I'm resurrecting my blog. I had an idea when I started the blog and that idea was emphasized in the blogs name. I'm a big fan of horror movies and horror stories in general, and in old horror fables there was a concept that as the sun rose a cockerel would cry and that sound would dispel the evil of the night. It was a symbol of the coming light and a change in the outlook for the protagonists. A bit grandiose right? I guess I didn't mean for my blog to dispel all the evils and change the world for everyone but I did want to challenge what I perceived to be shitty ideals and actions of others that are dark stains on my view of the world. So I guess if we share some of the same perceptions you may like this blog.
So this got my goat up a little today. LNP plan to limit dole payments to a max of 6 months.
Like most Aussies I understand why this would be appealing. The Aussie Culture is all about the Battler, the working class bloke or sheila slogging it out to put food on the table and keep the lights on for their family. It's something we're all quietly proud of. Something we're not proud of is the "dole bludger". We seem to have a class of people who are constantly unemployed, never look for jobs and happy to take out all these government hand-outs paid for by the previously mentioned Battlers. The dole bludgers complain about how little they have while sporting new tattoos, dragging on cigarettes and "getting their nails done". They do nothing all day and are using these hand-outs for what is most definitely a luxury! It's more than a little irksome, it's downright insulting. The Battlers work all week and slip in to the pub on a Friday arvo for a well earned ale to see the bludgers already sitting there on their 3rd beer having earning fucking nothing! That's enough to piss anyone off.
The LNP understand this and are playing right to it. They're buying the support of working class by slamming those are causing such an offense. They're not actually making it easier for the working class, just throwing a little band at the problem instead. What most people don't see is the 6 billion dollar tax dodge by multinational companies operating in Australia. That's 6 billion that could be pumped into our economy! Why aren't the LNP, or any party for that matter, supporting a close on those loopholes? My guess is visibility. I don't head down to my local for a swift pint and see Mr Multinational CEO sitting in the corner sipping on a cognac while putting a few thousand bucks on the Keno. Sure when I read about it in the news I get pissed off but that anger diminishes fairly quickly without the constant reminder.
I'm all for fixing our welfare system. Fixing it does not mean putting a hard limit on the time people can draw on the dole because the reality is some people need it. Fixing it is initiatives that encourage education. Fixing it would be ensuring they don't spend it on shit like $200 haircuts. A random idea, how about a dole card instead of a dole payment. A card that only works at supermarkets (exlcuding cigarettes and alcohol), clothing stores, bill payments, etc. Don't make it all work and no play, they still can get a bit of spending cash but I don't see why dole bludgers should be sending their kids to school in hand me down clothes while they sit at home watching $120 a month premium subscription TV packages! Priorities people! There's probably flaws in that plan too but it's something far more workable that a time limit.
See? It's a subject that's in our faces and easy to get emotional about. I'm ranting about it again and it's not even the point of my blog. The point of my blog is this. Logic before emotion. The welfare system can and is being be rorted, but not all welfare recipients are doing that. The tax system can and is being rorted and all the companies doing that are doing so on purpose. Don't screw over the people who need welfare just to get back at a few jerks. Instead, fix the welfare system, go hard on the multinational tax dodgers and invest a shit load into Aussie schools.
Cock-a-doodle-doooo.
Sunday, July 24, 2016
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
The close
Last footy blog I promise...until next year. Just a recap of my preseason predictions to see how I went.
Adelaide, Hawks or Sydney would be premiership contenders. Sydney finished 4th on the ladder. Hawks finished 1st and won the grand final to boot. Adelaide sucked balls :P I suspect it may take them some time to get their shit together but they won't really show much in 2014.
GWS and Gold Coast...Well the Suns won 8 matches. Very damn good I think. So much talent there. GWS didnt fare so well and I was hoping for a better 2014 from them but I think they may have just traded out too much talent in the post season trade period. They have some good draft picks and picked up some more experienced players but I'm a little concern they sacrificed talent for experience and while it will have short term gains it might not get them where they want to be in the next few years. Gold Coast Suns on the other hand are shaping up excellently and I reckon will nip at finals play next year.
Carlton made the finals on a technicality and then failed to do anything with the opportunity. Mr Malthouse has made some serious decisions about the player list and culled some of the underperformers. Should be good for the club.
Of Essendon, Brisbane and North Melbourne only Essendon did any good but as the wheels fell off the cart at the end of the season the AFL stepped in and banned them for finals....not for drugs, but for governance. A rant for another time perhaps. North Melbourne still play great footy but can't get the job done. Brissy finished strong, but all 3 teams finished just outside the 8.
Fremantle finished 3rd on the ladder and knocked out Sydney to play in the grand final. Good showing but I really can't stand their style of play so I'm glad they didn't win. Richmond came home strong and played finals, only to choke early. They had a lot of positives from this season and hopefully they can use them to build into the next. Bulldogs played with heart and lost. Bit of a shame but I think there's enough going on their to keep fans interested.
Port Adelaide is a real underdog story. From their shit performances last year they rose from the ashes and won 12 matches this season and then managed to charge their way through some serious finals games. They got knocked out towards the end but the club should really be celebrating the massive turn around in effort and performance. Melbourne...still suck! They picked up a master in Paul Roos as the new coach. Very few people could turn around this club but he may be one of them. For the good of the game I hope he can.
Collingwood and Geelong played finals, West Coast and St Kilda didnt. WC and St K should continue to build but I don't expect much from them for a while. Geelong continue to surprise. Their faith in the young players really pays off and after the season ended they let go a lot of senior talent. It would seem like a risk for anyone but Geelong who just seem to go from strength to strength. Collingwood had disciplinary issues with a few of its players really not being team focused. They were hot and cold but mostly got the job done. The culled hard after the season and are trying build a real club oriented team. I think they'll continue to play hot and cold while they do.
So all round I think my predictions were ok. Most of it was pretty much on the money. Shame my dream team couldn't be as successful ;)
Adelaide, Hawks or Sydney would be premiership contenders. Sydney finished 4th on the ladder. Hawks finished 1st and won the grand final to boot. Adelaide sucked balls :P I suspect it may take them some time to get their shit together but they won't really show much in 2014.
GWS and Gold Coast...Well the Suns won 8 matches. Very damn good I think. So much talent there. GWS didnt fare so well and I was hoping for a better 2014 from them but I think they may have just traded out too much talent in the post season trade period. They have some good draft picks and picked up some more experienced players but I'm a little concern they sacrificed talent for experience and while it will have short term gains it might not get them where they want to be in the next few years. Gold Coast Suns on the other hand are shaping up excellently and I reckon will nip at finals play next year.
Carlton made the finals on a technicality and then failed to do anything with the opportunity. Mr Malthouse has made some serious decisions about the player list and culled some of the underperformers. Should be good for the club.
Of Essendon, Brisbane and North Melbourne only Essendon did any good but as the wheels fell off the cart at the end of the season the AFL stepped in and banned them for finals....not for drugs, but for governance. A rant for another time perhaps. North Melbourne still play great footy but can't get the job done. Brissy finished strong, but all 3 teams finished just outside the 8.
Fremantle finished 3rd on the ladder and knocked out Sydney to play in the grand final. Good showing but I really can't stand their style of play so I'm glad they didn't win. Richmond came home strong and played finals, only to choke early. They had a lot of positives from this season and hopefully they can use them to build into the next. Bulldogs played with heart and lost. Bit of a shame but I think there's enough going on their to keep fans interested.
Port Adelaide is a real underdog story. From their shit performances last year they rose from the ashes and won 12 matches this season and then managed to charge their way through some serious finals games. They got knocked out towards the end but the club should really be celebrating the massive turn around in effort and performance. Melbourne...still suck! They picked up a master in Paul Roos as the new coach. Very few people could turn around this club but he may be one of them. For the good of the game I hope he can.
Collingwood and Geelong played finals, West Coast and St Kilda didnt. WC and St K should continue to build but I don't expect much from them for a while. Geelong continue to surprise. Their faith in the young players really pays off and after the season ended they let go a lot of senior talent. It would seem like a risk for anyone but Geelong who just seem to go from strength to strength. Collingwood had disciplinary issues with a few of its players really not being team focused. They were hot and cold but mostly got the job done. The culled hard after the season and are trying build a real club oriented team. I think they'll continue to play hot and cold while they do.
So all round I think my predictions were ok. Most of it was pretty much on the money. Shame my dream team couldn't be as successful ;)
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Our boys who play this grand old game...
It's been long enough and I'm finally going to wade into the Essendon drug scandal. I've resisted it previously for a number of reasons. Firstly they are my favourite team and any defence of their position by myself may be misconstrued as biased. But most importantly there haven't been enough facts available to the public to make any clear judgement one way or the other. Not that that hasn't stopped thousands of evil hearted, brain dead, butt licking, dog fucking....sorry, calming myself now....there may be some outbursts during this post. So thousands of people have decided to act judge and jury without facts and condemn a team; its staff, its players, its fans, and publicly cry for what they consider justice in the form of sanctions, fines, stripping the players and team of accolades and evening banning them all from the competition. I do that often. I decide that facts aren't important and that all decisions on the lives of other human beings should be made on a hate filled whim. Oh no wait, I don't. COZ I'M NOT A FUCKING TWAT!
So here are the facts as they have been revealed over the course of the investigations. They DO NOT add up to a verdict but they paint a pretty clear picture of what went on and should prove to anyone who doesn't have their head up their arse that the Essendon players are not some lowlife miscreants out to destroy the integrity of the game. I'll list a bit of hearsay in here as well as when coupled with known facts it paints a clearer picture.
Hearsay - Stephen Dank, former Sports Scientist for Essendon, has claimed since the scandal broke that he acted within the guidelines provided to him and that neither he nor the Essendon football club has done anything wrong.
Fact - WADA stated AOD-964 has been banned under category S0 since 2011.
Fact - WADA does NOT provide advice directly to sporting clubs, they defer this responsibility to governing bodies within each country.
Fact - Jobe Watson admitted to signing the consent form for AOD-964 and believed that it was administered to him during 2012
Fact (and this is where it gets a little messy but also the most interesting) - The ACC has officially stated that during 2012 the operational advice provided by ASADA was that AOD-964 was NOT a prohibited substance under category S2. They also state that during 2012 this advice was provided to a number of officials including members of the AFL community.
