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.
But this week, instead of figures (which we will come back to in an episode or two), we are going to talk about archery. At the time when I published this little novel, I was in the process of rediscovering archery. I had been working on instinctive shooting (no sights) for some time as well as learning to make my own bows out of PVC pipe. (You can actually find a post from 2016 – episode 33! – about some of the bows I was making around this time of rediscovery of traditional Western archery.)
Some years after that, I got interested in the drawing style used in many parts of Asia – using the thumb and a protective ring or piece of leather over it (see picture) – since I was researching it for a Thirteenth Hour sequel and I also genuinely wanted to learn it. It is my preferred way of shooting now, and I discuss these things on this week’s show while shooting a few arrows.
Last week, we talked about making the same character but in miniature form, so this week, I figured he deserved to have a larger version as well. It’s actually a very simple design but I’ve always meant to do something more with it since there are only a few illustrations I ended up doing and something about the hood, cape, and lack of any distinguishing facial features has always been evocative.
These motocross figures came with the other ones I discussed last week. I couldn’t tell from the pictures, but they were quite differently constructed and much more difficult to disassemble. Luckily, the huge tolerances on the loose joints will make painting it easier, since I can’t get it apart to make sure the joint parts do not scrape on each other. I figured the overall wiggle factor of the figure (high) would work for a character that spends a lot of time gliding through the moonlight sky.
The face sculpts on these guys are hilarious!
Painted black …
The hood as been sculpted on …
At the time of this writing, I have sculpted the hood. I initially thought of sculpting of the face but instead just turned the head around so the back of the head is now the front. I think the only facial features I will paint on are eyes. After pairing it black with an airbrush, I moved the main joints around to see which areas the paint wore away from, then tried to Dremel those areas Dow. I think that is the best I will be able to do since the rest of the figure is held together with rivets I can’t easily remove.
This week, I wanted to continue seeing if the Aliexpress motocross action figure I found would work well as an articulated figure for both the Rocketeer and Logan from The Thirteenth Hour. I’ve been quite impressed by this humble, unbranded, inexpensive figure marketed (depending on the seller) as a motorcycle rider, soldier, or “worker.” I decided to keep the figure as intact as possible and just add epoxy clay to parts I wanted to modify since I tend to find sculpting easier than finagling with joints and sourcing parts, as the joints are much better than anything I could create from scratch. As mentioned, this figure I found really is quite versatile, and for Cliff, all that was needed was to add the chest bib, jodhpurs, and sleeve cuffs. Here he is after some sanding:
For Logan, I think all that will needed will be the front and back halves of his tunic, the scarf/hood neck piece, the belt as part of the pelvis, and perhaps a bit of volume to his (rather parachute-like) pants. I would like to make an Aurora as well, but sourcing female figures is more difficult. I may actually modify this male one to have a female torso (the strategy the 80s GI Joe 3.75″ toys used) since then I could keep the joints intact. The main challenge with Aurora will probably actually be her skirt if her legs are really mobile – I probably won’t be able to get away with the sculpted one I did for legs that could only move forwards and backwards – perhaps cloth?
In the meantime, I decided it was high time that the hunter from The Thirteenth Hour prequel, A Shadow in the Moonlight (read it free in the US!), needed his own figure. This one was made from two modified Hero Construx figures with the addition of some clay, black paint, a cape, bow, and quiver.
Lastly, I finished up the mini Rocketeer made in episode 389 (the sculpt along). Here he is solo and with a clear translucent buddy.
This week, I’m sharing a bit of a possible shortcut to making articulated custom action figures. I recently discovered a source of inexpensive GI Joe style figures (minus the pesky O-ring) that can be disassembled easily. I found these motorcross guys on the website/app Aliexpress. Bought one on a whim wondering if I could modify it. Turns out, it was quite easy!
Here’s the motorcross rider with a different set of legs I took from a figure from The Corps line. I wanted to see if they could be made to fit. With some modification, yes. Within seconds, I took out three screws and motorcross guy was in pieces!
Said modifcation referenced above is widening the joint space on the new leg to fit the bigger joint pegs on motorcross guy.
The neat thing about this style of legs (that GI Joe and its competitors used and now replicated with motorcross guy and his pals) is that a single screw holds it all together.
Next stop – adding clay to modify this body into a Rocketeer.
I’m curious to try this method to make a new wave of more articulated Rocketeer and Thirteenth Hour figures!
This week, I’m discussing a discovery I made awhile back when considering how to showcase figures in The Thirteenth Hour DnD style campaigns we have been doing over on the Patreon via Discord. (I typically have a second camera set up to show an overhead view of the figures – so far, just during battles – this is an ongoing work in progress.) I thought it would be fun to include some miniatures but wasn’t sure how to find ones that would fit. Plus, I wanted them to be able to hold things in their hands and be somewhat customizable. Enter Mega Contrux minifigures.
Mega Bloks are a long time competitor of Lego that originally started as large scale bricks for young children, though just like Lego, they now have a number of highly complex, licensed properties more appropriate for the fingers and brains of older kids (and adults). Mega also has much more detailed, articulated, and realistically proportioned minifigures, and those are the ones I used for making The Thirteenth Hour minifigures. I started with a figure from their Assassin’s Creed line (I’m not sure who this guy is, but his costume has a number of similarities to the Imperial Ranger uniform – a tunic with large shoulders, grey pants, a hood, and a midsection piece that can be modified to make the triangular belt they wear).
Just like Lego minifigures, the Mega ones break apart for easy customization.
This skirt can be flipped around to make belts when painted.
From left to right – Aron, Blake, Lance, and Wander the wizard.
Wander was made very quickly with the same base figure with a tunic and wizard’s hat made of the same material. Added a bit of epoxy clay for hair and a beard. As you can see, there is a Lego baseplate in the background which I have used for positioning the figures during the game. One of the advantages of using these kinds of figures is that they have holes in their feet, making them easy to position. Mega figures also can use the full range of Lego hand held accessories (of which there are many), which makes it nice to customize them.
This week, I’m discussing packing for some of the upcoming toy projects I have been working on – 3.75″ Rocketeer action figures, the similarly sized Thirteenth Hour figures, and the Thirteenth Hour magnet dolls (the later two are basically part if the same project – the upcoming Once Upon a Dream LP launch. Each of these creative projects require some way to contain their respective parts, necessitating some kind of box with decorative coverart. While I can’t say it’s my favorite part of the whole process, I do think the packaging is of similar importance to the piece of art itself – the package is for protection, foremost, and makes it easier to ship, but it is also an accessory in its own right. It adds to the overall experience of the toy since it may add context, additional information or other pieces to collect, and a place to house the figure when it’s not being used.
