It wouldn’t be fair to assess the year’s best releases in gaming, having missed the most crucial part of the year. But if I had to make a choice in my small sample set, I’d easily select Battle for Middle Earth II for its pronounced improvements over the original (such as its near flawless implementation of scale) and its back-to-rts-basics style of play. While it may not have made any significant contributions to the genre, I can’t help but think back and remember how many hours I spent just playing skirmish mode versus the computer.

As was the case last year, I listened to a lot of music with the assistance of my MP3 player. After the baby was born, that’s pretty much all I did in my spare moments, because it didn’t require any hands. Indeed, there were many Sunday afternoons where the baby and I would nap to Lush or The Clientele or Benoît Pioulard. Naturally, if I felt like rocking out to Forward, Russia! I had to break out the headphones.

The following list is in no particular order. Despite there being a surplus of good music last year, there was no one record that stood above the rest that I found myself listening to over and over again. Though if you ask anyone I know they would probably say it was Kill Hannah, but I’m never going to admit to that.

Read the rest of this entry »

Getting an ipod mini has enabled me to appreciate music again, even though in the span of roughly 8 months it has become another New Relic. It’s all too easy to expose myself to new music when I have the capacity to browse multiple records at once. Coupled with my iTrip I never had to listen to the radio again.

But first, a preamble to the year of music that was 2005: If I hear of one more band with the word “fire” in their name, I will scream. I am serious about this – I will scream and you will hear me, wherever the fuck you are viewing this hypertext from. And as for Wolf Parade making their way onto year end lists left and right – I say again that copying someone else makes you unoriginal. You might as well be listening to Funeral again you pretentious twats.

How the fuck did I get so off track? This is supposed to be a best of list, not my intense hatred of Pitchfork Media made flesh. The following albums are the best things I listened to all year. And I force fed myself a lot of polished turds based on some of these.

Read the rest of this entry »

Obviously my first reaction to hearing about Billy Corgan’s July 2nd Toronto performance was one of elation unbound. The venue, though – that suprised me. The Wife and I went to a wedding at The Carlu back in January, and were suitably impressed by it’s unique decor. The place is slathered in art deco straight out of 1930s Hollywood. I’m not familiar with what kind of an arrangement they have there for shows of this nature, but I expect it to be a very intimate performance. I shamefully missed the presale but managed to secure some tickets this morning.

Billy’s new solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, hits stores June 21st. Based on what I’ve heard, it’s as if Adore and the more electropop sounds of Machina|The Machines of God had converged. The question you must ask yourself while listening to it, though, is whether you’re a Smashing Pumpkins fan or a Billy Corgan fan.

If there are any Billy Corgan fans in the audience, they might be interested in some text he has been posting the last few days over at his website. These aren’t the little “here’s what I’m up to” snippets that were posted in the past – excluding of course his calling out of D’Arcy as a spiteful, vindictive bitch – these are stream of consciousness ramblings that take us inside particluar periods of his life. In his own words, this is to be “a story of rags to riches to expensive rags”.

Now, as I’ve discussed with others, Billy starting up these weblog “confessions” in earnest could be viewed cynically as an attempt to garner interest in preparation for the release of his new album this June. Furthermore, why publish them on the web at all? Even though I got his book of poetry as a gift I would have gladly paid money for it. As a fan that’s been with him since I saw the “Rhinoceros” video on MuchMusic in grade 8, I could easily sit here and argue the legitimacy of these writings as those handed down in the purest form. Though all you have to do is read it yourself to realize their sincerity. I don’t think he wants sympathy or your money; rather, I think the fallout of Zwan and this new record has spawned some introspective phase that he wants to share with the fans and hardly works as a marketing concept. We’re probably the only ones that would care enough to read them all anyway.

Not many people understand Billy Corgan the musician, and he says himself it’s a result of pushing everyone away – including his bandmates. The tour for Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, and the subsequent recording of Adore was probably the band’s toughest time, and despite knowing the story more or less it was an interesting read. Many critics say that the Pumpkins “quitting” the music industry because they couldn’t compete with the current singles-driven artists was a cop-out; I used to agree. Now I realize that was the only thing he could do, because the relationship with his bandmates was strained at best. Thinking Billy might shape Zwan into what the Pumpkins might of been had they continued was foolish of me – it would have never worked, Billy was too driven and controlling at that point, having all but eliminated the other members from the creative process. So again they had no choice. Releasing an album of his own material is just a natural progression.

