Empire 20th Birthday Portfolio

Here is an amazing set of photos of some of the more iconic actors of our time. I thoroughly enjoyed it I hope you do to. Photo Collection

It looks as though we are being replaced.

Crack the Skye

Here is yet another one of my music reviews.

Crack the Skye by Mastodon was released in March of 2009. The First time I heard of Mastodon was on a video game review for the most recent Guitar Hero. At the time I thought nothing of it. As I started working this summer I happened to hear a song on a local radio station. The music was nothing terribly new, at first I just passed it off as another Black Sabbath type metal band. As the song continued I was completely sucked into the story and I had to know who this band was. After a few minutes of searching the web, I found that the song was Oblivion.

I quickly acquired the album and have listened to it at least once every couple of days since. ITS AMAZING!

As a drummer I appreciated the percussion in this album because the guy never stops. Even though the drumming isn't really flashy, it's very interesting to listen to. I am also a person who is very emotionally connected to music, for example: some music can make me cry.* Along that vein of thought, this cd has an amazing urgency to it, even though it sounds/feels very ethereal it is always forward moving.

The real hitter on this album is its lyrical content. This was very different from the band's 3 previous ones. All seven tracks fit together to tell a three tired story. The use of metaphor is hugely important, the album it self is dedicated to the lead singer's sister Skye, who committed suicide a few years ago. The 7 tracks demonstrate the seven stages of grief that people go through after the loss of a loved one.

The most obvious plot line in the album is a story of a paraplegic boy who travels around in a state disconnected from his body. He accidentally looses his connection to his body and gets sucked into a wormhole. He ends up meeting Rasputin and together they attempt to get the boy back to his body along the way they run into various obstacles. I'm not going to spoil the story and say if they are successful at this or not.

The final plot aspect in this CD is a artistic look at the fall of the last Czar of Russia and the rise of Communism. All of these metaphors run through the entire album making it a very interesting listening experience.

Pick it up, enjoy it!



*If you can find out one of the songs that makes me cry I'll give you something. (might be money, might be a hug, might be a punch in the stomach depends on my mood) It's not a song from this cd or band by the way. If it was that would be strange

I will post something of my own soon i promise.

the effect of advertising on our children

A thought on culture.

SOOOOOO It's summer and the job search continues, even though it could be argued that I have one. With the economy being in such a silly place people are either hiring like mad or they won't hire anyone. That isn't what I wanted to talk about today though.

A few Sundays back the pastor at the church my parents attend gave a few interesting stats on population growth and culture spread. Essentially what he was trying to point out is that in roughly 40 years Europe will be a Muslim continent. This is due to the fact that the ratio between Muslim and non Muslim children born, is 8 to 1.

The pastor wasn't trying to scare the congregation with these stats. He was merely trying to point out that this world will be very different in the next little while and our children with have to live in that world etc...

The way that he described it was specifically in terms of a loss of western culture in our country and Europe. Again it wasn't intended to strike fear but by the reactions of many in the congregation would be what I consider to be fearful ones. This made me think: Is the loss of western culture such a bad thing? I will admit that the portrayal of history in Europe may change which I think is sad that they may loose their heritage but that happens for example: any of the great conqueror races of the past.

Really, do we want to be holding onto this terribly materialistic and anti religious society? Most Muslims are more accepting of Christians than most westerners are. I am talking about the non-extremist ones; most of them share values that are similar to a Christian style of value system. The Muslim culture is suffering the same problem that the Christian culture is, many are in name only. In Turkey the giant mosques that used to be full all the time are nearly empty.

I do not think this spread of culture is necessarily a bad thing. It may in fact open even more avenues for the Christian message to be spread.

Anyways that was just something I have been pondering over a week or two. Here is a link to the stats I was talking about.

Muslim Demographics

I guess instead of saying have a good day it will soon be safety and peace be with you.

YES!

We the people have had enough.

Wow I'm surprised and yet not to surprised about this new documentary in the works. It covers an interesting issue. Can someone be such a hyped up fan of something that it causes them to hate what they love?

The filmmakers of The People vs. George think so.

Created by devoted Star Wars fans and using a new-ish style of directing this will prove to be a slightly interesting film. Not only are the close associates of Lucas being interviewed but the directors are giving the fan's a voice allowing them to send in video submissions to defend or oppose Lucas' film, writing, directing and marketing choices.

This movie is latching onto the new Youtube wave and so it has many different clips and animated shorts I think even if it is a total nerd fest it will be interesting to watch from a new media standpoint.

http://peoplevsgeorge.com/

Grrrrr.

I can't believe this little piece of advertising I saw yesterday that my school just put out. It's terrible! I was appalled when I saw it. The lighting is so-so and the camera movement! The camera movement its terrible has the maker of this clip not heard of cutting? Those are just some of the issues I have, an advertisement should not be more than 2 minutes in length. This feels more like unsolved mysteries than an ad for the school. OH AND LETS NOT FORGET THE COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENTS! The song at the end is on a CD that has not even been released yet. I doubt they asked the artist for the use of the song. DENNIS! You like your reading the whole time, DO A VOICE OVER!

