Features

Laura Jane Grace Isn't Going to Ruin Against Me, She's Going to Reinvigorate Them
Morning Glory's Recent Tour Felt Like a Symbolic Farewell to Ezra Kire's Past, Invitation to his Future
Handling Hecklers with MC Chris: An Exploration in Putting Up With or Putting a Stop to Bullshit

Recent Reviews:  To the Moon | Huebrix | Minus the Bear | Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD | Awesomenauts | The Real McKenzies | Breton | Suzanne Ciani

Subscribe to our Podcasts: Sophist Radio | Unoriginal Soundtracks | Shuffled

December 30, 2010

Tom's Top 5 Movies of 2010


2010 was quite a year for me. I have a select few directors that I follow with great passion and it seems that the fates conspired to give me a film from each of them this year. I can be quite biased, and have no problem admitting this, so these directors tend to get glowing reviews from me despite any faults. They have yet to make a movie that I consider less than stellar but that is mostly because everything they do has an affect on me. Here is my (slightly spoilerish) list of totally biased favorites.

December 29, 2010

Unoriginal Soundtracks Podcast: Max Payne (series) Edition


Every other Wednesday I share a playlist of songs tangentially related to a single game or series. Songs about alien sex for Mass Effect, songs about world leaders for Civilization, and so on. Searching for random terms on Spotify is a great way to discover new music and rediscover old classics.

Before they paid homage to thriller novels and paranormal TV-serials with Alan Wake, Remedy's Max Payne did the same for comic books and noir cinema. This episode takes a look at the series' past and future through new wave, rock, ska, and hip hop.

December 28, 2010

Movie Review: Black Swan


There are people in the world who are exceedingly good at what they do. Some strive for perfection in such a complete way that every other part of their life suffers for it. The devotion to any activity that requires near-absolute daily focus and attention must take a toll on a person, be it physical or mental. Black Swan devotes almost all of its attention to the mental repercussions on a ballet dancer, Nina Sayers, and it strives for perfection just as she does. It comes very close.

December 27, 2010

Video Round-Up: Best of 2010 Edition, Part IV

Video Round-Up is a weekly post collecting 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.

Looking through a year's worth of Video Round-Ups is a nostalgic and exciting experience. Alex and I posted many topical videos, more than enough cat clips, plenty of excellent music, hilarious spoofs, art profiles, and so on. I may be one of the few who pays attention to the Round-Ups, and even I forgot many great videos embedded here in 2010. So, as you read the fourth installment of our Best Of Edition, remember that I left out many, many videos that are worth your time. Go back through the archives and enjoy! (Roman numerals for importance.)

Sophist Radio Episode 37: Lesbian Christmas


In this holiday-season-inspired episode, the Sophist crew: James, Harold, and Aaron, attempt to explain their feelings about Christmas. Is it really the most wonderful time of the year, or just an excuse for gifts and falsely nice actions. Those question and more are answered. This being a video game podcast and all, the guys also manage to squeeze in talk about Bit Trip Fate, Beat Hazard, Revenge of the Titans, Uplink, Enslaved, and Digital: A Love Story. To cap things off the Sophist Crew takes a stab at summing up 2010 in games. What games left a lasting impression and what games missed their marks? All that and more, in a podcast so popular that the one and only Doogie Howser stole a joke from it to use in front of millions of people.

December 23, 2010

2010: The Year I Fell in Love with Vinyl


It all started with some found records in my basement, a wanted ad on craigslist, and a birthday present.

I was helping my mom move from our hometown of Huntington, on Long Island, to Houston Texas. While going through the many things in our dungeon of a basement I found a bunch of really great records. I asked if they were hers and she said no, so I assumed them to be the last owners of our small three bedroom rental house. I decided to call my dad in Seattle about the find and told him all the great albums that were left behind. “What makes you think they aren’t mine?” he asked.

