Quick preview of Boxer from The National
So the good ol’ guys over on NeoGAF had their monthly ‘What are you listening to’ thread and there were some bands that I thought I’d check out, and The National was one of those bands. The National is releasing their latest album Boxer on May 22, and from the tracks I have found on various websites it is a really great album. Very mellow and easy to listen too. The lead singer, Matt Berninger, has this rasp to him that reminds me of Nick Cave and Paul Bank from Interpol. The first song on the album is Fake Empire which is a piano driven song that you would listen to before bed or you would hear in that slow poinent moment during a movie. The second song on the album Mistaken for Strangers is where the I really get the Interpol feeling from. Perhaps it is just the drums on the track and the light driving guitar loop, not to mention the vocals. I’ll try to write more in the coming weeks when I am able to get the whole album, but if the tracks I have listened to give any indication, the album should be great. Now take a listen to the first song Fake Empire.
Recently saw Mew
So I saw Mew again and they were amazing as expected. They put on a great set again, with their backdrop of violin playing cats. I took lots of photos, but majority of them turned out like crap sadly. I really think I need to investigate getting a new camera for taking concert photos, the good ol’ Casio camera I have just doesn’t do motion in the dark that well.
Lots of Games…
So I have tried to actually spend some time playing games recently and have picked up some and rented some others. I recently rented Virtua Tennis 3 for the Xbox 360 which was pretty fun, but shallow like the previous versions on the Dreamcast. I also tried NBA Street Homecourt for the Xbox 360 and didn’t really like the gameplay that much. If I wanted to play NBA Jam, I would play NBA Jam. I also installed Supreme Commander and Command and Conquer 3 for the PC, which I need to spend time with. After Age of Empires 3 I have been looking for a RTS game that is actually fun. Hopefully one of these will fit the bill. I also have S.T.A.L.K.E.R. from a friend, but I was having problems with it running in Vista and just haven’t installed it on XP yet. Perhaps I’ll do that soon, after the first week of hype a lot of the flaws in the game are starting to come out and I’m not sure if I want to spend the time playing it. Back to some gaming.
MacMini are sweet
So my good friend Keith is letting me borrow his MacMini for a bit and it is pretty awesome. So tiny and quiet, it is really impressive what Apple was able to pack into this machine. Apryl and I had to go out and buy a new monitor to use with the machine and picked up an Acer 19″ widescreen monitor at Compusa for $206. It was on clearance, and looking online it doesn’t appear to be a bad deal.
GDC Blog over on Live Spaces
My web host is dying on speed, so I am moving my GDC blogging over to a free Windows Live Blog account. Speed is pretty damn wicked, so I should be able to make fast updates if the wifi speed is good at the convention center. Check it out @ http://shinyidol.spaces.live.com/
Packing for GDC
So I am getting ready for my trip to GDC. I should probably be getting some sleep right now since my flight is at 6:15 am and it is now 11 PM, but I have a list and want to double check everything so I don’t forget everything. This is also a test just to make sure that everything works with Windows Live Writer and the plugin that I wrote that will add timestamps when I am liveblogging from the keynote or other sessions. Hopefully this all goes on without a hitch.
Slow Servers…
So I have noticed for the last month or so that my host server has just been getting slower and slower. I am going to start investigating about getting a new host. I have never really been that happy with Globat, and there are a lot of great deals out there right now for host providers. Does anyone have any suggestions?
The Rapture on Carson
[flv:the_rapture.flv 500 340]
Here is The Rapture on Carson doing Whoo! Alright Yeah…Uh Huh.