Reverse Engineered

Okay, so it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything on this blog. Let’s just acknowledge it and move on shall we?

Good… wait. Don’t look at me like that. Fine. Whatever. Let’s just pretend that we can be adult about this then. Does that work? Pretending to be an adult is easy. I do it every day.

Yeah, so, this post is going to be a short one. Sorry. I’m still trying to finish up some Episode 8 music believe it or not (those of you in post-production won’t find it hard to believe).

But I wanted to take a break from LFTI music to talk a little about… well… LFTI music.

That’s correct! Gird your loins, it’s another New Music Wednesday!

And this isn’t one of those lame ones where I talk and talk about what “inspired” me to write a certain tune or nonsensical crap like that (forget I said that last sentence the next time I post a New Music Wednesday). No, this one will be “informative” for “real.”

In Episode 8 (watch the episode), Mason (me) complains that his own successful jingle is driving him crazy. Since Kate (Mason’s old agent, wherever she is) has sold his new jingle through Mason’s backward nemesis Dixon it has been reversed and perverted from Mason’s original “progressive” masterpiece. Thus, whenever it plays on TV (which is a lot) Mason is tortured with reminders of his own inadequacies (ooops, sorry, getting nonsensical again).

But the question remains, what did Mason’s original jingle sound like anyway?

As it turns out, if you’ve seen the episode, you’ll already know the answer to that question. Hmmm?! Yup! It’s the first music cue coming out of the opening title. It’s been jazzed up a little bit (or maybe Dixon “jazzed it down?” It’s actually “Latin-y.”), but it’s the Pawn Pete Jingle backwards alright.

And now you can hear it here:

Jazzy!

And, just for comparison, take a listen to the Pawn Pete Jingle:

Pawny!

Alright. So there you have it! Don’t forget to watch Episode 8. Rate, comment, subscribe!

Oh, and if you have an iTunes account, we would really appreciate it if you rate us and write us a little review (or just rate if you’re internet shy).

Don’t make me bribe you!!!

Thanks to Eric and Blip.tv. Thanks to Jessica at Sevenload. Thanks to Alex at Revver. And thanks to all the wonderful YouTube people who have left us such nice comments. We’ve missed you!

ROBB

Happy 8 Day!

Oh, glorious day! Episode 8 has finally arrived! Part one is up now! I have been waiting to share tidbits and todbots about this episode for months. A lot went into making this episode, and we want to tell you every little detail.

But not today. We're still working on a few issues. For instance, we have finally fixed our iTunes syncing issue, so episode 8 will finally sync to you iPod and iPhone without hassle! We're going back to re-encode all our iTunes files so they will all sync to your iPod, iPhone, iWhatever. This will be a day long remembered.

What's that? You aren't an iTunes subscriber? Then get thee there now! Subscribe! Rate the show! We need you!

After you do that, please go watch the show everywhere. See it on our site. See it a blip.tv. See it at YouTube. Rate it and favorite it. Comment. Roll in it like a dog rolls in—

Sorry, that was about to be very inappropriate.

Five Interesting Things about 8

Happy mid-March, tutti! Yes, 'tis eye, Steve, back again to tell you that episode 8 of our show will begin airing next Monday. That's March 23rd.

To give you something to do until then, here are a few tidbits of information about episode 8. None of them are spoilers, and none of them reveal any important jokes. None of them, therefore, are going to be very nightly news magazine-worthy. But they are loved by their mothers, so I hope you'll stick around and give them a read.

• Episode 8 features the most location-rich shooting of all our episodes so far. I'd surmise a full 50% of the show takes place in locations other than Mason's apartment building. Totally rad!

• Episode 8 contains 5 songs. Five! No, it's not a musical; it simply required more musical ingenuity than our previous episodes. I'm sure you'll get to hear all those songs in their entirety online soon. Wicked!

• Episode 8 has a cast of thousands. Well, okay, not thousands. Just 12. All of whom have at least one line, unlike the baby parade people from episode 7. Righteous!

• Episode 8 will be the episode to watch for all Apple, Mac, and iPhone fans. Why? Hey, like I said, no spoilers! Well, no good spoilers, anyway. Bithcin'!

• Episode 8 contains some of the most frightening costumes in LFTI history, even if you count Guy's get-up in episode 5. Gnarly!

Is your interest piqued? Is your whistle wet? I sure hope so. Be sure to watch LFTI episode 8, "*may be addictive," next Monday!

Save the Date, Date Saver

Gentlemen and lady (only one female reads this blog), we have exciting news for all six of you! Episode 8 is nearly done, and the first episode will be released on...

Oh, the tension! Can you believe it? An actual release date? Who would have thought we'd get to this point? Not us, to be sure. Certainly not Robb, who's been working so hard on this episode that he's now literally a part of the computer. (It's kind of gruesome, in fact. During our last meeting on Sunday, he could only stroll within a three-foot radius of the Mac, and his motions were limited by the wires and tubing that had attached themselves to his body, which has itself become rather gray in pallor. On the plus side, he was able to instruct Tanya from afar on the proper way to make home-made biscuits.)

