…yes, I know, you voted for TICKIE!, which won with 10 votes, and you even demanded TICKIEBOX IS MY MASTER NOW shirts. And where actual people are concerned, you voted for Mira Grant (9 votes), Hugo nominee and general Zombiemeister, and some of you still follow Joss Whedon (7 votes), and very happily none of you follow George NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Lucas anymore. But after the Gamera marathon this past weekend, I must to inform you that, in fact…

…yes, Zigra is your master now.

Or Tickiebox. Or Mira Grant. One of those. Choose your own master, won’t you? XD

Had relaxed-and-groovy fun at the show on Friday, playing to mostly kids with lots of pirate goodness; two one-hour sets in 30-plus-degree sun certainly wear you out, tho’, I gotta say! Also, Trinity College should be sponsoring me, given the number of Irish Bouzouki explanations I give after shows. HEY GUYS SHARE SOME LOVE ALREADY!

Then completely by accident on the way home I ran into a Bone Poets Orchestra concert in Redmond! HI SUNNIE! Nice show! ^_^ Then I had to work all weekend at day job stuff to make up for it, but that’s okay.

I think I got some decent recordings from my second set. The first set, the mix was merely okay, and it’s mono so I can’t fix it. (I really, really, really need to build some sort of stereo tap for my PA.) But the second set’s a bit better balanced, and I need to give it a good listen to see whether I can pull something from it to offer as a download – I haven’t managed the time to do a Trad O’ th’ Month this month, but I’m gonna, dammit. As soon as everything else lets up a bit, which should happen in about a week.

Also, I found this awesomely horrible thing (worksafe) that lj:arjache made even more awesomely horrible (lulz in comments), and then I stayed up way too late making this thing, for no good reason whatsoever, it’s called Yakedy PAX. Enjoy!

[Or don’t, because YouTube didn’t like that.]

I have another poll idea already, I’ll probably post it on Wednesday since that seems to work. Damn, I need to shoot you guys into space. That way, I could experiment on you whenever I wanted! XD

You cannot tell me this did not spawn a generation of seriously disturbing fetishists. I mean, seriously, what.

Wouldn’t you rather wear some delightful TICKIEBOX IS YOUR MASTER NOW apparel, designed by popular demand? Now with 70% less vinyl!

ETA: Over on Livejournal, arjache has provided the original, unhairbrushed version of this photo. It explains much.

Okay so even tho’ the poll is still going, TICKIE being in the lead has prompted a demand for TICKIEBOX IS MY MASTER NOW T-shirts, over on Google+, and thing is, you think I won’t? If you’re gonna step to me with something like that, I will fucking bring it. And here it is! XD

Click for Shop. Many colours and styles available

o/

In response to the anime poll last week, VostokLake asked, “What button do I press for ‘Hideaki Anno is my master now’?” That would be option 6, in this week’s poll: WHO IS YOUR MASTER NOW?!

I’m also trying something new this time: IF THE ANSWER YOU WANT IS NOT IN THE POLL, DO NOT ANSWER THE POLL! Put your answer in comments. I will then edit the poll to add your answer! Check back occasionally, and once your answer appears, then vote.

I’m kind of curious about how many different answers we end up getting here. XD

Also! Show! Friday! 3-5pm, Juanita Beach Market in Kirkland for Talk Like a Pirate Day (Observed). C’mon down and dress like pirates! But until then…

[poll id=”7″]

Welcome to the final case-making post! This post is very large, because it’s mostly photos.

I went and bought musical instrument foam… a week and a half ago, I think? as planned, but then didn’t get to work on it until this weekend. You specifically want instrument case foam, for its shock-absorption characteristics; it has very little resistance at first, but then much more as additional pressure is applied. There are many kinds of foam, so don’t just grab whatever’s handy! At least, not if you have options.

I also needed but already had foam glue and an electric carving knife, both bought for the zouk case project. Oh, and that’s what you want for foam cutting, by the way: any 60s/70s electric kitchen carving knife. Don’t buy a new one. They’re $3, lightly used, at Any Thrift Store in North America. This rule has never failed me.

