October Music Wrap-Up/Alex's Halloween Playlist

The Music Wrap-Up is a monthly summary of our favorite and other notable new releases. Please support these musicians as that's the reason we're featuring them in the first place.

The Playlist is a collection of music our favorite music. Not new, maybe not notable, but great music that we love and want to share.

This new way of doing the Music Wrap-Up doesn't seem to be working out. I couldn't find a majority of the music that I wanted to feature available on YouTube. Luckily though, it's Halloween, and I've decided to also kick off the weekly Playlist idea I've been kicking around. What better time to start then with a Halloween themed version? Enjoy!

The October Wrap-Up

The Albums (in order of appearance)

Weezer - Raditude - I've really only ever gotten into Pinkerton and The Blue Album. After that I've only passively paid attention to Weezer releases. Having only listened to a few of the songs from Raditude on YouTube, it seems pretty good.

Wolfmother - Cosmic Egg - I also haven't really gotten into Wolfmother, but I know Dan really liked them at one point.

Jello Biafra & The Guantanamo School of Medicine - The Audacity of Hype - The best post-Dead Kennedys project Jello has ever been involved with is Lard. I've listened to every single band he has put together. Collaborations with Melvins, DOA, Mojo Nixon, Nomeansno, and on and on... all pretty "meh" worthy. This one seems pretty good though. I'll have to pick up the cd and cross my fingers.

Jesu - Opiate Sun - Jesu is one of those bands I like to listen to in the middle of the night when nobody else is awake. They really convey a completely different atmosphere.

Not Featured

Dark Meat - Truce Opium

Bell Orchestre - Who Designs Nature's How

88 Fingers Louie - Lives

Gogol Bordello - Live from Axis Mundi

The Snake The Cross The Crown - On a Carousel of Sound We Go Round

The Halloween Playlist

Here are some of my favorite slightly Halloween themed songs. Some of them aren't Halloween themed at all, but they are dark or spooky sounding enough that I counted them. And yeah, All Saints Day is technically the day AFTER Halloween, but I stuck that song in there anyway.

Trailer Park: October 30th

Trailer Park is a weekly post, every thursday, where we feature trailers for the upcoming weekend movie releases.

The title of this Michael Jackson movie is very relevant, it just so happens to be the only thing releasing this week. Well alright, technically it's the only thing releasing wide this week, but there are other limited releases. Some of them look like they might be pretty good too.

Michael Jackson's This Is It

I'm pretty sure this is going to crush everything else at the box office this week. That's probably why nobody else is releasing anything alongside it. I'm not sure how limited some of these other releases are, but my guess is VERY limited next week and then expanding in the weeks that This Is It is dropping off.

The Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day

I really liked the first Boondock Saints, but looking back on it I wonder if I still would. I watched it when I was probably 16 or so, which would have been the perfect time for me to cling onto it. Still, this sequel will probably be a great action flick to see in the theaters. And when all summer blockbusters are long gone, this'll be the only one for awhile.

Gentlemen Broncos

I never saw Nacho Libre, but I loved Napoleon Dynamite. And yes, you all probably hate that movie now because you're cool and you lash back against the hype. But answer me this; isn't the backlash against Napoleon Dynamite almost the new trend? *GASP*! Now you need to lash back against the backlash! Quick! Go see Gentlemen Broncos and rave about how it changed your life and was the funniest movie you've ever seen! Just don't go too far or else you'll have to join the backlash against... you know what? I'm just going to end this now.

Other Releases:
The Fall
The House of the Devil
How to Seduce Difficult Women

What will you be seeing?

Putting Scribblenauts to the (Bird) Test

Scribblenauts is an amazing tool for entertainment, while at the same time being the most frustrating thing you have ever laid your hands upon. It's all been written before, so I'll save you all of that. I won't write about how amazing it is to be able to solve a puzzle using a UFO to lift a cow out of the way of traffic, and I won't write about the amount of times I cursed trying to get that to work.

No, instead, I am putting Scribblenauts to the test. You see, I had this idea for an article on the game, where I would hit random letters and see what kind of word I had never heard of came up as a suggestion for what I meant to spell with my jibberish. When doing that, I quickly realized that most words I have never heard of, turned out to be some strange pastry, or some strange bird.

Not knowing any pastry experts, I decided to go to my brother Aaron. He has an environmental science degree, and has been participating in bird related activities the last few years. Counting them, or something, I don't really know. But the point is the man knows his birds, so he should be able to put Scribblenauts to the test.

What were the results?

