Scouring Soulseek for new music is about all there is to do here at home. But I've been listening to some good stuff:

• Jóhann Jóhannsson: Englabörn. I haven't yet been able to get his recently released Virðulegu Forsetar, but this album is really good. It's excellent "modern classical" stuff: string compositions, some piano, etc., but with the occasional vocoder/robot voice thrown in. Plus, it's Icelandic!
• Monolake: Hongkong. Late-90s IDM/Ambient Techno stuff. Every now and then I get on a kick for alien, minimalistic synth sounds. This fits that bill nicely.
• The Apples in Stereo. Well, after gushing about Ulysses, I realized I had never really absorbed much by Schneider's previous project. Her Wallpaper Reverie is a very enjoyable neo-psych outing.
• Cake: Pressure Chief. Every time a new Cake album comes out, I'm hoping for Fashion Nugget but all they seem to come up with is Prolonging the Magic. Well, Comfort Eagle was pretty good. But Pressure is just disappointing. "End of the Movie" is one of their bests though. Their cover of Bread's "Guitar Man" is okay. But generally it's just ho-hum.

That's the stuff I've really absorbed over the break. Hopefully I'll find a bit more good stuff before I post the requisite Top N of 2004 list towards the end of December. :)

Several months ago, I managed to get myself out the door to a really kickin' show here in downtown Lexington: Mates of State. It was a great show all around, but one of the best treats for me was one of the opening bands: a local group called Ulysses that happened to be the project of one Robert Schneider, one of the guys from the Elephant 6 group, which included bands like Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, and Schneider's previous project, The Apples in Stereo. Before the group dissolved.

Now, aside from the fact that a guy from the illustrious (to say the least) Elephant 6 collective had started a band based in Lexington, I was utterly blown away by their music. I really, really enjoyed it.

The problem was, I couldn't for the life of me find any of their tracks online, even on soulseek. Well, their album 010 was released recently, and I'm currently listening to it. It's quite good. It's very solid neo-psych/indie rock, still definitely in the vein of Schneider's previous Apples in Stereo stuff. I highly recommend it.

However, I have to put an asterisk on this review. Not for any particular flaw of this album in and of itself, but in comparison to the Ulysses set I saw at that concert. Apparently, that night their drummer was out, and so they did this amazing Spacemen 3-esque shoegazing drone-pop set that just blew my mind. And despite 010's lofi goodness, I'm still just left aching for stuff they played at that concert. Anyone have a bootleg??

Anyway, I highly recommend this stuff. Download (or, in this case, preferably pick up) a copy of this stuff. It's terrific.

Ok, so at roughly 8:18 AM today, I beat Halo 2 on Normal. No great accomplishment, but I'm glad to have finally finished up the campaign mode. And I have to say, the last 3 levels were all quite good. As was the game as a whole.

But the ending?

It's not that I have a problem with cliffhangers. But there's a limit. Personally, I was pretty annoyed way back in the day when Star Trek: TNG ended seasons with cliffhangers. A couple of months wait is NOT pleasant. Now, Halo 2 took 3 years. And if Bungie makes me wait three more years for the end to this particular cliffhanger... well, I can't exactly wish a pox on their families. But they'd definitely be cruel, cruel masters.

Let's hope the interent-floating rumors about an extra level or two downloadable through XBox Live are true. I suppose I could wait until February for the ending. I suppose.

I'm currently watching Super Milk Chan on Adult Swim. I'm not entirely sure what to think of this show. You've got Milk, the unbearably cute main character, who appears to be about 5 years old, with a penchant for calling people dumbasses, Her friends, farting robots and an odd green blob with a mustache, Milk's boss: the "President", an oddly-shaped man with missing teeth and a major sweating problem.

So yeah. Strange characters. Bizarre plot too. A tanker filled with wine sinks in the ocean, causing local fish to become alcoholics. Milk is tapped to fix the problem. But ends up getting drunk in the process. Then they find out that a boat filled with money has sunk. And the fish leave the area to get the money. Problem solved. The moral? Money comes before alcohol.

