Gusty Guest Wednesday #3

     Welcome one and all to Gusty Guest Wednesday, the third edition! I'm sorry there haven't been regular posts lately, but there shall be soon. Until then, let me introduce you to our new guest, the amazing ambling musician, Joe Byers!

(Once again, I'm the italics)

Can you give us a short summary of who you are and what you do?
      Joe Byers- singer/songwriter I play music of the acoustic folk genere

How did you get started playing guitar and writing music?

     I broke a guitar string when I was six, and won a guitar at Cedar Point. I thought, "Wow, maybe since I have one now, I should play it." 

(Trivia question: How many musicians say that they play because of  Cedar Point? Answer: 3847! Just kidding . . .)

You've told me about the band you used to be in, could you tell all the Amblers about it and why it broke up?

     It was a talent show band... they all went to college xD and I am kinda in another band, but we're just starting to kick it off.
I was actually hoping for the whole story about some other band stealing your totally sweet band name and your band members getting so upset about it, that everyone left but you. Oh well.

If you could play any instrument besides guitar, what would it be?

      piano, because it's a very beautiful instrument
It is a capital mistake to . . . not capitalize the first letter in your sentence. You disappoint me. But yes, pianos are very nice.

Who's your favorite musician?

      Bob Dylan
So let's listen to Bob Dylan, watch the walls come falling down, now . . . Lo siento, Queens Club reference. Speaking of which, Joe, I've always had the feeling you'd like that band, you should look them up.

Who inspires you? What bands have impacted your musical style?

      Everything I hear impacts my music style, positively and negatively. For example, if I listen to Simon and Garfunkel record, it's positive. Now, if I listen to LMFAO, which I absolutely hate, I try to not sound like that. I have lots of influences, the major ones are Bob Dylan, Harry Chapin, Simon and Garfunkel, Colin Hay, Decemberists, Coldplay, Tenth Avenue North, White Stripes, Black Keys, Arctic Monkeys, the list is endless.
     (A couple days later he messaged me on facebook and insisted I add Jack White to this list. I'm not sure who that is, but he's important to our dear ambling musician!) 
The other day I saw at least one of those bands on the worst indie bands ever list, which means, they must be really good!

How many songs have you written? Which one is your favorite?

       I'd say that I'm nearing 50. I've written two full albums. And as far as favorites go, I really like T.E.E.N, Vincent Valentine, and Complications

What is your favorite line you've written?

      "Vincent, school should be what matters most, not how much butter's on your toast," and/or the Impromptu Song, which is completely off the top of my head and is new every time I play it.

What has been your biggest failure and your greatest success in your musical career?

      Last year's talent show. I totally messed up the solo in Icky Thump. It was kinda nasty. Greatest success was playing Fine Arts Night and getting a single standing ovation. Hahaha.
That awkward laugh after bragging about yourself . . . But don't worry, I made you do it, no need to be embarrassed. I brag about myself all the time without being asked! I'm very humble though.

You've played at coffee shops and such, how's that experience been? Any funny stories?

        Fantastic. It's radiating soul, which I love more than anything. Soul is what drives music forward. My favorite story from a coffee shop is that I apparently made a girl wet herself by laughing so hard. And once, during the Impromptu song, I played guitar, ate a Ritz cracker, and recited Shakespeare.
I <3 Shakespeare :3

What advice would you give beginning musicians?

     Don't let people get you down, your heart speaks louder than their voices. Also, be the change that you wanna see in the world. 

Anything else you'd like to say before you go?

      If anyone thinks I'm good enough, hopefully I can land a record deal! xD
Haven't had anyone get a record deal because of my blog yet, but there's always a first! Good luck Joe and thanks for stopping by!


Thank you all for reading and be sure to check out Joe's facebook page and there are a few videos of him on this youtube channel. 

