The Man, the Myth... the goofy clothing...
Crit or Myth (a 2020 release)
Crit or Myth? It’s a Crit. The year is 2020 (which is a double crit) , and January 25th this year is auspicious in many ways...
I had been wanting to put out a CD of AD&D oriented music for some time. My first campaign character ended up being a first edition Bard, and after all these years, I haven't let that go. The year 2020 provided me with as good an excuse as any. I have put several versions of this collection in many places available on the internet... each is a little different with the extras that may come with it, but all contain the same great music. Most of the versions come with an old school dungeon that I wrote back in 1979 for a Judges Guild contest. I re-edited it and added my own art, but it is still pretty bad. Some of the versions also come with video of me singing some other fantasy type songs in performance. Amazon - This version is a physical music CD, with a physical 24 page booklet that contains the dungeon mentioned above. Amazon Music - This is just the music files for download. They are the same files available on CDBaby. Bandcamp - This site is all about downloads, but the dungeon and video mentioned above are part of the album package. CDBaby - This site has both music downloads like Amazon Music does, and it stocks physical copies of the discs I have for Faires. These are hybrid type discs that are made to play in CD players, but they also have data files on them for computer CD drives. So, they have both the dungeon and video. Drive Thru RPG - I thought I would try something new, so I have submitted to this site. Again, there is the music, the dungeon, and video, plus a 3D printer file for a special Crit or Myth d20. Looking for a CD review? Try this link. |
Upcoming Mythinterpretations
I have the disc for Mythinterpretations for my traveling merchandise competed. I'm just working on the online version with packaging now. Since Amazon Media on Demand has not been been impressing me with their commitment, nor competence, I am not hurrying my efforts. It will eventually become physically available online whenever it happens. Until I actually release the CD for general consumption, here is one of its many tracks:
This song was written for/inspired by the Chafing Armor Podcast, specifically episode 45. Otherwise, it makes little actual sense. It's about Baba Yaga's Hut, in a D&D campaign from the point of view of townsfolk. You can also listen to the album and purchase it on Bandcamp after it is officially released on 1 April 2019, but you can get faire copies directly from me earlier than that directly from me. What is a faire copy? I pack extra content onto Faire CDs that you may not realize is there.
You can tell my Faire CDs from others by the words “Music and Data CD”
printed on the disc’s face. Most (but not all) of my CDs come in
two versions. The ones purchased online have all the tracks you expect
and what I think is pretty slick packaging in a fancy jewel case with
pictures, drawings and text telling you about the CD. Because I pack in
all my wares to faires by hand, the CDs that I take are streamlined for weight and
easy transportation on my person in durable clamshell cases. Those discs
have all the same audio tracks you expect, but there is extra content
included for your computer as well. Pop the disc into your CD drive and
open up the included mini web site with your browser to access things
that did not make it onto the regular CD playlist. Things you may find
are samples of music from other CDs of mine, or alternate versions of
songs, music that didn’t make the cut, video (like the one above), or maybe pdf files of
lyrics or entire song books. You have to look to find out the extra
stuff. Why the difference in CDs? Well, most CD replication services
just are not set up to create hybrid CDs. The ones purchased online
never touch my hands, so I can’t oversee the process. The ones I package
myself get everything I can pack on them... plus they cost me less to
produce, so it’s my thank you to you for supporting my art at Faire. |
Amazon Mythappropriates - Some back story
It has been a while since I have released a CD, but now I am gathering some files together to do just that. In the past, I have sold CDs on Amazon through createspace.com, but that site has been subsumed by Amazon who has not seen fit to afford me the ability to have control over my own creative content. The control and content from createspace never migrated to my amazon media account, and so I cannot do things like set prices, remove titles from circulation, or even redirect royalty payments. Amazon media on demand has made vague excuses and then seemingly done nothing about it. They have had many months to fix this, and I see no excuse why someone could not have simply located my files and put them in my account by hand in that time. Obviously they do not care that they have basically stolen my property. I cannot trust them with my future content, and so I will only be initially offering this disc in person. |
Welcome Aboard The Flying Dragon
Christopher Condent, the pirate, forced the surrender of a Dutch privateer ship, and renamed her The Flying Dragon. Yep, I couldn't get an actual ticket to that, so I am attempting to bring The Flying Dragon to me. .That is how I spent some time in the captain's cabin on Halloween. |
M-M-Mages
Release Party
![]() This coming weekend is the release party for my newest CD, Mythtakes. Some people call this event the Medieval Fair of Norman, but we know better. Remember there are two versions of each of my CDs. The ones with fancy packaging are about $15 online, and the clamshell CDs are $10 at faire. Why the difference? For one, the clamshells are more compact and lighter to carry... Plus, they are special in that I put a lot more content on them specifically to be read by your computer. My CD service won't do that. Also, without all the packaging and handling, I can afford to sell them to you cheaper. But, if want to pick up a pretty copy online you can go to Createspace.com to order yours today. Coming to the release party? That will be from April 1st through the 3rd in Reeves Park, Norman, Oklahoma. I'll be there and I've invited about 300,000 of my closest friends to celebrate the whole weekend. I've got you on the guest list, no need to check in with the front desk. ![]() |
Heraldry?
