Game of Thrones! Impressive geological backdrop!! New town! Oh. . Uh oh. That sound you heard accompanying the credits was the sound of a million nerds having an aneurism all at once. Why? Because Riverrun is supposed to be shaped like a triangle and juts into the river, that’s why. [Read more…] about Game of Thrones Recap: A Bird in Hand
Is Macklemore the new Eminem?
I don’t think that title is really premature in saying what a lot of people are thinking. Macklemore really can be the next Eminem if he plays his cards right. The Seattle native continues to take 2013 by storm again last night with his performance of his new single “Can’t Hold Us” featuring Ray Dalton at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards. Many said that was the highlight of the night and this is a freaking movie award show (then again it’s MTV, so we are lucky it wasn’t a Best Teen Mom Shore Buckwild Show).
Macklemore was known by many a hip-hop tastemakers for a while now but no one really understood who this guy was until late 2012 whe a song about a thrift shop came into play. Little do people know this guy, who turns 30 later this year, has been in the game for over a decade now, right around the time that Eminem broke through.
He released his first full fledged EP back in 2000 under the name “Professor Macklemore”. He quickly dropped the professor aspect of things but substance abuse plagued his chances of really becoming the star that he is today. These substances had him relapse on a number of occasions, most recently in 2011. Yet during this time he released some truly amazing music, such as “The Unplanned Mixtape” and “The VS Redux” in 2009 with his constant companion and DJ Ryan Lewis. That is some of his best work in my opinion, as you can tell what he was going through during that time.
Now with his album “The Heist” in full swing, “Thrift Shop” topping the charts for weeks and his subsequent song “Can’t Hold Us” climbing up the charts, we gotta wonder, is he the next big thing? The next Eminem? Let’s weigh this in and see.
Going beyond race, Eminem truly defines what an MC is and how, at least for my generation, he was our Kurt Cobain. He was our Elvis Presley, he was our Michael Jackson. He was a movement in itself for the simple fact that he went so far outside the boundary lines of what an artist is supposed to do and speak from his heart on what he was going on. “The Marshall Mathers LP” and “The Slim Shady LP” are in my opinion two of the best hip-hop albums ever with the former being the best one to be released in the new millennium. He has even impressed as a featured artist on other people’s tracks, most notably Drake’s “Forever”. He truly understands his gift of gab and uses it to its best extent.
What i just wrote is something that Macklemore is getting the hang of. “The Heist” is an amazing second album and is reminiscent of things that Eminem did. They both have that juxtaposition of being able to do funny songs (Thrift Shop) and then serious ones that really make you think (Wings). The stand out track here is “Same Love”, written in the support of same-sex marriage. It’s truly an amazingly written song and something really out of left field when it comes to a straight dude and hip-hop head writing about a very controversial topic. This can parlay to any of the controversial topics that Em wrote about, including anything from “Love The Way You Lie” about domestic violence and “Stan” about a deranged fan. Regardless, they make you think, something other rappers can’t seem to make you do.
So what is the verdict overall with this? Macklemore could no doubt be the next Eminem in my book. No doubt, even though he has been in the game for a minute, that he will be all over the Best New Artist categories at a ton of award shows and be on everyone’s forefront similarly to how Eminem is. Could they do a duet one day? Only one can hope. For me, he’s got it in him to go the long haul. Best of luck to him in the future.
Classic Titles: .hack
The PS2-era was saturated with RPGs of varying quality. We had Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy XII, Kingdom Hearts (and its numerous remakes and spin-offs), Baldur’s Gate, Digimon, Grandia, Persona, Suikoden, and Xenosaga. Somewhat lost in all the big names of that generation was a little JRPG that could, and it was called .hack.
Describing the .hack games is difficult to do with words; it’s really better to become acquainted with them through playing. In a nutshell, the .hack games simulate an MMORPG, or “massively multiplayer online role-playing game”. There are multiple MMO elements present here: mounts, trading with other players, the ability to ask your party members to perform certain actions, and a short mail system for forming parties. In this simulated MMO called The World, anomalies in the game cause unforeseen effects on its players, most notably that some players become comatose as a result of playing the game.
