hello world, take 2

Wow, so it's been over 2 years since I last attempted to write something. Laziness and procrastination, I am you. However, I thought it was time to get off (well, actually, on) my butt and put some stuff down, because I've had a year's worth of Very Important Showertime Thoughts that frankly, nobody else would really be interested in. You might not even be interested, but here they will be, for my own record if nothing else!

So to ease myself into things... here is a music confession!

I was listening to David Bowie's Never Let Me Down (1987) in the shower and really enjoying it. To me it's a fun, upbeat album with just the right touch of Bowie-eqsue surrealism. And everytime I think that this is one of my favourite Bowie albums, I feel a bit guilty/lame, because most people (including Bowie himself apparently) think that it is shite.

Wikipedia's got this quote from him:

"My nadir was Never Let Me Down. It was such an awful album. I've gotten to a place now where I'm not very judgmental about myself. I put out what I do, whether it's in visual arts or in music, because I know that everything I do is really heartfelt. Even if it's a failure artistically, it doesn't bother me in the same way that Never Let Me Down bothers me. I really shouldn't have even bothered going into the studio to record it. [laughs] In fact, when I play it, I wonder if I did sometimes."

Ouch. But why? I understand why I like it personally - seeing as I became a Bowie fan in the first place after Labyrinth, which came out in 1986. Oh yes I did. The songs he did for that movie have a very similar feel.  

I recently got The Next Day, which is supposedly his comeback, and his "return to form", and after a couple of listens, boy am I reluctant to put it back on my playlist. And again that makes me feel guilty/lame, because this is apparently the return to the "true" Bowie of the 70's, before he "sold out" and tried to make music for the masses. I mean, it's definitely trademark Bowie, and it sounds good, but it is SO bleak and depressing and unrelenting. Just death and greyness, and cynicism. Cheer up, son!

I do think his early stuff was brilliant, and all classics of course, but I just don't connect with them as much and his "crappier" stuff from the 80's and 90's. Does that make me one of the mindless masses? A victim of being born in the 80's? Maybe it just makes David Bowie one of the most versatile, accomplished, and just all-round kickass rock stars we've had the pleasure of listening to.

Anyway, here is Beat of Your Drum from Never Let Me Down. Tell me you don't start jiggling when that chorus kicks in!

New music discoveries for 2011

Recently I was on vacation in Malaysia, with nothing to do except eat, sleep, and watch ridiculous amounts of tv. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that unlike its American counterpart, MTV Asia still plays a decent amount of music. Hooray! And since the last new band that kind of interested me was Arcade Fire (with Neon Bible in 2007), I was on pretty high alert for something good.

So one day, after the 100th painful repeats of Bieber and My Chemical Romance videos, they played these two tracks in succession.

Diana Vickers - The Boy who Murdered Love

 

First thought - she looks like Buffy! Turns out she was a semi-finalist on the UK X-factor in 2008 and released her first album, Songs from the Tainted Cherry Tree in early 2010. I haven't heard the whole album yet but totally love her voice. The super cutesy act does get a bit annoying, so I hope she settles down a bit. She got into a bit of trouble with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers because one of her other songs, My Wicked Heart, has a chorus that does start off alot like Under the Bridge. Here it is:

 
Hurts - Better Than Love

I heard this and had to double check that I wasn't watching an 80's Depeche Mode special. Then I realised that yes, they are a new band, and then I got pretty excited. I got their album last week and have been listening to it alot. Loud. Highly recommended. This track literally leaves me breathless every time. LOVE it.

What's most impressive is that these two guys are only 24 and 26 years old, but they've created such a smooth, slick sounding debut album. And their videos are beautifully grey. Here's another good one - Wonderful Life. Turn up the volume!

But wait, there's more! I also re-ignited my mini-crush on Jason Derulo after watching Whatcha Say again.

And after re-watching that video on YouTube later (oh yes, I really did) and skimming the comments, I learned that that catchy chorus is actually from an Imogen Heap song, Hide and Seek. So I looked that up too:

A bit of a shock to the system if you don't know what to expect! But after a couple of listens, it really grew on me. She has a gorgeous voice, and is pretty much gorgeous overall. This track is from 2005's Speak for Yourself. And if she sounds familiar, it is because she was the voice of Frou Frou back in 2003. I remember loving their single Must Be Dreaming back in the day.

