an unexpected visit to an apple store yesterday gave val and i a chance to play around with a new imac with photobooth. its a really simple program but its so fun to play with! here are a couple photos from the mess around.

a prop for a play at a theatre i was setting up a sound system in...



better yet, what if i was a dancing zebra?

wow! for those of you who have not seen this crazy tv ad for some new sony tvs you should head over and check it out. they dropped 250,000 bouncy balls down a hill in san fransisco to film the ad and the result is suprisingly cool. how on earth did they get permision to do this? there is a little mini documentary on the making of this available as well on the website. i would suggest viewing the hi-res versions of the videos because detail seems to be pretty important in this one.

heres a link

Pieces of the world is an amazing record by a group out of Knoxville, TN called Dixie Dirt. I had seen them twice live when I was mixing sound at Gate City Noise here in Greensboro and I found that their songs were getting stuck in my head for long periods of time. The second time that I saw them live I realized just how much I loved their music. The name of the band actually does a pretty good job of describing what you might expect in their sound. Pieces of the World is a gritty rock masterpiece that I cant seem to stop listening to as of late. The songs are all so haunting and captivating that I cant help but want to hear it again and again. 

A lot of the songs are strung together seamlessly as the album moves along and this makes it easy to loose track of time as you listen to the album. The vocals are stretched thin over the music of the band and match the feel of the music perfectly as it breaks into almost a cry at times. The pieces of the songs that get stuck in my head always seem to be the bits with the haunting melodies. They really carry their own unique sound and feel that stands out from all of the other music that I listen to within the rock music genera. It makes me feel good to listen to it in a strange sort of way. It is not necessarily optimistic or cheerful music but its uplifting all the same. It will drift back and forth between quiet, intimate moments and somewhat more aggressive rock bursts. 

Although every songs works so very well together I do have a few favorites that are each easily some of the best music that I have heard in the past year. The first three tracks on this album are absolutely brilliant, So Good So Bad, Pieces Of The World, and Badlights are just amazing and really get the album moving along. These three songs are the three that caused me to fall in love with the music that they make. My other favorites on here are also amazing songs. Dance Song has this ending sing along style of a melody with its la de da's that gets stuck in my head all to easily. Appetite is a longer track at just under 10 minutes but it has a really solid, steady progression that caries you along.

All in all I would recommend this to anyone looking to hear a wonderful, well rounded rock album with bittersweet lyrics and amazing, memorable melodies that will likely get stuck in your head for days to come. 

ITunes link:

I don't know enough about the artist and the back story to give a full review of this record but I did want to at least feature it here because I think that it's a really amazing hip-hop record. It is loosely based on Cartoon Networks Sunday night series Adult Swim and features content from the characters of the show. Im not even sure what to say about the record, its funny and has some brilliant production. Its a fairly short record but every minute of it is soooo good. If you are looking for a great, fun new hip-hop record or are a fan of the Adult Swim series than I would defiantly recommend this great album.

iTunes link:

this was found in the trash at my work. i dont think he liked us very much after we woke him up. well, not at first, a second or two later he just laid there and acted like he was dead so we would leave him alone. what a cozy bed he found there in our trash right?

check it out! i was featured in a japanese computer magazine called Windows 100%. i got an email from them a few months back asking if i would be interested to be included in their magazine. you can make up the rest of the story yourself but in the end i did end up getting published and here it is!

link

being a fan of the designers republic, a firm that i have loved for years and years now, i have decided to put a link up here to this amazing site that revolves around a few designer bottles of coke that are evidentially shaped like the classic glass bottles but are made of aluminum. they are all designed by some really high class design firms and they are all really slick. the annoying catch is that these bottles can only be found at special events and fancy clubs for whatever reason. oh well. anyways, each bottle also has a song as well as a video. check it out here.

