Author: grenideer

The Trouble With Angels – Filter

Filter is one of those bands that was easy to love after their first album. I have spoken before about how they will never be the same as the good old days but when they released Anthems For The Damned a few years ago I did kind of get into it. The problem with that album is not that it’s bad but it’s generic. The choruses are powerful and I like to listen to the songs but they all bleed together. If the music was playing at someone else’s house you would bob your head to it but there was a certain lack of character that kept the album from standing out. It also featured some of the worst parts of prior albums, namely annoying screaming that didn’t contribute to the songs, a dead space track that grated the ears, and soft songs without soul meant to cater to the radio listening crowds. But overall, still, Anthems For The Damned showed a glimmer of promise.

Clouds
Clouds

Enter The Trouble With Angels, and the promise is fulfilled. All the strongest traits of Filter Nouveau are set to 11 and much of the hindrances are left behind (well, Absentee Father has a couple of eye-rolling screams). The hard songs go HARD without reprieve. Real effort has been put into giving songs individual characteristics that provide identity. The album is cohesive and flows through a few different styles without all sounding derivative of each other. The choruses are even more catchy. There is nothing ground-breaking here at all- it is just solid rock. It’s strange because the album doesn’t immediately impress itself on you but after listening to a couple tracks it is difficult not to succumb to the energy and mood of it all.

No Re-Entry
No Re-Entry

Unfortunately, much like the last album, none of the songs truly force themselves to be considered all time favorites individually. Filter is still only a fragment of the band it was since the creative duo broke apart after the first album and it’s unlikely that we’ll see their music ever top the charts again. But if you find yourself willing to accept that change happens, not always for the better, and you listen to The Trouble With Angels with open ears and an open mind, you just may find yourself subconsciously rocking out. In the end, that’s what a solid rock album is supposed to do. And that’s not such a bad thing.

Ghost Hunting Shows

What is wrong with audiences today? Why are there so many ghost hunting shows on tv now? It seems like every cable channel has one. SyFy Channel started with Ghost Hunters, A&E got Paranormal State, Discovery Channel created Ghost Lab, even the Travel Channel for some reason started Ghost Adventures.

These shows are like the specials you see on tv with some crazy person who devoted half their life looking for Bigfoot. I got news for you- if the cooky old sailor you’re watching actually found the Lochness Monster then you would have heard about it in the news WELL BEFORE the episode aired. These ghost shows are no different. But hey, if you want to hear sounds of buildings settling, someone dropping a spoon, or a scratchy static recording then by all means.


Ghost Evidence

And what’s with the night vision? Can anyone tell me why the explorers refuse to turn any lights on? Even in the few cases that they are in buildings without electricity, doesn’t everybody realize that film crews don’t need to use small flashlights to capture night footage? Ok, sure, some of these teams may not have full crews, but ask yourself why not? Do the big scary cameramen spook the ghosts? Or is it likely that the producers are more interested in creating a program that looks spooky rather than has any shred of plausibility or respect for itself?


My cellphone can take better night shots than this

Even if you believed in ghosts and thought that *maybe* some of these encounters out of all these episodes were genuine brushes with reality, what you actually get to see on video is not very compelling. There is no science, there is no proof, there is nothing interesting captured on camera. Instead viewers are asked to be satisfied with the same bullshit con jobs. A bunch of “experts” are standing in a room and get startled and say, “Did you hear that?” and they all run to another room remarking about how they feel an old and evil presence close by. Then they start talking out loud- “Hello. Can you hear me?” I actually heard one guy from Ghost Adventures saying, “I call to thee!” like he was in the middle of his weekly larping game. Then the spooked hunters listen to static that they turn up really loud and make crazy claims about it, satisfied at a job well done. How is this entertainment?

DRM

What do you think about a single player game that requires you to be online every second that you play it? Pure vitriol, if internet message boards and comments are any indication. Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a wildly unpopular idea and yet another front on the war between freedom and security. In the real world at airports we fight terrorism but in the digital world piracy is the enemy. Still, the laments are the same- security measures are an inconvenience that often get in the way of the experience they exist to protect.

In the grand scheme of things media rights are a fairly trivial aspect of security and it comes easy for users to slam the need for it. I personally wouldn’t buy music with DRM and avoided iTunes because of it. Why would I buy controlled music when my entire previous collection was uncontrolled? Why would I give up that freedom?

It has taken some time but games have finally surged ahead in this realm. Valve launched Steam, a storefront to hold your game collection. It wasn’t hard to hide from people the fact that it was a DRM application but Steam offered enough perks that it actually enhanced the experience rather than destroyed it. You can buy a game and play it on PC and PS3, you can install the game on multiple machines, or delete it and always have a backup in the cloud. And you could certainly still play the games offline.

