Tag Archives: bryan scary and the shredding tears

Personal Blog

Last minute adventures

Last minute plans always have a fun sort of edge to them, and last night was no exception. Graham had only just remembered that I was in LA for the summer yesterday and dropped an email inviting me to a show they were playing last night in Hollywood.

You all must by now know my adoration for Bryan Scary and the Shredding Tears, so of course I planned to go, and attempted to wrangle any other last-minute adventurers I could. Happily, Josh agreed to go with enthusiasm (he did a small bit of modeling on the music video, and claims to have had Imitation of the Sky stuck in his head ever since).

So we ventured down to Hollywood and managed in to see the Tears. They were fantastic, as always, and the sound system was great! (By that I mean you could actually hear Scary above the instruments)

Afterwards I got to chat with Graham for a good while, which was nice. Graham is one of those people who I’d love to be better friends with, but I only get to see and talk with him every now and again. He and Scary are going to be in town recording for a bit, so we resolved to get together for some quality hang-out time.

Hooray for being social on a Wednesday night!

Personal Blog

A Sad Day for Tears

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I know that I don’t have as much pull as some when it comes to asking for financial help from the internets, but my friends are in a pretty dire situation and I am asking for help for them.

Bryan Scary and the Shredding Tears, a fantastic band and great group of people, were on tour on the west coast when their van and trailer were stolen (including all of their musical instruments and equipment). They are now stuck in LA, and are trying to get home. This is a particularly devastating setback for them, as things were starting to seriously look up with the release of their second album, and it pains me to see such sucky stuff happen to such wonderful people.

If any of you internet folk have money to spare for helping people out, and would like to donate some dollars on my behalf, that would be considerably awesome. There is a paypal donation button on their myspace page:

http://www.myspace.com/bryanscary

The saddest part of this story, to me, is that poor Bauer lost his 42 year old drum set that belonged to his grandfather. Alas, sentiment cannot be replaced, but some spare bucks can at least get them back home!

Games and Game Development, Personal Blog

Spring Break (woo)

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Back in the Bandology office after Spring Break. It wasn’t particularly much of a break, but that’s okay. Several things of note happened…

1) Will and I made amazing headway in the Bryan Scary project. I’m very happy with where we stand right now, and I know we can finish the video in time for their album release. I KNOW we can! It’s just going to take continued and consistent work.

2) I started playing Urban Dead again. I’d played often when Kevan first came up with this gem, and had great fun, and then just sort of fell out of the loop. It’s a good time to start playing again, for the zombies have more of an upper hand than they ever have! It makes playing a survivor rather exciting. I have a zombie character as well, in the temporary Monroeville map, but being a low-level zombie is not much fun. I only managed to find a horde once, and the rest of the time it’s been shambling around alone, getting knocked down by survivors left and right. I enjoy playing the survivor much more.

3) I picked up one of my WoW alts, a hunter, and decided that I want to learn how to kite. Kiting is tricky business, and difficult to do well, and I want to be able to do it! There was also more WoWing in general during spring break: an instance here, a battleground there, a round of WoW-and-go-Seek to top it off…Good fun times

Now, though, it’s back to work! We’re at the halfway point with Bandology this semester, and there’s still so much left to do!

Personal Blog

Wanted: Cloud-drawer

Attention internet!

The Shredding Tears music video project is in dire need of a member with the following credentials:

1) Has Flash
2) Can draw clouds

A number of our aeronautic scenes are sitting one step away from “done” due to the fact that we need convincing clouds in the sky. Our lead artist, Will “I can draw clouds” White is too busy cranking away the animation work to render us out some good Flash clouds.

If you have the above credentials, and the thought of sitting and drawing a bunch of cloud formations per our specifications makes you say “huzzah, that sounds like fun!” or “you know, I need more clouds for my portfolio anyway…” please reply!

I can’t offer anything in terms of payment, except that you’ll be credited on the video. Reply if interested!

Personal Blog

Megabus

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I wanted to follow up and post that, like green tea and rice, Kyle has introduced me to yet another useful awesome thing: Megabus!

I’m not really sure how these people stay in business, what with the ridiculous low prices, but it is a keen way to travel between big cities for cheap (that is, if you don’t mind long bus rides).

The Tears dropped me off in Cleveland and I Megabused back to Pittsburgh from there. I’m definitely looking into using this to visit Chicago. D Flo: PREPARE!

Personal Blog

5 Shredding Tears and 1 Lisa

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What a fun week! The Shredding Tears performance on the roof of Glassworks was faaaaaaaaantastic! They are such amazing performers! Also, the sound was really nice, kudos to Ken for finding whoever ran sound for that show.

