XF Project #7: The Music Of An X-Phile

For this week’s X-Files Project-ing… (yes, I made that a verb, which I suppose could also technically be “projecting”…). There’s been some tweeting going on in regards to X-Files related music and I really felt this was the perfect opportunity to delve into one of my favorite X-Files inspired projects: My X-Files Playlist. It is over 8 hours long and to this day remains my favorite thing to listen to because it even continues to grow.

The history of this playlist spans the quickest era of technological advancement as far as music is concerned. Its beginning can probably be traced all the way back to the time of mix tapes, the ones I made to listen to in my car in high school. But the actual list in the variety that it is today, didn’t really come to be until I was in college, when the creation of Naptser and CD burning made it a little easier.

Oh, Napster… the beginning of it all. For those who don’t know, it was the first music/file sharing program. You could upload all of the music on the CDs that you owned to Napster and your friends could listen to it, anyone could listen to it, and even download it!   For the first time ever, we had the world of music at our finger tips! It was free! It was fantastic! So of course, it quickly came to an end.  Artists still need to get paid.

During that short, yet revolutionary time, my friend Audrey and I collected a good chunk of music that was X-Files related and we started burning CDs. The playlist really hadn’t come into existence yet. You couldn’t travel with your Napster music. It needed internet access and therefore it was tethered to your computer, which was really not mobile by any stretch of the imagination, even if it was technically a laptop. You had to put it back onto a CD or one of those early mp3 players that held maybe 20 songs… maybe.

We dubbed our CDs The X-Files Greatest Hits and even made covers for them. Using, get this… The Print Shop! Yes, this was even before it was a regular thing to have Photoshop. It was also, not common to have a CD burner, so we had to search out acquaintances who did. We had three volumes by the time we graduated from college. They kept us entertained for many a late night light hang or set build in the theatre. We blared it from our dorm room on 10/13 and 11/21 and pretty much every other day of the year.

Cover of Vol I by Audrey

The requirements for a song making The X-Files Greatest Hits were as follows:

1. The song was either used in or mentioned on the show.
2. The song mentions the show or any of its characters and/or actors.
3. The song related to the show in our geektasticly obsessive x-phile brains.

After graduating from college, I took my copies of the CDs with me. As technology progressed and iTunes came into existence, the CDs made the transition to playlist. I put them all together and then was able to add the entirety of the various soundtracks in existence. Whenever I hear a new song that just fits, something along the lines of, “This is a Mulder and Scully song!” goes through my head …and it gets added to the list.  The invention of YouTube has also helped in having a central location for fan videos (you used to have to search harder for those), which is a great way to discover songs that other fans connect to the show.

The playlist was one of the first things synced to my first ipod and then onto my iphone. It’s still there. It’s the only playlist that is always there. It goes on trips with me. It’s been heard during set builds, in prop shops, and theatres all around NY. I frequently get remarks about the interesting mix of music that people assume isn’t connected in any way. When I tell them it is, the most fun comes from them trying to figure out exactly how each song fits into The X-Files. It makes my geek heart happy.

So with social media and new music sharing capabilities, I have now taken the list one step further. I’ve added it to Spotify. You can listen to it two ways.

1. For those who appreciate the lost art of the mix tape, I have the original X-Files Greatest Hit compilations (I, II, and III)in their own individual playlists in their original very thought out play order (a few tracks are missing, and some are not the original versions due to Spotify restrictions).
2. You can listen to them all together in the playlist called “X-Philed” with all the other songs that I have added since.

Enjoy! And be sure to grab your partner and dance when Walking In Memphis comes on.

Front of Vol II

Back of Vol II (you can see the ones I couldn’t include on Spotify)

Cover of Vol III

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

XF Project #6: Ascend to the Stars

For the next installment of my X-Files Project, I have another T’shirt/souvenir design for you!!

This is my tribute to the mountain famous in the world of The X-Files for its link to abductions, starting with that of Dana Scully (though whether it was by aliens or the government, or both, can still be debated), and then returning to it for another big abduction plot several seasons later, with Mulder as the skeptic and Scully more willing to believe!

I took the design from the phonebook ad that Mulder looks up (yes, this was the 90’s, people still used phonebooks), when he recognizes the phrase that Duane Barry used when trying to explain where he was supposed to be going to meet his alien abductors.

