You’ve probably already seen this, but I can’t help myself. I’ve been consuming a lot of retro game music lately, so this seems appropriate:
http://view.break.com/487616 – Watch more free videos
Music
What I’m consuming
It’s no secret that I like to play games. I play a lot of games. Call it a hobby. But I also consume other types of entertainment. I’ve talked at length here of the TV shows I watch and I mention the occasional movie, but I really haven’t mentioned what else I’m consuming.
As geeks go, I’m not very well read in the “Classics”. Sure, I’ve read The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, I, Robot, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and others, but I haven’t read as much as I’d like to. When I was in high school, I read a lot fantasy books (mostly Dragonlance Novels), but I’ve recently endeavored to broaden my reading horizons. Going off of a few “Top 20/50/100 lists” (here and here and here and here) I’ve been diving right into some of the best Sci-Fi and Fantasy novels I’ve missed out on. I’ve just about finished up Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein, and I’ll be moving on to the next book on my list. The next five books on my list are:
Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
Ringworld, Larry Niven
Dune, Frank Herbert
The Foundation Series, Isaac Asimov
In addtion to that, I also started reading the Harry Potter books. (Yes, I am a hypocrite)
I’m also a voracious consumer of music. Recently I’ve been listening to Fort Minor. Fort Minor is a hip-hop/rap side project of Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park. If you’ve seen any ABC/ESPN/TNT NBA promo commercials, than you’d recognize their song “Remember the Name“. But there’s more than just that song. The entire album, The Rising Tied is all pretty good stuff; great rhymes and serious beats. I’m digging it.
On top of it all, I’m excited about a lot of movies coming out this summer. We’ll be seeing Spiderman 3 this Friday because I’m a huge fanboy of the Blockbuster/action/blow-stuff-up kind of movie. Can’t wait. I’ve also got a huge list of movies I’m looking forward to this year, but I won’t bore you with that list. At least not yet.
As always, I’d love to hear what you guys are consuming. Any recommendations are also welcome.
(I should mention that this post was inspired by a post over at The Game Chair discussing reading lists of gamers)
OK Go – Oh No
I don’t mention music a lot on this site unless it’s in the context of game music (which I love) but once and a while an album comes along that just has to be mentioned. As you can tell from my recent last.fm track list, I’ve been listening to a certain album in particular. Indulge me for a few moments to tell you how unbelieveably good the new OK Go album is, Oh No.
I’m sure most of you will have seen the famous OK Go “Treadmill” video. “Here It Goes Again” is a great track, but definitely not the best on the album. Oh No really doesn’t have a bad track. Top to bottom, Oh No is one of the best albums I’ve heard. OK Go’s distinct “alterna-pop” sound is unmistakable and a lot of fun to listen to.
Oh No starts with a great opening track, “Invincible”. The next two, “Do What You Want” and “Here It Goes Again” are two more fantastic songs. While “Invincible” is an excellent track, I think my favorite song on the album is “Oh Lately It’s So Quiet”. It’s an extremely smooth song with OK Go’s signature sound. The rest of the tracks aren’t simply filler, either. “Television, Television” has one of the best lines on the album — “You cannot fight the television.” I love it.
Actually, now that I think about it, this review isn’t completely unrelated to gaming. The first time I heard an OK Go song was on the “EA Trax” for Madden 2003, which included OK Go’s “Get over it” (another excellent song). I went out and bought their first album, OK Go, and have been a fan ever since. I highly recommend OK Go’s newest offering. I picked it up on iTunes for $6.93, an absolute steal (iTunes Link). Go forth and purchase this musical wonder.
I can name that game
… in 25 notes. Or more.
If you want to show off your gaming knowledge, check out the Video Game Music Quiz and find out just how much you know. You have to register for an account, but it gives you access to hundreds of gaming tunes for you to listen to and guess. You can read the full instructions here.
So far I’ve listened to 20+ tracks and I’ve recognized one. I’ve scored a whopping 3 points!