Being of astute faculties and superior perception, you will recall my previous post on how the National Government is going to screw the country.
Ha ha! How often reality outstrips the imagination.
Gerry Brownlee's firing up the mining rig and preparing to go prospecting in our national parks, based on some numbers that a mining industry stooge basically pulled out of his ass.
Anne Tolley, not content with her school-closing plans, is warming up National Standards for our primary schools, despite all the evidence from civilised countries like the UK and others that they're a terrible idea. In the words of an educator friend: "She is actually evil."
Paula Bennett is strapping on the monetarist dong and preparing to shaft beneficiaries of all stripes. Back to work you go, bludgers, and fuck your children! We've got tax cuts to finance!
I guess that after being made to stare at balance sheets all day, and having the chief whip howl economic policy through the Beehive's PA, Government ministers simply lose sight of what it means to be a human fucking being.
The only bright spot in all of this is being able to read, in a beautiful point-by-point takedown breathtaking in its artistry, just how wrong Sir Roger Douglas is.
Monday, 12 April 2010
Sunday, 11 April 2010
Experiences for the eyes and ears
In other words, a media roundup. Note to people receiving this on their feeds: this is actually the final one of a series of posts. I post them in reverse order so it looks OK on the blog frontpage, where other readers link from. Hi other readers, welcome to the final post in this series!
Autechre - Oversteps
Ae have gone back to their roots for this one, and it's a delight. There's not a drum machine in sight; everything's built out of synths that alternately shimmer like sunlight on a lake, and brood like a blizzard-obscured mountain face. The complexity that I admired in 2005's Untilted is still there, constructing often vast edifices of sound, but it's employed in service to these glittering melodies, rather than intimidating them. On Confield and Untilted, finding the tunes was often a lot of work, requiring patience and an archaeological bent that was tough but rewarding. Oversteps, on the other hand, is their most accessible record since 1998's LP5; gone are the "typewriter kicked down the stairs into a spinning laundromat" sounds. This thing's been on almost constant rotation since I got it. Oh, and it's nice to be able to actually pronounce the damn track names for a change (Draft 7.30 and Quaristice, I'm looking in your direction!).
Don't take my word for it: R Ess; Treale; Yuop.
The Future Sound of London - Environments II
This is the second in FSOL's "Environments" series. The first was made of mostly old material remixed into two long shapeshifting pieces, in which could be glimpsed familiar elements of their work from 1993 to 1996. It was cool, but was more of a retrospective than anything else; a summary.
Environments II is almost entirely new, and is terribly exciting for this reason. New FSOL! As in new new, not just the psychedelic rock revival (right down to the enormous flares, beards, hats and sunglasses) that Gaz Cobain did for a bit, or part of the massive avalanche of archival material they've been publishing lately. New!
At first listen it sounds like they've just been channeling The Orb, but the indelible FSOL stamp is there, and what they do with it is immense, as the cover artwork suggests (funnily enough, this art would not have been out of place on the front of Oversteps). As well as their trademark collagist, sample-based sound, they employ decidedly un-FSOL-like rhythms and melodies to [load of complete tosh excised]. Suffice to say it's really rather good.
Hear for yourself: Boca Manu; Factories and Assembly; Glacier (Part 2).
Gridlock - Formless
I'd been chasing this album for years, and then one night a strange voice said "why don't you go look at the iTunes store?" In 2006, when the New Zealand iTunes store launched, I blew a bit of a valve about it, upset that it contained plenty of music for your embarrassing auntie but bugger-all actual Kiwi music, so I was tempted to ignore this voice. Come back iTunes, all is forgiven!
Let's make no bones about it: Formless is nigh-perfect. Listening to Gridlock's evolution through their albums, I knew this one would be pretty damn fine, and I was not mistaken. Not a single dud track; dream-like sci-fi synths wedded to insistent and sometimes threatening industrial rhythms and effects predict a shiny if fractured carbon composite future, before a long and thoughtful coda lets you mull it all over. It's amazing.
