March 2012issue 02

S N A P S H O T

Learn How to Make: Vania’s Velveteen Cupcakes

New Music by:Shady Characters

Artist of the Month:Robert “Robot” Fischer

what’S th i S all aBout?The Dial is a non-profit community, from musicians to

artists to supporters and admirers of creative work, those involved are only held to one standard, a desire to affect

change in the world around them. We all have a firm belief that the trading of time and resources to produce work

for the community is the way of the future and the key to true inspiration. There is no better time to come together and create, whatever medium you choose and whoever your audience is, just strive for the genuine, be open to

change, and don’t be afraid to leave your mark. That’s what we’re looking to do.

whO doEs whAt?Kyle Napalan - Founder/Art Director

Bianca Hollins - Treasurer

Krista Orona- Event Coordinator

Vania Fune - Public Relations/Marketing

Zach Navis - Booking

Cameron Puleo - Video/Photography

Eduardo Macias - Audio/ Recording Engineer

How tO get Inv0lved: At Nocturnal Studios/Dial HQ the FIRST MONDAY of every month we hold a public forum allowing anyone that wants to be involved to voice their opinions and suggest projects. All projects on the agenda are posted on our website, facebook page, group page or e-mail listing and if you see an event you would like to help organize or contribute work for or if you

have ideas for how to improve the shows just contact us before or during an event and we’ll be happy to hear from you.

CONTACT INFO : thedial@ymail.comwww.thedial.info

TABLE OF CONTENTSPAGES 3-4 : MARCH REVIEW

PAGES 5-6 : SPOTLIGHT ARTIST OF THE MONTH : ROBERT “ROBOT” FISCHER

PAGES 7-8 : INSIDE TRACK : SHADY CHARCTERS

PAGES 9-10 : DEATH BY BAKING - VANIA’S RED VELVETEEN CUPCAKES

PAGES 11- 12 : LIFE LESSON WITH GEORGE MICHAEL CARL

PAGES 13-14 : COMIX BY BRANDON WATKINS

MARCH 2012W hether large scale or small, cultivating new skills to bring

the community’s ideas to life is what drives us here at the Dial. This month, with help from local businesses and various members of the community we were able to continue with open mics and live shows and host our inaugural spoken word and film nights. Here is a recap of the developments of this month in case you missed it…

March 2nd: Open Mic Whether showcasing newcomers or veterans, we host these nights to encourage everyone to explore their interests and hone their crafts. Beginning each month, we desire these events to serve as a way to unite various styles of music and art in the hopes of organic collaboration. As always we encourage anyone interested to participate.

March 10th: Music VideoAlong with hosting events, we open the warehouse to help with

productions whether in film, music, or art. This month’s project was the release of our first music video for local

band Mouthful of Snow’s “Hammer”.From lighting, sound, and filming to acting

and creating stories the experience of the music video is one we hope to share with

more members down the line and inquiring through Facebook or checking our website

will keep you updated on opportunities to get involved and even to suggest

collaborations of your own.

MARCH March 24th: Point of View/Nevermeant/Shady Characters/Rogue RatsHosted in conjunction with Tier 1 Games our live show featured great bands from multiple genres. Aside from assembling in house collaborative projects, shows highlight bands and artists take over our studio space with their work. Whether rock, acoustic, hip hop or blues, we’ve had the privilege of hosting great bands and artists from our hometown and abroad and with your support we plan to keep monthly live shows running.

2012March 16th: Spoken WordWith the help of Em Lucio, Matt Castro, Ahmad Anwar and many more we were treated to a night of poetry, freestyles, and various readings comprised of the

dramatic, the comical, and even rebellious. Incorporating live music and allowing for some spontaneous performances, spoken

word nights are the chance to let out your inner poet or just stop by to hear new

literary talent.

March 31st: Short Film NightLast but certainly not least, we concluded this month with night of short film viewings. Peppered with stop motion, documentaries, comedy, and even a little horror, the short

film night gave spotlight to budding filmmakers from right here in Temecula and the surrounding

communities. Another opportunity to participate will be available in May, with our deadline for

submissions to be posted soon…

SPOTLIGHT ARTIST OF THE MONTH:RobeRT “ROBOT” FischeRThe Artist of the Month for March is the very talented and passionate Mr. Fischer who was gracious enough to answer some questions for us.

INTERVIEW BY: BIANCA HOLLINS

B: FIRST OFF, TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF. HOW DID YOU FIND YOUR WAY INTO ART?

