XBLA Game Of The Year Nominations 2010

Okay, so you might be thinking, "Didn't Ryan already finish out the Top 5 nominees and awards for 2010?", and you'd be right, but I've been giving it some thought, and I really feel like I missed out on a great category for last year, namely: the Top 5 Xbox Live Arcade games of the Year. Now, as you're probably aware, I already have an award for Game Of The Year and have had one for the past three years, all the while never needing a special entry for XBLA games. Well, there are two reasons for this: first, in 2008 and 2009 I either didn't play any noteworthy XBLA games or they were good enough relative to the full-priced games to be included in the final countdown (i.e. Shadow Complex and arguably Portal); second, 2010 was SUCH a strong year for full-priced games that even though I played three incredible XBLA games, they simply couldn't compete due to being such smaller scale experiences, thereby being the first year where notable XBLA games went virtually unrecognized.

So, this post is intended to fix this. I'm not sure if this category will be an ongoing one or if it will only appear in years similar to 2010, but just know that it's a potential category, kinda like EP Of The Year. Anyway, here we go:

Pac-Man Championship Edition DX: Though I'd been eying the original Championship Edition of Pac-Man ever since I first started following the XBLA catalog, it wasn't until the shamefully unrecognized DX version was released in Fall of 2010 that I finally bit, and boy am I glad I did. C.E. DX easily has to be the definitive modern version of the arcade classic, and with all the strategy involved in rounding up a conga line of ghosts to rack up that big score, plus all the different game variants and the updated HD graphics, I really don't think I could have had a better experience playing an "old" game.

Plants vs. Zombies: In what has to amount to the first time I had ever chosen to addictively play an XBLA game instead of working on completing a regular game, Plants vs. Zombies captured my heart right from the demo with its charming blend of humor, tactics, and progressive tower defense gameplay. In fact, the only thing that nipped my addiction was the advent of my TV dying on me, and though I haven't returned since then, I know it's only a matter of time...

Tetris Splash: Sure, the poorly-implemented port of Tetris that XBLA "gets" to call its own isn't a classic game relative to the greater Tetris world or even other XBLA games at large, but it more than makes up for its shabbiness with the fact that it's the only way I was able to play the still-amazing-after-all-these-years core Tetris game on my Xbox, and as such, I put WAY too many hours into it (even without Suzi) than you would think possible given its quality.

So, there you have it: three excellent XBLA games (or at least experiences) out of the six or so that I started (and/or finished) back in 2010. I don't usually put that much energy into playing the lighter arcade fare on Xbox, but I'm really glad I did so much of it in 2010, and I've recently found a similarly enjoyable title in 2011 (which I'll write about in the next month or two), so it looks like XBLA is staying alive, even if only with a title or two a year.

Oh, and just so you know, I've gone and added this category to the original Media Of The Year 2010 post, so there's no delayed gratification in finding out which title won! ;)

tUnE-yArDs - w h o k i l l

When I first heard a few tracks from the indie and (presumably) Afrobeat group Tune-Yards (I refuse to write their name in the official format seen above more than once), I, like any reasonable person only hearing the group instead of seeing them, assumed that the lead singer was either a large woman or a man with a strange voice, both unquestionably black, but when I found out otherwise, especially seeing the group play live on YouTube, I was floored and mesmerized by the group all over again. See, not only is lead singer Merrill Garbus a white girl, she's also unexpectedly nerdy, upper-middle class, and kinda plain-looking (no offense), but when she opens her mouth, this huge African woman voice comes out, and it's almost mind-boggling. She's kinda like the equivalent of a race/cultural version of a transsexual, born in one body but with a different-raced soul, and she even talks about this in a couple of her songs (most notably the standout track "Gangsta").

Anyway, talking more specifically about the disc at hand and the style of the group in general, Whokill's ten tracks run the gamut of modern Afro-inspired indie rock, from more aggressive and modern urban-inspired tunes to laidback happy songs, with an odd (and long) creepy lullaby-esque track thrown in for good measure. The biggest instrumental element connecting the whole experience is Garbus' frequent use of layered loops via looping pedals, mostly of percussion but also of her distinctive voice and maybe even some of her guitar-like ukulele playing, lending the album a very fresh and innovative feel amidst its otherwise traditional elements. Overall, this winning combination leaves me feeling quite happy about the disc in general, but there are a few tracks that I'm not super crazy about. Regardless, I'm really excited to have discovered Tune-Yards and eagerly await their next offering.

Highlights: "My Country"/"Gangsta"/"Bizness"
Rating: 4/5

The Beaver

Though everyone thinks Mel Gibson is a total nutjob now, isn't it at least a little redeeming to watch him playing one in an indie film, talking to everyone via a dirty beaver hand puppet in a British accent? Well, such is the premise for Jodi Foster's The Beaver, and though Foster reportedly hired Gibson for the role before all of his proverbial shit hit the fan in the media, and as such was probably a bit worried that this hurt the film's box office sales, I still enjoyed the movie for the most part, though I do have to admit that it wasn't anything amazing and parts of it were rather unmemorable.

The plot is pretty well laid out in the trailer above, so I'll just hit on a few details... The whole beaver character wasn't nearly as quirky or endearing as I had hoped, and by the end I still didn't have all that much of a connection with or sympathy for Gibson's character, though this has nothing to do with his public persona in real life. Rather, the best part of the film is the development of his son's character (played by Anton Yelchin, the young and talented actor who played Chekov so well in the new Star Trek film) and his relationship with his would-be love interest (the girl from Winter's Bone, which I haven't seen), and it's on the weight of these aspects that my enjoyment of the film primarily hung.

In the end, The Beaver is probably a rent at best, but if it looked interesting to you, you probably won't be too disappointed if you find it decent but not life changing.

Two Blog-Delaying Distractions

I'm currently in the midst of two very distracting things keeping me from blogging as regularly as I would like, so I thought I would write a quick post to address this fact, in the meantime getting another post out there.

1.) For the first part of the week, I was dedicating a lot of my otherwise-blogging time to finishing the first three (of eight and a half) HiFi reviews, which I realize I still have yet to write about at length, and promise to remedy in sometime in the coming months. Unfortunately, my momentum was cut short today when...

2.) My external hard drive died on me while I was introducing a new, larger external hard drive to my computer setup, effectively removing (most-notably amongst other things) ALL of my pictures (though most are in lower-res versions online), the most crucial of my mc chris mash-up files, and my iTunes library, which means that if I can't get a data recovery team to fix the problem for a reasonable price, I'll be set back quite awhile in trying to restore all three of these key issues.

So...that's why I haven't been blogging as much this week as I would have liked. I'll keep in touch about both the HiFi reviews and the external hard drive situation, but in the meantime, hopefully I'll be able to jump back on the blogging train and keep trying to catch up on my backlog of entries (it's looking like I'm only 5-6 weeks off now!).

Incubus @ Verizon Wireless

Onto the most professional of the pro shows I've seen this year, Incubus' stop in town at the Atlanta-based Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre (there are evidently other venues with this name, hence the distinction). While I AM a fan of Incubus' work up until their recent album If Not Now, When?, this new album is EXTREMELY laidback and uninspired, and as such, this wasn't exactly a show that was on my radar, especially considering it was on a weekend night and I would probably have a hard time convincing Suzi to join me. Well, as it turns out, one of her out-of-town friends really wanted to go the show, and since it wasn't coming to her town in Alabama (I think...), she offered to buy tickets for Suzi, me, AND one of my friends, so we all took her up on it, bringing my buddy/student Ryan Delehanty along with.

