POLARITY 157
this entry brought to you by sleater-kinney, "entertain"
The reformat Since this is like, the fourth time in a year that we've done this, we've gotten pretty good at it. So the latest reformat went smooth and easy. We've got a full version of Zone Alarm up and running and with a firewall up, so things should be different this time. See, previously, we'd tried Norton Anti-Virus, but for some reason, I don't know, maybe it was incapabilities with that particular version and ME (which is our operating system. Please don't email me informing me that ME sucks. I have heard this once or twice before), but the fucker was giving us major problems. So we took it down and the whole place went to hell. Hopefully this time will be different. Anyway, the good news is I can get back to posting on a daily basis again. I was only down for two weeks, and then I managed to get like 5 posts up before going down for another two days. Which really isn't that bad at all, considering the pain my PC was going through.
March of the Penguins A documentary on the mating rituals of penguins seems like something that should be relegated to Discovery Channel and doesn't neccesarily seem like anything you would bother spending your money on, but once you see this beautiful masterpiece, you'll see what it's in theaters. The cinematography in this is utterly astonishing. Seriously, even casual movie goers with only a passing interest in moviemaking will be in awe, because of the intimacy of the camerawork. The teams seems to literally be inches away from the tribe of penguins at all times, even during ridiculously harsh Antarctic winters, even when the penguins go for a swim in the freezing water. Almost as important as this documentary is the making-of documentary that will inevitably be on the DVD, because you'll spend as much time in awe of the incredible, life-threatening journey of the penguins as you will marvelling over how they did it. March of the Penguins is moving and intensely interesting, but you really ought to see it as a movie fan.
Fables, Vertigo comics, issues 1-10 Obviously, the best part of the book is that it has one of the best concepts ever. The Lands of Fairytales are invaded by a horrible demonic force that's wiping everything out, so the survivors move to our world and try to live normal lives, except instead of any silliness, the book is about as realistic as it can get-- the first story involves Snow White's sister being brutally murdered, and the investigation thereof. But what really gives the book magic beyond the excellent, well written stories, is the sheer amount of obscure fairytale characters that are prominent (did you even know that Snow White has a sister?) and characters that aren't from traditional fairytales that show up for good measure (Jungle Book characters a featured in the second story). If ever there was a solid concept for an ongoing, adult-skewed TV show based off of a comic book, this is definitely it.
Marvel Directory on-line It's not quite 100% in terms of obscure characters, but it's damn close. My roommate Matt and I, with our recently revived interest in comic books, have been going here nearly daily, looking up exact definitions to hero's powers, rarely-mentioned weaknesses we weren't even aware our favorite characters had, and, of course, looking up utterly useless, retarded characters from the late 70's and early 80's. Favorite so far: Doctor Bong.
Lucas Lime-Salt powder When I was a kid, we used to buy this stuff. Not all the time, but a month might have gone by where we were obsessed with it, and then we wouldn't touch it for months. Well, a friend of mine bought some and shared, and holy crap, I'm totally addicted to it again. My mouth waters when I just think about it. Which sucks because this shit will give you ulcers.
THE BAD
Ambulance, LTD See, here's the thing. "Primitive (The Way That I Treat You)" was a great song. A great song. One of the best of 2004. And the record starts out with an excellent 7 minute instrmental named "Yoga Means Union". How many albums start out with an instrumental? The problem is, after "Primitive" (only the second track, sadly), the album gets real boring real fast. The thing is, these guys are super-talented. The good songs are not flukes. For some reason, though, they decided to make a really fucking dull record. Ambulance is a really great band, and when they get around to putting out a great record-- and I'm positive they're more than capable-- they'll be on every hipster's lips. Shame about this wasted-potential debut disk.
Complex Magazine What tries to sell itself as an Esquire for urban, hip-hop hipsters, is really just an overly trendy mish-mash of conflicting ideas and the articles so full of slang they're nearly uncomprehensible. The big problem is that Complex, founded by urban clothing designer Mark Ecko, doesn't feel legit-- it feels like the product of market researching and focusing grouping and etc. It's a relatively new magazine so maybe in a few years it'll feel like an honest magazine for urbanites, but until then, this isn't it. I honestly wonder how young urban people don't feel pandered to.
Xbox 360 I'm rooting for Microsoft, I really am, mostly because I despise Sony, and want them to lose a bigger slice of the pie. Besides that, the X-Box was an awesome system and seemed to have all the right ideas implemented in all the right places. What worries me about 360 is that most games announced so far are also being released on the Xbox, and don't look that much better. Where are the exclusives, other than Perfect Dark, Microsoft?
The beginning and end of Saving Private Ryan I watched this movie again (Michelle was seeing it for the first time; this was my second), and I was really gritting my teeth over the cheap, beat-you-over-the-head-until-you-cry tactic of showing an elderly Private Ryan visiting the gradeyard of his fallen comrades and breaking down, crying. What's more frustrating is that there's no other point in the movie that is forced or controved at all. So why is it bookended by the most trite, forced way of pulling tears of them all?
Foo Fighters, "Best of You" Sorry Dave, I'm not really into this song, like, to the point where I'm not that excited to buy the album. Which disappoints me because I was really into One By One, your previous record.