It’s worth noting that there are actually two separate series of .hack games for the PS2. There is Project .hack, which refers to the first four games: Infection, Mutation, Outbreak, and Quarantine. These games tell the story of Kite, who on his very first adventure in The World watched in horror as his friend Orca was killed by a bugged monster and rendered comatose in the real world. After his traumatizing experience, the game follows Kite’s investigation into Orca’s demise and his experiences with other player-characters. The second series, known as G.U., consists of three games: Rebirth, Reminisce, and Redemption. G.U. chronicles the adventures of Haseo, who seeks revenge on the mysterious Tri-Edge for killing his friend Shino in-game and causing her to become comatose. Both sets of games rely heavily on their stories to hook players, but the gameplay is not to be overlooked.
When it comes to game mechanics and the like, if you enjoyed Kingdom Hearts, you’ll probably enjoy .hack‘s seven offerings. Fans of turn-based RPGs need not apply, as .hack is a real-time, action-based effort. However, the control afforded to players in .hack was unparalleled for its time. There are general commands that will tell your AI-controlled party members to use their skills, heal, only attack with magic or physically, or use an item to warp you out of a dungeon. That sort of control is nice enough, but then it goes far deeper. You can tell a particular teammate to attack a specific enemy and even dictate to them which skill or spell you want them to use. Ultimately, the system allows you to approach a battle in any number of ways and rarely are you shoehorned into using a single method to take out a monster.
The timeline of the .hack franchise actually begins with a novel, called Epitaph of Twilight. There are also a number of manga, anime, and OVA works in the series to seek out. As far as which of these you need to experience (in addition to the games) to get a better understanding of the universe, the two major anime series, .hack//SIGN and .hack//Roots, are required viewing. You really need to see both of them to get a better understanding of what’s going on in the games, but also because they’re quite entertaining, and this is coming from a guy who isn’t much for anime.
Without spoiling too much, each series of .hack games is full of twists and turns, new friends and enemies, and a noticeable rise in activity as the games progress. Even though each game takes only 15-20 hours to beat, there’s a lot to do; there are numerous side quests and optional adventures that will keep the series feeling fresh long enough to finish. The one problem this series has nowadays is the price point. Since the games have gotten hard to find in game stores, one must resort to the likes of Amazon and eBay, where prices have skyrocketed over the last few months. When I re-purchased .hack//Quarantine a few months back, it cost me $80, as it is the rarest of the seven existing titles. However, the other games all cost me less than their original price of $49.99 when they were released, so the price wound up being more than worth it.
I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say that the Playstation 2 was the golden age of the RPG. With so many good ones out there, it’s tough to narrow your collection down to only a few; unless you’re rich, in which case more power to you. However, if you want a truly deep gameplay experience with an epic story, look no further than .hack to satisfy your needs.
Como Brothers Band New EP- Worth the listen!
I have been able to interview some pretty big talent out here on Long Island, but the Como Brothers Band truly define what it means when persistence meets talent. I talked to them back in November about a bevy of different topics such as them winning Ernie Ball’s Battle of the Bands for last summer’s Vans Warped Tour to them having one of their own songs be playing on the uber successful E! reality show “Keeping Up With The Kardashians”. All of their music they have put out thus far has had great melody, amazing guitar playing and smooth vocals that really show their talent and skill. Their persistence is the ability to get their name out on a more national level, and hopefully soon an international level.
Now they have something great for their fans to devour. The Como Brothers Band have released their new EP called “Still Waters”. It is a 6 track album showcasing an even more mature sound from their last release. All of them are standouts, but to me my favorite song is “Parachute” which sounds like a haunting version of an early Daughtry record. It has a great beat and introduction that is more than worth the listen. Another great track off of the EP is “Bad Karma”. A great line off of it is “Leave her for me, so I won’t see her lying in her vanity”. LOVE IT. These guys really are a blend of a lot of what is current and popular right now in the pop-rock circuit yet they do it originally, something a lot of other artists don’t do. This is definitely an album worth cruising down the road to with the top down now that summer is rapidly approaching.
Keeping on the reality circuit, on March 27th of this year their song “You Are My World” was featured on the MTV documentary series “The Real World- Portland”. They have also unveiled their brand new website for everyone to check out. On top of all of this, they will be doing a radio tour culminating with a huge performance at The Bitter End in Manhattan on May 31st. For a great TV spot they will be on WTNH New Haven Channel 8 Style on May 23rd, so there are a ton of different venues to check them out! Check out the website to hear the new EP and everything else Como Brothers Band.
