I RETURN FROM THE DEAD(and I am not a zombie ghost)

Yes, you all thought I was dead. Which is why you stopped reading, which is why I’m talking to thin air. Hello air! Could you please try to be a bit less rainy? Thanks!

I have a lot of stuff I want to say and virtually no time to say it in before Christmas. I have these posts which I intend to talk about sometime:

• The End of the Semester, Feelings, And the Future
• More on the end of the semester
• Society and the lack of social interaction we face
• I self-published a 100 page Sparknotes of my non-existent novel. It sucks, but if you are aching to get a copy the revised version will be done sometime over xmas break. Let me know!
• Gregorian: Why “Gregorian” is my new favorite “band”. It kicks ass.
• Probably the inevitable stuff on scifi. DAVID TENNANT WILL BE RETIRING! The last special over xmas is going to possibly be the best Dr. Who yet, if the fantastic Waters of Mars was any indication. Something on Stargate Universe, Something on Starship Galactia starring Grontar, who pilots the Capricorn.
• My lame attempts at composing music over xmas break. Sycross inspired me, what can I say?

Rawr. Now, I must return to my studying instead of writing letters to the air.(Don’t get mad at me air! I still love you! I just love people more…its a natural thing. I mean you like air more then people right?)

Oh god I’m explaining myself to the Air. I got too little sleep last night.

Epic Rock is Epic

Ok, So I’ve talked about Trailer Music and its awesomeness. But I think this is deserving of its own post. Immediate Music recognized how popular its music had become, and decided to refine it for a mainstream audience. Building upon the already fantastic instrumental and choir pieces in their “Themes for Orchestra and Choir” series, they created something new. A genre they call “Epic Rock.”

Basically, its a rock band. With 130 people, including a full orchestra and choir. And I absolutely love them, which is uncharacteristic for me to say. After all, they have a singer! The singing on the part of the main singer is decent – not fantastic, but certainly not bad. Were it just him singing with the usual assortment of a few electric guitars and a drum set, I would write the whole thing off. But its not. Instead you get the choir and orchestra adding to the song, which can stand on its own without lyrics (after all, that was their initial version), which I think is characteristic of most great songs.

It sounds epic. When you have a choir in the background adding to the lead singer, it creates an experience unlike anything I have ever heard before. It becomes incredibly more moving, more profound and powerful. What I can’t figure out is why I’ve never heard anything like it before, and why it’s not more popular. My theory is money- its hard to get 130 people together for something like this – an opportunity a production music company had.

In any case, ill stop blabbing and let you decide for yourself. I think their best song is “Europa” – with the choir I get the feeling that I’m hearing not one or two voices, but the whole of europe crying out, all the men and women who died in centuries of war. And that, my friends, is something that most bands cannot match. Take me Away also feels like a desperate prayer from a crusader or something.

Here are some links to their songs on Youtube. Try to ignore the mullet and the kind of un-fitting imagery in some. I have no idea whats going on.

• Europa http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc56moy0poA

• Orchard of Mines http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvepGKH4hds&feature=related

• Crusaders of the Light http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poxwbXC0icU&feature=related

• Take Me Away http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6KilO_AiZU

So, the question I pose to you is this: Does anyone know of any other groups that have lyrics with a full orchestra and choir? I suppose thats assuming I have readers!

The Epic Music that everyone hears but is rarely listened to……the world of Trailer Music

This is the first of three installments talking about Trailer, or Production Music (along with Epic Rock).

Firstly, know that I’m not going to talk about anything mainstream, nor will I mention the absolutely incredible Battlestar Galactica season 4 soundtrack that came out which you MUST buy (Damn it! That’s the last, I promise!). I’m going to talk about the rich, powerful musical world that few know exist or care to listen to. My favorite musical world. That i never get to talk about, thus I’ll post it on my blog . Prepare to be bored!

To sum up my musical tastes, I don’t often go for mainstream bands, or bands to begin with. Little of my music has lyrics (at least in english), and while I have pink floyd and Queen on my ipod, they have about 2 songs each that actually get played. But people also seem to assume that when i go on about my dislike of Lyrical music, i’m into classical. I like classical, don’t get me wrong, but I rarely listen to it. It’s too slow, too boring. It will put me to sleep. I like soft and pretty at times, but usually I want something with more pizzaz. I like music that carries with it as much dramatic force as possible – music that truly sounds epic. Strings playing as fast as the instruments will allow. Choirs screaming in the background, percussion slamming, to create…….Epic. A year ago i liked soundtracks (which are still awesome). But no longer are they my favorite type of music.

