Burnt By the Sun
This is a round-up, which I am past due for. In the past I often go over everything. Now I am merely going address the stuff I found particularly interesting or good in the past while since I did this.
The Derek Trucks Band - I like slide guitar. Some years back, Rolling Stone put out an issue headlined, "The New Guitar Gods" featuring three great younger players on the cover photo. They were John Frusciante (of RHCP), John Meyer, and I couldn't remember the third. Found out recently it was Derek Trucks. He's just fucking awesome. Its a whole lot of extended jam style slide playing of the southern rock variety. I also found out he is now the guitarist for the Allman Brothers, which is totally fitting and awesome (he is Butch Trucks nephew, original drummer for the Allman Brothers, and is still with the band). He does some great shit.
Batman - I enjoyed the Dark Knight, certainly, but I am going to BITCH about the fucking CG shit they pulled on Two-Face. What the hell? They went for realism for extra creepy effect on the Joker, so why then change your style and make Two-Face so goddamn silly looking. I liked that they did with the progression in Harvey Dent, but the culmination felt kind of flat. Still a good movie though.
Magician - the "master" work of Fantasy author Raymond E. Feist. The first part is good, but is forced to spend much much time on development of the characters are scenery of the book. The second half they've got that and they can then get dirty. The three main characters are all pretty damn awesome, which is good. The second half also has some really great little moments of profundity, occasionally popping out of the woodwork of high adventure.
Rescue Me - wow that's a depressing show. But good. And quite funny at times. But jesus.
Death Note - Great stuff. I don't want to say anything because of the spoiler potential. And here it is worth it for every tiny twist or turn and Light and L pull on each other.
Kino's Journey - A nice little anime. I'm not done with it, but it is best taken in small doses, and not barreled through. This is easy since it isn't really cohesively drawn together by a story, but is merely a series of vignettes from the journeys of a girl called Kino and the sentient motorcycle, Hermes. It can be surprisingly heavy stuff at times, but it plays it's part well.
S&M - What's that you say? Oh, I am afraid not - I'd have to make this friends only if I were to discuss such matters, and where is the fun in that? What I refer to is the live album by Metallica & the San Francisco Symphony. Symphonic metal hurrrrrr. I'm not even a Metallica fan, but I really dig this album. Arranged and conducted by Michael Kamen, who is a significant film score composer in his own right.
The Witcher - So I finally finished The Witcher. It may have been a bit too Witchy in final retrospective. So fucking long. Damn good I like long and involved role-playing games. I wish I had a counter for how many hours I sunk in there, though. The barrage of characters and moral choices one has to face are great, and the non-linear aspect which develops throughout the game as one establishes Geralt's personality. Also the sex. The sex is pretty good, or at very least hilarious. For further enticement, the story is written by noted Polish novelist Andrzej Sapkowski.
The dark and non-linear aspect of The Witcher reminds me frequently of Planscape: Torment. Now THERE was a game. The Witcher isn't quite that, but its good.
Oh Planescape, how wondrous you were.
Green Mile - Serious Sunday is great. Maybe better when it happens less often. This was a good movie, if LONG. We need to watch Solaris again. And go to Woonsocket.
VAST - This stuff is AWESOME. Its really weird, kind of electronic, kind of NINish or Depeche Modeish, but with lots of neat guitar stuff all over. The first album is just fucking great.
Black Crowes - Oh hell, these guys are great, too. I'm a sucker for southern/bluegrass influenced business. Also harmonica.
Dungeons and Dragons - 4th Edition has its ups and downs. I'm not sure if I like it or not in general. The powers stuff is fun as a ranger, but I'm not sure its a good idea for the system in general. Alignment changes are pointless, races suck, and classes are kind of dumb. The skills strip down also seems pointless. The change of saves to be more like AC is good. I did have fun playing, although it seemed quite different from the D&D I'm used to. I guess maybe I understand a little where my brother was coming from when they released 3rd ed. Then again, my recent discussion with him on the matter seemed to imply he was actually full of shit all along.
End of Evangelion - Watched the last two episodes again. You know it WASN'T that bad. Enjoyable really, which is why I'm mentioning it here. Watching the whole show again probably wouldn't be my idea of a good time... not for a while now. Did I hear rumors of them redoing it in such a fashion that it isn't so silly? The movie still sucks thought I bet.
