cyrano: (Address Me)
It's a very edifying edition of IFIAYAQ Day! Thanks loads for coming by; can I get you somthing to drink? A biscuit?

I'm doing it again. I'm looking to buy a book on photography and composition, and it looks like every single one on Amazon got four or five stars. Any suggestions? (Also, those music theory texts you mentioned last time I asked and then forgot.)
cyrano: (Address Me)
Hey y'all! Woot wants to sell me a computer! They've got a line up here and I was hoping for your opinion on them. See, I'm not entirely certain why the model with the 1.5tb hard drive is ten dollars more than the 1tb model--I don't see a lot of difference in the specs.

Are these awesome deals? Okay? Rip offs? My general impression of Woot is rarely the first, usually the second.
cyrano: (Writing)
I was reading Jamie Wyman's new book (Wild Card, for the curious) and mulling over my ill begotten southern gothic story, and I began to wonder.

How frequently do we see the reverse Romance novel? Where the plucky and independent yet still somewhat innocent young man finds himself strangely attracted to the mysterious figure who may have a dark secret locked away in her closet? (Or, you know, he has to choose between the safe and dependable but boring milquetoast girlfriend and the creative passionate unpredictible maybe a little dangerous other woman? Whatever your trope is.)
cyrano: (Address Me)
A follow up to yesterday's question.
If you're working on a story and suspect it falls into a genre that you're interested in yet unfamiliar with, is it best to spend some time becoming more familiar with the genre and its tropes, or to forge on and either reinvent the wheel or defy tradition by being unaware of it?
cyrano: (Address Me)
Let us suppose--just for a moment--that something horrific happened in our tight knit little town.

Oh, not recently. About twenty years ago. And many of our upstanding citizens were not only aware of it, but even complicit in this horrific something. It was done to serve the Greater Good, of course, but by unspoken agreement folks do their polite and utmost best not to speak of it.

*How* does this impact our town today? What bleeds through the bandage hiding history?

Southern Gothic fans, this question is especially directed at you.
cyrano: (Bobbie Wickham)
I looked at the urban maps on roll20.com, and they are (no real surprise I suppose) built for pseudo medieval/renaissance towns and cities.
For the 'Priest' game, I need deep modern cyberpunk city. I'll probably end up making my own, but I thought I'd do IFIAYAQD and see if anybody had suggestions.
cyrano: (Address Me)
I need a name for a Reconstruction Era government agency of dubious legitimacy and provenance and funding and legality and potentially existence that deals with Weird Shit taking place west of the civilised world.

Oh, and it's headed up by an undercover Abraham Lincoln, of course.

GO!
cyrano: (Genius)
Is there any way to get iTunes to tell you where a particular track is used in playlists?
(In this particular case, for some reason I have three copies of one song, and if I delete two of them I am suspicious that if I used those particular tracks in a playlist then they'll vanish without letting me know.)

Also? iTunes says I have 32 missing tracks. I can locate about eleven and I don't want to do the tedious 'scroll slowly through all 16,600 files and look for the exclamation mark' process. I tried to find a way to organise files by exclamation but didn't have much luck. Is there a way to do that?
cyrano: (Clean *ALL* the Things!)
I waited until the last minute to start getting ready for GenCon. There are about 3498137589147509348561903813 things to do/play/feel/breathe/watch/apply externally only, and it's not really easy to figure out where the fun is.

And so I come to you and say "Got any advice? Do you have a can't miss panel or Indianapolis tourist draw that I need to check out?"


https://www.gencon.com/events/ if you feel like exploring.

EDIT: Damn it. I forgot to say, I may have some kind of Far West social on Saturday night, and I just got tickets to see Gamers: Hands of Fate on Sunday at two.
cyrano: (Address Me)
There are a couple of mix projects I've been kicking around for a while, and I know how much y'all love to help with those, so I bring them out into the light and lay them before you as if to say "What do you think? Any suggestions?"

The first one is about angels, and more thematically about angels, falling or otherwise kept out of Heaven, and possibly the War. I have iTunes Search, so unless you *really* like "Maybe an Angel" by Heather Nova or "Los Angelenos" by Billy Joel or you think I might not already own it, then it's less helpful. If you *do* really like it, or think it's especially in-theme, then put forth your candidate. (:

The second project is songs where bands reference other bands in the lyrics. And in this case I do want explicit tags, not like in "Sweet Home Alabama" or Brad Paisley's new song. Something like LCD's "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House" would count, or "Elvis and Me". I'm betting "We Didn't Start the Fire" has a bunch of bands in there somewhere.
cyrano: (Address Me)
We're early because I'm late. I wanted to be done with this by March but I've been kind of useless. So your job is to help me finish up characters by supplying me with eighties teen movie archetypes. Like the nerd who does a Superman-like transition into the hottie once you take off the glasses.
cyrano: (Big Time Television)
For this week's It's Friday I Ask You A Question question, I've got a double header. And neither of them are questions.

