It was good to be back on air. Tonight we covered our normal chatter, weather, how fast this year is ending and we had a special surprise guest from my brother Steve.
...and the following.
Merchandising in and out of our games.
Giving in game gifts during the holiday season and the gift giving from our favorite MMO's
15. Did I mishear the lyrics of "Bad Moon Rising"? "Bathroom on theright?" I wasn't drunk.People usually misheard the chorus "there's a bad moon on the rise"as "there's a bathroom on the right". Today, Fogerty makes fun of itand purposely slips the "wrong" lyrics into the end of the song.
Due to the Holiday, We will not have a live show or a Podcast for this week but will return in pure Wardrobe fashion the following week.
We have been busy in our 4X4 world, and I want to take this opportunity to share the news. Along with a live show and recorded Podcast with our friends at GNET Radio, we have added more Closet time with another project.
Over the last few weeks Art's Closet has also been found at Blade Radio. Blade Radio has been the Internet Radio Station for Guild Wars over the last several years and are beginning to branch out into other games. Currently, Blade Radio has entered into Star Trek Online and of course will be catering to Guild Wars 2 upon release.
At Blade Radio, our format is just little different. We host a three hour show with weekly segments: Every Friday at 12pCST
“Gaming News” - Commentary on random news topics from the gaming world.
“It's a Gamers Life” - A lighthearted look at the life of Gamers, in and out of the game.
“Twin Journey's” - 2 Halfling brothers who just don't know what game they’re in (Halfling Skits)
“Closet Mail Bag” - Listener e-mail
“Closet Rock Block” - This segment varies from playing music to talking about it.
The management at Blade Radio are working on an area to host “Art's Closet” with a Blog and per-recorded shows. When everything is finalized all links will be found here.
This Blog will continue as well our relationship with GNET Radio, we are just branching out.
I want to wish everyone a happy holiday filled with good times, good food and family fellowship.
Tonight we talked about dieing on air, Deadly Kool-aid and it's shelf life. Fast Food and the McDonald’s Happy Meal that wouldn’t die, and of course cold weather, yep it's beginning.
..of course the following topics...
Gaming topics of the week.
All Points Bulletin, The Second Coming.
Earlier this year Realtime Worlds fell apart and the game “All Points Bulletin” became another Game casualty.
Get the DVD of Gamers, a documentary film that explores filmmaker Ben Gonyo's two-year journey into the subculture of MMO games like World of Warcraft. Great for players and anyone wanting to understand the lure of the virtual universe.
Celebrity interviews include Red Sox great Curt Schilling, Best-Selling author RA Salvatore and comedian Jay Mohr. Game developer interviews with Jeff Kaplan of Blizzard, as well as Gamersfirst, 38 Studios, Cryptic and more.
the acting out or performance of a particular role, either consciously (as a technique in psychotherapy or training) or unconsciously, in accordance with the perceived expectations of society as regards a person's behavior in a particular context
When you are at the Character Creation Screen, are you role-playing?
In your fav First Person Shooter, are you role-playing?
Some role-players build a back story on their character and write it into the game story line.
Music/Song/Artist Spotlight of the week.
Randall William Rhoads(December 6, 1956 – March 19, 1982)
Classical Music, Artistic freedom and a legend is born
Getting a spot with the Ozzman, 2 albums and 3 years later it all comes to an end.
At the age of 14 Rhoads formed a cover band called Violet Fox (after his mother's middle name, Violet), with his older brother Kelle on drums. Violet Fox staged several performances in the "Grand Salon" at Musonia, Delores Rhoads's music school.
After the dissolution of Violet Fox, Rhoads taught his best friend Kelly Garni how to play bass, and together they formed a band called The Whore (rehearsing during the day at Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco, a famous '70s Hollywood nightspot), spending several months playing at backyard parties around Los Angeles. Together the pair went on to form Quiet Riot when Rhoads was 16.
In 1979, ex-Black Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne was forming a new band...
Randy Rhoads departed for the UK to write and record with Osbourne in November 1979.
