... finally live!

After like, 3 years as a one-page website with a banner or two on it, I've finally gotten around to finishing it.



Dreamtime Media is my promotion outfit, through which my team and I have done events like the Sound+Fury industrial music festival.  Our aim is to promote and enrich the local electronic music scene with quality events, while networking with other area promoters.  Cross-promotion is an awesome tool.  We list not only our events on the website, but also other local events that might be of interest.  This helps get the word out about other promoters' events, while connecting fans to nearby shows they might not have otherwise heard about.

If there's an upcoming event we don't have listed, tell us about it!

@ romankaze, not_eurotic: I tried to get all the ones I could find, but let me know if I missed anything!

Reverence.

Holy balls was that awesome.

Getting Rick Rolled by The Gothsicles was full of win.  As well as Stromburg.  Also, I think I must have been in a lousy mood or something last time I saw them, but Boole was about 5000% better than I remember.  Their set was a lot of fun, super energetic, and a little dorky (which was cool).  Thanks for putting together another great festival, Matt!

Does anyone on here play The Spoils?

(Geeky WoW post ahead, feel free to skip if you don't want to hear warlock QQ.)



Regarding the Life Tap change on the PTR (as of 2/25/08):

Old (live servers):

Life Tap [Max Rank (7)] - Converts 580 health into 580 mana. (Gains 80% effectiveness from your bonus spell damage.)

New (PTR servers):

Life Tap [Static Skill] - Converts 26% of your maximum health into 26% of your maximum mana.


First of all, this is completely unnecessary, and seems to be a change to game balance based on Arena / PvP complaints (which should never happen). I guess people were complaining that a warlock with a healer has unlimited mana. Ummm... duh - that's how we roll. If a warlock is oom, its because he's dead. That's how the class works. If you don't like it, KILL THE HEALER.

Secondly, if they are going to adjust the skill for some reason, this is exactly the wrong way to tamper with it. Warlock gear comes loaded with stamina. This is by design, its not a gearing choice we can make. Mage gear comes with Int, Priest gear comes with Spirit. We get large health pools because our spells are inefficient and designed around the concept that our health is fluidly interchangeable for mana.

If this change is applied as written, it will make Life Tap actually degrade in effectiveness as your gear improves. The concept of a spell becoming worse as your gear gets better is absurd, but this is exactly what this change will do. Currently, Life Tap's scaling is based on spell damage, one of a warlock's core stats. This makes sense - the spell improves as your gear does, and returns mana equal to the health spent (more with talents). If this change goes live, a warlock will lose significantly more health than they receive mana.

Take, for example, an average warlock with 12k HP and 9k MP. This warlock will now spend 3120 health to gain only 2340 mana - a 25% loss in effectiveness. As warlock gear improves, Stamina goes way, way up, while Intellect remains roughly unchanged. Now take a better-geared warlock with 16k HP and 10k MP: Life Tap now takes 4160 health and returns only 2600 mana - a 63% loss. This is clearly unacceptable - it means that Life Tap's effectiveness no longer scales with spell damage (a core warlock stat), it scales with Intellect instead.

If Life Tap is going to change (and I don't really see a reason for it to), it should at least still scale with warlock gear.  Linking Life Tap to Intellect is just stupid, no warlock "stacks" Int.  Instead, it could be linked to Stamina - take 26% of my HP, and give me an equal amount of mana for it.  Scaling a class-defining ability such as Life Tap around a stat our class ignores (by design) is just silly.

/rant

Sorry, this just bothered me because mages and priests are all like "lawl warlocks have to L2 manage their mana and pot like everyone else."  Good warlocks already use pots to bypass global cool-down.  We have exactly 0 mana regen - Life Tap IS our mana management.  Take that away, and I'll show you how awesome I can wand the target when I dump my entire mana pool in the first 30 seconds of the fight.

Edit (2/27): They are working on a new implementation of Life Tap for the next PTR build.  Maybe this one will scale with Agility or something.  :-P

Edit (3/1): Here's the new PTR implementation:

Life Tap [Rank 1] - Converts 5% of your maximum health into 5% of your maximum mana.
Life Tap [Rank 2] - Converts 12% of your maximum health into 12% of your maximum mana.
Life Tap [Rank 3] - Converts 20% of your maximum health into 20% of your maximum mana.

Hmmm, now we get three ranks of the same, backwards-scaling ability.  This is different than the first "fix" in absolutely no way.  LoL, way to go guys.  :-/

... I have graduated from UW-Parkside, albeit somewhat inadvertently. I thought I had one more class left (a fiasco in and of itself), but after much run-around from the registrar's office, it seems that I have, in fact, fulfilled all of the requirements for graduation. That, or they're just trying to get rid of me, lol.  I was starting to feel a bit like Van Wilder, complete with "graduation aversion", party / event organizing, etc.  I should have totally had my name on a parking spot by now.  :-P

So, I now have a Bachelor's Degree in Digital Art: Graphic Design with Certification in Web Design.

Now the hard part.. getting hired. o.O



Any suggestions?

