Black Redemption and Feb 27

Black Sabbath 13 Part 2

(Unabridged Post in my Music Blog)

Black Redemption?

Yesterday I left off at track 7, Damaged Soul.  I had not heard anything I would want to include in a "Black Sabbath" playlist unless I was just trying to cover all my bases.  I was self conscious of the fact it could have been a diminished attention span, so I loaded up Damaged Soul and gave it another spin while I was having a smoke outside.  Still nothing rousing.

Then it happened.

Dear Father started.  This... ok this sounds listenable... no wait, this is AWESOME.  If you look at the title and think we've gotten some Ozzy solo bleed over, some kind and sad song, you are mistaken.  This is a song about a priest living with the conscience of a sexual predator.  Probably 30 years too late to being "edgy", but the lyrics do hit home without beating around the bush.  No subtleness here, "you left my life in ruins", "you knew just what you were doing".  The riff is AWESOME.  The lyrics are dark.  Here we go.

And then it stopped... Well it did if you bought just the "regular" album. Though I did not know this at the time of listening, so the next song started.   It starts out all acoustic, then, we get this fast tempo Sabbath song. ... and... and holy crap, did Geezer Butler wake up?  I think this might be the first time in the album I've heard him stand apart from Iommi.  Well Butler getting into it must have woke Iommi up too.  Methademic is good.  Next song is Peace of Mind... WHOA  the riff kicks in.  YES!  THIS IS A NEW SABBATH SONG.  This is fresh like their stuff in Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, but without SOUNDING like Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, is that confusing?  It doesn't sound "derivative" of their old stuff like End of the Beginning, it sounds like "new" Sabbath during their best.  Geezer is playing all over the place in a good way, Iommi is keeping up while not stepping on his toes.  The album ends with Pariah.  Another great song with a good riff and Sabbath's cynical form of lyrics.   Geezer is nuts on this song too.  Where the hell was he in the first half of the album.. Wait, did I say first half?

How about the whole "real" album.  How did these "bonus" songs not get put on the album?  They are easily the best of the lot.  Let's face it, a lot of big name bands get 1 or 2 listenable songs on an album and call it a day.  I'd say out of the 11, 10 are listenable and 4 are songs I'd put in playlists to listen to multiple times.  Overall, better than I could have expected and worth buying if you don't like the whole Spotify thing... as long as you get the last 4 songs.  I'm sorta proud my heroes pulled it off actually, even if my "review" was a bit harsh sounding.


Feb 27

I need to remember to do this...  I need to save and upload all the images I use to a picasa album.  People's links and websites change, and the images I link to can disappear over time.  If this is waaaay into the future when you read this, you might not know I even use images.  So there's you a blogger tip, if you snatch links to images off the net, think long term.  Grab them, put them in a picasa album, so that your blogs don't lose their multimedia quality over time.

Swore off using palm muted single notes on the low E string as filler in my metal songs yesterday.  Now I'm doing open string power chords.  It has lent some depth to some of my old song "phrases" that I play for practice and my own enjoyment.  Of course the day I swear off doing it... I come across a popular song I'd like to know how to play that does the exact thing I swore off.  Ha.

Reading Elantris.  I did not stop reading it earlier this year out of boredom, in fact I stopped after the most exciting and emotional chapter of the book.  I don't know why I stopped, but I've started it up again and I'm already caught up in the tale.  Elantris is by the guy that took over "The Wheel of Time" after Jordon died.  His name is Brandon Sanderson. This story is from the turn of the 80's into the 90's and its pretty glorious in its combinations of what I remember from that time, ha.  He gives the girls floating smart phones, like Judy Jetson's floaty lips thingy.  I will definitely read more of his stuff after this.

Watching:
Playing: Grandia
Reading: Elantris
Listening to: ACDC High Voltage

Black Sabbath 13 Part 1, Feb 26th

Black Sabbath 13 Part 1

(Unabridged full post from my Music blog)

First up, a little personal history with Sabbath, yea?  I mean, I'm not a magazine "journalist" or anything.  If you're reading this, I suppose you're a friend of mine.  So let's do this.  Sabbath is on my short list of all time favorite bands, and for sure the 70's era Sabbath is my favorite metal band of all time.  As of today, when you hear me play "metal" on my guitars, you probably hear more of Toni Iommi in my playing than anyone else.  Slow, pounding riffs interspersed with a tempo change, and maybe a solo.  I would have to say that in my own playing, "Into the Void" is tied with Hendrix's "Voodoo Child" for biggest inspiration. My favor of the Gibson SG has just as much to do with my favor of Iommi as my favor of Angus.

