Living With a Nerd

Nearly half of my previous blog entry has become completely irrelevant.  Rather than expand the music section on my own website, for now I’ve decided to just make everything available on last.fm.   Compared to making yet another webpage, I’ll get far more exposure, bandwidth won’t be strained on my own server (although that honestly wasn’t much of a problem), and it’s just cool to know that I have music on last.fm now, just like the big boys!  Or something…

In other related news (and continuing the theme of making my previous entry irrelevant), I created the first track for Lost on the Way to the Laundry last weekend.  I was working on Solar Winds (which is still pissing me off, because I can tell there is a great song hiding underneath what I have down so far, but I just can’t seem to find it.  I’ve been working on this track for what…4 months now?) when I took a moment to swivel around in my chair and look around the room.  Warm morning sunlight was beaming in through the window, scattered puffy clouds were floating by, Fizzgigg and Brittnie were softly snoring away in bed…it was just a really pleasant and peaceful morning.  Lotwotl was the result of that morning; I feel it represents exactly how that morning felt, and is quite possibly the closest I’ve come to taking the music in my head and making it into something I can share with others.  So how does this make my previous post irrelevant?  Well, as you can tell by listening to it, it doesn’t contain elements from either dubstep OR ambient.  I really like the sound of it though, and I’m going to strive to make the rest of Lost on the Way to the Laundry sound similar in style.  I’m having trouble finding other music to listen to for inspiration, though…it sounds like a Nightmares on Wax/Future Sound of London/some other group I can’t think of combo…any suggestions would be much appreciated.

In non-music news, The Crazies was pretty good…I was glad to see that it really felt like a proper remake, rather than just taking a concept and crapping all over it.  You can catch my full review of it here.  Hopefully, we will get a chance to go see the new Alice in Wonderland this weekend, so if all goes as planned, I’ll have a review of that ready on Monday or Tuesday.  I also recently took the plunge into gaming on my Dell Mini 9…I wrote up an article with some tips I discovered during this so-far short journey, while also going over some of the games I tried and how well they worked.  You can read it here.

I managed to catch Shutter Island over the weekend (full review here.)  While it certainly wasn’t Scorsese’s best, it was more than worth the price of admission.  I hope to catch a viewing of The Crazies this weekend, although up until a couple of hours ago I was completely unaware that it is a remake of a 1973 Romero film.  I’ve since moved it up to the top spot on my Netflix queue, so I’ll get a chance to see the original before I see the remake…a required tradition when it comes to remakes nowadays.  Look for a review next week.

In other news, previous plans to charge for my music have been completely scrapped, at least for now.  While I’m quite proud of the tracks I’ve put together, I don’t think they are of high enough quality to charge for them.  Since I’m doing this primarily to provide people with enjoyable experiences instead of a way to get rich, I have no problem giving it all away.  Who knows, if I get popular enough maybe one day I’ll release an album and actually charge for it.  For now, the music page remains unchanged, but sometime in the next few days I will update it to include previously unreleased tracks.  The other advantage of releasing the tracks for free is that it lifts any arbitrary release date I put on myself, thus reducing the stress associated with production.  Since I won’t be charging for it, I can make it exactly how I want without any worry regarding whether it has monetary worth.

I think I lost the Reason file for Circumstellar Disk, so unless I can locate it, the unfinished version currently on the music page will become the finished version.  I may use that as an excuse to put together a small drone project, which is something I’ve wanted to do since I discovered Stars of the Lid.  Drone ambient is relatively easy to make, yet is still very creatively satisfying for me.  Regardless, there are still at least two tracks to finish on The Transient Unknown (IC-443 and Solar Winds).  After that I plan on doing Lost on the Way to the Laundry, which (I’m hoping) will be a dubstep/ambient hybrid, although that could change radically when the time comes to actually do it.

Once there is more content than just The Transient Unknown, I will likely switch from a single page to a seperate Wordpress website specifically for the music stuff.  It will still be located at livingwithanerd.com/music, but making it its own Wordpress site will allow me to keep everything more organized.  For now though, I’m going to stick with the single-page design.

