THE MANITOU'S DIARY ARCHIVE

All the previous entries in my diary of happenings related to The Manitou's Lair go here. Now I wonder if anyone will read it?

The Manitou's Diary

March 08, 2009 Crazyguy has lapsed out of his self-induced coma to bring you two new diary entries, entitled: Special K, and Looking Out For The Little Creatures. February 19, 2009 I've been taking some time out to learn bass guitar and do some circuit-bending. Pics of my new (second hand) bass, and the Modified "Playskool Kid Keys" I just finished can be found in the Music/Studio section. Now then... back to work ;) My story "Sensible Child" was published late last year by the most-excellent old-fashioned horror 'zine Glutonlump's Chilling Tales. The link is now online here and in the Fiction section. I've redone the Photography section; links to both my DeviantArt and Flickr pages are there now. Both have been neglected for a long while, although that's not to say I haven't been taking photographs. Some new ones should be up as of this update. -TM.

The Manitou's Diary

January 04, 2009 A few things this update. First off, happy new year to everyone. The new Manitou album "Thought To Be Extinct" has been completed. Look for an announcement here in the coming months as to when it'll be available in the shop. In the meantime, there's a page dedicated to it in the Music/Discography section, and you can hear the first single "Starchaser" on the Myspace music page. I've taken the plunge into the world of blogs, and created Synthspotter, a blog about synthesizer music in general: classics of the genre, hidden gems, and just songs I like in general. I hope it's of interest to some of you. October 31, 2008 Someone brought some broken links in the Fiction section to my attention, so three stories that had disappeared from third-party hosts have been reinstated here on the Lair. Also, the latest Mr. Sockforahaead story, published as a serial this month on mystrangestories.com has been added. As for what I've been up to, the new Manitou album is being finished off. The vocals are being recorded, and overdubs and whatnot. Still a lot to do, so it's taking up a lot of my time right now. Work also continues on the Tales of Elves and Trolls novel. With luck it should be ready for publication early next year. -TM.

The Manitou's Diary

August 21, 2008 Having discovered there may never be a solution to the software bug at CafePress which is messing up my jewel-case artwork, I've dispensed with the jewel-cases altogether to bring you cut-priced copies of my albums packaged in plain paper sleeves. The shop is now officially open again, and Circuit Zero is now officially available. You'll also find a six-track e.p. of remixes & bonus tracks called Circuit Zero Extra, and a rather nice T-shirt for sale as well. To celebrate, a single-edit of "Robotnot" is available on Myspace as a free download. You can also hear other tracks from Circuit Zero and the previous album there. -TM.

The Manitou's Diary

June 14, 2008 A host of instruments and gizmos have been added to the Music/Studio page. Some of these are new, such as the Alesis SR-16 and Yamaha PSS-270 I recently acquired, while others have been kicking around the studio for a while lurking forgotten in drawers. May 17, 2008 Since uploading my Alpha Juno/BCR2000 demo video, I've had requests from people needing help setting up their own Juno/BCR2000 MIDI-control combo. Thus I've uploaded a tutorial to my Alpha Juno page in the Music/Studio section. The CafePress fiasco continues. There is a glaring bug in their software at present which has ruined the artwork on my CDs. Until they fix this bug -- and who knows when that will be -- please consider The Manitou's CafePress Shop closed for business until further notice. There's a new story up on mystrangestories.com, which is a new WordPress-integrated section of TheWeirdCrap.com/AlarminglyStrangeStories.com. You'll find the link for "The Sallow Tallow Man" at the top of this page, and in the fiction section. -TM.

