December 2005

COMING EARLY 2006!

Things are finally beginning to slow down a bit with our day-gigs. I'm fairly bummed about not having a record released in 2005 despite an excessive amount of work, but the wait is nearly over.

~~ BLUE

22 September 2005

As mentioned in my last update, my day-gig involves supporting relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina. Consequently I'm working fiendish hours. Most of my artistic endeavors are currently on hold, to include the Simian Syndicate PodCasts. I am however posting semi-regularly in Babble-on and on my personal blog at PartialToGrey.com.

I have however guaranteed my participation at the following event. I will be performing a set as Booze Monkey (I will play from Noon to Noon:45) and I will also act as the Master of Ceremonies for the entire event:

More information, web-graphics for this poster and flyers, PDF versions of this event's flyer that can be printed for distribution and an all around great music community can be found at http://ValleyMusic.org!

~~ BLUE

31 August 2005

My day-gig involves supporting relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina. Consequently I'm working fiendish hours. Most of my artistic endeavors are currently on hold, to include the Simian Syndicate PodCasts. I am however posting regularly in Babble-on.

I've also, finally, put a personal blog online. I've debated for an eternity (well, an eternity in Internets time) about whether or not I wanted to start a blog. My only notable trepidation was the fact that I maintain Babble-on and a blog seemed somewhat redundant. But as the forums have grown and mutated so beautifully over the years, I've come to feel that they are different mediums with different approaches. I signed up for a TypePad account back in May, and I've finally logged in and begun using it.

If you are curious, you can check it out at http://SanityCheck.TypePad.com.

~~ BLUE

16 August 2005

Yep, this is the event! I've spent most of the past 11 months in the studio working on the South Mountain Magic soundtrack. I've only performed live a handful of times, and I only have a handful of live performances scheduled for the remainder of 2005. The one show that all circular cats should never miss is my annual Birthday Bash at the Old Town Grill & Bar in Winchester, VA!

I'm honored to point out that 3 of my favorite musicians, whom I'm also damned proud to call friends, are going to make this night a night to remember! If it is anything at all like the last couple of years, then it takes about a year to recover!

Don't miss this night!

~~ BLUE

2 August 2005

The new Simian Syndicate PodCast is online! This is a weird one, even for TSS. Check it out at The Simian Syndicate PodCast Blog.

This one isn't really a "show", it is more of a musical... "thing". I think I just "chortled". This piece is only about twelve and a half minutes long. I've uploaded it with a higher bitrate than usual, but it isn't an hour long like our usual shows, so the file size is quite a bit smaller than our usual offerings.

This piece is based upon the song On a Podcast by the band Cruisebox which is freely downloadable from their website at ThatPodcastSong.com. The entire song is included in the body of The Simian Syndicate Show 11.

Keep checking the The Simian Syndicate Podcast Blog this week for something a little different.

Enjoy, and thanks for your support!

~~ BLUE

1 August 2005

Welcome to August! Considering the oppressive heat that we've had on the east coast thus far this Summer, I can't imagine what to expect from the forthcoming dog days.

There are a couple of things I wanted to mention this morning. I think I'll begin with an update regarding The Simian Syndicate. The Podcast scheduled for release this morning is going to be delayed for a day or two as I'm working on something special. I think it is going to be pretty damned cool, so check back throughout the week.

Kudos and thanks to everyone who came out to the show I played with my buddy LB on Friday night at the Two Daughters' Cafe in Strasburg, VA! It was a great deal of fun. I felt like I played well and the vibe in the room was warm and wonderful. LB performed beautifully and we even played the last half-hour of the night together. Indications are that I will be playing at their new weekly Songwriter's Night in August, to include an interview and a live tune or two on the Mt. Jackson AM Radio station. I'll provide more information about these things when I get the details straightened out.

Lastly, but certainly not leastly, my friend Greg Batchelor has totally revamped the web portal at ValleyMusic.org! The new site went online first thing this morning, it remains the most active and most supportive website for entertainment and entertainers in the Shenandoah Valley. Thanks and kudos to Greg!

Keep checking the The Simian Syndicate Podcast Blog this week for something a little different.