Anyway, at this point, you’re pretty much sculpting. You need to cut out the foam around the various protrusions in the case, while also cutting out the shape of your instrument into the applicable layers. To get that correct shape, I put the instrument on the foam and drew an outline of it in sewing chalk. Once that layer was cut, I used that layer as my template guide. This insures your cut-outs line up correctly!

And don’t forget a solid bottom layer, of course. I didn’t really take enough pictures here, really:

The aforementioned bottom layer – 1″ thick
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I keep hearing modern anime sucks, that there’s a crisis in anime, that there’s a crisis amongst the otaku, all that. I have a geeky audience, here: let’s see what you think.

[poll id=”6″]

Photo is real and actually from my garden:

It’s unusual for clematis to send such a clear and unambiguous message. XD

Home again from PAX, haven’t yet watched the new Doctor Who, still doing laundry. Had a great time (despite terrible sound in the Saturday concerts), met and re-met a bunch of people in the ever-awesome Jamspace and other music spaces (Craig from The Megas, Wayne and Joe from The Protomen, C0splay, Klopfenpop, Brandon from MC Frontalot, all you chiptune crews from Sunday, – “NAMES, darling, NAMES,” as Edina says XD ), enabled and documented this loltrocity:

…got chatted up a tiny bit by a small game company looking for music, saw Paul and Storm live for the first time (love the fighting nun song), bought the tiny metal dice I’ve always wanted:

…got interviewed by the lovely people at Rocksmith (who let me plug the band n/ ), and, best of all, watched Anna get interviewed by Space Channel 5‘s famed investigative reporter, Ulala, herself:

And that, really, is how you do that.

Citizen Skywatch totally wants to be the next Bioshock. I hope they pull it off, the setup and booth were both epic. I’ll be buying Jetpack Joyride for the iPad, Anna bought a couple of interactive fiction games, and I and grabbed a very silly tabletop game, Monkeys with Knives and Guns, on Sunday. Several crime and/or evil-themed games had exhibition space; they all got CRIME and the Forces of Evil cards, and oh, sure, they’re laughing now. Just wait. Muah ha ha.

Were you at PAX? What was your favourite part?

Show today! (Thursday! Whenever that is!) 6-8pm, Inner Chapters Bookstore and Cafe, 419 Fairview N., Seattle. It’s a nice little relaxed neighbourhood venue, and the tea is pretty good, so c’mon out if you can! Kick off your PAX weekend with some elfmetal. XD

THE POLL: Okay, so what Arjache and I were thinking is that MST3K and The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension fans would be big Life Aquatic with Steve Zizzou fans. I thought there’d be a closer alignment with Buckaroo Banzai; Arjache, with MST3K.

For me, Buckaroo Banzai and Life Aquatic aren’t just similar, they’re in the same damn universe. The world where all the BB stuff makes sense is totally the kind of world where LA’s geeky oceanography documentaries could be worldwide blockbusters garnering global obsession, and I like that world. (Also possibly in this world? The Venture Brothers. Don’t tell me you can’t see it, ’cause you can.) A lot of the great oddnesses about both films are just so similar in feel, and that’s totally acknowledged by Live Aquatic in its ending.

I can also see where Arjache was coming from, with the MST3K connection. It’s not as starkly obvious for me, but I can see it.

So we both thought fans of BB and MST3K would be LA fans. Turns out… um… well, about half of you are. Of those who have seen MST3K and BB, about half like LA, and about half really don’t. But solidly half of both fan groups (BB and MST3K) answering the poll haven’t even seen Life Aquatic.

No matter how you look at it, it’s just not the kind of correlation I expected, and I suspect Arjache expected as well. I’m kinda surprised.

Hi ho, I still like The Life Aquatic with Steve Zizzou and recommend it, so if you’re looking for an odd but interesting movie, try it!

In other news:

[poll id=”5″]

Okay, so I was so not expecting the results of the last poll. In particular, I was not expecting more people to like The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension than Mystery Science Theatre 3000! I’m good with that, just surprised. Also I think the poll lacked adequate granularity.

So while rehearsing for the Inner Chapters show in Seattle on Thursday – come out, it’s a free show in a small venue, should be relaxed and fun – I came up with new questions. Let’s try this again:

[poll id=”4″]

PS: MST3K fans may enjoy this if they do not already know about it. lol, fanac. o/