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Archive for the ‘Video Games’ Category

Douglas Coupland–Generation A (2009)

Posted in Books about writers, Boredom, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Consumerism, Culture Shock, Dave Bidini music, Death, Douglas Coupland, Dreams, Drinking, Drugs, Dystopia, Funny (strange), JPod, Kurt Vonnegut, Natural Disasters, Nature, Research, Rheostatics, Technology, The Future, Video Games, Violence, Yuck!, tagged on January 14, 2010| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Static Box (complete) (2008).

I’ve decided not to review all of the volumes of this fabulous free box set.  Rather, since I have now finished it, I’ll sum up and say that it is a fantastic collection from start to finish.

The final disc has a series of great cover tunes.  And of course, there’s the final songs from the final Massey Hall show which are quite emotional, even all these years later.

There’s one or two songs that I probably would have left off for sound quality reasons (although usually they’re pretty interesting/essential for what they are).  There’s one 8 minute song, “Monkeys Will Come” that has quite poor sound quality.  However, it is a recording of the song that the Canadian government asked them to record for Canada Day in 2000.  And I assume there are no better recordings of it, so it’s nice to have.

The best part of this collection is that it allowed me to see which concerts were worth downloading in their entirety (the site has a ton of concerts for downloading…a ton!).  It also got me to track down the two Violet Archers CDs, which I’m quite excited to be getting soon.

And, while I’m in a Rheos mood.  Martin Tielli’s final CDs in his subscription collection just made their way to my house and they are weird and wonderful.  And, I just learned that Dave Bidini put out a solo record a few months back, so that’s worth tracking down too.  Go Rheos!  You are all very star.

[READ: January 12, 2010] Generation A

I was quite excited when this book finally came out.  I had been dipping into the Douglas Coupland back catalog (including watching JPod the TVseries), so this book is a treat.

Strangely, when I started reading the book I realized I had no idea what it was about.  At all.  So, the first thing to note is that it is not in any way a sequel to Generation X.  None of the characters are the same, the setting is not the same, there’s no connection whatsoever (or if there is I didn’t see it).  The premise of the title comes from a Kurt Vonnegut address.  It is quoted on the book jacket and in the book itself, so I won’t quote it here, but the gist is that young people were dismissed unfairly when labelled “Generation X,” so they should insist that they be called “Generation A,” the beginning of the alphabet, and the start of it all.

But when the book starts, it’s hard to understand what that has to do with anything.  Because, as we learn right away, the book is all about bees (which explains the yellow and black cover design). (more…)

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Greg Kinney–Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days [#4] (2009)

Posted in Aimee Mann, Children's Books, Dan Zanes, Dar Williams, Del Fuegos, Jeff Kinney, Juliana Hatfield, Lou Reed, Summer, Video Games, X on October 23, 2009| 1 Comment »

wimpy4SOUNDTRACK: DAN ZANES-Night Time (2002).

zanesI’d only ever heard of Dan Zanes as the guy from the Del Fuegos (who probably got the biggest boost of their career when Juliana Hatfield sang about them in “My Sister”).  But once we had our first child, everyone told me to check out Dan Zanes’ “kids” records.  Night Time is one of our favorites.  It’s often played at night (obviously) as a good bedtime CD.

There a few rousing tracks on it but mostly it works as a mellow disc, perfect for winding down the day.  Zanes’ “kids” music is absolutely not just for kids (well, one or two tracks certainly are), because he uses his rock roots to play good roots rock (and folk).  Another fun thing about this disc (and most of his discs, in fact) is that he has a whole host of cool rock people to sing with him: Aimee Mann, John Doe (from X), Dar Williams and Lou Reed!