I didn’t do much gaming this weekend, but there was a media marathon overload over the past 72 hours.  Over the weekend, we watched/went and saw: Sherlock Holmes, Pandorum, Burn After Reading, discs four five and six of Ergo Proxy, about three hours of Bill Nye the Science Guy, and about two hours of Clone High.  Numerous South Park episodes from the 4th and 5th seasons were also watched.  I continued with reading Cerebus, and on Brittnie’s recommendation started reading The Host written by Stephenie Meyer (yes, that Stephanie Meyer).  I have been pleasently suprised so far…although I couldn’t stand even just the 5 minutes of Twilight that I heard while Brittnie was going through the audio books (she hated them too, thank the goddess), The Host is a well written and entertaining story.  I’m only about 70 pages in, but I’m interested enough to finish it out.

The most exciting media happenings out of the weekend was that my copy of Warren Ellis’ first novel Crooked Little Vein showed up on our doorstep.  Ellis’ stories are always really twisted, and his writing style magnificent.  I can’t wait to dive into it…there will 100% for sure be a review of it on the main site after I finish it.

I finally took the plunge.  I wiped the hard drive that had Windows XP SP3 32bit on my gaming system, and installed Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit…and wow, what a big difference!  The whole PC feels like it is way faster.  I’m not sure if that is just how it “feels” or if it actually is, but I DO know that according to dslreports.com both my download and upload speeds have increased by about 300k.  Since I never did Vista, it is taking me some time to get used to where everything is in Windows 7, but suffice it to say it is awesome.  As an added bonus, I didn’t have to install a single driver for any of my hardware…I was even able to pick up and connect to my wireless network during the setup process!  I’m still a bit of a noob when it comes to Windows 7, but it is showing a lot of promise.

Taken at 3 PM with 7 hours of snow left. By the time it was over, both of those cars were completely encased in snow.

The big snowstorm this past weekend here in Maryland wasn’t the only major event…Brittnie got me a PS3!  I was planning on picking one up around the time that God of War III came out, but this works just fine for me.  Haven’t really decided where I’m going to start, but it will likely come down between Resistance 1 & 2 or Uncharted 1 & 2.  I’ve found that when used for streaming purposes, the PS3 is superior to the 360; easier to setup, built in wireless…oh, and being able to copy entire folders of videos from my computer onto the PS3 over the network plus more extensive codec support help to seal the deal.  It will be interesting to see how the exclusives compare to the 360 exclusives…although the 360 controller is still far more comfortable.  I’ve never been a big fan of the Dual Shock design, and even though the modified L2/R2 buttons are a good step in the right direction, it still has a long way to go.  This sounds lame, but the Dual Shock is part of the reason why I don’t have as much time /played on my PS2 as I do with my other gaming systems.

Speaking of other gaming systems, the addition of the PS3 brings our full list to the following: Atari 2600, Sega Genesis, SNES (two of them), Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, Xbox, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS Lite (3 of them), PSP-1000 (aka the first-gen PSP), Game Boy, GBA (one original, one GBA SP), Game Gear, and a relatively up-to-date gaming PC.

I’ve put a couple of hours into Torchlight.  The resemblance to Diablo is nearly overwhelming.  I know that many of the Diablo team members worked on Torchlight (including the composer and sound designer for Diablo), and it shows.  If Titan Quest was Diablo 2.5, Torchlight is Diablo 2.7.  With no attempt to hide the similarities, Torchlight feels more like a trip down memory lane rather than a new single-player experience (but in a good way.)  The graphics are a bit jagged, but for an independently produced game, it looks damn nice.  Oh, and did I mention that it’s a hell of a lot of fun to play?

Brittnie left to go visit her sister for the holidays, so I decided to take a couple of days off from Living With a Nerd.  The next article (which will be a review of Torchlight) will post on Christmas Day.

Note:  There are a couple of very slight spoilers in this review, but nothing that would ruin the storyline or scary scenes.  If you haven’t seen this movie yet, you can read this review without ruining the experience.

