Category: listening

False’s Four – Creepy Stuff

Creepy Books:

  • Algernon Blackwood’s The Willows
  • Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger’s Malleus Maleficarum
  • Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves
  • Dan Simmons’ The Song of Kali

Creepy Music:

  • Bass Communion’s Ghosts on Magnetic Tape
  • Henryck Górecki’s Symphony No. 3
  • Leonard Cohen’s A Thousand Kisses Deep
  • Sujan Steven’s John Wayne Gacy

Creepy Art:

  • Edvard Munch’s The Scream of Nature
  • Hieronymus Bosch’s The Last Judgement
  • Francisco Goya’s Saturno devorando a su hijo
  • William Blake’s The Night of Enitharmon’s Joy

Creepy Cinema:

  • F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu
  • Satoshi Kon’s Paprika
  • David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive
  • Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s The City of Lost Children

Not Creepy Creepy:

  • Pete Doctor’s Monsters, Inc.
  • James Cameron’s Aliens
  • Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas
  • Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away

Chiptunes that Bury Deep into Your Cranium and Stay There

Never figured it out, still awesome after all these years

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who spent countless hours on weeknights and weekends in front of their televisions as a kid playing Nintendo that to this day I find myself humming bits and pieces of game soundtracks.  Despite the limited ability of the old NES music designers managed to squeeze out of it, with the help of additional soundchips in cartridges, some astonishingly catchy music. Furthermore, despite all the technological advances these old catchy tunes remain the bedrock on which new music for old franchises are built upon. That tune that plays whenever Link gets a new item in the Legend of Zelda? There from the very beginning! Mario’s theme? Yup. Vampire Killer? Check! The music might be tweaked, reworked, remixed, and molded but behind it all you still find these iconic, simple ditties.

Ditties that have been firmly lodged in my head for over 20 years at this point! Here are the ones I find myself humming in elevators most often! Not all of these are from the NES but the majority are. (Click the images to listen to the songs.)  It shouldn’t come as a surprise that many of the tunes showcased here are from games that I go back to play over and over again. How else do you think they became automatic responses for me?

Wicked from Castlevania 1 Stage 3
Bubbleman's Theme from Megaman 2
Wily's Stage 1 from Megaman 2
Frog's theme from Chrono Trigger
Bloody Tears from Castlevania 2: Simon's Curse
Overworld theme from Super Mario Bros. 2
Opening Theme to Shadowgate
Stage 3 theme from Metal Storm
Kraid's Lair from Metroid
Act 4, Part 2 theme from Ninja Gaiden

There are some more quite a few more (like Terra’s theme from Final Fantasy VI, or the second stage music from Shinobi 3)… This is enough to get you started though! Youtube is a great resource as are quality fan sites (think The Castlevania Dungeon) If you want even more chiptunes and don’t care if they’re from video games check out 8-bit Peoples.

So, folks what are your favorites pieces of 8-bit and 16-bit music? Please let me know in the comments! I’m always looking for great tunes as well as great games that come with them!

Tim Minchin’s STORM is Required Viewing

Do you like the spoken word? Poetry? Skepticism? Great animation? If you do you need to watch the video below. If you don’t you should still watch the video below.

WATCH IT! The Internets command you!

Official Site

Equality California’s protest of CA Governor’s Proposed Cuts to HIV/AIDS Prevention/treatment Programs Funding

Last Wednesday (6/10/09) there was a fairly large protest (maybe as many as at the tea party) on the north steps of the state Capitol in California. People from all over the state came to protest Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposed cuts to state programs that offer subsidized medication to Californians with the HIV or AIDS… I got it all on camera!

I spent all week trying to make a damn flowchart for my Civics post…  No, luck as every program I used wanted money to export or the UI was unintelligible.  I’m still working on it and as soon as I have something it’ll be up here.

Last Wednesday (6/10/09) there was a fairly large protest (maybe as many as at the tea party) on the north steps of the state Capitol in California.  People from all over the state came to protest Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposed cuts to state programs that offer subsidized medication to Californians with the HIV or AIDS…  and I was there to capture it with my Flip Mino!  Cutting the video into numerous sections and posting it on to Youtube is what took the rest of the week… I’ve also been dealing with planning for a wedding and such (no, you’re not invited… yet.  If you’re reading this I’m sure you probably will be at some point, you can email me if you have questions…), so the blog hasn’t received the attention it usually gets.

I recorded about an hour of the protest and was able to get 9 speeches, 8 of them by State Legislators all of whom were Democrats.  I’d speak about the state budget but this isn’t the place for it and there isn’t one yet to look over and comment on.  The legislative conference committee is still reviewing the Governor’s constantly revised budget… I think that mid next week the Senate and Assembly will start to take the budget up and as they do I’ll comment then.  Back to the subject at hand, below you’ll find some of the videos I posted on youtube, here is the link to all of them:

This is 30 minutes before the protest and I just walk-through and look at the signs… shortly there after my Mino froze (I fixed it)

I’m showing this one because I appreciate Assemblyman Ammiano’s candor and no-nonsense approach

As I said the rest are on Youtube at the link above and you can watch them there at your leisure…

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