descending order below): 1.) the sliver-purple one with fins from the comics, 2.) the finless silver double barrelled Art Deco one from the movie, and 3.) the silver and purple double barrelled one with fins from the cartoon that came out this past fall.
Here are a few design ideas on the gloves and rocketpack from the film, showing the original prototype (closer to Dave Steven’s original drawings), then how it evolved into the double silver bullet shape seen in the film (these come from The Rocketeer Official Movie Souvenir Magazine).
Here are some excerpts from the original comic drawn by Dave Stevens about how the rocket pack was controlled and refueled. (The images below come from The Rocketeer: The Complete Deluxe Edition, which is unfortunately quite difficult to find now – look on Amazon and eBay for used copies at more reasonable prices).
This little animated .gif is, of course, from the point in the movie where the Rocketeer, not above a little self conscious vanity, asks how he looks. Peevy, not above a little blunt honesty, says “Like a hood ornament!” The Rocketeer blasts off for the first time, Peevy gets blown backwards into the hangar, and I get a name for this part of the podcast!
Stay tuned for more Rocketeer gear talk next week! Stay safe!
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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 you haven’t checked out “Arcade Days,” the song and video Jeff Finley, Brent Simon, and I finished one year ago, click on the link below to do so!
You can find more pictures and preview clips of “Arcade Days” on IG as well as this podcast’s FB page.
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
On this week’s show, I thought we’d do a little more quarantine / seclusion real talk – specifically on self reflection when alone with your thoughts, as many people are these days, kind of like Logan in one part of The Thirteenth Hour, which we’ll be reading from shortly. We may ignore or put off deep thinking in day to day life, either out of discomfort, fear of what we’ll find, or lack of time. But, on the other hand, sometimes being alone with your thoughts offers the most freedom of expression, since there is no one else to censor your thought process except you (and the voice of society, upbringing, etc – though that’s still you, just your interpretation of those things).
Here are are some of passages from The Thirteenth Hour referenced in the episode:
I don’t know how long I sat there – I was vaguely aware of the sun going down at some point, but my mind wasn’t really on that. I struggled a lot that day, but not with nausea or sleep. I had always been a pretty optimistic person – most dreamers are, I think – and liked to think that people were basically good inside. I wanted to believe that there were happy endings, and that it wasn’t just something people wrote about in books so they could vicariously experience something they never knew in real life. I basically wanted the world to be a good place, or if not good, at least non–imposing, leaving me free to do what I wanted. I had always thought if you left people alone, they’d leave you alone. But that didn’t always happen, did it? It was like being a grain of sand in a desert where a simple gust of wind or footprint could shift the position of the grains all around you, changing your own position. Perhaps accepting that was part of something called growing up, but I sure didn’t have to like it.
If it’s just one person, perhaps life is simpler, but when there is another, things get more complicated. I wanted to believe that love could work out, too, even though I still didn’t really know what it felt like. But I was an optimist and wanted to believe that I would know what love was like one day. But if love meant surrendering part of yourself, could you really do that if you felt ashamed of what you had to give? …
… And though I never asked her to, she came each day after that, even if it was just to sit by me and put cold compresses on my body as I drifted in and out of feverish sleep. Sometimes I wondered why she did, since I had so little to offer in terms of companionship. But finally, one day, the fever broke, and I awoke to find that the pounding in my head had gone. I looked out my window – night. I did not feel like sleeping anymore and began to test my unsteady legs. As I hobbled in and out of the shadows of my darkened cell, I found my mind wondering when Aurora would stop by. Of course, not until daylight, many hours from now, a realization that stung a little at first. But the more I thought about it, the sting became an ache that racked my body painfully until I was forced to sit down on the floor. There, with labored breaths, I thought back on specific things that had happened over the past few weeks, over the past few years, over the course of my life. Then there was a spark, a sudden flash of light, and it all became so clear; I marveled how I could have been so blind.
