End of 2010 eh? What a year. A fair bit happened but then it's blurred like so much of the past has. I'll focus on what I liked about this year and what I didn;t.
Music of 2010
I spent a fair bit of the year finding out about music from previous years that I should've known about earlier. I picked up probably fewer recent releases but still managed to stumble across a couple of gooduns'. Namely;
Deftones - Diamond Eyes
Such a solid album all over, awesome pacing, awesome flow. Was totally taken by surprise with this. Really keen to see them next year live (if I can) because these songs have the potential to go explosive live.
My Disco - Little Joy
Being from Melbourne I'd heard the trendster undervibe about this band a fair few years ago. I really got into Language of Numbers which was an angular art-rock piece. It was really interesting, but the band seemed so withdrawn (probably not a fair assessment) almost that it was hard to access anything else they had done.
Stumbling through my local JB uncovered this new work. "Holy shit is this a new album by the My Disco?!" I had heard nothing about it but was shocked enough to buy it on the spot.
While it is different from previous releases in being more minimalistic and pared back than anything I've heard by them before, it's still markedly them and a real joy to listen to.
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
I get a lot of crap from my 'hard as nails' mates who don't listen to anything without a chug or a wail about liking this band. this album repaid my faith and mental scarring tenfold. What a ripper. Going along the same path but spreading out the range and pace so that as an album, it might not be as tight but the subsequent exploration is definitely worth sitting through.
Other albums worth noting but which I will not espouse upon greatly;
Dillinger Escape Plan - Option Paralysis
Miles Away - Endless Roads
Coheed & Cambria - Year of the Black Rainbow
I Exist - I: A Turn for the Worse
The Sword - Warp Riders
Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Fuck, I'm sure I listened to more music, but trying to place it within the space-time restraint of a year is pretty hard when you've had half a case in a morning. So I'll have to append this with epiphanies of awesome music if need be.
And onto the albums that made my need to listen to list;
There's a few albums from 2010 that I've ordered, got on my to order list, or just been plain neglectful of.
Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
The National - High Violet
Drake - Thank Me Later
Titus Andronicus - The Monitor
Kvelertak - Kvelertak
Film
Not really talking about to be honest. I have drastically reduced the number of times I've been to the cinema. I guess i'm losing interest? I will say that I loved Inception. I guess some might say I'm just some impressionistic wannabe brainheaded whatever but fuck me if I didn't find it interesting, DiCaprio's performance awesome and the effects worthy of the budget. Felt like it's fundamental's were more interesting than anything barfed up that I saw this year.
I'll add gaming in at another time because really, I'm inebriated as hell and this is most definitely the one that requires the most thought for me to express upon clearly.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Pre Christmas Blues and 'Goaties'
It has been a fair while since I bothered adding to this thing. I've not been particularly busy, just not of a mind to write anything.
I jumped on the WoW bandwagon, I don't think it'll last, still no story, even the launch of Cataclysm has a greater reverberation in the internets than anything I truly perceive as worth a squeak or squeal at all. But maybe I haven't been one to see the changes within WoW, the shaping it has endured directly from external sources. It has taken elements from other MMOs to increase it's success but this isn't something to maligned or derided, it simply is. It's almost like watching the evolution of a creature that mimics it's predators to then predate upon them in a more efficient method of it's own hunting style. Or something...
But in doing so I feel that it has become pretty good at most things but not great a any. Well maybe apart from Dungeons, which are a blast. But I hate it's PvP. This is enough to know in and of itself, it's not something that they could tweak to get me on board, it is simply flawed in it's concept not to mention it's execution.
Along with WoW, I've been playing a bit (read 100+ hours) of Bad Company 2. After going through the start of the year with this gem (which anointed my new computer as a gaming beast) I tried my hand at other vices. Starcraft, Medal of Honor and so on. But I've come back because I realise that it is truly worth time invested, as long as you aren't on a crappy Public server with no clue on what the Q button does. (Here's a tip; IT SPOTS ENEMIES!)
The Christmas sales are on and inevitably my Pile of Shame will increase. I've already added Metro2033 to it thanks to Steam and also GTA4 + Liberty City Stories for very cheap thanks to an EB Pre Christmas sale.
But there is nothing upcoming in the next month that I'm really hanging for so hopefully these coming weeks will be a chance to go over the stuff that eluded my sight during the year.
Talking about the year I'm going to talk about the games that I felt were best this year. I'm not going to numerate them, trying to cheapen one, or laud one especially. Each of these games were great, great enough to play repeatedly and get them right now, for bullion if needed. And that is all you need to know.
Mass Effect 2
Red Dead Redemption
Limbo
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
These are the games that I felt I had the most fun with, found the most interesting and did the most for gaming in general (what a crap nebulous statement).
Anyhoo, back to Laguna Presa!
I jumped on the WoW bandwagon, I don't think it'll last, still no story, even the launch of Cataclysm has a greater reverberation in the internets than anything I truly perceive as worth a squeak or squeal at all. But maybe I haven't been one to see the changes within WoW, the shaping it has endured directly from external sources. It has taken elements from other MMOs to increase it's success but this isn't something to maligned or derided, it simply is. It's almost like watching the evolution of a creature that mimics it's predators to then predate upon them in a more efficient method of it's own hunting style. Or something...
But in doing so I feel that it has become pretty good at most things but not great a any. Well maybe apart from Dungeons, which are a blast. But I hate it's PvP. This is enough to know in and of itself, it's not something that they could tweak to get me on board, it is simply flawed in it's concept not to mention it's execution.
Along with WoW, I've been playing a bit (read 100+ hours) of Bad Company 2. After going through the start of the year with this gem (which anointed my new computer as a gaming beast) I tried my hand at other vices. Starcraft, Medal of Honor and so on. But I've come back because I realise that it is truly worth time invested, as long as you aren't on a crappy Public server with no clue on what the Q button does. (Here's a tip; IT SPOTS ENEMIES!)
The Christmas sales are on and inevitably my Pile of Shame will increase. I've already added Metro2033 to it thanks to Steam and also GTA4 + Liberty City Stories for very cheap thanks to an EB Pre Christmas sale.
But there is nothing upcoming in the next month that I'm really hanging for so hopefully these coming weeks will be a chance to go over the stuff that eluded my sight during the year.
Talking about the year I'm going to talk about the games that I felt were best this year. I'm not going to numerate them, trying to cheapen one, or laud one especially. Each of these games were great, great enough to play repeatedly and get them right now, for bullion if needed. And that is all you need to know.
Mass Effect 2
Red Dead Redemption
Limbo
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
These are the games that I felt I had the most fun with, found the most interesting and did the most for gaming in general (what a crap nebulous statement).
Anyhoo, back to Laguna Presa!
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