5. Street Sweeper Social Club--"Self Titled"
Yes, it's Morello again, but this is DAMN catchy. Great beats!
4. Dinosaur Jr.--"Farm"
My first Dinosaur Jr Album and won't be my last. Great guitar rock!
3. Bob Dylan--"Together Through Life"
Very pleasantly surprised. Dylan still has it, for me anyway. Don't pass this one by. "My Wife's Hometown" is one of my favorite songs this year.
2. Silversun Pickups--"Swoon"
Another great album from one of my favorite acts. "Panic Switch" is the highlight here.
1. Dave Matthews Band--"Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King"
I thought I was gonna hate this, but it could end up being album of the year for me. Check out Alligator Pie and Time Bomb if nothing else! Love it.
See my list at my RYM site here
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Thoughts on Michael Jackson
Ok, I'm sure everyone on the Earth, from the cold of Alaska to the heat of the Sahara knows MJ died. Opinions on MJ have as varied a range as the all the spices in Martha Stewart's spice rack.
Here's mine, if anybody cares....
Music wise, it's hard to deny MJ his place in the spotlight. The guy had an unbelievable career from like age 5. Many of his songs are in fact near perfect, if not totally perfect pop songs. They don't make them like that anymore. I dare anyone to come up with a pop hook better than those in Beat It or Smooth Criminal (My personal favorite MJ song). I mean come on, the guy did Thriller, which is by far and away the best selling album ever. With the state of the music industry today, it's likely it will never be touched. Love MJ or hate him, you can't take that away from him.
It's funny. If you know me, you know that when I was a kid my parents were on a bit of a fundy kick and didn't let me listen to secular music in the house, largely thanks to a dumb lecture they attended put on my this douche-nozzle. Anyways, what my parents didn't know, and why this type of parenting doesn't work, is that I often went over to my friends' houses and still got my fix of all things MJ...Thriller, Bad, you name it. I loved Beat It, damn it! So even the child of religious fundies in the 80's wasn't immune from Jackson mania. In that way, MJ and his music will always be part of the fabric of my childhood. It's great stuff, at least up until Bad, and will always carry a heavily nostalgic effect on me.
What about his weirdo personal life? Well this is difficult for me. As far as the child molestation stuff goes, it's hard not think that where's there's smoke there's fire, but the guy was never convicted or found liable in any court of law. Innocent until proven guilty I guess. Personally I like to give him the benefit of the doubt. I watched a lot of the trial, and though I wasn't convinced he was guilty, I was surprised when he was acquitted.
I guess I think the guy had a pretty mixed up childhood. Even Lisa Marie Presley said being married to him was like being married to a ten year old. I sometimes wonder if having to lead so much of a public life kind of stuck MJ as a child mentally. Now I'm not excusing anything he did wrong. Dangling your kid out of a window is kind of a dick move, and a non celeb parent probably wouldn't get away with it. However, to criticize MJ for bad parenting...well it's not exactly the first time in the world someone's been a bad parent.
Bottom line for me is this. He is a music and pop culture icon, and rightly so. A lot of bizzare crap went on in his personal life, we'll probably never know the truth about a lot of it, but for me, his music will be what I remember about him. I'm also sure that's what most of the world will remember as well. I'll let God judge him and his soul.
RIP MJ.
Here's mine, if anybody cares....
Music wise, it's hard to deny MJ his place in the spotlight. The guy had an unbelievable career from like age 5. Many of his songs are in fact near perfect, if not totally perfect pop songs. They don't make them like that anymore. I dare anyone to come up with a pop hook better than those in Beat It or Smooth Criminal (My personal favorite MJ song). I mean come on, the guy did Thriller, which is by far and away the best selling album ever. With the state of the music industry today, it's likely it will never be touched. Love MJ or hate him, you can't take that away from him.
It's funny. If you know me, you know that when I was a kid my parents were on a bit of a fundy kick and didn't let me listen to secular music in the house, largely thanks to a dumb lecture they attended put on my this douche-nozzle. Anyways, what my parents didn't know, and why this type of parenting doesn't work, is that I often went over to my friends' houses and still got my fix of all things MJ...Thriller, Bad, you name it. I loved Beat It, damn it! So even the child of religious fundies in the 80's wasn't immune from Jackson mania. In that way, MJ and his music will always be part of the fabric of my childhood. It's great stuff, at least up until Bad, and will always carry a heavily nostalgic effect on me.
What about his weirdo personal life? Well this is difficult for me. As far as the child molestation stuff goes, it's hard not think that where's there's smoke there's fire, but the guy was never convicted or found liable in any court of law. Innocent until proven guilty I guess. Personally I like to give him the benefit of the doubt. I watched a lot of the trial, and though I wasn't convinced he was guilty, I was surprised when he was acquitted.
I guess I think the guy had a pretty mixed up childhood. Even Lisa Marie Presley said being married to him was like being married to a ten year old. I sometimes wonder if having to lead so much of a public life kind of stuck MJ as a child mentally. Now I'm not excusing anything he did wrong. Dangling your kid out of a window is kind of a dick move, and a non celeb parent probably wouldn't get away with it. However, to criticize MJ for bad parenting...well it's not exactly the first time in the world someone's been a bad parent.