I got some new camera lenses recently and ive been shooting plenty of new images for desktops so I should have new ones up pretty regularly for a while. I will try and get back on the wagon here on the weblog and get some new reviewish things up and other interesting bits. at any rate. see you again soon!

this is fun! link

i carved some pumpkins with val for fbd! they are the ones that we bought at the pumpkin patch that you can see in an earlier blog entry.

one of the best joy of tech comics i have seen in a good while. link.

thats right everyone, its the 23rd of the month which means that it is once again ferris bueller day! its a day that is celebrated by taking a break from life and getting the chance to get out and have a day all to yourself and your loved ones. go ahead. cancel your plans, whatever they may be and make a nice little mental list of things you have never done that you have wanted to do but for whatever reason never let yourself have the time to do them.

so loosen up a bit and have a good one!

there is a band called contraband that i did the sound for last night that has a really cool idea and its really amazing to watch. the idea is that there are two guys that sit and play the old nintendo game contra from start to finish (projected up onto a screen for everyone to see) while the band plays the soundtrack to the game. they had the crowd hollering along and rooting for them to win. the show lasted about 20 minutes which is a pretty impressive time to beat the game. the guys playing obviously had every detail of the game memorized. the show was funny yet really gripping for whatever reason. if they ever play a show near you i would strongly recommend you check them out! here are some photos...

well, for whatever reason i saw these new ipods and i could not resist forking over another four hundred dollars to apple. i had been wanting a newer generation ipod for a while now because of the newer features added to them. when the 5g ipod was released i knew that somewhere in the back of my mind i was going to end up getting one.

not only can it import photos from my camera and allow me to keep photos on the ipod and show them on a tv as a slideshow... it can also record cd quality stereo sound (as soon as somebody releases a pre-amp for the thing...) playback video, help organize my life, wash my dishes, scratch my back, do tricks for dog treats, and on top of all that play music? who wouldnt want one of these things? ok, so maybe im making things up here to make it seem like its more than it is but it is really really nice and it is the best ipod ever.



most of the reviews you will read you will read about this will zero in on video playback and understandably so. people have been totally obsessed with this getting added to ipods since what seems like the beginning of time. the reviews i have read all treat it like its a portable video player now instead of an mp3 player which is backwards. apple just added video in the mix as a simple progression of the ipod the same way that they added photo support. its a perk not a feature to base a whole review around. anyways, what do i think of the new ipod?



i think i said this already but this thing is the best ipod yet. as you hold it in your hand or see a photo of it it looks so much bigger than the older full size ipods but it is actually smaller than they are. the bigger screen on the player makes it seem bigger. speaking of the screen, it is really amazing. it has an incredible resolution and allows the viewing angle on it to be very very wide without looking all crazy and negative-like. the battery life seems to be pretty strong for music playback and performs as promised. video playback does eat up the battery a good bit more but that is to be expected.

i have yet to try and hook it up to a tv but i am exited to give it a try. it sounds like a really handy function. i also am looking forward to utilizing the ability to import photos onto the ipod. i have tried it a couple of times and it is pretty slow and it eats up the battery for whatever reason. im not sure what thats all about but its still handy all the same.



a couple of subtle differences have shown their face as i have played with it. the click from the click wheel now plays through the headphones when it is turned on but in a distant un-intrusive way. the older ipods could do this but in a much more annoying way. also the browsing structure has changed slightly and when you only have one album by an artist loaded on the ipod you find that it skips right into the songs on that album rather than showing the album name then the track names. there are also a couple of other new little things that i dont feel the need to mention here. just check out apples site for any other details.

so i hope that this gave you an idea of what i think about the new ipod. any of you with older ipods as i did might want to take a closer look into this new player because the new features that are there seem very worth it to me.

boing boing never seems to stop amazing me with the amount of strange yet interesting links to things around the internet. this time around i thought i would share this amazing page with you that features the top 100 toys of the 70s and 80s! it is very cool and has a lot of various toys that i remember from when i was a kid!

check it out here

to funny not to post. i have known of this for a while but for what ever reason i never posted it. ever get tired of junk mail? here is an interesting way to get some payback...

link

this is an amazing compilation from warp records that marked the 100th release by the label which has come and gone for a while now. i wanted to mention it here before but i thought that it had gone out of print so i hesitated to do so. well i recently came across it on itunes and thought i would mention it now that it is easy for you guys to check it out.

the album is really amazing all the way through and it is a great reminder of how great warp records was in what i consider to be its best years as a label. the comp features all exclusive tracks by many of the labels classic artists. you can not get any better than this. autechre is still in its ep7/lp5 aesthetic, plaid was still fun and not so drowned in cheesy reverb, and there is an aphex/squarepusher track that is amazing!

