Daredevil

Okay, I know. I said I would get back to blogging and I've sucked at it. Well, how about we skip the whole promising to be better routine and just get down to it...?

My buddy Dave and I are both really big fans of tons of nerdy films, comics, and games, and as such, we often discuss their pluses and minuses at length, including virtually every superhero film to have come out in the past fifteen years or so. One of the films we've disagreed upon this whole time was the generally-disregarded 2003 Marvel film Daredevil, starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, a film that Dave has pretty much always said sucked but which I managed to have a lingering fondness for after having found it "not so bad" back when I saw it in the theatre all those years ago. Well, seeing as it wasn't available on streaming Netflix and that it was only something like five bucks on Amazon (helping me bump my order price up to the SuperSaver Shipping level), I figured I might as well own the film, and as such, I recently sat down with it to review it as a (more) mature superhero film fan...

As it turns out, I would definitely have to agree with Dave on this film now that I've let some time pass and my tastes have (hopefully) developed over the years. The film is pretty shoddy, which isn't that surprising considering that it predates the bulk of the modern Marvel superhero film era (though the stellar X2 came out the same year), and as such, its casting, script, cinematography, and soundtrack all fall pretty flat, leaving little reason for a sequel (thankfully). Speaking of sequels though, Daredevil's lukewarm reception evidently wasn't enough to prevent some producer somewhere from rehiring its director (Mark Steven Johnson) to go on to direct the even more hideous first Ghost Rider film (which might in fact be the worst superhero film I've ever seen), but whatever. Surprisingly, the best thing about Daredevil is the unlikely onscreen chemistry between Affleck and Garner, despite a shitty script, which seems to be explainable only in the fact that their real-life chemistry was showing through the film-making mediocrity...

All this said, I didn't hate re-watching Daredevil as much as I did Batman Forever, and supposedly (according to Dave!) the extra features on the DVD are surprisingly really solid, so I'm still hoping the purchase wasn't totally in vain. Oh well...I guess Dave has now been right about both the Star Wars prequels AND this film, so I guess I'm just left guessing when he's going to end up proving me wrong once again... ;)

Getting Back In Shape

My apologies for once again being an absent blogger. In addition to wanting a little break, I recently began (whilst at the bottom of a bit of a self-loathing stint regarding my seeming inability to be productive) working out in earnest for the first time in...depending how you define it...well, EVER. Sure, I did a mild (and irregular) amount of running back when I moved to Bloomington, and I biked regularly while living in The Netherlands and upon my immediate return to the States, but though I sort of half-heartedly attempted getting started with a workout regimen here at The Stacks with my nice, modern gym mere yards away from my front door (and all without stepping outside!), it took until this most recent self-examination for me to actually get off my ass with any consistency. I think the big thing was noticing my level of depression and worthlessness rising weekly with my dad's decreasing health, and in addition to the emotional benefits I would have from working out, I always wanted to stat chipping away at my very slowly-but surely-growing tummy.

So, I've worked out seven times over the past nine days, following a twelve-week, five-day, "Get Back In Shape" regimen from this Men's Health book I picked up over a year ago. The plan is split into three four-week segments of increasing intensity, the first of which features weight-training Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and cardio in-between, giving me the weekends off (which is much appreciated). Also, as this is probably the most forgiving workout plan in the book, it's also a great first step into the world of being in shape, as I've generally always hated exercising and needed something to gradually get me into a routine.

Thus far, I would say I've noticed a change in my happiness, if only because I actually made a plan to do something productive and am sticking with it. We'll see how much better in shape I am over the course of the twelve weeks, and perhaps I'll report back if I notice any significant physical changes. Regardless, if nothing else, I'll be giving myself that extra emotional help I might very well need when it comes time for my dad to pass, and hopefully Suzi will end up liking the changes as well... =)

Next on my list of daily activities to get back into a routine with is blogging, so let's hope I can stick with it this time. That said, I'm putting exercising first between the two, as it's far more important in the long run. Wish me luck!

Spring Break 2012

Alright, back to blogging now that I'm done with tax preparations! (I'll cover that later)... So, last week was Spring Break for the majority of my students (private schools excluded), and as such, I had a very light teaching load which, as always, wasn't exactly welcome. Sure, I enjoyed a little more time to myself (a large percentage of which was spent putting off doing my taxes!), but considering Suzi and I can't really take trips right now with the uncertainty of the exact time of my dad's passing, I had to stay home for the presumed-holiday, which was kinda a bummer. In the end, while I haven't taken the time to do the exact numbers on lessons missed last week (as I've pretty much had it with numbers for the moment!), I'm pretty sure I taught less than half of my students, but whatever...it's a whole lot better than the roughly six weeks of sparse lessons from Thanksgiving through New Year's or the two months of Summer! Just glad things are back to the regular grind now...

Penguin Prison - Penguin Prison

Despite their ridiculous band name, NYC-based Penguin Prison's eponymous debut LP features the type of indie synth pop that I have a hard time resisting, fully making this solid-though-saccharine release fall squarely in guilty pleasure territory. Walking a fine line stylistically between albums by other similar throwback synth groups like Chromeo, Frankmusik, and Under The Influence Of Giants, Penguin Prison isn't going to be winning any awards for originality, but that doesn't mean it isn't really fun to groove out to (especially in the car). Surprisingly for an album like this, the lyrical content often centers around the flaws of wealth and materialism, though this doesn't hit with much weight given the type of lighthearted musical material behind it.

Ultimately, I don't have too much to say about Penguin Prison's debut...yes, it's the type of band I would like to catch live if possible, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend the album unless you're particularly into the genre.

Highlights: "The Worse It Gets"/"Desert Cold"/"Someone Got Everything"
Rating: 4/5

Superbad

2007's Superbad is one of those rare comedies that virtually everyone (even "art film" snobs like me) loves, and considering I've referenced it in what feels like a million times on this blog and that I saw it since I came home from Europe, it's surprising that I never ended up blogging about it. Well, that would be because I didn't start blogging until January 1st, 2008, so considering I saw the film in the theatre, it makes sense that it fell through the cracks. Anyway, riding a little bit of a Jonah Hill wave after seeing 21 Jump Street, Suzi finally gave in and rented Superbad after years of putting off watching it, and though I've possibly seen it one too many times now to fully rave about it, I'm pretty sure she ended up liking it a lot (despite its popularity/hype).

If you somehow don't already know, Superbad is based around a script Seth Rogen wrote back when he was a teenager (hence, Jonah Hill's character being named Seth), and as such, is a high school drama with a very juvenile sense of humor, following three somewhat lame guys through an epic day where they try to procure $100-worth of alcohol for the party hosted by fellow classmate Emma Stone, where they're all hoping to finally have sex with their ladies of choice. Along the way, a bunch of crazy stuff happens, but the real clincher is seeing the relationships between all involved get fleshed out in a surprisingly heartfelt way (for the genre), especially between leads Jonah Hill and Michael Cera (being more-or-less their first major film roles).

Anyway, the movie's great, even after seeing it a bunch of times, and I highly recommend it to anyone that hasn't yet checked it out.

Movie (Non-Doc) of the Year Nominations 2011

As I've already alluded to several times at this point, 2011 was a fantastic year for movies, both documentaries and non-documentaries alike (do I call this fiction, or does that not accurately include biopics?). I mainly attribute this upswing in movie quality to the dual influence of access to streaming Netflix (via Suzi) and Suzi herself, as many of my favorite films this year (including plenty that didn't quite make it on either of my Top 5 lists) were her suggestions. As you might expect, this turn towards better cinematic experiences was much appreciated for me this past year, balancing out both the mediocre year in movies I had in 2010 and the middling year I had in music-related media (including concert-going) in 2011. Anyway, without further ado, here are my Top 5:

Basquiat: Though this biopic about an obscure (but cult-favorite) artist from the 80's is the oldest film in the group (1996) and somewhat unlikely to have ranked, it ended up working its way into my head and never let go. I guess it was the amazing cast (especially Jeffrey Wright's Basquiat and David Bowie's Andy Warhol), but whatever it was, Basquiat stood out from all the other older films I watched this year (including The Exorcist and Pulp Fiction) and is certainly a film I'd like to eventually return to.

De-Lovely: This 2004 Cole Porter biopic had been on my to-watch list since its release the same year I received a scholarship at IU by Porter's family, so it's a wonder it took me this long to actually watch it. I'm really glad I did, as it's easily the best musical I've seen since Moulin Rouge, and considering I already knew all the music going in (having bought the soundtrack when it came out), it didn't take much to win me over. Top this with superb performances by Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd as well as a bunch of celebrity singer cameos, and you've got a great film.

Hesher: Every year I've done this Top 5 category, I've had that one film that, upon viewing, instantly established the standard by which all other films must live up to that year, and for 2011, that was Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Hesher. Stuck somewhere between a tragedy and a comedy, Hesher captures a wide range of emotions, all with an irreverent twist, and though the critics didn't seem to like it much at all, I couldn't recommend the film more highly.

