dain saint

Come see me perform in NYC on April 19th

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:50:27 -0400

Come see me perform in NYC on April 19th:

DOODZ this show is going to be UTTERLY RIDONKULOUS. Kris Keyser, Zilla Persona, ECOMOG, Chipocrite, and Yours Truly smashing out the BLEEPS and BLORPS for 5 HOURS. $10 at the door, come out and see me!

Hey guys! The boys and I are tryin’ to make a sequel to...

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 20:49:58 -0500

Hey guys! The boys and I are tryin’ to make a sequel to Auditorium! If you’ve got a dollar or two, please help us out! Check out the link for details!

http://www.cipherprime.com/kickstarter

My first official remix. I had a lot of fun doing this track,...

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:14:31 -0500

My first official remix. I had a lot of fun doing this track, partially because I threw the kitchen sink at it, and partially because if I win this contest I get Reason 6 and a Balance input board for cheap-as-free. If you have a SoundCloud account, be sure to leave me a comment!

Merry Christmas, bitches. Doomcloud got us this dope ass track....

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 20:22:00 -0500

Merry Christmas, bitches. Doomcloud got us this dope ass track. What’d you get me??

Here it is: the first single from Proper Gander. Yes, it is a...

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:01:06 -0500

Here it is: the first single from Proper Gander. Yes, it is a cover. No, I don’t see anything wrong with that.

It’s a bit heavier than I usually go as well, but hey, that’s what this is all about right? Trying new and fun things :D

Enjoy!

Defenders of the Night ( tt. Carl Johnson )

A new album is in the works.

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 01:18:30 -0400

I’m calling it “Proper Gander,” and it ‘s going to melt your faces off. Trying to get the debut track done in time for my show with SKGB, Trey Frey, and Pixel Seed on November 17th at PhilaMOCA, so if you want a taste you’ll have to wait till then, or ply me with sexual favors.

Or maybe just like me on Facebook. I’ll post something when it’s ready :p.

OH MY GOD REASON 6 IS THE BEST THING SINCE REASON 5. WOW I NEED...

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 01:18:20 -0400

OH MY GOD REASON 6 IS THE BEST THING SINCE REASON 5.

WOW I NEED TO BACK AWAY FROM THE MIC.

HOLY SHIT MY CAPS LOCK IS BROKEN.

My final argument for games as art.

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:04:00 -0400

So I’ve been having an alarming number of nightmares recently. My nightmares don’t tend to be of the obvious pain-of-death variety; more of the slow, horrifying realization type. Last night’s was particularly crushing, and I would like to share it with you.

A different place, a different time. I lived in a house, with my wife, in a world overrun with vicious predators, who sought nothing more than to rend us limb from limb. For reasons not known to me, our house was not safe at night. So every night was spent running through the wilderness, not staying in one place for very long, leaving our scent with small groups of prey so the predators would consume them and not us. Every day was spent resting in the house; each day one of us would say to the other, “When we rest, we rest together,” and she would make a bottle for the baby. Every night, we’d run.

After a few nights, I realized there were no other humans.

And one day, weeks later, she was making the bottle, quietly sobbing, saying to me, “When we rest, we rest together,” and I realized there was no baby either.

Not exactly how I wanted to wake up, and it certainly kept me from sleeping for about the rest of the night. So I lay in bed, thinking about the dream, thinking about how I could communicate to someone just how crushing that realization was. There are obviously many ways that story could be communicated; I could write it, as I just did. I could turn it into a proper short story, with characters; I could illustrate it as a comic; I could do a short film. But all of these are viewing forms — even with a first person perspective, if you came to the realization, it wouldn’t be yours — you would be watching someone else come to the realization. You may feel for them, you may empathize, but it still isn’t your realization.

I realized the only way to fully communicate my experience to someone else would be to turn it into a game.

