Aug 02

New Music to Love

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I’ve been using the iTunes Music Store for about two years (I think). For all its faults, I love the availability of so much music of all sorts and the ability to buy just one track if that is what you want.

Recently I have started thinking about extending my musical experiences into areas they haven’t gone before.

I’m thinking particularly of bands that I have spent time avoiding because the “cool” people at Swanleigh played them all the time and I hated them just on principle. Perhaps I should even expand into slightly different genres/styles that I wouldn’t normally listen to. I mean, I listen primarily to the heavy end of rock/pop (check out my last.fm profile if you are interested, top bands are Queen and Van Halen), but the last couple of years I have spent more time listening to folk, roots and even country.

I spend a bit of time browsing mp3blogs and the like, and have even discovered a couple of new “favourite” artists there: Apollo Up!, Flogging Molly and Kathleen Edwards, which is great. (Looking up the links here I notice that Flogging Molly has a new album, and it is actually on the Australian iTunes store. That’s going on my wishlish!)

But what I am really after is some appreciation of the “classics” of late-20th century western music. The sort of stuff that is culture-defining. A bit like the necessity of having read Dickens, or listened to Beethoven, or at least knowing what a Van Gogh looks like. Just more contemporary.

Here’s some of my ideas:

  • Pink Floyd
  • Talking Heads
  • The Doors
  • AC/DC (not a misprint)
  • From an Australian perspective: INXS, Cold Chisel (even solo Jimmy Barnes *shudder*)
  • Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
  • Judas Priest
  • The Cure

Any others? Comments are open.

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Oct 31

Straight Edge

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I have been friended once on last.fm. I had no idea why, and I accepted the request at first because I thought it was my brother, Jason (turned out to be a completely different Jason).

I was playing with my last.fm profile last night and I thought I would have a look at Jason’s. In his profile, he says “I am straight edge.”. I said “???”.

Google and Wikipedia to the rescue. It turns out ’straight edge’ is a sub-sub-culture of the punk movement. From wikipedia:

Straight edge refers to a lifestyle and scene within the hardcore punk subculture whose adherents abstain from alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, as well as promiscuous sex.

I thought, hey that’s me… Hold on, take out the agro, the tendency towards veganism, the haircuts, the piercings, the X tattoos (and perhaps I might be on the outer with my spirituality too… Profanity warning if you follow that link)

So maybe not.

But surely Straight Edge sounds cooler than teetotaller.

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Nov 15

In a music mood

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*Apologies to [Jeff Rients][1] for the title. More apologies for all the links in the following text…*

In a [recent post][2] Jeff commented on the relationship between (heavy metal) music and gaming.

>In many ways heavy metal and D&D go together like peas and mashed potatoes. Some people keep them separate on their plate but the awesomest folks mix ‘em together with wild abandon.

Not trying to cash in on the Gameblog’s topic, but it made me think about what music I have always liked to game to. I made a comment after Jeff’s post, carelessly posted [AC][3], with my suggestion of Deep Purple along with the existing entries of Black Sabbath and Uriah Heep. But as much as I agree with Jeff’s post above, I have plenty of other musics I would put into the same category.

So here, for posterity’s sake is a short list of significant (for me only) gaming music:

* The [Revenge][4] album by Eurythmics. There is nothing gamist about this album at all. I just loved it, and was listening to it a lot at the time we were holidaying in [Broome][5] and I was make up a pair of 50th level Paladin-Rangers (AD&D1). I never played them (strangely enough), but I made up wonderful backstories and even wrote them up in cool little notebooks. Also see [this post][6] regarding the fun of just making up characters for no good reason.

* [5150][7] by Van Halen. Another not-very-gamy album, but my brother Jason and I listened to it a lot around the same time as the above and forever after. Played many rounds of [B1-9 In Search of the Unknown][8] to this music.

* [Faith No More][9]. Any and all albums. Just favourites of my late-high school gaming group (in our post-HS years).

* Meat Loaf’s [Bat Out of Hell II][10] also made a great soundtrack.

* Having already mentioned Black Sabbath, I would draw particular mention to the album [Tyr][11], which is full of references to Nordic mythology, much like Tolkien. One of my favourite albums of all time, and games especially well with [GAZ7 The Northern Reaches][12]

There are plenty of gaming soundtracks available out there. A few game bloggers posted recently about the death of the composer of the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack. Not having listened to it, I can’t comment, but I have put some tracks on my itunes wishlist. Also stratos, a co-member of the Christian Gamers Guild, creates official gaming music [here][13].

Anyone else out there got some great game-memory triggering music (of any variety)?

