music

Tank Girl

Mike Nobody art, Australia, business, Cartoon, comedy, comic book, corporations, creativity, fascism, fiction, freedom, independent, Movie, movies, music, new world order, oligarchy, orwell, pop art, sci-fi, science fiction, tyranny, vlogging, world trade organization, wto

Last year was the 30th anniversary of the British comic book Tank Girl. There wasn’t much mention of it in the press, that I remember. It is a classic cult comic. So, why not? Admittedly, the 1995 movie stunk.

It only made $6 million against a $25 million budget. That is an apt metaphor for the post-Nirvanamania alternative craze of the 1990’s. Mega-corporations foolishly believed that they could reproduce “the next Nirvana” by slapping “grunge” or “alternative” on everything. They bought up hundreds of independent labels and signed artists left and right, regardless of any talent or experience they may possess. It doesn’t work like that. Mostly, they failed spectacularly.

But, nonetheless, I liked the idea of adapting this comic into a movie. Comic book movies are HUGE now, compared to the 1990’s. Can’t somebody else give it ago? Hey Hollywood, throw some money my way! I’ll do it!

One thing that I actually LIKED about the original movie was the animated sequences. So, firstly, animate the entire thing. Co-creator Jamie Hewlett went on to form the virtual band Gorillaz. It would be a natural fit for him to direct. And don’t wimp out with a PG version. Go for a solid R-rating. It could be badass as Heavy Metal (1981).

Second, it needs better casting. Lori Petty? Blecchh! Stay true to the source material and get an Australian cast. This takes place in a post-apocalyptic Australia. Maybe include a few Brits or Americans in certain roles. But, c’mon, Ice-T as a kangaroo? Are you shitting me? Eddie Izzard plays a great villain. Get him. I kinda liked that the fascist water company ruled everything in the original. Keep that. Put Eddie in charge. Make him a middle management Darth Vader for a multi-national monopoly.

The original soundtrack had a few good tunes. I could see staying with that sort of tone; punk rock, hip-hop, metal, indie pop, etc. Courtney Love chose songs for the original. Get Quentin Tarantino’s music supervisor to do the reboot.

If Hollywood insists on bombarding us with reboots, don’t ruin perfectly good movies PLEASE! Reboot movies that had a good premise, but were shit produced, and fix them. There is no shortage of them. Comic book movies are BIG now. So, it isn’t even much of a gamble anymore. I bet that any independent studio could do a decent job of it with a small budget. Jamie Hewlett’s success with the Gorillaz could almost guarantee a bigger budget with a few well-known actors. Someone make this happen!

Here It Is, At Last!

Mike Nobody music
FINALLY! Jumping Jesus on a Pogo Stick!

I was going to shoot a video for this. But, my painting isn’t finished and I’m waiting for proofs of the zine to come back from the printer. So, I can’t show a finished copy. But, I do want a vlog to be a regular part of these blogs. I have a pretty good setup for it now. Maybe later, eh?

Anyway, I have been in constant pain for the past two months, with acute tendonitis in my right hand. Been wearing a wrist brace and gobbling ibuprofen all day. From what I have read online it can take six weeks to six months to heal. Shit.

Nonetheless, I’ve made incremental progress on my work. The seasons move faster than I do, though. I’ve been stuck on one song for awhile. Keeping a friend’s advice in mind, to do ONE THING at a time, I haven’t abandoned it or moved on to anything else, yet. I haven’t thrown out anything in awhile, so maybe that is a little improvement? Lots of things are 1/2 done or 1/3 done. Not enough is totally DONE done, though. Motivational videos and encouragement from friends helps. I try not to be so negative all of the time. Devi Ever once called me “Negative Mike”.

Having some organization keeps everything going. The less you have to think about it, the better. Planning a schedule of some sort at least tells me when something SHOULD be done (not that I can always stick to it). I don’t want to say what I am GOING to do, though. It is better to just show whatever I do when it is done.

“Have more than you show, speak less than you know.” –
William Shakespeare

The first issue of Theee Urban SpaceCat cassette-zine is FINALLY done! Is it worth the long wait? I rearranged some pieces that I had spread out over other projects to get it finished. “Done is BETTER than perfect, because perfect never gets done”, I guess. So, it really isn’t turning out like what I originally had in mind. The zine has been pathetically overdue, on a Chinese Democracy level, intended to be released every 3-4 months, not 4-5 YEARS! This is largely my own fault, not entirely, but mostly – it is. Financial and personal obstacles have contributed to endless delays and setbacks. I also keep procrastinating and shooting myself in the foot. Such as you do with mental heath problems. Theee Urban SpaceCat #2 won’t take as long to finish because the next several issues are at least partially completed already.

