It's been a while since I last wrote on this bloggie thing (it's still a weird word, but whatever) so it's about time that I update with recent viewings and things I have seen.
Avatar (2d)
My score: 3/10
The three points is appreciating the CG and the effort put into the film. However, everything else about the movie totally sucked balls. The acting was horrible at best, the characters unremarkable, and the aliens looked a little WAY too much like dranai from WoW. I know I misspelled it but I don't play WoW anymore so I can't varify the spelling since I'm too lazy. Also, the supposed "science fiction" in the film was non-existent, and the space marines were TOTAL crap. First of all the unobtanium is the word physicists and chemists use to define something necessary for a formula that doesn't exist. Therefore unobtanium would be essentially undefinable.
Another problem is that they really don't explain characters at all. You get plopped in a situation and really none of the characters matter. Even the aliens don't matter. Also, what's going on with the whole "you can't breathe the air" stuff? Apparently there's enough oxygen in the environment to cause massive explosions, but you need an air supply or else you die? It makes no sense.
If the movie wasn't half-assed environmentalist crap, than I might rate it higher, but the overal "moral" of the story is that industrialization is evil and trees and earthiness is good. If this was actually true, why did we devise ways to harness the environment for a better life? Should we live without fire and conveniences like toothpaste? It just tries to push the liberal agenda, when everyone knows (or should know) about the latest revealing of how government and politically controlled the environmentalist movement is.
Sherlock Holmes
My Score: 8/10
This movie is much better than Avatar. It doesn't try to make any great point (hence why I lowered the score) but at the same time it just tells a story. Also, it isn't really like any "classic" Sherlock Holmes story, but much more modernized and created for an American and movie going audience. While I liked how the story was told, as it was clever and rather interesting, I felt that the scenes were cut short and we really weren't given time to identify with the characters. On the other hand, Holmes and Watson are some of the most recognizable characters ever, so they could get away with it a bit more. Even then, though, the characters aren't as refined as the original stories by sir Arthur Doyle. It is a great movie, though I don't know if I'd watching more than twice.
Torchlight
My score: 8/10
Torchlight is essentially a Diablo clone. Diablo is an action RPG-style where you control a single character and as you level up you gain/level up abilities and stats and equipment as you advance through a dungeon. While is a great game and has high re-playability due to multiple classes, class trees, and random level design, it still feels repetitive and boring after a while. The easy and medium modes are ludicrously easy, while hard and insane are much better to my style of game play. The game is pretty fun, but it could use more variation in the game. The bosses in the game don't seem hardly "epic" enough in this game and the story is really weak as well, but really you play it for your Diablo fix. Supposedly the developers are trying to get an online mode going, which should be interesting.
There is a map editor, though I haven't played with it yet. Hopefully some really major mods will eventually come out to play. So far there are only "god" mods and some minor armor sets or creep ideas. I personally would like to see the bosses to become MUCH more of a selling point of this game. They basically only chase you around and autoattack.
Universe at War: Earth Assault
My score: 8.5/10
Universe at War is an RTS (real time strategy) that was recently on steam for $5. After doing a little bit of research and figuring out it was designed by the original C&C team and had unique game play elements, I picked it up. A lot of the negative user reviews is because the game had huge problems on release (which they patched) and steam doesn't apparently patch it properly. For me this was no issue, and on playing it works fine. The game play is beautiful, fun, and the races are TRUELY distinct from each other. I don't know about the balance yet as I hasn't played all three races, but I'm excited to play it online once I finish the campaign. The ai still isn't perfect, as I feel the pathing doesn't work perfectly yet, but overall it is very good.
Fall be Kind
My score: 9/10
The latest Animal Collective album features great tunes yet again. The only problem is that it's too short! It is full of catchy, fun songs that got me bouncing. I often don't listen to AC much, but when I come back to it it is always incredibly refreshing. I suggest buying this album when you can, as it is a breath of fresh air after a long time of other styles of music.
Boots with Spurs
My score: 7/10
This band is a screamy metal band that I got for free somehow. Honestly they aren't too bad for their first album.
The biggest problem with them is that even on the recording many of the track are not in sync with each other, as if they can't play together. This is a huge problem for me, as it really detracts from the music. However, they aren't as bad as I though they would be. Sometimes they repeat their melodies too much, and they also tend to not deviate too far from whatever chord progression the originally use as the opening theme in a piece, but short of that they aren't too bad. Some of it is actually good. If you want to check them out, I suggest you google them at some point or look up on myspace.