Enjoy, and thanks for your support!

~~ BLUE

19 July 2005

How about an update? Yeah, about time, OK I know that. But things are rollin' and these words, when strung together into rambling sentences should be able to convey some of what is rolling to you, uh, should you read them.

First and foremost, I have officially scored the final note of the South Mountain Magic soundtrack! I still have a great deal of work remaining on the project but the hard part is finished! I'm very pleased to announce that. I work 40 plus hours a week at my day-gig (as I suspect many of you do as well) I have to do all of my artistic work in the evenings and on the weekends. It took me the better part of the past nine months to score this film, once I'm finished with all aspects of the project I will have logged just shy of a year on the project, pretty much every weekend and most evenings during that time. All while juggling this website, the occasional Booze Monkey live performance and the Simian Syndicate Podcasts. That said, I am very proud of the music I've created for this movie and I feel like this flick and the forthcoming audio CD of its' music will do a fine job of representing those months in my artistic career.

I've met with Mad Monty and spoken briefly with JRock and the next Simian Syndicate PodCast is scheduled to hit the Internet(s) on Monday 25 July 2005! A brand new promotional piece went online today. As always you can find the files and the details on the Simian Syndicate Blog. Hopefully by now you've subscribed to the show or learned to avoid it, whichever the case may be.

The more frustrating news is that The Simian Syndicate still isn't listed in the iTunes podcast directory. I cannot submit the show for consideration as they claim (via faceless software error codes) that the show has already been submitted, however it hasn't shown up despite being well past the longest stated wait-time. I can't get anyone to respond from Apple, so I'm dead in the virtual water in that regard.

Khrystyna is working on a Gallery Update with some photos that our buddy Stuart Swink took at the Booze Monkey performance from 7 May 2005 at the Old Town Grill & Bar in Winchester VA.

I am once again performing a set for my pal LB at the Two Daughters' Cafe in Strasburg, VA on Friday 29 July 2005, if you are in the area, drop down for great food and a very comfy atmosphere, after primarily pseudo-orchestral work for most of the year thus far I am very much looking forward to performing next weekend!

Oh, one final note, a public service announcement in fact, regarding the raping we endured by hostned.com (see the story further down, below). We fought tooth and nail to regain the money we had given them for the remaining six months of service after that obliterated our websites, failed to configure our account to serve html pages to the Internet(s) and cancelled our accounts while fraudulently claiming they had found data that contradicted the hosting agreement. We argued that all we wanted was our remaining money back and we would leave quietly as we were never satisfied with their "service". They forced us to provide three different receipts (all theirs) before agreeing to return just about half of our remaining money, all while claiming that it was their "discretion" to decide whether or not to return the money they took from us despite the fact that they had not provided and had no intention of providing the services for which those funds were remitted. After refunding an arbitrary figure, it took us another two weeks and several emails to get a response explaining the pathetic figure, we finally received a typically rude and dishonest note claiming that the rest was a... get this... wait for it... a restocking fee... for services! Further that, for services unrendered! So they shamelessly stole about a hundred dollars cash (U.S.) from us after raping us, whatever you do, do not give any of your money, under any circumstances, to HostNed.com. They are quite simply, thieves.

Enjoy, and thanks for your support!

~~ BLUE

30 June 2005

Earlier this week Apple released iTunes version 4.9. For those who don't know, iTunes 4.9 boasts support for podcasting. It is somewhat funny, when we hustled to start the Simian Syndicate podcast back in March (we published our first show less than three weeks after I heard the term for the first time) we rushed because I had a gut feeling this shit was going to be huge and get huge quickly. We talked and talked about whether or not it was important to hurry into the fray or whether we should wait a couple of months and finish up some existing obligations first.

As far as the existing obligations, well the jury is still out. We've put the show on a brief hiatus while I finish up the South Mountain Magic Soundtrack. The soundtrack would have been finished by now if I hadn't been juggling it and the podcast, but our show has legs, feeble legs, but legs, so it is kind of a toss up. That said, I'd hate to be jumping into the podcasting world now.