Because money is always tight I am publishing all issues digitally first, and will get physical copies ready to go when I have money for printing & duplication. I’m making stickers, cards, buttons, and other goodies to go inside the zines. These are also available to my supporters on Patreon.

Ideally, I would like to have X amount of material completed by each week / month / quarter. A certain percentage goes to Patreon supporters. Another percentage goes to Theee Urban SpaceCat, Island of Misfit Noise, and whatever other projects. I don’t have the money to produce a full album in a studio. But, maybe I could periodically release 7″ vinyl singles. Gradually, I could do that until there is enough recorded for an album! Now that I have my tax ID and a business account at the bank, I am setting aside a tiny budget for all of my projects. It isn’t enough to do everything at once. But, at least I can get a little bit done while I build up my resources. If I’m lucky, I can attract the interest of some small labels to front me enough money to get more stuff done sooner.

Some folks over at Electronic Cottage have shown interest in collaborating with me on the next Island of Misfit Noise album. Time permitting, I will have made enough progress on the IOMN movie to get it out this Fall. I have lots of other ideas still cooking on the back-burner. Hopefully, I can get them going a lot faster than I have been doing so far.

Here is some music from my collection. MarshaKat got me into this when we were together. So, blame her.


Sarah Brightman & Hot Gossip – I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper (Official Video)

Sarah Brightman & Hot Gossip – I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper (Thriftshop XL 2012 Remix)

Sarah Brightman & Hot Gossip – I Lost My Heart ‘To A Starship Trooper’ 2013 (Dj Lee’s 2013 Remix)

2019… So Far, So Good… I Guess.

Mike Nobody alternative, america, anxiety, art, autobiography, blues, business, Cartoon, comedy, comic book, copyright, corporations, country, depression, detroit, diy, electronica, entertainment, experimental, free speech, freedom, funk, gospel, grunge, hardcore punk, harsh noise, heavy metal, history, independent, Influences, internet, jazz, LGBT, LGBTQIA+, life, lo-fi, Mail, mash-up, mashup, mental health, metal, michigan, Mike Nobody, money, motivational, music, musique concrete, new wave, No-Budget, noise, noise rock, OCPD, outsider art, outsider music, plunderphonics, politics, pop, pop art, porn, prog, progressive rock, propaganda, psychedelia, punk, punk rock, R&B, Radio, remix, rock, rock and roll, rockabilly, sale, sample, sci-fi, science, science fiction, soul, stupidity, transgender, tyranny, Uncategorized, united states of america, usa, vlogging, zines
Almost done........................
Almost done…………………….

Time still flies when you aren’t having any fun. I am absolutely certain that time speeds up as you age. That is why old people wear clothes that are out of style. It was still in fashion just a minute ago, for them.

I was planning to include a vlog today, since vlogging is meant to be half of these posts. But, honestly, I don’t have anything worth videotaping right now. I also don’t have any new paintings to show.

2019 is speeding by, just like the past few years have. WTF is wrong with me? Besides the usual shit? Things actually are going pretty okay right now. I had a few rough months between December and February. That mess is finally settled, notwithstanding my growing piles of debt.

I have a list of folks waiting for Theee Urban SpaceCat cassette-zine. I have been digging through stacks of demo tapes and gigabytes of incomplete data trying to finish it. I have enough material already done for a complete issue or two… or three. But, I have spread it out over several zines. I didn’t like the way it was when I compiled it all together. So, I am filling each issue, finishing each song, one-at-a-time. A friend suggested that I do this to get myself focused, instead of hopping all over the place like I usually do. Get one thing done. Then, move on to the next thing. This approach seems to be pushing the process along, I suppose. Creating the equivalent of two double albums every few months is kinda hard when doing it all alone and you keep shooting yourself in the foot. Everything is absurdly late getting it out.

I asked around about getting my mixes mastered. But, I cannot afford to do it, not entire albums anyway. I might have one or two singles mastered for radio… maybe. The rest will just have to be a raw mix.

I am waiting for the government to process some of my tax shit, so I can finish setting up the business side of things. They’re still catching up from the Trumptard shutdown a few weeks ago. It has delayed everything. I’m never happy dealing with that sort of stuff. But, I anxiously want to get it done and out of the way.

