In the mood for some jazzy, rainy love

Beni just sent me this, and it's exactly what I need after a day like today (stressful, cold, rainy):

www.rainymood.com

There's not much to it. All it is is a 15-minute loop of rain, some distant rolls of thunder and even some singing birds inbetween. But damn is it effective!

Play the loop and listen to your favourite songs, preferrably some jazzy lounge music, slow blues or acoustic and classical pieces. Not only is it incredibly relaxing, it also helps appreciating the dull, grey weather outside a little.

Now where to begin, you might ask? Well look no further, for Beni was so kind to provide the perfect song to get you in that jazzy mood:


I feel all classy now.

If you need some more inspiration, have a look at this 4chan thread Beni also sent along. It holds in store  many more Youtube links to some great moody songs, partly taken from OSTs of video games - and not that 8bit bleep bloop either, I'm talkin high quality lounge jazz. I'm going through it song by song right now; it's magical.

Other songs I'd recommend for some rainy loungin' and lovin' include:

Frank Sinatra - Moon River , The Girl From Ipanema (if you can, use the studio version..), As Time Goes By, All My Tomorrows
Katie Melua - Blame It On The Moon
Miles Davis - Circle, My Ship, Blue In Green... the whole Blue Moods record in general
Norah Jones - I've Got To See You Again, The Long Day Is Over, Don't Miss You At All, The Nearness Of You
Phil Collins - The Way You Look Tonight
Road To Perdition OST - Road To Chicago, The Farm, Road To Perdition (again basically the whole OST)

So what are your recommendations? I tried staying within the range of swing/jazz/lounge music, but that doesn't mean you have to!

Song Comparison (inspired by Tiny): Peter Gabriel

Songs sometimes have different versions. There is the original, of course, and if it's wellknown there might be a cover or a remix by other artists. At times, the initial artists decide to re-record the song, trying a new, more modern approach. Or they just record it in another language. Peter Gabriel had a few songs that went through the process of all of the above.

One song I'd like to point out in particular is Here Comes The Flood, one of my alltime favourites (at least one version of it is). And since it's all done by the same artist, it's totally different from what Tiny does! Right?
I found four different versions in my Gabriel collection (and the interwebs). Without further ado, here they are. (...after the jump.)
CLICK HERE FOR MORE, you rascal!

Belated WEmas Celebration!

On February 13th I got together with some mates to finally celebrate WEmas.
Diego managed to borrow Guitar Hero 2 & 3 for his Xbox 360 including two guitar controllers (although the Strat one was broken or something), I provided snack material and booze.
Buler, by the time he had had some booze, refused to let go of my Indy hat and played some Duke Nukem 3D, when he wasn't rocking. Phil pretty much failed despite being more than a decent guitar player, and Tello only gave it a few tries but provided very uplifting feedback when others were playing. Diego was by far the most awesome looking chap of the bunch - have a look for yourself:
CLICK HERE FOR MORE, you rascal!

It's all in the name, folks

There are studies that people react differently on various kinds of names - let's say that Major Awesome, for example, strucks people with awe, while Major Poopoohead on the other hand might get you a good pounding. Nothing new, right?
Well apperently, names are destined to become part of the people's slang, especially in the English language. (My original internet nickname, Saber, often results in (German) people repeating it jokingly as the German word Sabber, which means drool in English. No comparison to the English slang.)
Tiny recently looked up her own names on UrbanDictionary.com, revealing some interesting definitions that are partly really flattering. So I decided to follow her idea and do the same. (More after the jump.)
CLICK HERE FOR MORE, you rascal!

'Ripper? I hardly know her!'

There was a time when, in video games, actual videos were not as common as they are today. Cutscences (if available) often consisted of clumsily programmed movements scripted in-game; later on ugly CGI became popular.

 

Games I grew up with: In-game cutscene in Sonic 3...

...and a CGI cutscene in Tomb Raider. It was pretty at the time.

Of course, the ugly CGI graphics became the beautiful and sometimes even photorealistic visuals we have in modern video games. But before that, in the early to mid-nineties to be vaguely exact, FMV (Full Motion Video) was all the rage. (More after the jump.)
CLICK HERE FOR MORE, you rascal!

Addendum Reloaded: Wonders Of The Solar System

Well don't you know it: here's another song made by symphonyofscience.com featuring quotes by David Attenborough, Jane Goodall and - of course - Carl Sagan. As with the second song of the series, I again have a hard time getting used to this one; I'm not really sure, why. But it's worth a look, just for completeness' sake:


'Now how did the molecules of life arise?'