Gareth – Page 83 – The Designer Monologues

July 22, 2014July 22, 2014

Insurgent Creative: CreateSpace Oddity

Odd. CreateSpace (owned by Amazon, and which I first covered in the original Insurgent Creative posts here ) is discontuing distribution of MP3 albums through Amazon. Not a huge problem, since TuneCore, which Adamant is also signed up for (and handles our iTunes distribution) also does Amazon, but it’s really fucking strange.

The only information coming from CreateSpace about it, via email and in the “help” section of their website, is:

“We are constantly evaluating our service catalog and have decided to discontinue support for MP3 as we work to provide our customers with the most cost effective and valuable services.

Only the MP3 offering will be discontinued. We’ll continue to support the programs for:
• CDs
• DVDs
• Amazon Instant Video
• Paperback books”

Like I said — strange, because putting digital files up for sale requires less work on their part than CDs, DVDs, and Books. It’s like: “You know that store that we’re owned by? You won’t be available there any more.” Makes me wonder what’s up… and what’s coming.

June 6, 2014

World Cup 2014

The 2014 World Cup begins in Brazil next week, and despite being a massive footy fan, I haven’t talked much about it yet. I always love the World Cup, not just because it’s the biggest tournament in the sport, occurring once every 4 years, but it usually also starts right around my birthday. It makes for a great birthday month!

So, without further ado, here’s my guess at the results for this World Cup.

Group A: Unsurprisingly, I’m picking home team Brazil to win the group, and, despite barely qualifying and barely scraping by in recent matches, I think Mexico will take second place, sending Croatia and Cameroon home.

Group B: Poor Australia never had a shot. They’ll go home, as will the much-better Chile squad. First place will be Spain, who are the #1 rated team in the world, with second place going to The Netherlands.

Group C: Colombia are looking really good, so I’ve got them winning the group. I think that Ivory Coast will surprise everyone and take second place, kicking Greece and Japan out of the Cup.

Group D: Italy should do far better than it has done recently, but I really don’t see them returning to glory. I think Uruguay (largely propelled by Luis Suarez) will win the group, and I think that England will perform well enough to take second, leaving Costa Rica and Italy to drop out.

Group E: Why the hell couldn’t we have been in this group? I’ve got France winning it, which should show you how strong the group is. I think Ecuador will take second, with South American home-field-ish-ness giving them the advantage over Switzerland. Honduras will bring up the rear, because they’re just not that good.

Group F: Another one that I wish we’d been drawn into… Argentina will walk away with this group, and the battle of who sucks least will leave Nigeria in second, with Bosnia-Herzegovina and Iran to head home early.

Group G: Here we are. The “Group of Death.” Yeesh. I desperately want to be proven wrong, but I don’t see the United States making it past the group stage. I see us coming in third, above Ghana, but behind Germany in first place and Portugal in second place. If we’d been in ANY other group…

Group H: I’ve got Belgium taking 1st place, Russia taking 2nd. South Korea and Algeria will go home.

My predictions above would result in the following Second-round match-ups:

In what is sure to cause controversy, I’ve got The Netherlands beating Brazil, to move The Oranje to the Quarterfinals. England will join them, by beating the Ivory Coast.

I think Nigeria will beat France, with Germany beating Russia.

Spain will easily handle Mexico, and in what would be a great game, Uruguay will beat Colombia.

Argentina will beat Ecuador, and Portugal will barely notice as they steamroll over Belgium.

This sets up the following quarterfinal matches:

The Netherlands beating England, Germany beating Nigeria, Spain beating Uruguay, and Portugal beating Argentina.

The Semis will be Netherlands vs Germany, with the Netherlands reaching the Final, and Spain vs Portugal with Portugal upsetting Spain (I think this is the World Cup where Ronaldo starts performing as well for country as he does for club).

The final will be between the Netherlands and Portugal, with Portugal winning.

So that’s my guess — what’s yours?

April 11, 2014April 11, 2014

Friday Music

Here we go again — another Friday, another installment of Friday Music.

Starting off this week, as the picture would indicate, a little something to mark the 20th anniversary of the death of Kurt Cobain. Rather than post a Nirvana track, which all of you are already familiar with, I’m instead posting this remix, created by Reid Speed in tribute to Cobain. It takes the lesser Nirvana track “You Know You’re Right” and performs serious wonders with it, keeping its driving energy but transforming it from hard rock to electro-house. Nirvana – “You Know You’re Right (Origin Reid Speed Remix).”

A gear shift into a wonderful discovery I made earlier this week — Bobby Womack, one of my favorite Soul singers of the 70s, responsible for classic tracks like “Across 110th Street”, is still recording. This is a track from his most recent album (from 2012) — a track where he duets with Lana Del Rey: Bobby Womack – “Dayglo Reflection (feat. Lana Del Rey.)”

One of my favorite soundtrack pieces — the title theme to “Young Sherlock Holmes”, composed by Bruce Broughton. 1985 was a good year for Mr. Broughton. Not only did he do the music for this great film, but also the equally-excellent score from the Western classic “Silverado.” This piece of music is, to me, the ultimate musical expression of Sherlock Holmes (the theme from the Jeremy Brett episodes of the 1980s-90s comes in a very close second). Bruce Broughton – “Young Sherlock Holmes – Main Titles.”

Some new hip-hop for your Friday. Two of the most gifted lyrical MC’s in the business, Pharaohe Monch and Black Thought, collaborate on this track from Monch’s forthcoming album, PTSD: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. And it’s the rap that gets me with this track — brilliantly crafted, with nested rhymes and call-backs, plus pop-culture and literary references and some phenomenal imagery (“I’m trying to see Man United without supporting a soccer team” and “possessive like apostrophes” are two examples). Give a listen. Pharoahe Monch – “Rapid Eye Movement (feat. Black Thought).”

The soccer reference puts me in mind of this track, which (again) I discovered via the soundtrack to EA Sports FIFA 2012. Graffiti 6 is collaboration between two songwriters, one a producer and one a vocalist, from London. I love the chill 70s R&B vibe of this track. Graffiti 6 – “Stare Into The Sun.”

We’ll close out with a rarity, inspired by recent writing I’ve been doing for Cubicle 7’s Doctor Who RPG. For folks who’ve seen the 1996 TV Movie that gave us the Eighth Doctor, you’ll recognize this as the jazz record that the Seventh Doctor is listening to in the TARDIS. When the song starts skipping on the word “time” in the bridge, the Doctor knows that something is wrong… Well, this track wasn’t made specifically for the film, it was a piece of bulk-royalty library music for use in films. It took me ages to track it down. Pat Hodge – “In A Dream.”

So there you go, kids. Enjoy, and I’ll see you back here next week.