Here is a Daniel Johnston song from my record collection for you. I get the same feeling myself sometimes. I am always starting my life over again… and again… and again… and again….

Distorted Pony

Mike Nobody alternative, entertainment, experimental, grunge, hardcore punk, harsh noise, Influences, Mike Nobody, music, noise rock

distorted_pony

It has been quite awhile since I said anything about other bands that I like. So, I guess that it is overdue for me to mention Distorted Pony. They are an industrial / noise rock group that began in 1986, then disbanded in 1993. I began listening to them in the early 1990’s, but frankly knew nothing about them except that I liked their music. I looked into their background many many years later, after they had long since broken up. Surprisingly, they are very similar to my ideal group to be in; two guitarists, a bassist, and a guy banging on oil drums & metal junk. They began with just two people, bass player Dora Jahr and guitarist David Uskovich, accompanied by a drum machine. Eventually, they were joined by London May on drums, Theodore Jackson on percussion, and Robert Hammer on guitar.

I was also unaware, for a long time, that London May had played in so many other well-known groups (Samhain, Dag Nasty, Circle Jerks) and is an actor.

They have briefly reunited a few times, since 2010, and began to perform reunion shows. But, I think that their current European tour will be for the last time. So, check them out, if you can.

20th Anniversary + Birthday

Mike Nobody internet, island of misfit noise, life, music, united states of america, usa, van, video, vlogging, web, YouTube

Happy 20th Anniversary Birthday

I forgot to mention in the video that I received a hard copy of the comic book I contributed to, finally. It is called Heartman and was written & published by David Leibe-Hart, of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! He invited 48 artists, including myself, to illustrate his story.

David Leibe-Hart - Heartman Comic

Further information can be found here.

I’m making a long-term creative decision, a new policy:

  • Say nothing.
  • Get it done, first.
  • Talk about it, later

This was something that Thomas Edison learned, the hard way, after making promises about his new inventions that took longer than expected for him to bring to fruition. He eventually stopped doing that and just surprised people, after the fact.

Since I am often delayed by external forces (money, supplies, equipment, etc.), as well as personal issues, it makes me look bad. It looks to everyone else like all I that do is talk about what I’m “gonna do” and not actually get anything done. I can’t really blame anyone for having that perception. Since I don’t show everything that I do and I discard unfinished work. Stress exacerbates my mental health problems. That cuts into a lot of my productivity, too. Finding internal balance is a personal high priority, if I want to get out of my own way. Managing where I focus my attention, I have found, is much more important than when I schedule it. Although, having a schedule is important, too, or I wouldn’t get ANYTHING done.

Another new policy that I am implementing is:

  • No collaborations without a deadline.

I was told that this is one of my mistakes when working with others. It is too open-ended. People require deadlines to get them off of their ass, apparently. That might be true. Unless someone says something to me, I will probably work alone and take forever doing it. There is that problem with focusing, again. I am still open to collabs. Don’t get me wrong. But, I think establishing a time frame for projects would make them go along faster. I’m usually easy to schedule because I have more free time available than everybody else. We just need to work around the other commitments of interested participants.

I am figuring out how to go about collaborations, using my new policies.
I don’t want to pressure anyone too much.
Keep it fun.
But, still have a predictable process on a schedule.
So, okay, here is what I have got:

I will keep on doing what I do, alone.
I shouldn’t say any more about that.
The less the better.
When it is done, you will know.

If someone wants to work on a track with me I will set my thing aside and work on the collab, instead.
Somehow, I will turn it into something.
I will try to take no longer than a week to finish it, more or less, and return a copy of the finished mix.
You can do whatever you want with it.
The finished track will go into the next Island of Misfit Noise video or album project.
I haven’t figured out how I’m gonna do that, yet
I guess when we have enough completed material gathered, it will just go out.

What do you think?
Does it sound like a plan?

 

We Make Zines (Relocated Site)

Mike Nobody music

Mike Nobody

We Make Zines

I forgot to update everybody on this. A few months ago, the website for We Make Zines had to relocate when they lost their web hosting provider. I had been a member since 2014. So, I reopened an account at the new site. All of my previous postings have been lost. So, aside from my profile, there isn’t much of mine to look at yet. Zinesters and enthusiasts can find plenty of other information there, though. The link is above.

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