Happy new year, and welcome to 2023! This first episode of the new year is all about time. Though time exists independent of all of us and will go on and on regardless of whether we exist in it or not, it is a finite resource for us living creatures. I think of an expression (which I might be paraphrasing) that my mother, who studied economics in college sometimes used (one I thought was humorous due to the extravagance of the words) – “diminishing returns of marginal utilities.” If I’m getting this correct, the “marginal utility” part describes the satisfaction that one experiences by consuming one unit of something. While economists are usually referring to “utility” in terms of as a product, I think the concept applies to some nonpurchasable items as well, including time. In some cases, the more time you have, the less you value it; yet when you have less, it becomes more and more precious. Gaining even a bit more would yield a net positive marginal utility. But none of us, regardless of our station in life, can get more of it. We all have however much time we are given, and none of us know how much.
There is a quote from the novel “The Sheltering Sky” by Paul Bowles that is inscribed on Brandon Lee’s tombstone (it came up in one of his last, if not the last interview he did prior to his death) that is particularly poignant and gets at this idea:
“Because we do not know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. And yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, an afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you cannot conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four, or five times more? Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.”
Rocketeer creator Dave Stevens echoed similar sentiments when it came to his own work in ways I think many artists will be able to relate to. In the podcast, I include a segment from one of Dave’s journals read by Billy Campbell from the documentary Dave Stevens: Drawn to Perfection.
When I was initially writing The Thirteenth Hour as a teenager, I think I was trying to put these idea into words in my own way. I suppose I had a different view of time since I was younger, but looking at it decades later, I think that is one of the underlying messages of the book – taking life by the reins and making the most of it, that the world can what you make of it if you believe in your dreams and don’t sit passively by, letting time pass you by.
Interestingly, the Buddhists have a slightly different take on this since they believe in do-overs. Life, from a Buddhist perspective, is about suffering, and escaping this cycle of birth and rebirth is to finally find peace (a.k.a. nirvana). But for those of us still in the world, there are some interesting insights in this drawing below of the samsara (wheel of life). There is a segment of the wheel below (the one with the animals in it) that is called, not surprisingly, the animal realm. The Buddhist view of non-human animals is that they are not as evolved, not as intelligent (human-centric, I know) and so creatures born into this part of the samsara earned their lot in life though past negative karmic action. I don’t know if I agree with that, but I think you can also use aspects of this as an analogy for parts of human existence. When we are in the animal realm, we are focused on survival – just getting through the day. But when we get a breather and have better resources, we can enter into the higher realms where we have increasing ability to reflect on our situation and focus on more than day to day needs. Times like the new year sometimes give us cause to stop, pause, and reflect on where we want to go. So in this episode, I not only reflect on some of the positives of the past year and some goals for the one to come.
This week, I’m working on Christmas decorations! Gingerbread cookies and ornaments! Here are some of the cookies I made with my kids and then decorated:
The Rocketeer and Logan rocketing through the air (so to speak).
Since I’ve been doing resin work for a number of years, I have a bunch of mini figures lying around, so I took two and made ornaments – one metallic blue Logan and a painted Rocketeer figure:
I also took one of the last Rocketeer figures I made (made with clear epoxy resin with blue mica powder mixed in) with silver highlights and made an ornament out of him, too. This one felt a bit like the tin soldier from the Hans Christina Anderson story. He came out of the mold in a way that all his parts were mismatched by a few mm, meaning they needed to be filed and Dremmelled even, and even then, did not quite fit together right. He is, as a result, somewhat skinnier and slighter in build than his brothers. HIs limbs did not quite fit in their joints very sturdily, either, but after enough reshaping, I got them in. I don’t think the joints are that sturdy, though, just because the resin I used was not terribly durable to begin with and due to all the reshaping that had to be done. However, I painted him up with silver highlights and decided that he just needed a new, different job befitting a Rocketeer – hovering in place as guardian of the tree. I’m glad I salvaged him from the trash heap or the Kingdom of Misfit Toys and think he looks great.
This week, I’m working on making a reusable case out of styrofoam to fit in a paper VHS case that will house The Thirteenth Hour action figures I made plus their accessories. I’m using a hot knife this episode to cut out styrofoam rectangles and then inserts in them to house the various parts. I’ll have to try isolating the sound of the knife cutting through the foam – it sounds really cool!
The first one I did to house Logan, Aurora, and their accessories.
Here they are! Now, just need to clean up the edges and make five more. These will be for special editions of the next Thirteenth Hour album, Once Upon a Dream, which is coming soon.
Speaking of albums, there is a Thanksgiving weekend sale going on until 12:59 PM UTC, 12/1/22. Grab Long Ago Not So Far Away, the first Thirteenth Hour soundtrack, on CD or cassette tape at 25% off list price on Bandcamp.
Use the following codes – thankful13cd for CDs and thankful13tp for tapes.
Plus, you’ll get a free gift thrown in (specify in checkout) – an adjustable Thirteenth Hour triple layer face mask (child or adult sized) or a iron/sew on patch.
This week, I’m discussing how I made homemade shrinky dinks using polystyrene (#6 plastic). I experimented with both forms commonly found mostly in food packaging – styrofoam meat trays and clear plastic takeout and baked goods containers. Of the two, I liked the clear ones best, since not only did I find they worked better, but you could color both sides (e.g. outline one side but color the back). I found that adding a piece of parchment or freezer paper (which has a nonstick coating on one side) over the top of the film would keep the shrinky dink from folding in on itself (a problem I experienced with both the foam and clear kinds of polystyrene). This tip I owe to Crafsman (see below), who did a video on making DIY shrinky dinks that I serendipitously saw when I was fiddling with this. Check out his video:
In pictures:
For this project, you can reuse #6 plastic, which is often hard to recycle anyway.
Both the styrofoam and clear plastic forms work, though I personally found the clear form worked better.
You will want to draw your design on, aiming for on the larger side if you can, as the picture really will shrink about at least 50%.
One advantage of using styrofoam is that the colors stick better. Light colors are fine, since they will darken when shrunk.
My son colored most of this one in and added the rainbow and a little dedication 🙂
I’m glad I took a picture beforehand, as my results were not great – the picture did shrink, just not in proportional ways. It may have been a fluke, though. I wonder if it stuck to the piece of freezer paper I put over it or the piece that was on the bottom.
I had better luck with clear polystyrene takeout container lids. I used Sharpie markers to color in these.
Not all of these survived, unfortunately. Some were victims of the experimentation process as I tried a variety of unsuccessful ways with a heat gun or uncovered in the oven. Regarding the latter, without someonthing over them, the pieces would commit suicide, essentially – they would shrivel up and fold on themselves, and the hot sides of the plastic would fuse together, rendering the image unintelligible.