This is where the new trend of always on DRM emerges. Ubisoft has released many PC games that require an internet connection to play and there have been many complaints and calls for boycott. None of the detractors have stopped the company from claiming that their solution has successfully reduced the amount of piracy they suffered. And so, despite being popularly reviled, their business plan continues.

And this leads us to Blizzard and Diablo 3. Previous versions of the game have allowed you to have separate games for online and offline play, but no more. Diablo 3 forces a single game type, for the “convenience” of the player, that always requires an internet connection. It is obvious that this simplifies the experience for the player and the development of the game, and honestly, I will be playing this game online with friends a lot of the time. It is also clear that this is DRM to prevent piracy and will inconvenience players who can’t be constantly connected or who have a router that resets itself every night. But what I think is slipping past most people is the online auction house.

Blizzard is including a real money auction house for items in Diablo 3. Remember previous games where you had to hunt and work for items? Well this time around you can just go to the store and buy them. This is an outrage to some people as is but i’m not really opposed to the concept of microtransactions on face value. However, I’m of the mind that the reason Blizzard always wants you to be online is so you can partake in the auction house. You can’t buy gear if you aren’t online after all. And think about the item economy. If you could play offline and save locally, you could hack the save files and get free items. This obviously doesn’t work when you can easily sell these items for real money, endorsed by Blizzard. Of course there would still be the limitation of not allowing SP and MP items to mix, but what happens when you buy an item in SP – should that extend to MP as well? Shouldn’t it because you paid for it?

These are all problems that have solutions, but Blizzard is solving an awful lot of their problems by forcing you to be online all the time, and they are leaning heavily on their online World of Warcraft expertise. This is a case where I actually think piracy isn’t the driving concern of requiring an internet connection. Don’t be fooled by Blizzard’s claims that they are not planning on making money off the auction house and just expect it to cover server costs. That’s laughable. And dishonest.

So when it comes down to it, is Blizzard doing anything wrong? They are following the rule of popular DRM in that it will offer the users more features than if it didn’t exist. They are vastly simplifying item management and relying on existing technology by using their Wold of Warcraft (always on) knowledge. As a developer myself I need to respect those points. I’m sad to say it but I don’t think this move bothers me a whole lot and I only see the industry moving towards this model more in the future. Soon we will see ads, like on web pages, in digital storefronts like Blizzard’s auction house. Games are becoming more connected to the web and social media and marketplaces that soon enough the line will be so blurred that we will forget what we were complaining about here. The golden rule will, as always, be to make sure the game itself does not suffer.

A Dance With Dragons

George R. R. Martin’s A Song Of Ice And Fire series is not just a new phenomenon- all 4 previous entries have been New York Times bestsellers with the last hitting number one. The draw of the novels are without a doubt the many complex characters involved, the well imagined and far ranging world, and of course the intricate plotlines. Countless houses and families interweave across lands familiar and new, all inevitably tying together through the plots of kings and men.

That said, the lands of Westeros and beyond are a hot topic these days for a couple reasons. First, HBO created and aired a hit season based on the first book of the series, with more to come. And second, because the fifth book out of seven, A Dance With Dragons, was finally released after a wait of more than 5 years. Since I haven’t mentioned A Song Of Ice And Fire on Why I Hate Everything before, I will recap a bit before getting to the new book.

A Game Of Thrones was a great first novel that introduced a world and had specific plot arcs in mind. Westeros is a medieval land without all the fluffy magic that we are used to in the fantasy genre. Politics and bloodlines are the star of the show here. Since the tv season portraying this book finished airing and the novel has a bigger following now I may touch on a couple generic spoilers without getting to the big ones. A Game Of Thrones is about an honorable family in the north that gets embroiled in politics that ultimately threatens to be the ruin of them all. The novel tracks all the members of the family being split up to their own separate dangers and adventures. Some plotlines were tied up but most were left open ended with many a possibility and question unanswered.

Rightly so, the next couple of novels in the series had a lot of source material to lean on. Various characters across numerous lands provided many rich backdrops to explore. New characters who were previously footnotes became the focus of new plights as well. A Clash Of Kings and A Storm Of Swords relied on the first book to set the sequence of events and these books were somewhat a matter of simply letting the dominoes fall. But after (and maybe by the end of) these two entries some of the luster was lost. It became hard to ignore a pattern of random dangers presenting themselves and oft times leading to the worst possible outcomes. Martin is not known to be kind to his characters but this only stays refreshing as long as it does not become predictable. More troubling is that now a few books into the series, with some large notable exceptions, many characters were still more or less in the same place as where the first book left off.