So there. Lots for me to listen to this year! :)

2010: The Year of the Concert

Ok, now for something not-games related. I've been having lots of fun reading all the various year-end wrap-up articles around (best/worst movies, best/worst music, etc). 2010 was a super year for me. A thesis submitted and passed, a graduation ceremony attended, and an awesome road trip down the US west coast (including the experience that was Comic-Con!). And then there were all those concerts!

This was a big year for Melbourne. Every other week some massive act* was announcing a tour. Maybe I was just paying more attention this year, but I think it's definitely a sign of artists having to work harder to earn their keep through touring instead of royalties. Growing up in Malaysia, we'd get maybe one headline act every year or so. I don't think I'll ever get over the novelty of living in a country that is regularly included in world tours!

* I've previously mentioned my affinity for 80's pop rock. If you're under 25 (30? 40?), my definition of 'massive act'  may not necessarily gel with yours. ;)

So this year, I made the most of not having a full-time job (heh) and attended:


Raggamuffin 2010 @ Sidney Myer Music Bowl, 31 Jan 10
 My first music festival. My first reggae music festival. Irie irie! The lineup included

• Sean Kingston - quite disappointing. He spent his time onstage singing over pre-recorded vocals and making sure that we knew that yes, Sean Kington writes music, Sean Kingston wrote this song.
• House of Shem & Blue King Brown - Kiwi & Melbourne acts. Hadn't heard of them before but liked what I heard.
• Julian Marley - does anybody from the Marley family not walk around oozing cool? 
• (Ms) Lauryn Hill - made the Sidney Myer music bowl explode. Everybody went ballistic when she came onstage. With all the controversy surrounding her over the past few years, I wasn't sure what to expect. But she brought it, and it was good.
• Shaggy - oh yeah. Lock up your wives and daughters. Nuff said. ;)

 Here's some of our footage. Sorry about the crappy sound!




Whitney Houston @ Rod Laver Arena, 1 Mar 2010

Expectations were somewhat low going in to see her. She had received so much bad press about her voice prior to the concert. Seriously though, what did people expect? Did they even listen to her latest album before coming to see the show? How could they expect Bodyguard-Whitney to emerge after all she's been through?

The show ended up being really good. Yes, her voice is now raspy and her vocal range is severely limited compared to what it used to be. But she is a class act, she carried herself with dignity and acknowledged her critics openly.

What I really hope she does, is not fade away after this less than perfect tour. I hope she moves away from disco pop and releases a really kickass gospel album. The gospel part of her concert was incredible -  she still has the vocal power and there is no mistaking her voice.

George Michael @ Etihad Stadium, 3 Mar 2010

Yes, 2 days after Whitney, we were treated to a fantastic show by 'the best functioning junkie around'. The stage setup consisted 3 massive high-ish definition screens (which was useful for those of us way at the back). What can you really say about George Michael? He was silky smooth and sounded fantastic. The big mystery is how he manages to preserve that voice of his with all those toxins passing through his lungs?

Ok, so he did manage to call the crowd 'Sydney' a few times and mistook the yells for cheers. But that's ok, he's George Michael and he does what he bloody wants. :) Here's footage I took on my HTC - my all time favourite track of his, Father Figure.




Metallica @ Rod Laver Arena, 18 Nov 2010

Alright, so normally I would have treated this concert like mouldy bread. The husband, however, is a massive Metallica fan, and I owe him for having dragged him to more Hanson concerts than he would like to admit/remember. Plus I have an inexplicable crush on Kirk Hammet and his tight pants. ;) So I rocked up for my first metal concert. Yeah baby! \oo/

I was actually dreading the crowd/opening acts more than anything. We managed to get up front though, so had the railings to lean on (highly recommended). The first act, Baronness, was actually not bad. Mostly because he didn't sing much and it was mostly instrumental. Second, Lamb of God. Absolutely awful. Dude, the next time I want to be shown the bird and be called a mother@(%er, I will just piss off a cab driver. Nevermind, everyone else seemed to love them. 

