Finally done with this semester. Thankfully. Was worn out by the end. That, and coupled with crappy sleeping I was getting recently, definitely didn't help.
Now I get to screw around a bit before the first summer session starts. Which I will be taking a drawing class. Should be fun and I'm hoping that it'll help me improve on my drawing skills. Also kinda hoping that I don't have to relearn everything that I was taught in my high school art classes but I might since the title of the class is just "Drawing". So I'm assuming that it's going to cover basics and stuff or beginners. I will be really disappointed if I don't get something out of that class since it was like over 300 dollars for it (not including whatever textbook and supplies I'll need to acquire).
Oh well. I think I might play some video games. I haven't played actual video games in a long time!
I just realized that I joined this forum April 13th, 2006. Yesterday.
For some reason it feels like I've been here longer. I probably visited this site before I actually joined probably but yet it still feels like it should be longer.
Well, I guess it's sort of something to celebrate... right?
Artist: Shpongle
Title: Tales of the Inexpressible
Label: Twisted Records
Date: July 2001
Tracklisting:
1 - Dorset Perception (8:12)
2 - Star Shpongled Banner (8:23)
3 - A New Way To Say "Hooray!" (8:32)
4 - Room 2ૐ (5:05)
5 - My Head Feels Like A Frisbee (8:52)
6 - Shpongleyes (8:56)
7 - Once Upon the Sea of Blissful Awareness (7:30)
8 - Around the World In A Tea Daze (11:21)
9 - Flute Fruit (2:09)
Review:
1. Dorset Perception - Starts off with sitars and percussion next. Already setting the mood to something uplifting. Next comes weird vocal samples and such that adds to the shpongleness. It all just naturally flows so well it's very pleasing to the ears. It's a very refreshing start since the first album. About halfway through the song, Michele Adamson comes in with her beautiful voice and it just seals the deal in a nicely wrapped present.
2. Star Shpongled Banner - Fades in from the first track as if it's the same song but you still notice the transition. Random vocal samples briefly put in before the bass and the melody kick in. A fair bit slower than Dorset. There is a guy talking about his most profound experience, you know? You are entranced by the melody and the flute parts. Eventually there is more vocals talking singing about mental extensions or something of the sort for a little bit. Then the song picks up a bit for a faster pace. What sounds a little bit like steel drums eventually gets louder and louder as it's frequency gets sweeped near the end of it. Then it all comes together again to blossom into something awesome.
3. A New Way To Say "Hooray!" - Goes straight from the previous track into some high pitch whistling and synths with some tribal noises. Then McKenna sample comes in (at least I think it's McKenna): "So let us assume you take third toke. Loonnng and sloowww. You vaporiiizzee. And you take it in and in and in. And there is a sound, uh, like the crumbling of a plastic bread wrapper. Or the crackling of the plane [not sure about that part] and atone... a nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNnnnnnn and there is this..." If you know what I'm talking about, you like the nnnn part too. At this point, the bass and the beat come in that I love about this song. "There is a cheer. The gnomes have found a new way to say HhooooooooooorrrrraaaaaYYYyYYyYyyYyYyYyY". In comes the vocals which make it more awesome. "These walls, such they be, are crawling with geometric hallucinations." Cues the flute and makes it beautiful and complete. God I love this song. More McKenna samples. "What arrests my attention, is the fact that this space is inhabited...". The sound of water running. "And so like jeweled, self dribbling basketballs, these things come running forward... and what they are doing with this visible language that they create... is they're making gifts... making gifts, for you. And they will say [some weirdo jabbering]". Then it starts transitioning into the next song.
4. Room 2ૐ - Starts off with vocal samples echoing back and forth. You can here shpongle a few times in there. The song starts off kind of weird but completely dishdunkenflaut. Some weird sounds and then breaks forth into a great melody with kids singing. Add in great flute part and you got a great song. Very profound, in my opinion. Then again, all of the songs on this album are profound in their own way. Eventually you hear again moaning then saying: "everything tingles"...
5. My Head Feels Like A Frisbee - Starts off with vocal samples of the title of the song in them. Sweeping the sample a bit. Then grows into a somewhat bouncy toon with the flute and other instruments to make it feel a little jazzy as well. Eventually the beat changes with vocal samples thrown in here and there. It all builds up together and quickens for a little bit then back into more of the jazzy feel near the middle of the song with trumpets and saxophones and female vocals (maybe Adamson again). Ends with vocals samples from the beginning with crickets and such and transitions into the next song.
6. Shpongleyes - Starts off kind of slow and weird, but grows into interesting. Beat begins and starts off with something that sounds like a tuba. Enter in more melody. Definitely a bit weirder than the other tracks (if that is possible in the first place). It has a slower pace than the other songs and is a little bit more laid back as well. "This is, uh, no offense but... you are a robot, aren't you?". Mysterious sounds and interesting ensue. Eventually it starts fading out and transitioning to the next.
7. Once Upon the Sea of Blissful Awareness - Flows slowly from the last track. It is nice and calm. Keyboard and synths adding sparingly. Nice flowing sound, kind of like drifting on water. Bass comes in and picks up the beat. Enter in Adamson, beautiful as ever. Interchange vocals with synth sounding sound for the melody a couple of times.
