I don’t want the world (I just want your half)

I’m not going to do a post on They Might Be Giants because it would be a ginormous undertaking.  They are, after all, my all-time favorite band.  However, I will do a post on my favorite song of theirs: Ana Ng.

I’ve read several renditions of the story behind the song, but the one that I believe the most was that the Johns were reading through the telephone directory in New York and happened to notice an abundance of listings for “Ana Ng.”  After that, they followed through with a story about a soul mate on the opposite side of the world who the speaker may or may not ever meet.

The song is set at the 1964 World’s Fair which was held in New York City (which TMBG co-founder, John Linnell, attended as a child).  You can see several references to this in the lyrics: “All alone at the ‘64 World’s Fair”, “Eighty dolls yelling ‘Small girl after all’”, and “Who was at the Dupont Pavilion?”  However, the best lyrics are those that describe the distance between the two characters:

Make a hole with a gun perpendicular
To the name of this town in a desk-top globe
Exit wound in a foreign nation
Showing the home of the one this was written for
My apartment looks upside down from there
Water spirals the wrong way out the sink
And her voice is a backwards record
It’s like a whirlpool and it never ends

Really, the imagery is pretty incredible.  It’s so easy to see the gun pointed at the globe shooting a bullet through NYC and coming out somewhere in Southeast Asia (relevance for me is completely obvious–although it’s most likely a reference to Vietnam and not Singapore…).  The globe is the key prop in the story.  Without it for reference, it would be hard to imagine somebody on one side of the world seeing an upside-down apartment on the other… or why the water would seem to spiral the wrong way out the sink.

The “relationship” between the speaker and their estranged soul-mate is pretty clear throughout the song in the chorus:

Ana Ng and I are getting old
And we still haven’t walked in the glow of each other’s majestic presence
Listen Ana hear my words
They’re the ones you would think I would say if there was a me for you

The part that’s always confused me, however, is the section just before the bridge where a voice on the telephone calls out:

“I don’t want the world, I just want your half”

Given the specifics of the story, what does that actually mean?  I like to think that it’s the usual TMBG quirkiness where, given that there are only two people in the story, the only other half must belong to the speaker (and, therefore, they would be acquiring the missing half).  I’m not exactly sure about this, however.  Regardless, it still sends chills down my spine when I hear it.

Speaking of hearing… the music is pretty awesome as well.  Sure, it’s nothing spectacular in its complexity–but what a great hook the main part is (you know, the part that goes “bum-ba-bum bum ba-bum-bum bum-bum).  Yes, yes, it’s all done electronically in classic TMBG style, but it’s a great rigidity next to the human element in the lyrics.  Furthermore, the swell up to the bridge always grabs me and prepares me for John’s emotive section that follows.

Finally, the song really is a fantastic opener.  It’s full of great pop hooks and it contrasts perfectly with the next track, Cowtown, which is a silly song about manatees that takes much more from TMBG’s avant-garde side.

All-in-all, it’s an absurd little song that strays a bit from TMBG’s usual pattern of playful artsy-pop to become a bit more emotionally meaningful.  The music is great and gets stuck in your head very easily, and the lyrics are fantastic in-and-of themselves.

I leave you with the most necessary video of all videos:  Tiny Toons set to TMBG’s “Particle Man.”

Not quite Tower Defense

You may recall a post I did some time ago about my favorite genre of flash games: Tower Defense.  Well, today I have a treat for you that will remind you of those games somewhat, while really being part of another genre entirely.  Moreover, it is just as addictive as any good TD game.

I present to you…

Bowmaster Prelude

While this game does share a couple features with other TD games (towers, obviously, as well as waves of creeps), it fits more closely in with games of the Survival genre.  Some other examples of this type are Last Stand (2), Balloon Invasion, and Turret Defense (2).

The defining feature of Survival games is the manual control of one “turret” which can come in many forms (including a human).  While TD relies a bit more on strategic placement of towers which shoot based on AI, Survival games require you to aim and shoot with your own skill.  A little less brain, a little more brawn.