Metallica themselves were, I must say, really good. The show was lots of fun. Definitely a class act, and there is a reason why they've been huge for such a long time. I didn't know most of the stuff, but it didn't really matter. It was Kirk's birthday, they pie-faced him, and I got half a high-five from Rob. Yay! Here's our footage (notice the dramatic improvement in video quality? That's the Sony Cybershot at work).



U2 & Jay-z @ Etihad Stadium, 1 Dec 2010

 I do like U2 and Jay-Z but have not been a huge fan in the past. Decided to go see them anyway because it was a chance to see both. Early in the year I listened to the Blueprint 3 quite alot, mostly because of Empire State of Mind. A couple of weeks before the concert, I had All That You Can't Leave Behind set pretty much on repeat. There is something about U2's music that is... big. I don't know how to describe it. The sound, the vibe, every song sort of takes you out of where you are and into a little journey into their world. It's a little bit more.

The combination of Jay-Z and U2 was a little strange. Why on earth was Jay-Z opening for U2? Most of the crowd seemed a little bit confused by hip hop. He gave it 100% though, and had an awesome band behind him. He even got us to put our diamonds in the air, yeah yeah what what.

Then U2 came onstage and brought the house down. The giant claw on stage got alot of press, and I must say it was probably the most impressive setup I've ever seen. The big revolving screen was gorgeous, and I literally expected the stage to take off, or explode, or something. I hadn't realised how powerful Bono's voice is, and what a showman he is (is it fair to call him a male diva? In the nicest sense of the word). The concert had all the elements - getting a girl up onstage to dance, having kids come onstage holding candles, etc. The highlight for me was Sunday Bloody Sunday, their tribute to Aung San Suu Kyi, and Bono and Jay-Z rapping together. Joy! Even Jay-Z couldn't hide the amusement on his face. Loved it. I think this takes the spot for best concert of the year. Here's some of our footage (this time taken with iPhone 4. Pretty good.)






Bon Jovi @ Etihad Stadium, 11 Dec 2010


Last show of the year for me! Also the first time since David Bowie (2004) that I've attended a concert alone. Was surrounded by overly enthusiastic 40-something women. Still, it was heaps of fun!

Another big mystery is when we are ever going to see the signs of Jon Bon Jovi ageing. His voice sounded record-perfect, and it was pretty exciting hearing it live. It took him awhile to get warmed up, but when he did, he was bouncing off the walls. If you've never seen him dance, please go YouTube it now, it's hilarious. :) It's like a combination of Jazzercise and Tai-bo. Love it. There were enough classic rock anthems to fill the 2.5 hour show and then some (Richie Sambora took the lead on Lay Your Hands On Me). Just as brilliant were his duets with Richie with just the two of them sharing 1 mic (oh what I would have given to be a string on that guitar). ;)

It wasn't just rehashing old 80's hits either. Their new stuff is great. Here's some footage of When We Were Beautiful - my favourite track off their 2009 album The Circle. Note to self, always charge your camera before a show, otherwise the battery might just die 30 seconds into filming something.







And that's it! The two shows I regret missing were Spandau Ballet/Tears for Fears, and Ed Kowalczyk. Nevermind. 2011 is already looking promising starting with Lionel Richie in April.

My top 5 [video games] - 5. Lode Runner Online: Mad Monks' Revenge

Growing up, I spent alot of my time with my unfortunate (and very patient) big brother. In fact, I blame my extremely uncool love of 80's music and fantasy novels on both my brothers, who also introduced me to computer games. I remember watching them play games like Tetris, Green Beret, and Joust (although I knew it as Concorde).

In the years between getting our first Windows machine and me graduating from high school, I remember playing lots of a) badminton, and b) Lode Runner with my brother. Not the original, but the awesome Lode Runner Online: Mad Monks' Revenge! We only had the one computer and had to share the keyboard, but we must have played through the 2-player levels hundreds of times.

