PG Music Home Forums General Discussion User Showcase LIFE IS LIKE A SEWER

Dear Torrey,

As I said before, I'm always paticularily flattered by your positive comments, so thanks a lot for your kind words.

I wouldn't have expected anybody to pick out any similarity to those great singer-songwriters of the 70s, but yes, I took quite some effort back then to memorize the lyrics of 'American Pie', and even more Arlo Guthrie stuff (my favorites being 'The Motorcyvle Song' and the 25 minute version of 'Alice's Restaurant') in order to come up with them at parties, camp fires and whatever kind of gathering we liked.

Of course I played those songs because I loved them a lot, but as a very welcome side benefit not only the guys were impressed ...

Thanks again and all the best,

Stefan

Dear Stefan...

There are songs that conform to so-called "popular" tastes (and nothing's wrong with that, of course), and then, there are songs that drive right through what's considered the "safe" lane, and in doing so, they open up a whole new highway for musical expression.

Stefan, your song, "Life Is Like A Sewer", is the most subversively humorous piece of musical invention I've heard anywhere in, or off this forum for a while. I mean, this is just inspired, off-the-cuff, in-your-face, finger-flipping fun. Your lyrics tell a raucous story about a wildman and a loser who's devil-may-care attitude makes him simultaneously as messy, and yet as sympathetic as Paul Newman's iconic film character, "Cool Hand Luke".

The lyrics would be entertaining even without the music as they so exuberantly celebrate the subject's helplessly self-destructive, yet charmingly clueless, committed and headstrong actions. Through his eyes, life may be a sewer, but he's not afraid to put something into it to see what he can get out of it, even if he ends being covered with muck. That makes him something of an anti-hero, doesn't it?

Your Real Track selections added a tongue-in-cheek flavor to the production that enhanced the fun. Stefan, my friend, your musical world is as entertaining and as unpredictable as as sketch whipped up by an improvisational theatre company.

Three cheers for "Life Is A Sewer" !!!

Grinning large,

LOREN

Awesome tune Stephan. I think the background vocals were excellent. Excellent fun tune . Well done

Hi Stefan,

Great, fun video and a good song as I have got used to with stuff from you! You are really talented - not just with music but also with your video editing.


For the first time in the months I have been watching and listening to your songs, I have a little (very minor) critique. It has nothing to do with your music, but:

Please, do not replicate the television shows in NOT giving appropriate credit to the people who made some of the imagery, by simply just showing it too fast (because they (the tv stations) want to go fast forward to the commercials). I'm referring to the last few seconds of your video.

This is something that really annoys me when watching television shows and I think we as artists should know better and at least give the audience appropriate time too see who the artists are. You gave each less than a second - I think it should be at least 3-5 seconds for each contributing artist - even if it is just something you use for background imagery.

I hope you don't get mad at me for saying this. I still enjoy your video and music!

Will

My dear Loren,

wow, that’s one heck of a comment - I really appreciate the effort you took to work yourself throigh all that weirdness and finally make ends meet. Please believe me: I couldn’t be any more pleased by anything that could have been said, so thanks a lot.

There are two terms you used that made me stop (actually there were more of them, but these are the ones I’d like to refer to): subversive and unpredictable. And although I wouldn’t have ever thought of them, I find myself in that description. Of course, I didn’t come out with subversiveness in ‘real’ life (I’d claim: on the contrary) but there’s always been that little anarchic devil in my fancy.

And unpredictable? I think that this, as well, goes only for song-writing which I always start with writing the lyrics. I pick up a certain phrase, quote, an event or whatever seems funny to me, absurd, maybe even a bit remote, and that little devil starts his work without asking for permussion. And to my own surprise the first video images mostly come to my mind while I’m still chewing over the lyrics. Which may even re-influenbnce the lyrics.

And with BIAB then coming into play I often let myself just drift through the styles. Sometimes I find the style I already had in mind, but sometimes it’s like Torey once wrote here, ‘I have no idea, how I got here.’ ‘

So all in all I can’t even predict myself. And, man, I like it!

Let me thank you once again for a wonderful review and wish you all the very best,

Stefan

Dear Will,

first of all thanks a lot for your kind comment on the song and the video; I always appreciate yor remarks that have become of particular importance to me.

And don't you ever be afraid I might be mad at you, whatever, well: almost whatever ;-)), you say. And it wouldn’t make any sense to post things here if was am not ready to consider anything the other forum members may remark.

So I do get yor point as far as the credits are concearned, and I will take your advice and give them more time, but please let me explain why I had decided to keep them as short as I did:

Unlike in TV movies the final credits do not refer to the actors appearing in the video (I think I always feature my friends very proudly and most of all very gratefully).

The credits that you mentioned refer to (mostly very short) snippets from third-party videos that I found on VIMEO and a few images, all of which weree published under a Creative Commons license, thus asking for the author to be mentioned when used. (BTW, most of the images I use are from PIXABAY and therefor PD, so I don’t even know who created them)

In my first videos I added one final page simply showing one line for each clip reading the clip titles, the author, the source and the license. This would have compied withl the license conditions, but nobody would have had the chance to tell which title belonged to which snippet in my video..

So I decided to add the respective original thumbnails that are provided with the Vimeo links and also display the original info pop-up that's added to every clip.

In the beginning I showed them for about 5 seconds each, but meanwhile I minimized that time to about one second, because

a) there's not really much info given with the clips, and the author's names are mostly pseudonyms .

b) I thought that not so many people (if any...) were generally interested in getting detailed info anout those snippets, but in case they were: It's a video (and not a TV movie) which they could stop whenever they want to get all the info ürovided

For me it doesn’t make any difference to show those credits longer - I simply thought that it wouldn’t bring any advantage for neither the authors nor for the people watching.