This one worked pretty well. Had a pretty big piece. It shrank relatively proportionally. Below are some of the more successful shrinky dinks made with this method.
This week, I’m discussing the cover art for the custom Thirteenth Hour action figures I’ve been working on. In an effort to reduce plastic (which I also can’t easily work with), I decided to package them in recycled styrofoam cases made to fit inside a VHS paper sleeve. This is the cover art I’m planning on the front:
I have been experimenting how to arrange the figures to fit inside with all their accessories:
More to come as I figure this out. Thanks for listening!
This past week, I worked on finishing a track started back in Episode 364 accompanying a short segment from The Thirteenth Hour where Logan meets his crewmates again in a dream. When I finished the episode, I put it aside since it didn’t quite feel done, but I couldn’t put my finger on what it needed. I tossed around a number of ideas for a time, but it was not until recently that I hit on the right sound – the additional of a choral backing track and modifying the bell-like lead with a wah-wah sound to make it sound more ethereal. I do think this is the last track for the second Thirteenth Hour soundtrack! Now, I have to put it all together, make sure it has the finishing touches, and make the packaging. I think the Thirteenth Hour action figures (basically done!) and the magnet dolls will be accompanying this album.
This week, Jeremy Lesniak from Whistlekick joins the show as a guest to discuss his martial arts-themed novel, Faith. It’s been awhile since we last worked together, but if you’ve been a listener of the show for awhile, you may recall our collaborations from before around a number of classic martial arts movies – The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Ong Bak, First Strike, Wheels on Meals, Dragons Forever, and Showdown in Little Tokyo. We had a great conversation on various aspects of the story as well as martial arts in general and then wrapped up with a little theater of the mind, using the post-apocalyptic setting as a way to see if it were possible to mesh interactive story telling with nuanced turn based combat. This ended up being the basis for the combat system piloted in The Thirteenth Hour DnD Patreon mini campaigns. Click on the cover below to find your own copy:
If you happen to read this in time, you may be interested in an event that Whistlekick is hosting, Free Training Day, which is exactly like what it sounds like (a day of martial arts training, various styles, no cost, no ego) being held in Keene, NH on 11/12/22. If you happen to be there, you may see some Thirteenth Hour swag floating around …
Next week! Just in time for Halloween, my brother and I revisit Young Sherlock Holmes!
This week, we are finishing Dragon Fall (1984) by Lee J Hindle. This was a fun one. I have a few of similar vintage that I may read on the show. Stay tuned =)
This past week, we did our first Patreon Thirteenth Hour DnD session using a homebrew role playing system made from hybrid Dungeons and Dragons / Quest RPG rules. I thought we’d read some of the combat rules used in this game book, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, just to review one way they do combat with one person and 2 six sided dice. I thought it’d be interesting to see how these gamebooks employed combat game mechanics since their emphasis was primarily interactive story telling, just like our Thirteenth Hour DnD system.
The combat rules used in The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. As with many of these rule sets I’ve seen, there is not much emphasis on the nature of the attack or where it is targeted – more of an assumption that the attack happens in a binary sense – it is either successful or it is not.
The example we went through in the episode.
In the second part of the pod, we are reading Chapter 6 in Dragon Fall (1984) by Lee J Hindle. One more chapter to go!
More from Dragon Fall next week! Did you check out the podcast exclusive bonus episode preview with actress Catherine Mary Stewart (about Night of the Comet)?
This week, I’ve been casting Rocketeers using the mold I made recently. Working on the third copy now. Surprisingly, I’ve been pretty happy with the mold, especially since the resin I am using to cast the limbs (Smooth On 65D) has a working (pot) life of only about 2.5 minutes before hardens, so you have to work fast. Here is the latest guy to come out of the mold with parts from the first one post priming scattered around.
I think part of the difference here was that I used a base figure that was a little easier to work with and I got a better mold to be begin with.
In the second part of the pod, we are reading Chapter 5 in Dragon Fall (1984) by Lee J Hindle.
More from Dragon Fall next week! Soon – stay tuned for a podcast exclusive episodes with actress Catherine Mary Stewart (about Night of the Comet) coming this week.
This week, I’ve been finishing up the Thirteenth Hour action figures. I’ve gotten almost all of them put together and am now putting on the finishing touches. I ended up revising the color scheme when I had to redo all the limbs so be simpler and now am glad I did – no shading, brighter colors – simpler, just like the original 5 points of articulation Kenner figures of the 70s and 80s. Logan and Aurora on Lightning below. Aside from some finishing touches, I just need to add some clear blue-green resin to the console on Lightning the hoverboard’s front. You can see a slight depression there at the front, near Aurora’s feet, where the clear resin will go.
Hopefully, some of the knowledge gained there will help when making 5 points of articulation Rocketeer figures. I just finished the mold this week. It’s always exciting to see if your hard work and planning will pay off when you crack open the mold for the first time.
In the second part of the pod, we are finishing Chapter 4 in Dragon Fall (1984) by Lee J Hindle.
More from Dragon Fall next week! Soon – stay tuned for podcast exclusive episodes with actors Catherine Mary Stewart (about Night of the Comet) and Billy Campbell (about the Rocketeer) that you can unlock!
This week, I’m taking a little trip down memory lane, talking about some of the Choose Your Own Adventure style books I recall liking as a kid.
One of the show’s previous guests, Chad Derdowski (on episodes 107, 108, and 119), wrote and illustrated his own (hilarious, I might add) 80s inspired Choose Your Own Adventure style fantasy books, Fortune Favors the Bold and its sequel that are brilliant. Look up his work on IG here!
I’ve been reminded of books like these since I’ve been working on something specific for Patreon members – a Thirteenth Hour specific Dungeons & Dragons style series of scenarios. I’m modding an existing rpg platform called Quest and adding some additions to the combat system to allow for more nuance there and hopefully make it less dependent on pure luck. Patreon members – stay tuned.
My brother, Jeremy, wrote an article on his blog about the one issue of Dragon magazine we had as kids. We read it often (even though we didn’t understand what it was about) due to the great fantasy art and the fact we knew it was about games, and though we couldn’t really comprehend what role playing games were, the game books, the imagery, the rep (Satanic panic and all), and the miniatures all made it an alluring mystery.
And another Jeremy! Shout out also to a different Jeremy – Jeremy Lesniak from Whistlekick. We’ll be recording a show this week about his martial arts-themed novel, Faith. Maybe we’ll even get to discuss some of these things in the context of his story.
In the second part of the pod, we are starting Chapter 4 in Dragon Fall (1984) by Lee J Hindle.