Basically, the 2 players share the screen, each having to find a key that unlocks a portal to the next level. To get the key, you have to run through swamps, dig through the ground, escape mad monks, and possibly blow yourself up. Oh, and collect as much gold as you can! To get through each level, you have to make use of tools like bombs, drills, pickaxes, stun guns (tweet tweet, heh) which are scattered across the screen. Every level in the game was brilliantly designed, and super fun to get through with two players. Ingeniously, some levels require cooperation, while others allow you to trap the other guy in a pit with a mad monk and make off with all the gold. Ridiculously fun. Writing this makes me want to be 13 again. :)

A couple of years later, some company (not Sierra!) tried to be clever and released Lode Runner 3D, which totally didn't do it for me at all. The whole point of Lode Runner is to be able to see the entire 2D landscape in one screen, right?

Here is a level from the single player mode... drills, pickaxes, stun guns and all :)



So there you have it! My first top 5 list. Hooray!

My top 5 [video games] - 4. Spiderman 2

Back in 2005, I was enrolled in a crazily difficult, intense course at uni. This involved writing 6 exams (most of which were 8 hour written exams) and a short research thesis within a 10 month period. Not surprisingly, I've managed to repress most of those horrible memories, and thinking back, the whole year seems a blur to me.

What I do remember is being hopelessly addicted to Spiderman 2 for a good few months. We played it on our old PS2. I don't think I ever played any of the other Spidey games, though the general concensus seems to be that this was the best one.

Spiderman 2, though based on the movie, was all about the side missions for me - saving falling window cleaners, delivering pizza, finding those pesky tokens (oh yes, I will obsess about tokens forEVER). Being able to explore the entire city of New York was absolutely amazing. When I stopped over in NYC for 24 hours in 2008, I even made a point to go visit one of the cathedrals that I swung around as Spidey. Heh.

Thinking about it now, I'm seeing the similarities between Spidey 2 and the Assassin's Creed series. You're up high on rooftops, and able to swing/leap/jump off great heights with little or no consequence to your health. You've got a massive map to explore, and you get that whooosh feeling when you're going somewhere (usually vertically) really fast. And there are hidden tokens every-freaking-where!! No wonder they're both on my list.

So here is a clip of someone playing through one of my favourite parts of the game - a frantic pizza delivery mission! Brilliant. :)



Next up, the final game on my top 5 list (took me long enough, didn't it) - Lode Runner Online: Mad Monks' Revenge!

My top 5 [video games] - 3. SimCity 2000

Halfway through my stroll down video-game-memory lane!

3. SimCity 2000

It was around 1993 - I was 10 years old and thought Tetris was the pinnacle of gaming technology. A friend of mine invited me over to show me the new computer her dad had bought. In the space of 30 minutes I was introduced to Windows 3.11 (whoa!), a mouse (oooh!), and a 256-colour display (wow!).

The rest of the day went something like this:
"Hey, let's try this game my dad got!"


"What is it?"


"I dunno. The book says we have to build a power plant."


...


"What are those yellow boxes?"


"Hey there are buildings growing! Haha, look at the newspaper!"

A couple of years later, we got our very own Windows machine, complete with internet connection. It was a whole new world. There are only three games which I distinctly remember playing alone as a teenager: The Dig, Leisure Suit Larry (ha, to this day I am amazed my mom did not find out about this), and of course, the best game of the 90's, SimCity 2000.

I'm pretty sure I don't need to describe the game - is there anyone who hasn't seen it/heard of it/played it obsessively? I spent weeks building my little metropolis. Disasters were turned off, pollution was down, and the money was flowing in. My residential and commercial zones were so pretty, and high-tech industry was booming. I had one aim, and one aim only: to build an arcology. Eventually I managed to save up $100k and lure in 30,000 residents, and voila! It was like, so freaking cool, man.

The next day, I booted the game and loaded my saved game. Shock, horror, anguish! "Cannot load file" or "File corrupted" or "Error opening file" or some such message greeted me. Ohmigawd. Just like that, my  SimCity-ing days were over.

SimCity file error, you broke my heart.

