Archive for the “music” Category

I recently saw this TV spot for an upcoming game. You may have already seen it. It’s not exactly earth-shattering, but I think it’s pretty cool nonetheless.

Somebody in advertising deserves a promotion for his creativity. But more importantly, at last there’ll be a music sim where I might actually know some of the lyrics.

How do I explain this to someone who wouldn’t immediately know what I’m talking about?  Let’s see . . .

Um, so you know Firefly?  The guy who made that, Joss Whedon, also made Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog.  One of the actors in Dr Horrible was Felicia Day, who also has her own web-series called “The Guild”.  The show is available online, on iTunes, and Xbox Live and is a humorous look at the real life misadventures of a bunch of guild-mates who all play an unnamed MMO.  And somehow, this all connects to Kevin Bacon (obscure joke there).

Well, Joss has also just finished directing Ms. Day again in her new music video called “Would You Like To Date My Avatar”.  If you have any inkling as to what that means, you’ll find it hilarious.  If you don’t, it’s still a humorous video!

Enjoy!

Ever since the advent of Napster back in 1999, the music industry has done all that it could to prevent people from downloading music without some money ending up in their pockets.  Between shutting down Napster, suing anybody who may have even thought about downloading a song without paying for it, and making those who sell music downloads incorporate some form of evil DRM, the RIAA has made many enemies out of music lovers across the interwebs.

I love music.  I also love holding a CD in my hand.  Downloading music doesn’t give me something tangible that I can hold, something that I can see what I spent my money on.  Plus, I enjoy reading the liner notes that come with CDs.  Digital downloads are nice and convenient but I’m not a big fan of them.  However, I do recognize the fact that this is the way that music has shifted and that it won’t be long before the DVD follows the same path.

The old song goes “Video Killed The Radio Star”.  It was the very first music video shown by MTV in 1981, and it’s a classic.  But it’s inaccurate.

I submit to you the following question: When did modern pop music turn to crap?

Now, of course the answer is going to vary from person to person depending, in large, to personal musical preferences.  But I’d like to say that pop music died as soon as music label companies thought they could get us to like whatever they thought we should, instead of finding what we DID like and just making it more accessible.

This post was supposed to go in a different direction entirely.  I was going to write about how I missed all the great suburban rap artists that I grew up with as a kid and how catchy their music was.  These guys made music for white kids selling lemonade to enjoy.  It wasn’t hard core gangster rap, and that was OK; at the time the “harder” artists had their own niche to fill and they did well, too.

I loved this song, loved the video, owned the album. Of course, at the time, I never knew that Denise was a vulcan!

I know I promised that this wouldn’t become a video-only blog, but it’s been a busy week for all of us. Don’t lose faith in us!

Than you know why this is so good. Thanks to Schmidty for pointing me to this video!

First off, if you don’t know who Dr Who is then you are not a geek.  It’s that simple.  You don’t even like science fiction, and probably don’t believe in outer space.  I’m not saying you have to like him, but you should at least know what I’m talking about.

I’m probably the most unenthusiastic fan you’d find of the Doctor.  If anything, I’d compare my enjoyment of the show to professional sports; I’m familiar with it, I can watch it and appreciate it, I know the back story, and I’m generally all for it . . . I don’t watch every episode, however, and can’t quote details about it.

Friday evening, Schmidty, Steve and myself went to the symphony. Sort of . . .

We managed to snag seats to “Video Games Live” (thank you very much Steve) and enjoyed a night of music and morons.