Monday, October 09, 2006
Aimee Mann At The Bijou
I saw Aimee Mann at the Bijou Wednesday night, as the non-clever title above suggests. The concert was excellent. Aimee's Knoxville performance was the very last performance of her acoustic tour, which was kind of cool. As an end-of-the-tour bonus she handed out gift bags to some lucky audience members. She did a few requests during the show, and whoever's requests were picked got a gift basket. And several of them also got to play bongos during the song they requested. The gift baskets consisted mostly of items from the tour bus that she didn't have room to pack and take home, such as some books she had read and various food items. It was pretty funny overall. Aimee has a really laid-back attitude on stage, which was probably elevated by the fact that this was the last stop.
And of course, the music was fantastic.
But the part of the concert that really excited me was the guy who opened for her. I'd never heard of him before and he ended up blowing me away. His name's David Ford and he falls under the category of musicians that loop all the instrument tracks by themselves on stage so it sounds like a whole band is playing. I don't know what you call it but it seems to be a pretty popular thing to do these days. Anyway, this guy does it better than anyone I've seen yet. Unlike some of the artists that I've seen do this, this guy's music holds up when you strip the novelty away. I've been listening to his album quite a bit since I saw the show and I'm absolutely hooked on some of the songs.
Here's one of his videos. Hopefully your speakers are better than mine because the sound quality ain't too great. It's supposed to be quiet at the beginning, so don't turn your speakers up too loud.
He plays a lot more instruments in this video than he did during the concert, but the thing I liked about his live show was that he did a lot more vocal looping. He had about five or six harmonizing background vocals going in this song when I saw him do it.
If you get a chance to see him live don't hesitate!
And of course, the music was fantastic.
But the part of the concert that really excited me was the guy who opened for her. I'd never heard of him before and he ended up blowing me away. His name's David Ford and he falls under the category of musicians that loop all the instrument tracks by themselves on stage so it sounds like a whole band is playing. I don't know what you call it but it seems to be a pretty popular thing to do these days. Anyway, this guy does it better than anyone I've seen yet. Unlike some of the artists that I've seen do this, this guy's music holds up when you strip the novelty away. I've been listening to his album quite a bit since I saw the show and I'm absolutely hooked on some of the songs.
Here's one of his videos. Hopefully your speakers are better than mine because the sound quality ain't too great. It's supposed to be quiet at the beginning, so don't turn your speakers up too loud.
He plays a lot more instruments in this video than he did during the concert, but the thing I liked about his live show was that he did a lot more vocal looping. He had about five or six harmonizing background vocals going in this song when I saw him do it.
If you get a chance to see him live don't hesitate!
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Goldeneye Reborn
Someone is using the Half Life 2 engine to recreate Goldeneye64.
Sometimes I wish I had the kind of disposable income to be a PC gamer. Player-created content expands gaming in a lot of big ways.
Sometimes I wish I had the kind of disposable income to be a PC gamer. Player-created content expands gaming in a lot of big ways.
It's-a Mii!
Someone at Joystiq created a little flash program that simulates the upcoming Mii Channel from the Wii.
It's pretty neat if you're looking forward to the console as much as I am.
Which you're not.
Not the real Mii
It's pretty neat if you're looking forward to the console as much as I am.
Which you're not.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
More Sony Madness
Item 1:
Sony unveiled the official PS3 controller recently.
Instead of the originally previewed boomarang,
this is the controller PS3 owners will receive:
Snah?
So unlike Nintendo, who jumps at a chance to innovate at every turn, Sony dips its toe in the innovation pool and promptly runs screaming back to familiar territory. They're calling it the "sixaxis" to emphasize its motion-sensitive features. "Six degrees of freedom!" is the mantra that Sony is spouting now. Which, when you compare it to the Wii-mote, might as well read "Only six degrees of freedom."
The Wii controller detects full movement of the controller, so you can manipulate things on the screen simply by pointing at them, like you would with a laser pointer. It also has a built-in accelerometer to detect the speed and motion of the controller's movements. Basically any movement can be transferred into gameplay. It just depends on what the developer wants to do. Read this developer blog for a good idea of what this means.
The PS3 controller only detects the controller's movements and can't distinguish, say, the position of the controller in relation to the television. Sony incorporated this feature shortly after Nintendo unveiled their own controller, and did a pretty shoddy job in the process. Since it was a last minute addition it's unlikely that any PS3 games will even utilize the feature for quite awhile after the system's launch. Also, Sony had to sacrifice the rumble feature. They claimed it screwed up the motion sensor. Maybe if they'd developed this ealier they could have figured out a way to make it work, like Nintendo did.
Sony takes two steps back for every stolen step forward.
Item 2:
Sony just doesn't care.
As its development of Blu-Ray technology suggests, Sony creates its products in a complete market vacuum that shields it from competition and consumer demands. It must be nice to create your own world and live there every day.
Sony unveiled the official PS3 controller recently.
Instead of the originally previewed boomarang,
this is the controller PS3 owners will receive:
Snah?
So unlike Nintendo, who jumps at a chance to innovate at every turn, Sony dips its toe in the innovation pool and promptly runs screaming back to familiar territory. They're calling it the "sixaxis" to emphasize its motion-sensitive features. "Six degrees of freedom!" is the mantra that Sony is spouting now. Which, when you compare it to the Wii-mote, might as well read "Only six degrees of freedom."
The Wii controller detects full movement of the controller, so you can manipulate things on the screen simply by pointing at them, like you would with a laser pointer. It also has a built-in accelerometer to detect the speed and motion of the controller's movements. Basically any movement can be transferred into gameplay. It just depends on what the developer wants to do. Read this developer blog for a good idea of what this means.
The PS3 controller only detects the controller's movements and can't distinguish, say, the position of the controller in relation to the television. Sony incorporated this feature shortly after Nintendo unveiled their own controller, and did a pretty shoddy job in the process. Since it was a last minute addition it's unlikely that any PS3 games will even utilize the feature for quite awhile after the system's launch. Also, Sony had to sacrifice the rumble feature. They claimed it screwed up the motion sensor. Maybe if they'd developed this ealier they could have figured out a way to make it work, like Nintendo did.
Sony takes two steps back for every stolen step forward.
Item 2:
Sony just doesn't care.
As its development of Blu-Ray technology suggests, Sony creates its products in a complete market vacuum that shields it from competition and consumer demands. It must be nice to create your own world and live there every day.
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