The Manitou's Diary

April 1, 2008 A new video is up in the Music/Video section. This time I demo the Roland Alpha Juno-1 and the Behringer BCR2000 MIDI controller I bought to program it. My master CDs still haven't reached CafePress (or if they have, they haven't been processed yet). Grr! I'll keep you posted. March 16, 2008 After much to-do regarding the Circuit Zero album & related mixes, I've sent the masters off to CafePress. The album, and a separate e.p. of mixes and unused tracks, should be available by month's end once I've verified the proofs. The other on-demand distribution options I looked at turned out to be more trouble than they were worth. On the upside, having upgraded my CafePress account, I can offer other things like The Manitou T-Shirts to the discerning electronic music fan. An announcement will be made here when all that comes together. The Discography has been updated, there are pages for both Circuit Zero and the Circuit Zero Extra e.p. which feature liner notes and lyric-sheet downloads. A few other pages in there have been updated also. I'm now the proud owner of a Crumar Performer string ensemble synthesizer. It arrived in less-than-stellar condition thanks to over-zealous handling by the postal service. Details of the repairs I made, as well as some sound clips, can be found on the Studio page in the Music section. What a lovely machine it is, despite those cosmetic flaws. Also new in the Studio, although not especially impressive, is my circuit-bent Talk-n-Lights radio. -TM.

The Manitou's Diary

December 21, 2007 Two new videos of my modified Casio SK-2 are online in Music/Video. Circuit Zero is finished too, so some new tracks will be forthcoming after Xmas, and possibly some music videos. December 05, 2007 The remix I did for Mach Fox is now online on their myspace page. "Like Clover Remix" can be heard here. November 20, 2007 Well, a lot's been happening behind the scenes, hence lack of updates. I've done a remix for a band on myspace (more about that when it's released), finished the first draft of a novel I've been working on, and have been busy in the studio finishing the Circuit Zero album. Just the final mixes to go now. Needing a break from all that, I spent a few days bending a Casio SK-2. Full details on the bend, including pictures, schematics, and sound samples are to be found in Music/Studio. I've also put a couple of new pieces of kit in there: the Casio MT-100 & Yamaha PSS-480. I've just realised the Studio page is out of date, so I might update that later. August 30, 2007 There's a new page in the Music section, called "Video." Does what it says on the tin ;) So far I've linked to a K-Station demonstration I've uploaded to youtube.com. Hopefully there'll be more videos of this nature made in the studio. Maybe one of these days I'll finish one of the several music videos I have underway also... My good friend Guided By Spiders has remixed The Manitou's song "Reanimation." You can hear his version here. The original has been put back up on my myspace page. Sadly, I had to take "Mister 10" down, but them's the brakes. -TM.

The Manitou's Diary

August 12, 2007 Another new song: "Temple Of The Pulsating Orb" is online, this time over at my Pro Audio Music page. It was a bit of an experiment that went through some false starts, but I'm thrilled with the final result. Oh yeah... there are also some new pics up on the deviantArt and Flickr pages. August 07, 2007 On a rather uninspiring day last week I broke out the circuit-bending gear for the first time in ages. The result, "Ohmegalpha" can be found in the Music/Studio section. July 27, 2007 The Weirdshots pages have had a complete overhaul. I've been meaning for some time to categorize them, and update them with some new images of course. Three months worth of new pics have been added, from my backlog reaching far back to 2005. You'll find the newest weirdshots at the top of their respective pages. Crazyguy has also surfaced, and written a couple of entries in his diary. They must've changed his medication. And last, but not least, a new song called "Mister 10" is up on The Manitou's myspace page. -TM.

The Manitou's Diary

May 10, 2007 New story up at Static Movement: "The Curse Of The Polar Icecream Vendor." A more polished and fleshed-out version of one of my early bits of silliness. Yes, more music gear in Music\Studio. I bought a Roland Alpha Juno-1 from Muzikelektronix. Their site is well worth a look. They also fix synthesizers and stuff and are currently working on my poor Yamaha CS-5. The previous owner(s) didn't care for it properly and it turned out to be in worse shape than I thought. Complete overhaul time. I also bought a Casio CZ-1000. March 08, 2007 In the Kit corner of the Music section you'll find details on my latest bits of gear: the Akai S1000, Roland SP-404, and Yamaha CS01. Also updated pictures of the studio, which is ever-changing these days. I've had another story published, this time at Static Movement. The link to "The Hidden Path" can be found in the Fiction section. -TM.