Wow...  I keep forgetting how much I love A23, especially live.  Thank you so much, not_eurotic, for bringing these guys back, and for all the wonderful shows over the years.  I just wish I had been 21 sooner.  :-D 

Also, I've had Binary firmly wedged in my brain since Sunday night.

Non.

Stop.

Grrrr.  Sooo good, but get out of my head already!

I can't believe its here already. Let the crazy last-minute packing begin!

If you are going to Gen Con, feel free to stop by the event I'm running:





Then come on out to the Gen Con Afterparty.  It will be several different flavors of awesome:





Our crew will even be 21+ this year, and can come with us.  W00T!

Cya in Indy!

Man, that was awesome.

I wish I could have made it out there for Wednesday and Thursday, but Friday and Saturday kicked major ass.  not_eurotic, you sure throw one hell of a party!  I've been playing Iris in my car for like, the whole week straight.  :-P

Why did you set the vocals so far back in the mix?  Bring them up, kthnx.  Greg's voice IS Bad Religion.

No love,

Fitz

(Actually, this was yesterday. Today, I sleep. :-P )

In other news, CxS tonight in Chicago, with Ayria and Ego Likeness.

Also, Andy (station manager, WIPZ), can DIAF. More details forthcoming, but for now, I am having nothing to do with the station.

They nerfed warlocks so hard, they won't even let me log in! Bastards.





... I may need a new hard drive. Its making strange grinding noises, and refuses to apply the 2.0.3 patch, crashing each time at a random percentage with an "unable to write" error. I don't remember reading that in the patch notes. :-(

Happy birthday not_eurotic and mythandra!

Make a point to come out today as a friend, ally, or supporter of the LGBT community! Or, if you're part of the community, maybe today would be a good day for you to tell someone you know.

The day commemorates October 11, 1987, when 500,000 people marched on Washington, USA, for gay and lesbian equality. National Coming Out Day events are aimed at raising awareness of the LGBT community among the general populace in an effort to give a familiar face to the LGBT rights movement.

Oh my freaking gods, that was an absolutely amazing show! I just don't even have the words to describe it right now. I'll post about the whole thing later, when I've got some time to get my thoughts together.

A quick question for all of you that went: I wasn't able to sell T-shirts during the event because the bands had their own merch to sell, but if I made some shirts for this year's Sound+Fury, would you be interested in getting one?

Today is the last day to purchase advance tickets for the COVENANT show in Racine! If you can't / don't want to buy your tickets online, don't worry - there will be plenty of room for you to get your tickets at the door.

Also, just announced!

If you attended the Chicago Covenant show, and were thinking about coming to the Racine show as well, DO IT!  Bring in your original ticket stub from the Chicago show and you will get $5 off admission at the door!  *Discount only applies to purchase of tickets on the day of the show by attendees of the Chicago show.*

$5 less + 2 more bands = AWESOME

( The Official Word )

Also, as a small update, when looking for the club, the sign outside actually reads "Paradise West" underneath the Optyx sign, not Paradise Lanes.  I'm sure you'll figure it out, it'll be the only marquee with COVENANT on it.  :-D

Friday, October 6th
88.5 FM WIPZ Radio + Dreamtime Media Present...

SOUND+FURY II - SKYSHAPER TOUR

Featuring Performances By:

COVENANT (Metropolis)
IMPERATIVE REACTION (Metropolis)
ROTERSAND (Metropolis)

With Special Guests:

The Gothsicles (Sonic Mainline)
Sensuous Enemy (Sonic Mainline)

DJ :garz: (Elektrotrash, Milwaukee) spins between sets.

Ages 21+ w/ ID
Doors open at 6pm

OPTYX NIGHTCLUB
6501 Washington Ave
Racine, WI 53406

Only $18 Adv. / $20 at the Door
Advance Tickets Available from www.wipzradio.com!

We use PayPal, but you don't need a PayPal Account to buy tickets.  They made it convenient and friendly that way.  :-)  Also, www.wipzradio.com is being hosted by Dreamtime Media at the moment, so don't let the domain name change scare you!

Hotel Info:
The Fairfield Marriott is literally right next to the venue.  We un-officially recommend staying there, as you will merely have to traverse a small parking lot to get to your hotel after the show.

Directions:
Optyx Nightclub is located on Highway 20 (Washington Ave.) in Racine.  Simply take I-94 towards Racine (South from Milwaukee, North from Chicago), exit on Highway 20, and head East towards Racine.  If you reach Highway 31, you've gone too far, and should turn around.  If you reach Highway 32, you're getting even less close.  Neglecting to make a U-turn at this point will result in an astonishing aquatic adventure, the likes of which you've never experienced.

[Google Maps] <-- Alternatively, you can click this handy link, enter your address, and get directions to the club!

Optyx Nightclub is connected-to and owned-by Paradise Lanes.  Entrance to the club building is granted through this building.  When driving to the club, watch for the larger Paradise Lanes sign, directly below the Optyx sign.

Hope to see you there!

- Matt