R: Originally born in San Diego, California, but I definitely matured and did most of my growing here in Temecula. It’s hard to say when exactly I got into art. I could trace it back to the simplest of roots and say that I appreciated art ever since I picked up my first manga FLCL back in 7th grade, or maybe when I picked up my first JUXTAPOZ magazine as I was inexplicably captivated by Jeff Soto’s artwork on the cover. I read the interviews in that issue four times over, stared at the pictures, and looked at every

little detail and the technique for hours.

B: IN WHICH MEDIUM ARE YOU THE MOST COMFORTABLE AND WHICH DO YOU FIND CHALLENGES YOU MOST?

R: My preferred medium would definitely be pen and ink, more specifically Copic Multiliner and Copic Sketch markers. I’ve been working with them for a few years now, ever since I got my first set of multiliners and grayscale sketch markers for a Christmas present from my parents in high school. Recently I’ve really been focusing on doing different techniques with my Copics, I know that there is so much versatility with them that it will take me many years to finally master this medium. For the upcoming piece “They Compacted the Earth” I’ll be incorporating color pencil to give the piece an earthier feel (apprenticing under my good art friend Sean McCormick), and for the piece “They Carried the Currents” I’ll be embarking on watercolor medium in order to give the piece a more underwater sort of feel (apprenticing under my girlfriend Marie Mangone). The most difficult medium for me is definitely the new age Photoshop medium. I’ve seen artists create some phenomenal works with Photoshop, and every time I see the program being used it’s just totally beyond me. It’s really amazing though, to see this generation’s love of technology and photo editing programs literally create a recognized and highly appreciated art form. I know one day I will embark on the electronic art frontier, but for now I’m just focusing on the medium that’s been with me this whole time.

B: YOUR PIECES ARE EXTREMELY DETAILED. ARTISTIC OR OTHERWISE, WHO AND WHAT WOULD YOU SAY INFLUENCES YOUR CHOICES?

R: Let’s see: Carl Sagan, Portugal. The Man, Rob’t Williams, Jeff Soto, Dave Choe, Masashi Kishimoto, Eiichiro Oda, Hayao Miyazaki, there’s no way I could list everyone, (laughs)! There are so many different people that I want to point out, so many unique instances that have happened in the world both throughout my life and throughout history, so many different art forms and cultures that influence me and my artwork. If I were to try and narrow it...

ARTIST OF THE MONTH:RobeRT “ROBOT” FischeR

down, the most direct and constant inspiration to me would be all of my close art friends and

my girlfriend simply because of how hard we all push each other

to achieve and challenge each other to create the best works

that we can. All the people who have stayed friends with me since

we were young, all of my family members that have remained beside me, all the people I’ve

grown to love, I would honestly go as far as to say every person that I interact with gives me some form

of motivation and seeing anyone pursuing a life of happiness is an

inspiring and influential thing to me.

B: WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IS THE TOUGHEST PART OF CREATING A PIECE?

R: The hardest part of creating a new piece is probably organizing all the original pencil layers I lay down before I begin the line art for any given piece. I’ve gotten into a pretty bad habit of detailing every little thing in the picture even in the very initial penciling stages. I’ll lay down some rough indications of where things are supposed to be placed and how I want the piece organized in a visually appealing way, and then I’ll proceed to lay down a mess of lines and layers as I re-work the initial image into a single detailed mass. When I get to detailing the end of the pencil work, there are usually big graphite smears all across the heavily detailed parts and some lines become completely unrecognizable and I’ll have to wing it and create a new line as close to what I thought I I was going for. Sometimes my intense detail even confuses me, (laughs)!

B: AND THE MOST REWARDING?

R: Easily the most rewarding part of creating a piece is seeing the reaction it triggers from people. Excitement from fans that have been following particular series when they see a new piece being released, new fans that get really absorbed into the detail and get up close to the original works, just seeing everyone’s reaction to a completed piece is truly the most rewarding aspect of the process to me.

B: DO YOU HAVE ANY PARTICULAR HOPES FOR THE WORK YOU CREATE?

R: Each series that I am working on has an incredible amount of time and effort poured into it, as well as a very deep and thought out message that I try to communicate. Just to keep it short I’ll talk briefly about the hopes I have for my “Tall Nature” series. I would like for “Tall Nature” to communicate both a sense of unity between cultures (while paying homage to a unique cultural focus in each picture) and to create a blueprint for my future and where I want to take my art with time. It is my hope that this series will, on a smaller community scale, help communicate these beautiful cultures to people who haven’t been exposed to them before. With each new installment I try to delve deep into the mythology and retell their tales in my own stylized way. Each piece in the series is meant to be a story in itself, a re-telling of some old tale; each tall creature being a manifestation of hundreds of years of history and natural processes wrapped in a mysterious coat, only visible either at the moment the sun starts to set or begins to rise.