So that's it for now. I have a good amount of free time in Janurary but my Junior recital is closing in a bit faster than I like, so we'll see what happens.
Till later then
Showing posts with label animal collective. Show all posts
Showing posts with label animal collective. Show all posts
Dec 28, 2009
Oct 25, 2009
[Music/Tech] Garry Schyman, Animal Collective
I am now writing this on PC that has windows 7. I will talk about the windows 7 experience on another post, for I have more important things to talk about. This time is an interview from Garry Schyman, the composer of the amazing game Bioshock. While his answers are pretty short due to him finishing deadlines (possibly Bioshock 2?) he still shares some good information. He is also pretty frequently interviewed so it's hard not to ask redundant questions. I'll also list his site and some of his interviews here:
Garry Schyman's site
Tracksounds interview
Music 4 Games interview
SoundtrackNet interview
BSOSpirit interview
And my interview/e-mail:
What instrument did you origionaly play before you started composition? I can't find any interview which says what instrument you play.
Piano.
Personally, what musicians and composers influence you?
Many! Mahler, Stravinsky, Lutoslawski, Bartok, John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Penderecki - and many more.
Why did you decide to compose a more late-romantic piece for Cohen's Masterpiece? I would think in a ultra-progressive paradise with no limits in technology or ideas someone like Cohen would go for something a bit more atonal or contemporary, such as Cage's HPSCHD or Berg's Lulu or Glass' Einstein. I'm not complaining, but I'm just curious =]
Remember the date that BioShock takes place. 1960 but isolate since the late 40's or so. I was thinking that Cohen would have been very conservative (perhaps ala Rachmaninoff) writing neo romantic music that was still chic back then. Oh well that was my idea anyways. Not correct answer I suppose.
Can you roughly describe your thought process in writing a piece for a video game?
Hmm - sit down at my keyboard and start writing. Sometimes it flows and other times it's like pulling proverbial teeth! But the deadlines keep the music coming! I love deadlines!
Well it's pretty short but there is plenty of information on him out there so I guess we can be thankful for that much.
Another Animal Collective album is in the works, making this the second album release this year. I'm pretty sure there isn't a leak yet but I could be completely and utterly wrong. The album's name is "Fall be Kind" and is set to be released November 8th. I'll let you know more information when I get to it.
Garry Schyman's site
Tracksounds interview
Music 4 Games interview
SoundtrackNet interview
BSOSpirit interview
And my interview/e-mail:
What instrument did you origionaly play before you started composition? I can't find any interview which says what instrument you play.
Piano.
Personally, what musicians and composers influence you?
Many! Mahler, Stravinsky, Lutoslawski, Bartok, John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Penderecki - and many more.
Why did you decide to compose a more late-romantic piece for Cohen's Masterpiece? I would think in a ultra-progressive paradise with no limits in technology or ideas someone like Cohen would go for something a bit more atonal or contemporary, such as Cage's HPSCHD or Berg's Lulu or Glass' Einstein. I'm not complaining, but I'm just curious =]
Remember the date that BioShock takes place. 1960 but isolate since the late 40's or so. I was thinking that Cohen would have been very conservative (perhaps ala Rachmaninoff) writing neo romantic music that was still chic back then. Oh well that was my idea anyways. Not correct answer I suppose.
Can you roughly describe your thought process in writing a piece for a video game?
Hmm - sit down at my keyboard and start writing. Sometimes it flows and other times it's like pulling proverbial teeth! But the deadlines keep the music coming! I love deadlines!
Well it's pretty short but there is plenty of information on him out there so I guess we can be thankful for that much.
Another Animal Collective album is in the works, making this the second album release this year. I'm pretty sure there isn't a leak yet but I could be completely and utterly wrong. The album's name is "Fall be Kind" and is set to be released November 8th. I'll let you know more information when I get to it.
Sep 21, 2009
[rant] Fitting in and Pretentiousness, and Music too
I decided to sort of categorize what posts will consist of so you can ignore posts as you wish. Like this one.
One thing that I have come across in my reading/web browsing/recent discussions is about fitting in. There are two links I would like to share. while both are about Apple products, that is just because they are the focus of the two writings.
Topic one is about someone who got his stuff stolen: specifically an ipod nano.
The other one is from a website where a guy would send in fake qualification letters to companies. They are really hilarious, but most there is one point that I would really like to focus on:
Click THIS to read the specific letter and THIS for the home site. I'll also paste the part that stands out to me here:
Yay ghetto indentation. Which is also a social niche.
