Kvatch is Burning Down

I Am the Hermit

2010-10-17T12:35:00.002+01:00

You are The Hermit

Prudence, Caution, Deliberation.

So I'm the Hermit, seems about right. Feel like I'd be a lot happier if it wasn't though. I'll just have to be satisfied in the knowledge that in the end, my hermit nature will put me ahead of the rest of you tossers.

So if you wanna know what bullshit tarot card you are go here.

Please Defy My Existence

2010-09-07T17:22:00.000+01:00

Greetings! It's been a while since I wrote a one of these 'ere bloggy-wogs. I'm starting writing this with the intention of covering quite a few things, so please excuse me if I meander somewhat (it's also not improbable that this will sit as an unfinished draft for weeks, before being edited into something much more focused that barely resembles it's lengthy, ambitious origins). Not sure how this is going to go, I don't usually write too personally, but most of the stuff is pretty much all about me (you have to admit I do fucking rock).

Jack Johnstone

So I've been doing quite a bit lately: First and foremost is Please Tell Me You're Human - a podcast network, that also acts as a showcase for "talent" from the Carlisle area, i.e. the shit that we do outside of podcasts will be posted somewhere around that site. We've expanded quite a bit lately we have a proper website (which will contain links to any future blogs I may write) built from WordPress, mostly by this guy over here ->
with a tiny bit of help by me, and some kind words of support from the rest of the Please Tell Me team (we're the kind of team, where the players forget they're actually supposed to turn up.)

So along with the original podcast Film & TV (if anyone asks what it's about I really don't thing you should be allowed the internets) we also do Art Crap which consists and of Jack and a random selection of scumbags (or Karen) wittering about nothing much in particular, it's usually brilliantly nonsensical and thoroughly entertaining; now we get to my baby, the podcast I take full responsibility for (unless you think something's good, in which case it was probably something someone else did): VIDJAGAMES!, is a podcast in which we will talk about anything and everything videogame related, usually bringing up id and Final Fantasy somewhere along the way, plus all the music for breaks, or when someone says something offensive enough to make me cut it (which is pretty hard), is from old games. It's totally awesome you should listen to it right now (pretty, pretty please)!

Thomas J. Moscrop

In addition to all of the awesome podcast stuff ("There's more?!" you ask, incredulous that you could cram more awesome into one site) we're also going to be hosting Tom's webcomic series Straight to DVD, which he's currently hard at work on. It's about a bunch of fuck-ups running a shitty film company that makes straight-to-DVD B-Movies, and it should be a lot of fun. Speaking of Tom, I'm hoping to be working with him on another comic/ type thingy called Supervillain, as well as helping him develop a web series, the details of which are not mine to reveal, suffice to say that there should be some pretty surreal stuff in the web series which I think is intended to be a sort of comedy/drama.


Mr Matthew Q. Adamson

On top of that pleasetellme.net is working on doing some video content to accompany our podcasts namely, a feature on Matt's vast collection of games and consoles (I seriously would not be surprised if the dude owns every gaming platform ever conceived); particularly looking at Voyeur, and other awesome forgotten titles. We're also hoping to record my first ever online match of StarCraft II (I've been procrastinating getting into the multi-player for that game).

So other than podcast/website-y stuff I finished the script you may remember me mentionioning here and talking about it in more detail here. It's about a guy who breaks up with his girlfriend, and meets the girl of dreams, she then disappears and his whole life/mind starts to unravel, I'm pretty proud of it, and hope it'll turn out OK, and I'll be able to rope people into acting for me, it's set in late autumn so I've got a little while before I have to start trying to shoot anything.

Story on day release from his pan-dimensional prison box

I guess the biggest thing with me right now is that I'm heading off to Uni in Leeds to study Cinema & Photography in less than two weeks, a course which my Please Tell Me: Film & TV comrade Story has already been on for a year (I promise not to copy his answers). I got a place on this course last year, but opted to defer it for a year since I missed pretty much all of Year 13 of 6th Form because of my GAD; after a year of jobless, doley, trials and tribulations and being put onto happy tablets, I now feel ready to face the big scary student world of drinking and not doing any work (not something I'll really be participating in since I don't drink and my course should be really fun.)

Also I got all my lovely, lovely hair chopped off and now struggle to remain standing when a feather flutters across my path.

No Excuses (Parentheses)

2010-06-26T23:56:00.000+01:00

I really should've updated this blog more I've written stuff in some form or other, but never really got it up to a cohesive, accessible, typed and uploaded to yon interwebs blog.

This blog isn't really the way I wanted it to be, I was writing a whole thing about what the fuck it is I've been doing for the last year and the all the mad shit up in my brain box, but it was taking too long and I couldn't really articulate what it was I wanted to communicate so instead whoever the Hell reads is this is just going to get some links, and written updates on what I've been doing:

Short Films

The Collector condensed

The first of these is a condensed version of a proper short film conceptualised by my buddy Tom, which he, his cousin Jack (assisted by our friend Dave) and I worked a lot on then edited this short sort of trailer thing for Tom's interview at uni (Sheffield Hallam). I've been meaning to use the footage to my own edit of the full thing, but haven't yet got round to it.

Burnt Eggs

This one's an art video I made to take the piss out of a bunch of pretentious video art pieces that were on display at the University of Cumbria art college (most of them were just time-lapsed photo shits that went on for about a hundred years (or you know ten - fifteen minutes but that's a long time when nothing happens)). The other reason I made it was to get to grips with Sony Vegas' tool set, since I'm used to using Final Cut. The footage is all just stuff I had for one thing or another lying around on my computer. I think the video actually came out pretty well in the end for just being a way to waste a few hours.

Podcasts

I've been doing a podcast (originally called Please Tell Me You're Human, now Please Tell: Film & TV) with the aforementioned Jack and another friend, Story, about films and television and whatever other junk comes out of our mouths. I've just started doing Please Tell Me: VIDJAGAMES, a videogames podcast, with Matt and I appeared on episode 2 of Please Tell Me: Art Crap (a podcast loosely based on "the arts") with Jack and another different Ben.

All of these can be found and subscribed to here as well as being on (or in the case of VIDJAGAMES coming soon to) iTunes store. I and everyone else from the Please Tell Me You're Human podcast network (ideas above our station) would appreciate if you listened and gave us feedback, either with an iTunes review/rating, email to pleasepodcastme@gmail.com, or on Twitter to @pleasepodcastme.

