Archive for November, 2009

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Zombie Scribbles!

Thursday, November 26th, 2009

About a month ago, I volunteered to help with the Eurogamer Expo. On the right you shall see a picture of me helping. After laughing at nerds for getting their photos taken with the Nvidia girls I somehow ended up in a similar photo which makes me a Grade A hypocrit, but hey it was all part of the job.

Volunteering mainly consisted of walking around in a circle making sure the consoles were running and no one nicked any controllers. On my watch one PS3 controller went missing so I think I did ok. Some kinds tried to nick an 360 at one stage so it could have been worse. Good fun really.

When we finished this endurance challenge we were thanked (obviously), given £30 and given whatever crap was left. I managed to blag two, COUNT THEM! two Left 4 Dead 2 t shirts. Good ere innit. Here’s what it looks like

Obviously I only need one to add to my collection so I vowed to give the other one away via the medium of a twitter competition. It’s taken me roughly a month but I’ve finally figured out what to do. As per usual it was a twitter revelation:

“http://twitpic.com/r00nz – please pray silence for the crappest drawing of a monkey ever”

to which I added

“You’ll notice it has a nana.”

which lead to

“Also I just thought of a competition for this L4D2 tshirt.”

that finally gave birth to

“I want you to draw a zombie like a 5 year old would. Most authentic gets the tshirt.”

And there you have it folks. #zombiescribbles was born!

I want you to draw a zombie like a 5 year old would. Now this was a point of contention for a while as some of you people out there with 5 year olds. This puts you at a point of advantage. Worry not, I have taken this into consideration. The interesting twist in this quiz?

It will be judged by a 5 year old

Sam, my lovely friend at work (@percivalh, please follow) has a cracking wee son called Milo who will judge the competition and also provide a control picture for you all to reference from.

Edit: And here it is!

There is one final detail to this competition. As method of payment to young Milo, I shall be giving him my favourite transformer toy, Scorponok.

Isn’t he grand? The extra detail is – for every entry I get, I’ll give Milo one of my Transformers.

Also if you want one, I’ll chuck in a Transformers toy for 3rd, 2nd and 1st place too (in respective order of epicness). I’ll be administering the competition via twitter. Please hashtag your entry with #zombiescribbles and the closing date is…Friday the 11th of December! (2009)

So get drawing!


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#00top5albums – The Candidates 6 to 10

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

So here we are again. Having done the first 5 candidates it is time to move on to contenders 6 to 10. Not much preamble required so here we go!

#6: Guero – Beck

Now I only found this Beck album comparatively recently. For quite some time I’d been listening to Odelay and Midnite Vultures (woot) and enjoying them quite a lot. When I got Rock Band 2 I was introduced to E-Pro. What a tune. If you check my last.fm list, E-Pro is top overall. So inevitably I checked the album it came from and each song was great.

Listen to it when…
When you want what only Beck can provide

Best Track is…
E-Pro (click to play)

Spotify link

#7: Primitive Plus – Edan

Lav introduced me to Edan a wee while ago now. Primitive Plus is his first album and it’s really quite mental. Edan raps, DJs and produces his own stuff so the whole thing is a single musical vision which is quite a refreshing thing. Listening to it you can tell it is quite pure in that respect.

Listen to it when…
When you want something a bit weird

Best Track is…
Mic Manipulator (click to play)

#8: Music for the Mature B-Boy – DJ Format

I first saw DJ Format supporting Ugly Duckling just before the FA cup in which Saints valiantly lost 1-0 to Arsenal. I had no idea who he was but himself and MC Abdominal (more later) were hands down the greatest support I’ve ever seen. Again I sniffed out the album and holy crap what an album. More…mature I guess than Ugly Duckling and because Format is only a DJ his albums are a showcase for many a great MC many of whom will appear as later candidates. It all started here for me.

Listen to it when…
You want a broad look at current great hip hop

Best Track is…
The Hit Song (click to play)

Spotify link

#9 Mystery Theatre – Aspects

Aspects are a group that I find out about off the back of the album above. Mystery Theatre is their second album and it’s a doozy. It’s a great testament to the potential of British hip hop. Solid, high quality stuff with not a bad song in the bunch.

