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The diary entries of a little girl who is now 30! ~ Part 2 - Page 114

post #1696 of 12387
10/10/12 at 2:33pm

Here's a tangent for you guys.

 

I just heard a song that I haven't heard in almost 20 years...  it's Cherry Tree by the 10,000 Maniacs. 

 

By itself, that's not unusual at all.  But it just so happens that the first time I listened to this song, I was so moved by it that I took action and became a literacy tutor.  I'd be interested in hearing everyone's stories of how specific songs have moved you to do something that you otherwise would not have done.  smile.gif  And whether you've heard that song lately...

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post #1697 of 12387
10/10/12 at 2:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by compoopers View Post

Mumford and Sons for albums on end and probably not get sick of it.

 

You're a good man. Have you listened to Babel yet?

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post #1698 of 12387
10/10/12 at 8:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MuppetFace View Post

They need to start including their Satanic credentials!

 

I only have atheist credentials.  No being in a metal band for me...

 

frown.gif

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by MuppetFace View Post

What's up with this hideous orange JHA logo background?

 

 

 

The goggles.  They do nothing.  The extensions OTOH will...

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by ardgedee View Post

It's also effing huge and takes forever to render on mobile devices and then I can't even see the effing thing. I won't be visiting head-fi from any mobile device until it goes away. It's destroying my data cap for no use to me whatsoever.

 

If you've got the patience to only approve the domains that you need to for a site to work then something like NoScript will speed up page rendering a lot..  That's besides the security benefits.  No clue if there's anything similar for an iphone browser.

 

I'm probably going to get a Galaxy S3 next week for work so I'm going to have to figure out all that crap on Android.  First thing I'm going to do is root it...

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Magick Man View Post

For metal and the like, it's about theater. Most in that genre are real pussycats, they're just having fun and they don't take themselves very seriously, like Alice Cooper. He'll make a deal like Faust and then get his head chopped off one night, and the next day he's laughing about it at a charity golf tournament.

 

There was the Alice Cooper and James Randi tag team back in the day.  Must have been quite a show.  Randi is of course The Man in my sort of circle.  Maybe some of the older people around here will remember him kicking ass and taking names on the Johnny Carson back in the day.  I can't find the clip of him doing the reveal about Peter Popoff on the Tonight Show but it was epic.  mad.gif

 

Tangentially related...

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Magick Man View Post

Metal itself is an acquired taste and I was raised on it, lots of Black Sabbath and Led Zep, at 10 I could even sing all the AC/DC Bon Scott songs by heart. I was inconsolable after he OD'd. So, my tastes are impacted by cultural influence, like anyone else. Never did get into the harder stuff, though, like Cannibal Corpse or Deicide.

 

Really?  They didn't usually play much contemporary metal on the radio so I never really heard much til my late teens but I was hooked as soon I did.

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by MuppetFace View Post

So, some Mass Effect 3 ramblings:

 

I couldn't get past the beginning of ME2.  They shoehorned in the kind ass-pull that gets used to wring sequels out of narratives that have already ended for, as far as I could tell, no good reason.  It didn't need it!  The narrative was already wide open for a sequel.  Why destroy my ship, scatter my crew and them immediately replace the ship with something pretty much identical and replace my crew with new people who fulfill all the same roles with people who I not only don't have any connection to but am inclined to actively dislike?  Why am I working for a minor villain from the last game?  Why can't I tell them to get bent and go find Liara right away?

 

Maybe there are good answers to all those questions but I don't care enough to find out because it utterly destroyed all sense of flow or continuity.

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post #1699 of 12387
10/10/12 at 9:22pm
The music in rap and hip-hop is okay, it's seldom original, because they're usually sampling other people's work, but whatever. I just don't like the vocal delivery in rap. When you combine that with the typical themes, it turns me off, cold.

I'm much more likely to listen to K-pop, the Mrs and I had a blast out dancing Gangnam Style at this local club, was crazy fun (we did practice a little at home, so we wouldn't look like complete idiots). She dressed all sparkly in Halston w/ short shorts and I wore a Versace tux with wingtips. Gangnam makes sense to me, it gives me that disco vibe, ala. the Bee Gees and Donna Summer. In its own way, it's innocent and pure. You dress classy and dance cheesy, it's great. It helps that Psy is a cool guy and hasn't lost his humility, unlike Western pop stars.
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post #1700 of 12387
10/10/12 at 9:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Magick Man View Post

The music in rap and hip-hop is okay, it's seldom original, because they're usually sampling other people's work, but whatever. I just don't like the vocal delivery in rap. When you combine that with the typical themes, it turns me off, cold.
I'm much more likely to listen to K-pop, the Mrs and I had a blast out dancing Gangnam Style at this local club, was crazy fun (we did practice a little at home, so we wouldn't look like complete idiots). She dressed all sparkly in Halston w/ short shorts and I wore a Versace tux with wingtips. Gangnam makes sense to me, it gives me that disco vibe, ala. the Bee Gees and Donna Summer. In its own way, it's innocent and pure. You dress classy and dance cheesy, it's great. It helps that Psy is a cool guy and hasn't lost his humility, unlike Western pop stars.

