Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Script Frenzy is starting!

It’s that time of the year again. It’s time for Script Frenzy, the once a year, month long just-for-fun event where you (and a friend or seven) write 100 pages in just 30 days. It’s an interesting challenge. This year I feel like I have the time to participate, and I’m definitely excited about it this year because I’m had an idea for a movie since the beginning of March.

Since you’re most likely just finding out about the event right now, I’d like to point out one of the main things about the event: The idea has to be in your head. This means can’t have started writing it down yet, it has to be in your noggin.

If you’re interested, you can check out ScriptFrenzy.org for more info. Happy writing!

Enjoy the last few minutes of March because I’m going to try shooting for earlier post times in April. It’s not cool to have Web Wednesday posts in the wee hours of Thursday morn’. ;)

Monday, March 15, 2010

Plastic Beach: It’s like sex on a beach; Wanna try for a baby?

So I bought Plastic Beach last Friday. And I listened to it. And listened to it. And listened to it. I think you can see what I’m getting at. I very much enjoy listening to this album. If you want to experience the album for yourself first before you read this, go for it. This post will still be here after you go and get yourself a copy so we can compare thoughts. I’ll be waiting.

Oh, you’re still here. Well, here’s what I thought of the album:

“Orchestral Intro”/“Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach” do just what the names say. Welcoming you to this newest venture into the world of Gorillaz is Sinfonia ViVA giving a classical introduction to the album for a minute before leading into a warm “Welcome” from Snoop Dogg on the second track, backed by what easily sounds like a classic hip hop beat and perfectly complements the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble.

“White Flag” features Bashy, Kano and The National Orchestra for Arabic Music and is the first of two tracks that remind me of Jet Set Radio, the videogame series about inline skating, graffiti, and hip hop culture. And that’s a damn good thing.

“Rhinestone Eyes” is the first track that is completely Gorillaz with an always optimistic 2D singing about very optimistic matters such as being a scary gargoyle on a tower that was made from plastic power, continuing the album’s theme of things of a plastic nature. It reminds me of “Tomorrow Comes Today” from Gorillaz, one of my favorite tracks from that album.

“Stylo” features a rapping Mos Def, a singing of Bobby Womack, and 2D (possibly being chased by Bruce Willis). It has a feeling of uncertainty, which the music video adds to, and “juice.” Everyone loves “juice.” Say it: “juice.”

“Superfast Jellyfish” features Gruff Rhys and the always welcome return of De La Soul. This song is a combination of what I can describe of slow hip hop with a catchy almost-pop chorus. This is one of the tracks that stand out most to be because it’s so upbeat and fun.

“Empire Ants” continues almost where “Superfast Jellyfish” left off, but transitioned into more into the original songs created by Nujabes for Samurai Champloo with the help of Little Dragons, an electronic music band from Sweden. 2D begins on vocals at the beginning of the song, melancholy as always, but the song picks up just a tab bit when Yukimi Nagano takes over on vocals.

“Glitter Freeze” featuring Mark E. Smith feels more like a Felix da Housecat track, and I don’t mean that in a bad way at all. It definitely grew on me. I can totally imagine walking into a club and hearing this song playing, instantly becoming the anthem of the night while you go club hopping with friends.

Lou Reed lends his very distinct vocals to “Some Kind of Nature” and manages to make the song more fun to listen to, much in the same way that Dennis Hopper did on Demon Days with “Fire Coming Out of the Monkey’s Head.”

“On Melancholy Hill” would be a very depressing song to listen to if it weren’t for the overly cheery pop beat. I know I would be horribly wrong to even attempt to make it sounds like a generic pop song because it definitely is not, and is far from it. There might not even be proper words to describe a song like this one.

“Broken” is very traditional Gorillaz in a sense: Slower beat, low vocals, and backing vocals here and there. We know how classic Gorillaz sound, and that’s always welcome by me.

If there is ever a new Jet Set Radio game, it would be a crime if it didn’t include “Sweepstakes,” which once again features Mos Def and the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, pushing the Mos Def and HBE count on this album to 2. As a huge fan of the Jet Set Radio Future, having played it for years and years, this track gave me fond memories of the times I’d play a game that had an amazing soundtrack.

The song “Plastic Beach” features Mick Jones and Paul Simonon of The Clash. To put it simply, if you were a fan of “19-2000” and “Clint Eastwood” from the album Gorillaz, you’ll easy become a fan of this one.