As this episode nears completion, all of us are getting very excited. It's quite a gem, I feel. Robb's music is top-notch, and there's about 40 hours of it, all crammed into 28 minutes or so. Yes, it's that good! There are moments of genuine drama and tension, and moments of newity. Yes, NEWITY! LFTI moments so new, I had to make up a word.

So be at your computer and ready to click Play on March—

AH! I can't stand it! I can't believe it! An actual date! Wow. It's like I can't even bring myself to say it. Or type it. Or say it into the microphone and have the Mac type it for me. I can do none of those things. I also can't say the three bushels of other things about Episode 8 that I want to, like how Mason does that one thing, or how Guy dresses that one way, or how Ashleigh becomes obsessed with that one item, or how Jennifer practically does that one thing with the other, or how Lou transforms herself into that other whatever. So exciting!

But after the release date, all these things will become clear. After March 23rd, the world will be a funner place.

I did it! I said it! March 23rd! March 23rd! March 23rd! (And, as legal is advising me to say, every Monday thereafter until April 20th.)

Ides? What Ides?

I know. The Ides of March is in the middle of the month, but so what? Considering it's been a month since we last posted, accuracy should be the least of any of our concerns right now. I know my concern is loss of connection, loss of momentum, loss of my car keys (where the hell are they, anyway?). In fact, you might be reading this and not even remembering why you subscribed to this blog in your RSS reader in the first place. A month is a long, long time on the Interwebnets!

In consideration of such, hello. How are you? I'm Steve. I co-produce and act in an online sitcom called Life from the Inside. It's very funny, and the cast and crew are a bunch of cut-ups, which provides this blog with unending source material. Er, or not. Actually, I'm not sure if we've ever written about the cutting-uppiness that goes on on the set. Have we? I doubt it.

Remember the Duke of Doubt? He was the single most annoying character* in the Burger King ads in the early '80s. I hated him, even from an early age, and if you think the word "hate" is too strong a word to use in this case, you'd be dead wrong. I loathed the ads, but I hated the Duke of Doubt. Those stupid ads, coupled with my dislike of Burger King's nasty burgers (shouldn't flame broiling make meat taste more like it's been barbecued and less like it's been passed over lightly with a Zippo scented with yuck?) make me, to this day, a McDonald's man.

"McDonald's?" I hear you ask. "Really? You think Burger King's burgers are nasty, but McDonald's's are okay to you?" I answer you in this way: "Yes. Yes, I do. And here is why..." I then launch into a paragraphs-long dissection of the difference between nasty yucky food and totally wicked delicious yucky food. To spare you that, because I know you are a busy person and can barely read this through the shock of me having posted in the first place, I'll boil it down to some comparisonal foodal examples. Del Taco? Nasty yucky. Taco Bell? Totally wicked delicious yucky. Pizza Hut? Nasty yucky. Papa John's? Totally wicked delicious yucky. Dunkin' Donuts cake donuts? Nasty yucky. King Soopers butter cream-filled, chocolate-covered, raised long john donuts? Totally wicked delicious yucky.

Now you try! _______________: nasty yucky. _______________: totally wicked delicious yucky.

Well done!

All this talk of totally wicked delicious yucky food has me recalling what my friend, Greg, told me on the phone last night. He said his son, Liam, has a book about Yummy and Yucky things. Liam loves the book, but he tends to get the two words mixed up. Which I understand. I do it all the time with alliterative words. So Liam will walk around the house, drinking a yummy drink he loves, and saying "Yucky!" all the while. Très, as the French say, funny.

Which brings me rather tidily back to this blog post. How? Well, obviously, you can now see what happens to us when we take some time off from our official fan communication duties. We become unfocused, a point this whole, useless post proves with aplomb.

To salvage this post from complete uselessness, I shall say two very interesting things to you that have to do with the show, Life from the Inside, for which I'm a producer and actor (see above).

Uno: Big thanks to John for helping us out with publicity. PUBLICITY! I know, right? Get ready to see us on The View!

Divi: Episode 8 will be out in mere weeks. Robb is finishing it up as we speak. Though you and I are not really speaking, are we? I'm more typing, and you're more reading, which isn't really speaking at all. It's more... corresponding, except without the immediacy of paper, stamps, and the U.S. Postal Service. "The what?" Oh, you youngsters!

Thank you very much for reading. See you next month!

* * * * * *

*Sir Shake-a-Lot and The Burger Thing were just as annoying, but the Duke of Doubt wins because someone has to win. Life's all about winning.

References

The Duke of Doubt: YouTube Link

Sir Shake-a-Lot: YouTube Link