These games range in complexity.  Turret Defense 2, for example, is fairly simple in that you have your main gun and one alternate fire (rockets).  You survive as long as possible based upon that.

I like to think that the genre evolved somewhat out of the classic Asteroids game.

Bowmaster Prelude, however, is a rather evolved Survival game.

The premise is rather simple: protect your flag from the oncoming creeps by shooting them with your castle-mounted ballista.  If the enemy creeps manage to capture your flag and bring it back to their own flag, you lose.  You win the round by defeating all the enemy creeps.

There are some intricacies, however.  You can upgrade your tower by buying special kinds of arrows (such as fire, ice, exploding, fragmentary…) as well as hire troops (infantry, archers, cavalry, trebuchet…) to defend your castle and/or try and steal the enemy’s flag.  While it might seem like troops are unnecessary at first, in later levels they become absolutely integral (as there are too many units for you to try and deal with by yourself).

Your enemy will also try and destroy your tower.  If they are successful, you can no longer use your ballista, but can only manage your troops.  If the enemy also manages to kill all your on-screen troops, you will lose the round.  This means that you have to worry about trebuchets that your enemy is building.

The terrain can sometimes prove difficult and require quite a bit of precision to get around (not to mention that flying units will cause you endless amounts of aiming frustration).

Micro-managing in this game can be a lot of fun because you need to choose the right units to use at different times, and you can only have a limited number of units on the screen at once.  I find that archers, priests, and trebuchets are the most universally helpful as melee units tend to get killed a little too quickly.

There will be blood.

One last merit that this game garners over many of the others is the manageable blood display.  You can choose how bloody you want your games to be.  This can be a lot of fun if you feel like bringing out your sadistic side.  It’s hard to feel empathy for tiny little flash characters, anyways.

Ok, that’s about it.  I’ll leave you with a video showing one of the later levels where you’re facing off against a giant monster as well as the tiny creeps.

Enjoy!

Henry Rollins vs. Glenn Danzig

This post draws its inspiration from a messageboard discussion on the same topic which I recently sifted through.  Now, I’m not a violent guy, but this is an amusing debate.

The question seems simple at first:  who would win in a fight?  Henry Rollins of Black Flag and the Rollins Band or Glenn Danzig of The Misfits and, well, Danzig.

However, when you really start to think about it, there are some pretty important distinctions to be made.  Are we talking about an early career fight?  Black Flag Rollins versus Misfits Danzig?  Let’s take a look at some early videos for comparison:

In interviews:

In concert:

(pardon the poor recording quality, but we’re looking for violent behavior here, not musical quality)

Obviously they both had a tendency towards violence while performing, but Rollins seems to be more on the aggressive side when it comes to interviews and personal interaction.  This leads me to believe that Rollins would be more likely to instigate a fight.  However, Rollins also seems to be a little more contemplative and less of a “loose cannon” than Danzig.  My guess is that if Danzig had been getting smacked and hit by fans like Rollins was in that first video, he would’ve retaliated immediately.  Rollins takes the hits for a while, seemingly letting the rage build up before he unleashes.

My guess is that early Rollins would thrash early Danzig as Danzig would just wear himself out before Rollins even began to fight back.

The next step, obviously, would be to ask “well, what about a fight in their later lives?”  Let’s do a similar video comparison of the two:

…and “performing”:

Regardless of the change in musical styles; regardless of the change in fan-base; regardless of the fact that he got flat knocked out… Danzig still seems to have a certain aggression about him that would lend itself to instigating (obviously) and probably succeeding in a brawl.  He’s also beefed up a bit since his Misfits days.  While Rollins still has that contemplative, brooding attitude about him, he’s gone the way of the book much moreso than Danzig.  I believe that elder Danzig would probably whipe the floor with elder Rollins.

Either way, younger Rollins would give both younger and elder Danzig a real beating.