---

Bird - Crested Caracara

The Scribblenauts system took out the 'Crested' part of the name, but according to Aaron the appearance was accurate. I'm not exactly sure how much, as "Sure, yeah." wasn't very descriptive, but accurate enough I suppose.

---

Bird - Bird of Paradise

I told him to pick something more unique this time. Something that wouldn't have a generic type that Scribblenauts could exploit like caracara. I was informed at that point that Crested Caracara is pretty unique and if there are multiple types that it's only a few *cough* Bird Nerd! *cough*. Still, I was given Bird of Paradise, which sort of made me wary. I kind of expected the game to just remove 'of Paradise' and give us a generic bird. Surprisingly though, it gave us a Bird of Paradise that looked "Sure, yeah" accurate.

---

Bird - Golden Cheeked Warbler

When given this suggestion, I'm pretty sure he still hadn't figured the game out. I knew it was going to give us a generic warbler instead of the specific one that he had stated. Sure enough, generic warbler we got. "The colors are all wrong" was his response. "Well, it just gave us a generic warbler. It took out Golden Cheeked." I could see him starting to get into this little game I had created for him.

---

Bird - American Redstart

Like I said, he was getting into it. An American Redstart is apparently a kind of warbler, but it doesn't have warbler in the name. He was trying to test the game. I'm not sure if he thought the game would still give us a warbler, or if he was hoping it wouldn't have any response, but it was neither of those scenarios. It did indeed have an American Redstart, and the colors and appearance were sufficiently accurate.

---

Blue-Footed Booby

He was really trying at this point to think of unique and obscure birds that Scribblenauts couldn't cheat with. There was no way the game could simplify this name, the ESRB would have gone crazy. It would either have it or not. It had it. Beaten again, we regrouped.

---

Bird - Hoatzin

This was our final chance to beat the game without it just cheating it's way out of answering our questions. He was really thinking. He mentioned something like Quezacotl, which I recognized as that mythical bird from Final Fantasy games. I looked up the correct way to spell it and informed him, but apparently he wasn't looking for the mythical bird. Either way, the game didn't have it, which he wasn't surprised by but for a game that has Cuthulhu, not having Quezacotl is a fail in my book. The bird he apparently was thinking of was a Hoatzin, which the game did have. So I guess I'll count this as we kind of beat the game, but not really.

---

So there you have it. I like to think we won against Scribblenauts in this odd game I've thought up. Sure, it had every single bird that my bird expert could think of, but it cheated several times. And not having Quezacotl is failing in some sort of way, I just can't think of what.

Help Wanted

I am well aware of the fact that nothing has been posted on the site since Friday, and it bothers me. I'd love to be able to provide daily content to you, the reader, but it was hurting my writing.

Truth is, I've been working on several articles that I am really excited about, but I don't want to rush them out there until I know they are as good as they can be. So, in the interest of keeping a regular amount (hopefully daily) of content on the site, I've been hunting for new writers.

You may have noticed one new addition to the contributors list, but we need more. If you are interested in volunteering your writing (i.e. we can't pay you... yet), then please contact us at the email in the right hand column. Provide some writing samples if possible, and I will contact you if we're interested.

I would prefer people that will write about forms of media other then video games, but we'll play it by ear. One day I would love to have a team of people who primarily write about their favorite form of media.

We look forward to hearing from you! Sorry, that was cheesy.

Is NBC Giving Conan the Shaft?

As far as late show hosts go, Conan has always been my favorite. I can't stand Leno, I respect Letterman but he has a peculiar sense of humor I never really got into, and the constantly rotating lineup of Late Late Show hosts never jumped out at me.

So when I heard that Conan was going to be moving on up to The Tonight Show, I was excited. He deserved it, and I would be able to watch him as I hadn't tuned in regularly for quite awhile, having a kid has kept me from staying up that late.

In the last month or so, however, I am becoming steadily more frustrated. Turns out, Leno didn't retire at all. He still hosts almost the exact same show, he just does it at 10 o'clock and without a desk. He has swooped in and stolen all the glory from Conan.

Last night, President Obama was on Letterman. As we watched, I thought about what shows Obama might be a guest on. Certainly, Conan wouldn't be top on his list. The 2 big shows are still Leno and Letterman. Sure, O'Brien has inherited The Tonight Show, but NBC has moved onto the next big thing.

The only ways I would have respected the painfully unfunny Jay Leno for having not actually retired like he had claimed to be, would be if he had gone to another network or done a daytime talk show. Moving up an hour and a half, and getting rid of a piece of furniture is hardly worth the claims of TV history that NBC has claimed it to be.

