fuzmeister: Unmotivated

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I'm feeling pretty unmotivated lately to work on what I'd call "personal projects."

I've got a slew of weird, new songs on my computer that I should really finish up and release to the public, but I'm really just not feeling it at the moment. These songs are kind of a mixture of styles, but lean towards embracing electronic music rather than rock music: arpeggiators, vocoders, breakbeats.

I love rock and roll and the dynamic from playing with a full band, but I've been doing a lot of recording on my own this year and really felt freed by working without expectations or specific direction. I'm not forcing myself to write traditional songs as much as doing what I'm interested in or being challenged by. I don't know that people will like the end result, but it's been a refreshing way for me to work on things after demo-ing ten or so "rock" songs last year that have yet to be officially recorded/released.

I've kind of been on and off again with game development stuff too. Helibomber SDX was released in April and I really didn't promote it or anything. I think I realized the landscape for the independent developer is incredibly saturated these days. I question the reasoning behind taking on a large project by yourself; yeah, it's usually a labor of love, but the man-hours invested by the end may not be worth it. That being said, I've still worked on and off on the new-ish S&F project which I will say is Trevor-related. No clue when it'll be done, but hopefully someday...

I guess I've just had to take a step back to re-evaluate why I'm doing some things I'm doing in life... It sounds deeper than it is. I might just be being lazy lately.

Mood: Introspective
Music: Nine Inch Nails - Zero-Sum


Tags (beta): motivation

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fuzmeister: Guardians of The Galaxy

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Kate and I caught this one last night. I was on the fence on seeing it in the theater since I'm not super familiar with the source material, but, damn, this was a fun movie!

The whole film captured the essence of Star Wars quite well in some ways. The half-action/half-comedic tone worked really well and I loved the soundtrack. The casting was excellent as well, though I wasn't particularly attached to Zoey Saldana's character.

The infinity stone macguffin was completely forgivable just based on how much fun this movie was. I'm quite excited to see the direction they take the already-announced sequel in. Deeper story, more laughs, more awesome music - do it, Marvel!

Mood: Satisfied


Tags (beta): film, movies, marvel, ooga-chaka

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fuzmeister: The Cover of the New Foo Fighters Record Reminds Me of Sim City 2000!

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Sim City Foo-Thousand

Mood: Intrigued


Tags (beta): music

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fuzmeister: Prisoners

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A few movies were recently the topic of posts on Ventilation, so I figured I'd weigh in on the subject. A few months ago I had the privilege of watching Prisoners - a film that really received very little fanfare upon release from what I recall.

What a crime that this movie has been so overlooked. Marty - I love you, but The Wolf of Wall Street only got so many accolades and so much press due to you and Leonardo. Yeah, the performances were good, but the shallow characters and self-indulgent length kept it from being anywhere close to your past work. This is all my humble opinion, of course... but, I digress.

PRISONERS! Coming hot off the heels of his trip to Japan, Wolverine plays a father trying to find out what happened to his kidnapped daughter. Iron Man 1 Rhodes also stars opposite of Wolverine; he's lost his daughter as well, but handles it in a completely opposite way. It's early on in the movie when you maybe question how you would react to the situation. My gut says a lot of viewers would internally lean towards Wolverine's behavior, but maybe not have the gumption to act upon those thoughts.

Either way, Donnie Darko shows up as a detective assigned to the case and really adds an extra dimension to the story without overshadowing Wolverine's role. Honestly, I would be really thrilled if they brought back Donnie Darko's character for more movies with completely new cases. He plays the character so well that you can see this guy becoming a serialized gumshoe - like Colombo, only more modern.

Anywho - a lot of stuff happens in the movie over the course of almost three hours, but I was always intrigued and emotionally-invested in what was happening. Without any spoilers, the film nicely wraps up the main storyline while still providing an open ending. I love that they wrapped up the meat and potatoes, but didn't totally phone the ending in. It's always a fine balance with open-ended movies whether I ultimately love or hate how things are done. The way they handled it here - I love it.

Prisoners is a great movie. You should go watch it. It's long, but rewarding. It's unique, but grounded in reality. I'm seriously bummed not more has been said about it, because it's maybe the best standalone film I've seen in a long time (IE not a long-running franchise or adaptation).

