Caught In The Whirlwind
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Decisions, Decisions…
Feb 2nd 2010
It’s that time of year again…tax time. Well, it’s past tax time as I’ve turned in my taxes and now I have my fat refund sitting in my account. I’m kinda torn as to what to do with it this year though.
The most responsible course, probably, would be to save it for future class expenses and the trips that are being planned later this year. This is boring, of course…but…safe.
The second option I’m considering is slightly more frivolous, but not totally wasteful. I’m thinking about picking up an entry level DSLR camera. I will fully admit that this course of action has been influenced by seeing Wassy’s new Nikon D60. But I’ve been getting more and more interested in photography as my experiments in graphic design become more and more involved. I also have to take a couple of photography heavy courses (one of which I’m taking now…which would be Digital Imaging). And after seeing Wassy’s new toy, the limitations of my little point and shoot are becoming readily apparent. I think it’d be a nice compliment to my current set of hobbies to get more into actual photography.
I hesitate though, because it’s a crapton of money spent. Probably a little more than half of my refund this year, to be exact, and I could be saving that money up now for stuff that I know is coming.
Decisions…decisions…
Ok World. Lets Have A Chat About Avatar
Jan 25th 2010
So, over the weekend my friends and I went out to Rochester to see Avatar in IMAX 3D. Note if you have not seen Avatar this post will contain spoilers. So, yeah.
Anyway, I had heard a lot about it (as was inevitable with a movie of this size being released) and the general consensus was that it was a visually stunning movie, with a story that you’ve seen before but that was pretty good anyway. I entered the theater with fairly low expectations (I’m big on story) and left feeling…conflicted.
Lets get the good stuff out of the way first. Visually, the movie is amazing. The CGI is great to the point of it not feeling like CGI. They’ve found a way to solve the “creepy dead eyes” look that CG creatures have had in the past. The world was cool, the concept of a race of people able to link up with every living thing in the forest/jungle/whatever was interesting. This movie should win awards for Visual FX, hands down. Sound, music, editing, all that it definitely deserves awards.
Where it breaks down, though…is in everything else. First of all, lets get the story out of the way. When people say it’s fairly generic, believe them. You have seen this movie before. It’s a composite of every “white man integrates with native people and gets the girl” movie ever made. You’ve got the evil earth corporation who knows what’s best for everybody, the simple native people in tune with nature, the white man who integrates with their society and finds his true love, the fight to save the planet against the marauding human horde. There’s nothing at all original in here.
Even worse than the generic story is the generic characters. The biggest offender is the tough as nails older military commander guy, spouting such lines as “I want this high and tight people. I wanna be home for supper” and “My job is to keep you alive. I will not succeed.” The second biggest would be the hard-ass chief scientist lady, who becomes outraged with any interference by the military in her operation. Or the female badass soldier who decides beating up on the natives isn’t morally right. The corporate manager who only cares about profits. I could keep going on and on. EVERY single character is a stereotype, with absolutely no character development at all.
The story doesn’t even make sense! Humans take control of genetically engineered native-life form impersonators. The natives seem to know what these things are and yet in a span of 3 months they teach this one guy their ways and he becomes like a totally native guy. 3 months? That’s it?? Knowing that he’s a human somewhere controlling an empty body??? And then the humans come to take over, they throw this guy out of their society, but he instantly regains their trust by capturing a gigantic bird thing. No questions asked. He just shows up again and instantly becomes the battle commander. His presence, apparently , suddenly means that the native’s bows and arrows can now shoot through the glass cockpit canopies of the human military ships (even though they couldn’t at an earlier point in the movie). Just..arhhghh!
Also: Unobtanium. Seriously? You couldn’t think of a better name???
I think I would have enjoyed the movie a lot more if it weren’t for two things: First, all of the people out there saying it’s the best movie ever!! I don’t really understand that viewpoint at all. It’s pretty, but it’s relatively empty. Second, it tried to pretend that it WASN’T empty. If this was billed in the same way as, say…Independence Day was…popcorn movie, lots of action and explosions, fun ride for the whole family sort of thing, I’d be less critical of it. Instead it tried so very hard to portray itself as a serious movie, an idea that is totally undermined by the comical character stereotypes.
I don’t regret seeing it at all. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t really enjoy it either.
NY Comic Con Bound?