Have you ever played Conker’s Bad Fur Day? If you haven’t, the game opens with the game’s leading character (Conker) with a killer hangover. I can totally imagine that part of the game when listening to “To Binge.” This song again features Little Dragon, and again makes me want to play Conker’s Bad Fur Day.

I think it’s because I am a fan of “Don’t Get Lost in Heaven”/”Demon Days” from Demon Days is why I enjoy listening to “Cloud of Unknowing.” Marking the second appearances of Bobby Womack and Sinfonia ViVA on this album, they create a sound that feels soulful. It’s bliss. No “juice,” though.

“Pirate Jet” serves as the outro to the track. It may sound like an outro, but is this only the end until next time? Where will Gorillaz end up next?

Overall, I love Plastic Beach because it’s not just another Gorillaz album; it also maintains the Gorillaz style while taking a stroll down a new avenue in terms of sound. I definitely recommend it. I recommend that you play it during breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Sometimes I’m more interested in people than I should be…

And it’s not Facebook creeping, by the way. I just find some people interesting for some reason. And it’s not bad if you don’t find everyone interesting; because I don’t find every single person I meet to be extraordinary. And I feel like it’ll sound worst and worst if I keep trying to explain it, so I’ll move on.

There isn’t a way for me to explain what I find interesting. It just happens, almost in the same way hipsters do what they do, whatever it is that they do. (I kid, hipsters. I love you.)

Now I’m at the point where I have to ask myself what exact things I find intriguing. Then I have to ask if that intriguing thing is actually interesting or even relevant. And the end of the day, I don’t have a reason to ask myself these questions as if answering them will eliminate them from my mind because I remember the ideas, questions, justifications, and answers for some strange reason. We don’t remember that 2+2=5 even though the idea is wrong, will just remember that any answer other than 4 is wrong.

If that makes any sense then my example is just. If that doesn’t make sense my example is still just. Don’t argue with it, it makes sense to me.

An example is a classmate of mine that I find interesting for an unknown reason. He sits 4:30-ish from me and we also take the bus in the same direction so we generally find ourselves talking in interesting conversations that I usually start. Well on Thursday (yesterday?) I was talking to him about the class when there was a ruckus of honking as a silver car crazily was jumping from the leftmost lane three lanes over to the right.

As the car was shifting lanes, I recognized my older sister riding shotgun, my teen nephew in the backseat, and the silver car as my younger sister’s car. Given my younger sister’s sassing half a week before, my younger sister wasn’t talking to me; she would have just driven past me had my older sister not been in the car. I processed what was happening and my classmate pointed out that I should go considering my sister almost caused about ten accidents to get to the curb right before a bridge.

But now I felt bad because he didn’t get a ride with us, even though my younger sister wouldn’t have felt dropping him off even if we didn’t have to leave the main road or stray away from our destination path. I feel even worst because I looked back, called to him, and stood there awkwardly for about two seconds while I realized that there was no room in the car for anyone else once I got in, so I said I’ll see him Tuesday.

So now I’m weirder than I already am, feel worst about it now than I did if I hadn’t looked back, and can also qualify as socially awkward.

And now as I reread this, I feel like I’ve trailed away from my original topic. Fuck.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Ask me anything…

…but not why I skipped my Transit Tuesday post yesterday. I actually had a good story about random conversations that I’ll save for next week.

…and you can’t ask why this post is so short. It’s 11:46pm (as I’m typing this right now).

…but make sure it’s a question. An actual question, not statements. But statements with question marks are questions. (It also applies in French, by the way.) Anyway, feel free to ask away (even anonymously if you wish) HERE.

Monday, March 8, 2010

What will we feed The Maw for lunch?

I loved The Maw. It’s an adorable (and very downloadable) Xbox Live Arcade game for the Xbox 360. I seriously can’t get over how cute the game is. Considering it’s a short game, I’ll give you the main gist of it without any saucy spoilers:

Frank (our little hero) is captured and brought aboard a ship with a crew that is collecting aliens from various planets. He is thrown into a tank across from a purple blob called The Maw, a very jolly looking creature if not a bit on the teethy side. (There’s a reason why Maw was in an isolated tank away from the other aliens: Besides being able to gobble up other creatures, it also grows in size the more it consumes.)

