The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

Well, I’m probably not going to get all of them done this break like I had hoped, but I’ll get the majority done, at least, dammit! Here’s Stephen’s mix.

Punctuality
A Very Poorly Titled Mix

1. Steve Biko (Stir it Up) by A Tribe Called Quest: Okay, we got some… off horns starting this out… and some rapping, I see… okay, here’s a more normal beat here… well, normal for rappy stuffs, anyway. Well, as far as I know about rap stuff. It doesn’t really seem to be doing anything, though? Just forward and the same and forward. The weird horns had potential. They should have done more stuff with weird horns. What are they saying, though, I wonder… my mind isn’t catching it… oh, here’s those horns again… for a bridge of some sort, I suppose. Hey, I heard the band name… “So much going on, people laughin’ people dyin’…” is that right? I don’t know, I like rap when it does things, I think. But there’s so much rap whose whole point is “I am rapping.” and that’s all they say and that’s all the point… and it’s just thing… oh, it’s over.

2. Forlani by Burnt By the Sun: Well, there’s definately some guitar… just in one ear… oh, now we have both and some drums… huh. Well, at least it’s nice and upbeat. But what is it going to do with it? Just keep doing this thing the whole time? Oh, it’s going to slow down and growl and scream at me, huh? Well, that’s disappointing. The guitar part itself has potential, but it could use some break it down and then into something based on it that’s more fun instead of just kinda slowing it down and having the guy all screamy and stuff. Yeah, those vocals aren’t doing anything for me, and it seems to me to be kind of a waste of what started as an interesting guitar part but now is just kinda… nothing. Well, at least it’s over.

3. Crystal Mountain by Death: Oooh, that’s kinda video-game-y in it’s sound there… oh, and there’s some more of that kind of singing, huh? Well, at least they’re being a little more interesting with the guitars I suppose. There really is something about how the guitar sounds that reminds me of classic video game soundtrack and stuff, although I can’t really tell you why. Huh. But yeah, I bet the singer is saying something, but I have a hard time caring when he’s singing like that… sometimes it works for me? But often it’s sort of as a counterpoint to something else, not as everything. Yeah, it keeps sorta changing it up and then going back to before with the screamy growly… And yeah, that one guitar… something about the sound of it must remind me of something from my youth… whatever voice… is that what they call it with guitars? whatever voice they put on it. Eh, whatevers. It’s… it’s okay. I would prefer the vocals not being like that, and when I zoom in on the lyrics, it’s kinda lame. But I could listen to this in the background and not really pay attention to it and not be angry? So that’s nice, I guess.

4. That Right Ain’t Shit by The Books: Independent? Independent? Okay… There’s some piano and some weird guitar so far… don’t know what it’s going to do… oh, that’s a weird noise… is that done by guitar? I like it, though… and the little interesting percussions… yeah, it’s building to something… don’t let me down, song! Oh, it stopped building… just more instrumental… I guess it being instrumental would be fine. It’s kinda cute and fun. Of course, the title suggests otherwise, I suppose, but that’s how it sounds to me. Yeah, this is pretty nice, unless it screws something up right at the end or something, which I doubt… yeah, that’s nice mood music. Oh, here’s somebody talking… but not in a bad way, I guess… I didn’t catch what she said… oh well, song over. That was nice.

5. Squeeze Me Macaroni by Mr. Bungle: Woah woah woah woah. That’s quick. That’s… woah. Yeah. Yeah yeah. Yeah! That’s awesome! Heh. Silly and awesome! Oh, it got slower there for a second… oh, it’s being very random. I can appreciate random, but I would prefer less complete stopping of the music… but man, that’s fun. That’s fun! Yes yes! Man, I think I need to check this band out. I’ve heard of them before from other people on the board… Man, that’s just fun shit! Heh heh heh… and now there’s a lot of grunting and stuff going on… and some whispering… but yeah, I could get behind more random shit like this. Heh, get me something stupid like this for Rock Band, too. I’d buy it. I’d download it. Well, it’s nice to know they came to party. Cause, you know, they are definitely doing that. Man, that was fun shit.

6. Dearg Doom by The Lord Weird Slough Feg: Okay, we got some drums… and some guitars… ticka ticka ticka ticka… what? What kind of lyrics are these…? Oh my goodness. That’s… no. No no no. Well, they’re not getting screamed at me, but… hm… These lyrics are taking themselves too seriously, I think… well, for such lyrics to be accepted by me, they almost need to be ironic or laughing at themselves… well, okay “100 heads are so much better than 1,” that could be a good path to go, but I don’t think they’re going there. The music itself isn’t really drawing me in either… it’s the same little guitar riff over and over… and it’s a very short sort of pattern… I don’t know. Eh, it was really mediocre to me…

7. Meat Grinder by Madvillian (MF Doom + Mad Lib): This is a rap song, right? Okay, listening to it already it tells me it probably is. Something is under the bed… oh, and then it just disappeared and started another song, apparently. Okay, there’s the rapping… and there’s the meat grinding that was talked about. See, at least this one has lyrics that’s trying to be something else… I’m not catching them all, though… it’s sort of that quick pace that makes me jealous that I can’t do that… I mean, I probably could if I practiced, I guess… this is obviously pretty practiced, I’d think. I don’t know. See, I don’t know… you almost have to use the voice as the percussion sorta thing and then build a song around that rhythm or something… oh, it’s over quick.

8. Diana by Comus: That’s… that’s starting really weird… okay, so weird little vocals… and a repeating thing in a background… I doubt this song is going to change, either… they’re doing some sort of like… sheep baaaaaah thing as they sing. It’s weird. Odd. Strange. One of those. Yeah, this… well, this certainly is a different unique sort of sound. So that’s always nice to have, I guess… but it’s not really a sound I want anything to do with. I can agree with its existence, I suppose. Oh, it’s picked up the pace, I see… huh… huh huh… I like these quick bongo drummy things here… those are nice… a nice quick pace, yeahyeah… and we’re back to normal singing… yeah, I just don’t know, you know? It keeps going and going… it’s getting close to outstaying its welcome in my book, but it is about over with. Yeah, and now we’re just into weird instrumentals until the end, then? Ah, a fade out. Okay.

