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The Birth of the Two Hour Music Video

Anyone who knows me (in any capacity) knows that I adore watching films. While science fiction will always have a special place in my heart, if offered, I will watch just about anything — silent, noir, superhero, buddy cop, etc. As I’ve grown more attentive to the construction of films — that is to say, lighting, mise-en-scène, soundscaping, etc. –, I’ve noticed a slightly disturbing trend: my favorite aspects (and what I would argue are the most important aspects of film) are being sidelined. As everything in our lives moves faster and becomes more in-your-face, plot and character development are being either rushed or skipped over entirely in favor of fast action sequences, stunning (or obnoxious) shots with over-the-top special effects, and, of course, expensive soundtracks. While I don’t want to down play the importance of choreography, cinematography, or soundscaping and design (in fact, I wanted to be a foley artist at one point in my life), nor do I wish to mourn a long-gone age of film, I do want to point out the disturbing trend: big-budget films — that is to say, top billed, IMAX, summer blockbusters — are increasingly turning into two hour music videos.

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Why Everyone Is Wrong About ‘Deus Ex: The Fall’

The other day, in preparation for the eventual release of Deus Ex: Mankind Divide, I completed my fifth playthrough of Human Revolution. Once I was finished, I noticed that, amidst various other unplayed games in my Steam library, there sat my copy of Deus Ex: The Fall which I realized I had not played. I quickly Googled the title and on the Wikipedia page, found a few choice comments from reviewers:

Don’t be fooled by the black-andgold screenshots and the familiar interface: this is not the Deus Ex you know and love. It’s a bad cover version, and truly one of the worst PC ports I’ve played in some time, and I’ve played Deadly Premonition. I definitely didn’t ask for this. -Andy Kelly (PC Gamer)

The controls are another culprit here; they are clunky and unresponsive in ways that a keyboard and mouse never should be. Menu buttons routinely fail to respond to repeated mouse clicks. -Daniel Hindes (Gamespot)

After reading the comments, I decided to play it. After completing the game (yes, I did search every nook and crany) I’m here to tell you one thing: all those negative reviews are wrong. While not Human Revolution quality, Deus Ex: The Fall was, for a game ported from mobile devices in a short time-span, very solid.

Before continuing, however, it must be added that this post obviously deviates from my typical genre and if you are not a fan of video game reviews, you ought to skip this post. For all else: my reasoning and concluding thoughts will be after the jump!

(There will obviously be spoilers)

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Cracking RZA’s Code – ‘A Better Tomorrow’ as the Ultimate Publicity Stunt

I would like to start off by apologizing to the usual reader base of Petersaysstuff for this is an uncharacteristic post in that it’s not about politics, philosophy, or economics. Rather it is about another topic that is near to my heart: music. More specifically, the Wu-Tang Clan.

On December 2nd, the Clan released their 20th anniversary album, A Better Tomorrow. While I can’t say the 3rd of December has been a better day than the 2nd, I have come to grips with my thoughts on the album and would like to share a theory as to why it sounded so…unClanlike.

It is not my goal to review the album, that has been done plenty of times. Rather, I want to give my opinions on it and then propose a theory. Ignoring the seeming disparities in versions, the open track, “Ruckus in B Minor” got me pumped for the rest of the album. Unfortunately, tracks like “Hold the Heater”, “Miracle”, or “Preacher’s Daughter” kinda killed that vibe for me and I was left in a dazed state.

The album concluded with a reunion and I was left thinking, “what happened? What happened to the rugged Shaolin sound we loved from Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)?” I knew that the Five-Percent Nation has had a big impact on RZA’s spirituality and musical style post-’90s, but this was a tad over done and cheesy, not to mention mixed very oddly. All in all, the album is worth a listen and there are a few tracks that I’ve played over and over, but it’s no “Triumph”. Thus I was left to lay in my bed reflect on why the album sounded like it did.

I figured it out. The Clansmen have always been businessmen, from the moment Method Man uttered the following quotation in the intermission on 36 Chambers, to the whole Killa Bee affiliates:

‘Cause we tryna do all this, we tryna make a business out of this, man. We ain’t tryin’ – know what I’m sayin’ – affiliate ourselves with them fake ass A&Rs and all that [word], we tryna make our own shit…

The Clan, if nothing else, have been great capitalists, and it is my opinion that A Better Tomorrow was intentionally sub-par. That’s right, I think the Clan took a dive in order to come back like a phoenix in the form of their secret album that they’ve been recording for years, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.

Why do I say this? My belief comes from an interview Forbes conducted with the album’s producer, Cilvaringz. The interview, which can be see in its entirety here, included the following dialogue between Forbes’ Zack Greenburg, and Cilvaringz:

ZG: I mean that’s like vintage kinda Wu-Tang sound…
C: …Raw, rugged, um, even the way we mixed it, even the way we mastered it…Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, that title, is because this is the final time that you’re gonna be able to hear the guys as they were then. It’s like nostalgic, you know, uh, trip back to, to all those chambers. All those styles. To hear ’em one more time in that particular sense and style.

Quoted clip can be found here; this cut of the interview is slightly different.

I am willing to wager the $5 million that I don’t have (if I did it would be spent on this album), that the sub-par sound of A Better Tomorrow is an attempt to bring fans down so when they go to a museum (or hopefully get a leaked legal copy of Once Upon a Time) to hear this album, they will be thrown back to the ’93-’97 style sound that we all loved and that Cilvaringz mentions in his interview.

 

In a word, the Wu is falling on the sword (no pun intended) in order to rise again for their final album and throwback to the Slums of Shaolin.

 

In the meantime, give A Better Tomorrow a listen and hope that the one copy of Once Upon a Time falls into worthy hands – that is, the hands of someone who will share the wealth. Oh, and listen to the 51 seconds that have been revealed!

Thoughts: Homosexuality and the Myth of Mental Illness

This post will differ a bit from what I usually write in that I don’t have a fully developed opinion on any of this yet, rather this is just a collection of ideas that, at somepoint (ie. after reading more Foucault and Szaz), I would like to expand upon and make into a full argument. Additionally, this post is, more a less, a stream of consciousness in that I’m not really revising it, rather I’m just getting my ideas out there. So take it as you will.

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Intellectual “Property” and Plagiarism

The following is a paper I wrote for an AP Language course that I feel, at least at this moment, summarizes my views on citations and plagiarism in general. *Note: there will be an afterword explaining my use of citations in other blog posts*    **sorry about the formatting…**

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