Toy Dolls skirt the edge of punk rock and novelty music. As such there will be some people who will find them very annoying, but I love them. Who could hate such happy, fun music? Dig that Groove Baby is probably my favorite release by the band. This was before they completely locked in on their formula. The songs are varied and have a rawness that is missing from most of their later records. “Dig that Groove baby,” “Dougy Giro,” “Glenda and the Test Tube Baby,” and “Nellie the Elephant” are each classics, and that’s just the first side of the LP!
There was a time in the early 2000’s when I thought I might be able to expand my electronica tastes beyond Richard H. Kirk. This was one of the CDs I got during that period. It’s alright. I appreciate the spacey noisiness of many of the tracks, but I was never excited enough to listen to anything more than this one release.
Admittedly, I didn’t finish this book. There’s a point about halfway through when he tells the casual reader that now would be a good time to bail; it gets pretty number-y from here on out. I tried to proceed but was lost. The book runs with a few ideas that Fooled by Randomness touched upon, mainly, the idea of the rare random event. I’m not sure I understood it all, but it was pretty interesting read filled with a decent mix of anecdotes, philosophy and statistics.
Another enjoyable read from Red Eye host Greg Gutfeld. The thesis as I see it is that liberals own the definition of cool, but the real cool people are those who go against liberal orthodoxy. I get his point but it felt a bit like whining over libertarians and conservatives not being the center of attention. Let’s face it, conservatism is dorky, boring and will never have that the more universal cool factor that liberalism has. But really, so what?
I understand that this game was originally a Nintendo 3DS launch title. So, by the standards of portable gaming, this is not a bad game at all. However, here on the PC it seems a little behind the times and blah. This criticism is mostly about cosmetics. Unlike the bright and diverse levels of Resident Evils 4 & 5 the game seems really limited to the samey-looking hallways of a dingy cruise ship’s interior. While you would think that they could use this environment for all its worth by, say, including the listing of the ship, bursting portholes, and other aquatic mayhem. Instead it’s your standard FPS hallway levels with a little swimming here and there.
Not to say that the game isn’t fun. Although they have toned down the gore quite a bit since RE4, the tried and true over-the-shoulder shooting mechanics, wacky plots and dialogue, and weird and horrific monsters are all still there. Also, they have thankfully gotten rid of quick-time events and tetris-style inventory management. As an aside, a genetic mutation that makes your heart protrude outside of your chest does not seem very evolutionarily viable?
Nobody needs to own more than one They Might Be Giants album. While I enjoy the “hits” on this record, for the most part it bores me. This is the duo starting to become a band at the expense of the wonderful quirkiness of their first effort. Ah, the joys of combining your record collection with your wife’s.
A dated and preachy science fiction story from the seventies about the last forest of earth being preserved in space ships. There are some neat robot costumes. But, overall, this was a boring slog with some horrible music choices.
Yeah, I get it. You went to art school you clever bastards. Fun, smart pop songs, it’s no surprise they have become children’s music superstars as of late. I prefer the homemade quality of this first record over later efforts and there’s only so much of this band that I can take. One record is enough.
Teengenerate are what I would describe as a Ramones-y punk band. They are much faster and certainly less tuneful than the Ramones, but they share the same affinity towards loudness and basic song structures. Oh, and their records also happen to sound like a trebly mess. The thing is, I saw them live thinking that I would finally hear the band as they should be heard, but it turns out that the records are a pretty accurate facsimile of their live sound.
I have read quite a few books that give an account of what it is like to live under the control of a totalitarian regime, from 1984 to Pictures of the Socialistic Future. Dear Reader is the first I have read that is told from the perspective of the tyrant, in this case North Korea’s Kim Jong Il. The events portrayed were written based on actual North Korean propaganda literature. Diving into this book, I assumed it would be a comedic romp from one crazy adventure to the next, and, while there is still a bit of that, it really is more of a rare glimpse into the story of Kim Jong Il as the North Koreans know it. The propaganda injects The Dear Leader into every event within North Korea’s history and sets him and his father up as untouchable god figures. It’s both funny and depressing. At times I felt that this is how people who aren’t sympathetic to Ayn Rand’s views must feel when they read Atlas Shrugged—with its tales of super-human achievement and hero worship. While the book keeps its darkly comic tone throughout most of its 400 pages, the last passages are a gut-punch reminding us, the dear readers, just how serious and awful the situation in North Korea is.