Stargate - The final SG-1... finale (for lack of a better word) was pretty cool. Needed more RDA, but whatever. It was at least back to some classic Goa'uld action which is always nice. Still not exactly a conclusion because of the Atlantis stuff going on and probably the writers unwillingness to part with the characters they've been developing for more than 10 years.
The Emerald Necklace - Been close to four years since I've been out there. I guess it was early freshman year the last time. Really great area, although what everyone says is true in that the making bikers cross these ridiculous intersections between the portions of the park is a huge pain. Also gravel bike paths what the fuck. But it was really great. Reminds me a lot of Forest Park up in Portland, which, last I checked, was the largest urban wilderness in the world. It was great weather, too, differed a lot though... also like Oregon. Rain showers drenched me twice but quickly evaporated in the heat. It wasn't uncomfortable at all, really, except for steering my bike down a steep hill, which was a little scary. I sat down on a hill in one of the rains, and carved up my own lunch from the materials I brought along. Ham and swiss with bruscheta on peasant rolls. Mmmm, soo good. Sat around a while longer and read. Kept biking for a while, and got lost once or twice but my internal compass saved me then when it let me down on the way to Lexington. Ended up returning via South Corridor Park, which is a pretty sweet concept. You could get out there that way too, and probably save a lot of trouble and time from the damnable intersections one would take by just following the necklace. But not quite as scenic. Then again, once you get out that far, you can just bike up into the hills
The Darksword Trilogy - This is a series of fantasy novels (big surprise) I'd been meaning to read for a long time. And when I say that, I mean a LONG time. It is by the same authors as the well-known Dragonlance series' (Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman). After waiting so years to read them, I'm not really sure what I expected it to be like. In truth I'm not sure why I didn't read them as soon as I picked up my SFS membership four years ago. Its sort of fitting that my membership will expire in a few weeks so these are probably the last things I'll read from the SFS at MIT (my discovery of Interlibrary Loan makes everything so easy). A rather different premise from the usual fantasy in some ways, and the character of Joram is just totally awesome, and Saryon is also just a really well written fellow. The first part of Forging with the story of Saryon's youth was captivating to say the least, and served as a great intro to the world. The last book is just packed with so much stuff... so of which may have been served better from so more advanced foreshadowing, but then again I could easily have missed it in the tumult. Overall, great stuff.
That's all. Be seeing you.
The Derek Trucks Band - I like slide guitar. Some years back, Rolling Stone put out an issue headlined, "The New Guitar Gods" featuring three great younger players on the cover photo. They were John Frusciante (of RHCP), John Meyer, and I couldn't remember the third. Found out recently it was Derek Trucks. He's just fucking awesome. Its a whole lot of extended jam style slide playing of the southern rock variety. I also found out he is now the guitarist for the Allman Brothers, which is totally fitting and awesome (he is Butch Trucks nephew, original drummer for the Allman Brothers, and is still with the band). He does some great shit.
Batman - I enjoyed the Dark Knight, certainly, but I am going to BITCH about the fucking CG shit they pulled on Two-Face. What the hell? They went for realism for extra creepy effect on the Joker, so why then change your style and make Two-Face so goddamn silly looking. I liked that they did with the progression in Harvey Dent, but the culmination felt kind of flat. Still a good movie though.
Magician - the "master" work of Fantasy author Raymond E. Feist. The first part is good, but is forced to spend much much time on development of the characters are scenery of the book. The second half they've got that and they can then get dirty. The three main characters are all pretty damn awesome, which is good. The second half also has some really great little moments of profundity, occasionally popping out of the woodwork of high adventure.
Rescue Me - wow that's a depressing show. But good. And quite funny at times. But jesus.
Death Note - Great stuff. I don't want to say anything because of the spoiler potential. And here it is worth it for every tiny twist or turn and Light and L pull on each other.
Kino's Journey - A nice little anime. I'm not done with it, but it is best taken in small doses, and not barreled through. This is easy since it isn't really cohesively drawn together by a story, but is merely a series of vignettes from the journeys of a girl called Kino and the sentient motorcycle, Hermes. It can be surprisingly heavy stuff at times, but it plays it's part well.
S&M - What's that you say? Oh, I am afraid not - I'd have to make this friends only if I were to discuss such matters, and where is the fun in that? What I refer to is the live album by Metallica & the San Francisco Symphony. Symphonic metal hurrrrrr. I'm not even a Metallica fan, but I really dig this album. Arranged and conducted by Michael Kamen, who is a significant film score composer in his own right.