So, while you get a few traditional kids song (“Pay Me My Money Down,” “Rattlin’ Bog”) you also get a few traditional songs that work well for kids, but are fun for adults to sing along to (“Side by Side,” “What a Wonderful World,” “So Long (It’s Been Good to Know Yuh)”).  There’s also originals by Zanes (the fantastic “Night Owl,” “Smile Smile Smile” and the gorgeous closer “Linger for Awhile”) and some nontraditional songs (Zanes likes throwing in “world” music titles) like “Que Fortunidad,” and “Siyahamba”.

And it all sounds great.  There’s a horn section on a number of tracks, bringing a very rich texture.  But he also uses solo guitar or even mandolin.  And Zanes’ voice sounds fantastic.  He’s slightly gruff sounding, but in an endearing way.

I don’t know if I ever would have listened to these discs if it weren’t for having kids; but even if you don’t have kids, don’t let the “kids” label scare you away.

[READ: October 17, 2009] Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days

I was thrilled when this book came in the mail.  (Yes, we do order some books to keep).  I’ve enjoyed the whole series quite a bit, and there was so much hype about this book (it was ranked #1 at Amazon.com!) that I was very excited to get it.

This book’s title is something of a double meaning.  Dog days of summer, and also the animal itself (a dog features in several panels).  And so yes, the story takes place over Greg’s summer vacation.

The first half of the book I didn’t find quite as enjoyable as I wanted.  It’s not bad by any means, but a lot of the conflict from the other books is absent.  Because it’s summer, there’s no school conflict and for reasons that aren’t explained, Rodrick isn’t really in the story that much (maybe he’s on tour with Löded Diper) [which, yes, is still funny].  And Greg has a fight with Rowley, so they don’t speak for a while.

In many ways these are exciting developments because there’s a lot of newness in the storyline.  But, like a soft pillow, I missed my favorite conflicts! (more…)

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Bryan Lee O’Malley–Scott Pilgrim vs The Universe (vol. 5)

Posted in Adventure, Books about music, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Cibo Matto, Contests, Death, Drinking, Fantasy, Free Kitten, Funky Web Sites, Funny (strange), Graphic Novel, Ikue Mori, LGBTQ, Magic, Oni Press, Robots, Romance, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Sex, Sex Bob-omb, Short Books, Sonic Youth, Supernatural, Threats, Video Games, Violence, YA Books on August 28, 2009| Leave a Comment »

sp5SOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-SYR 5: Sonic Youth Featuring Kim Gordon/DJ Olive/Ikue Mori (2000).

syr5The fifth SYR disc is rather different from the others in that the only SY member is Kim.  This is a sort of side project for Kim, Ikue Mori and DJ Olive. They’ve played shows together as well.

This disc is also different because it features a number of short songs rather than a couple of long ones.  It also features a lot of different instrumentation: turntables, keyboards, that sort of thing.  Most of the tracks are instrumental (more or less) although a few have Kim’s vocals on it.  And Yuka Honda from Cibo Matto does vocals on one track.

Kim’s side projects (like Free Kitten) are usually pretty abrasive. She lets her freak flag fly with her vocals.  And that in a nutshell will determine whether you like this or not.  Kim is playing mostly guitar, so the other instruments tend to take over a bit.

It’s always interesting when SY mixes it up with another band or solo artist.  But it doesn’t really make it a SY record, proper.

Oh, and all of the writing on the disc is in Japanese.

[READ: August 25, 2009] Scott Pilgrim vs the Universe

There’s a new Scott Pilgrim website which lets us know that Volume 6 will be out in 2010.  I can’t wait that long!

This 5th volume seemed a bit different from the other four.  The lines were crisper, it seemed like Ramona looked a little bit different (her eyes were bigger or something) and overall, the volume was a lot darker (in tone).

Today is Scott’s 24th birthday (he’s now the same age as Ramona, yup he finally asked her).

But at a party Steven Stills tells Knives that Scott had cheated on Knives with Ramona and on Ramona with Knives (which wasn’t true exactly), which sets Knives off again.  She violently confronts Ramona and when she says why, Ramona gets pissed too.

