... actually it's a project on Buddhism

[video=cCQyxDr55b4JvTbW]

First of all, AWWW

ok, now with the business.

Decemberists - Crane Wife: LTTP

Well, I'm not necessarily Late to the Party... it's more like me trying to get you people off of your Avril Lavine butts and pick up this CD. The Decemberists will, indeed, change the way you listen to music from now on. Calling them lyrically genius is an insult, the stuff that goes into these songs are absolutely perfect and every fan of music must recognize these guys as a force in music and should immediately rank them very high amongst all bands today. They are completely unique and it's amazing to listen to all of their stuff.

1. The Crane Wife 3 - A nice song starts off the album, and gets you into the mood for what you will listen too.... Colin has a great voice and it's kinda beutiful.... and then...

2. The Island - Masterpiece? IMO, yes. I believe this is one of the best songs, if not the best song I've listened to in years. It dances for over 12 minutes, having three different "chapters" in it.... you HAVE to listen to it.

3. Yankee Bayonet - I'm not the biggest fan of this song, but its a nice little sweet song

4. O Valencia! - Inspired by Romeo & Juliet, O Valencia is about 2 lovers and their feuding families. It's yet another sweet song, but it's enjoyable

5. The Perfect Crime 2 - We go to a blues-y type of music talking about criminals.... awesome

6. When the War Came - downpoint of the album... don't have much to say

7. Shankill Butchers - I'm a big fan of this song, it's kind of perfect and slow

8. SummerSong - A fun song

9. Crane Wife 1 & 2 - the second "epic" song in the album, over 11 minutes long, a lot slower than the Island, but story-wise, it's great

10. Sons & Daughters - great way to end the album.

Recommended:

Crane Wife 1, 2, &3

The Island 1 2 3 4

O Valencia

The Perfect Crime 2

Shankill Butchers

SummerSong

Oh, and try to find the 18 minute super epic song that is flat out AMAZING(maybe better than the Island), "The Tain"

------------------

Pirates Review tommorow

everyone is bragging about "Oh wow, I just finished playing Bonks Adventure on my Wii Virtual Console and I'm so freaking l337 hardcore and I'm only playing retro console games" for "Retro Revival Week"

well, guess what....

I'ma do you one better....

a retro.... FLASH GAME!

thats right, a flash game made by THE man himself, Tom Fulp, now has Online! and it's so awesome....

Rock Paper Scissor Russian Roulette

the tension is tremendous 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yp42roinQSs

Do I need to write an explination? Icky Thump is gonna be so f'n awesome 

if you read the Ol' blog last week, I posted up a new feature called The Hype Machine, and I was hyping up The Arctic Monkeys new CD(Favourite Worst Nightmare) due to the fact that these guys have potential to be great. So lets go.

 Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare Review

1. Brainstorm - I really like this song. I REALLY REALLY like this song, it just sounds great and the drums(sorry, don't know bandmates names from AM) is bloody awesome. And the song name lives up to the song, a lot of things are going on at once and it's unpredictable. Not my favorite AM song, but the best one on the CD.

2. Teddy Pickers - AM really likes to do these "funky" guitar riffs. And here comes my biggest complaint about the CD. The lead singer's voice is distorted most of the time and it has this stupid effect and it makes no sense, since(hah, sense since) the lead singers voice is really good, and should not be hidden. mehish guitar solo.

3. D is for Dangerous - uh.. that damn voice distortion.... nice bassline throughout the song, but on the whole, skippable song

4. Balaclava - once again, little distortion... but great baseline and really great job putting the guitar in there(Sounds a little like Rush, which is cool). Drum's terrific. good song.

5. Florescent Adoloscent - Bad.

6. Only One Who Knows - I really love this song. Second best song in the whole CD. I has a really dreamy/psychodelic sound to it all and really can sound like Pink Floyd.

7. Do Me a Favor - very soft throughout most of the song, only like it due to it's  great ending to overall decent song

8. This House is a Circus - After a James Bondish sound, you realize the song is decent, and damn that piece of crap distortion

9. If you were there, beware - eh

10. Bad Thing - ok fast paced song.... atleast theres no distortion in this song

11. Old Yellow Bricks - better song that the last few, but forgettable

12. 505 - typical last song sendoff, nothing special

Overall: 7/10

 Not Recommended

Download these songs:

Brainstorm

Balaclava

Only One Who Knows

Do Me a Favor 

I planned on doing this a while back with Grindhouse atleast, and I have a few more planned for.... THE FUTURE.... so expect more of these:

So what is the Hype Machine? Well, this is just a resource guide that tells you what you should be excited about, and what you can watch to build your excitement.

