That’s George Scriban on bass, and Yours Truly doing the vocals.
Before I was an accordion player, I was a synth player. During my colorful academic career at Crazy Go Nuts University, I played keyboards in an grunge-y alt-rock band named Volume from 1992 through 1994, where I fit myself into the sound in the same way Roddy Bottum fit his into Faith No More. The rest of the band were:
Andrew Pirie: Drums
Chris Walmsley: Guitar
George Scriban: Bass
Mike List: Vocals
In order to give Mike’s vocals a break, I’d get to take over vocals for one number: a medley of Right Said Fred’s I’m Too Sexy and the Public Enemy/Anthrax version of Bring the Noise. That’s right, we were taking two radically different songs and mashing them together years before Norman Cook even came up with the alternate identity of “Fatboy Slim”.
The photo above was taken by Chris Phillips, who took the photo at a house party gig held somewhere in the “student ghetto”. That’s Yours Truly up front, and George on bass, and wow, are we looking as early ’90s as all get-out.
My friend Desmond sent a scan of this old photo of me taken sometime in the early 2000s. The clues to the time: sideburns, goatee, more hair (and less grey), the decor at my parents’ house in the background, the accordion, which I purchased from Caringi Accordion House in 2000, and my youthful, muscular hands.
If you have a young cat in the house, you’re probably wondering about those upcoming times when you and kitty will have “the talks”. Luckily for you, the American Association of Patriots has you covered with their handy pamphlets.
Is it safe to own a gun if I have cats in my house?
I’m responsible with my gun, why should I bother to teach my cat about gun safety?
What age is right to start talking to my cat about gun safety?
What are the risks of not talking to my cat about gun safety?
… and much more!
After a successful campaign for cat gun safety, the American Association of Patriots are back; this time working to dispel the myth of evolution.
As stated within this slim but vital pamphlet on the vital topic of How to Talk to Your Cat About Evolution: “It is your duty as a responsible cat owner to purrtect them from the barrage of misinformation they are assaulted with every day.” The more you know.
You’ve talked to your cat about gun safety and evolution, but you still need to have The Talk. Birds and bees aren’t just flying creatures your cat chases, your cat needs to know about the dangers of premarital sex, the importance of abstinence, the cat heaven that embraces those that abstain, and the kitty hell that awaits those that live in sin. You might have thought it was ok to talk to your cat about birth control and STDs but really waiting is the only way. Make sure your kitteh knows to keep its promise!
Seen while shopping this morning. The allergy warning line below the ingredients is generally a good thing, but I think it’s redundant when the food in question has a single ingredient.
Wine Crush is a simple “Candy Crush”-like game that I’m developing for my friends at Aspirations Winery in the nearby city of Clearwater. It’s the first of a few apps that I hope to publish to the App Store this year. If you’ve got an hour or so to spare and are the sort of person who always has ideas on how apps could be improved, this opportunity’s the one you’ve been waiting for!
Wine Crush is a pretty straightforward game. You play by creating matching groups of wine-related images — glasses of wine, bottles, corks, grapes and cheese — in groups of three or more. You can create horizontal matching groups…
…or vertical matching groups:
You score points for creating matching groups, and the goal for each level of the game is to score a target number of points within a given number of moves. If you meet the goal, you get to proceed to the next level. If you don’t, it’s GAME OVER.
“Wine-O Bingo” at Aspirations Winery, summer 2014. My wife Anitra’s third from the left, and I’m the smiling guy across the table from her, fourth from the right.
Wine Crush is designed as a promotional tool for Aspirations Winery, which is run by Bill and Robin Linville. My wife Anitra has been buying their wines for years. She took me to one of their regular “Wine-O Bingo” events in 2014 (pictured above), and made friends with them after entertaining their guests with a couple of their accordion numbers. Soon after, I approached them with a proposition: Would you like to have an iPhone game for your winery?
They said yes, and I got to work. Starting with the “How to make a game link Candy Crush” tutorials from RayWenderlich.com as a basis, I put together a game with wine-related imagery and Aspirations’ branding, using artwork that Robin provided. The backgrounds for the games’ levels are various labels for Aspirations’ wines, and there are a couple of buttons on the main screen that you can click to find out more about the winery.
For Aspirations, it’s a cute little way to get their name out their in a way that sets them apart from most other small family-owned wineries. As for me, this app is a way for me to help out some friends, sharpen my programming skills, build a portfolio, and gain some valuable experience with the App Store. Aside from a fair bit of free wine (for which I’m very grateful), I’m not getting paid for this project.
Wine Crush needs to be tested before I put it on the App Store. As the developer, I’m a little too close to the project to spot all the bugs and places where it could be improved. That’s where you come in. I’m looking for a small group of people who like trying out new apps to take a pre-release version of Wine Crush for a spin, point out problems and crashes, and give me some feedback. I will also ask you to test some other interesting iPhone/iPad/Apple TV projects I’m working on. It won’t be an all-consuming process; all I’m asking for is a little bit of your downtime and your opinions.
Does the opportunity to test and give feedback on soon-to-be-released iPhone/iPad/Apple TV apps sound interesting to you? If it does and you’d like to join the test group, drop me a line at joey@joeydevilla.com.
