Netflix Minute: South Park - The Imaginationland Trilogy

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.

Despite all of the vulgarity of South Park, the showrunners Trey Parker and Matt Stone often manage to cram heaps of social commentary into their show. What they don't do very often is create multi-episode story arcs, mostly aiming for one major pop culture object to parody and one social trend to mock per show. In the case of The Imaginationland Trilogy, Parker and Stone cranked out a unique three-episode arc that combined the best elements of the series into one Emmy award winning masterpiece.

The March Music Wrap-Up Podcast

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 gets its own podcast feed! This mostly means that you'll be able to access the Wrap-Up episodes for longer. Three months to be exact. And what a way to kick off the new feed -- March was so full of great music that I almost couldn't keep up with it all. I've fallen in love with almost every release this month. DeVotchKa, The Dodos, Mountain Goats, The Strokes, World/Inferno Friendship Society, and more! So be sure to click those new RSS and iTunes links so that you don't miss out on future Music Wrap-Ups. And enjoy this months, because I think it's my best podcast editing yet.

Shuffled Podcast: The Voiceless Edition

Every other Wednesday I share my love of music in an assortment of ways. Shuffled is a podcast whose format is as varied as my tastes in music, so hopefully you won't ever be bored and everyone can find something to enjoy.
In this edition of Shuffled I return to the original show format for some music shuffling without a voice. Don't expect any long diatribes about the songs that came up, just a quick summation and then straight to the tunes. And oh the wonderful tunes that did come along via the gods of randomness.

Why I Currently Like the 3DS

The 3DS is not a worthless, gimmicky portable console. Not yet.

The short time I spent playing Nintendo's newest hardware changed my opinion of it from skeptical yet hopeful to hopeful yet skeptical. In a good way. Of course, the 3DS has very little to offer at launch, but that is no reason to denigrate the system's potential. And after getting a quick overview of a few of its games and features, I see how much the system has going for it.

Movie Review: Sucker Punch

If anybody has seen Zack Snyder speak publicly then they will know that he's not great with words. When trying to describe anything from motivation to descriptions, he gets tangled up very easily and starts to get incoherent. It's a wonder that he can describe what he wants as a director to his staff. His visuals are unquestioningly ambitious and he has a wonderful eye for the action sequence and montage. From his debut with Dawn of the Dead he has established himself as a auteur to watch. Sucker Punch is the first movie he's directed based off his own original material and, well...he should stick to directing.

Video Round-Up: The One-Man Band Edition

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.
I once saw a guy that called himself The Amazing Elephant Man. He wore an Elephant Man Halloween mask, had a headset microphone, played a mini-accordian with his hands, a cymbal with one foot and a kick drum with the other. It was a strange but amusing concert, but not exactly what I would pay good money to see. In the age of electronics, however, the idea of the one-man band is completely revitalized. Just take a gander at some of these examples.

Sophist Radio Episode 42: The Soul Plane of Video Games

What do Linda Tripp, the KKK, and the 2 Live Crew have in common? Nothing. Other than the fact that they all get mentioned in this week's episode of Sophist Radio. Harold, James, and Aaron do manage to squeeze in some video game talk as well, though. Bulletstorm falls under the Sophist microscope first, and what begins as a talk about the game quickly turns into one the most intelligent, immature, and dare I say tense conversations the crew has ever had. Things do lighten up with the guys sharing their thoughts on a few other games such as Bit.Trip Flux, Shogun: Total War 1 and 2, and King's Guard. Come for the brilliant idea of USB-aided intercourse and stay for the awesome video game talk.

Movie Review: Paul

There are few things more enjoyable than watching Simon Pegg and Nick Frost playing best friends on an adventure. Their chemistry together is like that of old Hollywood legends, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. Whatever movie they're in doesn't seem to matter since watching them together is so much fun. "Paul" is their first film together without Edgar Wright behind the camera but that's been taken care of, as Greg Mottola is more than capable at this sort of material. It's a shame that the potential is here for another modern comedy classic but what we end up getting is just "merely" good. Is it wrong to be a little disappointed in that?

A New Edition to the Schedule: Weekly Article Features

Cerebral Pop was envisioned as an outlet entirely devoid of news and reviews -- Primarily focused on opinion pieces, editorials, and other forms of original content. Eventually we introduced reviews and a series of weekly columns to help convey our opinions on newly released content, and to help pad out the rest of the site with more regular and entertaining posts.

You may have noticed that our reviews and weekly posts have come to somewhat dominate the entirety of our output in the last several months. So, now we're looking to change that. Every Tuesday we are going to have a non-serialized, original, opinion piece, editorial, or some other form of article hit the site. It will go up in our newly added Features bar under the heading of "This Week" and move down the line with each new Tuesday feature posted.

In this way we hope to show that we're focused on having quality thought-provoking, interesting, clever, or funny articles, even if we can only do one a week right now. They will be right up front on the site for three weeks after posting, so you'll always know what the last three Tuesday Article Feature posts were.

We hope you'll enjoy having even more content from us on a weekly basis, and will help open a discussion about the topics we write either in the comments or over on the forums. Thanks for reading our stuff! Here's to even more of it.

Insufficient Funds: Evil Empire Sucks

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.
A thousand punk bands are recording themselves in a thousand different basements right now and you will likely never hear the results. Some of them might have a lot of promise, but they'll break up before they ever get the chance to see that potential realized in a real studio with a producer to help them sound their best. Thankfully, the Internet allows us special access to this formerly lost world of music.

Evil Empire fits nicely into this category. I actually discovered them from their next release, Does This Genocide Make Me Sexy?, which is a significant step up in recording quality. I fell in love with their volatile sound and immense potential. So, I dug up their first recording to see how it compared.

