25Feb2008 2000: East Fargo

I hate going to Moorhead. Since I only have cause to go there maybe once a year I am absolute pants at navigating, and since this annual trip is usually some sort of retail last resort I never plan it out properly. My latest failure was last night; Fargo's Target was sold out of Left 4 Dead but I was not about to let a 33% discount on a game about surviving a zombie apocalypse pass me by. I figured hey, let's try the Moorhead Target, because who the hell goes to Moorhead anyway?

If you don't live in the area, what are you doing on this site you may want to keep that map I linked open for this next part. I got down to Main Ave in Fargo because all I knew for sure was that the Moorhead commercial district was on highway 10. Well that's okay, except that 10 moves one block north shortly after entering Moorhead.

I figured that out pretty quick. Minimal cursing. But if you squint at the map you'll see that Main Ave (where I was) and Center Ave (where I needed to be) are separated not just by a single city block, but also a train track for their entire length. This is a critical design flaw that should be addressed in the next version. Not only was I on the wrong street, but a slow-moving steel wall kept me from moving to the correct street. And if it had been on the track that goes straight east-west I could have taken the 21st street underpass, but no. This train was on the track that curves alongside Main Ave and slices through the intersection at point A.

All told it took me about thirty minutes longer to get to Target than it should, but I used less than $20 in gas so I still came out ahead. Of course, their Target had a full rack of Left 4 Dead, because who the hell goes to Moorhead anyway?

[Melina Leon - No Seas Cobarde] opens with some soft Latin rhythms and then gets into a pounding Latin chorus and just basically hits all the corrent Latin pop notes that I don't care about.

[Fever Ray - If I Had a Heart]... wtf is this shit? It took me a minute to realize that the song had probably started, so I turned up my volume and was just barely able to make out some chanting underneath a fuzzy bassline. And then there's a mansion full of dead people and some Mayan(?) spirits holding mirrors and a skeleton chick and...wtf is this shit? Labeled as "dance", iTunes? Really?

[Chunk of Change - Sleepyhead] would be a fairly standard dance tune (take note, iTunes: "dance") except that it breaks out both a falsetto and a chipmunk for the vocals. No, wait, I know what it sounds like. This (3:00 in) singing an electronic duet with this.

[K'naan - Bang Bang] tells the story of how he got shot by a woman, probably metaphorically. Sadly it didn't take, and he kept making rap albums.

18Feb2009 1823: Time Travel

I don't know if I was planning a subject for my post earlier today, because Raharu's late contribution clean blew everything else out of my mind. Behold: FAQ About Time Travel, starring some cute girl and that guy from IT Crowd. I desire to see this with every fiber of my being. Raharu STOP IT I'm not even done writing this post.

[Musiq Soulchild - If U Leave] has committed crimes against spelling and, if the video is to be believed, Mary J Blige. Express your distaste by ignoring him!

Do you like when a Latin guy stares deep into your soul and sings moving words of romance until your heart melts? Then you can have [Gianmarco - Hasta Que Vuelvas Conmigo]...a song which would be incredibly more interesting with one fewer "e".

[VOTA - Hard to Believe] wishes to turn your world around with slow-paced generic rock. I suppose that would be a direct 180 from my usual fare.

[The Last Vegas - I'm Bad] is here to rock your butts with their butt rock. You may vaguely remember them as a bonus track on Guitar Hero 2. Do you like to rock and perhaps party all night? Then this is your track.

11Feb2009 1847: Spring

Spring has sprung in Fargo. It's been a balmy 30+ for a few days now, snowbanks are melting, and there is a strange liquid form of precipitation everywhere. Time to turn off the heat!

It has finally arrived and it is everything I could hope for. Workmanlike fantasy manga is interspersed with more textbook-like questions and examples. Will Princess Ruruna organize her country's fruit exports in time for...whatever? With the help of Tico, the database fairy, she certainly will! I bought this mainly to reward the concept, but it seems the concept is doing well without me.

Sometimes the Netflix giveth, and sometimes it taketh away.

Tonight is night 156, if you've been playing along at home.

This week's video is [Year Long Disaster - Leda Atomica], an unapologetic foray into the rockingest butt rock this decade can offer. The entire video is a grade-school notebook doodle come to life. By their powers combined I can't exactly recommend it, but it's fun to watch once.

[Mishka - Above the Bones] is the slowest reggae I've ever heard. Which means it's a reggae song that lasts forever god.

[Daniel Santacruz - If I Give You My Love] starts singing something romantic at a frantic pace and doesn't stop for anything but a bouncy guitar bridge. The title is not the only English contained within, either: Daniel is willing to use whatever language gets his point across the fastest, that point being Valentine's Day.

[The Foreign Exchange - Take Off the Blues] has something to say, baby, and you got to give it a chance, baby, oh yeah. Come a little closer, and such. I guess this is the one week a year that "R&B" gets to outshine "rap". Let them have their little boy-harmonized lovefest and next week we'll get back to what really matters: rabbits with rifles.

06Feb2009 1817: Metronomy

HAHAHAHA oh god I just upgraded iTunes and watched the free video: [Metronomy - A Thing For Me]. This just became one of my favorite music videos ever made.

Also I broke my own link to the skate video below; I tried to remake it with a better camera angle, not suspecting that the very act of rendering the video would mess up my tripod shot. This is updated with the new video anyway...I'll keep trying.

04Feb2009 1938: Skatezing

It is official: skate 2 is the first game in a long while to get the entire multiplayer crew on the same page. It has gripped me personally like some sort of anthropomorphized Burnout Paradise, I spend hours just trying to hit a spot perfectly. And making videos. I trust you all will know when to whistle Dixie like the General Lee.

Aside from skate...there is nothing aside from skate. I spent Saturday jumping off the Hollywood San Vanelona sign and breaking my bones in creative ways. I spent Sunday challenging pro skaters to their insipid training challenges. Every night involves at least a few 100mph runs down the surface of the dam. Last time I liked a game this much I had to lend it out to stop playing.

The video this week wants me to upgrade iTunes, which I will do eventually but not on a deadline like this. I was about to write off [Novalima - Camote] entirely but I guess it's a song about sweet potatos? I can get behind that. Every language and culture celebrates the sweet potato. Otherwise it's standard Latin music.

[Alela Diane - Dry Grass & Shadows] is labeled as "folk" but do not be fooled. Her warbling voice and steel guitar put this quite firmly in "country" territory, and boy does it get on my nerves.