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  • Writer's pictureBlueOrthodox
    • Apr 5, 2019
    • 2 min read

Lightning in a Bottle

For anyone into music, a band most people would at least recognize Gorillaz. The UK based "virtual band" head-manned by Damon Albarn of Blur fame with animation and ads by Tank Girl creator Jamie Hewlett has been a part of contemporary music for the better part of almost two decades. Some would, and fairly so, classify them as a super-group, getting more and more guest vocalists and producers involved to to further the bands sound, as the whole concept is to make music for a world that doesn't exist. With such a lofty undertaking, a group of minds is better than a giant solo project. How Gorillaz started can be linked back to Damon Albarn being influenced by the sounds of Hip-Hop/Trip-Hop producer Dan the Automator and Del the Funky Homosapien's collaborative project, Del-Tron 3030. The connection is in the self-titled debut for Gorillaz.


^Sample of music from the concept Hip-Hop album Del-Tron 3030.


Damon Albarn had done a simple vocal sample performance for Del-Tron 3030, but the trio were inspired form each other's work. Dan the Automator had been crafting concept albums since his introduction with the Dr. Octagon project, another collaborative project with Kool Kieth in 1996. Del was similarly on a creative peak around this time, what with Del-Tron 3030 and plenty of solo efforts to establish himself at the time. Having worked with both Dan and Del before on Del-Tron, Damon saw an opportunity to bring the Gorillaz project to life.


The band's single, Clint Eastwood(above), was an international best selling single, instantly putting the band on the map. It's no coincidence Del is featured on this track. Dan the Automator produced the entire album, crafting a unique sound for the concept for the world where the Gorillaz exist, that being a wasteland or purgatory. The concept of the band was spawned from Damon and Jamie watching MTV and commenting that it was a vapid wasteland. While the debut is anything but a wasteland of creativity (still one of my favorite albums of all time, if a bit indulgent), it gave Dan the creative fuel to put together the incredibly varied sounds to encompass the feeling of traversing this world.


Without these three meeting one another through their mutual respect for each other's previous works, we might not have gotten the Gorillaz we did. It's a rare thing to see three artists at their creative peaks come together and feed off of each other's influence to craft the sound they did on this, and many other projects in the future. Still, Gorillaz and their debut album, stand tall as the introduction to the world and band and without Dan the Automator's production, Del's playful energy and creative lyrics and Damon's name recognition and added production and vocal performances, this album doesn't happen.


It stands very much as a lightning in a bottle! Get it?

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  • Writer's pictureBlueOrthodox
    • Mar 29, 2019
    • 2 min read

Twisting Tales with Twine

Recently for my Writing for Digital Media class I had to write a hypertext story, or Interactive Fiction, to my liking. This was quite the undertaking, as I am the furthest thing for the best programmer. Using guides and inspiration from previous creative efforts I was able to compile a story that I'm very satisfied with.


The story is called Playing Through Ethereal and acts as my own fantasy universe. The initial inspirations for this idea came out of a few older projects which I decided to piece-meal together the best parts of into one more cohesive universe. The setting is set in the world of Ethereal, a fantasy world made up of large biomes called Perils, each with their own theme and set of challenges and creatures. The ultimate question left unanswered across the world's Havens(towns), Sanctuaries(cities), and Reigning Sanctuary(capital of the Peril, usually the center of power of the land). That's just a basic rundown as to not get too bogged down in specifics as it's still very much in-development.


^Above is a picture of the video game, Kenshi, and their character creation process. Much like here, I attempted to create a full-fledged RPG experience before realizing I didn't have enough time to do it properly. Specifically, I wanted the class the player chooses to impact how they interact with the world, as different elements of the world would become relevant to different classes, encouraging multiple playthroughs.


The greatest challenge I faced with the project was scope. I really want to do this concept justice, but just didn't have enough time to build out all of the potential classes and class-specific scenarios that would've encouraged replayability. Much like Kenshi, or any other traditional RPG, the character selection should impact how the world interacts with you. In this case, I tried to execute just that, and had a decent base to go off of, but the fully realized version of that concept will be somewhere down the line.


The final project is certainly more of an existential question than anything grounded in fiction. This was done just on a whim, as I've been having my own questions about certain aspects of my life, but I'll leave it to you to see for yourself. Overall, I had a lot of fun reacquainting myself with Twine and completing something in the world of Ethereal!

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  • Writer's pictureBlueOrthodox
    • Mar 8, 2019
    • 3 min read

Growing-Up Plugged In

I was recently tasked with undertaking a remix assignment where I had to compile established media together and create something new out of it. It couldn't be some amalgamation of random junk for the the sake of finishing the project though. There had to be substance beneath the remixing of ideas. I decided to do a video where I picked snippets of a video games, films, and music videos during an impressionable age as a time machine back to a young Max.


^The video in question. WARNING: It does contain some mature content.^


I got the inspiration to do this project from the handful of times I've gone back through my extensive Favorites list on YouTube. In it, I realized just how much of my progression as a person is tracked through the activity on my feed. I distinctly remember my attitude towards the world around me through clusters of videos. This is both a good and bad thing as it depends on what was going on in my life around those times. In the video, I try to convey that sense of changing throughout the stages in the video.


During the course of the project we had a couple of parameters to follow and one we had to break. I decided to break the "3 sources from at least 2 media types," as I wanted to delve deep into my past likes, dislikes and rabbits holes I went down as I grew up. It's a comment on how technology molded me as a person, for better or worse, which I'm still trying to determine. This meant diving into the meany mediums I frequent, so instead of 2 media types, I opted for 3.


This was by no means a cake walk. I stayed up a few late nights hammering out just the right pacing and tone for each stage, as each should convey a particular mindset I was in at the time. The video is structured from ages 8 to different intervals all the way up to 20. This is deliberate because I had a conflicted upbringing during many of my teenage years and so the content I consumed around 15, 17 and 19 aren't exactly feel-good-hits of the summer.


I always knew YouTube was going to be the platform I released this to. I've grown up the platform, having had my account since 2011, and still use it actively today for content and consumer purposes. Plus, I wanted to challenge myself with this format. I had never done a formal montage before. Structuring it and finding the right content were the hardest obstacles to overcome. It took some soul-searching, too. Some trips down memory-lane found some good feelings and not-so-good ones. If I didn't undergo that process, however, It wouldn't have made for quality content. This acts as a living slice of when I was young and is imprinted in these videos. I can see myself returning to this project just for the memories!


Sources to all materials used in the video. I suggest giving them a click to support them or for a discovery of something new:

Age 8, Father’s Son:


Age 12, Obsessions:


Age 15, Choices Made:


Age 17, Second Wind:


Age 19, Bottoming Out:


Age 20, Reflection:

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