Mary And Max: Just when I thought I had run out of great, adult-themed cartoony films to fall in love with, along came 2009's Australian claymation black comedy Mary And Max, weaving yet another sad tale (a theme for this year's Top 5!) with a strong sense of humor to balance things out. Plus, how many other films do you know that feature a forbidden friendship between a 44-year-old, NYC loner with Asperger's and an 8-year-old Australian girl with no self-esteem, claymation or not?!?

Zombieland: As my wild card nomination for this list, 2009's Zombieland was one of those Netflixed movies that I checked out largely on a whim but ended up absolutely loving. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not very versed on zombie films at all, but if this isn't a fantastic way to get started, I can't imagine what would be. The plot's clever as hell, the jokes are laugh-out-loud funny, the cast has great chemistry, and its pacing is perfect.

So there you have it: two biopics (one a musical), an irreverent dramedy, a dark claymation film, and a comedic take on the zombie genre, only one of which was actually released in 2011 (Hesher). It's not necessarily that there weren't good films released last year, but due to streaming Netflix, I had access to a bunch of great films from previous years that managed to edge out any competition. Though this might not be quite as solid a list as in 2008 or 2009, when combined with the stellar documentaries from my other Top 5 list, 2011 was easily one of the strongest years in the medium thus far.

Skins: Season 5

Back to some more TV stuff, this time a return to the Skins series with Season 5, which also happens to be the start of the third (and current) cast. The strange thing about giving us a new cast every two seasons is that it creates a need for the newest cast to have to prove themselves worthy of the Skins title, and considering how much further apart Suzi and I watched this third cast from its predecessors, I would have to admit that we probably went into the experience a bit wary, not giving the cast too much of the benefit of the doubt.

To my surprise, our first impressions were quite positive, as the introductory episode featured the androgynous lead female character Franky (certainly a fresh move for the series), and the following episode focused around the odd (but interesting) romantic coupling of the reclusive metalhead Rich with the social chameleon Grace, who somehow was mixed black/white but actually just looked Asian. Both of these episodes were good, but even at this point, I could already see that the rest of the cast was pretty weak and uninspiring, especially the lead villain (if you will) Mini, her shallow boyfriend Nick, and the oddball (though not entertaining) ranga Alo. Add to this the fact that the season was only eight episodes long (while some previous ones have been ten), and you've got a set of characters that I didn't really fall in love with, either because we didn't get enough quality time with them or because they ultimately weren't that interesting. Also, for what's it worth, I felt like the remix of the original theme song for this cast was a big step down, though I guess this isn't that important.

All this said, I have a feeling that the longer, now-complete second season with this cast (Season 6), which I'm not certain is available yet on Netflix, might bolster the first season enough to turn things around, but at the moment, I'm definitely feeling cast three the least of the Skins groups to-date. Still worth checking out though if you're a fan.

"Winter" 2012

I don't know for sure how things were around the rest of the country, but I wouldn't be too surprised if virtually all of the United States experienced a shockingly mild Winter this year, especially down here in the South. I've always said that Fall and Winter were my favorite Southern seasons due to the incredible heat we have here in the Spring and Summer, but this year it was as if we never had Winter at all and simply had a giant Fall, with temperatures rarely dropping below forty degrees, even at night.

Sure, I can't really complain too much about this, as Fall temperatures are always my ideal temperature, but skipping Winter entirely is still a bit frightening, naturally bringing up fears of global warming and the like. Yes, history has shown drastic temperature shifts from year to year that seem to have little to do with pollution, but still... Ultimately, I'm just hoping that this doesn't mean our Spring and Summer this year will be even hotter than usual down here in Georgia, and of course that it's not a sign of extreme climate change. Fingers crossed!

21 Jump Street

I've got a whole load of movies to be covering in the next few posts, so as always, I'm going to try to break them up with other topics to keep things fresh.

Easily the first big movie experience of the year (cinematic or otherwise), has been the re-imagining of the old TV series 21 Jump Street, this time starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill, albeit not as modern recasts from the original Johnny Depp and Peter DeLuise, but as unacquainted successors in the same line of police work. Ultimately, though I have no real connection to the original show barring a peripheral knowledge of its existence, I suspect this method of franchise overhaul will please most fans and that they'll find it more acceptable than the way this sort of thing is being handled these days with many other beloved franchises from yesteryear.

In the end, what you get with 21 Jump Street is a top-notch modern comedy that features both the stylings of a Reno 911-type police show and the high school drama of films like Easy A, Mean Girls, and Superbad, adding up to a really pleasing whole with a story that's got a lot of heart (all things considered) and laughs to spare. Obviously, the newly skinny (but still hilarious) Jonah Hill was easily the highlight of the film, but Channing Tatum was surprisingly funny and non-douchebaggy, and the supporting cast (including Nick Offerman from Parks & Recreation, Ice Cube, and James Franco's younger brother Dave Franco) were all solid. Ultimately, 21 Jump Street's solid plot, the lead duo's onscreen chemistry, and the fact that there wasn't really anything bad about the movie (despite being a somewhat run-of-the-mill comedy), all add up to one of the best comedies I've seen in a long time, and as such, I highly recommend checking it out sometime sooner than later.

The Vaccines - What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?

As the first five out of five album of 2012, I'm happy to recommend everyone check out last year's indie surf punk debut by the English four-piece The Vaccines. As was true of a few of the albums I've been listening to lately, this album was brought to my attention by my obsessively meticulous pouring-over of numerous Best-Of lists from 2011, a task which took up A LOT of time but has generally proven to be worth it, present company included: though The Vaccines' style from track-to-track virtually never wavers, what you do get with this album is 35 minutes of well-crafted, memorable, and sing-alongable songs that, despite drawing on pretty obvious stylistic influences, somehow manage to feel like a step forward for its respective genres.

What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? is one of those albums that is consistently good throughout, almost to a fault, simultaneously offering up few (if any) tracks that disappoint or absolutely stand out as clear singles (though those below would be my Top 3, if pressed). As such, this is one of those LPs that is sometimes hard to get super excited about putting in, but when you do, you know you're going to miss the record pretty shortly thereafter. As it stands right now, Q1 has produced a total of three fives for me, and though The Vaccines' album might not have quite the highs that its two competitors manage to eek out, it's easily the best of the three, as the listening experience overall is hard to match. Definitely check out this LP and keep an eye out for catching the Vaccines live when they hit town sometime!

Highlights: "A Lack Of Understanding"/"Wetsuit"/"Post Break-Up Sex"
Rating: 5/5

Mass Effect 1, 2, & 3 (Part 2)

Continuing on from before:

Side Missions:
Depending on what you think qualifies as a "Side Mission", you might arrive at slightly different opinions about which game had the best to offer. Regardless, it's hard to imagine anyone arguing that ME1's highly-repetivie Mako ATV sidequests were the worst of the lot (though I admittedly kinda liked them on some level), and that ME2's were a HUGE step up in quality, variety, and scope (especially if you count the Loyalty Missions). Though ME3's non-fetch-quest side missions were acceptable, they were relatively infrequent, especially if you discount the N7 missions as prep for the multiplayer maps. Regardless, none of the remaining ones come anywhere close to as inspiring and memorable as those found in ME2, which now picks up its first win. [Winner: ME2]

Graphics:
I'll be the first to admit that graphics in a game like this, though impressive, don't really matter a whole lot to me. That said, it's obvious that the look of the games has been improving over the course of the half a decade-old series, though one could argue that ME3 represents the franchise at both its most detailed and most graphically-buggy, leaving its place in the series on shaky ground. Yes, it made leaps forward with its inclusion of some element of verticality and better cover mechanics when in combat, some impressively-scaled wartime background vistas, and a grittier look, but ME2 wasn't that far behind and had a lot less issues, easily being the most stable of the series. [Winner: ME2]

Soundtrack:
When you end up playing a game for the 50+ hours (per playthrough!) it requires to get through each entry in the Mass Effect series, it helps a lot to have a soundtrack that simultaneously manages to be memorable as well as evocative of the tone, and though all three games have very professional soundtracks, ME1 clearly wins this category, as all it takes to get me nostalgic about the franchise is to play the original title screen theme, that from the galaxy map (which IS used in all three games, to be fair), and the Blade Runner-esque music found in locations like Noveria and Eden Prime. Yes, the dance club music in ME2 was the best of this sort, but I found the Collector's sparse piano-imbued theme as uninspiring as the Collector storyline; and as for ME3, while it definitely strikes some really powerful moments and represents a return to form with its hybrid between the two previous soundtracks' styles, it wasn't quite enough to trump the impression I got from ME1's score. [Winner: ME1]

So there you have it: out of six categories, I unintentionally ended up scoring an evenly-balanced two wins to each of the three games. Overall, while each game has its strengths and weaknesses, I simply can't deny how much more passionate I was about the original Mass Effect. Sure, I've played it into the ground and probably have little reason to revisit it, especially considering it's the only game in the series that doesn't have any previous decisions going in that alter the experience, but it still feels the best to me overall. Yeah, part of this is due to it being the game that made me fall in love with the franchise, but that said, I have a hard time imagining the same happening if either of the two sequels were to be my first in the series.