Horror film cliches are overused nowadays due to the lack of original and interesting concepts.  The Haunting in Connecticut is, unfortunately, a film that could have functioned very well within just the story and the idea of what was going on, but instead was filled with scene after scene of groan-inducing cliches.  It’s a real shame, because there are some moments of horror movie brilliance that rank up there with the big boys (Suspiria, House by the Cemetary, Jacob’s Ladder, etc.)…but they are almost overshadowed by uninspired and unoriginal scares.

The concept itself, a young cancer patient undergoing treatment who starts hallucinating (or not?)  due to his treatment, is quite good.  Solid.  Not much in the way of potential plot twists or anything like that, but solid.  There are some genuinely creepy moments within this movie, many of which involve no CGI, gore, or “monsters” whatsoever.   The scene in the kitchen with the plates was PERFECTLY executed; it was simple, effective, and required no “jump out at you” type of scares or anything of the sort…it provided you with just enough unease to give you goosebumps, but didn’t require any cheesy gimmicks.  Had this movie been made in the 60’s or 70’s, I imagine it would have been filled with events like the plate scene.

My main issue with this film is that the bad scenes are REALLY bad…but the good scenes are REALLY good…some of the best I’ve seen in a mainstream horror movie in quite a while.  It’s a shame they are tainted by their mediocre brethren.  It was fun seeing Virginia Madison (of “Candyman” and “The Haunting” fame) back in a horror movie,  and Elias Koteas (of “TMNT” and “Fallen” fame) does a fantastic job as a priest. Even though he looks like a rejected clone of Robert Pattinson, Kyle Gallner does an AMAZING job playing a sick cancer patient distraught from his illness and his horrific visions.

There isn’t much CGI in the film…old-school makeup effects and camera effects are executed very well.  I don’t know what the budget was on this film, but it was likely not very high.  There was very little variety between sets (although the sets are well done), the non-CGI effects were simple yet well implemented, and the CGI effects that are there serve their purpose.  Keeping the vast majority of the effects in the real world plays a huge role in keeping in the film grounded, which is part of the reason why the creepy scenes are as effective as they are.

Taken as a whole, Haunting in Connecticut is a decent horror film with some genuinely scary moments.  Take it apart and examine it scene by scene, however, and it appears to be just another generic horror film that has become the norm over the last 10-15 years.  Still, the good scenes are good enough to make the bad scenes tolerable.  I give it an “I’m glad I saw it, but I wouldn’t care if I never saw it again” rating.

While I’ve never been a rabid fan of the Harry Potter series, I have enjoyed the movies on a nerdy and purely entertainment level.  The storyline never sucked me in, but I do appreciate it’s complexity and originality.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a fantastic movie.  I’m not sure I would agree with critics in that it is the best one, but it certainly ranks up there.  Having never read all the books and having never seen Order of the Phoenix, there was quite a bit I was confused about.  Luckily, it seems to be one of those movies where if you don’t understand everything going in, they give you just enough info for you to figure it out on your own.

Once again, the cast steals the show; the actors aren’t just acting out characters, they ARE these characters.  In a very wise move, it appears that most of the young actors who play major roles are all talking about leaving the world of film after Deathly Hallows has been completed.  I’m not sure what the others are doing, but Emma Watson (who plays Hermione) says she plans to go to Brown University.  I personally applaud them in this decision…they are young, they have made millions of dollars (and thanks to royalties will continue to do so for a long, long time) and they have no real need or reason to get mixed up in the soul-sucking entity known as Hollywood.

In a way, I looked at this movie the way I see a Zatoichi movie: it was slow-paced, not a lot of action going on, and if it was any other storyline you would likely be bored.  Somehow, the two and a half hour run time seems to last half of that, and at no point did I think “ugh…is it over?” (I’m looking at you, Return of the King.  Awesome movie, but you don’t have to end 5 times.  Just end once.  Thanks.)  The special effects did their job, although the Potter brand of CGI is definitely CGI in its appearance. 

A bit surprisingly, there were a couple of scenes that could have been interpreted as passively homo-erotic.  Given the publicity a year or two ago to Dumbledore’s sexuality, this was unexpected.  I’m not sure if these scenes were never interpreted that way, and it was just my horrid mentality creeping in and ruining things…or if the scenes really did have (very) slight homo-erotic overtones.  In any event, it does not matter; this only applies to a couple of scenes, most of them right at the beginning.

