Hectic Holidays
Posted on December 25th, 2006
Filed under: General — Karl Olson @ 2:56 am
The weeks in between my last post and this post have certainly been a little busy, but very interesting. After all, between multiple power outages, getting slashdotted with my nerdcore compatriots, escaping said power-outages by staying with my best friend, getting booked for a second show in Vegas, getting booked for a show in Seattle, and working on my album all the while (though it just received a big assist thanks to a certain producer/beatsmith,) literally come hell or high water as even my basement threatened to flood, I’d be a liar if I said the last couple weeks were uneventful.
However, as the year winds to a close, things are looking up. I do have 3 gigs in the new year, more than any year prior, two documentaries about Nerdcore are coming out, I have 2 great albums nearing release with another in the pipes, and I finally have a girl I love and care about with everything I have because I trust her and just being with her is wonderful. I know where I want to continue my college education, I know what I want from my music and in general, I’ve never had a greater sense of clarity of what I want from life, or at least the paths available to me have been so clearly delineated for me. I mean, I still have multiple options in my life, and they are arguably very disparate. However, I feel like I can pursue all of them – I finally have that confidence.
So, Happy Holidays everyone, whatever that holiday may be.
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Breaking and Entering.
Posted on December 5th, 2006
Filed under: General — Karl Olson @ 3:45 am
Cool in a normal way: Enjoying great music and hilarious cartoons at an excellent friend’s house. I mean, coming into a house with a PS2 that has Aqua Teen Hunger Force already cued up is awesome, but breaking into singing songs from Beck’s One Foot For The Grave? That’s outstanding.
Cool in a not as normal way: The same friend also helped to fix my headlight in the parking lot of a Target. I probably couldn’t have done by myself, or atleast I was having a lot of trouble, and having that friend with me made it ok. Holding each others’ grease covered hands as we walked into the store just diffused any stress or worry about the whole problem.
Cool in a completely bizarre way: Getting locked out of said friend’s house, and thus having to work with this friend to get back in, namely by breaking and entering in through a thankfully open window. I will never, ever forget that because even though for a second it was very worrisome, it was all ok and even funny in a sweet, silly way. I mean, I know I have had things like this happen before, but this is the first time that it was somehow ok.
Just plain cool: Sharing a lovely car ride up with said friend after a brilliantly lovely weekend. Being in love is a fantastic thing. Almost too intense sometimes, but that’s probably what makes it real. I mean, shared interests are one thing, but having similarities like making little castles out of the creamer cups that came with coffee when you were little? Connections and similarities like that are surreal, but wonderful and powerfully special.
/days blog has gone w/o emo sappiness: 0.
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48 Hours of Fun.
Posted on September 29th, 2006
Filed under: General — Karl Olson @ 7:50 am
So Nursehella, A.K.A. Danielle, rolled into Seattle on Wednesday, and it was a blast from start to finish. We pretty much chilled the first half of the first day – had some KFC and 7-Eleven, used some internets, and she listened to OpenSource Lyricist ahead of street date (and she enjoyed it, making me two for two on advance listens for it.) Then after a good night’s rest (I was out on the couch, she was in my bed – my pillows smell like Chanel,) we got some Jack in the Box and recorded our collab. Later, we went to down the Capitol Steps/Optimus Rhyme/mc chris show, and it was fantastical. Got mc’s new CD and got it autographed by Chris and John, and I chatted with the always awesome and friendly Wheelie Cyberman. After the show, it was Denny’s time. Moons over my Hammy with a silly juice/soda drink and great company? That’s how you end an excellent evening if you’re me. Even if I never made anything else out of nerdcore hiphop, the fact I met and befriended a wonderful individual like Nursehella and the fact that people who inspired me to try this know who I am makes it all worth it. Fans, as much as I love the few I have, become the icing on the cake almost, which is probably a good thing. Meanwhile, while I’m stating possibly unpopular opinions in the nerdcore scene, I’m diggin mc chris’ new CD.
PS: Shout out to Feather and her friends, and congrats to her for getting one of mc’s towels and the requisite autograph on it too 😀
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It’s Like A Waltz, Isn’t It? It’s Wonderful.
