You Want Some of This Sauce?

Noah Millman declares the Republican race to be kinda inconsequential.

Ross Douthat points out that Obama's positives are fragile ones.

Brendan Michael Dougherty points out that Romney is, despite all news reports, like, totally winning.

I'm more than a little ashamed that it's apparently been a year since I've posted to LiveJournal. Although many folks have moved on, there's still a purpose to LJ, even if I forget about it sometimes. Like for posting extremely nerdy game-related stuff that half my Facebook acquaintances wouldn't give a damn about.

This includes the fact that Troy Goodfellow is starting a series examining how science and technology are presented in strategy video games. If you didn't see his series on national character, you don't know what you're missing (I'm looking at you, walrusjester).

( Some musical windbaggery to wrap up previous musical windbaggery )

An absolutely priceless trip through a Japanese dating-sim for girls (in progress).

Outtake:

So he is an hour late to the date and just as I am about to give up and go home, he arrives. Like this.

Ok, woodland sprite, lead the way to your world of magic, I guess.

Watched "Jude" with a young Christopher Eccleston through On Demand last night, just to see him in something different. (It's a generally well made movie that no one in their right mind should watch. If you're familiar with Hardy's "Jude the Obscure," you'll know why.)

Anyway, Jude, the stonemason aspiring to scholarship in Christminster, is hanging out at the pub with his stonemason friends. One of the pub denizens, credited (I find out later) as "Drunken Undergraduate," taunts Jude to stand up and say the whole Creed in Latin for everyone to hear. The actor? A young David Tennant.

Could it be that THIS is some of the best music released last year?

( Chiptunes ahoy! )

This is music that bears no lead-in commentary:



Sleigh Bells is a miracle less of musicality than of engineering. Although a few of the vocal lines are relatively accomplished, most of the music--especially the guitar-playing--is almost stupidly primitive. Their one tuneful song (Rill Rill, see below) only manages to break the trend with the help of a bald-faced Funkadelic sample.

Yes, it's loud. Almost at any volume. But let's take a moment to appreciate that such a feat is not as easy as it seems. There are lots of ways you could set out to make an album like this and end up with garbage. (Not to mention Garbage!) Yes, it's essentially gimmicky. But let's face it, a gimmick can still be original and powerful, when properly employed. Now, figuring out what their next album will sound like... that I don't envy them one bit.

Here's the relatively-speaking-sonically-laid-back Rill Rill, for those of you who maybe just can't swallow the jagged Tell Me:

( Six sets straight ace, cut 'em in the bathroom )

Been enjoying "That Mitchell and Webb Look," a British sketch show. Now you should enjoy it too!

It took me almost a year of listening to cuts like this extraordinary tune from 2008's Shallow Grave album to finally dive wholeheartedly into the music of The Tallest Man on Earth. Could this croaky voiced, Swedish parody of Dylan really be such a consistently great songwriter? If Shallow Grave didn't prove it, then his second full-length, The Wild Hunt, released in April, absolutely does.

Wild Hunt's songs still range from high energy...
( King of Spain and many more )

...than a local Christmas tradition.

March saw the release of a new Bonnie 'Prince' Billy album, this one with members of the Cairo Gang (a band I was not familiar with beforehand). BPB usually manages an album a year, so this was not a big surprise to see. However, I don't have much to say about the album. Many BPB albums take some time to absorb and enjoy, and I haven't given this one quite enough. At the same time, it is missing even the few hooks that usually get me to return to his albums. Instead, over the last year, I came to really appreciate his 2008 effort, Lie Down in the Light--his last wholesale success.

( Jumping ahead a bit )