Rule 32: Enjoy the little things in life.

Sorry I haven’t posted recently, been busy. New job, new games, new dog. That’s right, recently I got a new corgi. She’s 8 weeks old named Reilly. Here are some pics!

Happy Independence Day from Quinn & theindiegeek! Keep hope alive, your morals high, and your fingers un-blown-off!

Went to a Maps & Atlases show last night at Blackbird Cafe in downtown Valparaiso. Apparently it was a surprise show. I had found out about it only the day prior. Still, there were about thirty-forty people, pretty good turnout for short notice and a coffeehouse. I have to say, I really really enjoyed myself. The band was great, atmosphere was fun and receptive, and with good friends around, it was one of best nights I’ve had recently.

I had listened to Maps & Atlases a bit before, not enough to recognize song names, but enough to appreciate and enjoy their sound.  They’re kind of like Vampire Weekend meets Kings of Leon with a touch of the Decemberists thrown in. Now that that’s sufficiently vague, just let it be known Maps & Atlases have a fun-to-listen-to sound that’s very melodic and percussive. Very fine indie rock.

I arrived at Blackbird Cafe (formerly Anneliesje’s) shortly before 7, when the show was supposed to start. I must have been mistaken, 7 was when they started setting up, didn’t actually start playing until about 8:20. No big deal, really though. Gave me time to hang out and catch up with some friends. M&A played for almost and hour an a half, and then we spent a half hour after that hanging out until management kicked us out. A fun night.

I love coffeehouses, I really do. Which makes it amusing that I don’t actually drink coffee. But I love the atmosphere. There’s just something about the relaxed, laid back atmospheres of coffeehouses that I love. Also, coffeehouses generally have open stages and other live music, which I love. There’s really nothing like a good live show to get the blood flowing. It’s just two of those things that go together well; coffeehouses and indie music, peanut butter and jelly, dog hair and my car. Just not gonna find one without the other.

The band was there promoting their new album, Perch Patchwork, which I purchased as my entry fee to the show. Now, if you work for a radio station and heard the album weeks ago, no big deal, but I had yet to hear their new album and was thusly pretty excited. Listened to it on the ride back and was not disappointed. A very good album. A little short, clocking in at just under forty minutes, but it’s quality stuff. A recommended pick up.

As much as I loved the album, they were even better live. They had an intensity that was just a blast to watch and listen to. Really good stuff. You could tell the band was enjoying themselves. They had a lot of good riffs that just came off really well, and the percussion was great. Just a really good show. Do plan on seeing them again.

All in all, just a fun night. Great times, great friends, and a great band. What more could one ask for from a Friday night?

PS: Thanks to Katie for the pictures. Her phototaking skills are much better than what I could muster up.

Writer’s Block is a pain. Whether you’re a blogger, famous writer, or college student at 4AM, getting stuck on what words to say is never fun. It’s even worse when your name is Alan Wake. Cause then you’ve got hordes of not-quite-human-beings to take care of, the darkness literally wants to suck you under, there’s a evil woman whispering words in your ear, and your wife’s been kidnapped. Some days it’s not worth putting pen to paper.

Alan Wake is a game from the same people who brought forth the magnificent Max Payne 1 & 2. And you can kinda see the influence. Alan looks and moves a bit like Max, though their similarities end there. Where Max is a hardened cop, Alan is an ordinary writer, like Stephen King or Jim Butcher. In fact, the game opens with a quote from King, which sets the tone nicely. The makers to a good job of working hard to make the game play like a Stephen King novel. Alan narrates the story, and the world is definitely at home in a King novel. While I wouldn’t say it’s scary, it’s a bit creepy, which is good. Actually wouldn’t have minded a bit more on the fear side.

The story is the real highlight of the game. A real fantastic tale of Alan basically figuring what the hell’s going on and what he’s to do about it and how he’s going to rescue his wife from the darkness that seems to be consuming all around him. There’s enough clever twists and turns to keep you hooked, especially with the episodic setup. The game is divided into six chapters, each with its own ‘Last Time on Alan Wake…’, and cliffhanger ending. Gives the game a nice feel. Although the chapters are a bit long. They’re just a little too long to do in one sitting. I would rather have more, shorter chapters, but that’s just a minor complaint. The story is quite excellent.

