...And all good things come to an end.
All the great artists seem to have self-titled albums at some point in their careers. So why should it be any different for someone as great as Sonny Chiba? And if there was any better way to end it all, might as well cement it as something as symbolic as the self-titled album.
As the previous year, this was more of a 2006 and 2007 compilation, and did not actually get finished until 2007 had already started.
My reasons for ending the collection was that I was beginning to feel constrained to a theme - Sonny Chiba is great and all, but I was beginning to run out of ideas, screen captures, and unfortunately, was losing my motivation to give myself such a time-consuming project each year that warranted nothing but a sense of self-accomplishment and sore fingers from all the cutting, folding, and pressing down.
Throughout the previous five years, I always enclosed a message of some sort to those receiving them. And whenever I look back and read through the things I wrote, I realize how they always seem to change throughout the years. The way I see it, there's no point in preaching to the crowd when my own words would soon lose validity in enough time themselves. And if that were to be the case, I didn't want them down in official writing either. That's human nature, however, that things change. I can accept that. And it was time for myself to change, at least with my personal projects. Five was a nice-round number to end things with, and I felt accomplished enough at going five years consistently with hard work, and a tangible product at the end of each. But it was time for a change.
I carefully chose my words for what was going to be the final message to my recipients, and I wanted them to be ones that would be concrete, and ones that wouldn't change, no matter what. I think I accomplished it, when I wrote that:
"Nobody
likes to be told what to do - so I'm not going to tell you to do anything,
and leave you to do whatever the heck you feel like doing with your own
life."
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I still feel strong and truthful to those words, even today.
There were 20 copies of this CD made. I didn't even have 20 recipients in mind. I actually still have several copies left. My, how things change throughout the years.
Artsy Details:
Despite the minimalistic nature of the design of this year's CD, I was pleased with it. I kept to a color scheme (Black, Red, White), and I maintained fonts and consistency throughout. Granted, there was not a lot to worry about deviating from, but the fact of the matter is that it's technically perfect to me.
It was all done in InDesign, with only a little Photoshop work to the sole Sonny Chiba image, shown above, and on the main page, which is on the inside sleeve of the CD.
Like I just mentioned, as far as my standards went, design-wise, this CD was technically perfect - well printed, well executed, and no imperfections. There could be no better way for me to have ended it all with than this.
Playlist:
Out of all the CDs, this one is cram-packed more than any of them. In the end, there were only 11 seconds that went unused.
I also decided to get a little cute with things, as I spliced in audio clips from some of my favorite movies here and there, like from American Psycho, The Karate Kid, and Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. Some splices were better than others, and if I didn't mention that it was spliced, I'm wondering if anyone could tell me where the splice point came in Huey Lewis & The News' Hip To Be Square.
The Fabulous Entourage, is a group out of Brooklyn, New York, and I heard their cover of Tom Jones' Sex Bomb, from a podcast from some comic strip folks while I was up in Maryland for an indy-comic convention. Tracks like these I enjoy, because I support the locals and underground, and I try to spread the stuff I like to others.
Perhaps it's because this was my most recent CD, or maybe I successfully sought the right tracks - but once again, I was pleased with the overall playlist, and it's technically the only CD in my car's player right now. I also I have this still sync'd to my iPod, and I don't find myself skipping tracks too frequently.
- The Fabulous Entourage - Sex Bomb
- OK Go - A Million Ways
- Lady Sovereign - 9 to 5
- Alter Bridge - Metalingus
- Huey Lewis & The News - Hip to Be Square
- Fergie - Here I Come
- Daddy Yankee - Rompe (remix)
- KiSS - War Machine
- The Cardigans- Godspell
- Nelly Furtado - Maneater
- Ludacris - Hip Hop Quotables
- Heart - Crazy On You
- Talking Heads - I’m Not In Love
- All American Rejects - Move Along
- Rilo Kiley - Portions for Foxes
- Skid Row - 18 and Life
- Wyclef Jean - John 3:16
- Fall Out Boy - This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race
- Von Bondies - C’mon C’mon
- New Order - True Faith
- Bitch Alert - Video Killed the Radio Star (another remix)
- Tenacious D - Pick of Destiny
- Cheap Trick - Goodbye
