17 May 2008

Testing the feed (Wilson's Corner!)

Further to our recent conversation, please find included a recording of one of the Wilson's Corner shows we did way back when on Raw, the student radio station at Warwick.


Anyways, enough of that semi-professional talk, I've uploaded this and added it here, to help test out the feed, make sure it's all working. Once the feed is sorted, I'll submit it to iTunes and then that will pave the way to future episodes of Your New Favourite Podcast.

The blog is being put on hold until I can get this all sorted, at the moment I'm checking out some podsafe music to use in the podcast, and at the time of posting I had recorded some stuff for episode zero (a whole 10mins worth!), but listening back to some of it, it does need some polish, I obviously need to get a little better at directing a monologue at my monitor.

Watch this space for further YNFP announcements...




[MP3] Download the show (Right click, Save as)

Just checking in...

My blogging has been put on hold as of late. I've been spending a bit of time with the new layout design and of course sorting out the logistics of getting a podcast working. What I will say is that I'm almost there. I've set myself a semi-target of getting the first episode out this weekend, so we'll see how that goes.

A lot of recent twitter tweets have involved progress on the blog and podcast, but there hasn't actually been a lot of change here. Checking out a few blogger hack sites earlier in the week and a very sensible recommendation is to set up a test blog to trial new features, layouts etc. So I have set up a beta blog as well it's not like there is any extra cost of having an extra blog.

I'm not going to link it here, as well it's quite messy. I rather annoyingly spent about 2 hours fixing the layout as IE is still a pain when handling CSS, it still has a different interpretation of paddings and margins arg. It looks fine in Firefox, and exactly how I expect it to but not in IE. Anyways, I got it to a point where it looks the same in both browsers, so I stopped for then.

I was planning on watching Clerks 2, my other lovefilm pick this week, but I completely crashed - one good thing is that I got a lot extra sleep so should be refreshed for the weekend.

IE is still a pain when handling CSS

Hopefully that means I might be able to make good on my promises of delivering the podcast + new layout this weekend, we'll see.

So basically, the blog will resume normal operation soon, I'll get one episode under my belt, move the changes over. One thing that has been set up here and not on the beta blog is the ratings widget which should be seen at the bottom of each post. Sometimes it takes too much effort to throw in a comment, saying how awesome the post was, but clicking on some stars should be something everyone can do.

14 May 2008

Testing the feed (Wilson's Corner!)

A recording of the mighty Wilson's Corner 15/02/06, starring Wilson, JC, the Rob and Damon!





Further to our recent conversation, please find included a recording of one of the Wilson's Corner shows we did way back when on Raw, the student radio station at Warwick.

Anyways, enough of that semi-professional talk, I've uploaded this and added it here, to help test out the feed, make sure it's all working. Once the feed is sorted, I'll submit it to iTunes and then that will pave the way to future episodes of Your New Favourite Podcast.

The blog is being put on hold until I can get this all sorted, at the moment I'm checking out some podsafe music to use in the podcast, and at the time of posting I had recorded some stuff for episode zero (a whole 10mins worth!), but listening back to some of it, it does need some polish, I obviously need to get a little better at directing a monologue at my monitor.

Watch this space for further YNFP announcements...

11 May 2008

GTA4 Initial Impressions

So it's been about a week since GTA4 has been released so it seemed appropriate to give some initial impressions whilst still keeping away from any spoilers for those who have still haven't played it. As I read via Digg, there was an article "are you a hardcore gamer?", the last point being that you can get by without getting GTA4 on release date. I got mine on release but had to wait till after work to fire it up - what an inconvenience.
Anyways, I've played for a little bit most evenings, the gym has called to see if I'm still alive (I will be going this week), and the last time I checked the stats I was approx 20% the way through, which is pretty crazy thinking about it.