I'm not going to go into what I think the Sociology course at this school does to the students enrolled in it but from the ones that I have witnessed I don't believe there will be any 'better helping' coming from them. These systems that they want to be fixed generally can't be fix by us 'western folk' unless we go and invade the country, and well we all know what happens then. Honestly it saddens me to know that the guy who made this thing is one of the senior film buffs in the communications program here. But that's what we get for not specializing I guess.

I still plan on writing the previous blog, It's coming don't worry.

Assasionation team or spill crew.

I'm going to write this when I have a moment. check out this link while you wait.

http://www.minnpost.com/ericblackblog/2009/03/11/7310/investigative_reporter_seymour_hersh_describes_executive_assassination_ring

SoooOOoooooOooOOoo

So I'm looking at getting a new lens for my camera either the EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM or the EF 17-40 f/4L USM. I think they are both pretty sweet lenses. I'm also deciding as to weather or not I want to acquire a flash. If I get the 17-40 I don't think I will need a new one because it gathers light a lot better than a stock lens.

Right now I'm writing this blog as something to distract me from homework. This is because I seem to have lost all motivation for work of any kind. This is an unfortunate problem as I believe it will eventually effect my marks. Ah well back to work it is.

Drewford out.

Tiny Pictures

Its about time. Ian Thornley has come out with a new album from his self titled band. The album is called Tiny Pictures as you would have guessed from the title of this entry. This album consists of 12 tracks with 1 extra if you acquired the special version.

This album in some cases, reverts back to the sound of Big Wreck. Ian has seemed to abandoned the sound that Tornley initially used in their first album, Come again. It has been traded for a combination of softer Big Wreck-esque songs along with a few pieces that sound a little to much like Nickle Back. I guess that it was doomed to happen seeing as Chad Kroeger is their producer and most of the gigs Kroeger has his fingers in sound like... his own.

Overall Tiny Pictures is a decent album. It is an easy listen compared to Come Again, but considering its been six years since their first release their original enthusiasm seems to have dissipated.

hmm...

Is it bad that I only like four of the bands that were on the entire Grammy list?

A funny rendition of one of my favorite songs.

It's terrible I know but I laughed so hard when I saw this.

Famous people geez. (WARNING RANDOM)

Now it has been said by a few that I enjoy Tool every now and then. This would include Maynard Keenan's solo work Puscifer. It just came to my attention a few days ago that one of his back up singers would include the likes of model/actress and now singer Milla Jovovich. Now I don't claim to know much about the Hollywood circle but why do actors/actresses seem to think that, because they are in one form of media they then are compatible with all forms? This is by no means a new trend as actors of the past were almost required to be able to dance and sing and do a plethora of things. But we are in a different time when the political views of the uninformed seem to to be what is most important to us. Should we keep to the same standards of the past when training and brains seem to be rather lacking? I am not in anyway trying to insult Ms. Jovovich's intelligence, I'm just using her as an example for the industry as a whole.

Videogames in the Mainstream Media

Her Morning Elegance

Check this out its a fantastic use of stop motion by Oren Lavie.

The Force: Science, Religion, and Philosophy of Star Wars

Wow some people have no lives, this is a very long paper on Star Wars and Zen Buddhism. It is written by Jeffery Gurpp a Philosophy professor at the Grand Valley State University. If you are into Star Wars or philosophy its wroth a skim.

The Force: Science, Religion, and Philosophy of Star Wars

Because the Music Do

Interesting Take on The Internet

"We have a perfect example of hatred of the good for being good with the internet. Anyone familiar with it knows that the internet is infested with those consumed by a burning hatred of anything good. Instead of finding what they enjoy in life and enjoying it, they haunt the internet, devoting their lives to hate. Hiding under their cloak of anonymity, these cowards rant against anything and everything. What they hate most are values because values promote life. If you choose to think for yourself rather than submit to their dogmatic beliefs and dictatorial vents, they invariably turn to insults, abusive language, and threats. The style of a writer, even a writer on the internet, reveals that writer's soul. Their own words betray their inner corruption. They seek not to discover and enjoy the good in life, but to make your life miserable. They hate that you enjoy anything in life. They hate the good for being good. When you come across the venom from these zeros, I hope you will remember this quote and know them for what they are." - Terry Goodkind

Is this true? Though it is well known that the internet has a large group of uninformed individuals rampaging through its spaces but are the majority of them down right evil to the core? What does this say of our generation?

Today in History

Today in history an interesting event took place. This event was known as the battle of Isandlwana. This battle was a major part of the Zulu war in 1879. 20 000 Zulu warriors took on and killed, 850 British solders and 450 African servicemen. This is the worst military defeat the British army has suffered since its creation.

Later that day the battle of Rorke's Drift took place. The same Zulu warriors marched 5 000 of their men over to the local mission and were staved off by 139 British soldiers and engineers. 30 of these men were hospitalized before the battle began. Only 14 British soldiers died, 11 men were given the Victoria's Cross. This was one of the most famous defenses in British history.

This battle spawned the movie Zulu which was Sir Micheal Caine's first movie.