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Sunday, February 1, 2009

Dead Media! Funny Sounds! And Cigarettes!

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This week's Random Access Thought is an encore performance featuring the return of the THE DEAD ARE AMONG US Guy with more announcements of technological dead ends, including legacy devices like serial ports, the Western Union Telegram and primordial electronic organizers, such as the Sharp Zaurus and the Palm Pilot along with primitive video game consoles like the Nintendo Gameboy. The special feature first aired in April 2008 and features commentary from Marilyn Krasnov, her Mom Mother Radio (Beverly Krasnov) and her father Boleslov. Marilyn's enigmatic brother Cigman makes a cameo appearance in this Random Access Thought piece.
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As a sidebar, Cigman has been trying to quit smoking. For anyone out there who pays any attention to the intentionally obscure minutiae deposited deep within the RAT programs and promos and the QSL, Twitter and KXKVI commercials, Cigman was a three pack a day smoker,just like my Mother and Father were. Since December of last year, Cigman has avoided the cigs. Here's hoping that he won't relapse. It's tough being a smoker since in a recent promo announcing our KXKVI TWIAR podcast portal for wireless devices, Cigman and his sistu Marilyn are dining in a nice restaurant where smoking is certainly not allowed. It would appear that video games have replaced the butts.
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Speaking of TWIAR promos, I devised a new TWIAR QSL promo which features Bix, his father Mister Nix, Mother Radio and Marilyn. There is an inexplicable reference to gym shorts after Bix's shortwave radio vaporizes which goes largely unexplained. If you're curious about this audio neutrino, send me an e-mail.
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The electric shock vaporizing sound I created a few years back for my "When the Repeater Blows Up, Will Anyone Notice" RAT. To give the shock sound more meat, the effect was uber-compressed. The Mother Radio Whack Noise is actually a vintage Disney effect that I've tracked back to Peter Pan which I believe debuted in 1937. Nomadic sound editors apparently exported this clip across town to the UPA Pictures and Hanna Barbera sound effects libraries. This particular effect got some discussion in an animated cartoon forum which I took part in a while back.
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http://forums.toonzone.net/archive/index.php/t-184789.html
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The quasi-musical electronic backdrop behind Marilyn's QSL Card pitch was generated on a Nintendo DS Lite portable video game console using the KORG DS-10 Synthesizer program. These noises were then salad tossed in with other analogs that I had developed previously. The are two versions of the promo, one for TWIARi, the other for TWIAR. The differences are subtle but if you enjoy sound design, you may find it all quite interesting.

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