The mysterious vanishing title

I forget what my moving status was last time I updated you, but I now have all my “pseudo-article” content (except the Gallery – more on that in a bit) moved over. I’ve also finished up about half the mini-reviews, I’m even going over the older ones to incorporate the newer layout and the Pros/Cons boxes. The other half should be done by the end of the day or tomorrow. Lastly, I’ve also restored my address bar icon and created the January 2006 news archive.

I’ve decided that keeping a multitude of galleries is a bad idea, so to coincide with my Angelfire to Comedy-Napalm move, I’ll also be moving all the content of my art galleries to DeviantART to make my life easier. That should all be moved over by Sunday, depending on my enthusiasm for the task. There’s even some new stuff there to boot…

Moving everything is all well and good, you say, but where’s the new content? I’ve got some good news for you. I’ll be finishing a new non-review and a proper review soon. There will also be a new article on Comedy Napalm from me in a couple days. And don’t go spreading rumours, but there have been talks about bringing back a featurette that hasn’t been seen in a coon’s age. I won’t say exactly what it is, but I’ll tell you this: it’s not exactly the most popular feature on the site.

That said, I’m off to be productive. Funk Master R. Valentine, away!

Super Equilibrium Bros

They say you can set any mood with the right tune. This has got to be the funniest thing I’ve seen in a while.

To balance out the entertainment levels, here’s the collection of this year’s Super Bowl commericals. You know, if you’ve got nothing better to do. Which is likely considering which website you’re reading.

That’s really it for today. I don’t feel like bumming any more links at the moment. However, I just discovered that Resident Evil: Deadly Silence comes out tomorrow. The name was pretty accurate, as that one really snuck up on me. Well, there’s another forty bucks down the tubes. So anyway, what’s up? We never talk anymore. I feel like we’re falling apart. You know what would solve that problem? Joining the forums. Or if you’ve already joined, why not post something?

From Ryan with love

Woah. Did you know there’s a Super Mario Bros soundboard? This is awesome. Now I can listen to the underwater music indefinitely.

But to get back on track (actually, that was the whole reason I’m posting), I have some news. I recently rented the newest James Bond game, From Russia With Love. Yes, it’s made by Electronic Arts, and yes, it’s third-person. But you know what? It’s not half-bad. I was as surprised as you, my friend. I’m not going to go on about it, but it has turned out to ba a half-decent shooter. The last handful of EA Bond games didn’t even convince me to play more than the first level (Hell, I didn’t even try Everything or Nothing), but while I didn’t finish it, From Russia With Love is definitely more enjoyable than the last few. While shooting takes the forefront, there are also plenty of bonus objectives to accomplish and goodies to find. The game has a pretty good upgrade system, and there are plenty of things to unlock. Didn’t try multiplayer, but it seems a bit half-hearted, as you can only play as villains. From the time I spent with the game, I’d say it’s worth the seven bucks I spent to rent it. Not as worth it as POP:T2T was, but good enough. I’m satisfied, and that’s all I ask.

If you don’t feel like trying it out, go play with sand instead. Eerily enough, it’s just about as fun. Oh, and the Steve articles and Chat Radio have all been moved over.

Band of the Month – February 2006

You know, you’d think I’d have learned to change the year in the post date to 2006 after a couple posts, but no, I’m a fucking moron. Well those are corrcted now. I also swtiched the link for my counter so it’ll count this page’s hits, and not those of the Angelfire page.

Thrice was actually supposed to be January’s BotM, but since I rather like them, and the month was almost over, it felt like a shame to bring them to attention for such a short time. Anyway, Thrice. I’ve only really been listening to them for a while, but the story starts a long time ago, in a mall far, far away. Actually, it’s the closest mall to here, but that’s an insignificant detail. It was a normal September afternoon in 2004, and I had recently come into a rather large wad of cash. So I did what was naural to most teenage beings: I went to blow it on CDs. I popped on into the local HMV, and I grabbed a couple discs. Turns oout they had a 3 for $50 deal going on (or something similar), so the clerk advised me to pick out another one. I was having a bit of a time trying to find a good CD to take home, since between what I already owned and what I was already buying, I had pretty much all the music I wanted. So the guy decides to suggest some bands I mihgt like (based on my other two choices). One of those bands was Thrice. While it was tempting, I decided not to, since I’d never heard of them, and I like to at least have an idea what I’m buying. So I went with a different disc and was on my way. The next day, I popped in on of the CD I’d bought, the Resident Evil: Apocalypse soundtrack. A little more than halfway through, this really awesome song came on, and I checked the case to see who it was. Turns out it was *drumroll* Thrice. Now that I’d gotten a taste of the band, I was a little disappointed I hadn’t picked up one of their albums. So to make up for it, I did a little downloading. Sadly, most of the songs weren’t as good as the one from the RE soundtrack, so I kind of forgot about them for a while.

Nearly a year and a half later, I’m going through some of the songs in my library that never get played. And then I see Thrice. I decide that since a good amount of time has gone by and my musical tastes have changed a bit, I’ll give them another shot. That was the right choice. Damned Past Ryan had no taste. Thrice friggn’ rocks. Let me tell you, I cannot believe I’ve ignored them for so long. Like many bands I listen to, they fall into the hardcore-punk-emo-metal mélange. This is good. While I don’t listen to a lot of straight-punk, I’ve very much come to enjoy the punk-metal sound. And it’s not even the pop-punk that you might’ve come to expect from me. Ha, the facade thickens!

