There's wildlife in my hair!

I hope everyone is getting stoked on making their own No H8 photos, but in the mean time, it's time to share the tails of mayhem and duct tape that entailed at the Buzznet shoot.

(All photos were taken by JesIsBogus or myself.)

That's the Buzznet photo/interview room. Jes was kind enough to sit on a comfy sofa and take photos of me trying to hang up a white curtain. A true friend.

I got my revenge when I was programming my flash for twenty minutes, blinding Jes in the process.

The SECNOND I got right (dare I say- picture perfect?) the curtains fell down. Stricken, Jes and I made our way to Mark, whose building expertise was bound to set us right. He, followed by Rich and Bree, made his way into the photo room. A brief "tsk tsk" was had, and we got down to business putting the curtain back up.

(Bree is blurred out by request.)

We failed.

Rich was impressed by the sparkly blue curtain that fell down. So impressed, in fact, that he decided to make it a cape.

I can't come up with a good joke about his milkshake bringing all the boys to the yard, so let's move on.

Mark (in his infinite community-manager-like wisdom) suggested we make use of the massive roll of duct tape sitting on the table and tape the white curtain to the wall. He's a genius.

The finishing touches were made, everyone changed into their white shirts, and we got to work.

Actually, Richard found a purple hot light, then we got to work.

His paint skillz were much appreciated. (Don't feel guilty for awwing at this picture. You know they're adorable.)

Fellow Buzznet intern and blue-haired extraordinaire, Annie, joined us with her conveniently white shirt and awesome shoes.

 

The duct tape went on and Mark was the first one shot (so to speak.) This was my favorite picture from his series:

 

Karen was next.

 

Then Annie:

 

Aaaand Richard:

 

Then we did some group shots, and Karen had to go back to work.

 

Jimmy came in to take his photos, but we were a little preoccupied by Mark coming in and giving us news of gay marriage being permitted in New York! Yay New York!

 

Anyway, we wanted a few more pictures of Rich, so I told him to do something cute. This was his response:

 

Everyone went back to work, leaving me and Jes alone in the photo room. Then this occured:

The white shirts and hats came on. I snapped Jes first.

 

Then she put up with me trying to say "Wait, lemme look at that one," through my duct tape and snatching her camera.

 

We got a little silly before finally packing it in and going home.

 

The carnage of the shoot was cleared away, but not before I got a picture:

 

I hope everyone participates in this movement and makes their own No H8 photos! I've emailed Adam Bouska, and have yet to hear back from him, but we may get a feature on his website! Let's keep our fingers crossed!

The bassist in political punk band Anti-Flag talks about the new album, organized religion, The Clash, and a possible Australian tour. And hippies. 

Amy (falloutfry) of Buzznet: I saw you perform at Bamboozle Left in 2008, and the set was amazing. But, I was a little dumbfounded by your opposition to moshing. Why don't you want your fans to mosh?

Chris #2: Um... opposition to moshing? Where did that come from? 

Buzznet: No way! Justin Sane was saying "Don't mosh! Don't mosh!" 

Chris #2: At Bamboozle? I'm pretty sure we did a really big circle pit that day.

Buzznet: For real?

Chris #2: Yeah! Well, I think that we often stop any show where a fight breaks out. 

Buzznet: Maybe that was it. I think there was a pretty big Wall Of Death there.

Chris #2: Yeah, things like that are a bit silly. But as far as dancing at shows, we are all for it.

Buzznet: All right, serious question: The Clash; You've been Clash songs lately. I fucking love The Clash, so it'd be great to know how they've influenced your music, your politics, all that good stuff.

Chris #2: Essentially, for us, The Clash are a band that we often look to for not just musical inspiration, and not even socio-political inspiration, but just how they carry themselves as a band: Their ability to transcend genres and transcend the politics of a scene. They went out on limbs and brought regge music and hip hop music that was happening at the time, and they brought it into their music. They were able to really challenge people. With us, whether it be our melodies or whether it be the type of chord progressions or even drum beats that we try to incorporate into our songs, I've found that looking to them and being like "Okay, let's not be afraid, let's just do what's right for the song," they've been tremendously influential. 

Buzznet: That's great. This is a direct fan question: (asked by Nick Leonard) What is your most memorable fan moment? 

Chris #2: The craziest thing that ever happened is, we had recently played in Moscow, and the van that we were in got chased and shook. And, I think those sort of break-downs between band members and audience members, those are often amplified in territories where it's very difficult for us to communicate with people. You know? It almost goes down to caveman instincts, like "I'll just shake you to let you know that I think what you're doing is great." In that sense, it was probably more of them not being able to say "Welcome to Moscow, have a good show." The way they said that was "AHHH!" and they shook our vehicle. That was a bit scary. But, in the end, it all worked out and the shows were great. 

Buzznet: This is another fan question: (asked by Jerry DazzlePants) What the fuck happened in Australia last time, and when are you coming back? 

Chris #2: What happened in Australia was, we were finishing up the album, and we ran over: We weren't going to make the proper deadlines that we needed to. We were also dealing with economic crises, talking with promoters, dealing with plane tickets, those kinds of things. So we thought it'd be better to sort of wait a little bit, finish the record, and then come back when we can do more stuff. So we're going to come back to Australia in December or March. We don't know the exact schedule: We don't know when we're going to come back exactly, but we are definitely going to come back. 

Buzznet: Okay, let's tackle this: You've gotten a lot of criticism for signing to a major record label, despite the fact that they gave you more creative freedom. This poses a difficult question: Is it more important to have personal freedoms to make music, or to have a large audience? (Do you make music for yourselves or other people?)

