malibu

I've been putting off writing this for a while.  Actually, I've been writing it in my head for a long time, but when I'm driving down the interstate at 70 MPH it's not exactly easy to put these thoughts down.  Pretty much the only time I get to listen to music, I mean really listen to it, is when I'm driving, so my thoughts on Green Day's masterpiece American Idiot come at 70 MPH and can't be captured.  Now I'm sitting in a hotel and I can finally put the headphones on and listen and type.

American Idiot: "Television dreams of tomorrow, we're not the ones who're meant to follow" - Standard Green Day, no real hint yet at the WTF waiting for you as the album continues...

Jesus of Suburbia: This is where you get the first hint that this is not your normal Green Day album.  I'll admit, I pretty much tuned out Green Day after Dookie.  The amazon.com reviews of American Idiot got me to buy it, and thank god I did.  Hearing this song for the first time reminded me of the first time I heard "Coma" from Guns 'n' Roses Use Your Illusion I.  My thought then was "holy shit I didn't know they had something like that in them."  That pretty much sums up my thoughts on American Idiot - who knew Green Day had something this amazing in them?  A 10 minute multi-part epic?  A rock opera?? WTF??  "...the bible of 'none of the above' on a steady diet of soda pop and ritalin..." I've had kids on both ritalin and adderall, so I'm familiar with what that's all about...damn too many awesome lines in this song, can't list them all..."I don't feel any shame, I won't apologize"

Holiday: "Pulverize the Eiffel Towers who criticize your government!"  Freedom fries??  Gimme a fucking break.  Thank god that fucking terrorist-in-chief is gone.  'Nuff said.  Wait, one personal note: it's been a bit surreal, not only living in the state which houses Dover Air Force Base, but also having been born on that base, where far too many of our country(wo)men have come home in boxes...

Boulevard of Broken Dreams:  OK, so here's one for the angsty teen in all of us.  Pretty much the story of my life, except for 2.5 years...

Are We The Waiting:  "Rage and love, the story of my life..."  Well maybe not my life, but "rage and love" is certainly the story of this album.

St. Jimmy:  "...a needle in the vein of the establishment"  Well, shit, I am the establishment, so wtf am I to make of this?  Inner conflict, but a damn great little song, and the first point on the album where I'm reaching for the volume knob to turn it up a little more...

Give Me Novacaine:  OK, so here's where it starts to get really interesting, where the songs start reminding me of other songs, stuff that's totally out of left field.  The drums at the beginning are obviously "Bullet the Blue Sky."  But musically it reminds me of "Don't Answer Me" by the Alan Parsons Project.  WTF?  "It's like a throbbing toothache of the mind, I can't take this feeling anymore...Give me a kiss goodnight and everything will be alright..."

She's A Rebel:  Wow, just wow.  "...she's holdin' on my heart like a hand grenade"  And the effect on Billie Joe's voice on the chorus "...the dawning of our li-ives" reminds me of "The Best Way To Travel" from The Moody Blues In Search of the Lost Chord.

Extraordinary Girl:  Opening reminds me of "Last Stop" by Dave Matthews Band.  Then it turns into pretty much every track off Jellyfish's album Bellybutton.  (side note: Bellybutton is one of the most perfectly produced pop albums ever.  Ear candy extraordinaire.)  "She's an extraordinary girl in an ordinary world..."  We all know one of those...

Letterbomb:  Here's where the volume goes up again.  We're getting into the real meat of the album now, the mid-level boss. "What's in love is now in debt, on your birth certificate, so strike the fucking match to light this fuse...It's not over 'till you're underground...There is nothing left to analyze...Don't look back...Your father's rage and your mother's love made you the idiot America..."

Wake Me Up When September Ends:  9/11 RIP, but also personal reasons why September haunts me..."As my memory rests, but never forgets what I lost"...Also, the end of summer is always energizing for me.  The oppressive heat and humidity start to fade, and I'm able to be outside without feeling like I'm drowning from breathing more water than air.