Azure, on a chevron or, between three lions passant gardent or, three crosses pattee sable. The above is a depiction of one of the arm associated with the name Fowler (with a lot of liberties that I've taken with everything except the field). This is not my family crest... because we know there is no such thing as a family crest, and what we call a coat of arms is actually known as an armorial achievement, and a "coat of arms" is an actual coat. Still, it can be entertaining to pretend and reimagine ancient times, so I use the rule of tinctures to teach concepts of value, contrast and color regarding visibility and recognizability. Most people just don't know how to make a good sign. I use various resources to facilitate teaching the concepts, and I thought I might post my basic handouts here below. the one marked Heraldry is a 4 page 11" x 17" double sided fold out folder for their work to be placed in when they are not working on it. The escutcheons sheet is a double sided page of shield shapes. |
The Stone Troll, The Chilly Fox, and the Squirrely Troubadour
The Stone Troll is from Tolkien, the fox is the traditional melody, and the Troubadour is me. Oh, the nuisance of copyright. Here is one small adventure of making a new CD. It has been a while since I created a new Faire CD. (I'm not counting my "Bootleg" Edition since it is just cobbled together from stuff I wasn't using, and it doesn't sell through any official sources anyway.) I have been producing Christian work for a goodly number of years as recording conventions have changed... at least for me, they have. Now I can record lyrics and music on multiple separate tracks and mix them together at the end. Once upon a time it was more like, here's an open mike performance... let's add another track or two and mix them down, repeat, etc. It's still like voodoo, but more refined because I can go back and edit more stuff later. That's all great for the mechanics of it but it does not cover musical content. I have three choices when recording any marketable material:
First, I can use public domain materials. Shakespeare, Folk songs, old broadside lyrics, and other old stuff offers quite an array to select from. I can even make derivative works from such stuff, like setting the lyrics of Amazing Grace to the melody of House of the Rising sun. The first is a poem that has had at least 20 melodies associated with it over the centuries, and the second is one of those old folk songs. (No, The Animals did not write the song.) If it is over ninety-five years old, it is fair game. Second, I can write my own material. I do that too. I pop a few chords together and I have a new melody for something old. Writing lyrics is actually a bit more difficult, but if I have a theme, and a literary direction, it becomes easier. I find that writing comedy is more difficulty than sentiment in this respect. This process takes longer, requiring much more time.
Third, I can acquire the rights for something already out there. This is a copyright work around allowing people to record that song that they may have heard on the radio or television. Theoretically anyone can gain what is called mechanical rights to record a song in the United States. There are several stipulations, but the compulsory price is not very high, and there are collection agencies on the internet willing to do it for about $15 a song plus the 9.1 cents per copy stipulated by law.
Here is what I wanted. Tolkien wrote several songs, and I wanted to include a version of the Stone Troll (or Sam's Rhyme of the Troll) on my new CD. As a part of his Lord of J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, I figured it would be a nice literary balance to go along with two songs that I had written, one about Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea, and another inspired by Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn. Tolkien had published it in multiple sources and had mentioned that it went to the melody of an old folk song. From the meter, that song seems to have been The Fox Went out on a Chilly Night.
So, how to acquire the rights? I found a couple of online agents and searched their database. No joy there, so I filled out the online forms and contacted them. Then, I did get a false hit on the Stone Troll from the Lord of the Rings movie, but I had to inform them that it was Tolkien's work that I was interested in, not the movie background music. Really, it should not be this difficult. So, I went online again and did some digging. I have found at least four different recordings of this song made under the proper copyrights, but two of them were made outside the U. S. and so compulsory mechanical rights laws do not apply. One of the remaining two is part of a larger literary performance, and therefore compulsory mechanical rights laws again do not apply. And, none of them use the melody of The Fox Went out on a Chilly Night, which makes the last one useless as well, because compulsory mechanical rights laws do not include derivative works. Here, using the intended melody is considered changing the melody.
i could go with the Ace books defense whereby the Lord of the Rings was considered to be public domain in the United States for a brief while back in the 60s. But, as much as I would like to claim ignorance of the details, and that I have a copy of said printing, it would ultimately be self serving and, i feel, unethical.
Meanwhile, I had recorded music to go along with the eight verses of Tolkien's song, but after doing all of these agent's research for them, I determined that we will have to all wait until the year 2043.
