October 2008 – Page 9 – The Designer Monologues

October 10, 2008April 19, 2010

Friday Music!

Lots of goodies this week:

First up — I loves me some Thomas Dolby. If I had to pick a favorite song, I probably couldn’t. But this would be on the short-list. It’s from his second album, The Flat Earth, which, like most of his post-“Blinded Me With Science” output, was mostly overlooked here in the states. Thomas Dolby – “Dissidents.”

The theme to the HBO series True Blood, is a nice bit of Chris-Isaak-tinged country/rockabilly, and is a fan, so here ya go: Jace Everett – “Bad Things.”

The most recent single from the fabulous Dame Shirley Bassey, from 2007 (marking her 50th anniversary on the UK singles chart!). Her voice is, as always, phenominal — but when the instrumentals really kick in, the whole thing goes VERY Bond, including the subtle presence of the 4-note walk-up from the beginning of the Bond theme…. Dame Shirley Bassey – “The Living Tree.”

I realized that in all the years I’ve been doing this, I’ve never posted any reggaeton — which some of you might not be familiar with. Reggaeton is latino urban music, combining caribbean influences like Jamaican dancehall with Latin American influences like salsa, merengue, bachata, bomba, etc. and electronica and hip-hop. Good stuff. I was going to post some material from the Puerto Rican group Calle 13, but I stumbled across this collaboration they did with Nelly Furtado which is pretty damned good — so here we go: Nelly Furtado feat. Calle 13 – “No Hay Igual (remix).”

A song I had nearly forgotten, from Pete Townshend’s mid-80s solo album White City. Pete Townshend – “Give Blood.”

A nifty mashup of Leona Lewis’ “Bleeding Love” with, of all things, Nirvana. And it works. Bizarre. DJ Schmolli – “Smells Like Bleeding Love (Leona Lewis vs. Nirvana).”

Lastly, another favorite 80s track of mine, featured in the movie “Doomsday” which we watched last night (which apparently is a message film about how all Scots are either cannibal punks or medieval re-enactment enthusiasts.) Love this song, and love this mix of the song in particular: Frankie Goes To Hollywood – “Two Tribes (Carnage Mix).”

There you go kids. Enjoy. As always, if a link gives you trouble, try copy-and-pasting.

Have a nice weekend!

October 9, 2008

The Whole Ayers Thing

Easy shut-down to any ConservaTron who froths about so-called “terrorist” (read here: White trust-fund kid protesting against the Vietnam War) William Ayers and his “friendship” (read here — serving on the same charitable board) with Obama:

If Ayers is such a Awful Terrorist Threat, why did the Feds drop all charges against him when he turned himself in to the authorities in 1980?

End of story.

Sooner or later, they’ll figure out that the American people are not really interested in re-fighting the Vietnam war — and the ones who ARE, the ones who view their entire lives as a cultural struggle and civil war between the “Silent Majority” and the “Goddamn Hippies”, are dying out.

Gotta tell ya, though — it seems to me that most of us realize that Vietnam was nothing but a massive waste of human life, and that we had no business being there. The ones who don’t realize that can’t seem give any reason for what we might have gained there, other than “Victory” — as if that is some sort of tactical result with real-world benefits. Um, OK — we might have won. And then what would that have given us? Not a damned thing.

Of course, these little men who can’t get over the penis-shrivelling fact that they lost — these are the ones that now have the most to say about “staying the course” in Iraq. Hardly surprising.

October 9, 2008

The Constant Dilemma

My hemming and hawing over Far West continues.

It’s really just another example of the situation that I constantly struggle with, in my day-to-day work: Do I work on something that has the *potential* to be greatly rewarding, both personally and perhaps financially (doing FW as a novel; working on fiction in general), or do I instead do something *right now* that is sure to make me immediate income (doing FW as a 4E setting; working on gaming stuff in general), albeit it most likely less than the other option?

Do I actively pursue the goal of my lifetime, or do I shelve it for the quick (and lesser) return? It’s not an easy decision — especially given the variables involved. The game material I produce is a guarantee of income, however small. The fiction would be a larger gamble — it could work out…*IF* I get an agent…..*IF* a publisher picks it up….*IF* it actually sells…etc. etc.

I remember when and I were discussing our moving options in 2003. We were living in New Jersey, and I said “I didn’t move back to the NYC area to live in New Jersey.”

That’s a bit what I feel like right now — Gaming is New Jersey.

I don’t want to wake up in late middle age and realize that I spent my life going for the immediate safe income, and never did what I wanted to do — I don’t want to realize that I’d stayed in Jersey, and NYC was just across the river the whole time.