9. Blue in Green by Miles Davis: Some piano… light piano… slow piano… and there’s some horn… trumpet? Trombone? Now I wish I knew more about Miles Davis so I could pick that out. Cornet? I bet it’s a Cornet. Those are weird. Sousaphone? No, those are big… anyway, yeah, this song is trying for a slow depressing kind of feeling which automatically makes me sort of hate it on principal… exciting upbeat music, mann! That’s what I want! But I suppose it’s pleasant enough, and is succeeding at what it’s wanting to be… a little piano sorta drum horn… thing… see, now that sounds more like a saxaphone… was I just crazy in the beginning? I could have been. I am known to be crazy in the beginning as well as in the middle and at the end, from time to time… Yeah, it just keeps on going and I keep on not liking it on principal… keeps on going… yep… keeps and keeps on going…

10. Hip Hop by Mos Def: Okay, here’s some more rapping… I can actually picture Mos Def because of trailers for that one movie… and that’s definitely his voice… huh… yeah, lots of talking about himself… I just don’t know why that’s appealing to anyone but the guy singing it, you know? You could so easily apply this sort of style to something more… interesting? It just sort of flips a switch that says “this song is about nothing but self-congratulation” even if it isn’t… but I’m weird. I don’t know. Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock… Rock. Rock. Or something. Yeah, it just keeps going, doesn’t it? I mean, I guess I shouldn’t complain too much, it’s not that long a song. it’s just… I don’t know. Man, I have such trouble connecting to so much of this.

11. The Mercury Craze by Subtle: That’s like… oh woah… that’s… yeah… heh… “Oh no!” Oh, I’m liking this so far… don’t let me down, song! Keep this shit up! Come on, build, build, build… make the refrain something awesome when you break into it… that’s all I need… come on come on come on…! Oh… well, that wasn’t what I wanting at all. “Be. El. Be. El.” Eh. Yeah, now it’s doing weird in a stupid way here in the middle… and now it’s back to where it was when I was digging it… man, this song is fairly good, but it was so close… it’s going to break into more of that weird shit before it’s done, I know. See, it’s built up a little more at this point, and it’s a lot of fun, but I know soon it’s just going to be all stupid again and cut out all the fun I’m having with this part. See? See. There it is. Or not… maybe it’s just weird slow instrumental part… or… slow instrumental part to the end of the song…? It faded out and faded back into something else that’s… what? Well, um… okay…

12. Apparitions by Matthew Good Band: Uh oh… acoustic guitar and soft male vocalist… this isn’t looking good for my own personal enjoyment… Then again, stuff like “Matthew Good Band” is kind of a giveaway of sorts, isn’t it? So yeah, it’s just another one of these songs, which are never like… bad? It’s not going to make me angry or want to hurt myself or something. But it’s so… standard. So… common… so… not at all what I would listen to. Perhaps what Essner would listen to, but not what I would listen to… well, you know, outside of this sort of thing where the point is to try and listen to everything… oh man, it’s not even halfway over… oh man. Okay, so let’s see what the lyrics are about, I guess… lose the world from the comfort of your living room tell me are we leaving soon… um, well, okay… that’s not like… bad? That could be something good… and now he’s just going to say “Apparitions” like four times. Or three times, sorry, miscounted. Now here’s the bridge… some more powerful guitar than the rest of the song… Yeah, this song isn’t for me… but it’s slowing to a stop… and it’s back to just the lone guitar… and… Nah nah nah… over. Okay.

13. Gaia by Devin Townsend: Starting off with a little energy… like that… like that… but will it go somewhere with it? That’s always the problem. Okay, male vocalist, singing about a woman… guitars sort of eating his voice… his voice treated somehow to sound different… yeah, I can barely make out what he’s saying… Yeah, it’s got some energy, but it’s not infecting me with it… wait, was that some screamy I heard there for a second…? I suppose we’ll see if it comes back… I mean, it’s got some keyboards and stuff, which I always like, but it’s just… I don’t know. I don’t want to sing along with this song or anything, you know? I guess that’s a key part of liking a song for me, wanting to sing along with it… oh, there’s definitely a screamy part there… and we’re into a bridge or something… instrumental part… the song is only half over… his could be bad… the  song could be like… all guitar solo… yeah, it’s looking like it… more and more instrumental stuff… and more… and more and more… oh, wait, his voice is kinda coming back… but it’s more just kinda background noise… and one sustained note….! And now we’re back into the song, I guess. Maybe. We’re thinking about getting back to the song. Okay, now we’re back to the song, but I can hear the vocalist even less clearly over the guitar now… obviously, he is not important to this song, which makes me wonder why the vocals are there to begin with. Okay, we’re building towards and end maybe… and… and… and… end. Okay.

14. Where the Wild Roses Grow by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Some violins and strings, I see… female vocalist? Okay, so we’re talking slow song here, aren’t we… yeah… oh, here’s a sorta deep male voice… is this the legendary Nick Cave? Or not really legendary. I don’t know. I’ll just throw a master ball anyway… and yeah, so here’s a slow violin-y love song, I guess… I suppose it’s fine enough… it’s got the deep singing, which is… it is. I don’t feel like I’m buying the romance though… it’s just a story, which is fine, I suppose, but there’s no actual romance in it. I guess we have at least one more verse left, huh? But yeah, this is all… ballad-y…? Is that the right word? I think so. There’s nothing bad with that, I suppose. Oh, okay, so there’s murder now? Well, alright then. That makes the tone make more sense, I suppose. Uh oh! Switched to past tense! And the end.

15. Primordial by The Coffin Ships: The Coffin Ships, eh? That’s an interesting band name. This guitar part isn’t interesting me yet, though. Here’s some energetic drums here… more and more… and let’s just keep repeating this over and over for awhile longer… wonder how long we can keep that up… okay, and now we got some more guitar and then we’re going to repeat that for at least that long aren’t we? Oh, okay, a little less, I guess. Switching it up a little more… is there even going to be singing in this? We’re sort of passing the point where the vocalist should come in… I suppose it would work a little better as an instrumental, actually… though man, it’s all long and shit, isn’t it? Yeah, I guess we have these different verse parts… I don’t know, it’s not… it would be okay if something else was happening, but nothing else is happening. What? There is singing? After all that shite? I wouldn’t have believed it. These vocals don’t seem like anything to wait through all of that other stuff for, though… and now they’re gone again… man… and back again… I’m sorry, but the idea that there is another half of this song I still have to listen to is breaking my spirits. I’m moving on.