Does mentioning that PSY is married and has 2 kids make him less cool?

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post #1701 of 12387
10/10/12 at 9:47pm
Nope. I knew he had a wife and kids.
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post #1702 of 12387
10/10/12 at 9:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Magick Man View Post

Nope. I knew he had a wife and kids.


I wonder what his wife looks like and if his kids can dance like their dad?

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post #1703 of 12387
10/10/12 at 10:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DigitalFreak View Post


I wonder what his wife looks like and if his kids can dance like their dad?

Well they are girls young  so i guess they are better then a fat middle aged person.......... 

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post #1704 of 12387
10/10/12 at 11:13pm
I'm still trying to figure out how being married and having kids makes him less cool. lol
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post #1705 of 12387
10/10/12 at 11:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Magick Man View Post

I'm still trying to figure out how being married and having kids makes him less cool. lol

it dosent it was a failed attempt of a joke 

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post #1706 of 12387
10/11/12 at 12:49am
Quote:
Originally Posted by veyrongatti View Post

it dosent it was a failed attempt of a joke 

Oh, sorry, gotcha. wink.gif
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post #1707 of 12387
10/11/12 at 8:08am

interesting discussion.  for once i am caught up with you all so i can toss in my $.02.  in order to establish where i am coming from, let me first say that i don't care about (or for) lyrics.  perhaps it is because, as mutabor said earlier, english was not my primary language.  born and raised in south america i spoke, and thought, in spanish.  however, i did go to a bi-lingual K-12 school and then moved to the US immediately after graduating high school.  through lack of practice, i have gradually lost my ability to think in spanish and nowadays i have to dig deep for the right words in order to speak it these days.  so now i consider english to be my native language.

 

i always considered singing/voices as just another instrument.  as such, i tend to prefer instrumental music above all else.  however, this is clearly not very practical as the vast majority of music out there includes singing as does a large portion of my collection.  there's no "getting away" from singing.  i tend not to pay attention to lyrics until i know i like something very much and this can take years. only then do i get curious and wonder "what are these folks saying?".  and it is mostly just curiosity as it is highly likely that i will disagree with what they have to say or simply just not care  ;)  why?  because for me music is about the sound.  if the sound doesn't appeal to me i move on.  

 

this brings me to genres.  i really don't understand why so many are interested in defending/promoting a whole genre. yes, genres are loose labels used to group together similar music based on specific criteria.  however, that criteria still leaves a lot of room for variance from artist to artist and even from album to album from a single artist.  the fact that you like a given artist does not guarantee that you will like all the other artists in the genre.  this even extends to a specific album in that you will not necessarily like all the albums by a given artist.  yes, there's a good chance you will but it is not an automatic given.  for example, i am a huge grateful dead fan which would indicate that i am also a fan of 'the san francisco sound', psychedelia, 60's rock, and maybe even folk.  the answer is: not really.  yes and no.  i love floyd.  the airplane, not so much.  there are more bands in the 'not so much' column than in the 'love' column when it comes to those genres.  liking the grateful dead does not make me a fan of those genres any more than a fan of the genres may or may not be expected to also like the grateful dead.  or even to like them as much as i do.  sorry, that was a bit rambly and convoluted.  i hope it makes sense because there's more rambling coming up...

 

sound is what gets to me.  i think ardgedee and/or magick man touched on this earlier as well.  which brings me to rap, hip-hop and metal.  rap specifically has an attitude, a cadence and a repetitive nature that is an instant turn off for me.  nevermind the derivative nature of sampling (i forgot to mention that i value musicianship and originality above all else).  even so, when i do listen to the lyrics the subject matter is so far from my reality that i cannot identify with what they are saying.  while i may sympathize with the social issues they bring up, i really don't care to come home and listen to it for pleasure.  there are a few exceptions, although for the life of me i can't figure out why i like them, such as some michael franti, some woo tang clan songs and a handful of beasty boys songs.  there have been others but i cannot say what they are as i only heard them once or in passing at a friend's house or in a movie and, even then, didn't like them enough to hunt them down to find out what they were.  hip-hop on the other hand is more interesting to me.  particularly the instrumental stuff and especially if it is jazz based (yes, i know someone will ding me on the derivative bit wink.gif).  again, this does not mean i like all hip-hop.  it only means i am more likely to find something appealing in that genre than in in rap.  metal is easier to explain and follows a similar path as others in the thread have mentioned.  i started listening to music in the 70's and basically grew up with the usual suspects: zeppelin, sabbath, deep purple, etc.  hard rock back then, later acid rock and eventually metal.  never did get into the harder stuff but my tastes will go so far as to include maiden, metallica and pantera but not priest or anthrax.  i do like a track or two from slayer though.  i also like other bands with a heavy, metal-ish sound that are not considered metal.  