Though I understood Apple had culled their original directory from iPodder.org, we don't appear to be included yet. There are quite a few particulars required by Apple that are above and beyond the standard requirements for a podcast feed. Let me tell you as someone who is very comfortable with web design technologies - for a medium that is so often touted as a platform for everybody, there is a hell of a lot of work that is required after a podcast is recorded and changes to a feed specification are a big deal no matter how you look at it.

Since we don't have another full show scheduled for a couple of weeks, I'm going to give Feedburner and WordPress and other software and service providers a little time to catch up before I scramble to meet the new requirements. So if you don't see us in your iTunes podcast directory, don't panic, we should show up there by the time the next show is released.

Enjoy, and thanks for your support!

~~ BLUE

21 June 2005

Well it is certainly about time! PodcastPickle.com finally acknowledged The Simian Syndicate with one of their featured podcast awards. I've been a regular contributing and supportive member of the PodcastPickle.com portal since they first arrived on the scene. I think I was the 23rd person to sign up on their message board forums. I've mentioned their portal in most of the Simian Syndicate shows, yet we were never included in their featured section, or even brought in on their promotional efforts. Even now we've not been selected as a featured pick but acknowledged for creatively promoting their site.

I honestly have no idea why they've left us out of most of their fun stuff, but when I edited together the new show (#9) I turned to Khrystyna and I said "If they ignore this, I'm dropping them from our links and never mentioning them again... well, at least not in a positive manner".

So... hehehe... well... they didn't ignore it. I've avoided begging for votes and such so far with the Syndicate, but we are getting to the point where we are going to get lost in the fray if we don't get some remedial attention. So if you've been listening to, and digging the show, please consider surfing over to one of the podcast portals and voting for our show or putting us on your "favorites list".

Enjoy, and thanks for your support!

~~ BLUE

20 June 2005

A new Simian Syndicate went online this morning. This is show number 9 featuring LB as the musical guest.

This is definitely the most obnoxious show yet, it is just plain rude. I wouldn't even listen to it if it were me. Details about the new show are available, as usual, on the Simian Syndicate subsite.

I've readjusted my priorities. This will be the last full Simian Syndicate for a few weeks while I finish up the South Mountain Magic film score. To quote my buddy Julius, this is a "one thing at a time" phase.

Also we have decided to make the rebuilding of SanityCheck.net a top priority. We finished the outline and the back-end a few months ago, but little has progressed since then outside of the Simian Syndicate Blog and, as always, Babble-on. Everything will begin returning and rebuilding at a much quicker pace from here on out. Just keep checking the site.

Enjoy!

~~ BLUE

17 June 2005

We are slowly but meticulously regaining our virtual footing. Thank you to everyone who has been so understanding and supportive throughout this silly ordeal!

The good news (I know I was ready for some good news) is that we finally managed to get the PodCast recorded on Sunday 5 June 2005 uploaded this morning. The RSS feed seems to be stable now and I've removed the duplicate enclosures. I still have a few corrupted files and bits of code in The Simian Syndicate PodCast blog, but I think most of it is now in the back end and hopefully it won't affect those of you who are looking to grab the newest show. Meanwhile we are working to resolve those issues as well.

Details about the new show are available, as usual, on the Simian Syndicate subsite. This one features Jay Powell from the very popular local heavy metal band Go Smack Alice as the musical guest and my dear friend Greg Batchelor as the co-host, check it out!

Enjoy!

~~ BLUE

14 June 2005

Wow! What a long, lame, trip it's been!

For those who might be curious as to what the heckfarr has been going on, I'll elaborate below. If you couldn't care less, well, I for one respect that, and you can skip everything after this paragraph if ya like. The short version is that we've had "host problems" and have been completely offlline since Sunday/Monday 5/6 June 2005. We are now rebuilding, and we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused those in need of their regular Sanity Checks. Please bare [sic] with us as we get back on our feet.

If you are curious about the gory details of our lengthy ordeal of late then read on below you sick, sadistic little Monkey you...