It was then that I understood why the bards so often sung of love, because for the first time, I actually knew what they were singing about. Because it was then I knew that it was love that I’d been falling into all along; I just hadn’t known enough about it to realize what it was. And then, to my surprise, I rolled over onto the floor and began to cry. Maybe I was happy, maybe I was sad, I didn’t know. But I hadn’t really cried in such a long time that it was like I was experiencing it for the first time. The tears that flowed from my eyes pushed away the dirt and sweat and grime, leaving a clean streak behind, fresh and ready for the future.
(POV change to Aurora) I found him sleeping there on the floor the next morning. He did not stir when I walked in. I knelt down and felt his forehead; the fever had passed. For the first time in many days, he looked like he was at peace. I did not disturb him. But after a few minutes, he opened his eyes and saw me next to him. Then, he sat up slowly, looked at me, and smiled. There was something different in his smile, but I smiled back all the same. And then I knew what it was; he understood! Then we put our arms around each other and stayed that way in that dank, dirty cell for a long, long time.
I wrote a song for Long Ago Not So Far Away about this part of the book that I talked about a little back in episode 51 (recorded around the time I wrote it). The lyrics and associated chords are below:
C There’s this girl that I know G Am Actually, I’ve known her all my life, F It seems, to me.
C G And when she found me, as a child Am F All alone, without a soul, to call my own. C Best friends were we G Am F Did I ever say how much that meant … to me?
C And so … the seasons go G Am Promises of childhood seem so bold. F Can they grow old?
C G Now I hold her hand but Am As an adult man, and something is … F G Different this time.
C That grey dress she wears G Am Seen it a hundred times before F But not like tonight, not like tonight. ‘Cause C There’s a fire in her eyes G Am The wind catches a lock of her hair F And my heart lifts in time. C There’s a smile on her face G Am One I know that time can not erase … F But it feels new.
C G And then all at once, it hits me like a thousand tons Am F How I could’ve been so blind? C G And that’s when I knew why songs are sung of love Am Because, because, because … it was love F C I was falling in … this whole time.
Instrumental: C G Am F C
The album version of the song (instrumental version above):
When I was producing the song, I added more layers and an electric guitar segment to the latter parts of the song to beef up the song what is essentially a four chord folk ballad to create a dichotomy between the slow, tender, piano part with a louder, more biting, aggressive part reminiscent of an 80s metal ballad. I wanted it to be that way to capture the balance between Logan’s tender realization in a time of vulnerability contrasted with the flash of insight that he must lift himself up out of a hole in the ground (quite literally – he is a dungeon, after all) with his strength of will.
Today also marks the second Rocketeer segment as a part of the podcast. Below are a few episode mentions about the Rocketeer prior to last week’s show on Cliff Secord’s biography:
This week, I’m reading from some of Dave Stevens’ handwritten notes on the backstory he created for Cliff to give depth to the character and explain some of the motivations Cliff had (which, admittedly, were somewhat self serving). This comes from The Rocketeer: The Complete Deluxe Edition, which is unfortunately quite difficult to find now but has pages and pages of storyboards (like the one below) and notes from Dave Stevens on the characters and story he wanted to create.
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 you haven’t checked out “Arcade Days,” the song and video Jeff Finley, Brent Simon, and I finished one year ago, click on the link below to do so!
You can find more pictures and preview clips of “Arcade Days” on IG as well as this podcast’s FB page.
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 continue work on a ballad written from the perspective of Aurora from The Thirteenth Hour from a passage in the book where our young protagonists are starting to realize that there might be more to their relationship than just friendship. I’ve been fiddling with adding a beat to the song and was listening to two examples – one by Debbie Gibson (“Lost in Your Eyes”) which adds a beat after a piano intro riff and another by Alphaville (“Forever Young”) which actually has no backing beat at all in the original version until about 1 and a quarter minutes into the song.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
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 you haven’t checked out “Arcade Days,” the song and video Jeff Finley, Brent Simon, and I finished last winter, click on the link below to do so!
You can find more pictures and preview clips of “Arcade Days” on IG as well as this podcast’s FB page.
