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Mod Breakdown:
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+8597 / +3143 |
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Karma Level:
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+ 65
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| Signed up: |
3 years ago (1/15/06) |
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Last signed in:
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1 hour ago |
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Total time online:
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195d 10h 12m |
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the forum on Red vs. Blue. |
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Water Dissolving And Water Removing
It's a boring Sunday afternoon, so why not try and write a journal?
2 days ago, I stayed the night at campus to catch a production of Aristophanes' The Birds. It's this really old Grecian play based upon man's discontent with Athenian life, so they go join a commune of other people who think they're birds and attempt to take over Olympus. Normally, I would appreciate plays like this, but the problem with this production was that this did not take place in Ancient Greece...but rather the post-apocalyptic future. The setting had no role within the plot, and the plot wasn't even particularly strong to begin with (very repetitive), so combine those two together and you get an experience that can only be mediocre at best. Fortunately it did become mediocre, because the performances by the actors were very good, considering there was 2 hours of action without any sort of intermission. Overall, I give it a C, but I'd recommend any Shakespearean play any day.
I've registered for classes for Spring '10...well, most of them anyway. The fourth one is being a bitch to find, so I'll have to wait until the open registration period begins before I figure it out. Until then, here's the epic awesome list:
ENG 271: The Art Of Interpretation
ENG 308: Writing Poetry (ooh yeah, baby)
MAT 115: Applied Mathematics In Business And Economics (last math requirement)
Notice that I refuse to take an Intermediate German course. My interest in that god damned class has dwindled to a low point, so what I might do is simply look over my German book from time to time next semester and learn everything at my own pace so that I can beat down the GER 203 if I do decide to take it.
There's no New Music Scores this journal, which makes this journal feel...rather naked. I'm saving my money for the Mew gig in Boston, so until December you won't see much. Unless you have albums for me that you think I may be interested in. Just let me steal them and I'll see what I can come up with for a review. My most preferable review for the next score will be Talking Heads' Remain In Light. So if you've got that one just let your poor uncle Brian cop a copy from yehs, and I'll reward you with a review and some sexual favours (optional).  
That's all he wrote, ladies and gentlemen. Keep the faith, don't believe the hype, give peace a chance and...I'm Old Greg. Later.
- Brian
Guys, guys...as I have explained many times before...I did not know I was wearing an open backed toga. It was an honest mistake. I swear an oath upon it. - Senator Donuticus, Coming Soon DVD Extras S3.
LINKED MEDIA
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Caught Between The Scylla And Charybdis
Thought I was gonna make a reference to "November Rain", huh? Yeah, right. Don't be a dumbass.
So...Halloween. It was rather disappointing. There was a big party down at the Union, but it was surprisingly lame. I also got rained on at about 10 o'clock, which ruined my Morrissey quiff (even though it wasn't all that fantastic to begin with). And if things couldn't get any worse, I got no fucking candy! The weekend as a whole was redeeming, though. I went to a dance at a nearby residence hall the night before. And I actually had fun! We also watched a bunch of horror movies and played Charades, but that is another story to tell. I'll get pics once everyone stops being lazy and throws them on Facebook.
New Mew-sic Score By Brian. Again. I'm not gonna bother with the other three albums I got, because they're too obscure in America. Denmark only releases. Yeah, really. But anyways:
#1: "No More Stories Are Told Today I'm Sorry They Washed Away No More Stories The World Is Grey I'm Tired Let's Wash Away" by Mew. In the latter years of this particular decade, we've seen a strange influx of indie dance-rock bands (like MGMT and Animal Collective) mold 60s psychedelia and 80s discotheque together into one critically acclaimed package. Mew, whom in general terms are a progressive rock band with post-rock touch, decided to follow up the gloomy And The Glass Handed Kites with a record that shares the same aspects of these other bands. The question in all obviousness is this: Can a bunch of Danes throw a party comparable to what these punk ass American indie kids can? Although Mew have not abandoned the awesome time signatures, they have stripped down their complexities in such a way that they can become as steady and reliable as a standard four-on-the-floor disco beat. In addition, most of the songs are stripped of a good...10 or so layers. They still sound big, but not overpowering so you have to sit down and really try to listen to everything, Kites being an album filled with such examples. So the likelihood that you could find yourself dancing or listening to a Mew track in a nightclub is high. Yet the likelihood of alienating long time fans with songs that don't make them cry at night is quite low. There's a fair amount of ballads that can tangle with those on Kites and Frengers. How "Cartoons And Macramé Wounds" didn't get on the Where The Wild Things Are: OST, I'll never fucking know. No More Stories is easily the oddest record that Mew has come out with thus far, but rather than being even more difficult than Kites, this is rather accessible. So for those looking for a good starting point, this album is the one to get your hands on. Download: Beach, Cartoons And Macramé Wounds, Hawaii.