The Witcher - So I finally finished The Witcher. It may have been a bit too Witchy in final retrospective. So fucking long. Damn good I like long and involved role-playing games. I wish I had a counter for how many hours I sunk in there, though. The barrage of characters and moral choices one has to face are great, and the non-linear aspect which develops throughout the game as one establishes Geralt's personality. Also the sex. The sex is pretty good, or at very least hilarious. For further enticement, the story is written by noted Polish novelist Andrzej Sapkowski.
The dark and non-linear aspect of The Witcher reminds me frequently of Planscape: Torment. Now THERE was a game. The Witcher isn't quite that, but its good.
Oh Planescape, how wondrous you were.
Green Mile - Serious Sunday is great. Maybe better when it happens less often. This was a good movie, if LONG. We need to watch Solaris again. And go to Woonsocket.
VAST - This stuff is AWESOME. Its really weird, kind of electronic, kind of NINish or Depeche Modeish, but with lots of neat guitar stuff all over. The first album is just fucking great.
Black Crowes - Oh hell, these guys are great, too. I'm a sucker for southern/bluegrass influenced business. Also harmonica.
Dungeons and Dragons - 4th Edition has its ups and downs. I'm not sure if I like it or not in general. The powers stuff is fun as a ranger, but I'm not sure its a good idea for the system in general. Alignment changes are pointless, races suck, and classes are kind of dumb. The skills strip down also seems pointless. The change of saves to be more like AC is good. I did have fun playing, although it seemed quite different from the D&D I'm used to. I guess maybe I understand a little where my brother was coming from when they released 3rd ed. Then again, my recent discussion with him on the matter seemed to imply he was actually full of shit all along.
End of Evangelion - Watched the last two episodes again. You know it WASN'T that bad. Enjoyable really, which is why I'm mentioning it here. Watching the whole show again probably wouldn't be my idea of a good time... not for a while now. Did I hear rumors of them redoing it in such a fashion that it isn't so silly? The movie still sucks thought I bet.
Stargate - The final SG-1... finale (for lack of a better word) was pretty cool. Needed more RDA, but whatever. It was at least back to some classic Goa'uld action which is always nice. Still not exactly a conclusion because of the Atlantis stuff going on and probably the writers unwillingness to part with the characters they've been developing for more than 10 years.
The Emerald Necklace - Been close to four years since I've been out there. I guess it was early freshman year the last time. Really great area, although what everyone says is true in that the making bikers cross these ridiculous intersections between the portions of the park is a huge pain. Also gravel bike paths what the fuck. But it was really great. Reminds me a lot of Forest Park up in Portland, which, last I checked, was the largest urban wilderness in the world. It was great weather, too, differed a lot though... also like Oregon. Rain showers drenched me twice but quickly evaporated in the heat. It wasn't uncomfortable at all, really, except for steering my bike down a steep hill, which was a little scary. I sat down on a hill in one of the rains, and carved up my own lunch from the materials I brought along. Ham and swiss with bruscheta on peasant rolls. Mmmm, soo good. Sat around a while longer and read. Kept biking for a while, and got lost once or twice but my internal compass saved me then when it let me down on the way to Lexington. Ended up returning via South Corridor Park, which is a pretty sweet concept. You could get out there that way too, and probably save a lot of trouble and time from the damnable intersections one would take by just following the necklace. But not quite as scenic. Then again, once you get out that far, you can just bike up into the hills
The Darksword Trilogy - This is a series of fantasy novels (big surprise) I'd been meaning to read for a long time. And when I say that, I mean a LONG time. It is by the same authors as the well-known Dragonlance series' (Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman). After waiting so years to read them, I'm not really sure what I expected it to be like. In truth I'm not sure why I didn't read them as soon as I picked up my SFS membership four years ago. Its sort of fitting that my membership will expire in a few weeks so these are probably the last things I'll read from the SFS at MIT (my discovery of Interlibrary Loan makes everything so easy). A rather different premise from the usual fantasy in some ways, and the character of Joram is just totally awesome, and Saryon is also just a really well written fellow. The first part of Forging with the story of Saryon's youth was captivating to say the least, and served as a great intro to the world. The last book is just packed with so much stuff... so of which may have been served better from so more advanced foreshadowing, but then again I could easily have missed it in the tumult. Overall, great stuff.
That's all. Be seeing you.