Then we get to the fourth book, A Feast For Crows. This novel is the culmination of a wandering story, taking too long for anything to happen while focusing on characters that are difficult to care much for. A Feast For Crows was the worst book in the series by far. It was long and meandering for what little point it had. I’m not saying that there wasn’t good color to the tales told within but as a portion of the greater story it served little good. This book had so much fluff in it that it became too long. Aside from taking 5 years to be released it cut half the characters and story out- to be split into the next book. Essentially, A Feast For Crows and A Dance With Dragons cover the same time period but just focus on different characters. Martin assures us that the reason for this division was to tell the full stories of half the characters rather than half of the story of all the characters. Except near the end of A Dance With Dragons we start seeing characters from A Feast For Crows reappear as the timeline becomes recombined. So much for the characters having their full stories told in each book, huh?

Anyway, the deficiencies of the fourth entry became the strengths of the fifth. It was good to once again read about characters that were missed in the context of what had already happened. And when the timelines combine it was nice to finally know that all was right with the chronology once again. However, there was a notable change in A Dance With Dragons. Reading the previous book impressed upon me a sense that it was long, meandering, and unplanned. A Dance With Dragons, on the other hand, rushed forward to introduce some important new characters and undo some of the situations set up earlier.

It is said that Martin took some time between books to plan out the rest of the series and get a sense of how book 7 should end and work backwards. It is clear to me that there was a definite plan and need to get the cogs in motion in order to get A Song Of Ice And Fire back on track again. While there are still some chapters in the latest book that are nothing but fluff, it feels good to know that the momentum once again has direction.

A Dance With Dragons is not a perfect book by any means. It still mostly misses out on half of the characters, abandons others in awkward spots only halfway through the reading, and speeds certain events along to get them set up for what’s coming next. Still, a living, breathing world with a lot of colorful nations and traditions is discovered within. And most importantly, I believe it is serving the purpose of getting the A Song Of Ice And Fire train back on the tracks. Books 6 and 7, I expect, will be much more tight and satisfying when all is said and done.

M83 – Midnight City

I don’t usually jump onto the flavor of the month bandwagons but I recently heard this track by M83 and it is solid. Listening through their back catalog didn’t excite me too much however – maybe if you’re into that sort of thing. But I will keep an ear out for this new album just in case there’s more like this. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear the signature hook in remixes at clubs eventually, but what’s really cool is that M83 pulled off a sax solo. When was the last time you heard that?

Check out Midnight City

I Am Legend

The familiar zombie apocalypse was dreamed up by Richard Matheson in a novel that everyone knows about because of the 3rd movie version starring Will Smith. I Am Legend is about a post apocalyptic modern world where bacteria has caused everyone to turn into vampires. Everyone, of course, except Robert Neville – the last man on Earth.

Reading through the book today you will encounter very common themes – hordes of undead, lone survivors, vampire myths explained- but what is most important is that when the book was written in 1954, none of these themes were widespread. This novel was a direct inspiration for Night of the Living Dead a few years later and is the father of the zombie apocalypse genre we are all familiar with. I Am Legend is one of the first real works to modernize vampires into what we think of them as today. At the time it was considered original to give scientific explanations to the supernatural affliction of vampirism and the idea of a bacteria wiping out humanity was fairly novel, but certainly the combination of them both was a fresh take on the end of days.

This is a good lasting legacy for the book because it received mixed reviews when it was first released. While short and easy to read, I’d say the first half of the book moves too slowly. The second half picks up the pace and the ending really ties the entire story into something worth remembering. While the author was a heavy Twilight Zone contributor, reading through I Am Legend somehow manages not to feel like the ‘Weird Science fiction’ of the years before, even though that was the audience Matheson was trying to appeal to at the time.

At 160 pages this novel is easy to get through. You won’t be blown away but given the significance of this book serving as inspiration for many stories today, it is well worth the time investment.

Download the ebook here (import this to your iPad to read in iBooks using email or otherwise).

The Wire

After 5 successful seasons I am definitely late to the dance on this one but a recent romp with HBO Go introduced me to this gritty drama. The Wire actively attempts to showcase the less glamorous (and thus less interesting) parts of being a cop or criminal. You see the tireless and sometimes futile work the cops put in and watch them wasting the hours drinking alone in a dive bar, and you see the drug dealers just sitting around and not doing a whole lot that looks fun – they definitely don’t ball out. This realism is at the heart of the series – it is its appeal. But by design it is also what keeps The Wire from sinking its hooks into an audience immediately. It is certainly more entertaining than, say, the Sopranos because that show is just like watching a dysfunctional family have the same argument over and over again. I get it, the mom’s a bitch. To me, that’s not fun- I don’t want to worry about fictional family problems. Instead The Wire exposes viewers to the harsh grind of crime. But it admittedly drudges along at times.