While it is satirical, it is also incredibly true. People will do anything to fit into their chosen social niches, even if they don't realize why they're trying to do it, and while they're doing that, they are excluding others. This is perfectly normal. We want to be with similar-minded people who have the same ideas or likes/dislikes. It's just that in doing so anyone who doesn't agree with the same ideas are considered "misfits", or "them", or even worse, "singers".
An example of this is Jeph. Jeph Jaques is a web comic writer/drawer who makes a very entertaining web comic called Questionable Content which I read regularly. While I really enjoy his comic, I disagree with everything he stands for socially. For example, he dislikes Orson Scott Card. Not because of his writing skills or lack thereof. Not because of his influence in the science fiction community, but simply because he does not support gays or gay marriage. Now, I assume Jeph is a libral because of his support of gay marriage and because he really really dislikes Rush. The Rush thing is another thing I'll explore in this post or maybe later. Anyways, liberals are supposedly the "politically correct non-offensive people". I find this ridiculous because he just alienated a bunch of his readers as well as other people.
Another interesting hypocrisy of his is his complaining of DRM and so on while he also complains about a t-shirt company stealing his design. Seriously dude, chose a side already.
I find it interesting most people don't even realize they're angering or doing thing to fit into a group. I see bunches of people walking in groups of friends. I don't mind this in the least and think it's fine, but I also wonder what would happen if no one really ended up being close friends with other people. Once people find a group of friends, they tend to stick with the group, they'll never leave or invite other people to come because then their group will be "less special" or something similar.
This also leads into the pretentiousness bit. People who want to fit into a group but can't call that group pretentious. To clear things up, here is an exact definition of the word:
As found on Webster's dictionary site:
There are two things about this word I realize:
1) Anyone can use this to label anyone else and feel completely justified in doing so.
2) It makes people who use this word sound intelligent.
Examples of music and things people find pretentious:
High Art (both musical and pictures):
Dream Theater. John Pretrucci is not pretentious. He's an amazingly musical guitarist who can also play quickly. While I find his later music (read: newest album) boring, I don't think his skill or his musical ideas as pretentious. I enjoy his music and anyone who doesn't think so can freely disagree with me. Just do use "Dream Theater is pretentious" as an excuse of saying "I don't really know why I just don't stop yelling at me!"
Another use: Animal Collective. Their music is hard to listen to, but if you just want to enjoy music their perfectly fine group. I enjoy bouncing around to the happy Avey melodies, and dislike other songs of theirs for my own reasons. Just because they take their music seriously and want to produce 'good music' (in their opinion) doesn't make them pretntious. Just relax and enjoy. If you see them live they're having as good as a time as anyone listening and it shows in their music and in their performances.
Basically, people please stop using it as an escape to justify your position.
I feel like this post could be better organized but I don't have much time to write.
Also my stuff should arrive tomorrow. Yay!
My next post will either be about computer geekery or music or both.
One thing that I have come across in my reading/web browsing/recent discussions is about fitting in. There are two links I would like to share. while both are about Apple products, that is just because they are the focus of the two writings.
Topic one is about someone who got his stuff stolen: specifically an ipod nano.
The other one is from a website where a guy would send in fake qualification letters to companies. They are really hilarious, but most there is one point that I would really like to focus on:
Click THIS to read the specific letter and THIS for the home site. I'll also paste the part that stands out to me here:
"Now I'm twenty four, and I make my money the way I make my money. A large part of that is you. A pair of good headphones could always catch you a few bucks, but some idiot out with a two hundred dollar set was as good as it got. Now it's all changed. Now you can't walk downtown without passing twenty or thirty people, all sporting the little white headphones, advertising that they're packing a five hundred dollar piece of equipment in those pockets. You got billboards all over the place, making that shit into fashion. It's better than a goddamn gold ring, and when they get rolled, the motherfuckers are out the next day buying a replacement so they can still fit in."
Yay ghetto indentation. Which is also a social niche.
While it is satirical, it is also incredibly true. People will do anything to fit into their chosen social niches, even if they don't realize why they're trying to do it, and while they're doing that, they are excluding others. This is perfectly normal. We want to be with similar-minded people who have the same ideas or likes/dislikes. It's just that in doing so anyone who doesn't agree with the same ideas are considered "misfits", or "them", or even worse, "singers".
