Donate/Buy My Music

Hi.

If you’re reading this, it means you might listen to my music. Currently I’m trying to get my way back to Chicago and to get myself situated when I get there.

I dont know if anybody in their right mind will go along with this, but I am currently going to offer my recordings to anyone who wants them. If you dont, I understand. They aren’t very good quality, but for now, I’m going to be “selling” a 5 song EP which I am dubbing the “Get Me Home” EP. Whatever you think my crappy recordings might be worth? They are raw tracks, the 4 that you hear on my Myspace page right now, plus another I’m recording soon. If you donate, I will package these 5 up (digitally speaking that is) and email them along to you.

Also, if anyone is nice enough to donate 10 dollars or more, I will record whatever cover song you want. And then from there up, exponentially one song for every 5 dollars. I only offer this because I figure nobody will do it.

So yeah. If you want to donate, please click the picture below and do so. These are very lo-fi recordings, but they are truthful and real.

Thank You,
Andy

It Has Been a While

Whoa.  So since I’ve been back in Chicago, my blog has kinda been thrown to the wayside. And I apologize. That is, if there is anyone out there that is actually disappointed that I havent been posting my usual crap.

That and my emotions have been ALL over the place. But that is to be explained in another post. possibly tomorrow.

I’ve just been up to a lot of stuff. And I find that when I’m not doing stuff all the time, that makes the stuff I am doing seem much cooler, and then I want to post about it. See! Even this post, I’ve cut away from like 6 times already because people have been sending me things. I need to get my head on straight and do another blog month, methinks. Although I’m hoping that break being next week is gonna help to get me back on track.

I Sometimes Do Cool Stuff

Every now and then I have days where I consider just deleting all of my stuff off of the internet, and going back to Boston to lock myself away and write for eternity. (Ok, that might be a stretch, but whatever.) But then I go and do things that are so cool, that they remind me why my Twitter addiction is awesome. Saturday was one of those such days.

I woke up early, took a shower, through some equipment on my back, and headed over to The Printed Blog offices. First off, let me just say that if you haven’t heard of The Printed Blog, go check out their site, and download the first couple of issues cause they are doing some really awesome work. So I shot some footage of the founder, Josh, and I am in the process of editing that together. Now you say, that really isn’t a big deal; and I’d usually agree, except that when I’m done (if it’s good) it will be going to a conference in Austria. Never did I think something that I’m doing now would be shown in Austria. Hell, I didn’t think ANYTHING I’d ever do would be shown in Austria (frankly, I wasn’t sure if Austria was even a country anymore, but that’s besides the point)

So after that I just kinda hung around for the afternoon, and around 4pm, I started seeing more and more tweets about Sleepover 2.0. I had kinda heard about it before, so I decided to click over and check it out. I’m not going to try and go into any depth about what it was, but basically? 9 really cool women, in a hotel suite, having an 18 hour sleep over….live streaming to the internet. But go to their website and check it out for yourself. So I sat around watching that, being involved really just in the chat, and the SxSW/ScottFMurphy drinking game. Then at like 4am, I was in the kitchen making some food, when I heard my name, and when I got back, I had a few IMs telling me to take my ukulele and show up at the Hotel. Well, I did. And then Scott convinced me that I should take over the technical back end from him. So I did. And it was just a really cool experience all around, and I got to hang out with some really cool people!

Also, two of the participants, @LeahJones and The Local Tourist are both raising money for charity, check out their sites and see how you can help them out, they are both great people.

I mean, along with this, Twitter and Blogging and this whole ‘transparent on the internet thing’ have allowed me to just meet some of the coolest people I’ve ever met, and if nothing else, that is the most rewarding part. And I know every now and then I go on these…well what do you call a rant that’s happy? No, nevermind. But yeah. I just need to remind myself every now and then.

Who Watches Zack Snyder

I saw Watchmen last night at midnight. It is a great film, and I recommend you see it.

…I was still disappointed.