16. Body of an American by The Pogues: Okay, we got the flute-y Irish-y stuff here… and it’s building to be more like that… and it is like that. It’s all slow marching-style, huh? Something like that. Oh… oh, now it’s picking up a little more… okay, so it’s a goodbye farewell… thing… isn’t all of these songs like this sort of? It certainly seems that way, in any case… Anyway, it’s built up kinda nicely and fun. It’s a song like this… what else can I say about it? I don’t know anything else to say about it. And now it’s all slowing down… but there’s still a lot of song left to go… so I assume it’s going to pick up and do the refrain again at the end… or… maybe it is going to be like this all the way to the end… yeah, now it’s fading out… I guess it is. Well, huh.

Yeah, so, there was a lot of this CD I didn’t like, but Squeeze Me Macaroni was neat, at the very least, and will be added to my collection.

So, through… means… I checked out Bunnies and Burrows. This is just such a good idea. I’m only halfway through Watership Down… I’m going to try to finish it before break is up by reading it before bed. But it’s just a really good, really fun novel, and the idea of role-playing in that universe really entertained me. Bunnies and Burrows, though, just seems bogged down with trying to adapt little rabbits to rules written for super-humans. I wanted a lot more guidance as to what kind of world they live in and such, and there is some of that, but most of it is just GURPS shite. I mean, Brer says I should have expected that, but it can still annoy me, right? I would still play a game of it in a heartbeat, though… though maybe I’m just sort of seduced by the idea of being a storyteller rabbit and making up tales of El-ahrairah on the fly. Who knows.

So I did my taxes today, and I owe like $170 bucks. This has filled me with very mixed reactions due to the reasons why I owe that money, but I suppose I’ll be quiet. I want relaxation, not constant fighting, during my time left in this house, and for all I have, it’s the least I can do. It is still a bummer to think that that is probably all of my birthday money, though. Anyway, I guess I was constructive today, since I got that done, so huzzah!

Smash Brothers Brawl continues to be amazing, and the online play is pretty great too. Yes, Voice Chat would have put it above and beyond and made it COMPLETELY FUCKING AWESOME instead of just awesome, but it all works really well. Lag is most noticed when picking up items. The games are either completely unplayable or basically perfect, and I’ve mostly had perfect games. The ability to add in local players to fill out the foursome is also greatly appreciated. Jonathan and I did that yesterday. It was neat. The game is neat. I’m getting really good with Pokemon Trainer. I need to think of some more creative taunts.

Like Marble Madness? Or… marble physics games in general? (Is that a genre? I guess it sort of it. I see a lot of them.) Go to Instant Action, make an account, and enjoy Marble Blast Online for free. It’s all of Marble Blast Ultra from XBLA, only, you know, free. And in your browser. So go play it an have fun. I did.

Shiren the Wanderer is very good, but I suck too much at it. I get the appeal of Rougelikes, I really do, but give me a baby Rougelike where I can keep my experience and push through via grinding if I get stuck any day. Seriously. I hear there’s another Pokemon Mystery Dungeon coming out in April. I might pick it up. I hope I can be a Vulpix or some other Pokemon I like, though, because being an Eevee in the last game was kinda horrible, since Eevees learn nothing in the way of moves. I also hope the Kangaskahn warehouse lady is back, because I found what little dialog she had endearing. I think that’s where I picked up my urge to use the word “hon” from.

Tommorow: Being Completely Fucking Lazy, Brer wants me to watch The Wall with him, so I guess that too.

Okay, so let’s keep this sort of thing sort of going, eh? Eh?
Oh no, there’s french words I’m too lazy to type with the correct accents… sorry, french people!
Oh, and MCBanjoMike put additional information about these songs… here. So I dunno, if you’re actually interested enough to read this liveblog, you might be interested enough to actually know something about these songs, and then you would click that link, you see?
Maybe?
Well, here we go, then.

Listening Time Volume 16: Trad 101

1. Nil ‘na La by Solas: Yeah, there’s definitely Irish…ness… there. I didn’t look at the supplemental materials before I started. Is that bad? Oh well, that’s not normally how I roll. It’s supplemental, I should look at it after if I feel the need to. Anyway, yeah, this is like… if someone made an Indie movie set in Ireland, this is the sort of music that would be playing in the background during the credits or something as the main characters… I dunno… bike through a town in the opening sequence or something. It’s pleasant enough to the ear, certainly. The girl singer has a really pretty voice, certainly. It doesn’t really get me into it… oh, and it’s over.

2. Temisti-Me by Ni sarpe, ni branche: Some fiddlin’… some more of the similar type of stuff, huh? Or maybe it’s not and I’m an idiot, who knows… there’s percussion that sounds like dance-stomping stuff, but I bet it isn’t… I don’t know offhand how you’d make that sort of… slapping on your legs, that’s how you’d do it. Man, I’m dense sometimes. Well, I’m guessing at this point this is an instrumental piece, which is kinda sad because, like I said, the girl in the last one had a nice voice. Oh, what? A guitar of some sort? Are we, dare I say it, about to break it down here in this folk song? …no, no it doesn’t seem like we are. It’s just more of the same with that new rhythm underneath it. Heh, that guitar does add something, though… yeah, it’s all kind of fun. Would never picture me ever listening to it? But it’s fun. Stuff like this, as I’m sure I’ll keep saying if this disc gives me more music like this, is perfect to put in the background of something… a game, a movie… and make me appreciate it like that to clearly set a mood, but I’m just not going to seek it out otherwise. Yeah, it keeps going and going with the same thing… oh, okay, now it’s done.

3. The Sporting Pitchfork/The Diplodocus/Charlie Mulvihill’s by Alan & John Kelly: Okay, what instrument is that playing. I mean, I guess a flute? I don’t know, it sounds different. I mean, I don’t have a lot of idea. Yeah, this is more and more of the same, I suppose, although like… the first one was like the beginning of the second one, and the end of the second one was like the guitar in this first part… and now we went into a different part with a different instrument again. Man, I suck at naming instruments today. I swear sometimes I’m kinda okay at it. I wonder when it changed was when the song name changed, since I’ve been given 3 song names. But the base stuff seems pretty much the exact same, doesn’t it? I dunno. Yeah, I guess that was probably the change, cause there’s a very obvious change and we’re a little shy of 2/3rds done with the song… It’s all cute nice little stuff, but nothing with some meat on it, you know? It’s all kinda light. Lightish? Lightesque? Maybe sort of light? Twilight? Eh, who knows. Song OVAR.