Jan 20th 2010
Yeah, I know it’s been another couple days since I’ve posted…but the biggest news is that my friends and I are making plans to attend the New York Comic Con in New York City at the end of this year. Which is good, because I need to use that time to save up enough money to go…which is going to be difficult. A couple of people we know from playing City of Heroes are going and we’re planning on meeting up with them and checking out the con. Quite excited to be going into New York City finally, considering we’re only about 4 hours away.
Engaging in “saving pennies mode”.
Most of my free time at the moment has been suddenly taking up by actually entering into the City of Heroes FArt competition that I mentioned earlier. I somehow actually came up with a pretty good idea for a mock web page for this month’s theme, but the deadline is Friday so I need to work my butt off to make it happen. So far, so good, but I’m getting stuck on some of the more artsy type stuff again. That always seems to be my hangup. I know what I want it to look like in my head but it’s not coming out correctly when I try to put it down. All I need to do is turn in something to be qualified for next month’s theme, but I want to make something good too. We’ll see how well it cooperates over the next couple days.
Also, I think I’m going to be starting up the 50 in 365 thing again, now that I’ve got my Kindle. I’ve had it for less than a month and I’ve already downed roughly 5 books. I think it’d be cool to keep a journal of what I’m reading (and give me an excuse to keep posting). We’ll see.
Woah. Has It Been That Long?
Jan 14th 2010
Well, I’ve finally worked up the ambition to post something! I’ve been busy with various things and sidetracked by situations for the past couple weeks and generally haven’t felt much like writing here. But I don’t want to abandon this place entirely, so I figure I should fill in the gap with a general summary.
My last post was on Christmas so let me start there. Aside from Wassy’s awesome Frost art gift (which I love and is now being displayed in the living room), my parents gifted me an Amazon Kindle 2. So far I’ve finished reading the Lord of The Rings trilogy (Started with the paper book and switched to eBook a couple of chapters into The Two Towers), Down and Out In The Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow for the Sword and Laser book club, and I’ve started working my way through the Xanth books again. The kindle is not without it’s issues, but I’m enjoying it a lot. My biggest gripe is the screen contrast could be a bit better.
Lets see here. Oh! My dad now has an XBox 360 and We both have copies of Madden NFL 10 so that we can resume playing our weekly football games. We played once a couple weeks ago to test to see how the online franchise mode would work and it seems like we can deal with it’s little quirks, but we haven’t had a chance to play again yet, due to me being busy friday night’s for a while and the actuall NFL playoffs starting up. Hopefully we can get a game going next week.
Other than that I’ve been mostly hanging out and relaxing a bit. A little too much actually, as I’ve let my experimentations in graphic design stuff kinda fall to the wayside over the past couple weeks. But I’m getting back into the swing of things now. Over my vacation at the end of 2009, I worked up a page for the City of Heroes Forum Art Competition that Wassy is in charge of this year. Nothing special, but I think it turned out pretty good. I was experimenting with using a grid system when setting it up which was a bit…odd for me at first, but I think I managed to get the hang of it.
I also came up with an idea for my personal site which could work, but required that I draw up a penguin logo that was kinda blocky, like an old sprite from a video game. I’m fairly happy with the result (See to the right) and I’ll be headed full steam ahead on the rest of the design in hopes that I can complete it before I decide I hate it again. I’m also working on and off with my mom’s store type website but I’m stuck on that…again. Not certain if what I have going on feels right for the content. I really want to get something finished for her though.
As far as school goes, I’m in for another class this semester. This time it’s a course focusing on Photoshop. After this one I’ll be down mostly to classes which I have to take during the day (all the core design classes) so I’m not sure what’s going to happen. I suppose I’ll have to try to modify my work schedule but I’m really not sure how receptive management will be to that as we get busier. I’ll probably post more about that particular issue later as I have a lot more to say about it.
In other news, we have a new toy around the apartment. Wassy recently picked up a Nikon D60 camera which she’s allowed me to play around with. I’ve been trying to take some better pictures of my Fish, along with other things if I can think up a good picture I’d like to take. I’d love to get into photography but the equipment is just so freaking expensive…
Anyway, here’s the best picture I took of my newest fish:
Not bad at all I’d say. It came out a little too blue and I couldn’t quite get all the blue out without making the rest look funky, so that’s the best I can do. In conclusion, I want one of these cameras. I need to think up some more arty type photos to try out.
Merry Christmas!
Dec 25th 2009
Today is Christmas, which is a flurry of activity and meeting with friends and family for most, but for me it’s an eye in the storm of the holiday season.