So right here you can see some conflict. WADA says it's banned, but clubs can't ask them. They have to ask ASADA. And if you asked ASADA during 2012 they said it was not prohibited under category S2. They make no mention of category S0. So how is the club to know WADA has banned the substance if ASADA is not providing that information? ASADA is THE authoritative source for this information in Australia. They are the ONLY place sporting teams can turn to for this kind of advice and there is factual evidence from the Australian Crime Commission that they have screwed up. When I heard this news I was freaking ecstatic. I wanted to run into the pub where I overheard a guy was telling his mate never to tip Essendon because they were drug taking cheaters and yell "TAKE THAT COCK SMOKER!". I wanted to go to Perth and line up the West Coast fans who booed Jobe Watson before they knew the facts and yell "TAKE YA HEAD OUT OF YA ARSE AND JAM THAT UP YA! SIDEWAYS!". And I still wanna spout this information to all the douchebags on Twitter every time Essendon play and they start tweeting misinformed vitriol and sign of my posts with the hash tag #FUCKINGL2READ, but I only have 140 characters. The investigation isn't concluded just yet so there may be more facts that come to light, but I can't see that evidence changing the situation much unless it directly contradicts evidence previously given. But the evidence seems to support Dank's hearsay that he acted within the guidelines he was officially provided with. I can't see any fair resolution to this situation that results in penalties for the club or it's players. But it seems fairness is not what people are after in this investigation...
A number of current and former players have come forward and said they trust the advice given to them by the team doctors implicitly. They are encouraged to do this by the AFL Committee itself. Those doctors are to receive advice on the legality of supplements from the ASADA as the authoritative source of such information. So this could have happened to ANY player who was playing for ANY team who's doctor had requested such advice during 2012. This could have happened to YOUR players for YOUR team without them having any control over the situation. Does that not make them victims? It could have happened to a number of teams and if it was your team in this horrendous situation, how would you feel then? People need to think a little before they judge. Firstly, they shouldn't judge people without all the facts. Secondly, they are judging real people here; people with feelings and people with families. Are you really the sort of person that wants to hurt them only to find out later you were wrong?
So here are the facts as they have been revealed over the course of the investigations. They DO NOT add up to a verdict but they paint a pretty clear picture of what went on and should prove to anyone who doesn't have their head up their arse that the Essendon players are not some lowlife miscreants out to destroy the integrity of the game. I'll list a bit of hearsay in here as well as when coupled with known facts it paints a clearer picture.
Hearsay - Stephen Dank, former Sports Scientist for Essendon, has claimed since the scandal broke that he acted within the guidelines provided to him and that neither he nor the Essendon football club has done anything wrong.
Fact - WADA stated AOD-964 has been banned under category S0 since 2011.
Fact - WADA does NOT provide advice directly to sporting clubs, they defer this responsibility to governing bodies within each country.
Fact - Jobe Watson admitted to signing the consent form for AOD-964 and believed that it was administered to him during 2012
Fact (and this is where it gets a little messy but also the most interesting) - The ACC has officially stated that during 2012 the operational advice provided by ASADA was that AOD-964 was NOT a prohibited substance under category S2. They also state that during 2012 this advice was provided to a number of officials including members of the AFL community.
So right here you can see some conflict. WADA says it's banned, but clubs can't ask them. They have to ask ASADA. And if you asked ASADA during 2012 they said it was not prohibited under category S2. They make no mention of category S0. So how is the club to know WADA has banned the substance if ASADA is not providing that information? ASADA is THE authoritative source for this information in Australia. They are the ONLY place sporting teams can turn to for this kind of advice and there is factual evidence from the Australian Crime Commission that they have screwed up. When I heard this news I was freaking ecstatic. I wanted to run into the pub where I overheard a guy was telling his mate never to tip Essendon because they were drug taking cheaters and yell "TAKE THAT COCK SMOKER!". I wanted to go to Perth and line up the West Coast fans who booed Jobe Watson before they knew the facts and yell "TAKE YA HEAD OUT OF YA ARSE AND JAM THAT UP YA! SIDEWAYS!". And I still wanna spout this information to all the douchebags on Twitter every time Essendon play and they start tweeting misinformed vitriol and sign of my posts with the hash tag #FUCKINGL2READ, but I only have 140 characters. The investigation isn't concluded just yet so there may be more facts that come to light, but I can't see that evidence changing the situation much unless it directly contradicts evidence previously given. But the evidence seems to support Dank's hearsay that he acted within the guidelines he was officially provided with. I can't see any fair resolution to this situation that results in penalties for the club or it's players. But it seems fairness is not what people are after in this investigation...
A number of current and former players have come forward and said they trust the advice given to them by the team doctors implicitly. They are encouraged to do this by the AFL Committee itself. Those doctors are to receive advice on the legality of supplements from the ASADA as the authoritative source of such information. So this could have happened to ANY player who was playing for ANY team who's doctor had requested such advice during 2012. This could have happened to YOUR players for YOUR team without them having any control over the situation. Does that not make them victims? It could have happened to a number of teams and if it was your team in this horrendous situation, how would you feel then? People need to think a little before they judge. Firstly, they shouldn't judge people without all the facts. Secondly, they are judging real people here; people with feelings and people with families. Are you really the sort of person that wants to hurt them only to find out later you were wrong?
Friday, June 14, 2013
The sight for the blind
It's coming up round 12 of the 23 round AFL season and I've been holding off for ages to report back on my start of year predictions. There's still plenty of footy to be played and a lot of question marks over the performance of a larger than usual number of teams. So here goes the mid season report....
Prediction: Adelaide, Hawthorn or Sydney as prime Premiership contenders
So far I've been spot on with this one. Both Hawks and Swans had unimpressive but effective starts and now look extremely dominant coming into the second half. As much as I hate Sydney they look the most potent on field but either team could win it on the day. They've already played each other in Rnd 7 and Hawks had their number that day. Adelaide also had a bumpy start but seemed to get their shit together around Rnd 6 (loss to Hawks but they played well and went on to string more wins together after that). As of the last couple of weeks their form has just gone out the window. They sit 10th on the ladder and were completely smashed off the park by Sydney last round. Their big guns need to step up.
Prediction: GWS and GCS improve with final prospects by 2014
Again, spot on. GWS are still winless but are winning more quarters of footy as the year goes on. They also have a higher percentage than Melbourne despite being last on the ladder on points. GCS sit at 12th on the ladder with a win/loss record of 5 and 6. Both teams have actually put in a scare into a couple of the top teams, matching them and even leading for parts of games but falling off towards the end. With more conditioning that will be a thing off the past. Looking at GCS run home, the majority of games are against lower teams. Could they even nip at the bottom of the 8 for finals this year? We all like an underdog so I want to see it happen. Either way, next year will be very very interesting.
Fence sitting: Carlton may or may not improve depending on if the players can get motivated.
Numbers-wise they're doing slightly better than last year but there's still a lot of critics that say the comparison to the coach-firing performances of last year are still too close. I think they look better on field and their potential is looking up but hey still aren't the dominating force they need to be. They're sitting at 7 on the ladder but could easily be bumped out. I'm still on the fence as to whether they suck or not :p
Prediction: Brisbane, Essendon or North Melbourne will improve and play finals
I predicted 1 or maybe 2 of these teams would play finals. Essendon are sitting up 4th on the ladder despite the still ongoing drug investigation in which neither the players nor the public are any wiser on the fate of the club or its personnel. It was said in the media that the scandal seems to have united the players and it would seem the on field performances has confirmed this. They'll play finals. Brisbane have completely bombed with only 3 wins for the season and with coaches contract set to end at the end of the season there is obviously a lot of speculation over whether they'll renew. Might be time for a rebuild of both team and staff. North Melbourne would have to be the most frustrating team to be a fan of right now. They've won 4 matches and of the 7 they've lost, 3 of them have been by less than 4 points. The team often has a lead going into the final quarter only to lose the match, sometimes in rather dramatic fashion. It's like they have the yips. They definitely have skill as they've taken it to some of the top teams but they have something going on, either team culture or mental preparedness, that means they just can't get over the line.
Prediction: Fremantle, Western Bulldogs and Richmond are exciting and 2 of these teams should play finals
Kinda tanked this prediction. Fremantle are sitting 5th and playing solid footy with a very high work rate. They deserve the position and should make the finals very interesting. Richmond and Bulldogs have both played exciting footy but Bulldogs have very little in the way of consistency and are sitting on only 3 wins at 14th on the ladder. Richmond are also inconsistent but have wrestled up 6 wins putting them just outside the 8. I still enjoy watching them both play when they are switched on as they play a nice brand of footy but they'll need to put in a lot more effort to be contenders. Richmond's season isn't over yet but they will need to improve if they want to make their way into the 8. Bulldogs should be looking to get some experience under the belt to play better in 2014.
Prediction: Port Adelaide and Melbourne will continue to suck
...and they do. Melbourne have had only 1 win against GWS and continue to get thoroughly embarassed on a weekly basis. The club has been out of form for the better part of a decade, the shit hit the fan some time ago and it's not just a matter of seeing how many people were standing in front of the fan to figure out who stays and who goes at all levels of the club. Just before publishing this post, the President of Melbourne resigned. Port Adelaide have made a number of changes during the off season including President and Coach which resulting in a unbeaten run of 5 games at the start of the season. They back it up with 5 losses in a row and now again are mentioned in hushed tones by the footy community. I suspect things will get worse for them before they get better but they won't get anywhere near the depths Melbourne have discovered.
Prediction: Geelong, St Kilda, West Coast, Collingwood will need to rebuild but may pad out the 8
West Coast and Collingwood are both having a rough season. They're both in the 8 but injuries have tested their depth and discovered it rather shallow. As such they're in a bit of a win some/lose some holding pattern. If the likes of Richmond and Nth Melbourne can get their shit together we could see them push these teams out of finals contention. St Kilda have bombed out totally and sit 16th on the ladder. Geelong are the real surprise. They're sitting atop the ladder and look very very dangerous. Somehow they're managing to rebuild while playing amazing footy with their newest inclusions stepping up almost immediately and with their veterans turning back the clock and playing with amazing vigor. It's a real credit to the player management group at that club and I suspect it will be a model a lot of team will try to replicate over the next decade.