4. Le bedeau de St-David by Les Charbonniers de l’enfer: Oh, there’s singing. A choir of sorts. Okay, so we got one leading voice and a choir behind him repeating what he says… whatever the hell he’s saying, of course. Man, you’d never believe I had two years of French by how so very little I know. Yeah, this isn’t very… musical? Not that it’s working against it, so much. It’s just got a beat… Like a march thing… or a… what’s it called… those March back and forth things… call and reponse things… Brer would know… if he reads this, I’m sure he’ll tell me… heh…

5.The Banks of the Sweet Vildee by Dervish: Okay, I’m digging that starting part. It’s got that folk-y feeling, but it had a more something for it… but now it’s back to business as usual. Still a chance they could break it down… no, past the point of breaking it down. Oh well. This girl, I don’t really dig her voice. Maybe it’s the heavy accent though. She just sounds weird. Man, I guess that’s bad to say about someone’s accent, huh? But it’s less singing and more like… super-accent. I’m only catching like the random words in it too… there was a “Green” there… I keep hearing some “my love”s… I dunno. “She wept more…” I give up. Oh, wait, there’s the title! I heard the title! I don’t know, it was certainly more upbeat and more… full…? But it didn’t do much for me at all.

6. Mornings at Bonny Doon/Palm Sunday by Andre Marchand & Grey Larson: Okay, just some guitar… quiet little guitar… sneaky guitar… Oh maaan, this is like… put me to sleep music… Do I have enough caffeine to make it through this song if this keeps up? Also, it’s not put me to sleep music in a bad way, it’s… lullaby kind of music, I mean. And there’s some soft sneaking woodwinds of some kind sneaking in there sneakily… Okay, so… we’re… maybe near the middle… so maybe it’ll change over… but with a name like Palm Sunday, I guess I’m not expecting much… or maybe it’ll be like Jesus Christ Superstar. HO SANNA HEY SANNA SANNA SANNA HO SANNA HEY SANNA HO SANNA! Oh, well, it is picking up a bit, isn’t it? Basically, the flutething and the guitar are switching places. Now the flute is in front and the guitar is in back. That’s neat, I suppose. This isn’t going to put me to sleep, but it’s still not really enthralling, though. It’s still very light and out there… wanting to hover over me or away from me instead of infect me and engage me. That’s what I like my music to do. Yeah.

7. Beehive by Flook: Flook is a pretty good name. Oooh, starting out fast… potential… Oh yeah, we got some drums… we might have a winner here… keep on building, thing… break out hard and really make it happen! Or… bring in another flute. I guess that’s just what this kind of music always uses, huh? Still, that guitar stuff is really kind of infectious. Makes you tap your foot along with it with it’s fast rhythm action. Now we got like dueling flutes or something. Oh woah, we switched it up and brought it to another level here! Yeah, that’s nice… yeah, this is getting close to music I would listen to. That’s energizing. I like that. Oh yeah, even more! Very, very nice. And now we brought it to just the guitars building… and building… and building…! What are you planning, guitars? Oh, just to have the flutes break it down a different way, I see. Yeah, this is folkish music I would listen to on occasion. I could see this being a favorite track on a video game soundtrack or something. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Thumbs up for that one. I think I’ll probably make Brer listen to this one…

8. The Newport Lass/Frances Aucoin/Astro’s Rough Day by Kieran O’Hare: And coming off of that last one, we’re back to more normal fare. Ah well, I suppose it’s sort of… unavoidable? I would guess. I mean, obviously BanjoMike has a much, much better idea of what is out there. But yeah, this is just normal stuff. It’s upbeat and nice, and a bit fuller than other selections, but it doesn’t engage me like Beehive did. Maybe the other two song parts will? I don’t know. It seems to be building more but not changing at all… and the song is over halfway over… I guess the first and second sections are like… the same thing? Okay, so here’s definitely a different song… A better melody than the first one. It goes down lower and does things with itself… yeah… but still, not doing a whole lot for me.

9. Intro by Swap: I assume this and the next track are connectedish. Ooh, neato. Heh. Silly little blippy-ness. I wasn’t expecting blippy keyboards on this CD at all. And that’s it.

10. Robert by Swap: Hey! This isn’t blippy at all! But it’s the same rhythm, of course. It’s got that nice little beat to it… where it like skips a beat and then catches up real fast? I don’t know what to call it offhand. I suck like that. Oh, there’s like… scat vocals here. Zo Doodle dawdle dum… Yeah, I don’t know how much they’re adding, really. But at least it’s a little different, so I can respect that, I suppose. And now back to just the instruments… la dee da… Yeah, that… yeah. It’s over now. Huh.

11. Good Drying by Shooglenifty: If a band with a name as amazing as “Shooglenifty” lets me down, I’m going to be sad. Just telling you. We’re starting out fast, that’s a good sign… and that little “bump” shows promise… hm… hmmmmm… come on, song, break it down… do it…! Aww, I don’t think it’s going to… Wait…! No, it didn’t… wait… okay, we got some more gutiarish stuff and some drums now… okay, yeah, we’re getting there… building more and more… and more… and more… yeah, sure, let’s just keep on doing that, huh? More drums. Also a scratching noise. Build build build. I guess that’s all the song is going to do for the whole song. Okay, now the song has changed, but the energy level hasn’t, like I was hoping after all that building… this isn’t really what I was wanting. Boo! Be better, Shooglenifty! I mean, I guess you’re good at what you do, but do something I want! All well. Oh woah, there was some drums and now it’s upped the energy a little with some weird new thing here. That’s cool. Yeah, it’s alright. Yep yep. I can approve.

12. The Humours of Bally Manus/Gortnamona by Siobhan Peoples & Murty Ryan: And we’re back to more normal stuff again. Again, as I should expect. But man, “Siobhan Peoples” is quite a name, isn’t it? Or is it a band name? I guess it could be a band name. Yeah, this first part isn’t too humorous, really. It just is, mostly. Yeah, more and more… this stuff is really starting to all sort of blend together for me, I’m sorry to say… Yeah, if this changed in the middle, I didn’t even notice it… oops?