So what are my thoughts on the game. These are just my first impressions effectively, there is so much to explore and do in the game, not to mention all the clever nuances which I can spend whole weeks without no doubt.
The game exhibits a swagger which we've come to expect from a GTA game. The cut scenes are all delivered in a slick manner and Niko's accent has already got me imitating a little, or should I say lee-tle har har.
They've built in the idea of a mobile phone to handle contacts and being notified about newly unlocked missions - it's quite smart without being as HUD reducing as was claimed a fair while before the game was released. Speaking of HUD, the option of adding a GPS route onto your map is something pretty cool and if you drive an upmarket 4x4 (it's the only one I've noticed in it so far), you'll get the directions spoken to you. Again, a nice little touch. To be honest there are no big surprises in terms of gameplay. What Rockstar have done this time has simply refined the GTA experience, it's more of the same, only that little bit better. The missions still hold true to the templates of old - drive somewhere, kill a guy, escape the police and make it back to safety etc etc

Side activities have been added in the game, the idea of building relationships is something the developers want to stress.

I don't think I've laughed so hard at a video game in so long, I can watch some guy's player model got knocked down by a scooter and it will never get old, I promise you.

So that will involve going out to dinner or a comedy club with friends, going to play darts and pool offer up mini games. It's something quite smart and will appeal to the casual gamer. Personally I've given the mini games a go and it'll probably be some time before I revisit them. What can I say? I have unsurprisingly harvested them of achievements so there's no need to rush back in my mind.

The combat system has had an overhaul, so targeting is much easier, your own health has been incorporated as the border of the map and your target's health appears as a ring on the reticule so it's all pretty slick. That being said, hand-to-hand can feel a little clumsy still and timing of dodges are still something of a black art to me, I failed that tutorial mission so many times cos I lost too much health trying to dodge swings.

Graphically I am perhaps a little disappointed, especially when looking back at the series of trailers which were released which really wet my appetite. The game also features the distant soft focus and grainy shadows much like Mass Effect, I can't decide if it's a work of art and genius or to excuse mediocre draw distance. I will say that driving over one of the bridges and seeing a distant 747-type plane is pretty awesome.

You can't throw in two cents without saying something about the radio stations available in the game. I have to say they are not unmissable, I think they got it just right for Vice City and have been trying to emulate that ever since. That being said there are radio stations for everyone, personally I usually throw on Liberty Rock, or WTTT, which is a little like KChat. The theme music used in the GTA trailers is on the Journey station and that's pretty cool so have to check out the actual music for that.

At the weekend, I decided to forego the single player campaign and brave the multiplayer. What can I say, again it's premature to say this as I have only checked out a few game modes, but it could be one of the best multiplayer experiences when it peaks. I've given the Crooks and Robbers gamemode a go and that was a lot of fun, but I have to say I'm addicted to GTA Race. Essentially it take the basic form of a race but then throw in driveby-stylee shooting at each other, plus the fact you can simply get out of the car and try and take other people out and ignore trying to win the race and you have a winning formula right there.
I don't think I've laughed so hard at a video game in so long, I can watch some guy's player model got knocked down by a scooter and it will never get old, I promise you.

These are just my initial impressions, a lot more time will have to be invested into both the single player and multiplayer to give a true review of GTA4.

9 May 2008

Podcast Review #2 Jonathan Ross

Continuing on my blog quest to highlight some of the great (and not so great) podcasts that I've checked out. Please take note of the Jonathan Ross podcast.
Now technically this isn't a podcast in the truest sense, it is actual just an cut-down version of his radio show on Radio 2 on Saturday mornings. Now this personally is great for me. I've been a fan of his talk show on BBC1 on Friday evenings since it came out, and always wanted to check out his radio show, but truth be told I'm not really much of a radio fan.

Now this podcast is only really for those who are already fans of Jonathan Ross, I can understand if some people are put off by his brash, vulgar and often sex-oriented humour. Myself I think it's great, cannot get enough of it. The best interviews he does are with people that are not afraid to poke fun at themselves, and often Jonathan Ross will overstep the line in terms of acceptable questioning. Now, the talk show concentrated on the interviews with his guests, it was a talk show after all, but he also did do small features, often a new product that has come out or a personal story from the previous week. The radio show itself has a fairer balance against the interviews so again I'm all in favour of that. From what I can tell, it is simply the music from the radio show which has been cut out and the rest has been left to form the podcast. This is really smart as I would not want to listen to music that doesn't interest me (most likely) just to reach some of the banter. Instead the podcast takes all the good bits from the radio show and concentrates it into a single offering. I imagine the Chris Moles podcast to be in a similar vein.

