Local Hero

GTA 4 is out and so are the nuts!

Grand Theft Auto is out now and as expected, so are the raisin cakes to blame all of society's issues on our culture. I thought this was one of the dumbest of the videos. Enjoy!

The Sickness Has Made its rounds!

It was a crap day, I woke up without a voice and felt like hell so I took the day off to rest but I feel like I accomplished a lot with my day. I learned the 1st movement to the Koyunbaba Suite by Carlo Domeniconi in about an hour. I feel great! here's a video.

Super bowl hilarity

I must say that super bowl commercials can be pretty stupid, or hilarious, but this one takes the crown for this year. As a promotion for Will Ferrell's new movie, Semi-Pro, Bud Light made a couple of adverts featuring Will's character in the movie, here's a clip of what to love about this new movie.

Attack of the Semester!

Well all is settling in here at West Chester and life is about the same. I've made a resolution to actually get this blog going with the same enthusiasm that I had when I started it and keep it going as I have been bad at that recently. Until then...thanks for the readership and keep it up.

If you are around a radio in the West Chester area or on your computer everywhere else, listen to my radio show Sunday evenings from 6-8. I'm on WCUR 91.7 or online at wcur.fm

Holiday Break!

Well the semester is finally over and I can rest for a month now. Time to make money as I'm pretty close to broke as of now. Oh Well, you want something more interesting then my financial situation to read. Here's food for your hungry mind.

I found a hilarious article today that you can read here but I'll give you the synopsis anyway. A father in Canada decided to sell his 15 year old son's copy of Guitar Hero III after catching him smoking pot in the backyard with some friends. After putting it up on eBay for $90 USD, it sold for over $9,000. Yes, it sold for 100 times more than it was worth. In the item description, the dad wrote that he couldn't justify rewarding him after the incident. He then said that even though smoking a joint isn't the end of the world he would take down the auction if anyone could convince him otherwise about selling off the gift as punishment. I think you know how the buyers decided.

Beowhatnow?

Hwæt! We Gardena           in geardagum, 
þeodcyninga,           þrym gefrunon, 
hu ða æþelingas           ellen fremedon. 
Oft Scyld Scefing           sceaþena þreatum, 

Translation:

LO, praise of the prowess of people-kings
of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,
we have heard, and what honor the athelings won!
Oft Scyld the Scefing from squadroned foes,

I figured it would be appropriate to open with first four lines of the olde english and modern english epic known to hopefully any high schooler as Beowulf. It's a long piece of work but now it has gone Hollywood! The apocalypse is near! Not all is lost however as at least now a watered down, one hour and a half version of the epic is available to the non-readers. I just can't see Angelina Jolie being decapitated being that she is Grendel's Mother in the movie and that is the demise she meets in the poem. Otherwise I may have to go see it just to see if it's worth it.There haven't been many movies that have been better than their literary counterparts. To Kill a Mockingbird didn't even do that and it was a landmark movie as well as a landmark book.
       I found out in Music Theory the other day the requirements to a composition. Now I feel challenged because we need to write for 2 or 3 instruments including ourself. Being a guitarist I have to compose so I can use other classmates. This isn't a problem but there aren't any bass players to my knowledge and we have a bunch of vocalists, brass, and a couple pianos that I'm aware of. Truly a challenge for me, I feel excited.

Lazy Sunday

Can you believe that there is only a week and a half to thanksgiving break? College students rejoice because we can finally eat good...and I mean good...homecooked food instead of the food that college has to offer. I can't wait. I was traveling the internet the other day and came upon this fun video by some animation students. If you are a fan of Mario Kart or stop motion animation you will love this. Enjoy Super Manrio Kart!

Facebook: Your Ad Here!

    Look out hipster Americans! Social networking website Facebook has announced new ways to show how one would sell their soul to a product. An article I found on the New York Times website here, says that Facebook will now give companies the capability of making a profile on their website to "advertise" their product. A user would simply friend that profile and a news feed would show up saying that they are "a fan" of said product. The only instance where Facebook would charge a company is when they put an advert below the news feed announcement.
     Take it as you will, Corporate America has done it again. What better way to sell a product than by having it come as a suggestion from a close friend a la Facebook? It would be hypocritical of me to denounce this scheme though because we are all influenced by adverts everyday. Those of us with iPods should know full well what the power of influencing the trend-setting will do to sales. Using Facebook and close friends to manipulate sales seems evil, but at the same time, I have to give my kudos that Facebook realized a moneymaker when they created it.