13. Home/Gray Spey/Lucy Campbell by Bohola: Oh, singing… male singing… slow male singing. Uh oh. And about love, too… oh my. Yeah, I… yeah… not… yeah. Okay, well, here’s some more people singing, I suppose. But this “Home” is pretty eh. And it keeps going and going… and going… another verse… Oh, okay, it’s speeding up or something… but I bet it’s probably fooling me… lulling me into a false sense of security… I guess this is Gray Spey. It’s just more of the same. Par for the course. But at least it’s not aiming to put me to sleep, which is nice. I guess this is different, so this is Lucy Campbell? I was expecting more vocals for the last part. But I guess they’re not doing that. Which is… kind of weird and silly to me, but I don’t know. I just have a thing about songs that do a little singing and then go into long instrumentals. I feel gypped. I like a good vocal track. Oh well, I suppose it doesn’t really matter. It’s all basically over now. And now it is over.

14. Le coq d’Inde by Les chauffeurs a pieds: The Drivers of Walking…? Or something like that? My french sucks ass. Seriously, 2 years, remember jack shit. I’ve always been horrible at languages, I live so, so much in English. Okay, so we got some singing I can’t understand… and it’s very call and response with the choir, which I suppose is fairly standardish… well, okay, in parts… and now we got a fiddle solo. And back to singing. And… yeah, I don’t know. It’s very repetitive. Especially since I can’t perceive the lyrics to tell if they’re something different. The sound is pretty well exactly the same. Again, I guess a lot of songs are like that… but… I don’t know. The start of the verses are so, so exactly the same and kinda annoying. I don’t know. Oh well, it’s over now.

15. Gan Ainm/The Tap Room/The Yellow Cow by Enda Scahill: Okay, we got some fast guitar. That’s nice. Do we have singing? Oh no! We have banjo! Nice! Banjos are nice. That is a Banjo, right? I’m going to feel really stupid if that’s not a banjo. Yeah, that’s nice and upbeat. The guitar-y-ness is just keeping the beat all fast in the background while it’s all “look at how well I can play banjo, if this is truly a banjo!” I mean, I guess that’s a lot of it. But it’s a lot more musical than, say, most Rokkin’ guitar solos which are just ridiculous and stupid in my opinion. So I’m not going to compare this to that, really. Even though I’m sure some of those really fast sections of notes are probably fairly hard to play. That quick back and forth. I mean, I’d probably miss them in Guitar Hero, so I’m sure they’re tons harder in actuality. Oh, wait, this was three songs too. I didn’t really notice the change here either. Well, so it goes, I guess. The end. There’s… a lot of silence at the end. Oh well.

16. There’s the Day by Cathal McConnell: Cathal is a man’s name?!? Well, alrighty then! Just a capalla? I can dig it. Well, I could dig it. Except it isn’t very impressive or musical or cool. Just some talking vaguely in rhythm and going uuuuuuup and then doooown… which is… I don’t know. That’s not all that great to listen to, is it? I mean, I guess someone obviously likes it. BanjoMike obviously likes it to some extent to send it to me. I guess I should be listening to the lyrcis, eh? Since it’s like… all the song has? And yet, it doesn’t make me want to… so I’m not, really… I mean, the refrain is like “It’s not the day, it is the day, there’s a day maybe but it’s not a day I don’t think but it’s a day.” Yeah I don’t like this at all, really.

Well, that was definitely a new experience. Beehive gets Thumbs Up! The rest gets all kinda blurred together in my head for the most part. But so it goes!

So part of my plan for this week is to catch the fuck up on these, so let’s get started on 1 of 5, shall we?

Listening Time Vol. 15
Violent Vixen

1. Opening Act – Ugly Duckling: Some talking, I see… some frisking… frisky… There’s some nice piano all cutely… or… okay… and now it’s started and… I… no… yeah, I don’t know. There’s some xylophone, I see… but yeah, this singing is… yeah, what…? What should I even say about it. It’s trying to be playful, I suppose, but it’s not… very good…? I mean, I don’t know. It’s got this back and forth talksinging over the little cute stuff and I just. Yeah. Bleh. Oh, it’s got a lot more to go still, too… oh man. This is an inauspicious start.

2. Please Forgive Me – David Gray: Okay this… wait… Oh gods, this is a Kohl’s song… a song that plays at work that I hear over and over and over and over and over and over and over… oh no no no. Okay, so, yeah, I am going to hate this no matter what because of that, so all comments on this song are pretty moot. Sorry about that. Man, I know all the lyrics and everything… Bleh, I’m not doing very good on this mix so far.

3. Never There – Cake: Now okay, here’s a song I like. Cake is pretty good stuff, for the most part. Never There is a pretty good song overall, too, although I prefer things like… like… Carbon Monoxide… Neeeeeeeever there… you’re neeeeeever there! You’re never, ever, ever, ever there. Ever there. But yeah, I like Cake. They’re upbeat, and they got the brass stuff which is always fun. And the vibraslap! There was some right there! Nice!

4. Crutch – Matchbox Twenty: I’ve heard of these people, but I know like nothing about them, besides, I guess, they enjoy being lit on fire. Oh, that… that’s a weird sort of thing, isn’t it? Oh, it’s skipping… what… I guess the CD has a problem. But okay, it’s gone now… it’s got this weird sort of echo-y stuff in the background. I do kinda like the quick-talking stuff… but this refrain is not really… the vocalist is singing in a… well, reminding me of country sort of way. Couldn’t tell you exactly what makes me say that, though. Well, it’s how he says “I don’t wanna be the!” That’s what gives me that idea… but yeah, this is listen-able, but I’m not excited about it.

5. Cold As Ice – Foreigner: Like the belt, right? I’m willing to sacrifice our love? I don’t really love you, Foreigner. I never did. Hey, I take some advice… sometimes… so I guess it’s got that piano thing in the background unchanged for the whole song, huh? Those are some serious ooohs and aaaaahs there. And now we’re to the solo bridge thingamajig… I don’t know, I want to say the song doesn’t really reflect the lyrics. The lyrics would seem to suggest something that’s either angry of depressed, and this song is neither of those. But yeah, this song certainly has background singers, huh? And a slow fade… yeah… huh.