Chris #2: *sighs* Well, that's an interesting question. Honestly, as far as Anti-Flag is concerned, our first and foremost priority is to make songs that we believe in. Because we're the four people that have to play them every night. However, we come from the school of thought that, if what you're saying is true, and what you're saying is genuine, and if you actually believe in it, that will rub off on others. And, not only will it rub off on others, but they'll see the honesty. They'll see the fact that it is genuine. They'll be able to decipher that music as very different from the new Britney Spears hit, which may be fantastic to tap your foot or shake your butt to, but at the end of the day, it's essentially about nothing. We've always tried to write music that was bigger than a band, bigger than a song, or bigger than a record, but was about building a real community and real relationships. That's what punk rock is. That's why we play this type of music and that's why we play the shows that we play. It's about the people that live in whatever city that Anti-Flag plays in, so the next day, they can high five and hug and be like "Hey! I was at the show! I saw you there! I'm Chris! Nice to meet you!" That's a thing that is very much lacking in music right now, and I think we're doing the best we can to bring it back. 

Buzznet: So let's back it up. Was the major record label worth the criticism? Because that lost you a lot of fans doing that... 

Chris #2: That's debatable on my end because the albums that we've released on the major record label are our biggest albums. So, I feel like when we tour around the world, more people know about us than ever. So I can't look back on it with a negative light. Do I believe in all the practices of major labels? No. Did I like the fact that there was a corporate layoff before one of our albums was released? No, I think that fuckin' sucks! That's not why I started playing music, to be involved in the business side of things. However, we saw an opportunity to take advantage of some things, and essentially, we were able to successfully take advantage of the Sony system, have them spend lots of money on the band Anti-Flag, and lots of money on us starting non-profit organizations, us working with various already-established non-profits and charities, and being able to incorporate the socio-political aspects of Anti-Flag into a different form. Not to mention the fact that ~Rolling Stone~ wrote about our band. They've never done that before! I think there were things that we gained from it; We gained a lot more than the major did! They only sold 100,000 of those albums! They probably wanted to sell a million, but I don't give a damn. I think that, in one aspect, when we first announced that we were "striking a deal with the devil," people were upset. But the albums came out, and people realized that they weren't changing us, they weren't manipulating us; We were going to do whatever we wanted to do, and whether or not it worked at radio or MTV or any of that shit: That's their business. We're just going to go on and be the kind of band that Anti-Flag has always been. 

Buzznet: Jolly good. So everyone knows your views on politics, drug use, vegetarianism, stuff like that, but you're all a little fuzzy with religion. Do you have any particular standpoint personally or with the band on religion?

Chris #2: I believe that organized religion is the root of many of the world's troubles right now. I think that the situation that we find ourselves in and the wars we find ourselves in are inherently based on religion and the advancement of one side verses another. I also believe that they're inherently racist. I think that people are duped and lead to believe that we need to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan because "they're trying to kill us ~because they hate us.~" Essentially, where all this hatred for America is coming from is coming from the support of Israel and embedded troops in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia that the US government has. And, because they believe that's their ~holy~ land, they want the "infidels" out of it! It's all coming out of a 13-mile radius of land that "The Big Three" of religion are fighting over. It has completely disrupted our day-to-day lives. However! I have read The Bible, I have read The Satanic Bible; I think that there's a lot of interesting elements to them, like, one of the things that I can't get over is the fact that the Quaran, The Bible, any spiritual handbook inherently talk about helping the sick and helping the poor, but you never hear these religious leaders talk about that! You hear them bash the others! It's a mentality that is so intolerable of difference that it makes me distaste the entire belief structure. 

Buzznet: Hallelujah! Now, the punk genre is often mistaken for being associated with violence and ignorance. Do you find this difficult, considering your philosophies are peaceful and educated? 

Chris #2: No, I think the words "punk rock" are just thrown around in so many different circles right now. It's not what it was, like, we don't have- aside from Fat Mike- we don't have a G.G Allen, and Fat Mike isn't shitting on people! Like, there was something very dangerous and very scary about the origins of punk rock. Whether it be people like Ikky Pop, cutting himself on stage; There was a lot more performance art. For us, I look at a band like The Clash! The Clash were there with The Sex Pistols, and they looked at The Sex Pistols and Sid Vicious doing their performance art, and they said "You know what? We're going to focus this energy a little bit more, and we're going to put it towards creating a community that can actually do something positive. Kids won't just leave show with a bloody nose, they'll leave with the idea in their head that ending racism is possible. To me, that's the type of punk rock world that I want to live in. It has nothing to do with whatever band of the moment is wearing a spikey belt and has painted fingernails and is on TV and saying "We're so edgy!" 

Buzznet: I hate that!

Chris #2: Exactly. The edge, the sound, none of that has anything to do with punk rock. What's punk rock to me is the idea that we can create a space that is different from what's happening in the rest of the world. It's a place that is free from racism, sexism, homophobia. It's a place where equality exists, and even if it only happens for the three hours that the show happens, we at least have that moment. 

Buzznet: All right. So. Drug use: A lot of activist scenes are filled with it, like, take The Beatles in the 60's and 70's: They and a lot of their fans were not exactly known for being sober, but they share a lot of your values. Is it hard ---

Chris #2: No, I think that... uh.... Jeez, hippies are hippies, man. I think that is why you might find musical differences because of that. 

Buzznet: There is definitely a fine line between hippie music and punk music. 

Chris #2: Yeah, exactly. You become a stoner rock band if you wanna rock and roll and then smoke weed all the time. Everything is ~just a little bit slower.~ 

Buzznet: But we're talking about, say, political rallies, not shows. So it's about the politics, not the music. 

Chris #2: Well, you know, I have no problem with drug use. I believe that the war on drugs is bullshit! I think that marijuana should be legal! I'm not gonna smoke it, but throwing someone in jail for it is ridiculous! So, I see the merit for all of it, because I have had people in my life who have done drugs and can function perfectly. I've also had people in my life who have done drugs and don't function very well, so I see both sides of it. Me, I've been down the path, and I have made my decision. Everyone should be free to make their decision.

Buzznet: Awesome. So this is the very last question, and we're going to talk about your new record: The People Or The Gun. What were your main goals in recording this album, and do you think you have accomplished those goals? 

