Thursday, April 16, 2009

2.5 weeks of works and weaks

These last 2 weeks have been a lonely whirlwind for me, both emotionally and, well, emotionally. I mean, on one hand, I shut the entire world down, turned off my phone, and dove head first into finishing all of the packaging for CAGE's new album, "Depart From Me...", working 14-18 hours a day for about 16 days in a row, befriending only my TweetDeck, PeaSoupAnderson's Cheese (courtesy of Kelton Wolfe), occasional podcasts, Tales from the Darkside, and the amazing video-game competition reality show on Sci-fi called WCG Ultimate Gamer. On the other hand, you have EASTER falling right in the middle of my crunchtime. Now, you probably don't know this, as I have never really been too vocal about it, but Easter holds a place in my personal Hell, and not because I got forced to watch Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey while being humiliated by a gang of unshaven babysitters, thought that did happen, but I'm over it. No, the whole Easter thing was a little different. It went something like this:

It was Easter Eve, a saturday, if i remember correctly. My sisters and I were decorating the Easter Tree with our Mother. We were singing Easter Carols...happy, excited, waiting for Dad to get home from work.
A few hours passed, and we started to worry. Dad wasnt home yet. Mom called the office. The said he had left.
After about a week ,the police gave up.
It was snowing outside, even though it was clearly April. The house was cold. I threw some logs on the fire....thats when i noticed the smell.
The firemen came, they broke through the chimney top. We were all waiting, expecting them to pull out some dead cat, or a bird...
Instead, they pulled out my father.
He was dressed in an Easter Bunny costume. He had been climbing down the chimney on Easter Eve, his arms loaded with eggs and candy. He was going to surprise us.
Thats how i found out there was no Easter Bunny.

This is the only picture i have of my father, its from the day they pulled him out. He looks so happy....







Actually, now that i think about it, it was Christmas, and with Santa Claus, and...yah, thats right, it wasnt me, it was Phoebe Cates, and she told me this story when she was in the middle of fighting little monsters. Oh well, you get the point. Maybe.

Regardless, this post is basically just a segue into getting me in the motion of blogging again, since, as I had holed myself in my studio, Twitter has become my only social life. Which i'm completely fine with as I have been getting bombarded with so many videos and articles that basically changed my life. Or didnt, but they could have if i paid attention to them. So thank you to everyone who kept me sane on Twitter while i was going INsane by myself.

Good news is, CAGE artwork and packaging is DONE DONE DONE, and it is the first time in my career that i have had complete freedom and trust from the musician and I think it will show when you finally see the work. The album is incredible and I am really proud of what we put together for the visual side of it.
I can't share too much with you right now, but take a look at an exclusive, highly detailed section of some of the art right below!







I know, its a little blurry, but it's super high rez so maybe if you just wait a while it will finish loading and become more clear.

Either way, I was glad to be a part of the album and I think this album is going to finally raise some eyebrows and get Cage the positive attention he has deserved for 10 years.

Now, with taxes done, Cage done, laundry done, maybe I'll take a day off? Or maybe i will just call Skinner tomorrow and we will paint all weekend until we pass out like my FAVORITE NEWSMAN, Dave Buckner:






Sorry this post was so jumbled. I'll straighten my life out someday. Hopefully soon.
Goodnight.

Alex
ps, follow me on twitter, now. cuz sometimes i'm funny. mostly not, but sometimes...

http://www.twitter.com/alexpardee