Posted on September 26th, 2006
Filed under: General — Karl Olson @ 2:29 am
Been slowly working threw Honey & Clover lately. I really think I’m falling for this show. It hits so me so dead on emotionally at points I have to pause it and breathe for a second. Hence the quote. I think by the time I’m done watching the show, it’ll be in my top 5 without batting an eyelash.
Anyway, I might be out of town for a while starting Saturday afternoon – family stuff. As such, if there is something critical any of you out there reading this blog need from me, email or call or post ASAP. I’m kind of busy as it stands trying to sow up other loose ends (IE: getting the rest of my screeners watched and reviewed amongst other things,) but I’ll try my best to redress any other loose ends too.
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Fullmetal Alchemarried and Other Amusing Moments.
Posted on August 21st, 2006
Filed under: General — Karl Olson @ 12:22 pm
Sorry girls, Ed’s taken. By rapper and good friend Nursehella.
For starters, I have to say that in no way did Nursehella nor myself prod Vic Mignogna, Edward Elric’s VA, into saying that message for Nursehella’s inbound voice mail message. In fact, Nurse was quite nervous about asking him for a message at all, but Vic is one of the nicest guys out there. Not nicest VA – nothing so specific – he’s just really authentic, cool and fun. Beyond all that that though, Anime Evolution, even though I wasn’t able to attend a lot of it, was a heck of a lot of fun. The VA panel with Vic, Brad Swaille and Michael Dobson was a blast, the guest reception was a ton of fun, the dance was better than most anime dances (thanks to great music and an outdoor setting which kept the horrible otaku body odor, or HOBO for short, to a minumum,) and it was all made way more awesome thanks to Nursehella and Jesse from Zannen/Toon Zone.
PS: Pictures and more video forthcoming.
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Northwest, but more so.
Posted on August 20th, 2006
Filed under: General — Karl Olson @ 11:42 am
So, I am up in Canada, namely Vancouver, BC so I can check out Anime Evolution, hang out with Nursehella, get filmed while hanging out with Nursehella at Anime Evolution and visit an animation studio (details after the visit and any write up I’d do for Toon Zone.)
Outside of a some what annoying trip up to Canada (the traffic between Lynnwood and Everett was horrible, and the border crossing took forever,) it’s been pretty fun so far. Hanging out with Nursehella is cool, as she’s a very nice and enjoyable person to hang out with. She has tons of great stories about the indie rock scene, and she has in general lived a very colorful life, but she’s totally considerate and polite too (she lent me a comforter, some extra blankets and pillow so I had more than my 10 dollar sleeping bag to sleep in/on.)
Anyway, I’m looking forward to the rest of the trip, but even as a baseline, this might be one of the more fun experiences of the summer, and I have had a very interesting summer, atleast compared to my usual loitering around Seattle.
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Snakes, Planes and other non-such.
Posted on August 18th, 2006
Filed under: General — Karl Olson @ 12:45 pm
So, I spent most of my week in a car driving back and forth to Spokane. Family stuff. Very worthwhile, but very exhausting in a way too – I have a new found respect for truckers, bus drivers and other people in motion all day everyday.
Once that was all wrapped up and I was home, I then saw Snakes on a Plane, as all net-denizens likely did, and it was a pretty good film for a popcorn flick. It definitely stands on it’s own from the internet hype, and though it’s not a classic film in terms of Spielburg or Fellini, it’s something that will still be a decent watch when it runs heavily edited on TNT a decade or so from now because it really does hit the right cues for action/horror movie.
I will, however, note that the internet hype did make it an even more interesting watch in the theater. I mean, there were people dressed up as a snake and another person dressed up as a plane, there were tons of people with rubber snakes, everyone knew the big lines and said them along with the film, and in general the audience energy was great – all though the trailers people were adding “with snakes” or “snake in/on/around a” to all the horror film trailers with dramatic narration. If you don’t atleast catch a matinee, make sure you rent it/buy it and watch it with a decent-sized group of friends – it’ll make a fun film awesome. Also, they ran a trailer for another Samuel L. Jackson movie with the word “Snake” in the name in front of main feature, and that had to be the most brilliant trailer placement ever. I have a feeling a lot more people will be turning out to Black Snake Moan now at the very least.