As well as all of this I've been editing a wedding video for someone back at school's daughter (not actually someone I knew when I was there, but my teacher recommended me to her). This has been a lot more hassle than I originally predicted at first because I wasn't equipped to work on the video at home so had to do all of the editing on the school's crappy eMacs which take forever to render anything and I could only use them when the media suite was free from brats trying to get A levels. The I got a laptop with Vegas and had to try and learn how to use that software, and now that the video is essentially done Vegas is crapping out on my mid-render.

Other than this stuff I have been slowly working on a script for my own short film, and no matter what will shoot something from it over summer.

OK so that's pretty much my year (at least the productive bits) from 19th June 2009 (my last A level exam) to now; never managed to get a job though.

Please Tell Me You're Human

2010-05-06T15:48:00.001+01:00

As you may know if you're reading this (since you're probably Jack), Mr. Jack Johnstone, Mr. James Story and myself have been working on doing a podcast for a little while now, you can download Jack and Story's test episode here. This podcast, titled Please Tell Me You're Human, is primarily going to be covering film & television, but obviously we all have many other interests and are likely to go off on tangents/rants.

I'm using this blog to cover my ideas for the podcast's structure and some ideas for episodes, but this hasn't been discussed with Jack or Story and therefore nothing I say here is necessarily going to be in the podcast.

STRUCTURE

So I was thinking that we'd start each episode with each of us talking about films and TV programmes we've been watching since the last episode (not sure how frequently we'll be doing these, we might not be able to manage a weekly schedule) and brief discussions about any of these that we find interesting and what liked/disliked and why.

After discussing what we've been watching we good then quickly go through news of anything we're intersted in watching and our impressions of it, and discussing upcoming shows/movies that we're looking forward to or interested in.

The main part of the show should be comprised of a conversational review of sorts about a specific film or television programme. This will involve us talking about what we did or didn't like and why; pointing out flaws in the plot and why the acting sucked; the directors skills or lack thereof and generally just deconstructing everything and ripping the shit out of everything we didn't like. All three of us are pretty opinionated so expect the show to devolve into argumental point scoring when we disagree (of course we'll have to keep this in check so that the podcast remains coherent and entertaining).

As well as these main three sections I'd like to see some less specific stuff, such as the merits of certain genres, directors actors or franchises that may be too big to cover in great detail in a review. All of us are not only interested in film and television, but are attempting to persue careers in this area so possibly there'd be some room for discussion of projects we've been working on. Jack's also mentioned doing short stories so we'll have to see how that works in the structure of the show and maybe include other similar ideas.

IDEAS

I'm going to go through some ideas that I'd like to see us to episodes about and in particular cover some stuff I'd like to be discussed in our very first episode (which we should be recording at some point in the latter half of next week).

I think we should spend a little bit more time introducing ourselves than we normally would, since this is our first official episode. I think a great way to that would be to discuss somethign we're all pretty big fans of, but in quite different ways: Science Fiction; I'd really like to talk about our favourite sci-fi films/shows as well as going over what it is we like about sci-fi, and obviously spend some time taking the piss out of its ridiculousness (because there is a lot in science fiction which needs to be ridiculed).

A review of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey would be a really great first episode topic, since it's a film we've all watched pretty recently and I think we all hold some strong, and quite different opinions about it. Plus since it's so widely known a lot of the listeners who we're trying to attract will know what the fuck we're talking about, never a bad thing for a first episode.

Ideas for some other episodes to cover:

Firefly, both Jack and are really into this show (actually I just love pretty much everything Joss whedon does), and if nothing else the podcast is a great excuse to get Story to watch it, not to mention it's always fun to jabber on about things you love.
Twin Peaks, another show I really love, that both Jack and I have watched and again would be good to get Story to see it; quite a controversial topic, the show itself is often met with mixed response, but its influence on almost everything on TV worth watching since (from X-Files, to Sopranos via Lost) is obvious.
Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, not really sure if we should cover this since it's a comic, and therefore doesn't fall with in our film & television remit, but it's one of the best things I've read and I know Story is also reall enjoying, I'd like to get Jack to read it and I just want to spread the word about how awesome it is and generally suck Neil Gaiman's cock.

OK, think I'm done now, fuck off back to whatever it is you were doing.

EDIT: apparently the first link I posted to Jack and story's test episode didn't work, should be fixed now.

Narrative in Games

2010-04-09T13:46:00.000+01:00

Before you read this I want to apologise, this is a lot of bullet points I wrote a couple of weeks ago about narrative in games, how excited I am about lots of stuff games like Mass Effect and Heavy Rain are doing, and where I'd like to see these ideas develop and progress in the future of gaming/new ideas that would be cool. The apology is that I really can't be bothered writing these up into the essay style blog I'd originally intended, but unlike most of the time when I write a blog I don't finish I still really want to say all this stuff, so sorry that this will be disjointed, rambling and in no way cohesive.

If Heavy Rain was a thriller movie it would be relatively run of the mill, it’s the way the gameplay propels the narrative that truly makes it outstanding by immersing the player and making them care for more than the standard Hollywood audience does about the characters and the outcome of the plot

BioWare’s developments in Mass Effect with dialogue tress from the previous RPG standard of a silent protagonist where the player chooses from a few full lines of dialogue to a wheel that just gives the gist of what you want the character say because instead of trying to convince the player that they are the character, it instead lets them build a character who is separate and exists in their own right thereby making them feel much more real for the play to be concerned about than a blank slate, while still letting them be immersed by the control they have over the chars decisions

ME2’S introduction of an interrupt mechanic is also greatly important as it brings together the previously separate elements of action and dialogue and moves games towards being a single fluid experience and away from being stilted different sections of gameplay, cut scenes and dialogue

While in many ways DA:O may seem like a step backwards for the sake of nostalgia it introduces a very important new aspect, rather than having a morality meter by which the developers judge a player’s decisions to be good or evil it utilising an approval meter for each character in your party, based on how that character’s opinions of the players actions, admittedly this is still quite a “gamey” feature (in real life you have to make decisions based on how people react to you rather than being told what you just said made Morrigan like you +7, and there are only a very few, very shallow people whose affections can be won by showering them in material gifts) but it does move towards a way of judging a player’s actions that is closer to real life (and therefore intrinsically more immersive) rather telling people what they’re doing is bad and having the player choose to be good or evil (in my experience people almost always believe they are in the right for one reason or another). This doesn’t mean the player can’t indulge in their fantasies of arch-villainy if the so desire, just that they can do it by performing actions they would deem as evil, not abide to the developers sense of (im)morality.