The band, then known as The Blizzard of Ozz headed into the studio to record the band's debut album, which would also be called Blizzard of Ozz. Rhoads's guitar playing had changed due to the level of freedom allowed by Ozzy and Bob Daisley and he was encouraged to play what he wanted. His work with Quiet Riot has beencriticizedas being "dull" and did not rely on classical scales or arrangements.
Along with our set topics we opened with apologies for missing last weeks podcast. Mhykol talks about the His DJ gigs, smoking ban at home and touches on Medical Marijuana.
Game topics from the week.
"....we need more Cowbell."
Rocking in Lord of the Rings Online
Compose your own music or play a cover from Coldplay....
LotRO allows you to grab an instrument and jam..in game.
Jethro Tull are a British rock group formed in 1967. Their music is characterized by the lyrics, vocals and flute work of Ian Anderson, who has led the band since its founding, and the guitar work of Martin Barre, who has been with the band since 1969.
Initially playing blues rock with an experimental flavor, they have also incorporated elements of classical music, folk music, jazz and art rock into their music.
One of the world's best-selling music artists, the band has sold more than 60 million albums worldwide in a career that has spanned five decades.
While the previous album Aqualung stretched the band's wings further from the blues of the first three albums, it was still basically mainstream rock. Band leader Ian Anderson was surprised by the critical reaction to Aqualung as a "concept album", a label he's firmly rejected to this day.
In an interview on In the Studio with Redbeard (which spotlighted Thick as a Brick), Ian Anderson's response to the critics was: "If the critics want a concept album we'll give the mother of all concept albums and we'll make it so bombastic and so over the top."
Ian Anderson has been quoted in concerts (most recently 8/14/2009, Schwetzingen Castle, Germany) as stating that Thick as a Brick was written "because everyone was saying we were a progressive rock band, so we decided to live up to the reputation and write a progressive album, but done as a parody of the genre."
With Thick as a Brick, the band created an album deliberately integrated around one concept: a poem by an intelligent English boy (named Gerald) about the trials of growing up. Beyond this, the album was a send-up of all pretentious "concept albums". Anderson also stated in that interview that "the album was a spoof to the albums of Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmermuch like what the movie Airplane! had been to Airport". The formula was successful, and the album reached number one on the charts in the United States.
Interesting facts
Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi played guitar for Jethro Tull briefly in 1968 following the departure of Mick Abrahams.
David O'List briefly played with Jethro Tull in 1968 after the expulsion of Mick Abrahams.
Genesis' Phil Collins was Jethro Tull's drummer for only one gig:
Image via WikipediaHis famous tendency to stand on one leg while playing the flute came about by accident. As related in the "Isle of Wight" video, he had been inclined to stand on one leg while playing the harmonica, holding the microphone stand for balance. During the long stint at the Marquee Club, a journalist described him, wrongly, as standing on one leg to play the flute. He decided to live up to the reputation, albeit with some difficulty. His early attempts are visible in The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus film appearance of Jethro Tull. In later life he was surprised to learn of iconic portrayals of various flute playing divinities, particularly Krishna and Kokopelli, which show them standing on one leg.
Sorry thats its been quiet here, quiet is not a plan but a state of mind over matter because I don't have a mind and it don't matter<---"vicious run on with rambling". I admit that I have been somewhat sidetracked this last week, but all is well.
In any case, Art's Closet is back on track this week. As usual we will be live "on air", Nov 3rd at 10pm CST on GNET Radio. Grab the "Whats Next" link for this weeks topics.
These investors are not looking to sink money into the next PlayStation or Xbox game; rather, they are looking for the next Zynga -- the San Francisco-based company that makes "Mafia Wars," "FarmVille" and other social-network games. Still privately held, Zynga landed $180 million in funding late last year from Digital Sky Technologies, or DST, the Russian outfit that also bought a large stake in Facebook.
Media reports said the investment gave Zynga a market valuation between $1.5 billion and $3 billion. The company reported 100 million unique monthly users in November, and reportedly has about $250 million in annual revenue.