Overall, if you enjoy Harry Potter in any capacity, you should definitely make it a point to see this movie on the big screen.  Many scenes take advantage of the size, and with the number of people on screen in certain scenes, having everything appear bigger ensures you don’t miss small details.  Buckle down, put up the cash for a ticket, and make an afternoon out of it.  Overall, an 8/10.

Over the last few months, we have been going through all of the Zatoichi films.  Tonight, we intend to watch number 12 out of a total of 26 (after we get back from Dave and Busters, that is).  I’ve always been a huge fan of Samurai/Kung Fu films, and the Zatoichi series appears to be the genre’s zenith.  The plot in most of the films all run together, and on paper they seem like they would be boring and repetitive.  Somehow, every film grabs hold of our eyeballs and doesn’t let go until the credits begin to roll.

Watching these films has become something of a tradition in our household.  There are many of them (26, as previously mentioned), and we don’t want to get burned out on them…hence why we watch only one every 2-3 weeks.  I have noticed that each film is like a really engrossing novel or a video game with well-created characters; I never want each one to end.  Knowing that after tonight we will still be one movie short of watching half of them makes me ecstatic, but I can only imagine my disappointment when we watch the 26th and final film.

Of course, after the films, there is still the 100+ episode TV show…

***NOTE*** There are no spoilers in this review, so you may proceed safely if you haven’t seen it yet.

The first “real” horror movie I ever saw was Evil Dead.  I don’t remember how old I was, but I know I was right around 10 years old…my brother talked it up and told me I should watch it, so I did.  The rest, as anyone who knows me could tell you, is history.  I have had a healthy obsession with horror movies ever since I saw Evil Dead, and to this day it remains my all-time favourite.  So, as you can imagine, I was ecstatic when I heard that Sam Raimi was finally returning to the horror genre.

Drag Me to Hell is an instant classic.  This movie is going to be talked about in horror circles for decades to come.  The camera angles, the use of sound, the casting choices, the overall “feel” of the movie…everything is absolutely perfect.  I never thought I would say this, but DMTH is a horror movie that would not gain anything if it was rated R instead of PG-13; absolutely everything that should have been shown to the audience is shown, and with the proper amount of brutality. To be fair, this is definitely a hard PG-13, and was likely only a couple of gore shots away from getting an R rating.

The storyline itself is quite simple, and honestly could have been made into a “Masters of Horror” style 50 minute experience…but the movie never seems to slow down.  Nearly every second of screen time is used effectively, with nary a wasteful shot to be found.  If you have watched Evil Dead somewhat recently (or, like me, if you know it inside and out) you will find many similarities with camera angles as well as the overall look of ::insert bad things here::.  DMTH is unmistakably Raimi, in every possible way.  There is even a homage to the first real scare scene in Evil Dead, where Cheryl guesses all the cards right and begins floating in front of the window.  The situation is completely different, and the camera angle isn’t even the same…but big Evil Dead fans will notice it the second it starts to happen

The scares (of which there are many) aren’t really all that scary…yet they still somehow are.  Certain parts will get under your skin and creep you out more than others, but they are all effective; timing on sound and appearances of ::insert other bad things here:: are all spot on.  I could easily see this being a gorefest in an Unrated edition, but in a way I hope that doesn’t happen.  The length of time that passes between gore shots and the way the gore shots are presented when they do appear prevent you from becoming unaffected by them.  No Japanese-style quick editing during encounters here; the camera lingers on everything during the scare scenes, and somehow manage to allow your imagination to fill in gaps which don’t exist.  It’s a fantastic accomplishment.

Overall, if you like horror movies, you HAVE to see Drag Me to Hell.  Even if you don’t like horror movies, you STILL have to see Drag Me to Hell.  This is going to be legendary…make sure you are a part of it while that legend is in its infancy.