Some examples: Re/Module; Song23; Done Processing.
Mass Effect 2
I'm not going to bother adding to the vast tomes written about this game's impact, design and execution. I just want to record how, despite enjoying it immensely, it left me feeling disappointed and let down emotionally.
Gameplay-wise, this is probably due to the way the ending differed from the first game's. Gone was that tremendous kinetic energy that pushed me relentlessly through ME1's final chapters in a blaze of excitement and almost non-stop action (the sole pause - the conversation with Vigil - was a masterfully constructed piece of exposition that only served to heighten the urgency and sense of awe).
Instead, you go through the Omega 4 relay when you're good and ready. When you're done, everyone sort of goes "whew, how about that!" and carries on like normal. I guess this is the game suffering from "middle child" syndrome.
A lot's been written, too, about the relationships in the game, specifically how same-sex relationships are not possible. See, for example, these explanations by the game's authors, which are some truly astounding bullshit. My problem at the end of the game is the same mentioned by Tracey John in the post.
I play a female Shepard. Through ME1, Tali was my go-to girl. With her and Wrex, I blitzed through legions of geth, kicked Saren's ass and generally saved the day. Sure, she was a naive post-teenager with daddy issues, but that didn't make her less interesting.
Now she shows up in ME2, leading scientific expeditions and commanding troops, but still the sensitive and caring soul I remember: she blogs about how she wishes I could share her discoveries; she gets all embarrassed talking about her feelings; her loyalty mission is at once one of the most stirring and heart-wrenching things you'll find in a videogame. Shit, you even have a conversation where she admits she'd like to "link suits" with you (how Quarians express intimacy).
Would it have killed them to take it a little further? Even if it's just a little cuddle on a couch somewhere. I hated how they kind of left it dangling with the "link suits" thing. Having all the emotional investment in the character, having the trailers suggest she'd be a romantic interest, and then she's too busy cleaning an engine to talk to me? I know that, as a videogame, it has limitations, but, quality of the majority of the game aside, this made me feel terrible for days. If these jackasses are going to carry on about "immersive storytelling" and suchlike, then turn around and say "but, having immersed you, we're going to gyp half of you out of your emotional payoff," that's some nerve right there.
Borderlands - The Secret Armory of General Knoxx
One of the things I most admire about this game is its sense of humour. This episode does not disappoint.
Machinarium
Oh boy. I think I'll just let John Walker over at Rock Paper Shotgun handle this one, reiterating only that this is a game of startling wonder and beauty, and the music will entirely take over your brain (here's the free EP to get you started).
Sorry about all the Mass Effect angsty wank, gongardulations on making it this far!
Autechre - Oversteps
Ae have gone back to their roots for this one, and it's a delight. There's not a drum machine in sight; everything's built out of synths that alternately shimmer like sunlight on a lake, and brood like a blizzard-obscured mountain face. The complexity that I admired in 2005's Untilted is still there, constructing often vast edifices of sound, but it's employed in service to these glittering melodies, rather than intimidating them. On Confield and Untilted, finding the tunes was often a lot of work, requiring patience and an archaeological bent that was tough but rewarding. Oversteps, on the other hand, is their most accessible record since 1998's LP5; gone are the "typewriter kicked down the stairs into a spinning laundromat" sounds. This thing's been on almost constant rotation since I got it. Oh, and it's nice to be able to actually pronounce the damn track names for a change (Draft 7.30 and Quaristice, I'm looking in your direction!).
Don't take my word for it: R Ess; Treale; Yuop.
The Future Sound of London - Environments II
This is the second in FSOL's "Environments" series. The first was made of mostly old material remixed into two long shapeshifting pieces, in which could be glimpsed familiar elements of their work from 1993 to 1996. It was cool, but was more of a retrospective than anything else; a summary.
Environments II is almost entirely new, and is terribly exciting for this reason. New FSOL! As in new new, not just the psychedelic rock revival (right down to the enormous flares, beards, hats and sunglasses) that Gaz Cobain did for a bit, or part of the massive avalanche of archival material they've been publishing lately. New!