Uncharted 2, yes it looks very pretty, but that’s not what makes it special, the art is mainly quite realistic (yes there’s some license taken with historical artefacts, temples etc. but the only thing that seems truly fantastic and out of this world was their choice to include blue dudes). Yes the gameplay is great, but that’s not what makes it special, it ‘s basically just a reiteration of gameplay mechanics from earlier games such as Gears of War’s cover shooting and the adventure puzzles of the Tomb Raider series (I don’t say this to take anything away from Uncharted 2’s gameplay, it comes damn close to perfecting those gameplay elements). What really makes Uncharted 2 special is the way its narrative unfolds, in essence it is the game version of a matinee adventure movie, such as Indiana Jones, but where other games would choose to show the big action set-pieces of those sorts of movies in a cutscene to preserve the cinematic scope and feel Uncharted 2 lets the player keep control while at the same time bettering their the visual scope of most other games’ cutscenes.

The other really important thing to mention about both Uncharted 2 and DA:O is the way the characters interact not only in cutscenes but the dialogue between them during gameplay - I’d like to see this develop in a way that involves the player more in these interactions between characters.

Point needs to be made that different narratives require different things, ultimate player freedom isn’t always the best way to go, but the more the player is involved the better the experience will be

In general I’d like to see more games open up their environments and give the player more freedom as to where they go, however obviously this isn’t entertaining if there’s nothing to do and obviously having lots of open spaces filled with different things wouldn’t always make sense and would distract from the narrative

The landscape and the environment, really add to the narrative in games like Fallout 3 and GTAIV where there are things that are not essential to the plot that teach the player more about the world the game is in

Games should be willing to take risks and allow players to build their own narrative, the player does not need to experience everything you’ve written, Demon’s Souls is a great example of this where characters can die without the player ever having met them. It also demonstrates that players do not need to be told everything, they can learn through interacting with the environment and other characters in the game

As much as possible games should try and not make players play through scripted events - it’s more fun knowing that the game is reacting to your actions rather than just giving you scripted events that are always the same.

QTEs are usually just a way of making a player feel a little bit more involved in cool cutscenes, but Heavy Rain has shown that every command can have a slight difference to the sequence of events, even if the outcome is ultimately the same, rather than just a thing that lets your character do cool stuff if you’ve got good reactions e.g. missing a thumbstick command in Heavy Rain doesn’t make the QTE restart it means your dude gets cut up with a bottle.

I’d ultimately like to see death being of more consequence than just a game over screen and having to start back at the last checkpoint, even if it’s only a cutscene (also all cutscenes should be shippable, it really slows games down having to rewatch something every time you fuck up) to show how the story plays out since your character died.

Ultimately I’d like to see all characters in games responding differently based upon what they know about the character and their actions throughout the game
If you have to react to something games shouldn’t give you time to think about it unless it makes sense in the story, you shouldn’t be able to sit for ages deciding which dialogue response you’d prefer, without someone responding to the fact that you appear to have been struck dumb

Things should be removed from dialogue trees once they’ve been said, or if the player hasn’t been through the situation that would make that dialogue make sense (there’s a really noticeable thing at the end of Heavy Rain where one character can ring another who, depending on the actions in the rest of the game, they may never have met). Repeating dialogue really breaks the experience and takes you out of the idea that these are real people having real interactions.

Short Film

2010-03-04T14:18:00.000Z

I may have mentioned before that I'm writing a "short" film (I'm not very good at short, my first draft of 4000 word English coursework last year was approximately 6,500 words long). I intend to at the very least have finished it before going to Uni in September, but ideally I want to have shot and edited it (that's not going to happen, but hopefully I'll have shot something). To finish writing a script means you have to actually write it, that would seem obvious, but I, until today, had not written a single word since the start of January at the latest (to be honest I think it was actually before Xmas).

I started writing again today in an attempt have done something because I want to do the list of housework my mum's left for me even less than I want to sit and write (it's kind of backwards, I like writing, but I never actually want to do it, even though I want to have it done). The other thing, the thing that really made me push my script from 16 to 19 pages (a whole three pages?! I am so fucking awesome!) is that I really don't want to think about the fact I have a job interview at TESCO tomorrow, so anything that can distract me from that is a good thing. I know getting a job would be good (job=money money=stuff stuff=happiness)and that I need to face all my anxiety and use my CBT techniques to help me, but I'm a coward and also incredibly insecure, and I hate meeting new people because I don't think they'll like me (I'm also incredibly arrogant and think that anyone who fails to like me is probably stupid, or bigoted or in some other way intrinsically flawed), that fact that I also don't like most people probably doesn't help matters either.

Anyhoo the point of this whole thing that all the preamble and many asides have been leading to is this: How can I write believable dialogue (and to a lesser extent any believable fiction) when I lack the life experience - I've only ever had one girlfriend who I've been with for three years, I don't know how people meet, or how they speak to each other; I barely leave my house so I have very few conversations that aren't with a very select group of people, I don't really socialise and I certainly don't drink (it's not some moral thing, I'm on medication, I certainly have drunk, but never really frequently and always with an element of awkwardness). Anyway writing screenplays is hard, they're aren't something you come across without several stages of removal so it can be quite difficult, technically, to convey a point without being long-winded and dull and having to re-iterate what you've already written, so instead of continuing I chose distract myself by writing this instead.

Extended Status Update #002 13:49 09/01/10: I wanna be elected

2010-01-09T13:50:00.000Z

Sick and fucking tired of people complaining about Gordon Brown being an unelected leader: We live in the United fucking Kingdom not the United States of America, we do not have a presidential system! We elect a political party, and we hold the party responsible for fulfilling the promises of its manifesto. Any political party is entirely free to change its internal hierachy at any time whatsoever as long as it adheres to the policies of its election manifesto!

Sorry this isn't really a proper blog, but it was too many characters for Facebook and it needed to be said.

People who know about computers please help me

2009-12-30T14:13:00.001Z

Right, so I know very little about computers, but have been wanting to upgrade my PC to be able to handle current-gen games. I am informed that to do this I should only really need to upgrade my video card, I don't need something really top of the line, just adequate and I'd prefer not to spend more than £80. I would really appreciate advice on what to buy and where I should buy it to get a decent deal, not get ripped off etc. Oh and some people have suggested my current video card is integrated, I don't know how to find that out, presumably open up and take a look inside (something which I've never done).

My specs taken from X-Fire are:
Manufacturer:
MSI
Processor:
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+, MMX, 3DNow (2 CPUs), ~2.2GHz
Memory:
1792MB RAM
Hard Drive:
370 GB Total
Video Card:
NVIDIA GeForce 6100 nForce 405
Monitor:
Plug and Play Monitor
Sound Card:
Realtek HD Audio output
Speakers/Headphones:
Logitech 5.1
Keyboard:
USB Root Hub
Mouse:
USB Root Hub
Mouse Surface:
Operating System:
Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.090804-1435)
Motherboard:
Computer Case:

Thanks for the help and advice.