So all in all, not too shabby. I hedged a few bets of course but really only Geelong and Adelaide have put me off whack. Will recap again at the end of the season to see how I fare over the 2nd half.
Prediction: Adelaide, Hawthorn or Sydney as prime Premiership contenders
So far I've been spot on with this one. Both Hawks and Swans had unimpressive but effective starts and now look extremely dominant coming into the second half. As much as I hate Sydney they look the most potent on field but either team could win it on the day. They've already played each other in Rnd 7 and Hawks had their number that day. Adelaide also had a bumpy start but seemed to get their shit together around Rnd 6 (loss to Hawks but they played well and went on to string more wins together after that). As of the last couple of weeks their form has just gone out the window. They sit 10th on the ladder and were completely smashed off the park by Sydney last round. Their big guns need to step up.
Prediction: GWS and GCS improve with final prospects by 2014
Again, spot on. GWS are still winless but are winning more quarters of footy as the year goes on. They also have a higher percentage than Melbourne despite being last on the ladder on points. GCS sit at 12th on the ladder with a win/loss record of 5 and 6. Both teams have actually put in a scare into a couple of the top teams, matching them and even leading for parts of games but falling off towards the end. With more conditioning that will be a thing off the past. Looking at GCS run home, the majority of games are against lower teams. Could they even nip at the bottom of the 8 for finals this year? We all like an underdog so I want to see it happen. Either way, next year will be very very interesting.
Fence sitting: Carlton may or may not improve depending on if the players can get motivated.
Numbers-wise they're doing slightly better than last year but there's still a lot of critics that say the comparison to the coach-firing performances of last year are still too close. I think they look better on field and their potential is looking up but hey still aren't the dominating force they need to be. They're sitting at 7 on the ladder but could easily be bumped out. I'm still on the fence as to whether they suck or not :p
Prediction: Brisbane, Essendon or North Melbourne will improve and play finals
I predicted 1 or maybe 2 of these teams would play finals. Essendon are sitting up 4th on the ladder despite the still ongoing drug investigation in which neither the players nor the public are any wiser on the fate of the club or its personnel. It was said in the media that the scandal seems to have united the players and it would seem the on field performances has confirmed this. They'll play finals. Brisbane have completely bombed with only 3 wins for the season and with coaches contract set to end at the end of the season there is obviously a lot of speculation over whether they'll renew. Might be time for a rebuild of both team and staff. North Melbourne would have to be the most frustrating team to be a fan of right now. They've won 4 matches and of the 7 they've lost, 3 of them have been by less than 4 points. The team often has a lead going into the final quarter only to lose the match, sometimes in rather dramatic fashion. It's like they have the yips. They definitely have skill as they've taken it to some of the top teams but they have something going on, either team culture or mental preparedness, that means they just can't get over the line.
Prediction: Fremantle, Western Bulldogs and Richmond are exciting and 2 of these teams should play finals
Kinda tanked this prediction. Fremantle are sitting 5th and playing solid footy with a very high work rate. They deserve the position and should make the finals very interesting. Richmond and Bulldogs have both played exciting footy but Bulldogs have very little in the way of consistency and are sitting on only 3 wins at 14th on the ladder. Richmond are also inconsistent but have wrestled up 6 wins putting them just outside the 8. I still enjoy watching them both play when they are switched on as they play a nice brand of footy but they'll need to put in a lot more effort to be contenders. Richmond's season isn't over yet but they will need to improve if they want to make their way into the 8. Bulldogs should be looking to get some experience under the belt to play better in 2014.
Prediction: Port Adelaide and Melbourne will continue to suck
...and they do. Melbourne have had only 1 win against GWS and continue to get thoroughly embarassed on a weekly basis. The club has been out of form for the better part of a decade, the shit hit the fan some time ago and it's not just a matter of seeing how many people were standing in front of the fan to figure out who stays and who goes at all levels of the club. Just before publishing this post, the President of Melbourne resigned. Port Adelaide have made a number of changes during the off season including President and Coach which resulting in a unbeaten run of 5 games at the start of the season. They back it up with 5 losses in a row and now again are mentioned in hushed tones by the footy community. I suspect things will get worse for them before they get better but they won't get anywhere near the depths Melbourne have discovered.
Prediction: Geelong, St Kilda, West Coast, Collingwood will need to rebuild but may pad out the 8
West Coast and Collingwood are both having a rough season. They're both in the 8 but injuries have tested their depth and discovered it rather shallow. As such they're in a bit of a win some/lose some holding pattern. If the likes of Richmond and Nth Melbourne can get their shit together we could see them push these teams out of finals contention. St Kilda have bombed out totally and sit 16th on the ladder. Geelong are the real surprise. They're sitting atop the ladder and look very very dangerous. Somehow they're managing to rebuild while playing amazing footy with their newest inclusions stepping up almost immediately and with their veterans turning back the clock and playing with amazing vigor. It's a real credit to the player management group at that club and I suspect it will be a model a lot of team will try to replicate over the next decade.
So all in all, not too shabby. I hedged a few bets of course but really only Geelong and Adelaide have put me off whack. Will recap again at the end of the season to see how I fare over the 2nd half.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Unzip him, Mr. B! Unzip HIM!
All is good on the gaming front. Sure it's not going as planned and in fact it's probably going backwards but I'm happy with the progress in the wrong direction that I am taking ;) Like a lot of people I know I have a huge backlog of games that I've purchase and not played. I think at last check I'd only played 38% of the 154 games I'd bought. I made some headway on that and then bought another 30 games. I also set up my spare PC to run with the TV as a monitor and use a wireless game controller so I could play a heap of those games in a more comfortable setting. Then I downloaded emulators for a dozen consoles or older pcs that I've played throughout my lifetime, spent a few days pouring through online game libraries identifying and acquiring every game I can every remember playing on those platforms. Then when I started to play em I found the menuing systems (or complete lack of) for every emulator to be inadequate or annoying when trying to control with a game controller so I spent 2 weeks learning Java FX and writing Smooth Navigator. The app now works but tbh I've been slack on taking the final steps of setting up default configurations I like for the emulators so it's still annoying to play the games. I'll finish it one day and when I do my game backlog will quadruple ;)
Speaking of not finishing things, I played Bioshock (the first one) and almost enjoyed it and almost finished it. I shall now don flame retardant clothing and review it (spoilers will also ensue) ....
I started playing this game and found it awesome. Set in a dystopian underwater society, run by power hungry mad men and populated by insane, genetically enhanced citizens it wasn't long before I was having a blast running around smashing heads with wrenches and getting genetic enhancements of my own. The world was gritty and atmospheric and the populace amplified that feel with their mildly humorous and often disturbing actions and dialog. When I watched one of them attack and slap a pony tailed little girl only to then be smashed up against a wall by the girls burly protector and have a large drill rammed into his face I immediately thought "shit just got heavy". The game would continue in this vain with the player encountering different classes of enemies and having to choose whether to destroy or free the Little Sisters (the aforementioned child) who have been enslaved and are working dark purposes for unseen benefactors. There's a few major players in the game all adding their own perspectives, truths and lies to the ongoing story and it really is an enjoyable, albeit dark, experience. As a guy who really likes a dark game Bioshock should have been perfect match for me. So here comes the foreseeable but...
...some of the game design choices really detract from the experience. A minor complaint is the number of buttons required to generate effective combat. Different weapons, different ammo types for each weapon, different genetic alterations, movement controls, reload button, hack robots button, interact button (useful for health stations); there was just so much that could possibly be going on. It wasn't an issue until later in the game when enemies became more difficult and the different classes were often combined in a way that required different techniques (enhancement and ammo combinations) to more effectively dispatch of them that became a bit of a cluster. It wasn't extreme but it detracted a bit regardless. It's not that I don't like difficult games, its just that making a game difficult by requiring a player to grow 2 extra fingers feels like a bit of a cheat on the developers behalf.
I think the major issue for myself was with a simple game mechanic that I suspect was designed to keep the game flowing but instead kept me detached from the game. You rarely get to see any of the major players in the game face to face, with most of the interaction coming over radios or from tape recorded journals. As opposed to jarring or often boring cut-scenes, the developers went for audio story telling which occurs while the game continues to roll on. I nearly quit very early in the game when I received my second genetic enhancement and had no idea how to use it because the auditory instructions were missed among my frantic ducking for cover from a grenade lobbing enemy. This continued throughout the game. I'd clear a room or area before triggering an event only to have that event launch some aural progression of the story line and spawn a number of enemies at the same time. Of course the game gives the option to play back the messages but that just left me standing in a pool of bodies while someone rambled about something that may or may not have been important, fearing to continue the game lest I miss the message for the second time. So I soon gave play back the flick and found myself often following 1 sentence hints from my journal rather than feeling any sort of investment in the game or the characters within it. In the end I just felt like I was doing random and possibly pointless quests in a rather cool landscape. So when I finally got to the end boss I had one go at killing him, got beaten when he was at half health and then just watched the game ending on youtube. It's kind of sad that I didn't feel like I missed out on anything by finishing the game in that way. I have the sequel but I'm not in a rush to play it.
Speaking of not finishing things, I played Bioshock (the first one) and almost enjoyed it and almost finished it. I shall now don flame retardant clothing and review it (spoilers will also ensue) ....
I started playing this game and found it awesome. Set in a dystopian underwater society, run by power hungry mad men and populated by insane, genetically enhanced citizens it wasn't long before I was having a blast running around smashing heads with wrenches and getting genetic enhancements of my own. The world was gritty and atmospheric and the populace amplified that feel with their mildly humorous and often disturbing actions and dialog. When I watched one of them attack and slap a pony tailed little girl only to then be smashed up against a wall by the girls burly protector and have a large drill rammed into his face I immediately thought "shit just got heavy". The game would continue in this vain with the player encountering different classes of enemies and having to choose whether to destroy or free the Little Sisters (the aforementioned child) who have been enslaved and are working dark purposes for unseen benefactors. There's a few major players in the game all adding their own perspectives, truths and lies to the ongoing story and it really is an enjoyable, albeit dark, experience. As a guy who really likes a dark game Bioshock should have been perfect match for me. So here comes the foreseeable but...