This week, I finished a prototype of a 3.75″ Rocketeer figures made from adding clay to an Iron Man action figure I found in Walgreens. A few pictures:
This picture shows the almost completed prototype on the left and on the right, the second one which I succeeded in taking apart before adding the clay. I also modified the right hand to be able to hold a pistol. The black thing on the floor is an EVA foam so the pistol can slide into it:
These are the things I used to make the head. I cut the Iron Man head off at the neck (sorry, Iron Man) and inserted a screw into the base. I drilled a hole in the resin Rocketeer helmet and screwed the red base into it.
This was for the second version, since in the prototype, I wasn’t able to get the parts apart first, but the process was basically the same. Speaking of which, here’s the completed prototype:
In this version, there is no functional Mauser holster; it’s just sculpted on. Of course, in the Dave Stevens comic (aside from a few covers) and in the film, the Rocketeer has no holster. I think it the movie, he uses his pants pocket. But I figured, eventually, he might opt for a holster as being more secure and convenient. I drew him as having a holster in the game as well.
I have also made some sow progress on the Thirteenth Hour figures of the same size (3.75″). I had to recast most of the arms and legs, repaint them, and then individually fit them to the torsos again after the last mishap, so at this point, hopefully that learning experience will help when making the Rocketeer figures.
In the second part of the pod, we are reading Chapter 3 in Dragon Fall (1984) by Lee J Hindle.
This week, I give some updates on the making 3.75 inch Rocketeer figures from the 3.75″ Iron Man toy as reading the next part of Dragon Fall (1984) by Lee J Hindle.
A few pictures of the process of painting the figure. The next to last photo shows a duplicate I’m sculpting except this one should be able to be dissembled for resin casting.
This week, I talk a bit about a few concurrent projects such as making 3.75 inch Rocketeer figures from a 3.75″ Iron Man toy as well as the Rocketeer video game I’ve been working on.
The Rocketeer prototype so far with the mold for the pack as well as one of the resin casted packs and the helmet (ironically, the same size helmet that I used for the Lego Rocketeer minifigures).
I did successfully get a separate stock figure cracked open and will be sculpting some clay over these parts to look like the prototype to allow for making a resin copy.
Looking forward to painting this guy and adding some details. Speaking of painting …
I’ve been repainting The Thirteenth Hour figures (even parts that didn’t need to be painted) to reflect a simplified color scheme with more bold, primary colors. Also reworked Logan’s arms to hopefully fit better and be more stable.
I recently went to a Dollar Tree and found the Final Faction line of toys – only $1.25 each! It’s a surprisingly good value for the price. There are accessories, comics, and apparently, even a cartoon show. They may be good bases for making future Thirteenth Hour figures if I can get them apart (which I think should be easier than something like the Iron Man figure since there are screws in the back).
This is the first issue of the comic …
Someone writing it clearly had a sense of humor having a back page like this …
Just like in GI Joe, the back of the packing has a short bio and some stats. There’s also a QR code for the cartoon!
Progress of the Rocketeer game … Did a bunch of pixel art and story creation this week, adding to aspects of the world of the game, like this NPC enemy, a German foot soldier.
I finally figured out flying and shooting straight and added some backgrounds. There is now a full fledged short story behind the game as well.
More coming soon! Will get back to reading Dragon Fall next week.
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 talk a bit about two upcoming projects – starting to make video games again after a few decades of not doing it! Though I’ve used a number of the animations and sprites I made in various things, most recently the music video of Logan using the music Jeff Finley and I made, for the most part most of the work I did making games using engines like Klik ‘N Play and The Games Factory sat mostly unused all these years. But every now and then, I’d take a look at the games making software out there, since the dream of making a Thirteenth Hour game in some capacity has never really gone away. Fast forward to now, and I discovered a freeware games making program called GDevelop, which seems to have the abilities of the programs I used before with more user-friendliness. So, I decided to learn how to use the program by making a simple, one level game of the Rocketeer where he runs, shoots, and flies to escape from a facility where he’s (almost) been taken captive. Turns out, I’ve been able to reuse some of the animations I did in the past, which has saved a lot of work of creating everything from scratch.
So, more updates to come as I learn the program and advance the game!
Speaking of games, the second project I’m working on is learning more about becoming a DM to be able to host DnD games set in the Thirteenth Hour universe for Patreon members. So far, I’m looking at modifying some of the existing systems out there to fit the world and the ideas I have. So 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.
Welcome to the 2nd part of the First Blood / Rambo miniseries. But before I forget, as mentioned in the show intro, check out Adam’s tutorial on grey scale painting:
And! A new podcast I recently found all about Howard the Duck – “Trapped in a World!”
Click on the picture below to find a copy of the film:
We actually start off taking about this collection of ads, of which the survival knife is just one fine offering, coming from Boys’ Life.
As an aside, if you look center bottom in the ad above, you’ll see one for a diver’s knife. Adam sent along some pictures of his:
Joe also sent along some pictures of the container he found to organize the contents of the knife handle in the Harbor Fright model we have. If you look around, you can find little metal waterproof containers just the right size to fit in the handle. This is the one Joe used.
We also talk a bit about the Rambo cartoon (odd choice for an R rated movie about a vet suffering from PTSD who gets bullied by smallminded cops and wreaks a path of wanton destruction on their small town as revenge) as well as the accompanying Coleco toyline, which I vaguely remember from the shelves of Kmart, as they were bigger and had more accessories than a lot of your typical action figures of the day.
I found the first episode of the cartoon here, and here’s the trailer:
The backdrops from these 80s commercials were sometimes even better than the toys themselves. Now, this, ladies, and gents, is a commercial …
For those of you on Patreon, there will be an accompanying exclusive episode later this week on favorite GI Joe figures, as the comic had many of the Joes originally as Vietnam vets trying to figure out what to do after the war, just like Rambo.
In the meantime, check out more Adam and Joe on our first joint collaboration on The Lost Boys parts 1 and 2 as well as on Adam’s show, I Have Spoken: A Star Wars Podcast, episodes 14, 15, and 19 talking about The Book of Boba Fett and Star Wars toys! Thanks for coming on the show, fellas!
Today, I’m joined by my friends Joseph Esch and Adam Crohn to talk about the first Rambo movie, First Blood (1982) and some 80s survival knife back-of-the-magazine ad goodness.
This ad comes from a 1985 issue of Black Belt magazine.
Here’s the knife in the ad. It’s different from the one Rambo uses in the film, of course, but has the same mostly hollow handle to hold a variety of survival bits, like fishing hooks, line, matches (which are clearly vintage – I found my knife on eBay).