Listen to it when…
You wanna be reminded that the brits can make some mature high calibre hip hop

Best Track is…
Off The Lip (doesn’t exist online, pro :P)

#10: Fever To Tell – Yeah Yeah Yeahs

For quite a long time I didn’t get the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I like to think I’ve softened musically recently and have become a bit more receptive to music outside my comfort zone of underground hip hop. Less snobby I guess which is no bad thing. Anyway, eventually I got it. It’s rocking, it’s wild and it’s soulful. It’s such a mish mash of different styles and pace but it just works somehow.

I love this album for many reasons but the main one is the drumming. I don’t usually pick out individual parts of an album but the drumming on this album is just joyous, Maps and Date with the Night in particular.

Listen to it when…
You want everything

Best track is…
Date with the Night (click to play)

Spotify link

Next time on #00top5albums

We head to the murky depths of 11-15!

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De Hems – Famous for Dutch resisters, music producers and the beginning of the bestest club ever…

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Recently, my brain has been, as Kramer would say, mossy. Ideas are boinging around like the alternate fire on the Half Life 2 pulse rifle (I was playing Episode 2 yesterday). There are so many I’m struggling to keep up with them all though I think noting them down in my previous blog helped a bit.

The most recent idea came from the pub as most good ideas do. I’d like to take a quick tangent to mention something about the pub. It is a place called “De Hems” a dutch pub in Piccadilly Circus. I only mention it because the menu had the phrase

“Famous for Dutch resisters and music producers”

The explanation is quite literal as it was a hidey hole for the Dutch resistance during WW2 and was a prime location for music people during the 60s and 70s.

Anyway. I was talking to a friend of mine about my intention to read more as my 100 days challenge. She mentioned she was a member of her work’s book club and how it all works then it hit me

A video game club!

It’s so obvious that someone must have thought of it before now and they probably have but I won’t let that stop me. I talked about with our man Dan who was there at the time and he agreed it was a good idea. So that was it!

There are a few things to work out and at the moment I have assembled a rabble of 4 people to give it a whirl. Me (@mixmasterfestus), Dan (@shinyhappydan), Matt (@mystacon) and Paul (who doesn’t use twitter, boo!)

I had a noodle about the name and came up with something I like. It’s not set in stone, but atm I’m calling it

Sprite Club!

The general idea is

  • One game per month
  • Budget of roughly £15
  • Preferably cross platform
  • Meet at the pub to chat about it
  • No talking about Fight Club
  • No Homers (Stone cutter birthmark or not)

I’m thinking about maybe podcasting the meeting if it goes well and who knows, it could be quite cool!  I’m currently co-ordinating it via Google Wave (might as well make use of it) and it’ll be based in London for now. The interweb being what is I’m sure people outside the capital can take part in some fashion. See how it goes!

Let me know if you wanna join in, no games are decided as of yet but it shouldn’t be too long. Hot Dog!*

*I got my TF2 poster today and I’m trying really hard to use the phrase “Hot Dog!” as much as possible.

Posted in Games, Me, Sprite Club | 1 Comment »

There is much to do…

Saturday, November 21st, 2009

My brain has been all a flutter recently. I have my thumbs in quite a few pies. Admittedly they are all my own pies but they are pies nonetheless. I wanted to note down all the things I am doing so I can have a check list somewhere. Here goes… (I should probably put this into the toybox section, will do at some point)

I used to be a Hero parts 3&4

I have finished 2 parts of this 4 part saga and I want to get em done so I can move on to new business. Will try and get em done over the next 2 weeks…

#00top5albums

Probably shouldn’t have started this before finishing the above but there we go. Have to do the 3 other candidates section then have a think about the winners. I think this can be spread up until the end of 2009.

Video game manual study

When I bought MW2 I was outraged at how crap the manual was, I remember being a thing of joy. I don’t wanna talk about it too much as it’ll go in the intro so save to say I have gathered many manuals for study

The old school PC game retrospective

While beavering away in the loft I found the boxes for 4 old school PC games which have a special place in my heart. I’m gonna give em a play and report back

My Transformers annuals

I found two transformers annuals in the loft and I found a bit of 5 year old Jashum scribble and some other cool stuff. Gonna give em a read and see if anything is bloggable

The Scummathon

I’ve still not finished the Scummathon as I have to play Monkey Island 1-3, Broken Sword 1-3 and the Simon the Sorceror games. Gotta play Grim Fandango to seal the pact.

My 100 days

Josie Long is running a project on Hundred Days for people to do something to better themselves for 100 days. I’ve decided to read a book for at least 20 minutes per day for 100 days. I don’t read enough and seemed like a fun thing to do, starts on December 1st!