...some of the game design choices really detract from the experience. A minor complaint is the number of buttons required to generate effective combat. Different weapons, different ammo types for each weapon, different genetic alterations, movement controls, reload button, hack robots button, interact button (useful for health stations); there was just so much that could possibly be going on. It wasn't an issue until later in the game when enemies became more difficult and the different classes were often combined in a way that required different techniques (enhancement and ammo combinations) to more effectively dispatch of them that became a bit of a cluster. It wasn't extreme but it detracted a bit regardless. It's not that I don't like difficult games, its just that making a game difficult by requiring a player to grow 2 extra fingers feels like a bit of a cheat on the developers behalf.
I think the major issue for myself was with a simple game mechanic that I suspect was designed to keep the game flowing but instead kept me detached from the game. You rarely get to see any of the major players in the game face to face, with most of the interaction coming over radios or from tape recorded journals. As opposed to jarring or often boring cut-scenes, the developers went for audio story telling which occurs while the game continues to roll on. I nearly quit very early in the game when I received my second genetic enhancement and had no idea how to use it because the auditory instructions were missed among my frantic ducking for cover from a grenade lobbing enemy. This continued throughout the game. I'd clear a room or area before triggering an event only to have that event launch some aural progression of the story line and spawn a number of enemies at the same time. Of course the game gives the option to play back the messages but that just left me standing in a pool of bodies while someone rambled about something that may or may not have been important, fearing to continue the game lest I miss the message for the second time. So I soon gave play back the flick and found myself often following 1 sentence hints from my journal rather than feeling any sort of investment in the game or the characters within it. In the end I just felt like I was doing random and possibly pointless quests in a rather cool landscape. So when I finally got to the end boss I had one go at killing him, got beaten when he was at half health and then just watched the game ending on youtube. It's kind of sad that I didn't feel like I missed out on anything by finishing the game in that way. I have the sequel but I'm not in a rush to play it.
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Will see if this post works. Another night in with awesome music...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgpbIPQl7CA
Hit play and close your eyes. Let the music take you where it will.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgpbIPQl7CA
Hit play and close your eyes. Let the music take you where it will.
Friday, May 31, 2013
I don't know how to take this song...
...but it's easily one of the best songs I've ever heard. So a dude walks into a bar and for once it's not a joke. He's a midnight watchman, a night security guard in modern parlance, who props up at a bar to have a quiet drink. The bar girl, not a stunner, just the friendly type, see's the watchman is mulling over something of significance and asks what is on his mind. Initially he ignores her but she shows genuine concern and he starts to open up. He relates a tale, a sad tale, of himself meeting a girl in a diner. The girl has no place in a run down diner, she's way too beautiful, way too classy. Now the watchman is not a handsome man and he has nothing special to offer the opposite sex, but he decides he has nothing to lose and attempts to strike up a conversation. At first she is silent, aloof, and then when he's about to give up she speaks. "If you want me to come with you then that's alright with me, 'cause I know I'm going nowhere and anywhere is a better place to be."
She goes to the watchman's room and the usual progression between man and woman occurs. To the watchman it's everything he has ever wanted, this is his dream girl, some angel who has blessed his lowly existence. But the woman insists the light remains off and when he attempts to tell her how much the evening means to him she tell him to shush and says "I know just how you feel".
The next morning he wakes early and goes out to buy food for breakfast to treat his new found love. When he returns she is gone and there is a simple letter saying "It's time that I moved on." The story moves back to the present, the watchman is staring in his drink and the barmaid is wiping away a tear at the sad tale she has just heard. The barmaid confesses that she isn't much of a looker but she feels for the watchman and would like to spend some time with him, if he will accept her. She says they share the gift of emptiness. The watchman smiles sadly and repeats the line he has heard previously... "If you want me to come with you then that's alright with me, 'cause I know I'm going nowhere and anywhere's a better place to be".
Now I think this is tale of loneliness and people finding others in that loneliness and sharing moments that ease the that pain. At least I think it's what the song is supposed to mean and on that grounds I think it's one of the most amazing songs ever written. Yet there's a part of me that doesn't trust the watchman. It's probably a flaw on my part but I sometimes suspect he's dodgy. Is there really an amazing woman he met in a diner? Or is it some elaborate pick up line which makes the barmaid feel sorry for him? I think I know that the authors intent was in that shared loneliness but there's just something about his story that makes me feel he is lying. It seems the woman are the victims in this story, not the watchman as is probably the intent. I dunno, maybe it's just my cynical interpretation.
She goes to the watchman's room and the usual progression between man and woman occurs. To the watchman it's everything he has ever wanted, this is his dream girl, some angel who has blessed his lowly existence. But the woman insists the light remains off and when he attempts to tell her how much the evening means to him she tell him to shush and says "I know just how you feel".
The next morning he wakes early and goes out to buy food for breakfast to treat his new found love. When he returns she is gone and there is a simple letter saying "It's time that I moved on." The story moves back to the present, the watchman is staring in his drink and the barmaid is wiping away a tear at the sad tale she has just heard. The barmaid confesses that she isn't much of a looker but she feels for the watchman and would like to spend some time with him, if he will accept her. She says they share the gift of emptiness. The watchman smiles sadly and repeats the line he has heard previously... "If you want me to come with you then that's alright with me, 'cause I know I'm going nowhere and anywhere's a better place to be".
Now I think this is tale of loneliness and people finding others in that loneliness and sharing moments that ease the that pain. At least I think it's what the song is supposed to mean and on that grounds I think it's one of the most amazing songs ever written. Yet there's a part of me that doesn't trust the watchman. It's probably a flaw on my part but I sometimes suspect he's dodgy. Is there really an amazing woman he met in a diner? Or is it some elaborate pick up line which makes the barmaid feel sorry for him? I think I know that the authors intent was in that shared loneliness but there's just something about his story that makes me feel he is lying. It seems the woman are the victims in this story, not the watchman as is probably the intent. I dunno, maybe it's just my cynical interpretation.
Saturday, March 30, 2013
W00T! Footy season has started. I'm a bit of a fanatic. Last year I averaged watching 5 of the 9 games each week as well as about 7+ hrs each of AFL related news, talk and stats shows. I even signed up to Twitter so I can tweet out at teams/players/coaches/other fans on game day. It's a commitment, but it's a commitment that involves beer so I'm usually happy to make it. I'm probably also gonna blog about it a fair bit during the season. Lets start with what I think of how each team will shape up during 2013.
Adelaide, Hawthorn and Sydney should all do well this year. I won't be making any predictions for Premiers but any one of these teams could be in the running. Hawthorn and Sydney played off in the Grand Final last year but I haven't liked what I've seen of either team in the preseason. Sydney just beat GWS but it wasn't the hiding it could have been and the Hawks injury list is long. Adelaide could make a showing as on paper they have a good team but have yet to show any real Premiership talent. If they sort their shit they are probably the best teams in the league and they should all be playing finals footy.
GWS and Gold Coast are the new kids on the block. GWS started off their AFL careers much better than GCS despite being introduced a year later and they're both now on par with each other. I like both teams as stars are emerging from their young talent pools quite quickly. Neither are likely to hit the finals, but are great to watch. I expect even more improvement from both and I think 2014 will see at least one of them take part in a finals match.
There's been a lot of people watching Carlton very closely. Last year the team just wouldn't perform and everyone blamed the coach. So he got fired and they brought in legendary coach Mick Malthouse. For the Blues the preseason was extremely important. Mick brought in a new game plan and the team had to learn how to execute it before round 1. It would seem they managed to pull this off and have performed well but if Thursday nights match is anything to go by they may end up still sucking. Essentially its up to the team. If they perform they can win and make finals. If they don't they'll probably hide behind the fact they haven't learned the new game plan yet. Perhaps their new captain can help.
Brisbane, Essendon and North Melbourne all have the potential to play finals. I suspect 1 or maybe 2 of these 3 teams will. North Melbourne really sparked at the end of last year and then choked in the first round of finals. They have the potential and are playing for pride. Brisbane didn't fare so well last year but had some old talent stand up and some new talent emerge . They also played hard and won the preseason competition. My beloved Dons had a ripper start and a shameful end to 2012, missing out on finals altogether. In the off season the delisted quite a number of under performing veterans and semi-seasoned players, purchased some talent and brought some very talented rookies into the senior side. Then they got roped into a so far unsubstantiated drug scandal. Their win against Adelaide in Rnd 1 may have silenced some critics. Time will tell for all 3 teams
I'm very exited about Fremantle, Richmond and Western Bulldogs this year. All 3 teams have some significant talent and are working on building a winning culture. I think 2 of these 3 teams could easily be playing finals this year. Bulldogs we dominant in their Rnd 1 win over Brisbane, beating them all over the ground. If they can maintain that level of intensity then a spot in the final 8 is theirs. On paper, Richmond have a brilliant team, with 2 players being ranked in the top 10 of the entire league before the bounce on Rnd 1, yet they landed 12th on the ladder last year. Beating a late surging Carlton in Rnd 1 might give them all the confidence they need to pull out the stops this year. Fremantle dispatched old rivals West Coast in Rnd 1 which shows their inclusion in 2012 finals proceedings was no mistake and they may have in fact tapped into that winning mindset. I'll watch all 3 teams with anticipation.
Port Adelaide and Melbourne suck. The players don't want to win. Coaches are screaming themselves hoarse on game day then getting trounced by the media come Monday. But really it's hard to care because it's just Melbourne and Port Adelaide. They have no potential and if the AFL had a relegation system I'd be glad to see em drop out of the league. There's a bunch of teams in various state leagues across the country that could beat these guys on an average day so I don't think they deserve to be in the AFL...for now at least.
That leaves us with Collingwood, Geelong, St Kilda and West Coast. All have had good seasons in the past few years, some winning Premierships or at least playing in the Grand Final. I kind of feel these guys have had their day. They are dropping off the pace a little as their seniors retire (or sit out a lot with injury) and the rookies are just learning to step up. Some of these teams will pad out the final 8 but I won't miss them if they don't. They've had a good run but I'm not really excited about them much these days. Rebuild and come back in a few years.