Regardless, they're all great games with award-winning stories, environments, gameplay, graphics, and replayability (an award that would have gone to ME3 had I discussed it), and even though I've got my gripes with ME3's ending and squad size, it's still a superb video game that everyone should check out.

Mass Effect 1, 2, & 3 (Part 1)

I guess now's as good a time as any to dive into the big pluses and minuses of the three entries to-date in the Mass Effect series, so though I might have some more insight into this in the near future after all of the ME3 DLC has been released (and/or after I've played through the game as a Renegade), I have a feeling it won't make much of a difference in the grand scheme of things. I figure the best way to tackle this subject is to break down the discussion into different elements of the games at large, such as Story, Gameplay, Soundtrack, etc..., commenting on how each game ranked in these specific departments. So, here we go:

Story:
Seeing as the Mass Effect series is all about individual choices within a well-structured "choose-your-own-adventure"-type framework, it seems that the obvious place to start this discussion would be with the quality of each game's story elements. Though my affection for the original Mass Effect might seem a little misplaced to other fans of the series, I still hold that the original was the overall best, and this certainly extends to the story elements. So, though ME2's character-based missions were clearly the best of this sort of the three games, and ME3's universe-ending, epic storyline certainly tugged the most heartstrings, it was ME1's perfectly-oiled story that hit the hardest, especially when you couple this with the fact that the game should have been everyone's first exposure to the series, with its deep backstory and a galaxy full of diverse and interesting inhabitants.
[Winner: ME1]

Gameplay:
The biggest thing one could fault ME1 for would undoubtedly be its actual gameplay mechanics (i.e. shooting), as this element of the series has greatly improved with each passing release, as one would expect. By contrast, the story of a series doesn't necessarily get more satisfying over time, but fixing little, less-subjective details like gun types, squad commands, cover usage, power combos, and the like, is a very manageable goal, culminating in ME3's evolved and far superior gameplay over its predecessors. [Winner: ME3]

RPG Elements:
In many regards, the increased focus on gameplay throughout the series has simultaneously drained it of its more traditional RPG elements, though this isn't nearly as cut-and-dry as with the gameplay. First off, with the largest upgrade chart and selection of weapons, armor, and mods, it's tempting to say that ME1 was by far the most RPG-like, but if you look at the overall picture more qualitatively, you might actually argue that ME3's blend between ME1's extreme RPG elements and ME2's much too streamlined system actually hit the balance just right. See, though ME1 had more options, the differences between most of these was minimal compared with those in ME3, the net effect being a system that truly underwent some trial and error before being perfected. [Winner: ME3]

Stay tuned for three more categories and a summary of the results in the next post!

Movie (Documentary) of the Year Nominations 2011

Back to some more Top 5 nomination posts. Thus far, I've touched everything but movies and albums/singles, largely because these take a little more time to decide upon, and, specific to movies this past year, I ended up watching so many more than in previous years that I'm now breaking the field down into documentaries and everything else. I understand that the unfortunate byproduct of this decision is that we'll never get to see how the documentaries stood up to the "regular" films, but considering how radically different they all are, I figured this wasn't such a big deal.

So, I've totaled it all up, and it looks like I saw roughly twenty documentaries last year, a number which is tough to settle on precisely, as some films (like Joaquin Phoenix's I'm Still Here and the WWE-produced The True Story Of WrestleMania) somewhat dubiously qualify as true documentaries, but whatever. It should also be noted that, while I did see a number of great biopics this past year, none of them were counted towards this category, as they are all inherently dramatizations of true events, not documentaries. So, now that we've got all this out of the way, let's get onto the Top 5!

An Unreasonable Man: 2006's An Unreasonable Man tells the engrossing story of consumer activist and presidential candidate Ralph Nader's rise to prominence and a blow-by-blow account of his multiple candidacies, all of which was more-or-less news to me, as I wasn't particularly into politics back when it was all happening (despite being old enough to vote). Though I often find issues-based documentaries tedious, this one managed to keep my attention throughout, and I came out of the whole experience with a new found respect for Nader and his work.

Exit Through The Gift Shop: As the first great documentary I saw all year, 2010's Exit Through The Gift Shop was every bit as good as everyone had hyped it up to be, especially considering it was directed by Banksy himself, a mere street artist, not a documentarian. Though most people probably thought the film would be focusing mainly on Banksy and his work, it actually covered the arguably fictionalized street artist Mr. Brainwash, who evidently based his entire career around Banksy after following him around for a long time. Great, great stuff.

I Think We're Alone Now: As one of the only amazing films I saw this year that I found myself (instead of Suzi, though it was clearly her type of movie), I'm particularly proud that 2008's I Think We're Alone Now made it to the list. Following two middle-aged Tiffany-obsessed fans (yes, WELL after her heyday!), both with clear mental problems, in their search to either become best friends with her OR (better yet) become her transgendered lover (!), the film is unlike anything else I've ever seen, and is clearly proof that the old adage about reality being stranger than fiction is totally true.

The Rock-afire Explosion: This 2008 documentary follows the pursuits of the small group of people keeping the namesake Showbiz Pizza animatronic band alive-and-well to this day, and as you can imagine, provides a unique story full of oddball characters and a truly touching moment or two. While I only vaguely remember the Showbiz Pizza band, largely recalling the co-opted Chuck E. Cheese's version instead, I still knew enough about it all to have some nostalgia, amounting to the film leaving an even stronger impression than it already certainly would have.

Transcendent Man: Last up is 2009's intriguing science-fiction-meets-reality documentary about the prophetic futurist Ray Kurzweil's obsession with living forever, preserving information indefinitely, and doing everything in his power to make this a reality for not only himself, but everyone else as well. While Ray is probably a bit crazy and over-idealistic, his ideas are novel and inspiring, and with the Philip Glass score pushing things over the top for me, the film lands squarely on this list.

Overall, 2011 was not only a fantastic year for movies in general, but also documentaries, as I've clearly never watched this many of them in one year (let alone possibly even a five year span...?). The genre has now earned its place for me as one of the most consistently fulfilling genres out there, and I largely have Suzi to thank for it, due in no small part to her atypical taste in films... ;)

Chronicle

It was hard figuring out exactly which category to put the new film Chronicle in, as it kinda resides in multiple genres at different points in the film. On one hand, Chronicle is a faux-documentary akin to Cloverfield where the "narrator" (if you will) is walking around with a handheld camera at all times, documenting the events surrounding the three teenagers in the film, each of which gain telekinetic "superpowers" by stumbling upon a radiated alien crash-landing site (or something like this) one night after a party. So, though it's got superpowers in it, I don't think the story's based off comics, so it doesn't fit in that category. It's not exactly an action film, as there's way too much drama throughout and the action doesn't even heat up until the last twenty minutes or so. And, it's not exactly "suspense", though that's kinda a vague category to begin with. So, I went with Sci-Fi, as the source of their powers is definitely science fiction, whereas in a typical superhero book this sort of thing is more a worldwide suspension of disbelief, not just with three people in one isolated incident.

Anyway, the film looked interesting, as its "everyday kid gets superpowers but probably uses them for selfish/destructive gains" plotline seemed fresh, especially with the questionably appealing Cloverfield-style camera work mixing things up, so my friend Amy and I went to check it out, and I have to say I was in no way disappointed with the film, though it didn't necessarily blow me away. The character development is really what drives Chronicle, not necessarily the superpowers, and as such, I felt they handled the three guys with a very honest, realistic touch, all things considered. The very ending was a tad silly, but when is that not the case in these types of films? I mean, everything leading up to (and including) the big climax worked together quite nicely, so there's that. Oh, and though the idea of having one guy filming the whole experience the whole time IS a bit implausible, the way this plays out in the end was fairly impressive and definitely a little unexpected after having seen Cloverfield.

Overall, I think Chronicle was a great entry in whatever genre(s) it fits into, though I think Kick-Ass delivered the superhero teens message more deftly. Also, despite never having seen the TV series Heroes, I wouldn't be surprised if this film seemed a little too close in spirit to it, so I'd be curious to see what an avid Heroes fan thought of Chronicle. So, check it out sometime, at least as a rental!

Mass Effect 3 (Overview)

Alright, we're finally here. At this point, I've played Mass Effect 3 (ME3 for short) once all the way through, I've played enough multiplayer to get my Galactic Readiness modifier up to 100%, and I'm working on an extended replay of my first single-player character in order to max out all my gear and stats (and boy, does it take a VERY long time in this game!). So, though I've only seen the single-player play out in one way (the FemShep Paragon route), I'm going to go ahead and give my current assessment of the game, being sure to return to talk about alternate playthroughs when necessary. Like my series of posts on Fallout 3, I'm going to have multiple posts for ME3, focusing on various specific topics, tackling them with more detail than I can reasonably give here. So, let's get started with a general overview:

I've already acknowledged a few key points of the game in my "First Impressions" post, namely the problems of importing my character's face, the occasional graphical glitches, the small squad size, the improved gunplay and inventory management, and the RPG system, so I'll just leave those alone here. Really, the main thing for me to discuss here is the game's story, a three-act epic that really delivers some big punches over the course of my 50+ hour playthrough. FYI: there might be some mild spoilers in here, so if you're planning on tackling the game anytime soon, you might want to just skip this post.

