Track of the Day - 6/26/11

Major Lazer - "When You Hear the Bassline"

Today's track is off the 2009 debut album of Major Lazer, the bass-thumping, party-starting collaboration between producers Diplo and Switch. "When You Hear the Bassline" features flowing reggae vocals to accompany the pulsing production, which is appropriate given their album was recorded in Jamaica. It also transitions really well into "California Dreamin'" by The Mamas and the Papas, if that happens to be after Major Lazer in your iTunes library. Just so you know.

Previous day's connection: A fairly easy one: both "Baba Yetu" and "Super Mom" are sung in African languages. "Baba Yetu" is, as I mentioned, sung in Swahili, while The Very Best vocals are in Chichewa, the national language of lead singer Esau Mwamwaya's native Malawi. So, they are different languages, but it all sounds like "African" to this enlightened critic.

Arbitrary Exercises - Best Movies of All Time. Ever. Period.

I'm starting a new feature on this little old blog o' mine, called Arbitrary Exercises! It's a pretty simple concept: From time to time, I'll come up with some form of list on a random topic, and share it with you lovely readers. You'll realize how completely arbitrary and pointless the lists are and hopefully point this out to me, and then I'll retreat, discouraged and defeated, back to my sad and meaningless existence. And probably call you a rude name. Sound like fun? Alright, well here we go!

Today's Arbitrary Exercise is trying to decide what the twenty best movies of all time are. My boyfriend asked me the other day if I had some sort of list of my favorite movies, because I am definitely the type of person that would have such a list typed out on my computer, in case you couldn't tell by me having this incredibly cool blog - but, surprisingly I did not have such a list! So, technically, this is really just a list of my favorite movies and not a definitive statement of the greatest films in history - considering I haven't seen every film ever made and also am not in possession of the kind of godlike authority necessary for that. I have, however, tried to make sure that these films all had some high level of quality to them and were not just movies that I like. Final disclaimer: this list contains no Godfather in any form - I've seen the first one, thought it was a little meh. And I'm not the only one.

Book Review - Mistborn

Mistborn: The Final Empire
Brandon Sanderson
Tor Books

Brandon Sanderson has had a pretty awesome past few years. His debut novel, Elantris, was well-received by critics and readers, and also caught the eye of Harriet Rigney, the widow of the prominent and bestselling Wheel of Time author, Robert Jordan. Based on his work, Sanderson was selected by Rigney and the editors at Tor to complete the Wheel of Time series, and has successfully published numerous original works as well. Not too shabby, if you ask me. Mistborn: The Final Empire, published in 2006, is the first volume in Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy.

Now that I've dumped all that information out there, let's get to the juicy stuff: Mistborn (I'm leaving out "The Final Empire" in the interest of space, laziness, and sounding less like a total nerd) highlights Sanderson's strengths as a writer, as well as a few of his weaknesses. Starting with the positive, though, the worldbuilding and way that magic works in the novel are both utterly compelling and fascinating. "Magic" in Mistborn comes in the form of Allomancy, where certain people have the ability to manipulate the world around them by ingesting specific kinds of metals (For example, someone can ingest tin and use it to enhance their hearing and other senses). It's a system that's fairly easy to comprehend, but also offers up a multitude of interesting and unexpected possibilities. The world of Mistborn is equally simple on the surface, but is inhabited by such captivating characters that it feels rich and lived-in.

Track of the Day - 6/12/11

The Very Best - "Super Mom"

Today's track is from the recently released Super Mom Mixtape, which The Very Best released for free this past Mother's Day. I have no idea what the hell singer Esau Mwamwaya is saying, but it sounds pretty damn happy. And catchy! If you haven't listened to their 2009 album Warm Heart of Africa, you also need to get on that shit - it's the most ballerest African music since The Lion King. And if there's one thing I'm an expert on, it's African music. Oh, and I have no idea what's up with this video, so sorry about that.



Previous Day's Connection: Both "Baba Yetu" and Arcade Fire were Grammy winners in 2011. "Baba Yetu" became the first composition designed for a video game to be recognized with a Grammy, and Arcade Fire became the first band named Arcade Fire to win the coveted, extremely prestigious Album of the Year award. They join the esteemed company of other Grammy winners Lady Antebellum, Celine Dion, and Christopher Cross.

