28 December 2007

Welcome to Procrastination Theater!

Well, it's that time again. Projects loom and the spirit withers, and yet I continue to distract myself instead of facing the problem. So. Enjoy my brief summaries.

I finished up Half-Life: Source the other day, it didn't take me long. Pretty fun. Dated, but fun. Definitely not up to the standards of HL2 and its episodic content, but it was a stepping stone whose success allowed for greater things.

I'm listening to Stolen Babies - There Be Squabbles Ahead right now. It's excellent. Very much in the same vein as Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, but perhaps slightly less insane, not quite as dismal. It features a female vocalist prominently, who unlike that of SGM performs some screaming vocals. I think I will be enjoying this album for quite some time. Have a look at the video:


I also grabbed a self-titled album by the oddly named The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza today. Pretty much a less-varied Dillinger Escape Plan. Enjoyable but not particularly remarkable.

On recommendation from a soon-to-be relative, I looked into Buckethead again. I have previously enjoyed his collaborative effort with Serj Tankian of System of a Down, Buckethead & Friends - Enter The Chicken, a great mix of genres and vocalists coupled with excellent quirky musicianship. I was later turned off by Population Override, a sort of neo-jazz album that I found rather boring. This last foray into his work got me The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell and Kaleidoscalp. The former is mainly a metal album. I like it a lot; the bucket-man has created a wonderful thing here. Kaleidoscalp is also great but a bit less accessible perhaps. It shall require more listens.

This has been a ploy to prolong my own suffering. Thank you for listening.

2 comments:

The Horns and the Hawk said...

yeah. buckethead is my favorite.

y'know, my music has steadily gone farther and farther off the beaten path, and that's not at all a conscious decision on my part, it just sort of ended up that way.

this band is pretty cool. i like her vocals. this band isn't available on emusic, but sleepytime is, so i'll be downloading that one come monday. i might get this stolen baby cd off of itunes.

on an unrelated note, my problems with ratatouille were as follows: 1. completely forgetful characters. i understand realism, but when you employ to the extent that the only 4 characters i can remember i can remember only exclusively because of physical characteristics, you've gone too far. also, i can't remember their names.

2. the message was over the top campy and cliche. "everyone can cook." everyone can (x), you can (x) if only you believe in yourself! the same message in every cartoon since probably the 70s. it just makes me pine for the days of yore when i could enjoy ren and stimpy and looney toons and rocko's modern life and not be bogged down by ham fisted morals.

2a. the girl is a total cliche as well. "i'm a girl, and i'm going to completely announce my characteristics instead of let clever writing (of which this movie has very little, see number 3) slowly reveal my character over time. plus, i'm a typical feminazi type that has the testosterone cranked to 11 because.... (insert cliche feminism lines here)." i miss my jessica rabbits and betty boops. they make much more interesting and funny characters.

3. i didn't think it was all that funny. usually when i see movies that are funny, i'm gasping for air to breathe, and then afterwards i'm retelling the jokes to my friends who saw it trying to commit it to memory. i can't remember a single joke from the movie, and i couldn't 10 minutes after i'd seen it. i even remember telling my date, "that wasn't that funny."

i've really become more and more disappointed by pixar since the incredibles. i mean, they've only released two movies since then (cars and ratatoulle), but both of them have been so hamfisted and have lacked the creativity of all their other outings (except for arguably bugs, which is usually lauded as their worst) and have been crammed with generic ham fisted moralizing, which in cartoons, should always take a backseat (if it's even there, and frankly, i don't think it should be) to the comedy.

so, i know that's not this blog, but i wasn't sure where to respond to it. these are things i've kind of felt for a long time but couldn't really put words to until i found this blog:
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/
probably my second favorite blog on the webtron.

Adrenaline said...

You're right, this band is interesting.