Consider this a brief detour from the site’s regular content, but to say that I am not fascinated with Billy Corgan the musician, the artist, the anti-hero of rock would be lying. Look at the god damned name of this place. It’s a given that I’ll be first in line to buy his new album, but in the interim I’m curious to see what else he decides to reveal.

I declare myself of faith

The first, of course, being the inception of this website.

I once made a habit of sneering at anyone in possession of an iPod. They seem like such a fashion accessory, the owners flaunting them like it was some sort of status symbol. I laughed when the flashmugging site went online, and the subsequent downturn in the number of white earbuds I saw on the street. Forget subscribing to Apple’s school of over designed hardware – I wanted a Nomad Zen NX.

My flimsy shell of rebellion was swiftly shattered by my in-laws this weekend, who surprised me with a gift from Hong Kong – a 6 GB iPod mini. Something I never expected, because while I was over there I specifically avoided this type of technology because it was too much of a temptation (and still way too expensive). So now I join the ranks of the MP3 player elite, ashamed to be counted among this unstoppable marketing force. Though on the same token, eternally grateful for such a generous gift. I hear that the visions of Avril Lavigne t-shirt wearing high school students rocking out to their Minis eventually subside. Mostly.

After opening the obnoxiously arty packaging and rubbing my body with the deliciously sleek, silvery device, I decided to try it out. Apple loves to make their hardware completely idiot proof, but when someone other than an idiot wants to know how it works or configure the shit out of it, things tend to happen.

I remember downloading and installing iTunes when it became available for Windows. This was shortly after iPods became usable with Windows, and was considered a kind of watershed for digital music. I’ve always wanted to replace WinAmp with something less, well, WinAmp and figured that was the answer. Little did I know I was basically downloading Windows Media Player designed by Apple, and uninstalled the damned thing a day later. It had an interface that was smooth and appealing to the eye. In fact, it made sure to maintain the design conventions carried over from Mac OS. But what it didn’t tell you was what it was doing to your meticulously organized digital music library in the background. iTunes loves to make you think its doing you a favour, but it’s really just an annoyance dressed up in brushed metal. I have a 6 GB portable storage device, and the only way to use it is through that blasted program.

Loading songs onto my iPod mini was effortless, but I noticed that most of the ID3 tags were completely off (my own fault). The iPod onboard menu automatically organizes your songs according to album, artist, genre, etc., so this is pretty important if you expect to find a specific song to listen to. I can’t stand the singles-driven music culture that MP3s players foster, so for albums, track numbers are doubly important. Otherwise you’re listening to The Wall in alphabetical order, and suddenly “Another Brick in the Wall” Parts 1 to 3 are back to back and completely lose all their meaning. Adding or changing any of this information in iTunes will only update your library database, and not the MP3 file attributes itself – for that you have to “convert” the ID3 tags first. This made me constantly refer back to Windows Explorer and my beautiful hierarchical folder structure to correct them manually. Of course, this will only affect those that get tired of iTunes’ sluggish response and wish to use their old MP3 player. Custom playlists are easily creatable, and an “On the Go” function on the iPod itself will allow you to create playlists on the fly. I found that especially handy if I wanted to listen to a few albums in succession.

In the iPod’s Extras menu, you have the ability to store “To Do” lists, text files, contacts, and sync with iCal (if you have the program). This is a great idea! It’s not like any of this stuff takes up space. The coolest feature outside the obvious music playing one is the games. In this age of gadget-philia, everything must have games on it to be useful. The iPod mini sports Brick, Parachute, Music Trivia, and Solitaire. Solitaire definitely has the best graphics. I felt it was my actual hand on screen moving those cards. Brick is that age old classic Arkanoid dressed way, way down, but it’s fun to use the magic touchpad. I don’t know how often I’d play that one in public though, because it would defeat the purpose of wearing shitty headphones.

It’s hard to believe I can put half of my music collection on this thing, because in reality I doubt I’d ever make it through the playlist in my entire life. I think knowing that I have this capability makes this feel comforting, even though iTunes is essentially tying my hands.

as you claw the thin ice