FOR MORE FROM ROBERT CONTACT HIM ON FACEBOOK: HTTP://WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/#!/PROFILE.PHP?ID=100000547470384

inside trackSHADY CHARACTERS

Lucia Fusano - VocalsBrittany Scheffler - Vocals/Keys/GuitarKyle McCormick - Guitar/KeysKasey Clark - Drums

CONTACT: kylemccormick12@gmail.com

MUSIC::http://shadycharacters.bandcamp.com

Inside Track feat. Kyle McCormick of Shady Characters & interview by Bianca Hollins

B:Where are you from and how did the band originally form?K:Lucia and I met at a comic book shop, initially, for the release party of the sixth volume of Scott Pilgrim. She was a vocalist, and I’d been playing guitar, bass, keys, and drums for years, so we decided to try jamming a bit, mostly as a pretext to hang out, because we had crushes. We’ve been dating for almost two years now, and have been in an active band for about half that time. Brittany joined in early 2011, to play keys in order to cover Arcade Fire’s “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” for one show, and stayed on, contributing her own songs as well as keys on some of the others. Our original drummer, Scott, was a guy I’d met at work, and with him we met Kasey, who agreed to produce some of our recordings. Scott had to move back home to Oklahoma, so Kasey stepped in as drummer, and that’s been the line-up ever since.

B:Making the decision to pursue music, who or what inspired you?K:Some of our biggest collective influences are, I think, sort of the obvious ones; Pavement, Patti Smith, Neutral Milk Hotel, PJ Harvey, Arcade Fire, Radiohead, the Beach Boys, Pixies, etc. Personally, I owe a large debt, musically, to David Bowie, Modest Mouse, Sonic Youth, the Shins, Dinosaur Jr., stuff like that, and a ton of weird free jazz and krautrock. Lucia, in addition to the rest, is a big fan of Patti Smith and Amanda Palmer, and has a large classical vocal background as well. Brittany, I know, is really into Animal Collective and just about everything Damon Albarn does. Kasey has a Black Flag tattoo, and is also a big Grateful Dead fan, which I’m pretty sure sums him up perfectly.

B:Name the most demanding part of the songwriting process.

K:Probably just making sure everybody is into everything. We’re all fairly prolific, but making everything a cohesive whole usually creates the most gridlock. Also: hearing ourselves over Kasey’s drums. That dude is crazy loud.

B:When writing or performing gets to be difficult, what keeps you going?

K: Making music that people will, hopefully, really love and connect with. Especially for Lucia and Brittany, too, is having someone compliment the lyrics, tell them that it meant something to them, that’s extremely rewarding.

track B:What are your expectations for your music once it’s released?

K:That people will listen and have a great time. That somebody will really embrace it and that it will mean something.

B:Which audience would you most like to reach and what would you like to communicate to them?

K:We don’t really have a pre-ordained audience; anyone that likes us is our audience. As far as a message, I think a good one that we try to put out is, because we come from so many different backgrounds and have so many different influences, that what matters is less what’s hip and cool, and more what you love. That passion is the most important thing.

B:I have to know. How did you come up with the band’s name and is there any image for the band that you favor in particular?K:There’s no back story. I just liked the phrase and suggested it to Lucia, who also liked it, and it stuck.

B:And to conclude, what is the craziest performance experience you’ve had?

K:I, personally, once got on stage with a pretty bad fever, and by the end of the show had sweat so much that it had broken. That was nice. Also Lucia once performed in puppy slippers. And in a chair, when her ankle was sprained. We’ve also performed in a pizza parlor. And somebody’s foyer, between pretty good dance DJs and to a crowd of uninterested partygoers. Also once when our first drummer was sick, I invited my old roommate / stand-up comic Lewis Sequeira to come dance on stage for us, to keep the energy up. He also opened for us, playing a ukulele and kazoo rendition of “Creep.” Double also, we once covered a song in which we were, all of us, playing in different keys.