The reason, of course, is that there is a very specific set of criteria and stimuli you need to experience in order to grasp the full weight of the situation:

You need to be you, but as someone else. This strange dissociation isn’t a particularly difficult concept; we do it all the time in dreams, and we do it all the time in games.
You need to not know everything about yourself, but know enough to function in your new world. This strange not-amnesia isn’t really that weird; again, we do it all the time in dreams, and we do it all the time in games.
You need to be able to take in information at your own pace, information needs to be available to you at only the moments you look for them, and gaps need to be present to allow you draw your own conclusions. Movies try to do this, but they can only show you information; as clever as a director may be, he can’t truly allow you to discover information. But we do it all the time in dreams, and we certainly do it in games.

The realization that there was no baby, and hadn’t been for some time, only came at the moment I saw her crying, because every instance before that, after she made the bottle, we would sleep, and when we ran, she ran behind me. This allowed the assumption that she carried and cared for the baby. But when I had that realization, the rest of the dream came into the focus — I had never seen the baby, I had never heard the baby. The only evidence that the baby had ever existed was in my wife’s actions.

These sort of cognitions, realizations, and epiphanies are only possible in a medium where you are given a certain amount of author-provided information and a certain amount of autonomy of discovery. And so I discovered this truth about games:

Games can cause the participant to have author-guided realizations.

and even more importantly

Games can cause the participant to have author-guided realizations that the participant owns.

I humbly submit that no other art form could as effectively communicate my dream, as I experienced it. And before you tell me it wouldn’t be a game because there are no goals, the goals are obvious: avoid getting killed by predators, for as many days as possible.

A game can be the strongest medium with which to express a dream. If that doesn’t qualify it as art, then you clearly don’t know how to dream.

To whoever is painting my skies: keep up the good work. (Taken...

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:47:48 -0400

To whoever is painting my skies: keep up the good work. (Taken with instagram)

Yes, I am Instagramming. No, I am not ashamed. Books, Artists...

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 02:20:56 -0400

Yes, I am Instagramming. No, I am not ashamed. Books, Artists Loft, SOMA.

[Attribution Needed]

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 12:16:00 -0400

A few weeks ago, I was in Jersey with my mother. We often end up talking about music, with her playing the 14-year-old pop lover to my cranky old man. In any event, she tells me, “Hey, there’s this great new Rihanna track you should hear, you’ll love it!” The song in question was “Cheers (Drink To That)” — not a bad song, really, and certainly appropriate for the situations in which you’d most likely hear it, i.e. drunk on a Friday night. The thing that really stuck out to me in the song though was the Avril Lavigne sample that drives the hook, so I naturally pointed this out. My mother, naturally, neither knew that it was an Avril Lavigne sample, nor cared — it was simply a fun Rihanna track.

I point this out because I feel her attitude is largely indicative of the way most people view art nowadays — who cares where it came from if the final product is awesome? And I can’t really blame her, especially since her attitude isn’t one of malice. She’s not exactly sitting there saying, “Man, fuck Avril Lavigne.”

Another example that sticks with me is Jason Derülo’s “Whatcha Say.” Again, I’m sure this isn’t a bad track — reasonably catchy, at least. But the entire song is driven by Imogen Heap’s “Hide and Seek,” a song I loved so much I couldn’t hear the two tracks as separate entities. The hook is taken from the absolute climax of the song, a melodic break she takes the entire song building towards, but in Derülo’s rendition all of that impact is lost. When I heard the track, I was upset — so much so that I forced my mother to listen to the original so she could understand why I was so angry.

To her credit, she now likes both versions.

Now the impact of Derülo’s appropriation was dulled a bit for me when I found out that he explicitly asked Heap for permission to use the sample. Many people — most people — don’t really understand that a record label can simply ask the other record label for permission without ever involving the artist, so that act alone shows quite a bit of respect. And I think that on the artist side of things, we’re seeing less blatant stealing without attribution. But the consumers, the people that allow career artists to have careers, are largely unaware of the whole process. I do think that because of Derülo’s use of Heap’s sample Heap got a bit more attention from an audience that may well have ignored her, but how much more attention would she have gotten if she was explicitly attributed? If she had sung on the track, it would have been “Jason Derülo ft. Imogen Heap” for sure, but as a sample? She gets none of that credit.

