The Rabbit Hole

What is it about starting school that leaves me so wiped out? ( I wonder. )

Also, I saw 9 last night after giving blood, which might explain some of the physical and mental exhaustion. Blood donation was fine, but I was already tired from not sleeping well the night before and I get cranky when they insist on taking blood from my right arm. (I need that for stuff!) Not to mention that something broke with the tubing so the guy splattered my blood on the floor after he finished filling up the test tubes. (I'm fine! Nothing went wrong with the blood bag itself, just the other half of the Y-junction tubing where they collect a smaller pouch of blood for tests.) That was just gross and grossly wasteful. I also wasn't pleased that he ignored my request to have tourniquet loosened. (Had to do it myself.) I need to figure out the right place to donate blood at this hospital. It's too easy for them to get distracted when I go in the large building.

As for 9, meh. Fine to look at, but it was painful to think about for even a few minutes. It felt inordinately long at about 80 minutes, and it had neither the plot nor the characterization to carry it even if it had been 40 minutes. I wasn't terribly excited by it, so I'm not disappointed, just annoyed that it turned out so poorly when it could have been cool. I'm always irritated when people set up awesome things that just don't materialize into anything coherently interesting.

Thank God for Beatles Rock Band, though. That shit is gorgeous. I'm with moonlightalice, though: I really want to watch the animations! When feiran stopped singing, you could see more of it, but you're so busy with the playing, you miss out. It boggles the mind, however, how many songs I can only vaguely recognize. I mean, this is The Beatles we're talking about. Not recognizing one of their songs is like not knowing which days of the week end in Y.
(Interesting note: in Hawai'ian, none of the days do! Hawai'ians don't believe in your crazy Ys. I know this because I bought my wall calendar--one of them--in Hawai'i and it has all the months/days in both English and Hawai'ian.)

Nonetheless, I look forward to playing around with the harmonized singing, though I know I'll be crap at it because I can never remember a specific part, especially not if it's a subtle one. I tend to go with whatever melody is dominant when I sing. Oh well. Half the fun is seeing stuff you didn't even recognize was there, like who plays what part in what song. I have never watched any Beatles films or filmed appearances, only ever listened to them, so I never really recognized which songs were sung by which person, or who took lead on which guitar part. I am not a Beatlemaniac either, so a lot of that stuff I wouldn't have investigated on my own regardless, but here it's presented to me with no research on my part necessary. I'm getting better, though, thanks to the dissertations of the Beatles cover band I follow as they do each individual song. Now Rock Band will help with that, too.

...I need to post more often because this became an info dump of exceedingly and unnecessarily prodigious length.

Animated commercial for The Beatles: Rock Band.

Aside from just being beautiful, it's a trailer that could be an anime. And I would totally watch a Beatles anime. At this point, we are far enough removed from the debut of The Beatles that they are practically legendary. They could be their own animated cartoon and it wouldn't change our perception of them.

If they're archetypes instead of people, can't we just reboot them the way we have, well, all of our cultural icons? I want my Beatles anime, damn it.

This comic pretty much sums up my frustrations with all things that require more coordination in video games beyond Dynasty Warriors/Gauntlet Legends style hitting-one-button-and-hoping-for-the-best.

But it's especially appropriate given my general hopelessness at Rock Band instruments. I stay away from the drums because it's both noisy and pathetic, as opposed to my attempts at guitar which are just pathetic.

And it happens to be perfectly in line with my new trend of posting Rock Band song videos. I wanted to post the video for "The Hand that Feeds," but that video is L-A-M-E lame. It's just, um, Trent singing in a studio with some guys playing the music around him. It doesn't even have the angry-at-the-mike hilarity or the leather-skinny-pants sexy or mesh-shirt sluttiness of "March of the Pigs." I am faced with a dilemma! What to post? Then I read the comic, and I go, "Ah-ha!"



I can't quite tell how much this gothic-romantic motif is being mocked versus embraced. It's Trent Reznor, you can't really ever know. I'm kind of disturbed at the juxtaposition of Trent moping around dejectedly, the shots of the little kid dolled up to look slightly feminine (and who is most definitely a little boy and possibly Kieran Culkin), and the lyrics that are very clearly talking about sex and fucking. Um, yeah. Naked chicks with cow skulls and pig parts on display as a guy is tied up and rubbing one off, sure. This? Erm.

Pretty though! And much more interesting to look at than this video. (There, I did my duty and posted it.) If you want a really cool video (to an equally awesome song) off a track from With Teeth, definitely check out the vid for "Only." It really emphasizes the digitalization/electronification of NIN on the whole album, which I learned via Wikipedia was originally supposed to sustain a fan-competition/activity of remixing the music, but Universal Music group killed that--I suppose they liked being the ones to own the rights to do that shit and release it in the eighty years between NIN albums. However, the master tracks "leaked." It's almost entirely a given that this was no accident (Trent Reznor being kind of an uncooperative person in that awesome way).

Best part of "Only": when the two impressions of Trent Reznor's face are looking at each other. Completely looks like he's making out with himself (and not just in his music!).

I am a NIN fan girl. Could you tell?

I can't help it: every time Anthony Kiedis bounces along in his 80s hair band out fit on the chorus, I get the giggles liek woah. It's the "one for the now, eleven for the later" bit. He jiggles! I am laughing at work, great.



I might also add that it's funny to see them poke fun at genres they themselves have represented at one time or another. And what on earth do they do to Flea that he is the way that he is? Or that he can jump that high in heels? Motherfuck!

These boys are so crazy. Also, their choreographer is a bit of a genius.



More Rock Band songs greatest videos to come.