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 continue work on a ballad written from the perspective of Aurora from The Thirteenth Hour from a passage in the book where our young protagonists are starting to realize that there might be more to their relationship than just friendship. Last week I had a rough draft of the lyrics. This week, I’m singing the second draft and playing the chords on the keyboard.
While I was practicing the intro riff, I kept wanting to play the theme from the 1991 movie, The Rocketeer, scored by James Horner. It’s not surprising since it’s one of my favorite soundtracks and one of my most favorite movies of all time, though I’ve never tried figuring out the intro theme, which is played partly on the piano if I’m not mistaken.
I’m playing it in the key of C, just like “The Last Dance,” which is probably why the two kept getting mixed up in my head, even though they don’t sound much alike.
Speaking of the Rocketeer, if you can find a copy of the Nov 2019 magazine, Fine Scale Modeler, you can find a picture of this most excellent painted Rocketeer figurine!
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
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 you haven’t checked out “Arcade Days,” the song and video Jeff Finley, Brent Simon, and I finished last winter, click on the link below to do so!
You can find more pictures and preview clips of “Arcade Days” on IG as well as this podcast’s FB page.
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 start work on a new ballad written from the perspective of Aurora from The Thirteenth Hour from this passage in the book where our young protagonists are starting to realize that there might be more to their relationship than just friendship (The Thirteenth Hour is occasionally told from multiple perspectives; boldedblack portions of the text below indicate a perspective change from Aurora to Logan):
I hadn’t seen much of Logan the whole dance; he’d been whisked away by an overzealous female flamingo as soon as the dance had started. The last I saw, he was listening to the animated hoots and squawks of the backflipping chimpanzee after they’d had a backflip contest which ended in a tie.
The more I looked for him, the harder he was to find. I couldn’t help feeling a twinge of jealousy. After all, we’d come here together. We should have at least once dance. For some reason, that seemed important … I couldn’t explain, but I hoped he would understand.
The animal band suddenly announced that this would the last song, and when the crowd protested, they promised to make it extra–long and slow. Great. These were the kind of songs that required a partner. And if you were a girl and didn’t have one, like me, you either stood marooned on the floor, awkwardly waiting for someone to ask you to dance or retreated to the sidelines. I looked around for awhile but could not find Logan. As I sighed and turned to walk to the side, suddenly he was right there, alone. Among all the faces swimming around my eyes, I saw only his. He didn’t ask if I wanted to dance; he just took my hand, and we joined in the crowd.
“There’s something …” we both said at precisely the same instant. And then we both laughed. “… that I wanted to tell you,” we both finished.
There were a few seconds of silence. I felt like there was an invisible wall that my words had to get over … if I could get them over that barrier, everything would be fine. But I couldn’t do it, at least not yet. Finally I gave a sheepish grin and a sideways nod that said “maybe you better go first.”
“Well, back when I was talking to the unicorn – you know, the Lord of the Earth, he offered to see into my future. And the fortune said in the very near future I’d be married. Can you believe it? Can you imagine me, married?”
I thought for a second. There were a couple of places I could go from there, but I chose the semi–safe route. “I think I can, but … what made you think of that just now?”
“Well, I really wanted to tell you at the baths. But then we got interrupted. And then, at dinner, there was so much going on, and I kinda forgot. And then I saw you just now and, I dunno, that’s what I thought of. I don’t know why, I guess.”
“Did the Lord say to whom?”
“No, he didn’t say.”
“Didn’t or wouldn’t?”
“Wouldn’t. I did try asking.”
“You must have been surprised. You sound surprised.”
“I was. I just never really thought about it before. Maybe it would be nice, if you found the right person, but finding that person … I dunno, I wouldn’t even know where to start.”
He wasn’t taking the bait, and I couldn’t really blame him. It was kind of a long shot. Guys weren’t great with these kinds of things, anyway. Still, it never hurt to try. “You really think it would be so hard to find the right person?”
“Well, how many girls have I really known?” I shrugged and laughed, looking down at Aurora’s feet. “I mean, who would I marry, you?”
