|
June 25, 2008
The Dana Fuchs Band
The Dana Fuchs Band
As I have mentioned before, one of my favorite movies from 2007 was "Across the Universe ", a musical exclusively based around Beatles' songs, some of which are sung by an interesting array of professionals, such as Joe Cocker's excellent "Come Together", Bono humorously covering "I Am the Walrus" and Eddie Izzard having an absolute ball with "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite".
However, the core of the songs for "Across the Universe" were covered by the main cast, one member of which really stood out in my mind, which was Dana Fuchs as the Janis Joplin-esque "Sadie". (I was glad that both Janis and Hendrix inspired characters got alternative universe happy endings in "Across the Universe", imagine what the world would have been like if both of these legends had lived on!)
I hadn't really heard of Dana Fuchs or The Dana Fuchs band, so was totally blown away by her deep, powerful, breathy, passionate vocals, especially on "Helter Skelter" and "Why Don't We Do it in the Road?".
If you haven't seen "Across the Universe", get it today! If you have seen "Across the Universe" and enjoyed it as much as I did, you should go out and get the original soundtrack today!
And, if you liked Dana Fuchs as Sadie in particular, you really should check out both the CD and DVD of The Dana Fuchs Band Live in NYC. I actually prefer the DVD, as it has some bonus acoustic tracks presented in an interview format. (Plus, anyone worth their salt knows how to rip DVD music tracks for their personal MP3 collection!)
Both of these links are to CD Baby, which is actually a pretty darn cool site to get CDs from, unlike the Ebay merchants that I have ranted about recently, CD Baby knows precisely how to ship things to Canada! (nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more!)
Beyond Dana's superb blues/rock vocals, the band also sports excellent song writing talents, "Almost Home", "Misery", "Bleed More" and "Strung Out" are all stand out tracks among a sea of excellence!
I haven't been able to listen to The Dana Fuchs Band debut CD: "Lonely for a Lifetime", which currently available only through iTunes, but it's probably a safe bet that it's an outstanding musical experience as well.
I also think it's pretty cool that Dana and I share a common birthday with the likes of Rod Stewart and Pat Benatar! Rock on Dana!
June 19, 2008
The Gore Bay Summer Theatre
I thought I would just take a moment to post information about our upcoming summer theatre season here in Gore Bay, which starts (GULP!) next week!
Norm Foster fans will be happy to know that we're putting on one of his funniest plays: "The Love List" this summer. Kevin, Tara and Dave are back with a top-notch show that will have you literally rolling in the aisles!
Myself and Vincent are performing Mitch Albom's poignant "Tuesdays with Morrie" , based on his best-selling book. This play is both very touching and very funny and is filled with great wisdom about figuring out just what's important in life!
Walter has also been working with a group of outstanding youngsters from the local public school to produce an excellent production of "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe".
"The Love List" plays June 26th, 27th and July 3rd, 4th, 10th, 11th, 17th, 18th and 24th at the Gore Bay Community Hall. Curtain is at 7:30 pm sharp, tickets are available at the town office or at the box office from 6:30pm on show dates.
"Tuesdays with Morrie" plays June 28th, July 5th, 8th, 12th, 15th, 19th and 22nd at the Gore Bay Community Hall. Curtain is at 7:30 pm sharp, tickets are available at the town office or at the box office from 6:30pm on show dates.
"The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" plays June 28th, July 6th and 13th at the Gore Bay Community Hall. Curtain is a 2:00 pm Saturday matinee, tickets are available at the town office or at the box office from 6:30pm on show dates.
For more ticket information, you can call 282 0538 or 1 800 529 5518
We're also very performing both of our main productions at the Burns Wharf Theatre in Manitowaning this summer! "Tuesdays with Morrie" plays on July 2nd, 9th, 16th and 23rd. 'The Love List" plays on July 25th and 26th. For times & tickets please call (705) 859 3808.
We hope to see you at our shows this summer!
June 14, 2008
Pet Peevisaurus
Pet Peevisaurus
Gads, some things in this world just don't make sense, just ask all the people who've been posting comments about continued issues with EA's "Download Manager"!
Anyhow, I'm introducing a new category specifically for griping about things in the world that simply don't make any sense!