TV Review - Sherlock (S1)

Sherlock
Series One (aka Season One for us Yanks)
BBC (or PBS for us Colonials)

This will hopefully be another fairly short review, since I opted to review the three episodes that comprise the first season of BBC's Sherlock as a group, instead of separately. I'm also by no means an expert on Sherlock Holmes: I've never read any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's works, I've never seen any of the Basil Rathbone movies - my only real exposure to the character has been through the 2009 Guy Ritchie film (which I thought was solidly entertaining) and an episode of Wishbone based on The Hound of the Baskervilles (also pretty entertaining, from what I remember). My lack of preconceptions or expectations actually probably makes me the ideal audience for Sherlock, which brings the characters into a modern-day London setting.

Perhaps Holmes purists would consider the updated setting an outrage, but I found it to be a fairly astute move on the part of creators Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat (of Doctor Who fame), as it made the idea of plunging into the classic stories and characters a bit less intimidating. And while it is true that Sherlock's version of Holmes includes texting and nicotine patches, the elements that made Doyle's work so iconic remain the focus - namely, the brilliant dynamic between Holmes and his much-beleaguered assistant, Watson.

Track of the Day - 6/1/11

"Baba Yetu" - Christopher Tin (composer)

Back by popular demand, it's a brand spanking new Track of the Day! I'm reviving this feature because so many people were always asking me, "What ever happened to the Track of the Day?" or "When are you going to do more tracks? I'm dying to know the connection between the last two!" Any rumors that it has to do with my being bored, and that nobody really reads this blog, and my writing here is part of a largely sad and meaningless existence, are absolutely false.

Anyway, for those not familiar with this, each day's track has some loose connection to the previous day's, one that probably only makes sense in my strange little head. Today's track is from Christopher Tin, who composed "Baba Yetu" for the insanely addictive video-game, Civilization IV. The piece is beautifully orchestrated, and the vocal component is genius in it's simplicity - the lyrics are The Lord's Prayer sung in Swahili. Check out the video to see it choreographed with some pretty sweet fountain action.

Previous day's (year's) connection: Jesus, you really expect me to remember that far back? God, y'all are so demanding! Whatever, I'm pretty sure it had something to do with the bands playing Lollapalooza. Or something. Just focus on this new connection, okay?

(The previous TotD was Arcade Fire's "Suburban War" from 8/15/10)

TV Review -- Spartacus: Blood and Sand (Season One)

Spartacus: Blood and Sand
Season One
Starz

This is probably going to be a very short review - though, knowing how I tend to get carried away on this blog, it may end up being longer than anticipated. Insert "that's what she said" joke here.

Anyway, a couple months ago I sped through the first season of Starz's bodily fluid-filled take on the tale of Spartacus, the Thracian gladiator who led a slave revolt in ancient Rome, probably most famous for his striking resemblance to Kirk Douglas. Starz has recently been making a noticeable push in the original programming department, and the network's business model seems to be essentially: Violence + Nudity = Profit. Much like peanut butter and chocolate and Simon and Garfunkel, violence and nudity is a pretty potent combination, and it's in full effect in Spartacus: Blood and Sand. The first episode is particularly rife with TV-MA goodness; it seems that not a minute goes by without someone receiving a gory neck wound or a nice roll in the hay. Despite a somewhat rocky start, however, Spartacus soon reveals itself to be a bit more than meets the eye.

Random Topics: What's a 'Ginia Bellafante?' - A Review of a Review

It seems like The New York Times gets a lot of shit these days. First, you've got the rather unpleasant neo-conservative, Fox News-watching crowd that take every opportunity to deride the paper as a "liberal rag" and scoff at the mere mention of the paper's name. Then you've got the people that love to discuss the imminent death of the newspaper industry - guess which money-hemorrhaging national paper is their go-to representation of the growing obsolescence of old media?

Normally, I'm a pretty staunch defender of the good ol' NY Times. I couldn't really tell you why, except possibly residual fondness from having it delivered throughout my childhood. The crossword puzzles are still consistently par excellence, so there's that. In any case, it was therefore somewhat of a surprise for me to find myself, along with many others, shaking my metaphorical fist at the paper this past week.

The source of my considerable nerd rage was a TV review, published by the Times, of the (then upcoming) new HBO series, Game of Thrones, which you can read here. Many, many people have already commented on how oblivious and unhelpful Ginia Bellafante's review was (including George R.R. Martin, the man behind the novels the HBO show is based on), but I figured I would join in the fun as well.