Homecoming:  The second epic, "November Rain" or "Estranged" if you will (to continue the GnR parallel), though not really.  This one feels, even more than "Jesus of Suburbia," like a string of mini-songs connected together.  "Left me here alone, and I should've stayed home, after 10 cups of coffee I'm thinkin'..."  One of the few moments of "pure punk" on the album is in this track, the "rock 'n' roll life" part.  Seems a bit of a non-sequitur though, given the music that surrounds it, and it sounds like Alice Cooper doing a guest vocal - wtf?  "The world is spinning 'round and 'round out of control again..."  Regardless, the song as a whole works as the climax of the album, the big boss fight, the "Superstar" of this Jesus Christ Superstar.

Whatsername:  Another Alan Parsons reminder, "Eye In The Sky."  "She went away and then I took a different path..."

So let's tally it up:  My brain is so oddly inter-connected that Green Day makes me think of: Alan Parsons Project, Jellyfish, Moody Blues, Dave Matthews Band, U2, Guns 'n' Roses, Alice Cooper, and Jesus Christ Superstar.  Holy fuck.  About the only thing missing is Bobby Vinton.  Oh wait - the song "Before The Lobotomy" from their follow-up album 21st Century Breakdown totally reminds me of "Mr. Lonely" - crisis averted!

Infamous is a great game, the latest from Sucker Punch, the developers behind the incredible Sly Cooper trilogy. You can definitely see a lot of Sly Cooper in Infamous' design. In particular, I love the way Cole can get just about anywhere around the city by going from rooftop to rooftop, just like the open areas of the 2nd and 3rd Sly games.

A similarity I hadn't expected is how relatively weak Cole is. Like Sly, he's best off avoiding enemies as much as possible, and in a melee situation with more than 2 or 3 enemies you're pretty much dead. I'm ok with that for the most part, as I rather enjoyed the slower pace and stealthiness of Sly's missions in his games. Unfortunately, Cole keeps finding himself in close quarters with the Reapers during his story missions. Sly was nimble and quick and could run away from such situations relatively easily. Cole, however, is about as nimble as Murray.

It bugs me that you can't zap enemies without first aiming with the L1 button. I understand having to aim at enemies on distant rooftops, but when they're running at me on the street why can't I just let loose some juice without having to hold L1 and move the way-too-fucking-small reticule over the target first? It's goddamn electricity for fuck's sake, not a sniper rifle!

Overall, my son and I are loving the game. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the Sly Cooper games.

"Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns..."

One of my earliest Beatles memories: High school debate meet, I was a sophomore(?) at the time.  I think it was my first meet. We were waiting in the cafeteria of I-forget-which high school, waiting for the day to begin. An upperclassman teammate (forget who) pulled out his boom box and played a Beatles tape.  Ballsy, I remember thinking at the time.  I mean yeah it was noisy in there, and I guess no one cared, but really, who does that?

My wife was like that, just doing shit like that all the time.  Like how she came out of the ladies room in the restaurant on our first date smoking a cigarette - in a no-smoking restaurant.  I was doubly floored - I didn't know she smoked, and wtf who does that?

There are some albums which you'll never forget the first time you heard them.  I was either a junior or senior in college, and my EE roommates were working on a project with one of their classmates.  He brought over Matthew Sweet's "Girlfriend" and I was blown away.

Recently I picked up the 2-disc re-issue.  The second disc, "Goodfriend" (love that dichotomy) has acoustic home-recorded demos of "Divine Intervention" and "Looking at the Sun," both of which are amazing.  Highly recommended.

"I'll never tell you, what I do on Saturday"  -- Steve Burns (yes, that Steve Burns)

Messing around with the look & feel of things.  Putting off writing a real first entry.

I’ll be using the “unread” tag and/or category to indicate posts where I’m tossing up links that I haven’t read yet.  I may have skimmed them, but haven’t fully digested them.

So surf at your own risk :-)


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