On the surface there isn't a lot to the show, a fair bit of banter between Ross and his co-host (whose name I forget), but thankfully his co-host doesn't talk that much. The other part of the show are the interviews with his guests and even though I'm unsure of who they are all the time, it still proves entertaining. I guess that's the crucial thing, it has to be entertaining, and in my opinion, Jonathan Ross delivers every week, I almost always find his anecdotes hilarious, warming, or the combination of the two.

The podcast itself clocks in at around 40mins so it's the perfect companion for a commute, you just have to make sure you're ok with seemingly bursting into laughter in public places. I wholeheartedly recommend it, Jonathan Ross never touches on potentially controversial subjects, it's all kept quite light and jovial. Go Check it out!

Podcast Review #2 <br/>Jonathan Ross

Continuing on my blog quest to highlight some of the great (and not so great) podcasts that I've checked out. Please take note of the Jonathan Ross podcast.
Now technically this isn't a podcast in the truest sense, it is actual just an cut-down version of his radio show on Radio 2 on Saturday mornings. Now this personally is great for me. I've been a fan of his talk show on BBC1 on Friday evenings since it came out, and always wanted to check out his radio show, but truth be told I'm not really much of a radio fan.

Now this podcast is only really for those who are already fans of Jonathan Ross, I can understand if some people are put off by his brash, vulgar and often sex-oriented humour. Myself I think it's great, cannot get enough of it. The best interviews he does are with people that are not afraid to poke fun at themselves, and often Jonathan Ross will overstep the line in terms of acceptable questioning. Now, the talk show concentrated on the interviews with his guests, it was a talk show after all, but he also did do small features, often a new product that has come out or a personal story from the previous week. The radio show itself has a fairer balance against the interviews so again I'm all in favour of that. From what I can tell, it is simply the music from the radio show which has been cut out and the rest has been left to form the podcast. This is really smart as I would not want to listen to music that doesn't interest me (most likely) just to reach some of the banter. Instead the podcast takes all the good bits from the radio show and concentrates it into a single offering. I imagine the Chris Moles podcast to be in a similar vein.

On the surface there isn't a lot to the show, a fair bit of banter between Ross and his co-host (whose name I forget), but thankfully his co-host doesn't talk that much. The other part of the show are the interviews with his guests and even though I'm unsure of who they are all the time, it still proves entertaining. I guess that's the crucial thing, it has to be entertaining, and in my opinion, Jonathan Ross delivers every week, I almost always find his anecdotes hilarious, warming, or the combination of the two.

The podcast itself clocks in at around 40mins so it's the perfect companion for a commute, you just have to make sure you're ok with seemingly bursting into laughter in public places. I wholeheartedly recommend it, Jonathan Ross never touches on potentially controversial subjects, it's all kept quite light and jovial. Go Check it out!

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Cool Twitter Visualisation (self-explanatory!)

Whilst wasting time on the Intenets browsing for third-party twitter apps and the like, I spotted this site www.wefeelfine.org. What can I say it is pretty cool, sometimes a little haunting, but just proves what can be done with a bit of imagination and of course the twitters that are happening right now.
It's basically a set of interesting ways to view some of the twitters going on - I find the Murmurs option is those twitters that start with "I feel" and some of them are shockingly honest. I almost feel a little guilty reading them.

These visualisations are all based off twitter, which for the uninitiated is a micro-blogging platform. You send one line messages and people following you will receive the message. I think it's pretty awesome but then again I'm quite into all this blogging malarky so no surprise there. So far it's pretty big in the US and Japan, but there is some penetration (hurhur!) in the UK. I like to think of myself as a trend setter - there are in fact only two people in Kidderminster who use it, myself and this guy called Tim.

