I know I've been away for a week, and there is a reasonable reason for that, however, I don't want to talk about it today.
Instead, we're gonna give my friend Olsten a happy birthday! Me and Olsten were up to a fuckload of mischief back in my WoW days, and had our own little "Ols n Ohlz"-editing crew going. I know we haven't spoken much lately, but bro, I found these for you, man:
Here's lookin at you, kid!
Ha en bra födelsedag bruschan! Snart gör vi kaoz med internet igen!
So, here we are. The final post towards Video Week.
Today, I am not going to talk so much about the clips. I will let them talk for themselves. Because today I have found a mix of different types of masterpieces. First up, a masterpiece of acting. This is a 10 minute monologue from Brandon Hardesty (Not sure on spelling), A.k.a. ArtieTSMITW on youtube. See it and realize the pure acting skills involved in this simple, yet amazing video.
The second video today, is another short that I found on Vimeo. It's not of the greatest calibre, but it's sure as hell not bad. I quite enjoyed it alot actually.
Our third clip today, is one of those videos that I really like, but I don't know why. It's a french animation named "Mon ami le robot", and goes by the english title "Playing with light". Give it a watch and see if you like it the same way I do.
Alright. The last clip for Video Week will be a music video. This is the music video for the acoustic version of "Juneau" by Funeral For a Friend. The video is so special and mixed with the song it's just so beautiful and peaceful. Give it a watch and listen, and you'll hopefully be touched the way I am every time I watch it.
Alright, today is gonna be a bit special. It is not going to be focusing on the artistic writing/filming, but more about the skillfull content. There are going to be a couple of clips with (at least what I class as) great skill in their respective field.
The first one is "Way back home". This video is following the street-trailist Danny MacAskill from Scotland. This video is produced/sponsored by Red Bull and is filmed in the style of "The Collective", which is a group that does mountain bike movies. (You can check their stuff out HERE). Danny shows some real skills on his bike in this short film, so watch it, and love it.
The second clip I want you to see, is a BMX short showing off some major flatland skills from Simon O'Brien. This is the type of stuff I would love to be able to do if I ever get a BMX. Just seeing how he makes it look so easy and fluent makes me a bit jealous. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Those were the videos for today. I will post the final post of Video Week tomorrow, and I hope to find a couple of really special videos for you to enjoy to the fullest.
Today, I got TWO videos for you, and not just one. Both of these are in their own categories, so I'll give them an "evaluation" each.
The first one breaks the trend of heavy clips that I've had so far. It's a extreme slow motion video. But unlike most Super Slow-mo videos that you get on youtube (this isn't a 10 minute video of people getting slapped in 1000 fps), this has some artistic value to it in my oppinion. It shows you the beautiful things that real-time sort of ruins.
The second video I am giving you, is a video that spoke to me as a scriptwriter. The video is called "Vicky and Sam", and is about 3 writers, coming up with a romance-based-script. I just loved it from start to finish. Give it a look and give me your thoughts on it.
I am now spontaneously (thanks Rho) making this into "Videos that I think you should see"-week.
And no, this will not be filled with retarded videos of people doing stupid shit or cute puppies or whatever, but clips that deserves attention for their brilliance.
The first one was "My name is Lisa" that I posted monday. And today, I bring you: SPIN. Watch the video first, then I'll post my views and reasons.
The main reason why I post this is because it's directed and written by Jamin Winans. Jamin has become one of my favourite writers and directors after seeing some of his stuff. But also because it is so well made, and can be looked at from so many different perspectives.
If you liked this, I greatly recommend you to see "Ink" (IMDB page). I got this recommended by my friend Rho (I recommend her stuff in return, you can find some of it here.)
I will see you again tomorrow with another clip that contributes to society and culture and all of the other things that appearantly are important. Signed,
The title might be a bit confusing, but it has a purpose. It's the title of a video clip I want you to see. This didn't catch my eye at first, but stick through it to the end, and you'll know why I think you need to watch it.
This is a masterpiece, and you don't find that very often on YouTube. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you;
"My name is Lisa."
And that will be all I post today. But I hope it gave you something to think about and realize something.
Alright, it's my turn to step up to the plate and post my thoughts on the age-old topic of; "Do people become violent because of video games?".