Suddenly the ship begins to violently shake and it crash lands onto a planet. Becoming an unlikely team, Frank and Maw begin an adventure that takes them across a planet while deflecting attempts to get recaptured.

How big can Maw get? I won’t say, but I had a bit too much fun playing as Frank just leading Maw on his leash to all the other smaller creatures and growing bigger to eat those larger ones that Maw couldn’t munch on before.

And I totally love when Frank calls for Maw. “Maaaaaw.” It’s so adorable. Play it and you’ll understand.


Friday, March 5, 2010

Valentine’s Day is like a bottle of Valentina.

Now I’m not one that knocks on holidays but… Actually, who am I kidding? I always make fun of holidays and pseudo-holidays, but usually in good stride and mostly in ways that are tongue-in-cheek.

And I’m definitely not one to go around knocking on holidays by comparing them to badass hot sauce, but I have a nice little simile going on here. Hot sauce, like Valentine’s Day, requires tolerance. Valentine’s Day, like hot sauce, also requires tolerance.

Even three weeks later I’m still on the idea of Valentine’s Day. It bothers me. That’s right, I went there, Mico is BOTHERED (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon reference). I live in a neighborhood where I get bombarded with people crossing my path just to block me from walking and trying to sell me buckets of roses, oversized teddy bears, and balloons that will deflate by the end of the week. When I say no, I walk a block and it happens again. And again. Then it gets to the point where I’ll willing take the CTA that I dislike ever so much.

What’s worse is that as a Midwesterner I have to deal with Sweetest Day as well. That’s not until October, but God do I loathe that day. It’s just Valentine’s Day in October with people doing all the stuff I just mentioned up above but to a lesser extent.

You know what I want twice a year? Shamrock shakes. Not going to happen, sadly. Now it is time to get a new iPod and my running shoes ready so I can jog past people in a few months.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Demon Days Feel Good

Because of Gorillaz’ (or is it Gorillaz’s”?) new album coming next week (which I literally found about last week), I’m listening to Demon Days, which is possibly one of my favorite albums of all time.

The introduction track (simply named “Intro”) and “Last Living Souls” have always sounded ominous to me, starting a darker theme that is apparently throughout the entire album. “Kid with Guns” and “O Green World” makes me think about the damage that we do to ourselves and others, not necessary physically but also mentally, but that can that could just be my interpretation of it. “Dirty Harry” has a nice combination of strings and hip hop beats with children choir singing the chorus before and following the hip hop flow. It makes for interesting listening.

Now I can honestly say “Feel Good Inc.” is one of my guilty pleasures music wise. It even goes as far as me HAVING to have this song in my massive collection of songs to play in Rock Band. Having De La Soul in the track was the cherry on top of the song. I feel like it is on one of the more (if the the most) upbeat songs on the album.

“El Mañana” makes me think of an autumn night. I honestly have no clue why, but the lyrics make me think of someone feeling that they are alone, maybe driven by the line “Summer don’t know me no more.” The sound of the strings in the background of the song give the feeling of someone feeling somber and the sound of sirens at the end gave me the feeling like all hope is gone. What can I say? I’m a pessimistic at times. The track “Every Planet We Reach is Dead” is what I can imagine myself listening to on my lowest of days if I didn’t try to force myself to listen to something upbeat to swing my mood back up. But I can also found myself finding listening to it on my highest of days because of the great amount of instruments playing in the last half of the song. I’d honestly learn how to play piano just so I could play this song in particular over and over again.

I totally listen to “November Has Come” in, guess when, November. I feel at around this point slips back into being a hip hop album. It has the feeling of autumn again, “All Alone,” why do you make me feel like I’m always surrounded by people? It could be because of the faster beat being after the slower “November Has Come.” Anyone that loves bass (i.e. Me) will love the song because it definitely has enough bass going on while slipping into a more peaceful sound near the middle of the song and seamlessly back into the bass . The next track, “White Light,” is also rolling deep in bass. Not including the second to last song on the album which I will mention later on, this is the shortest song on the album.

“Dare” is the closest thing you will get to pop music on the album. I don’t mean that in a mad way at all because I love pop music. It also carries on with bass lines like the few songs before it while also giving the track backing vocals that make the song very, very catchy to me.

