Posts from November 2010

Link of the Month:
FreakAngels
A weekly webcomic by Warren Ellis? I’m in! FreakAngels is a very British post-apocalypse story, one in which the post-apocalyptic world is pretty messed up, yeah, but people seem to be able to eek out a relaxed and somewhat comfortable life for themselves. It probably helps that the folks of Whitchapel (the setting for this story) are protected by a group of godlike super-powered people. It probably doesn’t help Whitechapel, though, that these super-powered people are basically a bunch of squabbling drama queens… A thoroughly enjoyable read. And it’s weekly. And free! Though you can of course buy the books if you want. I’m sure Warren Ellis wouldn’t stop you.

Album of the Month:
Palmdale: How to be Mean
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, Kay Hanley of Palmdale is one of my favorite songwriters. I don’t know how she does it again and again, but her songs are just so damnably catchy. This “How to Be Mean” EP is a perfect companion to the Palmdale EP that came out earlier this year, “Get Wasted.” Together they make one full album of hooks, hooks, hooks, and catchy, catchy, catchy melodies. Rock on.

Game of the Month:
Cave Story
Love old-school, side-scrolling, platform exploration games like Super Metroid, Blaster Master, or Castlevania: Symphony of the Night? Then pull up a keyboard or a Wiimote, my friend, because you’ll love Cave Story. It’s got quite a bit more whimsy than any of those titles, but a surprising amount of depth. You’re allowed to make specific choices throughout the game that have serious effects on the later parts of the game, and there are multiple endings depending on whether you’ve done specific actions in various parts, making Cave Story have a fantastic amount of replay-value. Plus it’s damnably fun—great play control, cool weapons and items, intriguing mysteries and a good variety.

Ggg

For many a year now, Busdriver has been consistently near the top of my list of favorite musicians. He’s been featured a couple of times on this here blog of mine, as well as having an album be an “Of the Month” at least once.

Earlier this year I was exposed to one of my now all-time favorite hip-hop artists, Open Mike Eagle, through my good pals Three Ninjas and NHP (Natural HyPe man). I’ve met him twice since, and his album “Unapologetic Art Rap” was my “Of the Month” back in May. He’s a really, really cool guy.

SPEAKING OF Three Ninjas, I’ve known him for a few years now, and seen him perform countless times all over the Seattle area. His latest album, “Three Ninjas is Smarter Than a Lettuce” is fantastic and you should own it and listen to it ALL OF THE TIME.

ANYWAYS. Open Mike Eagle and Busdriver collaborated on a song on “Unapologetic Art Rap” called “Original Butterscotch Confection.”

Well, now Three Ninjas has made an officially sanctioned remix of “Original Butterscotch Confection” for Open Mike Eagle! I think that the 3Ninjas remix is an improvement over the original. Threeni has turned the song into a delirious circus of sound, with an alarmingly entertaining twist in tone towards the end.

But don’t just take my word for it! Take a listen!

It’s three of my favorite hip-hop artists making frikkin’ fantastic music together. I’M SO HAPPY! Also, this remix has been mentioned in Above Ground Magazine and on Mush Records’ website!

You can download the 3Ninjas remix FOR FREE right HERE!

And also, you should own all of these albums:

This year’s Halloween I decided to integrate my costume and my pumpkins. Here’s my costume:

ASTEROIDS!!!

I went as the ship from Asteroids. It was fun! I went to Home Depot and bought one of those swivel joints that you’d use to make a lazy Susan. Then I made the ship out of black foam board. The outline of the ship is just a couple of layers of masking tape. I mounted the ship to the lazy Susan joint (with three layers of foam board padding to push it farther away from my body for easier swiveling) with some screws and hot glue. And I attached the other side of the lazy Susan joint to another three layers of foam board that I attached to my body with two belts (one above the joint and one below).

I also made an asteroid outta foam board and masking tape, with two smaller asteroids. I glued some velcro to the backs so that the little ones could attach to the big one out of sight. I also got a handful of ping-pong balls to use as the ship’s bullets! I had a friend slowly attack me with the larger asteroid while I threw ping-pong balls at it. When I hit it, he disengaged the smaller asteroids and dropped the big one. Just like in the game!

My punkins were carved to match:

And just for fun I also threw in the UFO:

Pretty much everybody agreed that it was the best of the Fools’ costumes at this year’s Fools Play Trick or Treat. But the competition wasn’t really that stiff…

That’s Jamie the Ginger Fool as “Batman,” me, Geoff the Yellow Fool as “Harry Potter” (really), and Mike the Blue Fool as Zordon from Power Rangers.

James won the best costume in the audience competition as a red knight from Castle Crashers. It was very good, though I didn’t get a picture of it. Tia went as a 1960s-style alien space babe, with a beehive hairdo and fantastic boots and silver ray guns and everything. Pretty awexome.

Hween night was spent in the traditional way: Wii Bowling and making a metric tonne of Reuben sammitches and eating my wife’s Russian potato soup with sauerkraut. But I don’t have to tell you about that myself. Our good friend the Unintentional Housewife was there, and she blogged all about it! So go read her posts about my Reuben process and about my wife’s dee-licious soup. Also, Marvel’s X-Men’s “X-23” was there, and she brought some apple crisp, which was also delicious. Saves me the trouble of having to write about it myself!