Gusty Guest Wednesday #2

So your darling blogger was very proactive and found two musicians to interview for this week. However, that same darling blogger failed to follow through with those said interviews. I know what you're thinking: "COME ON! You're distracted, and I expected something crazy!" Mind reader. Yep.
Anyways, I'm very sorry and shall try to make up for it. Thus, today, I'm interviewing myself! Woot!
     Who are you and what do you do?
I'm Storm Marie White. I'm an artist, writer, musician and nonconformist.
     What got you started on art, music, and writing?
My mother majored in art history and interior design, she started teaching art, so I grew up taking art classes constantly. She also became a guitar teacher. So I was in guitar classes. My father has been writing a book since college (a long time ago) so I got started writing too. However, you failed to ask how I became a nonconformist. When I was growing up, everyone said I was just like my mom. I decided I MUST BE DIFFERENT. So I am. And it has expanded into being different than EVERYONE ELSE TOO. I'm not even like the blue ballerina zebras! I AM LIKE NO OTHER. AND I'M VERY HUMBLE.
     Calm yourself, darling! You're getting QUITE carried away!
AND I'M MORE PURPLE THAN THE ANGRY DODO BIRDS WHO ATTACKED THE GREEDY SPANISH PIGS BY CA- Oh. Yah. Sorry. Next question? :)
     What's your favorite flavor of upside down cheesecake and what generic soda and what meat goes best with it?
BLAH. CHEESECAKE. I hate cheese cake. And you know I'm vegetarian, you carnivore!
     It'd be an omnivore, poppet, but I'm a vegetarian too.
Bleh. You annoying ambler, you. Anyhow. Generic sodas don't cut it. It has to be the name brand Coke. None of that Meijer cola or that Pepsi stuff. It has to be that coca-cola, and it has to be vanilla coke. It's the best.
     Who are your favorite inspirations?
God. :) for music, The Myriad is the greatest. The mystery.. The beauty.. The ingenious lyrics.. His voice.. :3
     Our readers get the point, thank you. They are amazing though.
I love so many musicians, can't name them all here, but I will post some more songs soon! As for writers, Tanith Lee has had an impact on my writing with her series, The Claidi Journals (Not sure that's spelled right, will check). Wayne Thomas Batson inspired me with his powerful allegorical fantasy, especially in The Dark Sea Annals. I'm also totally crazy about the classics, love them, they have altered my writing style immensely, particularly Sherlock Holmes books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as books by Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, J. R. R. Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis. I'm stopping here.
     What's it with you and Plutonians?
Plutonians are awesome. So much more intelligent than humans. But the only way you can tell humans and Plutonians apart is by licking them. Humans taste salty, Plutonians taste sweet.
     What type of art do you create? What type of music do you write? What sort of writing do you do?
 That's a very tall answer order. My art is multi-media, layered collage type work with a little bit of everything, and usually a few (hopefully) powerful words and a heavy dose of surrealism. My music.. Some of the dark drama of Evanescence, the playful randomness of Owl City, some folksiness, some harsher sounds... Usually stories. One song is about a raven that doesn't understand its beauty. One about a little girl trying to convince a caterpillar to turn into a butterfly. I like to mix in some non-English languages into it too. Each language has its own uniquely beautiful sound. My writing is mostly fantasy. My current project is about a different world which suddenly has a way to view all of earth's history and the people discover Christianity which sends political and religious tremors through their ancient religion-ruled world.
     Any advice to up and coming creative sorts?
Anyone can be a great artist or musician or writer. Talent helps, but really it just takes TONS of practice.
     Anything else you'd like to say before you go?
Every single day, he picked up a rock, and put it in his sock, and drove away. When he got home, he took his stones, and put them on his white flamingo bones.
And listen to this song :)

Gusty Guest Wednesday: Tim James

     Welcome one and all the first Gusty Guest Wednesday! Today we have an interview with Tim James, a webcomic artist and a very unique Boardwalk Ambler. To prevent confusion, I shall switch to italics and Tim shall remain normal. (Well, not really, but his font will)


Could you give us a brief summary of who you are and what you do? 
      I'm Timothy James. I pretend to be be cooler then I am. Also arts. 
(Also known as T.J. Franklin, Sir Wickerheart, and InsanelyZanter, if he's who I think he is) 

How did you get started making comics?

     I had stories I wanted to tell, and comics were the way I decided to tell them.
(Because campfires are so yesterday, right?)

Who inspires you?

     That overlaps with artists I like quite a lot.Tim Schaffer and the penny arcade crew are pretty inspiring.
(Hey, you're revealing that you already know all the questions and I didn't actually ask you in person!)

You've done some work redesigning your local library. How did you get into that and what all did you do?

     I had participated in the library's advisory group, and had contributed to the website with a few graphics before applying for a job. Shortly after I started, we made an effort to redesign the teen area and bim bam bippity bop.

How do you plan to further pursue art?

     I will be attending COTC for graphic design this year, which will give me some experience, and I plan to Launch a long-form web comic series sometime soon. 

What's your favorite character in anything ever and why?

     That's a tough one. Characters that come to mind are Hellboy (Hellboy), Naked Snake (Metal Gear), Chie Satonaka (Persona), John Locke (LOST),  Lucius Down (BONE), AUGH INDECISION.
(Way to fail the first question and ignore the "And why?" altogether. :P )

What's your favorite character you've created?

     Gotta be Asker Haddock. 
(Pictured above)

What was your biggest art failure and greatest success?

     I normally give up on projects before they get too far into the downward spiral of horror. But my second version of Temporary Insanity was pretty atrocious. (I didn't think so, but it didn't last very long) My plot outline for HADDOCK is pretty good. I think it's pretty good.