Chris #2: Here's what went down: We came off of about a year and a half on the road and we knew that our major record deal was only a two-album deal. We knew that going in. So, we had a real conversation about the goals of the band, like what we wanted to do and what we wanted to achieve, so at the end of that conversation, we decided that the Anti-Flag albums that are the best and the truest are the ones that just the four of us have written and recorded ourselves. Furthermore, some of our favorite albums have been recorded in Pittsburgh. So we devised a plan, and that plan was to leave labels out of it. Leave businesses out of it, leave producers out of it. Let's go to our own studio, let's write and record the album ourselves, and once it's all finished and once we see what we have, and once we build the artwork and stuff in such a way that we feel comfortable and confident, THEN let's go to a label and see who will release it. So, rather than involving ourselves in what I believe to be a rather archaic process, which is to write an album for two months, you demo it, you meet with a producer, you wait for two months, then you deliver it to the label, and they wait four months to release it because you're doing who-knows-what. If you go through that process, your record comes out a year after you've written the songs! And, I think with the technological advancements that we have, it's important to take advantage of them in order to release the most relevant and pertinent Anti-Flag album that we've ever released. That way, we're able to be on top of the issues that are happening right now. And, a lot of times, people will be afraid of a dated record, so we were working inside those constraints to stay topical, but also release ideas that will last longer than our band. For example, there's a track on this record called "The Economy Is Suffering: Let It Die." It's track 2 of the album, and it pertains to corporate bail-outs that are happening right now, and you see Barack Obama, who is supposed to be the antithesis of George W. Bush, but you see him giving corporate bail-outs to the same people that the Bush Administration was giving. So, you really have to ask yourself, "Where is the change? Where is the difference?" Instead of just laying that out there in black and white, we use the slogan "The economy is suffering," which is the slogan that was used in the May 1968 riots in Paris, France, where there were student protests and they were demanding greater wages for the workers in France and Paris. By being able to draw that symmetrical line between these two time frames, I believe that gives us an opportunity for someone to stumble onto the record years after our band is gone and say "Hey, this is what happened at that time. Let's make sure that it doesn't happen again. Instead of ignoring history, let's pay attention to it so that we are not forced and doomed to repeat it." Throughout that process, that was just our head space. Once we got through our meticulous  process of writing and recording the record, once it was all done, we only gave it to one label. They were the first ones we sent it to, and they asked us if we wanted to release it, so we said "Yeah. We want it to come out June 9th. Let's go." And here we are! 

Buzznet: Congrats on getting that out. Great job. And thank you so much for talking! 

La fin. 

I'm sure you're all aware of the NO H8 Campaign, as with its recent participation of people like Pete Wentz, Ashlee Simpson, Mark Hoppus, and Perez Hilton. Read Newageamazon's article about it here.

For those of you who aren't, in a nutshell, it's a movement against California's Proposition 8, which amended the Constitution to define marriage as only being between a man and a woman. Anyone with even a shred of progressive thought in their head knows this is one-sided, unfair, and wrong. The No N8 Campaign utilizes the talent of photographer Adam Bouska: He dresses his subjects up in white shirts, paints "No H8" on their cheeks, and photographs them with duct tape over their mouths against a plain white background.

Me and my best friend, Jes were so moved by this campaign, we decided to tribute it. On Saturday, June 20th, we'll be photographing any and all teenagers who agree with the No H8 Campaign and are willing to stand in front of a camera. Why teenagers, you ask? Because we can't vote. And because we can't vote, our opinions about Proposition 8 are virtually invalid, at least in the grand scheme of the law. But I firmly believe this proposition wouldn't have passed if the younger generation had a say in it. So, while we don't get a say in the ballot box, we do have one in our art.

CALLING ALL LOS ANGELITES

If you live in the LA area, or can make it to the LA area between now and July 5th, whether or not you're a teenager, you can support our mini-movement by coming out and modeling. You don't have to be pretty. You just have to own a white shirt.

IF YOU AREN'T NEAR L.A:

Californians who believe in No H8 should copy-cat and take their own No H8 photos! The higher the quality, the better.

Ask questions if you're confused.

Hello all. I'm going to cut to the chase.

I'm conducting a phone interview with Anti-Flag (specifically, Chris Barker or Justin Sane) and I'd like some good questions for them. If you're a fan, ask away. If you're like me and Mark, try to curtail asking "Why do you suck?"

Ask anything you want, but keep in mind, questions like "how long is your dick?" will not be asked, let alone answered.

I've found that shaking my fist at the sky and yelling at God to make a beautiful sunset is a pain in the butt and renders no results. Photoshop on the other hand makes it easy and fabulous.

Start in your layer menu. *If you don't have a  layer menu visible, go to Window > Layers.*

Make a copy of your original picture by right-clicking on the background layer and selecting "DUPLICATE LAYER." You will only be able to work in this layer.

Now select the colors for your sunset. Here's a swatch of some of the best colors to choose:

Sunset-y colors!! For this particular transformation, I chose dark purple and a pinkish red.

 

 

Go back to your layer menu and select the "GRADIENT OVERLAY" option by clicking the "FX" button at the bottom.

This is the menu you will get:

Don't be alarmed that your picture has turned black and white. You're about to change that. Click the gradient bar in this menu and select your chosen color gradient.

Well poo, I don't want the purple on bottom! I want it to fade bottom to top, red to purple. So I'll check the "reverse" box.

Now it is time to blend!!!! CHOOSE WHATEVER BLEND OPTION LOOKS BEST This also goes for opacity percent. Don't blindly follow this example, or you may end up with a pretty icky looking sky. But, just in case you want to know, I chose "Color Burn" at 45% opacity.

And this is what I got:

I defy you to tell me that wasn't easy!

If you have any questions, now's the time to ask them.

High contrast black and white! That doesn't sound very special, but it looks spectacular. I shall teach you how to take black and whites to the next level by utilizing layers and photo filters. Who's with me?!

(For Narnia!!!)

Pick a picture. Any picture. (Though pictures with light colors and low contrast are preferable.)

YUCK!!! My first reaction to this photo is "Ew, the colors are awful." My second reaction is "WTF I'm squinting." But that doesn't matter. Let's focus on the colors.

Before we do anything else, we need to eliminate the shadow on my face. But how? Why, THE DODGE TOOL, OF COURSE! If your picture has any unecessary shadows, dodge them away!