We started the night off by me picking up the girls and then Ryan, followed by an awkward meal at T.G.I. Friday's near the venue before heading over just in time to grab a drink before the band went on (having missed whatever opening act was scheduled). Though I've seen and loved Incubus at least two times before this, I had mixed feelings about this show...when they were playing some older (i.e. non-brand-new) stuff it was pretty great, but when they played their new boring material (and they played a lot of it), I really couldn't have cared less. Fortunately, the irony of the whole situation (which I'm not going into) on top of Suzi and Ryan's company made the whole experience surprisingly fun for even Suzi (who probably would've hated the show in another context). So, in the end, it was really fun, despite the band's recent turn for the mediocre, and I'm grateful that Suzi's friend was so generous to buy us all tickets.

I Love You Phillip Morris

Now here's one of those rare opportunities where I got to see a film on Netflix that I actually wanted to see but never managed to catch in the theatre, largely due to it having spotty distribution in theatres. While I initially thought this movie was just a quirky off-beat comedy starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor as two men who fell in love in prison, upon watching it I soon learned that it was based on the true story of con man Steven Jay Russell (played by Carrey) and the fairly-unbelievable exploits surrounding his imprisonment, the real-life focal point not actually being his relationship with Phillip Morris (played by McGregor), though it too was based in reality.

I don't want to go into any more details about the film's plot, as I think it was stronger going into it not knowing a whole lot about the story, but suffice it to say that the film resides somewhere between a comedy and a drama, and as such is absolutely nothing as serious as the other superficially-similar pairing of two straight actors in gay roles, Brokeback Mountain. At most, I would describe I Love You Phillip Morris as a somewhat strange and unpredictable feel-good true-life romantic comedy, so if that sounds like it might appeal to you, I think it's definitely worth checking out, though I wouldn't say it's life-changing.

Mets vs. Braves

For what I believe amounts to my fourth time seeing the Braves play since I've been home from Europe, I took my dad to one of the last regular season games, this time against the New York Mets. My dad supposedly hadn't been to Turner Stadium since the 1996 Olympics, when it was still in its pre-shaved-down-for-baseball state, so it was a particularly special visit for him, at least those were our intentions. Unfortunately, the Braves got creamed 12 to 2, and since we saw this coming from a mile off and Dad was freezing at his lighter weight right now, we ended up taking off in like the 6th inning or so. In our defense, it was a particularly cold night that evening, and the Braves weren't really giving us much to look at, but I still feel a tad bad that Dad's first time back to see the Braves in YEARS turned out to be a kinda "meh" experience. Still, we had pretty good seats and it was fun spending time with him, having a beer and a hot dog at the game, and getting to see some Star Wars stuff...

Oh, I didn't mention it was STAR WARS NIGHT?!? Turns out that after I bought the tix it just happened to be a theme night, so I was extra excited about the game, but it ended up being pretty low-key...sure, Chewbacca rode around waving to the audience in a convertible at one point, there were a few people dressed up (mostly from a local Stormtrooper unit), and the titantron's shots of the players when they were up to bat had them dressed up in either Jedi outfits (The Braves) or those of the Empire (The Mets), but while that was neat, it certainly wasn't as big a deal as I had hoped.

Overall, we did have a good time, but hopefully Dad and I can go back sometime next season for a better game with better weather! Thanks for coming out, Dad!

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes

Here's a movie that, upon seeing the trailer for the first time, I thought I had zero interest in seeing, but once I caught wind of Andy Serkis' (yes, the same guy from Enslaved: Odyssey To The West, which I wrote about recently) involvement as the lead monkey, and once I saw the later-released trailer above, which focuses on the human (well, human-like monkey) elements of the movie instead of the random monkey destruction action which dominated the other trailers, I changed my mind and went to see it with my dad. Oh, and the fact that the movie had garnered some decent critical praise didn't hurt either...

And, I'm happy to report that Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes turned out to be as good as I had eventually hoped, as the boring (to me) action-heavy stuff really only happened in the last twenty minutes or so, and all of the monkey-human relationship stuff leading up to it really was pretty touching and well-presented, leaving me pretty receptive to a little tension-releasing action by the time it happened. While this film technically doesn't work within the continuity of the rest of the franchise films, it really doesn't need to, as it leaves things in such a way that I don't really need to see what happens next, as my imagination will suffice just fine with what they've given me.

Anyway, this was easily one of the better blockbuster action films I've seen in a long time, and I definitely recommend it if the trailer above interests you. If however, you're going to see a lot of action, you'll probably be a bit disappointed, as this film really doesn't have that much, despite what the trailers seemed to depict. Trust me, it's better for it...

The Needle Drop

I don't often find specific YouTube channels to follow on YouTube, but one of the strongest I've ever seen is Anthony Fantano's The Needle Drop, an album review vlog mostly dedicated to indie rock and indie rap (yes, there is such a thing). While I don't typically agree with most of Anthony's aesthetic sensibilities, I do find him to be kind of like Pitchfork with a smile, offering his perspective nicely and with the admission that it's just his opinion (though it's a strong one). Plus, he often reviews albums I listen to, and I've occasionally taken a suggestion or two of his, at least as far as adding the album to my iTunes WishList for further consideration.

The basic gist of any given episode is that Anthony walks outside to say the name of the album he's reviewing and then reviews it in depth for the next few minutes, eventually giving it a score out of ten with each digit potentially getting a modifier like "light" or "strong" to further specify his feelings about it. While "the internet's busiest music nerd" is usually the host of the show, he often has his alter ego (or roommate) Cal Chuchesta drop in, or sometimes even star in an episode, even though he's totally absurd.

If you want to check out the vlog, a good place to start might be the video above, in a new segment where Cal Chuchesta asks Anthony why he refuses to review a number of albums that many of the channel's subscribers have repeatedly asked him to review. Essentially, they're mini reviews of each of the albums, though clearly Anthony doesn't like most of them, but it'll give you a good idea of how the vlog works. Thanks to Anthony for such an interesting site and such insightful reviews!

Stan Lee's Superhumans

While I don't like watching TV shows on Netflix at home all that often, I sometimes will add one or two to my instant queue so that I'll have something short to watch when eating if I'm not in the mood (or don't have the time) for a two hour long movie. Well, one of these shows that caught my eye was the short-lived Stan Lee's Superhumans, a series of eight episodes each covering four real-life "superhumans" found out in the world, essentially people with some sort of weird skill or physical anomaly, but only the kind that could be construed as a superpower of sorts. While Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee is the face of the show, the actual host is a goofy and somewhat flaming contortionist named Daniel Browning Smith, and though he's definitely fine in the role, he does get a little too excited about some of the "superpowers" he ends up encountering, but whatever.

Anyway, here are a few of the more stunning superhumans from the show:

The Human Calculator (Scott Flansburg): Can perform complex mathematical processes in his head without aid and often faster than another human can use a calculator.

Heat Wave (Timo Kaukonen): A Finish sauna-withstanding champion whose body can tolerate near-boiling temperatures without any serious side-effects, though he later hurt himself very badly not too long after the filming of the show, ending his sauna-withstanding career.

Ultra Marathon Man (Dean Karnazes): A man whose body can remove the acid build-up when running faster than he produces it, allowing him to run extreme lengths of time without true fatigue. This was probably my favorite, as it's one of the only ones they could really back up with science and that also could amount to a superpower.

Modern Samurai (Isao Machii): An actual samurai who demonstrates his ability to cut a speeding bullet in half with his katana, albeit after a try or two...

Anti Venom (Tim Friede): A snake handler who has somehow built up a resistance to one type of venomous snake...they actually test it on the show with a medical crew on hand, and he's totally fine.

One important thing to note is that, out of the 32 superhumans featured, Stan Lee never has a single female superhuman on the show, leading Suzi and me to joke that Stan Lee's superpower is hating women. ;) Overall, the show WAS entertaining, though I do question some of the validity or relevance of many of the "superhumans", and as such, I wonder if the show was able to garner enough of an audience to warrant a second season (probably not). Still, not the worst way to spend eight episodes' worth of TV time, so I don't regret watching it at all.