First, I'm looking to compose a list of eighties movies. Wacky teen movies. Kids going wild. Youth centers being saved by winning a Battle of the Bands. That kind of thing. Things like:
Real Genius. Better Off Dead. One Crazy Summer. Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Repo Man. Risky Business. Purple Rain. Red Dawn.
Remember: Teen movies. So no Top Gun, no Beverly Hills Cop.

Second, I need nine teen actors of the eighties to portray corresponding Supreme Court Justices. For example, Michael J. Fox for the role of Justice Roberts. You may not suggest Kid N Play for Justice Thomas; you must choose either Kid or Play.

This will be interesting--answers may be spread out over three different locations.
cyrano: (Address Me)
You've heard me talk about it.
I've hired musicians. I'm going to record a song (or two if there's time). And then probably never listen to it because a recording of my voice doesn't sound like me to me and freaks me out.
Because I'm like that.
But.
I have a bass, a guitar, and drums. And two of the songs on my song list (at least) don't fit that format. Faster has no bass, it has horns instead. Modern Love has no guitars, opting for piano and horns instead.
If I go to my musicians and say "fix this and play it" am I an insane taskmaster who just doesn't understand how things work? Or is this an easy tinker?
cyrano: (Haring Dancing)
It's It's Friday, I Ask You a Question Time!

I'm putting together a ska playlist, and there are the usual suspects (Madness, Reel Big Fish, Fishbone, Specials, etc) and I'm checking out a few bands I'm new to as well, like the Slackers. But in addition I know there are some bands that are not known as ska bands that have done some ska, like Elvis's "Watching the Detectives" or Joe Jackson's "Beat Crazy", and possibly even Ricky Martin's "Vida Loca". These are the ones I'm looking for, and I figure the Clash or the Police might be gold mines if I looked through them. But I'm lazy, so instead I come to you, LJHiveMind, and ask "What ska tunes do you know of from non-ska band sources?"

A quick ska primer for those in search of knowledge )
cyrano: (Address Me)
I'm working on a requested mix--Ebonlock wants a response to her Hellfire a Go Go album--and I'm trying to figure out what I have in my collection that's mod and groovy. But I'm not sure I can distinguish mod and groovy from funky, especially when dealing with modern bands looking back.
I've got some possible ideas, like PortisHead and The Like, but what I'm trying to find on the internets currently is some idea of how to define the sound I'm looking for.
You should feel free to advise me, and consider this your IFIAYAQ! Day entry.
cyrano: (iYote)
I call upon people with brains, for I have none.
Writing a fanfic about a modern day character, a fourteen year old guitarist with an affinity for the Smiths, who is called upon to perform a love song. However, the Smiths are not a great source for love songs. So I ask you, my musically adroit readers: What sort of love song would a guitarist who loves the Smiths find attractive?

As I will not be available for most of Friday, consider this IFIAYAQD!
cyrano: (Address Me)
I'm charged with constructing a bio for "Incorruptible" and I want to round it out with a good quote about Faith or Belief. Since it's Friday, today's IFIAYAQD question is: what's your favorite quote on the topic?
cyrano: (Address Me)
It's Friday, and you know what that means.
No. Not 'only six more hours until I gets my drank on'. IFIAYAQD! Woo hoo!

Today's question is inspired by the person in the cube behind me:
You get the option to send a message to yourself, back in time. What is that message?
Note: Apparently over 80% of the answers are usually on the theme of "Buy Google/Sell Enron" or "Don't marry that person/marry that person". So those are off limits, and you have to come up with something more orginal.
My basement, My rules!
cyrano: (Address Me)
It's Friday, campers. It's Friday and I'm bored. I'm starting to once again get good at speaking corporatese, and that leaves me feeling vaguely unsettled. So today's IFIAYAQD! question is:

Given an unlimited budget but only eight hours of 'on stage' time, how would you keep me entertained?
cyrano: (iYote)
And now, to distract me from some processing I'm doing, I bring you today's IFIAYAQD! entry:

What song do you associate with me? (And, if I am likely to take umbrage or get confused, you may wish to add a reason.)

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