EPT1. Teaching what you studied and have trained for is awesome. I just got done teaching a composition intensive workshop and it's been a blast. I almost forgot how awesome it is to share new music and new ideas about reception, and constructions of a piece can change our perspectives on our own art, and others. One of the really cool moments for me was when I switched gears entirely, and departed from our normal listening examples of Berio, Druckman, Schoenberg, Bartok, Xenakis, Bernstein, Part, Crumb, and many more, and played a short piece by Gary Schyman. You know, the dude who wrote the music for Bioshock.
I was particularly impressed with Bioshock's original score and felt that it had a direct correlation to some of the materials that we were working on so it was pretty cool to include it, but also in the students reactions when I revealed to them that this ostensibly 'modern-sounding' piece was actually from a video game. YAY!
I'm also going to have a vocal piece of mine premiered next week so I'm also looking forward to that. James Joyce is a pretty good writer, glad I chose him to set.
2. Speaking of Bioshock, I finally got a chance to play Infinite just before all of my rehearsing and teaching this week and I was, well... I guess it's a good game. I certainly wouldn't agree that it's as good if not better than the original Bioshock (that had a real air of magic to its ambiance and the overall piece), but it certainly not bad. I liked the rail system and how that opened the world up a little, but I couldn't help but think I was just playing Bioshock again, but this time with a different coat of paint.... HA, funny that. I had no idea about the ending to come and how true my feelings were about this experience. I should talk about one or two things I guess.
Things I felt were "aeh?" Game felt like Bioshock with a different coat of paint. What this did to me, even after completing it was say, well any other game Irrational puts out now I'm gonna somewhat distrust until they can convince me that I'm not just gonna play another Bioshock. Thanks no, System Shock 2 was the best of these three, and thrice is enough for me.
So what about the ending? Well as cool as the idea is (and I did like it), they shot themselves in the foot with one major omission... the voice actor for Booker DeWitt and Comstock, well they're not the same person... OOPS!
You just destroyed your own narrative guys, cause I inherently didn't believe they were or could be the same person, and now the reveal means nothing because I can't see or hear the similarities. There was no connective tissue, no secondary layer to sleuth out or enjoy. It made me wonder how it doesn't occur to them to go forward with their initial idea and use the same person because, lets face it, a baptism isn't gonna change your voice that much.Overall, gameplay-wise, it was pretty fun, save for the fact that the AI is still dumber than shit, and I just sat back with my M4 and Sniper picking people of lesiurely. Story at times was very good, other times not so much. I'd still give the edge to Bioshock as the score for that is much better, and I think Rapture is a bit more compelling as a 'place' but...ah well. I still paid $40 for all three Bioshock games, so I feel pretty good about the purchase.
3. I think FFVI might be may favorite Final Fantasy of them all, and OCRemix just released their massive FFVI album Balance and Ruin. If you are a fan of FF, or Uematsu, you need to go listen to this now. Some of the tracks I found to be a little too close to the pieces they were trying to copy, but others were pretty cool. I'm not sure I am as enamored of the Mahlers 6th Symphony reskin, but it certainly was interesting to hear an attempt at forcing the FF material down that path. I really did initially like On the Run (Hotline Miami inspired?) and a number of others. Definitely worth checking out.
4. I finally upgraded my PC from my old Machine, to a brand new one, and I don't think I got a single bad piece of hardware this time... I know shocking. To give you an idea of where I was, and where I am now:
+ Show Spoiler [2007 Build] +
LIANLI BLACK PC-7FNW Case
Antec NeoPower 550 PSU
ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000 3.0GHz
ZALMAN 9700 NT Aftermarket cooler
3x2GB PATRIOT/Corsair DDR2 400 mem
NVIDIA 9800GTX
Antec NeoPower 550 PSU
ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000 3.0GHz
ZALMAN 9700 NT Aftermarket cooler
3x2GB PATRIOT/Corsair DDR2 400 mem
NVIDIA 9800GTX
+ Show Spoiler [2013 Build] +
FD Define R4
3x Noctua (NF-A14 PWM) fans
SEASONIC Plat 660
GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-UD3H
Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz
Noctua NH-U14S Cooler
G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 4GB
Samsung 840 Pro 128GB SSD (OS drive)
3x Noctua (NF-A14 PWM) fans
SEASONIC Plat 660
GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-UD3H
Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz
Noctua NH-U14S Cooler
G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 4GB
Samsung 840 Pro 128GB SSD (OS drive)
I haven't been able to use it much, but man, boot time from POST is like <15seconds, and I can't wait to actually dig into graphics work as it should chop off so much of the waiting time for rendering/loading things. OC'ing, that's gonna have to wait till I have a lot more free time to learn, but at least I can try to play around with these things now.
5. I have a cool paintbrush now! I officially joined TL graphics staff just a short time ago, but I feel like I've been staff for more than a year now. It was just so odd seeing that pop up and going "well crap, now I have to deliver with stuff."
6. Oh, also Damn you STEAM SALE! I already just bough Bioshock, and now Grimrock... Well I guess its good that most of the games I want to play I already have (Witcher 2, still havent played, haven't finished Braid, need to re-install Dota2 again) but I'm sure I'll cave and get something more as the sale goes on...