The overall tone for all three acts is one of increasing dread and hopelessness, and as such, the game is REALLY heavy. In fact, the ending was so hopeless and depressing that it left me a bit emotionally drained for the next few hours. I know this sounds ridiculous, but seeing a character you've spent upwards of 150 hours playing over the course of perhaps the past five years get beaten down to a pulp and more-or-less give up is depressing, especially when you couple this with an amazingly sensitive soundtrack and moving CG cutscenes. Though I didn't tear up at the controversial end of the game, I DID manage to do so both when my character cured the Krogan Genophage and when ex-squadmate Thane died in the hospital with his son and Shepard paying their respects (a scene which was largely so impactful due to my dad's very poor health at this point). I DO plan on tackling the game's hyped-up ending, but it's such a big topic that it deserves its own post, especially considering BioWare is planning on releasing DLC within the next month to tidy it all up... Overall, the story of ME3 is a large improvement over its predecessor ME2, but I would have to still give ME1 the win in this category.

On my second, extended playthrough, I've been utilizing the also-controversial day-one DLC of the additional Prothean squad member Javik, whom I didn't use in my first playthrough to better see what the game would be like without him, and I have to assert how much he adds to the game and therefore how much of a crime it was that BioWare didn't include him in the game for free. It's clear that he was intended to be a part of the team from the beginning, but I guess they just knew that suckers like me couldn't resist buying another character even when he should've been given away for free. Anyway, the mission to Eden Prime where you go and recruit Javik was okay, but it was definitely too brief, and Javik's presence as a squadmate on the battlefield isn't that helpful, but his conversation bits and the additional squad outfits and gun that accompany the DLC all make it worth it.

So, I'm going to go ahead and wrap things up here, but you should definitely expect further commentary on the game in posts focusing on the following topics: ME3's place in the trilogy, the controversial ending, and multiplayer mode, amongst other topics that may arise. Overall, I DID enjoy ME3 and DO recommend it to anyone out there willing to put in the time for all three games, but though it definitely has some improvements over the other two installments, I can't wholeheartedly guarantee that it'll be my game of the year this time around, as Batman: Arkham City, though slightly smaller in scope, easily trumps this game with regards to overall quality through and through. That said, the upcoming ending-fixing DLC might be able to put ME3 back in the fight, but I won't be surprised if it doesn't completely deliver. Stay tuned...

Parks And Recreation: Season 2

And here we are, onto the much larger second season of Parks And Recreation, clocking in at a massive 24 half-hour episodes and taking quite a long time to finish, despite me watching episodes quite regularly. As I mentioned in my post on the first season, Season Two was a HUGE improvement in the show's quality and subsequent watchability, to the point that this was immediately obvious between the sixth (and last) episode of Season One and the first of Season Two...it really was that night-and-day! I don't know what changed, but the writing, character interactions, and scenarios just got a lot stronger, and this new-found standard never let up, making it quite hard to stop watching the show as soon as I finished the season instead of rolling straight into Season Three (so as to better get a sense for the actual time that passed between the two and to give me a moment to watch something totally different in the interim).

Apart from this, there isn't a whole lot more to say about the season without going into details about specific episodes (like I do with my South Park posts, but which I don't feel inspired to continue doing here). All the characters I loved the most from the first season continue to be my favorites here, and all the others have gotten increasingly more interesting as well. The celebrity cameos were all pretty nice too, especially those of Louis C.K., Megan Mullally (who is Nick Offerman/"Ron Swanson"'s real-life wife), and Portlandia's Fred Armisen. Though virtually all of the episodes were strong, easily my favorite is the season closer, "Freddy Spaghetti", where they somehow managed to wrap up the entire storyline to-date so neatly and impactfully that it kinda moved me a bit (especially the bits with April & Andy and Leslie & Mark).

Overall, Parks And Recreation's second season has set the bar very high for TV shows to aspire to this year, and I know I'll be sure to love the third season too, so expect to see a review on that in the not-too-distant future. In the meantime, check out the show if you haven't already! It's awesome!

Drake - Take Care

I'm not a big fan of sophomore/follow-up albums by groups that I love, largely because I feel I end up getting burned more often than not. Maybe this is due to heightened expectations (on both my part and theirs), or maybe it's just that there are too few artists out there that can deliver super high quality consistently, but whatever the case, the sophomore album slump has hit again, this time with Drake's LP Take Care, which followed way too close to his last release, 2010's Thank Me Later, which initially took a minute to grow on me, but eventually found its way into my Top 5 by the end of the year.

The biggest thing holding Take Care back isn't it's lack of inspiration, but the inability to leave anything on the cutting room floor, with a total of 17 tracks, none of which are shorter than three minutes, plus two additional "hidden" two-minute interludes, making the album a nearly too-big-for-a-CD length of 80 minutes. Hell, even if all of the tracks were amazing, this would still make for a long listening experience, but the fact that the back half of the album is largely uninspired and way too similar from track to track, makes the whole thing a bit unbearable by the end. Honestly, if the album were trimmed down to the best twelve tracks with no interludes, I might have given it a 4/5, but now the only thing saving it from a 1/5 is how much I genuinely like the first nine tracks or so. Oh well...here's hoping Drake and his producers learn how to edit themselves a lot more in time for the third LP. Oh, and it wouldn't hurt more to take a little more time between releases as well...

Highlights: "Crew Love"/"Take Care"/"Practice"
Rating: 3/5

Hidden Man @ UGA's Cellar Theatre

Onto the play Suzi and I went up to Athens to see, which also happened to be a part of the show's premier run (first in Athens, and then down in Atlanta a couple weeks later). The show was entitled Hidden Man, a title which I don't think came into focus until a monologue towards the very end, but which worked well enough. The story is a somewhat fictionalized account of Suzi's art mentor Robert Sherer's time spent with folk artist Howard Finster, including some background on Robert's wild younger years leading up to his decision to move in with the artist and his wife and concluding with his departure, transformed in many ways by his experience there. The two-act show was relatively small in scope, using a smallish stage with virtually all of the set permanently set up ahead of time, and featuring only five characters: Howard Finster and Robert Sherer themselves, Sherer's best friend Charlie, Finster's wife, and Finster's re-embodied alter ego, The Stranger (who kinda looked like an MC from a Cirque du Soleil production).

The plot could be summarized as such: Sherer begins the story as a nihilistic, punky, gay (but presumably closeted) art student who seems hellbent on raging but yet somehow finds his way over to Finster's Paradise Gardens folk art wonderland (if you will) with his buddy/love-insterest Charlie. There, Sherer initially resists the somewhat-otherwordly reverend/artist's attempts to spiritually uplift him, but after a particularly nasty bout with drugs (and Charlie), Sherer eventually seeks a sort of unintentional refuge with Finster. Though this first act was pretty solid, the second act was where it all came together, showing us the strange relationship between Sherer and Finster at its most familiar, and culminating in a racy, gay shower scene (and some light gunfire!...though not from Finster) at Paradise Gardens when Charlie ends up returning to amend things with Sherer.

All in all, the show was well-produced, the acting was quite convincing all-around, and the story was unique and interesting. I've definitely never seen anything live that was quite as racy and foul-mouthed as Hidden Man, but while this might be a turn off to others, I found it refreshing and bold. Not sure how much of the scintillating stuff was true, especially considering how ardently Finster's daughter fought against the play, but it definitely made for a good show and a very solid reason to make the trip up to Athens.

URGENT: Making Blog PRIVATE, Respond ASAP

Dear Readers,
In preparation for upcoming circumstances, I'm very strongly considering pulling my blog off the public internet space, limiting reading access to subscription-by-permission only going forward. I'm not sure how long this blackout will last, but if you wish to continue reading my blog, you'll need to QUICKLY respond by providing your Blogger account name (which you will have to create if you don't currently have one) so I can give you access to the site. The best way to ensure this will be to contact me via Facebook message, email, or text if you already have my contact information (no, I'm not going to be handing it out publicly here). Otherwise, you may leave a comment on this post and I'll consider adding you to the list, with favor being given for people I know personally.

I hate that I'm going to be pulling the blog from the internet, but I feel that it's necessary for the time being. I sincerely appreciate all your readership over the years, and I hope to one day reinstate it publicly. Until then, I'm still going to keep posting roughly once a day, so I hope we can all make the migration easily enough over to subscription only status and that I'll see you on the other side!

Sincerely,
Ryan

[NOTE: Though this post was initially made on Friday, March 23rd at 17:23, I will be constantly bumping it up to the top of my blog in order to maximize the chances that readers catch the message. Following the switch to privatize the site, I'll return the posting date to its original date and time].

Ocean's Eleven

Time for an odd segue: one of my favorite things about the most critically-acclaimed installment in the Mass Effect franchise (2010's Mass Effect 2), building a large team of individuals, each with their own disparate but complimentary talents, has always been one of my favorite plot devices in any sort of story, and perhaps one of the first films where I realized my affection for the device was 2001's remake of the Rat Pack classic Ocean's Eleven, with its all-star cast, great plot twists, and strong sense of humor. Well, as it turns out, Ocean's Eleven was one of the four George Clooney films featured in the bargain collection I gave my dad as one of his presents for Christmas this year, and as such, my mom, dad, and I ended up re-watching it in pieces over the course of four brief visits I had with them between music lessons.