The Manitou's Diary

February 19, 2007 Four new stories have been linked to the Fiction section. They were actually published months ago but I'd neglected to add them. I'm writing again (finally), so watch this space. I've updated my Numan Covers page (in t'music section) to include info on everything I've done thus far. Only a few of the songs are currently available, but I hope to have some server space soon to take care of that. January 17, 2007 "Silence On The Airwaves" the debut CD by The Manitou is finally available for purchase. It's been just over a year since the album was completed, but for various reasons it's been limited to a handful of copies until now. It's available in The Manitou's Web Store for the reasonable sum of $12.95 USD. The three "singles" from the album, including a new radio mix of "Shortwave," can be heard at The Manitou's myspace site. -TM.

The Manitou's Diary

October 6, 2006 A new song, "Tunnelrunner," is online at both ProAudioMusic.org and Myspace. This was the result of testing out my Yamaha CS-5 analogue synthesizer, and completed shortly before leaving my studio for a trip to the UK. I'm adding new stuff to my deviantart page every couple of days, so if you're into nature photography, or just cool images in general, click on the photography link to check it out. The same goes for my flickr page (see below for link). August 31, 2006 Hey, so I'm in England -- Hastings, to be precise. What an eye-popping place. You can see highlights of my foreign exploits on my flickr page. The Manitou has a new single available for download. This one's an ebm-tinged electro-pop number called "Reanimation." Download it for free here. Mr. Sockforahead is back in a brand-new adventure, and you can read it here. Lastly, but not leastly, the photography section now links directly to my deviantart page. You'll now have access to desktop-sized versions of my more striking photographs and photo-art. -TM.

The Manitou's Diary

June 08, 2006 By popular demand, I've uploaded a new track from my album Silence On The Airwaves. It's called "Rubikon" and can be found here. Also new is another circuit-bent instrument in the Music/Kit section, and a new piece of kit: a Yamaha CS5 vintage analogue monosynth. Woo! April 11, 2006 Yo, so my latest submission was to a contest on bewilderingstories.com. The contest's theme was time travel, and it just so happens that I had a humourous time-travel tale about an Amish inventor. It tied for fourth place in the Editors' choice category, which I'm very pleased about considering the competition was mostly hard sci-fi and much more epic pieces. You can read it right here, and it is archived in the fiction section. -TM.

The Manitou's Diary

March 21, 2006 Yep, I've been bending again ;) "Rumble Barn" is on the Kit page with sound samples. March 03, 2006 New circuit-bent instrument, "Morphotron I" is on the Kit page with sound samples. February 12, 2006 A new circuit-bent instrument, the "Whiz-Kid Phonemone" is on the Kit page with sound samples. January 14, 2006 Another new circuit-bent gizmo has been added to the Kit page in the Music section: the "E.T. Phone." January 07, 2006 My latest published work, "Sprig," is online now at cautionarytale.com. The Music section has been updated to include info on my new album of songs called "Silence On The Airwaves." You'll also find a fully-updated breakdown of my studio here, including info on my latest circuit-bent devices with sound clips. -TM.

The Manitou's Diary

October 25, 2005 NEW SONG! Fresh from the studio is a new sample-based industrial-electropop tune called "Speak Up, Robot." You can download it here! The "Shortwave e.p." is growing exponentionally. By year-end I expect it to be a fully fledged album of at least 10 songs. Watch this space! September 14, 2005 Due to my host being under attack from hackers, I've moved the Lair to a new server courtesy 50webs.com. So far so good! It's also given me an excuse to clean this place up a bit, and update the long-neglected Music section. You'll find a page in there devoted to my upcoming e.p.: Shortwave, as well as info on my works-in-progress. Also, there are 50+ new weirdshots in the Weird Stuff section, collected over the last three months. -TM.