     The summer movie blockbusters have arrived with an “iron fist”!!! Most comic book fans would tell you that when a comic book movie is announced, their initial thoughts are to hope for the best but expect the worst (yeah, I’m looking at you Ghost Rider).  But the release of “Iron Man” this weekend ACTUALLY lives up to the hype.

     “Iron Man” captures the recent life altering events of the womanizing, flamboyant, and brilliant inventor Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) as he transforms from playboy, into his alter ego: Iron Man.  After being held captive in the deserts of the Middle East by a terrorist cell, Starks, majority owner of Stark Industries, returns to civilization, not only with the physical and mental scars of his captivity, but with a new found sense of self and purpose that leads him to develop the Iron Man suit. The new Stark comes as a welcome surprise to some, such as his long time assistant and developing love interest Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and his long time best friend Jim Rhodes (Terrance Howard). But this kinder, gentler Tony doesn’t rub everyone the right way.  Tony has new plans for the company and his peaceful outlook now threatens Stark Industries bottom line, and so we see Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) take on the mantle of antagonist.  A ruthless, money hungry, power driven man that will stop at nothing to undermine Starks at every turn and squelch his new ideas of peace. 

     When Jon Favreau intially chose Downey to play Stark, I will admit that I had doubts.  Well let me publically apologize for doubting you, Mr. Favreau.  If there was ever a roll created for an actor, this is it for Downey.  His depiction of a tout, elitist, wise ass is dead on, and with side talk that Favreau chose Downey for the part because of his off screen drug and alcohol issues, I can see how that experince can add to Stark’s on screen issues in the upcoming sequels.  The dialoge in the movie was solid and had many enjoyable parts, especially with Downey and Paltrow, as they sling one witty come back after another at each other.  In Addition, with solid contributing rolls by Howard and Bridges, several intense actions scenes and several hints towards the next direction that Marvel Studios is headed would make any nerd “geek” his pants.  This is by far one of the best starts to the summer movie explosions and one of the best comic movies I’ve seen in years.  In fact, when comparing it to another big daddy Marvel Studios release Spider Man, I would have to say that they are on par with each other.

      Critics prior to the movie’s release were skeptical of how well it would do given other off industry releases (GTA: 4) and recent cinema abortions Marvel has released (Ghost Rider and Fantastic 4).  However, if the upcoming Hulk movie (slated for June) is anything like this, let me just hand over my $10 for admission now!!  Summer Block Busters, we have crowned a new King.  Thy name is Stark, thy name is Iron Man.

Our friend Rob sent me a text today, asking if I wanted to see a movie.  Seeing as how Brittnie is away until tomorrow, I figured I should go see something that I know she likely would not want to see.  We ended up going to see Doomsday.  He came by shortly after 7 PM, played a few rounds of Wii Bowling, then headed off.  I’ll write up my review of it tomorrow, but definitely make some time to see it; awesome, awesome movie.

I was glad Rob hit me up.  I wasn’t really looking forward to another lonely night.  Definitely good to hang out with someone, and the Kuney is quite the character.  Overall, an entertaining evening.   He left about ten minutes or so ago.  I’m likely just going to fold the laundry while watching Black Adder III, then will prolly put on Eastern Promises.  So good.

It’s strange.  I turn 24 next week.  I find myself feeling a little bit like an adult, acting a bit like an adult, seeing the world like an adult…and yet, ensuring that I maintain a feeling of childhood.  When I sit down to play a video game, be it by myself or with others, I feel like I’m ten years old all over again.  I think that’s one of the reasons why I like gaming so much; it allows me to harmlessly still feel like a kid while avoiding the denial and bad thoughts that go with being an adult who feels like a child.  These are strange times for me…my thoughts are a bit cloudy.  I find the days slipping away much faster than they used to, and I sometimes catch myself talking about things only adults talk about.  At almost 24, I know that technically I’m an adult…but it feels kind of good to be getting older.  Much as I enjoyed my teenage years (despite some crazy stuff that went down), I’m kind of looking forward to getting older.  I aspire to be the wise older guy that can still identify with younger folks, primarily because I still feel like one.  Not changing my interests, sticking to the things that I have always been interested my whole life.  It enables me to not lose my identity, to retain who I have always been.

Interesting.  I just described Rob.