Number One with a bullet is FeeBay, errrrr Ebay. Ok, actually, I have no right to call it "FeeBay", because I don't sell anything there, I still prefer the graceful, if under-visited elegance of Etsy.
However, I still like to use Ebay to fuel one of my favorite hobbies, which is collecting older video games. The way I see it, I'd much rather be playing "previous generation" Xbox and PS2 titles for $10 to $20, as opposed to paying $60 to $80 for new Xbox 360 and PS3 titles that will be $10 to $20 in a few years or whenever "next, next generation" systems make an appearance.
Heck, in a lot of cases, older titles are more fun than newer games, which always seem time need time to mature as a console generation matures.
Anyhow, living in the wilds of Canada, and with the exception of ransacking the same old piles of used titles at Electronics Boutique and Blockbuster in Sudbury, Ebay tends to be one of the better ways to find old and/or esoteric titles for a reasonable price.
However, there are certain issues with Ebay that are common to all Canadians and that's what I really want to gripe about.
First of all, I want to admit that I don't actually do auctions on Ebay, I stick with Buy-it-now sales only. Why? Well, they tend to always have odd end times, and everyone knows that nobody bids on auctions until the last few seconds, so if you want to actually win an auction, you have to be right there at the end.
Plus, most regular auctions don't have even consider shipping to Canada, in face, out of an average search, I'd say that only 1 out of every 6 Buy-it-nows will ship to Canada. Why's that? I don't really know, I guess we have a bad reputation because of customs fees, which for items over a certain price can lead to quite the case of "post office shock"!
However, any shipper worth his salt knows how to fill out that little green customs slip to avoid the gaze of our haphazard customs' naz… errrr… enforcement, just take a look at the label below, which brings me to my final and largest complaint: Massive overcharging for shipping to Canada for things like video games.
Exhibit "A" - This is a scan of an actual envelope that was used to ship me a standard console video game/DVD case. As you can see, it cost the shipper a whopping $2.38 to ship to Canada. Now, as a shipper myself, I can allow a little leeway for shipping costs, to cover time for taking things to the post office and the cost of a bubble mailer. So, I could see reasonably paying $4 to $5 for the shipping of in case game. However, I actually paid $8.50 for the shipping on this particular title, one of the best shipping rates to Canada that I have found to date!
(click for enlargement)
Exhibit "B" - Check out this search on Ebay for a title I was thinking about picking up today "Rogue Galaxy" for the PS2.
Not only do the prices for new copies range from $12 to nearly $37! But the lowest shipping to Canada starts at $9.95 and goes as high as a whopping $20.99!
What gives? At the very least these sellers are multiplying shipping costs by 4 times just for the privilege of sending something to Canada!??! And it's not like they're trying to recover fees, check the above link with the $20.99 shipping to Canada, if you check the USA shipping price, it's just over $5.00.
So anyhow, there you have it, my "Pet Peevisaurus" number one! To all the Ebay sellers out that that like to F-over Canadians, I would just like to say: "Sit on it and rotate, you bunch of pole-smoking jackasses!" Thank you very much and may you have a rotten day with many, many negative feedback comments from irate Canadians, you deserve it, you really do!
April 22, 2008
Manitoulin Illustrated Volume 1 Now Available!
Hot off the presses! Manitoulin Illustrated Volume 1 is finally available!
Click on the link above to read more about this exciting new project!
April 16, 2008
Happiness is a Warm Gun
I was watching the excellent "Across the Universe"Across the Universe" (I'm serious, if you haven't seen this movie yet, go out and buy or rent it today!) the other day, which is the first DVD that I have actually purchased in ages and something struck me about the Beatles tune "Happiness is a Warm Gun".
In the movie, they, of course, relate this song to intravenous drug use, in the case of one of the characters, recovering from traumatic wounds incurred whilst on a tour of duty in Vietnam. My best guess about the original meaning of the lyrics is much the same, but perhaps related more to heroin, which ties into mystery lyrics from songs like "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite" with lyrics about "Mr. H and Henry the Horse", which could both be taken as analogies for "H".
However, I started to find my own meaning in the song when I started to think of the "gun" not as an instrument of illicit drug use (which I can't imagine how or why anyone would get into), but as an instrument of art, as in a tattoo gun.