One thing with thrillers, is does the story make sense as a whole? With Alan Wake, the answer is yes and no. You can get a general sense of what’s going on, but they don’t give you everything. If you make conjectures and best guesses, you can figure it out, but that’s open to interpretation, there’s no one unified Alan Wake Theory. But there’s enough explained. Tying the story directly into the gameplay is one of the more unique collectibles I’ve seen in a game. Along the way, you find pages of a novel that Alan’s written, but doesn’t remember when. What’s more is what’s written on the pages comes true. Really quite awesome, and adds a lot to the atmosphere and keeps you looking out for pages.

The gameplay is pretty fun. Most of the game involves Alan running around at night, escaping Taken (the darkness filled people and monsters, not the Liam Neeson movie), and possessed farm equipment and other dark things. To kill the Taken first you need to burn away the darkness with your flashlight, flare, car lights, or any other sources of light (see: Rock Concert). Then you can use your guns to finish it off. It’s a pretty neat mechanic I rather enjoyed. Just don’t run out of batteries. Alan’s also able to cinematically dodge attacks if you time it right. These look pretty awesome and are very useful.

The music is quite excellent, and I was extremely happy to see the return of Poets of the Fall. They wrote the song “Late Goodbye” for Max Payne 2, a very excellent song, and their music is featured twice in the game. At one point, a record with a song of theirs is a clue for what Alan needs to do next. Also, at one point while navigated through some woods, Wake comes across a shack with a radio. Turning it on, starts playing one of their songs. At that moment, Wake is attacked and a battle ensues, all the while the song plays in the background. A truly great moment in the game, I wish there were more like it.

I usually think Collector’s editions are a waste of money. Just give me the damn game. But the Alan Wake Collector’s Edition is very neat actually. The game is packaged to look like a book, and it contains a book about Bright Falls (the town in the game) and more about Wake. Also included are the soundtrack and a Bonus Features disc with more from the game devs about the game. Neat stuff. I recommend it, if you can snag a copy.

Alan Wake is a very neat game, and you really should play it, at least once for the story. It’s not terribly long, about 8-10 hours, depending how long you take exploring, and is worth your time. Take a look, you might like what you find.

Love it or hate it, the Dynasty Warriors series has been around for quite a while, and it probably isn’t going anywhere soon. I find myself in the former category. While I’ll admit the series has its faults (namely the lack of change), there’s something about mindlessly slaughtering hundreds of troops in a few minutes with nothing more than a spear and an over the top moveset. Throw in co-op, and you’ve got a recipe for some good fun. A recipe that hasn’t actually changed much. Ever. But even with just minor changes from game to game, it’s still quite fun.

Believe it or not, Dynasty Warriors actually has a historical setting, and the characters you play as were actual people. Set during the Three Kingdoms Era of Chinese history (roughly 180-290 AD), during which, three kingdoms, Wei, Shu, and Wu were battling for domination of China. Constantly warring. This inspired the great historical epic Romance of the Three Kingdoms (similar to Homer’s Illiad). Dynasty Warriors was based directly upon this epic.

Now, recently released on DVD and Blu-ray was a movie by John Woo (famous for Hardboiled and other Hong Kong action movies) entitled Red Cliffm which in Chinese is Chi Bi. Any Dynasty Warriors fan should instantly recognize the name. It was a very important battle and generally the midway point in DW. In the battle, the much smaller armies of Wu and Shu ally to defeat the much greater and powerful Wei through means of tactics, trickery, and having awesome generals. That’s oversimplifying it, but its the gist. The movie starts a bit before (Chang Ban) and shows the developing alliance and ends with the titular battle. Now, that’s all well and good, but does the movie entertain?

In a word, yes. In two words, hell yes. Filled with action as only the master John Woo can do, it’s a great war movie with spectacular battle scenes. As a fan of Dynasty Warriors, it was with great glee seeing some of my favorite characters portrayed. Tony Leung did a fantastic job and Zhou Yu, a favorite character of mine, and the general tactician for the battle at Chi Bi.  Also appearing are Zhuge Liang, Gan Ning, Sun Quan, Xiao Qiao, Sun Shang Xiang ,Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Cao Cao and more. So while it’s not everyone we’d like to see, it’s still a damn fine list. And the characters really do look their part. Quite excellent.

It’s important to note there are two versions of the movie, the Theatrical version and the International version. See, Red Cliff was originally released in two parts, but Woo shortened it for American release and so it could be viewed in a single sitting. My advice? I watched the Theatrical, loved it, and ordered the International Blu-ray. I advise you do the same. Watch the shorter one, see if you like it, then go order the full one.