I beg of everyone who is reading this, DO NOT WATCH JAY LENO! If his show is a success, it may spell doom for all scripted (and more expensive) shows on the 10pm time slot. But more importantly, it will prevent Conan O'Brien, the funniest late night interviewer to have ever graced the television, from ever getting the respect he deserves. Jay Leno is a hack, and he needs to get off the air and let the actual funny people have a chance.

Trailer Park: October 23rd

Trailer Park is a weekly post, every thursday, where we feature trailers for the upcoming weekend movie releases.

Hey uh, nobody... nobody noticed I didn't post one of these last week did they? Good, I didn't think anyone did. Besides, you all knew what movie to go see. At least you thought you did, Where The Wild Things Are got very mixed reviews. Our own Dan didn't know how to express his thoughts on it in writing. But anyway, this week is the gear up for Halloween, which means a new Saw movie. That's awesome, because it's been like 5 minutes since a new one of those.

Saw VI

Oh man! This movie is ripped straight from the headlines! You thought that puppet guy was just a sick murderer, but he has views and ideals. Healthcare decisions should be between the patient and their doctor. Damn right lunatic puppet guy! You should give speeches at political conventions or something.

Astro Boy

It's sort of like Inspector Gadget meets Mega Man then? I don't know, I never knew anything about Astro Boy. Mega Man is awesome though. They should make a Mega Man movie.

Other Releases:
The Vampire's Assistant
Amelia
Antichrist
Motherhood
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
Stan Helsing
(Untitled)

What will you be seeing?

The Demise of Split Screen Multiplayer

I was at a friend's place a little while ago, and decided to take the opportunity to play some of his Playstation 3 as I don't have one. He played a little Fat Princess, and then I did, but it got kind of boring playing online while the other person watched. So I asked if he had a second controller so we could play a game together. He took one out and started digging through the menus.

"Oh, I guess this doesn't have any local multiplayer" he said.

"Ugh, crap. Well, do you have a game that does?" I responded.

"Hmmm, Motorstorm does I think."

This excited me as I always thought that game looked good but hadn't ever played anything but the demo at Best Buy. However, he quickly realized that it also didn't have any local multiplayer. Not having much else to try, we went back to taking turns watching each other play Battlefield 1943 and Fat Princess.

Now, I won't defend everything about the Wii, but it seems to me Nintendo got some things right that Microsoft and Sony have forgotten. I don't own a PS3 or 360, so I couldn't tell you how much I would play online, but I can tell you that I've loved having the Wii for when people come over.

When family comes over for holidays, a friend stops by, or my sister-in-law's transatlantic boyfriend is in town, the Wii gets a lot of play. It makes me wonder how much a PS3 or 360 would get played when people were over, had I owned one.

Being a husband and a father sort of limits my gaming time. Personally, I think I would probably choose to spend that time playing single player games, or local multiplayer when guests are involved. Sure, I can't guarantee that, not having owned a system with adequate online support, but I have a pretty strong hunch it'd work out that way.

Are we slowly losing this element of social gaming interaction? In 10 years, will it be completely impossible to sit down with a group of friends for some game time?

Every time we have a family gathering with my wife's side of the family, I inevitably end up back at her cousin's house. Me, a couple of her cousins, their friends, and her Uncle end up playing Halo, Call of Duty or some other shooter for hours.

I'm terrible at First Person Shooters, but I'm still better then her Uncle and one of the cousins just given that I play games a lot. So it's a lot of fun to get together with everyone and play. When I get a PS3 or 360 though, I doubt that I will ever buy any of the new FPS games. With dwindling local multiplayer support, I'd most likely be left with only online, where I would get completely destroyed.

Obviously online has its benefits, and I would never say we should get rid of it, but I just wish that the industry wouldn't keep forgetting about local multiplayer. When my kids are old enough to play games with me, I want to be able to sit down and have trash talking matches with them. Is it going to come to the point that we will have to have 2 systems to play online while we're sitting right next to each other? I would hope not.

Video Round-Up: Adorable Kitty Cat Edition

Video Round-Up is a bi-monthly post that collects an assortment of videos from around the web. Whether they be music videos, creative viral marketing, just plain cool, or just plain ridiculous, they will all be found on Video Round-Up every 5th and 20th.

I wasn't sure what theme to go with for this edition of the Round-Up, until someone offered me sage advice on Twitter, "Always have a cat in every video round-up". What's better then having just one cat video? Having ALL cat videos! Enjoy this extra cute edition of the Video Round-Up.



Source: Unclear, its been reposted tons of times on YouTube

This should be a day time soap opera. I would quit my job just so I could stay at home and watch this every single day.



This is a trend I want to see continue, kitty IT guys. They won't fix your problems, but they will look adorable while they attempt to.