Last year (when we first floated he idea of doing this pod!), Joe sent me a modern equivalent from Harbor Freight Tools. It’s a bit bigger than the original, and the compass is protectively nested on the inside of the handle, not the outside, which I thought was a good change.
Look for more details on the Patreon as well as next week with part 2!
In the meantime, check out more Adam and Joe on our first joint collaboration on The Lost Boys parts 1 and 2 as well as on Adam’s show, I Have Spoken: A Star Wars Podcast, episodes 14 and 15 talking about The Book of Boba Fett and Star Wars toys!
Since it recently became the year of the water tiger (per the Chinese version of the lunar calendar), I thought for this week’s show, it might be interesting to look at some of the philosophical underpinnings behind the elemental alignments the characters in The Thirteenth Hour martial arts novella, Empty Hands, have (Earth, Wind, Water, Fire, Void).
The original inspiration was Japanese esoteric Buddhism and the martial arts that use that system as a way of figuratively describing different kinds energy. You’ll find more about this in epsiode 151 on the godai and in texts like The Book of Five Rings.
There is also a separate, very similar system tracing back to ancient Chinese astronomy using slightly different elements (Earth 土, wood 木, fire 火, metal 金, and water 水), widely used in things like traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts. Those five elements are paired with the twelve zodiac signs to make 60 different signs, this year’s water tiger sign being one. Since these ideas spread through a lot of Asia, you see them in cultures beyond China. In that way, they looped back to Japan.
There, these ideas became the gogyo (五行 – “five phases”). In the episode, I read a section on this topic from Stephen K Hayes’ Mystic Arts of the Ninja (the two graphics above are from that book) as well as a section from Empty Hands, which was inspired by both this and the godai system in creating elemental alignments for the characters as a way of encapsulating their personalities (and in a way, making their easier to write!)
1.) the last episode of the month for the next few months will have a Q and A segment. Submit your questions via email or on social media (or if on Patreon, via messaging me there or commenting on the most recent post) to be a part of the show. It doesn’t necessarily have to be Thirteenth Hour or 80s related – anything you like or think would be interesting to discuss. Have fun with it!
2.) A few pics of the Lego Rocketeer minifigures I’ve been working on. They’re about 95% done. Just some touch ups needed then will begin work on the packaging.
3.) A picture of the current state of The Thirteenth Hour action figures. Just a few paint touch ups there, also, and then will start assembling the figures.
4.) Speaking of figures, I was thinking I’ve used this little bookshelf to take some pictures before, but I thought I’d use it more since it has a lot of my influences in book form!
5.) Introducing my kids to resin over the past few weeks has been entertaining (and messy). We’re making keychains here with a combo of Thirteenth Hour illustrations, Batman 1989 pictures, and Rocketeer stills. The kit we received came with these little molds perfect for making keychain and charm pendants (and just right for small fingers).
Protect yourself and others with the Thirteenth Hour mask combo package on Etsy. This fall, it became really hard to find good quality masks for our kids as they were going back to school. There are still long wait times for some of the companies we like best, so I thought, why not try to find an alternative? I eventually settled on the triple layer masks available for printing on by the company Flashbay. They were one of the few companies I found that were transparent about their third party safety data (Junior: https://static.flashbay.com/images/certificates/Junior_REACH.pdf?v=1617870020, Adult: https://static.flashbay.com/images/certificates/Sky_Performance.pdf?v=1603078812), which is nice. I was impressed by how well these masks performed on the filtration tests, even after repeat washings. Also, I really liked how both the ears and nose piece could be adjusted for a good fit.
In this episode, I’m reflecting back on the last year and planning for next. 2021 was a good year for the show (despite being a difficult year globally). I’m going to focus more this year on planning out episodes (including the more intentional scheduling of guests) to make it all a bit more systematic and organized than it has been in the past (which, up up until ow, was basically just an extension of whatever I was doing creatively at the time).
I’d also like to engage my listener base more, so if you have any suggestions, questions, comments, or requests for the show, please let me know! I’m going to try an experiment for a few months, making the last show of the month (1/31/22 in this month’s case to have a Q and A segment). More to come in the coming weeks. Listeners can also leave messages via voice on the main website (found on on the audio –> Thirteenth Hour podcast section):
A few updates on a few creative projects I’ve been wrapping up:
These were some resin bookmarks I made with my kids – their first introduction to resin art and mica powder:
A few pictures on the Lego Rocketeer figures I’ve been slowing working on. The packs are almost done; just wrapping up some details on the painting.
The figures will probably look something like this (an early draft):
Speaking of painting, the Kenner style Thirteenth Hour figures are almost done. Some heads of Aurora and Logan:
What Aurora will probably look like when done (she is in her outfit from the part of the book where she fights a dragon):
I also added little magnets to Logan’s boots to allow him to easily connect to Lightning, his hoverboard (which will be his accessory).
Wishing you the best as you begin a new year!
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Protect yourself and others with the Thirteenth Hour mask combo package on Etsy. This fall, it became really hard to find good quality masks for our kids as they were going back to school. There are still long wait times for some of the companies we like best, so I thought, why not try to find an alternative? I eventually settled on the triple layer masks available for printing on by the company Flashbay. They were one of the few companies I found that were transparent about their third party safety data (Junior: https://static.flashbay.com/images/certificates/Junior_REACH.pdf?v=1617870020, Adult: https://static.flashbay.com/images/certificates/Sky_Performance.pdf?v=1603078812), which is nice. I was impressed by how well these masks performed on the filtration tests, even after repeat washings. Also, I really liked how both the ears and nose piece could be adjusted for a good fit.
This week, we are welcoming actress Catherine Mary Stewart to the show!
You may know her from classic films such as Night of the Comet, The Last Starfighter, and Weekend at Bernie’s. Although those are some of my favorite films of all time (and we do touch on aspects of some of those movies in this episode – I mean, how could you not?), I thought it’d be fun to highlight an underrated gem that is hard to find but still very worth your time – 1994’s Samurai Cowboy. Here’s the premise …
The film starts in Japan with Japanese subtitles. We see legions of modern samurai (salarymen and women) commuting in jam-packed Tokyo subways …
Our hero, Yutaka Sato (singer Hiromi Go) and his best friend, Goro (J. Max Kirishima), work and party hard, though the stressful life of a modern business samurai is not what Yukata desires. He longs to be a cowboy in the Wild West. I thought Hiromi Go did a great job in a role that was part serious, part comedic. He also gets to showcase his vocals by singing karaoke at least once as well as “Home on the Range.”
After tragedy makes it hard to stay in Japan, Yutaka decides to emigrate to the US and buys a Montana ranch sight unseen, hoping it will be the Ponderosa of his dreams. Reality, however, is a bit harsher, just like the pile of cow caca that he is about to step in here.
