Thank you for visiting my blog. I’m a scholar of television, film, and digital media, and the author of CINEMA OF CONFINEMENT (Northwestern University Press) and CAPTURING DIGITAL MEDIA (Bloomsbury Academic). I’ve published a variety of articles on film and television in journals published by Taylor & Francis. I am also a writer of fiction. All of my books can be viewed on www.tomconnellyfiction.com
My first book, THE POSTCARD, has a bunch of images, and I had a hard time figuring out how to incorporate them into my kindle book when I published it on KDP in 2011. So I thought I would share the steps.
FIRST: You must save your Word document as a Web page (.htm)
When you create a Web file, it automatically creates a folder (fld). See below:
SECOND: Insert your images into the Web file you just created. DO NOT COPY and PASTE the images in your manuscript. You MUST insert them. The images are automatically stored in the folder file (fld). I inserted my book cover at the end of my book, Zworsky's Children, as an example.
THIRD: Once you are done inserting the images and are reading to upload your manuscript to KDP, COMPRESS the file.
This is the tricky part. You must select BOTH the folder associated with the html file and the html file itself. You are compressing two files into one.
Right click on your mouse and a new window will pop up. Select COMPRESS.
After you compress the two files, a ZIP file will be created. You can rename the zip file if you want.
Now you are ready to upload your manuscript. Upload the zip file as your manuscript on KDP. When the file is process, you will see the images in your manuscript preview.
Random note: you can switch back and forth from different views of the file such as Print Layout, Web, etc.
I'm guessing you're here because you clicked the link on my YouTube video for song 10, or maybe you stumbled across my site. Either way.... welcome! Thank you for checking out my blog about my Thrash Metal Hardcore music project (I need to come up with a proper name for it!)
This project started this past winter when I showed song three to my friend and writing partner when I was in All Out War, Jim Antonelli. He liked the song, and we even thought about writing some music together. My talk with Jim got me motivated to record the song and some other ones I'd written.
The other source was Rick Rubin's new book, The Creative Act. Reading his book really inspired me to go forth with this project. Great book.
The music is informed by a lot of bands I love.
Song 1
This was a recent one I wrote. It has a quick Quicksand style, fused with Black Sabbath!
Song 2
One of my favorites. I channeled a lot of Slayer into this one. I also love the band Forced Entryfrom Seattle. If you like old school Thrash, definitely check them out.
Song 3
This one seemed to have resonated the most with listeners, and the one I got the most response. I wrote it a couple of years ago during lock down. It's a straight up hardcore song, with a little bit of Helmet at the end.
Song 4
The first section and the fast riff were written about 10 or 12 years ago but never came together. I couldn't come up with a transition into the fast section. One day I was listening to Power Trip's "Soul Sacrifice" from Nightmare Logic. That's when I came up with the bridge for the second half of the song. I added a few new riffs and the song was complete.
Song 5
Just
a straight up double bass, metal song. The last section was informed by Dissolve. They are incredible hardcore band from the Hudson
Valley.
The "slow one" as I call it. It just all came together with this tune. I wanted to write something in the style of Typo-O-Negative and Black Sabbath. I was very happy with it. I was glad to see this one had a good response.
Song 8
The first two riffs were written about three years ago. Again, I didn't have a bridge for the next section. Then I was listening to "Piece by Piece" by Slayer - that gave me the idea. This one got a nice response as well.
Song 9
I wrote this a long time ago. It's definitely old school hardcore in the vein of Sick of it All and Rest in Pieces.
Song 10
The hardest one for me to play and to record. It has elements of Tool, Slayer, Alice in Chains, and Faith No More. This is probably one of my favorites as well.
Recording and Video process
I recorded all the song using Garageband. I interfaced the bass and guitar through a Scarlet Focusrite.
The drums were recorded on AKAI. Then I had to play along with the drum track when I recorded the videos. Personally, if I had the ability to mic my drums, I would have played the drums a little different for each songs. But I am happy with what I could do with the AKAI.
I plan to release the songs for streaming. But I have to come up with a band name - and also a name for each song. Thanks for checking out my blog and my music.
A central claim of Andre Bazin is that the power of cinema can render the mysteriousness
of reality on film--to capture and embalm the structures of reality.
Hilary Neroni's excellent new book builds upon Bazin’s theory, arguing that
those structures (or mysteriousness of reality) is mediation—language,
unwritten rules of communication, systems of signification. Her other point is
that what is "new" about neorealism is the combination of realism and
melodrama. The two work together to bring forth (mediation) to draw attention
to the workings of the social order. In this case, it is early post WWII,
Italy. Those two key points (mediation and melodrama)
make this a very interesting and engaging analysis of De Sica’s landmark film,
Bicycle Thieves.
Movies often try to avoid showing us mediation (the forms that
create the story world). But neorealism wants to draw our attention to them.
But it also wants us involved in the story, to feel the emotions of the
characters, to experience the melodrama, to make us aware of the systems that
are working against these characters.
I am so happy this is book is available.
I teach this movie and agree with Neroni that Bazin should not be left in the
dustbin of film theory.
Realist film theory has a lot to offer for current
cinema. Just think how much digital effects have developed over the past thirty
years, how they have gotten more and more realistic. This is just one example
that demonstrates the importance of Bazin and realist film theory. This book is
definitely worth checking out.