An example of this is Jeph. Jeph Jaques is a web comic writer/drawer who makes a very entertaining web comic called Questionable Content which I read regularly. While I really enjoy his comic, I disagree with everything he stands for socially. For example, he dislikes Orson Scott Card. Not because of his writing skills or lack thereof. Not because of his influence in the science fiction community, but simply because he does not support gays or gay marriage. Now, I assume Jeph is a libral because of his support of gay marriage and because he really really dislikes Rush. The Rush thing is another thing I'll explore in this post or maybe later. Anyways, liberals are supposedly the "politically correct non-offensive people". I find this ridiculous because he just alienated a bunch of his readers as well as other people.
Another interesting hypocrisy of his is his complaining of DRM and so on while he also complains about a t-shirt company stealing his design. Seriously dude, chose a side already.
I find it interesting most people don't even realize they're angering or doing thing to fit into a group. I see bunches of people walking in groups of friends. I don't mind this in the least and think it's fine, but I also wonder what would happen if no one really ended up being close friends with other people. Once people find a group of friends, they tend to stick with the group, they'll never leave or invite other people to come because then their group will be "less special" or something similar.
This also leads into the pretentiousness bit. People who want to fit into a group but can't call that group pretentious. To clear things up, here is an exact definition of the word:
As found on Webster's dictionary site:
- Main Entry: pre·ten·tious
- Pronunciation: \pri-ˈten(t)-shəs\
- Function: adjective
- Etymology: French prétentieux, from prétention pretension, from Medieval Latin pretention-, pretentio, from Latin praetendere
- Date: 1832
1 : characterized by pretension: as a : making usually unjustified or excessive claims (as of value or standing)
2 : making demands on one's skill, ability, or means : ambitious
synonyms see showy
— pre·ten·tious·ly adverb
— pre·ten·tious·ness noun
There are two things about this word I realize:
1) Anyone can use this to label anyone else and feel completely justified in doing so.
2) It makes people who use this word sound intelligent.
Examples of music and things people find pretentious:
High Art (both musical and pictures):
Dream Theater. John Pretrucci is not pretentious. He's an amazingly musical guitarist who can also play quickly. While I find his later music (read: newest album) boring, I don't think his skill or his musical ideas as pretentious. I enjoy his music and anyone who doesn't think so can freely disagree with me. Just do use "Dream Theater is pretentious" as an excuse of saying "I don't really know why I just don't stop yelling at me!"
Another use: Animal Collective. Their music is hard to listen to, but if you just want to enjoy music their perfectly fine group. I enjoy bouncing around to the happy Avey melodies, and dislike other songs of theirs for my own reasons. Just because they take their music seriously and want to produce 'good music' (in their opinion) doesn't make them pretntious. Just relax and enjoy. If you see them live they're having as good as a time as anyone listening and it shows in their music and in their performances.
Basically, people please stop using it as an escape to justify your position.
I feel like this post could be better organized but I don't have much time to write.
Also my stuff should arrive tomorrow. Yay!
My next post will either be about computer geekery or music or both.
Sep 18, 2009
Things about Bs
For the longest time when I was young I was obsessed with bees. I have no idea why, but I just like bees. Not those yellow jackets that sting you and don't do anything productive but make more yellow jackets, but the nice bees that pollinate flowers and make honey. While the honey bee and the bumblebee are two different insects, they are both awesome. And for some reason, my mind went into "songs about bees". There are very few songs actually ABOUT bees, though plenty of songs with bees in lyrics; mostly being crappy love songs or about sex. I found this really odd.
You can look this up as well as other songs at www.songmeanings.net/.
Anyways: I'll start with two bands I actually like that write and sing about bees and go from there.
First is Animal Collective's The Bees:
This song is about bees in a surreal relaxing atmospheric manner. This is also from one of the first albums I bought when I started listening to Animal Collective. It is honestly a very good representation of bees just buzzing around on an open field just pollinating and stuff. I really like this song a lot because of its presentation and just total atmosphere.
Next is from Mirah and the Spectretones called Community:
I found this song thanks to Neil Gaiman's blog where he posted his very favorite song about bees. This is one of the few 'girl' bands which I actually like. Most of them are really boring and slaves to their producers' evil desires and market. This has its own indie feeling in how they sound. I honestly don't know as much about this band as I like as I have not listened to many of their works, but they're a very cool band and I'll get around to listening/buying some of their albums. Possibly off e-music.