I like the idea as I can throw out little snippets and thoughts which aren't worthy of a full blog post but still worthy enough to throw out there. You can check out my tweets (I believe that's the technical term) at twitter.com/jimiminar. If you like it then join up and follow me, I make a promise to follow anyone that follows me automatically (unless they're some kind of spambot) so help spread the word.

Part of your X a day...

Following on from positive rant about my progress made at the gym this is a quick look at my diet and my ongoing quest to reach a body shape/weight that I'm comfortable with.

Everyone is familiar with the recommended 5-a-day servings of fruit and veg. Now, it doesn't take a pro mathematician to tell you that one way to achieve this would be to have a portion at every meal, breakfast, dinner and tea, and pick up the other two portions via a mid-morning and a mid-afternoon/supper break.
Compound that with the recommendation that along with that we all should also aim for 3 servings of wholegrain wheat/fibre or at least that's what the animated cereal boxes before the weather tell me.
Now if you take those two recommendations, the only method of achieving this is to have either fruit and fibre or fruit-themed weetabix for every single meal of the day. Factor in all the other foodstuffs we should be eating, I read somewhere that you should try and eat fish once (it may have been twice) a week on top of that.

I am of course being a little silly but there is a quickly knocked up, rough round the edges solution to the problem. I am complaining as it seems pretty hardcore to actually succeed in hitting the target number of portions but I feel I am getting part way there, plus the other changes I've made to my diet which seemed to have had a positive effect (that is implied from the lack of negative effect)

When trying to start any positive habit, I've learnt some methods to hack out the result I want. The crucial lesson is to make small steps. Like with my gym attendance, at first I set myself a target of regular attendance, rather than actual targets in terms of distance run, weight bench-pressed etc and the same can be said with improving your diet. Now, I am the first to admit that my diet is less than perfect, but to increase my fruit intake I said to myself, hey buy a bunch of bananas and see how I get along. I evolved that into swapping a chocolate treat after my tea with a banana instead. I've now reached the point where if I choose to skip the post-tea banana or the house is out of bananas, I actually miss it. Now, that's taken a fair few weeks to build up the habit but it's now pretty much hard-coded into my daily routine.

As I alluded to above, I've also cut out pretty much all chocolate from my diet, the only chocolate I have now are the treats my Nan gives me whenever I go back home now. I still find myself every now and then thinking, "mmm, I could really go for a Mars bar," but not having them in the house makes the temptation only very slight.

I probably mentioned in passing the "fun" I had when I got some hardcore toothache towards the end of last year, I had to go in for root canal treatment. The cause of the problem was surprise, surprise too much sugar in my diet, particularly concentrate fruit juice. As a result of this, I've reduced the sugar in my diet which as there has been no noticeable negative effect, must be judged as positive. So pretty much every drink I have is sugar-free; I only drink Coke Zero now (if I have it in) which actually isn't too bad, it maintains the syrupy goodness I love, it's not for everybody, but it's something I think is pretty awesome. I've also dropped from 2 sugars to 1 sugar in my coffee at work. And speaking of Coffee, I've swapped over to Decaff which has not made me any more tired - it's all in your head that coffee keeps you awake.

There's quite a few more things I've done to achieve a diet that is a bit more healthy. I used to be an advocate for full-fat (blue) milk. They could have got me to go round people's houses and try to sell it, I was that much of a fan. I've managed to move from blue to green, and then from green to red, the semi-skimmed option which is the lowest in fat. I've also taken up drinking Cranberry juice (low in sugar variety of course) which is supposed to be very good for you what with all the antioxidants contained within (plus it apparently has more vitamin C in than concentrate Orange juice wtf!). I used to always snack around 10-11pm, so I'm slowly moving my teatime back in the evening to prevent munchies occurring before bed - I cannot sleep on an empty-ish stomach.

One part of my diet which still needs much improving is the fact that I still eat a fair amount of cheese. I intend to reach a point where, thanks to me finally learning how to knock out a cheese sauce, I will only consume cheese as part of the aforementioned cheese sauce to go with pasta. My Nan still likes to make cheese and onion quiche (and I still like to eat it :D) so that will eventually be the only other time.