Yesterday I went over to my parents for my immediate family’s christmas gathering as well as a party for bits of my mom’s side of the family. It was a lot of fun. Much hanging out and lots of playing of the traditional holiday games of pitch. All the while Wassy was tormenting me with text messages about the coloring of the christmas-themed Frost piece she was working on. Evil!
Anyway, I’ll try to have a full review of the proceedings up at some point soonish (hopefully, I know I’ve said such things previously…) but I just wanted to take a moment to show off what Wassy was working on as it’s quite awesome:
Let It Snow
It’s cropped a little strangely due to the size of her scanner (also why the black line appears towards the bottom) but you should be able to get the idea. She’s awesome, and I just want to say again how thankful I am that she took the time to do this for me yesterday. It captures the winter feeling nicely and I love Frost’s facial expression and pose, and the bits of holly in her belt and hair.
It’s one of my favorite gifts. Now to figure out where best to display this piece…
Merry Christmas Eve!
Dec 24th 2009
Ahhh…finally. It’s Christmas Eve and my vacation has begun. I won’t be back to work (unless something explodes) until January 4th, so needless to say yesterday time was standing still. But it’s finally arrived. Vacation. Wooo!
The next several days are going to be consumed with family type stuff. I’m going over to my parents today for out main Christmas celebration as well as the (semi) gathering for my mom’s side of the family, then back there tomorrow more for hanging out purposes. Then I’m headed off to my aunts house for the gathering for my dad’s side of the family on Saturday.
Today’s going to feel looooong as well, because Wassy should be finishing up the Christmas-themed Frost piece at some point which I will be unable to see until this evening when I return home from my parents house. She did the inks last night and it’s turning out amazing, so I can’t wait to see colors.
But al that must wait until later, I’m off to get ready to visit my parents. To all 4 of you who read this, I hope you have a happy holiday.
Top Albums of 2009
Dec 23rd 2009
Traditionally, this is the time of year where I pick my favorite musical releases of the past 365 days (366 on leap years). This year will be no exception. And…man was this year a gigantic change from last year. Whereas 2008 was kinda slow for music, 2009 was a flood, especially the second half of the year. Quality release after Quality release just kept right on coming.
So without further delay, lets get right into it:
#1 – Transatlantic – The Whirlwind
Transatlantic - The Whirlwind
My number 1 this year is one of my most anticipated albums of all time, which is a followup to my absolute favorite album of all time (Bridge Across Forever). After spending most of the decade on hiatus after Neal Morse turned his energies to writing christian inspired music full time, The members of Transatlantic got back together and came right out swinging again with The Whirlwind.
It’s not nearly as good as Bridge Across Forever, and the sound has progressed from what it used to be, but honestly so have the members of the band. The lyrics, too, have evolved, from being simply spiritual to actually having some religious overtones. I don’t find that distracting enough to count it as a knock on the wonderfuly constructed musical content of this album.
The best parts are when the guys just seem to jam. There isn’t a band out there that has the writing chemistry that this guys do. the 77 minute title track feels cohesive, with themes introduced in the Overture coming back again and again through the song.
Transatlantic is back in busniess and I’m immensely excited to be seeing them live in April.
#2 – Dream Theater – Black Clouds & Silver Linings
Dream Theater - Black Clouds & Silver Linings
If you asked me at the beginning of the year whether the upcoming Dream Theater album was going to be making my top list this year, I would have been doubtful after 2007′s Systematic Chaos fell (very) flat. After it was released though…wow. I was taken totally by surprise, often randomly saying to Wassy things like “Man, I can’t believe the new DT album is so good!”. It was my surefire number 1 until Transatlantic came out.
What we have here is a continuation of the sound of Systematic Chaos but with the missing elements of the Dream Theater sound and, more importantly, song structure added back in. John Petrucci owns this album with his solos, especially The Best Of Times. And Jordan Ruddess, prone to overplaying, reins himself in and plays for the song, not to see how many notes he can squeeze into a bar of music.
That’s not to say the album isn’t technical. It is. But it’s renewed focus on song structure and melody are what makes it work 1000x better than Systematic Chaos did. The only song that falls flat for me is Wither, which just sounds like a dated power-ballad. The Piano version is much better.
I want to specifically mention The Best Of Times which is a song written by Mike Portnoy as a tribute to his father who has recently passed away. Just hearing it for the first time gave me chills (and I even teared up towards the end). The epic guitar solo is one of the best solos I’ve ever heard. Ever. There’s so much emotion and feeling that was poured into the song and it really shows.