6. Pardon Me – Incubus: My ex-girlfriend really liked Incubus… I remember listening to their CDs while I drove her around. I can’t say I remember anything in particular, though. This song isn’t really ringing a bell, anyway. So if I had to take a guess at this part of the CD, Violentvixen has a thing for that kinda quick talk-singing over music, because a lot of these songs have things like that in it. It’s kinda fun at times. Oh, here come a bunch of scratching. Scratchscratch talkfast. But yeah… “Pardon Me While I Burst Into Flames.” Really? I don’t know, on one hand I can see that phrase being applied very effectively and neatly, but I don’t feel like this song is, because that refrain has an element of drama to it. It would have to be a sort of devoid of that. Much less dramatic sarcastic and much more… completely meaning it and it being more symbolic. I dunno. Anyway, I guess the song is ending with this reverb stuff.

7. You Make Me Completely Miserable – Filter: “You Make Me Come…” Way to start out dirty, song. This song is slower… I do hope it doesn’t keep up that sort of thing for the whole song… with the Dun Dun Duuun… Duhduhduhduhduhduhduhduh… well, okay, it’s sorta different in this refrain, I guess. Yeah, this song, sadly, is much cleaner than the beginning of the song would suggest. False advertising! But then again, I guess I did know the title beforehand, huh? Yeah, I dunno, this song is doing nothing for me. The little trick with the not the whole title singing thing is kinda… nothing to me. Oh, it ended abruptly.

8. The Drama King – Everclear: Everclear song number 1. I am already questionable on the vocalist… eh, nevermind, it’s not… yeah, it’ll be okay. So, okay, when I focus in on the lyrics, I kinda dislike the song? They aren’t doing much to me. They feel kinda generic. But when I just listen to the song song and try not to zero in on the lyrics like I normally do, it’s not too bad. It would work in the background without annoying me or anything, you know? I don’t know. There’s a strong possibility, I think, that I just dislike this song and will like other songs by this band. We will see if that holds when I get to the other one, huh?

9. Title and Registration – Death Cab for Cutie: I’ve heard of these people, but I know nothing about them besides that their name sounds familiar. Okay, male vocalist… I was sort of thinking maybe female by the name, but cool, cool. He’s got a sort of distinctive sound in a good way, so that’s nice. Yeah, it’s… it’s nice, but it’s not got… it’s got some energy, but it doesn’t use it. The singer doesn’t have any, although he sounds nice… ooh, I like that xylophone or bells or whatever here in this bridge… yeah, I’m left conflicted. I’m enjoying the song, but my natural hate of slowness is pushing against it. Huh.

10. Hang On – Guster: I like Guster’s faster stuff, certainly. Uninteresting factoid: me and my friends have an inside joke about Guster’s Maracas Player and his great maraca solos. Yeah, okay, it’s this song. It’s very listen-able, and enjoyable, certainly. But it’s never a song I put into my own playlists. It’s more something one of my friends would put on and I would sort of nod in agreement to. So yeah, a fine piece of music, I suppose. Hang on… hang on… I think there’s… yes, there’s another song coming up… I think I’ll blog it.

11. Square One (Live) – Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Don’t know much about them, besides the fact that I read a short story about them once and probably missed a lot. Whoo~! The Crowd! Whoo~! But yeah, goodness, this is like serious slow acoustic sort of stuff here, which is… not really my area… oh, here’s a backup singer. A Dark Victory, huh? That would be a good name for a Magic card… Dark Victory… 3BB, Sorcery, Destroy Target Creature, you lose 3 life. Or something. It would probably be cheaper than that. But yeah, this song isn’t much for me. I think I said that. I think one could tell that with my mind drifting. Yeah.

12. Devil’s Dance Floor – Flogging Molly: There’s some drum sticks going on there… and now some flute-y stuff… Yeah, it’s this band, right? Yeah, it’s this one. I suppose there’s definitely a call for this kinda music, huh? That… blend? Blending? It is kind of infectious, isn’t it? It’s almost like… all drums, though. I mean, I guess there’s other things going on, but the drums is what I’m taking out of it, mostly. Is that weird? It’s just obviously the most powerful part. Drums with that flue thing over it. Yeah. Yeah.

13. Feeling Good – Muse: This is that one band again with the song and the music video I’m supposed to think is awesome but I don’t think is awesome. Quiet keyboarding and singing… okay… new life for him… that’s nice… oh, okay, and now here come the guitars. But the tempo didn’t pick up at all like I was hoping. This is unfortunate. Yeah, I think I “get” this song, but I don’t really… I’m not really enjoying it. I approve of its existence in the world, though. It can continue to exist. Okay, so now he’s singing up high and going all Ooooooooooh! Ooo Ooooooooh! Or something. And I guess it’s going to do that until the end or something? Well, alright then, go ahead and do that, thing…

14. The Old Apartment – Barenaked Ladies: Okay, so… something about an Old Apartment… and they live there in the past time. Okay, so, he is asking why someone is making the place better in every way… which I guess I can understand in some things, but he’s not explaining things very well in this case. I mean, “Why did you plaster up the hole in the door?” Seriously? Anyone would do that. Changing the color of the walls, you have more of a case, I suppose. Changing the locks on the door is also a stupid thing to complain about… I don’t know, basically, I don’t like the vocalist because of all that weird stuff, and it feels like that is all the song has going for it. It’s “like this guy and listen to him.” And I don’t like him.

15. Insomniac – Straight No Chaser: Oh my, A Capella, huh? Intense. I can dig it. Although this doesn’t seem like a very… exciting song. More of a standard song instead of the fun of doing something a little more different and fun with it or whatever. I don’t know, love songs just seem so… that’s what A capella songs are about and stuff and things and stuff, you know? Then again, I suppose MOST music is about such things, so I guess I don’t have a very good case, huh? Also, the fact that the background people keep singing “Jim My Jim My Jimmy Jimmy” makes me wonder weird things. Certainly a more romantic song than the title suggests to me, though.

16. Do You Realize?? – The Flaming Lips: More Flaming Lips, eh? And they counted for me. And then started playing… I didn’t hear two question marks when they sang it. They need to make it more interrogative!  Realize realize realize… Well, that’s kind of a depressing thought. It thought this was going to be a romance song. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah, it fooled me at the beginning. It’s a “make the most out of life” song. But yeah, it… yeah. Nothing for me here, really. It’s sweet enough, I suppose.

17. The Good Witch of the North – Everclear: Everclear song number two! Aww, it wasted it’s chance to “Break it down” there. The lyrics are sweet, though. Really sweet. I can support the lyrics. It’s never bad to have sappy overly emotional love songs that know they are. This one knows it is. It’s not like… trying to be deep. It’s just like “no, seriously, I love you, and I’m trying to tell you.” I am all about that. That’s the only way to write love poetry, at least, you know? Because others are in love, love is not like this… awesome rare awe-inspiring thing… and yet, at the same time, it is. So you have to admit your love isn’t special, but then say strongly that its there in your tone… and this one does it. Bravo.