I think I've been pretty successful in all these changes due to the fact that I've never set myself a target - "I will cut this food out of my diet by next Friday", and that way I've been taking those small steps towards my goal. It's not important how long it takes to get there, only that I get there eventually. Of course it may be better for some to set dates as part of targets, it's different for everyone. To quote scrubs

"A day spent wishing is a day wasted. If you want to be different, then be different" - Janitor

That being taken from the episode where Elliot has a makeover into the hot rocker chick with the messed-up hairdo.

7 May 2008

Insert Coin #7 GTA4 Initial Impressions

So it's been about a week since GTA4 has been released so it seemed appropriate to give some initial impressions whilst still keeping away from any spoilers for those who have still haven't played it. As I read via Digg, there was an article "are you a hardcore gamer?", the last point being that you can get by without getting GTA4 on release date. I got mine on release but had to wait till after work to fire it up - what an inconvenience.
Anyways, I've played for a little bit most evenings, the gym has called to see if I'm still alive (I will be going this week), and the last time I checked the stats I was approx 20% the way through, which is pretty crazy thinking about it.

So what are my thoughts on the game. These are just my first impressions effectively, there is so much to explore and do in the game, not to mention all the clever nuances which I can spend whole weeks without no doubt.
The game exhibits a swagger which we've come to expect from a GTA game. The cut scenes are all delivered in a slick manner and Niko's accent has already got me imitating a little, or should I say lee-tle har har.
They've built in the idea of a mobile phone to handle contacts and being notified about newly unlocked missions - it's quite smart without being as HUD reducing as was claimed a fair while before the game was released. Speaking of HUD, the option of adding a GPS route onto your map is something pretty cool and if you drive an upmarket 4x4 (it's the only one I've noticed in it so far), you'll get the directions spoken to you. Again, a nice little touch. To be honest there are no big surprises in terms of gameplay. What Rockstar have done this time has simply refined the GTA experience, it's more of the same, only that little bit better. The missions still hold true to the templates of old - drive somewhere, kill a guy, escape the police and make it back to safety etc etc

Side activities have been added in the game, the idea of building relationships is something the developers want to stress. So that will involve going out to dinner or a comedy club with friends, going to play darts and pool offer up mini games. It's something quite smart and will appeal to the casual gamer. Personally I've given the mini games a go and it'll probably be some time before I revisit them. What can I say? I have unsurprisingly harvested them of achievements so there's no need to rush back in my mind.

The combat system has had an overhaul, so targeting is much easier, your own health has been incorporated as the border of the map and your target's health appears as a ring on the reticule so it's all pretty slick. That being said, hand-to-hand can feel a little clumsy still and timing of dodges are still something of a black art to me, I failed that tutorial mission so many times cos I lost too much health trying to dodge swings.

Graphically I am perhaps a little disappointed, especially when looking back at the series of trailers which were released which really wet my appetite. The game also features the distant soft focus and grainy shadows much like Mass Effect, I can't decide if it's a work of art and genius or to excuse mediocre draw distance. I will say that driving over one of the bridges and seeing a distant 747-type plane is pretty awesome.

You can't throw in two cents without saying something about the radio stations available in the game. I have to say they are not unmissable, I think they got it just right for Vice City and have been trying to emulate that ever since. That being said there are radio stations for everyone, personally I usually throw on Liberty Rock, or WTTT, which is a little like KChat. The theme music used in the GTA trailers is on the Journey station and that's pretty cool so have to check out the actual music for that.

At the weekend, I decided to forego the single player campaign and brave the multiplayer. What can I say, again it's premature to say this as I have only checked out a few game modes, but it could be one of the best multiplayer experiences when it peaks. I've given the Crooks and Robbers gamemode a go and that was a lot of fun, but I have to say I'm addicted to GTA Race. Essentially it take the basic form of a race but then throw in driveby-stylee shooting at each other, plus the fact you can simply get out of the car and try and take other people out and ignore trying to win the race and you have a winning formula right there.
I don't think I've laughed so hard at a video game in so long, I can watch some guy's player model got knocked down by a scooter and it will never get old, I promise you.