But what if Danzig were to have become more bookish in his old age?  Well, I’ll let this last video do the talking.

“Mother…”

The Fountainhead: An old debate revisited

I just finished reading a book I’d been putting off for years.  Partly because of its exorbitant length, but also because I have a tendency to purposefully neglect books that are commonly espoused as “must-read-classics.”  Yes, I can be that stubborn.

I finally caved in a few months ago, however.

I have a tradition of buying a new book every time I go downtown with my Social Psych students as they work on their experiments for their first assignment.  I went into the bookstore and saw this one cradling the barrier between the Fiction and Philosophy sections.  I thought to myself, “Well, I guess it’s time.”

Anyways, I’m glad to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed this book despite my stubborn anti-snobbism (which is really just being a snob myself).  It was refreshing to read a book that was so rigidly structured and purposeful.  Most of the modern fiction that you’ll read (and I’m guilty of writing in this style myself) feels a little too… natural?  Not to say that this is a bad thing, of course, just that “classic” literature tends to feel like there is more deliberate content in its prose.  If there was ever a novel that felt deliberate, this is the one.

Collectivism versus Individualism

Be prepared to be hit over the head by the end of the novel.  It can get very preachy.  Don’t let that dissuade you, however–the preachiness is very convincing.  If you’re coming into the novel with a background full of socialistic ideals and collectivism (as I was), be warned that this novel will challenge you more than most.  It is a novel that praises rugged individualism like I’ve never encountered in my life.

This debate is one that’s very dear to my heart and invades almost every aspect of my life (for reference, see my post on Punk Rock).

Since I began to consider politics and economics (read: high school and college days) I’ve always leaned towards the left; often-times the extreme left.  This continuum is interwined, I believe, with those of Idealism versus Realism and Subjectivity versus Objectivity.  The more I grow up (ha!) I find that these extremes are never really the answer.

The extreme left in politics isn’t practical and ends up being inefficient, while the extreme right neglects the human element and increases economic disparity.

Idealism can be argued for both sides of the political spectrum with realism existing somewhere in the center.

I find that things are less relative than we’ve always liked to think.  No matter how special and unique we like to think we are, there is an objective world out there (we can get into Skepticism at another time, perhaps).  This allows quality, integrity, and judgment to exist.  This is why it is ridiculous to say, “Well, I like ______ so I think it’s good.”  Goodness is an objective description based upon certain criteria.  Things have infinite forms of “likeability,” but that doesn’t make them “good.”  We cannot discount the effect of perception, however, as it is important to understanding ourselves and those around us.

The Fountainhead, however, is an exercise in extremes.  It will challenge you on all of these aspects.  It promotes extreme Individualism (read: the political right… although this is debatable) to counterract extreme Collectivism (read: the political left).  It promotes extreme Idealism over extreme Realism.  It promotes extreme Objectivity over extreme Subjectivity.  Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism is rampant throughout the novel, but there are specific moments where it really does feel like you’re being beaten into submission.  In the best possible way.

Extremism is fun to dabble in.  It’s much more exciting than moderation.  Reality will always try to pull you back to the middle, in my experience.

Anyways, definitely give this novel a shot.  The story itself is a pretty good read .  If nothing else, it’s good to challenge your views in order to find yourself wrong or to strengthen them even further.

Punk is dead. Long live Punk!

Punk Rock is one of the most mixed-up, splintered, intangible, idealistic, over-sold and over-argued genres to come out of Rock ‘N Roll since… well… Rock ‘N Roll.  It’s also one of my favorites; I grew up on the post-Green Day revival of the 90s.

PUNK’S NOT DEAD!  RIGHT?

“Punk’s Not Dead” is a maxim that kids have been using since the early 90s.  Well, at least that’s first time I ever heard it (generally associated with Kurt Cobain’s usage of the term).  I’m not going to get into the argument of where, when, why, or how Punk Rock was born… that could encompass numerous future blog posts.  What I want to discuss here is its survivability.