ZFS on Linux is ready for Production
Tech geeks everywhere can rejoice! ZFS the filesystem that Sun Microsystems released to the world as an open source tool prior to their acquisition by Oracle is now production ready on Linux. At least thats what the developers are claiming with the release of 0.6.1 and the announcement of official repositories that will let Linux users install ZFS on Linux without much hassle.
Those of you reading this who have no idea what ZFS is are in the majority. ZFS is a file system designed (amongst many things) to keep data safe and manageable. Originally coined as the Zettabyte File System, ZFS has grown as a technology to incorporate features that let ZFS handle more data than even a Zettabyte. ZFS is designed a lot like a database, where data gets checked into the file system, which allows ZFS to heal data that has gotten corrupted or is suffering from Bit Rot (data corruption that occurs over a long period of time on magnetic hard drives).
At the end of the day ZFS is a milestone achievement. A way to store data safely and in large quantities that is free and available to the masses without six figure licensing. With Microsoft and Apple keeping their 1990’s file systems on life support it’s good to see that the open source community is pushing to make ZFS available on all open platforms.
The Moment is Heartwarming, But Short on Drama
The Moment: Thursdays at 10pm Eastern on USA
There are numerous archetypes we see in Reality Television: the “larger and/or crazier than life” show, the “dating” show, the “rich people behaving badly” show, and the “lots of people cramped in a small space” show, but one sort of show that often gets overlooked in the reality genre is “live your dreams” show that is best exemplified through MTV’s Made and CBS’s flop The Job. It is from that cloth that USA provides it’s newest show, The Moment.
The Moment follows Kurt Warner, Super Bowl winning quarterback of St. Louis Rams and Arizona Cardinals fame, as he travels around the country giving ordinary Americans a second chance at the dream jobs they were forced to sacrifice to give themselves a better life. Warner himself is no stranger to second chances, as he bounced around Arena League Football and NFL Europe throughout the 90’s before filling in for an injured Trent Green and leading the Rams to a Super Bowl win at Super Bowl XXXIV in his rookie season.
Our sneak preview episode focuses on Bob Capita, a factory chief and charity head who wants to be a sailor and had his dream taken from him for a number of reasons, including the 1980 Olympic Boycott and a disapproving father. Warner surprises Capita with a second chance to enter the world of America’s Cup sailing with the opportunity to skipper a professional boat. During the process, he trains with Hall of Famer and NBC commentator Gary Jobson, who runs him through the wringer in order to bring Bob back to top tier shape. From there the action moves to the East Coast, where he meets his crew including his prospective boss’s consigliere (though he didn’t find that out until a later reveal). The show then concludes with a big fate-determining race and a job interview where Bob’s final fate is determined.
The show itself is serviceable, but tosses out an incredible amount of jargon over the course of the show. That factor, as well as a relative lack of Warner during the show (Bob’s kid gets more screen time than him, and that kid is selfless beyond a human level) give The Moment a vibe as if they are semi-connected documentaries with a common theme than an actual reality show along the lines of anything you would see on Bravo. As a result, it’s fairly safe to say that your interest in a given episode is going to be entirely dependent on your interest in the subject material of the “job hunter”.
One aspect I did particularly like, however, is that The Moment doesn’t really trump up conflict for conflict’s sake. While this makes for a particularly bland show at times, it allows for the show’s rare moments of conflict to have real stakes, whether it’s the effect that a three-thousand mile move will have on their entrenched lifestyle (as you would expect for someone with a business, a family, and their own charity) or a conflict between a skipper and his first mate as to how aggressively to cut the boat when a barge interferes in their race course.
What makes me cringe with this show is the editing. There is nothing more annoying than random blur outs before major cut points. Similarly, the show edits the build up to it’s two major decisions (will they offer the job, and if so will they take the job) by slicing up quotes out of the conversations in a way that comes off like the review snippets you see in a commercial for a Broadway musical (“The only that matters more than winning are the boats themselves….”, “…but we’ll have to say goodbye to our friends…”) while often darting the camera at contrasting reaction faces before letting anyone finish a sentence.