I mean, going into this, there was really no way that I wasn’t going to be disappointed, but I believe there is a difference between that and jusfifiable disappointment, which I experienced. Watchmen is one of those books that really made me want to be a writer. I’ve said before that comics in general made me want to write fiction, but Batman and Watchmen are at the top. And I felt that they did a good job of working everything in to the movie! I mean, there were scenes that were cut out just because they wouldn’t have really lended themselves to a film, I can understand that.

But Rorschach is NOT a kung fu master! So why do we have to make him one!? The only times in this movie when I really believed he was the same guy from the comics were when he was in prison. And (to me) all of the fighting was gaudy and overblown. Bear with me, will you? While I direct a letter

Dear Zack Snyder,

Not every fight scene has to be done in bullet-time/slo motion/as ridiculous as you made it. This should not be an action movie. You did a                        good job with a lot of the psychological stuff, but you had to go and screw it up! Also, why was there so much blue penis!?

Sincerely, Andy.

Watchmen is not cheesy. It is not an action movie. It is dark, it is gritty, it is depressing as hell. And it is perfect in this way. I don’t want to say I didn’t like the movie, because I did. I just don’t really like Zack Snyder.

Sue me.

I Know, It’s Been A While

So sue me.

I just really haven’t found the time or story to write in or about. So I’m just going to go rapid fire here

• Got Freelance work
• Met new psychiatrist
• Dumped said psychiatrist for being mean
• Went to Pittsburgh
• Met a new mortal enemy
• Finished the first draft of my Gotham Central pilot
• Made an appointment with a new psychiatrist
• Found a new apartment. Now all we need is a third roommate
• Realized I really don’t like Ulysses right now
• Realized I really like my Online Journalism class (But that I pretty much knew)
• Learned how to play a Connery(my friend’s band) song
• Almost saw a guy get maced in line at a Taco Bell
• Saw a guy get knocked out on a packed red line train
• Was in a cab with the WORST cab driver in all of Chicago.
• Saw Dropkick Murphys……again.
• Wound up around some of the only other Massholes in the place
• Never, ever, waiting for a cab at Western/Milwaukee ever again
• Chicken Caesar Salad and Sausage Pizza can make anyone feel good
• Had a legitimate conversation with my little brother
• After last night at the gym, my legs are gonna hate me
• Cake is the best reward

There we go. A week and a half or so of important events in my life. I’ll try and post more regularly.

Fight Song For True Love

So I FINALLY got around to recording a song on my ukulele. And for that I chose another Soltero song. This time it is “Fight Song For True Love”

I’ve Always Been a Geek

I’ve been a geek since I was very very young. My father used to install ATM machines back in the late 80s/early 90s before settling into an IT job, so I’ve always just been around and amazed by tech.

The Green One

Back when I was reaaaally little, my father had a computer. I forget exactly what it was, but he stopped using it, but never took it out of the basement, so I used to go downstairs, fire that thing up, and just type and see what happened. I was a furious child letting the green text fly by! …then the fish that I kept in the tank next to that computer died and I never went back there again.

The Windows One

When I was in elementary school, my parents bought a computer that had….WINDOWS. It was a tan Hewlett Packard (that’s right, none of this HP nonsense) tower, running windows 95. And really until we had the internet on that bad boy, all I would really do is use that very suggestive tan microphone.

Don’t acknowledge the Compaq, that’s sadly the best photo I could find online. But yeah, MixMaster AndyHannon would fire up Windows audio recorder record some sweet trax and then mess around with their pitch or speed(those were the only two options) Then…my parents got AOL.

Oh my god. The tools at my doorstep. I could talk to people all around the world. I could look up mass amounts of information. I could….Oh wait, that’s blocked by the Kids Only filter? Oh..okay. I’ll just spend my time downloading .wav files of Simpsons quotes. nah, it’s okay. It was on this computer that I created my very first blog way back in the day. It was hosted on Homestead.com, and was a skateboarding “blog” by my friend Mike and I. I like to think that I started the whole, obnoxious Myspace page thing, cause this just had images, after images, and all those Simpsons .wav files? Oh yeah. They are there. The best part was that one day my Father came down and asked to see what we were working on, and after we showed him, he was amazed that we had created something that cool that young. (Ok, it wasn’t that cool, but let me be proud for a second)

And that’s just the computer side of things. I’m not even gonna go into all the other stuff. But eventually we got rid of the Tower of Power, got DSL, and then I became a Mac user. Sadly enough, my family still uses AOL, but I’m pretty sure it’s just for email and for games. But they are getting a lot better. After that point, I started taking apart everything I could find to figure out how it worked. I was perfectly content chillin with a soldering iron…which may explain the lack of friends in Jr. High thing. But then I got really cool!

