talking with sinister x, ..

Session Start: Fri May 29 18:46:16 1998

Dangermouse:
ok man, You've been around for a fair while within the scene, and I've never interviewed you about your life and times (like a shit load of other ppl).

Five us all a quick run down on 'who' you are - name, age, sex, hobbies, school, live, etc..

Sinister X:
my name's Johnny Ernest, I'm 19, 7 times since December, University of North Texas.. Fort Worth, TX

I was a virgin before then too, funny how things change..

Dangermouse:
where do you live?

Sinister X:
Arcadia Trail 4th house on the left, the 93 Accord is mine (:

I probably shouldn't have disclosed that information just then I'll have some wild doodleboy stalking me now (:

Dangermouse:
Ok, man, how the fuck did you ever get involved with the scene 4 years ago? Let's go for a full history here..

Sinister X:
ok here goes, and believe me this is gonna be long..

It all started in 8th grade 92-93 there was this new kid in school named Jesse Warmannen, and everyone thought he was a dork so I figured hey I'll be nice to him.. So one day I go over to his house and he's on a 64 node board, in fact one of the first BBS's ever that's been around since 78 called Chrysalis.. Well when I saw this I was entranced, I thought OH MY GOD THIS IS SOME COOL SHIT.. You can tell I had just gotten my first computer then, so he showed me around, helped me fix up my modem and I started calling out.. He even gave me a nice list of boards to call, one of them being Mission Control, it had some nice cheesy Thedraw fonts all over the place there (:

But nonetheless I was pretty damned amazed by it all still.. So anyways, they had an ansi drawing contest on there, and since I didn't know the first thing about how to draw an ansi I figured I might take it up. So they gave me Thedraw, I started plunging away at it, making big f4 blocks all over the place, and then a few guys told me my stuff was actually good and I should call this board called Cybercerebral, a nice little warez board with the sysop Sound of Silence who told me about a local group called SUiCiDE.. I was like, "Whoa! They have GROUPS of people who draw these things?", and they showed me some ACiD packs, that's when my interest REALLY picked up..

About the same time I was getting into downloading PC Demos like Future Crew stuff, but nonetheless my work was still shitty and it took me a month to get even good enough to get in suicide.. In the meantime I was on a warez board called Utopia run by Davros, which had some mad ass warez I tell you, all those 0-3 day 2 disk games (:

Someone got ahold of the users.dat and reported to the SPA, next thing I know my dad is asking me if I know anyone named Sinister x. My dad works for the Tarrant County Medical Examiners Office btw he's got connections with feds through the American Forensic and Toolmark Examiners (AFTE). So when I told him it was me we kept it under raps for a long time, nd luckily they've forgotten who I am..

Dangermouse:
Haha.. You told him?

Sinister X:
yeah

Dangermouse:
Your a bloody mad man..

Sinister X:
I'm naive, at least I'm less naive now than I used to be..

Dangermouse:
I'd be like? ME?!? What the hell is warez?

Sinister X:
But anyways back to the real story

* dngrmouse works for the FEDS

Sinister X:
So in the meantime I was getting on more boards like Chaotic Intent, Sardonic Irony, Atomic Delusions, etc etc.. (in the meantime watching my ass to make sure I didn't get reported again).. Then people started making fun of my art, in fact if you look at the Undergrown Issue (I think it's #6) you'll see 33rie rating one of my works in scde#002 as "Try F5/F6, it helps."

Ten one day the whole ansi curvature theory came into my mind as I was taking a shower, this was Christmas 94 btw.. So I kept improving and improving and improving, finally I put up my own board called Sadistic Temptations during the summer and by that time I was getting introduced into ACiD, which for me was my big turning point.. I made the infamous Julie from the Maxx ansi for my board and did an ansimation called Spanky the Butt Pirate as well as an ansi of The Savage Dragon, and everyone loved them it was one of the greatest feelings I'd had in a while..

but.... they screwed up on the sauce, and put in Spectral Illusion instead of Sinister x even though my sig is still on the work, and I got PISSED.. So pissed I quit acid, and then p1 and Hal after finding out I was born in Georgia wanted me in Fire immediately.. Hal's a Georgia boy if you can't tell from the Georgia Tech bee he always draws (:

Dangermouse:
Tell me more about ACiD -- what did it mean for you to get into the group?

Sinister X:
It meant EVERYTHING. I mean, back in 93 and 94 they had loaders, and they had Jed, and those 2 combined beat the fuck out of anything else in the scene.. Jed was and still is my idol..

Dangermouse:
Did it mean to you as artist that you were finally being taken seriously?

Sinister X:
It meant everything, I put a GREAT deal of effort into doing it, I've been drawing since I was in 3rd grade, and I was playing Yar's Revenge on the old 2600 before I could even talk, this was the best of both worlds, it was finally what *I* wanted.. I was loving every minute of it

Well so anyways, my sophomore year at Keller I met empty (Mike) in Spanish 2 class, and I had been best friends with The Mask and then we got on bad terms just up until recently (I mean tm_). We had a pretty closely nit local scene going, most people around looked up to me as the legend amongst them since I carried on the talent, and even then I started branching off into some other things like coding and music, I'm somewhat decent now with those..

