Author: Gareth

Transmedia developer — writer, consultant, game designer, graphic artist, and publisher. A sharp tongue, a sharp blade, and on a good day, a sharp mind.
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Exactly

From Neil Gaiman’s blog (syndicated here at livejournal as ):

“The best thing about writing fiction is that moment where the story catches fire and comes to life on the page, and suddenly it all makes sense and you know what it’s about and why you’re doing it and what these people are saying and doing, and you get to feel like both the creator and the audience. Everything is suddenly both obvious and surprising (“but of course that’s why he was doing that, and that means that…”) and it’s magic and wonderful and strange.

You don’t live there always when you write. Mostly it’s a long hard walk. Sometimes it’s a trudge through fog and you’re scared you’ve lost your way and can’t remember why you set out in the first place.

But sometimes you fly, and that pays for everything.”

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Blatant

I’ve talked a bunch of times about how I’m sick of the corporate media trying to cram their own election-related Narratives down our throats — they’ve decided, for example, that Hillary Clinton is the inevitable candidate, and ignore any news to the contrary. All of the stories they report are crafted with their decided narrative in mind (from what I can tell, it appears that the media has decided it will be Clinton vs. Giuliani).

On the Republican side, in particular, they’ve ignored the candidacy of Ron Paul. Paul is an anti-war Libertarian (leaning pretty heavily into the “no-Federal-ANYTHING” Libertarian nutjob school of things, so his anti-war stance isn’t enough to sway me, as it appears to be swaying some supporters on the left). He is a strict anti-interventionist and blasts the administration for corrupting conservatism. But he’s a dweeby, little-known Congressman. He doesn’t make for Sexy reporting. Plus, his massive upsurge in support is coming largely from Teh Intarwebs, so of course, when the media does report on it, it’s dismissive and condescending. He’s the Howard Dean of the 2008 elections.

For example, check out this blatant bit of BS: The Conservative Leadership Conference held a Republican Straw Poll this weekend in Nevada, and Paul blasted everyone else out of the water — 33% of the votes, with #2 coming in at 16%.

The headline on MSNBC?

ROMNEY LOSES NV STRAW POLL

Can you believe that shit?

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Friday Music

Here we go again….

As I said in a post on Wednesday, I picked up Radiohead’s new album, In Rainbows, and I’ve been enjoying it. I highly recommend that you go to the website and purchase it (especially since you can set your own price, and it all goes directly to the band). As a “radio-single” sample, here’s my favorite track: Radiohead – “Bodysnatchers.”

I also picked up Bruce Springsteen’s new album, Magic, this past week. Absolutely amazing. I was a huge Springsteen fan by the time Born in the USA was released, thanks to a friend’s older brother leaving his LP collection at home while he was in college (this was also where I discovered Steely Dan). As huge a hit as Born was, I had always preferred his earlier work…and none of his later albums seemed to recapture that sound. Until now. Magic is easily the best, most uniformly solid Springsteen album since Born to Run, in my opinion. Here’s my favorite track, a lament to a fallen soldier. Bruce Springsteen – “Gypsy Biker.” He never directly references Iraq in any song on the album, but there are lyrical pointers — such as this song’s opening line: “Speculators made their money on the blood you shed.”

More new music. Fact #1: Kylie Minogue is going to appear in the next Doctor Who Christmas special, “Voyage of the Damned” (see promo image here.). Fact #2: Time Lords have two hearts. Fact #3: Kylie’s newest single has leaked to the internet. It’s title? Kylie Minogue – “Two Hearts.” Possible tie-in? Christmas single? Hmmmm…..

New-old music: I picked up an interesting album recently: Masterworks Reworked, an import in which various electronic acts and DJs do remixes of classical compositions. Some interesting stuff. For example, the following: Jazzelicious – “Ravel’s Bolero.”

Slipping sideways through the New-Old, some more “Baroque Pop” from Patrick Wolf: Patrick Wolf – “The Libertine.”

Moving solidly into the “old” — well, the 80s at least. First, the closest thing that I’m going to do to a Halloween-themed post this year: Oingo Boingo – “Dead Man’s Party.”

And, lastly, one of my favorite tracks from the period, which, typically, often seems ignored in the “TOTALLY AWESOME 80’S RETRO WEEKEND” radio broadcasts that pump false nostalgia down the throats of a willing public: The Fixx – “Red Skies At Night.”

There you go, kids. Hope you liked this week’s selections.

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