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Caught In The Whirlwind
Pretty Quiet
0924 days
by Jason
in Uncategorized
I haven’t been posting much over the past week because I really haven’t had that much to say. Just been going along…not much in the way of out of the ordinary happenings. I’ve started working on my final project for my Digital Typography course which is going to take up significant chunks of time considering how complex it ended up being. I’ve tried working on my various website design projects that I have going without much real progress to speak of. I feel kinda like I’m in a bit of a rut on that front. Hopefully I can snap out of it.
I’ve been thinking recently about maybe getting back into playing Battletech a bit. For those not in the know (which is probably everybody…not really a hugely popular game) Battletech is a sci-fi tactical pen and paper wargame involving, chiefly, gigantic piloted robots who shoot each other up. I used to play a lot about 10 years ago, but I lost track of the game and the people I played with. I used to hang out on this IRC chat server with a bunch of folks who played the game online since really nobody in my area plays so I’m a bit short on people to actually play with.
But I’ve picked up the novels again and I’ve started feeling the old urge to get back in and play a few games. I’m just glad I never sold off any of my books, maps or playing materials in the years since I last played. I knew I’d get back to it eventually.
Other than that, it’s been all quiet.
Caught In The Whirlwind
5932 days
by Jason
in Uncategorized
Transatlantic - The Whirlwind
As I mentioned, my most anticipated musical release of the year has arrived in my hands as of last week. And since then I’ve had the time to dig in and digest it a bit, so now it’s time to review.
If you’ve missed all of my previous postings on Transatlantic, let me describe the group a bit. They’re a progressive rock super group consisting of Mike Portnoy from Dream Theater on drums, Neal Morse ( Ex-Spock’s Beard) on keyboards and most of the vocals, Roine Stolt from The Flower Kings on guitar and the rest of the vocals and Pete Trewavas from Marillion on bass. Their music is in the classic era progressive rock sound, like from the 70s when prog was starting to really pick up steam. But it’s very modern as well. They’re influenced greatly by early Genesis, Yes, and The Beatles among others.
So after an 8 year gap between albums, does Transatlantic still have it? My answer is: Yes! As soon as I started listening to the album for the first time I got a grin on my face that didn’t go away for quite a while. The overall sound is a bit different, but the guys are in different places musically now than they were 8 years ago so a shift is to be expected. The writing chemstry is still in place and that’s what really counts.
The album is basically one giant 77 minute song. And as opposed to the most recent album in my collection that tried this approach (Porcupine Tree’s – The Incident), The Whirlwind succeeds in making it feel like a single piece instead of songs strung together with some transition bits thrown in. Recurring lyrics and musical themes weave through the piece and tie everything together.
The fact that all 4 of them were excited to be back together and producing music shines through clearly in the playing and musical composition. Of special note are Pete Trewavas’s bass lines in this album. He’s always been an exceptional bass player, but he’s outdone himself on this release. I don’t usually sit there and listen to the bass specifically in a song, but here I often find myself mesmerized.
My only complaint with the album revolves around the lyrics. While generally really good, Neal Morse’s dive into overtly Christian/religious music after he left Spock’s Beard has left it’s mark here as well. In a few spots, I find the lyrics to be slightly uncomfortably preachy and what was once spiritual overtones that were subtle in the past albums became much more distinct here. It doesn’t detract much from the album for me, but it’s there and it’s something I could really have done without.
The production and mix are perfect. No loudness war crap everything sounds amazing. Even Mike and Pete’s vocals which can be shaky at times are really impressive here.
Is it better than Bridge Across Forever? Well…no. But Bridge Across Forever is, as far as I’m concerned absolutely perfect in every way. Be that as it may, Transatlantic is back and The Whirlwind is a worthy addition to their musical legacy. This is probably my #1 album of the year, in a year with some incredible albums.
I Survived The Flu
0935 days
by Jason
in Uncategorized
Ugh. Yeah, it’s been a while since I posted but I have a good reason for that. If you’ve looked at my twitter feed at all for the past week or so you’ll have noticed I’ve been sick with the flu.
It came on Saturday (although I didn’t realize it at the time) in the form of a particularly bad cough. I still went out with my friends to check out one of the haunted houses in the area and afterwords to go see Paranormal Activity in the theater. But I’ll split that out into a seperate post as I try to catch up here.
Sunday I was out. I woke up early with a slight fever and decided to just go back to bed. After sleeping until around 10:45, I woke up again and made myself breakfast, at which point I went back to bed again. I woke up around 3 with a fever of roughly 102 so I decided I’d drag myself to the doctor to see about getting some anti-virals or something because I tend to get hit pretty hard when the flu comes knocking (when I catch it. I usually don’t get it at all). After a couple hours of waiting in the waiting room at Urgent Care with a demon child named “Anthony” running around and screaming, I was brought in and given some Tamiflu.