8. Around the World In A Tea Daze - Starts off with acoustic guitar rhythms and a vocal sample repeating itself. Then jumps into the main body but gradually builds up to awesomeness with sweeping of some rhythms and such. Then tones down a little with some more beats before entering the flute part; which is nicely done. Then comes in Abigail Gorton who is a wonderful vocalist. This song is like it's own mini opera in a way. It's no short of 11 minutes of pure epic win.
9. Flute Fruit - Ends the album with a soothing yet ominous flute part. Very inspiring in it's own way even though it's the shortest track on the album.
Overall Grade: A++
This is most likely the best album out of all the Shpongle albums thus far. There's no question in my mind. It encompasses so much detail, flow, and psychedelia that it's mind blowing when you first experience this album. I might sound like a total fanboy but Posford and Ram definitely deserve it for this album. Everyone should have it if they don't already.
If you've seen Fullmetal Alchemist. Then you know what I'm talking about.
If you post here, don't spoil the rest of the show for me, please.
Anyway, I don't think I've cried so hard watching an anime/tv show and afterward. And then watch the episode again and cried through it... in like... ever.
I don't even know why that it hit me so hard. Maybe it's because I haven't had a good burst of emotion in awhile. I don't know. Something just clicked in and all there was is sadness for Hughes and his family. Poor Alicia!! She hasn't come to terms yet, she is too young!
I think what got me most was that Ed, Al, and Winry were talking about him and his family on the train ride. Then Ed sees him waving goodbye. OH!! THE SADNESS!!
After much time away from my computer when it was down because of the virus crap, I've been staying up later and later ever since I got my computer working again.
I go through cycles of about a month or so where I will stay up late and eventually screw up my body clock enough that it somewhat resets.
I need to get this settled somehow. I can't be staying up all night when having classes the next morning. Although, now I schedule my classes to start at 10 and no earlier, but still, I can't be staying up at all hours doing whatever.
Every time I try impose a curfew on myself, it just doesn't work. I just end up making excuses to stay up and just stay up anyway. There has to be a way to get myself to sleep earlier...
I feel like every time I have some ideas that I want to do something in the near future or down the road, I don't follow through. It seems like I can't follow through on anything in my life.
Can't follow through on getting a job.
Can't follow through on good study habits.
Can't follow through even on little sh!t.
Can't follow through on finish books for pastime.
The only things I that I seem to do follow through on is getting on my computer and posting on the internet and listen to music. Which eventually bores the hell out of me if there's nothing interesting to do. Go figure.
I feel trapped inside a box or a ball or something and I can't get out of it since there's no seams, no knobs, no hitches, not anything. And it's driving me insane.
Here are some ideas that I have but I never dwell on them for very long...
Writing a fantasy/sci-fi novel
Drawing a comic or pretty much anything.
Study a certain topic of interest and share my thoughts about it. (Well, depends on the topic I guess.)
Basically anything that involves creativity, I'm at a loss.
I makes me want to smash something. It makes me want to shout. It makes me want to DO something but I end up just sitting here... at my computer... staring confoundedly at the screen. I am in a state of lethargic paralysis.
Have you ever had the feeling or urge to spout off nonsensical sentence fragments that absolutely result in nothing gained/learned?
I do.
Sometimes I feel like I can write a fantastic best selling novel only then I remember that I'm pretty low on ideas for actual content for plot and story development. As if to creature my own little universe but there would be nothing in it but blank pages and internets connected to nothing. Is that some kind of torture? To blatantly fail to express oneself in a way where people would actually give a crap. I try to force upstream against the never ending monotonous tide of mediocrity and crass stupidity! But the current always quickens. There is no hope for the likes of me to survive in this not-outside-the-box world. My only hope is to join what I cannot defeat. Wherein the age of information and technology so closely wed to each other that they already started fighting after the honeymoon. The ache of those who care vastly decreased in modern times as these.
Then again, there is a slight chance that I can actually succeed in gathering my thoughts long enough to write down a comprehensible rough draft of lives yet to be told fictionally. Perhaps I need to exercise my capacity to pontificate words of meaning. Such verbose that Stephen King would (sparingly) give me a medal for my valiant if somewhat vague effort in doing so.
Computer was invaded by a virus. Tried everything to get rid of it but nothing short of wiping my hard drive worked.
Now that I have done so, I can't seem to get the internet to work on it. Hard wire is plugged in right, but it doesn't recognize any connection. It's frustrating.
Other than that situation, I'm back in school full time. So far it's going pretty good. But I can't afford to get lazy.
Also got my first speeding ticket the other week. I sped up in a school zone (because I forgot that there's a kindergarten right next to the middle school damnit) and got the ticket in the mail. They wan 580 bucks out of me. Great. Posted for a hearing. Haven't gotten anything in the mail about that yet. *sigh*
Haven't played magic in a year or so now. But I seem to be still gravitated to this site to look at what's new and what's going on anyway. I guess maybe it's because I want to play again some time. But since I've played, I moved to a different college and now I don't know anybody that plays magic there. So yeah. It kinda sucks but I'm not worried about it. I could always redownload MWS again if I can get my computer to work.
I'm typing this on my sister's computer btw. So... yeah. Just wanted to post something I guess.