As most regular visitors here know we switched hosting companies for SanityCheck.net, ChurchOfChaos.com and all of the SCM subsites in November of 2004 after our previous host deleted over 500 MB worth of short films from our account with a faulty maintenance script. It turned out that the backups we had been paying for for about five years or so, didn't exist!. They gave us a lenghty run-around and never made any attempt at amends of any sort.

Other than that horrible experience however, we'd been plenty happy with our original host. So much so that we probably would have remained with them if they had shown any remorse or concern for the plight they had created for us. So off to the net(s) we went to find a new hosting company that offered similar services...

We settled on a company called HostNed.com. We read a bunch of online reviews from assorted customers and asked plenty of questions of their sales department before signing on. Most of the reviews were good. There were a handful of very angry and bitter reviewers who claimed that HostNed's support staff could be spiteful and unresponsive and, most disconcertingly, that when things got sticky they would fraudulently claim that they had discovered something on the customer's website that violated their hosting agreement and terminate the account. We ASSumed that these handful of "bad apples" were the exception and happily shuffled into the viper's pit.

We were never happy. We experienced an inordinate amount of little "hiccups" while on their servers and discovered a severe disconnect between the company's sales department and their support staff. For example, when we signed up SSH access was listed on the sales pages for the account package that we purchased. Once our account was activated, the SSH access wasn't included. It took us over a month to finally get the SSH access, and only after submitting a photocopy of our drivers licenses and an additional signed agreement... twice. We discussed leaving the company at that time, but naively decided to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Whenever we had any communications with the support department (which usually took more than 20 hours for a response) it was clear that they didn't fully read the submission tickets. They would obviously "skim" the submission and then simply point us to their ubiquitous C-Panel controls. C-Panel has become a very common tool in the industry, and overall I don't have too much animosity toward the package, it isn't bad, methinks, but if it solved every problem ever encountered then the support staff would be reasonably unnecessary.

On either Sunday 5 June 2005 or Monday 6 June 2005 one of their two main servers died. They have stated that it was a bad RAM chip that caused a data corruption that rendered the server unbootable. This was acknowledged by late in the day Monday. By Tuesday afternoon we were finally able to log into their trouble-ticket system, but we were still dead in the virtual water. So we submitted a very courteous ticket explaining that were still completely down. For the first and only time in our relationship with that company, we received a fairly quick and pleasant response. The tech realized that when they had recovered, our account had not been included. It appeared that our site(s) had been corrupted during the crash. The tech recreated our account and copied the base data over from the previous server. He was pleasant and responsive. By Wednesday morning we had our data back and an account but there were obviously some rather serious problems: We received a forbidden error at the root of our domain so that even the default index.html file wouldn't load, ChurchOfChaos.com would no longer point to the domain at all, our email accounts wouldn't resolve or accept our credentials, our MySQL databases wouldn't accept connections...

At this point they stopped communicating with us for just over 24 hours.

We submitted another new ticket with the details of the errors we were encountering and finally received a response. But now we had a spiteful semi-literate support snake. He didn't answer any question, denied that they had ignored our last four requests for support for over 24 hours (despite the timestamps on the chain of tickets) and most absurdly he/she quoted the detailed errors in our message one by one and responded to each by asking for an explanation and pointing us to C-Panel. For example, I wrote that we were receiving a forbidden error whenever a browser was pointed to SanityCheck.net. He/she responded that we needed to upload a default file. I asked for clarification while pointing out that we had an index.html file at the root of our web directory. He/she quoted my text and responded by saying that we had to upload an index.html file! We continued to go around like this until this jackassian spiteknob and his gleeful chorus of bejeweled scamhams suspended our account claiming falsely that they had found something in our data that contradicted their hosting agreement. Aside from the fact that this is simply a bald face lie, it is worthy of note that to discover such a thing would have required manual sifting through the data because the websites were never again visible in a published sense.

By this time we had already decided to cancel our dealings with HostNed.com and move on after spending the weekend retrieving whatever we could of our data from the server. In their continued tradition of grand hate and spite, they rushed to disable all of our access to our data while we were grabbing our work from the server. Luckily since their service was so unreliable, most of our work was backed up on our end. As an insult to injury that borders on amusing if it weren't so costly, they've refused to respond to our correspondence regarding the fact that they owe us for six months of remaining hosting fees. We are continuing to email, fax and snail-mail them requests for our money, but they have simply stopped responding. It appears as if we are going to be forced to employ the services of a collection agency. At this juncture I am willing to spend significantly more than they owe us to obtain my money.

