...this time for the readers of this blog that's into rap and pumping iron...
Friday, August 29, 2008
Dragonforce: Ultra Beatdown
Received the newly released "Ultra Beatdown" from Dragonforce yesterday, and have listened to it almost twice today. As it turns out, Dragonforce is excellent music for writing conference abstracts.
Ultra beatdown represents no departure from the melodic extreme power metal of their earlier efforts, so if you didn't like the previous three albums, odds are you should shy away from this one as well. Most of the time, it feels like Dragonforce just re-released it's first album for the third time, which suits me fine, as I thoroughly enjoyed "Valley Of The Damned". As a matter of fact, I'd be a happy camper if Yngwie had kept spewing out minor variations of "Fire & Ice", if Running Wild had recorded "Death Or Glory II", and if Magnus Karlsson had reassembled Last Tribe for a return to their "The Ritual" sound. So that don't matter to me as long as I enjoy the product. Truth be told, "Ultra Beatdown" does offer some variation, with more tempo and time signature changes, and at least one song dropping to a (for Dragonforce) leisurely pace of 120 bpm for almost a full minute. Moreover, there are some traces of influence from bands like Rhapsody Of Fire and Blind Guardian, plus the song "Heartbreak Armageddon" offers an ascending chromatic bridge immediately before the chorus. I likes it. I even likes it more than I did the previous albums, despite the lack of the obvious "Through The Fire And The Flames" type of single.
I sprung for the "special edition", which comes with two bonus tracks (one of which is titled ""Strike Of The Ninja"...) and a DVD which features "The recording of..." material and a feature on the making of Herman's Ibanez EGEN signature guitar. The studio material is quite entertaining, with Sam complaining about being sick and tired of "playing the same fucking solo on the same fucking song", plus other studio stuff that wannabe musicians like me find interesting. Interestingly, they record the bass and guitar directly into the board. Interesting, because I'm short one Pro Tools license from having their guitar recording facilities. The feature on the Ibanez EGEN development is kinda' interesting, but I suspect you'd have to be a guitar geek like me to find it even remotely interesting. The EGEN is basically a tricked-out version of their new Ibanez SV, which features 24 frets and a deeper cutaway. Apart from that, the EGEN has a new floating bridge, an EGEN Wizard neck (a Wizard I with scalloping on the upper 4 frets like the Jem), some custom-made pickups from DiMarzio (of course), an even deeper cutaway for easy access to the upper frets, and a grip formed after Herman's right hand on the upper horn - for more facile fancy stage moves. I totally love the Ibanez S series, but I think I'd rather have a custom model based on the new SV. The improved floating bridge is awesome and stuff, but I don't use what David Lee Roth refers to as the "dick stick" all that much, and since I'm about half a meter taller than Herman Li, I'm not sure how this grip feature would work for someone of my proportions.
Ultra beatdown represents no departure from the melodic extreme power metal of their earlier efforts, so if you didn't like the previous three albums, odds are you should shy away from this one as well. Most of the time, it feels like Dragonforce just re-released it's first album for the third time, which suits me fine, as I thoroughly enjoyed "Valley Of The Damned". As a matter of fact, I'd be a happy camper if Yngwie had kept spewing out minor variations of "Fire & Ice", if Running Wild had recorded "Death Or Glory II", and if Magnus Karlsson had reassembled Last Tribe for a return to their "The Ritual" sound. So that don't matter to me as long as I enjoy the product. Truth be told, "Ultra Beatdown" does offer some variation, with more tempo and time signature changes, and at least one song dropping to a (for Dragonforce) leisurely pace of 120 bpm for almost a full minute. Moreover, there are some traces of influence from bands like Rhapsody Of Fire and Blind Guardian, plus the song "Heartbreak Armageddon" offers an ascending chromatic bridge immediately before the chorus. I likes it. I even likes it more than I did the previous albums, despite the lack of the obvious "Through The Fire And The Flames" type of single.
