But it's probably not magical. Yea, not magical. What I notice is that it's priced at $500 for the base model, with just 16GB of storage. The 64GB model brings it up to $700. You can buy 2 fairly powerful netbooks for that price. And at least they'll have USB, Flash, and a 160GB hard drive.
This song comes from the awkwardly-titled Hawaiian psych-folk band These Trails. Like many awesome psych bands of the 60s, These Trails only made one album, and it went absolutely nowhere. But recently some music nerd discovered it and it's been making its way around the internet. I haven't heard any word of a CD re-issue or anything, so These Trails haven't experienced the same kind of revival that some of their contemporaries have (such as The Zombies). But that just makes you cooler for knowing about them.
Now, admittedly, These Trails is not a band for everyone (see how awkward that sentence was? What an awkward band name). The very quivery vocals might be a little difficult to get used to, along with the very all-over-the-place song structures. And if you're not down with just synths and acoustic guitars, you won't like anything they've ever recorded. But if you're willing to give it a chance, I promise it will grow on you, and soon you'll realize that These Trails are (is?) without a doubt the most awesome overlooked Hawaiian acoustic psych folk band of all time. Of all time!
Anyway, enjoy this song. I think I picked the most accessible song from the album, so if you're into it, listen to the whole thing and expect lots of spaced-out psychedelic goodness.
Yes, I've returned. It's been a while, I know. I don't really have an excuse either. I suppose everyone falls into a rut somewhere... or something like that. Anyway I'm going to start off again with these web clips to get myself back on track, and then we'll see if I can't puke up anything that resembles an article or two.
This mod sticks the old Half-life 2 on the new, updated source engine (used in The Orange Box). It's a little hard to nab (copyright and all. try) but totally worth it. It also adds some achievements to grind for.
It kinda scares me how Facebook doesn't want you to delete your profile, to the extent that they're willing to fight for it. I mean FFS Facebook, I thought it was MY profile.
GameRanger is a seriously awesome game management and online client (think Gamespy replacement) that you can use to easily play multiplayer on games where it isn't supported very well (the recent Borderlands comes to mind).
I've recently moved a bunch of different machines to Windows 7, and have found Ninite to be super-awesome. I'll probably rant about it later.
Oh hey guys. Remember way back when, in the glory days of summer, I had the not-so-genius idea to parrot whatever question those professional folks over at the AV Club were debating in their Q&A for the week? Well, after a little Bali hiatus and forgetting that project, I'm back, and still don't know any better than to foist my own opinions upon the Tartar Sauce's innocent and unsuspecting readers. The project still smells a little of gimpitude, especially with a question like today's, but that's not going to stop me. Yet.
Self-disparaging moments aside, today they're talking about what pop-culture thing(s) they find themselves being completist about, which is to say possessing all elements of a specific band, author, director, actor, genre, label, or what have you. Kind of a chance to show off the AV Cluber's knowledge and good taste, but I'm going to use this as a forum for defending one of the reviled elements of my childhood: the Redwall books. Up until the very end of highs school, I was a completist for nearly everything Brian Jacques penned, and still have all of the Redwall books (minus the first two installments) arranged chronologically on one really big shelf. And I've read most at least twice, the better ones probably somewhere in the neighborhood of five times. And I'm completely unapologetic. Why so? Because, despite the hate that Redwall gets for being derivative, repetitive, racist, morally absolute, and a Lord of the Rings knockoff, those books are written with such an outpouring of joy and spirit that it's just kind of a dick move to knock them, because that would be like knocking fucking Mother Goose for being a communist. Or some other application of abstract intellectual theory to something that doesn't need that kind of analysis. Because, let's face it, Redwall is for kids. It's a story written about talking animals that borrows from the same rich pantheon of knights and chivalry and other European shit like that that Tolkien doubtless borrowed from himself in creating his myth (which, I might add, has its own not-so-subtle racist overtones). There are songs and lengthy descriptions of food and a fond reliance on the pincer move as advanced battle tactics. As a little kid, reading these books, all this stuff is awesome, from the action to the funny accents to the good/evil struggle that's not too scary, but interesting enough to remind young minds of that fickle concept, "morality." So yeah, I understand that they're not the most original books, but the stories are pure and lighthearted, told with a warmth that should hopefully dispel the jaded criticism of childhood relics. Bottom line: not cool to hate, so don't fuck with Redwall.
Well, that got kind of angry. So, um, yeah, not much else I'm completist about. I think that's because it's really hard to be completist, unless it's something for real obscure that there's not a lot of, and then the accomplishment is a bit less impressive. My problem with completism is that I can't overlook (except in the case of sacred cows, like Redwall, where hearing the same story slightly retold several times delights me and doubtless prepared my young mind to comprehend the intense backstory of, say, The Wire-- and yes, I just linked Redwall and The Wire) shitty quality from artists that I like. That's why I don't own the Pogues albums from after Shane McGowan left-- not as good.
I hope you've enjoyed being yelled at for something you haven't done today, and that you possibly tune in next week to hear what I have to say about things that don't really matter.