Adelaide, Hawthorn and Sydney should all do well this year. I won't be making any predictions for Premiers but any one of these teams could be in the running. Hawthorn and Sydney played off in the Grand Final last year but I haven't liked what I've seen of either team in the preseason. Sydney just beat GWS but it wasn't the hiding it could have been and the Hawks injury list is long. Adelaide could make a showing as on paper they have a good team but have yet to show any real Premiership talent. If they sort their shit they are probably the best teams in the league and they should all be playing finals footy.
GWS and Gold Coast are the new kids on the block. GWS started off their AFL careers much better than GCS despite being introduced a year later and they're both now on par with each other. I like both teams as stars are emerging from their young talent pools quite quickly. Neither are likely to hit the finals, but are great to watch. I expect even more improvement from both and I think 2014 will see at least one of them take part in a finals match.
There's been a lot of people watching Carlton very closely. Last year the team just wouldn't perform and everyone blamed the coach. So he got fired and they brought in legendary coach Mick Malthouse. For the Blues the preseason was extremely important. Mick brought in a new game plan and the team had to learn how to execute it before round 1. It would seem they managed to pull this off and have performed well but if Thursday nights match is anything to go by they may end up still sucking. Essentially its up to the team. If they perform they can win and make finals. If they don't they'll probably hide behind the fact they haven't learned the new game plan yet. Perhaps their new captain can help.
Brisbane, Essendon and North Melbourne all have the potential to play finals. I suspect 1 or maybe 2 of these 3 teams will. North Melbourne really sparked at the end of last year and then choked in the first round of finals. They have the potential and are playing for pride. Brisbane didn't fare so well last year but had some old talent stand up and some new talent emerge . They also played hard and won the preseason competition. My beloved Dons had a ripper start and a shameful end to 2012, missing out on finals altogether. In the off season the delisted quite a number of under performing veterans and semi-seasoned players, purchased some talent and brought some very talented rookies into the senior side. Then they got roped into a so far unsubstantiated drug scandal. Their win against Adelaide in Rnd 1 may have silenced some critics. Time will tell for all 3 teams
I'm very exited about Fremantle, Richmond and Western Bulldogs this year. All 3 teams have some significant talent and are working on building a winning culture. I think 2 of these 3 teams could easily be playing finals this year. Bulldogs we dominant in their Rnd 1 win over Brisbane, beating them all over the ground. If they can maintain that level of intensity then a spot in the final 8 is theirs. On paper, Richmond have a brilliant team, with 2 players being ranked in the top 10 of the entire league before the bounce on Rnd 1, yet they landed 12th on the ladder last year. Beating a late surging Carlton in Rnd 1 might give them all the confidence they need to pull out the stops this year. Fremantle dispatched old rivals West Coast in Rnd 1 which shows their inclusion in 2012 finals proceedings was no mistake and they may have in fact tapped into that winning mindset. I'll watch all 3 teams with anticipation.
Port Adelaide and Melbourne suck. The players don't want to win. Coaches are screaming themselves hoarse on game day then getting trounced by the media come Monday. But really it's hard to care because it's just Melbourne and Port Adelaide. They have no potential and if the AFL had a relegation system I'd be glad to see em drop out of the league. There's a bunch of teams in various state leagues across the country that could beat these guys on an average day so I don't think they deserve to be in the AFL...for now at least.
That leaves us with Collingwood, Geelong, St Kilda and West Coast. All have had good seasons in the past few years, some winning Premierships or at least playing in the Grand Final. I kind of feel these guys have had their day. They are dropping off the pace a little as their seniors retire (or sit out a lot with injury) and the rookies are just learning to step up. Some of these teams will pad out the final 8 but I won't miss them if they don't. They've had a good run but I'm not really excited about them much these days. Rebuild and come back in a few years.
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Here I come again
Doping and game fixing in Australian sport...hhahaha, was any one surprised by that? I mean it's elite competition with ridiculous amounts of money to be made so some amount of performance enhancing and scamming is to be expected. Not condoned, but definitely expected. So far the ACC still won't name clubs or players and it just all seems a lot of media guff at this point. Give us facts or fuck off with ya bollocks. For all we know some player might had a double dose of his daily multivitamin. But I'm not really concerned with all that at this point. If they have any real info then maybe I'd care. What bothers me, and I hope time will prove me wrong on this, is the inevitable bleeding heart reporter/family group/politician who's about start the debate on whether sportspeople are appropriate role models for our children. This bothers me. As a muso and a metalhead, this sort of thing always bothers me. The rockers I worship have all been through rehabs, been arrested for this or that, have loose morals (according to some) and put out some completely atrocious albums at times (Hi Metallica) but I've stuck with them through most of it. We say that kids have idols, but really EVERYONE has idols regardless of their age, and it's disappointing when they fall short of your expectations. This doesn't make them poor role models, IT MAKES THEM FUCKING HUMAN! What the fuck do these do-gooders want? Straight edge, church going, tree hugging, automatons? We need to accept our idols, warts and all. Our children learn a lot from their idols and from those idols I'd like to see them learn how to deal with mistakes they will make in their lives. THAT'S what makes them good role models. They need to understand that it's ok to fail sometimes and how to move on from these things. Some adults need to understand that too. Check out the graffiti on the wall during the Johnny Cash clip I'll include below. "Sinners make the best Saints". Johnny made plenty of mistakes in his life but he also provided a lot of important social commentary which may be ignored if people don't revere him as a positive role model. Kids are never going to learn these lessons if the media keep slamming our idols for their mistakes and touting that these people make poor role models. Kids identify with these role models. Kids also make mistakes. Keep telling our kids they need to be perfect and they won't be handle their own imperfections. Maybe we should be looking at the effect media has on our kids after the next school shooting?
Johnny Cash - Gods Gonna Cut You Down
I'm not a religious kook but I am a mad fan of The Man In Black ;)
Different topic now...
It's a little behind on last months controversy but I wanna blog about it anyways since it seems to raise its head from time to time and the media gets excited about it all over again. Last month, David Koch (Kochie) mentioned that a woman who was breast feeding on the side of a pool could have been more discreet about it and invoked the rage of mothers Australia wide. I'm a parent and I'm not a Kochie fan....but fark me if isn't right about this one. WTF is it with women insisting they breast feed in public? Shopping centres, restaurants, pools...these are not ideal places to get ya tits out in public! I'm fine with tits out in public but also in appropriate contexts. Summernats, music festivals, beaches, etc. These are the places to flash ya norks, not when you're out doing your groceries. What was that? It's a natural thing? So is taking a dump but you don't see me dropping trow in a pot plant next to the food court in the shopping centre. We've got 2 boys now, both breast fed (one currently) and we've NEVER been in a situation where we've had to breast feed openly in public. There's purpose built fucking rooms for this for fuck sake! I mean sure if there was a situation where the kid was screaming and there was no were private to go, then I'm fine with feeding then. But should be a rare occurrence not par for the course. It's just fucking rude and unnecessary. These women aren't doing it because they have to, they're doing it deliberately and inconsiderately. Next time I see a woman breast feeding in public when there is a perfectly serviceable and private option nearby, I'm going to find the nearest wall and teach my boy how to piss standing up....it's natural after all.
Johnny Cash - Gods Gonna Cut You Down
Different topic now...
It's a little behind on last months controversy but I wanna blog about it anyways since it seems to raise its head from time to time and the media gets excited about it all over again. Last month, David Koch (Kochie) mentioned that a woman who was breast feeding on the side of a pool could have been more discreet about it and invoked the rage of mothers Australia wide. I'm a parent and I'm not a Kochie fan....but fark me if isn't right about this one. WTF is it with women insisting they breast feed in public? Shopping centres, restaurants, pools...these are not ideal places to get ya tits out in public! I'm fine with tits out in public but also in appropriate contexts. Summernats, music festivals, beaches, etc. These are the places to flash ya norks, not when you're out doing your groceries. What was that? It's a natural thing? So is taking a dump but you don't see me dropping trow in a pot plant next to the food court in the shopping centre. We've got 2 boys now, both breast fed (one currently) and we've NEVER been in a situation where we've had to breast feed openly in public. There's purpose built fucking rooms for this for fuck sake! I mean sure if there was a situation where the kid was screaming and there was no were private to go, then I'm fine with feeding then. But should be a rare occurrence not par for the course. It's just fucking rude and unnecessary. These women aren't doing it because they have to, they're doing it deliberately and inconsiderately. Next time I see a woman breast feeding in public when there is a perfectly serviceable and private option nearby, I'm going to find the nearest wall and teach my boy how to piss standing up....it's natural after all.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Still I'm confused
I've been resisting the urge to do a "State of the WWE" rant lately with the idea that I'll be doing a lot of sports related ranting/reviewing when the AFL season starts. I've actually already started tracking players from last season and checking out how rookies are training in order to make up a kickass AFL Supercoach team so I'm keen discuss tactics once the season starts ;)
Christmas has been good. Got a new kid. Loving the older one to bits. Feeling perhaps the need for a change in the work arena as well, just to gain a bit more quality time with my boys.
Also trying to avoid the news, or at least ranting about the news, as I'm sure my opinions on guns laws and boobs out in public are going to be a little offensive to some. Don't worry, that blog is coming...just not yet ;)
So here's a little spiel on the games I've been playing:
Christmas has been good. Got a new kid. Loving the older one to bits. Feeling perhaps the need for a change in the work arena as well, just to gain a bit more quality time with my boys.
Also trying to avoid the news, or at least ranting about the news, as I'm sure my opinions on guns laws and boobs out in public are going to be a little offensive to some. Don't worry, that blog is coming...just not yet ;)
So here's a little spiel on the games I've been playing:
- Far Cry - had potential but fails a little in vehicle missions and enemies supernatural abilities to detect the player. After a while it just got annoying.
- Far Cry 2 - seemed like it had great mechanics and was a big improvement on the 1st but known glitches with Win 7 64-bit made the game unplayable...as a result I'm now pissed and have no intention of playing Far Cry 3.
