Something big is coming…

I’m sorry that I’ve been so quiet lately. It’s been a rough month with technical problems, but also a very uplifting one with the amazing show of generosity and support from the fans. It’s been a struggle, but I think I’m making some progress getting back to status quo.

Something big has come up, and I’ve decided to drop everything and write a very special review– probably one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done from a technical standpoint. But I think it’ll be a fitting sendoff to mark the end of an era. I’ll have to remain mysterious for now, but rest assured, things will never be the same again.

In Memoriam

Michael Jackson, 1958-2009

Farrah Fawcett, 1947-2009

Billy Mays, 1958-2009

Ed McMahon, 1923-2009

Vlog 6-27-09: Static

Camera troubles resume, and no hilarity ensues. This vlog is basically a waste of time as I attempt to explain and demonstrate my weird camera issues. I was just playing with the thing to test the audio and decided to let the tape roll.I’ll have to wait until Monday for the repair shops to open and see if they can help.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Review

This special movie review brings my brother Miles in front of the camera, as we discuss the newest cinematic abomination created by the shit-flinging monkeychild Michael Bay.

Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight Review

Beware! Next year a deadly cyboplasm virus will sweep the Earth and all of our planetary colonies, turning us all into violent, mindless superaliens! Only Ken, king of the Street Fighter circuit can leap between worlds and save us all! But who is the mastermind behind the cyboplasm, and what horrors will Dr. Insano unleash upon the galaxy when he steals it?

Production Notes:

This was the first video that I re-shot after my camera’s audio problems. They’re much less-severe than before, but I think you can still hear an audible hiss in some portions of the video, which I attempted to mask somewhat with music. Perhaps that choice was a bit misguided, but I did my best. The noise is worse than I thought, however, even with my regular sound checks, and I’ll need to come up with a different solution.

Spooning with Spoony: Bloopers

Outtakes from the ill-concieved Spooning with Spoony sketch.

A Leaked “TGWTG” Teaser Trailer

Video by CR

Terror T.R.A.X. – Track of the Vampire (PC) Trailer

The Spoony One’s final battle with the underworld is coming soon. Prepare for the last Terror TRAX game for the PC: another journey into FMV Hell along with Agent Snake Malibu and the Dragonmaster from Dragon Strike!

Let’s Play SWAT 4 – Mission #10: From Russia With Guns

The Russian mob is dealing guns and illegal explosives, and the ATF is asleep at the wheel! It’s up to Lieutenant Spoony and his hardy crew of SWAT comrades to break some Eastern Promises and some Russkie skulls!

The Sound of Silence – Filming Disaster

Remember when I said that my camera was old and might be showing its age at any moment? We might have just rocketed past that point.

I just spent all day recording the live footage for two reviews: Street Fighter 2010 and Terror TRAX, and the sound is completely unusable. It’s just gone. All you can hear is static, with my voice only barely audible, as if I were shouting through a snowstorm. It’s a complete waste, and I can’t use any of it.

Now, I’m not an idiot. The days of the old brain lapses of not turning on the lavalier pack or plugging in cables are well behind me. I do a sound check every time I set up the camera now just to make sure this sort of thing doesn’t happen, and I did it this time, too. But it still went wrong.

I’ll try to explain what happened. A while back, I recorded my vlog on “Drag Me To Hell” and noticed the same thing, that the sound was static despite the sound check. I did another check and found that, for some reason, the connection between my XLR microphone input and the camera had gotten fouled up, so I re-set the connections and cables and everything seemed to work properly again. But the same thing seems to have happened again today. At some point between my sound check and pressing the record button on the camera, the microphone connection went kaput. I simply had no reason to doubt that the sound was bad.

I’m not sure what to do now. I’d hate to write the camera off as a loss, but this is probably a sign that I need to start shopping around for a new one sooner rather than later. I suppose the best thing to do is to just re-record the reviews, but I don’t think I can use my high-quality microphone from now on, considering that the XLR input is acting tetchy. I’m going to be stuck using the onboard camera mic, and it’s going to sound like crap.

At any rate, I’m too tired and pissed off to try recording it all over again today. I’m really sorry about all this, but you’ll probably have to wait a little longer before I can get you the updates I promised. In light of this, I’ll start working on Ripper and SWAT 4 until I can figure out a way to reliably use my camera.

Edit: It’s definitely got something to do with the camera’s “accessory shoe.” Both the XLR accessory and the shotgun mic had a ton of interference. I played around with them both for a while when suddenly…it works again. That actually makes me more nervous about the whole thing than having it reliably fail. Don’t know what’s causing it.

The Spoony Experiment is Noah Antwiler's addle-brained, scattershot attempt to understand pop culture and all of the geeky things that shaped his tormented, warped psyche. Here you'll find movie reviews of childhood classics and Hollywood blockbusters, video game reviews of old Nintendo games, jacked-up PC games you've probably never heard of, and modern abominations of gaming that plague the Playstation, XBox, and Wii. Who knows what else you might find in these hallowed halls of nerdiness, but hopefully we'll all learn a little something. If not, at least we're sure to have some serious laughs.

Welcome to the Spoony Experiment. It's here to pop culture in the face.