Ouch …
I regretted it the moment I said it. I’d been joking, but hadn’t meant it to come out like that. If there was any girl I did have feelings for, Aurora certainly would’ve been the one, but to marry someone, you had to love them, didn’t you? I still didn’t really know what that was. There was an awkward silence. I laughed a little and felt like an idiot. Aurora laughed, too, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I should have just kept my mouth shut.
It was alright, and I said so. Like I said, it was a long shot, and even I didn’t understand the weird mess of feelings inside. But I was forced at that moment to admit that they were there. Things were changing, and I was falling.
“ … but you said that you had something to say, too?” Logan asked.
I just shook my head and looked down at the spinning dance floor. It made me dizzy, and I looked back up at Logan. He was just tall enough so I had to look up a little to meet his gaze but not so tall that I couldn’t rest my head on his shoulder, if the time were right for that. I didn’t, though. Instead, I looked into his eyes but could not tell what he was thinking. I did my best to smile, and we danced that way until the song ended.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
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 you haven’t checked out “Arcade Days,” the song and video Jeff Finley, Brent Simon, and I finished last winter, click on the link below to do so!
You can find more pictures and preview clips of “Arcade Days” on IG as well as this podcast’s FB page.
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 recorded a session after happening on a grand piano at a hotel this past week. I tried to play a bunch of Thirteenth Hour song riffs continuously, kind of like how old musicals used to do a medley as the credits rolled.
I stopped the recording in the middle since a gentleman stopped to ask what the song was and to say he’d liked it (thanks, mystery gentleman, it was The Thirteenth Hour theme!). I’m generally horrendous at self promotion in day to day life.But, I suppose I should probably work on it more consistently. So you’ll notice a few new things this episode – a standardized outro with reminders of social media and other presences as well as a virtual tip jar courtesy of www.ko-fi.com.
Speaking of music, if you haven’t checked out “Arcade Days,” the song and video Jeff Finley, Brent Simon, and I finished last winter, click on the link below to do so!
You can find more pictures and preview clips of “Arcade Days” on IG as well as this podcast’s FB page.
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, I’m wrapping up the track from last week, “The Skipping Stone” as well as a few updates on the minifigures that I’ve been working on for the past year or so. All the nonpainted ones are packed up and ready to go. Here are a preliminary shots!
I’m still working on the painted ones:
The finalized track for “The Skipping Stone” will be up on bandcamp soon (once I make some cover art).
Speaking of music, if you haven’t checked out “Arcade Days,” the song and video Jeff Finley, Brent Simon, and I finished last winter, click on the link below to do so!
You can find more pictures and preview clips of “Arcade Days” on IG as well as this podcast’s FB page.
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, I’m reading from a short excerpt from The Thirteenth Hour sent to a draft of a music track I just wrote to score this particular passage. It was done on the iOS app, Auxy, and was meant to be an ambient, introspective instrumental piece. Because skipping stones feature in the excerpt a few times, I tried to find synthesizer effects that sounded like splashes of water.
The man from the Army was already waiting at the doorway. The Army man looked a little surprised when he saw me, possibly because of my height. He stood outside in the hallway while I “got my things in order.” But there was really nothing more to do, and I was just stalling for time.
Aurora stood in front of me, waiting as I fumbled with the knot on the bundle that held my belongings: a spare set of underpants, a few pairs of (holey) socks, and my two best skipping stones. They were both smooth and flat, but one was sandy colored and the other dark blue. The sandy one I had found a long time ago on a shallow river bottom. It was just the right size and weight, and despite numerous throws and temporary losses, I had somehow always managed to recover it. The dark blue one had been Aurora’s. She made me take it. Like mine, it was of perfect shape and size except that there was even a little notch on one corner that you could fit your finger in to put more spin on the stone as you threw it. She had been delighted to find it, and we both knew it was special. Special things have a way of falling out of your hands when you least expect it, but she always found it again and said it brought good luck. When said she wanted me to have it, I protested relentlessly, saying that if she gave it away, what would bring her good luck now? She gently but firmly closed my hands over it, and that was the end of that.