At this same party, Ramona’s evil ex-boyfriends (the twins Kyle and Ken Katayanagi) show up.  Scott prepares to fight them, but they send their robot after him instead.  The fight continues downstairs while everyone pretty much goes to other rooms, kind of bored with the whole escapade.

We also see a bit of Ramona and Scott’s domestic life (Ramona runs errands all day and Scott does, well, nothing). (more…)

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Bryan Lee O’Malley–Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together (vol. 4)

Posted in Adventure, Books about music, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Death, Demons, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Graphic Novel, Legend of Zelda, LGBTQ, Oni Press, Romance, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Sex, Sex Bob-omb, Sonic Youth, Supernatural, Violence on August 27, 2009| 1 Comment »

vol 4SOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-Silver Session for Jason Knuth (1998).

silverThis record came about for two reasons. One was the suicide of longtime Sonic Youth fan (whom the band didn’t know) Jason Knuth.  And the second was because when they tried to record vocal tracks for One Thousand Leaves, the band upstairs was so loud, it kept interfering with their recording.

So, SY turned all of their amps all the way up, put all of their guitars and basses against said amps, turned on a boombox for feedback fun and then left the room.  They say it was so loud that even with hands pressed against their ears it was still too physically oppressive to be in the room.

The band recorded it all (of course) but rather than releasing it all like some kind of Metal Machine Music, they cut the tracks down into small chunks (“Silver Shirt” is 7 minutes long but most are about 4, with “Silver Son” and “Silver Breeze” being under 2).  They also somehow turned what sounds like a noisy disturbing mess into rather pretty ambient pieces.  (In honesty, I have to believe that the band was in the room with for some pieces, since some of “Silver Flower” seems to have strumming on it).  And “Silver Son” actually has a beat of sorts to it.

As with the other disc in the SYR series, these aren’t really songs. They’re not even what you think of as Sonic Youth, but they are interesting experiments (some are actually quite nice).  Not for everyone (heck, hardly for anyone) but if you’re intrigued, its worth checking out.

[READ: August 23, 2009] Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together

This volume mixes things up a bit for the series.  The cover is a wicked reflective style, and there are even 8 color pages at the beginning of the story (that work as a sort of catch up device).  I didn’t really like the color pages all that much to be honest. While it was nice to see that Ramona’s hair is blue, for the most part the color pages felt a bit more mechanical than the regular pages (the edges were crisper, which I didn’t really care for). But whatever, don’t complain about a free addition.

As for the story itself, it seems to up the ante in intensity. (more…)

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Bryan Lee O’Malley–Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness (vol. 3)

Posted in Adventure, Books about music, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Demons, Fantasy, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gastr del Sol, Graphic Novel, LGBTQ, Oni Press, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Sex, Sex Bob-omb, Short Books, Sonic Youth, Supernatural, Technology, Threats, Video Games, Violence on August 24, 2009| Leave a Comment »

vol3SOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-SYR 3: Invito Al Ĉielo (1998).

syr3This SYR release adds Jim O’Rourke to the mix (O’Rourke played with with them on A Thousand Leaves too).  I’ve always been aware of O’Rourke but I’ve never really listened to any of the bands that he’s been associated with (and there’s a lot).  So, I’m not sure what his actual contributions are, but he seems to be pushing the SY members into a much more noisy/abstract direction.  (A few samples of Gastr Del Sol shows them to be pretty out there, so perhaps pushing SY in a direction that was not too far from where they’d go on their own.  And, I rather liked the Gastr stuff, too).

The EP is nearly an hour with 2 songs over 20 minutes long.  And, the most fascinating parts come from the most unexpected places: Kim plays trupmet!  There’s keybaords!  And all of the text is in Esperanto.

This disc doesn’t diverge too much from the first two…it’s noisy and discordant and full of lots of experimentation.  There’s some good stuff on here, but there’s also a lot of it.

