So . . .

Its been a few days, so here's a new entry for y'all out there. Today, I will talk about some new video games and music I have been checking out. Without further ado, here we go . . .
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First, I want to share my newest musical favorites - a little reggae, some smooth jazz/vocal, and absolutlely amazing guitar. Intrigued?

Matisyahu is an orthodox-jewish reggae artist - no wait, let me explain before you scroll down! Appearances notwithstanding, this dude kicks ass! He has been touring with Trey from Phish, and his live album has been consistently selling out. Most of his music has a religious bent to it (track six is dedicated to the anceint temple in Jerusalem), or at the very least references god several times per track. A lot of the lyrics have hebrew words and phrases peppered throughout. But, listen to the tracks and his flows are just ridiculously good, infectious even. The cd has some videos stored on it - you can see Matisyahu go crowd surfing while holding his yarmulke on! I unequivically recommend this one, and my favorite track is #5 (King Without a Crown)

Jamie Cullum's new album dropped a few weeks ago, and I love it. His brand of music definitely borders between Jazz and Easy Listening, but I dig it all the same. The easygoing flow of his music and lyrics really soothes and relaxes me, making for some damn good driving music. His new album, continues the trend from the last one of being mellow and smooth and just plain cool. I get a very rat-pack-cool feel whenever I listen to vocal jazz like this. I recommend tracks 1 & 2 on the album as the best (Get Your Way and London Skies), but there are many good ones that I'm sure people will love.

Santana's most recent album, All That I Am, releases next month, and it is , quite simply, amazing. I have already listened to all the tracks several times, and each one is very well done. Many tracks feature famous guest vocalists or performers, like his other recent releases. Everyone from Michelle Branch, Steven Tyler, Robert Randolph, Joss Stone, Mary J. Blige, Sean Paul, and Los Lonely Boys help round out this amazing album. I would point out particular tracks that I loved, but who's kidding? I love and recommend thw whole album!
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Gaming section to come after my dinner break!

Just a quick post today - way too tired after work to go into too much . . .
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I will be reviewing several games for the tomorrow/Tuesday edition. In addition, mostly to keep Aloma happy, I will also attempt to review downgrading a PSP from V2.0 to V1.5 (hopefully I don't fry mine!), which should allow me to play homebrew code once again . . . Several new albums have recently come across my desktop, and I'll give you my two cents on those as well. All in all, next time looks like it will be super action packed. Till then y'all . . .

P.S.: If I'm not rooting for any of the baseball teams still playing, shouldn't I be allowed to watch the regularly scheduled programming instead? I want to watch Prison Break tomorrow night, but Baseball is going to interrupt. It's like pouring salt on a wound - not only did the Red Sox not make it, but now we're forced to watch the other teams play instead of our favorite shows?!?!?! Weak dude, weak . . .

Today, I want to blog briefly about my love of the bastard-pop mash ups. Basically, when a DJ or otherwise interested soul combines the vocals and/or backing music from two or more pieces of music to create a composite work from all the sources. The end results are much more satisfying than my description lets on. The most obvious examples of the form would be Danger Mouse's The Grey Album (Jay-Z's Black Album lyrics on top of music remixed from the Beatles' White Album), and also the Collision Course Album MTV put out with Jay-Z and Linkin Park collaborating and mixing their music together live on stage.

I am also getting my weekly (and sometimes even more often) fix of mash-up love via my podcast subscriptions. I am not going to go into podcasting in detail (it's been done to death everywhere else), but I will say that I love the fact that I can automate the process and have free new music waiting for me every time I sync my Ipod up with Itunes. Between the podcasts from Mashuptown.com and my own searching I have more bastard pop than I know what to do with.

My favorite sites right now are the ones for djBC and Lenlow. There is a wealth of music, info, and link to many other mashers via these websites. I personally recommend "Can't you hear Biz knocking?" from djBC and "Mercedes Beck" and "Oooh Cheers" from Lenlow, but I'm sure you will all find tracks that you love. The best thing about any of these tracks is that they explore new directions in the music most of us already hear and know. Hearing how parts of different songs (oftentimes from completely different genres) fit together really intrigues me, and every new mash-up I hear only makes me want to find more of them.

Enjoy y'all, and until tomorrow . . .

First Off -

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUSIE!!!!!!