For years I was blissfully unaware of the world of  Trailer, or Production music (or Epic Rock, which i’ll get into in a bit). After all, as soon as i say that name I see people’s eyes begin to glaze over. At this point you are probably starting to loose interest. After all, its a bit unusual. But stay with me here! It’s a type of music that is nigh-impossible to find, or to get ahold of (the only explanation i can conjure as to why its not more popular, though this is changing). Most of the production music isn’t sold to the public, but instead licensed for use in trailers. It has to be pirated. (I discovered this stuff thanks to a Battlestar Galactica: Razor ad on Scifi, or as its now stupidly called “SyFy”) I’ve spent well over a hundred hours this summer, digging through the internet. Torrent Sites, Message Boards, Web-Based Flash players, all to find as much of this stuff as I can (I’ve accumulated a pretty decent collection). But, before I go on any more, listen to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0-DokExBgI

If you liked, read on. If not, you might not like this type of music (thats one example of many, but one of my favorites). I tend to try and make doing latin homework as epic as possible.

There are so many fantastic tunes hidden away in production music libraries, and while epic action tunes comprise a great deal of them, there are slow, beautiful pieces as well, in a plethora of different orchestral styles. Its a shame then, that most of this music will go unheard sans those few of us who are nerdy enough to discover and listen the albums.

The thing is, this is a unique type of music that sits beside soundtracks, but the two do not fully mix. A movie might have one big battle scene requiring the sort of epic-intensity used in a trailer, but there is rarely a full album of such power-packed tunes. I like instrumental, orchestral music, and this is some of the fastest, most action-packed, energetic and exhilarating stuff I’ve ever heard an orchestra perform.

The choir is the other part of it that is so exciting. We usually don’t hear choirs except in movies, or when we do think of choirs we think of evil bad guys in movies, or church or something. They can be such an incredibly powerful musical force, when used in tandem with the orchestra. I tend to see it as a sort of Triangular-shaped union in an idea piece of music. Orchestra, Percussion and Choir. Neither is more important then the other (though inevitably this happens in the music). An ideal piece of music would balance each aspect (poor percussion often gets neglected, used only to back up the orchestra. Back up each other!). The human voice can be extremely beautiful, and trailer music shows this beauty to its fullest.

The trailer music genre is picking up steam at a rapid pace. Two Steps From Hell, Epic Score, and Immediate Music have all caved to voracious demand for their music to be released commercially, and Immediate spun-off an epic rock band called Globus who are getting their own post. For those that haven’t, though the fan community isn’t too well organized, there are a lot of people who have devoted a lot of time to help me get what I have. (Thanks noogah and aakaido!)

I can now officially call Operation:EPIC a complete success. My Itunes library stands at 351 Albums. Most of it is of at least decent quality- probably a few below-par albums stuck in there, but most of it is very solid! And I’m still finding more, im sure ill be at 400 once I actually reach Sherman again.

I’m not dead! Though I was in a car wreck…..

Yes, I know it may be hard to believe, but I am in fact not dead! I have neglected this for too long, and I apologize. Life, as it always does, got in the way, largely involving me wrecking my car. I have so many things to write about: Love, My Car Wreck, Music, District 9…..where to begin? I see this blog is suprisingly getting hits. Well, NO MORE SLACKING!

I’ll start with my car wreck. I was braving the morning rush-hour on Interstate 35, on the worst stretch of the road (in Carrollton, between the George Bush Turnpike and I-635). Well, as usual, it was stop and go. It was the last day of my summer internship at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Library, the last morning I would have to drive that road. My new phone’s alarm failed to go off, and I was running late. “Damned if im going to be late on my last day, but there’s not much I can do. If i am late, oh well”. I thought as the sound of crashing Taiko Drums reverberated throughout my Car. Next to me, traffic in the HOV lane whizzed past. “Boy, I wish I could be in that lane….makes me wonder how effectively they’re working since everything else is so clogged. I bet half the people don’t even have more then two people, I mean how are police supposed to enforce any sort of law in this gridlock?” My curiosity was aroused, and with it began the chain of events leading to my wreck. I glanced in my mirror at cars that came past in the HOV lane, counting. 40% seemed to have only one person. Traffic had sped up, and i was going faster. For about 3-4 seconds I was engrossed in my mirror. That was all it took. Traffic ahead of me had stopped suddenly, and I was still going forward. I slammed on the breaks as hard as I possibly could. I felt them lock up beneath me, and there was nothing I could do as I sailed into the back of the SUV. Or rather, into the undercarriage.