I started out with Dynasty Warriors 2 on the PS2, and I was blown away. Had so much fun playing it. I then played all from 4 on, all the way through 6 Empires (4, 4 Xtreme Legends, 4 Empires, 5, 5 Xtreme….) including Samurai and Gundam Warriors and Orochi. Granted each are basically the same with a few small to medium differences, but they’re still fun, and the small changes are enough for die hards like myself. I’d like to make special note of the Empires and Orochi games. The Empires games play like a lite version of Risk and have always been quite fun. The Orochi games are crossovers between Dynasty and Samurai games, and instead of controlling a single character, you set up a team of three you can rotate on the fly, and there’s special team attacks, kind of like Marvel VS Capcom. Fun.

The Dynasty Warriors

The Dynasty Warriors games have always been about over the top action, cool characters and hacking and slashing and slashing and hacking. Red Cliff is an excellent war movie depicting one of the most exciting battles from the era. I highly recommend both.

–theindiegeek.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had a few requests, as I do my best to fulfill ‘em. First up is Kris, with a request for Death Cab for Cutie’s song “Different Names for the Same Thing”. I had some fun working out a solo arrangement of this one.

Different Names for the Same Thing

The next two were responses to my Raw Improv Post. Josh wanted a cleaner version of the E minor blues improv. As I found out, it’s hard to repeat what you do on accident, but I did my better and made a new, cleaner version from the same creative stream.

E minor blues

Lastly, Nichole wanted an improv as follow: “B Flat Minor…Make it eerie! Strings!”. I do my best to accommodate.

B Flat Minor Raw Improv

So, if you’ve got a song you want to hear, or a improv you want me to try, let me know! email me at greg AT theindiegeek.net, leave a comment, or find me on twitter.

Lastly, this is for you, dear and faithful reader/listener:

Goodnight, F#m.

–theindiegeek out.

Quick question for you, what would you do if you were in the following scenario: Necromancers are raining down chaos and destruction and other generally bad things down upon Chicago, there’s hordes of zombies filling the streets, the good guys are on the verge of defeat, and there’s a good chance one of the previously mentioned necromancers is liable to attain dark god-hood before the night’s up. Personally, I’d probably scream like a little girl and run away flailing my hands in the air like a twilight fan at a midnight showing. But then again, I’m not Harry Dresden. Though I wish I was.

Harry Dresden

This is the exact scenario Harry Dresden, hero of the Dresden Files find himself in in Book 7, Dead Beat. Necromancers on the rise, hordes of zombies, chances of survival slimming. No problem. Harry finds himself needing to cross Chicago to rendezvous with his allies, but there are hordes of zombies between him and them. Inside of Chicago’s Field Museum, he looks for something he can use, anything that can aid him in the fight at hand. He looks around for a bit, then he sees it. Specifically, he  sees this:

For those of you who don’t recognize this fine piece of ancient history, her name is Sue. She’s the most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton found to date. And those are her actual bones, not replicas. She’s on display prominently in the Field Museum. With more than a bit of magic, Harry brings her back to life. Now, something important to note: in Dresden’s world, when bringing things back to life, the older the better. Why, you ask? Because the older something is, the more magic you can put into it, consequently making it more powerful. Now, note that Sue is approximately 65 million years old. Yeah, this is gonna be awesome.

So Harry brings Sue back to life. What happens next is exactly what you think. Angry, magic-filled, ancient, ginormous, T-Rex VS a few paltry zombies. Yes. Zombicide ensues. And it is awesome and glorious. Sheer carnage. One of the most awesome things I’ve read recently.

This is why you should read The Dresden Files.

Took Quinn to the Dunes today, and guess what? He can swim! It was pretty exciting. Enjoy the pictures!

So I’ve been working on my improv skills lately. Just messing around a bit and seeing what I could come up with. So what I did was pick a key, style and voicing and recorded what came out. No practice before hand, just a few seconds to find a key and voicing that sounded cool, and I went with it. They aren’t perfect and the quality ain’t the best, but that’s part of the fun and the charm.

Key: A Major
Voicing: Synth
Style: Disney World Melodic

A Major Raw Improv

Key: E minor
Voicing: Straight Piano
Style: Blues

E Minor Raw Improv

Key: E flat minor
Voicing: Rhodes
Style: Jazzy

E Flat Minor Raw

Now, I would like your help. Request an improve by telling me what Key, Voicing, and Style (like above). Also, feel free to include special instructions, like ‘make it sound like such and such song’ or ‘include a C# chord’ etc. Have fun, challenge me, and I’ll do my best to accommodate.

–theindiegeek

For your viewing pleasure, here are some pictures of Quinn.  Mostly at the Dunes, our backyard, and the bathtub. In the pictures besides Quinn are myself and my two sisters. Enjoy!