#3 – Muse – The Resistance
Muse - The Resistance
This album was a sleeper for me. Released the same day as the latest Porcupine Tree release, I expected it to get passed by as I spent most of my time with The Incident. However…that’s not how it turned out at all.
I loved it on first listen, and every listen after that caused it to grown on me even more. I find it very interesting that Muse is a mainstream band, and yet their sound (especially on this album) has so many progressive rock elements to it. They’re geniuses. They’ve managed to trick the mainstream into listening to prog!
Muse wears their influences on their sleeves on The Resistance, inspired by bands such as U2 and Queen. But instead of a straight up copying of their influences sound, they take it and add to it something that’s uniquely Muse. The United States of Eurasia is clearly Queen inspired, but it’s also very Muse like.
Also they’re not afraid to throw even classical influences into the mix, including the likes of Chopin. Not to mention the Exogenisis Symphony that closes the album. The entire thing feels like it’s Muse sticking it to the entirety of mainstream music, and they’re being embraced for it.
#4 – Long Distance Calling – Avoid The Light
Long Distance Calling - Avoid The Light
This album was also a bit of a surprise for me. I’m not normally one for purely instrumental music as I feel a lot of the time the song structure isn’t interesting enough to really differentiate one song from another. But on a tip from the members of Mike Portnoy.com forums, I went and checked this band out.
What I found was quality instrumental progressive rock, with definite song structure and pacing. They understand how to build a song up from the beginning to a climax and make it interesting. Furthermore, the drumming is really good, probably my favorite part of the album.
It’s not entirely instrumental though, as there’s one song with lyrics which is also enjoyable. The vocalist sounds a lot like the guy from Katatonia, actually.
My only complaint is that it’s a very short album, but I’ll take quality over quantity any day. If you’re a fan of instrumental rock, you own it to yourself to check out these guys.
#5 – Redemption – Snowfall on Judgement Day
Redemption - Snowfall on Judgment Day
Redemption was one of my discoveries from 2007 after seeing them open for Dream Theater in Buffalo, NY. I’ve had my eye on them since. These guys are a progressive metal band fronted by Fate’s Warning’s Ray Alder, backed up by a quality group of players. I really like Ray’s vocals on these releases as I think this type of music fits his style more than Fate’s Warning.
Anyway, this particular release is nothing really new or pushing the boundaries of the genre or even their previous releases. What it is, though, is a rock solid progressive metal album in a genre full of dream theater wanna-be’s who are very much not putting out interesting or quality music. Redemption clearly is influenced by the giants in the Prog Metal field, but they put their own spin on it and make it their own. This album also features some excellent lyrics, another thing that’s hard to find in the Prog Metal genre.
Throw in a track featuring a Duet with James LaBrie of Dream Theater and you’ve got a great album. Don’t mistake me when I say it’s nothing new. It’s still quality material.
Other Releases
- Porcupine Tree – The Incident
A solid, if disappointing release from PT. It clicked after seeing it live, but I need to be in a certain frame of mind to really listen to it. - Epica – Design Your Universe
A little too reliant on the growling, but this is one of Epica’s strongest releases Musically yet. - 3 – Revisions
A collection of redone and re-recorded songs from 3′s past, this release is good, but not great. The new version of The Game is a bit dissapointing, but I’m really happy with the rest of the songs. - Jordan Ruddess – Notes on A Dream
Jordan records his own piano versions of several Dream Theater songs. I like his focus on the songs that pre-dated his joining the band. His versions of Another Day and Hollow Years are stellar. I love having this on in the background. - OSI – Blood
The weakest of the OSI releases. Just didn’t grab me like the other ones, but it’s got some good songs too it. I think they tried to be a little TOO heavy and that’s not where OSI shines. The best parts are the more ambient songs like Terminal and Radiologue. - Umphrey’s McGee – Mantis
Part prog, part jam band release. This group was one of my new discoveries this year. Very nice for when I’m in the right mood. Some songs lose me a bit, but the first half of the album is very good. - Riverside – Anno Domini High Definition
An album that’s a lot less dark than their previous efforts. Some good stuff here, but it doesn’t quite capture the magic of Second Life Syndrome. Feels a little too short too. - Trans-Siberian Orchestra – Night Castle
The instrumental parts are awesome. The lyrical songs are terribly, terribly generic. Lots of filler here. Somebody needs to make a TSO lyric generator. It’d be pretty easy. Just throw in lots of children, dreams and people singing “on this night” - Scale The Summit – Carving Desert Canyons
This one is good in small doses, but all of their songs sound very similar after a while.