A MIDTONE-RANGE dodge at 20% EXPOSURE is best for this. Simply run the dodge brush over the nasty shadow, and voila!

I know, I know. The darker one looks better now, but it's easier for Photoshop to work its magic on lighter colors. Trust me.

Windows users, hit "CONTROL A". Mac users, hit "COMMAND A" (The command key is the one with the apple on it.) This will select the entire picture. Copy and paste it.

Now look at your layer menu. (*NOTE*) If you don't have a layer menu, go to "Window + Layer." That will make your layer menu visible. (*/NOTE*)

See how you have two identical layers: "Background" and "Layer 1"? You will be working in Layer One for now.

 

Step 1: CURVES. Make a drastic curves adjustment to make the image brighter, with higher contrast.

The best way to do this is to take the very middle of the diagonal line and drag it up. Then grab the very itty bitty bottom and pull it down. Your curve will look something like this:

Don't worry if your picture doesn't look so great. It's all part of the process.

 

Step 2: DESATURATE. If you have Photoshop CS2 or higher, you should have a "black and white" menu that lets you customize the shades of grey. Use that, if you prefer.

 

Step 3: More Curves. This adjustment should make the image darker, with even higher contrast.

 

Step 4: DODGE AND BURN. Treat any shades in the picture that look off to you with the dodge and burn tools. This is purely optional.

Step 5: COLOR OVERLAY. It's time to work with LAYER OPTIONS! Look back to your handy dandy layer menu, and click the "FX" icon. This will bring up a list of effects that you can apply to your layer. Select "COLOR COVERLAY."

By now, you have a kooky little pop-up menu that turned your entire preview image red (or whatever your default color is.) DON'T PANIC.

Simply click the little color box next to the "blend mode" menu to change the color to a dark, rusty orange shade.

Now change the BLEND MODE to "LIGHTEN"

And lower the opacity:

Refer to your preview image for a good opacity percentage. I SCREENCAP'D THE WRONG PERCENT: 58 IS WAY TOO HIGH!

It'll look something like this. Click "OK" and go back to your layer menu. Quickly desaturate your background layer. Now go back to Layer 1, and select the "darken" blend mode:

Now lower the opacity:

Your image hopefully has this sort of coloring:

ALMOST DONE!!!! Flatten the image:

Do a HARSH CURVES ADJUSTMENT:

Lower the saturation so it's ALMOST black and white, but not quite:

AND ONE MORE CURVES ADJUSTMENT!!!!!!

 

 

For most images, those last few steps ARE the last few steps, but for this one, I chose to do a few more minor tweaks to saturation and levels, leaving me with this:

 

 

 

Questions? Ask em here.

There are already groups on Buzznet for digitally trading mix CD's in order to get into new music and yatta yatta yatta, and that's fantastic. I love mix trading, but I think it'd be fun if it took place outside the internet. That's right. In real life Let me explain.

We're all friends here, right? Of course. But these friendships are squeezed through pixels and digi-words, so what fun is that? I think it'd be a great way to make some real life friends if we started a physical mix trading group here on Buzznet!

Here's the plan: I'll start a group and anyone who wants to trade mix CD's, letters, and trinkets in the mail with their fellow Buzznetters can join. BUT FIRST I will require that they film a vlog of themselves so I can be assured that you're not giving your address away to total strangers. We'll all burn mix CD's and mail them to one assigned friend on Buzznet, along with a track list, and anything else you want to give this person. It's like Buzznet secret santa, but the goodies will be shared all year long! New CD's will be sent every month and you'll have new partners with every mixtrade.

What do you think? Is this worth starting?

Are you going to the San Jose date of Belivers Never Die? SO AM I! Wanna hang out? Me too! Leave yer comments here so we can plan.

Whee another tutorial! This one is how to put BOKEH CIRCLES in your picture. =)




First, let's identify bokeh. (Pronounced boh-keh)

There it is, plain and simple: Circles of light. (This is a stock image provided by HD Stock on DeviantArt.)

Making your own bokeh is simple: Aim your camera at a bunch of lights, put your lens out of focus, and snap!
You may not always be able to capture the exact bokeh you want, however. That's where DeviantArt comes in! There are hundreds of free stock bokeh images on that site. MAKE SURE YOU ALWAYS CREDIT YOUR STOCK PROVIDER IN THE DESCRIPTION OF YOUR IMAGE and follow their rules. If they tell you to link back to them, link back to them. If they tell you to leave them a note when you use their stock, do it.

If you don't have an account on DeviantArt, get one. It's as easy as signing up for Buzznet. Once you do that, search the word "bokeh" under the category "resources and stock images." Now, find a bokeh image you like!
*TIP* Ignore the colors of the bokeh. Those can be changed in one second on photoshop. Only pay attention the the size, shape, and quantity of bokeh cirlces.
Once you find one you like, click "download." That will load the full-sized image in a new tab/window. Once it's done loading, copy and paste it into photoshop. It will be in a new layer that covers your original image.


Uh oh! It doesn't cover the whole image! Let's fix that before we do anything else:

Grab the MOVE TOOL and check "show transform controls."


Just click and drag the corners of the bokeh image until it covers your original image entirely.
*HOLDING SHIFT while enlarging an image with the move tool saves its original dimensions, so it won't warp when you enlarge it.


Much better!

Now: we blend! This is a lot easier than it may seem.
Go look at your layer menu (It's usually located in the bottom-right corner, and has little thumbnails of all your layers.



MAKE SURE YOU ARE IN THE BOKEH LAYER. See the drop-down menu that says "normal"? Click it.


OMG SO MANY OPTIONS! You don't need to know what each option does, necessarily. Just play around with the options and find what looks best. You'll learn as you go.
For this image, I choose "screen." Here is the result:



Yaaaaaa, that doesn't look so good. It's time to edit!
First, let's erase the bokeh we don't want. Use the eraser tool and set the opacity to 100%.



Easy as pie!

With some other edits, including the selective color tool, dodge and burn, curves, levels, and the eraser, here's what we're left with:



Let's flatten the image and do one final edit.
*Note* Flattening the image is making the entire thing one layer. This lets you edit it as a whole.




