Calling to see if your back is still aligned
I finally, after all these years, got my senior photo from the local photo scam. At least I look cool. I'm dressed up like I'm in an 80s ska band, black skinny tie and all, with my old dark plastic-rim glasses, and my black guitar slung over my shoulder. Like, quite slung over. The body is on my shoulder and the bridge is right next to my left ear. And I have short hair! Wonder of wonders.
I found some new bands.
There's Tokyo Police Club (MySpace, Last.fm), who do indie-post/punk-power-pop in a way I find perfect. It's sort of like if Modest Mouse, Interpol, and Pavement had a baby who liked frolicking around and chasing butterflies instead of stewing in blackened angst. Their big songs are Tessellate and Your English is Good, of which on their sites you can find both and more (and you can find them on YouTube, as well). They use lead keyboard, something pretty much unheard of since the 80s (Brian Eno I am looking at you). The guitar is your typical post-punk work a la Interpol. The whole band is very post-punk, really, but they manage to avoid a lot of the angst and amp up the pop. I wouldn't say they're strictly happy, as they're more nostalgic, but nothing of the darkness of Interpol or Modest Mouse. I've enjoyed all their songs so far, which is rare for band when I'm concerned. I also must say that I'm very proud to see another bass-player frontman join the ranks.
Today I just found a band called Johnny Foreigner (Last.fm) through an ad on Facebook. They were advertised as being reminiscent of Los Campesinos! so I gave them a whirl. I'm still trying to form an opinion on the band. The recordings they have seem to be not the best and the male singer has a voice with the enthusiasm of Garret Campesinos! but the annoying quality of the lead singer of Bloc Party. The general band enthusiasm and relentless power pop is very similar to Los Campesinos!, almost uncomfortably so, but again everything feels rough. I don't know if their new album is out yet, and the recording quality may differ significantly. So the end point is that I would like to like them, but they need to work on their sound.
I've been reading many RPG books recently. I think I should stop before I get totally annoyed with at and tell the collective hobby to go to hell. My favorites have been Encounter Critical, which brings crazy sci-fi to unprecedented levels (two of the classes can be described as "robot therapist" and, well, a courtesan, to say it nicely), Risus, which is precisely designed for wacky, cartoony adventures, and Microlite20, a very, very rules-light D20 variant. (EC and Risus are both made by the same guy, so there might be something there. :P)
I just picked up the free alpha version of Paizo's Pathfinder *, which is essentially D&D 3.75. It looks good so far though the skill set is still too obese (something I think D&D 4 has done right). This, with the others, is part of my search to find a game that I'd be willing to hack for new players. It would be my first time game-mastering, so it's daunting.
I think I should look at other systems, especially the Storyteller/White Wolf system. It seems complicated and I've never played, so meh. I know people at college who play, so that may be a possibility. Is there anybody here who's played it?
* Announcement with notes and alpha downloads
I found some new bands.
There's Tokyo Police Club (MySpace, Last.fm), who do indie-post/punk-power-pop in a way I find perfect. It's sort of like if Modest Mouse, Interpol, and Pavement had a baby who liked frolicking around and chasing butterflies instead of stewing in blackened angst. Their big songs are Tessellate and Your English is Good, of which on their sites you can find both and more (and you can find them on YouTube, as well). They use lead keyboard, something pretty much unheard of since the 80s (Brian Eno I am looking at you). The guitar is your typical post-punk work a la Interpol. The whole band is very post-punk, really, but they manage to avoid a lot of the angst and amp up the pop. I wouldn't say they're strictly happy, as they're more nostalgic, but nothing of the darkness of Interpol or Modest Mouse. I've enjoyed all their songs so far, which is rare for band when I'm concerned. I also must say that I'm very proud to see another bass-player frontman join the ranks.
Today I just found a band called Johnny Foreigner (Last.fm) through an ad on Facebook. They were advertised as being reminiscent of Los Campesinos! so I gave them a whirl. I'm still trying to form an opinion on the band. The recordings they have seem to be not the best and the male singer has a voice with the enthusiasm of Garret Campesinos! but the annoying quality of the lead singer of Bloc Party. The general band enthusiasm and relentless power pop is very similar to Los Campesinos!, almost uncomfortably so, but again everything feels rough. I don't know if their new album is out yet, and the recording quality may differ significantly. So the end point is that I would like to like them, but they need to work on their sound.
I've been reading many RPG books recently. I think I should stop before I get totally annoyed with at and tell the collective hobby to go to hell. My favorites have been Encounter Critical, which brings crazy sci-fi to unprecedented levels (two of the classes can be described as "robot therapist" and, well, a courtesan, to say it nicely), Risus, which is precisely designed for wacky, cartoony adventures, and Microlite20, a very, very rules-light D20 variant. (EC and Risus are both made by the same guy, so there might be something there. :P)
I just picked up the free alpha version of Paizo's Pathfinder *, which is essentially D&D 3.75. It looks good so far though the skill set is still too obese (something I think D&D 4 has done right). This, with the others, is part of my search to find a game that I'd be willing to hack for new players. It would be my first time game-mastering, so it's daunting.
I think I should look at other systems, especially the Storyteller/White Wolf system. It seems complicated and I've never played, so meh. I know people at college who play, so that may be a possibility. Is there anybody here who's played it?
* Announcement with notes and alpha downloads