My point here is not that appropriation is evil or should be stopped; indeed, the entire genre of hip-hop as we know it today would not exist if sampling were not allowed. And god knows I love me some mash-up artists — people just doing phenomenal re-interpretations of songs, changing context and creating juxtaposition, etc. But I do think that if you are going to sample someone, to the point where they practically have a guest spot on the song, then it’s your job to educate your fans. As of now, attribution is regulated to the liner notes, and let’s be honest — hardly anyone read the liner notes even before music sales went digital.

So I’m proposing a new attribution marker for songs: “tt.” It’s pretty simple — if you’ve sampled an artist to a point where they are pretty much making a guest appearance, give them one. So for instance:

Rihanna - “Cheers (tt. Avril Lavigne)”
Jason Derülo - “Whatcha Say (tt. Imogen Heap)”

What I like about it is that it’s not only a nice abbreviation for “attribution”, but can easily be interpreted as “Thanks to.”

I feel that, if we start proper attribution on the music side of things, it may well cross over into other areas — like, god forbid, games. Wouldn’t it be nice to see something like this?

Angry Birds (tt. Crush The Castle)
I Must Run (tt. Canabalt)
Ninja Fishing (tt. Radical Fishing)
Genesis (tt. Auditorium)

Food for thought.

If you haven’t heard, I’m the new Spider-Man. But in...

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 12:29:10 -0400

If you haven’t heard, I’m the new Spider-Man.

But in all seriousness, its a pretty interesting thought. They’ve already killed off damn near everyone in the Ultimate universe, and Peter Parker surviving Ultimatum was unlikely at best. At the same time, he had so much POTENTIAL, as noted by basically everyone in the stories, to the point where Thor Himself singled him out as a great and proud warrior, so to have that dashed so soon feels cheap.

On the other hand, it’ll be interesting to see if they take those themes of potential, power, and responsibility, and filter it through an even greener hero.

And besides, I was totally gonna cosplay as Spider-Man anyways. I guess I HAVE to now. At least Morales’ suit should be easier to make!

Vacation was absolutely awesome. Since I didn’t have...

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 10:05:49 -0400

Vacation was absolutely awesome. Since I didn’t have access to a keyboard tho, I decided to work on some production techniques. This is a sketch of one song I did, I’ll probably flesh it out a bit more at some point — maybe do a 3 track “Vacation EP”. I’ve got another track coming up soon — with VOCALS — but I’ll post that once it stops sounding like I was singing in the backseat of a Ford in 80 degree weather.

Haven’t posted in a while, and work is driving me fucking...

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 19:15:00 -0400

Haven’t posted in a while, and work is driving me fucking nuts. Here, have a version of Chandrasekhar Limit for solo piano. It’s not… clean, like, at all, but it was soothing :).

Oh, also, if you’re in Philly this weekend, come see me at Nerdrage!

OH SHIT SWAG

Thu, 26 May 2011 18:25:59 -0400

If you ever wanted an 8-bit-halo/coin/pancake emblazoned on your breast, well, now you can have that. Check out the swag button in the menu, or just hit the link:

http://dainsaint.com/swag

WORK IT

AND SPEAKING OF KICKSTARTER

Mon, 23 May 2011 19:28:08 -0400

You guys should totally get on this:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zillapersona/bring-a-nerdcore-hip-hop-showcase-in-philly

Because Zilla Persona is awesome-sick-nasty, because I’m going to be playing there, because everyone needs more nerdcore in their life, and because the more money we get, the more bands get to play. Hell, with enough cash he’ll even through in booze. You love booze, don’t you?!?

Donate and you also get some of those games I make. THERE IS NO LOSING. ONLY WIN.

