30 Day Song Challenge, Day 1: Favourite Song
Instead of overthinking this one, I just went with the first song that popped into my head. Which turned out to be a fairly depressing tune from a Scottish supergroup masterminded by the dude from Snow Patrol — I know, I’m a little surprised, too. But everything about the song works for me, from Aidan … Continue reading
Jim Bryson interview
A musician’s musician and a songwriter’s songwriter, Jim Bryson has been quietly releasing his off-beat folk rock for over a decade now, in addition to pulling time as a hired gun for acts like The Tragically Hip, Sarah Harmer and The Weakerthans. On his latest, Bryson turned the tables on that latter band, enlisting them … Continue reading
Time waster: Sushi Cat 2
There’s not a whole lot of strategy in the Sushi Cat series — you’re basically just playing Plinko with a gluttonous feline — but what these games do, they do well. Sushi Cat 2 delivers exactly what you’d hope from a sequel, preserving the oddly hypnotic core (I could watch that cat ooze around the … Continue reading
David O’Reilly’s The External World (NSFW)
A dark, funny, twisted, awful and strangely compelling video from animator David O’Reilly, The External World reminds me a lot of Don Hertzfeld, only even more blatantly offensive. It falls somewhere between Hertzfeld’s Rejected and his most recent mental illness trilogy on the ridiculous/profound continuum — there are moments of genuine slapstick as well as … Continue reading
Been listening to: Smoking Popes edition
For your listening pleasure: A slab of lovesick power pop from the underappreciated Smoking Popes, off of their most polished effort, Destination Failure. It’s got pretty much everything you need for pre-Valentines wallowing: a strong melody, well-observed lyrics, a dose of self-deprecation and even a decent punchline. Granted, singer Josh Caterer can get a little … Continue reading
Time-killer of the day: Continuity
Puzzle-based platformers a dime a dozen, but it’s been a long while since I’ve come across one as clever as Continuity. The premise of the platforming is your standard storyless find-the-key-in-the-maze setup, with a simple and ingenious twist: The entire level is also a sliding tile puzzle. I’ve played about halfway through and none of … Continue reading
Classy music: Astaire and Cooke
Two albums I’ve been listening to pretty much non-stop the past few days: The Astaire Story Vocals and occasional footwork by Fred Astaire, and accompaniment by the Jazz at the Philharmonic crew, most notably Oscar Peterson on piano. Many (if not most) of the songs come from Astaire’s films, so expect a lot of Gershwin, … Continue reading
Time-killer of the day: Dodge
I’ve been playing a lot of flash games lately, partly as homework (I’m taking a course on game design) and partly as procrastination (it’s easier than writing essays). I’ve also been neglecting this blog. Somehow, I only just now realized the obvious fix — wasting even more time by writing about games that have been … Continue reading
Belated: The best movies of 2010
Now that the holidays are over and school’s back in swing, I finally have the motivation to get back into blogging (ie. a desperate need to procrastinate). So, without ado, my favourite movies of 2010, sticking to the exactly-50-words format that’s worked so well before. Heartbeats Heartbeats may turn off some with its depiction of … Continue reading
Bad-ass Santas: A handful of actually pretty decent holiday specials
It can be hard to take Christmas seriously, in a pop culture sense at least. At this point, there are probably more parody holiday specials out there than there are sincere ones. Some (say, the classic Festivus episode of Seinfeld) have even taken on a real-world life of their own — not that people are … Continue reading
The Consumption 