Strictly speaking, the show wasn't funny, per se. There were some good lines. But it's the concept itself that's great: it's wonderfully bizarre. Milk-chan is extremely condescending to everyone, and the irony of it is just great. Also, the theme song is a great little electronic piece that's as bizarre as the show it precedes.

So, yeah. Weird show. But with potential. Let's go get sushi or something!

Here's a neat link: An interview with the guy behind the AI in the Halo games. Since I'm currently taking an AI class, i wonder if I can get extra credit by playing through the campaign mode? Hmm.

Totally random entry today, to hopefully kick off a long streak of other random (yet somehow, strangely cohesive) entries. That's right, kids: It's time for Esperanto Poetry!

Je Unua Neĝaŝtormo Ĉisezona

de Ralph Dumain

Por fortikig', dozego
  de John Coltrane kaj mi flugas
    celante liberigi ĉiun,
      liberigi ĉiun frazon, ĉiun vorton,
        ĉiun vorteton, ĝis atomoj krevos
          pro ĝojo ne milito.
        Jen ampleksiĝ' kaj malo —
      tensio maksimuma —
    el notoj ordo
  fajna kaj ekstaza.

Purigi per belo,
  tuŝi per belo.
    Ja estas ondoj
      el kiuj ĉiu estas mar'
        da saĝo.
      Ne bezonatas religi' fatrasa
    por forviŝi ĉian dubon.
  Jen ontologi' de materi'
kaj ĝia ekstaziĝo,
  kaj ĝia animiĝo.

Miaj Blake-eroj da mensa furiozo
  ripetas:
    "Demetu sanktecon,
      surmetu penson."
    Ne flustru ĝin, kriu ĝin.
  Ne diru ĝin, montru ĝin;

"ĝis filinoj de memoro cedos
al filinoj de inspiro."

I love those last two lines: "Until the daughters of memory give way to the daughters of inspiration." And "liberigi ĉiun frazon, ĉiun vorton, / ĉiun vorteton, ĝis atomoj krevos." "Liberate every sentence, every word, every morpheme, until atoms burst." Great lines. :)

Yeah: Me, Ben and Dave have been playing Halo 2, on XBox Live, since about 1:30 or 2:00 am. It took us a while to figure out the interface, match-building and so forth. It's new territory after all. But once we got online, it was pretty clear that the prophecies I had previously put forth, that Halo 2 would in fact be the downfall of my academic career, might actually have some degree of truth beyond my typically hyperbolic ravings.

In any event, this game absolutely rocks ass. It's well worth having had to wait in line at the mall for 2 hours, all the while interacting with some, shall we say, colorful fellow video game types. Ahh yes. Midnight release lines for video games at the mall are almost as bad as Magic tournaments. Almost.

Halo 2 gameplay comments: Sweet, and smooth. There are slight mechanical differences from the original that have thrown me off, and I haven't quite figured out the tactical implications of dual-wielding weapons. I end up trying to grenade or melee attack, and that just screws stuff up. But never the less. This game is terrific. And the energy sword. Drool. :)

*mumbles something about the mental deficiency of most of the United States*

Well, the election being over, the conservative pundits would have us believe that there is some kind of vast conservative revolution going on in America. I mean, look at all those red states! The Land of Bush is huge!!

But, some rather interesting statistical analysis, resulting in cool-ass maps, actually brings home how close the election is, and of course, how divided the country is right now.

Conservative revolution? Naah. Mouth-breathing troglodytes just came out to support gay marriage bans and happened to vote for Bush while they were there. :)

I recently upgraded my old desktop system. Well, the motherboard had died, so I figured I might as well upgrade the whole machine. So, I'd heard a thing or two about Ubuntu Linux, a new distribution based on Debian, but far more user-friendly. I like Debian. I like user-friendly. So I burned an ISO, and right now I'm posting from a GNOME blogging utility. It's pretty nice.

There are only a very few things that could get me out of the politico-socio-cultural funk that I'm in due to the recent electoral "unpleasantness. One of those things (and this is quite a surprise to me, honestly) is Japanese girls bitch slapping each other.

I sort of lost interest in blogging for a while... dunno why. But I rather missed having an outlet for expression. Even if no one reads it. So, perhaps I'll start posting more often.

And, yeah. Kerry lost. :(