You may think that it's adorable to teach cats to do human things, but they are simply biding their time until their hostile takeover.



In order to further prove why cats will be the ones to take over the world, I need to disprove the ability of monkeys to do so. Well here you go. Do you really think that this thing is smart enough to rule over humans?

A Rallying Cry for More Ostrich Based Video Games

Stop what you are doing for a second (except for reading this, don't stop that). Turn off your music, and just think. Think really hard. Alright, now think about what would be the coolest animal ever to ride. Thinking?

Yeah, you're right, it probably would be a Rhinoceros. Well alright, the second coolest animal. No, Pterodactyls don't count, it has to be living.

A lion? Yeah, that would be cool. You know what, I'm just going to go ahead and rule out any animal that would kill you if you tried to ride it, so lions, rhinos, bears, and all that are off the table. Now what is it?

It's an ostrich! No... you're wrong. A kangaroo doesn't count, it'd kick you to death... and to be honest it isn't really even feasible. No, the answer is ostrich. The next question is, why if, given those few small criteria, the ostrich is the coolest animal to ride ever, aren't there more video games devoted to riding on them?

Joust was the pinnacle of ostrich based gaming. It dared to give players the most badass gaming experience ever, way back on the Atari 2600. What makes riding an ostrich even cooler? Jousting with other people riding on ostriches. So why since Joust, have ostrich centric games been on a sharp decline?

Fear. That's right, fear. Developers are afraid that if they make the ostrich game they know we all want, that one of two scenarios will play out:

1. Gaming will reach it's apex. All other video games will pale in comparison to the ultimate ostrich game we already received. Developers will try in vain to throw ostriches into any and all situations no matter how inappropriate.

Soldiers will ride ostriches into battle during WWII. Nascar drivers will race against ostriches instead of other cars, and will always lose. All cute and cuddly platformer mascots will be increasingly anthropomorphic ostriches until we get Ostman, a man with an ostrich neck and head.

Soon, gamers will give up playing these terrible cash-ins on the ostrich phenomenon and will go back to the game that started it all. All video games will cease to exist save the one and only true ostrich experience.

Or 2. People's heads explode the second they turn on this perfect ostrich game, due to a sheer amount of awesomeness pumped straight into their eyes.

I don't know about everyone else, but I'm willing to take these risks. Let's stop pussy footing around what we all really want, the one and true ostrich gaming experience. I'm here to be the one to finally say what we all know we want. We need to rise up and demand that game developers cut to the chase and make what all of gaming has been building up to. If we don't, video games will keep treading water, delaying the inevitable.

The Future of Social Networking

Occasionally I get a psychic vision of the future. Rather then keep that revelation to myself, I go the path of Nostradamus and share it with the world. I've shared with you The Future of Television, and now I present to you, The Future of Social Networking. The only thing that I ask in return is for my visions to be collected in a tome, for release upon my death, so that future generations will know my word.

We've watched social networking blossom and grow in the past few years. From the archaic sites of old to Twitter, social network sites have de-evolved more and more over a small amount of time. More and more simple by the day, maybe DEVO should have preached about this.

But what's next? Well, my Nostradamus-like mind can answer that very question for you right now, but let's take a few steps back first. When Myspace was the hot new site, people would get into the code of their pages and customize their profiles with all sorts of annoying crap that no one wanted to look at. Soon that became too much work, so websites sprung up to do it for you.

The Facebook came along and streamlined the whole process... by getting rid of it entirely. And who wanted to bother actually browsing through their friends profiles to see what they wrote or changed? Facebook just notified you whenever someone did anything that somehow involved you.

Now the newest site on the block is Twitter, which has collapsed all of this nonsense down to the simplest possible formula. An avatar and 140 characters is all you need to interact with your friends. Twitter may think they have the most streamlined social networking site that will ever exist, but I see things much differently.

I have seen a vision of the future, and it is called Gruntter. Typing out an actual thought is too much work. In the future, we will use grunts to communicate our thoughts and feelings. No longer will you see this:


acronkyoung I've had a really good day today. I got a new job, and feel great, and found out my wife is pregnant!

Instead, you will see something more like this:

acronkyoung





Personally, I'm looking forward to it. I already respond to most questions with some sort of grunt, so I can't wait until I can parlay this into the online world. And imagine if this idea works its way into blogging as well. Instead of a long winded rant about the latest superhero movie not living up to some nerd's expectations, it could just be the title of the movie and then an audio clip of someone screaming like an angry gorilla for 30 seconds. I don't know about you, but I think that would only make the Internet a little more intelligent.