A slight deviant off of the topic, but if you like indie(ish) music I suggest getting a subscription to e-music. DRM free mp3s full of wondrous goodness. It also isn't a bad place for classical music, though you won't find good orchestras. Also, if you want to sign up, it's $15/mo for 50 song downloads (a month), though first sign up you get 100 downloads total. You can cancel at any time and keep your mp3s. If you're interested, I'll send a link and I can get 50 free songs by referral! It is a really good deal.
Next on "songs ACTUALLY ABOUT BEES" is Jared Mees and the Grown Children.
I know very little about this band, beyond it has a pop sound, changes its line up constantly. It sorta reminds me of They Might Be Giants meet Barenakedladies. I like this song, and I might dig a little deeper and get one of their albums later. I must say I like the general tone. People listen to too much music in minor key these days, it's nice to hear something in a major key and is slightly silly. You can also sing along pretty easily.
Last on the list I can't really endorse as a good band, but it's the only other thing I could find that is specifically about bees. Yay screamo...
Anyways the band is called Botch, I know I heard about them before but I really don't like their sound. This is the sort of metal I can't stand, it just doesn't have any specific melody or anything to make it musically interesting, though the youtube vid got more views than the previous and (in my opinion) much better band:
I warned you. I can't even understand the lyrics. Oh well its still amusing.
If anyone has any good bee songs I missed give me a shout!
Speaking about bees:
And more about the bees:
I was thinking about writing something about how Bach is more badass than any modern day rapper could be, but I'm honestly not feeling it right now. Bees alone is too awesome a topic for a post that anything else will just diminish the awesomeness.
Until later, I will be drinking beer and probably playing FF7 on psp. I am so amazed about how that game WORKS, but less how fun it is. Oh I ordered my computer yesterday, so I should get it Tuesdayish.
Have a good weekend.
You can look this up as well as other songs at www.songmeanings.net/.
Anyways: I'll start with two bands I actually like that write and sing about bees and go from there.
First is Animal Collective's The Bees:
This song is about bees in a surreal relaxing atmospheric manner. This is also from one of the first albums I bought when I started listening to Animal Collective. It is honestly a very good representation of bees just buzzing around on an open field just pollinating and stuff. I really like this song a lot because of its presentation and just total atmosphere.
Next is from Mirah and the Spectretones called Community:
I found this song thanks to Neil Gaiman's blog where he posted his very favorite song about bees. This is one of the few 'girl' bands which I actually like. Most of them are really boring and slaves to their producers' evil desires and market. This has its own indie feeling in how they sound. I honestly don't know as much about this band as I like as I have not listened to many of their works, but they're a very cool band and I'll get around to listening/buying some of their albums. Possibly off e-music.
A slight deviant off of the topic, but if you like indie(ish) music I suggest getting a subscription to e-music. DRM free mp3s full of wondrous goodness. It also isn't a bad place for classical music, though you won't find good orchestras. Also, if you want to sign up, it's $15/mo for 50 song downloads (a month), though first sign up you get 100 downloads total. You can cancel at any time and keep your mp3s. If you're interested, I'll send a link and I can get 50 free songs by referral! It is a really good deal.
Next on "songs ACTUALLY ABOUT BEES" is Jared Mees and the Grown Children.
I know very little about this band, beyond it has a pop sound, changes its line up constantly. It sorta reminds me of They Might Be Giants meet Barenakedladies. I like this song, and I might dig a little deeper and get one of their albums later. I must say I like the general tone. People listen to too much music in minor key these days, it's nice to hear something in a major key and is slightly silly. You can also sing along pretty easily.
Last on the list I can't really endorse as a good band, but it's the only other thing I could find that is specifically about bees. Yay screamo...
Anyways the band is called Botch, I know I heard about them before but I really don't like their sound. This is the sort of metal I can't stand, it just doesn't have any specific melody or anything to make it musically interesting, though the youtube vid got more views than the previous and (in my opinion) much better band:
I warned you. I can't even understand the lyrics. Oh well its still amusing.
If anyone has any good bee songs I missed give me a shout!
Speaking about bees:
And more about the bees:
I was thinking about writing something about how Bach is more badass than any modern day rapper could be, but I'm honestly not feeling it right now. Bees alone is too awesome a topic for a post that anything else will just diminish the awesomeness.
Until later, I will be drinking beer and probably playing FF7 on psp. I am so amazed about how that game WORKS, but less how fun it is. Oh I ordered my computer yesterday, so I should get it Tuesdayish.
Have a good weekend.
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