LATEST RELEASESunny Days EP1.Sunny Days 2.Post-Sleep 3.Animal Kingdom 4.Let England Shake 5.Stay

Life Lessons with GEORGE MICHAEL CARL

People seem to misunderstand why I exercise. I would rather you all asked me in person so that we could share that intimate “real talk” moment, but I suppose you could just imagine me sitting next to you with my arm awkwardly around you as though we’ve known each other forever despite having either never met each other or just barely known one another. Anyways let’s get to the basics. All the preconceived ideas of me being: really insecure, needing a way to relieve stress, ashamed of who I once was, afraid of returning to who I once was, and that I’m an attention whore.They are all as a matter of fact, TRUE. But let me elaborate on this before you call me a lame ass. There isn’t a moment that goes by where I’m satisfied with myself. I can never look in a mirror, either physically or mentally, and be content. This is where my motivational drive kicks in. The way I see it, the more you sit and dwell on what isn’t, and what you wish could be; the more you become like poop in a toilet. You’ll sit there, un-flushed by those who enter the stall, who are only disgusted at the very sight and find a new stall. Slowly you just spread around and ruin the toilet itself, as you are still just un-flushed poop, lingering in a state of self destruction and disappointment. What are you doing just laying there? Get the fuck up and flush yourself. Don’t wait for someone to kick the button and force you flushed, that would be rude and gross. Do it yourself. You’ll still be crap moving through the sewer but at least you’re moving. Standing still the world will appear as though it’s pushing its weight down on you, and the only way to see otherwise is to move. The long journey through the sewer is difficult, but keep moving and eventually you’ll filter and refine into someone amazing, and the distance you covered from the toilet to the ocean will be a personal achievement that only you could truly appreciate.

Life Lessons with GEORGE MICHAEL CARL

It’s hard to imagine shit becoming something substantial isn’t it?

Everything you encounter is so damn difficult and so much that you’ve

already gone through seems to have taken a toll on you mentally and

physically. Yet that is by no means a reason to be self destructive. We run into strenuous life situations and start to believe that the only way we can move forward is with a little help from the dark side. At a certain point we may even start to romance the idea of self destruction, like having a lonesome candle lit bubble bath with a pack of cigarettes. Oh yeah. That sounds good doesn’t it? NO. You self-fulfilled

prophesy making hedonistic fuckers. A little pleasure is good every now and then, but there will always be more dirt than gold. We all understand the

importance of balance, it’s universal. Yet you start running into a few dark times, and suddenly you start to wonder why you have to work to be happy? Bitch,

happiness and hard work are a package deal!

There’s no way to change what kind of crap you were before, you can only make up for it by the actions you take right now. Don’t get destructive

on your path towards change, that’s just putting yourself through a dirty filter, you aren’t getting any cleaner. Be patient and keep moving. Be confident in your

own abilities. Be aware and accepting of who you once were, who you are now, and who you know you can be. Risk that first step to a new you, it’s better

than wishing you hadn’t. If you need some help when you’re falling down, follow the words I wrote in my room: GET YOUR BITCH ASS UP! MOVE!

I may have digressed a little... I work out to change physically and

mentally! Also I like the burn, after a while you just become a masochist who strives for more strength.

By the way I like attention because it’s nice to hear people say your name, even though according to the Dial it’s: professor saint george michael carl

double face palm champ meme

…..I prefer

Carl or George.

Death by Baking

Vania’s Red Velveteen CupcakesINGREDIENTS:1 Box of Duncan Hines Red Velvet Cake1 1/4 Cup of water 1/3 Veggie Oil3 Large eggs½ Unicorn horn10 cups of Love

STEPS:1.Prep: Preheat oven to 325’F. Then place in baking cups into the cupcake pan and spray each one with veggie oil.2.Mix: Blend cake mix, water, veg. oil, and eggs in large bowl. Blend at low speed until moistened. Moist….what an awkward word…Anywhooooo, Once you’re done slowly pour the batter into a Ziploc/sandwich bag. Cut a hole at the tip so you can squeeze out the good stuff into the cupcake pan.3.Bake: Place it in the oven and bake 20-25 minutes. You’ll know it’s ready if you stab it with a toothpick and it comes out clean. Let it completely cool before frost-ing or it will melt on ya.

Death by Baking FROSTING: 8 ounces of Philadelphia Cream Cheese

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract 5 tbsp. of softened butter 2 cups of powdered sugar

1 cup of fairy dust 1 tsp of magic (Be careful, Too much will make you

blind)

DON’T OVERBEAT or it will be too gloopy. You want it to be thick and yummy. And save ‘that’s what she said’ jokes.

ALRIGHTY, once cupcakes have cooled down, pour frost-ing in Ziploc/sandwich bag. Cut a hole at the tip and decorate the cupcake however way you want it to. Finally make a swirl

on top with Nutella. :)

Vania’s Red Velveteen CupcakesINGREDIENTS:1 Box of Duncan Hines Red Velvet Cake1 1/4 Cup of water 1/3 Veggie Oil3 Large eggs½ Unicorn horn10 cups of Love

E V E N T S I N A P R I L6 - First Friday’s Open Mic Night

1 3 - Comedy Night2 0 - Hip Hop Night

28 - Big Gallery Night Pt. III