Do you have a favorite art related personal story?

(He skipped this one. Intentional? You never know with Amblers like him.) 

How has art effected your life?

     It's my passion, obsession, lifestyle, primary money sink and future career goal. Quite a bit I'd say.

What's your art goal?

     Short term, finish a complete story. Long term, several stories.

Who are your favorite artists?

     Aaron Diaz, Jamie Hewlett, Mike Magnolia, Jeff Smith, and Rob Guillory are some faves.

What advice would you give someone starting to make comics?

     Draw till your hand falls off then draw till the other hand falls off. Never be satisfied. Draw from life then simplify to cartoon.  Pay no attention to my advice.

Anything else you'd like to say?

     GAL'NAGH. cth'ol o'dhan. Kh'ool Ah'ad. 
(All I got out of that was the Kool-aid part.) 

And that concludes our interview, thanks dear readers for reading, and thanks, Tim James, for cooperating!
Check out Tim's DeviantArt page! :)

Purposely Purposeful

     There is something about drinking a frappe that makes one feel like blogging. Somehow making you feel sophisticated, smart, unique, and creative. Ah, that fateful day Mcdonald's made an extra frappe by accident and gave it to me . . . They've made good money off of that.
     I don't digress. That one of my greatest qualities, I stay on topic marvelously well. And I'm humble, but I don't need to tell you that because it's obvious.
     You're probably wondering what the purpose of this blog is. It's reason of being is to bring together writers, artists, musicians, creative people of all sorts, Plutonians, and anyone slightly interested in these things or who enjoys laughing at me.
     I will be posting about my life as a creativity enthusiast, artist, musician, and writer, and I hope to have some co-authors and guest bloggers in the near future to spread your creative horizons further than my own on topic ramblings can spread them alone. I may also do some interviews in such. Let me know if you're interested in writing a post or being interviewed. If you don't volunteer, I have alternative methods, so never fear. Or do fear. Your choice.
     My recent artistic kick has been editing photos. I made a small collection of pictures relating to Boardwalk Amblers, one such is above. I had them as my blog background and discovered, to my despair that is was rather busy and made reading some things on the blog rather difficult. The problems of the world. Sigh. That's a picture from Mackinac Island, Michigan, by the way. Ironically, I'm wearing my tshirt from there. Funny how that happens.
     One thing you'll very quickly learn about me is that I love music, especially unique music. I think I shall probably add a song at the end of each post I write, please listen to at least part of each song I post, as I do listen to a decent variety and you may hate some songs and adore others. Today I include and conclude with my favorite song; Stuck in a Glass Elevator by The Myriad.

Welcome Without Parsimony

     Good morning one and all!

     Welcome to the new official blog of the revered and hugely famous society, Boardwalk Amblers Anonymous! Oh. You haven't heard of us? My, that's rather shocking. Let me guess, you're from Trinidad. No? Don't lie to me. I know you are. How else could you have not heard of us? It is true that our popularity plummeted after a quite unusually intelligent coyote hacked our previous blog. Or rather, when the previous official blogger gave his position over to the coyote he trained. He was one of those creative types that become eccentric when aged. That will not happen to this official blogger, I assure you. But I must not speak badly of my elders, and that's a Boardwalk Amblers secret, so don't tell a sole of a shoe! Don't look at me like that, I'm perfectly sane. Soles of shoes are great places to hide recorders if you're trying to hear secrets. 

      Anyways, since you haven't heard of us (unless you're lying and you have heard of us, but that would be very impolite of you.) I suppose I should tell you a little about us. 

    Our History

     Boardwalk Amblers Anonymous was founded in 1962, with the opening of the first Boardwalk Amblers meeting in Rogers, Ark. The society became national on Oct. 31, 1969 when every state in America as well as Botswana had an official branch of Boardwalk Amblers Anonymous.  The society's plush platypi began being sold in craft sales in 1970 and were listed on the New Jerkinstan's Best Selling Plush list two years later.

     The Boardwalk Amblers grew to 276 branches in 11 countries by the end of the decade. In 1983, the Boardwalk Amblers opened its first world wide Boardwalk Amblers annual conference in a warehouse and in 1988 began the first snail mail "meeting" -- never the Boardwalk Amblers meeting's dominant format -- featuring a letter sent from ambler to ambler with each adding a page of notes in addition, leaving some amblers with heavy postage costs.  The Boardwalk Amblers began their first Internet branch in 1991 when it opened its first blog. Which was quite successful until the official blogger became a touch too crazy and is now deleted to hide the coyote incident. Which brings us to this blog, now, which shall be much better. 

Thank you for reading, please come by again. And welcome to Boardwalk Amblers Anonymous. 

Also, you should read walmart's history. It's quite interesting. I highly recommend it.