The newest version can be found on Zazzle. I played with the color and shape, and plan on adding a few more choices for the color of the actual design in the near future, as well as adding more items.  I have also left the option available for you to pick the actual item color and style.  There is also an older version of this design on Café Press, if you prefer it in black.

This is your chance to own a souvenir from Skyland Mountain!  You can claim that you found your mountain, and came back without being abducted! …Or did you?

XF Project #5: Back in the day…

I am aware that I am getting behind on this.  But some of my projects have been taking a little more time than expected, so I keep getting delayed.  But I did promise a post a week.  So I was going through some old photos to see what I could do for a quick post, and I stumbled upon this photo.

This is a picture of my dorm room door from my sophomore year in college.  I shared it with two my two friends Beth and Audrey.  We dubbed it “The F.B.I.” or “The Funk Bureau of Investigation”.  We had some guy friends who referred to their room as “Funk Central”, so our room was considered an off-shoot, and we were also completely obsessed with The X-Files… thus, our name.

It was college, don’t ask.

So this week, I give you a game!  How many X-files references can you spot?  Also, can you tell what season we were up to at this point?

I will point out that the entire area to the right of the door is covered in writings done by ourselves and our x-phile friends.  They’re mostly theories and thoughts in regards to the season that was airing at the time.  Now that I think about it, it was kind of like low tech blogging/social media.

We were ahead of our time.

XF project #4: When you’re a prop person and an X-phile…

One of the several things that I do, is that I am a prop designer/artisan. I’ve worked as such in theatre and film for the past decade or so. I must say, it’s a pretty fun career to have. Basically, I get paid to shop, build, paint, sew and glue stuff.

Anything you see in a play or film that gets picked up and moved is considered a prop. Though, there are lots of gray areas, as we are often in charge of set dressing (stuff that’s hanging on the wall and sitting on shelves) and sometimes even the furniture. And then there’s the whole controversy over whether a purse is a prop or a costume… But that’s really not important to this blog.

What is important, is that as a prop designer I enjoy giving tribute to the things that I love when working on a show. Many geektastic references end up in my work. If someone asks for a nonspecific bottle of alcohol, there may end up being a label inspired by Hawkeye of The Avengers. If there is money asked for, I can guarantee that my prop money will have the face of some random character on it.  I’ve used a bunch of characters from 24, and most recently Elizabeth McCord from Madam Secretary.

But my favorite thing to reference in my prop work is, of course, The X-Files. I fit it in wherever I can, even if it is just putting a 1013 in an address on an envelope, it will find its way into the props that I make.

I’ve been going through my portfolio recently, and decided it would be fun to post some of these items as a part of my summer X-files project. This week I am starting off with one of my favorites. I was working on a production of the musical 9 to 5 at Gateway Playhouse several years back. This was a dream come true considering I loved that movie as a kid and had thoroughly enjoyed it on Broadway.

In the show, as in the film, Violet comes back from shopping for the office and pulls out of a bag; rat poison, ant poison and sweetener… which of course, sets off the crazy strain of events that this brilliant show is comprised of. So these are all things on the prop list, which the prop department needs to bring into reality. The rat poison and sweetener already have a very specific look, as they have to be very similar, and the way they were done in the film was perfect, and somewhat iconic, so my design was based on that. But with the ant poison, I had a bit more of a free-range.

As an X-phile somebody mentions bug extermination, and your mind immediately goes to “War of The Coprophages”, the brilliant season three episode written by Darin Morgan, who actually claims it as one of his lesser episodes, but he is way too hard on himself, because it’s a lot of fun and really quite brilliant!

The town of Miller’s Grove, Massachussettes goes crazy when a string of deaths point to an infestation of killer cockroaches. One item that appears more than once in the episode is a brand of insect spray called appropriately “Die Bug Die” (as seen above). We also see Scully giving her dog, Queequeg, a bath in the episode, and she is using a shampoo called “Die Flea Die”. So in my X-Files obsessed mind, what else does one do with a request to make a can of ant poison, but create “Die Ant Die”?

Not only did I create the label based on the images from the show, but also had fun with the fine print. One of the images is blurry but the information on the side of the can is actually the conversation between Mulder and Scully that includes the line “Her name is Bambi?” And then I made up the fun little warning label as a finishing touch.

 

I love my job.

XF Project week 3: Geek Merchandise or Chicken Chase

I apologize, this post is long delayed but I was trying to sort out the workings of Zazzle for this week’s X-Files Project post.