I found myself in shock. The first thing was the burnt smell as the airbags deployed in front of me, though i never hit them (I had already braced myself for a collision with my legs). More then that, the hood of my car was peeled back in a C shape, with the top of it cracking the glass on my passenger side. “What?!” I wondered. Initially, i got somewhat confused. How cheaply were cars made? I hadn’t hit THAT fast. In 100 years of making cars they were this crappy? A police officer had by luck been about 3 cars behind me, and he pulled into the HOV lane. As i saw him get out, It occured to me that I should be more upset. My car had just been wrecked. But honestly, I wasn’t particularly shaken up about it – nobody was hurt, that was certain. A car is just a thing, a bunch of plastic and metal and rubber. It dosen’t mean much.

The officer came and told me to wait in the car until the ambulance arrived (though i was fine). I quickly gathered my Ipod and other things, and called my dad. “Hello dad!” I said cheerfully “I’ve just had a wonderful car wreck! I think my car’s totaled!” He was on his way. The ambulance arrived, and after assuring them that I was perfectly alright I finally got out of my car. I saw that there were more then 2 cars involved- two more in front of the SUV were banged up but drivable, and they went on their way. I saw why my car had crumpled. My bumper, designed to take an impact, was sitting just fine and dandy, completely untouched. The SUV’s wheels were too big – instead the impact hit my engine, ripping it to shreds. Engines aren’t made to withstand impacts. The driver of the car i hit was very understanding about it and not the least bit mad, which was nice. I was depressed, largely realizing that my stupidity had done more then make my life more difficult- rather I had made several hundred people’s lives more difficult by backing up traffic. This was not a good feeling.

Anyway, my car got towed away, my insurance luckily didn’t go up, and I have a new cavalier. Its silver (a more awesome car color then white), has four doors (because you all want to go on rides with me now im sure), and is a 2004 model. Its otherwise identical (ok, so the steering wheel is designed differently and the stick-thingie that shifts into drive and whatnot has the button ON THE SIDE INSTEAD OF ON TOP!) . I had to spend all the money i made this summer on the new one (which i wouldn’t need to buy had i not had the internship). In any case, after the first 2-3 days of being depressed, it hasn’t been on my mind much at all. I have FAR more important matters to think about – like this coming semester, in which much of the course of my life to come shall be shaped, for better or for worse. That, however, is another tale for another time. I’ll probably post again tonight about music.

Rawr.

Witness to a Terrible Car Accident

On Sunday I went with my High-School friend Jhon to see “Moon”, a pretty good indie sci-fi flick. We went to the Angelika film centre in Plano. I had sat for a moment lost in thought while the light turned green, and joked that I should probably figure out how to drive at some point. We had turned on legacy, and in front of us was the Dallas North Turnpike and the bridge.(Where the road crosses over the Dallas North Turnpike) “Have you ever been in an accident?” asked Jhon. I started to reply “Well, kind of, that one time -”

“Holy shit.”

Not too far ahead of us, a car was crossing the intersection between Legacy and the Side road. As if on cue to Jhons question, it got hit. HARD. A car had been speeding along the side road at full speed, and it slammed into the front of the poor car which was crossing. Debris went cascading into the air, shattered bits of glass, metal and tire littering the road, as the car which had struck careened to a halt, front battered. I immediately stopped the car, and we jumped out along with a lot of other people to help. A sad sight awaited us as phones called 911 and people rushed to the wreck to help.

The front of the car – everything in front of the passenger compartment was just GONE. The front had been ripped clean off the car, engine and tires a memory. Broken glass was everywhere. The Driver of the shattered car, a blond girl of college age, had safely gotten out.  She  shakily walked a few feet then just collapsed to the ground, shaking violently and crying loudly.  She wasn’t harmed, but as I looked toward the car, I saw hair.

There was another girl in the passenger seat. She wasn’t moving. I had difficulty seeing, but several other onlookers had beaten me to the scene and seemed to be talking to her. I didn’t hear her voice but they seemed to be getting a reply, in any event the girl was trapped and she didn’t move a muscle. I’m not sure what trapped her, though the windshield was scarcely holding together, cracked in a hundred places inches from her head. It wasn’t long until police and a fire-truck arrived, and it was then that we decided we were only getting in the way. As we pulled away, firefighters had a stretcher next to the car, and were trying to free the trapped girl. I can only hope that she will be alright.