Extended Status Update #001 25/12/09: I'm just gonna come out and say it: I Like Emo.

2009-12-28T19:43:00.000Z

This has raised some minor level of questioning to which I have, hitherto, chosen to be deliberately obtuse in my response to, but have now decided this requires some clarification:

Basically this is two statements in one sentence, firstly, and at least a little pedantically, emo is an abbreviation of emotional; the point of all half-decent music, and art in general, is to invoke emotion of some sort, music devoid of any emotion is obviously shite.

The second and more valid statement is more about divisions in the questionable "emo" genre.
History Lesson: Emo initially developed as an offshoot of hardcore punk which defied the conventions of the genre by introducing melodies into the hard, fast hardcore riffage and by expanding upon the primarily macho lyricisms into areas of personal relationships and feelings of insecurity, sadness and depression, all of which are entirely valid when well executed and performed with sincerity and meaning. Since its original inception, however, "emo" has diverged in numerous directions simultaneously resulting in a genre so vast and varied in the regions of alternative, indie and punk that it is difficult to find any similarities at all between some of its bands.

There are a number of fantastic bands linked with the "emo" genre (although very few of them would actually call themselves emo), see Fugazi, Refused and Jimmy Eat World (HA! I don't only like the underground bands there are popular "emo" bands that are good too!)

The sort of "emo" that people hate is the populist wave of alterna pop-punk bands led by My Chemical Romance (even they don't want to be called emo:
"I think emo is fucking garbage, it's bullshit. I think there's bands that unfortunately we get lumped in with that are considered emo and by default that starts to make us emo.”) who are followed by a horde of 14 year olds with identical haircuts (regardless of gender), girls' tight-fitting black jeans (regardless of gender) and t-shirts/hoodies which reference some form of anime or manga; all of these little teeny/tweeny-bopperos are confused about their sexuality, believe themselves to be totally unique and completely misunderstood. All of which can be forgiven, after all every generation needs the pretension of rebellion while actually being able to conform to the fashions and tastes dictated by previous generations' rejects, I just really wish their shite music didn't have to appear on radio and music channels which masquerade as METAL!

Macavity - The Mystery Cat a poem by T S Eliot

2009-11-19T13:30:00.000Z

Macavity's a Mystery Cat: he's called the Hidden Paw--
For he's the master criminal who can defy the Law.
He's the bafflement of Scotland Yard, the Flying Squad's despair:
For when they reach the scene of crime--Macavity's not there!

Macavity, Macavity, there's no on like Macavity,
He's broken every human law, he breaks the law of gravity.
His powers of levitation would make a fakir stare,
And when you reach the scene of crime--Macavity's not there!
You may seek him in the basement, you may look up in the air--
But I tell you once and once again, Macavity's not there!

Macavity's a ginger cat, he's very tall and thin;
You would know him if you saw him, for his eyes are sunken in.
His brow is deeply lined with thought, his head is highly doomed;
His coat is dusty from neglect, his whiskers are uncombed.
He sways his head from side to side, with movements like a snake;
And when you think he's half asleep, he's always wide awake.

Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity,
For he's a fiend in feline shape, a monster of depravity.
You may meet him in a by-street, you may see him in the square--
But when a crime's discovered, then Macavity's not there!

He's outwardly respectable. (They say he cheats at cards.)
And his footprints are not found in any file of Scotland Yard's.
And when the larder's looted, or the jewel-case is rifled,
Or when the milk is missing, or another Peke's been stifled,
Or the greenhouse glass is broken, and the trellis past repair--
Ay, there's the wonder of the thing! Macavity's not there!

And when the Foreign Office finds a Treaty's gone astray,
Or the Admiralty lose some plans and drawings by the way,
There may be a scap of paper in the hall or on the stair--
But it's useless of investigate--Macavity's not there!
And when the loss has been disclosed, the Secret Service say:
"It must have been Macavity!"--but he's a mile away.
You'll be sure to find him resting, or a-licking of his thumbs,
Or engaged in doing complicated long division sums.

Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macacity,
There never was a Cat of such deceitfulness and suavity.
He always has an alibit, or one or two to spare:
And whatever time the deed took place--MACAVITY WASN'T THERE!
And they say that all the Cats whose wicked deeds are widely known
(I might mention Mungojerrie, I might mention Griddlebone)
Are nothing more than agents for the Cat who all the time
Just controls their operations: the Napoleon of Crime!

Got my cares wrapped up all nice and neat in my suitcase

2009-10-19T22:08:00.000+01:00

Not really a proper, full blog this time, but here's some stuff I've been working on and thinking out. Primarily I've been wanting to film something, and I just started outlining a short film about paranoia and perspectives of reality; basically the protagonist meets a girl and then she disappears and reappears throughout the rest of the movie in different roles, while the protagonist is being pursued by men in suits (like the Blue Sun dudes from Firefly) and all his friends seem to be shifting and turning against him.

Although it's good I'm doing something creative and productive I do have some fears about doing something like this is that I don't know enough people to be in it, and I don't know how well I could trust people to be reliable and turn up for shooting and whatever, the other thing that worries me is locations, I've really tried to restrain myself and write something a bit more psychological, or cerebral, cuz what I normally write is big B-Movie, Grindhouse, action/thriller stuff that's obviously way too ambitious for me to be able to shoot right now, but even with that in mind I worry about just getting normal locations like apartments, clubs etc.

OK so other than that there are a bunch of other projects I've been "working" on such as a screenplay adaptation of the fantastic Chuck Palahniuk novel Rant, which I'm really only doing as an excercise to teach me to write for the screen and out of love for that book. There's also a screenplay, called Do It For Tha Sen, which, when boiled down, is the plot of A Fistful Of Dollars in a modern day Northern English setting and stylistically similar to a Guy Ritchie film. I've also got a bunch of other ideas for films in lesser stages of development and the beginnings of a novel.

Finally something I'd really love to do is a podcast, not specific to any one media, just something where me and a few friends get together and talk about any movies we've been watching, games we've been playing, music we've listened to, anything we've read, I just think that would be a really cool interesting thing to do. I don't think I'm tecnologically equipped to do that though, and I have no idea what I would need or how much it would cost.

FINALLY BACK

2009-10-16T14:18:00.000+01:00

No witty, pop-culture referencey, obscure jokey title today, however you do get a blog from me which is something you haven't had for two months, so erm, yay? Or BOO! depending on your perspective.

