Stormcellar Band Home Page

Yay we got another one done.

Take a trip through downtown Sydney on a night out with your friends in the stormcellar

So apparently I was anticipating some fails. Two video things I just tried failed to thrive.

While we have some downtime I'm trying to get a few more clips made, one of them involving animation, and that's time consuming, so I started trying to get some outside help. If you've seen some of our previous animated stuff, I can vouch for the fact that it takes many hours of work.

 This one was a mate in Kiwiland doing the drawings and us both doing some animating. It took weeks.

Ditto with Looking Glass, which, thanks to some knock out software online, I was able to do solo.

Takes a while, good result tho' 

Today my latest attempt at a vid for On The Low Low went squirrelly. Not sure if I can fix.

As it's still pre-production, it's not a big thing, but still ARGH. I thought that one had finally cracked and it was on the way.

If the idea doesn't work, pick another one. 

Ah. Also have to come up with another idea.

Animation might be hard but it's still easier than getting these guys into a Band Videoclip :-)

We're still making a concerted effort to Not Talk about some of the World Stuff that's going on.

There's plenty of other coverage and heavens knows we have a firm opinion or two inside the band.

At the same time, we can be more helpful as a refuge from the deluge.

So here's a thought on the usefulness of mistakes.

Here's my updated Project list as at this morning, covering what we've been up to and what we're trying.

So that's roughly 61 Discrete items, let's look at how that's gone:

• 13 items in Concept stage.
• 10 in Development
• 14 Done
• 5 in progress
• 14 Nope
• 6 Retry.

If you do some basic math, stuff that didn't work is roughly 25% of what we try. Stuff we'd like to do is almost 50%  of what's going on and less than 10% is what we're actually doing.

To get something done, we need to:

• Think of it
• Research it
• Plan it
• Organise it
• Schedule it
• Fund it
• Do it.

The initialism is TRPOSFD :-)

Of course, reality being what it is there's also:

• Redoing it
• fixing it
• finishing it.

I often write here, in brief, about our regular Faceplants.

Failure is instructive. Also: amusing.

As someone who transposes verses, forgets the occasional word and is guilty of countless other transgressions again timing and tone, I can only offer an acknowledgement and a grin.

Error is part of the statistics, it's part of the process.

As the same someone who also attempts to schedule Large Number of Musicians, Luck is a factor. Oh boy oh boy is it a factor.

Leads me to the viewpoint that anything we get done, is, another minor miracle :-) Hallelujah!

Seen over the distance of a decade at this, we can count a whole lot of things that Didn't Work. Samples equal a wave form right?

Over the course of time, you follow the signal. You get a little noise along the way.

The thing that comes to me this week, is that we've made lots of mistakes. Lots of terrific mistakes.

Maybe Bob Ross is rubbing off on me.

We're hoping to make some more good mistakes this year.

Mr Wizard and yours truly sat down to check our charts yesterday, outside the stormcellar the weather stations are reporting strange weather.

Northern reports of turbulence, Southern reports of heat. Ought to be interesting at the boundaries.

We review where we are at and what we are up to on a regular basis.

When the times become more variable, we check more often.

Skirting some of the more difficult weather patterns leads to a smoother voyage. All indicators are for mid year variability, thus we're planning out our course in small increments.

Next Ports

I'm keen to make a few new videos, I still have footage waiting for additional footage...or a better solution, and plenty of other scripts I'd do if we could.

When the opportunity arises we get done what we can. That's fitting.

Live show development is progressing too, expect to see a few more additions and re-arrangements over the next shows. It's working well and sounds pretty darn good.

We're in pre-production on a few additional projects, which usually consists of a lot of research. What a great time for Information Aficionados.

Looks like the next few weeks will be research and development and then we'll see. I expect a few new items to emerge.

Once they're declassified from this Privacy Oriented Band, I will post'em up here :-)

Hello my lovely boys, it's been to long since last had contact, what on account of that restraining order.

But let's let gone byes begone me lads, it's Roger, your old manager and I'm back on top me lads and I'm taking you with me.

Now you know I had a little trouble on account of that unsubstantiated Armadillo smuggling operation and I wound up doing some time in a nice upstate US...err....Hotel.

I met this top bloke called Paul something or other, he seems to be well connected me lads, and he promised me if I smuggled some messages out from him that he'd hook us up with some right proper pals in Europe.

Now your old mate Roger loves you so much I stuck those USB right up where the Armadillo goes and when I checked out, I rushed right over to the internet cafe and spoke to a really nice bloke called Yuri.

I'm negotiating a tour right this very minute, they say they're sending some people around to collect me and take me to the embassy.

Now I know we've had our differences of opinion over the years me lads, but I've turned a new fence and all that other stuff is water under the leaf.

Stick with me boys, this tour will put me back on top, and restore your faith in your old mate Roger.

Now darnt worry if some things happen with your social media and the website, my mate Paul has put me onto a specialised agency overseas and they really like the video for Heavy Weather.

Just to show you me good faith, here's a letter me mate Yuri got from his mates in Europe, somewhere near Korea I think he said. 

Things are on the up and up me lads, stay staunch.

love

Roger.

EDIT: - MJEB here. Roger got in again, so I have tightened security one more time. I ran this letter through a translator, it's in Ukrainian, goes like this:

November 22, 2016

Roger Onbestand

Manager

Bourgeois band "Stormcellar"

This is a good video from com. Putin, whom we consider to be good in Ukraine, because he is strong and his pants are also very strong.

This video is so funny and this song is so good that we would like to invite you to Crimea on behalf of the program of cultural ties, where you will be very safe all the time and will not be abducted to bring you to Russia and to explain that this video means

Comrade Putin believes this video is very funny, but we do not know him. He would personally ask you for an autograph. Are you allergic to penicillin?

As a goodwill gesture, our technical department began to work well with the computer. Do not be afraid if the mouse moves by itself. All is well.

Thank you for sending this funny video, and we look forward to hearing from you at the Gulag.

Sincerely Ivan is a non-Russian agent.