As anyone who knows me can attest, I have been captivated with tattoos and body art for as long as I can remember. Tattoos are interesting on so many levels that it is hard to find just one to focus on, there's not only the artistry and symbolism involved, but there's also the fascination with touching and playing with pain. The endorphin rush associated with getting ink is thoroughly addicting, perhaps not as much as a true chemical addiction, such as what's experience with opiates, but in a different, cathartic sense, where the act of being "drilled" with ink is equal to huge release of pent up energy.
Tattoos can also be quite therapeutic when it comes to those who suffer from chronic pain, which is not a subject to ever be trifled with. But why would somebody who is already suffering want to hurt more, you may ask? It's because the pain of a tattoo is guaranteed to end when the tattoo heals, leaving a mark, than unlike a typical scar, is beautiful and symbolic. Sometimes of strength, sometimes of survival, sometimes of something even deeper, it doesn't really matter; the point is that tattoos always having a meaning of some sort for the wearer that will last a lifetime.
Anyhow, my point in writing today is to mention my absolute favorite tattoo shop down in Mississgauga, Ontario: "Moonshin Tattoo". Moonshin is run by "Chuckster", his wife "Gwan Soon" and partner "Evel". I've been drilled by all three of these fine artists (sometimes by more than one at once, tag team ink, cowabunga!) and I can attest to their excellent skills and professionalism.
Unfortunately I don't have photos of my personal ink at the moment, but I promise to post some in the coming months. I'm actually hoping to get some fresh ink at the start of May, so hopefully I'll have pictures of even more than just my current six pieces.
I also wanted to add a plug for one of my favorite websites for pictures of ink: Inked Girlz. To me, there's nothing sexier than soft, feminine curves and loads of ink! (I guess this explains why my significant other has over 16 tattoos and nearly as many piercings, LOL!)
April 1, 2008
A Nice Surprise for April Fool's
One of my fans just noticed that my upcoming book "Beaded Chain Mail Jewelry: Timeless Techniques with a Twist " has been officially listed on Amazon.com!
Having spent more than the past year working on this title, it's very exciting to finally see things taking shape. Of course, the actual release isn't until this coming fall, but it's great to know that things are progressing as scheduled!
Stay tuned for more information!
March 26, 2008
Net Neutrality Hits Home Hard
It looks like the great overlords at Bell have decided to start Über-throttling internet traffic on the lines that they resell to smaller ISPs all across Canada.
As an Internet user who specifically chooses to go with a smaller ISP to avoid throttling activities, I find this kind of behaviour on the part of Bell to be completely egregious and quite irksome.
Oh course, with all issues in the business world, things may not be quite as they seem. If the comments section for the article above is to be believed, it seems that what Bell is really attempting to do is protect it's own proprietary ADSL2 service, the rollout of which conspicuously coincides with their decision to start throttling traffic on re-sold lines.
Only time will tell what will happen with the entire Net Neutrality issue. With more and more data getting slung around the 'net for the purpose of providing entertainment content, such as high definition movies, we are unlikely to hear the end of this debate for some time to come!
March 7, 2008
Synesthesia
Synesthesia (a.k.a. synæsthesia or synaesthesia, plural synesthesiae) is a term that literally means the combining of one or more of the five human senses. Nominally, in from the standpoint of neurology, this is actually an unusual condition found in less than 4% of the human population, which causes people to make unusual associations between items of thought or memory. Examples would be somebody whom thinks of Thursdays as having the texture of concrete, or remembering the smell of the basement of your old house as being the sound of pigs grunting.
When I first found out about synesthesia I wasn't at all surprised, I had related smells to colours, tastes to shapes, the seconds, minutes, hours, days, months and years of my life to giant clockwork mechanisms, etc… for as long as I can remember. What I was surprised to learn is that it was such an uncommon occurrence, and that there was actually a technical name for it!
However, after initially discovering this concept, I sort of set it into the back of my head. Sort of the same reaction I had when somebody explained Asperger's Syndrome (a type of mild autism, which causes many kinds of environmental sensitivities, which seems to be a common thread among the world's geek popular), which was "cool, file in the cerebral databanks and move on".