When I was younger, one of my favorite storybooks in the orphanage library had a picture in it that I’ll always remember. It was about a little bear leaving home to go to school for the first time. Before the little bear left, the mama bear looked down, held her son’s shoulders with her paws, saying, “Be brave now,” and kissed his forehead. I had never seen a bear, had no idea whether they could talk, if they wore clothes, if went to school, or if they kissed like people did. But that’s what Aurora did just then. After Mrs. Brunscomb, she certainly didn’t need to straighten out my collar or comb my hair, but she did kiss my head, and said, “Well, time to go. You’ll be brave now, I know you will.”
It did kind of make me feel like a kid, but then, in many ways, I still was one. I’d even had to promise myself that I wouldn’t cry, that I’d make a good showing at least until I got outside. After that, all bets were off, but as long as I could make it till I was alone, everything would be alright. So over and over, I repeated to myself the line that the orphanage nurse always used when a boy came in with an injury. “Come on now. Be strong. Real men don’t cry.” And I really wanted to be a real man, but I’d had precious few role models to go by.
When I looked up at Aurora, there were big tears rolling down her cheeks. She gave me a sad little smile, and that was it for me; I couldn’t help it. I tried a trick that never really works–I opened my eyes really wide, looking around the room. I tried to smile back, failed, and turned around quickly.
“You all set there?” asked the Army recruiter. “Don’t look back. Say, what kinda place is this anyway? I didn’t pay any attention when I walked in. Seems kinda depressing. Too dark for me.”
“It’s an orphanage,” I said softly.
The man opened his mouth as if he were going to say something, then shut it. He was quiet for a minute, then said, “Then who were those people back there? I thought the old lady was your mom and that gal was your big si …”
“Just a friend,” I cut in quickly.
“Shit, sorry, kid, I didn’t realize. Well, we’ll make a big man outta you, don’t you worry,” he said, slapping my shoulder; I nearly took a tumble onto the stone floor.
We reached a big cart attached to four horses. He opened a door in the back. “Get in, and make yourself comfortable,” he said, shaking his head with a laugh.
I looked in the cart, jammed packed with men on wooden benches. They were all quiet, looking tired and depressed. A few of them waved a little and tried to make some room, but there wasn’t any to spare, so I sat on the dirty floor in between the legs of the men and their bags. The recruiter closed the door, locked it, and disappeared from sight. The cart had no windows except for a small one by the door, letting in a little sunlight.
From my seat on the floor, I could see our window–Aurora’s and mine–on the second floor. I strained to get up to see if she was there but could not move. Suddenly, just when the cart began to move slowly forward, I saw her. She opened the window, leaned her elbows on the sill, and looked out.
My hand closed over the skipping stone she had given me; it felt cool and solid against my hand, as if it would always stay the same. I pulled my knees in, wrapping my arms around, trying to hide my head like I had done on that day, so many years ago, when I’d met Aurora, sitting on my new bed, wondering where I was. But this time, she wasn’t there.
Speaking of music, if you haven’t checked out “Arcade Days,” the song and video Jeff Finley, Brent Simon, and I finished last winter, click on the link below to do so!
You can find more pictures and preview clips of “Arcade Days” on IG as well as this podcast’s FB page.
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 finishing a track I started several years ago. When a sibling of one of my friends got engaged, I said I’d make a music track for them to commemorate the occasion. And then … well, fast forward a few years. Still not done! All excuses aside, today is the day. I’m keeping my promise and finishing it. It’s made with Auxy, like the track I finished last week. The draft (90-95% done) plays at the end of the episode.
In the meantime, this page formerly had what I affectionately dubbed a “starving artist” section on little side hustles you could do (mostly on the internet, often with a phone) to make a few bucks here and there, often in gift cards. Well, now you can listen to this show (as well as other podcasts) and get paid to do so! Check out https://www.podcoin.com/ to listen to the show and start earning points that you can redeem for gift cards (Amazon, Target, Starbucks, etc) or donations to a number of charities. Use the code “Thirteen” when you sign up to get 300 extra points. The Thirteen Hour Podcast is now on BONUS this week, so you can earn more than normal (1.5x).