At first listen it sounds like they've just been channeling The Orb, but the indelible FSOL stamp is there, and what they do with it is immense, as the cover artwork suggests (funnily enough, this art would not have been out of place on the front of Oversteps). As well as their trademark collagist, sample-based sound, they employ decidedly un-FSOL-like rhythms and melodies to [load of complete tosh excised]. Suffice to say it's really rather good.
Hear for yourself: Boca Manu; Factories and Assembly; Glacier (Part 2).
Gridlock - Formless
I'd been chasing this album for years, and then one night a strange voice said "why don't you go look at the iTunes store?" In 2006, when the New Zealand iTunes store launched, I blew a bit of a valve about it, upset that it contained plenty of music for your embarrassing auntie but bugger-all actual Kiwi music, so I was tempted to ignore this voice. Come back iTunes, all is forgiven!
Let's make no bones about it: Formless is nigh-perfect. Listening to Gridlock's evolution through their albums, I knew this one would be pretty damn fine, and I was not mistaken. Not a single dud track; dream-like sci-fi synths wedded to insistent and sometimes threatening industrial rhythms and effects predict a shiny if fractured carbon composite future, before a long and thoughtful coda lets you mull it all over. It's amazing.
Some examples: Re/Module; Song23; Done Processing.
Mass Effect 2
I'm not going to bother adding to the vast tomes written about this game's impact, design and execution. I just want to record how, despite enjoying it immensely, it left me feeling disappointed and let down emotionally.
Gameplay-wise, this is probably due to the way the ending differed from the first game's. Gone was that tremendous kinetic energy that pushed me relentlessly through ME1's final chapters in a blaze of excitement and almost non-stop action (the sole pause - the conversation with Vigil - was a masterfully constructed piece of exposition that only served to heighten the urgency and sense of awe).
Instead, you go through the Omega 4 relay when you're good and ready. When you're done, everyone sort of goes "whew, how about that!" and carries on like normal. I guess this is the game suffering from "middle child" syndrome.
A lot's been written, too, about the relationships in the game, specifically how same-sex relationships are not possible. See, for example, these explanations by the game's authors, which are some truly astounding bullshit. My problem at the end of the game is the same mentioned by Tracey John in the post.
I play a female Shepard. Through ME1, Tali was my go-to girl. With her and Wrex, I blitzed through legions of geth, kicked Saren's ass and generally saved the day. Sure, she was a naive post-teenager with daddy issues, but that didn't make her less interesting.
Now she shows up in ME2, leading scientific expeditions and commanding troops, but still the sensitive and caring soul I remember: she blogs about how she wishes I could share her discoveries; she gets all embarrassed talking about her feelings; her loyalty mission is at once one of the most stirring and heart-wrenching things you'll find in a videogame. Shit, you even have a conversation where she admits she'd like to "link suits" with you (how Quarians express intimacy).
Would it have killed them to take it a little further? Even if it's just a little cuddle on a couch somewhere. I hated how they kind of left it dangling with the "link suits" thing. Having all the emotional investment in the character, having the trailers suggest she'd be a romantic interest, and then she's too busy cleaning an engine to talk to me? I know that, as a videogame, it has limitations, but, quality of the majority of the game aside, this made me feel terrible for days. If these jackasses are going to carry on about "immersive storytelling" and suchlike, then turn around and say "but, having immersed you, we're going to gyp half of you out of your emotional payoff," that's some nerve right there.
Borderlands - The Secret Armory of General Knoxx
One of the things I most admire about this game is its sense of humour. This episode does not disappoint.
Machinarium
Oh boy. I think I'll just let John Walker over at Rock Paper Shotgun handle this one, reiterating only that this is a game of startling wonder and beauty, and the music will entirely take over your brain (here's the free EP to get you started).
Sorry about all the Mass Effect angsty wank, gongardulations on making it this far!
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