Surprisingly, I have nothing else to say. Short journal finally, yaaaaay! Keep the faith, don't believe the hype, give peace a chance and enjoy the arrival of those beautiful autumn sunsets an hour earlier. Later.
- Brian
Is it getting dark? We should get inside. - Grif, Ep. 86 S5.
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I Don't Wanna Go Down To The Basement!
Quick follow-up! Yay for updaetz!
Hay, guess what? You know what Saturday is, right? It's freakin Halloweeeeeeeeeen! That means I get to dress up in goofy outfits in public and make a total ass of myself! I plan to go as Morrissey (frontman of The Smiths) to this weekend-long gig going down at the University. No I won't cut my hair to play the part, but I'm gonna need a ton of fuckin hairspray. This'll be fun. So as a conversation piece, what the hell are you gonna do this Hallow's Eve?
Even better news: I'm going to Boston on December 2nd. That Danish band I told you about a couple weeks ago is coming to America after coming off a European tour with NIN. I am not gonna miss this shit for the world right now. I don't go to enough gigs to begin with, let alone gigs that feature a decent foreign band. So I'm gonna fuck off school and my parents, take a bus with that girl I told you about earlier and hit Massachusetts. Hard. See you there, mayhaps?
Speaking of foreign bands, here's two more New Music Scores By Brian.
#1: "Combat Rock" by The Clash. In England, most punk bands that survived "The Filth And The Fury" backlash transformed themselves into skilled, albeit less commercial post-punk bands; Public Image Ltd. and Magazine being only a couple of examples. The Clash never really were a punk band to begin with, therefore their journey into post-punk took a much more interesting and a much more exposed form. Both London Calling and Sandinista! indicated musical growth, but Combat Rock pushed the band to its greatest heights. While the concept of experimenting with different musical styles and production techniques were nothing new to the band at this time, the idea of making it accessible to all who were willing to listen blew the door wide open. Joe Strummer and Mick Jones's songwriting partnership held true that this band deserved the moniker, "The Only Band That Matters", not just by writing single-worthy tunes like "Should I Stay Or Should I Go?" but twisting the concept of what each song could convey by adding a verse in Spanish in the background, or reciting poetry in the blank spaces not filled in by Strummer's drunken drawl (some lyrics of "Ghetto Defendant" are recited by seminal beat poet Allen Ginsberg). Ever since I got London Calling over 5 years ago, The Clash have always surprised me, in the sense that a band with a punk rock aesthetic can produce music that isn't necessarily shit. For those who've expected the same, Combat Rock will surprise you in the same way, but never will it surprise in a bad way. Download: Red Angel Dragnet, Overpowered By Funk, Sean Flynn.