Mass Effect 2 DLC (Part II)

Okay, picking up where I left off with Mass Effect 2 add-ons, this time with the last three released, which also happen to be the biggest expansions of the seven available DLC packs to-date (and most-likely forever, as there probably won't be any more Mass Effect 2 DLC with Mass Effect 3 looming so close). Here we go:

Overlord: Though Overlord does utilize the unnecessary Hammerhead vehicle add-on, it does so amidst a plot-based mission that features plenty of out-of-vehicle combat. That said, the pack's story, which focuses on a rogue AI-human hybrid which you have to shut down, is so strong apart from the Hammerhead portions that it would have been even better if it weren't held back in this way. Definitely worth playing, though not the best on the list.

Lair Of The Shadow Broker: Not only was this expansion the best of the ME2 packs, it is also the best piece of DLC I've played for ANY game period, as it offers a multi-act mission whose story (about helping old teammate Liara finally take down the infamous/mysterious Shadow Broker) pulls on the heartstrings while providing some awesome action AND further development of the already-rich gameworld. And the ending...just too good to miss. Really, it would be a crime to play Mass Effect 2 without tacking on at least this bit of DLC. Totally worth the price...seriously.

Arrival: As the only piece of ME2 DLC that's intended to connect the game to ME3, Arrival is rather important, though it is a little disappointing that you have to leave your teammates behind and tackle this one alone (which makes it even easier to get your ass kicked during the two locations for the game). Still, the story is pretty interesting (stopping a premature attack by the doombringing Reapers), and though the conclusion might not have seemed (on the surface at least) all that consequential to the unfolding of the next game, perhaps the true weight of it all will be revealed when I actually get to play ME3 in March.

While I wouldn't put any of the DLC here above either of the two lineup-boosting packs from the last post (short of perhaps the Lair Of The Shadow Broker, since it's just amazing) due to the implication that you should possibly go without two new teammates, all of the missions found in this post are clearly the strongest amongst the non-Kasumi-DLC. In general, I was very happy with the ME2 DLC and highly recommend you check out most of it.

Mass Effect 2 DLC (Part I)

As you might recall, I only recently remembered that I had never addressed the Mass Effect DLC in this blog, and in similar fashion, it just occurred to me that I somehow never managed to discuss the DLC from its sequel, so since I made an effort to play through both games earlier this year with a new character, in the process knocking out any of the remaining DLC that I had yet to tackle, I figure I might as well do so now, though I'm a tad out of order here regarding the sequence of my gaming experiences. That said, seeing as there was WAY more mission-based DLC for Mass Effect 2 than for its predecessor, I'm going to split this potentially extremely-long post into two parts, broken down into chronological order regarding release dates since I can't remember the exact order I played them in.

Normandy Crash Site: A short extra mission that doesn't feature any combat, Shepard is tasked with searching the ruins of the old Normandy ship from the first game, looking for dog tags and a suitable place for a monument to the dead crew. While not much to do here, it's a nice touch to wrap up the old game, and I'm pretty sure it was free.

Zaeed - The Price Of Revenge: The first of two mission-based recruitable character additions, this one follows the bounty hunter Zaeed Massani in his loyalty mission to track down his old mercenary band partner who eventually turned on him. Though not as strong as the mission for the other DLC character Kasumi, this one is certainly one of the better DLC additions, especially considering you get a new fighter with a cool personality.

Firewalker Pack: One of two expansions that utilizes the questionable addition of a replacement for Mass Effect's critically-lambasted Mako tank, this time in the form of a hovering vehicle called the Hammerhead, this is the worst DLC addition for the game, especially since the missions surrounding the vehicle are really no more than glorified tutorials on how to use it and some shitty missions to kill some time.

Kasumi - Stolen Memory: The other of the two character additions to the game, this one surrounds stealthy female Asian thief Kasumi Goto in her attempt to retrieve her ex-partner/lover's stored memory box from a corrupt crime lord. This is easily one of the best expansions (and loyalty missions in general) for the game, as you get to do a lot of fighting, but not before you've done a stealthy spy hit on the crime lord's mansion during one of his parties, having to sneak around and deceive people, etc.

Alright, that's roughly half, and it's some pretty good stuff for the most part. The clear winner is the Kasumi expansion, and the clear loser the Firewalker pack. Unless you love vehicle stuff in games, definitely skip the Firewalker missions, as you can easily get a hang for the Hammerhead in the much more expansive Overlord campaign (see the next post).

New Villager/Takénobu @ The Earl

In an attempt to bolster my short (but strong) list of live professional rock shows I've been to this year, I've been keeping a sharp eye out for any bands coming to town that could offer some competition, and considering I had saved New Villager's new (debut?) album to my iTunes potentials list for quite awhile, I figured that was good enough to warrant going to check them out when they passed through town, playing at The Earl with opening local act Takénobu, whose set I only caught the last few songs of and therefore can't cover in full detail.

I CAN tell you that the trio, fronted by cellist/singer, Nick Ogawa, features what I guessed was a strings and loops formula not too dissimilar in concept to the likes of Andrew Bird or Owen Pallett but with two live string players plus a drummer/percussionist. While the group's overall style was fine, the two or three songs I did catch weren't enough to utterly convince me their stuff is up my alley, but I'd certainly be up for seeing a complete set some other time in the future. Regardless, it's nice to see a local group breaking out of the typical indie band mold and try something fresh...

Now onto New Villager... Though I was familiar with the 90-second iTunes clips of their recent album prior to the show, I didn't end up buying it ahead of time, so I went into the show a little blind. I HAD seen the video above though, so I wasn't surprised when their show edged toward the avant-garde, but I WAS surprised when the lead singer turned out not to be a big black man! Having only listened to their music, I was convinced that his deep bass voice and soulful singing was clearly that of a black guy, but he was actually a tall hipstery white dude, and no one else in the group was black. Anyway, the band members' performances were all pretty top notch, especially that of the lead guitarist, and the electronic elements were largely done live (including the drums), which was impressive in this day of soulless (though usually necessary) backing tracks. Still, the songs did all start to sort of run together, and though I appreciated the instrumentals quite much, I felt like the vocals often took a strong backseat to them and that the tracks did each linger a bit too long.

Probably the most unique thing about the New Villager set was the inclusion of what seemed to just be a pile of cloth in front of the stage that, over time, slowly changed in a way at first reminiscent of an animatronic machine but eventually revealing itself to be an actual human being that had been patiently waiting to make one or two small movements between each song! Eventually he started walking around the audience after being masked by the lead singer, and by the end he had "collapsed" onto the floor and one of the (apparently) audience members began to drag him across the floor! So weird, but definitely memorable!

Overall, it was a nice night, though it wasn't exactly Top 5 material for Pro Shows this year. Certainly glad I went, and I definitely wasn't disappointed or resentful that I took a risk seeing a band I knew so little about. Oh, and do check out the awesome New Villager video above! So cool!

House Of Wax

If you had told me back in 2005 that I would one day end up watching Paris Hilton's acting debut in the remake of 1953's House of Wax and LIKING IT A LOT, I probably wouldn't have believed you. After all, tons of mediocre horror films come out every year, and given that all anyone could talk about with this remake was that Paris Hilton was in it, I immediately wrote it off. But as I sat there watching it on TV with Suzi one night, we suddenly found it very difficult to turn off, as we became more and more engrossed in the story.

First things first, it's not a Paris Hilton feature, though she is IN it...her role is really more of the pretty girl that dies before the end, and she doesn't even have many lines, so it wasn't really that much of a dealbreaker. Actually, the two leads are Elisha Cuthbert and Chad Michael Murray, and they were perfectly fine. Also, the villains were relatively strong, though they weren't played by actors anyone's probably all that aware of. Anyway, the story is basically that some kids end up in a remote town that has a house of wax that, they come to find out, is actually made out of real people. All of the shenanigans that end up taking place are decent enough for a cheap horror flick, and any wax effects (especially at the ending) are all pretty impressive.