head over to itunes and check it out! heres a link:

so im sure that most of you have heard of the iTunes music store and are familiar with the pay per song / album structure of the store. i for one love this model because i can just get what i want to get and i get to keep the music indefinitely. there are other online music stores that offer a subscription model and that might be nice for someone who does not really care about music all to much and does not mind not actually owning any of the music. i for one have a huge problem with that and prefer having the ability to burn anything i want to burn and whatnot.

this said i am not really fond of any sort of drm (digital rights management) at all and would prefer to just buy the music and own it without any restrictions at all but i know thats not going to happen any time soon.

to get to the point here i wanted to write about an online music store that is not as widely known but i think it pretty amazing overall. its called emusic.

i have been using emusic for years now. it was one of the first online retailers for mp3s and they focus in on all of the indie labels out there so dont expect to find any big label pop music on there. you can find some really amazing stuff if you dig around though!

so i am going to contradict myself here and say that emusic is a subscription based service and this was no problem to me back when you could pay 15 dollars for unlimited downloads from the site. a larger company came in and reorganized a bit and now 15 dollars a month will only get you 65 songs but do the math, thats still a good deal! the downloads are in variable bit rate mp3 format and they sound really good for being mp3s.

so at any rate head over and check it out! if you decide to try it let me know and ill send you an invite which could lead to me getting a kickback. consider it a donation to twistedsun.net! you will get a month free which means you can grab a couple albums of music for free just to try it out so check it out!

heres a link.

there are two new desktops in the desktops section. i have 7 more desktops from the corn maze on the way which i think is a nice way to get into the upcoming fall weather here in north carolina. there are also a couple of desktops i will be posting of some fireworks which are pretty cool looking. i will be posting these 2 or three at a time over the rest of the week so check back for more soon!

UPDATE: two more desktops have been added, check back soon for more!

so im finally ready to get some updates here on the site and i will start with a few photos from this past weekend while i went out to a corn maze / pumpkin patch with val and my dad. i had a ton of corny puns ready for this post but i have lost track of them all..


home made ice cream to start things off




following our navigator val


there was a couple of bridges so you could see over the field


sunhead!


and down the sun went


and out came the moon


i had no pumpkin...


so i ran off to get one...



ps - lots of new desktops lined up so look out!!

check this out! its sort of a how to on making a secret door that uses a book pull to open the door. heres a link.

so ive had my nano for a few weeks now and i love is just as much as i did when i got the thing. i have scratched it up a good bit but i dont mind scratches, just so i can see the screen well enough. ive been getting really used to the size of the ipod and its ability to slip into some sort of black hole in my pocket. black hole because it seems as though its not even there when i carry it around. i would highly recommend this player to anyone who wants music on the go. it is the best portable music solution i have seen to date for those of you who just want something small that wont ever get in the way.

from what i understand the 2 gig versions are having a rough time and understandably so. the 4 gig needs to be the 200 dollar model and the 2 should either not exist, or simply be cheeper. the shuffle would sell like hot cakes at 50-75 bucks a shot and im sure they could afford it. then the shuffle would really become a in pulse buy.

i bought some letter stickers to decorate my powerbook and found that the 'o' fits right over the enter button on my nano which is kind of fun and gives my finger a guide so i dont accedentally hit a button or jack the volume up accedentally. its kind of nice really, heres a photo.



oh and check out this slick wooden case for the nano, pretty tempting if you ask me.

thats all for now. im off to work!

there has been a new review posted in the reviews page in the music section. its a great album this week so head over and check it out! the podcast will be here a little late this week but will be here before the weekend is gone so stay tuned for that! more soon! i promise! -john

This week I have the pleasure of reviewing a cd by an unsigned musician who, a few weeks back, contacted me about the possibility of reviewing a cd that he had recorded independently here on twistedsun.net. His name is Alex Farran and the album he is releasing is called Amphetamine Kisses To The Night. After hearing a few streaming tracks he had online I as very excited to get a copy of the cd to review. Well a few weeks passed and there was a mishap with the mail service somewhere or another and I didn't get the cd as soon as I had hoped but thanks to my .mac account he simply uploaded the songs for me to hear and I am even more excited to review it now that I have heard the whole album!