After finding out they were my dads I felt a little better about taking them along with me up to school. I'd always been interested in vinyl and had wanted to give it a try, but I needed a push in the right direction. These found records were the catalyst to my love affair of searching, finding, buying, and listening to vinyl records.

December 22, 2010

Shuffled: Wonderful Discoveries Edition


Every other Wednesday I hit the shuffle button on my 90 gigabytes of music and post the results. I might have to justify some of the stuff in my library, but hopefully it will help inform you of new music -- Or at least be entertaining.


In this edition of Shuffled we've stumbled upon a bunch of music that I originally stumbled upon in interesting ways, only to be pleasantly surprised. I'm really enjoying this feature now that I've taken to telling personal stories instead of trying to regurgitate random factoids about the band. Are you? Would you like this feature more as a podcast? You know, in case I ever wanted to do that. Let me know, and enjoy the music.

December 21, 2010

Video Round-Up: Best of 2010 Edition Part 3

Video Round-Up is a weekly post collecting 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.

Once again, I'm pulling out old videos from Video Round-Ups throughout the year. If you missed it, then enjoy! If you saw and loved it, then enjoy again! This week we have some fascinating art, some confusing ridiculous...art (?), a meme-orgy, and music worthy of the "Best of 2010" label that I still haven't gotten around to buying.

December 20, 2010

Chris' Top 5 TV Shows of 2010


I am pleased that the quality of American television—the production, the budget, the writing, the innovation—is ever rising. 2010 has had an array of quality shows. Here are my five favorites of the year.

December 17, 2010

Insufficient Funds: The Pod F. Tompkast

Insufficient Funds is a weekly post in which we feature a free, or very close to it, piece of media that you can enjoy without overdrafting your bank account. So if you're low on funds, stay tuned to Cerebral Pop every Friday morning.

Back on August 1st, comedian Paul F. Tompkins decided to pile onto the top of the growing comedian-hosted podcast heap. He had guested on numerous shows before that point, from Jordan Jesse Go, to Comedy Death-Ray Radio, and Stop Podcasting Yourself -- but rather than completely yank the styles of those shows, he created something all his own. The Pod F. Tompkast was born.

Harold's Most Important Games of 2010


2010 was a very strange year in gaming, with the two high definition console makers (Sony and Microsoft) deciding to chase the motion control bandwagon as it speeds past hardcore gamers and right into the comfortable realm of soccer moms and old folks home. The selections of games available for the typical gamer were at an all time low.

I personally found myself digging deep into the bargain bins and Gamefly queue in order to find games that perked my interests. This year three games in particular strike a chord with me and I would like to highlight them here, in a little something I call “ Harold’s Most Important Games of 2010."

December 16, 2010

Jon's Top 5 TV Shows of 2010


2010 has been a big year for television. With many shows continuing excellent runs, running into their final seasons, and coming to unexpected ends, the landscape for what to expect from this mainstream media has been constantly changing. Despite ever-flowing tidal forces in the industry, some shows have handily floated to the top. Without further ado, here are my top five television shows that have personally led to my most active watching schedule in recent years.

December 15, 2010

Chris' Top 5 iPhone Apps of 2010


As my iPhone 3G struggles to remain relevant with its below average guts—and has, for that same reason, kept me from buying Plants vs. Zombies—I still have had great fun with all the apps I've found. This holiday season marks my first year with a smart phone. In that year, here is what I have enjoyed the most.

Unoriginal Soundtracks Podcast: The Darkness Edition


Every other Wednesday I share a playlist of songs tangentially related to a single game or series. Songs about alien sex for Mass Effect, songs about world leaders for Civilization, and so on. Searching for random terms on Spotify is a great way to discover new music and rediscover old classics.

Set in New York City and Hell, the Darkness inspires some far-flung musical choices. Blues and soul comes from the USA, hip hop from Sweden, calypso from Trinidad, an organ ballad from Britain, and something that defies description from Denmark.

December 14, 2010

2010: The Year with the Dragon Tattoo


It wasn't until October of last year -- when I gave a copy of the series' first book to my mother as a birthday present -- that I became familiar with Stieg Larsson's 'Millenium' trilogy.