Monday, I was feeling better, but still had a fever. The fever was gone by Tuesday though thankfully and I went back to work Wednesday.
Of course now I have my fun lingering cough situation that always happens to me after I get sick. I’m going to be coughing for weeks now…it’s horrible…
I’m also feeling a bit…laggy. I’m operating a bit slower than usual and I’m pretty tired despite having a full nights sleep last night. Hopefully it goes away.
Just a couple of smaller updates: I did get the new Transatlantic album on Monday (look for a post about that later too) and also the new Trans-Siberian Orchestra album which I’ll probably talk about in my transatlantic post.
On The Edge
0942 days
by Jason
in Uncategorized
It just hit me that I’m anywhere from a few short hours to a few short days away from holding in my hands my most anticipated musical release of the year, Transatlantic new album, The Whirlwind.
Hopping into the way back machine here, to September 2002. At this point, I was already on my way with the Progressive Rock/Metal conversion and I was eagerly branching out from Dream Theater into other bands such as Spock’s Beard and Symphony X. I was going through and checking out some of the side projects that the bands were involved in and came across Transatlantic’s album Bridge Across Forever. I instantly fell in love.
Transatlantic is a Progressive Rock super group, featuring Mike Portnoy from Dream Theater, Neal Morse from (at the time) Spock’s Beard, Roine Stolte from The Flower Kings and Pete Trewavas from Marillion. Their music is hard to explain. It’s very complex progressive rock, with heavy beatles influences (not surprising since all 4 members are HUGE beatles fans), with bits of Spock’s Beard and The Flower Kings and Marillion thrown in there for good measure too.
Bridge Across Forever quickly became one of, if not my absolute, favorite albums in the history of all times. I still spin it regularly and every note of every (long, long) song has been burned into my brain. After buying their first album, I became anxious to hear more new stuff. That wasn’t to be though.
Fast forward one month, and in October of 2002, it was announced that Neal Morse had become a Born Again Christian and was, at the direction of God, quitting both Spock’s Beard and Transatlantic to focus on more religiously influenced music. Spock’s Beard continued onward, although changed signifigantly as Neal was the driving force in their music. I’d go so far as to put him up in the list of Musical Geniuses along with Steven Wilson. Transatlantic, however, couldn’t continue without him. He was just too big a part of the band and the guys felt it would be weird to continue without his input. I had just discovered Transatlantic, and just like that…it was no more.
As the years went on, I continued listening to the roughly 2 hours of music that they produced. For the past couple years there’s been some rumblings of a potential Transatlantic reunion but I wasn’t holding my breath. Last year, 3 of the 4 members of Transatlantic played together at a prog festival, sparking more rumors of a reunion. Then, in April 2009, Pete Trewavas was spotted in an airport in Montreal headed to Nashville (where Neal Morse lives) and the rumors started flying even more.
Then the album was announced for real. Almost 8 years after their last release and 7 since I had known about them, Transatlantic was back together and recording a new album. And people who preordered the album have started getting it in the mail today.
So needless to say, I’m on the edge of my seat waiting for my copy to arrive. Soooooon!!!
New Fish Addition
0943 days
by Jason
in Uncategorized
Behold, my new fish addition!
New Fish
This is my new Powder Blue Platinum Dwarf Gourami (long name though…). He’s replacing my Blue (three spot) gourami that died a couple days ago.
At the moment he’s hiding. I scared the crap out of him when I was trying to get him into the tank.I’m hoping he stops hanging out at the bottom of the tank and spends more time in the upper regions once he gets used to the situation.
Needle Roadblock (With Bonus Fish Update)
0945 days
by Jason
in Uncategorized
I realized that I never mentioned how my plans for a productive weekend went with all the fish drama that happened.
Well, I got a little stuck working on my Mom’s website, trying to make a sewing needle in Adobe Illustrator. Specifically, I ended up fighting the program when it came to gradients. I was trying to make it look less flat and I can’t put a standard gradient on it because it doesn’t conform to the shape of the needle and looks stupid. So I played around with blends which, while cool aren’t working for what I need it to work for and then I moved over to seeing if I could do it with a gradient mesh, but that just got overly complicated really quickly.
So once I got to the point of frustration I decided to give it a rest and do some quick thumbnail sketching for a new personal site design/blog layout. That particular effort was fairly productive, but I haven’t gotten much done beyond that stage.
Mostly it was running around on fish related errands.