From what I know talking with him he is currently living in Nottingham, England and he recorded this whole album in his home studio there in the UK. This is pretty impressive considering how lush the album sounds. He has been playing music since he was 5 years old and it shows! Its hard to believe that this young musician(just 20 years old!) releasing his first solo work to the world has created such a well crafted album! His influences span far and wide and include the likes of Elliott Smith, Sigur-Ros, Aphex Twin, Bjork, Tom Waits, Smog!, Four-tet, and others. The diversity of his influences really shine through as you listen to the album. Being a huge Elliott Smith fan myself I could immediately see a connection there which I am not pointing out as a bad thing. He shows his roots in a way that is very subtle and pulls little bits from all of his various influences. The melodic mastery of Elliott, the dense well produced atmospheres of Sigur-Ros and Aphex twin, and a bit of the edgy semi low-fi drum production of four-tet. He does all of this but also carries his own weight as a unique voice among these types of influences.

The album spirals around your ears as you listen to the music. Its kind of a surreal dreamy sounding album with layers upon layers of rich content that never conflict with each other. All in all its a very detailed approach that seems to flow naturally out of his mind and into the music.

Although the album is wonderful all the way through there are a couple of songs that stand out in my mind as highlights. The first track called "Misery Loves Company" Is a beautiful acoustic song with subtle hints of vinyl static and the dreamy atmosphere that sits behind the music and gives it its thick feel. I am a firm believer in having a great song to open an album and this is a wonderful pick because it's not to much all at once but its also not to quiet either. The next track called "Voyeur" starts to show off some of his ability to layer tracks of audio to a point that makes it rich and thick but not to overbearing. The interlocking melodies work very well here. "Defining Anomalies" is just an all around killer track that I find new favorite moments within it each time I hear it. "Paint me a Parachute" is another wonderful acoustic track that lets his subtle singing and song writing shine through... The further I dig into this album the more I realize how much I really like it! Now that I am sitting down and reviewing it as a whole I am having trouble pointing out favorites because each song brings something different to the table. For instance "Immolation Blues" is a wonderful indie pop waltz and "Everything Sounds the Same" is probably my favorite track on here. I remember listening to that song for the first time and getting totally lost in the song and the words and when it ended I was sitting there in silence for a while before I realized that it had ended. I then hit play again to experience that again... and again. The album continues on and leaves me impressed as each song comes to an end and the next one rolls along behind it.

I really cant recommend this highly enough. The more I hear it the more I want to hear it again. Its been a good while since I have come across an album that takes me as many different places as this one. Im getting distracted listening to the album as I write this because it kind of draws you in. I know that this all just seems like a bunch of biased praise and I must be nuts or something to enjoy a record so much but this is what I love about music. This is what I love about a good solid record. The ability to put it on and get lost in each track without getting bred or having to skip songs to pass over filler tracks. Its albums like this that remind me why I am such a music addict. So, that said, I am going to draw this to a close and sit back to listen a bit more...

If you are interested in getting a copy of the album you can email him at Smogfalls (at) aol.com. He is in talks at the moment to get the album released properly on a record label so look out for that and I'm sure that after all of this praise that some of you are curious to hear some of the music and you can by heading over to this site to hear some streaming files.

p.s - ha, my dad keeps asking me what I am listening to... seems as though we have another fan on our hands... also, check out this weeks podcast when i post it for audio clips from the album as well as the spoken version of this review. That will most likely be landing sometime this weekend...

This song is one of the most beautiful ambient songs ever written. You would be hard pressed to see electronic music feel this emotional. Some of you may recognize this song from the movie 28 Days Later. The album that it was originally taken from is not really not his strongest ambient album. There is a couple other really amazing tracks on there but this song is simply amazing. You have to hear it to believe it. Trust me and check it out!

iTunes link:

so i grabbed a couple videos from the itunes music(video) store to see what all the fuss is about and it was pretty cool all in all. i can see the idea of being able to buy tv shows a wonderful and amazing approach to selling video online. i would love to be able to download my favorite episodes of shows because i dont really watch to much tv and the couple shows that i would give the time of day would be nice to access like this.

