A few thoughts for today and a video

I love space stuff and am always intrigued when we manage to do crazy things in space, like live there for months, do crazy experiments in Zero-G and let monkey's fly the spacecraft (ok, I may have made that last one up/seen it on the remake of Planet of the Apes). That's why this picture is super cool:


Now tell me this: Why is it man can take a picture of a friggin Asteroid with a camera that was "within 3,162 kilometers of the asteroid while moving at a speed of 15 meters per second" but I can't manage to take a non-fuzzy picture of my cat, Cooper, moving at 0 meters per second from a distance of 12 inches away:

Speaking of cats, I saw this great picture of a couple of kittens (available for adoption at the Putnam County Animal Rescue shelter). Keep in mind, it should only be a picture of the kitten on the left...excellent "Photobomb":



And as promised a video. It's band called "The Mystery Jets" with a song called "Two doors down". It's tremendously 80's!



Oh and it's nothing like this:

The King Blues: Headbutt

Blast! Radio one has embedded this tune into my head my having a strangely limited playlist or a host of DJ's who don't bother to listen to the previous show. Either way have a listen to this delightfully British umm ballad? Takes a little while to get going but give it a least till the chorus. Plus the video has a monkey in it! Enjoy.

Finally, some good music comes to WV

Man, did I get Hot Blooded on Friday night. I was so excited I was getting Double Vision. It Felt like the First Time I had ever been to a gig at the clay center so I was Urgent to get there on time and seat was as Cold as Ice. I only went because I wanted to know what love umm is.

In case you haven't guessed it I went to see Foreigner in Charleston on Friday and had a great time. I was looking forward to it as I like live music and I recognized a few of the songs but they played a really good show. I knew almost all of the songs and the ones I didn't I still enjoyed. The crowd were great and the band really seemed to enjoy the feedback which is a bonus for the band playing in a rather cozy venue like the Clay Center where the fans could just walk down the aisle and reach up onto the stage.

Two things struck me the most on that evening. One was that even today the music didn't seem out of place. It didn't feel like an old retro band or out of date music like maybe a disco or early nineties band would sound.

The second was "What happened to guitar solos?". A musical tool designed to show off the guitar playing prowess of the lead guitarist and fill a few minutes of a song is sadly missing in todays music. I can thankfully see why the saxophone solo disappeared from existence but is it really time to dispense with the 4 minute ax wailing??

I don't think so.

A Game; A Book and an App

It's Friday, so time for a light post just about my "stuff" this week (copyright Paul and Spike Show). This last weekend and week have all but been consumed by Resident Evil 5. It is just awesome. The missus and I have been searching for a decent two player game and this really is it.

Most two player games are designed, basically, for the one lonely geek playing alone who can use the second player as backup. In Resident Evil 5 you can command the second player, Shiva to attack or hold back or give you her items. But when you play with a live person there is actually enough for TWO people to do in each level. Amazing. Asides from that it has an interesting storyline, some of the best in-game fight sequences I've ever seen outside of a John Woo movie and incredible replay value. In fact, after completing the game once we started up a new game. Straight away. I think I;d only ever done that before with Resident Evil 1, and that was because you played as a different character and had slightly different things to do.

There are some downsides. It has the same limitations as Resident 4 had (on the Wii) in that you can't move and shoot. This often results in getting stabbed by a zombie with a bottle in the face while you stand there reloading your shotgun. Also, you inventory is extremely limited and while this adds an extra challenge, it can sometimes just be stupid and annoying. Why can I carry 5 hand grenades in one space, but a flash grenade takes up a whole other space? Bah. Anyway, I can't promote this game enough.

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The book I have been *trying* to read for a couple of months now (shame on me) is James Patterson's "Violets are Blue". I had heard of it and read a later book of Patterson's but saw this at a yard sale and thought "why not for a $1?". Despite having lovely small chapters allowing for ample break time, it's a bit like moving through treacle reading the book. I don't really have an affinity for the hero and I feel like I know everything about the villains. So, I'm left just waiting for the inevitable to happen, a meeting of the two. There is little mystery, a ankle's depth of research, and characters that I can't bring myself to like. Perhaps it's just a slow third of the book and the rest will pick up.