I sprung for the "special edition", which comes with two bonus tracks (one of which is titled ""Strike Of The Ninja"...) and a DVD which features "The recording of..." material and a feature on the making of Herman's Ibanez EGEN signature guitar. The studio material is quite entertaining, with Sam complaining about being sick and tired of "playing the same fucking solo on the same fucking song", plus other studio stuff that wannabe musicians like me find interesting. Interestingly, they record the bass and guitar directly into the board. Interesting, because I'm short one Pro Tools license from having their guitar recording facilities. The feature on the Ibanez EGEN development is kinda' interesting, but I suspect you'd have to be a guitar geek like me to find it even remotely interesting. The EGEN is basically a tricked-out version of their new Ibanez SV, which features 24 frets and a deeper cutaway. Apart from that, the EGEN has a new floating bridge, an EGEN Wizard neck (a Wizard I with scalloping on the upper 4 frets like the Jem), some custom-made pickups from DiMarzio (of course), an even deeper cutaway for easy access to the upper frets, and a grip formed after Herman's right hand on the upper horn - for more facile fancy stage moves. I totally love the Ibanez S series, but I think I'd rather have a custom model based on the new SV. The improved floating bridge is awesome and stuff, but I don't use what David Lee Roth refers to as the "dick stick" all that much, and since I'm about half a meter taller than Herman Li, I'm not sure how this grip feature would work for someone of my proportions.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Office relocation completed
..or rather; I've piled all my stuff into one office and vacated the other.
Damn did I ever underestimate the time it'd take to move to this new office - epic time management fail.
Damn did I ever underestimate the time it'd take to move to this new office - epic time management fail.
GQ3: Mexican Standoff - Round 4
Fourth round. Still no possible bonus points.
Submit your answers to mfactorquiz (at) gmail.com by the end of Monday 090808. Each song holds the potential of two points - one point for artist and one point for the song. Answers will be posted on Tuesday 090908.
Submit your answers to mfactorquiz (at) gmail.com by the end of Monday 090808. Each song holds the potential of two points - one point for artist and one point for the song. Answers will be posted on Tuesday 090908.
Song number 156:
Song number 157:
Song number 158:
Song number 159:
Song number 160:
Parking FAIL
Driving to work this morning, this was the sight that met me when I entered the parking house. Some bonehead has left his car in the middle of nowhere on the first level, effectivly preventing anybody to get in and blocking in those who already had found a space. Parking FAIL!
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
David Lee Roth - Crazy From The Heat
In my opinion, David Lee Roth is the ultimate frontman. If only he could sing, he'd be even better. After reading the Van Halen biography, this book seemed all the more appealing. The brothers Van Halen spend a lot of time putting all the blame on their lead singers, and especially on David Lee Roth. The funny thing is that most of the time, what they blame Roth for and which they claim broke up VH mark 1, is that he wanted to do a side project - his famous or infamous covers of "California Girls" and "Just A Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody". Problem is; by then Eddie Van Halen had already recorded "Beat It" with Michael Jackson, recorded some solos for a KISS album, done some movie soundtracks for his then wife's made for TV movies, and so on. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. This, combined with the fact that Diamond Dave is an extremely extrovert, eloquent and loquacious individual, makes for an interesting and entertaining autobiography.
Which leads me to another thing; it ain't ghost written - it's pure Roth. Choice of words, mannerisms - everything is exactly like an interview with Roth, so this is the real deal. So much the better. The book is not a chronological account of the life and times of Mr. Roth - which rules, 'cause being exposed to the excruciating minutia of what his mom made for dinner and what his second grade teachers were like is something I can do without. Neither is the book a detailed description of his backstage antics - also something I can do without. Besides which - you know he did all that stuff, so there's no mystery there - the rest is a description of kinesiology and pharmacology. What this book IS however, is an awesome collection of short stories and accumulated wisdom from none other than Diamond David Lee Roth, the man, the myth, the living legend himself. Moreover, while the Van Halen book would've been reduced by at least 30% if one was to remove all the Dave-bashing, there is very little Van Halen bashing to be found here. Much props for that.