While I certainly would have preferred revisiting Ocean's Eleven in one sitting, the experience was still really solid, reminding me that I really do need to check out the two sequels in the franchise, neither of which I've seen thus far. I'm just hoping that these sequels manage to capture the original cast's onscreen magic via the high calibre script-writing and direction on offer here. That said, a quick glance at Metacritic scores for the three films seems to suggest that Ocean's Twelve is by far the inferior film, with Ocean's Thirteen making a sort of return to form while not surpassing the first installment. To be fair though, Ocean's Eleven only got a Metacritic score of 74, which I would say is a bit under my personal rating, so maybe I should take the other films' reviews with a grain of salt...

Regardless, I'm glad my parents and I found the time to sit down and watch this film, especially considering any time with my dad at this point is much appreciated. =)

3rd Athens Trip w/Suzi

A couple weeks ago, Suzi and I decided to make our third trip up to Athens, this time to see a play written about the time her art mentor Robert Sherer spent with folk art legend Howard Finster back in the 80's, which I'll write about more in another post. Though we could've gone to the show on a Saturday night, my Sunday schedule has been getting earlier and earlier over time, so it made more sense to brave the rush hour traffic on Friday, picking up Suzi as soon as she got off work. Fortunately, she was able to bump this time up by an hour by skipping her lunch break for the day, and as such, the traffic really wasn't that bad, leaving us with just enough time to check in to our cheap hotel in Athens and get a quick bite and drink before the show. After the show, we took a fun little nighttime walk through North Campus, drove back to the hotel, and walked the short walk to the downtown bars for a night out with the school's undergrad population (which wasn't the case last time, as we accidentally hit the town during their Spring Break).

The next day, we hit up a new Mexican restaurant (in lieu of my old standby Mexicali, which had sadly closed for good...) for lunch and then spent an hour or so at The State Botanical Garden of Georgia, wandering around its hiking trails and checking out some of its prettier grounds (some of which I hadn't seen before back when I was at school here). After this, we spent some time shopping around downtown, picking up yogurts, coffee, and a few Batman graphic novels in the process. That night, after arriving back home, I cooked Suzi a small filet, asparagus, and potatoes dinner, rounding out a nice little weekend away.

Though this was the first Athens trip where I actually took pictures of our time there, I'm still not posting Facebook albums here, but at least we've got the pic above, which is my favorite of the group (BTW: those are the Sorels I got Suzi for Valentine's). Anyway, I'm definitely looking forward to our next time in Athens, as it's always a good time, and despite my four years there and its relatively close proximity to Atlanta, it always manages to feel more like a vacation than not. =)

Frozen

Well, I guess it's time I get back to blogging now that I've beaten Mass Effect 3 once and the excitement has worn off (albeit, just a little...). My goal from this point out is to post twice a day until I'm caught up again, so let's see if I can stick to it!

One weeknight when unsure of what to do, Suzi and I decided to Redbox (well, in this case, BlockbusterBox) a movie, and though I thought it was probably going to be a regrettable decision, I let Suzi go ahead and rent 2010's skiing-related survival horror film, Frozen, ironically starring the guy who played Iceman in the X-Men films (Shawn Ashmore). I was reluctant because the film didn't seem to have a lot going for it, especially considering how many bad horror flicks come out every year. I mean, the basic premise was that three skiers were going to get stuck up high on a ski lift in the dead of Winter during a week off for the ski resort, and naturally, we were gonna have to see how they would deal with it and survive. Basically, it was the ski lift version of Buried and 127 Hours, though it lacked the intrigue and character development of the two, despite (or maybe because of...?) having three times as many people stuck in the predicament.

So, I wasn't expecting much from Frozen, but maybe this was a good thing, as it turned out alright: there weren't really any roll your eyes type moments in the film, the plot wasn't particularly predictable, the camerawork was surprisingly artsy at times, and the actors and script worked together well enough to carry the film smoothly from start to finish. While I wouldn't say you should rush out to go watch this film, it wasn't half bad at all, so if it looked interesting to you, maybe you should check it out...

Mass Effect 3: First Impressions

Well, as predicted, I'm now thoroughly engrossed in Mass Effect 3 (ME3 for short) and therefore am not being at all diligent about blogging, so I figured I'd merge the two together here for a minute, even if only to coax myself back into keeping you updated... ;) I DID end up getting the game as soon as I returned home from work Tuesday, so though I would have liked to have started playing it when I woke up far too early (for me) that morning and therefore won't be pre-ordering future games through Amazon to save money, it really wasn't that big of a deal in the end (of course). I've already spent WAY more hours playing the game than most people would ever assume, but fortunately, this hasn't compromised my work schedule or my ability to hang out with Suzi. Though I don't really know exactly how far into the game I am, I know I've completed the prologue/tutorial section and the whole first act, so there's that.

[Updated Note: Though I'm actually almost done with my first single player campaign playthrough as I officially post this blog, I originally wrote this back on Friday when I was only about a third of the way through, so though some of my opinions stated here might have changed a tad, I figured I would just preserve my initial reactions as they really were only a couple days into the game].

So, here are some first impressions. The very first thing I got to do in the game was actually a bit of a disappointment, as the game couldn't import the custom face I designed for my character, the very same one it successfully imported from ME1 to ME2! So, I had to redesign the face to look as close to the original as I could remember, and though I did an alright job at this, it's not perfect (in fact, my female Shepard kinda looks a bit like Portlandia's Carrie Brownstein!). Other concerns I have with the game this far in are some occasional graphical glitches (including some characters who get stuck while doing their cutscenes or some that are unintentionally invisible), the relatively small squad I'm able to call upon this far into the game (I just got my fifth teammate today!), and what I initially perceived to be a pacing issue (but which I'm now considering was just the result of me being a completionist regarding all the side missions BEFORE continuing the main quests).

Apart from these negatives though, I've been generally pleased with the game. The combat is even better than in ME2 (which itself was WAY better than in ME1), the RPG elements are nice (though I'm not sure I like having my guys start at the high levels I left them on from ME2), the gun maintenance system if a perfect blend between those found in the first two games, and there have been plenty of stirring story elements throughout, with hopefully way more to come. I've heard in reviews that the story really heats up towards the last act or so, so I'm just trying to keep an open mind, especially with regards to my tiny and surprisingly unbalanced squad.

Anyway, I'll be sure to post a full review of the game once I've finished my first playthrough. Knowing my obsession with the game, I would expect that to be sometime next week, but then again, if I don't keep up blogging regularly, it might be a couple weeks after that... =)

The Long Wait For Mass Effect 3

Today is the day...the day that the long-awaited final chapter of the Mass Effect trilogy gets delivered to my door. This is me at my nerdiest, as close as I get to being a kid again. As you may know, both the original Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 won my Game Of The Year award for both 2008 and 2010, and considering my choices from those two games get factored into the new one, it's like I'm finally closing the book on a story that's been left dangling in my life for the past three and a half years (nerdy as this all is).

Thus, for the past few weeks, I've been counting down the time separating me from my favorite video gaming franchise, and it's been killing me. First it was weeks, and then days. Now I have mere hours. Though you're probably aware that I could just go to the store and buy a copy right this minute, I made the arguably stupid decision to pre-order the game through Amazon, which means that they'll have to deliver the game to me, and therefore, I'm subject to the inconsistent whims of UPS. Fortunately, Amazon now offers "same-day delivery" for many pre-orders, and though I had to pay an extra buck for this, it's totally worth it, as it means I won't have to wait too long to finally get my hands on the game.

So, you're probably asking why I went with Amazon considering all the extra hassle...well, like most retailers, pre-ordering a game with Amazon offers a couple perks. Yes, the pre-order comes with the same assault rifle upgrade that all Mass Effect 3 pre-orders come bundled with (which, by the way, I probably won't be using my first time through, as I'd like to see what the gaming experience is like without it), but the big thing Amazon was offering was a $10 gift card for future purchases on their site, effectively reducing the cost of the game down from $61 to $51 since I'm definitely going to be buying music from them in the near future anyway. So, I basically have to wait a bit longer to get my game in exchange for saving the $9 (plus tax) that I would have spent buying it a local store. Again, not sure this was worth it, but whatever. Let's just put it this way: if Amazon didn't offer same-day delivery, there's no way I would have jumped at this deal.