18. The Mixed Tape by Jack’s Mannequin: The last song… the band name makes me think of Jack Mangan. Because it’s Jack Mmmmmmmmmm. Well, this one seems picked for last due to the name, huh? It’s a bit more upbeat than a lot of this CD, but it’s not doing anything for me. Also, I guess it is about a mix tape, isn’t it? But it’s… I don’t know. It’s not saying that to me? Even though I guess the lyrics are about that and I can’t deny it. It… I don’t know. I don’t buy this guy’s emotion. Unlike the last song, where I totally bought it. See, and there’s like some… ego there “I swear this mix could sink the sun.” also read as “I am so awesome and perfect for you.” The end.

And that’s it. Final thoughts: Most of the songs were listen-able. There was a lot of romantic attempts, most of them I didn’t buy except the second to last track, which got me. That was strong. Yes.

So today was a day of fighting with Brer for the whole day.
I don’t want to state his position. I think I get it, but I worry about sparking more fighting. So I’ll just talk about my side, I don’t know. Time to test having a break here. Go under it by clicking on the post title for more about this. Otherwise, I dunno, tune in tomorrow for more rambling about Smash Brothers or something.

Seriously. It’s all I did today.

But it was so, so worth it. Ooooh yeah.

Hopefully I can consume in more sane quantities for the rest of the week, but it was fun. I think we’re missing 4 or so characters. Need to play some more Subspace Emissary.

Plan for this week: Do Taxes, Catch Up On Listening Time CDs, Relax Hardcore.

So here’s some game design thoughts based on my discussion of DnD with Brer where I didn’t get my points across at all. (through not fault of his, I just… I don’t know. I’m so speaking from the heart more than from the brain sometimes with this stuff. It feels right this way, and I can’t tell you why sort of situation.)
One of the things I’ve been thinking about with DnD is the whole… complexity issue. As I was sitting there playing Neverwinter Nights 2, which I’m sure it already dumbed down some, I was feeling so clueless as to the system. Things would happen and I would just die and I would be staring at the screen wondering what the hell just happened. The problem is that to play DnD at all, you need to know the intricacies of higher-level play.
Now, consider many other games I play. For one, KoL. There is, most definitely, a high-level game in KoL, one of people trying to pull the best times and ascend with the least number of turns. Because I pay attention, like the game, and read stuff about the game, I know a lot, although probably not all, of these tricks. I never use them, though. I never worry about the quality of booze I’m drinking or if this skill I’m perming is actually going to cut down my number of turns. I just drink something to play more and pick a skill I think is fun. Seriously, if I was going for speed, the skills I have permed right now are completely wrong. From that perspective, me not having Pastamastery, Advanced Saucecrafting, and Advanced Cocktailcrafting is criminal. Double-fisted Skull Smashing does not help from that perspective. But dual-wielding is fun, so I picked that one up. I can play the game at a level less than high and still get enjoyment out of it.
I’ll also make an example of Magic. There is obviously a high-level game of Magic, and I feel like I know a thing or two about how I would try to put together a high-level deck if I really want to. But I never want to. Those decks are boring to me, because they’re all about efficiency. I don’t get to do cool, retarded tricks and shit with them. So I build my silly little Johnny decks, and if they work well, awesome, and if not, I still have fun trying to pull off my little weird things. Hell, someone can play the game really simply as a game of people smashing monsters into each other, and it works just fine that way.
The point is, I don’t have to have a knowledge of high-level mechanics to enjoy these games. In DnD, I feel like I can’t. In Mask of the Betrayer, there is so much shit going on in a combat that I have no idea what half of it is, and that half is important. That half is all these buffs and debuffs that are keeping me from stabbing people in the face with my spear. I don’t know what they are or how to deal with them. Things just happen so quick. I suppose part of that is me needing to pause the game more, but… it just bothers me that it’s designed like that. It’s set up to create a sort of elitist structure.

There are other things, too, that bother me, but these I feel are more just decisions and I feel are more on the “personal preference” side of things, so I’m letting you know I’m not presenting them as fact.
One is all these calculations. I really don’t get the appeal. There is such a wide variety of roles and outcomes and factors in the game, and it just seems ridiculous to me. If I attack a monster in Arkham Horror, I look at my will and pick up that many dice, then look at the modifier and subtract that many die, then roll for a horror check. If I get a 5 or a 6, I don’t take sanity loss. Then I pick up dice equal to my Fight + my weapons – the modifier on the monster, and roll. If I get enough 5 or 6s to equal his life, I win. If not, I take damage and have to attack again. Now, there is a bit of calculation involved, sure, but it’s all with the number of dice, something you can physically sort of sort out. You can pick up five dice that equals your will and then put two back on the table for the modifier. It’s simple stuff. And to me, there is nothing there that is less thrilling than rolling something with complex calculations of damage resistance and this and that in DnD. The thrill comes from throwing the dice and not knowing what will come up? Will you have an overwhelming success? Barely edge by? A crushing defeat? You don’t need complex calculations to get that thrill. It’s basically built-in to the mechanics of dice-rolling. So why do all the crazy stuff with many different sided die? I really don’t know.
Another thing is the fact that the more I learn about this game, the less about actually role-playing this game is. The appeal of tabletop RPGs is, for me, to sit down with a lot of friends and improv and act out a character. I guess I was pretty strongly affected by Kill Puppies for Satan and all of his thoughts on RPGs in general. That’s the experience I want if I’m going to sit down and play, and DnD is completely not going to give that to me. Or if it is, I’m probably going to be ignoring a lot of what makes DnD what it is. DnD is all those calculations and complex damage models. That just seems so boring. I want a computer to do that (to which you say “But you have Neverwinter Nights 2 to do all that for you!” to which I say “Well, yeah… that’s why I bought it. Other factors kept me from liking it, though.”)

Anyway, these are just some thoughts I wanted to get out of my head… please let me know what you think of them, if you’d like. It’s time to clean up and go to lunch now, though.

Take a look at this. Yeah, one of the Forumwarz guys left a comment on my blog. That’s so neat! How did he ever know? Heh.