I'd like to start this off to explain my history and relationship to gaming, and give you a bit of backstory to why this subject is repeatedly coming up to discussion with me. Let's get history out of the way. My first console, and real ENCOUNTER with video games, was a Sega Mega Drive (genesis for you yanks). I got it back in 1994 from my brother when he moved away from home, and with it I got NHL 94 and FIFA 94. From that moment on, I was a gamer. I spent LOADS of time playing video games after school, and I just kept on adding to my arsenal of games. (Might add that I now own well over a 100 Mega Drive games).
In early ages, my Mega Drive was my escape from the harsh reality I was living at the time. Constantly getting picked on at school etc etc. Don't want to go into that shit and make this a emo post. BUT ANYWAY. My Mega Drive allowed me to shut everything else out and become someone else. I could be whatever the fuck I wanted. A NHL player, a vietnam soldier, an olympic gold medalist. This whole era was the reason I became the gamer I am today.
After those times, I've still kept that state of mind when it comes to games. It's an escape from reality that movies and books don't provide in the same way. A truely immersive game is WAAAAAAAAAY better than any book or movie could ever be. The most perfect example, even though I am ashamed of saying it, is World of warcraft. I don't play it anymore (luckily), but it seriously gave me the perfect escape from reality that I wanted. It kept me occupied and distracted from the shit I faced in real life at the time.
So with this said, you now know how I feel about games. A secondary world that lets my imagination run wild and keep me from acting out like a retard in real life. Now for the topic itself.
The way I see it, gaming is a necessary part of modern society as it is a GREAT way of relieving mental stress and depression. Whenever I get angry, I don't go out and punch some poor old lady across the street, no, I sit down and slam on some hard music and slam down upon computer generated AI. This doesn't hurt anyone, and I get the relief I need.
Now, if you're one of those twats who think "Well, games makes people violent because people HURR DURR BLARGH".
Shut the fuck up.
The reason why people lash out and games get the blame is for one of three reasons.
1. The person in question just happened to play video games on a regular basis, and to be honest, almost everyone are these days. Thus, this point is bullshit.
2. The person in question got no fucking slef-control at all, or is not seeing the game for what it really is: a mother fucking game.
3. The person would've still done the shit they did, but just happened to play a certain game alot, and the act itself could be related (NOTE: IN A VERY WEAK RELATION) to the game.
There is also one argument that I fucking love when people pull:
"Games teaches you how to use guns."
Are you fucking serious?
How will this:
or this:
Teach you how to function and aim this:
It just makes no fucking sense in my mind.
If you want me to add on to this topic, feel free to message me and I'll make a part two on this. I just wanted to cover my basics on the subject.
When you've read this, contact me on steam/msn/facebook/wherever and give me a subject to whine/rage/rant/joke about and I will try my best to do so. I will however NOT make any remakes of earlier topics, nor do anything racist/xenophobic/4chanish. But drop me a line about something that you want my point of view on.
Today will be my first (and hopefully only) sad/emo/depressed/what-the-fuck-ever blogpost. Because this is something I want to get out of the way, and something I can't be arsed to hide really.
Today, when I got home, I felt extremely lonely for the first time in years. I don't mean in the way that "Boo-hoo, I have no one bluh bluh", no no. I felt it in the way that I miss having someone to come home to, or to go home to after work. I get to read all these statuses and blogposts about "Oh, today when I got home from work, my girlfriend/boyfriend had done this and this", and to be honest, I want that. I am not saying this out of the standpoint that I am not happy, because I am perfectly fine with my situation as it is, but I just miss that feeling of coming home and feel wanted by someone.
Wow, I just realized why crazy catladies get cats... ANYWAYS. I just wanted to get that out of the way so I can post a more ragey/happy/funny blogpost later on tonight.
And hey, this shows that I can feel something other than hate and joy. Well, I hope you have a great day.
Alright. As everybody SHOULD KNOW BY NOW, I am a major drum'n'bass fan. Today, Undead2k (Medic for my Team Fortress 2 team) posted a note on his facebook with a fuckload of DnB songs that I've tipped him about, and I offered to add on to the list with some thoughts of artists and genres in DnB that I like.
So today, I thought I'd copy and paste that list, and you can browse freely and see if you share my enthusiasm for the style of music.
Allow me to quote myself:
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Roni Size.
This is in my eyes the godfather of Drum'n'bass. You need to know of him if you're listening to drum'n'bass. He was also the first DnB artist that I heard back in the day.