Speaking of Fish, my betta has apparently stopped eating as of yesterday. I decided that it might be some sort of bacterial infection and grabbed some anti-bacterial stuff for him, so hopefully something helps. After I put that in he was a lot more active for a short period of time, but returned to sulking in the corner after a while.
I’m working up ideas on how I want to restock my 20 gallon tank now with the loss of my blue gourami. I think I’ll replace her with a slightly smaller fish in order to have more room for another school of…something. Haven’t determined that quite yet. But I’m hoping to purchase the replacement on my way home from work tomorrow whatever that might end up being. I’m still considering.
Sick Fish Weekend
0946 days
by Jason
in Uncategorized
I’ve had a bit of a rocky weekend when it comes to Fish care.
First, my betta (Fish). Fish had been very lethargic and depressed for a while, mostly sulking in his tank. I think he may possibly have velvet, but we’ll see if that’s the issue. Anyway, I decided it was about time that I should grab some medication to help him out. No change so far, but I’m going to give it some time. If you’re unfamiliar with fish diseases, Velvet is a parasite that attaches to the outside of the fish. After a period of time the attached parasite bursts and deposits spores to grow new parasites. And then these new ones swim around looking for fish to attach to. You can only kill it when it’s floating around in the water, so it’s not an instant improvement type of med.
Additionally, Saturday, after the lights came on in my 20 gallon fish tank, I noticed that my Blue Gourami had developed what looked like a fungal infection. But after doing some more research, I determined that it might actually be a bacterial disease that looks like a fungus.
Unfortunately, despite my best attempts at curing the fish, she died sometime last night. Boo.
Hopefully Fish makes it through ok.
Post Cold Update
0949 days
by Jason
in Uncategorized
Time for an update. I’m still working on getting over the cold I contracted earlier in the week. It’s been pretty mild except for Wednesday where I had to call in to work on account of being very tired and a little dizzy. It was one of those colds that just went straight to your head. Thankfully the cough situation has been mild, but knowing me, I’ll probably have a lingering cough for a few weeks. It’s how I operate.
Speaking of Wednesday, that was the day the apartment complex maintenance guys decided to actually do some maintenance. On the roof. Above my bedroom. And then when that was done, the punk kid who lives across the hall (but our bedrooms share a wall) apparently discovered techno music which he enjoyed playing ridiculously loud with the bass turned way up. People really need to understand the physics of sound and subwoofers when they move into an apartment…
So needless to say, my day of rest wasn’t so restful. But despite it all, I’m feeling better and want to actually be productive this weekend. I haven’t done much non-class graphic design stuff in a little while, so I want to get back to working on my mom’s website and trying to finish that design this weekend. I also really want to do a theme for this blog/my personal website at some point to make it look less…generic. Maybe I can poke at that a bit this weekend too.
Speaking of school, things are going well there. I can’t believe it’s roughly halfway through the semester right now. Time’s been flying by and I’ve been busy working on my projects. We’re recreating one page articles now from magazines and I found a review of Dream Theater’s latest album in my Classic Rock Presents Prog magazine. It looked fairly simple when I chose it, but it ended up being…complicated. Lots of images and text boxes and lines that I had to spec out and measure. I’m about ready to start working with it on the computer though. Making some good progress and my grades are good as well.
Looking forward to a (hopefully) productive weekend.
The Season Starts.
0952 days
by Jason
in Uncategorized
Cold season that is. Urgh. I’m feeling pretty crappy, but I’m at work today anyway since I have some stuff I have to do. And I’m saving my sick day in case I feel absolutely horrible tomorrow. For now, I bide my time until the Pharmacy opens.
I figured I’d be sick this week after both my friends and roommates came down with a cold over the weekend. At least it happened after the wine country trip.
27 minutes until I can get some Sudafed…
A Good Day
0954 days
by Jason
in Uncategorized
Bully Hill
Ahh… I REALLY needed that. Despite all of the illnesses starting to fly around in our apartment here, my friends and I managed to get out to the Wine Country for the day yesterday. And man, was it awesome.
The particular wine country region we visited was around Keuka Lake. Although we only visited one of the wineries on the trail this time around. My friends went up for a little getaway in the summer and upon hearing how awesome it was out there (and that Bully Hill is one of my favorite wineries) we determined that we would have to go out as a group to explore a bit.
We seemed to pick the perfect weekend to go. The area was beautiful (look below for pictures) with the fall leaves in the valley with the lake situated at the bottom. Of course that also meant there were a lot of people around, but it really was worth waiting.
The directions to Bully Hill that the winery provided (the GPS is really fruity in the area down there) took us past Heron Hill first, so we stopped there. Heron Hill is home to the best bottle of wine my friends have ever tasted, and we visited there hoping that they would have some left (It was a very limited harvest).
