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.

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!

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.

Ever since the Sony Rootkit fiasco of 2005, I have been wary to buy any music at all.  In fact, I think that the only new CD that I have purchased since then is Straight Outta Lynwood by Weird Al.  Like most people, I put my music collection on my computer so that I can easily transfer it to my MP3 player.  With the possibility of rootkits being installed, I don’t want to put new music on my system if it came from a CD.  The flip side is that if I buy music from an online provider, then I have to deal with DRM.  I may as well be renting my music because if a server is taken down, that’s exactly what I’m doing.  Needless to say, my music library has been somewhat stagnant over the past few years.  I hate it but I have my principles and that’s how it’s going to be until the music industry stops treating their customers like criminals.

I found this comic on xkcd the other day.  It shows the dilemma that many music fans are going though as word of more and more DRM servers are being shut off.

We're all criminals!

This actually got me thinking about music downloads.  If you download music illegally, you’re a pirate and, if caught, the RIAA will feast upon your soul for Thanksgiving dinner.  If you download it from a service like Yahoo or Microsoft, or even WalMart, you run the risk of not having your music be available to you thanks to the DRM servers being shut off.  So what do you do?  I personally go without.  (Getting a notice of copyright violation from your ISP has some strong influence over downloading options.)  My guess is that until DRM-free music becomes readily avaiable for download, sites like The Pirate Bay will continue to be successful.

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 was going to write about how I missed those days of laid back hip hop and the good feeling that listening to music would give you.  That was the plan, right up until I was driving back to work from lunch and tried listening to the radio.  In all my presets, only one station was playing a song.  I didn’t know what the song was (the voice wasn’t familiar), but it filled me with rage.  It’s now on my list of “most annoying songs”.  I have no idea what the girl was yelling about (calling it singing would be a bit of a stretch), but evidently she wanted people to know that wasn’t her name.

Maybe she thought singing about her name would garner positive results.  It doesn’t work for everyone, since not all of us are lyrical geniuses.

Somewhere along the lines, a person was put in charge of finding the next big thing that everyone would be groomed to love and bring them into the spotlight.  This worked for a time, and we found new artists and loved them.  But then it kept growing, and growing, and growing until we were expected to love them before we’d even heard what they are capable of.  If we don’t love them immediately, they are thrown by the wayside.

Case in point; ever watch the WB?  Neither did I.  If you did, you’d note that every other episode of nearly every show had a special appearance by some band-of-the-month.  Few of these were well established bands.  Typically a music scout would find some band who was supposed to be the next big thing, sign them into contract, put together 4-5 songs, play the crap out of them on the radio, and book them on the show.

Since the studio who made the show also owned the record label, no extra money was paid to the artist and no extra expenses were ever used to promote the song.  Win-win from an exec’s standpoint.

Shortpacked.com by David Willis

Now, I know that my favorite band in the world (The Barenaked Ladies) got their big break into the US scene with “The Old Apartment” and played it on 90210 back in the day.  Believe it or not, that was unusual at the time and was considered fresh and unique.  The first sign that it shouldn’t be done too often is that Fox Network pioneered it.

For the record, Barenaked Ladies lived on past that initial showing on 90210 by doing things their own way and not following the record label’s every order.  So much so, that they split off from the label and created their own.

The worst part of all this is that I’m no longer the target audience for pop music.  Even when I was the target audience, I was older than the current target.  Young ‘tweens have somehow become the spending force in our economy and we bow down to their mentally defunct tastes.

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!

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.

When I was young, my mom and I would stay up and watch Dr Who on PBS (or, even better, if there was a fund drive, they’d be showing a marathon for 12 hours or so).  My mom had been watching Dr Who for a very long time, and she is an enthusiastic fan.  I started watching episodes around the time of the 5th Doctor (though there were a few reruns of the 4th as well), and so my experiences with the show are really based upon that era.

Fast forward to last night; the wife, the mom, the baby, and I are watching Battlestar Galactica finish up and Dr Who starts up after it.  What suddenly strikes me the most is the new theme (which was introduced for Christmas 2007); it’s new even for the new series.  I’m listening to it, rewinding it, and listening to it again.  I love it!

But then I realize why it’s so different; it’s orchestral and exciting.  It’s designed to get you excited and happy, whereas the older ones were to really mess with your mind.

If you don’t believe me, here’s a collection of the 1st, 5th, and 10th themes.

The 1st Doctor

The 5th Doctor

The 10th Doctor

This is all fine and dandy to people who don’t know Who, but now I’m going to turn to the die hard fans (Krum, I’m looking at you).  Does this theme suddenly detract from the spirit that the show has?  The show itself (and the theme as well) were originally supposed to be mind bending and terrifying while also being fascinating in the same moment.  Suddenly, I have an action/adventure song with a fast paced ride through a “time tunnel” telling me we’re off for a thrilling ride where the hero wins.

I’m not sure that’s what it was supposed to be.

I want people’s feedback on this though.  Is this newest direction for the Doctor in the same spirit as the previous ones?

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

Now, before I go any further into a rant, let me first say that the musicians and choir were incredible. I honestly thought I was listening to pre-recorded, mixed, edited, and filtered HD audio the entire time. Combined with the videos playing above the stage and the laser light show, it really was a great night.

My mom scoffed at the thought of a concert for video game music, calling it a sad attempt to get kids to go to the symphony and feel cultured. I was sort of surprised to hear this from her, since I learned to appreciate music from her in the first place while growing up.

I doubt I have to explain this to people who might be reading, but I think I might anyway; music in video games is just as good (and in some instances better) than any musical score you’ll hear in movies, TV, and numerous other media. Just because early video games couldn’t reproduce more than a few beeps and boops of an 8-bit synthesizer didn’t mean the music behind it wasn’t incredible.

Case in point: Super Mario Brothers. The original theme is unmistakable to anyone born in the last 75 years with how it’s stuck around. Even if you hate video games and believe them to be the root of all evil, you know who Mario is and you can hum this song. Martin Leung is a young pianist who was able to recreate all the themes to Mario Brothers on his piano, even playing them blindfolded. Listening to this music played on a classical instrument really helps you understand how deep some of this music is. (We saw Martin play at the concert, incidentally. He was incredible, and the camera had a hard time trackng his hands at the speed they were moving). Now, Mario might not be New World Symphony, but it’s certainly up there with some of Joplin’s best works.

Now for the other side of the coin. My mom may have been way off base with the music itself, but she was very accurate with the people that would be there.

Right from the beginning, they made it very clear that this wasn’t a normal performance and we were encouranged to participate and cheer whenever we felt appropriate. Just the same, I couldn’t help but cringe when people would start screaming before the conducter dropped his baton, or when the 34 year old rejects behind us would yell through entire movements that they wanted to hear Castlevania as if we were all sitting in their own personal iPod. (Ironically, when they actually DID play Castlevania for the second encore, the same morons screamed the entire way through it. Concert foul: claiming to be the biggest fan by screaming so loudly and annoyingly that no one can hear the music you supposedly love.)

Overall, it was a great expirience. The live action video games, the music, and just the overall fun you get from going to the symphony made for a great night. And now, I leave you with the official trailer to Halo 3. Just try to listen to it’s score and tell me video game music isn’t the same as real music!