It took a while to get into the show because of this. Contrary to the American tradition of melodramatic action and mythic characters, not much happens. When it does, however, the excitement feels like it might in real life and is easy to identify with. This isn’t a show about the bad guys getting what’s coming to them or watching happy endings, it is about getting deeper into the lives of the players on both sides of the law and seeing how they operate. When it comes down to it, The Wire is about the characters. None of them are so evil to not be likable, so good to be admired, or so bad ass to be in awe of. They are all just people doing their thing and it is this breadth of detail that rubs off on you. It’s hard to explain, but once I got that sense of what The Wire was about, it became almost addicting. This may explain why it was a critical hit because of its unconventional screenwriting but never attracted an overly impressive audience, but also why the series is suited to (and selling well on) dvd. To be honest, it might be maddening trying to watch the series once a week, but armed with HBO Go and watching it on demand is not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

Sent from my iPhone

Is there a more aggravating email signature around?

If you are sending emails out with default sigs like this then you might as well just have it write one of these things instead:

1) “I am not computer literate.”
2) “I am an Apple fanboy.”
3) “I am a gigantic tool.”

I just bought a new Samsung Infuse and my gmail sig was conveniently set up for me:

Sent from my Samsung smartphone on AT&T

Thanks for hooking me up with that guys! I’ll be sure not to immediately erase that.

Everybody should do themselves a favor and just be less accepting of marketing like this. It helps to be cynical too. Really I thought this was as ridiculous as it was going to get, until I got an email the other day from a coworker:

Hey guys!

Blah blah blah.

(Sent from Flipboard)
Sent from my iPad

So far we’ve managed to squeeze in the device, the current program that sent the email, and even the wireless carrier. What’s next, sponsorships?

3 Young Bands to Get Into

Everyone’s heard of these bands – they aren’t brand new or unknown or the music scene’s best kept secrets. What they are is solid, full of talent, and plenty able to continue giving us good music for a while. If you’ve only had a passing familiarity of these groups so far you should catch up – it’s time to get into these guys.

Silversun Pickups
What can I say about Silversun that can really capture my excitement about having them around? They are a new indie band on a field chock-full of old dogs but ironically feel like the blast from the past that we’ve been missing lately. And they stepped into the ring so confidently and quickly as if they had always been here. Not an instant success because they started with an EP (Pikul) that wasn’t too strongly received (and probably came from lesser means), the Silversun Pickups still managed to grab hold of an individual style while everyone else was too busy trying to sound like the Killers or Phoenix. The band gets their name from the corner of Silverlake Blvd and Sunset Drive- there is a Silversun liquor store that the band would often go to on pickups of booze while they were practicing. Their cool attitude and genuine love of music make them a joy to be a fan of and when Carnavas, their first full length album, came out it was no surprise that it had a few big hits on it. If the music wasn’t exactly up your alley then an argument could be made that watching them live could still win you over. They have an energy when they play that keeps the crowd involved. And these guys still play smaller LA shows every once in a while to show the love to their hometown. Following up all the praise was their 3rd album Swoon and, while perhaps not as good as the prior for some, it continues the tradition of distorted guitar and some really good songs. I’d say the album perhaps puts too much of an emphasis on distortion in the mix rather than, say, the clarity of the vocals, but it is still a very strong showing. I would only expect their future albums to get stronger.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Fresh, Brash, and Attitude – all coming out of New York. With that recipe the Yeah Yeah Yeahs almost seemed destined for success. The self titled EP was in your face and Fever To Tell had mostly fast songs next to the single Maps. It was clear at the time that the vocalist Karen O had style and that they were the flavor of the month but some of the songs admittedly sounded like high school rock. In a way, that was their charm, but there was more potential ahead. Show Your Bones was a bit softer and polished and it had many people worried, although I thought most of the songs were solid if not a bit more tame. Drawing personal comparisons to Siouxie and the Banshees isn’t a bad thing in my mind. So how do you prove to the naysayers that you didn’t sell out? Release Is Is, an EP that is gritty and does its best to rub convention the wrong way. Follow that up with It’s Blitz! and you now have a dancy and at times folksy collection, and you realize it is really hard to typecast the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. It’s not that their style always changes or that they have no identity, rather it’s a testament to their range as musicians.

She Wants Revenge
Filling a void in the market, She Wants Revenge is like a modern industrial act. While certainly influenced by 80s synth, the music doesn’t have the derivative industrial sound. This is something new and bold and unforgettable. There is no middle ground – you will either love it or hate it. Then to everyone who thought their first self titled album was a fluke or a gimmick, out came the sophmore effort, This Is Forever. The musicians base a lot of their work on old movie soundtracks from the 80s, if that sounds odd, and I definitely feel like I am listening to a Michael Mann movie at times. I would go as far as to say that the second album is better than the first, and has more of a driving, constant force behind it. They followed it up with an amazing Save Your Soul EP, and at this point the band seems unstoppable. Maybe that is a bit risky to say since a new album is hitting store shelves as we speak and my initial impressions are that there is a small style change in the vocals. How far could they really get without increasing the range of Justin Warfield’s singing, anyway? It’s a risk, but then all the great bands take them.