I just moved house twice during the past few days. I'm sharing a place near to the city centre with some friends for the coming university year and I moved there last Sunday. Then my family also moved house the day after.
Whilst I'm staying at my place near the town centre from now on, today I came over to my family's new house. It's the first time I've seen it with painted walls and with stuff in. I do have a room here and it's been decorated in the style of a NES, so I'll definitely have to get pictures of that up sometime soon.
I liked my last house, especially my bedroom, but I also like my two new houses. While I've only been moved out for a week, it feels really good just to be doing things for myself a bit more.
If someone was to ask me who my favourite band was I'd probably say MxPx. I got into them a few years ago after hearing from a few sources that they were worth checking out. I took a risk and without listening to any of their music bought their newly released 10 year anniversary compilation Ten Years and Running. It was definitely worth it though, as I've probably listened to that CD more than any other in my collection.
Since then I've bought everything the band have put out, but like most MxPx fans I actually prefer their earlier stuff, and it was only recently that I decided to get their supposed best album, 1996's Life In General. I'd heard most of the tracks on LIG elsewhere or had them on Ten Years and Running, but I really should have bought this album earlier, 'cos it's amazing.
First off, the production is spot on. Everything sounds so simple and clean, which is how I tend to like my music, and it compliments the material extremely well. Second, the album art is great; cartoony and colourful, setting the tone for the lyrics and the whole "high school punk rock" feel of the album. And, most importantly, the songs are astoundingly excellent. I really like the vocal harmonies in Destroyed By You and the chorus chord progression in Your Problem, My Emergency is one of the best I've ever heard.
LIG epitomises why I like the band. The lyrics are emotional, balanced and humorous and not over-worked or crammed full of metaphors. Everything is so melodic - I love the arpeggio-style bass, and the drumming is insanely fast and energising. Like a lot of MxPx albums it treads the line between pop punk and straight up punk, most of the time siding with pop punk - that's another reason I like MxPx, they're nearly punk rock, but without all the pretentiousness.
Apart from the occasional slow section the album hurtles along at breakneck speed for 45 minutes and I can't really stress enough how great LIG is. So MxPx's recently released Secret Weapon had a lot to live up for me. I picked SW up, mostly out of obligation, but I actually can't stop listening to that either. The opener is the title track, and it's an really energetic, simple 2 minute blast of punk rock. The video is pretty good too, at least compared to the band's recent efforts - the videos for songs from their last album Panic were some of the worst I've ever seen.
The next two tracks on SW are really decent too, before things slow right down with Top Of The Charts. Apparently a B-side from Panic, this track is generic and whiney - I don't like it. Next up though is Punk Rock Celebrity which seems to borrow a verse from Secret Weapon before, launching into attack against an unnamed punk rock celebrity. Probably Fall Out Boy, as the end of the song turns into this elaborate crescendo with piano and horns, much in the style of FOB. If that's the case I think it's rather clever.
Things move on at a fairly fast pace. I really like Angels and then Drowning for it's sheer speed. Chop Shop is a really unique song too, written about a murder which happened in MxPx's home town. The song sounds a lot like a soundtrack from a crime movie or something.
The album stays interesting but loses a bit of steam towards the end, maybe a couple of tracks could have been cut to help the album flow a bit better, but you can't really complain about getting too much music on an album. The penultimate track Not Nothing is great, with a rather catchy chant of "goosfraba" towards the end and the last track Tightly Wound is good too.
Unlike an album like LIG, SW is very varied. The album isn't over-produced, but there is quite a lot going on. The album art is pretty cool if a little gimmicky - a play on the phrase Secret Weapon, with the band in a workshop, working on a "secret weapon".
I remember being really hooked on their last album Panic at first though, and I grew tired of it eventually. I have a feeling the same might happen with SW. I hope not. This album feels for the first time in a while like it suits MxPx; like they felt comfortable making this.
So if you're into pop punk I can recommend both Life In General and Secret Weapon, although if you're prioritising definitely grab LIG first.
I just went to see Transformers this evening. I really liked the film, more than I expected to. It looked great, and I enjoyed learning about the whole Transformers storyline. I'm not sure whether the film stayed true to the TV series and comics - I don't know all that much about Transformers as I wasn't quite old enough to catch the first wave over 20 years ago.
The Transformers as characters are cool. I liked their 80s cartoon-style morals, and they transferred well to the big screen. I didn't follow the movie all the way through, especially the plot line reason for the giant battle towards the end. I did find Shia LeBoeuf entertaining though. I really like Even Stevens and Holes, both of which he starred in. I guess there'll be a sequel, judging by the current state of the film industry and a short clip during the end credits.
Transformers is yet another example of something rather geeky and/or childish hitting the mainstream. I don't quite know what to think about this development we're experiencing; seeing comic books become blockbuster movies and sci-fi all over mainstream TV. It's kinda cool, as it's now semi-OK to be a geek, but by the same logic it's not as radical. I think one of the reasons for the trend is that people who liked comic books, action toys, video games etc. 20 or so years ago as kids are now coming towards the age where they want to relive that, so they're the people making films or whatever, and going to watch them.
A few other new films I want to see this summer are Knocked Up, The Simpsons Movie and Superbad.
My friend came to stay over for a few days recently and brought his GameCube for us to play on. We played Super Smash Bros. Melee, F-Zero GX and Mario Kart: Double Dash mainly, but I was reminded of how many awesome GameCube games there are.
I had an old memory card with a Super Smash Bros. Melee save which I've kept since me and my brother got rid of our GameCube. I had a go at finally getting the last 3 trophies I need on the game, but I didn't manage to complete my collection before my friend had to leave. I really want a Wii now so I can play some of the great games from the 'Cube. I think I'll trade in my DS Lite somewhere in town, as I hardly ever play on it anymore, but I don't quite have enough cash yet to afford a Wii.
The other main reason I want a Wii is so I can play Super Smash Bros. Brawl when it's released. I've been keeping an eye on the website, and some of the most interesting updates include a new deeper one player mode and three awesome looking new stages: Lylat Cruise, Skyworld and Smashville, an Animal Crossing themed stage with real-time night and day as well as performances from K. K. Slider at 8PM on a Saturday!
I've been using Linux for a couple of weeks now and I must say I'm quite impressed. Getting functionality out of Ubuntu has been fairly easy for the most part. Usually if there's a problem Ubuntu will fix it itself, or there's often a solution online. Whilst the interface isn't quite as crisp as I'm used to in Windows and it's sometimes hard work dealing with terminal commands when you're not used to them, I'd really like to switch to solely using Ubuntu. You just don't get that sense of hopeless frustation you do with Windows; it feels like the OS is on your side. There are just a couple of small problems or vital issues though which mean I still tend to use Windows more. Hopefully I'll get there one day.
A program I'd heard about but hadn't had the chance to use before I'd installed Linux was Rezound. It's an audio editor, much like Audacity, which I'm used to. I don't know how to work the program properly yet, but there seems to be some features which Audacity doesn't have, and I might end up using it for all my audio work. It really baffles me that people create such great programs for free, all in the name of Open Source.