Because our site(s) is rather large and expansive, and very "tweaked" to our tastes and intents, it took us more time than usual to get our new account here up and running, in fact at this juncture, we still do not have everything up and running. You will likely encounter more than a few dead links if you surf around at the moment. I hope to have email working again by the end of the day, and we are working to get Babble-on back online as soon as possible. The rest will follow thereafter.

It is almost odd how disconcerting this has been. I've not felt less grounded in a long time... this site, especially our forums and as of recently our regular PodCast are virtual anchors in our lives, and the primary means of communication with our friends and colleagues. Further that this is the longest we've been without a full-on online presence since the Internet(s) first went commercial. Sanity Check has had a website of some sort since before Internet access was even available in my home town. This has been a lousy experience.

To those who visit these sites regularly, I sincerely apologize for failing you. We are working to return things to their usual twisted glory, please hang in there, and come back as soon as we can get the virtual doors open for you.

Thank you, and I'm sorry about all of this.

~~ BLUE

23 May 2005

Still overwhelmed and scrambling. Down to the wire with the South Mountain Magic soundtrack. I'll be working late every night this week, and through the weekend.

However, we did manage to get Show #7 of the Simian Syndicate recorded yesterday and online early this morning. This show, entitled Gonorrhea Brownies Cha Cha Cha... features the return of Mad_Monty as co-host and all kinds of nifty goodies. I can't see re-typing all of the show's notes and details here, when there are lengthy shownotes on the Simian Syndicate Subsite here at SanityCheck.net.

Enjoy!

~~ BLUE

3 May 2005

I'm really scrambling in the studio right now trying to meed Dave's first-draft-deadline for South Mountain Magic. He has to FedEx a complete version to the college by Thursday morning, this week, as his final project for his master's degree. As I mentioned here yesterday, and on the current Simian Syndicate PodCast, Christina and I drove to MD yesterday to record the SMM Live Choir for the soundtrack. Originally I had recorded my own voice six different times and then combined that recording with sampled choral voices to make the piece of music that many of you have heard in the available mp3 files. I spent 7 hours last night in the studio recreating that same piece of music with the live choral recording that we made in MD on Saturday. It was, methinks, worth every bit of effort!

For anyone who might be interested, I've assembled/arranged the new choral voices into a short piece of music and put it on the site in mp3 format. It is available for free download on the South Mountain Magic Temporary Download Page here at SanityCheck.net.

A nifty little note, methinks - all of the voices featured in this recording, the voices that I've taken to calling the South Mountain Choir belong to people who worked on the South Mountain Magic project! Is that cool or what?

If you are interested, it is there, it is free, and you are welcome to check it out. If so... enjoy!

~~ BLUE

2 May 2005

The fifth Simian Syndicate PodCast was recorded on Sunday afternoon and went online early this morning! This 'Cast features Mad Monty co-hosting! He took over command 'n control so I could peform as the shows "live" (in-studio) musical guest. Yep, this was the first Booze Monkey performance since 25 September 2004! It was time, too, because this coming Saturday night, 7 May 2005, I'll be performing live at my favorite venue in the world, the Old Town Grill and Bar in Winchester, Virginina, from 9PM - 9:50PM! My buddy and fellow Sanity Check Recording artist LB will be headlining the show and playing until they kick us out in the wee hours of the morning! If you are anywhere near the Winchester Old Town on Saturday 7 May, you must come to this show! :-)

This PodCast also features a song from the currently out-of-print, self-titled debut CD from METAL MACHINE called The Liars and Leo J. Bailey's remake of the Booze Monkey tune Burn. Also featured is an older JRock bit, and one of my personal favorites, entitled Elfin Jaws and a clip from the Valley Music Radio Podcast about the Save the Harmonica Foundation.