the only issue that could arise from this is the quality of the video. as many of you may have heard the resolution is intended to look really good on the new ipod. not playing full screen on 20 inch computer monitor. i will admit that although the video is a bit grainy/ blocky, especially in the darker areas of the video. but i think that these are not intended to be high resolution video downloads now are they? if i want a fancy copy of a tv show ill look for the dvd version. i really like the ability to have video media on my computer without having to carry around a bunch of dvds. i have a few dvds that i have converted into a quicktime format so i can watch them on the go. its pretty nice really. sometimes its nice to watch something in pristine quality and that has its time and place but on the go and being out and about its not really as much of a priority.

so i would recommend you head over and check it out. its worth a couple bucks for some of the pixar shorts and your favorite music videos. i cant wait to see how the tv side pans out. hopefully other networks will follow suit. personally im pulling for fox so i can get arrested development and family guy and simpsons, nbc for the new office which is growing on me, and cartoon network for adult swim. it certainly has a lot of potential but its too early in the game to make any accurate judgement on how well its all going to work out in the end. only time will tell.

i remember playing with this app a while ago but the tech demo ran out and it stopped running. i checked the site again recently and there was a new version available. not a final release but it is free and it is amazing and worth a look. it is essentially a way to look through your itunes content like you are browsing through records. i would love to see this built into itunes like a plug in of some sort. it will only be fun to play with if you have a good amount of your albums with cover art. as you flip through the album covers the animation is so fluid and amazing. you have to see it to believe it.

it is mac osx only and you can download it here.

well i think i need to start a new support group somehow. im going to call it AAA which stands for:

Apple Addicts Anonymous

what do you think? are there enough people out there with the same issues with this life altering disease? im thinking there must be. i couldnt be the only person out there sitting there franticly clicking the refresh button on my web browser for any scrap of news i could possibly get on the new apple announcements today. sure is fun though. its like a good suspense movie. there are a lot of strategic clues, many of which are there just to get you thinking in the wrong direction, and your mind races ahead of itself to try and figure out what will come next. you remember fuzzy undercover photos of mystery products, mysterious rumors crawling about, contradicting one another yet all hoping to be that golden ticket so they could be the ones that stand proudly after the dust settles and say, ha! i told you so!

then there is that moment when you nearly black out with anticipation as the new apple news is unveiled to the world and you get to take that big breath and stare and stare and drool (just a little, you know, in secret) and up creeps that smile and that satisfaction that you are looking at something that is just sooooo cool. then after you soak up the news you can start clicking away and finding out all the little details and really begin to form a decent opinion on the exciting new great thing there before you.

ok so thats all nice and dramatic but come on, im not alone here am i? is it not fun? you have to respect apple for being so brilliant with there delivery. there is just not another major company out there that is as slick with there approach to marketing their product. me being a graphic designer myself i can not help but look on with amazement as they manipulate the entire world with there beautiful products and there amazing approach to their marketing.

i should also mention here that i do get pretty aggravated by apple when i find out about a lot of their policies but i wont get into that here, i think ive gone on long enough.


(the new ipodgiant! this it to scale!!! kidding)

right. so here is, what all of the fuss was about around apple the past week or so. new ipods with video playback(!) new imacs with a built in camera(!) and some sort of new remote control for the imac that i havent read to much about yet. all in all it sounds like they have built quite solid updates for the ipod and imac. head over to apple.com for details.

i have been using an app called felt tip sound studio for a couple of years now as a basic audio editor and of all of the other basic audio recording/editing software i have come across this has been by far the most stable piece of software available that i have used. i record hours of audio at a time when i record live music at shows with my powerbook and this program handles this task without hesitation. hell, i will be running abelton live and reason at the same time during live shows that i play with a friend of mine (a drop in silence) and i will have sound studio set up and recording our live set while im performing live using this high end software and it still performs flawlessly.

so i mention this because today the newest version of this app has been released (finally!) and i was somewhat surprised to see that freeverse software is the distributor with this release. i was equally surprised to see that this new version costs $80! it may be stable and a nice bit of solid software but ouch. i cant seem to find a demo version to try out either so it looks like i have a bit of a decision to make with this purchase. i think there is a discount for upgrading, ill have to see.

so anyone out there in the need of a really solid piece of software to record and edit audio then look no further than sound studio. heres a link.

oh, and whats with that terrible logo??

