The crew here in Philly has gotten together to try to raise some money for desperately needed equipment replacement at the monthly 8Static Chiptune event here in Philadelphia! To date, ALL of the equipment we use has been donated in-kind, but we are managing to kill some of it with the beauty of squarewaves!

This kickstarter campaign (already at 70% of our funding level) will help us replace a burned-out bass Amp (thanks to Animal Style for loaning it), and more recently the loss of our VJ projector (once working for and always loaned to us by No-Carrier).

We are currently less than $600 away from replacing both! I’ve donated a Pocket VBLANK board to the cause, which will go to a project backer who donates in the $500 range. Thanks to all that help!

After many requests… I’ve finally got a web shop up!

Breadboard kits and the Pocket VBLANK will now be available at

www.straytechnologies.com

This site will be the new home for all things kit, works-in-progress, gallery and workshop. As always, look here for the latest upcoming performances and lo-fi video luv.

I’ve just offered up three special “Sellout Edition” versions of my new “Pocket VBLANK”  circuit at 8bc.

These boards will be released in full force in the next couple of weeks, at my latest ‘WIP’ website and at the merchandise table at Blip Festival 2009 on December 17, 18 & 19. The first run is only for 32 prebuilt boards.

Here’s what the “Pocket VBLANK” is…

• prebuilt 2.5″ x 3″ circuit board (size of an altoid tin) ready to plug in and go. comes with a power supply.
• Plug in your live or pre-recorded music via an 1/8″ stereo mini from your sound board, mp3 player, Gameboy, or where-ever.
• Plug your NTSC TV or Projector in via the RCA jack.
• pixel images and colors modulate and change based on the audio as if I was standing next to you, drinking your beer  & jamming out on video to your tunes.

It’ll run $110 for the regular version including a power supply, pre-built and ready-to-run. email if you want one before then ; )

What are you doing the weekend before Christmas?

You’ll be in NYC. Yes. You will. And you won’t be shopping.

A partial line-up has already been released.

blipfestival.org

Of particular excitement is a rare chance to see Little Scale, one of the best art-o-music-circuit-o-hackers in the world. Check out his walkman Mello-tron he whipped up while you were sleeping last-night.

I’m especially excited to see i, cactus. If you don’t know his name from the 8-bit world, he is one of the most interesting IDM artists since Board of Canada. Honest.   See you there.

The Weekend of October 9-11 is P A C K E D with must-hear goodness in Philly.

First is the VGXPO 5th Anniversary with myself, and the Philly Crew (plus a special set from the godfather of MAGFest in Baltimore)! There’s a rundown on the Fridaynight opening-event goodness on the VGXPO Blog.

Saturday night is the -O N E – Y E A R  – A N N I V E R S A R Y of  8STATIC!! and as if you were thinking about going to sleep…. The party continues down the street at PI LAM, with an all-night all-ages show to kill off any remaining chiptune-deprived. Anamanaguchi, minusbaby ENSO on projection, and DJ Billy W. of Kungfu Necktie’s Robotique fame (itself a recent 1-year institution).

If you’re not sleeping for those unaccounted-for 5 hours on Friday night, you may have time for Design Philly, Philadelphia Open Studios (POST) or Swap-o-rama-rama. hmmm.

For those of you who are still building up your arsinal for the weekend. I’ll be doing another DIY Microcontroller and Electronics workshop at the Hacktory THIS weekend (October 3rd). whew!

A blockbuster Saturday on the 19th with back-to-back chiptune events in West Philadelphia.

1st: the Ready Run exhibition opens at the Esther Klein Gallery on 3600 Market St. from 5-8PM.

2nd: Party moves to Studio 34 forSeptember 8Static!

I’ll have my latest Atari XEGS program “memscroll.xex”  running at EKG, where gallery goers can try their hand at flashing VBLANK visuals on a 1970’s TV. I’ll also be running the visuals booth all night at 8static with special effects requests for Lissajou, DOS goodness for Disasterpeace, and watching the  self generated video and music of Jeff “noteNdo” Donaldson.

Have I mentioned VGXPO yet??? yep. performing at the 2nd biggest geekfest in Philly next month.

Vintage computer Festival? Vintage Computer Festival!

Can’t get better than that. No Carrier, Animal Style, Dino of Cheap Dinosaurs Fame and myself will be doing a daylight demo at Vintage Computer festival 6.0 East this Saturday September 12th. we will also hve a display of our equipment and projects on site. I’ve been waiting FOREVER for this!

Yes, I am doing the 2nd of two back-to-back Pulsewave nights :

This promises to be one of the biggest Pulsewave parties since Halloween!  This one’s going to be a  non-stop show with continuous video & DJ’s between each set. n-o-n-s-t-o-p!

I’ll be premiering my new hardware Chip8 emulation circuit at this one.. whaaaa??? A pixel-perfect emulation of one of the first true home computers from 1977, called the RCA Cosmac VIP. What’s the video output look like? Picture your grandpa’s PONG console being played by two electric eels.

see you in NYC on the 29th!

Remember Big Black? Think Big Black on morphine.

I’m breaking form this weekend and doing a not-chiptunes show with Phila/Jersey local: velvet crayon.

It’ll be a late night at the Tritone this Saturday. Should be more laid back than my usual shows – (translates as heavy feeeeeedback). I’m in the midst of completely re-designing the chip video output for my main two circuits. Hopefully they’ll be in for a testdrive at this show.

Come early & check out the other bands!

I’ll be performing at July Pulsewave at the Tank in Manhattan this Saturday, the 25th.

I’m very excited about this lineup… and especially working with enso: Alex Bond. Alex has been creating beautiful pixel images and spinning them off of a GP2X handheld game machine. We’ve decided to mix a set on Saturday, which should be a great look with my big-block low-res mixed in. See you at the Tank.