These are just my initial impressions, a lot more time will have to be invested into both the single player and multiplayer to give a true review of GTA4.

4 May 2008

Insert Coin #6 The Cake is a lie

Continuing my trend of post titles that only really make sense if you are very familiar with the subject matter, I present this Insert Coin. Hopefully, the Title ignites the curiosity enough to investigate further. This is another edition of Insert Coin, so it's already known that it's going to be about games, and I finally succumb to buying a copy of The Orange Box.


I know, I know it's been out for what seems like forever since the Orange Box came out. So much time in fact, that they have now released Portal separately for the PC. For those not in the know, The Orange Box is effectively 5 games in 1. There is Half Life 2 + episodes 1 and 2; There is Team Fortress 2 (class-based multiplayer) and there is Portal.
Now Portal is the one game out of the five which I've played the most. I took a brief look at Team Fortress 2 and if I'm honest, I found it quite skittish and loose. However the visuals are awesome, cel-shaded and very cartoonish with exaggerated body shapes etc. I think I'll just need to spend a bit more time with that to get a true idea if I like the game or not. Half Life 2 and the episodic content is something I embarrassingly have not played at all. When Half Life 2 came out I did not have the rig to be able to run it. I remember when Half Life 2 was released on Xbox and that suffered from really bad frame rate, the 360 shouldn't suffer from any of that. Anyways, with the coming of GTA4 (initial impressions coming soon), I'll have to check out the Half Life 2 series at a much later date - gravity gun yum.

Fortunately there was enough time to check out Portal. Now I had heard a lot about Portal. Pretty much everywhere I turned, people were praising the game, there was even echoes of game of the year, which are not entirely misplaced. Opinions I had read promised a truly awesome puzzle game with the great writing that Valve have become well known for.
Well I can only agree with those many opinions, it is a great game and luckily I had not exposed myself enough to spoil the story of the game. What I will say that it is indeed a puzzle/platform game, the general premise being that you are faced with a room in which you have to use your portal gun to move yourself and other objects around in it. You shoot two portals and you then walk through one and then out the other.
It is very cool, I ended up playing for pretty much a whole afternoon and in that time I had pretty much completed all the levels - I got stuck once and had to look up for a bit of help (sorry!). So in reflection it's quite a short experience, but something that is incredibly enjoyable throughout. Also with completing the game it has unlocked an arcade mode of sorts; challenges finishing rooms in the quickest time, finishing with the least number of portals and also reworked levels to make them much much harder. I tried the first hard level and I was making some progress but gave up as I was getting hungry. Anyways, that is pretty cool and the Orange Box will definitely be revisited after the GTA4 buzz calms down.

I wholeheartedly recommend the Orange Box, five games in one speaks really good value. For those like me which have put off this purchase especially with the handful of awesome games we got in the second half of 2007, then don't delay, I can only comment on how much of it I've played so far - With all the Half Life 2 content still to play it's so good in terms of monetary value plus there's the fact that Valve are quality game developers, so it will deliver on actual game play too. Just get it.

Random Playlist #3 The End Complete?

This Random Playlist will give my thoughts on Coheed and Cambria's latest album - No World For Tomorrow (the full title being Good Apollo Vol. 2 etc etc). This post has been kicking about in a draft form for literally weeks, I've had to stop myself from going off on tangents exploring how the band almost split, and of course the story behind all the albums. Let's look past those for a moment, and keep this a very tight cohesive review - this should hopefully answer the question, hey! is this album for me?..

Now, the title "The End Complete" has been lifted from the 4-song epic at the end of the album - something which Coheed and Cambria have become renowned for doing in most of their albums, and in this case should mark the end of the story

Something that is immediately apparent on listening is the amount of solos now crammed into a Coheed album. Again it's a natural evolution of their sound, solos being something that's not really featured in their initial stuff, but became much more noticeable around Good Apollo vol.1, and now there is a solo for (pretty much) every song in vol.2. It does seem that more care has been take with the song construction as a whole too - Vol.1 had many songs with rhythm doing simple power chord progressions and then lead putting licks over the top, where in vol.2 the guitarwork is insane, both guitarists have equally exciting parts. That couples well with the increased pacing of Claudio's vocals making the album literally jump out at you.