I really, really enjoyed this book. Some of his stories of life on the road sort of come out of left field, yet are really funny. Like the description of how during the most active touring they'd leave a town as soon as possible after a gig to get to the next venue in time. Which means that beside the hotel and the venue, there was no time for anything (well; almost). So after a couple of days on the road, there's the onset of road amnesia, where everything becomes a blur. One particular problem described by Dave Roth emerges when every hotel room looks exactly the same yet the room you're in now has a different architecture than the one you had last night. This becomes a problem when you wake up in the middle of the night and head for the bathroom - which ain't where you remember it was, so you keep running into walls and whatnot, as you can't locate the light switch either.
Somewhat surprisingly, Diamond Dave really lashes out at sensationalist journalism. A lot of what he writes on this topic mirrors my own opinions. Just to digress - when we lived in NC, there was a horrible explosion at a chemical factory in Wake County, with plenty of casualties and horrific, stomach-churning injuries. At that time I was spending a lot of time commuting between NC State in Raleigh, and UNC Chapel Hill to do some flashy experiments on some tiny particles coated with something which makes them do whatever. On the way, we had to drive by the hospital in Chapel Hill, and every time Joe and me would drive past that place, for several weeks, there would be hordes of these supposed journalists stacked wide and deep outside the hospital entrance, waiting for someone with horrible disfigurements to emerge, or even better, for some grieving families to come out in tears. Whenever someone would come out - typically one or two adults huddling with some kids, these vultures would swarm on them with cameras and microphones. The images would be available at the 10 PM news, and in every news pitch before that. The public has a right to know what a crying widow looks like half an hour after her husband passed away from being too close to an explosion? F*cking vultures - have some compassion and basic human dignity! The most disheartening part was that the vultures were mostly from the major, so-called serious news agencies - the local schmoes from Channel WKGB-Douche were by far in the minority.
Back to Dave. If you've read more than two rock star biographies, you'll know that all of them have apparently had the same managers, who in turn screwed them over, leaving them in debt to their record companies while they rode happily into the sunset with the band's earnings. Dave has written a chapter called Business 101, wherein he outlines precisely how the manager, accountant and lawyers screw you over. Totally awesome - this book should be required reading for any professional musician. I'm not gonna provide any spoilers here, as I'm of the vehement opinion that you should read this book - at the very least this chapter.
Best rock biography this side of "The Dirt". Buy it today!
Which leads me to another thing; it ain't ghost written - it's pure Roth. Choice of words, mannerisms - everything is exactly like an interview with Roth, so this is the real deal. So much the better. The book is not a chronological account of the life and times of Mr. Roth - which rules, 'cause being exposed to the excruciating minutia of what his mom made for dinner and what his second grade teachers were like is something I can do without. Neither is the book a detailed description of his backstage antics - also something I can do without. Besides which - you know he did all that stuff, so there's no mystery there - the rest is a description of kinesiology and pharmacology. What this book IS however, is an awesome collection of short stories and accumulated wisdom from none other than Diamond David Lee Roth, the man, the myth, the living legend himself. Moreover, while the Van Halen book would've been reduced by at least 30% if one was to remove all the Dave-bashing, there is very little Van Halen bashing to be found here. Much props for that.
I really, really enjoyed this book. Some of his stories of life on the road sort of come out of left field, yet are really funny. Like the description of how during the most active touring they'd leave a town as soon as possible after a gig to get to the next venue in time. Which means that beside the hotel and the venue, there was no time for anything (well; almost). So after a couple of days on the road, there's the onset of road amnesia, where everything becomes a blur. One particular problem described by Dave Roth emerges when every hotel room looks exactly the same yet the room you're in now has a different architecture than the one you had last night. This becomes a problem when you wake up in the middle of the night and head for the bathroom - which ain't where you remember it was, so you keep running into walls and whatnot, as you can't locate the light switch either.