My first listen through, I could not help but hear earlier songs in the songs as I listened to them.  End of the Beginning has a strong semblance to the original song "Black Sabbath", Zeithgeist takes very clear inspiration from "Planet Caravan".  Is this bad?  Well the first parts of the album are not going to be any game changing songs for me, but you know what?  It sounds like Black Sabbath.  Probably my favorite part of the first 4 songs is "Give me the wine, you keep the bread".  At first it sounds like something a drunk would say, but remember that wine is also blood in the Christian communion.  That's classic Sabbath lyrical content right there.

I got to track 7 and stopped listening that first day.  I have to say that I stopped because I was getting a little worried.  The first 7 tracks were well made, well played tracks, but it felt a little like a band trying to sound like Black Sabbath instead of Black Sabbath making music.

Tune in tomorrow to find out if Sabbath finishes the album with a wimper(or click the unabridged version and spoil it).

Feb 26th, 2014

Well, I'm happy to say I have kept up my "habit" of practicing guitar even though I have finished that Rocksmith Challenge.  Wanna read about that?  Go to my Music blog, I have a post every day with it.  My playing was no doubt encouraged by listening to the new Sabbath Album and then just having to play.  Since I can now mimic some of the sounds Iommi does, it really feels good.  I feel like I am accomplishing something I should have done long ago, and not just wishing I could do it.

I am a tobacco pipe smoker.  I partake a few times a year... probably "binge" smoker I guess you could say.  I'll smoke for about a week, then not have a smoke for 4-5 months.  Anyway, I recently got some cherry based tobacco that isn't burley cut.  Burley cut gives me awful tongue bite, it burns too hot.  Anyway, I finally got some cherry along with a more "english" mix.  I have this problem that at a point you get to re-burning tobacco in the bowl, it causes me to have an upset stomach about 30 minutes AFTER the smoke is done.  So its hard for me to judge while smoking.  Yesterday I put some cherry tobacco in the bottom of the bowl, and the regular english mixture on top.  Now when I'm almost "done" I get a sweet cherry finish, and when the cherry flavor leaves, I know I'm done.

It saves me because the only cure to upset tobacco stomach is either a mound of greasy fried potatoes or copious amounts of chocolate cake.  Neither of which is particularly good for me in the middle of the day.

Watching: The Wolverine(later today)
Playing: Grandia
Reading: Elantris
Listening to: Black Sabbath 13(spoilers: yes still)

The Flute and Feb 25th: Summaries

The Flute

(Unabridged Original Post)

I was watching Cave of Forgotten Dreams last night, when the talk changed from cave drawings to paleolithic tools.  This was when I first found out about paleolithic flutes, and particularly the oldest one ever found.  The flute was carved from vulture bone, and was also found in the workshop of some paleolithic Da Vinci.  Carbon dating all the tools and pieces of art in the are gives evidence that the flute is 40,000 years old.

The flute itself is a 5 hole flute.  The cool thing about this flute is that it is not only the oldest undisputed flute as of the movie, it is not just a simple hollow tube with holes.  This flute was the making of an artisan.  There are notches all along the sides.  The reason for this is that the bone was cut in half, long ways, and hollowed out using stone tools.  Then, using the notches as a guide, the two pieces were put back together and sealed with an air tight sealant, perhaps a primitive animal glue.

Animals that may have heard this flute include woolly mammoths and sabertooth tigers.  Another animal that was still around, the Neanderthal.  It is impossible for us to know if Neanderthals had their own music, but evidence suggests it was voice or percussion based.  One of the distinguishing features of Humans is that our paleolithic sites have art created out of bone, while Neanderthals have no such trinkets at their sites.  Therefore, one of the distinguishing features of modern humans compared to the neanderthals that died out is that we have complex music, and they did not.