According to The Beatles: The Biography, Ringo recorded 18 takes of the drum part on September 9, 1968. The very last take was the one used for the master recording, and it’s also the one in which Ringo performed one of the greatest tantrums in rock and roll, screaming out “I’ve got blisters on my fingers!” at the end of the take. You can hear Ringo’s outburst at 4:24.
….and others
10. The Beatles – “Helter Skelter” (The Beatles, 1968)
“Helter Skelter” is one of The Beatles’ most frenzied songs – in fact, a case could very well be made that it has a lot in common with the prototypical heavy metal that would soon follow. One of the most fiery aspects of the tune is the intense drum performance by Ringo Starr. According to The Beatles: The Biography, Ringo recorded 18 takes of the drum part on September 9, 1968. The very last take was the one used for the master recording, and it’s also the one in which Ringo performed one of the greatest tantrums in rock and roll, screaming out “I’ve got blisters on my fingers!” at the end of the take. You can hear Ringo’s outburst at 4:24.
9. Joe Satriani – “Surfing with the Alien” (Surfing with the Alien, 1987)
Joe Satriani’s sci-fi tones and out-of-this-world phrasing aren’t just the result of inspiration and perspiration – sometimes a little bit of serendipity and a whole lot of electronic malfunction play a role, too. For the lead guitar tone on Surfing with the Alien’s title track, Satriani used a wah-wah pedal and a harmonizer. The former worked perfectly, while the latter was in its death throes. Satriani told Guitar World, “The sound that came out of the speakers blew us away so much that we recorded the melody and the solo in about a half-hour and sat back and went, ‘Whoa! This is a song, man!’” Then the harmonizer broke down and couldn’t be fixed. “We couldn’t do anything,” he said. “We lost our tone. When we finally got it working again, we weren’t able to recreate the original effect. It just sounded different. So rather than screw up a wonderful-sounding performance that may have had a couple of glitches, we decided to just leave it, because it was just swinging.”
8. Frank Zappa – “Muffin Man” (Bongo Fury, 1975)
Frank Zappa often said he saw lyrics as a necessity that he didn’t quite enjoy. In his autobiography The Real Frank Zappa Book he said he felt that if he had to write lyrics, he might as well make them something that appealed to his particular skewed worldview. Nowhere is this more evident than the monologue at the start of “Muffin Man,” where the text and the voice he reads it in so appeal to Frank’s worldview that he breaks character to laugh at himself (0:48), before saying “Let’s try that again” and giving the line another shot.
7. Megadeth – “Paranoid” (Nativity In Black, 1994)
Megadeth’s take on this Black Sabbath classic was recorded for an all-star tribute which also featured Type O Negative, Sepultura, Biohazard, White Zombie, Corrosion of Conformity, Ugly Kid Joe, Faith No More and others. Megadeth’s version of “Paranoid” was a little faster and a lot angrier than Sabbath’s 1970 original, and the anger was ratcheted up tenfold when drummer Nick Menza continued playing by himself after the song was supposed to have ended (2:23-2:30). Menza is cut off by Dave Mustaine shouting “Nick… Nick …NICK!” – and when he realizes his mistake Menza berates himself with some choice words of his own.
6. Metallica – “The Four Horsemen” (Kill ’Em All, 1983)
One of the most unique features of Metallica’s classic track “The Four Horsemen” is its distinctive simultaneous two-headed guitar solo, heard from 4:10 to 4:30. You can hear two Kirk Hammetts, one in each speaker, playing roughly similar but still quite different solos. In 1991 Hammett told Guitar World this cool effect was entirely a fluke. After recording two takes of the solo, Hammett and Co. were trying to decide which one to use. “I listened to both tracks at once, to see if one would stand out,” Hammett said. “But playing both tracks simultaneously sounded great, and we decided to keep it like that on the record. Some of the notes harmonized with each other, and I remember Cliff [Burton, bassist] going, ‘Wow, that’s stylin’ – it sounds like Tony Iommi!’”