Somewhat surprisingly, Diamond Dave really lashes out at sensationalist journalism. A lot of what he writes on this topic mirrors my own opinions. Just to digress - when we lived in NC, there was a horrible explosion at a chemical factory in Wake County, with plenty of casualties and horrific, stomach-churning injuries. At that time I was spending a lot of time commuting between NC State in Raleigh, and UNC Chapel Hill to do some flashy experiments on some tiny particles coated with something which makes them do whatever. On the way, we had to drive by the hospital in Chapel Hill, and every time Joe and me would drive past that place, for several weeks, there would be hordes of these supposed journalists stacked wide and deep outside the hospital entrance, waiting for someone with horrible disfigurements to emerge, or even better, for some grieving families to come out in tears. Whenever someone would come out - typically one or two adults huddling with some kids, these vultures would swarm on them with cameras and microphones. The images would be available at the 10 PM news, and in every news pitch before that. The public has a right to know what a crying widow looks like half an hour after her husband passed away from being too close to an explosion? F*cking vultures - have some compassion and basic human dignity! The most disheartening part was that the vultures were mostly from the major, so-called serious news agencies - the local schmoes from Channel WKGB-Douche were by far in the minority.
Back to Dave. If you've read more than two rock star biographies, you'll know that all of them have apparently had the same managers, who in turn screwed them over, leaving them in debt to their record companies while they rode happily into the sunset with the band's earnings. Dave has written a chapter called Business 101, wherein he outlines precisely how the manager, accountant and lawyers screw you over. Totally awesome - this book should be required reading for any professional musician. I'm not gonna provide any spoilers here, as I'm of the vehement opinion that you should read this book - at the very least this chapter.
Best rock biography this side of "The Dirt". Buy it today!
Do Norwegian politicians care about research?
According to the CEO of the Norwegian Research Council (NFR) Arvid Hallén, Norwegian politicians don't care about science. Recently, NFR sent out an invitation to our national politicians at Stortinget, encouraging them to define and discuss their opinion on research and science policy. Less than 25% showed up.
Me, I'd really like to know who showed up, so that I can use that information to vote more strategically come next Fall. Can't say that I'm surprised. Every election year, politicians of all genders and political orientations utter a variation on the following into TV cameras with a straight face: "We need to put more money into research and higher education. If we're elected, we'll see to it that research contributes to 3% of the GNP within (enough time that people have forgotten, but still a time frame)". Last election, I read the programs of each registered party, and the majority echoed the 3% of GNP goal. The exception: The Progress Party (FrP), which more or less comes right out and says they don't give a damn about science, and as a matter of fact they don't much care for people with skills within science either. They strongly support science education, as long as it doesn't progress beyond high school level. All things in moderation, dontcha' know.
But at least the Progress Party is honest - to the extent politicians have the capacity for honesty - about the fact that they think scientists suck and that universities are a waste of perfectly good bowling alleys, night clubs and pre-owned car sales lots.
The time-tested promise of more science and education, only to never mention said promise again - conveniently supported by the opposition which never intended to make good on that promise either - is a play straight outta' ye olde Switch-and-Bait for Dummies manual. After all, it sounds awesome to be all about science and research, but when it comes down to it, how many people work within higher education and R&D? Who's gonna be the "disgruntled nurse/kindergarten teacher" equivalent? Some professor or that walking stereotype they dust off and display every time there's an eclipse? Good luck getting any sympathy from the general population. Imagine the following televised debate between Professor Feynman J. Oppenheimer-Hawking, PhD, and I.P Freely, 15 study points in art history (E average), black belt with matching shoes in sophistry and televangelism, representative of the Neanderthal Party:
Prof. Oppenheimer-Hawking: During the last election, your party, as well as your coalition partners, promised to increase the research council budget. Three years in, you have cut the NFR budget with 75%, put a 100 kNOK cap on budgets for individual grant applications, and publicly expressed a plan for what you refer to as "our moon landing" which you have promised will occur within the existing budget limitations. If you try to match the projected costs with the existing funding - even without including personnel expenses - you end up having to take the square root of a negative number.
I.P. Freely: We have to prioritize and spend the money where the situation is most dire. For example, the last administration failed spectacularly in providing kindergarten capacity for all children in Norway, whereas we have literally constructed tens of kindergartens within the last three years.