Video game club

Needs a better name but after a chat with Dan, we hit upon the idea of a video game club. Like a book club, a game is chosen and everyone has 1 month to play it and then we meet up and have a chat about it. Not sure of the detail but really like the idea…

Phew. I think there are other things, but this is plenty for now…

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#00top5albums – The Candidates 1 to 5

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

A couple of days ago, the floppy fringed chaps at NME voted “Is This It” by the Strokes as the album of decade. I think this actually means *their* album of the decade as such a grand award means different things to different people.

I guess if enough people agreed we could compromise and decide on something but I come from the school of Rorschach:

“No. Not even in the face of Armageddon. Never compromise.”

That album is pretty cool but there’s no chance it would make it into my top 20 let alone be #1. Chris had been telling me for a while that he was assembling his albums of 2009. I had considered picking my albums of 2009 but hadn’t given it much more thought than that.

Twitter was rife with discussion about the top album and I didn’t really wade in as I wouldn’t like to pick one. I thought about it and decided I could definately pick 5 with a bit of soul searching.

The hunt was on, I constructed the hashtag #00top5albums to earmark any tweets on the subject. This hashtag was taken on by Julian Gough to do something a bit more grand but I wanted to be selfish and focus on myself (good luck J man!).

I decided to make a shortlist of 20 albums for consideration. There’s a little bit of everything here but I think the prevailing trend is Hip Hop. Here are the first 5 nominations for my #00top5albums (in no particular order, I shall provide links where I can, sorry Yankee doodles x)

#1: Stepfather – People Under The Stairs

In my eyes, these guys can do no wrong, true genuine hip hop. Double K and Thes One are masters of their craft and Stepfather is a pure joy to listen to. As you listen you can tell they’d poured their heart and soul into it.

My favourite track on the album, Pumpin’, was a subject of contention for me for a while as I was convinced the sample was taken from Streets of Rage. Such is the nature of PUTS, I was able ask Thes One about it at a gig and he confirmed it was from a British track.

Listen to it when…
You want to listen to something genuine

Best track is…
Pumpin’ (click to play)

#2: Journey To Anywhere – Ugly Duckling

My intro to Hip Hop. I remember it was like yesterday. I was at a house party and two songs prevailed that night.

The first was the Ice Cube song “You can do it”. Two particularly “classy” girls were playing it over and over again grinding themselves against anything within a 2 metre radius. This is lovely but does tend to grow tiresome after the 10th spin of the record.

The second was the song “A Little Samba”. It was a revelation. Upbeat, fun and funky hip hop. Long story short I picked up a copy of Journey to Anywhere and I fell in love with it. The whole album is there to question Hip Hop cynics. It shows people who take the time to listen that there is more to Hip Hop than “puttin yo back into it”.

Listen to it when…
You need to be reminded that Hip Hop ain’t all guns & bitches

Best track is…
A Little Samba (click to play)

Spotify link

#3: Songs for the Deaf – Queens of the Stone Age

My mum knew about Queens of the Stone Age before I did. My mum is very cool. Mainly because of things like knowing about QOTSA before me. I was watching TV and an advert came on which had No One Knows as its soundtrack. I loved it but didn’t know what it was. It was at this stage my mum walked in and the rest was history.

This album is everything I want from a rock album, pace and energy. Not to be missed.

Listen to it when…
You need rock with clout

Best track is…
No One Knows (click to play)

Spotify link

#4: Quality Control – Jurassic 5

Jurassic 5 are one of the heavyweight groups of the old school Hip Hop movement such as it is. Along with People Under The Stairs they are great in all respects and this is a full blooded reflection of their musical consummation. Quality Control oozes class and guile.

Listen to this when…
You wanna hear music that feels effortless and whole

Best track is…
Jurass Finish First (click to play)

Spotify link

#5: The Mouse & The Mask – DangerDoom

To be honest, this is definately in the #00top5albums already so listing it as a candidate is somewhat of a formality. This album is a collaboration between MF Doom and Dangermouse who came together to make something involving characters from the Adult Swim cartoons.

I’m going to wax lyrical about this album when I announce the full #00top5albums so I’ll leave it for now, safe to say this is definitely a banker.

Listen to this when…
Shake says so.

Best Track is…
Shake’s answer phone messages (listen to the album)

Spotify link

Coming soon…

I shall be doing the #00top5albums 6-10 in the next few days along side some updates to the Toybox section. I’m quite happy with the sheer volume of stuff I wanna write. Just need to find the time!

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