It also doesn’t take long for the small-mindedness of the locals to make itself known (this was filmed at a time of a fair amount of fear/resentment at Japan in the West). Yutaka does start to find non-bigoted allies, though. He teams up with an semi-retired cowboy, Gabe (Robert Conrad of The Wild, Wild West TV show) and an American Indian artist, Jack Eagle Eye (Byron Chief-Moon), he sticks up for soon after getting to town.
It’s hard to capture breathtaking vistas like this on film and have it translate to the feeling of being there, but I thought they did a really nice job on the cinematography. Maybe someone can chime in and correct me, but this landscape looks a lot like Glacier National Park to me. The peak they refer to as the Indian Chief looking a lot like Grinnell Glacier.
One of the non-bigoted locals that Yutaka befriends is a local veterinarian, Dr. Jessie Collins (our guest, Catherine Mary Stewart), who has the enviable job of riding around the country to get to the animals she rounds on. Here she is dispatching a cow who isn’t doing so great while Yutaka slips on the snow since he doesn’t have boots fit for the weather.
What kind of Western would it be without six guns? When Yutaka gets himself some clothes more appropriate for ranching, he spies a gaudy revolver in a case at the front of the store and can’t resist (though actually hitting anything is a different matter).
The beginnings of a romance start to blossom between our samurai cowboy and Jessie. I have to hand it to the filmmakers – it was pretty unusual at the time for Asian males to ever get to be the romantic lead in a Western-made film. The only person I can think of is Brandon Lee, who I talked about on here before. I’m sure there were others, but I’m struggling to come up with ones made in the West at the time that were not martial arts themed films. Of course, Yutaka, being Japanese, naturally has to know martial arts (which, to be fair, he uses to good effect at various points in the film), but stereotypes aside, in some ways it makes sense – he calls his ranch “The Dojo Ranch” since he views it as a place of focus and betterment and given the title, you kind of expect that the guy would be able take care of himself as any modern Samurai should, right?
Yutaka also recruits a black hip hop artist (Bradley Rapier) who gets stranded in town, offering him a job to help out on the Dojo Ranch, thus completing the team.
Together, Yutaka and company take on a corrupt local land developer, Colt Wingate (Matt McCoy) who wants Yutaka’s ranch for his own scorched earth plans. Yutaka ain’t selling, though …
Despite Wingate’s attempt to make life difficult for Yutaka, he and his compatriots decide the best way to go forward is to actually do what Yutaka set out to be – a cowboy … meaning that he and his ranchers need to herd the Dojo Ranch cattle old school-style to a town some distance away to be sold, ensuring Yutaka will have enough money to not default on his ranch loan. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Western if there weren’t a dramatic showdown at the end. The way they handled it, though, I thought was nice.
And it wouldn’t be a Western without a few sunset vistas like this. Breathtaking!
Unfortunately, although I’d highly recommend finding this movie to watch yourself, it’s not the easiest thing to do, even if you go the bootleg path. Thankfully, eBay is your friend in this arena.
If you are unable to find a copy of the film or don’t have a VHS player to play it on, you can still get a sense of what the movie is like with the clips we discussed in the podcast. As mentioned, you can actually watch them as well. Please excuse the video quality, however, since the video is coming courtesy of the Zoom call I recorded, so it won’t be quite as smooth as it were playing in real time. However, you’ll at least have some visuals for the commentary in case you want to watch along with the podcast.
I interspersed the Samurai Cowboymovie clips with a little 6 question quiz we had fun playing that touches on some bits from The Thirteenth Hour and classics like The Last Starfighter and Night of the Comet that Catherine was in. There are a few questions where it helps to have visuals, which you can find them in the compilation below:
If you’re a Patreon member, you’ll find some “extended scenes,” so to speak, in the latest Patreon podcast episode (#10).
Thanks to Catherine Mary Stewart for joining the show! Learn more about her on:
Lastly, since it’s now the month of October, I think I should get on that sequel to The Last Rocketeer I wrote last year mashing up The Last Starfighter and The Rocketeer (two of my favorite things!). The story ends in a very Halloween specific way, so now that Halloween is approaching, I figure that if Cliff Secord from The Rocketeer and Centauri from The Last Starfighter are good, then adding someone who may or may not be Dracula must be better. Is there a way Alex and Maggie from The Last Starfighter can make a cameo, too? Hmm … looking forward to writing it!
This week, I’m joined by musician It’s the Dream Chaser, a classically trained pianist turned retro 80s melodic synthwave artist. We discuss his background, influences, his process of creating his sound, and advice for other musicians. He has an upcoming album called The Great Void Above, which releases on 11/11. We’ll be listening a few tracks from the album today, but before we do, let’s check out his first LP, Infinite Space since there is a narrative that ties the albums together. Here’s the story behind that album:
Inspired by the sound of 80’s synths, the “Dream Chaser” gave birth to “Infinite Space”. A melodic synthwave album that will take you to a journey to places you’ve never been.
In a Galaxy where planets are forced to fight for their freedom, a young time-traveler from the planet Earth will try to overcome and survive the overwhelming force of the “Galactic Federation of the United Systems” alongside a group of rebellious space riders. Where the mysterious presence of an A.I. called “The Unity” could change the way carbon based life beings live.
Here’s a preview of the upcoming album. Like its predecessor, there are a selection of some great melodic tracks here that, at least to me, set it apart from a lot of synthwave, which tends to be atmospheric and ambient in nature. I love the concept album feels of these albums given that there is an actual story behind the music, kind of like the soundtracks to movies or books.
Here’s a bit about the album:
With an 80’s heart, The Dream Chaser delivers a new album filled with melodic, chill and dark sinthwave that pushes the genre to new planets and systems.
Continuing the story of The Dream Chaser, Elara, the space riders and the mysterious “S”, “The Great Void Above” explores the consequences of fighting agains the system of the G.F.U.S. and The Unity.
“The Great Void Above” is the second album of the “4 Nights Saga”.
Many thanks to It’s the Dream Chaser for coming on the show! For Patreon members, look for another preview track with more behind the scenes analysis of the making of the song coming later this week!
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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.
To start, I invite you to take a culinary journey and experience Steakumms. I’d actually never heard of Steakumms prior to seeing the following video (featuring both guests today, I should add):
Check out last week’s episode for more details on the 80s foods we brought for show and, if you’re a Patreon member, the second exclusive podcast episode, which has a guest appearance by Tibetan medical practitioner Ezdean Fassassi (a guest on episode 214) doing a meal critique of a Steakumms meal (listen to a preview below).