I wanted to find out what the Dance of the Dead was after the chorus of “Fire Coming Out of the Monkey’s Head,” which features Dennis Hopper telling the story of the Happy Folk. Damn, they were so happy.

“Don’t Get Lost in Heaven” and “Demon Days” I love because they make me appreciate a sound I don’t typically find myself listening to. I’ve never really been a fan of gospel music (neither do I hate it), but I can find myself listening to these two particular tracks in particular over and over again because they make me feel at ease.

So I can’t wait until Plastic Beach is released next week. I can’t believe Gorillaz haven’t released an album in five years because they totally flew by. Just going by the sound of the track “Stylo” from the new album, I’m going to be living on this new album for another five years to come.

S-s-s-s-s-stylo.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Sex… ON MY HORSE.

Good ol’ Web Wednesday. I have only two things this week (because I’ve been having nice Twitter conversations) but next week I plan for this to be a real post.

Sex in space is a random article I found on Wikipedia. Read it, think about it, and wonder how many brave men and women died for such a thing to happen.

Get On My Horse is just… You know what? Watch it yourself. It’s totally NSFW. Hope you didn’t click the link before you looked over your shoulders.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

CTA: Cat Trapping Agenda

Let’s play a game; A game where you have to use your imagination. Just between us, we’ll call this game “make believe.”

Imagine that you’re a cat; if you’re younger than 18, feel free to imagine yourself as a kitten, maybe a really cute one with a nice little bell your owner forced on you so you can’t creep around like cats do. Imagine that you needed to get from point A to point B but needed a kitty carrier to lift you to your destination. You find yourself outside for a few minutes waiting and a carrier eventually arrives and stops right before your little paws. The little gate opens and you climb in, pay for your fare with your hard earned Meow Mix, then claim a spot for yourself on the left center of the carrier. You sit and watch kittens jump up, down, and all around the carrier, their parents not doing a thing until you give them that cold, serious stare. A few minutes of not being to enjoy the silence later you climb out of the carrier and arrive at your destination within an adequate amount of time. Fin.

Imagine again that you are a cat, or a kitten with a very annoying bell if that’s what floats your boat, and you needed to get from point A to point B. You take to the streets and wait for the carrier and after a few minutes you realize that you’re not on a carrier, but still outside. You board the carrier after a longer wait and it is noticeably more populated. You have a bit more trouble claiming a spot because there are other cats everywhere. You give up your precious Meow Mix pieces, and then look around for a spot to settle. You don’t want to share your personal area because you’re a cat after all. You get to your destination, but you wonder if you have to put up with that every day. Every so often, you find yourself even more irritated and sometimes there are other cats that begin to vent their frustration on each other, raising the irritation of everyone in the carrier. Then you wonder if it’s worth giving up your Meow Mix pieces up for.

Maybe a certain itty bitty kitty committee best get the scooper and clean up the litter box because it’s really starting to stink.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Still Team Coco, Still Not Watching Chin

The better man always wins.

Actually, I thought that the better man always won until January when Leno’s shitfest of a primetime show got canceled and NBC planned on bumping Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Fallon so Chin could have a 30 minute show before Conan’s. Somehow his show would still be called The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, even though it would be airing on the east coast at 12:05am. (Wouldn’t it technically be The Tomorrow Show with Conan O’Brien if he had accepted the bump by NBC?) Not only that but Late Night with Jimmy Fallon would have also been bumped, and we still have no clue what would have happened to Last Call with Carson Daly.

Thankfully Conan didn’t put up with NBC’s shit and was able to get out of his contract. I’d rather Conan be off the air shopping around for a better place for himself that actually promotes his show since a certain incompetent network let it suffer by instead giving the advertising time to a waste of an hour on television that will not be named.

At this moment right now, the internets are attempting to get #imwithcoco, Chin, and Conan O’Brien to trend on Twitter without mentioning the names Tonight Show and Leno to make sure they also don’t trend. My TweetDeck feed is going crazy with all the #imwithcoco tweets.

Nope, still not going to watch Leno, not even to see what he does “differently.” Instead, I’ll be watching The Simpsons and TMZ on Fox Chicago at 10:30pm Central Time, go take a piss for about six minutes, then tune in to NBC to watch Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Suck it, Chin! You’re not getting ratings from me. I’m not even going to check out your musical guest, whoever it is.