Song of the Week: "Black Night"

My previous post inspired me to declare this week's song to be Black Night. Of course I'm not referring to Deep Purple's classic single; I'm talking about Deicide's cover of Deep Purple's classic single. And I'm assuming the authority to dedicate that song to none other than the Legendary Yukio Futatsugi himself (I'd link to a better interview but I'm too lazy to find one right now, I'll probably update that link later).

Why am I picking this song and that Legendary Figure? Partly because both are amazing; partly because the original Black Night was written in a drunken stupor when Deep Purple's record company demanded something to be released as a single and Yukio Futatsugi's last game at Microsoft Game Studios (Phantom Dust) received equally callous treatment.

Mostly though it's because things just don't feel right when Yukio isn't crafting his masterpieces. Fortunately there is always hope; sometimes we all we have to do is be patient.

Too Little Too Late

I really enjoyed playing the first Assassin's Creed. The gameplay certainly wasn't very refined, but the game was, nonetheless, much more interesting than most of the other releases that year.

I still haven't played the sequel due to the fact that I've somehow accumulated quite the pile of books and video games that I intend to get around to someday. Assuming that the second one is any good I suppose I'll eventually get around to playing the upcoming Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood too. So when I saw some of commercials such as this one that show off the exclusive character you receive if you pre-order the game from GameStop it suddenly became very tempting to do just that.

The trailer in the above link isn't very good but the Harlequin character that it showcases is completely dementedly violent. And that's awesome.

Here is the problem though: it pisses me off that not everyone is going to get to play that character. Feel free to call me old-fashioned but I think that a video-game should be like a book or a movie; the core experience should be the same no matter which copy you have access to. I don't have a problem with receiving bonuses along with the game if you buy a special version; the 'journal' for Dr. Halsey that came with my copy of Halo Reach is, to put it delicately, fucking awesome.

When they start cutting up the game and packaging small parts of it so that they can only ever be obtained by specific customers who do business with the correct corporation at the correct time my bullshit meter freaks out though. Yes, they have every right to do that. Yes, it's not going to stop any time soon if ever.

I still refuse to play along with it though. So I'm not going to pre-order the game from GameStop or anywhere else that runs this same scheme.

Unless it's a new Panzer Dragoon game. I loves me my Panzer Dragoon.

So it was slightly delayed.

Only a few random things today.

On the right there should be a picture. Did you find it? Very good!

In the rather classy 'lounge lizard' mug is my morning coffee. Since I don't have access to an espresso machine right now I've been experimenting with a few different ways of making things interesting. A lot of the time I'll just drink my coffee black; lately though I've been mixing in some cocoa, cane sugar, cinnamon, whole milk, and ginger with REALLY strong coffee. It doesn't really matter what order or in what ratio you mix those things, it's pretty hard to go wrong with those ingredients.

On the right is my music player with a lovely snippet of the album cover from Anaal Nathrakh's excellent "In the Constellation of the Black Widow." And with that I will now rather tactfully make a smooth transition to the next segment of this post....

I've decided that just for fun I'm gonna start doing a 'Song of the Week' segment where I take it upon myself to dedicate a song to someone; this will also give me a reason to make sure I post at least one thing every week.

This week's song is the pleasantly titled Between Shit and Piss We Are Born. I know that most people are not going to like that type of extreme metal; that's okay, we're not going to judge you too harshly :P

Because of the song's refrain ("Are you satisfied it's unto shit that you return? / are you happy that it is in piss that you drown?") I'm dedicating that song to the members of this fraternity at Yale. If you want to revel in your own filth that's fine, but who the fuck do you think you're impressing*?

And that's all for now! gl hf

update: *Well; at least I'm self-conscious about it.

Beyond the End

Btw: NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I've known about that for a while now; slipped my mind to post something. Red Harvest was an amazing band and I wish its members the best of luck with the rest of their lives.

I guess that means I should stop using their songs as a source of ideas for post titles...

update: If you are into extreme/progressive metal then you need to watch this video.

This one is also cool; audio isn't great but I believe it shows their last performance ever.

Wait.... what?

Yeah, so my last post was on the 6th and then I started a new job on the 8th. I've been working 8 to 10-and-a-half hour days ever since and don't get a break until this weekend. I probably won't be posting anything of substance until then because I am too burned out to do much of anything by the time I get home.

Can't complain though, I need the money :P

Anyways check back later this week since I have plenty of inane insanity to rant about; seriously, it'll be fun!

Regarding Race Issues

I'm a bit amused by the differences between the 'Issues' categories on the respective websites for Scott Walker (R) and Tom Barrett (D). Both are running for governor of Wisconsin this year.

The list on Walker's is:

- Agriculture

- Education

- Goverment Spending - Reform

- Healthcare

- Jobs

- Natural Resources & Sportsmen

- Protecting Life

- Second Amendment

- Standing up for Wisconsin Families

Tom Barrett:

- Agriculture

- Creating Jobs

- Education

- Energy and our Enviroment

- Healthcare

- Fiscal Responsibility

- Senior Citizens

- Transportation

- Veterans

- Women's Issues

I'll update this post later with a more in-depth look at what information is actually contained within those various categories. For now I'm just going to say that it's rather telling that the republican gave entire categories to the rights of embryos and gun owners while the democrat included a 'Women's Issues' category.

How copy? Over.