So what are we Hyping up today? A Movie that probably hasn't came to your movie theatre yet in America, and a UK band in their sophmoric effort.

Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare

Last year, The Arctic Monkeys came out with their first full-length CD and pretty much delivered with a great batch of songs that I still listen to today. These guys sound heavily like The Strokes, and are similar to one of my favorite UK bands, Franz Ferdinand(AKA, Take Me Out from Guitar Hero for those who don't know much). So here's to hoping for a successful second album to the Arctic Monkeys(and from hearing from the 3 singles already released, it should be fun).

Playlist:

1. When The Sun Goes Down

2.  I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor

3.  Fake Tales of San Francisco

4. You couldn't probably see for the light but you were looking straight at me

5. Who the F**k are the Arctic Monkeys? 

6. Chun Li's Spinning Bird Kick - (Greatest song name of all time)

7. Brainstorm

Videos:

Sun Goes Down Concert Video 

Brainstorm music video 

Fake Tales of SF concert 

Chun Li 

 Hot Fuzz

FYI, this is the followup movie from the team that brought you the best rom-zom-com from 2004. This time, instead of homaging Zombie movies, their taking a stab at Buddy Cop action movies. This has been out in the UK for a while now, and just hit America in limited release yesterday, don't worry, it'll come.  What shall you do while eagerly anticipating Hot Fuzz? Watch the movies that it's homaging, silly!

Hot Fuzz Trailer 

Playlist:

 Shaun of the Dead (this scene is where they beat up the zombie bartender to the rhythm of Queen)

Leathal Weapon 

Bad Boys II 

ehh... to heck with it... MORE SHAUN OF THE DEAD! 

Never, never never never never never never...... in all of my life, would I ever think that I would ever be associating the words Massacre and Virginia Tech..

 Columbine hit hard, 9/11 hit really hard, but to me, the shooting at VT had the most impact on me and many of us in our area the most.

At about 9:00 or so in the morning, I was walking around the school during 2nd block(because I'm a cocky senior that feels like he can do anything he wants to) and I went by one of the teachers classroom to talk to her(awesome teacher), and she was at her desk and explained to me that there has been gunfire, 1 Dead and 1 Injured(who I think eventually died too).

I didn't really think too much about it, there are 2,600 people at Tech. At the end of the first press release, it said that the cops didn't indeed catch the killer, and they shut down the campus... After 2nd block, I have lunch and after that, I go to 3rd block English class(really awesome teacher). At the end of the class, he decided to go online and see an update on Tech. 22 dead, and 28 injured.

I personally know a good 20 people that go to Virginia Tech, and I'm sure that there is about a good 200 people from around our area(county) that go to tech, so naturally, those words hit hard. It was the first time that I felt that one of these "massacre's" had really effected me, since there was no one I knew in other tragedies. Other tragedies usually just sparked up some discussion, and this one actually made all of us very emotional. As we heard that most of the victims were in the engineering department, I personally know about 2 people in there, so it was really hard.

Thank God that all of the people we were all worrying about turned out to be allright.... But it's just really tragic that 32(so far) innocent lives died for no good or suffeciant reasons at all. And with the guns purchased completely legally, and any stupid schmuck has a chance to do the exact same thing is just sickening to think about. I really hope that the government actually does something about this. I know it's hard to blame VT for any of this, but how is it possible that the students in the school did not know anything about is absolutely rediculous, and even though it seems like too much already, some security issues needs to be taken.

Please, please please, pray to whoever you pray to and pray for the families and friends of the victims.

Thank You. 

[video=JiA3kmes5b4NuTDc]

Ingrediants:

1. Three pieces of Breat

2. Peanut Butter

3. Jelly

4. Knife

5. Toaster

"If you... go.... to..... see.... another......movie....... besides...... Grindhouse........ DON'T!"

It basically comes down to this, if you've ever had a good time at the movie theatre, or even a decent time, you will completely fall in love with Grindhouse.

The film is what critics like to call a "Movie Event", and directors Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino nail that experience right in the head.