Generally, while avoiding a specific date, we can agree that Punk Rock (as we commonly describe it) came about in the mid 70s.  There are a few clear immediate influences in sound: MC5, The Stooges, and Television.  The Velvet Underground is the most clear influence on the ideology, and The New York Dolls (while still showing a clear attachment to Glam Rock) helped to establish a reactionary precedent for the “appearance” of Punk Rock.

As I mentioned earlier, however, Punk Rock has splintered into more sub-genres and has had more incarnations than I care to recount.  As a result we cannot say that the sound of classic Punk Rock has much survivability.

The style of Punk Rock changed along with the sub-genres as well as with mainstream fashion trends.  Bondage was a mainstay in the 70s, then Oi! took over and skinhead stylings became more common.  Post-Punk brought hair back into style, and Hardcore modified that to bring in the mohawk.  90s Punk Revival borrowed a lot from the surfer look as well as the body modification that was so popular with the classic bondage look.  Style cannot be a reason for Punk’s consistent reappearance either.

However, the ideology of Punk Rock is a common element between the sound and the fashion that we associate with Punk.

DO IT YOURSELF

One of the most confusing and contradictory sentiments to come out of Punk Rock is that of DIY.  The idea behind the music is that it’s for the common man.  It’s for everybody.  There are three chords.  Anybody can pick up a guitar and write a punk song.  The drummer can be blackout drunk and as long as somebody can yell out “1, 2, 3, 4!” at the beginning of each song, he can keep beat.

However, DIY represents the ultimate in individual capability and separation from one’s peers.  Want to put out a record?  Do it yourself.  Paste fliers.  Play gigs in your mom’s garage.  Want some new clothes?  Do it yourself.  Patch up the holes with other clothes.  Whatever you do, don’t pay somebody else to do it for you.  Express your individuality in whatever way you see fit.  Reject the system.  Rebel.  React.  Anarchy as a punk philosophy was becoming a way of life.

Because of the inherent collective vs. individual contradiction, people were claiming that punk was dead a few years after it was born.  People were finding it very hard to continue to think for themselves.  They needed a model to follow.  Thus began The Sex Pistols rise to fame.

The DIY style eroded into a movement of Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious clones.  The embodiment of The Sex Pistols was reactionary style of every kind.  Leather and Bondage gear came into style (as mentioned above).  Music was short, violent, and espoused controversial themes and ideas.  This became so popular that the punk movement had to collapse in upon itself.  Punk could no longer be a rejection of the system or of true DIY aesthetic if “Never Mind the Bollocks” is topping the charts.

Punk is dead.

But then it was born again.  Hardcore was born out of the ashes of classic punk and remained a powerful force from the end of the 70s to the mid 80s.  Many people claim that this is the “true” punk because it was the most successful at maintaining the DIY philosophy that the 70s punks had corrupted.  It also maintained that anybody could start a band, and that the music should be no frills and no “wankery.”  The music was a collective force once again, with little distinction between the bands and the fans.

However, by the end of the 80s, this style had run its course.  The bands were unsatisfied with the musical limitations of Hardcore.  The violence of the shows was becoming an end rather than a means.  The music had to evolve or it would be come stagnant.  Now the first wave of Emo was to appear in order to discuss something other than politics and social reaction: feelings.

Punk is dead.

After a short break with Grunge, the 90s alternative scene saw the next revival of Punk Rock with pop-punk.  Green Day led the way.  The main difference here was that the sound was polished, clear (although distorted, obviously), and displayed individual talent.  The individual need for self expression had overtaken the collective need for accessibility.  However, pop-punk was more accessible than ever for the fans.

Alternative rock, not caring as much about rejecting any system, had paved the way for pop-punk’s mainstream success.  DIY wasn’t necessary because there wasn’t anything stopping you from getting a contract.  You could get radio airtime, high paid stadium gigs, new clothes whenever you wanted… The industry knew Punk Rock was coming back, and they were ready.  The underground had moved towards Indie Rock, some forms of Metal, and Noise Rock.  This is where DIY had made a new home.