It was stunning and unreal, as if on cue we saw it happen. It was one of those accidents you always know happens but never see – until now. I was astonished at how cleanly the front had been ripped off – and also of the fact that if it had struck a few inches farther back, both of the girls in the car would probably be dead. I was humbled by the whole affair, and it definetly made me think of how transient life can be sometimes. Thankfully nobody was killed (I hope), but it was close.

Torchwood: Children of Earth

Rating: 10 Duckies out of 10

Torchwood, for those of you who aren’t into Sci-Fi like I am, is a spin-off series of the wildly popular British show Dr. Who. Doctor Who has always been a show known for its light-heartedness, campiness (in a fun way), and generally being a fun ride while still managing to touch you deeply along the way. It’s not geared towards adult audiences.

Torchwood, however is. In its first two seasons, the show often felt like they were trying to say “Hey! I’m an adult Dr. Who, I’m going to use excessive profanity!” It also retained Dr. Who’s campiness to a lesser degree. All that is gone in its Third series, an epic five-part story called, you guessed it, children of earth.

Torchwood is an organization outside of the government lead by Captain Jack Harkness, who has the distinction of being unable to die (the cause being the focus in several Dr. Who episodes). They operate to protect humanity from alien threats, as Cardiff sits atop a rift in time and space blah blah. The point is, Torchwood’s first two seasons were good, but nothing astounding.

Children of Earth is a masterful work of art that left me emotionally shattered and drained by it’s end. It makes full use of TV’s biggest advantage (that almost universally gets ignored), which is the ability to tell longer stories then you can in Movies. Children of earth is essentially a five-hour movie, an excellent one at that. If you’ve never seen Torchwood or Dr. Who, you should still watch Children of Earth – it still stands powerfully poignant even without the backstory.

It’s a grim tale, a serious tale. The Aliens are no longer Daleks (who are totally awesome by the way), instead something which is genuinely frightening to behold as both the Torchwood team and the Government grapple with unthinkable choices. Nobody is as one-dimensional as they first appear to be. The good guys hold dark, horrible secrets, the bad guys secrets and motivations of their own.

The characters suffer incredibly, and there is some astounding acting as the world falls apart around them. All of them sacrifice greatly, some with their lives, others with their very humanity. I won’t spoil the plot, but needless to say its good. Really good. I was left in a state of emotional shell-shock afterwards that only Battlestar Galactica and Apocalypse Now has left me in within recent memory. Absolutely heart-breaking, but good. As a friend of mine texted me…. “Ok, this is getting really messed up, even for Torchwood”.

I don’t know how coherent this has been (I’m trying not to spoil anything). All I can say is, watch it. It’s no Battlestar Galactica, but it is a shining example of the art of Television and Film in general. I don’t think you will be dissapointed. You can pirate it if you like, or it will air on BBC America starting July 20 (every night for 5 nights in a row).

Now if you’ll excuse me, its been one ride I’ll need months to recover from…..and that’s a good thing.

It is coming….and Torchwood is awesome.

So about that post I promised, about the love and the writing. Its coming. But there is a problem:

Like everything else I do, its EPIC!(How epic is epic? A 15 page blog post epic enough?) Unfortunately, thats also the problem. I stop talking about the way romance is portrayed in writing (horribly half the time), to talking about myself and how I think. I also might be getting a bit more personal then you would feel comfortable reading (I’m quite open myself, no need to hide behind a mask like we like to do in our society). So I’m trying to finish it, cut it down, and get something legible out of it (instead of doing psychoanalysis of events that lasted all of three seconds like I’ve been doing.) Something that hopefully you actually read through. As I’ve said before, I hate how we all put on masks and too much of the time you never get a chance to really know people. It’s probably unavoidable to a large extent (as much as I wish it were so, we cannot all sit down at dinner and talk about our deepest feelings. That would be a bit weird.) So, maybe it will give you a look at me from a new angle

I’m also utterly astonished at the number of hits I’m getting. I got four yesterday, which is four more then I would have expected. I feel like I’m entertaining or something cool like that. Thanks _______! (fill in your name here so you can feel like I’m addressing you personally and ignoring the fact that I have no way to know who you are).

Oh, a post will also be coming sometime about Torchwood: Children of Earth. I’ve been blown away so far. I’ve always loved the show, but this brings Torchwood up a step in my book. In fact, if David Tennant weren’t such an amazing actor, I’d be sorely tempted to put it above Dr. Who. For those of you uneducated in sci-fi-ness, its a spinoff series of Dr. Who that for this season has turned into a 5 part epic tale aired over 5 consecutive nights.