This edit was acheived with a simple curves adjustment. =)

Just so you know, all bokeh is different, and all you need to work with it is a savy for layers. Once you've played around with the different blending options (ie: Screen, Overlay, Darken, Color Dodge, ect.) you'll be pro at overlaying bokeh. It takes practice. So familiarize yourself with all the tools used in this tutorial, and you'll be able to use any bokeh image, no matter how different it looks from this.

Happy hunting!

(If you have any questions, ask away)

The Matches. A band as weird as you are: For fans of finding stray playing cards, secret pockets, and the word “debris,” this four-man torrent of musical awesomeness caters to the finest of the Odd Generation. Their musical style could best be described as a two-headed monster, combining the best of Van Halen and The B52’s. But they’re most noted for their bright and fanciful singer, whose vocal chords bring about the most appealing of sounds from crooning and swooning to screeching and squealing.

When they first got their start with the name “The Locals,” they blended into the background of the California bay area music scene. But legal drama led to the changing of their name to The Matches. From the ashes of this legal conflict, a phoenix rose, tall and proud, with their first full-length LP: E. Von Dahl Killed The Locals. This album has sounds that are reminiscent of Blink-182 in their finest days and lyrics similar to that of a witty quotes book.

That weird and wonderful lyric style stuck with them as their music evolved in their second album: Decomposer. No track on this marvelous musical masterpiece sounds the same, with styles ranging from folk to thrash and from pop to punk. And just when you thought it couldn’t get any more bizarre than a music video involving throwing broken TVs around and lyrics about having a cold, their third record was released in 2008.

Originally titled “The Mad Scientist,” The Matches opted for a more cryptic name for this recent release: A Band In Hope. Say it outloud, and you’ll find that it sounds like “Abandon Hope.” This witty easter egg is but a small fraction of the ingenuity of this album. The band reaches deeper into the well of creativity than ever before, and this release is as much of an eargasm as its punky predecessor.

Now you may revel in their amazingness with these awesome tracks:

The Restless
Chain Me Free
Drive
Their City

You like music. You like video games. But did you ever dip your toes in the lake of video game music? Probably not, considering most games contain a soundtrack of analog beeps, squeaks, and dings. But hark! A select number of Sega video games (highlight: Sonic The Hedgehog) feature the work of Japanese-American rock band Crush 40.

Crush 40's job is to create a positive ambiance for the disgruntled video gamer by combining the musical elements of hard rock and lyrics as cheesy as mac&cheese. Because let's face it: Who can focus on playing Gamecube if they're trying to decipher the intricate meaning of deep lyrics? Crush 40's business is entertainment, and they entertain.

The beating heart of Crush 40 is their guitarist: Experienced composer and Sega employee: Jun Senoue. He has a lucrative career arranging music for various video and arcade games, the highlight being Super Smash Bros Brawl, which is pretty much the greatest game ever created. How can you deny talent like that?

If this is just too nerdy for you, then continue listening to The Maine and get back to your neon skinny jeans. If you're ready to experience the thrill of scene-less modern music, then check out some of my favorite Crush 40 tracks: (The Buzznet music archive doesn't have them, hence the Youtube videos.)


"What I'm Made Of"


"Open Your Heart" - featuring Johnny Gioeli


"His World"

Though I may bitch about living in LA at times, it certainly does have its advantages. I met a slew of amazing new people today, and I have Buzznet to thank for it!!! Let me take you on a journey, through crappy unedited photos, and try and describe the amazingness of March Second, 2009. (I'll have edited photos up on Thursday =D)

Jes (Jesisbogus) and I took a train/subway trek up to Sunset Boulevard and met up with Emily (Swinthefocus11) at Coffee Bean. By command of my growling stomach, we then took a short walk to Jack In The Box, where I proceeded to stuff my face at the disgusted gaze of my new friend:

I never met Emily in person before this, and I must say, she is as charming as she is fabulous. Seriously. Look at that hair and that outfit and try not to be jealous. I dare you.

Bree (Breesays), Mark (Panasonicyouth), Richard (Elrich) and friends were busy in a meeting, but when they were done, we ventured into the infamous Buzznet office, greeted by Bree's winning smile! I gave her a hug.

Bree was our primary tour guide, showing us around to offices and people.

BEHOLD!!!! Ya, I realize it's just a Buzznet sign, but it's pretty damn awesome to see it in person. It radiates glory.

We met Mark a couple minutes after we got in, and I got to hug him!!! On a scale of 1 to 10, Mark's hugs are 50. He then got out his amazing camera and started snapping photos. I considered stealing the camera from him, but managed to restrain myself. BUT IT WAS SO PRETTY.

Richard walked in next. I gathered up all my gumption and didn't back down: I asked if I could touch his mustache. AND HE LET ME. It's very soft. I think he mousses it? Whatever. It was amazing. I think Mark got a picture... Hmm....

Anyway, Bree took us on a tour of the lovely Buzznet offices, and we got to wave hi to some very nice people.

Mark's got an AFI skateboard. How rad is that?!

Anywho... We were then brought into a little office room and were interrogated by some fellows who work at Buzznet and wanted to know if there was anything about the site that they could improve. It was actually really chill. They were super friendly and patient, even though we didn't really have that many suggestions... Okay, I was running off at the mouth, but I say again: They were patient.

MARK IZ STALKIN YEW.

Ya, this little meeting lasted quite a while (an hour?), but everyone was so cool. Bree was sitting next to us, hence why she's not in the picture.

Anyway, time rolled by, and Rich eventually hd to go home.

We spent the next little while chatting with Karen (Kron) and some other people about concerts, Mark's diet, and Buzznet as compared to other sites. (Buzznet pwns them all.) The time came where he had to say goodbye, so I gave one final hug to Bree, and said adios.

But ho ho ho! Our time with Mark had not expired! For his route home matched most of our Metro route back to the train station. So what did we do? Took a little evening stroll with Panasonicyouth!

Mark is coughing in this photo, but it's the only one I got where you can (kind of) see everyone. Sorry, Mark!