Anyway, though the shipment tracking says the game is on its way to me now, I have a feeling it won't get to me before I leave for teaching, so I guess I'll just have to pick it up later tonight when I get home (assuming they put it in my mailbox for me...). It's too bad, because I was so excited about the game that I didn't sleep very well last night, despite having a beer before bed and wanting to go to sleep due to a mild headache. So, I've been up since well before my typical wake-up time today, but I'm going to use my extra free time to get some stuff done, the kind of stuff that I might start neglecting now that there's a new Mass Effect in my life... On that note, while I will certainly try to keep blogging every day, I know myself well enough to suspect that I might end up falling behind a bit while I'm still obsessing over the game, so have some patience with me. After all, I AM fighting to save the galaxy... ;)

Parachute Musical - Kill It Cut It Down

As you may be well aware, Parachute Musical is (well, WAS...sadly, they just broke up!) one of my absolute favorite local-ish bands (hailing from Nashville but spending a lot of time in Atlanta), and in addition to being mentioned frequently in posts about live shows I've seen around town over the past two years or so, their last album, Everything Is Working Out Fine In Some Town, was not only rated a five back in 2009, but it also ended up being one of my Top 5 albums that year, and could have quite possibly snagged the top honor. Which brings us to 2011's follow-up, Kill It Cut It Down, a Kickstarter-funded LP that I didn't end up actually picking up until late 2011, and therefore didn't end up listening to in earnest until early 2012.

As you can imagine, hopes were high for my second Parachute Musical album, and though the album is good and certainly sounds like the band, I have to admit that it doesn't quite resonate the way the first album goes. Usually it's hard to pinpoint exactly what's missing when this sort of thing happens, but I feel like it's pretty obvious in this case: the three things that made the first album work so well were its stronger jazz influences, slightly atypical (but really effective) tempo shifts and build-ups, and most importantly, SLOW SONGS, but for whatever reason, Kill It Cut It Down doesn't have quite as much of any of these, and the album definitely suffers (in my opinion) because of it.

Those slow songs on Everything Is Working Out Fine In Some Town, of which there were four, were EASILY some of the best slow songs I've heard from any band anywhere...they were fully-orchestrated miniature masterpieces full of emotion and melancholy, and they framed the band's otherwise happy-go-lucky, upbeat vibe perfectly. If I had to guess why these songs were omitted from the new release, I would reference the fact that the band virtually never played any of those songs live, probably due to both the difficulty of pulling them off as they are on the album and that they would slow down the pace of the show, so I assume that this practice of only playing upbeat "crowd pleasers" ended up filtering into their songwriting process.

But ultimately, I still like the album a lot, and I still think the guys totally have it in them to create another set of amazing slow songs, I just think that wasn't where they were musically when recording, but unfortunately, I fear I'll never get to hear those potential songs now that they're splitting up... To the band: I'm really sorry to hear that you guys are splitting, but thank you so much for all the great shows and music up to this point, and hopefully whatever each of you does next will continue to blow minds. Best of wishes!

Highlights: "Back To Life"/"Nothing Wrong"/"You Plus Me And All Your Friends"
Rating: 4/5

Jackass 3D

Writing a review of a Jackass movie feels a little silly, but I guess I'll give it a shot anyway. I can't imagine that anyone reading this blog isn't at least a little familiar with the premise of the show, so I'm not going to waste your time with that. So, I guess the best place to start would be to acknowledge that, though I don't really care all that much for the Jackass TV show, I have now seen two out of three of the Jackass bunch's stupendously big-screen-unworthy cinematic experiences, the first being Jackass 2, which I only saw in Holland due to my unlimited access to every movie that came out that year for the price of two regular priced tickets a month. And though I probably wouldn't have revisited the series again this time around, as I can't imagine how different one Jackass film could be from another, Suzi had recently read a book or two about some of the Jackass guys, and she's always had a thing for their original prank/stunt crew, CKY, so when she was getting sleepy one night here, I decided to put it on to keep her up (it worked!).

I'll go ahead and say that though I would have a hard time recommending this film to anyone, I enjoyed the pranks enough in-and-of-themselves, even if it did just feel like watching a really long version of the TV show. Granted, the whole experience would probably be a tad better had I been able to see it in its intended 3D format on the big screen, but alas, that opportunity has long passed, so whatever. In the end, while there were some decently entertaining pranks in the film, I think the formula has gotten a bit stale with time, and I have a feeling I might not be the only one who might have noticed this sentiment subtly expressed in the attitudes of the individual members of the Jackass crew. It's also really sad that one of the guys, Ryan Dunn, died within a year after the release of the film in an alcohol-related car crash, so I'm sure that'll also end up pushing a lot of these guys into an early Jackass retirement, if you could call it that.

Anyway, if you absolutely love the Jackass franchise, I'm sure you'll love this film too, but I wouldn't say anyone else should rush to rent it. Definitely hoping Suzi enjoyed seeing her friends in action though... ;)

ZBB Studio Visit

So, I've got this composition friend/colleague from my time hanging out at The University of Cincinnati when I was at IU named Tyler whom I've kept in pretty decent touch with over the years since leaving the Midwest, visiting him in Cincinnati a couple times and even hanging out with him over NYE a few years ago (when Dave and Carla were in town), AND Tyler's relatively recently moved down to the Atlanta area to work with, (a bit surprisingly), The Zac Brown Band, a somewhat new Georgia-based country band with a fairly large cult following already. I say that this connection is somewhat surprising because Tyler is more of a Art Music/electronica fan than country, but as it turns out, he grew up with Zac back in Dahlonega (a small gold mining town in Northern Georgia), and I guess Zac caught wind of Tyler being a "free agent" of sorts, so he brought him on to help out with the ZBB studio here in town.

Now that you have the setup, it's time to talk about my actual visit to the ZBB studio, which Tyler was particularly excited for me to see over our first catching up session in a couple years. Knowing that the band itself was relatively young, all things considered, I thought that this would amount to a smallish industrial space or house that was converted with some semi-pro audio stuff and that acted as a basic hub for the band's management, but how wrong I was... Instead, what I got to see blew me away, as every new room Tyler showed me totally surpassed my expectations of what a studio space would be like for even large bands like U2 or The Rolling Stones.

The overall look of the ZBB studio offices had a country-meets-Affliction look to it, the kind of look you might expect Bret Michaels to go for in his home, but though this isn't really my thing, it was all done pretty tastefully, and most certainly professionally. Zac's office in particular was pretty fancy, with a nice collection of acoustic and electric guitars and a small bar complete with the band's own limited version of the Gentleman Jack liquor (here entitled Gentleman Zac...). The main meeting room in the place was also pretty fantastic, including a giant room dedicated entirely to guests sleeping over, complete with something like twelve tour-bus-esque bunks with drapes! And then there was the sizable restaurant-style kitchen, which was supposedly manned by four different chefs throughout the week!

But this was just the start of the tour...past the clean and neat offices was a whole set of industrial garage spaces kitted out for various jobs, some of which were quite unexpected to say the least! The stuff I wasn't too surprised about included an A/V suite, a rehearsal room, and plenty of instrument storage, but then I saw the professional/industrial T-Shirt making room (which was huge!), a room dedicated to making leather seats for motorcycles (including out of stingray!), another room designed for leather-based art, and another room for making custom knifes and random Southern knick-knacks, most of which had the band's logo on it! Seriously, the space absolutely blew me away, and I have to imagine it cost a fortune to set up...hopefully it's turning some serious profits now that they've cut the middleman out of virtually EVERYTHING.

Honestly, I'm not even sure I'm supposed to be talking about all this, so if someone from ZBB finds this blog and wants me to make it private, I will. I just couldn't imagine not sharing this experience with you guys. Thanks to Tyler and the ZBB (whom I didn't get to meet) for having me over to check out the place! Everyone was super nice, and I definitely hope to drop by again someday if they'll have me!

Batman Forever

Following my inspiring playthrough of Batman: Arkham City, I was left with a strong desire to revisit much of the Batman-themed media that had been released over the years, and though the initial plan was to start with the beginning of the live-action Batman film franchise, the only installment in the four-part original set of films that Netflix had on offer was Joel Schumacher's first very questionable (Riddler pun intended...) stab at the iconic superhero, Batman Forever. So, seeing as I didn't want to wait to find the Tim Burton films at a local store (or for them to arrive via Amazon), I decided to bite the bullet and go ahead and re-watch (yes, I saw it in the theatre back in '95) this kitsch-laden, underproduced, Val-Kilmer-led, poor excuse for a Batman film anyway.

Though I'm sure I could come up with plenty of negative things to say about this film (Tommy Lee Jones' Two-Face, the cost-cutting special effects and visual style, and the shitty scriptwriting being chief amongst them), I'm instead just going to acknowledge that Jim Carrey wasn't half-bad as The Riddler (hell, his take on the character seemed to have at least a little influence on the recent video game version's) and that supposedly this film is somehow still better than its successor, 1997's Batman & Robin. Fortunately, I knew Batman Forever was going to be shit when I re-watched it, so I took the whole experience with a grain of salt and didn't let it hamper my excitement about the Dark Knight. As such, I'm still very much looking forward to revisiting the Tim Burton films, though I don't think I'll be rushing to watch Batman & Robin, unless of course it too makes its way to join the ranks of the mostly-disappointing streaming Netflix lineup these days...

