I wasn't a fan of red wine until recently, but that changed when I visited Italy a couple of months ago. Also, two fun facts:
1. I hate it when beer gets warm, and since red wine is already served warm, it never goes bad while you drink it.
2. As far as I can tell, there's no such thing as "wine shits".
Since getting back from Europe, my wife and I have been experimenting with various red wines. Our only rule is that we're trying to buy bottles that are under $10. We tried out all of the Yellowtail brand wines (too sour), and we read about this brand called Red Diamond, based out of Washington state. I spent the first 20 years of my life in Washington, so we decided to try it out.
It has a sweet initial taste and it goes down really smoothly. That's about the extent of my wine tasting skills. We're a quarter of the way through the bottle. More to come. Maybe.
Yep, I'm definitely a Wes Anderson fan. Rushmore is probably on my top 10 films of all time, and his other films are damn fine flicks, too. I was a little hesitant when I heard that he was making a stop-motion adaptation of The Fantastic Mr. Fox, written by Roald Dahl in 1970. I was afraid that an animated film wouldn't accurately portray the tension and distance that Anderson's films so brilliantly capture. Turns out that I had nothing to fear, because once again we're treated to a film that has overwhelmingly more good qualities than bad.
The film follows a fox (voiced by George Clooney) who has given up his trade of chicken stealing to become a family man. It has all the great features of a Wes Anders0n film - an ensemble cast, a flawed protagonist, and charming set pieces - and it's perfectly paced. Don't let the fact that it's an animated film, or that it's based on a Roald Dahl book, lead you to think that this is a children's film; it deals with identity, honesty, and Wes Anderson's favorite theme, existentialism. Choosing Clooney to voice the protagonist was a perfect choice, since there are few actors that can accurately capture that "sly" essence of a fox.
The film itself is beautifully animated in a vintage style, and the 1960s soundtrack really helps it to feel like a period piece. Overall, The Fantastic Mr. Fox is an entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable film.
Everybody Was In the French Resistance…Now! is a band name that I can tolerate saying aloud every once in a while. Like, once a year. It's funny, because this album is something that I could probably only tolerate listening to about once a year, too. The band (no, I'm not repeating the name, thankyouverymuch) features two people - Eddie Argos (lead singer of Art Brut) and a girl from a band I've never heard of, Blood Arm. The songs themselves are "answer songs" - blatant responses to other songs and pop culture events - and were popular in the 1950s and 1960s. As someone who wasn't alive then (come on, I'm old, but not that old), I just don't see the point. I'm all for cultural reference, but when the content of your product is the response to other product, I'm grasping to find a reason for this band to exist.
The songs themselves are sweet, bubblegum pop ditties, usually the product of just a couple melodic ideas done to death. What's funny is that this is the exact replica of what Argos' day-job band Art Brut does, but they do it to stunning effect. Art Brut has an insightful bite to it, thanks to its crunchy guitars and laissez-faire approach to song construction. It's a bite that's ultimately harmless, but fun to experience. By contrast, this record is like being licked by a dirty, lazy dog.
I was driven to get this album by sheer curiosity, but eventually repulsed by its shallowness and inanity. If you're a fan of Art Brut, wait for the next Art Brut album.
Joystiq via The Tech Game have some new images up of what just might be the first DLC pack for Modern Warfare 2. Sadly, MW2 has shuffled off of this mortal coil and will soon be replaced by Battlefield: Bad Company 2.
But just to show that I'm not made of stone, a faint pang of remorse did stir in my icy heart when I saw that (according to the above sites) multiplayer maps "Crash" and "Overgrown" would be returning from MW1. *sigh* Ah, well. Them's the breaks.
I've always had a funny thought whenever I see the game Just Cause, and its upcoming sequel Just Cause 2 (whose demo just landed on XBLA today). Although I realize that the "Cause" in the name is pronounced as "Kôz" (like in the term "cause and effect"), I like to think of them as "Kəz", as in the shortened version of the word "because". Did I lose you yet? I hope not. Keep reading.
Secondly, once I start thinking of the game as "Just 'Cause", I like to imagine that you play as a super-nice pushover guy who just walks around and does good deeds for people "just 'cause".
"Oh darling, you bought me flowers! Why'd you do such a thing for me?"
"Just 'cause, honey."
White Marks on a White Wall is the second album by criminally-unsigned indie rock band Linus. I've had the pleasure of following them during their entire 10+ years of existence, and it's been a wild ride. Their debut album, The Construction, was released in 2005 and featured two distinctive elements: an undeniable potential, and poor production that never gave these exciting songs justice. The Construction showed a young band that had the makings of the next Weezer, while hinting at a depth that Weezer only dreamed about reaching. It was full of catchy vocal melodies that were complemented by bright, colorful bass trimmings and and emerging guitar prowess. Lead single, "Arrivals and Departures", was features on Dance Dance Revolution Universe 2 on the Xbox 360, which was ridiculously cool.
Despite its double-reference to something brighter, I had first considered White Marks on a White Wall a dark spot on their decade of music making. Linus set out to record these songs even before The Construction released, and it took five years for them to finally surface. The delay is the result of near-obsessive recording sessions, lineup changes, periods of inactivity and some navel-gazing introspection. I feared that by the time this album finally hit the streets, it would have lost its relevancy; I'm happy to say that in the end, this is a complicated and conflicting record that simply isn't showing any signs of age.
