Banjo - Tumblr Posts
Just letting you know from a woman who plays banjo, go for it! It’s not very hard to get the hang of, and I’d recommend starting off with either claw hammer or two finger style, as they’re easier! Good luck to ya
The sudden overwhelming 2AM urge to learn how to play the banjo is very inconvenient, I can't stop thinking about it. I've never even held a banjo in my life, but I know it would feel right.
Nostalgia Factor: "Banjo-Kazooie"
This game plays an interesting role in my childhood. It wasn't my favorite game, and I didn't even own it. However, it formed a spot in my memory that will never go away. That's because it scared me so much. I first rented this game from Blockbuster (when those still existed) when I was around five or six years old. It was fun, even if I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to be doing half the time. I just kind of ran in circles around Gruntilda's Lair and Mumbo's Mountain. I decided that I had had enough for one sitting and hit the "Save & Quit" option on the pause menu. That's when it happened. A cutscene started playing. I had never seen a cutscene that played when you quit the game before. Intrigued, I continued to watch as Gruntilda entered her beauty machine with Tooty, Banjo's sister that you spend the game trying to save. One thrown switch and a few lightning bolts later, Grunty and Tooty come out of the machine. Grunty comes out looking beautiful (or at least as beautiful as a witch can), and Tooty comes out looking like a monster. It may not sound that bad, but my young mind was scared to death of monster Tooty. It was almost as if the game was reprimanding me for wanting to stop for a while by showing me losing my sister to Grunty. I immediately shut off the game and vowed to never play it again. The game had scarred me for life. I tried to play it once more after that, but I was too scared of seeing that cutscene again to enjoy it. I attempted to play the sequel when it came out, but it felt wrong after not having thoroughly played the first game. More than ten years later, I finally went back to "Banjo-Kazooie" and found a great game with good writing, catchy music, and fun gameplay. I got so into it that I even collected every Jiggy and bought both of the sequels. I'm glad I went back and gave it another try, but that image of monster Tooty really did scare me half to death.
Suggested Song
"900 Miles" Terry Callier, 1968
origins under the cut
the origins of this song are a bit unclear. No one knows who first wrote it or some specifics with its origins. 900 miles is related to the traditional southern song, "Reuben's train," written sometime after 1860, based on the Reuben Wells Locomotive.
the earliest example of the song in print (that i could find anyway) was in 1913, from the journal of American folklore. somewhat similar to the song that Terry Callier covers. I've seen some references to the song being dated to the very early 1900s and late 1800s, so this song is older than 1913.
the first recording of the song (that i could find) was in 1924 by Fiddlin' John Carson "I'm Nine Hundred miles from home"
and in 1927 by Henry Whitter and G. B. Grayson "train No.45"
a common title for this song is Train No. 45 (which is usually just the instrumental version for the reuben train song), which is confusing because the reuben wells is actually referred to as no. 35, but maybe they changed it in the 20s because that was when the California Western Railroad No. 45 was built. I'm not really sure.
Many of the folk artists who covered this song and the music anthologists who collected have credited to hearing it from black singers originally like woody guthrie and Alan Lomax (p.245). Alan Lomax talks about its different versions in different southern states and its history as a labor song for Sharecroppers and convicts who were both white and black.
and Folklorist Norm Cohen talks about its use and connections to black folklife here (p. 502-518).
and it's featured here in the album, "Before The Blues Vol. 2 (The Early American Black Music Scene) 2016"
based on Alan Lomax's account, it seems that the 900 mile version was popularized because of Woody Guthrie's version in 1944
This song is incredibly famous and has been covered by many other traditional and revival folk artists, including: Cisco Houston (1950-1953), Odetta (1963), Barbara Dane (1961), Richie Havens (late 1960s?) and Bob Dylan (1967).
one of the most popular versions of the song "500 miles" was written in 1961 by Hedy west and is a much newer adaptation of the traditional song, it also has a much more cheery melody and fast tempo compared to the somewhat sullen "900 miles". it has been covered many times by country and folk revival artists like: the journeymen (1961), The Kingston Trio (1962), Peter Paul, and Mary (1962), and the Brothers four (1963).
the version by Terry Callier was recorded in 1965, but his folk album wasn't released until 3 years later in 1968. when he released his first album, "The New Folk Sound of Terry Callier." 900 miles was the first song on the tracklist and the album combined elements of traditional folk/blues as well as jazz. he takes traditional songs and re-imagines them with a fresh pair of eyes that makes this folk album stand out from the multitude of others at the time. While it's considered a cult classic today, it seems like it may have not performed very well monetarily considering how long it took to release and how every other Terry Callier release is completely different.
still, even though this was only his first album, and his genre and style diverged pretty heavily from this first album, it remains to me, one of the best things to come out of the folk revival scene, and 900 miles by Terry Callier will remain the best cover of the traditional labor song.
for user @paulkleefishmagic
Contextual Research for The Model Sheet Brief (Prop Model Sheet)
This is a contextual research I did for the prop model sheet part. As I choose my character to be an Irish dancer, I decided to make my character plays banjo instrument. So I looked at some real pictures for the banjo instrument and I may make it more sample to be used in animation later on.
Character model sheet brief
Character, prop and size comparison sheets.
Those are my finished work for this brief. I choose my character as an Irish dancer who plays banjo music instrument. Really enjoyed and learned a lot in this brief.
Inktober day 12 wander playing banjo
Banjos are the outcast of musical instruments
Like just imagine all the guitars in a group meeting and the door suddenly slams open to reveal a Banjo and then the electric guitar leans over to the ukulele is like "who the invited Cleetus the Cowboy"
It’s currently 3:44 am and i just finished Outer Wilds.
Holy hecc what a ride that was. I guess i have to buy the dlc now :)
For anyone unfortunate enough to stumble upon my lil corner that hasn’t played the game yet, try to go in as spoiler free as possible.
You don’t need a guide,
You can do this just as well as anybody else,
All you gotta do is explore and you’ll find all the clues you need
Sammy Lawrence stimboard for @janussand7 !!
Love this silly guy.
x x x / x x x / x x x
@askgartenofbanbanfankids
I will draw Banbalivia and Banbankins
Pictures from my first art stream!
A while back, I streamed myself drawing on Twitch, and had a grand old time! I’ll be uploading drawings here as I do streams, so check back occasionally!
First, Banjo-Kazooie! This was pretty fun, and outside of my usual range! I need to do some more fanart in the future.
My prompts were “cute anime girl” and “loch ness monster” so I combined them in the only way I could think of given the time restraints. I regret nothing.
Having never drawn any Fairy Tail characters, I think it turned out OK. Pretty basic stuff, I suppose.
If you want to watch, the archive is right here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLkYgGM40YI
And for future art streams, check out my Twitch channel:
https://www.twitch.tv/disc2entertainment/
I bet Fiddleford McGucket would loveee elvis costello. He would be there with him banjo absolutely going ham playing some costello.(and he would make ford sing songs with him if needed, especially for Please Mr. Kennedy)
Hanna Barbera's Video Games