The Final Verdict: The Moment is an interesting show to assess. It’s unfailingly positive, relentlessly heartwarming, and incredibly lacking in conflict, but in spite its’ weaknesses it’s surprisingly watchable. While I have gripes with the editing, which takes the manipulative editing aspect of reality shows and stretches it to almost parody at points, The Moment eschews most of the standard issue reality cliches which I find personally refreshing. The show feels loose enough (especially with Warner backgrounded for much of the show) that it’s hard to recommend it as a series, and easier to recommend as the sort of show you would watch an episode of here or there when the subject matter piques your attention. Overall, I feel that this is the sort of show that requires a wait-and-see outlook to see if it becomes predictable over time.
Dance Moms Recap: Vote Early and Vote Often
Last time on Dance Moms, we did well, but not well enough for Ms. Miller. Let’s see if we can up our game! [Read more…] about Dance Moms Recap: Vote Early and Vote Often
Ready for Love Feels Unready for TV
Ready for Love: Tuesdays at 9pm Eastern, NBC
The dating show is an interesting specimen that’s evolved with TV over the past half a century. We started with the bubbly dating game show in the Dating Game evolved to the video-dating style of Love Connection and eventually to the reality model of The Bachelor. NBC is banking on the idea that the dating show can move into the American Idol competition age with it’s latest offering.
From executive producer Eva Longoria, Ready For Love is built around matchmakers searching for Mrs. Right for three very eligible bachelors: civil engineer Ernesto Arguello, financier Ben Patton, and Plain White T’s singer Tim Lopez. These men, with the help of their matchmakers, will then try to figure out which (if any) of the twelve lucky bachelorettes will be their perfect soul mate.
Tonight’s episode focuses solely on Tim Lopez (gee, I wonder whom NBC is marketing as the star on this show?) while next week introduces Ernesto and Ben. The show also takes time to introduce it’s matchmakers, including Amber Kelleher (who takes the fairy tale angle), Matt Hussey (focused on the male), and Tracy McMillan (the straight shooter).
Our show begins with Longoria opening with a brief explanation of how the show works, and it’s emphasis on finding the perfect match vs. a casting angle. This then led into a 6 minute-long expository preview video that didn’t give many details as to how this competition works. From there our bachelors must remove three contestants straight off of the bat before they ever lay eyes on their respective suitors. A spanner is immediately thrown in the works as one of the suitor’s in Matt’s pool has a past with Tim. From there we switch to more video packages, where our first set of suitors move into their house and the matchmakers give last second advice before their big first date.
Our second hour kicks off with the girls showing up for their big first group date with Tim, who immediately shows a sense of humor by fake-ratcheting up pressure before putting on a concert for all of the girls. He then has the suitors’ write lyrics to a new song he was working on, which they then sing in groups split up by matchmaker. We also get our first example of gamesmanship, as Leah, the girl from Tim’s past, isolates him for a short period of time, raising the suspicions of our other contestants. After the dating segment, our suitors’ rejoin the matchmakers in the studio, who critique them on their performance in a manner once again not far removed from your standard issue competition show. Each judge then sends one of their “team” up for elimination, with Tim ultimately choosing one to come home. After sparing one of the girls, Tim and the two remaining girls go down to the “garden room” to eliminate one of the girls.
Our hosts Bill and Giuliana Rancic seem passable in that role, but sometimes come off a touch maudlin, as if they were introducing the In memoriam segment of an awards show. It feels very counterproductive, however, that the hosts often work solo, with Giuliana single-handedly emceeing our first hour. Additionally, some of the platitudes felt odd and slightly redundant (at one point Giuliana said “Three of you will be in the bottom three”. In spite of that, Giuliana manages to show incredible efficiency at stoking the fire, making a large issue of the Leah power-play that occurred during the date. Bill, however, seems like complete window dressing, there solely to make the married couple host gimmick work.
Ready for Love seems to borrow liberally from The Voice with the first two episodes being a pretty blatant copy of The Voice’s blind auditions. Additionally, much like it’s lead-in, the show posits our bachelors’ search for love as a competition between the matchmakers (whom also double as our suitors’ coaches). Similarly, all in-studio criticism feels like they are analyzing these girls like its’ a performance art or worse yet some sort of sick experiment in how to get a guy to fall in love with you, which completely counteracts the whole “finding real love vs. the fake love of reality TV” nature of the show that Longoria promised.