OK so in true Bullseye fashion here are some blogs you could have read (stuff I started writing, over-thought, got distracted and never went back to). There was one about my addiction to caffeine, which I now seem to be over, but just to give you an idea of how bad it was I was drinking a minimum of three cups of coffee and one can of some variety of energy drink usually this variety.

I also hand wrote a review of Tarantino's most recent release Inglourious Basterds that I had intended to write up, but never got round to. There were numerous sub-blogs I half-wrote about shit that I've been watching/playing/reading/listening to most notably one about the nature of Twin Peaks and why David Lynch is both fantastic and insane (see Eraserhead).

OK so stuff that comes to my head about shit I'm doing at the moment (by doing I mean forms of entertainment I consume).

Comics:
OK so a lot of Batman universe stuff since the whole Batman (Bruce Wayne) is dead thing gave me a point to get back into comics cuz a whole bunch of new storylines would be beginning under the Batman: Reborn banner (I did read the Batman RIP trade, but have very little idea what happened after that in Final Crisis and Battle for the Cowl). So first things first Q: “How can you have Batman comics if he's dead?" A: the original Robin, Dick Grayson, who grew up and became Nightwing has adopted the role of Batman.

So the first Batman comic I got into is the new Batman and Robin title. Now there's quite a bit of in depth story bullshit about different Robins which I never really got when I read Batman comics as a kid, cuz I always ended up missing issues, but let's just skip all that and say the current Robin is Bruce's son, Damian, who is the grandson of Ra's al Ghul and therefore grew up in the world of the League of Assassin's (a group who want to rid the world of evil by destroying it and starting again). This leads to Damian believing he is very skilled what with being brought up by assassin's and is a cocky little brat whom Dick must work hard to keep in line and make Damian respect him. The Batman and Robin comics are a great, fun series with darkness that stops it all from being trivial, but an archness to the villainy that keeps it firmly within comic realm.

Next is Streets of Gotham which to me has a much more interesting concept in that it is from perspectives of different characters of Gotham, rather specifically about Batman. It does take a little while to get into the swing of this (the best issue so far is definitely #4
which focuses on the Real Estate agent who sells the super-villains their lairs)

I’m going to hold back from gushing about the writing in the two comics I’ve already mentioned, but I will say they’re both written by to of my favourite comic writers Grant Morrison and Paul Dini (who wrote a bunch of Batman: The Animated Series) respectively. The writing is at worst solid and is usually extremely good and true to character, without any plots becoming too complex or crossing over into other series (at least so far)

Next is Batgirl, quickly, it seems pretty good, it stars a hot chick and goes through some similar teen angst stuff to the early seasons in Buffy where she’s living a double life in college and being a superhero, which she must hide from her mother and pretty much everyone else. I really liked Barbara Gordon being all pissy and jealous about Stephanie Brown being Batgirl, since she used to be Batgirl and now she’s a crippled geek, but apparently that doesn’t really make sense in the continuity (again I haven’t really read comics for quite a while).

Detective Comics, which I picked up from #854, the start of the Elegy storyline which is a Batwoman, rather than a Batman character. First off, I really like the character of Cassandra Cain as Batwoman, I like her look (in my opinion she’s the hottest chick in comics, cuz she’s got a lot of attitude which comes through in the way JH Williams III draws her. Plus pale skin and red hair is kinda my style). Also she’s a lesbian character that doesn’t seem to be all about gratuitous girl on girl stuff, she’s also not some kind of anti-man stereotype, but a real person. The best thing about this comic though is the art, which is really cool and absolutely beautiful, when she’s Katherine Kane the art style is very clean, simple inks, but as soon as she puts on her costume the art becomes painted, with a gorgeous amount of detail in light and shade and the colours used in the washes are absolutely gorgeous. The story of this is a little dumb, focusing on the villain Alice (does DC really need another Alice in Wonderland villain?) but it’s still at least solid and has a bit of an emotional pull with Kate’s father, I would like to see some more of Kate’s personal life in the next arc though.

Batwoman's clean trad comic art style
The painted style with beatiful colours and light and shade etc.

Outside of Batman, my focus is more on Marvel, just finished reading some Stephen King brand comics The Stand is basically just the novel in comic form, but it’s pretty well done considering the scale of that novel; the other is whatever the last Dark Tower story arc was, which tells the tale of Roland Deschain’s childhood from the point in Wizard & Glass on, I really like where the story goes and enjoy seeing more of that universe, but both of the two Stephen King comics occasionally annoy me with their art, which sometimes borders on the grotesque in its facial details.

Captain America Reborn. I really thought this would suck, I thought Marvel were really brave killing of Cap and obviously they were going to bring him back at some point, but I really did hope it would take them longer, however having read the series now it seems like this was part of the plan and the story is building up to be really cool. Captain America is not dead, but instead lost in time doomed to live through his life again and again with little control over his actions and the way events unfold, and a fear that any change may have catastrophic consequences. The art is kinda standard Marvel, it’s good, but not really anything special stylistically.

I also read Wolverine Noir which was cool and really captured Film Noir in its art and tone, the story did have its share of femme fatales and double crosses and Wolverine certainly got beaten to rock bottom, but I felt that it could’ve done with another couple of issues to allow the story to develop and be a bit more of a noir mystery, I didn’t feel like we saw enough of Wolverine the detective.

I probably read a bunch of other shit, but this is really long now and I can’t be bothered. I was gonna cover all the other stuff i.e. games, movies, TV etc. but I guess that’s gonna have to wait for next time, hope you enjoyed, my extended return to the blogosphere.

Oh yeah, also what I'm actually doing is I'm unemployed, I deferred my place on the Cinema & Photography course at Leeds University. Going to the Job Centre is stressful and demeaning, but I guess it's supposed to be. I'm applying for a bunch of jobs in a kind of random fashion and spending the rest of my time wasting time and thinking I should be writing something or filming something.

Everyday Life Has Become a Health Risk

2009-08-10T17:15:00.000+01:00

I just found this picture over at comicvine and while I thought it was funny I also think its message is pretty ridiculous, it basically paints an entire political ideology as violent, destructive and intent on chaos, when in fact socialism is probably the most caring political system, and, as a socialist I was a little offended that a political figure who (as far as I am aware) seems to have made very sound, un-cynical political decisions so far in his tenure as US President.

I also think this raises a larger issue about the United States - What the Hell is so scary about socialism? Why is that Americans seem to have been brainwashed by anti-soviet Cold War propaganda into believing that socialism means having your freedoms restricted and all choice replaced with government control?