Some great art here. There’s a whole Chinese food segment we do based on the scene below …
The whole noodle / worm idea has its issues (as I discuss in the intro), but it’s clearly made its impact. You can find all kinds of imagery around (again, for those of Asian descent who grew up in the US having people say their lunch smelled or looked like worms, it takes on different significance), but I think it was meant as an innocent enough scene.
The deleted scenes get referenced a few times in the podcast. Here are some I found on youtube:
If you look around youtube, you can find elements of the soundtrack and score of the film. Here’s a great example:
And thanks to Adam and Joe this two part episode! Look for an extended feature with both gentlemen in the third Patreon exclusive podcast coming this week.
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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 joined by fellow 80s enthusiasts Joe Fangsrud von Esch and Adam Crohn to discuss 80s food as a precursor to a much longer discussion on the 1987 film, The Lost Boys.
To start, I invite you to take a culinary journey and experience Steakumms. I’d actually never heard of Steakumms prior to seeing the following video (featuring both guests today, I should add):
So, we decided to bring a few 80s food staples (as well as candy, of course, this being a Halloween special) to do a little show and tell with y’all prior to discussing the film. There are more details in the show itself, though if you want to see some of what we were eating and learn more about my own inaugural Steakumms experience, you can see more on Patreon. Later this week, there will be a Patreon exclusive podcast episode that goes into the creation of a Steakuums meal, a critique of the meal by Tibetan medical practitioner Ezdean Fassassi (a guest on episode 214), and more.
Alright! Now that we’re fed, let’s get on with the show!
The film … cue the most excellent soundtrack …
These guys are brothers in the film (Corey Haim and Jason Patric)
The vampires – seems like they could be in a glam band … (Fun fact – Laddie, the little guy here (actor Chance Michael Corbitt), was credited as “Newspaper Kid” in The Rocketeer – I guess he must have been the kid that shouts, “Extra, extra, read all about it! Man flies without plane!”)
I mean, check out their costumes – like this coat Star (Jami Gertz) is sporting …
Speaking of Halloween, later this week, join me and others at a virtual event that Corazon de Vida is throwing on 10/29/20 at 7 PM PST (see episode 268). If you are also interested in helping to support their mission, learn more at https://www.corazondevida.org/get-involved or by clicking on the picture below.
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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’d like to welcome screenwriter, actress, and producer Nicole Dubuc to the show. She is the executive producer of the Rocketeer cartoon that came out about a year ago (which, as of 10/16/20, is now also available on Disney+.) She joins the show under another installment of the Like a Hood Ornament Rocketeer segment to discuss the creation of the series, the music, and some of the ideals she and her team brought to the cartoon. It was especially great to see how they were able to take Dave Stevens’ and the 1991 film’s visions of the Rocketeer universe and turn it into something that young children could easily digest and fall in love with (as my kids did).
My own children started watching the show when it came out. We don’t have cable, so I had no idea how to watch the episodes initially but eventually figured out that you could buy the episodes individually on iTunes (and then, ultimately, as a whole season on Amazon). It’s been great to share my favorite movie with the kids in a form they can digest, and as I mentioned here before and on social media, we’ve done a bunch of things from that love of the show, like reading books about airplanes together, making a Halloween costume for my daughter (almost done, more on the first Patreon exclusive episode coming soon), and making little resin figurines. I also have the Rocketeer comics to thank for helping to keep my three-year-old son on the potty long enough to, you know, take care of business.
If you haven’t seen the show, here is a clip of our favorite song, which has all the 80s pop glory of flying to the sound of synths and guitars.
Can you spot the original Rocketeer film/comic Easter Eggs? Here are a few to get you started …
-recreation of the scene in the original comic and film of the Rocketeer saving a pilot in trouble at an airshow
-Butch the bulldog
–Billy Campbell, the original Rocketeer in the 1991 film, who voices the pilot in trouble (the father of Kit, the new Rocketeer).
-gum in a white wrapper (a la Beeman’s) that saves the day
If you don’t have Disney+ or another streaming service with the show, you can, of course, buy episodes or the season individually like I did.
However, you can also watch an episode for free (which has a nice cameo by the original Rocketeer) on Youtube:
Although I wasn’t able to get it to work since I think my phone is too old, there was a Rocketeer game with the same bright color palate the series has that used to be part of the Disney Now app. I’m not sure it’s still available since I wasn’t able to find it this time around, but you can check out the gameplay below. Looks like fun! I hope it gets released to be more widely available!
Thanks, Nicole, for coming on the show! You can find out more about her on Twitter and Instagram.
Look for more Rocketeer cartoon content in future episodes, and if you’re a member of the Thirteenth Hour Arts Patreon group, look for more updates on the costume we’re currently making. Here’s a preview:
As I mentioned last week, I wanted to finish the short story, “The Last Rocketeer” (which tells the story of what might happen if a 71-year-old Cliff from The Rocketeer met up with Centauri from The Last Starfighter) by Halloween since the story ends on Halloween, but also because, when writing it, I wanted to pay homage to the timeline the Rocketeer cartoon established for Cliff and Jenny later in life. Although the IDW comics had stories that went up through World War 2 (and that was with Betty and the Dave Stevens version of the rocketpack), I don’t think there is anything that discussed what life was life for these characters after that. That is, until the cartoon! So, there are some cameos and mentions of Ambrose, Cliff’s son, and Dave, his grandson in “The Last Rocketeer.” Here are a few of the illustrations, mostly done with the kids in daddy day care art time:
By the way, proceeds from the next Thirteenth Hour LP, Once Upon a Dream, will also be donated to the organization Corazon de Vida (see episode 268). If you are also interested in helping to support their mission, learn more at https://www.corazondevida.org/get-involved. Join me and others at the virtual event that Corazon de Vida is throwing on 10/29/20 at 7 PM PST by clicking on the picture below or 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.
I first heard of his work on this episode of The Rocketeer Minute with Jim O’Kane and Hal Bryan (who were on episodes 249 and 250) talking, of course, about the Rocketeer but also his graphic novel, What Ever Happened to the World of Tomorrow?, which chronicles America’s journey in the 20th century from a pre-WW2 sense of optimism in the future of less disease, better living through chemistry, jet packs for all, flying cars, and wrist communicators through the Space Race with the USSR to the gradual waning and disillusionment with space exploration in the 80s and beyond.
We also touch on his most recent work, A Fire Story, about the loss of his home in the 2017 California fires (timely especially now given that US West coast residents are again dealing with the same situation). Here’s a frame from his initial version (drawn at the time of the loss as a kind of chronicle of what was happening).