Emily got to her bus stop, and we had to say goodbye.

It was just me, Jes, and Mark, and we regailed each other of stories about funerals, photography, and annoying Hollywood tourists. Fun stuff.

We got to the subway station three minutes before our train arrived and hopped on, mainly talking about cameras. Somehow the conversation steared towards boob molesting, but that had something to do with the unfortunate grab I made for Jes's chest when I thought I was reaching for a handrail. Sorry, Jes!

Is this face conveying glee or annoyance? I can't tell. But I can tell you that the most VIP I've ever felt in my life was sitting on a train next to Mark. He's a really nice guy. EVERYONE at Buzznet is so fucking nice! They made this day completely amazing, and I'd like to thank them a trillion times for it.

=D

PS- Thank you also for the "Sup Buzznet" shirts and the pins! ;)

I haven't made a photoshop tutorial in ages! Instead of boring you with my busy academic life, I'll get right down to it:




EFFECTIVELY SOLVING THE DREADED ORANGE PROBLEM

Let's start by identifying the orange problem: It's the result of taking a picture using only incandescent light. In other words, if you take a picture inside a room without benefit of flash or fluorescent light, the orange problem will probably plague your pictures.
Now... A picture is not necessarily ruined just because it's orange. But in case you'd like to have a more realistic color scheme to your images, this tutorial is for you. Because solving the orange problem is no picnic. But we musn't give up and succumb to a gallery full of orange pictures! Let's have some variety!

STEP ONE is always COLOR BALANCE.
This is the most basic color edit tool in all of photoshop, and it's in every version of the program.


Since orange is a combination of red and yellow, those are the two basic colors that we want to get rid of. Simply slide the bars AWAY FROM RED AND YELLOW. Like so: (You can also change magenta/green, but that usually isn't necessary in solving the orange problem.)


See how I didn't need to slide all the way away from yellow? Your picture may be different, so just slide those color bars around until the image looks as good as possible in the preview. YOU MAY BE FINISHED AFTER THIS STEP! But if not, keep on going.



This is how my image turned out after that simple color balance edit. You'll notice that it's infinitely better than its orange predicessor, but it's not perfect. So let's move on to REPLACE COLOR.
(*Good to know! ABSOLUTELY NEVER think your image is "good enough," then stop editing. This is usually nonsense. You will eventually reach a point where the picture looks as good as it did when you first dreamed it up. Don't stop photoshopping until you reach that point!*)

Anyway, REPLACE COLOR is an advanced tool in photoshop, and I'm not sure what versions it's in.... If it isn't in your version of photoshop, you'll have to skip this part.


Here's how it woks:

As soon as you click "replace color" a box will pop up and give you a color picker mouse. Just use the mouse to click any color in the picture that doesn't look right. In this image, it's the skin. Because... well.... my skin just isn't that pink.

*IGNORE THE BLACK AND WHITE IN THE PREVIEW. That's not what your box will look like. The screencap made it do that.*

See that colored square above the text that says "result"? That's the icky color in my skin that I want to fix.
I will be fixing it using the four bars in this toolbox: Fuzziness, hue, saturation, and lightness.

FUZZINESS IS VERY IMPORTANT because it determines how pixelized the image will be once the color edit is done. To avoid your image getting all crispy and yucky, SET THE FUZZINESS TO 100%! The only time your fuzziness should not be set to 100 is if you're doing very fine-tuned color edits, and there is nothing fine-tuned about the orange problem.

HUE should most likely NOT be changed... unless you want to get a little silly and change the color of your skin entirely. Example:

But we're not doing that. So let's move on.

SATURATION affects how grey the selected color is. THE LESS SATURATED AN IMAGE IS, THE MORE GREY IT IS. So something with absolutely no saturation is black and white. But remember! This is the replace color tool, so it's only going to change the one color you select. I've selected the pink color in my skin, so if I completely desaturate it, it'll look like this:

Not. Nice.
NEVER completely desaturate ANY color using the Replace Color tool. NEVER.

LIGHTNESS, in this case, will affect the paleness of my skin. The more lightness I add to my selected color, the lighter the color will be. Pretty basic, huh?

Using a slight combination of lightness and saturation, we acheive this result:

Much better!!!
Take a close look at the hue, saturation, and lightness bars. See how I only decreased the saturation by a tiny amount, and increased the lightness quite a bit? This is the perfect action to take if you want to be paler in your picture. Play around with these bars until you find the perfect action for your skin tone. The possibilities are endless!


So here's what my image looks like after those two simple color edits... I look a bit sickly, don't I? Perhaps I went too far with the Replace Color tool? NO! The image is just lacking in contrast!

There are THREE EASY WAYS to solve this particular problem:
LEVELS
CURVES
or
CONTRAST.
I wouldn't recommend contrast, as it usually pixelizes the image and lacks the fine-tuned accuracy of levels and curves.
LEVELS is the least risky of the three. So let's try that.

That funky looking graph is a HISTOGRAM. See the three little triangles under the histogram? You can move those to adjust how the image will look.
THE DARK TRIANGLE adjusts shadows. The shadows are, obviosuly, the darkest colors of the image. Dragging that triangle to the right will make the dark colors even darker. This usually has a stunning result.

THE TRIANGLE IN THE MIDDLE adjusts the midtones. Midtones are all the colors in the image that are between the absolute darkest and the absolute lightest. If you want to make the overall image lighter, drag this triangle to the LEFT. To make the overall image darker, drag it to the RIGHT.

THE WHITE TRIANGLE adjusts the highlights. Highlights are- you guessed it- the brightest shades in the image. Dragging this triangle to the left will make the highlights even lighter.

So let's get on with it! Look at what this Levels adjustment did for our image!!!

Amazing!!

I moved the shadows drastically to the right, the midtones slightly to the left, and the highlights drastically to the left. An edit like this is typical of images with really high contrast, and as you can see, it has great results!

Play around with levels! You'll have a grand ol' time.

I hope this worked for you! If not, talk to meh. Questions are welcomed.

That's right! Today is my two-year buzzversary!!!

