Collaboration in one movement.

The Creative Process from John Harney on Vimeo.

I’m starting to enjoy living in the Cultural Apocalypse

Ok, so this is the least original post ever, as this clip has to be everywhere on the Internet, but wow.

I mean, wow.

ICYMI: The Today Show plays Rock Band! @ Yahoo! Video

A short little post. I miss my camera.

I miss my camera because I saw a really good band tonight, and I was reduced to taking a picture with my four year old (i.e. ancient, apparently) phone. But I can’t even get that photograph onto my computer because the infrared on my phone and that on my computer don’t jive for some reason.

Maybe it’s just meant for an apple remote?

Incidentally, my affection for the Planet of the Apes movies has been greatly enhanced by a forgiving nature. A nature that continues despite the utter rubbish contained in the sequels, particularly.

Who likes to rock the party? We like to rock the party!

Travis doing his thing. from John Harney on Vimeo.

Music drives the games I play.

I’ve spent my day yesterday doing bits and pieces of work, watching football, and pondering video game soundtracks. 

I can understand that it’s not necessarily a cost-effective product, but surely in the days of online distribution it’s worth a punt?  Why can’t I find the F.E.A.R. score anywhere?  That game sounded absolutely fantastic.  

It’s really hit home playing Bully on the Wii.  Having never owned a PS2, I decided to join the game nice and late recently as a kind of soft build-up to the devastating effect GTA:IV is going to have on my free time.  A few hours in, and the biggest impression made upon me, on top of all the solid gameplay I’ve enjoyed, is that Shawn Lee did an amazing job with the score.  Playing this video game, the soundtrack hits you as something clearly superior to the vast majority of games, yet it doesn’t distract you at all.

Halo has always received a lot of credit for its soundtrack in developing the atmosphere, though personally I wasn’t a big fan of much outside the choral chant stuff.  And it’s not exactly something that you put on at parties.  The GTA games have had excellent soundtracks, but the strongest impact in those games comes from licensed music. 

Maybe soundtracks are hard to find because they’re only starting to become independently relevant, as film scores have been for years.  The Bully soundtrack suits the game completely but can still stand apart, at least according to my personal taste.  Don’t get me wrong: I think the music made for the Mario and Sonic franchises, for example, was fantastic.  However, due to the technical and genre-related limitations of the time it was very much ‘video game music’.  I will always love the Zelda theme, for personal and aesthetic reasons.  I just don’t see myself commuting with that song in my headphones.

Richard Jacques is someone I tend to associate with ultra-SEGA Sonic music, a genre with which he has had huge success, to the point that inspires pretty strong feelings in some people.  He has also been very successful in less ‘video game music’ type stuff, as with Massive Effect and Headhunter. 

So, does this fit into the argument over whether video games can count as art?  Video games are a form of entertainment that incorporates artistic expression, and the best examples display the best artistic work. I’m not convinced in the merits of arguing for video games as an art form. I’m not sure that it’s an argument that needs to be had.  I challenge you to watch Norbit and argue that film is always art. Art does have a place in the creation of games though: better art makes video games better.  That’s good enough for me.

Move it like you mean it.

So, I’m pretty sure that lip-syncing to rock songs in office buildings is my new favourite thing in the universe.

I should try this with grad students, and get them all to get their undergrads to join in and we’d have loads of different people in loads of different locations singing along to Number of the Beast or something.

Okay, that would be a bit silly. I should really just try and convince Henri of the potential for making people act goofy, and he can compile the best ever compilation lip-sync dance-a-long tribute to Step in the Name of Love. That would be pretty awesome.

——–

P.S. – I am really sad that I had to use Youtube. The vimeo clip is better quality, I just couldn’t get it to embed.

The things you learn on wikipedia.

Ok, this is weird. Dave Navarro makes porn movies.

Now, admittedly, it probably should not be a huge surprise. He really looks the part. I remember Flea talking about Navarro’s involvement in One Hot Minute, and how he essentially was a great rock star, with the look and everything, but not really the guitarist the band needed.

Which sums Dave Navarro up. I mean, look at this guy:

The whole thing with Navarro is that he is a walking stereotype. Which is awesome. I mean, I couldn’t take on Dave Navarro’s life if I really tried. I could practice guitar more, but he’s pretty good. I could work out more, but he’s pretty… well, you can see. And I could work on getting a few more marriages/divorces under my belt, but really, I’m not sure I could take it.

