Remember how I did a little posting last year, the one about the video game The Ripper and how it featured music made by the band Blue Öyster Cult? And how a whole sketch on Saturday Night Live was based on that song and that it needed more cowbell? If you don't, check it out right now, I'll wait.
Are you done yet? Aight then.
Guess what: I gots me a little christmas present by Awesome Phil who you might remember from my Guitar Hero escapades during Winter-Een-Mas 2010. And this present looks something like this: CLICK HERE FOR MORE, you rascal!
I told you about Eric Power and his amazing paper cut out videos in an earlier post. He just recently made another great music video - about Star Wars.
I LOVE IT. The song, the paperized visuals, the transitions between the first three movies... I can't stop listening to the song; it's so upbeat yet melancholic, and the beautiful vocal melody makes up for the overall simplicity. The piano just drives it all home.
Update August 23rd: New version here! The old version is available in the post.
I totally forgot about that little song I made some time ago. It's very different than anything I've made so far, because it's completely done with synthesizers.
When I began using my keyboard again I kinda messed around with Cubase and the instrument database of Hypersonic, which lets you control any instrument with your keyboard. A whole orchestra of strings? No problem. Hip hop drums? Got it. A large sperm whale skating recklessly on ice? Well, that's quite a strange thing to ask for, but they have it.
So this is my (instrumental) song The Grass Is Listening. It's very simple, but I love the relaxed flow of it. Put it on your mp3 player, lay down in a meadow and listen to the song while staring into the clear blue sky. I tried it, and it works perfectly.
I spent the weekend in Holland with Phil and Dominique, just camping and relaxing. We had to search hours for a place to crash (we left on short notice), but in the end it paid off: We had a whole meadow basically for ourselves, it was cheap, and we even had a shower!
We took a whole lot of pictures, but not with my camera - as you will clearly be able to see on the following pictures, there was dirt within the camera and I wasn't able to remove it completely. But Dominiques cam was great for high quality pictures as well, at least that what we were told and what it looked like on the big LCD display.
So here's a collection of photographs we took the first night on our camping site; more images will follow. Enjoy! CLICK HERE FOR MORE, you rascal!
I'm currently working for an organization that drives around with a big car full of toys and bikes and stuff to play with on playgrounds. Because we are mostly working at playgrounds it's obvious that I have seen a few. They mostly look like this:
Pictures (c) Saber, 2009
Peaceful. Fun. Full of Life and Laughter. Well, except for the last one, it kinda was a slow day.
Anyway, take a look at those playgrounds from all over Eastern Europe (mostly):
...oh my God. I don't think I will be able to sleep tonight.
First of all: Who puts a Lovecraftian creature on a playground? Or giant evil snakes and monsters? Whose crotch children can crawl out of? Or what about that damned abominations that are somehow meant to resemble humans, but due to a bad (or old) paint job they seem like lost souls straight back from hell. And what are those black creatures with bright white eyes from 1:20 on that seem to stare right into your soul?
A giant doctor that is about to stab you. A sad kraken doomed to entertain kids for eternity. Elefants whose ass is used as a slide. A wizard emerging from the ground. Gigantic insects crawling towards you. The lady in the blue dress.
With blood pouring from her eyes.
Excuse me, I have to find a corner I can rock back and forth in while I silently weep.
Now, the Sun's been showing up a little more lately, and you can barely make out that Spring is here soon.
At this time of year I regularly fall back into listening to the same music I always listen to on sunny weather, or high temperatures. If you'd like, I can show you a little of my Sunshine Playlist, as I like to call it. I even created a CD series called Sabers Sunshine Mix. (It's true. I got to Vol.3 although I have enough songs to get to Vol.8, or even further.)
Today marked the moment where I had fun in listening to Blink 182 again. I really don't know what it is about that band, but if the weather's right, I really enjoy listening to their music. It's simple, fastpaced, plain fun - and it just has this kind of sunny feeling to it that I sometimes get with certain songs.(Sure many songs of that band sound alike, but I guess they took what worked and went on with it.)
A song I really dig is Roller Coaster; it's essentially everything that makes Blink 182 and one of the most enjoyable songs to listen to AND play on the drums. For those of you who are not familiar with it, you can check out the song here - or you can watch me blast away on the drums below. Your choice, buddy.
C'mon, I know you want to.
It's March 1st (at least it was when I attempted this post), and the sun outside makes me feel all Spring-y. Nevermind the (once more) dropping temperatures and the still very lifeless looking trees - I want Spring and damn I'm gonna have it!
This is why today I set out to shoot the world.
Camerawise that is - after running some errands for myself downtown I went to one of my favourite spots, the old railroad bridge crossing the river. With the camera at hand and sunny music in my ear (more on that in a later post) I enjoyed the sun and took some pictures of the surroundings, gradually learning more about the cam and increasing my snapshot-skills (at least I felt like I did).
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:
'Many people know they are unhappy. But even more people do not know they are happy.'
- Albert Schweitzer
Sometimes I have trouble falling asleep. That's mostly due to the fact that I'm someone who can with ease pick a subject and keep brooding about it until I'm totally freaked out. It's not one of my most handsome traits, and I'd love to just flip some sort of switch in my head to keep it from doing that, but it ain't easy; especially when you're already in bed for 2 hours and still awake. In some cases all this worrying creates a panic about something that's perfectly fine and then I go and ruin it by making a fuzz about it and thinking up worst-case scenarios.
Come to think of it, I'm actually a pretty lucky guy – sure I get sick from time to time or have occasional cases of self-doubt, but who doesn't? In return I didn't have a lot of problems I witnessed on friends of mine – I never fight with my parents, I somehow always seem to have money, my graduation went well and I have job that actually balances fun and work perfectly. So all in all I should be happy. I am, I guess. But I seem to have developed a very low tolerance for everything negative: I NEVER fight with anybody (and if I do, I often lose because I can't fight), I don't like losing when playing games with friends, and if something stupid or bad happens to me it takes a while to get rid of it – it often disgruntles me for the rest of the day. You can say: The slightest amount of Negative can overwhelm everything Positive. And boy, does it suck.
But not anymore. Not only do I annoy (and drag down) people I like, but I seriously annoy myself at times. So there's that, a resolution for 2010 that might be a little late, but not too late:
I won't take things too personally, I'll just turn over the coin and remind myself of what's good in my life.
I love music and a few other things. I'm a musician and I like to write. I play video games, watch movies and like it when things come full circle. I also like by-the-ways and sidenotes.