 

does this make sense?  not until you step out of the fenced in area we call a genre.  genres, like all labels, are useful in conversation when the need for generalization and/or abstraction arises.  however, i don't feel it is very useful as a guide to what you may or may not like.

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post #1708 of 12387
10/11/12 at 9:00am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by maverickronin View Post

I couldn't get past the beginning of ME2.  They shoehorned in the kind ass-pull that gets used to wring sequels out of narratives that have already ended for, as far as I could tell, no good reason.  It didn't need it!  The narrative was already wide open for a sequel.  Why destroy my ship, scatter my crew and them immediately replace the ship with something pretty much identical and replace my crew with new people who fulfill all the same roles with people who I not only don't have any connection to but am inclined to actively dislike?  Why am I working for a minor villain from the last game?  Why can't I tell them to get bent and go find Liara right away?

 

Maybe there are good answers to all those questions but I don't care enough to find out because it utterly destroyed all sense of flow or continuity.

 

I love you mavs, but I really think you get way too nitpicky and meta-critical when it comes to gaming.

 

A lot of your criticisms make it seem like you're wanting it to be a sandbox style game, ie. "why can't I have 20+ dialog options?" and "why can't I just go off and find person A?" Shepard couldn't very well go off and do whatever she wanted at the beginning of ME2 because she didn't have any resources or means of doing so. Despite being granted relative autonomy in conducting her mission, she was still being manipulated by the Illusive Man. Sure, she's the commander of the ship, but the crew basically works for Cerberus aside from the smattering of familiar faces put there deliberately to try to win her confidence. The ship is monitored by Cerberus and has safeguards which basically prevent her from doing willy-nilly. Plus there are other pressing concerns: human colonies are going missing at an alarming rate, so it's providing a genuine motivation for going along with it. From the writers' standpoint, ME2 is about control. The Illusive Man's controlling Shepard, the Collector's being controlled by Harbinger, the wars for control being fought within the mercenary gangs, and so on and so forth. The destruction of the original Normandy was meant to upset the player and throw him / her into the realm of the unfamiliar. Badly damaged, Shepard is now vulnerable, a position she isn't used to being in (nor the player taking on the role of Shepard), and the crux of ME2's dilemma is the cooperation with someone who was up until recently (and in many ways still is) your enemy. This was especially problematic for my Shepard, since she was the victim of the Thresher Maw experiments carried out by Cerberus which devastated her former team.

 

It's a pretty well-worn but still rather effective "dirty dozen" style of story telling. Shepard is now on the "wrong side" of the law so to speak. She has become something of a pariah due to the position she has been placed in, and her old way of life was literally destroyed. I thought it was very intriguing to see how the galaxy responded to me, as Shepard, now that the light cast on my role had changed. Not to mention everyone (including Liara) thinking Shepard is dead, which itself has many implications in the storyline, some of which is covered in ME2, and some of which takes place in other media like the comics between ME1 and ME2. From a narrative standpoint, Harbinger sent the Collectors to destroy Shepard's vessel so he could then obtain her body. The Shadow Broker ended up getting to it first, and when the deal between him and the Collectors went south there are a lot of interesting ramifications in the storyline. Additionally there's the question of Shepard's "resurrection" by Cerberus, the question of whether Shepard really is who she used to be. It's a question with interesting philosophic underpinnings, and it's something that does indeed play a significant role later on in the game and into ME3 regarding some specific characters. There are trust issues among certain former teammates who, in the hiatus of ME2's story, have some lingering emotional baggage getting in the way of getting back to the way things used to be.

 

I'm not saying the writing is by any means perfect, and I'm not making excuses for mediocrity. I think videogames can and should be held to the same standards as other forms of media. However I really do think the execution of ME2 was fairly well done, and any minor issues where nowhere near problematic enough for me to negatively impact the sheer enjoyment I was able to extract from the game.

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post #1709 of 12387
10/11/12 at 9:38am
Quote:
Originally Posted by MuppetFace View Post

 

I love you mavs, but I really think you get way too nitpicky and meta-critical when it comes to gaming.

 

A lot of your criticisms make it seem like you're wanting it to be a sandbox style game,

 

...

 

That really should have a spoiler tag.  I haven't played ME2 or ME3 yet. wink.gif

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post #1710 of 12387
10/11/12 at 11:24am
Quote:
Originally Posted by thrak View Post

does this make sense?  not until you step out of the fenced in area we call a genre.  genres, like all labels, are useful in conversation when the need for generalization and/or abstraction arises.  however, i don't feel it is very useful as a guide to what you may or may not like.

 

I partially agree with you that there are big variations inside even one genre. But I can generalize from your opinion that you are not a fan of rap. You mentioned that you liked couple or three rap bands and only bits of them ( also I don't consider Beasty Boys a typical rap band, they are punks L3000.gif) so I can say that thrak doesn't really like rap and I will be correct.


Edited by mutabor - 10/11/12 at 11:27am
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