Feb 25th Again

Yea, February 25th again.  In my Rocksmith blog I typically did the day before on the day I posted, so that's what I"ll be doing here.  I'm establishing a style here, so I guess that's what I'll talk about.  In many of my posts in this area, I'll do a little summary.  This example is not an example, it is the real deal:

Watching: Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Playing: Grandia
Reading: Elantris
Listening to: Black Sabbath 13

It will typically go at the bottom after I describe whatever it is I write about that day.  Sometimes I will talk about it, sometimes not.   Sometimes I may add to it, like "writing" if I particularly do something worth.. noting.  

Today I do in both the upper and lower post.  Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a Werner Herzog documentary.  I have watched several of his documentaries, and if you like that sort of thing, his are usually very visually striking and have some really deep thoughts on humanity in them, but some people find him pretentious and overly verbose.  Cave of Forgotten Dreams is probably my favorite of his now.  It is about cave paintings found that are double the age of the earliest known cave paintings of the time.

Tomorrow I'll be talking about Black Sabbath's new album as I finish listening to the last few songs.

Miyazaki and Blog work

The Relationship of Miyazaki and Disney

(Unabridged Post from my media Blog.

Miyazaki is an animator and illustrator from Japan that has taken the Japanese, and now American audience, to fantastic places for over 40 years.  His films are national treasures in Japan, to the point that factories shut down when they are released because so many would schedule their days off during them.  Miyazaki is the head of Studio Ghibli, whose distribution was to be bought by Disney in the late 90's.  Many thought that this would mean we would get great versions of them brought to our shores. Disney's executives were afraid these wonderful movies would detract from whatever half assed direct to DVD sequel they were shoving into theaters that week.   The catalog was bought for one reason: to bury it so that western audiences would never see it.

This is where John Lasseter came in, the head of Pixar. Disney's biggest hits were done by Pixar, a studio that was not yet owned by Disney.  John Lasseter wrote into the contract that he would in charge of Studio Ghibli's western distribution, and since Disney needed Pixar, they consented.  Many times since Oscars have either gone to Lasseter's Pixar stuff or Miyazaki's Ghibli movies.  Lasseter green lights films being made by Pixar if they have a warmth and quirkiness to them that reminds him of Miyazaki's best.

Those old CEO's are out ruining other companies now, while Disney is working to distinguish itself once again.  They are supporting and bringing Miyazaki's movies out and even having the voice actors make the late night talk show circuit rounds.  Hayao claims to be retiring, but he's claimed that for almost all his movies made in the past 15 or so years.  I hope he continues making movies, its selfish of me, but we all know he enjoys bring us magical things.


Feb 25, 2014

Well, as it should be obvious from what you see here, I've done work on my blog network.  My blog network is not large because I have a huge leadership, its large because I can be OCD about things.  Anyway, I've made new headers to easily identify the content brought to this "all in one" blog, and I've redone the title artworks to look more consistent in shade and color.  Technically my "personal" part of the posts(that's the 2nd half, the half you're reading now) will be about the day before, but this is a special post with different rules.

The first half of my posts will be something from my other blogs, generally turned into an abridged version.  If you're bored or you want to read a bit more, then the link is provided.  I have a blog on video games, movies and books, table top gaming, and my musical stuff.  There should be an easily identified header for each, so if you just don't care about games, you can skip those and just read the personal post.

Miyazaki.  I think a lot of people on my friends lists already know about him, but I am about to buy Ni No Kuni(it is on sale for $10 this whole week).  It is a video game by Level 5 and a collaboration of Miyazaki's studio Ghibli.  Here's a trailer for the game.

First Post, and mission statement

This is a single Blog that I will use to bring all my other topics into one place.  This way my friends do not have to search out all my blogs separately to have something to read.  A couple of people have liked my Rocksmith 60 Day Challenge blog posts I did every day, and my readership stayed pretty well for having a daily blog.  For the past year I have also tried to have a sort of journal and take pictures and document things I've done in an effort to slow time down, and so I did not just feel like I was throwing years away like I did in my 20's.

Anyway, I have several categories.  Each post will have an excerpt from a blog of mine, generally new content not reposts.  The 2nd half will be a more personal daily thing where I talk about something I've done that day.  That kind of follows how my Rocksmith challenge blog did.  Here are my headers so you know what content I am posting that day in the upper section:

I"d remove the quote on that last one... but I didn't keep the master file, and I remember the characters being a pain to mess with, so it'll just have to stay over-elaborate.