After she told me about "some Swedish crime writer" who had become a phenomenon in Europe -- and whose books were just starting to gain great success in our country, Mexico -- a quick Google search on the topic led me to an interesting article on The Washington Post's website. Reading it left me with no doubt regarding which book I had to get her. Listening to her talk about the book afterwards left me with no doubt about getting a copy for myself.

December 13, 2010

Video Round-Up: Best of 2010 Edition, Part 2

 Video Round-Up is a weekly post collecting 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.

Continuing the end-of-the-year retrospective, here are four of my favorite videos of the year that we featured on Cerebral Pop. There might also be a bonus.

Game Review: Hoard (PSN)


Hoard's concept is different than what people might expect going in. When one hears it's a tabletop game about dragons waging battle against one another, they probably assume it's a game played with 40-sided die in a basement. Fear not faithful gamer, it is not a game that requires 23-hour gaming sessions and an endless supply of Mountain Dew paired with cheese doodles. It's actually a very fun, arcadey, pick-up-and-play type of game. It also happens to pack plenty of depth for those looking for it.

December 10, 2010

A Look Back at the Comics of 2010


2010 has been an incredible year for comics. We’ve seen history-changing, epic comic events, old favorites dying off, and some favorites making their return. From film adaptations to cable television series, comics have had a major impact on pop culture in 2010.

For someone like me who really started paying attention to comics just last year, 2010 has made it incredibly exciting and fun to read comics. What follows are some of my favorite highlights in comics from the past year.

December 09, 2010

Jon's Best of Netflix 2010


If you're at all familiar with my weekly Netflix Minute feature, you probably know that I love watching films on Netflix's Instant View service. I started writing these articles as a way to let people know a little more about the diamonds in the rough on a service they might not even know they have. However, Instant View has come a long way since the summer of 2010, offering plenty of genuinely excellent movie and television experiences without too much looking. As a result, I thought I'd highlight some of the titles that have truly made Netflix one of my favorite things of the past year.

December 08, 2010

Shuffled: Growing Up With Music Edition

Every other Wednesday I hit the shuffle button on my 90 gigabytes of music and post the results. I might have to justify some of the stuff in my library, but hopefully it will help inform you of new music -- Or at least be entertaining.

This edition of Shuffled reveals some of my history with music. How extremely late to the party I was, why I was that late to the party, and how punk came to be my first musical love. I've come to the conclusion that the blurbs I write in Shuffled should be about my personal experiences and stories I have surrounding the music in my library. There are a few stories in here you might find funny, but I also hope they tell you a little bit more about all the music I hold in the highest regard. Now, forget this serious crap and be entertained by the music and stories within!

Movie Review: Burlesque


I'm not exactly an expert on burlesque shows but this is what I think I understand: the shows involve an artful and entertaining striptease -- a carefully choreographed routine designed to tease and titillate. Routines also sometimes involve satirical or slapstick comedy. When I saw previews for Burlesque and saw that it was starring both Cher and Christina Aguilera, I was pretty sure that the "art form" would have some liberties taken with it. As portrayed in the movie, this burlesque looks like the 1940's version of MTV. Flashing lights, loud music, ill-conceived lip synching and plenty of scantily-clad women who neither strip nor tease.

December 07, 2010

Music Wrap-Up Special: The Best Music of 2010

The Music Wrap-Up is a monthly summary of my favorite and other notable new releases. Having trouble keeping up with all the new music? Need some music suggestions? Then the Music Wrap-Up is for you. And please support these musicians as that's the reason I'm featuring them in the first place.

The Music Wrap-Up forces me to keep up with new music every month so that I can share it with you. Without it I'd probably miss a lot of great albums. Some of the music I listen to a handful of times, pick out the songs I like the most, write them up in that month's Wrap-Up, and then never return to the CD again. Not because I disliked them, just because they didn't stick with me for some reason.

