It’s been a very long time since I’ve posted on this blog, so I guess it’s time for a new post. Here’s an update on what’s happened in the time since I last posted.

First of all, I’ve worked on several films, one of which was purely my own. The other two are both school projects. All should be up on youtube and such within a month or so.

I also bought Acid Music Studio 8 during boxing week, and I’ve been enjoying it very much! I just need to learn a bit more about how the program works. You can listen to the little tidbits that I throw out every now and then by going to either my soundcloud or newgrounds page. I’ll provide links at the bottom.

I also started pre-production of a webcomic with a friend, and so far the whole damn thing is looking pretty good! We’re not sure when that will fully see the light of day, but when it does I’ll let people know.

Anywho, that’s it for creative rush stuff, on to the stuff that involves less of me!

In the music world, I’ve recently been delving into newer artists, like Broken Bells and Mother Mother. Both of the albums I bought from them are excellent.
I also am really in love with the sounds of C418, who as some might know is the music artist for the popular indie game; Minecraft! I’ve had C418′s albums for a while, but he just released a mini-album called “Little Things.” It’s basically a bunch of short test songs he’s done in the past few months, and he’s put them in a small collection. It’s quite enjoyable!
I’ve been playing Minecraft a lot recently as well, and the soundtrack is great, so I went into the resource folder and converted myself a bunch of mp3′s from the original ogg vorbis music files, and now I have. Nice little album named Minecraft on my iPod! How dandy.

Anywho, that’s all for now, seeya!
-Alex

My soundcloud: BetweenTheBricks
My newgrounds: BetweenTheBricks(As Well!)
C418′s website: C418

Also The box of seven(just for kicks): TheBoxof7

I’ve been asked a lot recently about why I haven’t been animating. To tell you the truth, I just don’t have a specific, straight answer. I’ve been spending most of my artistic time in my sketchbook, learning how to draw people, or in a notebook, writing a story. Flash just hasn’t been very tempting. Not at all, in fact.
Sometimes I worry that I’ll lose any skill I had when it comes to animation. In a way, art keeps the leak at bay, but studying movement and trying it (practicing) is the best way to go. I think finding someone who’s good at it would be the best first step, and learning from them would be the second.

Let’s end that mild note right there.
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Today I went to the funeral of a dear friend. It’s strange how your mind attaches itself to things. You lose your mp3 player, and you keep thinking you have it, but realize it’s gone. You lose a friend, and it never really hits you that they’re dead. That’s how I feel. She died almost four days ago, and I still think that she’s sitting in her bedroom next door with a morphine pump, smiling through her shrunken gaze. I keep thinking that the kindest person I’ve ever known will answer the phone when I call. I keep forgetting that I’ll never see that smile again.

It’s the end of an era. Things change, but even though I know full well I’ll never see her again, my mind is unable to wrap itself around and absorb the fact. I never even cried until I actually saw the coffin being wheeled out in front of me. I never actually realized how painful letting someone go is untill I saw the family putting roses on the casket in the back of a hearse.

I always have desensitized myself to death, I say “Oh well, everyone has to go through it, why is it such a big deal?” It’s always a shock when someone close goes. When I looked around the room at the funeral, I could only think: will there be this many people at my funeral? Will people be as dressed up? Will there be this kind of music? Will there be music? Will I even get a funeral, let alone propper burial? Will I ask to be cremated? Will I rot? How long do I have? How long will people care for? Will I be forgotten?

All are really daunting questions. It just makes me think that it doesn’t matter how many days/weeks/months/years you have, but it matters how you live them. It’s better to actually LIVE then to be afraid to die. This is why I do crazy things. If I cover my hand in sanitizer and light it on fire, I do it for the experience, not just to say I did. If I jump out of a tree into another, same thing applies. It’s the life in your years, not the years in your life. If people grieve for you when you’re dead, it only means you had a positive enough effect on their lives to make them mourn.

I guess life is just a learning experience. Experience to be used in what? I can’t say I know.

-Alex

http://www.livestream.com/betweenthebricks/

I will only broadcast on weekends.

In other news, I’m turning 16 this wednesday, so yay for me.

Have a good one,
-Alex

In other stuff, I was at the small river by my school today. The fun part was that the ice was frozen, and enough to walk on! A friend of mine actually fell through the ice, and got soaked up to her waist. (She’s fine.)
I also saw two adult foxes, a male and female. They were actually pretty big, about the size of a small-ish german shepard. (I’m sure that was incorrect spelling.)

The neat thing is that I got all of this on film, so when that makes its way on to youtube, I’ll provide a link.

About the animation I recently started: I’ve had to mpve it in to my “Projects on Hold” bin for now, as I have to focus my efforts on film class, etc. (I know, I’m full of shit.)

But yeah, that’s about it for now in my productive world, thanks for reading!
-Alex

PostScript: From now on, I’ll recommend a song to listen to with every blog post I make. Today’s song is:
“The Day The World Went Away” by Nine Inch Nails.

Be sure to check it out, it’s really a good song.

Bye bye for real now,
-Alex

That’s about it, here’s a little image.

I made music a while ago, but it was really shitty. I decided to make something new when I was bored, mainly focusing on drums. You can listen to it HERE.

I also worked on a film with a friend, and you can watch that HERE.

Anyways, the whole band thing really isn’t working out, and I have a feeling we aren’t going to last much longer. (There are a few ego issues, and the fact that we suck.) I think it’s been a good exercise for me, as I became more inspired to learn guitar, and I’m having more fun doing it the better I get!

Another friend of mine (Olivia) has been working on scripts with me, and it’s kind of a tradition to not listen in history class and pass a peice of paper back and forth, just screen-writing. It’s fun, and you might see one of those films on youtube in the future! Just look out for “Plan C.”

Anywho, I’ve got the next week off due to exam period, and I’ve finished all of mine. I’ll try to be productive in the aforementioned timespan.

Toodles,

-Alex

In other unimportant news, I bought four new albums recently. Wolfmother, Wolfmother – Cosmic Egg, Them Crooked Vultures and Muse – The Resistance.
Enjoying them so far but particularly Muse’s album. The music kind of tells a story. I’m debating wether I see it as a sort of log that a single character keeps, and updates at certain points in time, or stories told from the perspective of several individuals taking place at the same time. Either way, I hink it would be a cool concept for an album, it’d make the listener more interested in the lyrics or whatever themselves.

I think Trent Reznor did something of the sort with Year Zero, you know; the Nine Inch Nails album from 2007.

Anyway, I can’t tell you much about what I’m working on artistically right now, as the little that I’m doin is kind of a secret.

Toodles,
-Alex

I suck beyond belief, but hey; that’s what practice is for. The other funny thing is the fact that some buddies and I (all beginners at music) have started a “band.”

Yeah, we suck.

Still looking for a second guitarist and a drummer. We really need to plan our practices better, and I don’t think I can go to the keyboardist’s house any more, due to the excessive amount of carcinogens in the air. (My lungs just can’t take it.) We’re going to have to find another place to meet/practice, or I just can’t go.

Not much else is new, except that I’m working on a couple of films that should be out within two weeks. Just check on my youtube channels:

http://www.youtube.com/user/beretclock/

and

http://www.youtube.com/user/thealexsocial/

They should be out soon.

Chill,

-Alex

Just dropping by to tell you that I have this big project that I’m working on with Lin Clock! It’s a movie for a future clockday where she’s making all of the backgrounds, a couple of the characters, and I’m doing all of the animation. It’s a new way to collaborate for me, so it should be fun! There is a lot of work to be done, so it probably won’t be released this year.

More to come on that later.

That’s all for now, chow!