His most famous song from the early days is Brown paper bag... from 1997:
He has also done several colaborations with major artists along the lines of B-real from Cypress Hill, Zack De la Rocha from Rage against the machine, and Method Man of Wu-tang clan: Roni Size feat. B-Real - Child of the wild west
He's still doing songs together with his "group" named Reprazent, where he has a line of rappers and vocalists to help him with rhymes and lines on his songs, my personal favourite is Dirty Beats where he has some help from MC Dynamite: Roni Size / Reprazent - Dirty beats
He also has some sick remixes out, none of which have gotten enough attention in my eyes, but there is one of Redman's song "Smash sumthin" that I absolutely love: Axel F and Redman - Smash Sumthin' (Roni Size remix)
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While we are on remixes, there are certain artists that do absolutely amazing remixes no matter what song they lay their hands on. One of these artists is High Contrast. All of his/their (not sure if it's one guy or not) are absolutely fuck...ing amazing. Some examples are;
Another artist that I absolutely love for remixes, but is a fucking amazing artist apart from remixes, is Netsky. He's a young artist who really broke through the scene just a couple of years ago, and has preformed miracles with his songs and remixes. Some of my favourite Netsky remixes are;
Then there is a whole bunch of random remixes by other big DnB/Dubstep artists that makes me realize over and over that everything sounds better when being done to DnB songs. Some of these are;
Then we have some of the artists that do some creative and really good stuff with DnB or DnB-like sounds. Some of these artists are Photek, Muffler, Modestep, Nero, TC, DJ Fresh among others. Some examples of their songs are;
1. This song has an action movie sound to it, but still has drum'n'bass in the core of it.
2. Muffler is the type of artist where you can't really place him in a fucking category. He's sort of Liquid DnB, but it sounds too agro to be Liquid in my ears. None the less, amazing artist and track.
3. I know that most people are gonna go "EEEW, DUBSTEP!", but listen through the entire track. It does an amazing turn from Dubstep to Drum'n'bass towards the end of the song. I really liked it.
4. This song is in my eyes a Dubstep song gone DnB. It has so many elements and sounds of a dubstep song over a DnB drumline that it just does an amazing job at merging the two genres. Lovely track.
5. TC is in his own category of Drum'n'Bass. Agressive drumlines mixed with bass and ambience that will fuck your ears out of your head. Just amazing songs across the board.
6. DJ Fresh has never really impressed me that much untill his latest album which, by my standings, IS FUCKING FANTASTIC. There is like, 3 songs that are DECENT, the rest is amazing. So defo check him out.
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I know, I care too much about music, but this was my list of added shit to Undead's note, and I hope you get some gems from this that you can tollerate listening to.
Untill next time...
...signed, Exxy.
P.S. Thinking of changing my last name to Van Daars. Good / Bad idea?
I want to start this off by appologizing for the fact that it's been a few days since my last proper post, but that's been because of a few things.
1. Got a new job. 2. Been working alot with the movie team (VFN) 3. Been at Niclas' place alot. 4. Been sleeping alot.
Now, let's look over these points a little closer. 1. New job
So, I've gotten a new job. I can't really go into any major details, but it's at the same mental hospital I worked over the summer, it's just a better job in general. So to be fair, it could be counted as a promotion, not a new job. Anyways, it eats up quite alot of time.
2. VFN!
So my movie team have started to write, record and buy shit for a upcoming series written by yours truely. We have some minor problems so far, but we're getting there slowly. We're hoping to have the new homepage launched at the end of the year, and with it, the first episode of this series. 3. Niclas' place
This is kinda self-explanitory. I've been over at Niclas' place alot, for a number of reasons. One being that I LOVE his appartment. Another being that we've been working alot with the movie team and shit like that, so that's been swapping up quite alot of time.
4. Sleeping
Since I started the job, I've appriciated sleep a hell of a lot more. I get all the sleep I can get when I get home, and enjoy every single second of sleeping. However, I still want to get as much shit as possible done during the days, so it's a bit of a dilemma, but I manage to balance it quite well.
After this post, I should be able to get back on track quite quick again, and hopefully I can start writing more than once a day.
I am sorry for being a bit abscent, I have just gotten a new job (or promotion, depends on how you see it) and it is taking up quite alot of time, even though it shouldn't.
However, I will try to get a proper post up tonight or tomorrow morning. Depends if Niclas will allow me to borrow his computer to write the post.
