T.bias

T.bias

29p

31 comments posted · 0 followers · following 0

9 years ago @ Tobias Tenney: Web sit... - Specimen · 0 replies · +2 points

I sing on almost all of tracks in various forms, but I would say that I am the "lead vocalist" on the following songs:
–"Electric Ballroom"
–"Lilacs"
–"Play Prey"
–"Fatal Error"
–"Aftershock"

12 years ago @ Tobias Tenney: Web sit... - How to Type an Ellipsi... · 0 replies · +2 points

You have to go into "numbers" mode, then use the period there.

12 years ago @ Tobias Tenney: Web sit... - A Review of Lyrics: Pa... · 0 replies · +2 points

Ah! Many thanks.

13 years ago @ Tobias Tenney: Web sit... - KRYPTOS: NYPVTT = BERL... · 0 replies · +1 points

It is on Zazzle so anyone can order as many as they want.

13 years ago @ Tobias Tenney: Web sit... - Specimen · 0 replies · +2 points

I considered leaving this comment in "moderation" indefinitely, but decided to approve it in the chance that the anonymous commenter might actually come back to engage in a more meaningful manner.

I wish that you had actually used either a name, email address (silliness@yahoo.com is not a valid email; I checked) or other identifier so you could actually elaborate on you odd comment. Your IP address 66.141.168.37, which appears to be in the Dallas, Texas area, doesn't help much.

•For one, you neglected to state who I "completely exclude[ed]", so it is hard for me to address this.

•Secondly, you've made some oddly passive aggressive statements in your short comment that seem to allude to your personal involvement in the project…and of course some direct dissatisfaction with my take on the experience.

That being said, let me attempt to address this as best as I can:

Whom have I excluded?
I don't believe I have excluded anyone in particular. It is my understanding that it was Stephan's idea to get me involved in this project in the first place. I have already thanked him for that. I, of course, thanked Metropolis and Dave specifically for taking this project on even though I was not involved in the details of getting this album into gear on the record label side of things since that deal was exclusively between Jon Klein and Metropolis. There were a few other people I may have left out of my story, but there were many people who assisted along the way and I did not feel that it was necessary to list everyone involved.

If, perchance, you are referring to some people to which I considered very good friends going into this project and parted ways with on not so graceful terms from them, I did not think it appropriate to mention them by name and get into such pedantic public discourse; I would much rather stick to the positives of the experience. (Yes, I did allude to some dissatisfaction with elements of the project, but I generally kept that to basic artistic differences of opinion; e.g., The decision to go with Jon's vocals instead of my own to put forth the "new lead singer of Specimen" in a clear and supportive manner.

Bitter does not describe my feelings about this.
Let me be clear: I am not bitter.

Am I happy about how the experience played out? Definitely not. There were indeed some very exciting elements to this project; if nothing else, I walked away from it with two amazingly good friends (Kimba & Stephan). That being said, the project ended as an emotional and artistic drainthe likes of which I have neer experienced. I stopped writing, performing, recording or doing any music for nearly two years after this project fell apart.

I put my heart into the music. I worked my ass off to make this a very special album with waves of intense apprehension since I was the "new lead singer" for a band that many hold dear to their hearts. Changing the lead singer to a band that many love for a new album is a challenge, at best. I was doing my best to try to not disappoint the devout fans whose eyes were always surrounding me; I did not take this lightly.

In addition to this, I was met with confrontation day in and day out from parties who shall remain nameless. I made frequent calls to friends/bandmates to remind me why I should not quit the project almost every week for the year and a half we worked on this. There were many times I felt it would be best to leave the project instead of swimming upstream with my artwork under my arm, which I hold close to my heart, unclear as to what was going on while I was perpetually met with confrontation.

On top of this, it was my (and I believe Stephan and Kimba) understanding that we would be touring to support this new album. I spent a lot of time, energy, and money (purchasing a lot of gear) preparing for this tour.

After putting my soul into the music as well as my time and energy, I was dumbfounded when the album was purposely brushed under the rug. The album came out with less than a wimper of promotion from the group let alone any fanfare.