#2: "Heroes" by David Bowie. The Berlin Trilogy, in essence, was a way to give David Bowie time to recover from the cocaine filled excess of Station To Station, while at the same time producing more music. The first installment, Low, was definitely the one installment that maintained a low profile during its creation, but the second, "Heroes", brought Bowie back to the spotlight with a vengeance. The record was produced at Hansa Studio in West Berlin, not a mile away from the Berlin Wall. Co-producer Tony Visconti recalled several instances of Soviet Red Guards spying in on the studio. Couple the presence of two opposing socio-political behemoths in one town, along with the collapse of Bowie's personal life, and there lies a strong sense of manic unrest and discontent that could be used at will for inspiration. For the first half of the album, Bowie doesn't so much croon as much as yelp, and when he yelps it's almost impossible to determine exactly what's going on in his mind. The fact that Robert Fripp of King Crimson is providing lead guitar doesn't exactly help the listener discern anything any clearer either. Not until the second half, do we see Brian Eno take the reigns and showcase his signature ambience in a 3 track instrumental, a more than welcome resolution to the riot that had passed on by. Only the title track "Heroes" offers any sort of balance between the two, stating the general overture to the violent and segregate idealism that both capitalism and communism feed off of. Bowie predicted that "We can beat them/Forever and ever" in "Heroes". It's possible that this album helped destroy the oppression that helped create it, thus making his premonition quite true. Hey, it's better than crediting Reagan. Download: "Heroes", Moss Garden, The Secret Life Of Arabia.
Journal's too long again. Sue me. Keep the faith, don't believe the hype, give peace a chance and preorder Trocadero's second official LP "Ghosts That Linger" here or I'll kill you in your sleep. Later.
- Brian  
That means he's gonna want to wear the cop uniform with the short-shorts! - Grif, Ep. 74 S4.
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They Come To Build A Wall Between Us...
...but we know they won't win.
Ok, so maybe this wasn't so quick of a follow up, but gimme a break, I've been having a life.
No seriously. 
Really interesting thing happened last Friday. If you remember way back in September, you may have noticed that I was talking about this guy on the bus who likes The Libertines and Arctic Monkeys. Well I saw him again after a month and apparently he's looking for a bass player for this band he's trying to put together. I told him I played guitar, so naturally he didn't bug me any more about picking up the bass. But he did give me his cell # in case I wanted to check out the tunes they're working on. I'm not sure if I want to go forward with calling him or not, especially that I need to get used to playing the bass again. So...what do you think? Gopher it?
Trufax. The gang of hooligans I'm hanging out with at college are fucking awesome people. I spent last weekend over in the dorms, which was...an interesting experience. I kinda felt like an idiot trying to adjust to legitimate college life, but I feel as if I've learned a lot about really being in a social collective akin to that of college. I got my ass handed to me on SSBM, I stayed up until 3 in the morning talking with this one girl in the dark (who I swear becomes more and more interesting every day), and got myself involved in a music exchange with some of the other music nerds in our group. So to close this journal, I'll leave you will 2 of the 8 (yes, I said 8) albums that I've got. These are New Music Scores by Brian!
#1: "Disintegration" by The Cure. In the UK, the "Second Summer of Love" was started by the resurgence of psychedelic substances in popular culture. The music during that time took a sharp turn from moody post-punk and new wave to Madchester and acid-house, sub-genres of indie rock and dance music that celebrated everything about how it feels to be high as a kite. Most post-punk bands that survived through 1988 were naturally influenced by the contact high emanating from the Madchester scene, and Robert Smith of The Cure was one such musician who used psychedelics to his advantage. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that Disintegration is named what it is; it resembles the disintegration of the dull facets of reality brought on by drugs like LSD, which was Smith's drug of choice during the recording. In direct relation to LSD's two-faced effects, some of the songs are equal to that of wet-dream bliss, while others spiral downward into the depths of fear and ego death. While the songwriting is by no means weak on Smith's part, there are songs that drone on and on for 6 to 9 minutes each, which makes the act of actually listening to the album very frustrating. The only thing a listener can do to fully appreciate Disintegration is to do what all the dopers and all the ravers do, let go and let the music take you in. Then and only then does it become a masterpiece. Download: Plainsong, Love Song, Fascination Street.