Well but anyways things are dying down at this point, this is long about 96, I rejoined acid for a month and released an ad for my board in bin format.. From there that was pretty much it, I was just in and out of the scene, things have been pretty dead for a while now, then last October I started reaching the big downfall..

I started up at FastLane doing Technical Support.. Well then once I start up there the locals ask me to go to this Halloween party. I get there, the only person I knew there was eyeball, and then there were a bunch of people from some telnet board called Matchmaker.. Well I decided since all the girls said I was a good kisser at spin the bottle (which in all honesty I didn't know I was until then), and since I got titty action for the first time that night, I figured I'd get an account (: .. and from there, it was a party every weekend with weed and alcohol..

Dangermouse:
I gather the titty action got better from there then? :)

Sinister X:
.. and I've fucked over my college life except for what I can salvage this summer.. I'm at a .7 GPA cumulative..

Yeah, from there I got drunk off J.D. one night at a Christmas party and uhm.. lost my virginity, since then I had sex 6 more times..

.. but they're all trouble I should have seen it from the beginning, empty and aquis warned me about it in the beginning I probably should have listened, and balancing 16 hours of college, 30 hours of work, and a social life amounts to nothing in the end.. I lost the job, I'm on academic suspension unless I get those F's changed which I can do this summer hopefully, and I've started veering away from the matchmaker crowd

Dangermouse:
I noticed you were having a rant in #ansi just before, about dropping yer gf..

Sinister X:
Oh yeah, she was part of that crowd too. I'm glad it's all over, I needed to be alone for a while at least..

In the fall if my grades are back up my brother's the vice president of Delta Tau Delta at UNT so... That will make up for not having a social life this summer (: Right now I just want to get my grades up and work on my artistic talents since that is in the end what's going to eventually land me a job..

Dangermouse:
Around early 1997, around the time I started acheron, you started Underground Unleashed -- what was the deal with that?

Sinister X:
That was kind of a little attempt to put some umf back into things, didn't work out as I planned, most things don't work out..

I love the new look for acheron btw it's much more professional looking

Dangermouse:
I noticed that underground unleashed is still 'online', any chance of it coming back?

Sinister X:
Well, as soon as I get the time it's going to become the new home for Sadistic Temptations.. I'm going to have some links to scene pages, some of my art, my resume, a web msg base, cartoon drawings of everyone I know, etc etc etc. I'm hoping I can have it up some time halfway through the summer

Dangermouse:
Looking back at the scene, who would you say were your inspirations (you noted Jed), and the highlights?

Sinister X:
Maestro, Somms, Lord Jazz, Spam, Jed, Neurotic and Asylum were my big influences on the scene (Spam was a local when I started up)..

Looking at their stuff I eventually just kind of caught on to basic styles, as far as still art goes maestro would have to be my biggest influence..

But as far as I see it, the highlight of the scene was before I was ever a big part of it, back when they used to make loaders (: Wen acid had all the cool nifty things every new month, that's what made it so badass.. We need coders today I tell you..

Dangermouse:
Speaking of MAestro, how do you like Legion? about bloody time i'd say..

Sinister X:
Legion? I didn't even see the pack til tonight, and I must say I was impressed, I just didn't think anyone tried that hard anymore, Maestro's latest stuff is killer I loved it. Legion is a group with big potential, at the very least enough to rank up there with union and fire..

Dangermouse:
I know.. Reanimator is also pulling out all the stops..

Dangermouse:
Tell me about your own group, Avail?

Sinister X:
Avail? heh.. Well, a lot of people these days only release ansi or ONLY release vga or whatever the case may be, and I have a lot of arts I'd like to offer aside from the visual arts. Avail was my big fling at showing off what I could do basically, and I say it to everyone going into design, learn anything and everything you can.. Designers need to not just be good at drawing, they need to be good coders, musicians, software people..

Dangermouse:
What happened to Avail? any members?

Sinister X:
Just me, aquis helps occassionally.. I've put avail on hold for a while. I've been out of things forever now I wouldn't be doing any justice to just release my own pack I don't think anyone would download it.. That's why I want to help the efforts of some of these other groups like cia, avenge, and dvs

Dangermouse:
Welp man, what does the future hold for Sinister X in the scene?

Sinister X:
Well, we're looking at the big 2k here, and the way I see it, we need to be ready for it visually.. Win98's interface is not configurable, xwindow's interface is not user friendly for the masses of normal people out there. I think in the next few years we all need to be pulling out some projects to put things into practical meaning, and that goes for everyone in the art scene..

We need to have art, coding, writing, and music that leads us well into the future..

Dangermouse:
WElp, time to close this file i feel.. Anything else to add?

Sinister X:
uhm, DELTA TAU DELTA!!!!

Session Close: Fri May 29 20:29:55 1998