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The app that I have been "rocking" the most recently is a classic. Pandora. I just can't get enough of it. I have an embarrassing collection of playlists on there but I'm getting to a point where I can choose a playlist depending on my mood and situation and Pandora delivers the goods. I have pop playlists, rock playlists, disco playlists, and even classical (I thoroughly recommend Haydn by the way). It's almost enough to make me fall in love with music all over again.

Michael Jackson

MGMT - "Kids"

Heard this the other day and thought it was worth a share. This video has a pretty interesting story too. From the Youtube site:

"Just to set the story straight: the facepainted kids in the video are a boy and girl from Los Angeles, two friends of mine, names Raf and Abby. MGMT was not involved in the making of this video, however, they became involved down the line.
The story goes like this:
December 2007: Rushing to make a due date for a USC Music Video class, I ask my friends Raf and Abby to appear in my video. I like the way they bounce off of each other despite completely different personality types, and think they both have interesting faces. Raf didn't want to shave so I didn't push him. We shot in one night, I cut overnight, turn it in and call it the worst thing I've done so far.
January 2008: On a whim one night while visiting home in Austin, Texas, I throw the video on Youtube just for kicks.
April 2008: Ray Tintori, who has directed 3 official videos for MGMT, finds my fan video online and invites myself and my two actors to come to New York to appear in MGMTs next official video for Electric Feel.
May 2008: We go to New York and have a great time on the set with the band and all their friends. "

What a sunny day can do

Ever been in the car on a sunny day, windows down, and cranked up the radio to a great song. I don't know, something like this:



And then you park, do some shopping come back to the car and THIS blares out at full volume:



Hurts, doesn't it?

The Killers: Spaceman

Add "Kiss" to my Hot List will you?

Now, how do I sign up for the Kiss army again?

In the mood for music?

I checked out a great new website last night. Well new to me at least called Musicovery.com
The premise is that you select the kind of mood you are in from Calm to Energetic and Positive to Dark and then it selects a virtual web of songs to play to compliment your mood. You can register for free and select your favourites or remove songs from the list. You can choose specific decades or genres and then watch a colourful web of hits unfold. You don't have to register to just listen but you will have to register to save your playlist. It's well worth a 5 minute glance but may take a while to load up on slow machines. Here's a great song that came up in my playlist today. It's called Banquet by Bloc Party. Awesome.

The Mean Green

Have you ever tried listening to this song while you balance your cheque check book? It's very liberating.

ELO Sweet Talking Woman

Heard this song on the radio...and so I share it with you. Love the 60's style verse with an great progressing pre-chorus and a chorus about 15 years ahead of it's time. Here's the "live" version...

K.C. and the Sunshine Band - Give it up

Just something to brighten the day....

Oh what a Night

I've heard this song many times before but having recently been reminded of itss greatness, in its original form I thought i'd share it with y'all. Hope it perks your morning up!

Live from Abbey Road

I was flicking through the channels last night and came across the "Sundance" Channel. I stopped when I saw the words "Abbey Road" in the title of the show and clicked "info" to see what it was. It was the kind of show I could easily watch all day long. Live performance from bands playing alternate versions of their songs in a recording studio with all their mistakes and nuances left in, and none of that over produced sound...well not much of it. I was doubly joyed to find it was a live performance from The Killers, Gnarls Barkley and The Feeling. I'm not much of a Gnarls Barkley fan but thought I had a 2 in 3 chance of hearing one of the other bands...but guess what? It was Gnarls Barkley up first. I didn't much care for the songs he played..but I'm glad kept watching and got to listen to The Killers as they played a couple of awesome versions of their own songs and Romeo and Juliet by Dire Straits. Here is a clip of the show as they play "Sam's Town" from their latest album of the same name.

Just a song in my head today...

Well it's friday..so here is some music. I was going to use a video of them since they have reformed...but thought the original might be best. Plus you get to check out some groovy hairdos.

Just for fun

Soem classic Hall and Oates...just to brighten your day.

Oh and the video is Spock...umm singing or saying something. Not quite sure what the heck is going on but it looked like the best video to me ;-)