I just finished a illustration of Starky, my favorite character from Squaresoft’s Chrono Cross:

Click for larger version.

This picture was done in Photoshop CS. I used this concept art of Starky as reference, although, as you can tell, I departed from the source quite a bit (He’s cuter that way). If you’re one of those high quality types, you can get a copy of the image in lossless PNG format, or if you want to see how I did everything, you can download the 1.6MB Photoshop PSD file.

I really like how this turned out. Although I originally wanted to add in his laser gun, I got lazy at the end and decided to leave him as is. I got his ’stats’ directly from the game, but I not sure I’m happy how the text layout came out.

Please leave any comments or critiques you have. This is my first time messing around with gradients in illustration, and I’d like to hear what people think about it (good or bad). Thanks, and hope you like it!

Damn good movie. I recommend it highly.
I need to see The Royal Tenenbaums again, this put me in the mood to see some more Wes Anderson stuff.

One thing I love that I’ve been seeing in movies nowdays is wonderful retro anachronism. The Life Aquatic features acoustic couplers for speakerphones, bleepy pre-techno music by Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh, and a wonderful World War II era submarine-hunter-turned-oceanographic-vessel, another favorite of mine Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events has reel-to-reel tapes in the dashboard of 40’s style cars and the count arriving in his autogyro.

The Life Aquatic sets itself in a purposefully vague time period. Team Zissou is a relic, but that’s a wonderful thing. It give us a glance into a world no more. I only wish I had Team Zissou styled adidas.

I just got a copy of Junior Senior’s latest album Hey Hey My My Yo. This is going to be the first time I’ve ever listened to it, and I’m going to blog my unedited first impressions, live, as I listen to it.

Ooh, the files came with album artwork:

Ok, pressing play:

Track 1 - Hello - Same clap sample used on last album. Fun stringy-samples too. Haha, funny dutch accents. Sort of ambient.

Track 2 - Hip Hop a Lula - NICE. Perfect transisition from intro track. No breaking just like a Beatles album. Just broke down into crazy Jackson Five horns and strings. Charlie was right. Rappy lyrics. Going back to the strings. Wow, I don’t think the netherlands ever left the seventies. Going into a call responce thing: “Break it down, Girl sing!” Break down into synthesizer arpeggios, and then back into the strings. Powerful first track so far. Chaotic fade out.

Track 3 - Can I Get Get Get - Sounds like early 80s hip hop. Can I get get get to know ya better baaaAAAaaaby. Again with the Jackson Five harmonies. COWBELL ALERT. Again with the clapping. Guitar/drum solo. The synths come in, sounds like someone flew Stevie Wonder out to Holland. Sappy disco orchestra chords. Ends on a single note.

Track 4 - Take My Time - Drum machine. High vocals combine with strumming acoustic guitars. Sounds like… Damn, can’t figure it out. Those drum samples sound like the sort of reversed snare you get off an 808. Again with the acoustic guitars, maybe like Bowie? Hmm… J/S really likes clapping. “Love’s all we need, for all the world to suceed” girl+junior chanting, like the B5-2’s. Whoah, it’s speeding up, and the pitch rose, like setting vinal to the wrong speed, but not as drastic. Song is actually reverse and played even higher. I’m getting some wall of sound feelings, ends on the girl wailing.

Track 5 - Itch U Can’t Skratch - Begins on synth arpeggios. More early 80’s style hiphop. Junior and Senior take terms repeating lines. Bongos come in. Jackson Five again. God cvharlie was right. “Give me the cash, give me the stash, so I can look cool.” “I said OOOH.” Fun drum-solo loop. “Big Foot. Dance Now. I said.” “U-U-Use your imagination!”

Track 6 - We R the Handclaps - Yea. That’s about right. Senior and girl are chanting the title. Heh, a little voice break bit like a DJ scratching. Disco vocals. I swear to god this calls for some glowing glass-brick floors. “DANCING SLOWWWWW, LET IT SHOWWWWW, TIME TO GOoOooOO.” Junior’s singing falsetto. Back to intro chanting. Ends on some repeated words.

Track 7 - I Like Music - Junior is channeling micheal jackson. 4 to the floor beat. The loud synth-horns just left out, leaving junior and the drums. Just junior and the guitar riff now. Haha, modulated to a higher key. Junior’s lead lyrics are layered over him singing harmony. It’s a cool effect (Beck uses it alot.) I like this song but it’s not quite as energenic as the last few. Song ends with chiming synth arpeggios.

— OK, now I’m going to take a break and get some dessert. —
— Back with a muffin, and hitting play again —

Track 8 - UR a Girl - Uhm. This is a change, sounds a little like 60’s sunny-psychedelia. Oh, here comes the disco beat and a guitars. This song has some piano. A little too close to Elton John for my comfort :( Some cheesy synth-harpsichord just showed up. There was just one of those “sound gets reversed and then comes back with a loud drum hit” things again, but I suppose it was appropriate. Loooong sloooow fade out.

Track 9 - No No No’s - What’s with J/S and repeating monosyllabic words. This sond sounds alot like the beatles cheasier stuff - Paul McCartney. I can feel a little doowap in there too. “I won’t fall in looooove….” I just noticed the tamborine, someone put Stevie Nicks back in her cage. Modulation again (I think). “Some day your a gonna run away… run run run run run run…” GUITAR SOLO. It’s all twangy. Solo over, sappy disco strings strike again. Songs over, I think J/S are running out of lyrics.

Track 10 - Dance Chance Romance - Junior sounds scarily like Columbia from RHPS. (This muffin is really greasy) Hmm. This song is sort of generic, lacks the punch of the previous stuff. The girl singing along is has a cute voice though. Drum beat breaks down, and the bass leaves. Actually, I think this song is growing on me, it’s cute and dumb. “Singing yeeeaaaa yeeeaaaa yeeeaaaa.” Oh no J/S is suffering from the “using yea yeas, na na, and woo woos and replacement for lyrics” disease. Ends with just the vocals, but 5 or 6 layers of them.

Track 11 - Happy Rap - JACKSON FIVE LIVES. The guitar riff is straight from it. “We’re going one step forward, twist it back.” Senior is rapping. Hah, a reference to “move your feet” from their last album. (I hope they have some good videos for this album…) “Hey Hey Woo Woo Yea Yea Woo WOOOOOO.” “If it aint’ broke don’t fix it, and if it fixed don’t break it.” Cool synth sounds. Ends on Junior taslking to himself and pools and a sample of splash.

Hmm. Weird ending for the last track. No hidden track either. Well that’s the end. Was this even mildly entertaining? If it seems a bit rambling, try listening to the album and reading along. Just post what you thought of this, and maybe I’ll do some more in the future.