Pitchfork Music Fest 2006

I went to the Intonation fest last year and had a lot of fun. This year is has split into "The Intonation Fest" and "The Pitchfork Music Fest." I don't particularly want to go to Intonation. Besides Jon Brion and The Streets, there really isn't anyone I want to see performing. Plus I don't think taking two weekends off this summer is a good idea. But Pitchfork is offering a whol bunch I want to see.

7/29
Silver Jews
The Futureheads
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists
Art Brut
Destroyer
Mountain Goats
Band of Horses
Man Man
Hot Machines

Biz3 Stage
Dominik Eulberg
Matmos
Ada
Ghislain Poirier
8 Bold Souls

Much More TBA...

7/30
Os Mutantes
Spoon
Yo La Tengo
Devendra Banhart
Mission of Burma
Aesop Rock
The National
Jens Lekman
Tapes 'n Tapes
Chin Up Chin Up

Biz3 Stage
Diplo
Tarantula A.D.
Tyondai Braxton
Bonde Do Role

Much More TBA...

I'll get to see Diplo again (which I am excited for). Spoon and Yo La Tengo should be a lot of fun. And I am really excited to see Man Man. Plus, it has been announced that legendary Tropicália band Os Mutantes is going to be playing as well. It's actually a pretty wierd coincidence as I have just started getting into them within the last two weeks. Guy I work with introduced me to the tropicália genre. He's been getting me turned onto a lot of different psychadelia stuff lately and this latest is one of my favorites.

Tropicália legends Os Mutantes sign on!
Friday April 14th. 2006
Well, it looks like the Pitchfork Music Festival isn't just going to be two days of happy people getting drunk and rocking out-- it's also going to be an historic event!

We are honored and delighted to announce that Brazilian Tropicália gods Os Mutantes, reunited and performing live for the first time since 1973, will play the second day of the Pitchfork Music Festival. The psych-rock pioneers have scheduled just a handful of shows this summer, and we've been lucky enough to score their only American festival appearance. As Os Mutantes themselves once said, everything is possible-- including getting to see a group of living legends play on the same bill as members of the younger musical generation they helped to inspire.
Tickets are on sale now... don't sleep!

-Brandon

I'm bored

So here is some time wasting stupidity.

I decided to take a quiz to decide what sort of girl I am. I'm not so sure the results are correct, but some of the questions didn't have answers I liked anyway.

http://www.cookingtohookup.com/girls/academic.php

I'm not sure why I posted this...-Brandon

Firefly Season 2 as pay-per-view. Possibly online. I would gladly pay a few dollars per episode to watch on my PC as long as it was re-watchable. If it's downloadble, thats fine. If it is streaming, it must be re-watchable as many times as you want, at least until the DVD set is released. If it is made unavailable after the DVD's are released, people who bought all of the individual episodes should be given a discount on the DVD set. They paid for the episodes and it seems only fair that removing the ability to watch them should come with some sort of reimbursment even if it is only a coupon of some sort.
http://www.fireflyseason2.com/index.asp

-Brandon

Spore: The Maxis Masterpiece?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-262774490184348066&q=spore
If you have an hour to blow you need to watch this video of Will Wright showing off Maxis's (the gaming-gods responsible for the entire sim genre) long in development game Spore. In spore you control the development of an organism from the cellular level game (a 2d arcade style game where you grab up food and avoid predators game(a 3d game where you wander around, eat, don't get eaten, and mate in order to upgrade your organism) to sentient village level game(where you manage a group of your organisms in a RTS/sims fashion and buy them technological upgrades) to city level game(where you manage the city's development in a sim-city style and upgrade structures and advanced technology) to a civilization style game (where you compete with other cities on your planet through war or diplomacy) to a colonization game (where you move on to other planets and build colonies and teraform planets with your mutlitool/UFO capable of earning more abilities as you do more) to a galaxy wide God's sandbox game (where you find other life in other solar systems, initiate first contact in warlike or peaceful manner and pretty much do whatever you want from the previous games). Sound huge? It is. And that run-on sentence doesn't touch on the incredible manipulation you can do with the creature/vehicle/building editor or the fact that all other creatures and civilizations you meet are based on other players creations on other computers that you automatically download when online.

This game looks absolutely amazing, and it is due to complex algorhthyms with a minimum of data. Rather then having pre-created creature designs (as most charecter editors in games do) they created a system where you can basically do what you want through stretching and molding. There is no need for presaved models when it is all generated on the spot. Plus, by allowing you to sync up with other player's creations automatically (completely bypassing the need for a browser when accessing player created content) ensures a large number of unique and constantly updating content. I have not been this impressed by a game in a long time.

-Brandon

Slobodan Milosevic is Dead

And oddly enough, this is a sad thing. The man was a monster. Arguably one of the worst human being to be alive during my lifetime. His death protects others involved in the genocide he contributed to and to make matters worse, it appears in might have been due to deliberate neglect on the part of those holding him. Death is to kind for this man, he should have been forced to live longer and see the world see him as a monster. He should have been put in a position where he had to betray his political allies. He should have had to live through decades of no allies and no friends before he was forced to die.

Slobodan Milosevic is dead, and his death is a sadness. The man deserved more pain before he went away.

-Brandon

What a stupid fucking video

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4313772690011721857

Someone apparently thought they were being clever by creating this "What if Microsoft made the IPod" video. However, all I can tell is that they are mocking Microsoft for providing information on the product on the outside of the box. What the hell is the problem here? Should companies cease providing important info on the product they are buying? "Oh gee, what ever shall we do now that sinister companies have stolen our unnecessary pretty pictures and replaced them with important product info." I hate stupid hipsters who value image over practicality.

-Brandon

60's Psychedelia

I've been listening to a compilation someone suggested to me called "Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era" that is outstanding. I'm only vaguely acquinted with psychadelia. I used to listen to it a little on NPR on certain weeknights but they no longer do that, and I no longer listen to the radio anyway. This compilation is outstanding. Every song is great and it has prompted me to look into other work by some of these artists.

-Brandon

System of The World: Photographed

There is an outstanding set of photos online of the Tower of London and how specifically it related to a lengthy and important battle scene in Neal Stephenson's "The System of the World:" the last book in his "Boroque Cycle." If you haven't read the series, you should, it is definatly one of my favorites and probably Stephenson's best (which is saying something, as the man is an outstanding author).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/notlikecalvin/sets/72057594068198516/

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=tower+of+london&ll=51.5081,-0.0761&spn=0.002063,0.005348&t=h

-Brandon

We made a Moonshtah

A bunch of friends and I got together to make a snowman at 2 in the morning. It turned into a 4 decker monstrosity that looks like something out of "The Thing."

on the left are Brock and me (on my knees) on the right is Tim peeking over David's head.

The second face on his hip.

The monstrisity in its entirity

All photos are courtesy of Brock Muench

-Brandon

The Slanket!

I need this so bad. It's so hard trying to read or play games while protecting yourself from the cold. The Slanket is the best idea ever.
http://www.theslanket.com/

-Brandon