[READ August 9, 2009] Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness

Things get pretty intense in Vol 3 of this series.  We get an in-depth look ant Envy Adams, Scott’s first girlfriend and lead singer of The Clash at Demonhead.  TCaD have asked Scott’s band Sex Bob-omb to open for them, but there are clearly underlying reasons behind this.

One of them is that another of Ramona’s evil ex-boyfriends is the bassist in the band.  And, another more narratively interesting reason is to give a peek into Scott’s past.  We learn that Envy was a rather shy young girl, until she slowly grew out of her shell (and changed her name to Envy), and then became the extroverted lead singer.

Todd Ingram, the evil-ex is a vegan.  (more…)

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Bryan Lee O’Malley–Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (vol. 2)

Posted in Adventure, Books about music, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Fantasy, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Graphic Novel, Oni Press, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Sex, Short Books, Sonic Youth, Supernatural, Threats, Video Games, Violence, YA Books on August 21, 2009| Leave a Comment »

scott2SOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-SYR 2: Slaapkamers Met Slagroom (1997).

syr2The second SYR release is like the other side of the coin from SYR1.  The premise is the same, the players are the same, but the result is rather different.

The first track is nearly as long as the previous disc (17 + minutes) and it seems to run through a variety of song styles (including noise experiments) before settling down into a noisy improv.  The third track features the first “vocals” on these discs–rather unsettling sounds that Kim spits out.  (Online lyrics pages say that there are actual words here so I’ll take their word for it; I just like to think of them as vocal stylings).

While SYR1 was a smoother listen, this one is more jagged.  Not quite the noisefest they are capable of but not exactly easy listening either.

For this disc all of the titles, liner notes etc. are in Dutch.  (SYR1 was in French).  Each volume in the series is in a different language.

[READ: August 9, 2009] Scott Pilgrim Vs The World

The second volume of the series, (and the one the film is named after) continues the exciting saga of Scott Pilgrim and his band Sex Bob-omb.

This second volume introduces us to The Clash at Demonhead, the band that Scott’s ex-girlfriend took to stardom, after they kicked Scott out of the band, of course.

But before we get to the Knives Chu’s new favorite band,we learn about the origins of her former favorite band: Sex Bob-omb.  We see how Scott and Kim first met and why she acts so strangely around him.

But more importantly, plotwise, we get to meet Ramona’s second evil ex-boyfriend, Lucas Lee.  He is a broody actor who also just happens to be in Toronto filming a new picture.  And fight they do.

But they’re not the only ones who do battle in this volume.  There’s a rip-roaring battle scene between Knives and Ramona that takes place in the beautiful Toronto Reference Library.

But the book is more than fighting and music: there’s a cooking lesson for making vegan shepherd’s pie.  Veganism will loom large in Vol 3!   And there’s even more fun asides (with captions and comments about various characters) in this volume.  I especially enjoyed the ones that give the characters’ states of mind.

While the first volume was certainly fun, it feels like he is having even more fun with volume two.  It’s a very fun series, and the books are very fast reads (for better or worse…often worse.)

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Bryan Lee O’Malley–Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life (vol. 1)

Posted in Adventure, Books about music, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Fantasy, Graphic Novel, Oni Press, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Sex Bob-omb, Short Books, Sonic Youth, Supernatural, Threats, Video Games, Violence, YA Books on August 20, 2009| Leave a Comment »

pilgrimSOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH -SYR 1 Anagrama (1997).

syr1

After Washing Machine, Sonic Youth began recording a series of EPs (that gradually grew into longer discs) in which they explored their improvisation/longer piece needs.

And so SYR1 was released.

It contains for tracks and runs about 25 minute.  It’s not simply guitar feedback or waves of distortion.  Rather it is songs built around themes which are followed to their logical ends.

