Pickman's Model...of How Not to Adapt Lovecraft! - Mr. P. Reviews Stuff - Ep: 01

Note: Took me several tries to get it edited in a way that wouldn't get a copyright claim from YouTube. But, finally managed. Ignore the moments where I'm clearly scanning through the video to find the next point. It was originally visible but that made it look like I was using too much of the footage and got flagged. No problem for the channel, just a pain to go back and re-edit.

I realize it's become a bit of a meme at this point that Netflix adaptations of most source material is...loose to say the least, if not downright trash. I had hopes that maybe this episode of Guillermo Del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities would be an exception. Sadly, I was wrong. That's what I get for getting my hopes up I suppose.

As you know, a couple of weeks ago I recorded and uploaded a recording of "Pickman's Model" to the channel. Though I've come to see at as far less than a stellar performance on my part (only 30% at the least I like, at the most 50%) it's still a better production than this crap since I at least stuck to the material and tried to do it justice, even if I think I could do better.

There is a lot in this particular that adaptation that just didn't make sense, let alone need to be in it. First, the friend, Eliot, as I recall makes no appearance in this episode whatsoever. Just gone. Secondly, Thurber has a wife and child. Okay, sure, fleshing out characters isn't a terrible idea sometimes, but they served no purpose other than to be sacrificial lambs for the ending of the show which bore little to no resemblance to the original work. Thirdly, there are all sorts of references to other parts of the Lovecraft mythos. I don't mind easter eggs every now and then, but they steered the story in a direction that was never a factor in the original. Cosmic horror wasn't really an aspect of the original, so why drag it into this? Also, if your audience has no clue what the name "Yog-sothoth" means, or why some random witch cult is using his name, why put it in there? Fourthly, why the heck are you shoe-horning a witch cult into the story at all? Fifthly, why is gore and body horror present in the episode? That wasn't really Lovecraft's schtick. True, he had some cannibalism every now and again ("The Rats in the Walls" for example" but still not his usual go-to for content.

There's plenty of other issues: characterization, plot development, dumb action scene at the end, etc.

I had high hopes for this episode, but I learned my lesson. Have a listen and FEEL WHAT I FEEL!

"My God is Near" by Mac Lynch - Mr. P. Sings Stuff - Ep. 01

One thing I've always wanted to do, in addition to practicing voice over and "gitting gud" at doing narration and the like, is to record music. I grew up singing in church and doing fine arts performances and thoroughly enjoyed doing so, always have. Once I started attending my current church, I started being able to get recordings of my performances and tried uploading them to YouTube over the last several years. Sadly, the quality of the mix was never that great and I only ever got to do one take of any given performance. So, if the mix sucked, there wasn't much I could do about it. Plus, once you had it recorded, the vocals were mixed into the backing track on the final recording so once it was done, it was done.

Well, not anymore! Thank goodness for good recording equipment and a very quiet room. Not sound treated yet, of course, but someday I'll get there.

The song itself is one that I first became aware of when I was in highschool. It had been performed at church by our choir director, my brother, and another tenor from church. Loved it from the first time I heard it. Then, at camp one year we performed it and were conducted by none other than the songwriter himself. Finally, one year for fine-arts competition in Murfreesboro, TN, we performed it and placed third (if memory serves correctly). Anyway, I think I've only ever performed it at my current church once probably about fifteen years ago or so around the time I first started attending. I had plans to perform it again back in 2020, but then the pandemic hit and messed all that up.

After getting my equipment recently, I had been thinking about re-recording many of the songs I've done over the years (all covers of course), and it dawned on me that I still had this one collecting digital dust on the hard drive. What better excuse to mess around with the ole microphone than to record myself singing three parts at the same time? If you ever need to sing with someone you blend perfectly with, sing with yourself!

Anyway, I got the recording done and played around with the EQ in Audacity to try and mix out certain frequencies that could mess with the vocals. I'm not sure if I should have done it with all three vocals running at once or done them separately. I figured since it was my own voice, the same EQ should work for me no matter which part I was singing. Granted, the song itself is TTB and the bass line isn't particularly low anyway. So I just EQ'd based on the bass line. Unsurprisingly, the bands and frequencies were pretty much identical to what I already had set up for regular voice over stuff.

The hardest part was getting the mix right. Initially, the backing track was just deafening compared to the vocals. Layering the vocals on top of each other helped, but I still had to reduce the backing track by about 5db to balance it out. From there, it was a process of going through and balancing each track so that you could hear the individual parts, trying to avoid having any one line of music drown out the other. After listening to it about a bajillion times, I think I got it down. Fun process to learn and I can't wait to do it again!

Anyway, the message of the song itself is top notch, especially when you relate it to the doctrine of sanctification, something I know I fail at constantly. However, if we really did take seriously the idea of drawing close to God and keeping His presence in mind, we would do a much better job of watching our own actions and letting Him guide us instead of trying to do things on our own.