Actually, thinking about Asperger's and Synesthesia just now has got me wondering if anybody has ever attempted to discover a cross-correlation between the two? Sounds like a research paper worthy of Kaitlen from Douglas Coupland's "JPod" . (Which, incidentally is the funniest book I've read in ages!)
Anyhow, sorry for my digression, back to Synesthesia, which has actually become a bit of a buzzword in the gaming industry these days, which brings me to the subject of this post, a couple of really cool games I just came across.
The first is a literal attempt to create a Synesthesia based game. It's called "Synaesthete" and basically combines the mechanics of Robotron with the rhythm basics of a "PaRappa the Rapper" or "Dance Dance Revolution " (which in turn spawned the epically famous Guitar Hero games) with a very Tron (looks like we're going to get a Tron movie sequel in 3D for 2011, I wonder if it will be as good as the Tron 2.0 FPS that came out a while back?), or Darwinia -like (A fun little RTS set inside a computer) aesthetic.
Basically, you run around glowing mazes, defeating enemies by taping out various musical beats and receiving Marshall McLuhan-esque philosophy each time you defeat a group of enemies. The beats that you tap out add to the visual experience, so that the music and visuals become a Synesthesia. A very interesting concept indeed and after playing through the first 3 levels, I can say that it's pretty good fun. (I understand that the old PS2 game "Rez ", which has recently been re-released as a download on the X-Box 360 is a similar experience. Although, differing in being a "rail-shooter", as opposed to directly moving your character, the concept is the same, shoot things to make beautiful sound and light shows.)
I think it is cool to note that Synaesthete was created by students at Digipen, which is possibly one of the coolest schools on the plant and just won the 2008 student award at the IGF.
The second is actually one of the most inventive and entertaining games I've come across in ages. It's called "Audiosurf", and no, it's not about being some poor Rockstar slave to the RIAA (that would be an "AudioSerf"), it's a game which translates songs of your choosing (in several popular audio formats, including ubiquitous MP3s) into multi-lane digital highways that again follow a bright-glowing colour motif. The beat of the music determines the bumps and shape of the highway, which you must ride along in an attempt to score points by either hitting or avoiding (depending on the game mode) various coloured blocks. In effect, the game world combines with your choice of music to create a Synesthesia upon which you race through (sometimes at breakneck speed, depending on your chosen song).
At the end of each race, Audiosurf connects with a high score server to show you how well other players did with the same song. I can't stress enough how brilliant this design decision was. Let me attempt to explain: You see, the rest of the game is basically a combination of other concepts melded together in a highly creative manner. The blocks on the highway are very similar in concept to the notes you hit in Guitar Hero, although, you're not actually strumming, you just have to move from side to side to hit them. The matching of blocks can be linked back to puzzle game time immemorial, with classics such as Tetris or Bejewelled. Even the overall look of the environment basically breaks down to one of those cool musical visualizations that have been a common component of software for playing digital music files for ages.
So, while the concept is highly original take on old ideas, the "drive" or want to play only crystallizes after you've finished your first "race" and you see the tally board of other players. All of a sudden, we are not only driven to compete for higher or more complex scores, but we're also drawn into thinking "Oh, I wonder if anyone has ever set a high score for this song or that song". Our minds become overloaded, as we think of song after song to try, we want to know if it's popular, we want to know who else has the same taste in music as us.
In short, it is brilliant marketing. The designer has driven us to buy his product, not just because of how cool it is, but because it allows us to utilize a commodity (music files) that just about everybody possess. And admit it, how many of us don't believe that there's something interesting or unique or special about our own taste in music?
Audiosurf delves into a region of collective unconscious that groups (beyond regular game developers) like the RIAA really need to study. Music is not about "the old ways", such as radio and CDs anymore, it's about new ways of interactive with music as a graphic and visual whole. The success of games like this is proving that every single day, I personally believe that more and more developers are going to run with these concepts and produce some absolutely spectacular results!
In my book, Audiosurf is a 10 out 10! (and it's only $10 and can be downloaded straight away, you can't get any better than that!)
P.S. My personal favorite songs for Audiosurf so far have been "Sabotage" (Spike Jonze, you rock!) by The Beastie Boys, "Woke Up This Morning" (The Sopranos) Theme) by Alabama 3, "Tom Sawyer" by Rush and "Revolution" by Aimee Allen.
|
|
June 2008