5. Steve Vai – “Sex & Religion” (Sex & Religion, 1993)
These days Devin Townsend is known as a heavy metal auteur, solo and with Strapping Young Lad. But when he was 20, Townsend found fame as the singer in Steve Vai’s band, alongside T.M. Stevens on bass and Vai’s fellow Zappa alumni Terry Bozzio on drums. A vocal follow-up to Passion & Warfare was always going to be a bold move for Vai, but nobody was prepared for the hyperactive Townsend, who soared into gorgeous melodies before plummeting down to the lowest pits of hell with piercing screams, often in the space of a single bar. At the end of the album’s title track, Townsend really goes for it with a perfectly pitched but very intense melodic scream which lasts for a whole 18 seconds (from 4:05 to 4:23) – and he doesn’t quite make it back. Townsend passed out after the take, and Vai kept some of what he said after he came to. “Oh I hurt your brain? Oh. My fingers are numb… right now, they’re numb… can I deprive my brain of oxygen?”
4. The Police – “Roxanne” (Outlandos d’Amour, 1978)
“Roxanne” is a classic for its melody, its vocal performance, its orchestration and the instrumental timbres, but it’s also unique for a different reason. The mysterious piano chord heard at 0:04 is an unusual, atonal cluster that has nothing to do with the rest of the song. So what gives? Well it turns out Sting slinked back to relax on a nearby piano but didn’t realize the lid was up, so he unwittingly played that gloriously dissonant chord with his butt. This also explains his laugh at 0:06.
“Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” is an eerie, moody track to begin with, but if you listen very closely you’ll hear a ghostly voice at 1:43. What is it? A backwards-masked magic spell? Some kind of ghostly incantation? Nope. That’s actually the sound of Robert Plant singing along with drummer John Bonham during tracking, and there was no way to delete Plant’s singing from the drum tracks. Whether that’s his actual naked voice leaking through the drum mics, or perhaps being blasted through Bonzo’s headphones, perhaps we’ll never quite know, but it sure sounds cool, and adds yet another interesting layer to discover among Led Zep’s tapestry of orchestration.
2. Radiohead – “Creep” (Pablo Honey, 1993)
One of the most unique parts of Radiohead’s hit “Creep” was the salvo of chunky, deadened notes played by Jonny Greenwood right before the chorus at 0:58, and again at 2:00. Bandmate Ed O’Brien told Selectmagazine that Greenwood’s ear-catching decision was actually born of frustration. “That’s the sound of Jonny trying to [expletive] the song up,” O’Brien said. “He really didn’t like it the first time we played it, so he tried spoiling it. And it made the song.”
1. Van Halen – “Everybody Wants Some” (Women and Children First, 1980)
This Van Halen classic features oodles of the loose party vibe the band were known for in the early days – you can almost hear the clinking of beer bottles and the boogying of bikini babes. Almost. One thing you can most definitely hear though is the sound of David Lee Roth totally flubbing a lyric. According to his autobiography, Crazy From the Heat, the line was supposed to be something along the lines of “I’ve seen a lot of people just looking for a moonbeam.” But that’s not what came out. Instead, at 1:58, Dave sang something resembling “Ya take a moople-ah, wookie pah-a moopie.” The band decided that the vibe of the new line worked just as well, and the messed-up take was left in the song, an enduring legacy to just how hard Van Halen rocked it.
Audio trouble again this week *sigh*, but we will do our best to work through it. What I managed to save I should have posted soon. We didn't cover everything in our notes but at least we have the notes..
....Russ
PC Love -
Game topics from the week.
EverQuest House of Thule....
....is the seventeenth expansion of the ground breaking EverQuest franchise. Now in its unprecedented twelfth year, EverQuest continues to add immersive game play, captivating storytelling and exciting worlds to its legacy, now set in a never-before-seen dreamland full of mystery and adventure. House of Thule offers an expansion rich in content and packed with game-changing features including a level cap increase and the addition of player housing, which new players, veterans and MMO fans will relish. http://www.everquest.com/everquest.vm
"Halo: Reach," the highly anticipated follow-up in the popular gaming series, will hit stores at midnight, Sept. 14, in more than 25 countries, and retailers around the world are gearing up for late-night launch events. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2369051,00.asp
The first "Halo" game made its debut in 2001, and the franchise includes follow-ups "Halo 2," "Halo Wars," and "Halo 3: ODST." Microsoft released a beta version of "Halo: Reach" in May, which attracted more than 2.7 million players who logged more than 16 million hours of game play.