The Manitou's Diary

August 21, 2005 I've redone the fungi page in Photography, in an attempt to keep track of the various species of fungi I've found. I'll add more as I get time :) June 29, 2005 The photography section has had a good going-over, and several new sections have been added. I hope to get new stuff on here at least once a month, we'll see. June 02, 2005 My first paying story submission, "Deepest Impressions," has been published over at Quill Pen Magazine. You can access the story directly here. A good friend of mine, P.S. Gifford, also has a story in this premiere issue. Enjoy! -TM.

The Manitou's Diary

April 27, 2005 I've just finished sorting through nearly 80 new weirdshots since last update, equating to three and a bit new pages online in the Weird Stuff section. There are also a few newies on the Submitted Weirdshots page in the same section. I see so much weird stuff that I don't even have to go looking for it anymore. Crazyguy, having spent a year or so pretending to be a figment of everybody's imagination, has sent in four new diary entries dating back to around Christmas time. It was a time warp for me as well. That's all for now, although I will probably sort some new stuff for the Photographs section, and I have lots of new music & stories on the go. -TM.

The Manitou's Diary

January 04, 2005 What the heck happened to 2004? Oh well... it kinda got a bit stupid towards the end anyway. If 2004 was a book, it would be one with a promising start, a really great middle, and an ending that shouldn't have even been printed. I've had to move the site to a new host (story of its life!), and can't have files any larger than 200k, so all the sound clips have had to go for now. I still have music up on electromancer.com so it's no biggy. I do have 50mb of space to play with, however, so I can get my photography page up and running in the near future. If anything appears to be missing at the moment, you'll know why. Oh yeah, another restriction of my new host is no foul language, so I've had to take the Mr. Sockforahead stories down. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, you can, however, still read them over at theweirdcrap.com! More to come! January 06, 2005 Addendum: the photography section is now online, with the first three series of pictures. More photos will be added on future updates! January 20, 2005 There are two new pages of weirdshots online, which can of course be found in the Weird Stuff section. -TM.

The Manitou's Diary

October 27, 2004 It's been a while since the last update, partly due to some medical problems (nothing serious), and being a tad busy. This update there are no less than 53(!) new weirdshots in the Weird Stuff section. A whole backlog from the last few months, plus new ones taken as recently as yesterday. I've bought a new camera (Kodak DX6490) which is brilliant, and hope to start up a new section on the site for my photography when time allows. A new silly short is online in the Fiction section, a whimsical tale called: The Man Who Craved Adventure. Incidentally, if you fancy joining my new forum "Fan Base Alpha," you'll have the chance of reading new Silly Shorts as they happen. I have a backlog that haven't been posted here yet, and I upload them to FBA as soon as they're finished. I recently completed work on Draft 5 of my novel "Space, Time, And Teacakes," and will get some excerpts online shortly. The Music section is shockingly out-of-date. I've written a couple of new songs for Circuit Zero which I'll be posting clips of. They'll probably be going on the Robot Music vol. 2 e.p. until I can finish them off for the album. -TM.

The Manitou's Diary

June 25, 2004 Latest song download: "Robotnot" The Manitou @ electromancer.com. Another month has passed, and some interesting developments have occurred. I'm heavily back into writing fiction, so I've got a new story for you in the Silly Shorts archive, titled: Deepest Impressions. On the music front, I've written a new song, "Lost In The Stars," which I feel is the perfect melding of my different styles. I now have to make room for it in the Circuit Zero tracklist, so one or two more tracks may be dropped. It's incredible how much this album is evolving. I've also been away on a trip to stay with some friends and take in a music fest. Saw some bands local to southern B.C., all of whom were good. Been catching up on things since I got back - lots to do. -TM.