In the mood to relax, meditate, and reflect on something? Well let me introduce to you an amazing ambient record by Tim Hecker. Some of his other work is heavily laced with a noisy side but this album is really very simple yet detailed in a lot of ways. Its wonderful production leaves your eyes getting heavier and heavier as the music plays on. I will recommend some more ambient over the next few days, its always a great way to unwind. Till then have a look at this great release.

Itunes link:

i have a couple of things planned for this space here in the next few days. i will be reviewing my new bag which is very cool and a game which i posted a teaser image for a week or so ago. the reason i have put these things off is because i can not find the memory card for my camera.. it will turn up soon im sure. anyways, im just posting this to let you know whats coming up next here in the blog. i will be posting a new podcast thursday night / friday morning for those of you who may be interested as well as a new music review. anyways, thats all for now. talk to you soon.

there are 4 amazing new desktops brought to you courtesy of my younger brother over in the friends section within the desktops area of this site. he is a college student over at the memphis school of art which seems to be a pretty cozy school. at any rate, head over and check them out! here is a little sample...

hey there anyone that has followed this site knows that ive been using a wonderful web development app that is called rapidweaver. i thought i would post and mention that it has a new public beta out of a new version and it is very very very nice. this program just gets better and better and better so head over and check it out!!

link

it all started with my first ipod. ill admit it was a little bulky but it did fit in my pocket. i found out just how nice it was to have a device like this on the go, ready to pull out at any moment to pass some time, share some music, or to show it off to friends. (something owners of some sort of fun new gadget might not normally admit) this started what could be a never ending war for pocket real estate. one that is fought every morning when i decide which gadgets will get the luxury of spending the day hanging out in my pocket.

the most recent addition to the pocket family is my new gameboy micro. a very very nice little gadget that is nice for passing a few minutes here and there. as i mentioned a post or two back i do love a good game here and there. the game boy is, to me, the last platform that is still surviving that houses some really great traditional style games that are just so fun. it also lends to some nice newer style games as well. in other words, nothing to fancy. just good gaming fun. the micro itself is a very cool toy, and unlike many reviews i have seen, is built pretty solidly. the psp is to bulky to be truly portable (pocket size) and its cute and all with its multimedia functions but it just does not seem worth 250 dollars to me. this and these new generation games are just sooooo expensive. but anyways, didnt post to write about that.

it just seems so interesting how there are all of these various gadgets being released that are all fighting to take that place in your pocket. things such as the ipod shuffle and palms with belt packs and the such seem to try and give a way to carry your toys without having to clutter up that space. so lets get down to it, what does john of twistedsun.net have in his pockets right now? well in the left front pocket ive got my nano (its just soooo tiny!) and my new micro which feels good in my pocket. i easily forget i have anything in that pocket! in my right pocket i have a little leatherman pocket knife/ pliers (the mini kind), an extra game or two, loose change and some headphones. i have a slim little wallet in my back pocket and thats it! my cell phone kind of floats around where i am and sometimes gets thrown in my back pocket or just on a desk wherever i might be which has lead to it getting lost here and there but its nothing fancy so im not to controlling of it.

so now ive shared, lets hear what you readers have tucked away in your pockets, the comments must be good for something right?

ill post a photo here tomorrow if i remember to with my little collection of stuff.

i realized that i havent really talked about movies here on my weblog so i thought i would mention a couple that im looking forward to....

• im not usually one for war movies, in fact ive only seen one that i really thought was any good which was full metal jacket. i am however looking forward to this one movie called jarhead. it just looks damn good. check out the trailer here to see what i mean.

• i just saw the movie proof last night and i would recommend anyone that its playing near go check it out. i saw the play that this movie was based on and loved it so i was very excited to see that there was a movie being made based on the play. the movie version was surprisingly accurate and all but perhaps 5 minutes of the film seemed to be right on the same as the play which is a good thing seeing that the play is so well written to begin with. i think it won some sort of big award in the world of theatre but i cant remember what its called. at any rate, go check this out, trust me its really good! check out the trailer here.