The movie starts out, the screen is white, and so gritty, and looks so bad, the film reel looks like it's been through hell. And it starts with a faux trailer of a Robert Rodriguez directed movie. It's called Machete, and it's completely awesome, I won't spoil too much, but friggin Cheech plays a Pastor.

Then Planet Terror. The movie will happily scratch any zombie movie itch you've ever had. The action scenes are top-notch, the blood looks amazing(Gears of War), and the actors are great. The soundtrack is Rodriguez's second best to date(first being Kill Bill V.2). The only probablem is that the characters aren't exactly fleshed out too much(major characters die, and you'd care less), the other problem I have is that the trailer completely spoils half of the great action scenes in the movie.

 Overall: 9/10

We now go to the 3 additional fake trailers

Werewolf Women of the S.S., I just could not stop laughing. I don't want to spoil to much, instead I will post my new favorite picture ever made. Ladies and Gentlemen, I bring to you, Nicolas Cage as Dr. Fu Manchu

 Don't:

This was made by my favorite British people(aka, Shaun of the Dead team and Hot Fuzz team). It's basically a trailer with one central joke, but it was excellent(reference is in the first line of review)

Thanksgiving:

I'll let the trailer speak for itself: http://youtube.com/watch?v=nbSKnL4WFJM (and yes, that is a dude raping a turkey in the end)

 Death Proof:

Ok, let me say this first. I believe that Tarantino slowed it down a lot on purpose. After we have seen so much nonstop over-the-top action, we(the audience) needs to catch our breath. Once we learn and understand each of the characters in an ever so long gap of characterization, the audience gets what they want, which is a perfectly edited and perfectly executed bloody car torture/car crash that we was teased of the the trailer. It was here that I learned why Death Proof is a much more memorable film than Planet Terror. The characters killed off at the beginning were developed, we cared for them(ok, some of them), Rose McGowen was really innoscent, and the car crash was great. Then, this is where the biggest downfall of the film is. We are introduced to a new set of characters, none of which who I felt simpathetic for at all(except for Zoe Bell, but thats for a different reason).

so now we have a long and an impressive single shot table talk that seems to last forever, and I did not care about any of it at all. Then there was an outdoor scene that was ok. And by here, I don't know what was going on with Tarantino's movie, which isn't good. I don't really know if I can blame the actresses(none of them stood out in the second crowd) or if I can blame Tarantino's writing. Tarantino has never failed me, and in this movie, I was unimpressed with the writing, he just might not be able to right good dialog for female roles.

ANYYYYWAY! all is really forgiven. since Tarantino directs one of the best action sequences I've ever seen in my whole life. It's really an incredible thing to see and I would've paid $20 just to see it again. This is then followed by one of the best endings to a movie(especially this movie, which is so over the top) EVER! I really don't want to spoil it, but it's just flat out amazing how Tarantino ended it. I was in a full theatre and when The End popped up, I believe most of the theatre immediately stood up and applauded.

Overall: 9.5/10

Points I would like to make out:

-Tarantino had an amazing speech on the elevator in Planet Terror, and then he kind of broke up the unentertaining part in Death Proof. Tarantino really lights up the screen when he's on

-This movie is the funniest movie in years, it's in competition with Borat on how many times/how hard I laughed throughout the movie

-I wouldn't mind paying double the fee to see both of these movies

-All of the faux trailers was amazing, and IMO, Werewolf was the best, Dr. Fu Manchu needs to be my account name on everything

- I would buy a direct-to-DVD Machete(which Rodriguez has pretty much confirmed he wants to make)

-I really do hope there will be more Grindhouses in the future, having different directors being the hosts of them(I'm excited for the next Eli Roth movie, even though I hate Hostel). Tarantino already says he would be on board, and wants to do an old Kong Fu movie with dubbed voices. Hell, Machete would be awesome 

Yes! This is it!

By this somewhat detailed guide, I will break down each nook and cranny of each of the God of Wars to find it who reigns supreme of the two.

Level One-

The Aegon Sea vs. Rhodes

The Aegon Sea:

    Kratos has just lost all hope, and he casts himself off of a cliff. This is what we in the buisiness call "foreshadowing." After the first CGI cutscene of the game, the story takes you two weeks before Kratos's attempted suicide. You start out fighting the undead at the front of a ship in the middle of the water, this is for the newcomers to get use to the incredibily deep Combo System found in God of War(sarcasm), after that, you go down into the ship and through a room, and BAM! A Hydra peeks its stupid hydra head through the boat and starts a fight with you. After you stab that sucker in it's eye, your introduced into the balance system.

