5 posts tagged “reviews”

Let's see...I think I first heard this band on the Yahoo streaming audio thing that I don't use anymore...it was great for learning your taste and then playing new stuff you would like but maybe never heard of. I would actually take notes while I was listening, and Muse happened to come up a few times and I really liked what I heard. Origin of Symmetry was the first album I bought and I couldn't get enough of it. I pre-ordered Black Holes and Revelations, but ended up not liking it as much as OoS. I still listen to OoS in it's entirety.

Asobi Seksu: Citrus

Pegritz gave me this, right when I was becoming more interested in the whole shoegaze genre, and this really did it for me. It had shoegazey sounding guitar with amazing, happy, cute, pop female vox on top, making it very easy for me to digest, anyway. And I love that she sings in her native Japanese sometimes. The song, Thursday, is one of those I can listen to over and over again, but I love the whole album. Also, the Glass Factory remix of Strings is one of my all-time favorite remixes of a song. It's everything a remix should be: recognizable to the original, but completely different in sound or genre.

Ok, so what do these three so completely different albums have in common, besides that I love them? I think they all have an "epic" quality to them---they all have heroic end-all be-all types of songs on them. You could also say they are all strong on the guitar, too.

Honorable mention:


Fear Factory: Obsolete


Before I found Opeth, this was the album I would have to put up there at #1. I like a lot of Fear Factory's earlier and later work, but this was the pivotal one for me. The song, Shock, is a permanent fixture on the ipod.

Of course it's based on one of those depressing Dickensian novels, but it beautifully captures the Victorian era, and has a happy ending...very emotional story with interesting characters...social commentary on the abuses of the school system in Northern England at the time...good eventually triumphs over evil.

The film starts out very dark, and then gradually brightens up with the plot. The lighting looks very authentic for the period. The photography is amazing. The costuming was very precise in this film. Great performances by an ensemble cast that includes small parts by Nathan Lane and Alan Cumming.

I finished reading this one quite a while ago and just haven't posted it. I really liked this story. It's about a group of people who meet at one another's homes periodically to discuss Jane Austen, and if you like Jane Austen, you might appreciate this. However, this novel is about so much more than that. Each member of the book club has their own story and perspective on the group, and I liked how each character developed as the story progressed. The writing style and the characters are modern and people that you can relate to, but I think there are many other parallels with Jane Austen. For example, some of the characters must endure personal tragedy, but it has a somewhat unexpected "happy" ending.

I haven't posted a book review in a while, eventhough I have actually been reading. I finally finished this one by Vinge. I thought it was ok. I had trouble following it at times, but I thought it was interesting as a work of speculative fiction.

It was a "time travel/fish out of water" story of sorts. The main character, who was stricken with Alzheimer's, is cured 20 years later, through the miracles of medical technology, and of course, the world he awakens to is very different. The main difference being how pervasive wireless/network/communications technology is at that point. Hand-held devices are a thing of the past and most people "wear" their computers and phones, which are built into their clothing. Extra bonus: you also have the ability to "overlay" different virtual realities on your view of the world.

If you are any kind of gamer or Internet-aholic, this novel is for you.

I purchased this video a while ago, but somehow it managed to sit on the shelf in its shrink wrap until today. So I finally got a chance to view it and I love it! What took me so long? Needless to say, I would recommend this video for any dancer, regardless of your particular style or orientation, as a great way to learn drum solo rhythm and choreography. Keep in mind that I am more of a "tribal fusion" style dancer, and all the choreography in this video is what I would describe as "cabaret" style. However, I really love how the DVD is broken down and organized, not to mention the fact that it actually covers rhythm for dancers.

The video includes three drum solo choreographies, from beginner to advanced level. I thought the beginner one was pretty advanced. I would not recommend that an absolute beginner jump right into this one. Take a few classes first and get the basics, then it will be easier to get something out of this video.

Each of the choreographies is broken down and covered step-by-step, plus there is a "learn and practice section" where, after each move is reviewed, the routine is repeated from the beginning up to that point. It's a great way to memorize a choreography.

The rhythm workshop with Raquy is a great idea. I got a chance to see Raquy and the Cavemen perform in Pittsburgh, and they were awesome to see live. On this DVD, Raquy does an excellent job of explaining the most popular rhythms that a dancer should recognize, and then Jenna demonstrates how the dance moves work with the rhythm. I think this is an essential skill for all dancers.

I will get a lot of use out of this video, unlike some that I watch a few times and quickly get bored with. This was money well spent.