Black Hole

Onto the second of two graphic novels Dave gave me for Christmas, Charles Burns' somewhat trippy, black & white exploration of teenage isolation, insecurity, and lack of direction entitled Black Hole. As easily the longer of the two books Dave gave me, Black Hole definitely took longer to finish, but this has less to do with its page-count and more its vignette approach to storytelling as opposed to the more direct start-to-finish narrative structure used in I Kill Giants (to further support this assertion, I just found out that the collected form of the work only came into print in 2005, while each of the twelve separate issues were published over the course of the TEN years leading up to this). The story basically follows two separate but intertwined groups of teenage friends in the 70's who are dealing with the issues listed above, albeit with a twist: many kids in this Pacific Northwest town have been recently coming down with an apparently-incurable STD causing them to grow certain deformities, further alienating them from the rest of society and often forcing them to seek refuge out in the woods. Though this fantastical element could have just assumed the reader's suspension of disbelief, Burns instead utilizes enough drugs and dream sequences within the story to make it quite difficult for the reader to discern how much of this is actually happening and how much is symbolic on some level (if not a healthy dose of both...?). Regardless, the net effect remains the same: we're taken on a thoroughly creepy (yet beautifully intimate and sincere) journey through the minds of some troubled teens, one unlike anything else I've experienced elsewhere.

Though I already knew I loved Black Hole well before the halfway mark, by the end I was definitely sold on its merits, and as such, I highly recommend it to anyone out there interested in atypical (yet poignant), artsy graphic novels. In fact, I might go so far as to say that this might be my favorite graphic novel Dave has yet given me, or at least, it's right up there with the first Scott Pilgrim book, so thanks, buddy. =)

Live Show (Misc.) of the Year Nominations 2011

Onto our last Live Show Top 5 post, this time for the miscellaneous shows that don't fit into either the local or pro popular formats. This includes DJ sets, classical/art music, ballet, plays, musicals, stand-up comedy, etc... Once again, like the other Live Show Top 5 posts this past year, the miscellaneous category also wasn't a particularly large field, so I'm going to narrow this down to a Top 3 instead. I guess I'm just not going out to ANY kind of show that much anymore, and honestly, I don't know how much this'll be changing in the coming years. Anyway, here are the nominees:

The Best Love Story Ever Told @ Dad's Garage: As easily one of the Top 2 Dad's Garage improv performances out of the many, many shows I've caught there over the past few years, the largely-improvised Best Love Story Ever Told show was fantastic, despite only really featuring two improvisers (albeit the troupe's most experienced/talented) and two ancillary narrator characters. That said, there's really not too much more to say about this except that it set the bar pretty high for improv.

GT Musical Instrument Competition @ Georgia Tech: Having recently written about 2012's installment in this now-yearly competition, I don't need to tell you too much about the event. I will reiterate, however, that 2011's competition was by far the better of the two, as the performances, instruments, and overall experience were more enjoyable. And, I really want one of those Samchillian Tip Tip Tip Cheeepeeeees... ;)

Sonic Generator's SONICpalooza @ The Woodruff Arts Centre: Yet another Georgia-Tech-oriented new music show, Sonic Generator, their on-campus new music ensemble, outdid themselves with a stellar finale to what I presume was a pretty successful all-day marathon of 20/21st-century art music, including the likes of Philip Glass (though I didn't catch any of his pieces), Steve Reich, and Frederic Rzewski. Though their performance of Rzewski's Coming Together wasn't nearly as inspiring as that by Eighth Blackbird years ago at Cincinnati's Music05 festival, the marathon-ending full performance of Reich's Music For 18 Musicians was pretty great.

In the end, I feel bad that I don't have more to say about this year's nominees...it's not that the shows were lackluster, but I guess they did leave me cold enough to not feel the need to talk them up more. Whatever...after years of seeing tons of shows, I guess it's fine that I'm kinda taking a break now. That said, here's hoping to an upswing in show attendance over the next few years, even if only a slightly...

Batman: Arkham City

And here we go...easily the best game I've played since Fallout 3 last year, Batman: Arkham City, the sequel to 2009's popular Batman: Arkham Asylum, managed to take all of the amazing steps forward in superhero games made by its predecessor and evolve them into a true legend of a game, improving on pretty much every aspect, and most-importantly, delivering a story so full of drama and intrigue that it can go head-to-head with the likes of the Mass Effects, Fallouts, and BioShocks out there. And to help facilitate such an amazing story, the new, larger open-world that is Arkham City (versus the previous game's smaller area of a sprawling prison island), sets the stage by offering tons of nighttime uncertainty and danger. Without spoiling the plot for you too much, what's happened is that after the whole story unfolded in Arkham Asylum in the first game, the city of Gotham is left trying to pick up the pieces and ends up electing the old warden from the island prison as their new mayor, who then isolates a chunk of rundown Gotham tenements and other buildings as a new, very large prison "city", meanwhile installing Batman villain (though only secretly) Hugo Strange as the new warden. As you can imagine, Batman ends up finding himself stuck within the walls of the prison city, and it's here where all the shit hits the fan, involving a ton of notable (and some more obscure) Batman villains, none of whom I'll mention here, as it would constitute a spoiler. Suffice it to say that they're all pretty convincing, and by the time the story and multiple sidequests are over, you'll be shocked at how well it all gelled together.

In addition to being able to play the game as Batman, there are actually four segments woven into the main storyline where you get to play as Catwoman, which itself is actually also pretty awesome. And after you've finished the game, you can swap freely between the two protagonists to have them run around the city beating up thugs and finishing any leftover sidequests. Speaking of beating up thugs, the hand-to-hand mechanics HAVE been improved since the first game, especially with the inclusion of a handful of new quick-fire methods for using your gadgets, but, I do have to add that the fighting can often get a bit too button-mashing-happy for my tastes (and fingers!), though this would probably be less frustrating if I were better at this sort of gameplay. Still, you always manage to feel like a badass playing as either Batman or Catwoman, so if a little button-mashing frustration is what I have to endure to get this feeling, then so be it. As for the sidequests, they've all gotten much more involved than anything we saw in Batman: Arkham Asylum, and the game is definitely better for it. My one caveat here would be the RIDICULOUS number of Riddler challenges out there, especially considering you have to collect 400 of them (out of 440! - which can include Catwoman trophies) in order to finish the Riddler sidequest mission, and though I did enlist the help of the internet for a couple of these, and I did get to eventually take down the Riddler, I've got about thirty or so trophies that I'll probably never get, especially on my own.

Overall, Batman: Arkham City is the kind of game that no self-respecting Batman fan can go without playing, especially considering the experience nearly rivals that of the recent batch of fantastic Batman films. That said, I strongly urge anyone out there wanting to play this game to be sure to play Batman: Arkham Asylum first, as it not only sets the stage for this game in a very important and meaningful way, but it's also a truly solid game in-and-of itself (hell, it made my Top 5 back when I played it in the very strong video gaming year that was 2010). In the end, I absolutely LOVED Batman: Arkham City, so much so that I've been having a hard time resisting going back and replaying the whole thing, and I have my lovely girlfriend to thank for all of this, having been inspired by the trailer above to give it to me for Christmas!

mc chris - mc chris goes to hell

Though it doesn't at first seem this way with all the mc chris mash-up work I had been doing in 2011, this post concerns only the second mc chris LP that I've ever included in my listening regimen, with the first being mc chris is dead (black) from late 2010, which I generally loved quite a bit and which is the album I've been mashing-up track-by-track. Anyway, the album at hand here, mc chris goes to hell, is kinda a strange cookie, as it's kinda both a full-length album and just a compilation of reworkings of previously-released tracks. See, in-between mc chris is dead and mc chris goes to hell, chris released a set of three seven-track EPs as part of the "Part Six" series (the "six" referring to it being his sixth album), featuring a total of twelve actual tracks and a whopping nine skits (all of which are really, really good), but technically, the whole collection isn't a full LP, though I guess it's collectively considered to be mc chris' sixth major release? So, mc chris goes to hell came along not too long afterward, bearing only four new-new songs and two new skits, plus remakes of nine of the twelve tracks from the Part Six EPs, so it ends up kinda functioning as a new EP bundled with a whole bunch of remakes, yet packaged more like a full-length LP than the previous set of tracks... Confusing, I know.

Okay, so let me actually talk about the album itself. Considering I listened to mc chris goes to hell before I listened to the three EPs it was based upon, all of these songs naturally felt like the original versions to me, but Suzi kept telling me that a number of the less impressive remakes here were actually better in their original versions (which she was definitely right about), so I tried to just take them with a grain of salt and dwell on the tracks I really liked. In general, the four new-new songs were above average (especially "Drinkin' Blunts" and "Smackababy", both listed below), a couple of the remakes were definite improvements over the originals, a handful were less-interesting, and some even managed to be difficult to tell if they were all that different this time around. As for the two skits, mc chris goes to hell isn't really that much of a skits album, and though the secret track acting as a trailer to the next album, Race Wars, did a much better job actually talking about the plot of that album than the album would go on to do itself, this wasn't enough to put mc chris goes to hell's skits in a competitive spot with either mc chris is dead or Part Six (the best of the group for sure).

Overall, while I had a good enough time listening to mc chris goes to hell, it definitely comes off as a supplement to Part Six, so though it did feature a few new tracks that I absolutely love, I'll probably be spending my time enjoying the originals from the EPs. Definitely check out the tracks below though!