Bottom line for me is this. He is a music and pop culture icon, and rightly so. A lot of bizzare crap went on in his personal life, we'll probably never know the truth about a lot of it, but for me, his music will be what I remember about him. I'm also sure that's what most of the world will remember as well. I'll let God judge him and his soul.
RIP MJ.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Book Thoughts: "The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara
Honestly, this is one of the best works of historical fiction I've ever read. Shaara writes a pretty good over-arching account of the battle, highlighting a good chunk of the pertinent action. The story is primarily told through the POV of Longstreet and Lee for the CSA and Chamberlain for the USA. However, the passages from the first day are primarily told through Buford for the USA, and the climactic chapter about Pickett's charge is told through the POV of Armistead, who dies on the field.
Once in awhile, particularly in the Chamberlain passages, the book bogs down a little bit, but all in all the action moves steadily forward. I really appreciated the unique life given to all of the characters. It was interesting to read about Lee as such a vunerable character, as Shaara writes of the heart disease that would eventually kill him taking hold even here, on the eve of one of the great battles in American History.
A stunning and unique novel which leaves the reader impressed with the caliber of men who fought under both flags during those bloody days in July, 1863. Check it out.
Once in awhile, particularly in the Chamberlain passages, the book bogs down a little bit, but all in all the action moves steadily forward. I really appreciated the unique life given to all of the characters. It was interesting to read about Lee as such a vunerable character, as Shaara writes of the heart disease that would eventually kill him taking hold even here, on the eve of one of the great battles in American History.
A stunning and unique novel which leaves the reader impressed with the caliber of men who fought under both flags during those bloody days in July, 1863. Check it out.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Book Thoughts: "Riptide" by Preston & Child
I liked this one better than "The Ice Limit" for the most part but not nearly as well as "Thunderhead" or most of the Pendergast books.
Not that it was a bad story by any stretch, but the first half to 2/3 of the book were pretty slow moving. The action picks up swiftly towards the end as the body count rises.
However, the characters seemed a bit thin here for me. The red hot Archaelogist lady, the salty and greedy sea captain, the shady sidekick. It's all here. Even Dr. Hatch's character doesn't quite come off as real as the constant exposition of his guilt over his brother's death grows tiresome.
The end of the book is very abrupt. The reader is left to assume (and it's easy to assume) what happened to the minister and his wife (a former lover of the main character), but it could have been at least mentioned in passing, plus the conflict of Hatch's desire for Claire is something else that could have been explored further, maybe taking the place of some of the salty sea captain/treasure hunter's scenes.
In the end, it's a decent, though not quite tight, thriller. Fans of Preston & Child, as well as fans of adventure books should enjoy it well enough.
Not that it was a bad story by any stretch, but the first half to 2/3 of the book were pretty slow moving. The action picks up swiftly towards the end as the body count rises.
However, the characters seemed a bit thin here for me. The red hot Archaelogist lady, the salty and greedy sea captain, the shady sidekick. It's all here. Even Dr. Hatch's character doesn't quite come off as real as the constant exposition of his guilt over his brother's death grows tiresome.
The end of the book is very abrupt. The reader is left to assume (and it's easy to assume) what happened to the minister and his wife (a former lover of the main character), but it could have been at least mentioned in passing, plus the conflict of Hatch's desire for Claire is something else that could have been explored further, maybe taking the place of some of the salty sea captain/treasure hunter's scenes.
In the end, it's a decent, though not quite tight, thriller. Fans of Preston & Child, as well as fans of adventure books should enjoy it well enough.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Game Thoughts: The Sims 3
So one thing both Mariel and I enjoy is playing "The Sims 2." We have all the expansion packs for it and often drive those around us crazy by talking about the Sims we've created and their adventures in life.
Call us losers if you will, but it's fun to play God sometimes, you know?
Well, we've been looking forward to "The Sims 3," for awhile, thinking it was going to be an upgrade in the series. Well, I think we both agree that it's just a waste of space on the computer.
Seriously, we heard all about the "Seamless neighborhood" and new aging systems. We also heard about the wonderful new look of the Sims themselves, and about how you can customize them even more than the Sims 2.
Right.
This is EA games here.
So First off, what do I HATE about the game? I'll start with the whole seamless town thing. In Sims 2, when your Sim wants to go to another lot, say the store, a restaurant, or the Gym, the game had to stop and load the new lot, and the time that your Sim had been out would be reset once you came home. Still, you could actually go into these lots, browse items, interact with other sims, play games, light fires, etc.
Well, throw that out the window for Sims 3. Sure, the load times are gone, but in it's place is a crappy looking view of your sim driving their car. It honestly looks like something out of the first Sim City game or a Nintendo game from the early 90s. When my chick got to the store, instead of going in and interacting with the world on the lot, a menu list came up and you just picked what you wanted to buy. Lame. Oh and when you come out, you have to call your car, which has disappeared on you. To me, this is a downgrade from a lot of the fun interaction to be had in the Sims 2 Expansions. Maybe some other lots offer more interaction, we'll see.