- Quantum Conundrum - Very cool game. The director of the game is Kim Swift, lead designer of Portal. The humor isn't as aligned to mine as Portal's was but I still recommend this game. Puzzles can be difficult but not overly taxing.
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - Was both frustrating and enjoyable. Frustration came from some bad mini games within the game (manning the turrets) and bad AI in your own party which made fights rather annoying. I still enjoyed the story and concept enough to finish it and buy KOTOR 2.
- Alan Wake - Brilliant game. Probably one of my favourites out of the last few months of gaming. The story is brilliant and immersive. There is real atmosphere in this game and I really liked playing the part of Wake in a twisted, dark and enjoyable story. Definitely feel it's more of an art piece than a computer game and I hope that is the direction a lot more games take in the future. Excellent stuff.
- Minecraft - Yes I'm back into this again. It's a game you can take a few months off from, get some new ideas and then lose a few days playing. I don't think it'll ever go away.
- Vessel - Started off great, with some real brilliant puzzles but after a while it seems the puzzle get dry and boring, and you're left with a rather uninspiring platformer.
- Darksider - Seems like its made for a 15 fingered alien with the amount of keys you need to press to get your character to do the most basic combat moves. I gave up during the tutorial. It's lame.
- Great Big War Game - I loved this game for ages. Great humor, cool tactics and strategies to employ with a wide range of units to command...and then the game decides about 3/5ths of the way through that it's going to up the difficulty by simply giving the enemy unlimited money and hence overwhelming forces. That's just bad design. Make games harder by making AI smarter please. It's now gathering dust.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
A little off guard and unprepared
Game review time :)
I've been playing a couple of games this last week. While waiting for Halo 4 to come out I started playing Amnesia: The Dark Descent. I'd actually started to play this game before and given up on it because it seemed so slow to get going, but I kept hearing so much about how good it was that I thought I'd try again and this time I'd give it a little advantage. I specifically started playing the game late at night, lights off, headphones on, everyone in the house sound asleep. I've always been a real fan of horror movies, not the crazed neighbour buring body parts in his back yard kind of horror but the supernatural, evil ghosties, hellish demons kind of horror. And this time around Amnesia really tweaked with me for almost the same reasons that I gave up on the game on the first playing.
The game starts off with a rather cliched "my memory is gone and I can only remember my name" situation. After a little exploration you find yourself in a seemingly abandon castle and get a feel for the basic control system. You find links to your past in the form of letters and diary entries and it quickly becomes apparent that things are far from well in this place. The story unfolds slowly and while you are moving about the castle and what seems to be a murder mission the back story fills out and its very easy to get totally immersed in the environment and the character. There are puzzles to solve and the scares come at the times when you really least expect it.
If your gaming experiences are limited to first person shooters or car racing games and you haven't played a survival horror game before it may a little disheartening to find a lack of in your face, fast paced action, but the game gets the heart pumping in other way, with the horror element launching through the quiet loneliness of the castle in very dramatic ways that covered me in goose bumps on many occasions. Combat is to be avoided as the lurching demons are far too strong to be taken on directly and this really reinforces the sense of vulnerability and adds to the horror elements of the game. Not for the fainthearted I definitely recommend this game for those wanting for something a little different. It may seem a little, but that sense of security that gives is entirely false :)
It's hard to have ever played a computer game and not heard of the Halo series. The first game was released on the original XBox and it's hard to say which contributed to the success of the pairing more, the game or the console. In 2001 it was definitely the game to be playing. 2 more games followed which built up a great storyline and chewed up many hours with alien slaying enjoyment. 11 years on we see the start of a new trilogy in the release of Halo 4 and things have changed a lot....and not really changed at all.
When the game first launches we're thrown into what is almost an interrogation of a human doctor answering a myriad of questions about the origins of the games protagonist, the Master Chief. Straight up Halo 4 is stepping away from the Halo traditions. Previously the Master Chief was a bit of an enigma, an elite warrior whose purpose was kick alien arse and save the human race...again...and again. Before we've even fired a weapon we're now delving into the makeup of the Spartans and the nature of the Master Chiefs humanity. So much so that it actually felt kind of weird stepping into the Chiefs skin once more to do battle with the Covenant. But when we do, we're in a Halo game and the most obvious thing is that no effort has been spared to make the environment, the craft, the landscapes, and the snarling baddies, nothing short of stunning. Graphically the game is just breath taking and if you take some time out from trials of combat to have a look around the place you will be well rewarded.
The enemies have had an overhaul too. The AI of the Covenant has evolved slightly but when you meet the Prometheans you'll be needing to develop a whole new swag of tactics to deal with their interesting and challenging combat style. There are guys that fire off a volley and then hide away before you've had a real chance to target them, while there are others who phase or teleport during the combat, some times away from you but more often they'll reappear RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU, attempting to cut you down before you can get a shot off. There are drones, that fly around and provide movable shielding for your enemies and its often hard to decide who to kill first, the hiding guys who seem to so easily strip your shields, the drones that annoying stopping you from doing any real damage or the big nasties who while phase around and slay you quicker than you can drop punt a Grunt. It not frustrating but there are some real challenges here. There's also a bundle of new weapons, some new vehicles and some very nifty and awesome gadgets you can employ in your missions, but I won't be giving everything away in this review.
The story is where the game really evolves. The cut scenes seem less drawn out but the dialog is well thought out and delivered well and you really feel both involved in the game but a little isolated from the humans you are trying to save. It's a bit of a shift the original game series but its a welcome one and it adds so much more to the experience that I think even the most staunch of detractors would have to acknowledge that it serves the game well and puts it above many of its contemporaries.
The first 3 games of Halo were massively enjoyable with each one building on the next but only taking small leaps so as to not alienate it's devoted fan base. Halo 4 seems to feel like a quintessential Halo game while still being largely different to the previous games in a way that none of the other sequels have managed to achieve. It's darker, it's deeper, it's innately challenging and it's just way too fun to put down.
I've been playing a couple of games this last week. While waiting for Halo 4 to come out I started playing Amnesia: The Dark Descent. I'd actually started to play this game before and given up on it because it seemed so slow to get going, but I kept hearing so much about how good it was that I thought I'd try again and this time I'd give it a little advantage. I specifically started playing the game late at night, lights off, headphones on, everyone in the house sound asleep. I've always been a real fan of horror movies, not the crazed neighbour buring body parts in his back yard kind of horror but the supernatural, evil ghosties, hellish demons kind of horror. And this time around Amnesia really tweaked with me for almost the same reasons that I gave up on the game on the first playing.
The game starts off with a rather cliched "my memory is gone and I can only remember my name" situation. After a little exploration you find yourself in a seemingly abandon castle and get a feel for the basic control system. You find links to your past in the form of letters and diary entries and it quickly becomes apparent that things are far from well in this place. The story unfolds slowly and while you are moving about the castle and what seems to be a murder mission the back story fills out and its very easy to get totally immersed in the environment and the character. There are puzzles to solve and the scares come at the times when you really least expect it.
If your gaming experiences are limited to first person shooters or car racing games and you haven't played a survival horror game before it may a little disheartening to find a lack of in your face, fast paced action, but the game gets the heart pumping in other way, with the horror element launching through the quiet loneliness of the castle in very dramatic ways that covered me in goose bumps on many occasions. Combat is to be avoided as the lurching demons are far too strong to be taken on directly and this really reinforces the sense of vulnerability and adds to the horror elements of the game. Not for the fainthearted I definitely recommend this game for those wanting for something a little different. It may seem a little, but that sense of security that gives is entirely false :)
It's hard to have ever played a computer game and not heard of the Halo series. The first game was released on the original XBox and it's hard to say which contributed to the success of the pairing more, the game or the console. In 2001 it was definitely the game to be playing. 2 more games followed which built up a great storyline and chewed up many hours with alien slaying enjoyment. 11 years on we see the start of a new trilogy in the release of Halo 4 and things have changed a lot....and not really changed at all.
When the game first launches we're thrown into what is almost an interrogation of a human doctor answering a myriad of questions about the origins of the games protagonist, the Master Chief. Straight up Halo 4 is stepping away from the Halo traditions. Previously the Master Chief was a bit of an enigma, an elite warrior whose purpose was kick alien arse and save the human race...again...and again. Before we've even fired a weapon we're now delving into the makeup of the Spartans and the nature of the Master Chiefs humanity. So much so that it actually felt kind of weird stepping into the Chiefs skin once more to do battle with the Covenant. But when we do, we're in a Halo game and the most obvious thing is that no effort has been spared to make the environment, the craft, the landscapes, and the snarling baddies, nothing short of stunning. Graphically the game is just breath taking and if you take some time out from trials of combat to have a look around the place you will be well rewarded.
The enemies have had an overhaul too. The AI of the Covenant has evolved slightly but when you meet the Prometheans you'll be needing to develop a whole new swag of tactics to deal with their interesting and challenging combat style. There are guys that fire off a volley and then hide away before you've had a real chance to target them, while there are others who phase or teleport during the combat, some times away from you but more often they'll reappear RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU, attempting to cut you down before you can get a shot off. There are drones, that fly around and provide movable shielding for your enemies and its often hard to decide who to kill first, the hiding guys who seem to so easily strip your shields, the drones that annoying stopping you from doing any real damage or the big nasties who while phase around and slay you quicker than you can drop punt a Grunt. It not frustrating but there are some real challenges here. There's also a bundle of new weapons, some new vehicles and some very nifty and awesome gadgets you can employ in your missions, but I won't be giving everything away in this review.
The story is where the game really evolves. The cut scenes seem less drawn out but the dialog is well thought out and delivered well and you really feel both involved in the game but a little isolated from the humans you are trying to save. It's a bit of a shift the original game series but its a welcome one and it adds so much more to the experience that I think even the most staunch of detractors would have to acknowledge that it serves the game well and puts it above many of its contemporaries.