#2: "Meat Is Murder" by The Smiths. The self-titling of The Smiths' debut record gave the English citizen reason to believe that this band was innocuous and accessible. The title of this record completely clears up this misconception; Morrissey is not afraid to say things that the English citizen does not want to hear and Johnny Marr is not afraid to produce sounds that are not akin to the "indie rock" staple that every fan in 1984 grew to love. This does not necessarily mean that the magic that The Smiths possessed the year before has not gone off for a cup of tea, however. A few songs, most notably "I Want The One I Can't Have", could have fit perfectly alongside "This Charming Man" as a B-side or even as a single itself. And let's not forget the 6 and a half minute slice of heaven that is "How Soon Is Now?" There really is no need to defend that song from ANY accusation of lost touch. The album for the most part, displays seething political criticisms and jarring tape effects, eclectics of sound not seen on their previous LP or their singles. The title track best represents their necessity within the album, as its Floydian intro attempts to guilt-trip the meat-eaters into becoming animal rights activists, much like Morrissey and Marr themselves. Unfortunately, the two moods of the record do clash rather than compliment each other, which doesn't put this in the same league as say, Louder Than Bombs. But what we have in this record that we don't see in any other is pure honesty, both in loves and hates, and none of the so-called "irony" that The Smiths reportedly convey. Download: I Want The One I Can't Have, How Soon Is Now?, Meat Is Murder.
This journal is too long. I must end it here. Keep the faith, don't believe the hype, give peace a chance and Haleth...son of Hama...there is always hope. Later.
- Brian
You're all like...inside outside double talk, man. Even I can tell that makes no sense, man. - Wade, Ep. 6 of The Strangerhood.
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And If You Complain Once More...
...you'll meet an army of me.
A quick follow-up to Monday's journal...for once.
Ok, firstly...this shit can't wait for anything else. It's a New Mew-sic Score!
#1: "And The Glass Handed Kites" by Mew (insert Pokemon reference here). Stereotypically, girls do not listen to prog rock. The time signature changes prevents them from dancing and the lyrics are too stupid for them to consider meaningful. Ladies...meet Mew. Easily the most internationally acclaimed band that has ever come out of the Canada of Europe (Denmark for those who don't know your South Park), Mew thought it would be awesome to take the doomy, gloomy, yet strikingly beautiful elements of post-rock and combine it with the indie rock that hot shit brit kids like the Arctic Monkeys would a year later, be producing. And boy, did they have a field day with this one. In a nutshell, this album is a 50+ minute long suite that features just about every technique a producer can use to make the music sound ambient, sublime even. So it's not hard to agree that some tracks could've fared better if they were stripped of a good...10 or so overdubs. In Mew's point of view however, the time has to be just right in order for the excess of reverberant sound to pay off. And when the time is right, the rounds of lyrics, the blankets of synthesizers, the rolling yet stabbing guitars and the intricate but controlled drumbeats convey a proverbial static shock to the heart and soul. Something the opposite sex appreciates much more than us penis-possessing nerds. Download: Special, The Zookeeper's Boy, An Envoy To The Open Fields.
So today, I got my flu shot (not H1N1). When you live with two parental figures that work in a hospital, getting inoculated isn't a decision that's yours to make. I've never been afraid of needles, but I am getting a major fear of the side affects after getting punctured. I don't know what it is, maybe it's a Placebo effect, but I just get the feeling I'm either gonna pass out or throw up. I hate it. This time was no different. And my arm still hurts like a moe'fucker. Ow. 
Fall break has also started for most Division I campuses, which includes UMaine. I don't know what the hell I'm going to be doing during the next 3 days, but hopefully I won't be staying here at home for much of it. I've been staying at the University a lot more lately, so being here for long periods of time is not as acceptable as it was 2 weeks ago. If you feel inclined to help me out, throw a few interesting links my way. I could use the distraction, especially in this domestically disturbed household. 
That's as much as I can get myself to write for now. Keep the faith, don't believe the hype, give peace a chance and if anyone says that love actually is all around, then there's an equal amount of hate all around as well. Later.
- Brian 
Come on, man. How man girls have you picked up because of your encyclopedic knowledge of Full Metal Panic? More than one! ...ok, less than one. - Grif and Simmons, AKON 2005 PSA S3.