Highlights: "IG-88's '57 Chevy"/"Drinkin' Blunts"/"Smackababy"
Rating: 4*/5

GaTech Musical Instrument Competition 2012

As you may remember, last year, Suzi and I attended our first Georgia Tech Musical Instrument Competition, a relatively recent, annual event hosted by the largely music-technology-focused music department at GT to promote the invention of new instruments around the world, to the point of actually bringing a handful of notable inventors to the States from abroad. From what I gather, the judging process begins earlier in the week than the culminating public performance we've attended now for two years, where a much larger field of contestants is whittled down to roughly eight or so finalists, all of whom are included in the concert. This time around, the concert was held in a much bigger venue than last year's, but since the instruments often involve a good bit of setup, half of the performances had to take place in another room, so like last year's show, we still ended up having to get up and migrate somewhere else. So, with no further ado, I'm going to list my Top 3 picks from the finalists group:

Coded Sensation: As probably the most inventive of all the instruments from the evening, Austrian contestant Martin Rille's Coded Sensation was a suit made entirely of "upcycled" cassette tape magnetic tape, which was then worn with gloves that seemed to have tape player heads in them to transmit the previously recorded (though heavily spliced) material when the gloves made contact with any part of the body. Though the audio results weren't quite as spectacular as I had hoped, I still found the idea very novel and promising, so I hope Rille ends up taking this idea much further. My only real criticism of his presentation was that he seemed either rather shy or just plain quiet, so it was a bit difficult to hear what he had to say, especially considering the hosts didn't provide a microphone.

LIGHTUNE.G: Definitely my overall favorite of the evening, Bojan Gagic (whom I believe was Eastern European)'s LIGHTUNE.G was a series of light-sensitive panels each tuned to trigger a certain sound at an intensity determined by how much light was shone into them. Though this sounds simple, the overall effect was kinda mesmerizing, as the lights in the room had to be turned off completely, and Gagic and his co-performer used everyday light-emitting objects like blinking bike lights, flashlights, projectors, and cell phones to trigger varying intensities in what also amounted to the best musical experience of the evening.

Cracked Ray Tube: Though their performance went on too long and seemed a tad bit uninspired, I was very impressed with Kyle Evans and James Connolly's Cracked Ray Tube instrument, which was basically an array of old TVs and other electronic equipment that they had tapped into to produce wildly distorted sounds and images not too unlike some of the sounds found in the more abrasive electro house and dubstep out there these days. In fact, I would go so far as to say that this instrument was easily the most inventive with regards to the quality of musical sound it can produce, and I have a feeling tapping into these broken TV sets took a lot of electronic expertise. To be fair, one of the things holding back this performance was that the TVs were all set up on the ground, and seeing as people were seated on the floor right in front of them, most of us in the audience couldn't really see what was going on, including what the performers were doing, as they too were huddled close to the floor.

Overall, I would say this year's show, despite being better organized, was probably less inspiring than last year's, but that's not to say I wouldn't go back for a third round next year. I admire all of the people that competed for taking the time to try to innovate with new sounds/interfaces, but at the same time, I kinda wish there would be a few more inventors who are actually inventing an ACOUSTIC instrument, like the invention of the saxophone not too-too long ago (relatively speaking). Also, the hosts need to give the contestants stricter time limits for their pieces (as too many meandered quite a bit), access to microphones for their presentations, and a minimum amount of time that should be spent talking about their inventions, as some performers just skipped this step altogether, leaving us audience members in the dark.

Valentine's 2012

Well, Valentine's Day has come and gone yet again, and seeing as this year's was clearly the best I've ever had, I figured I would take a minute to tell you all about it. Since V-Day was on a weekday again this year, a fact which kinda made Suzi and my intown hotel stay last year kinda silly considering we had to get up really early the next day to get her to work, we decided to celebrate it on the weekend before, allowing us to really spend some quality time together and not be rushed to squeeze it all in after work. That said, though I made a big deal out of that Friday night, I thought it would be kinda anticlimactic not to do at least a little something on Valentine's night itself, so I split up the typical Valentine's gifts between the two days so as to make them both at least a little special.

Our big dinner out was at the nearby restaurant 4th & Swift, which, in addition to serving us some of the best food I've had out in a long time (especially the amazing brussels sprouts!), also had a romantic modern atmosphere with a loft-like look not too unlike my own condo (the pic above is the best one I have of the place, though it doesn't really show it off all that well). Since our reservation was kinda late though, I had Suzi come over to my place beforehand for a nice bottle of red wine and some pita w/hummus (plus a little sampling of the chocolates I gave her...). Afterwards, we exchanged our presents...Suzi got me my biggest LEGO Architecture set yet (The Farnsworth House), and I got her a pair of Sorel boots that I had had my eye on for her for a long time (she looks absolutely amazing in them too!). In fact, she was so excited that we spent a good chunk of our evening doing a photo shoot with her wearing different hipstery outfits (pulled from my closet) that complimented the boots, as well as me putting together my new LEGO set.

For Valentine's proper, I surprised her at work with a bouquet of flowers and then took her out to lunch, and later that night we met up again for a chiller night at Taqueria del Sol and some time for me to give her her card and a little more candy... ;) Overall, Valentine's this year was amazing, so I know it's going to be hard to live up to in the coming years. Fortunately, I am SO absolutely in love with Suzi and can't wait to keep getting these annual opportunities to dote on her a bit. What can I say, my momma raised me to be a sap for romantic stuff! =)

Parks And Recreation: Season 1

As I already mentioned in my post on Portlandia, Parks And Recreation's first season was quite brief, weighing in at only six episodes and therefore effectively acting more like a pilot season than a regular one. As such, the quality of the show is also noticeably worse than what it has since become, a fact about which I was painfully aware the entire time I was watching Season 1, as I was initially inspired to watch the show after Suzi had shown me some of the much, much better Season 3 episodes she had Netflixed on DVD. The funny thing is that my first exposure to the show at all was when Suzi had rented Season 1 herself and showed me the first episode, to which I commented that I didn't like it that much, thinking it was kinda boring and finding it to be too much of a rip-off of The Office (of which it was more-or-less the spiritual successor). So, if it hadn't been for Suzi sticking with it a bit longer, I probably never would have given Parks And Recreation a second chance... To further confirm my sentiments, when I was doing a little light research to prep for this post, I found out that my first impression of the first season was actually almost exactly what the general critical consensus was...in fact, supposedly the show was almost cancelled after such a weak first batch of episodes! But, being mid-Season 2 at this point and totally loving the show, I'm very glad it was given a second chance.

Apart from the dry writing and lack of a cohesive group dynamic, my biggest problem with the first season was actually Amy Poehler's lead character Leslie Knope, whose obnoxious and out-of-touch dweebiness hadn't yet been balanced out enough by the other, more-likable characters, especially considering all six of the episodes focused WAY too much on her. Going into Parks And Recreation, one of my biggest concerns was that my general disinterest and slight annoyance by Amy Poehler was going to be enough to sink the show for me, and to be honest, though I've come to accept and even mildly like her character now in Season 2, had her role in the show remained as it was for Season 1, I would have almost certainly quit it almost completely on these grounds alone. That said, my current favorite characters, Aziz Ansari's Tom Haverford and Nick Offerman's Ron Swanson, were definitely still the highlights back in Season 1, but even their roles have gotten better, even if only due to better gelling with the whole cast and plot structure, if not also for their better comedic understanding of their roles.

So, if I were recommending the show to someone totally unexposed to it, I would either advise skipping Season 1 altogether and just reading the synopses online if the "origin story" (so to speak) was that important to your enjoyment of the show, or just committing to getting it over with since it's only six episodes, knowing full well that it won't get good until the second season (and it does get really good by the first episode at that!). So, I'm glad I saw Season 1 but can definitely admit that it won't be making any best-of lists anytime soon!

Domino's Pizza

This is really less a statement of interest to anyone else, and more a slight confession of guilt, albeit a really tasty one...

Ever since Halloween (or perhaps a little before?) this past year, Suzi and I have been making a regular habit of ordering Domino's Pizza on chill nights in when we don't feel like going out to a proper dinner, virtually always getting a large pepperoni pizza with a side order of Cinna Stix, having a beer from home. At first, we preferred ordering online and having them deliver it, but after realizing that this both took longer and cost more than carry-out, we've recently switched to either ordering on the phone or online and picking it up ourselves. And just in case you're wondering, I'm not a big fan of either Pizza Hut or Papa John's, as I've pretty much always been a Domino's guy, so I don't expect we'll be doing too much of those...

Now, I'm calling this an admission of guilt because I realize that ordering Domino's isn't a healthy way to live, in fact, getting pizza on any sort of a regular basis probably isn't that good for you, but it's so delicious, fun, and convenient that it's often hard to put off for too long now that we've gotten into a routine. Prior to this development though, we virtually didn't eat delivery pizza at all, and I almost never got it myself during the years between my undergrad and this past Halloween. But whatever...I know it's probably not a big deal, especially considering we're only having it once every three to four weeks or so and we usually save some as leftovers. And again, it's so, so delicious, so I don't anticipate the trend stopping anytime soon...! ;)