Fans can line up at tens of thousands of retailers tonight to get their hands on the game at 12:01am local time. For those in New York City and other major cities, however, Microsoft will be going the extra mile with several star-studded launch events.
The standard edition of "Halo: Reach" will retail for $59.99, while Limited and Legendary editions will sell for $79.99 and $149.99, respectively. The Legendary version includes a 10-inch, hand-painted statue of the Noble Team, the Spartan soldiers featured in the game.
Microsoft is also offering an Xbox 360 Limited Edition "Halo: Reach" bundle that includes the 250GB Xbox 360 console, two limited edition wireless controllers and a standard copy of "Halo: Reach" for $399.99.
“This Software is licensed to you, not sold.”
While the US Supreme Court’s 102-year-old "first-sale" doctrine says that copyright holders can't prevent consumers from reselling or renting a product after an initial sale, the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a 2008 decision affirming Vernor's right to sell the used software, ruling that Autodesk’s contract made it clear that the rights to install its programs were being licensed rather than sold. http://www.next-gen.biz/news/court-ruling-threatens-used-game-sales
The ruling aims to distinguish between when a piece of software is sold and when it is merely licensed, with the user potentially unable to resell if it's the latter.
Many other popular software programs already installed on home and office computers are covered by licensing agreements using similar language to Autodesk's programs, Beck said.
"That means the infrastructure already is in place for other software makers to say their customers don't really own those programs," he said. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100910/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_software_resale
b) Game of the week:
Guild Wars 2- NCSoft/ArenaNet
In our new MMO Manifesto video, ArenaNet Studio Lead Mike O'Brien and key creators explain how Guild Wars 2 will defy MMO conventions and create a new kind of game - free from boring grind and static, unchanging worlds. Loaded with incredible gameplay footage, the MMO Manifesto video charts a bold new direction in gaming.
Personal interaction - Your character's story reflects your interest and your choices - no two players will have the same experience.
One of the challenges of a massively-multiplayer game is that in being inclusive to a vast number of people, it loses a lot of the personal interaction that makes single-player RPGs so much fun. When you're looking at the games on the store shelf, it seems you have only two options - a game that you can play with your friends, or a game that has a satisfying personal story. The Guild Wars 2 design team believes that a game should have both http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/personal-stories/personal-story-overview/
Dynamic Events
In Guild Wars 2, our event system won't make you read a huge quest description to find out what's going on. You'll experience it by seeing and hearing things in the world. If a dragon is attacking, you won't read three paragraphs telling you about it, you'll see buildings exploding in giant balls of fire, and hear characters in the game world screaming about a dragon attack. You'll hear guards from nearby cities trying to recruit players to go help fight the dragon, and see huge clouds of smoke in the distance, rising from the village under siege. http://guildwars2.com/en/the-game/dynamic-events/dynamic-events-overview/
Environmental Weapons
So the weaponsyou're currently holding in your hands determine your first five skills. Breaking a barstool over the head of a rowdy bar patron can yield a chair leg that can be used to great effect as a club. http://guildwars2.com/en/the-game/combat/part-two/
In Guild Wars 2, we’re going even further to make the out-of-combat experience a role playing experience by introducing “personality” as a player character role. How you respond to other characters develops and changes your personality over time, letting you affect how the game treats you. Personality is your character’s attitude toward others; it grows and changes as you play through your personal story and as you adventure in the persistent world.
The 7th Guest, produced by Trilobyte and released by Virgin Games in 1993[3], is an FMV-based puzzle video game. It was one of the first computer video games to be released only on CD-ROM. The 7th Guest is a horror story told from the unfolding perspective of the player, as an amnesiac. The game received a great amount of press attention for making live action video clips a core part of its gameplay, for its unprecedentedly large amount of pre-rendered 3D graphics, and for its adult content.