…right?

……right?

A Twitteriffic Weekend. (Yes I Hate Myself For That)

So I think I spent more time this weekend meeting people I kinda already knew, than with people I already knew.

Friday

Went to go see The International with Rachel. Being the classiest people alive, I brought some High Life and she brought some J.D. Afterwards, we went to the going away party for her neighbor, which ended up with me drinking a 40 and doing shots. I should never ever ever do shots. I am very proud to say that the cabbie and I on the way home, were cruising down Lake Shore Drive singing Vanessa Carlton’s “1000 Miles”

Saturday

Sat around most of the day, debating whether or not I was going to go to @ScottFMurphy’s Anti-Valentine’s Day party. I decided I would go, and was really pleased that the Harpoon sampler had Raspberry UFO. I know, I know. But before anyone gives me any guff(that’s right, guff) It is a delicious beer. I was really happy to finally meet some people, and had a very good time hanging out. I came home to a very very intoxicated albino.

Sunday

Epic Burger Tweetup. ’nuff said. Good times. Check my Facebook for the photos. Also, saw some snowboarders in Grant Park. That was interesting.

Better posts ahead

Honesty

I was pegged for an award by Wanna Be Reality Superstar, so I guess its time to be honest.

The honorees are to:A) first list 10 honest things about yourself – and make it interesting, even if you have to dig deep!
B) pass the award on to 4 bloggers that you feel embody the spirit of the Honest Scrap.

1. I’ve been in therapy to deal with my depression for almost a year now.

2. I currently do not own a hairbrush, nor do I have any intention of buying one.

3. When I got this tweet about the Dunkaccino, I danced around for a good 5 minutes. That is how good it is.

4. I’ve been to a night club twice. Once I was pretty drunk and someone offered to pay for me. Except when we got there, my roommates and I were the only white guys there. The second, the person I brought with me ditched me 5 minutes in, only to take the train back with me when she got ditched.

5. I care way too much about what people think of me sometimes. This ties into #1

6. I am really proud of where I went to high school. And if I could go back, I would. I hope to eventually go back and teach.

7. I worry about my father dying while I’m in Chicago. This makes me want to take him on that Ireland trip weve been planning all my life.

8. Even if you are my enemy, if you are hurting, I’m going to try and take care of you. It’s what I do.

9. I’m a bit too attached to my Blackberry. This worries me sometimes.

10. I sometimes wish that my blog was more popular. Then I remember that’d just be more people who think I’m lame and crazy

Ok! There we go! Next up are going to be…
Tales of the Deep, Half Deserted Streets, Of Radio Dials and Knitting Needles, and i hate so much…

Why I’m Not a Playwriting Student

I used to write plays all the time. I have a shiny medal and a laptop to prove it. But then I decided that I didn’t want to do that anymore, because frankly, it was getting on my nerves. That and as I was going to playwriting workshops I was realizing that the reason it was getting on my nerves was because I was surrounded by pompous idiots. And I’d like a job.

I thought I had escaped that. But No. There is someone in my Writing for Television class that is not a TV Major. And he seemed like a pretty cool guy up until the point where when we disagreed on a script analysis, he put words in my mouth.

If there is one thing I hate more than when words put dicks in my mouth, is when dicks put words in my mouth.

I think this is the lowest and most childish form of argument, especially when in a group, because it seemed his entire intent was to make me look foolish in that setting!

Well, mister, you failed. And made yourself look foolish.

Score one for the good guys.

Yeah. I realize I look foolish.

Oh! And if you havent entered my contest, you should. I’ll bake/shop/write for you.