Speaking of music, if you haven’t checked out “Arcade Days,” the song and video Jeff Finley, Brent Simon, and I have been working on the past year, click on the link below to do so!
You can find more pictures and preview clips of “Arcade Days” on IG as well as this podcast’s FB page.
Between Two Worlds, the synth EP follow up to Long Ago Not So Far Away is 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.
This week, I’m adding to the track I started back in Episode 208. I think it will eventually be used as accompaniment for flying sequence music videos or a video game with a flying pixelart Logan:
For now, though, I’ve made a little pixelart still that I edited in Photoshop that will be the cover art for the track:
A game is a long term project. For now, I’ll probably just be making the musical tracks. In the episode, I also have a few updates on two other musical pieces I’ve been working on.
In the meantime, this page formerly had what I affectionately dubbed a “starving artist” section on little side hustles you could do (mostly on the internet, often with a phone) to make a few bucks here and there, often in gift cards. Well, now you can listen to this show (as well as other podcasts) and get paid to do so! Check out https://www.podcoin.com/ to listen to the show and start earning points that you can redeem for gift cards (Amazon, Target, Starbucks, etc) or donations to a number of charities. Use the code “Thirteen” when you sign up to get 300 extra points. The Thirteen Hour Podcast is now on BONUS this week, so you can earn more than normal (1.5x).
Speaking of music, if you haven’t checked out “Arcade Days,” the song and video Jeff Finley, Brent Simon, and I have been working on the past year, click on the link below to do so!
You can find more pictures and preview clips of “Arcade Days” on IG as well as this podcast’s FB page.
Between Two Worlds, the synth EP follow up to Long Ago Not So Far Away is 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.
This week, I’m using the iOS app Auxy to work on a variation of the synth track I started back in Episode 208. I think it will eventually be used as accompaniment for flying sequence music videos or a video game with a flying pixelart Logan:
That, however, is a long term project. For now, I’ll probably just be making the musical tracks. In the meantime, this page formerly had what I affectionately dubbed a “starving artist” section on little side hustles you could do (mostly on the internet, often with a phone) to make a few bucks here and there, often in gift cards. Well, now you can listen to this show (as well as other podcasts) and get paid to do so! Check out https://www.podcoin.com/ to listen to the show and start earning points that you can redeem for gift cards (Amazon, Target, Starbucks, etc) or donations to a number of charities. Use the code “Thirteen” when you sign up to get 300 extra points. The Thirteen Hour Podcast is now on BONUS this week, so you can earn more than normal (1.5x).
Speaking of music, if you haven’t checked out “Arcade Days,” the song and video Jeff Finley, Brent Simon, and I have been working on the past year, click on the link below to do so!
You can find more pictures and preview clips of “Arcade Days” on IG as well as this podcast’s FB page.
Between Two Worlds, the synth EP follow up to Long Ago Not So Far Away is 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.
This week, I finished “A Place of Our Own” and experiment with distilling it down to a few key notes to make a theme for Aurora, one of the main protagonists for The Thirteenth Hour books.
In other news, Empty Hands has an official launch date – 7/13/19! I’ll probably be doing a little pixel art music video to go along with the launch of the album as well.
In the meantime, this page formerly had what I affectionately dubbed a “starving artist” section on little side hustles you could do (mostly on the internet, often with a phone) to make a few bucks here and there, often in gift cards. Well, now you can listen to this show (as well as other podcasts) and get paid to do so! Check out https://www.podcoin.com/ to listen to the show and start earning points that you can redeem for gift cards (Amazon, Target, Starbucks, etc) or donations to a number of charities. Use the code “Thirteen” when you sign up to get 300 extra points. The Thirteen Hour Podcast is now on BONUS this week, so you can earn more than normal (1.5x).
Speaking of music, if you haven’t checked out “Arcade Days,” the song and video Jeff Finley, Brent Simon, and I have been working on the past year, click on the link below to do so!
