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A Bunch of Stuff to Read
Oct. 12th, 2005 03:18 amSince my car is off the road temporarily, I've been driving Kathy's car. I haven't put in a stereo with a tape deck yet so we can't listen to anything but the local radio station. It's okay. I haven't been too up-to-speed with the mainstream rock scene lately so I guess it's good that I'm getting my finger back on that pulse, to speak in cliché.
One band I've been listening to thanks to the radio and really enjoy is Avenged Sevenfold. I really enjoy their sound. It's got the tandem guitar leads a la Iron Maiden with the technical guitar prowess and surgical precision a la Dream Theater. It's about halfway between 80's metal revival and prog metal, which is a very cool mix.
I also heard the new Depeche Mode. I like it, as well. We bought their previous album "Exciter" which is very subdued and nearly ambient. The new single is almost revisiting their sound circa "Violator" and/or earlier. I like the addition of the toy piano sound. It was a subtle touch toward the end.
Another new song that I heard and surprisingly enjoyed was the new 3 Doors Down. I didn't particularly care for this band when they first came out. Honestly, I didn't hear much difference between them and Hoobastank and Nickleback, which all three sounded like they were trying to cop Seven Mary Three's sound from the song "Cumbersome." But this was a departure from their very typical, predictable, mainstream rock sound. Mind you, it wasn't anything groundbreaking or phenominally original, but it was a refreshing switch for them and held some sonic safety blankets that brought me back to the days right around high school and after when I was heavy into Soundgarden. This song had a feel that reminded me a lot of Soundgarden's "Badmotorfinger," which is still one of my all-time favorite albums. Nothing spectacular but very comforting. The chorus was a bit TOO similar to "Outshined" but I'll forgive it. It's different for them and familiar for me.
But beyond music, I had a great time at the NHCCM audio workshop down at The Troupe in Windham. It was actually a great deal affirming that much of what I learned in my multi-track digital recording class at PSU was echoed by their audio guy with 30 years of experience. It was also a bit of an ego boost to knwo I understood audio better than many of my PEG access colleagues, which is rare for me. Usually they have the upper hand in experience, but this time it was a subject dealing with my background.
The 2600 bug is really biting hard. Kathy and I have been playing a lot. In fact, tonight I just played an hour of the 2600 version of Asteroid to the point where the first time through I flipped the board three times and finally had to shut it off to save my sanity. But it gave me a great idea for a fundraiser for our PEG channels that I'm going to look into. I did some looking around, mostly trying to find out at first when the Homestar Runner RPG was going to be finished for the 2600, and found resources for programming homebrew 2600 games. I'll have to brush up on my 6502 Assembly Opcode but I can get pre-fab, newly manufactured 2k/4k and 8k/16k/32k Atari 2600 PCBs for game program cartridges and submit my homebrew games to AtariAge for packaging and resale. That's a cool thought. I also found a bunch of homebrew games I want to buy. So I think my new hobby is going to be brushing up on my Assembly and beginning to program some games. We'll see how it goes. Perhaps it will help me raise enough money to pay for the conversion of our spare 2600 into a handheld. I also found pin diagrams and schematics for Atari 2600 controllers so I'm going to experiment and convert a modern PC Playstation-style controller into an Atari controller. I'm also going to build some new controllers to spare my old Atari standard joysticks and paddles that are going to eventually wear out.
I should sleep. I have work to do tomorrow to catch up for the holiday weekend. Not that I celebrate Columbus Day but it still meant I had the day off. Yeah, sleep. Hopefully no nightmares of technicolor asteroids flying at me while in a triangular spaceship. Did you know the game Asteroid on the 2600 will not let you have more than 9 lives at any time? I guess you must be playing a space-faring cat.
Good night.
One band I've been listening to thanks to the radio and really enjoy is Avenged Sevenfold. I really enjoy their sound. It's got the tandem guitar leads a la Iron Maiden with the technical guitar prowess and surgical precision a la Dream Theater. It's about halfway between 80's metal revival and prog metal, which is a very cool mix.
I also heard the new Depeche Mode. I like it, as well. We bought their previous album "Exciter" which is very subdued and nearly ambient. The new single is almost revisiting their sound circa "Violator" and/or earlier. I like the addition of the toy piano sound. It was a subtle touch toward the end.
Another new song that I heard and surprisingly enjoyed was the new 3 Doors Down. I didn't particularly care for this band when they first came out. Honestly, I didn't hear much difference between them and Hoobastank and Nickleback, which all three sounded like they were trying to cop Seven Mary Three's sound from the song "Cumbersome." But this was a departure from their very typical, predictable, mainstream rock sound. Mind you, it wasn't anything groundbreaking or phenominally original, but it was a refreshing switch for them and held some sonic safety blankets that brought me back to the days right around high school and after when I was heavy into Soundgarden. This song had a feel that reminded me a lot of Soundgarden's "Badmotorfinger," which is still one of my all-time favorite albums. Nothing spectacular but very comforting. The chorus was a bit TOO similar to "Outshined" but I'll forgive it. It's different for them and familiar for me.
But beyond music, I had a great time at the NHCCM audio workshop down at The Troupe in Windham. It was actually a great deal affirming that much of what I learned in my multi-track digital recording class at PSU was echoed by their audio guy with 30 years of experience. It was also a bit of an ego boost to knwo I understood audio better than many of my PEG access colleagues, which is rare for me. Usually they have the upper hand in experience, but this time it was a subject dealing with my background.
The 2600 bug is really biting hard. Kathy and I have been playing a lot. In fact, tonight I just played an hour of the 2600 version of Asteroid to the point where the first time through I flipped the board three times and finally had to shut it off to save my sanity. But it gave me a great idea for a fundraiser for our PEG channels that I'm going to look into. I did some looking around, mostly trying to find out at first when the Homestar Runner RPG was going to be finished for the 2600, and found resources for programming homebrew 2600 games. I'll have to brush up on my 6502 Assembly Opcode but I can get pre-fab, newly manufactured 2k/4k and 8k/16k/32k Atari 2600 PCBs for game program cartridges and submit my homebrew games to AtariAge for packaging and resale. That's a cool thought. I also found a bunch of homebrew games I want to buy. So I think my new hobby is going to be brushing up on my Assembly and beginning to program some games. We'll see how it goes. Perhaps it will help me raise enough money to pay for the conversion of our spare 2600 into a handheld. I also found pin diagrams and schematics for Atari 2600 controllers so I'm going to experiment and convert a modern PC Playstation-style controller into an Atari controller. I'm also going to build some new controllers to spare my old Atari standard joysticks and paddles that are going to eventually wear out.
I should sleep. I have work to do tomorrow to catch up for the holiday weekend. Not that I celebrate Columbus Day but it still meant I had the day off. Yeah, sleep. Hopefully no nightmares of technicolor asteroids flying at me while in a triangular spaceship. Did you know the game Asteroid on the 2600 will not let you have more than 9 lives at any time? I guess you must be playing a space-faring cat.
Good night.