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Sula Vie Milejo, Sula Vie Dilejo...
...cheli venco deho, malio.
So here's the deal. Life's been insane. This is for those of you who do not like to read, which is pretty much all of you. For that one person (me), who wants to know all the details, even though I already know the details...here's a full journal. For myself.
If I didn't know that school was going to roundhouse kick me in the face with a bunch of stuff, like homework and *gasp* a SOCIAL LIFE, I would've totally posted up some guitar covers and a 5AR video. Unfortunately, these never happened. Yeah, I had 3 tests to take care of last week, one of which was a 5-6 page paper on Shakespeare. And the social life thing...well, the "art students" in Shakespeare always saw me bumming around the Union by myself, so they decided to take me in. I tried not to act like I was desperate for this sort of thing, but deep down...I really was.
I dug into my emulator collection the other day and decided I'm going to play Pokemon Diamond. I've got a Lv. 8 Piplup, a Lv. 6 Starly and a Lv. 6 Shinx in my party. I've gotten more shit done, but every time I accidentally hit ESC, the window closes, which shuts the game down without saving. (FFFFFFFFFFF UUUUUUUUUU) Hopefully I'll get past Jubilife City by the end of this week (cause hitting ESC will happen again at least 5 more times), but overall I'm having fun with it.
Top 5 Reasons Why My Stepbrother Thinks I'm Gay:
1. See pic on homepage. And you remember the one before that?
2. He tells me all about his internet pr0n addiction, yet I say nothing of my own habits in return.
3. I've been using a tooth whitening kit. One more week and my enamels will blind people.
4. I don't have a sexual preference listed on my Facebook. Never thought I needed to have that info on there.
5. He doesn't like the idea of gay marriage in Maine. I however, support it.
So, to all you pretty boys...sup?
Question for you all: Do you believe in the paranormal, like ghosts and other mystical shit? I got dragged to this club meeting by one of the art school chicks a few hours ago. It was so ridiculous, I had to leave early. Feel free to leave your opinion here.
No New Music Scores right now, but hopefully I'll make some purchases during Fall Break. The expected records are listen on my homepage right under the "gay" photo of Marr and the Moz.
That's all folks. Keep the faith, don't believe the hype, give peace a chance and please save Castle. Later.
- Brian
Rookie, shut up. OK? I'm a freakin' ghost. Have any of you ever seen a blue ghost before? - Church, Ep. 10 S1.
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Here We Are, In The Backwater Overflow
I honestly cannot believe that 10 journals ago, it was July. I should be producing more journal material than this. Agh.
So, where to start? Ummm...fall is officially here as of 6 days ago. And you know what that means. APPLE PICKING! Over the past two weeks, I've gone to the apple orchard on Rt. 2 some 20 miles away twice. I've got so many apples, you could pretty much fill my bathtub full of them. Not nearly as sensual as as bathtub full of rose petals or lavish as a bathtub full of 100 dollar bills, but you get the point. I'm not sure if eating 3 apples a day and not much else is good for the body, but I fucking love apples, so whatever. I suggest you get some of your own, that way we can chow down on MacIntoshes, Courtlands, Red/Gold Deliciouses, and best of all Granny Smiths together.
If you watched my 5AR video last week, you would know that I was all about Halo ODST. I just realized that I never talked about Firefight...mainly because I didn't play it. But more interestingly, I've come to discover that I don't really want to play Firefight. The campaign is so in-depth compared to the last two Halo releases, that the multiplayer is pushed to the wayside, much like the first Halo. So tell me, is this a blasphemous thought? Is Halo's greatness only surviving within the multiplayer and should we not consider the campaign in the same league as Matchmaking/Firefight? Discuss.
Well, there's nothing else to say, really. Besides the fact that schoolwork and guitarwork have taken over my life to the largest of extremes. Keep the faith, don't believe the hype, give peace a chance and expect some cover tunes/original tunes on YT soon. No, I'm serious this time. Maybe. Later.