You can find more pictures and preview clips of “Arcade Days” on IG as well as this podcast’s FB page.
Between Two Worlds, the synth EP follow up to Long Ago Not So Far Away is 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.
This week, I’m working on the musical piece I started last week, “A Place of Our Own.” I’m just playing through it, working out the kinks, mistakes and all. Typically, it takes many, many takes and a fair amount of practice to get a piece to a point where I can record it without mistakes (or, at least, minimal ones that I can adjust to or work around). So this week’s episode is a mostly unedited window into a little of that process. Stay tuned over the next few weeks for additional progress.
In other news, Empty Hands has an official launch date – 7/13/19! I’ll probably be doing a little pixel art music video to go along with the launch of the album as well.
In the meantime, this page formerly had what I affectionately dubbed a “starving artist” section on little side hustles you could do (mostly on the internet, often with a phone) to make a few bucks here and there, often in gift cards. Well, now you can listen to this show (as well as other podcasts) and get paid to do so! Check out https://www.podcoin.com/ to listen to the show and start earning points that you can redeem for gift cards (Amazon, Target, Starbucks, etc) or donations to a number of charities. Use the code “Thirteen” when you sign up to get 300 extra points. The Thirteen Hour Podcast is now on BONUS this week, so you can earn more than normal (1.5x).
Speaking of music, if you haven’t checked out “Arcade Days,” the song and video Jeff Finley, Brent Simon, and I have been working on the past year, click on the link below to do so!
You can find more pictures and preview clips of “Arcade Days” on IG as well as this podcast’s FB page.
Between Two Worlds, the synth EP follow up to Long Ago Not So Far Away is 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.
Ideas for songs sometimes come at the most random times and places. I think the idea for this little instrumental track came when I was cooking dinner or putting my kids to bed. I remember humming a voice recording to myself since I didn’t have time to work on it at the time and didn’t want to forget it (my phone is full of similar such recordings; I used to use a tape recorder but this is one area where modern tech has made life a lot easier). I’m tentatively calling it “A Place of Our Own.” It will go to the next Thirteenth Hour book where the main protagonists, Logan and Aurora, will be building a house for themselves on an island – a kind of sanctuary for themselves away from the turmoil of the world (at least temporarily). The essence of it will probably also form a theme for Aurora (like in Peter and the Wolf, how each character has a musical theme). Stay tuned over the next few weeks for additional progress.
In the meantime, this page formerly had what I affectionately dubbed a “starving artist” section on little side hustles you could do (mostly on the internet, often with a phone) to make a few bucks here and there, often in gift cards. Well, now you can listen to this show (as well as other podcasts) and get paid to do so! Check out https://www.podcoin.com/ to listen to the show and start earning points that you can redeem for gift cards (Amazon, Target, Starbucks, etc) or donations to a number of charities. Use the code “Thirteen” when you sign up to get 300 extra points. The Thirteen Hour Podcast is now on BONUS this week, so you can earn more than normal (1.5x).
Speaking of music, if you haven’t checked out “Arcade Days,” the song and video Jeff Finley, Brent Simon, and I have been working on the past year, click on the link below to do so!
You can find more pictures and preview clips of “Arcade Days” on IG as well as this podcast’s FB page.
Between Two Worlds, the synth EP follow up to Long Ago Not So Far Away is 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.