Apart from this, I don't want to spoil anything, so though I certainly don't expect you to rush out to rent this one, if you happen to come across it in on TV, just know that it's not half bad at all. =)

"Email From People"

In an attempt to better organize my Yahoo inbox as of late, I've added a few more folders to place new emails into, including one for "Bills" and Hifi stuff, in addition to some common old favorites like "Comp Contests" and the like. Though this is all fine and good and therefore kinda boring to talk about, I wanted to point out that a new category I've created is entitled "Email From People", being designated for anything from a real person that doesn't pertain to any of the other folders (which is most of my incoming personal email)...

The point: the folder isn't very full and doesn't get used that often, as most of my email (and presumably any of yours as well) these days simply doesn't come from an individual, but rather a listserv, mailing list, company (especially for bills), or any other form of automated response. I guess I'm just kinda surprised I even had to make a special folder for emails from people, as back in the day, when I first started doing email, virtually all my mail at the time was from actual people... And now it's kinda a rarity, especially with the advent of Facebook, the commonality of texting, and the myriad other forms of instant communication. It's almost as if traditional email is going the way of actual post mail, where most of what you get these days is from large companies.

As such, I guess all of this was kinda predictable, but I still almost feel like I should be concerned about it in some regard (though I certainly didn't give a shit about what happened to actual mail, so it's a bit unfounded really). Any thoughts on the matter?

30 Minutes Or Less

Considering that I've kinda grown into being a Jesse Eisenberg fan over the past year, generally love anything Nick Swardson's in, think Aziz Ansari is alright, and trusted Suzi that Danny McBride is good in Eastbound & Down, it seemed like a no-brainer to go check out their new comedy 30 Minutes Or Less in the theatre recently. Also, the film was directed by the guy behind Zombieland, which I loved, but unfortunately, 30 Minutes Or Less really wasn't of the same calibre, though I did enjoy it.

The premise is that McBride and Swardson's characters are looking to get rich quick, so they kidnap pizza guy Eisenberg, strap a bomb to his chest, and tell him to go rob a bank, all so they can start a massage parlor that's merely a front for a prostitution place... Should've been pretty funny, but ultimately the movie was really just more of a decent non-comedy indie action film, with most of the funny bits being shown in the trailer above. In fact, the only part that I can remember finding particularly hilarious was Michael Peña's very silly and out-of-character role as a Latino hitman, though he didn't get too much screen time.

Ultimately, I wouldn't discourage anyone from seeing 30 Minutes Or less, but I also don't think you need to rush to see it. If it's a cheap rent or Netflix option, then pick it up when you're in the mood for a decent quasi-comedy...

Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

After having both simultaneously loved and being bored by last year's big Arcade Fire release, The Suburbs, I was a little reluctant picking up any of their older albums, but when I saw that the now defunct Borders was selling their second album, Neon Bible, for a fraction of the original price during their liquidation sales, I snapped it up right then and there. The biggest difference between Neon Bible and The Suburbs is easily the former's grasp on the concept of overstaying its welcome, as the latter had WAY too many filler tracks in the middle, making the whole listening process a bit tedious. Sure, The Suburbs was a sort of concept album like Neon Bible (whose subject matter deals with religious issues in a modern, anachronistic world), but it just couldn't get its point across without boring me for long stretches, unless of course that WAS the point...

Anyway, Neon Bible isn't totally perfect, as it has a track or two I'm not particularly in love with (especially right at the outset), but once the album gets rolling, its extremely inspired brand of highly orchestrated yet low-fi indie rock fueled by insightful lyrics is hard to deny. In fact, in terms of musical scope and lyrical content, I would put this Arcade Fire album right up there with a number of Smashing Pumpkins releases, which is saying a lot coming from me. And of course, I love the religious subtext throughout, which shouldn't be a surprise. Anyway, definitely check this one out if you liked The Suburbs and didn't think it could get any better than that (since it won so many awards last year and Neon Bible didn't). Looking forward to checking out their first CD (Funeral) as well now, though it'll have to wait a year or so...

Highlights: "Neon Bible"/"Intervention"/"Ocean Of Noise"
Rating: 5/5

DC Labor Day w/Suzi

Well, I'm finally catching up on my most recent trip with Suzi, our Labor Day visit to Washington, DC for what amounted to my first time, though Suzi had been plenty of times before. Expectations for the trip were high, not only due to it being my first time to our Capital, but also because I got all pumped up about the post-apocalyptic version of DC portrayed in Fallout 3 (yes, I know...very nerdy). Fortunately, though neither the monuments themselves nor the Fallout experience was quite as awesome as I had hoped, the trip ended up being quite good, easily one of the best this year, and I feel like I got a good introduction to the city (though I'm sure I'll have to return in order to see more of the museums and such). Let's go ahead and continue with the Facebook albums, and I'll pick it up from there:

Washington, DC Trip w/Suzi (Part I)
Washington, DC Trip w/Suzi (Part II)

The highlights of the trip for me were definitely our visits to Georgetown and Adams Morgan (which is like a REALLY big version of Athens' bar/club scene), two parts of town that have nothing to do with my typical fondness for seeing buildings and memorable city planning, AND getting to experience DC's superb metro, which was easily the most eerily similar of the parts of the city represented in Fallout 3. Oh, and we got some really nice pictures, especially of Suzi...I think this might have been one of the best trips for her outfits we've had thus far, and that's saying something! Definitely glad we went and I do hope to go back again one day.

Skins: Season 1

As I've explained before, the British TV series Skins is divided into two casts, each with two seasons, and due to picking up with Suzi's placement in the series at the time, I ended up watching both of the second cast's seasons first, only recently returning to the first cast for Seasons 1&2. Season 1 features the same format as the others, whereby there are roughly ten or so teenage "college" students that each get their own hour-long episode, featuring all the other cast members in lesser roles.

Although there were certainly some similar stereotypical traits to students from this cast and the other, there are definitely some major differences: this time around there's no annoying character like Panda, there's no out-of-control character like Cook, and the girls are less strongly represented, but in return we end up getting Tony and his infinite arrogance, Sid and his near-infinite ineptitude, and Cassie and her eating disorder/mental issues, to name a few. The gay cast member has been shifted from the female duo of Naomi and Emily to one male character, Maxxie (whom we see very little of in this season), and the closest approximation we get to the multicultural Thomas is Anwar, a lame Muslim kid played by an Indian and who is probably also the closest we get to Panda's level of annoyance. Oh, and Effie's here, but she doesn't talk much, especially in this season.

Overall, I think the quality of Season 1 was lower than that of Season 3, though it was generally better-received, but it's definitely WAY better than Season 4. Tony is a pretty hard-to-love character, even by the end, Michelle is hard to have any connection to, and Cassie, Anwar, ad Maxxie all have their reasons for leaving me feeling kinda "meh". I DID like the drug-addicted but happy-going Chris and the somewhat negative classical musician that is Jal, but easily the star of the season for me was the pathetic-but-trying-to-improve loser Sid. Anyway, I would still suggest Season 3 over Season 1, but only if you don't mind putting up with a slow start to Season 3 and its inclusion of Panda...

Increased Listening Time

As I think I mentioned before, my workload is quite different this school year, as I'm working out of three different middleman-type music schools as well as driving to Johns Creek twice a week, both at atypical times for me, and even a weekly visit to Emory for a college-aged student every Friday. As such, my driving schedule is wildly different from before and is quite possibly the most spread out it's ever been, all things considered (though driving to the Gwinnett Arena area and to that Korean school in Johns Creek were certainly viable competitors).

So, while this post seems to be about my driving schedule, what I'm really trying to get at is that I'm now FLYING through my weekly CD listening regimen, as I've almost got more time than I know what to do with. As I've described at length, I currently listen to the CD of the week four times per week, and I listen to the previous four albums each one time, giving me a total of eight "CDs of the Week" plus an additional singles compilation CD that I have recently worked into my regimen for a grand total of nine albums. But, I'm finding that I usually have plenty of time left over after this, so right now I'm listening back through my CDs from the year in chronological order to double check that my scores I gave every album were fair. As such, I've been averaging anywhere between two to four of these a week, in addition to the nine from the regular listening list, and if you ask me, that's a lot of albums!