Other releases though, those stick with me all year long and well into the future. There's no doubt that if I'm still listening to it at the end of the year, it was one of my favorite albums of the year. So I've collected all that I hold most dear in this special edition of the Music Wrap-Up. While I never put anything in the other Wrap-Ups that I don't recommend, I extra recommend all of these releases. Seriously, buy these.

December 06, 2010

Video Round-Up: Best of 2010 Edition, Part 1

Video Round-Up is a weekly post collecting 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.

As part of Cerebral Pop's end of the year content, Chris and I are going to take a look back at some of our favorite videos that we featured in the Video Round-Up in 2010. If you watched them already, consider it a fond look back. If not, then they're new to you! Also, it provides us an opportunity to write about videos each other picked out, so you'll have new descriptions to read! Yay!

Sophist Radio Episode 36: Conad the Dildonian


In another jammed-packed episode, the Sophist Radio crew share their thoughts on Rock Band 3, which leads into a spirited dissuasion of the death and possible rebirth of the music-game genre. The relative ease of Kirby’s Epic Yarn, and games such as Professor Layton, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, and Corporation Inc. are also discussed. Along the way, the guys manage to rename one of the hosts and decry the very idea of homeopathic medicine. Wrapping things up is a hearty discussion of games that would translate well into movies -- obviously, everyone's favorite video-game-movie director Uwe Boll is not on the table.

December 02, 2010

Netflix Minute: The Girlfriend Experience

Netflix Minute is a weekly feature highlighting a title from Netflix's catalog of instant view films. If you want to spend a night snuggled up with a bag of popcorn and don't want to drive to the video store, this is for you.

Steven Soderbergh is a pretty prolific director. He knows what he wants to do and he gets it done. With a large stable of solid, popular actors clearly willing to work on his projects, Soderbergh dominates the mainstream at will while still commanding relative unknowns in small films you may have never heard of. In the case of The Girlfriend Experience, he caught a little flak for blurring the line between the two, seemingly casting an adult film actress as a means to sensationalize what would otherwise be an art-house project.

December 01, 2010

I Punish Myself (in Games)


For the last three weeks, I have spent the majority of my game time playing Super Meat Boy, Trials HD, and 'Splosion Man. If you're unfamiliar with any of them, know that they are all 2D quasi-difficult-to-screaming-brutal XBLA games that test players' patience and provide a deceptively harmless question at their foundations: Can you just make it to the end?

If you play these games, you won't remain deceived for long. You soon realize that the early tutorial levels have only the loosest connection to the developers' intentions when they made the games: you learn the controls there, but, immediately after, the level design ramps up in complexity, sinister trickery, nearly impassable sequences, and high death counts. My muffled screams of frustration playing these games might indicate that I do indeed punish myself in games. But why?

November Music Wrap-Up

The Music Wrap-Up is a monthly summary of my favorite and other notable new releases. Having trouble keeping up with all the new music? Need some music suggestions? Then the Music Wrap-Up is for you. And please support these musicians as that's the reason I'm featuring them in the first place.

As we approach the end of the year, we grow ever closer to the always awesome spring music-release season. But until then there's still some good stuff coming out. From well worn but classic performers like Elvis Costello and Brian Eno, to pop punk mainstays like The Queers and Smoke or Fire. It's a slim month, and December will be even slimmer, but you should probably be spending it with family, right? For now, though, sneak away for a little bit and enjoy the music of November.

Unoriginal Soundtracks Podcast: Fallout New Vegas Edition

Every other Wednesday I share a playlist of songs tangentially related to a single game or series. Songs about alien sex for Mass Effect, songs about world leaders for Civilization, and so on. Searching for random terms on Spotify is a great way to discover new music and rediscover old classics.

Songs about destruction, betrayal, and the ghosts of Las Vegas make up this episode of Unoriginal Soundtracks. The end of the world and an unscheduled stop in Nevada makes the premise of Fallout: New Vegas.