But now that I know that there are people (even if it might be only you) that would prefer to get some more reading time I will be happy to take that into account. But please understand that there are still some videos unposted that have the short credits - once their out on YouTube I can’t update them, but would have to delete them and upload them anew which would make me lose all the statistics YT provides..

So, dear Will, once again thanks a lot for watching, listening, commenting and, yes, your proposal .

All the best

Stefan

Thanks a lot, Scott - I'm glad you liked it.

But do you really think I shouldn't accept the Tiny Tim Award?

Take care,

Stefan

cool tune. I didn't watch the video. I'll take someone else's word that it was good.

Interesting take of "life is crapping on me"..... I know the feeling

A good take on the do-[*****] of the 50's regarding the styling. (EDIT... SERIOUSLY? do- w o p.... refering to a musical style)

So, it's obvious that a lot of time was spent on this. My only major nit to pick on this is that the background vocals are running sort of flat/off-key throughout. Or as Randy Jackson would say... that was pitchy dog. It would be an easy fix to tune them up with melodyne.

Then.... and I have done this before.... especially in the choruses, copy and paste the tuned vox as needed. quick and easy

But all things being equal.... interesting and creative project.

Nice song, great picture.
Excellent rhythm

Sergio

Hi Stefan,

Thank you very much for your kind response to my post which unfortunately took some focus away from the great music you make.

I know that you are using images that are "published under a Creative Commons license, thus asking for the author to be mentioned when used" and I am glad that you are responding positively to my request of giving them just a little bit more viewing time.

It's a difficult subject to discuss, because where is the borderline, when have you given the artist enough viewing time?

If I'm using a part of a poem under the CC licence in a book, the original artists name will be in the book for an eternity... and easy for everyone to look up. In movies, television shows and videos like yours there are no exact rules about how long time you will have to display the artists name - hence the very short time that is the norm in these days.

So I am just trying to make people, who make films, tv shows or videos, aware of the fact that the audience only have a short time to notice who were the original creator of some on the imagery, so I think it is only decent to give them (the CC creators) a few more seconds on screen.

Let us stop that discussion now... and make more music!
Will

Stefan, you are as mad as a box of frogs! What a video...!
A fun song all round. It must be a lot of fun in your world!

John

Well, guitarhacker, don't say I didn't warn everybody that there was some atrocious falsetto vocals to be heard. Hadn't practiced that for almost 25 years, and sticking to that 'pitchy, dog' image: My voice wiggled like a little dog's tail, so it can't be all flat, there must be sharp notes as well. And being fully aware of that I hoped that people wouldn't notice it as much as you did when they were distracted by the vid.

Can I soothe you if I promise that there won't be any more falsetto singing in the future? Or only if it's had a melodyne treatment (never heard of it before, but will consider to buy it)

Whatever, thanks a lot for the listen and also for your hint !!! I think thos abbreviations and **** you used were of importance, but I simply couldn't find out what they were meant to tell me. But of course I'd like to know, so if you think the long version may be inappropriate, you might send me a PM with the 'translation.'

Take care and thanks again,

Stefan

Thanks a lot, Scott. I'm glad to read that you liked it. As far as the background vocals are concearned, not everybody was of your opinion. But to be honest: I like your comment better ...

Have a great weekend,

Stefan

Thanks a lot, Sergio, I really appreciate your kind words.

Cheers,

Stefan

Dear Will,

just a few more words: For me this was no discussion (which I would regard as a conversation with opposing standpoints).

It was just thoughtlessness on my part, so I'm grateful you reminded me.

Have a great weekend,

Stefan

Hey Janice and I were shopping for craft brews the other day and up on the ceiling we spotted a fellow who has to be a member of one of your groups! We wanted to talk to him but he wouldn't come down from the ceiling....

We've watched the video a couple of times on the computer and plan to watch it this evening on the big screen...and we are gonna set aside some time to explore your website.

"Life's like a sewer.
What you get out of it depends on
what you put into it. "

Ain't that the gospel truth!

Tom Lehrer? Yep....worth anybody's time.

We are a bit late to the party and all the accolades have been dished out but we agree with them and found this highly enjoyable. As a maker of primitive still image lyric videos I remain in awe of your skills with this. And, hey, no matter how much time you put in it you have something to show for the creative effort. Beats the hell outa just sitting on the couch.

Fun is good and this was fun in spades.

Thank you!!!

J&B

PS: Sent you a pm

Hi John,

you bet that I take that as a huge compliment, so thanks a lot.

Since I know that people from the UK are mostly convinced that the words 'German' and 'humor' don't go together at all (took me a while to even convince my wife's kin living in London), I'm particularily flattered by your words.

And I will do my very best to integrate the box of frogs in one of my next lyrics. So hang on...

Cheers,

Stefan

the censors in the software zapped my innocuous word.... referring to the musical style.... do-w_o_p remove the underscores and the censor hits you like you said a bad word. Slur for an Italian person.

Thanks for explaining - automatic censorship, get the picture. To be honest: That's nothing I've ever met before...

As to Melodyne: Checked it out and learned that there are 4 different versions. Do you think the Essentials would be sufficient, if I only want to correct that pitchy thing?

Cheers, Stefan

Oh wow! This is absolutely brilliant. Laughed with tears in my eyes thanks to your brilliant humour, but the delivery and the craftmanship you used to write this song are unmistakable and of an incredible level of quality. Well done - the perfect combination of totally crazy and totally superb - made my morning!