The Manitou's Diary

May 24, 2004 Latest song download: "Robotnot" The Manitou @ electromancer.com. Here I was updating my website, when I looked at the date to find... yes, it's the 24th. That number just won't go away. Based on feedback from the Robot Music e.p., I've put together a track-listing for the Circuit Zero album and am in the process of remixing a few tracks for the forthcoming "The Clockwork Man" single and video. Updated details on Circuit Zero can be found in the Music section. -TM.

The Manitou's Diary

May 13, 2004 Thursday The 13th... doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it? ;) It's been a few months now since I completed my Robot Music e.p., and the song that's proved most popular is "Robotnot." I've made it available as a free download at: The Manitou @ electromancer.com. I recently picked up a Texas Instruments Speak & Math from the local "re-use centre," otherwise known as the Dump Shop. I plugged it into my soundcard to record some sounds from it, and all I got initially were some glitchy bleeps and static. I isolated the more interesting sounds and saved them as individual wav files, constructing a "rhythm kit" for use with a drum sequencer. I programmed a quick loop to see how it'd sound, and it sounded great in a quirky, lo-fi sort-of way :) I've now built a song around it, and think it's one of my best instrumentals yet, with some very powerful retro synth-sounds. I've called it "Traveller In Time And Space" because of some similarities to the Doctor Who Theme, and will make it available on Electromancer as soon as I'm happy with the final mix. -TM.

The Manitou's Diary

April 23, 2004 Sometimes things don't go quite as you plan them, and that's the case with my latest story: "Mr. Sockforahead Doesn't Live Here Anymore." It should have been completed weeks ago, but more and more I'm finding that things will work out when the time is right, rather than when you want them to. It's now online in the Fiction section under Silly Shorts - hope it's been worth the wait :) A handful of new Weirdshots are online in the Weird Stuff section. My friend Cici has come up trumps again with three fantastic photos taken on a recent trip to Vancouver Island. They can be found under Submitted Weirdshots. Since completing "Everyday I Die" last month, I did some work on some old demos of mine, some of which are showing promise. Then I had a listen to an old "mod" I made and became obsessed with turning it into a Manitou-style dance track. So over the course of a few days I did that up and it was quite refreshing to work on some dance music again after months of nothing but electro-pop and moody stuff. I've also fleshed out another dance track, but at the moment I'm taking a bit of a break to work on draft 4 of my novel: Time, Space, And Teacakes. I will see about creating pages in the fiction section for details on both that and my now 17 story strong Argil series. -TM.

The Manitou's Diary

March 5th, 2004 Hey hey! Well I'm a bit late with the new story, but I'm on the verge of finishing it and may even have it online later today. For now though, there's a batch of new Weirdshots to keep you amused :) My most recent musical project has been a retro-style cover of Gary Numan's "Everyday I Die." You can download the full mp3 on the Numan Covers page in the Music section. Enjoy! Now, I'm not really one for guestbooks, but a friend requested that I get one for the Lair, so... if ya scroll on down to "Contact" you'll find the link :) Sorry about the pop-ups and crazy advertisements :| -TM.

The Manitou's Diary

January 5th, 2004 Yet more occurrences of the number 24: the most obvious being the year "2004." On the news a couple days ago it was mentioned that the number of automotive fatalities in the Okanagan area of B.C. totalled 24 last year. Hmm. Well, I didn't get the Lair updated before Xmas like I'd hoped. That was mostly due to working on the Robot Music CD. I was working on "Robotnot" up until the 24th, and did the final mix of all 8 tracks on that day also. Work was completed about 12:30 am :) There's a page in the music section with details and clips from the CD. I've removed "Human Factor" for now until its future is more tangible. I've made a new(ish) song "Disappear" available on electromancer.com, as well as the new mix of "Freaked Out Kitty" (I fixed some loud bits). I'm no longer on mp3.com - they've deleted all their accounts, and I didn't really care for their service so I won't be signing up again. Electromancer is much better suited to my style of music. A full page of new Weirdshots are online in the Weird Stuff section, and there are some new visitor submitted pictures. The amount of weird stuff I see is mind-boggling. Got a few projects to get on with now that Xmas is over; should have that story I promised before the month is out. Happy new year all :) -TM.