Anyway, that bit of bragging out of the way, I move on to ranting.
So I can’t figure out Neverwinter Nights 2. I’m trying to create a character to play the Mask of the Betrayer expansion I just picked up. It’s an epic-level expansion, so that means it starts at level 18, so when I make a new character, I have to level them up to level 18 immediately. And I have no clue what I’m doing. The interface tells me nothing. It says I need X to be this class… but it doesn’t tell me what X is or how I get it or anything I would NEED to know in order to actually make a character. Same with stuff like spells. I can take a specialization in a class of spells, sure. But what spells are in that class? I have no fucking idea, and there’s no way for me to know without making the character, having it fail, and then restarting. This process can take a long damn time. There is so much to deal with. And it doesn’t tell me anything I need to know.
I suppose I should just use one of their pre-made kits, but that doesn’t sound like fun to me. I want this to be MY character, dammit. I need to make it. There isn’t enough customization in the looks to make the character feel like mine on that alone. Also, most of the character models are completely ugly. Their faces are scary.
What I want, I guess, is to be able to click on any term and get a detailed explanation of what it means and what it affects. Base Attack Bonus? Click on it, and I know what it is, how I get it, what it’s used for, and what classes need it, in a nice little entry. Divination School? Click, and I know a long description of what it is and how its spells are normally used, and can dive deeper for a complete list of those spells to see if I want them or if they’re important enough to make my focus. It’s a computer program. They can present this information in a way that’s useful to a complete DnD n00b like myself. I know they can.
I also want a built-in planner. Look at this. Blizzard has a free one of these for every class on their site. You click and take a talent, right click to take a point away. You can build up and down, over and over, plan out what you want, and print it out. It’s awesome. Granted, I understand DnD is much more complex than this. But I should have a mode where I can say, take 13 levels of Bard and 6 levels of Fighter or something and then see what the result is, drag and drop the levels around in the timeline to see how that affects me, switch various feats off and on and drag them to different levels to see what that does, mark a Prestige class as my goal so it warns me if I’m not going to be able to take levels in it with my current build… something useful. Something much more useful than the current interface, where if I want to change a setting I have to back up to it and undo what I picked later, and I have to level 1 level at a time, and can’t plan ahead very well and see what’s in store until it’s too late.
Bleh, I guess I just need to ask Brer to help me. I don’t know. It’s just so frustrating, because it COULD work fine… but it’s completely obtuse unless you already know everything. Then it works fine as reminder text. But it doesn’t teach you anything. That’s what I want it to do.

So I just had this conversation with Brer. We were talking about MMOs and I mentioned APB, which is this MMO from the Crackdown creators which seems like Crackdown + with lots of people? In any case, he didn’t really see the appeal, and I pointed out that it’s all about just dicking around with friends. Being idiots in a group. He tells me this has no appeal for him whatsoever.
What followed was me trying very hard to explain WHY such things are fun, which is apparently pretty hard to do. What I ended up talking about was somewhat of an unwritten social contract to play along and add to a sort of… world that you build as a group, and then play in. This world is probably the stupidest thing ever, but it doesn’t matter what the world is, it’s that it represents the shared experience and connection you have with the group, and bringing it back up reaffirms that connection. It’s a lot like inside jokes, you know? They work the same way, only on a smaller scale. In fact, this sort of play creates a lot of inside jokes in my experience.
In any case, he then told me about how his groups of friends used to do such things, and he found such situations quite boring. He just doesn’t do that. And I mean, I can respect that, but at the same time, it makes me think back to moments when I’ve tried to play Co-op games with him. The moment that sticks out in my mind was when we started working on Neverwinter Nights 2 together. I don’t really know anything about currentish DnD rules, so I didn’t know anything about making the character. We’re talking on Skype and he’s trying to lead me through it… and I decide “Hey, I think I’ll be a Bard.” Just for no real reason besides that sounds like fun. Bards are normally, in my experience, bufftastic sort of people, and I like that. But Brer tells me that’s not really a good idea, and that I should be a cleric so that we can have access to Turn Undead. He knows better, I assume, and shrug, and I make a cleric. As we’re playing, though, I’m not really having any fun. The cleric isn’t my character. It’s just a cleric that Brer is telling me how I should use effectively. He tells me to turn undead, I turn undead or whatever. It’s not any fun. And so I stopped making efforts to play, and we never got anywhere. When I played single player, I made that Bard, and I wasn’t very effective, but it was my bard, and I had a good time collecting magic instruments and shit.
There’s always going to be some level of planning and execution in a game, and that can be a lot of fun, sure. But it has to be a co-op experience. Part of the fun I’ve always found in co-op is, as much as tackling something together, just the experience of being with someone else. That someone else is likely to do stupid or crazy things, and it’s in dealing with that and doing your own stupid and crazy things that creates that shared experience that you value. If I want to walk into a room and aggro everyone in it, I think I should, because the resulting fallout is definitely going to be a tale to remember.
Granted, a lot of this is also expectation. Looking back, it was clear that Brer entered this co-op game to beat the game with me, and I entered this co-op game to spend time with Brer. Although these goals are not mutually exclusive, they are different. They differ in moments like I mentioned before, when it comes to picking something that’s the most effective versus something that’s the most fun. Perhaps if I had gone in expecting it all more, it would have worked out better. But I can play that game alone and have a lot of fun. The thing I gain by playing co-op is spending time with him… to me it only makes sense that fun should be the ultimate goal…
I don’t know… the whole conversation worries me, because in my mind I look ahead to a moment when we’re living together, sitting on a couch and playing a game… and I suddenly see something more mechanical than fun. And that’s… not what I want. I look forward and I see Brer not being involved in my group of friends because he just doesn’t get the same kind of fun out of the multiplayer games like Smash Bastards and Rock Band that I love so dearly. Again, I don’t think he’s wrong for not liking things like that. He has every right to, but… I just… I want him in my life, you know? I love him tons. And the idea of having a part of my life, especially a part that we really always seemed to overlap on, not really be something he wants to be involved in kinda makes me sad.
I mean, I don’t know what all this means, or if it means anything. I just had to get it out, you know?

So they upgraded the server this website is on from 4 to 5 of something, and everything seems to be working okay, but, you know, I figure I might as well test it with another post. So here you go. A test post. Testin’….
Now I guess I need to get back to procrastination from studying for my test tomorrow. Fun times. Fun times…