Blurring!
Learn how to blur artfully to make the subject of your picture stand out and add a unique beauty to the whole image!
(This is an incredibly easy lesson.)



This is a stock image from Deviant Art, and our example for this lesson. To start the blurring process, select the LASSO TOOL.



The LASSO selects an area in the picture that you draw freehand. So. Take the Lasso and draw all the areas that you would like to make extremely blurry.

Note how the selection does not pass through any part of her body. If your mouse accidentally slips and you select her foot or something, just undo and try again OR hold "ALT" and draw out the areas that you need to unselect. Mac users, hold "OPTION." It's the same key.



The GAUSSIAN (gow-zee-an) BLUR is the best for this style of blur. If you want to get on with the tutorial, scroll to the next diagram. If you want to know about all the other blur filters, read on.

Average blur: Never use this. It sucks.
Blur: Never use this either. It does the same thing as the blur tool, but it moves slower.
Blur More: Same deal.
Gaussian blur: An ordinary blur that makes it look like you're seeing the picture with crossed eyes.
Lens blur: Makes the selected area go out of focus. This is a very handy blurring filter if you don't want your pictures to look TOO photoshopped.
Motion blur: Exactly what it sounds like. It makes the selected area look as though it's been blurred through camera motion.
Radial blur: This blur gives everyone a headache. It takes the selected area and makes it look like it's popping out of the screen.
Smart blur: Honestly, I've never used this one. I don't like it at all.
Surface blur: This is a really weird blur that makes it look like there's water on the lens. It doesn't generally turn out very well.



See that bar right below the word "Radius"? Well. that controls the strength of the blur. If it's really far to the left, the blur is not very pronounced. The further right it is, the heavier the blur is. Left weak; right, strong. So drag it around until you find a blur that looks good. Then click "OK." Now Deselect:



Uh oh!

There's a really ugly transition between what's in focus and what's blurred. That's just gross looking. Let's get rid of it with THE BLUR TOOL!



It's shaped like a teardrop. Click on it and set the strength to 100%.



Now blur around the sharp edge so the transition is smooth. Do that all around the selected area. When you're done, it should look like this:



Yay! Now let's do a Curves adjustment and finish this thing.



And that adjustment brings it out to look like this:

The week of Folie A Deux, I'm pimping out my page to match it. This will be my banner. But I'm keeping with the colors I have now until then.

Just a pointless heads up.

PHOTOSHOPPED MAKEUP
Dark makeup can make an otherwise ordinary portrait striking and dramatic. If your picture needs a bit more pizazz, this is a good, professional-looking way to do it.




This tutorial is extremely long, but packed with useful information on a variety of tools. It's good if you want to fimiliarize yourself with more of the items in your toolbar.



So here's our picture. (Stock image from DeviantArt)
The model is beautiful, but say you want her to be wearing makeup. What's the best way to go about this? There are dozens of possibilities, but let's focus on the most basic, and most effective: Curves!
**SUMMARY AT THE BOTTOM OF THE TUTORIAL**

If you don't know how to use Curves, click here.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. We first need to make two layers in the image. If you know how to do that, skip ahead. If not, follow these instructions:

Okay, Mac users. I want you to look at your keyboard and hold "APPLE" and click "A." Windows users, hold "CONTROL" and click "A." That will select the entire picture. Then copy it.



Then paste. It will just be the same picture in another layer. It will look the same everywhere but in your Layer menu.




TO MAKE MAKEUP:

First think about what kind of makeup you want. Dark colors would be easiest, so we'll do that. We must take this one step at a time, so we'll do lipstick first. Time for a massive Curves adjustment!
**Remember when adjusting your curves to ONLY look at the lips. Make sure the lips look perfect, and ignore the rest of the picture.



Look at that curves diagram. See how I took a point from the middle and dragged it down, thus making the lips much darker? That looks good, except for one problem.
The shadow on the left looks too harsh. How do we fix this? Let's break out the ol' DODGE TOOL!



The dodge tool makes things lighter. You'll fall in love with it no matter what you're editing.



Here are some settings for the Dodge tool. From left to right, we have the tool itself (Ignore that icon,) the brush size (click it to change it,) the "range" (just play around with that and get to know it), and Exposure (how light the brush will make things.) These are the settings I used for the lip shadow:



See how the brush is at 62? That means it is 62 pixels in diameter. But that's all mumbo jumbo. The simple matter is, if the picture is big, the brush needs to be big, and if te picture is small, the brush should be small.
The exposure is set to 29%. That's pretty low, but very effective. High exposures are not a good idea.

Now treat the Dodge Tool like a paint brush. Just paint over the bits of lip that are too dark. Look! With just one swipe, the lip color was changed from this:

to this:


Want to see how these lips look on the model? Take the ERASER TOOL and erase everything EXCEPT the lips. Make sure you're very careful around the contour of the lips.



See? We've erased all of the dark skin and harsh shadows from the curves adjustment, so the lips stand out on her pale skin. If you're satisfied, then go to the Layer menu and click "FLATTEN IMAGE," to get rid of the layers. The picture will look exactly the same, don't worry. This just makes layer managing easier.
If you're not satisfied, try some more curves adjustments, or just start over. Don't feel stupid if that's what it comes to. I spend over an hour on most pictures I edit, most of it spent trying something and starting all over. If you do it long enough, it becomes fun.

Now eye makeup.
This is a bit trickier, but here we go.
What I like to do is add eyeliner before eyeshadow. Adding eyeliner is easy. Select the BURN TOOL by right-clicking on the DODGE TOOL and selecting the hand.



The burn tool is the Dodge Tool's evil twin. Their menues are exactly the same, but the Burn Tool makes things darker, instead of lighter. So making the higher your exposure is, the darker something will wind up. We're making dark eyeliner, so let's make the exposure super high. In the 70's and 80's is good.



Now magnifty your picture like mad. Zoom right in on that eye. You'll need to be up close and personal with it in order to not mess this up. Make your brush really small, and paint around the outside of the eyelids. Like so:



Note how close I magnified. Don't worry if it looks a bit sloppy. That'll be covered up with we put the eyeshadow in. So, without further adieu, THE EYESHADOW INSTRUCTIONS!

