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Cedar+Gold Sneak Peek

And by “sneak peek”, I mean all speculation on my part. So keep that in mind while you’re reading this.

Tristan Prettyman’s latest album, Cedar+Gold, is available for pre-order. Because I am such a fan, I immediately jumped at the chance to make sure that I had her album as soon as it became available. Eagerly, I read the track list to see what’s in store come October 2, 2012 (the date got pushed from September 27).

After hearing “My Oh My”, the first single from the new album, I knew that there would be some Jason Mraz angst on this album. How could there not be? Their breakup, their responses to the breakup, and that “I Won’t Give Up” song that’s playing on every Top 40 station twice an hour keeps putting their relationship’s dissolve in our faces every day so I’m sure it’s constantly on her mind. Well, that and the fact that that man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with leaving her and then telling the world that she doesn’t care about the issues he cares about. I’m sure that songwriting is her way of dealing with the pain of her break-up and her album immediately following said break-up would reflect that method of therapy.

Happier days.

But after looking at the track list and looking up the lyrics of some of her new songs, I have to say that I am shocked that it appears as though the entire album is a big “Go to hell” to the popular singer that broke her heart. Look at some of the lyrics from that first single:

You got me under a spell
You look like heaven, oh, but you put me through hell
God knows there’s nothing to gain
Well who am I to deny, we’re both playing the same game
All too familiar, the moment it blows up
Now everything I know seems to fly

-as taken from sing365.com

Obviously this a reference to their on-again/off-again nature of their relationship. I won’t belabor the point of it all but you can tell that she’s fed up with the back and forth. I get it, sister, you’re pissed and you’re not going to take it anymore. You go, girl!

Watch out, Jason, she’s about to fuck your world up. In song!

I really don’t have any complaints about someone writing their anger into their songs. Heck, one of my favorite artists, Chad Perrone, writes some of the most angsty music out there and I can’t get enough of him. But check out some of the lyrics of her other songs from Cedar+Gold:

Just so you know just so you know
I never thought you’d let me go
I don’t even know the truth
Yeah we were fine, yeah we were fine
Then all at once you changed your mind
And I was gonna marry you

-also from sing365.com, titled “I Was Gonna Marry You”

Or:

You said you would never let me go
You promised me, our love written on the wall
Felt so easy but I should’ve known better
To never say never

-taken from sing365.com, titled “Never Say Never”

And:

Promises get broken
Details go unspoken
I never say too much
Spend too much time thinking
And the weeks lead up to leaving
Summer’s gonna get crushed

-once more from sing365.com, titled “Come Clean”

Don’t worry, Jason Mraz fans, he’ll be able to use his Jesus-like powers to walk across the ocean to get away from the music.

All of these songs are lamenting Mraz’s departure from her life and the rest of the album’s song lyrics are very similar. I’m suspecting a tear-jerker in Cedar+Gold. I’ll definitely be listening to it, because I loves me some Tristan Prettyman, but I worry that an album dedicated to be very angry at one person, especially someone that I do typicaly enjoy like Jason Mraz, is going to be something of a buzz kill.

What-what, the Podcast

So, now that there are few episodes up, I want to plug the podcast my buddies, Bill and Andy, and I have started doing. “Live from the Cave Johnson Mancave” is available on iTunes and on Andy’s site. It’s a podcast this is actually somewhat similar to my blog here at Pop Culture Sushi, except instead of getting just one (hilarious) opinion, you get three geeky voices all talking about your favorite subject: epic geekery!

I'll claim that this is about the process, but it's all about the hit count.

This isn’t just a normal shameless self promotion, like I do with my webcomic (which you can see here). I want to actually talk a little bit about the process of making a podcast. Not a professional talk, mind you, but one that comes from a girl wide-eyed and amazed at what one can do with a little soundboard, three microphones, and three nerds.

First, the name. We recorded the first three sessions, all in one sitting, in Bill’s basement one day. Bill’s basement door has a talking picture of Cave Johnson from Portal 2 that actually talks as you walk by it. Brilliant! So when we were sitting around trying to come up with a name, we kept coming back to the fact that Bill’s man cave had Cave Johnson’s picture guarding it. And history was made.

After sitting down to record, I was a little nervous about recording. Fortunately, Bill had some Red Hook beers (that after about two, I kept calling Red Hood) which loosened up the nerves quite a bit. The reason for my nervousness was ultimately that we didn’t establish any kind of script beforehand. How were were going to keep going? What were we going to talk about? How was I going to sound?

That last is actually the worst part. I really hate the way I sound. In my head, I sound like Fran Drescher. You know. The Nanny. And despite being assured that I do not, I have to admit that I’ve only listened to about the first two or three minutes of each podcast before I turn it off, horrified.

I have this dress in mauve.

Anyway, back to the recording itself. We spent almost three hours just chatting into microphones, like it’s the most normal thing in the world. And we talked about all sorts of things! DC’s New 52, my tattoos, the PS Vita, Catwoman, superhero registration, and so much more. The highlight was recording while watching the Catwoman short from Batman: Year One.

Oh, Eliza Dushku. Call me. No, really. Call me.

After we finished recording, Andy did some… things. Cut the clips, edited, added some music, an intro. All that behind the scenes stuff that goes on to make the podcast more interesting. Turns out, he could make three whole episodes (plus a Catwoman viewing mini-sode) with footage from just one day! And then he put it up on the internet.

Turns out, we’re already attracting some listeners. You can check out the first two files and the Catwoman mini on the site or on iTunes right now, with the third to follow. The first file, according to iTunes, has filled up the popularity bar (that’s the one between the running time and the price) so I can’t imagine that’s a bad thing at all. We’re internet famous!

Once we all get through this very informative book, we can start taking over the world.

The whole process is a lot of fun. At some point, I may live-blog while recording the podcast and post that when the episode comes out. That may turn out to be complicated. Fortunately, my morbid fascination with Japanese tentacle cartoons has taught me the invaluable skill of multitasking so I’m sure it’ll be fine.

Check out the podcast and let me know what you think! Any topics you’d like the geeks to cover?

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