This week, I add the guitar, synth, and vocals to “And Now, We Are One,” the last track on the last Empty Hands track, which is an ode to the ending themes of 80s action movies as well as the intros (and sometimes closings) of 80s Saturday morning / after school cartoon shows. I don’t really possess the Sammy Hagar / Freddy Mercury / Stan Bush type pipes to do the vocals the way I envisioned them, so I just recorded myself several times singing the same vocals so it sounds like a chorus of men singing, which a lot of old cartoons (esp 70s and 80s anime) tends to do in their intros anyway. Aside from a few electric guitar bits and the solo, the track is basically done. That plus final Empty Hands edits mean that it should be out in a few weeks (hopefully)! The pixelart coverart for the song is below – 8 bit figures (I used the guys from the NES game Kung Fu as a sort of template), Tron grid, and pastel colors in all their 80s glory:
In the meantime, this page formerly had what I affectionately dubbed a “starving artist” section on little side hustles you could do (mostly on the internet, often with a phone) to make a few bucks here and there, often in gift cards. Well, now you can listen to this show (as well as other podcasts) and get paid to do so! Check out https://www.podcoin.com/ to listen to the show and start earning points that you can redeem for gift cards (Amazon, Target, Starbucks, etc) or donations to a number of charities. Use the code “Thirteen” when you sign up to get 300 extra points. The Thirteen Hour Podcast is now on BONUS this week, so you can earn more than normal (1.5x).
Speaking of music, if you haven’t checked out “Arcade Days,” the song and video Jeff Finley, Brent Simon, and I have been working on the past year, click on the link below to do so!
You can find more pictures and preview clips of “Arcade Days” on IG as well as this podcast’s FB page.
Between Two Worlds, the synth EP follow up to Long Ago Not So Far Away is 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.
This week, I continue working on the last track on the last Empty Hands track, which is an ode to the ending themes of 80s action movies as well as the intros (and sometimes closings) of 80s Saturday morning / after school cartoon shows.
Next week, stay tuned for episode 200!
In the meantime, this page formerly had what I affectionately dubbed a “starving artist” section on little side hustles you could do (mostly on the internet, often with a phone) to make a few bucks here and there, often in gift cards. Well, now you can listen to this show (as well as other podcasts) and get paid to do so! Check out https://www.podcoin.com/ to listen to the show and start earning points that you can redeem for gift cards (Amazon, Target, Starbucks, etc) or donations to a number of charities. Use the code “Thirteen” when you sign up to get 300 extra points. The Thirteen Hour Podcast is now on BONUS this week, so you can earn more than normal (1.5x).
Speaking of music, if you haven’t checked out “Arcade Days,” the song and video Jeff Finley, Brent Simon, and I have been working on the past year, click on the link below to do so!
You can find more pictures and preview clips of “Arcade Days” on IG as well as this podcast’s FB page.
Between Two Worlds, the synth EP follow up to Long Ago Not So Far Away is 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.
This week, instead of focusing on “Many Miles,” which I’m still working on, I thought I’d do a little intro to the last Empty Hands track, which is an ode to the ending themes of 80s action movies as well as the intros (and sometimes closings) of 80s Saturday morning / after school cartoon shows. In other words, its cheesy as hell, but in the right spirit, hopefully it will be fun. The lyrics hark back to the elemental philosophy discussed in the book (earth, wind, water, fire, and void), itself taking inspiration from Japanese esoteric Buddhism.
NEW! This page formerly had what I affectionately dubbed a “starving artist” section on little side hustles you could do (mostly on the internet, often with a phone) to make a few bucks here and there, often in gift cards. Well, now you can listen to this show (as well as other podcasts) and get paid to do so! Check out https://www.podcoin.com/ to listen to the show and start earning points that you can redeem for gift cards (Amazon, Target, Starbucks, etc) or donations to a number of charities.
If you haven’t checked out “Arcade Days,” the song and video Jeff Finley, Brent Simon, and I have been working on the past year, click on the link below to do so!
You can find more pictures and preview clips of “Arcade Days” on IG as well as this podcast’s FB page.
Between Two Worlds, the synth EP follow up to Long Ago Not So Far Away is 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.
Signup for the 
In the latter part of the podcast, I talk about the idea of trying to create some kind of online community to showcase the creative process. I touch on that in many of these podcasts, and I’ve been thinking about trying to help people showcase the creative things they do in their own lives. In may ways, that’s one of the messages of The Thirteenth Hour – creating the world you want to inhabit. You may have noticed that on my Instagram posts, I have little emoticons before the post, kind of like these: 👾🎤📖🎸🍓🎨🕹🏹🙋🏽♀️🤸🏼♂️🌈🎭🎬