The first thing you notice about Heron Hill is the spectacular view from the tasting room.
View From Heron Hill
Another View From Heron Hill
There was a ton of people there, so we had to wait a bit to do our tasting, but…as you can see, this wasn’t really much of an issue.
First thing to note about the tasting, our guy had a name tag on it that said “Dave!” and he was quite the character. He kept us pretty well entertained and informed about the wine, so two thumbs up to Dave!. We did the 6 wines for $5 tasting option, including the bottle of the special harvest linked above. Much like them when they first tried it, I had originally thought that I’d see what all the hype was about and then buy a couple of bottles of cheaper wine. But…when the time came that flew out the window and I had to spent my entire wine purchasing budget for the trip on a single $45 bottle of wine. It is the absolute best wine I have ever had, ever. And considering the conditions that created it was once in a lifetime…I had to have a bottle.
There were a couple of other wines that were interesting there too, especially the other desert wine, the 2007 Late Harvest Vidal Blanc. Very sweet and tasty. Perfect for after dinner. Another standout was the 2007 Blaufrankisch Reserve, which was an awesome red wine. And I don’t really like red wine.
The trip continued after Heron Hill with a visit over to the Keuka Brewing Company. Jay is really more a beer drinker than a wine drinker, so this was his destination of choice. And we were worried as soon as we arrived since the place looked more like a shack in the woods, giving off a serious serial killer type vibe. But once we got in it was really nice and the tasting was good. I liked pretty much all of the beers they had availible, except the IPA. That one was a bit…weird. But I even liked the stout and I am not a fan of stouts. Their Wheat beer was the best of the bunch to my taste buds though. My friends ended up getting a growler of the wheat beer to take home.
The Grapes at Bully Hill
After the brewery, we left for our final destination of the day, Bully Hill. We had plans to take a tour of the vineyards and walk through the museum before having dinner at the restaurant on site. My friends had lunch there when they came up before, but this time we were trying out dinner.
The tour situation was a little weird since we couldn’t figure out exactly where they started, so we hopped on one that was already going and missed part of the story of the winery. But the basic plot is, the Taylor family always had a Winery in the area. Walter S. Taylor ended up being fired from his own winery when he became outspoken that wines from New York should have labels on them showing where the grapes came from (You can (or could, dunno if this changed) label a wine as a New York Wine despite the fact that up to 25% of the grapes came from out of state). The established winery community were not fond of this idea, so they fired Walter. So he started up his own winery, Bully Hill.
A few years later, the Taylor Wine company (the one Walter was fired from) was bought by Coca-Cola. Owning the rights to the name Taylor when attached to Wine, Coke sued Walter to prevent him from using his last name anywhere on the bottles of wine he was selling. Coke, unbelievably, won the case and forced Walter to blank out his name on the labels. Additionally, the court case prevented Walter from ever mentioning the history of the Bully Hill Winery, such as where they came from and who they were. Walter used this setback to vault Bully Hill into popularity.
After we took the tour, which was really neat (I didn’t realize that every year all the leaves from the grape vines need to be cut down individually by hand…now that’s a crappy job) we settled down to enjoy the view over the lake for a little while until it was time for our dinner reservation to arrive.
And oh my. That dinner was probably the absolute best meal I’ve ever had. I settled on having the Sauteed Chicken Breast (with a light Traminette and fresh herb cream sauce; served over pasta (from the menu)). Wassy had the 8oz, Center Cut Filet Mignon (served with pepercorn demi-glace, sauteed mushrooms and onion rings) and Jay had the Bully Hill Crabcake with Day Boat Scallops (Maryland-style crabcake served on a grilled portabella mushroom cap). And we grabbed a bottle of Bully Hill Spring White to go with the meal.
I cannot say enough good things about this meal. We each sampled each others dishes and they were all awesomeness. But Jay won with the crabcake. That was probably the best crabcake I have ever tasted in my entire life. It even beat out the crabcakes I had IN Maryland. The Fillet Mignon was done perfectly, so tender and juicy and my chicken was great as well. The sauce was excellent and they actually prepared mushrooms in a way such that I found them tasty. Then the deserts (I had peanut butter pie, wassy had the apple crisp and jay had the carrot cake) just topped the meal off.
At one point the chef came by to ask how our meal was and Jay had to shake his hand. It was that good.
Sunset Over Bully Hill
An excellent time was had by all, and we went home full and feeling satisfied. I’m definitely going to try to go next year again. As we were leaving, we had a really awesome sunset as well. And the view over the lake at night was really cool.
Two thumbs up for this trip. Would go again. And again. And again.
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