- Brian
I signed on to fight some aliens. Next thing I know, Master Chief blows up the whole Covenant armada, and now I'm stuck out in the middle of nowhere, fighting a bunch of blue guys. - Grif, Ep. 1 S1.
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White Horses, They Will Take Me Away
Alright, let's get this over with. I promise this won't hurt a bit. It's like getting a suppository shot up into your ass, nothing at all.
So. Life kinda sucks at the moment. School's being stupid, because there's so much shit I have to do for every class...ever, which I haven't gotten started on yet. Wait to be a grade-A student, Brian. There was an opportunity to go to a show for the first time in a year, but the band that's playing (The Decemberists) are not all that good as I've come to find out, so I won't be going. The only cool thing that happened since I last posted was a fireworks display in rural Levant yesterday, which is MUCH better than the fireworks at Bangor. But that brief period of awesome was ruined today when a pen exploded in the front pocket of my favourite pair of jeans. I wanna crawl into a dark hole and starve myself to death.
Tomorrow may be a happier day, because I'm picking up two albums at the record store tomorrow! Since they're both fully streamable on the YouTube, I've reviewed them early. Here's yer New Muse-ic Scores!
#1: "The Resistance" by Muse. For those who wanted more of the same out of their favourite progressive rock bands this year, it's not been the prettiest of years. Mastodon's Crack The Skye and The Mars Volta's Octahedron have both alienated die-hards with their softer, less bombastic sound which may or may not last further. Muse is changing as well, however...they're not following this mold. Their previous release, Black Holes And Revelations, only gave us a taste as to what madman Bellamy was going to throw at us next. And what he's thrown is a full blown orgy of all things pretentious that reigned through the 70s and 80s (think Queen and Duran Duran collaborating together after a 3 day cocaine binge). Normally, I would laugh my ass off if I ever heard such a thing, but Muse knows how to walk this very unstable tightrope. The fact that the obviously conscientious effort to dig into their own back catalogue for inspiration for their less symphonic tracks allows the die-hard fans of Origin Of Symmetry and Absolution to forgive them for whatever they find absolutely ridiculous within the rest of the album. But when you have a 13 minute masterpiece like the long-awaited Exogenesis Symphony in the record, what is there to forgive? Download: Undisclosed Desires, United States Of Eurasia, The Exogenesis Symphony.
#2: "A Night At The Opera" by Queen. (Come on, you knew this was coming.) If there is one thing that the English progressive rock movement did not know how to do, it was to package its ridiculousness in such a way that the masses would think twice before scoffing at it. Glam rock (the gay step-brother of prog rock) knew how to do this, and nobody within the genre did it better than Queen. The recording sessions of their breakthrough and magnum opus was tedious and expensive, but as most of us already know, these sessions proved to bear the greatest fruit in rock history, that being "Bohemian Rhapsody". That classic song does not a classic rock album make, however. And with that, may I say that there are moments within A Night At The Opera that doesn't do the band any justice whatsoever, most notably "I'm In Love With My Car"; containing facepalm-worthy lyrics about...well, a guy in love with his car...sung by Roger Taylor. Screw that. The real genius of this album lies within the Brian May-fronted Paul McCartney homages, Freddie Mercury's "so tender it's alien" love ballads, and of course...the epic head-bangers that rival that of Zeppelin. Grandiosity is usually a hit or miss kind of science within music, and there's evidence of that in this album. But for those few who know how to treat it, the hits pay off extravagantly. Download: Seaside Rendezvous, Love Of My Life, Bohemian Rhapsody.
And that's it. I'm too tired and non-bothered to write of anything else of the slightest importance, so keep the faith, don't believe the hype, give peace a chance and I'M SORRY TO INTERRUPT BUT BEYONCE HAD ONE OF THE BEST VIDEOS OF ALL TIME, SHE SHOULD'VE WON THAT SHIT SO HARD BAAAAAAAWWWWWWW
...later.
- Brian
Ooh, ooh! Like in the "Beat It" video! - Donut, S4 DVD Deleted Scenes.
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