Archive for January, 2009

Half a Page of Scribbled Lines

Published January 26th, 2009 in mixtapes. 1 Comment

Is it 2009 already!? Wow, it doesn’t seem like too long ago that I posted my “Best of 2007″ mix! Oh wait, it *wasn’t* that long ago since I posted it 9 months late… Well I’m getting the jump on things this year by posting the “Best of 2008″ before January is even over! As usual there are a few different ways to listen to the music:

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  1. Stream the whole thing using the player embedded above
  2. Download the individual MP3s as a ZIP archive [80 MB]
  3. Play / Download the individual tracks using the links below

In selecting the track’s for this year’s mix, I wasn’t trying to pick out the absolute “best” songs from each album, but moreso ones that were representitive of the album as a whole, and which fit into the overall context. In other words, don’t be surprised if you get any of these albums and find out that  some of them include even *more* awesome songs! Anyway, on to the music:

Squarepusher – A Real Woman – People who “just” put out jazz records should be worried about their job security after getting shown up so badly by Squarepusher this year. Just A Souvenir is full of great live drumming and bass playing that manages to work perfectly with the typical synth and drum-machine craziness. Check out some of the awesome bass runs on this track and try not to be weirded out by the robot voice reminding you how great it is to be a human.

Vampire Weekend – Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa – Yeah, I guess this sort of actually came out in 2007, but I wasn’t sure whether or not to include it on that mix because their album wasn’t released yet. Damn Web 2.0 bands and their new-fangled business models. What’s next? Letting fans name their own price for an album?

Silver Jews – Candy Jail – I had a hard time deciding what song to include from this record, because they’re all over the place stylistically, but the album as a whole is pretty uniformly great. This track won out mainly for having a deceptively up-beat melody and jokey lyrics, while still getting in some great digs at the bland, frustrating sweetness of living “where the guards are gracious / And the grounds are grand / And the warden keeps the data on your favorite brands.”

Beck – Gamma Ray – Beck keeps on putting out albums that never quite reach the experimental awesomeness of Odelay or Midnite Vultures, but are still way more consistently great than might be expected at this stage in his career. Modern Guilt is a great example of this and Gamma Ray is one of its catchier tracks.

Glasvegas – Whitey – Glasvegas are kind of divisive since so many of their songs are drenched in way more reverb and emo-ness than many people are prepared to handle, but this song leaves all that out and sticks with simple acoustic guitars and a thick Scottish accent. I was a little confused when I first listened to this track until I did some research about the term “Whitey” and found out that it apparently refers to getting so intoxicated that your face goes pale and you throw up or pass out. So as songs about getting vomitously drunk go, this one is pretty great. (Note that this track isn’t on the official Glasvegas album, it’s from some demo/promo disc I downloaded.)

Herman Dune – My Baby is Afraid of Sharks – Something about this guy’s accent makes a bunch of things rhyme that probably shouldn’t. Put that together with some great Jonathan Richman style lyrics and simple, yet unexpected arrangements and you’ve got some kick-ass shit.

Jonathan Richman – Es Como el Pan – Speaking of Jonathan Richman, he put out a pretty great album himself this year.

Portishead – The Rip – We’ve been waiting quite awhile for a new Portishead album, but it was worth it. Third has everything from spare, acoustic ballads to aggro, electric freakouts. This track is particularly amazing since it contains a little bit of both. The moment when the transition happens is my favorite part of the whole record.

Primal Scream – I Love to Hurt (You Love to be Hurt)

Wolf Parade – California Dreamer

Scott Weiland – Paralysis

Kupek – Don’t Let the Archons Get You Down

She and Him – Magic Trick

Bon Iver – Flume

OK… I was aiming to get all the track descriptions written up tonight but I am pretty sleepy so it’s going to have to wait until tomorrow. If I still haven’t updated it in 6 or 7 months, somebody remind me!

Game Design Concept #6A

Published January 19th, 2009 in Gaming. 0 Comments

Has this been done?

The main character is a boring guy with a boring job/life. Open cutscene establishes this, has a few laughs, and then concludes with the main character thrown into a gripping, life-or-death situation. He makes it through alive, but comes to believe that there was another force or presence controlling him throughout the crisis. You (the player) are that force or presence. Eventually, the main character realizes that he can induce this kind of experience by intentionally placing himself in dangerous circumstances. He begins doing so regularly and also starts believing that the nature of these experiences gives him some kind of temporary invulnerability. Because of this he gets increasingly reckless in his risk-taking until the challenges become fundamentally impossible for the player to complete and he dies. Game over.

I dunno… Maybe it’s a bit too much like just putting a bunch of Peter Weir movies plus eXistenZ in a blender, but what’s the harm in that?

Wario World

Published January 17th, 2009 in Gaming. 2 Comments

I put addtional Wii points on my console recently and I’ve been on a WiiWare shopping spree since then. In addition to some basic NES stuff I had to pick up (SMB2&3), I’ve now downloaded: ArtStyle: Cubello, ArtStyle: Orbient, World of Goo, Lost Winds and Helix. They’re all pretty great, and feature a variety of new and innovative gameplay mechanics. Cubello and Orbient are both ultra-minimal puzzle games which require/induce an almost meditative state while playing. World of Goo is based on a simple concept (connecting tiny blobs to form stable structures) and supported by amazing art & level design. I’m still just getting started with Lost Winds, but so far it is shaping up to be a very well-done 2D platformer with cool Wiimote specific controls and a chill/peaceful/forest-and-nature-sound-effects kind of atmosphere. Being able to blow gusts of wind at background plants & objects is a nice touch.

And then there’s Helix. It’s arguably a little overpriced at 1000 Wii Points ($10) and the music is… Well, it’s “dance music,” let’s leave it at that. But regardless of all that, this game is absolutely amazing! You hold one Wiimote in each hand and then repeat the gestures performed by the weird robot on screen, to the beat of the (aforementioned) music, increasing the number and complexity of maneuvers as you progress. Sounds kind of weird, but as rhythm games go, I found it really easy to get into (as opposed to DDR) and a great use of some Wii-specific control input. Also, playing this game is a pretty decent workout!

Anyhow, I’m pretty pleased to see such a cool, diverse set of games on a high-profile new platform like WiiWare, and I haven’t even mentioned the great disc-based games (Boom Blox, De Blob, etc.) that have come out for the Wii lately. The console still has it’s technical limitations of course, but when it comes to game design, Nintendo definitely seems to be following through on their goal of creating an entirely new set of experiences for players.

(Oh, and that Strong Bad game is pretty sweet too. That’s just what I heard… =)

Interface

Published January 6th, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

I was thinking today that if you put an LCD screen over a urinal you could map some kind of XY input in the bowl to a mouse cursor so you could interact with the display, but then I decided that would be too much trouble in terms of accuracy and how would you input a click and stuff like that so maybe the better solution would be an proximity-based sensor that would read your personal prefs off a keychain RFID tag or something and just automatically display some pre-selected content (i.e. your inbox, facebook, twitter or etc.) Special bonus because it’s at a urinal, the system could also theoretically give you (or the police) an update on your blood-alcohol content, STDs and any drugs you might be on. Plus, wouldn’t it be cool to serve custom ads based on a person’s biochemistry? Blood-sugar, pregnancy, the presence of anti-depressant medicines. This stuff is gold and you people are all just pissing it away!

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