In a sense, anybody could still form a pop-punk band, and, by the end of the 90s and the early 00s, they were.  Feeding off of the mainstream success of bands like Green Day, Blink 182, The Offspring, NOFX, and Pennywise you had bands that barely resembled punk at all: Sum 41& Something Corporate come to mind pretty easily.

Punk is dead.

Reacting against the early success of pop-punk and growing from the roots of its 80s predecessors, Emo had been forging a strong underground fan-base in the mid 90s.  At first, keeping with a certain DIY ethic (although now it had evolved into more of an “Independent” or “Indie” ethic), these bands were creating their own labels and signing like-minded bands.  Bands like Braid, The Get Up Kids, and Jimmy Eat World were some of the most popular and were often used as models for a new DIY fashion style: geek-chic.

However, this style was arguably more pioneered by Weezer than anybody else.

Regardless, the once individualistic, yet collectively accessible, style became popular in mainstream culture in the early 00s and all the bands were starting to sound the same.

Punk is dead.

The question is, then, why do we keep seeing this style being reborn again and again?  Why won’t it stay dead?  Who is going to reel in the new era of Punk Rock?

It’s being reborn because it’s a necessary struggle: individual vs. society, independence vs. collectivity.  Its a style that has no resolution because its battling itself.  It’s completely reactionary.  Music, like anything else in the world, is something we want to own; to have for ourselves and nobody else.  At the same time, we want to share it with everybody and relinquish our ownership.  Make it yours, but make it accessible.  This contradiction is inherent in Punk Rock.  Share it with everybody, but don’t lose yourself.  It’s the struggle of identity.

So long as you have a need for exclusivity and a reaction against the mainstream, you will always have Punk Rock.  Inevitably, it will always crash in upon itself and be reborn in another form.

Punk is dead.  Long live Punk!

The End is Nigh

If any of you are wondering what today’s Google logo is all about… just ask this guy:

But if you’re having trouble locating Professor Frink in your silly three-dimensional universe, I’ll go ahead and give you the low-down…

Eureka, we’ve done it!  The Large Hadron Collidor at CERN is now operational.

According to the BBC, experiments that will soon be conducted using the LHC will “re-create conditions in the Universe moments after the Big Bang.”

If you go to CERN’s website, they have some pretty interesting figures to throw out at you… such as:

The precise circumference of the LHC accelerator is 26 659 m, with a total of 9300 magnets inside. Not only is the LHC the world’s largest particle accelerator, just one-eighth of its cryogenic distribution system would qualify as the world’s largest fridge. All the magnets will be pre‑cooled to -193.2°C (80 K) using 10 080 tonnes of liquid nitrogen, before they are filled with nearly 60 tonnes of liquid helium to bring them down to -271.3°C (1.9 K).

A lot of those figures are mentioned in proportions that are so extreme that the measurements begin to lose meaning.  Twenty-six thousand meters, you say?  That’s a lot of meters!  How many magnets?  Nine-thousand?  What fun!  Ten-thousand tons of Liquid Nitrogen?  Sounds dangerous…ly awesome!

I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty cool.  I mean, if the world is to go the way of micro-black holes (as some radical cynics believe), this is the machine that I want to do it.

It sounds like it’s going to take several months before we have any concrete data to analyze, but count me in as one of the many nerds who are very excited to learn more about the origins of our universe.

I leave you with a cool video describing CERN and the LHC for those of you (like myself) who are too lazy to read about it.

Today’s Noise

Typically when we think of Noise Rock, we think of Sonic Youth.  They are, undoubtedly, the poster-boys for the genre.  Although more melodic than most of their songs, Teenage Riot is a good example if you’re unfamiliar with the sound.  Bull in the Heather is another pretty accessible song indicative of Sonic Youth’s dissonant style.  Alternatively, Hüsker Dü and The Jesus & Mary Chain are arguably more mainstream (or at least less experimental) versions of the 80s Noise Rock sound.  Both bands went on to have a huge influence on the Pop-Punk and Shoegaze genres (respectively).

