The Thirteenth Hour Podcast

This week's episode was recorded prior to the holidays with two gentlemen who have both been on he show multiple times, Joseph Esch (with a few guest appearances from family members) and Adam Crohn .  There was no particular agenda other than catching up with each other and talking about Joe's first experience being a vendor at a toy convention.  We ended up commiserating on having tables...

In today's episode, I wanted to talk about a few techniques I have been experimenting with to make custom action figures.  I have, up until now, been using epoxy clay, which you can mold and sculpt until it hardens after about an hour, then sand or file it down until it is the way you want it.  It works great, but it creates a hybrid dried clay - plastic figure that while durable to an extent,...

In today's episode, I wanted to continue what I was working on last week , trying to get resin to adhere to a base plastic figure to create an easier way to make custom action figure duplicates.  I will be experimenting with a number of methods to create snap on/ snap off molds to see what works best, but today, I'm using a kind of thermoplastic called Instamorph.  You heat the pellets in...

In today's episode, I wanted to try something that, frankly, may not work.  I wanted to try using a basic figure as the "skeleton" and casting details onto the body instead of sculpting them out of epoxy clay or some other substance.  This would allow you do get a figure off the shelf and essentially "plug" it into the molds for the limbs are such and emerge with a "ne...

In today's episode, I'm continuing what I started in episode 536 and 538 - where I wanted to turn a Rocketeer figurine that I found on eBay in to an articulated action figure.  In this episode, I got into finishing up the first casting and adding joints to that one and subsequent duplicates.  In the end, I accomplished my goal of seeing if I could turn a static Japanese gashapon Rocketeer...

In today's episode, I'm actually joined by my co-host and guest, Brian Funk of The Music Production Podcast.  We decided to dual release this conversation, essentially serving as guests on each other's show.  We had a really great conversation about not just the ins and outs of aspects of making music but the underlying creative processes that go into formulating ideas, making them rea...

In today's episode, I'm continuing what I started in episode 536 - where I wanted to turn a Rocketeer figurine that I found on eBay in to an articulated action figure.  But in the episode, the silicone I had gotten turned out to be bad, so I had to get some more in order to make a mold.  In the past two weeks, I bought a new kind of silicone (Smooth On Mold Star 30) as well as a new kind o...

In today's episode, I'm speaking with podcaster Andy Last, host of the Beyond Synth podcast.  Andy is one of the few people I have talked with that has been doing this longer than I am - he has been doing his show, discussing synthwave music and the artists that make it, since 2013. We had a great, lengthy conversation about podcasting, the ups and downs of collaboration, the joys of compu...

In today's episode, I was planning to start a new action figure project - attempting to turn a Rocketeer figurine that I found on eBay in to an articulated action figure.  A number of years ago, my brother encouraged me to use the social media platform Blue Sky as an alternative to Twitter/X.  I did make a profile and processed to do nothing with it other than do what I often do when I find a...

In today's episode, I'm speaking with fantasy author and podcaster Richie Billing  about his novel, Together We Rise .  We had a great conversation about writing, the creative process, fantasy worlds, and even the use of generative AI in music.  Together We Rise is a multilayered story of a revolution that takes place in a fantasy world - maybe the equivalent of something that might have o...

In today's episode, I'm continuing what I started last week, working out "The Unicorn Theme" by Tangerine Dream from the Legend soundtrack.  I worked out some of the basic notes last week, and this week I'm adding more as well as the left hand chords.  Though not recorded in the podcast, while I was wrapping up the mixing of what I'd done, I remembered one of the other ve...

In today's episode, I'm playing around with some music from one of my favorite soundtracks, Legend, using the score done by Tangerine Dream.  There's a piece in there I have always liked, called "The Unicorn Theme" and the same melody and chords get used in the ending song for the theatrical release in a ballad with vocals done by Jon Anderson called "Loved by the Sun&qu...

In today's episode, my brother and I are wrapping up the role playing adventure we started last week based on a setting in his role playing game, Mappa Mundi .  This week picks up after the main character, Axel, has fallen into a deep crevice in the ice.  Will he emerge?  What will he find in the icy depths below?  There were supernatural creatures (below) above the rift - what about within it...