Don't get me wrong...I'm not complaining, as I love listening to all this music, and it makes my driving to/from/in-between work so much more enjoyable, but it does leave me wondering what I'll end up doing with all my extra CD time once I've finished my whole list of albums from this year... Perhaps I'll just start raiding my old CD cases, or maybe I'll starting allowing myself an extra CD or two ever quarter...we'll see!

Enslaved: Odyssey To The West

My biggest birthday present from Suzi was definitely Enslaved: Odyssey To The West, a post-apocalyptic Xbox action game featuring famed motion-capture actor Andy Serkis (who played Gollum in The Lord Of The Rings and King Kong in Peter Jackson's recent version) in a re-imagining of the classic Chinese story Journey To The West. Seeing as my video game interests lie very strongly in a solid story with great character development and that I'm often very receptive to post-apocalyptic themes, this game had been on my radar ever since it was released in late 2010, despite garnering a metaranking in the low 80's (which is still good though generally not foolproof).

Easily the best thing about Enslaved is the winning combo of its story, graphics, and cutting-edge motion-capture performances, amounting to one of the most expressive and stirring games I've seen, especially outside of an RPG like Mass Effect. That said, as an action game, the gameplay largely centers around button-mashing mêlée, which isn't really my thing, but the RPG-ish upgrade tree did make the process a bit more interesting, and you're allowed to play the game again after you beat it to try to finish collecting all the upgrade orbs scattered around the world...

In the end, while Enslaved's gameplay did occasionally get frustrating and generally wasn't the best fit for me (though I was aware of this when I asked for it), the game ended up leaving a very strong positive impression on me, as the story elements were too hard not to love. As such, I see the game as a sort of all-around upgrade to the recent Prince Of Persia game, which shared many of the same gameplay features and graphical standards but was inferior in almost every regard. So, I'm definitely glad I played Enslaved and am looking forward to playing through the Pigsy-based sidequest DLC at some point!

The Good Heart

Having really enjoyed seeing Brian Cox and Paul Dano's onscreen chemistry in 2001's L.I.E., I figured I'd check out another film they costarred in, 2009's Icelandic indie film The Good Heart, which tells the story of an old bartender (Cox) who shares a hospital room with a suicidal homeless man (Dano) and ends up training him as a replacement barkeep in preparation for his ever-nearing death (he just suffered his fifth heart attack).

I don't want to give away too much about the film apart from this (not that there are any huge surprises or anything though), but easily the biggest highlight was growing familiar with each of the distinct personalities of each of the bar's regulars, and seeing how differently the two bartenders' approach to each is. Anyway, while the film wasn't quite as good as L.I.E., it was still pretty decent and definitely worth checking out if you're a big Brian Cox or Paul Dano fan.

Networking Happy Hour

As I alluded to in another post about me having two very different political discussions with two Brits, all within just over 24 hours, the event where I had the second, awkward conversation was a social networking happy hour meet-up that my buddy Jim invited me to, partly just to hang out, and partly to see if I would be interested in joining the group.

The group is one of these power networking things where members from different industries try to help connect each other to new clients and business opportunities, and I could have joined their ranks had I thought the this might lead to enough new clients to match the dues. Oh, and then there's the fact that the group meets at 7am on Thursday mornings! If you know anything about me, you know how improbable this would be for me to do, especially considering I'm a night owl and wouldn't need to be at work until 2:30pm or so later that day. Hell, even when I wake up with Suzi, we don't actually rise until 8am, as she doesn't have to be at work until 9am, so would have to get up at least an hour and a half before even that! So, assuming I didn't get in a giant argument with one of the members, it still probably wouldn't have been my sort of thing anyway... ;)

But the happy hour meet-up was naturally much chiller than the morning meetings, and I enjoyed meeting Jim's fellow power networkers. I spent most of my time talking with an older female flight attendant, a hippie-ish chiropractor and his Jesus-y musician friend he brought along, and of course, the British actor with whom I shouldn't have talked politics. The first three conversations were interesting enough though, as I asked them lots of questions about things that interested me, namely dietary concerns with the chiropractor and his friend, and crazy stories from the flight attendant, which I was gathering to relay back to Suzi, as that kind of stuff really interests her.

All told, it was kinda a strange night, but I'm glad Jim wanted to bring me, as I hadn't seen him since Evan's wedding, and we ended up having a good time grabbing dinner at the new gastropub in Little 5 The Wrecking Bar.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - I'm With You

The second album I was given for my current set of HiFi reviews was the Red Hot Chili Peppers' new (and tenth!) studio album, entitled I'm With You. Though they might not exactly label it as such, the album was supposedly largely intended as a tribute album to a friend that recently overdosed, but as I say this, I can't seem to really find much evidence to support this, though I know I read it in the official album synopsis on iTunes... Regardless, this album is a different beast altogether for the Chili Peppers, though I have to admit that I haven't really been paying them too much attention beyond the singles in recent years.

First off, this is the first album featuring the entirely new (for the band) guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, who was hired to fill the void left by departed critically-acclaimed guitarist John Frusciante. Secondly, the subject matter for the bulk of the songs seems to be way too keyed in to their seemingly-anonymous friend's death...though I'm sure the songs all mean something special to the band and the guy's friends, it doesn't really translate well to everyone else. And lastly, though there are a few more typically-Peppers-esque tracks on offer here, WAY too much of the lengthy album features either mediocre material, or worse, songs that sound as though they were ripped off from other bands/styles, including 311 and Maroon 5, which doesn't really make sense for RHCP...

To be fair though, if the album had been at least four tracks shorter, it might have fared better, but right now at its actual length, with tons of filler, I'm reluctant to even give it a 2/5, so I reserve the right to pull it down to the bottom upon further reflection... Definitely skip everything but the upcoming single "Monarchy Of Roses" if you want to retain some respect for this generally foolproof band...

Highlights: "Monarchy Of Roses"/"Factory Of Faith"/"Goodbye Hooray"
Ranking: 2/5

Rock Band 3 (Overview)

[Long, long post here! My apologies!]

Finally...here's my post on the second of three Xbox titles I received for Christmas, a trio which should have been completed long before now but was delayed due to an unfortunate combination of a broken TV for six weeks, a return to both Mass Effect games, and a subsequent lack of interest in playing through any unplayed games, which hopefully I'll be rallying back from soon!

Anyway, having been a huge fan of the DJ Hero franchise and Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock, it was a natural choice for me to ask for Rock Band 3, with its addition of a keyboard as one of the now-many choices you have for playing along to the game's 83-song discography. On top of this, the developers even added in a feature whereby you could learn the ACTUAL keyboard, guitar, and drum parts, given that you had the right controller for them. Fortunately, the keyboard that comes with the game is a full-on 25-key MIDI-compatible keyboard that, despite its silly Xbox navigation buttons on top, is totally usable in a real music-making situation, with keys that feel professional and synthy. Unfortunately, I don't yet have any sort of drums for these music games, either game-controller-like or professional, and I definitely don't have either of the two available Pro Guitar models (one a REAL-REAL guitar and one a 102-button monstrosity that emulates frets for each of the six strings), so these modes were totally out of bounds for me.

However, I DID start with the Pro Keys option right off the bat, figuring that since I'm a real keyboardist and could certainly handle the keys parts of most of these songs, I should be okay starting off here in expert (essentially requiring all the real notes), but I quickly found that I was defeated by the game's cumbersome notation system, which is built for non-musicians and doesn't even have a traditional notation option (though this must have been easy enough to pull off given how commonplace MIDI score conversions are on most software programs these days). Add in the fact that the game expects you to play one-handed and that the notes in chords have to be hit EXACTLY at the same time, even when they would have been more accurately played otherwise, and you've got a surprisingly brutal experience that seems to take all the fun out of playing keys.