A couple of years ago I tried out EA's SimCity 4. I sorta kinda got into it, but they had taken all the fun out of it and turned it into a micro-managing nightmare. It was slow and clunky, and totally missed the spirit of the original game. And it just wasn't the same without that cute midi background music.

I don't think I've forgiven EA for this yet, though they did redeem themselves a little in my eyes when I played The Sims (can you say most addictive game ever? woohoo!). I don't even want to think about how many hours I spent cultivating my little Sim family. My husband and I still use Simlish whenever we're sniffing a pot of food ("it's freduche!"). No, really, I know what you're thinking but it's not as sad as it sounds. It's just a little sad.

But I digress. SimCity 2000 is still my favourite simulation game and probably will be for a long time. It was smart, funny, rewarding, and oh so addictive. Here's that awesome midi theme song.



Next up, Spiderman 2.

My top 5 [video games] - 2. Assassin's Creed

Onto the second series on my top 5 list, and probably the most stylish couple of games I have ever played.

2. Assassin's Creed

New Year's day 2008. It was over 40 degrees in Melbourne (that's Celsius) and you couldn't step out of the house for fear of your shoes melting. Inside our house, the cooler was working overtime, and so was the Xbox. My husband and I were having an all-day Assassin's Creed marathon, taking turns with the controls and generally having the best time ever. I have to admit, that may be one of my fondest gaming memories (aww).

You play Desmond Miles, a modern day bartender who has been kidnapped by a sort-of-evil corporation called Abstergo. Desmond is chucked into a machine which extracts his genetic memories, making him relive the experiences of his ancestor Altair, a Syrian Assassin from 1191 A.D. Abstergo, which is run by the Templars, wants to use these memories to find the Pieces of Eden, relics which would allow them to control minds. I know, 'what huh?', right? It's pretty convoluted, and I didn't even get all that until I looked up Wikipedia.



What makes this game so much fun is that you spend most of your time playing as Altair, the hooded free-running assassin whose sense of balance is rivalled only by the Prince (of Persia, that is). Ubisoft bestowed on Altair the incredible acrobatics which they perfected in PoP, and allowed him to roam the streets and rooftops of Damascus and Jerusalem. Honestly, the storyline, though really cool, isn't the star of the game - you basically get assassination contracts in different cities and you have to go about fulfilling them. Although the missions are a little repetitive, it is so fun (there's that word again!) running around rooftops, walking through the streets trying to blend in with the monks, and fleeing for your life when you get spotted by guards.

The game is absolutely gorgeous, as Ubisoft games always are, and the costumes are amazing. My favourite parts of the game were scaling the many view points strewn across the cities (you know, to generate the city map, because that's how you do it) and then taking a Leap of Faith all the way down into a strategically placed bale of hay. I absolutely love how the sounds of the city fade away as you climb higher and higher, to be replaced by the call of a circling eagle. Once you're at the top, you can almost feel the wind blowing. Trust me, this game succeeded in giving me chills on a hot summer's day.

Altair viewing stuff from his view point

Assassin's Creed 2 came out in 2009. This time, you play Ezio Auditore, another of Desmond's ancestors, this time from 15th century Italy. The gameplay is pretty similar, except Ubisoft tried to spice things up a little by giving Ezio smart mouth (Altair was really cool, but pretty much had the personality of a pancake). They also threw in a couple of fun mini-puzzles and increase the story's complexity by a factor of lots. Conspiracies are everywhere, you beat up the Pope, chat with some ancient gods, and by the end of it pretty much the only correct response is 'wtf'. And they know it. But hey, it's okay because your good friend Leonardo da Vinci is there to build you flying machines!

While Ezio was real cute, I kind of missed the dark broodiness of Altair. Also I'm pretty sure they made the game easier - the chase scenes were less intense and the game in general didn't give me the same sense of satisfaction that the first one did. I did like the fact that they tried to set up a whole mythology and that there were lots of entertaining side missions. Here's hoping that they manage to find a happy balance in the next game! Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood comes out next month. It's a direct sequel to the second game, but what I'm really looking forward to is AC3. May it bring with it a whole new old world and many more bales of hay.



Next up, SimCity 2000!