The Manitou's Diary

November 23rd, 2003 Hmm... it's only 1 hour away from the 24th of November, interesting that I should choose this moment to update my site. If you read my last entry you'll be privy to the bizarre connection my subconscious mind has with that number. I've decided to abandon the "What's New" part of the main page and just tell ya what's new in here instead. The old updates have been dutifully archived and can still be accessed via the "Ye Olde Update Archive" link below this funky purple box. A new song: "Freaked Out Kitty" is available for download on The Manitou @ electromancer.com. It's a taster of the kind of music I'm creating for the Circuit Zero album. This, and at least five more songs (more if I can help it), will be available January on a limited edition e.p. called "Robot Music." Artwork for the CD is underway and I have two other songs complete except for vocals, one requiring some re-recording (most of it was recorded through a high-latency external sound card -- don't ever buy a Sound Blaster Extigy if you plan on using it for MIDI!), and some other instrumentals that need finishing off. I also dusted off a song called "Robotnot" which was intended for the Human Factor album, but wasn't working as a dance song. I scrapped 90% of it, keeping the melody but changing the bassline, drums, and a lot of the patches, and turned it into a retro-electronic song to fit the style of Circuit Zero. I'm very pleased with the results and glad that this song, the earliest ever written for Human Factor, is finally going to see the light of day :) Its companion piece, the title track from Human Factor, shares the same melody and was never a dance song anyway so I'll be looking at revamping that too. My problem at the moment is I have so many songs that I want to finish at once that none of them are getting finished! Coming next update (hopefully before Xmas), I have more Weirdshots both taken by myself and my #1 contributor Cici, as well as some updates for the music section. Possibly a story as well - I have the rough draft of "The Revenge of Mr. Sockforahead" written :) -TM.

The Manitou's Diary

September 24, 2003 Well, Crazy Guy's got one, so why not me? ;) The number 24 has had some significance of late, hence my writing this on the 24th. First I turned 24. That was 20 days ago, on the 4th: 20 + 4 = 24. Then about a week ago, I began wondering whether I should turn Crazy Guy's diary into a spiffo website independent of the Lair. I settled on just giving it more of a presence here, and wrote the first new entry in... ages. And what number is it? Yep, 24. After a couple days working on the update, I revamped the Silly Shorts page and numbered the stories. Well damn if there aren't exactly 24 of them... I learned a little while ago from a Wiccan friend of mine that my "magic number" is 12, which of course is half of 24. 24 backwards is 42, which is "the meaning of life," according to my favourite author Douglas Adams. My favourite number is 25... maybe I should change it? Maybe I should also buy 24 lotto tickets ;) Heck knows what's going on in my subconscious. All I know is my subconscious has been very helpful, working on things that my conscious mind has put on hold (such as plot elements, lyrics to songs, etc...) then spitting out golden ideas when I least expect it. It also thinks it's a comedian, as I discovered while reading through some of my old Silly Shorts. In the "Fart Auction" story, there's the line: "These aren't just any old farts, y'know." I'm sure the pairing of "old" and "farts" was not a conscious decision at the time. :/ I'm making some headway on one of my medieval/fantasy songs for Circuit Zero, titled: Enchantment (or possibly Enchantress, I haven't decided yet). What began as a rather cheesy poem, and equally cheesy piano tune, is being redone with some more atmospheric synth sounds. Any attempt to work on the Human Factor material lately has gone nowhere, so I'm not going to push it. I'm putting it down to my subconscious again. It must know what it's doing... At least, I hope it does. Maybe it's telling me I should get a move on and have Circuit Zero finished by Christmas Eve (the 24th!!!), just like Darkdance was. -TM.