Why do I like Thrice? Perhaps the kickass guitar work? The pertinent dumming? The deep and inspired lyrics? The screaming that doesn’t come off as annoying or juvenile? I’m thinking pretty much all that stuff. The album you see above is their fourth real album, entitled Vheissu. If you don’t understand the name, go look it up. Apparently, it has some sort of ties to a Thomas Pynchon book called “V.“. Anyway, the album, as it turns out, is radically different from their first three. Vheissu is notably slower than its predecessors, with a much more significant feel to it, and militaristic tones in most of the songs. I really like it. “Image of the Invisible” is the first song, and is probably the most like any older Thrice songs. “Atlantic” is really worth noting, and “Music Box” actually starts with a music box that continues playing in the background.

The other albums, Identity Crisis, The Illusion of Safety, and The Artist in the Ambulance (released in that order) are all far harder than the latest, featuring tons of hardcore riffing and less structured songs. Of course, this stuff rocks just as much as Vheissu, just a lot harder and faster. A couple songs I want to point out are “Under a Killing Moon” (from The Artist in the Ambulance), which is featured on the Resident Evil: Apocalypse soundtrack, and “See You in the Shallows” (from The Illusion of Safety). I give both songs the brunt of the credit for getting me into the band in the first place, and are definite keepers. There is actually another Thrice disc, released between The Artist in the Ambulance and Vheissu, called If We Could Only See Us Now, which is a couple live tracks and some B-sides thrown together. But it’s more of a second disc to a DVD “anthology” of sorts.

For the first time, I’m gonna tack on my own little bonus to a Band of the Month post. If you’re looking for an easy score, I’ve got it for ya. As a special bonus, I’ll give you the torrent for all four main Thrice albums. While this is a nice, cheap way out, if you like them, I highly recommend buying them like I di… like I will. I’ve got Vheissu, but I intend to acquire the rest sooner or later.

Anyway, that’s it for today. Come back soon for more crazy hijinx! Or maybe visit Comedy Napalm. There’s definitely higher quantities of crazy and hijinx there. Especially on the forums. (Hint hint)

…if I believed it was right…

OK. Puzzle time. I’ve been listening to Alkaline Trio for a bit now, and they’ve got this one song, “Sadie”, that kinda confuses me. See, it’s about this one chick who was part of Charles Manson’s “family”, and it’s a really strong and sympathetic song. So after looking up some more info, I’m kinda sitting here wondering if they’re advocating her. Certainly that can’t be the case. They’re not glorifying a murderer, right? Well, the end of the song has a quote from her, (lyrics here) and she goes on about how she was doing it with love, and that she had no regret for her actions. So now I’m thiking that maybe Ak3 isn’t necessarily trying to say that her actions were right. Maybe, just maybe, they’re trying to say that you should follow what you believe and do what you believe in without a second thought. I do my best to live my life without regrets, as that’s the only way I can see to be truly happy. I know there’s gotta be some kind of deeper meaning here, but I’ve never been good at analyzing stuff, so I’m at a bit of a loss. This will make great discussion fodder, so I’ll direct you to the proper forum topic for discussion.

The day the music was revived

Many hours of work later, all of my news archive pages have been updated and relocated. I’ll dread the next time I have to do this.

More importantly however, I’ve also moved over all the CD collection pages. As a little bonus, I even added a new one to the list! That’s six down, 21 to go. I also got around to fixing one of my “broken” css files. Though now that I think about it, I guess I only really need one. Dang. Hindsight is 20/20.

Astro zombies

I’m like a kid with a new toy. I just can’t resist the urge to make unnessecary posts because FTP is fun to play with. Anyway, I’ve got all the 2005 news archives ready to go. I’ll probably finish up the rest of the news archive tomorrow and then get started on the pseudo-articles.

For the sake of substance, have I told you how awesome Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland is yet? Well yeah, it is. I was pretty firm in my opinion that THPS2 was the best Tony Hawk game ever, but THAW is putting up some serious competition. The game itself is what you’d expect, with all sorts of skating action and some oddball missions. The controls havent’t changed, though balance seems a little more sensitive than usual. Most notably for me (and the only thing that the console version holds over the DS’ American SK8Land) is the soundtrack. Holy smokes it’s huge, and it kicks ass too. Tons of bands I love, including My Chemical Romance, Thrice, and the Doors. Tons of other great stuff too from the Dead Kennedys, Thursday, An Endless Sporadic, and lots more. I’ve been searching for a torrent, but so far the best I’ve come up with is one that has all the “classic punk covers”. It’s not even half the entire soundtrack, but it’s plenty good for now. Oh, right, and the Classic Mode rules. As much as I enjoy free-roaming, the two-minute challenge runs are still my favourite way to play. It’s also got some really neat customization options that let you design your own deck and graffiti designs, though it lacks the drawing ability of THAS. Should you buy the game? If you’ve liked any THPS or THUG game, hell yeah. If you have a distaste for this kind of game, maybe give it a try anyway. While the DS version has slightly tighter gameplay, THAW is a lot deeper and has a ton more features and music.

Time’s makin’ changes

Ah, good. You’ve found it. As you’ve noticed one way or another, I’ve set up shop on Comedy Napalm’s webspace, and it’s all good. The pages aren’t all up (I’m not that motivated…) so most links will take you back to Angelfire pages, and some have been changed but the destination page doesn’t exist. It’s a huge project, and I’ll most likely have it all done up by mid-February. This is precise work, so if you could just check out the pages I have up (oct05-dec05 news, work blog, and about pages) for broken links or pictures, that would be cool. I’m pretty sure I got ’em all, but to err is human.

So to get to the whole reason I’m making this post… A new article! Follow this link if you feel like checking it out. Oh, and I won’t be updating any Angelfire pages anymore, so don’t bother going back there.

Right, one last thing. If you haven’t come to this conclusion already, my internet’s back. A little earlier than I’d excpected, but you don’t hear me complaining.