Upon initial listen, the individual tracks don't stand out as much as the classics on their first album, but I'm floored by what they did with them. White Marks on a White Wall features top-notch production taste and a perfect mix. Singer/guitarist Dave Neely's guitar chops have exploded, while showing a restraint that keeps each track from meandering. Gone are the pop leanings of Weezer (other than on track nine, "SoSo"), and instead we see a band that's grown exponentially in other directions; they've taken onboard the dance-stylings of bands like Franz Ferdinand and Hot Hot Heat but on their own terms, ratcheting the intensity back a hair and adding a jazz influence a la The Sea and the Cake or The Whitest Boy Alive. The end product is an album that's wholly listenable in several settings.
There are a couple tracks that are worth skipping, but all in all I'm enjoying this album much more than I expected to be. What's even better is that their most recent songs take their sound even further; if they can get those out soon, they'll have the world at their feet.
The Informant! is the latest film from Steven Soderbergh (director of Ocean's 11-13, not sure who did the first 10). It is getting a bit of buzz for Matt Damon's performance, which was pretty freaking awesome. He plays the VP of a huge agriculture firm, as he becomes a whistle-blower for the FBI during a price-fixing investigation.
I tend to shy away from most corporate films, or anything with a vague conspiracy notion. Goes all the way back to the time that some girl convinced me to take her to see The Pelican Brief when I was 13. Imagine my dissatisfaction when my parents drove us to see a film that had neither birds nor underwear in it. That being said, I thought that The Informant! would be lighthearted enough for me to overlook its premise. I mean, it has a damned exclamation point! FUNNY.
The film is amusing, but ultimately sad and disturbing. Much like the film Observe and Report, this movie shows what should be a miserable existence in a comedic light, to startling effect. A few days after seeing it, it finally sank in and I can really understand this film. It's a film that tries to show how the guy sitting next to you could be totally fucking nuts and you may not realize it. Matter of fact, you could spend every day with that guy and never know it. The film doesn't try to explain this occurrence, or justify anything. It's just there. Ultimately, this is a film that has a sweet candy shell but is a bitter pill to swallow. You initially chuckle at the fashion of the time period, but its content left me thinking for several days afterwards. It was great.
Up until last week, I've used Google as my homepage for several years. Sure, I know that most browsers have a Google search bar on the top-right of the toolbar, but I never got around to using it. I've finally changed things up a bit, and I'm now using Fav4.org as my homepage.
Fav4.org lets you set up four simple website links from the dozens of icons they have available. You can see my configuration above. At first I didn't like this new setup, until I found one trick that isn't mentioned on the site at all: they map these four links to the "ASDF" keys. In other words, I can open up my browser and press the letter "A" to go to Google, or "S" to go to Facebook, etc. Since I already surf with my left hand on the home row (thanks, typing class in 1995!), this is a very natural way for me to browse. Try it out!
During the course of 2009, I became a huge fan of Frightened Rabbit; so much so that I named their excellent second album The Midnight Organ Fight my top "Found Sound" album of 2009. Their mix of dense, layered instrumentation and complementary/contradictory vocal melodies sit just right with me. Each song had its own merit - be it some insightful lyrics, a killer guitar riff, or a perfect marriage of melody - and should stand the test of time. I was hoping for the same from The Winter of Mixed Drinks, and in some ways I have. Unfortunately, in many ways it also fails to live up to its own hype.
Let me break it down for you: there are four outstanding tracks on this new album, and the rest are skippable. First standout track is the single "Swim Until You Can't See Land", which showcases a slower, poppier side to the band without compromising on their trademark cynicism. Its chorus line is so catchy that they repeated it on track seven. Next up is track three, "The Loneliness and the Scream", which starts out somewhat muddled but hits its stride about two and a half minutes in, with the best vocal counter-chorus on the record. "Nothing Like You" is the next keeper, which is probably the most readio-ready single on the album, with a chugging mid-tempo pace and ultra-catchy verses. Finally, track five, "Skip the Youth", has a sufficiently long buildup and vocal intro, but does run a little bit stale in its six-plus-minute runtime. Closer "Yes, I Would" is remarkable for its unique falsetto vocals, but it just doesn't quite hit home as well as the four tracks mentioned above.
The rest of the album is decent, but it simply doesn't hold a candle to their previous effort. That's not to say this is a bad album; when a band follows up the album of their career with a serviceable album, that's a win in my book.
I have to admit to being initially quite sceptical about Heavy Rain, though this had very little to do with the game itself, and more to do with my feelings towards developers Quantic Dreams' previous game, Indigo Prophecy (also known as Fahrenheit).
However, after playing the demo for this, and reading Giangs review, my curiosity was truly picqued. Whilst I'd initially consigned myself to renting this game, or picking it up cheap, my curiosity finally got the better of me today, and I bought it. At this present moment in time, the game is currently in the process of its mandatory installation to the PS3's hard drive, so I figured I would mult-task by writing this at the same time as making the origami swanpyramid head thing. I really hope I enjoy this game, as I think the story seems like something I could really get into.
Well, that's the installation complete, so wish me luck, people.
The Easy Mode Podcast #5: This week is all about Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Heroes of Gaia, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, FEAR 2, and Prince of Persia.
Russ Crandall Senior Editor Mark Hill Associate Editor, Podcast Host Tyler Miller Associate Editor, Artistic Director Steve McKay Contributor, United Kingdom Giang Cao Contributor, Australia
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Bloguin is the revolutionary blog network specifically focused on helping bloggers get the most out of their websites. We're currently working on building a large network of online communities and hope to expand our blogging coverage to include a wide range of topics. 
The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please contact us.
The Bloguin Network is always looking to expand. We're specifically looking for blogs in the sports, entertainment, and video games field, but are open to adding any type of quality site. If you're a blogger and interested in joining our network, please fill out our application form.
The Bloguin Login gives you full access to everything our network has to offer. Your name and password will work for each and every one of our sites. Signing up is simple, and will allow you to post in all our forums, create member blogs, and access other cool features! What are you waiting for? Create an Account!