And so I changed my research to the possibility of other lyrics to go with the music that I had already recorded. Interestingly enough, as folk songs go, the meter is rather unique, which means if I was going to use the music for a folk song, it would need to be
The Fox Went out on a Chilly Night. Not my favorite song, but I already had the music ready to go. I trimmed the recording down to seven verses and recorded away. Not bad but... After balancing it out and listening to it a few times, I decided that these lyrics just do not do it for me. I've got songs about mermaids and wizards and unicorns, and I already have a Fox song with a more El Zoro theme. This song may have history, but it has never made my hit parade.
And so, I have this music... and a pencil... new lyrics it is... the working title for the new six verse song is The Folk Song. Until the next CD, here's The Fox Went out on a Chilly Night (below).... because I already have it recorded. So... no troll, no fox... instead I have a new song about an old song. |
How to Medieval Inexpensively
Bryan Nash posted a link to this video on facebook. I watched it all the while thinking, "hey, I did a diagram something like this some years back when I was thinking about multiple character garb for cheap." Well, I found the diagram in a pile of sketches, and here it is: After finding it, I thought, why not add more to it?... Last week I doodled a booklet... I hope y'all find it useful in some way. You can download the booklet below. |
Renaissance in Texarkana
This past week I experienced the privilege of working with the Texarkana Renaissance Faire. While many smaller faires struggle to survive the rigors of a world that has multiple entertainment opportunities, I feel that this faire has a great shot at the long haul. It seems large enough to sustain momentum, but now past its fourth year, it will need to keep growing, bit by bit. Spirit are high, and the main struggle that I foresee will be getting the word out to their local community. I was very glad to see many of the staples of the faire experience represented, from sca boffing to horse rides and acrobatic juggling performers as well as two royal courts. With all of this were added the fae contingent of fairies, a Minotaur, several mermaids, a magical fox and even a unicorn. Plus pirates, like bacon, they enhance. I was part of the musical contingent. Welcome to Neverland. At first nonplussed by Saturday's gate opening when the patrons slowly trickled in, I noticed that they kept coming in at a similar rate all day long. Huzzah! And best of all, most stayed for the long haul. The traffic remained steady up until the end. That is great for the merchants, who we must concede are the real backbone of a faire. A steady stream means never being overwhelmed. I hope their sales coincide. As I often do, I spent much of my time seeking those spots with less faire performance life in order to add some background entertainment. Blessed by passersby who stop to listen or chat, I got a bit of a feel for the diversity of the audience. Of note were a couple who were off to meet with a dragon, the young child who wanted to play my kobza, and who's grandparent snapped us together in a picture with her pretending to play, and a quiet gentleman who had no favorite type of song but just wanted to sit and listen to whatever I might play. The fantasy is in you all, we are just here to help elicit it. We watch you as much as you watch us. Characteristically, I left home the morning of the faire. Texarkana hit my radar through a listing on Meistersrealm, and I had noticed that it is on the very outskirts of my travel range. But, that meant that I had to leave at about 4am, so I was already a bit travel worn when I arrived in time for the 9am meeting. The talk was to the point, mostly logistics with a little pep, and mercifully, uncharacteristically for some faires, brief. Please keep that up. There was no similar meeting on Sunday, so thank you also for trusting your performers to figure it out. There was always room to move along and perform wherever we wished. Backstage is where one often hears the best and worst. What I heard was playful. We even exchanged a riddle or two. That says volumes. In a fantasy world, the spirits must remain high. Take it from a former Disney cast member, that is not always so. Plus, thank you Texarkana Faire for the great piles of water bottles. I downed about eight or ten of them when the weather did get a bit warm. Now, I did pack street clothes, but truthfully, I did not change into them for the whole weekend. Much of the cast went out en mass on Saturday night, but while it was a mass exodus, it was in small groups, so as a solo I was a bit lost sitting alone at the bar. Thank you to the few who came over from their tables to say a quick hello; you made me feel welcome. I did get to talking with some of the locals there about all of the strangely clothed patrons, and found out that none of them knew about the faire. One of the restaurant staff even asked if there was a LARP event going on, and some wanted to know if there was jousting. Sadly, no and no, but I did manage to pique their interests, and tell them that I fully expected to see them on Sunday. I then retired to the hotel for the evening before I managed to turn into a pumpkin. Thank you Texarkana Faire for the nice room and board. I met more interested folk at breakfast. Dressing the part first thing in the morning attracts some interesting looks, often followed by questions. All in all, I probably talked with a dozen locals who did not know about the faire and told them to come look me up there. Oh, the difficulty of marketing in a modern world. Word of mouth only works within social circles, and in a crazy world where one can choose their own data stream it becomes difficult to be seen by a public that is used to skipping commercial content. What can one do? The spectacle will sell it, so keep the faith Texarkana. You have arrived, keep the ball in play, and your base will keep growing. I can only hope that my small efforts send some your way. |
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