• and there is one more that ill mention here that i have been curious about for a while now called 2046. i think its a chinese film and the mood of it reminds me of bladerunner. well from the trailer anyways. check it out here.

since when are video games so bad ass? at what point they they stop being original and fun and start focusing on these boring concepts? i just dont get it. i was in a game store today to grab a new gameboy micro and i overheard a guy talking to his girlfriend about this game being for little kids or that game being for _____ies. so what is the deal? these new games are sooo easy! im not seeing much skill in running around stealing cars and shooting people. i could see the entertainment value of this for oh 5 minutes or so but where is the challenge? its funny to me that video games used to be for dorks, nerds and other such non threatening forms of the human species. it has slowly transformed into this industry full of people looking for nothing more than to blow stuff up, kill things, and well, kill things. its really dumbed down a good bit in a way.

this is why i dont like these new systems as much, especially the x-box. there just is not that wide of a range of games available for it. it seems like the idea of being a harcore gamer has transformed from one who is really into games and playes them all the time to one who is into these bad ass killing games. i dunno. maybe im just looking at it from the wrong point of view. this is the whole reason i like nintendo so much. there games are actually pretty fun. i am really getting into these games that are made for multiple players at once. i am really excited about the new revolution console that nintendo is putting out. i cant wait to mess around with the new motion sensitive controller they are using with it!

so anyway just thought i would comment on the state of gaming today. i just hope that the xbox/ rockstar overlords dont end up destroying gaming as i once knew it...

I reviewed this on my podcast but it wasn't much of a review in the end because I was in a weird mood. It's kind of funny really so if you want to hear a little bit of the music and a kind of sort of review check out the podcast. It was recorded with this amazing new mic that I have access to which is exiting. So anyways, heres a link so you can get the album and enjoy it for yourself. It's an amazing simple acoustic folkish album not unlike the last review here. Sooooo, right, heres that link:

so i have recently bought a pair of 'in ear' earbud style headphones just so see what all this talk is about and see if they really are any better than a traditional earbud headphone that sits in your ear. i have avoided this for a good while simply because i have a fear of cramming things into my ears. its been around since i was a wee little version of myself playing around with some drum sticks and my ear and i poked one in there to deep and ouch! freaked me out and ever since, anything involving the inner ear has been avoided weather that be q-tips or earplugs, nothing gets to deep in there without a bit of a squirm and some goose bumps.

the reason i picked some up was simply because i got a great deal on a pair of some of the nicer ones available on the market, a pair of shure E3's. the first thing that made me wonder if i had made a wise decision in this purchase was when i came across this odd little plastic stick with a hook on one end that i soon found out was a device to clean the earwax out of the headphones... yeah, it's pretty weird and so far, luckily, i have not had to whip this little tool out. the headphones also came with a little collection of various plastic covers / earplug attachments for the headphones. there are three different styles of these. little grey ones that are the most flexible and my personal favorites, little clear plastic ones that are not nearly as soft, and some foamish ones that are like earplugs that you roll between your fingers to squish so it will fit into your ear then expand to form a seal. i would use the foam ones if they were softer but the material is rough and uncomfortable. all but the foam ones come in various sizes for different ears but i could not imagine anyone with ears big enough to stick the bigger ones into.

the idea behind these in ear headphones is that the headphones (i don't like t he word earbuds so ill call them headphones) form a nice seal around your inner ear which blocks out outside noise and allows for you to listen at a lower level but still hear the sound ok. well i have discovered that to do this you really need to cram these things down in your ear by holding back your ear lobe and opening up your ear canal so you can cram these things down there nice and deep. this way when you let them settle the plastic covers that i mentioned will form a nice tight seal around your ear and keep sound from getting in. this is what i just can not get used to. it feels like my ears cant breath at all which is weird to me. the seal is nice and tight when you get them in your ear right. i find that my poor ears are kind of sore after the whole process.

so all that unpleasantness out of the way i can admit that they do sound pretty damn good once you get them in there nice and tight. these headphones really do knock out a good bit of the outside noise. the best way to look at them is like you are sticking earplugs in your ears only there is a little tunnel in the middle of the earplugs that lets sound from the headphones sneak through. these things have a great clear sound that, when compared directly, cover more of a range than other traditional style earbud style headphones. the only thing that you might say is lacking is the low end. this is true and it isnt true. if you get the headphones in your ear right then there is plenty of low end to go around. its not going to shake your brain like a pair of bose tri-ports but it does come through and the nice part about the low end on these headphones is that it does not suck up all of the output in the speakers like some headphones do. it allows for the bass to carry out along side the clarity of the tiny tiny little speakers in the headphones.