This is the exact same as the lips. The original picture should still be on your clipboard, so just paste it in. Time for a curves adjustment!



This was done like how I did the lips: I just brought the whole curve down. Now, make sure your eraser has faded edges (I'm pretty sure that's the default setting) and erase everything except a wide area around the eyes. If you erase properly, the end result should look like this:



Yay!! If you like it the way it is, go ahead and save. But there are obviously other things you can touch up with the Dodge and Burn tools, now that you know how to use them. Me? I used the Dodge tool on her eyeballs to make them brighter, the Burn tool on her hair to make it darker, and the Blur tool to make her skin clearer. (The next tutorial will be on blurring.) And the final result is....



SUMMARY:
Copy and paste the image, and make a dramatic curves adjustment to make everything darker. Then erase all the bits around the lips and eyes so that the original picture shows underneath it.

First off, I just have to thank Panasonicyouth for putting this tutorial up on the community page! That was seriously a rush of joy and adrenaline. Thank you everyone for looking at the first tutorial! But anyway, on with the  second.


THE STAMP CLONE TOOL.
The example for today:



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Ew! What are those disgusting white things in her hair? Those are called stuck pixles, and a lot of cameras come out with them. It's just a singular pixel that comes out white, instead of like the rest of the picture. I made them bigger and circled them so you could see them.
If you're bothered by stuck pixles, then all you need is the THE STAMP CLONE TOOL!



There it is, right underneath the Red Eye tool and above the Eraser. It looks sort of like a stamp. Different versions of photoshop place it differently on the toolbar, but that's what it looks like, no matter what version you have.

Here's how to use it. (Don't worry. These instructions work for every kind of photoshop, on Mac or Windows.)



DO NOT HOLD THE BRUSH OVER THE STUCK PIXEL AT FIRST. Hold it just above the pixel you want to get rid of and PRESS "ALT." (For Mac users, press "Option." It's the same thing.)
Then hold the brush over the stuck pixel and click! It will magically disappear! If that didn't make any sense, keep reading. If you get it, open up photoshop and try it out!

Okay. The stuck pixel is in the hair, right? So, because you want it to look like the rest of the hair, you press ALT on the part of the hair you want it to look like.

(The circle is the brush. The white dot is the ugly stuck pixel that needs to go away.)



See how the brush is over the hair, and above the stuck pixel? That's where it oughta be when you press "ALT."
Now. Now move the brush over the stuck pixel and click on it to get rid of it. You may need to click a few times to make it completely invisible.



See? All gone.

This also works for getting rid of zits, lens flares, freckles, spots, or people in the background of any picture! Play around with the Stamp Clone tool. It's frurstrating to get used to at first, but once you do, you'll use it every time you edit! It really helps.

Just so you know, this tool pretty hard to explain, so it's perfectly understandable if you still don't get it. Just comment and I'll edit the journal with more screen shots and a better explaination.

How's it hangin, Buzznet? I've decided to do a new project-like thing for my journals, considering all my journals have proved pretty pointless. So ya, here's to launching my EDIT HOW TO. On account of I'm very often asked "how'd you do that?" and stuff along those lines.

Okay.

Are you sick of taking crappy pictures? Finding something really gorgeous in real life and having your camera make it look ugly? Fear not! If you have any version of photoshop, or The Gimp (downloadable for free!) then you can turn an otherwise dark and ugly picture bright and beautiful!

Here's our example for today:



I edited this with Photoshop CS3, so the instructions only work for Photoshop CS or Elements. Not The Gimp. Sorry.

How did I get rid of all the hot spots from the flash? Why... a simple curves adjustment!





Ignore the diagonal line for a second if you don't understand a histogram.
A histogram shows the dynamics of light and dark in the picture. On the left is the dark, on the right is the light. Left, dark, right, light. Remember that.
Now look at that diagonal line. Grab any point on it with the mouse and drag it up or down. Go a little crazy with it if you want. But the screen cap here shows a good curves adjustment. See how the lights are made even lighter, and the darks are made just a bit darker? This adds contrast, and evens out the tone of the picture. Scroll back up to the "before and after" picture. See how the "after" one has less random bright spots? That's thanks to Curves. Curves are your friend.

If you're confused, I can send you an actually GOOD tutorial. But seriously, curves are the shit.
Next week, I'm gonna post a journal like this, but explaining how to get rid of people in the background of pictures by using the Stamp Clone tool!

How'd you like this? Did it work, or am I wasting my time?

This is hitting a touchy subject on Buzznet, but you know what I'm getting tired of?
The. "Photography." Trend.
No, not the fact that a lot of teenagers are exploring the artistic world by camera.
The fact that A LOT of teenagers just buy a neon plastic fisheye camera camera from Urban Outfitters, which is THE trendiest store ever, then take pictures of their friends wearing beanies and sunglasses and then tell people that it's trend-defying photography. The fact that they think it's photography at all puts a sick feeling in my gut.
There are geniunely great artists out there. Then there's people who do things like holding a camera in front of their face at a myspace angle while biting the cord for their earphones..... and call THAT photography. Just because it's a picture does not make it art.
So what is art?
Art in this sense is a picture that inspires an emotional reaction, and was inspired by an emotion. "I need a new default for my myspace" is not an emotion. It is a motive for taking a picture, yes... but it is hardly artistic.

If you want to be a photographer, it's because you want to express an emotion through an image... Not because you want to be labeled as artsy, and you figure pressing a shutter is easier than learning how to paint.

Photography is a learned skill. It's not easy. Setting focus and exposure isn't easy. Sometimes there's math involved. You have to know how to read a histogram. You have to know how to set and work with flash settings. You have to make sure the lighting is right. Choose and work with your subject correctly. Then there's editing. Getting rid of hot spots, adjusting saturation, contrast, color balance, lighting... sometimes even airbrushing. But that's all digital.

My point is, this is not an easy hobby. But a lot of people are coming along, taking completely careless pictures and insulting photographers who work genuinely hard to become masters of their art.