Mood: Contemplative
Music: Frank Zappa - The Gumbo Variations


Tags (beta): movies, film

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fuzmeister: Top Ten: King of The Hill

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I've been wanting to write a post like this for some time now. I think Mike Judge's King of The Hill is an under-appreciated gem and it's near the top of my favorite show list, so why not try to compile the top ten episodes of this series?

I'll admit that this is very subjective and a fair number of fan favorites probably are missing from the list, but it's a good baseline for any newcomers to start with. Honestly, I think the main problem with this show is that people didn't really understand what it was going for. Either way, it ended up having a thirteen season run - not too shabby for an animated sitcom.

Keeping Up With Our Joneses [s01e04]
There are some quality episodes in the show's first season, but there's just something about this episode I love. It's almost like the writers were just getting comfortable with King of The Hill's brand of subtle humor.

Jumpin' Crack Bass (It's A Gas, Gas, Gas) [s02e03]
Hank Hill's good intentions are sometimes not enough to offset how oblivious he is to his surroundings. This episode has him accidentally buying drugs from someone he believes is selling fishing bait. Surprisingly enough, the crack makes excellent bait and Hank starts catching tons of fish. It may seem extremely random, but it succeeds at being an excellent storyline.

A Firefighting We Will Go [s03e10]
While there's really not much to what's happening in this episode, the narrative is awesome. One of my favorite scenes from this and, possibly the entire series, is where each of the guys explains what happened when the fire station burned down from their point of view. This could have been a horribly boring scene, but the hilarity of everyone's individual perspectives makes it great!

Escape From Party Island [s03e17]
I don't know that this episode would make it to a lot of people's "best of" list when it comes to King of The Hill, but I absolutely love this one. Hilarity always ensues when you use the fish out of water routine.

Hanky Panky (Part 1) [s04e13] / High Anxiety (Part 2) [s04e14]
The story arc that unfolds over these two episodes is quite memorable. As usual, there are several different events that tie together in various ways. It just feels like this episode came while this series was at the top of its game. Highlights from these two include Hank's paranoia and overreaction to the "cigarette", Mrs. Strickland's advances towards Hank, and Peggy's ridiculous rebranding of Sugarfoot's barbeque. Fair or not, I'm counting this two-parter as a single entry on this list since they rely on each other to be complete.

The Exterminator [s05e14]
There are plenty of great episodes focusing on Dale Gribble in this series, so it's challenging to really pick just one for this top ten list. I went with season five's "The Exterminator," because, again, the fish out of water formula proves to make for memorable and hilarious stories. Seeing the character of Dale try to adapt to a standard 9-5 office job is incredibly funny. As stated, there are tons of great episodes centering on Dale, so this just edged by as the one that made my list.

Be True To Your Fool [s07e19]
I always enjoy the episodes that reach back a bit into the history of the characters and show you flashbacks of their old antics. A lot of episodes shed some new light on or add depth to a well-established character. This episode (along with several others) show that no character in the show may have changed more than Bill. His pathetic nature is certainly hilarious, but these flashback episodes do a lot to make the audience sympathize with Bill. It's these sort of episodes that showcase the "heart" of the show and what, many times, makes it stand apart from its peers.

The Witches of East Arlen [s07e23]
David Cross guests as a stereotypical "twenty-something super-nerd living in his mom's basement" in this episode named Ward. As with many of the one-off characters who appear throughout this series, Ward is very memorable and has some of the episode's best lines. Hank's oblivious nature towards Bobby's tarot card purchase for the first half of the episode is another highlight for me. Know when to hold 'em, Ace.

Mutual of Omabwah [s09e08]
This episode, for me, is a highlight of the later seasons. There are just so many funny bits that ultimately come together in the final alley disaster scene.

Grand Theft Arlen [s11e08]
I may be including this one due to my personal bias towards everything related to video games, but this episode is excellent! I wouldn't mind playing Pro-Pain if someone developed it.

So, there it is. My longest post in ages about a show probably very few people on Ventilation even care for. I've been meaning to make a top ten list for quite a long time though, so why not share it with the fine folks of the internet? Again, this list is entirely subjective.

How do you feel about these episodes? How do you feel about this show? Love it? Hate it? Leave some comments!

Mood: I Got Blistas On Me Fingas


Tags (beta): television, top ten

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