Under the Sun – “Tracer”
Epica – “Illusive Consensus”
Marillion – “Goodbye To All That/Wave”
Spock’s Beard – “Go the Way You Go (Live)”
Kansas – “Questions Of My Childhood”
Dark Empire – “Closure”
No Machine – “Tell Me”
Egg – “Contrasong”
Canvas Solaris – “The Binaural Beat”
Winds – “Distorted Dimensions”
Rocket Scientists – “Wake Me Up”
Dominici – “March Into Hell”
Rush – “Armor and Sword”
Since everyone was potentially flocking to the theaters to see either The Dark Knight or Mama Mia, I figured it was a good enough time to finally see the new Hellboy installment, The Golden Army.
Visually, it’s one of the most imaginative flicks I’ve seen in a while. Hellboy 2 has more weirdo trolls, faeries, and magical crap than any movie to date except maybe Stardust. I think I preferred the first movie for its Lovecraftian take on Men In Black (or MIB take on cosmic horror), but this time around, I’d easily trade an elf for a shoggoth or two.
I didn’t realize that they’d replaced David Hyde Pierce, so I was a little suprised to hear Abe Sapien not sounding like Frasier Crane’s brother. Doug Jones did a great job physically portraying him but I prefer Niles. Also on the character quibble side, Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) has a really stupid haircut all of a sudden. Seth Green joined the cast to voice the semi-corporeal Johann Krauss and did a great job.
I didn’t care much for the story but it helped move things along from one sprawling action sequence to the next. Unfortunately, the cinematography occasionally suffers from Gladiator syndrome when there’s some crazy fight going on that I can’t focus on because the cameras are shaking, switching angles, and cutting to closeups so fast. I don’t think they screened this one for epileptics. There were some elves and crap that I couldn’t really relate to or care about, but who cares as long as they’re doing jumpkicks and flipping out like an albino ninja on PCP.
Overall, a good popcorn munch with some laughs, a few scares, and a crapload of intricate set design.
Here’s last night’s mix of a song I’ve been working on.
It started as an instrumental about the last years of the French construction of the Panama Canal but ended up as sort of a Frippertronic soundscape. I’m still working on tweaking the drums and percussion stuff but the song is basically in the form I want it to be.
Moonbound – “Nina”
Genesis – “One for the Vine (Part 2)”
Ayreon – “Ride the Comet”
Ulver – “All the Love”
Animations – “Sonic Maze”
Marillion – “Emerald Lies (live)”
Riverside – “Dance with the Shadow”
Paatos – “Shame”
Jon Oliva’s Pain – “Global Warning”
Týr –“Brennivín”
Man on Fire – “What the Canvas Hides”
Tool – “46 & 2”
Eldritch – “The Blackened Day”
I’ve finally gotten around to getting a decent pair of monitor speakers: the Edirol MA-15D active. They’re a good size for my room, sound great, and have a ton of input options including SPIDIF so I can go all-digital.
Not only is this much better than my tiny 5.1 setup (several speakers of which can be spotted in that shot) for mixing purposes, but it allows me to use my sound card for its intended purposes, rather than just as some extra inputs. It has two separate buses, so I can feed them from my regular sound card or the fancy recording one.
There’s another Random ML competition going on at SA, and this one is themed around the Panama Canal. My entry is turning out to be very abstract to the point where it might end up for something else. I’ll post a WIP mix once I get the drum programming finished.
Anagnorisis: The moment of recognition or discovery
Carmichael focused the camera on his wife’s face, waiting to catch the look of anagnorisis when she had realized that he had taken out the garbage without having being asked.
Ludibrium: mockery, derision
Though she had prepared herself for the meeting with the Japanese investors by studying several language tapes, Cynthia’s idea to wear a kimono ultimately led to much ludibrium as she found the company to be entirely made of British ex-pats.
Suzerainty: Absolute or supreme dominion, Overlordship
The passengers rode in a terrified silence, for under the suzerainty of bus driver Millie “Iron Fist” McGuillicutty, there would be no talking, humming, or excessive sneezing.
Postprandial: Occurring after a meal, especially dinner.
I found out the hard way that a documentary on tropical parasites was not ideal postprandial television.
Opeth – “Porcelain Heart (edit)”
Galleon – “Solitude”
Tiles – “Modification”
Storms Approach – “Mosaic”
King Crimson – “Three of a Perfect Pair (Live)”
Sieges Even – “When Alpha and Omega Collide (Live)”
Camel – “Migration”
Daylight Dies – “Woke Up Lost”
Rush – “Resist”
Judas Priest – “Revelations”
The Third Ending – “Digital Sunrise”
Therion – “Birth of Venus Illegitima”
Catholicon: panacea, cure-all
In the early 1900’s, the automobile was seen as an ecological catholicon against the pollution caused by the prevalent form of transportation: the horse-drawn carriage.
Today’s S-UWTOD was inspired by an article I read on mental_floss about the problems caused by the massive quantities of horse effluent in cities around the late 19th/early 20th century, not to mention the thousands of horse carcasses left rotting in the streets.
The article also got me thinking about the trade-offs that technology give us. Cars helped clean up the horse pollution but may have ended up causing a worse state in the long run. As we’re frantically trying to “greenify” to make up for hundreds of years of industrial pollution et cetera, a few moments should be taken to consider what side effects these alternatives may cause later on. Compact fluorescent lightbulbs are much more efficient than incandescent bulbs in most applications, but how much mercury will end up in our landfills and groundwater because of them?
I’ve added the interview transcriptions for Jetphill (Kosmos), Kristoffer (Ulver), and Arjen (Ayreon, Star One). Go forth!