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with love from CRS @ 3:34 PM
Monday, August 22, 2005
The reformat Since this is like, the fourth time in a year that we've done this, we've gotten pretty good at it. So the latest reformat went smooth and easy. We've got a full version of Zone Alarm up and running and with a firewall up, so things should be different this time. See, previously, we'd tried Norton Anti-Virus, but for some reason, I don't know, maybe it was incapabilities with that particular version and ME (which is our operating system. Please don't email me informing me that ME sucks. I have heard this once or twice before), but the fucker was giving us major problems. So we took it down and the whole place went to hell. Hopefully this time will be different. Anyway, the good news is I can get back to posting on a daily basis again. I was only down for two weeks, and then I managed to get like 5 posts up before going down for another two days. Which really isn't that bad at all, considering the pain my PC was going through.
March of the Penguins A documentary on the mating rituals of penguins seems like something that should be relegated to Discovery Channel and doesn't neccesarily seem like anything you would bother spending your money on, but once you see this beautiful masterpiece, you'll see what it's in theaters. The cinematography in this is utterly astonishing. Seriously, even casual movie goers with only a passing interest in moviemaking will be in awe, because of the intimacy of the camerawork. The teams seems to literally be inches away from the tribe of penguins at all times, even during ridiculously harsh Antarctic winters, even when the penguins go for a swim in the freezing water. Almost as important as this documentary is the making-of documentary that will inevitably be on the DVD, because you'll spend as much time in awe of the incredible, life-threatening journey of the penguins as you will marvelling over how they did it. March of the Penguins is moving and intensely interesting, but you really ought to see it as a movie fan.
Fables, Vertigo comics, issues 1-10 Obviously, the best part of the book is that it has one of the best concepts ever. The Lands of Fairytales are invaded by a horrible demonic force that's wiping everything out, so the survivors move to our world and try to live normal lives, except instead of any silliness, the book is about as realistic as it can get-- the first story involves Snow White's sister being brutally murdered, and the investigation thereof. But what really gives the book magic beyond the excellent, well written stories, is the sheer amount of obscure fairytale characters that are prominent (did you even know that Snow White has a sister?) and characters that aren't from traditional fairytales that show up for good measure (Jungle Book characters a featured in the second story). If ever there was a solid concept for an ongoing, adult-skewed TV show based off of a comic book, this is definitely it.
Marvel Directory on-line It's not quite 100% in terms of obscure characters, but it's damn close. My roommate Matt and I, with our recently revived interest in comic books, have been going here nearly daily, looking up exact definitions to hero's powers, rarely-mentioned weaknesses we weren't even aware our favorite characters had, and, of course, looking up utterly useless, retarded characters from the late 70's and early 80's. Favorite so far: Doctor Bong.
Lucas Lime-Salt powder When I was a kid, we used to buy this stuff. Not all the time, but a month might have gone by where we were obsessed with it, and then we wouldn't touch it for months. Well, a friend of mine bought some and shared, and holy crap, I'm totally addicted to it again. My mouth waters when I just think about it. Which sucks because this shit will give you ulcers.
THE BAD
Ambulance, LTD See, here's the thing. "Primitive (The Way That I Treat You)" was a great song. A great song. One of the best of 2004. And the record starts out with an excellent 7 minute instrmental named "Yoga Means Union". How many albums start out with an instrumental? The problem is, after "Primitive" (only the second track, sadly), the album gets real boring real fast. The thing is, these guys are super-talented. The good songs are not flukes. For some reason, though, they decided to make a really fucking dull record. Ambulance is a really great band, and when they get around to putting out a great record-- and I'm positive they're more than capable-- they'll be on every hipster's lips. Shame about this wasted-potential debut disk.
Complex Magazine What tries to sell itself as an Esquire for urban, hip-hop hipsters, is really just an overly trendy mish-mash of conflicting ideas and the articles so full of slang they're nearly uncomprehensible. The big problem is that Complex, founded by urban clothing designer Mark Ecko, doesn't feel legit-- it feels like the product of market researching and focusing grouping and etc. It's a relatively new magazine so maybe in a few years it'll feel like an honest magazine for urbanites, but until then, this isn't it. I honestly wonder how young urban people don't feel pandered to.
Xbox 360 I'm rooting for Microsoft, I really am, mostly because I despise Sony, and want them to lose a bigger slice of the pie. Besides that, the X-Box was an awesome system and seemed to have all the right ideas implemented in all the right places. What worries me about 360 is that most games announced so far are also being released on the Xbox, and don't look that much better. Where are the exclusives, other than Perfect Dark, Microsoft?
The beginning and end of Saving Private Ryan I watched this movie again (Michelle was seeing it for the first time; this was my second), and I was really gritting my teeth over the cheap, beat-you-over-the-head-until-you-cry tactic of showing an elderly Private Ryan visiting the gradeyard of his fallen comrades and breaking down, crying. What's more frustrating is that there's no other point in the movie that is forced or controved at all. So why is it bookended by the most trite, forced way of pulling tears of them all?
Foo Fighters, "Best of You" Sorry Dave, I'm not really into this song, like, to the point where I'm not that excited to buy the album. Which disappoints me because I was really into One By One, your previous record.
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