[1]: http://jrients.blogspot.com/ “Jeff’s Gameblog”
[2]: http://jrients.blogspot.com/2006/11/in-metal-mood.html “In a metal mood”
[3]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_coward “I’m an anonymous coward ;-(”
[4]: http://www.last.fm/music/Eurythmics/Revenge
[5]: http://www.broomewa.com/
[6]: http://powerlot.net/shayne/?p=27
[7]: http://www.last.fm/music/Van+Halen/5150
[8]: http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=20228&sid=28bee9d60d4594bfedd54d096ee3a948
[9]: http://www.last.fm/music/Faith+No+More
[10]: http://www.last.fm/music/Meat+Loaf/Bat+Out+of+Hell+II%3A+Back+Into+Hell
[11]: http://www.last.fm/music/Black+Sabbath/TYR
[12]: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=1008&
[13]: http://www.baileyrecords.com/main/projects/rpg/index.html “Gratuituous plug – I haven’t listened to this either”

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Nov 01

Day 1

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Number 1 son Liam, my brother Jason and I have decided to participate in [NaNoWriMo][1] (National Novel Writing Month) this year.

Follow the link if you don’t know about this program and want to find out what I am talking about. The summary is this: write a 50,000 word (approx 175 page) novel in the month of November.

Note: Liam, as part of the Young Writer’s Program, can set his own target. He has chosen to aim for a 20,000 word effort. Good luck Liam!

You can follow my progress [here][2], Liam’s [here][3] and Jason’s [here][4]. Or have a look the “Word War” image at the top right of this page if you want to see how Jason and I are going head-to-head.

And if you are interested, the NaNo organisation is of a charitable bent, putting much of their money where their mouths are: bulding libraries in southeast asia.

> In 2006, NaNoWriMo will be using that same can-do spirit to help a group of would-be readers: Namely, a group of elementary-school kids halfway around the world in Vietnam. In partnership with the children’s literacy nonprofit Room to Read, NaNoWriMo will donate 50% of its total net proceeds from individual donations and store sales to establish children’s libraries in rural villages there.

Go [donate something][5] if this is your sort of work…

Oh, and I want one of these:

> This pleasingly large dishwasher-safe mug can hold enough novelist fuel to ensure that you won’t have to get up for refills during intense writing sessions. You will, however, have to get up and go to the bathroom. This is a big mug.

![Big-ass Mug][6]

[1]: http://nanowrimo.org
[2]: http://www.nanowrimo.org/userinfo.php?uid=132769
[3]: http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/userinfo.php?uid=75764
[4]: http://www.nanowrimo.org/userinfo.php?uid=133617
[5]: http://store.nanowrimo.org/home.php?cat=2&sort=price&sort_direction=0
[6]: http://store.nanowrimo.org/product_image.php?imageid=2

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Aug 28

Save our language!!

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Every week, without fail, I take perverse pleasure in reading the column of Phillip Adams in the Weekend Australian magazine.

I say perverse, because as a rabid athiest, Adams has very little in common with me, a conservative Bible-believing Christian (read, in Adams-speak: fundie, Taliban-wannabe God botherer).

I often find myself banging my head against the wall (or at least the paper) asking why such a brilliant mind could be so ignorant of the nature of certain things.

But I digress… Today’s post is not about what I don’t like about Adams or how we disagree. No matter what else I may say about him, Phillips Adams is a true Australian.

He places great importance on the value of Australian culture and of preserving it in the face of the powerful Hollywood/MTV version of (United States of) American culture.

In his column on Saturday which (online at least), entitled Attack of the seppos, Adams laments the loss of Australian Slang.

Anyone who has seen The Adventures of Barry McKenzie might not consider that a bad thing…

I do. And so does Phillip Adams… He refers to an earlier attempt to save the language…

The idea was that each of us would adopt a favourite and forgotten colloquial expression and promise to use it at least once a day. You might choose drongo and apply it to a politician.

Our family has a few favourite slang expressions: “carry on like a pork chop” (applying particularly well to any one of my five sons) is perhaps too often used. I may very well seek to use the word “drongo” in conversation more often. Rhyming slang is also popular, though hard to know what is Strine-based and what is Cockney (I am fond of accusing my boys of telling pork-pies, but I am sure that is a Cockney one!).

I do have an admission to make though… When I greet people, even in the pharmacy, I am prone to use the awfully colloquial expression “G’day” (complete with apostrophe) in preference to Hello, Hi, Good Day, Good morning or (heaven forbid!) Howdy. It doesn’t quite make me Barry McKenzie’s long-lost brother, but I reckon I can wear the green-and-gold with pride!

And Phillip, thanks for a good laugh and for fighting the good fight!

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