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Temporary Reprieve / Imminent Reprise
Posted on July 13th, 2006
Filed under: General — Karl Olson @ 4:40 pm
So, I’m back from LA for a bit, and that time there was fun: I met a lot great people; I hung out with people who I’d previously only known via the internet; I made connections with some old friends who I hadn’t really seen in about a decade; I saw the inner workings of a real animation studio; I ate lunch at said studio; I came back the next day and interviewed two brilliant directors at said studio; I ended up with piles of free DVDs, manga, games and other stuff between touring a studio and the Anime Expo convention; I walked along the Walk of Fame; I watched a couple of great movies; I did some thrifty shopping for both clothes and music; I had breakfast with a legend in the animation industry and I ate a lot of excellent food at various restaurants. By the way, that list isn’t necessarily in order, but as you can see, I was happily busy.
However, I’m happy to be home in the clean, cool, moist air where I can wear jeans rather than shorts and long sleeve sweaters rather than short sleeve shirts. Further still, while being treated all the time to nice food is wonderful, and it was easy on the wallet, I can’t help but feel like a bit of a charity case in the same stroke. Sure, sometimes I was able to help in some capacity, be that via typical household chores or by completely rebuilding a computer. But to be frank, I guess I’ve always viewed myself as someone who helps, not someone who needs to be helped. Of course, without the charity of others, I’d either still be in LA, spending money on a hotel or putting more people out, or I’d be at home with no Comicon in my future. Instead, I’m at home at in Kirkland getting a chance to do a laundry and generally catch up before Comicon. I’ve ended up with what in my view is a near-perfect situation (though the absense of confirmation from Comicon about press stuff is worrisome.)
I guess all I can say at the end of the day to everyone in the LA area who has helped me over the past couple weeks and to everyone in general who has made this trip possible is “Thank You.” I might have been able to do make it work on my own, but not to the extent that I did in this case. So really, I thank you all.
I am lucky to be surrounded by so many wonderful people.
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An evening of pure rock.
Posted on June 25th, 2006
Filed under: General — Karl Olson @ 12:46 pm
So, I saw the Pillows at the Crocodile Cafe yesterday, and that was pretty cool by itself, but I definitely didn’t go alone either. See, I not only went with people from Anime Kingdom, I not only went with people from BCC, I had a number of people from both those groups plus a friend from the internet and a fan (of Rai and I) (though I knew her previously I didn’t realize that she’d become a nerdcore fan because, of well, me) both of whom I ran into after the show (well, I saw Ferquin earlier but we couldn’t hang out until later.) Thus, inspite of the fact that it was insanely miserably hot inside of the club (the words “finnish sauna” were spoken by the drummer about the situation,) it was just an outstanding experience. I mean, seeing a great rock concert is awesome – it can be a pretty amazing experience by itself, but to do that with tons of friends from pretty much everything I’m involved in, shoot – normally I don’t get that kind of awesome until PAX, if then.
Granted, I was kind hoping to get everyone together for bubble tea post-show, and though that didn’t quite pan out, I think on the whole it’s not too much of a thing – to everyone who I couldn’t hang out with last night, I’ll make it up to you within the summer. That’s a promise, because you’re all awesome, even if it means some forming an uberposse of people at PAX. I mean with Anime Kingdom friends, BCC friends, nerdcore friends/fans, fellow nerdcore artists, various people from various internet forums and maybe a couple camera crews too? Sounds like quite a party to me. Or full-out insanity. Either way, it’ll rock. Still, maybe hanging out in smaller groups would be more advisable. Oh well, whatever happens, happens. 😀
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Thinkin of a master plan…
Posted on June 20th, 2006
Filed under: General — Karl Olson @ 8:54 pm
“Cuz ain’t nuthin but sweat inside my hand
So I dig into my pocket, all my money is spent
So I dig deeper but still comin up with lint
So I start my mission- leave my residence
Thinkin how could I get some dead presidents”
-Eric B and Rakim, “Paid in Full.”
Being gainfully unemployed is convenient when you have classes, because it ensures you have the focus to make the grade – no exhaustion or distraction because of work. It also makes it easy to go some place for a vacation because you don’t have to clear the time with anyone; you just go. However, it also makes it hard to go some place for a vacation because of one small thing: no money. So, in a sad and likely futile attempt to get some scratch so I’m not living off of animation studios lunch/dinner meetings and ramen while I’m in LA, I’m selling some old stuff of mine on EBay. At the moment it’s just anime DVDs, but I should have some old programming books and text books up soon enough too.
Ce la vie.