Next up, the new aging. It used to be, on Sims 2, that if you had multiple Sims in the same town, they didn't age unless you played them. Well, that's gone. Everybody ages all the time now, all at once. Now that does certainly seem more realistic, but a lot of the fun Mariel and I have had with the game is raising different families in the same town, and working at aging them together and having them interact. We got to experience each of our Sim's lives. It also increased the replayability.
Now however, Mariel played her sim for awhile on Sims 3, and I come back and the Sim I had created was an old Lady and I had barely even played her. Now she can't have kids or anything, so what's the point. It's a one family at a time deal I guess, and I don't like it.
Of course the Sims look better right? I don't think so. I never could my chick to look the way I wanted her to. The customization really isn't all that different. Sure I can make her a total lard-ass or Crack-Whore skinny, I can also change her skin tone on a gradual scale. Well, those are things that EA and other game companies have had in their PS2 games for years. I was using the same color system that's innovative in the Sims 3 on my NASCAR THUNDER race cars on my PS2 in 2003. Lame. The rest of the customization really isn't that different than the Sims 2. Then in the end, they end up looking like two-bit cartoon characters.
Oh, and finally, there's next to no content in the game. Instead of packing in more outfits and furniture for your Sims, there's very little of it there and you get the privelege of going to the EA Sims 3 Store, where you can spend your hard earned real world cash on a couch for your Sims. Lame. Of course, there will be infinite expansion packs as well.
What's good about it? Well very little. Yeah it's nice that the load screens between lots are gone, but if you have a halfway decent computer that was never too big of an issue. The personality system is actually quite a bit more customizable, and the need bars aren't near as rigid this time around, so that's a nice touch. That's about it though.
Rating--2 out of 10. Don't waste your money, just upgrade your Sims 2 game while you still can.
Call us losers if you will, but it's fun to play God sometimes, you know?
Well, we've been looking forward to "The Sims 3," for awhile, thinking it was going to be an upgrade in the series. Well, I think we both agree that it's just a waste of space on the computer.
Seriously, we heard all about the "Seamless neighborhood" and new aging systems. We also heard about the wonderful new look of the Sims themselves, and about how you can customize them even more than the Sims 2.
Right.
This is EA games here.
So First off, what do I HATE about the game? I'll start with the whole seamless town thing. In Sims 2, when your Sim wants to go to another lot, say the store, a restaurant, or the Gym, the game had to stop and load the new lot, and the time that your Sim had been out would be reset once you came home. Still, you could actually go into these lots, browse items, interact with other sims, play games, light fires, etc.
Well, throw that out the window for Sims 3. Sure, the load times are gone, but in it's place is a crappy looking view of your sim driving their car. It honestly looks like something out of the first Sim City game or a Nintendo game from the early 90s. When my chick got to the store, instead of going in and interacting with the world on the lot, a menu list came up and you just picked what you wanted to buy. Lame. Oh and when you come out, you have to call your car, which has disappeared on you. To me, this is a downgrade from a lot of the fun interaction to be had in the Sims 2 Expansions. Maybe some other lots offer more interaction, we'll see.
Next up, the new aging. It used to be, on Sims 2, that if you had multiple Sims in the same town, they didn't age unless you played them. Well, that's gone. Everybody ages all the time now, all at once. Now that does certainly seem more realistic, but a lot of the fun Mariel and I have had with the game is raising different families in the same town, and working at aging them together and having them interact. We got to experience each of our Sim's lives. It also increased the replayability.
Now however, Mariel played her sim for awhile on Sims 3, and I come back and the Sim I had created was an old Lady and I had barely even played her. Now she can't have kids or anything, so what's the point. It's a one family at a time deal I guess, and I don't like it.
Of course the Sims look better right? I don't think so. I never could my chick to look the way I wanted her to. The customization really isn't all that different. Sure I can make her a total lard-ass or Crack-Whore skinny, I can also change her skin tone on a gradual scale. Well, those are things that EA and other game companies have had in their PS2 games for years. I was using the same color system that's innovative in the Sims 3 on my NASCAR THUNDER race cars on my PS2 in 2003. Lame. The rest of the customization really isn't that different than the Sims 2. Then in the end, they end up looking like two-bit cartoon characters.
Oh, and finally, there's next to no content in the game. Instead of packing in more outfits and furniture for your Sims, there's very little of it there and you get the privelege of going to the EA Sims 3 Store, where you can spend your hard earned real world cash on a couch for your Sims. Lame. Of course, there will be infinite expansion packs as well.
What's good about it? Well very little. Yeah it's nice that the load screens between lots are gone, but if you have a halfway decent computer that was never too big of an issue. The personality system is actually quite a bit more customizable, and the need bars aren't near as rigid this time around, so that's a nice touch. That's about it though.
Rating--2 out of 10. Don't waste your money, just upgrade your Sims 2 game while you still can.
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