Finding that spot in the sun

Finding that spot in the sun: By Dani Random



Finding that spot in the sun where you can bathe and bask and not quite burn. A place where you go and the air flows free, that place of stillness, a welcome break for a creature like you and me.
"Crippled, bent, broken, riddled and torn, I have the cure if you'd just hear me out over a cup of sweet black blood tea."
Standing at the oh-so-familiar crossroads that I had visited over the centuries, I shook my head and gave out the usual sigh. "Every time it's the same boring, rattling, lame old speech, Derek!"
Derek was a Crossroads Demon, pretty much your standard deal-making demon for fame, fortune, power, and life extensions. He dragged his cane through the dusty sun-scorched ground and drew a line. "Go on then - cross the line if you dare, Dani Boy!"
"Seriously? Are we doing this right now Derek? Surely you've got better things to be doing like, oh I don't know, ripping souls out of people's bodies for the hell of it?"  I shouted, placing my one hand on my hip.
Derek flung his head to one side as if a major insult had slapped him across the face. "You know that makes you look gay, right?" 
I gritted my teeth and seethed. "OK, whatever, Derek, we'll do it your way if makes you happy." I slowly hobbled my way over to him and broke the line by rubbing my foot through it. "There. Happy now? I've crossed the line. I've broken the boundaries between worlds. I've crossed from the purist light into the eternal darkness. Blah blah blah..."
Derek whipped his head round.  "Do it properly or don't do it at all" he demanded as he smoothed his hair back into place.
My shoulders dropped and I let out another sigh. "OK. From the top, but with feeling this time."  Derek nodded and smiled smugly.
"I crossed the line. I broke the boundaries between worlds. I crossed from the purist light into the eternal darkness. I call upon you, dark demon."
Derek interrupted - "I call upon you oh great dark demon!"
"Oh my God, Derek! Really! Did the Hell Hounds use your cereal bowl as a litter tray again?"
I turned and shuffled over to a small wooden bench, paint peeling and bleached by the sun, and slumped onto it. "Just juice me up Derek and put it on my tab... please?"
"Why you insist on doing the whole 'calling up from the dark below' is beyond me - I texted you like an hour ago to meet here and you were here waiting for me. You were here before me, Derek!"
Derek walked over, pulled his handkerchief from his top pocket, unfolded it, and placed it on the bench before sitting down. A few empty seconds passed.
"I didn't make quota last month", he said, staring straight out into the desert. I turned and tilted my head to one side.
"You didn't make quota?"  I said with some surpise and raised eyebrows.
"Nope - first time since the Black Death."
I joined Derek's fixed gaze out into the emptiness. "Damn, Derek, I'm sorry to hear that. How is Lucy by the way?" I politely enquired. Derek sniffed.  "She's a little irritable - you know full of fire, a tad cranky. She sends her best as always." I smiled. "I never did understand why she likes you so much, I mean look at you - a failing mess of blood, bone and gristle. A five year life extension on rotation I might add, hardly worth one's presence... no offence, of course."
Taking in a deep lungful of the desert night's cold air, I replied. "I fight fire with fire, Derek, what can I tell ya? She likes the heat of my kitchen and I make some mean hot chicken wings."
He turned back to stare out into the darkness. "Hm" he remarked disdainfully. "Well she does like her little pets."
I was slightly puzzled, I'd never seen Derek quite so worked up in all the years that had flowed by. "Hey man, you're really worried about this aren't you?"
Derek jerked his head up high, jutted his chin out,  and ran his finger around the inside of his collar. "To say I'm worried would be a regrettable insight on the matter, but yes I am somewhat uncomfortable with my current situation and I may have to seek a counselor for professional advice."
I pulled my phone from my pocket and clicked the calendar app. "I can fit you in next Tuesday around four o'clock - that work for you?" Derek brushed a hand across his leg and stood up, picked the handkerchief up from the bench and neatly folded it back into his breast pocket. "Tuesday will be fine. Here - payment in advance." He clicked his fingers and vanished.
I shook my head in disbelief of his arrogance - which you would have thought I would have been used to by now - and threw my Zimmer frame into the back of the truck, jigged on the spot and shouted out into the night.
"Yeah, see you next Tuesday... Derek."

X Rated Electronic Music

 All Bets are off (TRACK)

 I'm Your Biggest Fan (TRACK)

 Follow The Evidence

 How Many Horses

 It's been nice to make 4 or 5 short X Rated video bloggers, nice in the respect that I can just do them straight off with no faffing about.  It also allows me to use lots of new Glitch art clips and odd effects of which is a major bonus.
Pictured above in order top to bottom are screen shots from 4 new pieces of music I've been playing with.  Two drone scapes one ambient and "Follow the evidence" which really has got a thing going on! 

[There are 2 links for 2 of these tracks added with the art work.]

May run the odd X Rated Surreal blogs on and off - Dawson/Kate is having a well deserved time out and a spring clean!  As an independent artist of mixed flavors I have to split off and produce a range of things rather than just one thing {boring} I make a lot so I give a lot.

