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Captain’s BlogRockstar Date - NOW!IGDA PicnicJuly 2nd, 2008 by Smokin' Bishop
Austin Chapter: Chapter Events Archives Once again your mighty Captains will headline the entertainment portion of this year’s IGDA Picnic event at Richard Garriott’s estate. If you’re in the Austin Area - come on out! Last years event was a lot of fun - and now we’ve had a WHOLE YEAR to practice! We’ll just think of this as the patch for the last gig here. Rock and Roll a 20! Ode To A MonsterMarch 6th, 2008 by Smokin' Bishop
The most excellent song written by our friend Thom Robertson, and performed by the illustrious Captains has now been posted in the Pieces section for your listening pleasure. http://www.captainsofthechessteam.com/pieces.php Next up - more YouTubieness… I tube, you tube, we all tube for YouTube!February 18th, 2008 by Smokin' Bishop
The Captains have made their first appearance on YouTube. Check it out here! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpzVwNoDvtE Tunage!February 11th, 2008 by Smokin' Bishop
The Captains have created original Tunage. You can check it out on our Pieces page. ( http://www.captainsofthechessteam.com/pieces.php ) This is the song that requires NO introduction, so I’ll let the piece speak for itself. Wake up Maggie, I think I have something to say to you…September 25th, 2007 by Smokin' Bishop
I think we’ve finally all recovered from the Austin GDC and our gig at Maggie Mae’s. It was a very good time (at least for us) and I don’t think we’ve ever loaded out so fast before in our lives. Having adoring fans bow to us in an “I’m not worthy” fashion in the middle of the set was the best. If you made it out - I hope you had a good time. If you missed it - try to catch the next show. Burning Man - Fish in the DesertSeptember 11th, 2007 by Queen of Hearts
I went to Burning Man this year for the first time. My friend Mike Steele went for the first time last year and he wanted me and his wife Patricia Pizer to go with him this year. I told him I would go only if we did an art project. So we did. We created three very large PVC flutes that would play in the wind. They are three inches in diameter and vary from about 2 1/2 feet to 4 feet in length. Each one played a single note and together they played a chord. We made them look like fish, sort of, and used the fins as weather vanes to orient them properly in the wind. They looked great. We lit the fins with el wire and Patricia did a wonderful job with the paint. And they did play their notes, however it took a great deal of wind to make it happen. They played best in the 50 mph dust storm… and then two of them blew down. Mike and Patricia also work in the games industry, so I was camping with my species at the event. And they provided me with the idea for the name of our project “Fish in the Desert” since they have crafted a list of about a dozen almost unbreakable rules. Rule number 6 (maybe it’s 7) is “Never eat fish in the desert”. That’s my second favorite of their rules. My favorite is “Never fry bacon in the nude”. We are pretty sure that the bacon rule was broken several times by unwary campers at Burning Man this year. Below is a photo of the fish flutes and one of me diligently studying my Captains tunes while most others around me were having their afternoon siesta. I can’t help it. I just have to get my homework done and get that A. And the bottom photo shows one of my favorite art installations. It was nothing more than a lit sign about 3/4 of a mile away from the camping area in the middle of f-ing nowhere. The arrow points even farther into the desert.
Upcoming ShowsAugust 19th, 2007 by Queen of Hearts
Tuesday, September 4, UT Videogames Archive fund raiser. Info here: http://www.cah.utexas.edu/projects/videogamearchive/event.html The Captains hit the stage around 8:15 p.m. Thursday, September 6, Austin Game Developers Conference party at Maggie Mae’s on 6th Street. We don’t know our start time yet but the stated party time is 7:00 - 10:00 p.m. “Properly warned ye be, says I” - The talking skull just before the first plunge on the original Disney Pirates ride. The Three-Cable Variax DemystifiedAugust 18th, 2007 by The Fat Man
I’m up to 4 now!!! But let’s start with the first three:
2. The Variax guitar signal now comes out of the power supply (Or “Step 1.5″ gizmo) and _back up_ to the guitar, plugging in to the “normal” input on the Roland GK-3 MIDI pickup. If a person only had a guitar and a Roland GK-3, then instead of steps 1 and 2, they’d just run a little 3-inch cable from their guitar’s jack to the GK-3, and they’d be all caught up to where I am now. But _they_ wouldn’t have nice AC power to their Variax, nor would they have the ability to play guitar into the Vocalist Live and mute the sound of the guitar at the guitar end. 3. The GK-3 now sends the combined Variax/GK-3 signal down its special 312-pin cable, or whatever that is, to the GR-20 guitar synth, and from there we go to the amplifier. There’s a little switch on the GK-3 that lets me select between guitar, synth, or both. So, in short, I’ve got two advantages over a normal one-cable setup: –I still have a useful guitar signal down at the effects pedals, even if it’s not coming out the amp, which is WAY cool for the Vocalist Live 2. –Even ignoring the above, a 1-cable setup would either get me normal guitar with a GK-3, or Variax on battery (Only 4 Hours???No WAY) with a GK-3, or a Variax on A/C with no GK-3, or a normal guitar with no GK-3. –And let’s not forget that the Captain who uses a Variax power supply also gets an extra XLR output he can switch to, so that clean sounds (say, 12-string) can route straight to the PA. I’m all about that noise.
Love, Capt. FAT Next Week: What’s the fourth wire for? And all those LAN cables????? Coming: OK OK, so now explain why there are five wires from the pedals to the amp? We’re finally publishing the famous Wing Commander music…one tune at a time…August 5th, 2007 by The Fat Man
It’s an experiment in marketing…AND HTML! Try clicking on this nice link. It might taste like CHICKEN.
The Fat Man’s Annual Geek of The Week for JulyJuly 26th, 2007 by The Fat Man
What do these things have in common? A glider that goes 193 mph (click picture for movie) A high-quality Shakuhachi (click for audio sample) An instructional DVD on the art of Zen Shiatsu (Too new. Not even on the WWW!) And the coolest rack panels ever?
The Fat Man’s Annual Geek of The Week for July is Derek Van Choice. Here is an excerpt from his business card: Rhythmlake Media * Audio/Visual/Graphic Media Partnership Group and the recently-sold business NCFM * Precision EPP, Radio Controlled, Racing and Sport Aircraft Derek keeps surfacing in my life–it seems conspicuously often that when I seek out an expert in some arcane topic, I do a web search and it turns out to be Derek. There’s more to the story, but this is just a SALUTE, not an epitaph. well, _yet_ but anyway… Derek, The Captains, as represented by me because we didn’t vote on it, salute you. PS: If you Players aren’t sold on him yet, here’s a few nerd-godly dribblings from the Funk Logic site:
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Linda used to have a pet rat named Spike.