I will hold my hands up and say this is their best album to date, I still have a sweet spot for the Second Stage Turbine Blade but the production values for this are literally through the roof. Claudio's vocals, whilst there are always a talking point for newcomers to the Coheed sound, sound better than ever, particularly in one of my fave songs off the album - Mother Superior - which has a kinda Stairway to Heaven feel about it, or maybe I'm greatly exaggerating. One thing that can be said is that Coheed and Cambria are the masters of creating a deeply layered sound - "The Hound (Of Blood and Rank)" is a great example of this. People often remark they are very much a headphones band, and sometimes you need that complete immersion to discover all the effects and extra little constructions which add to the whole experience. I even discovered thanks to my broken headphones that Mother Superior features two vocal tracks, one restrained and much lower in the background, and the other where he lets loose,particularly towards the end of the song.


Again, not to dwell too much on the story, but this is supposed to be the last chapter, with the next album being the prequel to Second Stage Turbine Blade and the first installment in the story. The title for the post "The End Complete" is the name of the 4 song epic which has now become the traditional method for finishing off their albums. It does suggest that To be honest I was left a little flat, I can't say for certain how exactly the story ended without visiting fan forums. Only snippets of the story are revealed in the songs themselves, and often it is quite cryptic. One thing for sure is that Claudio (yes, he wrote himself into the story :s) is still trying to get home. Now I can't make my mind up whether it's genius recalling past moments in the story, or simply lazy songwriting. I'm siding towards the later, almost to the point of rolling my eyes - "you're on your way home are you? Oh, tell us all something we don't know".
Like in earlier albums where Time Consumer was repeated as part of dream sequence, the haunting glockenspiel rendition of the opening riff from the Final Cut was pure genius, I really did get goosebumps.



That being said there are two minor allowable criticisms which can be made against the album. Since In Keeping Secrets... the first track has been the signature theme for the Co&Ca story. It's first appearance was actually at the end of the one of the songs in Second Stage... but got a revamp for the second album. It also appeared reworked with a more dark and sinister tone for Good Apollo Vol.1 but unfortunately it is missing from vol.2. It is a proper song in itself, but especially when listening to an album as a whole it does get you pumped - kinda like a "previously on Lost", something we expect to see at the start of every installment. The other disappointment is the song "The fall of House Atlantic". Upon seeing this in the track listings, I was hoping for a reprise of "A Favor House Atlantic" but instead it is a short instrumental track. It is the only track that could easily be dropped from the listing and not make a shed of difference - I usually skip it if it comes up in a randomplaylist.


Overall, as mentioned above, I believe this to be the best, the most "complete" (sorry for the poor pun) album to date. For those new to Coheed and Cambria, the level of quality of the songs, with personal preference rating some songs higher than others. It's probably a good idea to check out the singles that will come from this album for starters - "Running Free" and "Mother Superior". I still probably rate The Second Stage Turbine Blade a little higher than No World For Tomorrow only because it was the album that got into this band. Looking back Claudio's vocals were slightly echoey way back when - for the much increased production and musicmanship, this is technically their best album to date and a welcome return after a mini-slump with Good Apollo vol.1 with some songs being under par.
So go check them out, and also go check out the Prizefighter Inferno, Claudio's electro side-project, still supposedly set in the Coheed and Cambria Universe, but a very different sound - very cool.

EDIT: I just checked out the Feathers video, really good and it is also points out how distinctive Claudio's appearance is with his big hair, when it is not tied back, you're definitely not going to miss him walking down the street.

2 May 2008

Random Playlist #2 A Thank you to my friends

Music is incredibly powerful. That may sound a very snobbish opinion, but it really is true. Music can make us feel any number of emotions.
Hearing the right song can turn round your day; put a bounce into your step. On the other hand the right lyric or progression can make us feel emotional, on the brink of tears sometimes. There are other cases, music can get us pumped up, riled - harnessing the power of people to unite in protest. There's music that makes us want to dance, makes us moreamorous, makes us want to sing our hearts out. It does it all.