Obama's health care reform plans suggest he is looking for a way to provide every American with some form of universal health care, this doesn't mean he is planning to take away insurance from those who have it and make everyone subscribe to a government healthcare system; he just wants to ensure that anyone who can't afford insurance and the extortionate charges from HMOs can still receive some form of medical treatment when they need it. This is a far less drastic plan than the one introduced to the UK by Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee (in my opinion the best PM this country has ever had) after the Second World War in which he introduced a system that would provide care "from the cradle to the grave".

The NHS is funded by National Insurance which also pays for the State Pension. Every single British citizen must pay this tax based upon their earnings and in return we receive medical care a very good health care system (I'm not saying there aren't problems in the NHS, but it is on the whole a caring, clean and efficient service). This does not mean that there aren't private health care services for those who want more (and can afford it) than the NHS offers, the most successful of which is BUPA.

I can't understand why Americans are scared of a system which means that everyone will be better looked after, people die much younger in the States than anywhere in Western Europe, Canada, New Zealand etc. Americans are scared of having to ask the government for permission before they receive treatment, and having health care tied down with bureaucracy, this simply isn't the case in any other democratic country with a socialised medical system, whereas the current system in America is one which can charge patients for not pre-approving ambulance trips with their insurance companies, and where doctors working for insurance companies are encouraged to deny necessary treatments via monetary incentives.

To me the United States of America's healthcare system is one which looks for any way not to treat people, because treatment costs money and death doesn't. This is appalling America has such advanced medical science, but the truth is that most people can't afford it (the average American now pays more for healthcare per year than the minimum wage - how can you not se a problem in that kind of system?)

One final point - why is socialised medicine in particular so terrifying? Americans already have socialised systems for mail, education, and libraries. These institutions have done nothing but good for the country. Please America embrace Obama's healthcare reforms, they're for your own good.

I Keep a Fresh Razor Blade in the Sole of My Shoe

2009-07-26T00:57:00.000+01:00

I have been absent from the blogosphere for some time now, but to make up for that today I'm posting a three part blog that has been “in development” for a pretty long time (most of it was written, or at least thought of about the time of the European Parliament elections, when the MP’s expenses scandal was just coming to the surface. This blog is about what is easily my favourite album of 2009 (so far). I've listened to Gallows sophomore release Grey Britain a Helluva lot of times now and kind find few faults with it (at least subjectively - which is why I'm not doing an objective review). It takes all of the aggression and raw energy that was present on Orchestra of Wolves and organises it, giving it a focus not apparent on their debut. Some might argue that focus detracts from punk energy, but in my opinion it serves to reveal the direction and the feeling of the songs which got a bit lost in the maelstrom in Orchestra... Without wanting to rant on too much I'll just say that it is a punk concept album which works (i.e. doesn't become self-important, bloated or pretentious) it describes the landscape of our great country if it continues down the path of gang crimes, apathy and distrust that Gallows believe we are walking.

OK so part two of this is that listening to the album inspired me to right a song which is totally useless for my band (who as yet do not have a name) as it's hardcore with a metal tinge (just like Grey Britain) and we're pop-punk/grunge/rock/indie type band, so I've decided to share these lyrics with whoever wants to read them, but I'll leave it up to the reader to decide what the songs about/means, or whatever.

I lie down where you stand up
Because you stand for everything I'm not
I can't stand a singe thing you do
I let them push me around just to get back at you
Backlash in the wrong direction
MP's expenses are a racist's erection

Ideology that you don't understand
Your national pride doesn't fit this land
Marginalized and down on your luck
Use a scapegoat so you can pass the buck

Disaffected, disenfranchised, disillusioned
Disinfectant, this is franchise, love abusing this illusion

The longest part of this is my idea for a Grey Britain video game which would be really awesome (or at least seemed awesome when I first thought of it). This was inspired by the long walk back from my girlfriend’s house which gave me time to listen to Grey Britain almost in it’s entirety. So the idea:

The protagonist is a guy with long dark straggly hair, wearing a leather jacket zipped half-way on top of his bare chest; black jeans and a pair of black DM boots.
The opening seen is a bar fight, where someone pulls a knife on the protagonist, resulting in the protagonist breaking the assailants arm and head butting him simultaneously. Protagonist uses this knife to cut open his hand and drink the blood before spitting in the face of an oncoming security thug, sucker punching another and striding out of the bar. This sequence exemplifies much of the game fluidly transitioning from gameplay (fighting people in bar) to intuitive QTEs (disarming knife-guy) to cutscene à la MGS4. In terms of fluidity there would be some kind of fight mechanic, where if the player performs a relatively simple counter at the attempted stabbing then the QTE is triggered, other similar events would happen throughout the game.

I should explain that the basic premise is the United Kingdom in a state of riotous disarray as described by Gallows, the inciting incident should be something obvious creating some kind of mutated zombie freaks (or something less clichéd, but I can’t think of anything). The protagonist can choose from numerous paths, either seeking to get to truth, attempting to aid those in need and restore order, or just revel in the chaos and accelerate the country’s downfall. The character himself starts of from a pretty instable position of anger and violence and is a distrustful cynic to begin with, however his personality can be altered according to the player’s actions.

The game takes place as a journey across Britain starting in the small city of Carlisle (just cuz that’s where I live) and ultimately leading to London via other major cities such as Newcastle, Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham etc. Along the journey the player encounters various groups of people ranging from Raiders/Reapers intent on destruction to people just trying to survive to those trying to preserve some sense of civilisation and help those in need, the player’s actions affect how other characters respond to him i.e. raiding a hospital is going to make Raider’s more likely to trust you, but “good, honest” people will regard you with hostility, this is affected by geography and the size of your reputation - a small time thief in Carlisle may not be trusted in Carlisle, but in other parts of the country no one will know. The player could also affect people’s opinions of him through Mass Effect style dialogue which has the mood, or general gist of a response rather than the dialogue verbatim - if you’re rude or aggressive obviously people are going to like and trust you less.

Another idea I had for a gameplay mechanic is some kind of anxiety system where when the protagonist is in secluded areas, especially at night them the protagonist becomes anxious which has a negative effect on combat and on dialogue options available. The player should also be made to feel more anxious through use of sounds and visuals in a similar way to how The Path becomes much more tense the longer the player runs.

An image I had in my head for a possible ending is the protagonist with a group of thugs swarming on innocents outside of the Houses of Parliament which is on fire, with the protagonist just revelling in the chaos and the violence.

Sometimes it's my life I can't taste

2009-06-17T10:25:00.000+01:00

Jacked up on caffeine and a bunch of other stimulants.My face feels kind of numb. I have a weirdly pleasant light-headed feeling. I've started using Jack's technique of blog titles which are almost entirely irrelevant to the majority of the content.