This may be the first episode, but the show moves at a glacial pace with large numbers of long and ultimately irrelevant video montages (it’s bumps run a minute plus a clip, and Tim, all three matchmakers and the show itself all receive lengthy video packages). This seems particularly egregious when you consider that each episode runs a way too long two hours and the third set of blind picks were rushed to make room for more irrelevant video montages after devoting two segments a piece to each of the first two batches of contestants. This is made worse when you consider that every major twist is turned into a cliffhanger that leads into a commercial break mid-sentence and that every commercial break is preceded by constant previews of the same 30 seconds of next week.
The show works best once it moves back within the reality paradigm, as it allows the show to play with its’ cast’s personalities (Hailey’s the funny one, Leah is the girl from the past, Christina is the serious one with the Musical Talent). Unfortunately, it is also a slave to many of the genre’s cliches (the three girls who get the most screen time during the date are inevitably your bottom three). This is a shame, as less of the time is focused on building the relationships than the gimmicky and half baked in-studio segments.
The Final Verdict: It’s bloated, it’s exposition is in all of the wrong places, and it starts throwing in twists before it can even establish a format. In a lot of ways Ready for Love is a hot mess that wants to have its’ cake of being a Bachelor clone, while also eating from the ratings cake of its’ Voice lead-in. Any ethical concerns aside about love being a competition, the show suffers from terrible pacing that bogs down any action. Would it have really killed the producers to eschew that opening 10 minutes and half of the bumps for a full third blind audition segment and/or to introduce us to the rest of Tim’s suitors in the date segment? Skip this one, it doesn’t do romance any favors and there are better ways to spend two hours of your Tuesday night.
Rihanna and Chris Brown Split- WHO THE F CARES
I have had my fair share of stating how I feel about not only Chris Brown but Rihanna in the past couple of years, and when I heard all over the news this morning from The Wendy Williams Show to Newsday to E! that they had broken up yet again so Rihanna can focus on business opportunities I literally LOL’d. Here comes my rant about how I feel about these two, so buckle down everyone.
I have said this before and I will say it again, I DON’T GET HOW CHRIS BROWN IS STILL RELEVANT. How in gods name is a man who brutally and viciously beat the living hell out of a woman still celebrated, awarded and adored by millions of people who can blindly look past what he did? On top of that, he’s a wannabe thug who has gotten into so many altercations with people who actually merit respect and should be celebrated for their talent (Miranda Lambert, Frank Ocean, Robin Roberts). So once again, like Aubrey O’Day on Rupaul’s Drag Race this year, what is their appeal?
What is his appeal exactly? Can someone explain it to me? He wins the Grammy last year for Best R&B Album for an album that was all synth and nothing R&B. He won because The Grammy’s wanted to stir commotion and get viewers, so I get that. When every other person winning an award that night and getting standing ovations up the wazoo and people are barely clapping for you, how do you take that? When are you actually going to wake up and realize all of these childish, petty things you have done since you beat her up still don’t warrant a real apology or anything of the sort? I don’t get it.
As for her, I have my own personal feelings. She has her own issues with press I get it, but beyond that I really just can’t stand her attitude throughout all of this. If someone had beat up my sister and then tried to get back together with her, it wouldn’t happen. Doesn’t she have anyone around her telling her this isn’t right? A good girlfriend, family, SOMEONE. I mean I know she is grown and all, but the fact that no one seemed to stop this from happening over and over again really says something. And the fact that she really is “unapologetic” really says a lot about her character and how she really doesn’t want to be viewed as a role model no matter what.
This is just my gist on how I feel. Everyone is different, but quite frankly it bothers me that this continues to be headline news. It shouldn’t be. There are bigger things in the world to deal with than the modern day Ike and Tina continuously breaking up and getting back together for nonsense reasons. That’s it.
RuPaul’s Drag Race Recap: Little Sister Come and Sit Beside Me
Coco’s super excited that Alyssa’s gone. She feels a weight is off her shoulder and Jinkx asks “Are you making another fat joke?” Everyone points out that Jinkx has won two challenges and people are starting to eye her. Roxxxy wants Jinkx out. [Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race Recap: Little Sister Come and Sit Beside Me