The first 3 games of Halo were massively enjoyable with each one building on the next but only taking small leaps so as to not alienate it's devoted fan base. Halo 4 seems to feel like a quintessential Halo game while still being largely different to the previous games in a way that none of the other sequels have managed to achieve. It's darker, it's deeper, it's innately challenging and it's just way too fun to put down.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Hot dog I say cool it man
This last month it's like I've decided to play grown up and have doing a few activities that people my age have probably been doing for years but I always poo poo'd because I was always out having too much other fun. The missus has even commented that I'm turning into a real old man and as soon as I'm done telling these kids to get off my lawn I'll sit down and tell you all about it.
Last weekend we went to the Batlow Apple Blossom Festival and it was heaps fun. We weren't really sure what to expect, neither of us having been to Batlow before but like everyone in Australia we have seen Batlow apples in the supermarket. I don't know what I was more impressed with, the town or the festival. We rock up on a Friday afternoon and the towns is pretty empty. We check into what seems to be the only hotel next to what seems to be the only restaurant (why do all R.S.L Clubs always have Chinese Restaurants?) and 1 block from what seems to be the only the coffee shop...and straight away I like it. The people who run the hotel talk to you as if you were friends 20 years ago and its good to see you again. We walked to the local supermarket to get some supplies and see people pulling up out the front and walking inside, leaving their cars unlocked and windows down. Head to the restaurant for dinner and people are talking to people other than those they came to dinner with because most people in small towns know most of the other people. It's a very friendly atmosphere and much more like the town I grew up in as opposed the significantly more isolating attitude Canberran's seem to take. Next day, after polishing off some of the best coffee I ever recall drinking we head to the festival to catch the local school choirs performing. They aren't great but that's not the point. The kids have fun and the oldies smile.The markets have lots of local crafts and produce, I stuff myself silly on gozleme and kransky, Chace loves the animal petting area and the dudes doing huge backflips and cliffhangers on mini motocross bikes get everyone pumped. It really is a great time and I reckon we may end up back there next year.
The weekend just gone saw us truck along to The Canberra Times Home, Leisure, Caravan, 4WD, Camping Show. Retarded name but a really damn cool show. Over the last few years I've been slowly stocking up on stuff to make the move from blokes camping to family camping. So while I still have a swag for throwing on the ground next to the fire, I've also got a tent and air mattress. Instead of crouching over a hole with a bog roll on a shovel handle, I have a portapotty and fold up thunderbox. Next step is to stop taking a cake of soap down to the river/lake and figure out a better way of getting clean. At the Crazy Name Show (CNS from now on) they had a portable hot water system that was gas powered, sucked cold water from a bucket up a hose and ejected out warm water out of a hand held shower head. Not sure I want to go that cushy, it still needs to feel like camping to some degree. But I might consider one of those awesome camper trailers. I reckon they had about a hundred different varieties of camp trailer, differents brands, sizes, configurations and level of comfort. I dont need any of the huge 30k numbers and I won't be taking it over any really crazy 4wd tracks but one something that can hold the hold family, handle a little off road and fold down so I can flip the tinny up on top is definitely on the cards in the coming years. The CNS also had some cool 4WD demos with some competition drivers doing some crazy stuff. Good to look at but I dont think the wife will be up for a whole lot of that action. Plus I dont think I want to be re-engineering the Surf in that way. Best demo was definitely the guy showing lures and winding techniques in a big glass sided fish impound. As a fisher guy its sometimes hard to know whats going on under the water and this was the best insight I've ever had. Mad keen for the upcoming hot season and definitely eager to see if I can get out amongst some of the local perch. Maybe see if Chace can catch his first reddy. So a good show just in time for outdoor season.
Well that's burnt me out, this old body needs sleep.
Last weekend we went to the Batlow Apple Blossom Festival and it was heaps fun. We weren't really sure what to expect, neither of us having been to Batlow before but like everyone in Australia we have seen Batlow apples in the supermarket. I don't know what I was more impressed with, the town or the festival. We rock up on a Friday afternoon and the towns is pretty empty. We check into what seems to be the only hotel next to what seems to be the only restaurant (why do all R.S.L Clubs always have Chinese Restaurants?) and 1 block from what seems to be the only the coffee shop...and straight away I like it. The people who run the hotel talk to you as if you were friends 20 years ago and its good to see you again. We walked to the local supermarket to get some supplies and see people pulling up out the front and walking inside, leaving their cars unlocked and windows down. Head to the restaurant for dinner and people are talking to people other than those they came to dinner with because most people in small towns know most of the other people. It's a very friendly atmosphere and much more like the town I grew up in as opposed the significantly more isolating attitude Canberran's seem to take. Next day, after polishing off some of the best coffee I ever recall drinking we head to the festival to catch the local school choirs performing. They aren't great but that's not the point. The kids have fun and the oldies smile.The markets have lots of local crafts and produce, I stuff myself silly on gozleme and kransky, Chace loves the animal petting area and the dudes doing huge backflips and cliffhangers on mini motocross bikes get everyone pumped. It really is a great time and I reckon we may end up back there next year.
The weekend just gone saw us truck along to The Canberra Times Home, Leisure, Caravan, 4WD, Camping Show. Retarded name but a really damn cool show. Over the last few years I've been slowly stocking up on stuff to make the move from blokes camping to family camping. So while I still have a swag for throwing on the ground next to the fire, I've also got a tent and air mattress. Instead of crouching over a hole with a bog roll on a shovel handle, I have a portapotty and fold up thunderbox. Next step is to stop taking a cake of soap down to the river/lake and figure out a better way of getting clean. At the Crazy Name Show (CNS from now on) they had a portable hot water system that was gas powered, sucked cold water from a bucket up a hose and ejected out warm water out of a hand held shower head. Not sure I want to go that cushy, it still needs to feel like camping to some degree. But I might consider one of those awesome camper trailers. I reckon they had about a hundred different varieties of camp trailer, differents brands, sizes, configurations and level of comfort. I dont need any of the huge 30k numbers and I won't be taking it over any really crazy 4wd tracks but one something that can hold the hold family, handle a little off road and fold down so I can flip the tinny up on top is definitely on the cards in the coming years. The CNS also had some cool 4WD demos with some competition drivers doing some crazy stuff. Good to look at but I dont think the wife will be up for a whole lot of that action. Plus I dont think I want to be re-engineering the Surf in that way. Best demo was definitely the guy showing lures and winding techniques in a big glass sided fish impound. As a fisher guy its sometimes hard to know whats going on under the water and this was the best insight I've ever had. Mad keen for the upcoming hot season and definitely eager to see if I can get out amongst some of the local perch. Maybe see if Chace can catch his first reddy. So a good show just in time for outdoor season.
Well that's burnt me out, this old body needs sleep.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
One door closes, another door closes
I have this awesome Bill Hicks documentary that I recommend everyone should watch. In fact anything with Hicks on it is worth owning. At one point in the documentary it's mentioned that Bill's research for comedy material consisted of following the media and making fun of stuff that pissed him off. I kind of thought I might do the same for the occasional blog entry, but not too often as the blog could end up too ranty and I don't want to spend all my time pissed off. But pissed off I am so here's some of the stuff I read that increased my hate for humanity just that bit more.
A mate posted this article on Faecesbook recently and I had to laugh. It's about people drinking cocktails with liquid nitrogen in it. If the author was trying to elicit sympathy for the girl they totally failed. When someone does something stupid and they get hurt you don't feel sorry for them, you laugh because they fucking deserved it! But that wasn't what pissed me off. Here's the quote that pissed me off...'Local director of public health Dr John Aston said Ms Scanlon was the victim of an "irresponsible alcohol industry that's now competing on gimmicks."' Sorry, what? She bought a drink knowing it had liquid nitrogen in it and she's a victim? Why is the girl not responsible for her own fucking actions? It's potentially dangerous, slap a warning label on the fucker and if people still buy it then it's their own fucking problem. I'm fucking sick of people blaming everyone else but the perpetrator for shitty fucking mistakes. You'd expect a doctor to be an educated man but it seems like he lost his logic somewhere. Or perhaps he likes getting his name in the newspaper.
And while we're on the topic of babying the fucking world, the debate about an R18+ rating for computer games in Australia is unfortunately not done and dusted, with the WA government deciding they're gonna fuck us around just a bit longer and stand up a committee to discuss the supposed issue. This disturbs me on so many levels. One official said that an R18+ rating would “introduce a level of violence that children and young people weren’t exposed to before.” OK, right there she's made a mistake in that she doesn't understand what an R18+ classification is. An R18+ classification restricts the sale of the game to a minor. It's a simple concept that only a moron could confuse. But it seems morons are everywhere. Here's what a guy from Attorney General's Office had to say, "The consequences are that R18+ computer games that are suitable for adults only would be able to be purchased by children. Retailers would be able to sell them to children with impunity." Again, complete misunderstanding of what an R18+ classification is about. These blockheads seem to think that introducing laws against supplying these games to minors is somehow magically going to put the games in kids Xmas stockings! It's about preventing minors from buying a game and advising responsible adults that children should not be exposed to its content. Having an R18+ classification is the OPPOSITE of what these guys are claiming it is. How do these dipshits get jobs? The other side of the coin is that these fuckers are claiming that we're so bad at raising our children that they have to protect them from our shitty parenting. How fucking insulting! If someone running for office think you can't raise a kid, vote for someone else. If a public official doesn't understand basic concepts, call for their resignation. People shouldn't have to stand for this shit!
We now resume our normal transmission...
A mate posted this article on Faecesbook recently and I had to laugh. It's about people drinking cocktails with liquid nitrogen in it. If the author was trying to elicit sympathy for the girl they totally failed. When someone does something stupid and they get hurt you don't feel sorry for them, you laugh because they fucking deserved it! But that wasn't what pissed me off. Here's the quote that pissed me off...'Local director of public health Dr John Aston said Ms Scanlon was the victim of an "irresponsible alcohol industry that's now competing on gimmicks."' Sorry, what? She bought a drink knowing it had liquid nitrogen in it and she's a victim? Why is the girl not responsible for her own fucking actions? It's potentially dangerous, slap a warning label on the fucker and if people still buy it then it's their own fucking problem. I'm fucking sick of people blaming everyone else but the perpetrator for shitty fucking mistakes. You'd expect a doctor to be an educated man but it seems like he lost his logic somewhere. Or perhaps he likes getting his name in the newspaper.