So, I put the game down and took months off before finally returning to the simpler, traditional 5-button music-game scheme for the keyboard, and fortunately, I ended up having fun with the game by the end, as a lot of the issues from Pro Keys mode were minimized, if not removed entirely. That said, like the DJ Hero games, I had some calibration issues here, and the menu system for the game was rather confusing at first (being significantly different from the "Hero" line of games), but eventually things started making sense, and I've since 5-starred (if not Gold-Starred) all but the most brutal tracks on Expert. I'm going to write another post later on the game's songlist and any DLC I've downloaded (I've bought A LOT and still have tons more I'd like to check out!), but as this post is getting long, I figure I better wrap it up soon(ish)...

It should also be noted though, that since the game is so extensive with all its different instruments and modes for each, I'm going to consider each part of Rock Band 3 as a different game for Game of the Year nominations, which means that if I ever do plow through Pro Keys, the regular guitar stuff (which I didn't touch here), or the Pro Guitar or either of the Drums parts, I might very well be considering the game for next year's list as well. As it stands right now, I'm just going to stick with regular Keys for the rest of 2011, as I've got way too many other game experiences to be having!

In closing, while Rock Band 3 certainly was no DJ Hero game or even Guitar Hero III, it certainly warmed on me over time and was therefore better than Guitar Hero World Tour, so it might be lucky enough to make it on my Top 5 this year, especially considering Fallout 3 is currently its only other big contender!

The Silence Of The Lambs

Easily one of the best films I've re-watched this year via Netflix is 1991's The Silence Of The Lambs, a film which pretty much needs no introduction or brief synopsis given due to its massive critical and popular appeal, superb performances and cinematography, and clear superiority over almost any other film in its genre. Even its sequel and two big-screen prequels really couldn't hold the candle, though this was most-likely due to an inability to recreate that perfect storm that made the original so genius...

Anyway, what more is there to say other than to acknowledge that I've never watched this film (either in my original viewing or in any of the subsequent times) and been letdown in the slightest? That said, I do plan on returning to Red Dragon and possibly (though not likely) Hannibal, knowing full well that these films probably will disappoint on some level, as they did back when I first saw them. Such is the curse of making such an amazing film and its resulting high expectations for any follow-ups, I suppose, but I would rather have a handful of The Silence Of The Lambs' with their unfortunate Hannibals and Hannibal Risings than any number of less-worthy films without shitty sequels...

New X-Men: Ultimate Collection Vol.2

Onto the first of the many gifts I got from Suzi for my birthday, most of which I won't be talking about exclusively, as they were largely different kinds of candies/treats like Pocky Sticks, wine gums, and Pac-Man ghost-themed hard candy. Anyway, the first big gift that I finished was the second installment in Grant Morrison's run with New X-Men that Dave got me started with last Christmas, which as you might remember, I really enjoined, leading me to ask for the second installment for my birthday and leaving me in need of the third and final book sometime in the near future.

As far as the range of stories covered in New X-Men: Ultimate Collection Vol.2 is concerned, things do pick-up from the first book on some level, the primary one being the effects of the mutant genocide in Genosha, but smaller topics recur like a brief visit by the U-Men and the Shiar and continued storylines for new or evolved characters like Beak, Angel, Xorn, Professor X, and Emma Frost. In addition, the biggest new storylines on offer are those covering the introduction of Fantomex and his defeat of Weapon XII, Scott Summers and Emma Frost's growing affair, Beak and Angel's new dysfunctional relationship, the self-proclaimed "New X-Men" led by a jacked-up Quentin Quire, and Bishop's Clue-like search for Emma Frost's killer.

So, while none of the stories found here have as much impact as the whole Cassandra Nova saga, they all tie together pretty well episodically and were quite enjoyable on the whole, leaving me pretty excited for the next book. So, considering there's only one trade paperback left in the collection, I'm assuming this relatively quiet middle chapter is just preparing us for a much plot-heavier third installment. Thanks to Suzi for the new book, yet another one of the best superhero comics I've read, and thanks again to Dave for getting the ball rolling with the first one!

Horrible Bosses

Another dumbish comedy that I've seen lately in a desire to mix things up a bit was this year's Horrible Bosses, which tells the story of three average guys who agree to kill each others' intolerable bosses in order to make their lives better. I had mixed feelings about this movie, as some parts are really awesome (anything with Charlie Day from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia and Jennifer Aniston being chief amongst them), and some were kinda annoying (especially Jason Sudeikis, whom I've already railed against for always portraying another Ed Helms-type character, which I hate in the first place), but most of the film manages to hover around the "meh" range without being too extreme on either side. Kevin Spacey and Colin Farrell were alright as the atrociously bad basses they were, but I do think everyone far overhyped the latter's role in the film, especially since he isn't really in it that much.

Overall, I enjoyed the film alright, certainly more than The Hangover Part II and Hall Pass, but I definitely wouldn't go out of my way to recommend it unless you're just dying to see Jennifer Aniston be almost-shockingly dirty for her short portions of the film. As such, I'd say it's an impulse rent at best, though you could do worse.

Saying "Sorry" When Making Music

This topic has been on my mind for awhile now, but it only occurred to me recently to actually talk about it here on the blog...

For most of my life as a musician, I've found myself and many other musicians nearly automatically responding to mistakes they make when playing with the word "sorry", though this admittedly only occurs outside of public performances. So, even though we can shut this off when playing live, I still find it a little odd that we do this at all... I would like to think that, by my friendliness and buddy-buddy attitude towards my studnets in lessons, I have an effect on them whereby they feel it less necessary to apologize to me for their mistakes, but yet I still find myself modeling the same behavior on a near-daily basis, more out of a learned subconscious habit than out of a legitimate need to acknowledge my musical shortcomings as a teacher, if you will. As such, some of my students are more inclined to say "sorry" than others, with the one student who brought this issue to the forefront for me a couple weeks ago actually being someone I inherited from another teacher, but I still wonder if the phenomenon is really all that avoidable at all.

Is it that we feel that by admitting our mistakes immediately we've somehow vindicated ourselves of some of the judgment we assume our listening peers are sure to make? Is it that we all had overbearing teachers back in our formative years? Or could it simply be that people that do this are in the minority and just have general security issues? I don't know...maybe I'm just rambling, but if anyone has any particular insight into this, I would be interested to hear their thoughts...

The Fighter

Having seen the trailer above and heard all the buzz about last year's critically-adored boxing movie The Fighter, I wasn't really all that excited to see it, but somehow I ended up reading another synopsis somewhere that helped pique my interest. See, while the producers of the film probably thought it would be more appealing to market the movie as a run-of-the-mill feel-good boxing movie, it's really more about Christian Bale's character's drug problem and how it's tearing his (very trashy New England) family apart, especially the life of his up-and-coming boxing champ younger brother (Mark Wahlberg). So, hearing this, Suzi eventually suggested we watch the film, and we were both pleasantly surprised by how charmingly atypical it was for the genre.

Though Christian Bale's Dicky Ecklund was a real-life boxer back in the day who had earned himself quite a bit of hometown respect, he had since declined into a crack addict, which all but ruined his place in the boxing world, his only remaining chance to participate lying in the training of his younger half-brother (Micky Ward). As such, almost all of the best parts of the film have nothing to do with boxing itself, and more with Ecklund's addiction, which Christian Bale plays quite well. In fact, with each new film of his I see, I'm starting to respect Bale's wide range of characters and roles, easily placing him towards the top of my list for actors who defy typecasting.

Anyway, I don't want to give much more away about the film, but it was definitely good, though probably not Top 5 material for me. Do check it out if you like your sports movies with a big dose of soul instead of the tired underdog story they've all seemingly devolved into (though, if I'm being fair, boxing movies seem to have an edge in this department...but you get the point!).