Netflix Minute: Monsters

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.

Science fiction uniquely provides a lens on many different aspects of life, with space operas focusing in on the ambition and perseverance of humanity or post-apocalyptic stories focusing on our universal will to survive. Lately, movies brought about a revival of soft sci-fi, diving into the anthropology and psychology of various scenarios in titles like Moon or District 9. This sub-genre is likely the most accessible to a rising filmmaker, with reports of the former film costing a mere $5 million. 2010's Monsters is one such movie, with a simple premise and a shoestring budget.

Unoriginal Soundtracks Podcast: GTA San Andreas 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.
This cynical Scottish look at America was the most expansive, ambitious Grand Theft Auto of them all. For the first time in the series, you could murder unlikable Americans across an entire state. But it was the furthest the series went in giving you the American dream -- you go from a skinny nothing to owning the skies.

It also provides plenty of opportunity for foreigners to explain this in song.

Video Round-Up: SXSW Happened Again Edition

 

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.

South by Southwest 2011 was a success, like it is every year. All I had to see was James Blake and I was happy. But there's a catalog filmed performances, small and large, that you can find at http://www.npr.org/series/sxsw. We'll show you some notable performances from this years show in addition to videos from bands whose presence in Austin, TX, over the weekend is totally unknown to us.

Shuffled Podcast: Luis' Fave 5

Every other Wednesday I share my love of music in an assortment of ways. Shuffled is a podcast whose format is as varied as my tastes in music, so hopefully you won't ever be bored and everyone can find something to enjoy.
In this episode of Shuffled I introduce yet another show format: The Fave 5. Luis Alvarez, my long-time Internet friend and graphic designer/contributor to Cerebral Pop, joins me to discuss five bands that mean a lot in his life. Luis has hand-picked a song from each of the artists he chose, and explains a bit why he picked them. I've always found it interesting to hear about how and why somebody connected with a certain band, so it's fun to sit down with someone and discuss it.

Movie Review: Biutiful

Biutiful is the latest film by acclaimed Mexican director Alejandro González Iñarritu (Amores Perros, 21 Grams, and Babel). His latest exposition of life and death roars, with the great performance of  lead actor Javier Bardem and his portrayal of a down on his luck Barcelonan.

We meet our melancholy protagonist Uxbal caught in the dark underbelly of Barcelona. Uxbal is flawed -- He is a loving father who keeps his family afloat from his bipolar wife. He makes ends meet by brokering deals with the police by letting undocumented African peddlers sell their goods on the streets. Plus, he is the liaison of the collaboration between the African and Chinese immigrants in a scheme of manufacturing and selling knock-off goods to the rich districts of Barcelona.

Video Round-Up: Awful Music Edition

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.
In this edition of the Video Round-Up, I aim to destroy your very soul through the power of terrible music. I'm sorry, but it had to be done. It's a warning to future generations that not everyone can make good music even with a lot of money and/or fame. After I destroy you with two new AWFUL songs, I will attempt to heal your bleeding eardrums, though, they will likely be beyond repair. If I knew how to force a manditory stopping point on a YouTube video, I would make you stop listening at 10 seconds in just to assure myself you didn't get brave and attempt it any further. You've been warned.

Unoriginal Soundtracks Podcast: Rock Band 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.
Rock Band is a celebration of music. It lets players explore the bass, drums, guitars, keyboards, and/or vocals in detail they could only otherwise get by examinging the master recordings. At parties, it mixes game night with record-listening night. It's not musical performance, but it brings friends and music together to have fun. Isn't that what a band is about?

Game Review: Dreamcast Collection

Reviving the spirit of classic games with modern re-releases grows more popular every year, with more and more publishers cashing in on games that require far less money and time than building a new one from the ground up. It's difficult to say whether or not the public is fully receptive of this trend, with some titles managing to find a significant audience while others go unnoticed. In the case of Dreamcast Collection, it's hard to say what fans of Sonic Adventure, Crazy Taxi, Sega Bass Fishing, and Space Channel 5 Part 2 will think of this bundle.

Video Round-Up: Outdoors Edition

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.
While the weather in the South mercurially changes from wonderful to freezing by the day, here are four videos to help you (you?) deal with global warming.* *in absolutely no scientific capacity.

Netflix Minute: 2010: The Year We Make Contact

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.
It's rare that I actually have a connection to a movie because of the books, but having listened to 2001 and all four of its sequels on audiobook, I'm pretty attached. The thing is, I'm not completely gaga over Kubrick's adaptation of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Frankly, if I hadn't listened to the book first I would have probably been completely lost at the end. He really left the final moments of the movie open to discussion and analysis, which is great, but when taken as a series it really helps to have a better understanding of that last big event before moving into 2010: The Year We Make Contact. And I think that's pretty important, because 2010 is easily my favorite of the series.

Honestly, when I finally decided to sit down and watch the movie version, I wasn't expecting it to be very good. It seems like everyone has forgotten that there's a sequel to a movie that is widely considered a classic. That and the fact that Kubrick had no part in it made me a bit wary, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Shuffled Podcast: Coming to Terms with Coheed & Cambria

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 week I welcome the first ever guest to Shuffled! Mark Whitney joins me to help shed some light on an issue I've had for a while; it seems like I should like Coheed & Cambria, but I just don't. Apart from a few majorly epic songs that I just have to rock out to. Being a big fan, Mark helped me to discover exactly why I couldn't force myself to like them, and in the meantime works through some of his own issues with the band. Whether you love or hate Coheed & Cambria, we've got you covered.