So I guess, he’s a bit awful, but he’s entirely necessary in western society. We need people like Dave Navarro for other equally awful but far less prominent people to look up to. Austin is an amazing city with lots of cool places to hang out and things to do, but it wouldn’t exist as what it is without Sixth Street. And Sixth wouldn’t be what it is without frat boys, or those guys that hang out there but never walk into bars, just waiting to pick drunk girls away from the herd.

So why was I shocked he is directing porn now? Well…. it’s porn? Maybe I’ve just led a sheltered life. Why can’t he just get involved in really bad b-movies, like Mario Van Peebles or Mark Hamill? Then I could have people over and we could enjoy watching a bad movie with Dave Navarro involved. I’m not really sure I’m going to try that with his latest offering.

SXSW 2008, you are over too soon, too soon.

Well, my SXSW 2008 is over. I’m missing today for the wedding of a friend, but what a time I packed into the three days I had.

First of all, don’t hesitate to get a wristband. For one thing, it gets you in the mindset to get your behind out the door. And then, when you’re sitting in the sun at five o’clock after several free beers and several free gigs (that don’t need a wristband) wondering “why did I get this wristband thing again?” you head out to more shows for the rest of the night.

It was really fantastic, and well worth taking a couple of days off work for; downtown Austin turns into a wonderful rock music inspired Disneyland, except almost everyone has paid way too much attention to what they’re wearing.

For people reading this, I suggest you go to poshdeluxe to check out the upcoming stuff from Sarah and the gang. They set up this very cool thing where we could call in comments about the festival on the phone and it turns up on the blog. We had a lot of fun.

Notable highlights included:

• Seeing a band battle dodgy acoustics but still sound pretty cool in a Presbyterian Church
• An afternoon at Mohawk’s with free bar and great music that really taught me what SXSW is all about
• Seeing Yo La Tengo in the Austin Music Hall, a weird genuine gig amongst all the SXSW compilations
• Being at two Jens Lekman concerts in less than 24 hours through accident more than by design
• Sneaking in to a day party to basically skip a queue of fifteen people, as we then had to get friends who paid to get in to get us the ‘free’ beer
• The Hot Topic party. There about eight people outside watching a guy play metal solo guitar with a laptop providing the beat and five inside playing rockband on a HDTV. It was all so… Hot Topic
• Really enjoying Santogold despite not liking rap music very much

SXSW, I love you. I’m sorry I’m missing the last day. I want to see you again, I need to be near you. I love your short sets. I love your swarms of hipsters: they make me laugh. Please be my girlfriend.

Stubbs outside was the best venue. Say Hi were easily the best band I saw. Absolutely fantastic. Now I’m taking advantage of the one positive of missing the last day: I’m going to bed.

Friday at SXSW

I’m at Volume nightclub on 6th and it’s HOT here. Like, crazy hot. I wasn’t designed for this. Kaki King is playing, which s pretty cool, and they have these laptps and things set up around the place, for blogging or something I guess.

So, I’m blogging. A little bit.

I’ll be glad when I can do this in my house with pictures and things.

So, SXSW is awesome.

I am writing this short blog in the library at UT because I had to haul my tired and hungover butt out of bed to come in for an interview for a position I might not get because I’m not American. So, waiting around for Sarah to be ready to hit another party, I’m writing this out really quick.

My first night of SXSW was fantastic. I thought I’d miss out a bit by having completely lost track of the music world in the last two years (how do you guys do it? How did I do it?) but the opposite is true!! The whole fun is in roaming around and seeing various bands. Last night I saw Ghost Hustler, who looked extremely European despite being from Dallas, Zookeeper, who looked very Texan and played inside a Presbyterian Church, and The Guillotines, who just looked and sounded awesome.

Pictures forthcoming, when I get a chance to sit down. Next Monday. After that we went to this Red Bull party on Cesar Chavez, with free booze.

I’m going to say that one more time.

Free booze.

There was also Halo and Guitar Hero, but to be honest it kind of just brought the tone down. The organisers also seemed bummed they only had about a hundred or so people, but I guess that’s what happens when you arrange a secret party with admission only by temporary tattoo. Which nobody can find but friends of mine have stockpiled like Soviet nukes pre-SALT.

Oh yeah. I went there. In short, SXSW = awesome.