Also also, Nerdrage is on my birthday. You don’t want to make me sad on my birthday, do you?

Do you?

wilwheaton: The thing is, I bet someone could do this and get...

Mon, 23 May 2011 19:17:50 -0400

wilwheaton:

The thing is, I bet someone could do this and get away with it, sort of like that sell a million pixels guy (boy, do I wish I’d thought of that!)

(via Penny Arcade! - Dickstarter)

Pieces of 8.

Mon, 02 May 2011 12:02:57 -0400

O hai guise.

I finished my album: http://dainsaint.bandcamp.com

I’m really happy with how it came out. It’s not perfect, but I’m okay with letting it into the wild — which is great for me, since I have a really hard time finishing things. Each track represents a different genre of game:

Fog of War: RPG
Chandrasekhar Limit: Shmup
Half-Full: Run-n-gun ( à la Mega Man)
Preptime: Stealth
Atlantic: Racer
A New Challenger: Fighting
Go!: Beat-em-up
Breakdown: Platformer

It’s all been re-mastered and tweaked from the previews I posted here. Go check it out!

Also, I’ve got a few shows coming up. More info as it comes :).

This one goes out to Ak, who decided to go home and be a family...

Sat, 02 Apr 2011 21:28:00 -0400

This one goes out to Ak, who decided to go home and be a family man!

Just one more track till the albums DONE DONE DONE!

Stop Art Theivery, people: jessfink: So on Tuesday I rage...

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 16:33:47 -0400

Stop Art Theivery, people:

jessfink:

So on Tuesday I rage spiraled into space for a while when I was told that Todd Goldman was ripping off my designs AGAIN.

I know my designs are simple and play on ideas we all understand but the fact is Goldman offered me a job in 2006. He said he loved my Threadless shirts, that he bought a Lil Soap shirt and wanted me to work for him. I told him I would think about it and we never spoke again. A few months later I get links from people to David and Goliath tees, the company he owns and he is selling rip offs of my designs.

So Threadless got their lawyers involved and sent him a cease and desist and eventually, (probably because he was also being sued by ANOTHER artist at the time: http://tinyurl.com/5ubyu7o ) he took them down. Now he is selling them again, as you can see in the above image.

Then as always, whenever I talk about my shirts being ripped off I get emails telling me about more rip offs. This time an Etsy user, Tyneshia Buie who straight up TRACED the design.

I’ve had my shirts ripped off A LOT, Forever 21, Hot Topic, Wet Seal, and every time it gives me insane stomach ulcers and I have to track down the thieving “designers” and send Cease and Desist messages and contact Threadless and lawyers. It’s called protecting your copyright and it’s AWFUL HARD.

At any rate, this Etsy seller was selling the most blatant straight up TRACE of my art work I have ever seen. I got some help from some nice twitter people and the design was removed from the site, but not the seller. As you can see in the image above she isn’t oblivious or ashamed, she knew what she was doing.

The point is that art theivery is fucking bullshit. No one should buy from this girl again, or Todd Goldman/David and Goliath but they do! I’m sure that Etsy user will continue to steal and D+G has merchandise in every major crap store in the world. Help me spread the word that these people are VILLAINS and not in a cool way.

You can see the LONG LEGACY of art theivery by Todd Goldman/ David and Goliath here:
http://travelswithjesus.com/todd_goldman/

Threadless rip offs David and Goliath have sold:
http://jessfink.com/junk/goldmanripps.jpg

Hot Topic rip off and Goldman’s rip off painting of my Lil’ Soap shirt:
http://youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com/blog3/?p=861

The completely unashamed Etsy thief Tyneshia Buie’s store:
http://www.etsy.com/people/glitterbiscuits

My original designs on Threadless:
http://www.threadless.com/profile/145276/finkenstein

As for me, I am sending Cease and Desist messages and contacting lawyers and bathing in a see of stomach acid as I rage spiral into space.