I wanted to finish the short story, “The Last Rocketeer” in time for this episode, since they are tied together serendipitously, as we’ll discuss in the episode. Some of the lost luster of the early part of the 20th century discussed in What Ever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? kind of reminded me of the quietly reluctant hero portrayed by Sam Elliot in The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot, and I figured all these forces converging together meant I should proceed with my weird idea of combining The Rocketeer with The Last Starfighter after all. Well, the story’s done, just in time for Halloween, which figures into the end, though I won’t say how. It’s been a fun ride! I hope Cliff has earned some well deserved rest and inner peace. A few of the illustrations, mostly done with the kids in daddy day care art time:
By the way, proceeds from the next Thirteenth Hour LP, Once Upon a Dream, will also be donated to the organization Corazon de Vida (see episode 268). If you are also interested in helping to support their mission, learn more at https://www.corazondevida.org/get-involved. Join me and others at the virtual event that Corazon de Vida is throwing on 10/29/20 at 7 PM PST by clicking on the picture below or 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, there was so much “housekeeping” business to take care of, I made it a whole episode. Here’s the lineup:
-I am just about done the title track, “Once Upon a Dream,” for the next Thirteenth Hour soundtrack LP. I finally figured out what was missing from the backing part. More synth (there’s a surprise). Then it all fit together. It’s odd, in a way, since the beat is fast (120 bpm), but the vocals are actually quite slow, much slower than I anticipated. So there’s an alternating ascending / descending note progression that can be heard in the background (that’s the new part) that helps to bridge the gap between the tempo of the beat and the speed of the vocals. This version can be heard at the end of the episode.
-Speaking of synth, check out the weekly podcast, SR Weekly. Steven, the host, who goes by the alias Synth Redneck, used to host his show on youtube but has since moved it over to an audio only format that is available on major podcasting platforms. If you check out the 9/16/20 episode, you’ll hear The Thirteenth Hour synth orchestra theme as one of the selections in that week’s set. If you’re a synth musician yourself, you can submit your music for consideration to be included in a future episode or just check out the lineup with each episode to discover some great new music.
-By the way, proceeds from the next Thirteenth Hour LP, Once Upon a Dream, will also be donated to the organization Corazon de Vida (see last week’s episode). If you are also interested in helping to support their mission, learn more at https://www.corazondevida.org/get-involved. Join me and others at the virtual event that Corazon de Vida is throwing on 10/29/20 at 7 PM PST by clicking on the picture below or here.
-Speaking of guests, next week’s we’ll be hearing from author and illustrator Brian Fies, of works such as What Ever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? for another installment of the Like a Hood Ornament Rocketeer segment. I hope also to have finished the short story, “The Last Rocketeer” in time for that episode, since they are tied together serendipitously, as we’ll discuss in the episode.
-Speaking of other creative folks, check out frequent podcast guest Adam of ACToyDesign on Patreon for an exclusive podcast all about toys, including a lot of retro 80s content.
-This year, Halloween falls on a Saturday, always a treat when you’re a kid (at least it was that way when I was a kid and you could spend all day out collecting bags a bags of candy – one year, I collected two whole pillowcases). Stay tuned! I’ll try to come up with something special for the end of the month!
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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 pleased to welcome Hilda Pacheco-Taylor of the organization Corazon de Vida, which helps to raise funds for a number of orphanages in Baja, Mexico (which are 100% reliant on donations to stay open). We met in a very serendipitous way, but I thought it would be really interesting to speak to someone who knew more about what life was like in orphanages given that Logan and Aurora from The Thirteenth Hour both grew up in one.
When writing the initial draft of the story, I wanted to create a better home for them in the Aquarian Orphanage than movies and fairy tales often give their protagonists. In a lot of stories, childhood trauma is used to fuel later motivations, and the lack of parents gives the writer free reign to have the characters do things that most parents in their right minds would never allow their kids to do.
Instead of the usual dark and oppressive views of orphanages and other public institutions, I remember wondering – what would happen if the kids at the Aquarian Orphanage basically just lived there, kind of like an extended summer camp? What would happen if the staff that worked there actually cared about the kids and tried to raise them as their own children? What would happen if they went to school there, grew their own food, and were responsible for the upkeep of the orphanage as if it were their own home – since that’s essentially what it was? What would happen if the orphanage environment were designed to build the kids up rather than just exacerbate the bad things that had already happened to them?
I had no idea when I was teen writing the story if such a place existed. I figured it could and have seen such places as an adult that gave me hope that such places did, in fact, exist. And today’s conversation is further evidence of that. Kids are our future, yet for some reason, when there are funding cuts to be made, often the first things to go are organizations and supports that help children. Thanks, Hilda, for coming on the show to share your story and talk about the work that your organization does to make a positive difference in the lives of the children in your area.
Proceeds from the next Thirteenth Hour LP, Once Upon a Dream, will also be donated to Corazon de Vida. If you are also interested in helping to support their mission, learn more at https://www.corazondevida.org/get-involved.
Join me and others at the virtual event that Corazon de Vida is throwing on 10/29/20 at 7 PM PST by clicking on the picture below or here.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
This week, I’m wrapping up “Once Upon a Dream” and discussing more on the idea of creating a creative arts collective. Last week, I created a private Facebook group called Thirteenth Hour Arts – For Creators, Not Haters. Many thanks to all who joined!
This week, I’m launching a Patreon of the same name and idea – a place to share in the creative process, though more specific to things related to the creation of The Thirteenth Hour books, music, podcast, pictures, figures, and the like, as well all the other things that have influenced those properties. Hopefully, people will be able to share what they do as well so we can all build off each others’ creative energy.
You can go to the Pateron by clicking the picture below of going here:
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There are now Thirteenth Hour toys! If you’d like to pick up one of these glow in the dark figures for yourself, feel free to email me or go to the Etsy store I set up (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ThirteenthHourStudio) and get them there.
If the past few months have got you needing a break, you may want to chill out to this 80s synth throwback track for a upcoming LP with the accompanying music video:
Empty Hands, the synth EP soundtrack to the novella, Empty Hands, is now out for streaming on Bandcamp.
Stay tuned. Follow along on Spotify! There is also a growing extended Thirteenth Hour playlist on Spotify with a growing number of retro 80s songs.
Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s Instagram pages: @the13thhr for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art and and @the13thhr.ost for more 80s music, movies, and songs from The Thirteenth Hour books and soundtrack.
The hood as been sculpted on …
土, wood 
木, fire 
火, metal 
金, and water 
水), widely used in things like traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts. Those five elements are paired with the twelve zodiac signs to make 60 different signs, this year’s water tiger sign being one. Since these ideas spread through a lot of Asia, you see them in cultures beyond China. In that way, they looped back to Japan.
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