Honorable Mention
Bigelf – Cheat The Gallows was an album that was released last year, but one which I discovered this year. Take The Beatles, Pink Floyd and a liberal dose of evil and throw them in a blender and you get Bigelf. Really cool retro sounding music with a modern twist. Go see them live for full effect…the studio recordings just don’t capture them adequately.
Weekend Before Christmas
Dec 21st 2009
Time to report on my doings over the weekend.
My Christmas shopping is now completed. I took Friday off from work and this ended up being a good decision since I needed to venture out to the stores to finish off my shopping stuff. But it is now completed and ready for our family gathering on Thursday (we do present stuff on Christmas Eve now since my sister is busy pretty much all day christmas)
Friday evening was quite a fun experience in City of Heroes. I joined up with Wassy and some of the folks that inhabit the Fan Art section of the City of Heroes forums for an evening of hanging out and chatting. It was really fun. Great conversation with everybody and I hope I get the chance to do that again at some point in the future. I was a bit apprehensive about fitting in since I’m more an outsider to that particular group of people but it was a really fun experience.
Speaking of art, Wassy has been working on the Christmas themed Frost piece for me over the past couple days. I’ve been trying to be good about not looking because I want to be surprised, but she gave me a peek yesterday and her current progress is extremely promising. I can’t want to see the final version. My levels of anticipation for this gift are high. I’m looking forward to it as much, if not even more than spending time with my family this week. I really, really appreciate it when she takes time out of her (now incredibly busy) schedule to do something for me.
Onwards to my other activities. I actually finished working on a web site design! After floundering around a months after finishing Wassy’s site, I was able to actually put another one through to completion, which was a website to host the City of Heroes Fan Art Forum art competition that she’s hosting next year. I need to have it done by January, so it’s a good thing I got it all set now. Eddy Swan (from the art forum, we’ve been chatting since we played the game together on friday night) helped out a bunch with a logo concept which was a big part of what the design was missing.
So now, to start working through the longest three days of work of the year before my huge vacation begins…
Transatlantic. Live. Wooo!
Dec 16th 2009
The day I had been dreading/looking forward to has arrived. Transatlantic tour dates have been announced! I knew they would play New York City but I was worried that would be the only north east location they were going to be playing since it’s a fairly expensive trip there.
But they’re playing the Theater of Living Arts in Philadelphia too! Located just south of the historical district (like, within walking distance of everything). The show is on a Saturday (April 24th 2010), so I can get down there and get back without losing any time at work.
Now I just need to work out the small details, like figuring out the parking situation and where I’m going to shack up for the night…
I’m so glad I’m able to go to this show. This tour with this group of guys has a really good chance of never happening again, ever. Although I hope that’s not the case.
5 Day Update
Dec 14th 2009
Woah, it seems I haven’t posted here in a couple days. Eeep.
So, time to catch up. First up, I got my bonus money on Thursday and it ended up being a bit more than I was anticipating it would be. So I went out searching for a new desk chair for my office. At Staples, after selecting the chair I wanted, purchasing it and getting it home…it ended up not being the chair I picked. However, after sitting it it…it ended up being more comfy than the chair I was interested in to begin with, so…a happy accident. I ended up with the Tillman Leather Executive Chair. It’s very comfy.
Friday was the official last day of the semester, so my friends and I celebrated by heading out to Tom Cavallo’s for their excellent chicken wings and the fact that they have Newcastle on tap for a bit of a celebratory dinner. Their wings are…out of this world. Their pizza is pretty bad, but they totally make up for it with the wings.
This weekend, aside from getting myself a haircut, I spent the time mostly relaxing due to the stressful work week that I had last week. Urgh. Basically if something could have gone wrong, it did.
I’m getting more interested in playing City of Heroes again after a discussion with Wassy where we figured out really neat story arc idea involving 2 of my characters and one of hers. We need to wait for the expansion pack to come out (sometime next year hopefully) in order to fully explore it, but it’s gotten me back interested in the characters again. I’m currently compiling a sort of story bible on my main characters in an attempt to define them better and work on some backstory stuff that I might be able to turn into in game story arcs.
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