I love geek paraphernalia, but I prefer subtle geek paraphernalia.  This meaning that I like to wear T’shirts that don’t blatantly plaster what they are from across them.  I don’t own a shirt that says “The X-Files” on it.  I like it to be more of a thing for those who know to see it, recognize it, and get excited… and everyone else has to ask.  That is, if they really want to know.  It’s a great conversation starter in either instance!

For example, I love wearing my Phoenix and Dark Phoenix T’shirts that I made myself.  They just have the Phoenix symbol emblazoned on a green and maroon tank respectively.  I frequently have people ask me what team it is the symbol for… sigh.  But then there are those who get it!  I was once walking through Prospect Park, a bunch of guys were handing out fliers for a candidate running for mayor at the time.  I was doing my best to avoid eye contact and get past them, when one of the guys yelled out, “Jean Grey would vote for George!” (George was not actually the guy’s name).  This made me smile and I took a flier from them.

I have various ideas that have been popping around in my head for awhile of X-Files related T’shirt designs.  Some I have already put into existence, some are still in my head.  I’ll post some of the older ones later, but this is my newest endeavor.

Before Hannibal Lecter started serving up his favored fare, probably the most notable cannibals on scripted television were the citizens of Dudley, Arkansas.  In the second season episode Our Town, Mulder and Scully are sent to the town on a missing persons case that turns out to be quite disturbing and unappetizing.

Yeah, this might keep you up at night.

This is the episode that ended my streak of asking for KFC for my birthday dinner every year.  It is also attached to one of the few days I remember from my college biology class (yes, all are X-Files related).  We were shown a documentary on Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, which point by point touched almost every topic brought up in the episode’s storyline.  I wish I could remember the name of the documentary, but I’m pretty sure that Frank Spotnitz had seen it.  I had read that The X-Files really did their research on the science used in their episodes, and this solidified that for me as a definite truth.

I’ve also always enjoyed the Chaco Chicken company logo (see above), very similar to that of the aforementioned fast food chain, giving it an unnerving twist with the included double entendre tag line, “Good People, Good Food”.  So I thought the company should get it’s own merchandising.  And here it is!  You can now own your very own cannibalistic overtone shirt, keychain, mug, etc… from the one and only Chaco Chicken processing plant.  Wear the shirt… just don’t eat the chicken!

Currently, I have a variety of shirts available (you can also customize the products to your liking).  Check out the store here!!!  Keep an eye out for new additions coming soon!

 

 

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For…

For week two of my summer X-Files project, I have a treat for you.  Or at least the idea of a treat, that with the help of you and your friends, we may all possibly one day get to eat!

My friend Amy and I, are both fans of dessert and The X-Files, and we realized that there was something lacking in the arsenal of flavors made by the famed duo Ben and Jerry… an X-Files inspired flavor.

Now, being that I am doing this project, and if you read last week’s post, you know that The X-Files is the epitome of TV for me.  If you were to ask what my X-Files of dessert is, I would say Ben and Jerry’s.  And we all know they love doing pop-culture related flavors, so why not have the world’s greatest ice cream partners hook up with the world’s greatest paranormal investigating FBI partners?

We contemplated this a while, and you can check out what we came up with at the petition site.

Please, share with your x-phile and/or ice cream loving friends, sign the petition and we may possibly end up with some X-Files inspired ice cream that we can sit down and eat as we watch the new season next year!

I guarantee it will taste better than the air in your mouth.

 

Doesn’t everyone need a geeky goal to fill their summer?

Hello Everyone!

I know I’ve had this blog for a while and have barely done anything with it (hey, I’m a busy person).  But I have decided to set myself a goal for the summer/possibly beyond.

My favorite TV show is returning and I’ve decided to do a dedication of sorts.  If you are not already aware, I’m talking about one of the greatest television shows of all time, The X-Files!  Haven’t seen it?  You should.  You won’t regret it! … except when you can no longer go near vents or use a port-a-potty or enter a parking garage… but they aren’t THAT necessary are they?

My goal is to do a weekly blog post of something X-Files related.  It may be my ramblings on the topic, or some artwork, possibly old articles, maybe musings of my fellow x-phile cohorts from when the show was still airing (yes, guys, I kept them), or maybe I’ll even start getting the work of other philes involved.  We shall see…

So watch this space.  I shall be starting soon.

Until then… eat some sunflower seeds, call your partner, and have an intellectual conversation about Darwin.

Best,

Andrea