Why so sad, T.bias?
This was all made clear when Kimba, Stephan and myself were notified that Jon Klein had reunited with original lineup during the making of the new album, "Electric Ballroom", and would be touring the US with Alien Sex Fiend, but without any of the band members who put together this new album. In a sense, we were all working on a new "Specimen" when Jon was already lining up the old "Specimen", thus making this "new Specimen" defunct. I can understand why Jon would want to tour with an all original lineup, but the back room dealing while everyone involved in the "new Specimen" is prepping for an album release and subsequent tour is just immoral. I like Jon, but this was a horrible decision.

Your comment suggests that I should be privileged to even have worked with a band labeled as "Specimen".
I appreciate that I was able to work with the people I worked with, to be sure. I had fun performing that ONE show which was an unofficial "Specimen" show where we intended to only have fun playing some of the old songs with no plans to go beyond this. I had a blast, people seemed to enjoy it, and it was well recieved enough for someone to want to put out a new Specimen album based on it.

That being said, I really believe that the project that ended up being called "Specimen" who released an album called "Electric Ballroom" was the wrong project to release that album. We should have merely done it as a NEW band.

So your allusion to the fact that I should be happy to have even been part of the "Specimen legacy" is a bit misplaced. I'm very glad to have been a part of that one off show that was more of a really fun one off gig, but to think that I should purely be glad to have been a part of "Specimen" regardless of the turmoil is something I completely disagree with; especially since I firmly believe that the album we recorded was less of a Specimen album than a new and different band of Specimen descent.

In summation, I am not bitter (more saddened and disenchanted), you left out whom I neglected, in your opinion, to credit, and left no way for me to contact you to try to clear this up. I hope this lengthy reply clears things up.

13 years ago @ Tobias Tenney: Web sit... - Hipstamatic on the New... · 0 replies · +2 points

Thank you for the mention of the front facing camera. I updated my blog post to add this to my list of desired features.

I am guessing that Synthetic Corp. will probably just point you to IncrediBooth for all your "front facing camera needs" while they keep in line with their stance to "recreate the experience of using an old analog camera".

I hope they can find the leg room to keep that asthetic while still providing advanced features for people like me who want to take full advantage of their great processing.

They tried to cover that base by releasing a developing app, but I found it to be full of "cute" and lacking in the Actual Usable Tool™ department.

Hopefully the next version of Hipstamatic blows us away.

13 years ago @ Tobias Tenney: Web sit... - Guided by Parasites: T... · 0 replies · +1 points

Thank you very much Bennett.

Do you by chance have any URLs to share?

At some point I will most likely have to do a follow up to this based off of all the comments. Please feel free to send any data my way.

13 years ago @ Tobias Tenney: Web sit... - Guided by Parasites: T... · 0 replies · +1 points

I'm quite sad to hear of this. My condolences.

Was this clearly due to an exposure to cats?

The crazy thing is that Dr. Sapolsky discusses in his other talks that the over use of steroids can severely damage the brain. Specifically, it seems that steroids weaken neurons such that if they are bombarded by another "event", they are much more easily destroyed.

Google Video of his talk; it's about an hour and is one of his more scientific lectures for students rather than his layman discussions:

'Stress, Neurodegeneration and Individual Differences' by Robert Sapolsky
runtime: 1:19:36
10/10/2001 The Grass Traveling Sceintist Program presents Dr. Robert M. Sapolsky of Stanford University's Dept. of Biological Sciences in a seminar sponsored by the Dept. of VCAPP and the Northern Rocky Mtn. Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience.

13 years ago @ Tobias Tenney: Web sit... - Guided by Parasites: T... · 0 replies · +1 points

From the, clearly, all knowing Wikipedia:

"…Rarely, a patient with a fully functioning immune system may develop eye damage or nasal lesions from toxoplasmosis…"

That being said, it could be a mix up. ToxoEye might indeed be a rare case of Toxoplasmosis causing eye damage either by immune disorder or by Chorioretinitis.

(Again, The All Knowing Wikipedia on chorioretinitis lists Toxoplasmosis as a potential cause.

13 years ago @ Tobias Tenney: Web sit... - Guided by Parasites: T... · 0 replies · +1 points

Someone should issue the book such that you can lick certain pages to get Toxo…
…like blotter in the pages of a Timothy Leary paper.

…but I digress.