The next day I clambered into the tour van of said Tears and set out with them as an official roadie. The trip was delightful, and their show in Toledo was quite fun. I actually tried very hard to convince Bauer to let me help out, but he was confident in just having me assist Graham in guarding the van as they loaded in and out.

Graham and I make the perfect ominous guard team: a blind man and a short girl. Go us! Here are some highlights from the trip…

Favorite Quote:
“The only thing I’ve ever lost in the band was the band fund which I didn’t lose.” -Bryan Scary

Most amusing moment:
At a pit stop with single user restrooms, Scary attempted to expedite the process when he discovered the men’s room had both a toilet and a urinal by inviting a COMPLETE STRANGER into the bathroom to pee with him (just being polite, the man was next in line after all). Upon the door closing, Mike, Graham, and myself exchanged the most befuddled, horrified, and bemused expressions. What I would give to have captured them!

And the winner of the “It’s Clearly Obvious these guys have spent so much time together that they have assimilated one another’s vernacular” Award goes to…
The word “absurd”

Thanks again to the Tears, who are so very lovable and wonderful people, who let me hitch a ride along their tour so that I could get back to Pittsburgh. I hope they come here to play some time.

Personal Blog

Moved in

Unpacking complete! Well, mostly. 90%, I’d say, enough to clear out room for my roommates to move in their stuff. The kitchen here is fantastic, and I broke it in right away by making stir fry (because it’s delicious! Also because the only eating utensils we have right now are chopsticks).

Will was an awesome help in moving the heavy things around, and he got to go hang out with his Pittsburgh internet friends as well. Yesterday was spent mostly sitting around and watching Will play Zelda (I had high hopes of him beating it before I have to return the game to DC, but alas, we only got as far as the creepy desert place. Oh well).

Today we set out for Louisville once more, for fun and excitement. Brendan is home, and I can’t wait to see him! The Shredding Tears are coming, and I can’t wait to see them either!

If anyone’s in Louisville on Wednesday night, you are REQUIRED to go to the OVCE rooftop benefit concert at Glassworks. Info: http://www.ohiovalleycreativenergy.org/events.php

That’s all for now!

Personal Blog

Tears

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Whew! What a hectic week!

Bryan Scary and the Shredding Tears swept into Louisville and rocked any sense of routine out the window. Will and I met with the band about our project, and they are all super enthusiastic and awesome guys. Each one is quite huggable, oh how I love those Tears! They played a fantastic show at the Pour Haus, followed by merriment and amusement and Lisa staying up far past her bedtime.

Today I went kayaking with my family. I won kayaking lessons from one of the teachers at a faculty/staff meeting as a door prize (each department submitted a gift to the door prize pool). Coach Judd used to be my crew coach back in high school, and it was really fun to go out on the water. Kayaking is much easier on the arms than canoing. I should like to own one someday!

Lastly, as yoinked from ursulav, this is one of the coolest things ever.

Kinetic Sculpture

Personal Blog

Puppies and Owls

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Two posts in one day? Madness! Nevertheless, it’s been a busy day and there is much to post about.

Today Maria did a massive cleaning of her apartment in preparation for the arrival of The Shredding Tears on Tuesday, so I offered to puppy-sit for a few hours.

I also wanted to try out Brenna’s new dog backpack that Maria got for her recently. She performed wonderfully in it! Brenna is a very sensitive pup and gets embarrassed easily, so there was some concern that she would be too embarrassed at wearing the backpack to be able to use it. However, she seemed unconcerned with it, and if anything she seemed approving of doing some work. I packed her up with water and toys and a towel to sit on and we went on a walk through one of the trails in Cherokee Park. Since she was concentrating on the backpack she did not tug on her leash, and heeled without even being asked. Many people passed us, and she did not show any signs of being embarrassed around other people. We went on a long walk and I gave her lots of praise and treats when it was over. Brenna seemed quite pleased with herself. I think the dog backpack is going to work out!

After the park we went to my parents’ place. We were sitting in the back yard when a great big barred owl swooped down and landed on the branch of a tiny tree just a few feet from us. We all watched in awe (birds of prey are sooooooo cool! Especially up close!). The owl payed us no mind besides the occasional glance in each of our directions. Eventually it flew up to a higher branch and began hooting for its mate, who responded a ways off. They exchanged calls for several minutes. Brenna was mesmerized. Eventually the mate swooped down into the yard as well, and then the two flew off in the other direction.

I suppose living in downtown Louisville has made the owls unconcerned with humans, so they were content to carry on their owly business within a few yards of my family. All the better for us to observe, I say!