And while we're on the topic of babying the fucking world, the debate about an R18+ rating for computer games in Australia is unfortunately not done and dusted, with the WA government deciding they're gonna fuck us around just a bit longer and stand up a committee to discuss the supposed issue. This disturbs me on so many levels. One official said that an R18+ rating would “introduce a level of violence that children and young people weren’t exposed to before.” OK, right there she's made a mistake in that she doesn't understand what an R18+ classification is. An R18+ classification restricts the sale of the game to a minor. It's a simple concept that only a moron could confuse. But it seems morons are everywhere. Here's what a guy from Attorney General's Office had to say, "The consequences are that R18+ computer games that are suitable for adults only would be able to be purchased by children. Retailers would be able to sell them to children with impunity." Again, complete misunderstanding of what an R18+ classification is about. These blockheads seem to think that introducing laws against supplying these games to minors is somehow magically going to put the games in kids Xmas stockings! It's about preventing minors from buying a game and advising responsible adults that children should not be exposed to its content. Having an R18+ classification is the OPPOSITE of what these guys are claiming it is. How do these dipshits get jobs? The other side of the coin is that these fuckers are claiming that we're so bad at raising our children that they have to protect them from our shitty parenting. How fucking insulting! If someone running for office think you can't raise a kid, vote for someone else. If a public official doesn't understand basic concepts, call for their resignation. People shouldn't have to stand for this shit!
We now resume our normal transmission...
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Helter Skelter
tl;dr version - I like making mixed tapes. I'm making a mix tape for BW and its gonna be awesome. Kids these days don't even know where to begin when it comes to appreciating good music.
A guy asked me at work the other day if I could recommend some metal music that would be good to listen to while running. I thought about it for 3 seconds and knew the answer was groove metal. Stylistically it's paced well, not slow or stupidly fast, and there's a big focus on the work of the drummer, which something that carries well when you're out on a 10km run. The answer sparked a bit of a conversation between my coworkers about the various styles of metal, which for most part is unknown territory to pretty much all of them. Of course they've heard of some of the band names, perhaps heard the music a few of the commercially successful bands and the real keen ones might have tried to venture further, heard a death growl and promptly hit the stop button. I listed off a heap of the different metal sub genres and I think there may have been a brief musical comparison between rock or metal, although that could have been a past conversation from another day (these things tend to jumble).
So a challenge was laid down. Make a mix tape of metal. Specifics weren't delved into so I'm taking a few liberties in this area. I assume a cd is a suitable substitute for a tape. While I have a tape deck and a few tapes I'm not sure the years have been kind to either. I also assume the mix was to contain as many sub genres as possible. The challenge as I now see it is to fit as much metal into 80 mins that gives the most well rounded view of the genre. Sounds easy when ya put it like that, right? ;)
I consider myself a bit of mixed tape master. Decades ago I'd sit with my cousin in his bedroom pretending we were radio DJs, making up a mix of tunes we liked with voice over stuff in between like we were really on the air. Then later when I got to high school and into metal, tape trading was huge. Living in a rural setting with a taste for music that was far from the mainstream made it very hard to get new music. Most stores would order the few token metal tapes (and later cds) or you had to be aware of what albums were available (before interwebs remember) and order them in. I remember pouring through a drab, alphabetical print out from some distributors database look for metal albums I knew or had heard of, hoping to find something worthy of the few measly dollars I'd managed to save. So we traded tapes. Blank tapes weren't free either so getting whole albums was something you only saved for the best albums and to find the best albums we made compilations for friends. Mixes of everything I thought was great would go onto a tape and get sent off to mates with the expectation they'd do the same in return. When we hit stuff we liked, we'd get a copy and if we REALLY liked, we'd get the store to order it for us.
Technology has changed a lot since then and I don't think the advancements have really encouraged people to appreciate music properly. I mean why would someone listen to a song, I mean truly listen to a song, when they don't have to be selective? Getting right into those drums fills, listening to every nuance of a solo, the word choices made in the lyrics, looking for the songs that are worthy of your collection...gone. Because space isn't an issue. Because acquiring more music takes seconds rather than weeks. For the masses, music has become more and more a throw away commodity. No one takes the time to enjoy everything that's gone into a song, so popular "artists" don't need so much talent and most of the real talented musicians are ignored. There are exceptional young individuals who see music much differently but unfortunately they are the minority. But I still make mixed tapes, or mixed cds to be precise, and I still love doing so for people I know will appreciate them.
So climbing back off a tangent, how to make a mixed tape encompassing metal? Start at the start? The pre-metal progenitors? It started with The Beatles - Helter Skelter if you were wondering. Others may put forward some other possibilities and I would readily admit that those songs were indeed part of the roots of metal, but they would only have 1 or 2 elements which would later make up the metal style. While Helter Skelter isn't metal, its got a lot more going for it stylistically which would emerge later as some of the defining characteristics of metal. But that's possibly not what this cd is about. So we move to Black Sabbath. Claiming any other band as the fathers (or is it grandfathers now?) of metal would be false. There were a lot of contributors to early metal and ignoring them (especially Deep Purple) is a crime. But Sab is it! The First! The cd could quickly become a metal timeline, tracking the branches through the decades, following through to each twisted twig or flourishing leaf. Ok, I just tried to glamour that up a little because the end result would be as dry as a history essay and the entertainment value would be drained from it. And then there's the 80 min limit to think about.
While I'm going to toss the timeline idea, I'm thinking it's a great place to start. My new plan is to start at the roots, build up a list of songs that are important in metal, add a great example of each of the sub genres (well at least the ones I have cds for) and end up with a mega metal playlist...and then chop it by about half so it fits on the cd. The culling will be the most difficult because a good mix tape needs to flow, songs need to gel and moods need to be created. The whole cd needs to ebb and flow, so as well as history lesson the listener can enjoy everything that's going on. Unlike clicking play on a 3000 song playlist the cd needs a start, a ride and an end. And that's the fun part :)
A guy asked me at work the other day if I could recommend some metal music that would be good to listen to while running. I thought about it for 3 seconds and knew the answer was groove metal. Stylistically it's paced well, not slow or stupidly fast, and there's a big focus on the work of the drummer, which something that carries well when you're out on a 10km run. The answer sparked a bit of a conversation between my coworkers about the various styles of metal, which for most part is unknown territory to pretty much all of them. Of course they've heard of some of the band names, perhaps heard the music a few of the commercially successful bands and the real keen ones might have tried to venture further, heard a death growl and promptly hit the stop button. I listed off a heap of the different metal sub genres and I think there may have been a brief musical comparison between rock or metal, although that could have been a past conversation from another day (these things tend to jumble).
So a challenge was laid down. Make a mix tape of metal. Specifics weren't delved into so I'm taking a few liberties in this area. I assume a cd is a suitable substitute for a tape. While I have a tape deck and a few tapes I'm not sure the years have been kind to either. I also assume the mix was to contain as many sub genres as possible. The challenge as I now see it is to fit as much metal into 80 mins that gives the most well rounded view of the genre. Sounds easy when ya put it like that, right? ;)
I consider myself a bit of mixed tape master. Decades ago I'd sit with my cousin in his bedroom pretending we were radio DJs, making up a mix of tunes we liked with voice over stuff in between like we were really on the air. Then later when I got to high school and into metal, tape trading was huge. Living in a rural setting with a taste for music that was far from the mainstream made it very hard to get new music. Most stores would order the few token metal tapes (and later cds) or you had to be aware of what albums were available (before interwebs remember) and order them in. I remember pouring through a drab, alphabetical print out from some distributors database look for metal albums I knew or had heard of, hoping to find something worthy of the few measly dollars I'd managed to save. So we traded tapes. Blank tapes weren't free either so getting whole albums was something you only saved for the best albums and to find the best albums we made compilations for friends. Mixes of everything I thought was great would go onto a tape and get sent off to mates with the expectation they'd do the same in return. When we hit stuff we liked, we'd get a copy and if we REALLY liked, we'd get the store to order it for us.
Technology has changed a lot since then and I don't think the advancements have really encouraged people to appreciate music properly. I mean why would someone listen to a song, I mean truly listen to a song, when they don't have to be selective? Getting right into those drums fills, listening to every nuance of a solo, the word choices made in the lyrics, looking for the songs that are worthy of your collection...gone. Because space isn't an issue. Because acquiring more music takes seconds rather than weeks. For the masses, music has become more and more a throw away commodity. No one takes the time to enjoy everything that's gone into a song, so popular "artists" don't need so much talent and most of the real talented musicians are ignored. There are exceptional young individuals who see music much differently but unfortunately they are the minority. But I still make mixed tapes, or mixed cds to be precise, and I still love doing so for people I know will appreciate them.
So climbing back off a tangent, how to make a mixed tape encompassing metal? Start at the start? The pre-metal progenitors? It started with The Beatles - Helter Skelter if you were wondering. Others may put forward some other possibilities and I would readily admit that those songs were indeed part of the roots of metal, but they would only have 1 or 2 elements which would later make up the metal style. While Helter Skelter isn't metal, its got a lot more going for it stylistically which would emerge later as some of the defining characteristics of metal. But that's possibly not what this cd is about. So we move to Black Sabbath. Claiming any other band as the fathers (or is it grandfathers now?) of metal would be false. There were a lot of contributors to early metal and ignoring them (especially Deep Purple) is a crime. But Sab is it! The First! The cd could quickly become a metal timeline, tracking the branches through the decades, following through to each twisted twig or flourishing leaf. Ok, I just tried to glamour that up a little because the end result would be as dry as a history essay and the entertainment value would be drained from it. And then there's the 80 min limit to think about.
While I'm going to toss the timeline idea, I'm thinking it's a great place to start. My new plan is to start at the roots, build up a list of songs that are important in metal, add a great example of each of the sub genres (well at least the ones I have cds for) and end up with a mega metal playlist...and then chop it by about half so it fits on the cd. The culling will be the most difficult because a good mix tape needs to flow, songs need to gel and moods need to be created. The whole cd needs to ebb and flow, so as well as history lesson the listener can enjoy everything that's going on. Unlike clicking play on a 3000 song playlist the cd needs a start, a ride and an end. And that's the fun part :)
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