This 'cast is the first to actually be more than an hour long! Just a hair over, it is about 29 MB in file size. It was such a treat hangin' with Mad Monty for this show, he is a dear friend whom I seldom get to see because of our schedules and the two of us giggled ourselves stupid for most of the day. I honestly don't really even remember what the hell we talked about.

As always check out the PodCast by clicking the word "PodCast" in the menu on either the left side of the screen, or the one at the top of the screen, and most importantly, enjoy!

Also this weekend Christina and I drove to MD to the Antietam Cable Station, godRig in tow, to record the live choir for the South Mountain Magic soundtrack that I am currently wrapping up (well draft one anyway)! It was a great, successful and exhausting day! Many great vocalists, all of whom rose brilliantly to the challenge of recording this portion of the soundtrack, it was a treat to work with them all!

~~ BLUE

25 April 2005

The fourth Simian Syndicate PodCast was recorded on Saturday morning and went online early this morning! This 'Cast features Sanity Check Recording artist Lee Blanton as the in-studio musical guest. Lee performs his tune "Computer Blues" for the show, and he does so flawlessly! Great guest, great treat to have him in the studio! After recording the PodCast, we discussed Lee's desires for his debut commercial CD and I, for one, am quite jazzed about the prospects.

In addition to Lee's appearance and performance on the show, we have a brand new remix from Church Of Chaos on the show! There hasn't been any new work from Church Of Chaos since the release of Snow White and the Seven Deadly Sins! This tune is a remix of the song I Radio by fellow Valley-Artist Bill Leon who graciously allowed us to share the work. Thanks and kudos to Bill.

As always check out the PodCast by clicking the word "PodCast" in the menu on either the left side of the screen, or the one at the top of the screen, and most importantly, enjoy!

~~ BLUE

12 April 2005

Our MySQL database was down yesterday leaving both the Babble-on forums and The Simian Syndicate blog and feeds offline for much of the afternoon. I understand everything is back online today and we expect an update from our hosting company later. I am very sorry for the inconvenience!

The third Simian Syndicate PodCast hasn't gone online yet. I spent much of the weekend in the studio working on the show, in fact Mad Monty joined me in the studio on Sunday. We had so much fun I was exhausted from all of the laughing by the end of the day. We are preparing many of the components for the show; bumpers, beds, sweeps, IDs, et al. Things that will facilitate the regular updates in the long run. But by Sunday evening I had more than run out of steam. I was too spent to even consider recording the show on Monday evening. I may get the show finished tonight, if not, I will likely put up some bumpers this week and wait until next week for the third full show, but rest assured that we are making serious progress and that by May we will be podcasting on a very consistent basis. Remember, we are the miscreants that put an original short flick online every week for two years!

My buddy Greg Batchelor from VMRadio.com is going to join me in the studio for an upcoming 'cast as well, that is going to be way fun. We have some really fun stuff on the way, check back often and most of all - Enjoy!

~~ BLUE

7 April 2005

The second Simian Syndicate PodCast went online early yesterday morning! We didn't have a live musical guest in the studio this time, just widdle ol' me, naked except for a cowboy hat and arguably too much jewelry. However we did have a couple of new bumpers written by Mad Monty and I shared a phone call I had received from my buddy JRock that I had lucked into recording.

We are still coordinating everyone's schedule to get them into the studio but we have all kinds of exciting things in the works for the Simian Syndicate! Monty will be joining us in the studio, and he has already been writing all kinds of hilarious stuff for the show, Christina will be joining us in the studio, JRock will be joining us, and he and I are working on recording more of his comedy bits for the show! Sanity Check recording artists LB and Lee Blanton will be performing on upcoming shows! Even the miscreants from Church Of Chaos have been working with Booze Monkey samples to create the new Simian Syndicate theme music!

The new show focuses on introducing people new to Sanity Check, to my work, a clumsy attempt at an introduction and some basic explanations. There are three full songs on this show, one from my last solo album, one from the current Booze Monkey album Sippin' Pretty and a song from the second Church Of Chaos epistle Snow White and the Seven Deadly Sins. You may view news, show notes, and download the shows at : PodCast.SanityCheck.net!