YACHT - Shangri-La

As the first of this season's set of albums I got from HiFi for review, YACHT's new disco concept album Shangri-La was a surprising hit for me, especially considering I had given prior consideration to the album when it initially came out in mid-June but decided that I wasn't really all that interested in checking it out, apart from a single or two. Still, I suggested it for review at HiFi, thinking it would be better than doing an album to which I was less stylistically-inclined, and I ended up really loving it, largely for its strange take on the popular post-apocalyptic Utopian trend right now. Now, while I can't verify that every track on Shangri-La sticks to this theme, at least half the tracks make direct reference to what I gather is supposed to be a small Utopian community, and many others may further hint at this setting, lending a strong sense of cohesion and purpose to an otherwise lighthearted party album.

Though YACHT's primary duo, Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans, both serve as lead singers, Claire certainly has a stronger presence on Shangri-La, with her laidback, alto, B-52's-esque delivery most-clearly defining the band's signature sound. Still, Jona's more upbeat tone is a welcome alternative, as it generally fits the lighthearted disco vibe much more naturally. In the end though, what really won me over about this album was the clever subject matter, which over the course of its brief ten tracks essentially offers a collection of vignettes covering different aspects of the band's version of Shangri-La (which itself originated in lore from James Hilton's 1933 novel Lost Horizon), wrapping the whole thing up with a touching title-track anthem in a contrasting and welcome style to send us off.

All this said, there were a couple tracks that I couldn't really stand, and though the concept does elevate this album to greater heights, it's still ultimately a lighthearted album that's more interested in dancing than being artful, but I still recommend it highly and hope you check it out!

Highlights: "Dystopia"/"I Walked Alone"/"Paradise Engineering"
Rating: 4/5

Swedish Fish

It's rare that I talk about food on my blog, especially candy (hell, this might be the first post of its kind!), but the unpredictably-lovable red winegum variety of candy that is Swedish Fish has become a sort of obsession with Suzi and me. It all started when Suzi randomly had some at her place probably sometime around eight months to a year ago and she offered them to me while we were hanging out watching TV or a DVD. In general, I'm not much of a candy person, either of the chocolate or sugary variety, as they're not really good for you and I usually find the taste doesn't outweigh this fact, but somehow Swedish Fish managed to sneak into my subconscious experience of watching TV with Suzi and/or just being at her place in-and-of-itself, and now the two experiences are nearly inseparable for me.

So, for the past eight months or so, Suzi and I have taken turns making sure that we're always fully stocked on Swedish Fish, which we usually pick up at her local Rite Aid store in groups of two bags at a time, and the habit hasn't really slowed down at all...in fact, it might have gotten even more sever over time! As such, it's really good that they're fat-free, but naturally, we're still getting a lot of empty calories and increasing the risk for cavities if we don't brush at night after eating half a bag, but fuck it! I love these stupid chewy red candies too much! ;)

Due Date

As I believe I've mentioned before, Suzi and I have been watching a lot of lighthearted comedies lately, especially when we rent them from a RedBox kiosk, but probably one of the better comedies we've seen lately was last year's Due Date, a road trip movie starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Zach Galifianakis. In many ways, the film kinda plays out as the spiritual successor to The Hangover, especially considering Zach's characters in both are very similar and that The Hangover Part II sucked so bad, but it's the similar-but-new plot and the presence of the extremely charismatic RDJ that helps give Due Date a character all it's own.

The basic idea is that RDJ and Zach, two strangers, end up more-or-less forced (after some TSA mishaps) to take a roadtrip together to make it back for the delivery of RDJ's firstborn in California, all-the-while getting caught up in a number of chaotic situations due to Galifianakis' odd quirks and RDJ's overreaction to them in annoyance/frustration. So yeah, more of the The Hangover formula, but Due Date still had some fresh laughs and scenarios to offer, and RDJ and Galifianakis really did have some pretty solid onscreen chemistry. So, if you like this type of film and are looking for a light but enjoyable comedy to while away some time, Due Date wouldn't be a bad choice.

Trading In Video Games

When I first started playing Xbox back in August of 2008, I was very eager to build my collection of games owned and played, and I gave little thought to perhaps one day trading them back in to Gamestop once I was finished with them. From what I understand, there are plenty of people who help fund their gaming habits by buying games used for reduced prices and then trading them back in soon thereafter, effectively saving a decent percentage off the amount of their new games, but in exchange for not owning much of a collection at home. As a collector, this thought never appealed to me much, and considering I'm also a bit snooty about not buying things used, I stayed away from game trading for the past three years.

But over that time, I've slowly started to realize a couple things about how I consume games that have caused me to reconsider. First off, I've discovered that I actually don't like most types of games, but this only came via trying out a number of different genres, often being so disinterested in what they have to offer that I never ended up finishing them. Secondly, the types of games that I gravitate towards usually take a lot of time to finish, and as such, I'm finding it increasingly harder to get through more than a handful of games a year, especially when you consider I sometimes use some of this time to revisit older titles that I know off-hand I'll enjoy more than a newer, uncertain experience. Because of this, a number of my unfinished games in less-favorable genres have continued to pile up in my collection, and I fear that I'll never end up getting motivated to play through them...

So I finally decided to take a number of them to Gamestop to trade in, more to remove the rubbish from my collection than for any money saved, though I certainly wouldn't turn that money down! The five games I took in to Gamestop were Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, Naruto: Rise Of A Ninja, Call Of Duty 2, Pure, and Prince Of Persia (2008), though the return value of the last two was too low to trade, so I ended up keeping them. With the three remaining games, I think I saved about $20 off my purchase that day of a brand-new copy of Portal 2, so that was good, though I certainly didn't get the maximum return for those games, as most of them were too old and therefore not in-demand.

So, the basic idea now is to only keep games around that I can truly see myself wanting to return to one day, either because they've still got some experiences left to offer or because I just enjoyed and respect them so much that I'm proud to own them. Ultimately, I'm happy enough with this way of doing things, and I look forward to trimming down my collection more in the future. For the moment, I'm just hoping I can get motivated again to plow through my still-long list of unfinished games, hopefully giving me enough of a contestant field for a Top 5 this year!

Pride Of Baghdad

Onto the first of my birthday present posts, this time for the graphic novel Pride Of Baghdad, which, along with Brian Eno's album Ambient 1: Music For Airports, was one of the presents I got from my buddy Dave in one of our semi-annual present exchanges. The book is a dramatization of the true events surrounding a few lions that were accidentally freed from the Baghdad Zoo after the U.S. attack in 2003. In the story, the lions can speak amongst themselves and the other animals they encounter, though they don't really end up interacting with any humans, and though the art style is quite beautiful, the impact of the story is mainly imparted through their conversations, which mostly deal with the stress of figuring out their brief shot at freedom in this horrific warzone world they've inherited.

Overall, the story was very good, as I easily finished it in one day, both due to its intrigue and its brevity. In fact, though it might not make much artistic sense to stretch the story out longer, I really kinda wished it didn't end so quickly, as I was thoroughly enjoying it. So, I guess the solution would be to check out some more of writer Brian K. Vaughan's other work, perhaps Marvel's Runaways, Vertigo's Y: The Last Man, or the independent Ex Machina, all of which look promising. Thanks again to Dave for another great addition to my graphic novel collection!

Blade II

I've long considered the first two Blade films the first truly successful Marvel franchises to break into the film world, and between the two of them, I've always thought 2002's Blade II was clearly the better entry, so although I waited for a long time for Netflix to offer both the first AND second films, I eventually broke down and decided to just go ahead and re-watch them out of order, since Blade seemed like it might never be available.