Although Kate has proved to be a highly liked character and has build a small and humble following, I still need the time out to work on other projects.  In other words the Cross-dressing still continues - You just don't get to see it... Yet...!  So I'm more or less just about the music at the minute.  It's not as rewarding as Kate in views or comments etc... But rewards come in many different forms and feeling :)

Multiple Sclerosis Brain Melt

To make it perfectly clear if I upload a video about my Multiple Sclerosis it's NEVER for sympathy!
They are uploaded to either gain awareness give support to others or for my own study of the disease.
As the proud owner of said disease I am interested in how it effects my body and mind over time.  I can actually learn a lot about it just by watching myself back, and in return see where I am losing ground.
Recently somebody commented they liked the way I speeded my videos up!
The reason behind that is because I talk very very slowly, so you either get a video of me talking a normal speed which would make a standard video say six minutes long or I speed it up and you get four minutes and something that sounds normal and a little bit comical to the ear.
You have to work the illness in your favor - make the most of it - use it as it uses you...!
Unless you have the illness you can't know what its like on a mental or physical level.

Hopefully in some small way this will show you one side of the many faces of MS.

LOKI

YouTube Video Link

Starting over

So I thought it would be a good idea to start the year with the last video from 2015 that I didn't get time to finish, but if I'm honest it actually works better this way.
I wanted the video to be more of a clean slate, and a fresh start of a new line of video.
I've invested more into my music software this year to give me the chance to develop my sound tracking skills, writing small pieces of ambient styled tracks.

Which gives me plenty of scope to come up with some equally interesting looking videos.

Imaginary Album The Children of Loki

This project was ultimately started to push myself in the writing and recording of sounds or short musical sounds bites.
I've developed quite a keen interest in incidental music.
"Music used in a film or play as a background to create or enhance a particular atmosphere."
In some cases its harder than it sounds..! 
It becomes a battle and puzzle of wills of which comes first the Chicken "Footage" or the egg "Music."
How do you go about writing a piece of music to fit what your actually watching?
Is it going to flow with the footage, is it going to make any sense, should it make any sense?
Should I write real time to the footage and soundtrack & score as the footage unfolds?

Needless to says each piece out of the four presented there individual problems.
This has been a very "Sound" project and one I'm sure I will continue to explore.
Perhaps in time I'll work on a second Imaginary Album and see what emerges...

SoundCloud Link
YouTube Video Link

Sorry about the ad running I will try to sort that out, it shouldn't be there!
But someone is claiming that "Nosferatu" is theirs even tho its out of copyright date as far as I know!

lOki 

Sci Fi Fest Yeovilton Fleet Air Arm Museum 2014

Click Here For YouTube Video Link
A totally amazing day out...
I saw a lot of happy little kids and a lot more happy big kids LOL...

Art Installation Hourglass Hard Boiled Ambient

From time to time there are a few people that have the balls to contact me and ask if I might make them one of my more abstract or avant-garde art looking videos.
A couple of months ago one such person did contact me and sent me a piece of their music in the style of ambience.
Ambient tracks can be somewhat of a nightmare when producing a music video, due to the fact that an ambient track can last anywhere from ten mintues to hours in length!
You think I'm joking...Trust me ambient is very easy when composing to simply get lost into.
Your music and your mind become the living dream of soft atmospheric melodies.
Here's a little copy and paste of the email I received from the creator of the music "Hourglass"

"Ok this is 9.30 long...really sorry, however you have great filling skills
i'm sure...
This is called Hourglass btw feat poet Matt Lovegrove, Matt is very dark."

Huh...! 9:30...! Dam girl... Dark...Good...
I've produced videos before now of this length, but the editing and time factors are huge.
When dealing with such mountains I always look for the quickest way to climb and use what I'm given to construct my video.
Hourglass + Eggs + Boiling water = Video.
Althougth I did admittedly have to chop a minute off the end of the track and gentle fade, due to the time frame of the eggs boiling.
There was no loss to the music itself, because of the repetitive nature of the style of music.

Natraully I can't resist adding my little strange black and white character that pops up now and then in such videos as this one. 
He is this rather bizzare blend of a Japanese horror character with a twist of Marcel Marceau.
He has appeared before in a few other videos such as Holding Cell and the Kraken videos.
I used some interesting looking effects this time round and played about with green screen by simply spraying a small canvas green and overlayering footage onto that green canvas and finally turned it to black and white. 
Totally cost to make this video was £36 or roughly $58 and six eggs...!

On a final note it was said not that long ago in a comment that some of my work had the feel of an "Art Installation"  Which I thought was rather lovely and so I have selected a few video's that I have made over the years and made a new playlist on YouTube called "Art Installation"
I hope at some point you get to go through them and have a watch...
Please vist the Soundcloud link on the YouTube video itself and support the artist and his music.
And please share on any media site... Every little helps new artists ideas and concepts get noticed.

YouTube Video link