You can download the files directly, or you may use a podcatching software product to download them while you aren't using your computer. You do not need an iPod to listen to the shows. The Simian Syndicate Website links to software and information about how to obtain the PodCasts.

Check it out, check back often, and most of all - Enjoy!

~~ BLUE

28 March 2005

The inaugural Simian Syndicate PodCast! has been placed online! I've spent the past couple of weeks preparing for our new random PodCast show, The Simian Syndicate. With the help of my buddy sleeper, I managed to get a new WordPress blog online with a feedburner RSS2 feed that handles enclosures! This past Sunday Sanity Check Musec, Inc. Recording Artist Leo J. Bailey and I went into the studio at the Naked Acre Compound and recorded our first PodCast.

You may view news, show notes, and download the shows at : PodCast.SanityCheck.net!

You can download the files directly, or you may use a podcatching software product to download them while you aren't using your computer. You do not need an iPod to listen to the shows. The Simian Syndicate Website links to software and information about how to obtain the PodCasts.

We're pleased with the direction things are taking. Drop by, check it out.

~~ BLUE

7 March 2005

As I was preparing to "hole-up" in my studio for the weekend I hustled through one final check of the links on the new SCM site template and I found that the link to the Gallery was incorrect in the body of the message below. We were changing things rapidly while putting the final tweaks to the template last week, and that link took the hit. In direct blasphemy to Internet gods I left this dead link throughout the weekend, please don't have me caged.

As of this morning that link has been fixed, and both the XHTML and CSS for the site have been validated! Woohoo!

In addition to the ongoing work on the SanityCheck.net website, I've been very busy working on the soundtrack score for South Mountain Magic (SMM), written and directed by Dave Dull for Maryland's Antietam Cable. This is the second feature-length soundtrack I've done for Dave, in 2002 I composed and recorded the soundtrack for his motion picture Legends, also for Antietam Cable. Currently a 23.5 minute arrangement of music from the soundtrack is available for free download on our temporary South Mountain Magic download page. It isn't much of a page, it only exists, at this point, to share files between Dave and me, but if you are interested in my quasi-orchestral work, you might consider checking it out. You can't beat the price.

~~ BLUE

4 March 2005

Aw jeah! Is this sexy or what? We've been working on the new design for this site for quite some time. Web technologies, languages in particular, have gone through quite a few changes since we last did a major redesign. For those who work with Web design, you know what I'm typin' about... the severe deprecation of the HTML specifications, the advent of XHTML and the move toward CSS for presentation. These are big changes in the way a site is written, designed and maintained.

In February of 2004 CIHost, our then web host, deleted over 500 MB worth of our content with a faulty maintenance script. We requested a recovery from the backup. They began playing cat and mouse with us, ignoring requests, passing us through dead-end support chains, etc. They gave us the run-around for the better part of 6 months! Ultimately we discovered that the tape backups for which we had been paying all along, did not, in fact, exist. We finally left CIHost and moved to a new hosting company in November 2004.

We moved Babble-on, our online forums at that time, and had them back up and running rather quickly. However the overall redesign has taken far longer than anticipated, mainly due to our lofty goals (but what better reason for delay?) and because we had to get our heads around the changes in Web technologies.

As of this post, you'll find that many of the links go only to "place-holder" pages. This is because we are still laying out the organization of the back-end, though we believe we've accounted for most possibilities. The Sanity Check Photo Gallery is back online, though it currently maintains the old design. As mentioned above, the Babble-on web forums are current and active. In fact the design of Babble-on has inspired the new overall site appearance, what can I say, I dig the way Babble-on looks.

At one time SanityCheck.net was a very large site, much larger than most indie sites, and boasting a whole lot of original content. We had over 100 tiny short films! We plan to bring it all back throughout 2005! All of it, and considerably more! Things are in the works and they are moving rather smoothly, I must say. We will be placing contact information online fairly soon, to include a method for joining our mailing list. We will use that list to update those who are interested as the site grows. From this point on, I suspect there will be rather consistent updates. So please, visit the site regularly, and watch it return to, and then exceed, its' former independent glory!

~~ BLUE