Ideas I've had for shit for me to do:

Go on road-trip type thing, which I film. Where we stop at service station and assortment of other "random" places asking people questions about anything ranging from their opinions on the meanning of life to political outlook to what qualifications they have to occupation and why they do the job they do etc. For this one I need some generous person to be a driver (I don't drive) and possibly help out with interviews.
Eraserhead kind of thing with weird industrial wastelands and some kind of plot I have not yet thought of, although would be far less surreal than Eraserhead because - 1. I do not have David Lynch's fucked up brain; and 2. it took them about 7 years to make that film and I want to do something in a couple of weeks
This one iss probably less useful, but would be really fun - getting people to voice act a comic, which I'll then do some video editing stuff to. I was thinking the new Batman and Robin comic, but maybe something longer like a Sin City book, depending on how interested people are in helping me out.

Anyone who thinks any of this sounds interesting, or is feeling generous and would like to help me out just copntact me and I'll work when we can do any of this shit.

Sometimes My Arms Bend Backwards

2009-06-13T23:07:00.000+01:00

I need to film things. I need to "practice my art". I want to be a writer/director yet I neither write nor direct.

I have become greatly demoralised by Enlish Language exams, not because I feel I did badly, but because they have reminded me how brilliant so many other film-makers are i.e. David Lynch. I could never even dream of emulating him. His use of surrealism is so beautifully artistic, and with it has deeper meaning - it is defineitely not weirdness for weirdness sake.

Other film-makers as well: Tarrantino's witty dialogue and post-modern directorial commentary on the nature of the underisde cinema which manages to better that which it parodies (compare Coffy to Kill Bill or Jackie Brown). Or David Fincher with his slick stylisation, which paces action brilliantly with plot, where every cut has a meaning. Or Robert Rodriguez who is a one man fil-making machine who writes, directs, produces, edits, and writes the score for all of his films, as well as often doing the cinematography.

How can I possibly hope to equal my idols when I can't even manage to sit hrough an entire media exam becuse I get too stressed out, let alone go out and try and make films. I am at the very best, doomed to be a Hollywood hack, oh well at least I'd be rich...

Drummers & Dragons

2009-05-27T13:52:00.000+01:00

First band practice with the as yet unnamed punk/grunge band (on the poppier end of that spectrum), featuring my girlfriend, Annie, on guitar and vocals, our friend Jake on drums, and myself on bass and vocals. So the practice wasn't brilliant, as we couldn't play a lot and much of what we could play we couldn't play together, but at least we know where we're at and we've got some stuff to focus on. We're starting off doing covers, but we should be writing our own stuff as well; three songs we're learning at the moment are American Idiot - Green Day, Swing Swing - All American Rejects, and The Grouch - Green Day.

After practice Matt came round to Jake's and we finally got to play some D&D and I got my Dungeon Master on proving my acting prowess with Orc and Goblin voices. Went through the first two encounters in the basic book which introduces you to game. Hopefully gonna get to do some more soon with Tom as well.

I think I have a problem...

2009-05-24T13:30:00.000+01:00

What do normal people do? Normal people go outside and hang with their friends and stuff right? I don't. I sit in this room watching videos of other people play video games (I do spend time with my girlfriend, I guess that's more normal).

I've been watching the Endurance Run: Persona 4 videos on GiantBomb, basically two guys play through this Japanese RPG, which is pretty funny on its own, making comments on it and how crazy it is, then a bunch of people make comments telling them how they're playing the game wrong, while a bunch more people tell the first bunch of people to shut up.

Just the fact that I like this is probably a bit weird, but at least I know there's a bunch of other weirdoes watching with me. My problem comes in with the fact that I only started watching these about a fortnight ago and have already watched 51 of these videos which are up to an hour long. That's not normal right? Am I compensating for some sort of isolation, by watching other people do fun things to make me feel like they're my friends? Who knows?

In other news, I saw Star Trek with Annie last night (I do do normal stuff! Yay I don't have to go back into therapy!) If you haven't already gathered I am a nerd, a dork, a geek, a loser, whatever the fuck you wanna call me and I loved this film. I may not be a full on Trekkie (or Trekker which apparently they prefer) but I know enough to know that there wasn't anything wrong with how the film treated the franchise. Plus they've got a brilliant get out clause for any angry fan-boys (not gonna say what is to avoid spoliers).

The film also manages to avoid falling into sci-fi plot holes, without being intensely science ridden. They have a good plot which strikes a nice balance of simplicity and sci-fi twists. The bad guy is the right level of understandable (enough that you don't just go "That's fucking ridiculous!" but not so much that you feel "This dude is the bad guy, I don't care about his sad past!"). My only complaint would be that it moves very fast from one thing to another, but I think it works to the film's advantage as it allows it include enough of all the characters to appease fan-boy nutjobs and leaves room for the plot, without the film dragging on for too long. Basically they did pretty much everything they could with this film and I would recommend anyone to see it.

Review: Mastodon - Call of the Mastodon

2009-05-18T15:33:00.000+01:00

OK the first review I've actually written for this, it's probably gonna be a bit of a quickie. In reviewing this album I listened to it three times, once on a cd player in my kitchen while I was cooking pasta, just to get a general feeling for the album; again on audiosurf to get an idea of pace and tempo; and a third time on my iPod with headphones reading the lyrics so I could absorb all the finer details. It probably says something about the album that I had decided the tone of the review on the first listen.

Call of the Mastodon is not actually an album it is a compilation of early, rarer Mastodon releases (tracks 1-4 & 6 are from the Lifesblood EP, Call of the Mastodon are from, re-released by Relapse before the release of Blood Mountain to cash in on the success of Leviathan, because of this the album is definitely not a cohesive listen like other Mastodon albums.

Call of the Mastodon sounds like a Mastodon album, but is noticeably not as developed, nor as experimental as the modern-day Mastodon know and love, this is most noticeable in the album’s run time, which is under half an hour, giving the 9 tracks an average length of about 3 minutes, as opposed to most recent release, Crack the Skye which is almost twice as long and has two less tracks.

My main problem with this album is the vocals relying mainly on low growls, bordering on death grunts and even occasionally straying into black metal screams which jar with the band’s more complex sound. Brent Hinds and Troy Sanders had obviously not worked out their vocal roles within the band yet, as through much of the album you would not realise that there are two lead vocalists. Only Thank You For This and We Built This Come Death feature anything resembling the ethereal sounding melodic vocals apparent on later albums.