Prof. Oppenheimer-Hawking: Considering that your promised deadline for full kindergarten capacity expired two and a half years ago, this is hardly impressive. How do you expect Norway to meet the expressed goals - expressed by you, I might add - of becoming, and I quote: "World leaders in science and hi-tech stuff within 2020" when you routinely reject any grant application exceeding 100 kNOK? When my department applied for grant money to purchase a new electron microscope last year, we got a rejection letter suggesting that we try to squint really hard through two pairs of glasses.
I.P. Freely: This is all about determining how the money can be spent for the greater good, not about appeasing your self-indulgent research. We need to improve the roads, so that all the commuters can drive faster while drunk, if they want to. Also, we need to focus on collective transportation, because car traffic is bad for the environment. And we need to lower fuel costs, because people can't afford driving their cars to work. And won't someone PLEASE think of the children.....
I'm the world's worst politician, but it would take me three seconds to derail a debate like this into focusing on something which affects the general population more directly.
Me, I'd really like to know who showed up, so that I can use that information to vote more strategically come next Fall. Can't say that I'm surprised. Every election year, politicians of all genders and political orientations utter a variation on the following into TV cameras with a straight face: "We need to put more money into research and higher education. If we're elected, we'll see to it that research contributes to 3% of the GNP within (enough time that people have forgotten, but still a time frame)". Last election, I read the programs of each registered party, and the majority echoed the 3% of GNP goal. The exception: The Progress Party (FrP), which more or less comes right out and says they don't give a damn about science, and as a matter of fact they don't much care for people with skills within science either. They strongly support science education, as long as it doesn't progress beyond high school level. All things in moderation, dontcha' know.
But at least the Progress Party is honest - to the extent politicians have the capacity for honesty - about the fact that they think scientists suck and that universities are a waste of perfectly good bowling alleys, night clubs and pre-owned car sales lots.
The time-tested promise of more science and education, only to never mention said promise again - conveniently supported by the opposition which never intended to make good on that promise either - is a play straight outta' ye olde Switch-and-Bait for Dummies manual. After all, it sounds awesome to be all about science and research, but when it comes down to it, how many people work within higher education and R&D? Who's gonna be the "disgruntled nurse/kindergarten teacher" equivalent? Some professor or that walking stereotype they dust off and display every time there's an eclipse? Good luck getting any sympathy from the general population. Imagine the following televised debate between Professor Feynman J. Oppenheimer-Hawking, PhD, and I.P Freely, 15 study points in art history (E average), black belt with matching shoes in sophistry and televangelism, representative of the Neanderthal Party:
Prof. Oppenheimer-Hawking: During the last election, your party, as well as your coalition partners, promised to increase the research council budget. Three years in, you have cut the NFR budget with 75%, put a 100 kNOK cap on budgets for individual grant applications, and publicly expressed a plan for what you refer to as "our moon landing" which you have promised will occur within the existing budget limitations. If you try to match the projected costs with the existing funding - even without including personnel expenses - you end up having to take the square root of a negative number.
I.P. Freely: We have to prioritize and spend the money where the situation is most dire. For example, the last administration failed spectacularly in providing kindergarten capacity for all children in Norway, whereas we have literally constructed tens of kindergartens within the last three years.
Prof. Oppenheimer-Hawking: Considering that your promised deadline for full kindergarten capacity expired two and a half years ago, this is hardly impressive. How do you expect Norway to meet the expressed goals - expressed by you, I might add - of becoming, and I quote: "World leaders in science and hi-tech stuff within 2020" when you routinely reject any grant application exceeding 100 kNOK? When my department applied for grant money to purchase a new electron microscope last year, we got a rejection letter suggesting that we try to squint really hard through two pairs of glasses.
I.P. Freely: This is all about determining how the money can be spent for the greater good, not about appeasing your self-indulgent research. We need to improve the roads, so that all the commuters can drive faster while drunk, if they want to. Also, we need to focus on collective transportation, because car traffic is bad for the environment. And we need to lower fuel costs, because people can't afford driving their cars to work. And won't someone PLEASE think of the children.....
I'm the world's worst politician, but it would take me three seconds to derail a debate like this into focusing on something which affects the general population more directly.
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