Thee EPs aren’t for everyone. There’s no lyrics, there’s no choruses.  It’s sort of like how the end of “The Diamond Sea” was a chance for SY to let loose and see what happened. I can’t even say that the songs and motifs are necessarily memorable (although I’m led to believe that some have cropped up on the proper albums).  I don’t listen to these a lot, but they are fun to put on from time to time, if you’re in an avant garde mood.

[READ August 9, 2009] Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life

I had read this book a few years ago.  But I had read it in bits and pieces over several weeks, and so I didn’t feel like I had a real grasp of the story.  This is especially true because the story begins simply enough and then turns into a wild hallucinogenic story that is very funny, very very funny, in fact, but also incredibly surreal.

When I was at BEA in New York this year I ran into the guy from Oni Press who told me that they are making a film of Scott Pilgrim, which is pretty fantastic.  I’m rather looking forward to seeing it.  But because there are so many interesting visual things going on in th graphic novel, I can’t help but wonder how they will transform them.  And also, Book 6 of this series may be written with a different ending from the film, so that should be fun, too.

But speaking of the visuals….

O’Malley’s style is utterly fascinating.  When I first started reading, I felt like the artwork was “sloppy” in that sort of stylized sloppiness that people take some time to achieve.  (I think mostly this is because of the character’s eyes.  They are a refined sort of manga but the pupils are so large that i found it disconcerting.)  But when reading it through this time, I realized not only is it not sloppy, it is meticulously designed in a very cool way.  Take Scott’s hair, which is commented about through the series.  I’m not going to go and spout on about how long he must have spent getting his hair just right, but clearly there was effort and planning in the length and style, even if it is primarily drawn with a  few broad triangles. (more…)

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Periodical: Wired

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Consumerism, Danger Mouse, Dark Night of the Soul, David Lynch, Esquire, Funky Web Sites, Guillermo del Toro, Hive, Oddities, Outer Space, Sci-fi, Slaughterhouse Five, Sparklehorse, Stephen Colbert, Technology, The Future, The Hobbit, Tiny Masters of Today, Video Games, Wired on July 26, 2009| Leave a Comment »

wiredMany many years ago (1995), while I was in Boston, I bought my first copy of Wired magazine (how could I forget the absurd cover to the right (yes, there IS a picture there) [And I’m very impressed that you can easily link to all of their back issues, just as I did with the link above].  I’m not sure how long it had been in print , but I think it was still young and buzzworthy. [Research shows that this was its 3rd year].  I remember thinking the magazine was very difficult to read.  Literally.  Text ran across pages, the colors were all wild.  The ads blurred completely with the content (by design).  And it was very “techie.”  I don’t remember if I subscribed exactly then, but I did subscribe eventually.  And then I stopped (sometime in 1999).

Recently I got an offer to re-subscribe, for a dollar an issue.  (This is where my idea that I will cancel a magazine once I stop getting a dollar’s worth from it).  I wasn’t sure if I should subscribe, but I figured what the hell.

Not a resounding chorus of cheers for this publication, huh?

Well, since I’ve subscribed I have been pleasantly surprised by the magazine.  And interestingly, the cover story almost never interests me.  In fact, and my brother in law Tim first pointed this out: the cover stories and the big articles take themselves very seriously.  Everything is always The Future Of This.  The New That.  Don’t Be Left Behind!  It’s over the top in its wanting you to take them seriously. (more…)

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Stephen O’Connor–“Ziggurat” (New Yorker, June 29, 2009)

Posted in Boredom, Fables, Funny (strange), Gods, Hüsker Dü, New Yorker, Short Story, Sonic Youth, Supernatural, The Cure, Video Games on July 20, 2009| Leave a Comment »

ny629SOUNDTRACK–SONIC YOUTH-Sonic Youth (1982).

syA new Sonic Youth disc (The Eternal) just came out which seemed like a perfect reason to go back and sift through their old discs as well.  And like Hüsker Dü, they were also on SST Records for a time.