The album is obviously very proficient technically, but this emerges only in heavy riffs, with very few incidents of melody, the two major exceptions to this rule are Thank You for This which opens with a Metallica-esque guitar riff before progressing into more fast paced prog metal territory; the other exception is Battle at Sea which to me is the most “Mastodon” sounding track of the album. Much of the album sounds a bit too much like generic American heavy metal, than Mastodon’s later work, with tracks such as Welcoming War bordering on a metalcore sound.

The album does heavy and fast very well, but lacks the big hooks needed to pull you in without the epic concept, or melodic variation typical of Mastodon now. Slick Leg is the most interesting of the amelodic, heavy tracks with a brilliant moment in the middle where all the instruments drop out leaving only se-monster sound effects, before everything comes crashing back in at twice the speed.

You can certainly how Mastodon have evolved, and tracks like Deep Sea Creature and Battle at Sea wouldn’t sound too out of place on Leviathan. Unless you own every other Mastodon album and are a devoted fan who must own everything they’ve ever done, I would leave this album alone in the band’s past. I feel mean saying this because it’s not a bad album, and achieves levels of proficiency and technicality that many bands could never hope to achieve, but when compared with other Mastodon albums it just sounds too stock, too generic. If you’re looking for a place to start with Mastodon, go buy Leviathan.

So much for a quickie.

Fahrenheit - The exciting review

2009-05-16T01:19:00.000+01:00

Ok so I'm cheating again and using a review I wrote for a game ages ago, but whatever here it is:

Firstly the only difference between the North American Indigo Prophecy and Fahrenheit is the title (apparently the North American market was deemed too stupid not to confuse the game with the Michael Moore documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11, which is, quite frankly ridiculous).

If you are the type of person that likes mindless shoot-em up arcade style games, such as Black or Duke Nukem (I'm not saying there's anything wrong with those games), Fahrenheit is probably not for you. It is an intelligent action/adventure puzzle game, with a cinematic twist (referred to by developers Quantic Dream as an "interactive movie").

Fahrenheit is the story of IT technician Lucas Kane, who, after going to the bathroom in a New York diner, finds himself standing over a gruesome murder scene with the bloody knife in his hands. The player is given the choice of how much, or little to clean up the murder scene. Every interaction mirrors the movement of the character, for example when mopping up the blood on the floor the player must move the right thumb-stick from side to side. The player must make decisions for Lucas and how he will deal with his conscience, as well as covering up his crime to prevent him from getting arrested.

Parallel to the story of Lucas is the investigation of the murder by detectives Carla Valenti, who is very serious and married to her job, and Tyler Miles, much more easy-going and fun-loving than Carla. Decisions made while playing as Lucas directly affect the Carla/Tyler storyline; depending on how well Lucas has covered up the murder in the diner Carla and Tyler’s job can become much simpler, or more difficult.

The gameplay focuses almost entirely on the thumb-sticks, and almost entirely ignores the face buttons. According to designer David Cage thumb-stick prevalence was intended to increase immersion and make the player feel more like they actually performing the action, rather than just commanding a character. It achieves this effectively.

Fahrenheit also features scripted action set-pieces which rely on reflexes. Diagrams representing the thumb-sticks are super-imposed over the action. Using different colours these diagrams demonstrate sequences of control inputs, which the player must imitate to survive the scene. Each character has a Mental Health Meter which represents the mental state of the characters; different actions drain or fill this bar depending the consequences and how the character responds to them. If the meter reaches empty (Wrecked) it spells game over: Lucas either kills himself or turns himself in and Tyler and Carla will turn in their badges.

Stylistically the game is very cinematic featuring a large amount of motion-capture animation to realistically portray the action. It also employs the use of split screen shots, of a similar ilk to the thriller genre, in particular 24.

Without wanting to give anything away, I will say that that by the final third of Fahrenheit the plot starts to move very fast and somewhat incoherently, making it a little difficult to understand what has happened by the time you reach one of the three endings.

Despite the confusing nature of the plot towards the end of the game Fahrenheit still features innovative gameplay, is very visually interesting and has an interesting and gripping, if somewhat confusing, plot. It is easily worth the 800 MP you would spend downloading to your 360, in fact I thought it was well worth the £35 I spent on it when it first came out for the Xbox.

Slipknot (1999) Review

2009-05-12T11:08:00.000+01:00

Slipknot’s eponymous major label debut opens with what could be perceived as a warning against the album, and the band in general, the opening track, 742617000027, consists of a sample of an old woman repeating the words “The whole thing I think is sick”. It’s certainly not hard to see why they’ve opened their album in such a manner, this album is certainly not for the faint of heart, but then neither is the band. The album is an almost relentless barrage of heaviosity from Slipknot’s notorious “wall of noise” which consists not only of heavy drums (of which there are three) from #1 Joey Jordison, #6 Clown and #3 Chris Fehn; bass from #2 Paul Gray and guitars from #7 Mick Thomson and #4 James Root, but also screams and shrieks from the turntables of DJ #0 Sid Wilson and horror movie samples by #5 133 all of which adds to the sense of adrenaline fuelled foot-stomping, fist-pumping, head-banging, mosh-pitting aggravation the album provides. However it would all come to nothing if it were not for the fast-paced, über intense, frantic aggression of the lyrics and the variety of vocal techniques in which they are delivered, #8 Corey Taylor shouts, screams, snarls, spits, growls, raps ,and yes, even sings his way through the album with complete conviction and sincerity. The occasional moments of melody only lull you into a false sense of security before recommencing the aural bombardment of rage. All of which builds a Texas Chain Saw, house of horrors atmosphere which the album pulls off flawlessly, leaving the listener pulverised into a fury, and just a little scared. Basically if you’re into heavy metal which breaks through barriers of conventionality then you can’t afford to miss this album!

*****

Welcome to my blog

2009-05-09T16:34:00.000+01:00

Hello, presumably you know me (why else would you wind up here?) Anyway, I'm Ben (or Raiding Kvatch in cyber space) I can be found on Facebook, bebo, MySpace and Twitter. I also have a profile on GiantBomb, GameSpot. This blog will be used for general things about my life, opinionated rants and reviews of books, comics, music, films, TV shows and games, the first of which will be a review of the film In Bruges, which is coming soon.

A little bit about me: I'm seventeen (for another month anyway). I go to Trinity 6th Form where I study psychology, media studies and English language. I have been offered a place at Leeds University to do Cinema and Photography and hope to be a film maker. I suffer from General Anxiety Disorder, but I'm getting better and people that know me should expect to be seeing me a lot more. I love metal, punk and rap; play a Hell of a lot of video games (Mass Effect and GTAIV are two of my current favourites). Read science fiction and fantasy novels (yes I'm a nerd) and a lot of comics and graphic novels. My favourite director is Quentin Tarantino. Oh and I live in Carlisle.