I hope you appreciate the song and the message therein.

"Pickman's Model" by H.P. Lovecraft - Mr. P Reads Stuff - Ep. 01

The time comes at last for me to upload my recording/performance of Pickman's Model by H.P. Lovecraft. Not a bad first attempt for making a sort of radio/drama or audio drama with sound effects and music. Could be better but could be infinitely worse too.

Just some background information on how this was done. First, I realized most of the way through that I have tendency to get a lot closer to the microphone than I need to. Rule of thumb is typically to keep about six inches away from the diaphragm of the mic to avoid over-reliance on proximity effect which can produce a deeper resonance than what you would normally have. I notice that as I was reading I was unconsciously leaning in as I was reading. Oh well, practice makes perfect I guess. Worst case scenario I'll tape a pencil or something to my mic stand to keep me at a fixed position. Still, sound quality came out pretty good all things considered.

Next, the recording process itself. When recording voice over, most performers (especially for commercial demos and the like) will do multiple takes of a line in order to pick the one they like best. This is often done by having multiple tracks in a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and then splicing together the takes that sound the best.

I didn't do that.

Instead, what I did was record a paragraph, listen to it, and then re-record what I didn't like and tried to get a better read on it. So, for a final product that clocked in around 40 minutes or so, I spent approximately 2 hours or so recording and re-recording. There are probably some line-reads I could have done better, there always are, but the final result is significantly better than my first take. Originally, I recorded the entire thing in one take and then tried to go back and re-record while doing a listen-through to make sure I didn't flub any lines or add words that weren't in the actual transcript. I found it worked a lot better to simply edit as I went and to do re-takes as I went rather than trying to do it all after the fact. Part of this is also because it also helped keep me in the flow of the performance. Another issue that can happen is when recording, you have to be as close to be in the same position relative to the microphone throughout the performance. Even a slight shift in position of your mouth or even being just a little further away from the mic or closer to the mic can have a noticeable difference in audio quality. So, I could have something I recorded a few days ago that I need to go in and edit, but if I can't find the exact position and even volume that I was speaking at during the original, the edit is going to sound jarring when inserted back into the recording. It completely breaks the experience and it sounds awful. In a treated and consistent studio environment, this probably wouldn't be an issue, but I'm literally sitting in my bed with a boom arm microphone stand attached to my night-stand with my gear hooked up to it. So, doing everything all at once is ideal, though not always possible due to the sleep schedule of other people in my house.

Anyway, I do hope you enjoy the recording. As I mentioned in my last update, I will be doing a review of the Netflix abomination adaptation of this story in the coming future. In the mean time, be sure to take a listen and leave a comment on YouTube and let me know what you think.

Take care!

-Mr. P.

Another Update from Mr. P!

Just a quick note about some of the things I have in the works and why I have not posted anything just yet.

The highlights are basically that I am in the process of recording a short story to upload which I will use as a comparison for a Netflix adaptation that was a steaming pile of garbage. Additionally I am considering doing a comparison between a manga and it's a Netflix adaptation as a way of demonstrating how an adaptation should be done.

There is also a long form video in the works dealing with a recent conversation I had with someone that took a hard left turn into a direction I was not expecting. Should be an interesting conversation about perspectives on scripture and how we interact with that.

Mr. P. Returns!...Sort of...

Did you know that I didn't die? 

For the two or three that may remember, I disappeared off the face of the Earth after leaving Facebook, and was going to start a blog where you guys could find me. Well, that never happened for a number of reasons, like saving my marriage. 

Lame excuse right? 

I know. It was very selfish of me to prioritize that over memes and ranting about stuff online.

Anyway, I've started recording again (however frequent that ends up being) and posted a new video to YouTube. Is it available yet? Nope! Why? Because my internet speed decided to tank. Whenever it gets uploaded, I'll attach it here. At least I'll have this posted for January 1, 2023! After all, if you don't post something to a blog or YouTube on the first of the year, are you really trying. Granted, nobody is reading this right now because I'm still writing it and nobody has shared it to anyone on social media yet. When will anyone see it? Beats me, but here I am! I'm doing this for you nameless denizens of the interwebs.

Anyway, by the time anyone reads this the video should be published so my earlier comments will be useless but, meh, whatever. I'll be trying to post here semi-regularly, which, given my track record is somewhere between once a month or once every few years. I don't have much middle ground. But least I'm consistent on that point!

The video should give you some idea of the types of things I'll be talking about. Listen to me on that and how terrible my voice sounds since my kids decided to bring home the plague at some point. Parenting, amirite? Talk to you later.

Edit: Video posted now. Still too lazy to edit out my previous comments about it.