Myself, I find music incredibly important, and thus I take every opportunity to surround myself in it. The outside world without my trusty mp3 player in my pocket is a scary and frankly horrible sounding place.

This is just a short mention to some of those people who have truly changed my life. I want to thank Rob and Koel for introducing me to the sounds of Matthew Good Band and Matthew Good, the former being the band Matt Good was in before that fell apart and he went solo.
Another shout out goes to my good friend Andy over in America. Now Andy really did try his best to force a fair number of artists on to me. I admit I was resistant at first but something stuck down there in what I call a brain. A handful of artists made it through the cracks, and I am now much more open to new music than I was before. As a result I now listen to bands like Interpol and TheDecemberists; I still am impressed by the apparent freshness of Hey Mercedes' sound when they come up on the random playlist.
And last but certainly not least, I have to give an extra special mention to my good buddy Adam. Now listing all the bands which he has introduced here could take quite some time, and also not look that pretty. It was Adam that introduced me to alternative music, that being the alternative to music seen in the charts. I went to my first gigs with Adam, those really were the days, swigging cider before the gig as we were too young to buy drinks inside. Put simply, Adam is responsible for, if not the majority of my music tastes, then at least a considerable chunk. The motivation of the post is how lucky/privileged I feel having had listened to some of my fave albums and artists, and that simply would not have happened with out these people opening my eyes, to put an artsy slant on it.

The few above have had the most effect of my musical tastes and I am truly thankful to them for helping in making me the person I am today. There are of course others which have had an influence on this journey that we like to call life, but I felt that these people deserved a very special mention.

Thank you.

One step closer to the Podosphere...

I am quite excited that progress into launching a podcast is now a small step closer. During a brief (very brief) brainstomring session into potential names for what will become my second podcast, a colloboration with my good friend Wilson, think of it as The Corner, Mark II - For those uninitiated, The Corner was the radio show we had back on the student radio station. Anyways, there's still a lot more thought and/or work to go into that one.
Back on topic and I am proud to announce that the rather obvious name of my personal podcast was struck upon during the above session. My podcast will indeed take the moniker of "Your New Favourite Podcast" - pretty hot.
The small step is the step up in research and preperation for putting together a podcast. I've been checking out podcasts about podcasting (how beautifully meta...), also reading into the hardware setup required to record, the other side of the coin being the software needed to put together a podcast. Now where the software is concerned, Audacity seems to be a well-regarded tool. It's rather good in that it is indeed free, but also has the power to edit recordings, mix down multiple tracks, and output the final product to mp3. Another alternative is Garage Band, but I'll need to get more upto speed with my Mac Mini, but at least there are options.
I have also ordered a headset which I can wear to enter podcasting mode. I was reluctant to spend a great deal on something which might not prove that fruitful so we'll have to see what the results will end up like. From what I've read there is a clearly defined limit on what quality can be achieved with a mic with a 3.5mm jack, but I think it will have to do for now, and possibly further down the road I'll look into more expensive purchases.

I've also been checking out possible hosting options, again I don't really want to spend a lot (if any if I can get away with it). I'm not expected a huge listener count at first, but it would be rather cool for that to grow and grow, I can only hope. I took a quick look and what is required to submit the podcast to the itunes music store, there's really not that much to it, so that should be fairly painless.

I've also been thinking of potential sources for music to use to bookend the podcast with the usual blurb, "You're listening to 'Your New Favourite Podcast'...". There are a few candidates, although I need to decide on one, think there goes an afternoon while I tinker in Audacity. Of course, any music I do use, I will obviously give credit to, that's the least I can do.

One of the sources I read recommended putting together the first 5 shows to hit a stride, get an idea for content, length, pacing, not to mention an idea of the time required to put together one show. Saying that, expect myself to go a little dark in terms of announcements for a while, I'll get the first few shows knocked up and then I'll announce to the internets. When it does come, please check out, listener interaction in the form of emails etc would be pretty cool, and I am open to a potential co-host, guest spots if they match up with the theme of the show.