so all in all i couldnt really recommend you get these headphones. they are good for certain things and moments in life when you want to block out the sound from the outside world without having to wear big earmuff style headphones. i know there are tons of these inner ear headphones out there on the market that can cost anywhere from 40 bucks to 500 or more and im sure there are better ones out there than these but its just the whole inner ear experience that i cant quite get used to. maybe over time my ears will stretch out and allow for these things to feel better in my ear but for now id have to wave a caution flag in the direction of anyone looking to dive into these deep ear diving style of headphones.

there is this amazing illustrator in my town and his name is david lanham and im sure that some of you in the mac community may be familiar with his work from the iconfactory. i have a link to his site in the links section but i just checked out his site for the first time in a while and i was once again amazed by his work. there is a couple of new illustrations of his that he has posted in his freshly renovated website that i would suggest you go check out. his work is just soooooo creative and imaginatlive. he is one of my favorite illustrators by far and has a style unlike any other which is very rare in today's world of trendy art and design. so head over and check out his newest offerings - i guarantee you will like what you see!

link

i came across this really amazing t-shirt site called threadless. if you want to achieve an instant hipster look then look no further than this site. they have some very cool shirts designed by all sorts of different designers. from what i gather anyone can enter a design submission and then they get voted on my visitors of the site. the most popular shirts get printed and sold in small quantities. while i was out on tour i met a few people with shirts that i thought were very neat looking and turns out they were all from this site! happy shopping!

heres a bit of a link to check it out.

Damn what a great song. It's a classic early 90's track that I came across via the soundtrack for Lost In Translation. I just can not get over how this song crawls under my skin. There is something about it's slow melodic noisy presence. I am not really all that knowledgeable when it comes to early 90's rock music but I know what I like and this song just feels like one of those songs that stands out from the rest in my mind. It would make a wonderful addition to any mix so check it out:

i am eagerly awaiting october twelfth because apple is all set to have one of there little out of the blue press events and who knows what kind of new toys we will see. i for one can not wait to see what they have up their sleeve. will it be this elusive video ipod?? i would say maybe but if that were true than this image most likely would not be still allowed to be floating around the internet seeing as apples lawyers are known for being pretty tight about leaks. any ideas on what might be next??

i came across this amazing site that appears to be a loose collective of designers that release various work on this site as part of an online magazine of a sort. i honestly dont really kow to much about the site other than that they have some really amazing work hiding on it. im not sure how often it gets updated even. you can dig through the back issues of the site to see a wide variety of amazing design work. check it out for yourself over at www.k10k.net have fun digging through the site, there is plenty to see and get lost in...

Ah, back to favorites here after a few days break. I have got one of my all time favorite songs for you today. It is a song by the amazing indie rock group Viva Voce from their album Heat Can Melt Your Brain. The song I am featuring here from this album is called 'High High's" and it is a wonderful hip hop tinged track that i can not hear enough times. Its just sooooo smooth and well worth a look. It must be heard to be believed so if you have iTunes loaded up then click the link below to check it out.

there have been a ton of new desktops added, well 9 new ones at least that i shot while i was out of town. i love my job(s). because i spent my time getting these new desktops all ready and set up i have not really updated this weblog to much yet but ill be back in the swing of things tomorrow so fire up that browser again and click on that twistedsun.net link in your bookmarks bar to see whats new here on the weblog! life is throwing me in all sorts of directions right now and im looking forward to the future which is good for you readers because you get to read all about it. well the interesting bits that i come across in the world that is. so until tomorrow, enjoy the new desktops and ill talk to you then!

in a window in fort.... i forget the name...

im back home and i am preparing a few new things to add to the site so check back tuesday at some point and i will start posting some new stuff!!

i will be away from easy access to the internet for a couple of days here because i am away on work (my other work, sound guy engineer person man) at the moment. i just thought i would post this to let readers know whats up. i will most likely not get a chance to post any meaningful update until monday but i should have a good amount of new stuff to add at that point. sorry for the lack of updates here, ill see you again soon! until then, here are a couple of photos from my job tonight which will be the same for the next couple of days...