This disc, their first, is possibly most notable for two things. One, their drummer (and this is the only disc of theirs that he appeared on) eventually became the parking attendant in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (“What country you think this is?”  “Relax…I’m a professional”) among other films.  And two: it is really not very noisy at all.

This disc falls into the No Wave camp, a style of music that I honestly don’t know very much about.  When I see lists of bands that are in this “genre” I sort of get it, and I even know a bunch of them, but I can’t ever say I sought it out.

I guess in many ways it’s not very Sonic Youth at all.  And yet for what it is, it’s quite good.  The minimalism is there.  (Except for the drums which are all over the place, including cool flourishes of tom toms!)  Kim’s bass rides pretty solidly throughout.  But the biggest difference is the guitars which don’t contribute waves of noise but rather occasional blasts of sound.  If anything it reminds me a lot of early Cure (like around Seventeen Seconds).

The guitars are very chimey, and I’ve read that the band is dissatisfied overall with the sound of the disc.  And yet despite that, it’s an interesting artifact.  Even if it isn’t a great Sonic Youth album, it’s a cool look at the alternative New York scene of the time.  And it’s cool to see the origins of this band.

I have just learned that it was reissued with all kinds of bonus material (I knew about the other back catalogue reissues on DGC but this one didn’t get the reissue back then).  The reissue has live tracks from around that time.  The samples indicate that the band played these songs a lot noisier live, but they don’t seem quite as chaotic as their next couple of releases..

[READ: July 8, 2009] “Ziggurat”

This was a weird little story that became even more surreal as it went along.

The story is set in the Labyrinth.  The Minotaur lives there and is currently lounging on a pool table in the game room. This Minotaur is not half bull, but is just a very large, very ugly creature.  He kills and eats anyone who comes near (whether as a sacrifice or as an attacker).

But now there’s a new girl.  She doesn’t flee.  She doesn’t even tremble, she simply plays a video game called Ziggurat (the object of which is to build a Tower of Babel before God can knock it over).  The Minotaur is dumbfounded by this behavior, so he lets her live.  Eventually, they start talking, and the Minotaur begins to feel emotions he didn’t think he had (guilt, longing). There’s also a very awkward and funny discussion about virgins. (more…)

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Periodical: Esquire

Posted in Authors, Barry Sonnenfeld, Books about music, Books about writers, Chuck Klosterman, Dudes, Esquire, Film & TV, Food, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Military, Music, Politicians, Religion, Sex, Short Story, Technology, Video Games, Violence on April 18, 2009| Leave a Comment »

esquireI don’t recall why I started getting Esquire. I think it was because I got some kind of discount magazine subscription card. And since Sarah gets lots of women’s magazines, I thought I’d try a men’s one.

I’ve been quite delighted with it since I subscribed. And one thing that I like about it is that I don’t feel compelled to read everything in it. I enjoy the letters, although my favorite part of the letters page is the “Context-free highlight from a letter we won’t be running” which always contains a random sentence or two from a letter. This sentence is always weird and it’s awesome to imagine what the rest of the letter contained. An example: “Our prime minister is pretty harmless, but he licks his lips a lot when he speaks.”

As the Man at His Best section starts, I enjoy “The Vocabulary” which defines the words they will introducing in the section. And of course this section has The Rules, a randomly selected number assigned to a rule that should be followed. Example: “Rule No. 815: Of the clocks in the house, the coffeemaker is the least likley to be accurate.”

This section also contains the usual line-up of media reviews: books, music, film and TV. These are all short and sometimes I agree and sometimes I don’t, and that’s fine. Usually the books and movies they like are too “butch” for my taste, and that’s a general note about the magazine that I’ll get to shortly.  But the music section tends to introduce me to stuff I don’t already know.

There’s also stuff about food and drink, and I always want to try the food advice, because it’s mostly about foods I try to make, but I never save the pages so I always forget the clever suggestions. (more…)

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