Random Topics: Delicious Strawberry-Flavored Death

For anyone who hasn't watched Fox's awesome sci-fi show, Fringe, this last half of season three might be your last chance to see it during its original run - Fox recently announced that they were moving the show to Friday nights, a time slot that has pretty much guaranteed a quick death for everything put there in the past. The ratings were already pretty grim in its normal Thursday slot, so in all likelihood this is it for Fringe. However, that doesn't mean that Fox wants the show to die; Entertainment President Kevin Reilly recently gave fans a (probably false) glimmer of hope to latch onto, saying, "If it does anywhere near what it did on Thursdays, we can glue that show to the schedule because it can be a big win for us." Recently, the Fox marketing team gave a little visual support to this sentiment, making what is probably one of the best promo spots that I've ever seen. You might have to be an actual fan of the show to appreciate the humor and all the callbacks in it (which sort of defeats the purpose of it), but it's a real treat for those who do watch Fringe. The ad, which can be viewed below, is supposedly only for online use, but Fox has said that something of a similar nature will be airing on TV soon. So, here's hoping Fringe can beat the odds and continue to make fantastic, freaky, and forcible TV!

Random Topics: 2010 Spike VGAs

Last week, the nominees for both the Golden Globes and the SAG awards were announced, but did you know that there was actually an awards show being televised last Saturday? If you did, you're probably a huge nerd, because the awards show that I'm referring to was the 2010 Spike TV Video Game Awards.

Of course, I myself am a huge nerd, so I took some time away from actually playing video games to watch the rebroadcast of the ceremony. For those of you with better things to do (which would be pretty much anything), the VGAs are usually just fucking awful. The show is so awkward and unfunny that it becomes painful to watch - and I actually like video games: If the prospect of seeing a trailer for the next Elder Scrolls game is meaningless gibberish to you, then you'll want to stay far, far away from the VGAs. Jeff Green, one of the most respected game industry veterans, has a great piece about the problems with the show on his blog.

But the actual award show is pretty pointless anyway, because the real reason that people (myself included) watch the show is to get a glimpse at the games that are coming out next year. And this year was especially exciting for me, because MASS EFFECT 3!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll probably be writing something soon about the Mass Effect series, but I think that honestly might be the most excited I've ever been by a trailer (especially one that essentially revealed very little about the product). In any case, you can view the trailer here, and I'm sure I'll be writing more about the game as we get closer to its release, because I fucking love Mass Effect.

Game Review - World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

So here we are with the first ever video game review on The Casualty Report! Except not really! This is more of a discussion; for reasons that will become apparent I don't feel confident actually giving out a grade or claiming to have a truly informed opinion about this game. In any case, hopefully this will still be interesting and somewhat helpful (though probably not). You've been disclaimed!


World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher: Activision Blizzard

Attempting to write about an MMO is a pretty daunting and usually futile task. Part of the reason that the genre is so popular is that the experience is so open-ended, and condensing a game so gigantic in scale into a brief write-up does not really do justice to the intentions of those who made the game or those who will play it.

Fuck it, though, I'm gonna go right ahead and try. My experience with World of Warcraft as a whole is minimal, and it's downright infinitesimal when compared with what the avid player puts in. A few years ago I was lured into trying out Blizzard's popular, gargantuan beast of a game with an offer of a free ten-day trial, during which I became thoroughly addicted and quickly reached the trial level cap of 20. I (wisely) realized that if I subscribed at that point, not only would I be using up money that I didn't really want to spend, but I would also probably be using up a large chunk of my free time in playing WoW. So I decided, with great difficulty, to just back away slowly and hope the addictive monster would let me go, and I never tried to play again for a long time.

Random Topics: See! I'm Not Crazy!

Just saw this on one of the TV blogs I sometimes frequent. Remarkably similar to the points that I was making about the Buffy reboot. Could it be...(dramatic sound effect) thievery?

The answer's no, by the way. More likely, it means that everyone who has given this a second's worth of thought has concluded that it's a dumb idea. Yeesh. Maybe I need to try to be less of a nerd, cause it can just be real stressful sometimes. I promise this is the last I'll post about it.



Unless it keeps bothering me.