Unfortunately, I have to admit that Blade II, though still decent for the genre, didn't hold up as well as I had remembered. Sure, the teaming-up-with-the-vampires premise this time around IS still neat, and the relationship between Blade and the lead female vampire was still intriguing, but in light of the numerous superior Marvel films to have come out over the past few years, even the better of the two good Blade films couldn't really totally win me over. I still enjoyed it though, and I'm looking forward to hopefully re-watching Blade if it ever becomes available.

Moonphase (TTM) @ King Plow

Having been a LONG, LONG time (all things considered) since I had last seen Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun (one of my favorite Atlanta indie bands) live, I decided to take the opportunity to do so when they were offering a special art show/concert mixed-media event with artist Matthew White at King Plow, which they had named "Moonphase". In addition, they had also arranged for a couple food trucks to be outside, and the show was free, so it seemed like a great chance to do something fresh and catch up with the band.

The basic premise was that the artist had become friends with the band and toured with them a little while back, all with the intention of finding inspiration for doing an entire collection of pieces about the band in general and life on the road... In the end, it was a neat concept, and the event certainly stood out from any other rock show I've seen lately. The art was pretty cool, catching up with the band was great, and their show was really solid as always, featuring a whole bunch of new material they've written since I last saw them. Keep it up, you guys!

Yelle - Safari Disco Club

Having liked but not loved French indie-electro-pop artist Yelle's debut album Pop Up back in 2008, I was willing to give her follow-up this year Safari Disco Club a shot, despite the obvious language barrier (my French is shaky at best). This time around, Yelle's style has matured quite a bit, evolving past the more childlike musical material of Pop Up in exchange for the darker, more-melodic style of Safari Disco Club. Still, the heavy dance influence prevails throughout, though that's not to say the songs aren't about the lyrics first-and-foremost (though I generally don't understand them!). Actually, the album kinda reminds me of a much better take on the recent Goldfrapp album Head First, which I checked out last year and hated, as there's a strong smooth disco vibe throughout but without the boring melodies and rhythms.

Overall, I don't have too much more to say about Safari Disco Club off-hand. I would say that it's similar to its predecessor in terms of quality except in its increased maturity, but Pop Up would probably come out on top with regards to its youthful energy, which isn't necessarily as much of a draw for me at this stage in my life. Check it out if you like European electro-pop and/or albums in foreign languages, as it definitely succeeds in overcoming the language barrier to offer an enjoyable experience to everyone.

Highlights: "Que Veux-Tu"/"J'ai Bu"/"Le Grand Saut"
Rating: 3/5

The Hot Chick

So, although I generally consider Suzi to have very good taste in movies and music [though the sentiment isn't mutual regarding mine... ;)], occasionally Suzi slips up and reveals that she actually has a guilty pleasure or two, usually in the form of something so unrespectable that it almost, for a moment or two, balances things out between us. Such was the case with Rob Schneider's 2002 buffoonfest The Hot Chick, a film which Suzi promised was hilarious and awesome, despite Schneider's lousy track record for bad films. Well, this time she was wrong, and I got to sit there and watch every minute of it! ;)

Basically, The Hot Chick tells the story of a superficial highschool girl who ends up getting body-swapped with a petty thief (the person Rob Schneider starts off as in the beginning of the film) via a set of magical earrings, and she spends the rest of the film trying to rally her group of poorly-dressed, Clueless-esque, presumably-popular girl friends to her aid in reversing the situation. As far as I was concerned, hilarity never ensued, and it remained difficult the whole time to really see Rob Schneider as anything but a really flaming gay man hanging out with a bunch of poorly-dressed chicks, instead of the girl trapped in a guy's body that we were supposed to see.

Anyway, the film was pretty ridiculous and bad, but I still respect Suzi's taste in movies regardless... ;) Let's just hope she doesn't make me watch the rest of the Rob Schneider oeuvre...

Boston Bday w/Suzi

Almost two months ago (thought I was catching up faster than this!) Suzi and I went to Boston for our first time (both together and as individuals), partly for my birthday and partly just because we'd been wanting to go for almost a year at that point. Plus, knowing that we wouldn't be as up for going when it started chilling off in the Fall, we figured it was kinda now or never if we wanted to go anytime soon. Anyway, here are the two Facebook albums:

Boston Trip w/Suzi (Part I)
Boston Trip w/Suzi (Part II)

In summary, the Boston trip ended up being a bit mixed in comparison with our others... On one hand, we got to see Goose and Lauren and took some of my favorite pictures yet (easily the two highlights from the trip!), all-the-while getting to see one of America's oldest and most-historical cities, but on the other hand, the trip was relatively unproductive with regards to the quantity of memories made, partly due to rain and partly to poor time-management, and as such, I have a hard time remembering what made this trip unique (beyond the Goose stuff, of course). That's not to say we didn't have a great time and enjoy the city, but I somehow feel like we missed some of the potential highlights and/or could've used another day or two there.

In the end, I'm very glad we went but would love to return some other time, perhaps attached to a side-trip to Cape Cod or some other nearby New England city. Thanks to Goose for showing us a fantastic time at Roller Derby and in Cambridge! It was so good to catch up after so long!

My De-Emphasized 30th Bday

So, I turned 30 this past August, but most people probably weren't all that aware, as I intentionally tried to have the event slip under the radar. There were two big reasons for this:

1.) I've noticed that the more of a big deal I make of my birthday from year to year, the more letdown and depressed I am when it ends up not being the best day I've ever experienced...so by having it be a small affair, I felt like I could successfully avoid this feeling.

2.) I don't like when people try to get me drunk, mostly due to the hangovers and acting like an idiot, not the extra attention and loosening up before I start acting like an idiot... ; ) So, considering a 30th birthday is probably the last great opportunity for people to try to get me wasted, I felt it was in my best interest to simply avoid giving them that opportunity!

Maybe this is all lame, but whatever: I didn't end up getting letdown, depressed, or hungover, and instead I got a nice dinner at Agave with my parents and Suzi, a lunch with my sister when she was in town, a nice set of gifts (especially from Suzi), and an excuse to go out of town (to Boston) the following weekend.

Overall, I would say it was a pretty nice birthday, despite not being the least bit flashy. And plus, I can always have more parties at my condo where I won't be such the center of attention. Thanks to everyone that made this birthday special, and to all those that like me enough to possibly feel a little gypped because I didn't let them know I was leaving my twenties... =)

Being Internetless

If you had assumed I was taking a break in blogging due to either a busy weekend or general apathy/slacking off, you'd actually be wrong this time, as I'm currently going through what I believe is my first internet dry spell since I've moved into my condo and have been sharing internet wirelessly with my neighbor. I first noticed it this past Friday, but though my neighbor has more-or-less assured me (since he's the one that has the service and wireless modem) it should be better by Tuesday, he's been a little mysterious about the whole situation, leaving me a bit unsure that things will actually be better anytime soon, especially since he supposedly won't be in when the AT&T and/or Comcast people are scheduled to come look at his setup in his condo...

Anyway, I never realized how helpless I feel about not having internet when I have so many other potential distractions at home. I've got video games (albeit offline, which isn't really a problem for me), movies on actual DVD (versus Netflix), taking care of my work records, working on music stuff and synth patches, reading books, exercising, and cleaning up my place, but somehow this all fails to interest me at the moment. I can't even really write my HiFi reviews, as I need access to the internet for any pertinent background info on the artists/albums, and I can't keep listening to new music clips on iTunes, which is one of my top time-killers. More importantly, I ended up having to pay some of my bills a tad late (which is generally fine), as I wasn't expecting to lose my internet the day before the first of the month. And then of course there's getting behind on blogging again, which is a little sad considering how good I've been about it recently.

So, to remedy some of this, I'm currently doing WiFi at a Panera restaurant, and I plan on spending the night at my parents' place tomorrow night so I can get some of this stuff done. I know...wah wah, First-World Problem, etc...but whatever. It's an adjustment, and I'll complain if I want! ;) Just glad business stuff doesn't end up getting hit by this...I would be WAY angrier with the situation if that were the case!