OZZY OSBOURNE will return to North America for a month-long arena tour launching November 12 in Victoria, B.C. and concluding December 12 in Minneapolis. These shows--in support of his album SCREAM and latest single “Life Won’t Wait”--are part the of the Rock Legend’s in-progress 18-month world tour on which he’searning some of the best live reviews of his career (including raves for new guitarist, *Gus G). HALFORD, featuring legendary Judas Priest front man, Rob Halford, will perform on all dates. The first leg of arena dates will mark OZZY’s first headlining North American tour since 2007’s trek for his Black Rain album. Tickets for the Live Nation-produced tour go on sale beginning Friday, September 17. http://www.ozzy.com/us/news/ozzy-annouces-north-american-arena-tour http://www.robhalford.com/index.php No More PoP music at funerals
In Australia, The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne has banned the use of pop music at funerals, according to The New York Times. Archbishop Denis Hart has said the act of playing pop songs is not considered “a celebration of the life” of the deceased.
The new guidelines state: “Secular items are never to be sung or played at a Catholic funeral, such as romantic ballads, pop or rock music, political songs, football club songs.”
The Melbourne Hearld Sun reported that football songs are popular at many funerals, in addition to pop hits. Although Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” and Bette Midler’s “The Wind Beneath My Wings” are often requested, the newspaper reported that quirkier choices like AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell,” Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” and Monty Python’s “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” also had been popular before the ban.
Metallica, How many versions of a song is worth having...????
We're getting psyched up for our return to Australia and New Zealand next week (September 15, 2010 Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, AUS) . . . it's been six long years since we've visited and we're ready to throw down! The nice people at Universal Music were so darn excited that they actually suggested that we release something special to commemorate this last run of World Magnetic tour dates, so . . . ta-da . . . we present the "Six Feet Down Under" limited edition EP! Coming to Trans-Tasman record stores and right here at the Metallica.com Store on September 20.
"This is the next logical step in a process that began back in 1991 when we first implemented the 'Taper Section' at our shows, where the fans were encouraged to bring in their own gear to record the show, and then take home their very own 'bootleg' of the concert they had just seen." said Metallica's Lars Ulrich.
Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier; February 4, 1948)[1] is an American rock singer, songwriter and broadcaster whose career spans more than five decades. With a stage show that features guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, boa constrictors and baby dolls, Cooper has drawn equally from horror movies, vaudeville, and garage rock to pioneer a grandly theatrical and violent brand of heavy metal that was designed to shock.
Alice Cooper's "shock rock" reputation apparently developed almost by accident at first. An unrehearsed stage routine involving Cooper and a live chicken garnered attention from the press, and the band decided to capitalize on the tabloid sensationalism, creating in the process a new subgenre, shock rock. Cooper claims that the infamous "Chicken Incident" at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival concert in September 1969, was an accident. A chicken somehow made its way on stage during Cooper's performance; not having any experience around farm animals, Cooper presumed that, because the chicken had wings, it would be able to fly.[24] He picked it up and threw it out over the crowd, expecting it to fly away. The chicken instead plummeted into the first few rows occupied by disabled people in wheelchairs, who reportedly proceeded to tear the bird to pieces.[25]
Cooper's first album Pretties for You, released in 1969, had a slight psychedelic feel. Although it touched the US charts for one week at #193, it was ultimately a critical and commercial failure.
Despite the publicity from the Chicken Incident, the band's stronger second album, Easy Action, released in 1970, met with the same fate as its predecessor.
Alice Cooper delivers a killer show at Riverside Theater
“His voice hasn't been affected much by age. If anything, his weathered growl accented the gritty lyrics of "Vengeance Is Mine," "Poison" and "Under My Wheels."
c) Singing Yin and Yang: this segment covers the “not my type” of music but will listen to the song
“Sly and the Family Stone”
Sly and the Family Stone are an American rock, funk, and soul band from San Francisco, California. Active from 1966 to 1983, the band was pivotal in the development of soul, funk, and psychedelic music. Headed by singer, songwriter, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist Sly Stone, and containing several of his family members and friends, the band was the first major American rock band to have an "integrated, multi-gender" lineup.