It's my sister Susan's 22nd Birthday today, so if you haven't already, wish her well! And now, on with the blog . . .
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I will start with a quick update - there is some new content on the Tenacious D movie website. It's mostly just footage of them performing at the 2005 ComicCon, but whatever. Any new D stuff is better than none!

And, for any of you Lost fans out there who just can't get enough, you should check out this site. I haven't seen anything earth-shattering or super exclusive, but it's cool if you can't wait until the next episode to get your Lost fix! The coolest thing is the two 'secret' websites involved with the show: The Hanso Foundation Website and the Dharma Initiative one. (There is also this alternate dharma page I found while trolling)

I can't even begin to explain either site or its secrets, but I will eventually. If anyone has any info please feel free to share; and, when I get farther I'll post updates to the blog.

To everyone who is fasting, I want to wish you an easy fast!

Today's topic will be my newest diversion - Total Overdose, for the Xbox (also available for PS2 and the PC).

This game is not the best game I've ever played. The graphics are not the best the Xbox has to offer, the camera sometimes works against you, and some of the missions are slightly repetitive. But damn is it fun nonetheless!

The storyline is hilariously demented and over-the-top (you play as yourself, and then your evil identical twin when your first character gets injured), and I love that. The action steals elements from just about every great action/shooter game of the last few years, and makes for a truly enjoyable experience. This is not Socom or a Tom Clancy game, looking to evoke the realest of realism. The main point of this game is to kill the bad guys in as many imaginative and deadly ways as possible, chain all of those impossible shots and deaths together to earn more points and unlock new special moves, to keep right on killing the bad guys!

The music is sometimes weird, but when it hits the mark, it is excellent (and evocative of the setting like the GTA series) and oftentimes humorous as well. Your choice of weapons is perfect, ranging from pistols and sawed-off shotguns to rifles, rocket launchers, and good old sticks of dynamite. There are many secret points and powerups scattered throughout the sprawling, GTA-esque open areas of the Mexican city you traverse in the game. You can earn doubles of most weapons in the game, starting with double pistols and moving up from there. To me, this game seems setup to play like the best of the best and worst action movies. You can explode every vehicle you see in action movie fashion, complete with the last second jump from the open driver's side door. Your character can cartwheel off the walls ala the Matrix and drop two guys at once before his feet touch the ground again.

As my roommate Chuck often says, sometimes you just feel like watching a movie where a lot of shit blows up and people get gunned down. This game is prefect for people looking for that kind of thrill. And with that, I am going back to earn even more spicy moves, and try to nab some new sombreros! Till tomorrow . . .

Back Again . . .

So, It's been a little while since I've blogged, but now I'm back! I guess we'll go light on the first new post, and save the deep thoughts for a little later. Just a simple observation for now. Apple is a company of geniuses. The Ipod and Itunes are cool. The Ipod Nano is absolutely amazing, and the new Video Ipod that has just been made avaialable for order seems like it will be a winner too. But, just how far is Apple going to position itself as the premier media company of the future?

For any of you that have Itunes, check out the two new sections of the music store: Pixar and TV Shows. The first is cool enough, offering downloads of several Pixar short films for only $1.99 a piece. This section is definitely a work in progress; and, when it has more than a half dozen short films available, I am sure Apple will see some money from people wanting to have Pixar content. But, the TV show section is truly inspired.

For a $1.99, you can download the latest episodes of 3 adult shows and 2 kids shows currently (Lost, Desperate Housewives, Night Stalker, The Suite Life, and That's So Raven), with I'm sure many more on the way. For those who don't have a TiVo or the know-how to get shows off the internet, apple is stepping in with a great service. I am sure many people would pay $2 per episode to download and rewatch the new season of Lost at their leisure. Also, the store offers the complete first seasons of Lost or Housewives for only $34.99, which is much less than the retail price of the DVD box sets. I can very easily see this as the wave of the future, or a great precursor to IPTV.

I will not be at all surprised if the TV Show section of the Itunes store grows exponentially over the next few months. With the Video Ipod coming out soon people could buy shows, and download them directly to their pods for on-the-go tv. But, even more importantly the studios will jump onboard if they're smart. They can use this as a way to make an immediate monetary return on their shows. Lots of people would pay on a weekly basis to download their favorite shows. And, people would still buy the DVD box sets after the season is over, provided the studios offer enough extra content to compete with Apple's immediate availability. This could be very win-win monetarily, if done right.

Well, like I said, that's it for today. More new stuff tomorrow!