Happy Independence Day! An Epic Post is coming soon…..

Happy Independence Day everyone! I hope summer has been treating all of you reasonably well so far, and that it hasn’t completely sucked! I’m working on a real substantial post about Love and the way its portrayed in writing, but given that love is the single most exciting and interesting thing in the universe to talk about(in my humble opinion), its ballooning at such an astounding pace that I’m going to have to cut out a lot, unless you wish to read a novella about it! Really, its going to take multiple posts, but it is about something I don’t get to talk about much, and it is the most important thing in life !

I will relate a rather amusing anecdote from today. I was at Adam’s house, playing God of War. There is a scene where your character starts out in the room of a ship, with two naked women in the bed. You can walk up to them, and a little circle appeared above their heads. “Oh, dialog, that will be good, I wonder why there are two random naked girls in this bed!” Much to my dissapointment and confusion, there is no dialog. Instead the camera suddenly shifts to a vase on the table. Buttons to press come up, and when i hit them the table shakes, accompanied by moans of your name and so forth. Most of you can probably guess what is happening.

I was confused. Why the vase? Was there a genie or some spirit trapped within the vase that I’m trying to free? I went on this assumption for a few more tries, but nothing happened and I was confused. A genie would talk to me in some sort of dialog box anyway I would imagine….what in the world is going on? And what would the girls have to do with it? I sat puzzled for several minutes, exploring the room and whatnot, doing it again. Well, the vase might move if the bed shook, but why would the – ohhh. But I’m some sort of demi-god thing, wouldn’t i be above something like – oh this is the greek pantheon. I promptly stopped the minigame, turned around, and ran out of the room as fast I could. Apologies for the doubtless poor writing, but its 2am and I’m on drugs. That’s my excuse anyway >.<

A New Home, and a Cheerful Visitor!

Yes, I have moved to a site which is actually readable and which actually enables me to make this site something not sucky (Ok, perhaps not AN EYE GOUGINGLY HORRIBLE THING TO READ BECAUSE OF THE LAYOUT!) I make no claims as to the quality of the content itself. Since I have no new blog post due to the move and thinking about a Theological Discussion I am having with Blacklock (If you know us I’m sure you can understand), I will instead leave you with a picture of the one, the only, the famous: MR. PUDDING THE COWBOY PUDDING CUP!

Yeee-haww!

Space: Above and Beyond (Originally Posted 06/26/09)

I usually consider myself to be quite well-versed in recent science fiction shows (with the notable exception of farscape, which i still plan to watch). I was quite suprised when I recieved the DVD set of the series for my Birthday. How had I not heard of this wonderful series?

It’s the year 2063, and humanity is alone in the universe. Colonies are being formed on other worlds, and everything is rebuilding after the AI war from a few years before. Then an unknown alien race destroys several colonies, and humanity faces an alien race that threatens to wipe them out. As the bulk of Earth’s military forces are destroyed or wiped out, the unproven and undertrained 58th squadron of the US Marine Corps Space Aviator Corps as they slowly become veterans in a war that humanity is loosing.

What sets this show apart from the standard is its above-average characterization (although against shows like Galactica or Babylon 5 it pales by a large margin). These are real soldiers, real marines, with real personalities, real fears and problems. Its quite refreshing to see. I won’t delve into all of the characters here, but the relationships between them and their personalties are better then in a lot of shows (I especially like Hawke’s growth).

Besides, not everything is black and white. Did Aerotech know the aliens were there before they sent the colony ships? Were the “Chigs” really unprovoked in attacking us?

I particularly like the societal and moral problems posed with “In Vitroes” – these are humans not born, but grown and “born” at the age of 18. They face discrimination and lack the same sort of upbringings as normal humans, which presents some challenges.

The one area I can really complain about is in regards to the CGI, which is just awful. I can excuse it partly for being from 1995, but Babylon 5 used all CGI that actually looked good during the same period, and it was far from a big-budget show. A lot of the ships (like the Saratoga) lack detailed texturing, and everything seems to move in slow motion (missiles go 2mph). But, its a very minor complaint compared to the rest of the show.

It’s slightly inferior to stargate at its best, but its also far superior to Stargate at it’s worst (and lets face it, stargate was usually medicore). The characters seem to have more depth and humanity to them then a lot of the stargate characters do (per episode). So, I suppose my point in all of this is to reccomend it to scifi buffs like myself. Just don’t expect another Battlestar Galactica, firefly or Babylon 5. It’s not that good, but it is well above average! It only lasted for a single season, unfortunately.