Items selected from my brain's intrigues.

Finding new music that I really dig is always a special event for me. Mostly cause I have high standards.
The last happy finding was in January when I discovered The Seatbelts, who did the entire soundtrack to Cowboy Bebop. Before that, I don't remember.
Erin turned me on [woo-woo!] to The Cat Empire [wiki] Friday night amidst random conversation while drinking at the 8x10 (in the upstairs VIP room) after we closed Illusions & 8x10 had also closed.
They're a jazz/funk/latin/ska blend. Erin said the exact perfect words in talking about this band to pique my serious interest; words like "trumpet" and "piano" and well... You had me at hello. ;P

I recognized the band name because we have one song of theirs that plays on Illusions' playlist, and I have it as an mp3. I was able to "acquire" 3 entire albums of theirs yesterday, and burned them to CD for her. Despite me finding then giving her the albums, I feel like she gave them to me in a similar manner that Sara introduced me to Invader Zim and Cowboy Bebop.


Sara got Spencer Rock Band 2 for his birthday. He's been downloading songs, and uploaded the Rock Band 1 songs too. Tuesday after bowling, and again late on Wednesday, a few of us were playing for hours: party-atmosphere.
I got to show off my Medium & Hard guitar skillz that I've cultivated with Jason for the past year and a half. ^_^ Plus sing, that's always fun when you know the song. And I've started drumming on Easy. I hadn't really had any interest in drumming previously, but now that I've started, I like it a lot. Especially when it's a fast/heavy song & I can wail on the pads. [Gotta release stress somehow, right? ;P]


I'm brainstorming & starting to design [design, not yet create] a computer game in the classic 90's style adventure genre. I'll be using Adventure Game Studio to do it, and so it won't be impossible to create.
Background: I used to make games with Klick & Play which was great at the time. And I know scripting from the object-oriented programming involved in making worlds (read: games) in ZZT, of which I completed 5 sizeable games. And obviously Photoshop CS4 & I are close friends. ;P
This is something I had briefly looked into a couple of years ago but didn't have the time to dive into. Now I do, might as well be productive.
I figured I'd make short-length games that would all tie into each other. Either one character in episodes (like the Hugo trilogy) or several characters in the same Universe, a game for each (like the King's Quests).
I'm leaning toward the latter, and they'll be based on the concepts started in my webcomic Dream Too Darkly, with each game being dedicated to a different person's dream. Similar to Psychonauts where each "level" is in a different mind and thus a different style. But they'll all tie into an over-arching plot, and of course have the psychologist narrating from his notes.
I definitely want my cousin Joe, and Sara, to playtest for me. ^_^


The Watchmen was amazing. Best direct translation book-to-film since Jurassic Park. Even literal scenes straight from the comic books, and dialogue unchanged. I went *squee* when the guy in Happy Harry's said "squidgy". ;P
[And this is what we need: direct translations to the screen, and NOT some director's personal crappy version of an already proven great story.]
Great acting too. Reminds me that most of the acting we see in movies is only mediocre. We call it "good" because that's a relative term, and we normally judge movie acting against other mediocre movies we perceive as "good". Kinda like calling any high school/college acting "good". It's really actually bad, but it's "good" compared to that level.

And maybe she'd say we are crazy / The two of us together like Melbourne weather / Be like balls in a maze, see? / We rolling along in obscurity / But when we meet in the middle / Say "Mmm it's a treat!" [The Cat Empire, Lullaby]
It's not actually a lullaby, and that's just one reason this song is awesome. ^_^