Pow Wow Plus by Stephen Mallinder - CD
Part of a Cabaret Voltaire three-pack I bought. Natural sounds take dominance over the usual electronic noise. If you like early Cabaret Voltaire, especially 2×45, you will like this.
Absolutely by Madness - CD
Not as ska-rific as their first record, yet lacking the pop brilliance of their later records. But still, it’s Madness so it’s good.
Bedazzled by Love Interest, The - CD Single
A one-off single featuring drummer extraordinaire Martin Atkins, Jesus Lizard’s David Simms, Bowie clone Chirs Connelly and someone named Mary covering Dudley Moore’s Bedazzled. Much more groovy/trippy than the original.
Violent Opposition by Keith Levene - CD
A hit-or-miss collection of covers and home-recording style noodling from ex-PIL guitarist Levene. Not as grating as Metal Box era PIL, but not as catchy as later PIL either.
Le Tigre by Le Tigre - CD
Raw grrrl rock backed with a cheesy Alesis 16-B drum machine.
Terminator Salvation
For the first 20 minutes or so I couldn’t see why this film got such bad reviews. I was really enjoying it. And then they introduce the “love interest” and the story starts to focus on the jaded sci-fi trope of the robot who thinks he’s a man. There are plot holes galore and editing jumps that feel like place holders for commercials. We don’t care about the new terminator, all we want to see is the story of John Conner and Kyle Reese. At the very least, there are enough nods to fanboys to keep it watchable until the end (the digital surprise cameo is jaw-dropping). But the last moments of this film which are soooo cringe-worthy will make you eject the DVD with a sour taste in your mouth.
Adobe Contribute Is No Longer My Friend
I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Adobe. Some of their products are great—Photoshop is a verb these days for good reason—but, they have also released some of the most disappointing software I have ever used. Encore, their DVD authoring program, will crash anytime you try to do anything with even a moderate degree of complexity. Dreamweaver will give you cryptic JavaScript errors out of the blue, when you are not actively editing anything. Heck, everyone knows Acrobat is a bloated resource hog.
Back in the early 00s, Macromedia Contribute was a great idea. Give web developers a cheap (Contribute 1 & 2 sold for around $60-$80 bucks) WYSIWYG web editor to give to their clients who may not be comfortable with the destructive power of Dreamweaver. Sure, it didn’t quite render CSS right, but nothing really did at the time. Contribute just worked and filled a niche.
Fast forward to 2010. Macromedia is no more. Adobe has been trying to integrate all of their products into interoperable “creative suites” of programs. In theory this seems good. I like being able to dump files from one application to another without any hassles. Unfortunately, this makes the world of Adobe a bit like Melrose Place, where you don’t know who’s sleeping with who and Acrobat has given half the cast an embarrasing, throbbing rash.
These days, my clients who are using Contribute to edit sites I created for them are plagued with cryptic errors and equally cryptic workarounds. For example, one of my sites will not allow users to center text of all things. Another site gives you errors when you try to type in a repeating region. Other users have connection issues all the time. On top of all this pain, Adobe now charges something like $190 bucks for a single license. Sorry, Contribute. But friends we can be no more.
2009 Best of the Year
It’s the end of another year and I think it would be a good time for me to recap my personal best of lists for 2009. In case you haven’t noticed, much of this site is devoted to keeping track of all the media I digest. I review and rate just about every movie, game or book I finish. I also keep track of the music I listen to, but I don’t really buy much music anymore, so that section doesn’t really give a good overview of the new music I have heard lately. So, anyhow, here it is. The Pages of Fun Best of 2009!
Best Book
- Flying Colours by C. S. Forester – I’d ran out of Aubry/Maturin Napoleonic era novels so I guess Hornblower had to suffice for this year. This series has its highs and lows, and never quite matches O’Brian, but this book in particular was very good.
- Honorable Mention: Twisty Little Passages – An Approach to Interactive Fiction by Nick Montfort – This one is probably a bit too nerdy for the average reader, but I really enjoyed this academic analysis of text adventures.
Best Movies
- The Dark Knight – Really? This is the best film I saw this year?!
- Sukiaki Western Django – At least this one had some indie cred to it.
I guess it was a pretty lame film year for me. I have a pretty big back list of films yet-to-see, so hopefully 2010 will fare better.
Best Video Games
- Braid was my highest ranked game this year. A wonderfully inventive platform game.
- I also have a couple of honorable mentions in this category as well: Fallout 3 and Mirror’s Edge were both incredible games.
All of these games were bought using Valve’s Steam download service, and all were very cheap! PC rules!
Mirror’s Edge on PC
Mirror’s Edge is another free-running inspired game like Assassin’s Creed. But unlike Assassin’s Creed, the acrobatic roof running is actually an integral part of the game mechanics and fun. With its puzzle-based level design, this game has much more in common with Portal than anything else. The puzzles are a bit more straightforward than the mind-bending logic tests of Portal, but they offer just about the right amount of challenge for my impatient gaming skills. Once you get a knack for the controls, running and leaping across the scenery is very satisfying. The combat can be a little frustrating, but in most cases you can just run away from your opponents. There is also enough of a shallow story here to provide some motivation. Although—spoiler alert—when are you game writers going to come up with a plot twist more original than a standard betrayal by an ally? Add Mirror’s Edge to the list that includes Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, No One Lives Forever, Anachronox, Bioshock…
Chicks & Speed: Futurism by Lead into Gold - CD
Paul Barker’s solo project is a slowed-down version of early ninties Ministry. Thankfully he avoids the metal-tinged side of that band. A bit repetitive, but isn’t that the point of industrial music?