    A little while later, you have to fight off yet another Hydra. Once you slap that sucker in it's face a couple of times, he runs away, and you go into the water for the first time, and climb on walls the first time while hurling off the undead. You then have to cross some more beams while in the background you find people getting attacked by Hydras, funny stuff happens. You get past the beams and low and behold, the first of many puzzles appear !.... well, the puzzles actually pretty braindead, but it takes a little skill. Soon after that, you cross ships and acquire Poseidens Rage(aka the best magic skill from God of War) from Poseiden himself. Electricute the hell out of the undead and go forword to the main boss of the level, A person I like to call, Big Momma Hydra.

    The boss herself is incredible, and arguably the best boss out of the whole game, which might be a bad thing, considering that it's the first level. Anyway, you have to take out the two hydras below in the same manner you took out the one earlier in the level, and then to make sure that the big one doesn't heal the two on the bottom, you have to drive a spike right through their heads(awesome..). Then its just you and the Big One. Mono-a-Mono. The Big Hydra will try her best to blow you off the ship, but eventually, you get to her and assume to put on maybe one of the best killing blows ever seen in any video game ever in the history of flippin' time.

 (See the entire boss fight here NSFW!)

 
     After that, you have to retrace some footsteps, and go buy another CGI cutscene, and yes, the infamous Sex Mini-Game

Overall - 9.5/10

Rhodes:

    Kratos, The God of War, takes the same, dramatic leap, from his throne, straight to Rhodes. A with magical powers takes you giantism away from you, and awakens the Colossus of Rhodes. You begin the same way you did in God of War 1, killing of soldiers and have the game introduce you to it's wonderful combo system. After that, you open a door and travel along a road, all of this while in the background, you can see the Rhodes looking extremely pissed off at you. Eventually, you get to a rooftop and you fight more soldiers and the Colossus. Eventually you have to launch a rock at the colossus via a Ballista. Then you follow up the rock attack with... well, yourself. After giving the Colossus a couple of blades to the Eye, he'll send you flying across the city, ouch.

    Into the bathhouse you go, and here, to calm Kratos down from the huge fight with the Colossus, you can have SEX!... anyway, your introduced to swimming again and introduced to swinging via your blades. As you walk down a hallway, be sure to get ready to say hello to the Colossus foot, as it comes out of no where and you catch it and toss the Colossus back a couple of hundred feet. Then you climb up a wall while the Colossus punches holes throughout. Then you get to face off against the Colossus again and give it a couple of scratches, as once again, the Colossus sends you to another part of the city. PUZZLE TIME! The puzzle is fairly simple, it deals with moving statues and pressure points. My 6 year old cousin can get through it without looking at the TV, but I guess it's their to show you that yes, there will be harder puzzles in the game.

    After the puzzle, and going up an elevator, you see the Rhodes Eye, hit it a couple of times and he'll break the building your in. Zeus offers you the Blade of Olympis, and in order to get it, you must drain all your energy into it. Once you do that, Kratos will shoot a beam from the sword straight into the side of the Colossus. You must now climb from WITHIN the Colossus all the way to the head, where here, you will encounter a puzzle thats much more complicated from before, and then you cause the Colossus's head to explode, and you must jump out of the mouth right before it blows up! Anyway, Zeus betrays you and fights you while you are really friggin' weak and pathetic. Eventually killing you and having Hades to open up and take you down under.

    But after Gaia gives you a pep talk and tells you what you can do, You cut yourself free from Hades hands and climb outta there, and you tell one of the survivors to go back to Sparta and protect it, while you fly off on a Pegesas.

(see some of the fight here and here ) 

Overall: 10/10

The first level from God of War II beats the first level of God of War I because IMO, the whole level in II is centered around the boss. I think the actual boss fight from GoWI is better, but since there is an amazing set piece(I said it) that was INSIDE the boss, I will favor the Colossus over the Hydra.

(Yes, I know that you go inside the Hydra in GoWI, but thats only to get the Captains Key and to kill Kratos's little friend, The Captain)

WINNER!

-------------- 

I'll probably go through the entirety of both games like this, and chose a winner. Hopefully people like it... maybe I'll do a video summary.. I enjoy Feedback, a lot.