However, if we consider dissonance and over-utilization of feedback as defining motifs for the genre, the sound was probably pioneered by the Velvet Underground with their songs “Heroin” and “Venus in Furs.”  In this case, the genre dates back to the 60s.

Coming back to the 90s, we see that Noise Rock has gone the way of all sub-genres of Rock’N'Roll: it has splintered further into more distinctive sub-genres.  Leading the Shoegaze movement, you have My Bloody Valentine with their lush yet abrasive, super-distorted style.  Math Rock was being defined by Don Caballero, taking more from the experimental time signatures and dissonance of Noise Rock than from the overly-distorted sound.  Earth was pioneering the Drone (or Doom) Metal genre, focusing on drawn out experimental distortion played at extremely loud decibels.

Post-Rock, combining elements of all these sub-genres in a more musically and conceptually intricate fashion, would become a mainstay throughout the late 90s and early 00s.  But we’ll save that for another post.

What I really mean to talk about here is the resurgence of Noise Rock as it applies to bands today.  We’re seeing more and more bands within the indie scene rejecting the stylings of the alt.country and twee-pop bands that were so common during the early and mid ’00s.  As the pendulum swings back towards distortion, we see something more like this:

The sound, heard in recent bands like Parts & Labor and Titus Andronicus, relies heavily on percussion.  The constant driving beat is really what holds the songs together, because the majority of the other instruments are quite chaotic.  There’s a certain frenetic yet stripped-down quality to today’s Noise bands that draws more upon its punk ancestry than many of the genre’s predecessors from the 80s and 90s.  However, that’s about as far as its connection to punk goes.  The songs are filled with the synth pop “doop beep boop” that’s been so common in recent indie pop, yet it seems strangely novel and refreshing when placed against the wall of sound being emitted by the other instruments.

Definitely give both of these bands a chance.  Not all of the songs will be your cup of tea melodically, but if you’re looking for something with a frantic kind of energy that the indie scene has been missing recently, this is just what you need.

Home again, home again (jiggity jig)

Hey, so I just got back from Thailand this past Thursday.  Things in Bangkok were getting some pretty heavy press while I was there.  For example:

(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7592942.stm)

While I only saw one march (and even that was quite brief, as I had to catch a bus), it really didn’t seem to affect life in Thailand that much.  Well, at least it didn’t affect life as a tourist.  That could very well be why I didn’t notice much of a difference.

Anyways, here are some pictures from the trip:

Betsy and I arrived in Bangkok on a Saturday night, then spent most of Sunday at Chatuchak (an incredibly large weekend market on the north side of the city) with a brief stop at the creative design library located at the Emporium in Siam Square.

We then took a night bus to Koh Tao where we spent the next 4 days getting SCUBA certified.  It was pretty amazing.  We got to see tons of barracuda.  Apparently it’s a bad idea to dive with a cold, but I braved it and it turned out to be fine.  I know. I’m a trooper.

Then we spent a few days in Koh Phangan.  Betsy was really looking forward to some beach time and it was nice to just relax and read.  Regardless, I got really sunburned and spent more money than I intended (not very surprising, given the very touristy nature of Koh Phangan).

Finally, we returned to Bangkok and did some temple hopping for the next few days.  We also checked out some of the parks and ventured into the Patpong district just long enough see the “sights.”  No, no ping pong balls were involved in this trip.  Just in case you were wondering.

Anyways, it’s good to be back in Singapore.  I’m basically broke right now, but I have a ton of coins that I’ve been saving in some jars, and I need to turn those into cash so I can survive until I get paid in a week or so.

I’ll be sure to post a decent amount in the next few weeks because I won’t have too much to do at work (don’t tell on me!).