It was an idea I had since 2017. It started with a 60 Minutes segment on antibiotic resistance. Then I watched a PBS Nova episode (I won't say what it's about because that would spoil the novel). But I didn't have a story, just some ideas. It wasn't until I read Stephen King's On Writing when I started writing the book. I had written two novels before this and a bunch of screenplays. But King's book gave me the courage to write without an outline.
In On Writing, King says to write 1000 words a day until the novel is finished. (I think he might have said at least 6 days a week). But I wrote everyday.
The first few days of writing were fun. But when I got to the third day, I started to panic because I didn't know if I could write 1000 words each day. What do I say? What am I writing? Then I remembered what King said: Write with the door shut. Even if these 1000 words suck, no one will read it. I always think that when I write. It is okay to be messy and to experiment. Ernest Hemingway famously said the first draft of anything is shit. So I just plowed ahead until I
finished the first draft, which I completed in the summer of 2019 and was over 100,000 words.
Writing without an outline might not be everyone's method. I read James Patterson outlines his novels, which is amazing given how many books he's written. But for me, once I have a spark of an idea, I dive into the unknown and see where I end up. I keep the door shut until I am ready to share it.
I have written the Zworsky's Children series (three books total). The second book will be available next year, and I just wrote the first draft of the third book. For those of you who decide to read it, I do hope you enjoy the story. I wrote it with a lot of heart. See the review from Kirkus Reviews.
My new short story will be available to purchase as an eBook on April 26. This is another story of mine that takes place in Burghville and is connected to my first novel THE POSTCARD.
Stacking and chopping firewood is nothing new for the Ferguson brothers.
It’s a routine they have to endure every fall before winter comes
barreling through the Hudson Valley. But on this day, after slicing a
short log, they discover something mysterious inside it that will haunt
them forever. . . .
Writing this story reminded me of stacking cords of wood for our wood-burning stove, growing up in upstate New York. Unsure why, but I thought . . . what would happen if a character chopped a log in half and found something weird inside it?
I went with that thought and wrote KILL PARK. I hope you enjoy the story. There will be no paperback version since it is only 40 pages.
Happy chopping....
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My novella Flight Unknown will be released on February 22 on Amazon. It is a story about a strange occurrence that happens on a red-eye flight to New York form London. Seven passengers and a flight attendant realize they're the only people on board who aren't in a coma-like sleep.
The idea of the story came about when I saw troubling news reports on airlines during the early part of the pandemic. On top of that, I had been watching a lot of George R. Romero films. I was also binge watching The Twilight Zone.
In particular, the Zone episode The Odyssey of Flight 33 had a big influence on my story.I am also a big fan of Lost. All of those texts were inspiring for me.
One
thing I was really excited about this project was the opportunity to write a group
of characters who don't know each other, but have to work with each
other in order to stay alive. I certainly looked to Stephen King who has written many of these types of
situations, such as Desperation, Maximum Overdrive and "The Langoliers."
Flight Unknown was a ton of fun to write, and I hope everyone enjoys it. Please check out www.tomconnellyfiction.com for updates and to sign up for my newsletter.
Damon Krukowksi's great book (and podcast) Ways of Hearing explores how digital media have transformed the way we hear.
In the chapter on "power," he considers the difference between Spotify's "Discovery Weekly" and visiting a record store. Spotify's algorithm considers what you listen to, adapting to your tastes and likes. He notes, "At Spotify, the dream is to provide you with music without your participation-the algorithm will know what you want" (111).
But when we visit a record store, one has to navigate its space. As Krukowski states, "You adapt to it" (11). If you ever been to Amoeba in Los Angeles--clearly the case!
(Me at Amoeba Music)
By
adapting to the store's layout, you might come across a surprise, maybe
a record you hadn't thought about purchasing. This process involves your
unconscious desire. As I explained in an earlier posting, the logic of desire operates on absence. The object cause of desire (what Jacques Lacan terms objet a) can never be satisfied.
At
the same time, the object cause of desire sustains the psychical force of desire because it is unattainable. It
is sometimes described as the real of one's desire. Real - meaning
the impossible, or in this case, the stumbling block of desire.
In a previous post on the gaze, I noted how cinematic forms can elicit our desire. Like the narrative and formal construction of a movie, the design and layout of a record store considers your desire. A record store is already designed for you to engage with it.
Not all stores will elicit your desire. But in my recent journey to Amoeba, the store reads my desire in how it displays its merchandise. It is not adapting to me (as Spotify does with Discovery Weekly), but is trying to elicit my unconscious desire in anticipating a surprise purchase.
But this raises a question: can algorithms such as Discover Weekly read your desire? In a podcast on the Lacanian Real with Todd McGowan, he argues they can't because they repeatedly tell you what you want.
I think McGowan's claim lines up with Slavoj Zizek's critique of technological singularity. For Zizek, singularity can't account for the unconscious. Likewise, algorithms don't know how to read our unconscious desire.
Instead of a "surprise," (something unexpected which emerges from your encounter at a record store), you discover something new with Discover Weekly, which is based on your tastes. As Krukowski writes, "You find the answers you want to the questions you already know to ask. . . . This makes an ideal experience if all you want is what you want. But what if you're looking for something else?" (112). That "something else" is what Lacan call objet a which algorithms can not provide.
Another way to think about algorithms is they operate on mastery. By contrast, a record store operates on both absence ("something else") and mastery ("all"). As you navigate the story, you try to master it. At the same time, what draws you into the store is absence (unconscious desire).