In today's episode, I'm starting the first of a two part adventure with my brother, the one I was making music tracks for the past few weeks.  This is for a role playing adventure we recorded a few weeks ago based on a setting in his role playing game, Mappa Mundi .  The music track I made will play in the background few times this episode to signal the coming and discussion of a supernatu...

In today's episode, I'm pretty much wrapping up the track I started last week for an episode that my brother and I recorded a few weeks ago based on a setting in his role playing game, Mappa Mundi .  I'm using the same DAW (digital audio workspace) I started learning how to use last month, the free web-based program Bandlab.   Part of the reason for the past month and a half of making...

In today's episode, I'm working on a new track for an episode that my brother and I recorded a few weeks ago based on a setting in his role playing game, Mappa Mundi .  I'm using the same DAW I started learning how to use last month, the free web-based program Bandlab,  which I have found is great for quickly storing ideas for later.  When I was working on "The Hunt" last mon...

In today's episode, I'm building on what I have been discussing the past three weeks as I continue to make a dark synth track to accompany one of the many hunting scenes in The Thirteenth Hour prequel, A Shadow in the Moonlight , about a cursed hunter who has to spend eternity hunting an enchanted deer.   I've wanted to learn to use a desktop based DAW to make and edit music so am usin...

In today's episode, I'm building on what I started discussing last week as I continue to make a dark synth track to accompany one of the many hunting scenes in The Thirteenth Hour prequel, A Shadow in the Moonlight , about a cursed hunter who has to spend eternity hunting an enchanted deer.   I've wanted to learn to use a desktop based DAW to make and edit music so am using this track...

In today's episode, I'm building on what I started discussing last week as I continue to make a dark synth track to accompany one of the many hunting scenes in The Thirteenth Hour prequel, A Shadow in the Moonlight , about a cursed hunter who has to spend eternity hunting an enchanted deer.   I've wanted to learn to use a desktop based DAW to make and edit music so am using this track...

In today's episode, I'm working on the very beginnings of a dark synth track to accompany one of the many hunting scenes in The Thirteenth Hour prequel, A Shadow in the Moonlight , about a cursed hunter who has to spend eternity hunting an enchanted deer.  While I've had ideas for the soundtrack to this story for years and even filmed a number of segments for some future video every ti...

Today's episode is about the unit Logan from the Thirteenth Hour is a part of, the Imperial Rangers, who coincidentally, mostly meet their end in the novel.  They are replaced, however, at the end of the novel by King Darian IV's all female guard, as they are comparably trained.  Readers of The Thirteenth Hour actually get to meet two named Esmerelda and Skye (shown in the picture below fr...

Today's episode is a follow up on last week's episode on the geography of Logan and Aurora's island; today I wanted to share some of the resources I used that helped both inspire and inform how I wrote about the house they constructed for themselves. While I had a number of ideas of how they might make their house (i.e. partially underground) from fiction (books like My Side of the Mou...

Today's episode is on geography of the island that Logan and Aurora from The Thirteenth Hour make their eventual home on.  While they initially think it's uninhabited, it turns out to be the home of half elves who take refuge there.  Logan and Aurora eventually become ingrained in their community, learning their way of life, and because they are more mobile, take to trading and selling thi...

In today's episode, I wanted to make a rendition of the James Horner Rocketeer theme in time for what would have been Dave Steven's 70th birthday (7/29).  At this the time of this podcast release, that is a few days in the past, so we are going back in time a bit.   I can't imagine trying to improve upon the score as it is, so I decided I'd alter it a bit to fit the mood or state o...

In today's episode, I'm playing a song from the early 90s adventure game, King's Quest 6 - the instrumental version of "Girl in the Tower," which played at the end of the game if you had the CD-ROM version of the game, a feat that was pretty cool at the time.  Although the song, composed by Mark Siebert , fit in perfectly with the top 40 adult contemporary hits of the early 9...