This is an minor update to my game Walking Stick created with Power Game Factory. This will probably be the last updated for a while till the game engine is converted to 64-bit. If you have MacOS Lion you can still play this game.
Enjoy!
And this is exactly what needed to happen…
As with Star Trek™, The Muppets™ for a long time have sat there, lingering the cold shadows of the Disney® empire. A once fruitful source of entertainment that sadly took a nose dive after Henson’s death despite numerous attempts to keep the ship a-float. Along the way the Muppets were slowly cannibalized by the plagues of modern society. The Muppets have been out of the limelight for many years as sharp computer animation flicks have exploded in abundance, hiding the need to use real life puppeteers and the use of actual ‘talent’ to produce something interesting.
So when Jason Segel decided that we needed a Muppet movie after 14 years because as a child was how HE learned comedy, it was a welcomed idea. Combine his writing style with the geniuses at Pixar’s writing staff and what you have now is the amalgamation of super-fan-dom with pure innocent, imaginative fun!
The Muppets are finally back, and done right!
The Muppet’s movie is a joyous welcome return to our beloved old friends. Everything falls into place with this movie! Not only did they exceed in the story, the comedy directing is brilliant, the songs stick in your head, and they went above and beyond special effects, taking the Muppets to new heights. For the first time you see full Muppet bodies and figures walking about as if real. They really took the Muppets to the next level.
The story itself is absolutely brilliant, panning off the idea that the Muppets themselves haven’t been around for several years. Playing off this idea not only works, but the references and homages back to the previous Muppet shows and movies are absolutely well done. It really is a trip back to the original Muppets cast. You see a lot of the rarities found in the Muppet show with the only 2nd Generation Muppet showing up is Pepe. (A lot of hard core fans hated the additional of characters such as Bean Bunny, Pepe and Clifford). There’s enough inside references and call-backs to please both the occasional to die-hard fans.
Jason Segel is brilliant and well played in the flick. The Muppets themselves appear to have emotion and feelings again. This was something that was greatly lost after Henson died but now that Actors like Frank Oz have moved on, the next generation of Muppet actors can actually bring out these emotions again. When Kermit is sad, you feel sad. When Miss Piggy is Angry, your feel Angry. And Gonzo comes across as lunatic as ever. The new Muppet actors has brought back the original magic that the old crew sadly lost over the years.
Combined with brilliant dialog, wonderful up-beat songs, some classics, and most of all real intelligent and non insulting humor; the Muppets movie is an ever-so welcomed return of the original cast. My only hope is that now take this and restart the Muppet Show with the same genius that they did here. The Muppets have legs again (pun-intended) so let’s run with this and show that kids don’t need to be spoon-fed garbage and adults can be entertained as well.
And most of all THANK YOU Jason Segel!
Yes, I actually had time to site down and read a book!
Books inspired Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford (The Genesis guys) first solo albums. Tony Banks did a ‘Flowers for Algernon’ story called ‘A Curious Feeling’. Mike Rutherford did ‘Smallcreep’s Day.’
Smallcreep’s Day is an album I simply adore. The album helped me survive many long nights finishing up homework during college. The elegant dances of keyboards combined with out-of-the-box guitar riffs set to a progressive rock story always help set the right mood to do art. Made in 1979 it harkens back to a time where the keyboards always drowned out the guitars, the atmosphere moog was set to ‘scary’ and the guest vocalist who had an amazing voice was never heard from again.
So when I went to find the actual Book that inspired this great album, it was disappointing to learn that it was very much out of print and nowhere to be found. Now with the iBooks App, Smallcreep’s Day by Peter Currell Brown is available for download. FINALLY I thought I could read and understand the album even more now!
Peter Currell Brown wrote Smallcreep’s Day while working in Gloucestershire factory. Its success enabled him to give up factory work and realize his dream of setting up a craft pottery in rural Gloucestershire. Since then he has been involved in series of craft enterprises in various parts of the county. He now lives and works in woodlands near Sherwood Forest making spinning-wheel for enthusiasts and museums.
After reading this book it appears this was all he had to say.
So before delving into this book I had an idea it would be a strange ‘Alice-In-Wonderland’ type ordeal. Oh my! I have no idea. Talk about surreal this book is a typical off-the-wall adventure that reeks back to the boring, depressing stories we had to read for summer high-school reading.
Having spent some time in a manufacturing plant in Mansfield, Ohio I know what it’s like to walk around a huge juggernaut of a building, with additions that were constructed at different decades, surrounded with walls and complexities of no rhyme and reason. The one thing the author does do well is describe the complexity of this plant as his character Smallcreep walks around trying to find the reason for his ‘widget’.
Combined with the fact the entire book is written from a first-person point of view, the book ITSELF is really hard to read. Literally. In that conversations between several characters are all contained with one paragraph with no line breaks. You’re eyes are literally going back over several lines to figure out who’s talking. To make matters worse, there are characters within the single-point-of-view quoting other characters. The amount of quotes within quotes will make your head spin. I’m not sure why they formatted the text this way, but the book in general is just uncomfortable on the eyes.
The book is very dry, and so depressing that several times I almost decided NOT to finish it. The author spends way too much time describing the machines that accompany Smallcreep on his journey and not enough explaining what is going on. Scenery changes instantly and you have to re-read the paragraph to figure out exactly what just happened. Smallcreep encounters characters that seem to serve no purpose or provide no explanation to the bigger theme of the book. Obviously the book is a call for the plight of the factory worker, but several of the characters are so agonizingly self-defeating, that you really can’t feel sorry for them.
This combined with the absurdity of the surreal situations, a man hanging himself, a man cutting his arm off, a baby being born in the cafeteria, a watery dungeon several miles below the plant provide nothing more than just obscure frustration. The main character himself doesn’t seem mentally equipped to even deal with the items that are presented to him, but then again this book is VERY surreal. There’s no way all these items would ever be contained in a single factory, there’s no way all of this could happen within the time frame presented. You are simply suppose to get the ideal that factory life is boring, hard-working and meaning-less and that point is hammered (pun intended) home several thousand times through-out the book.
I had an idea of what I was getting into before I delved into this book so I continued on to the end, but I’ll be honest with you if I didn’t skip several lines just to get to the next line of dialog. I felt this would have really worked better as a movie, maybe with some bizarre colored pencil animation the likes of Bill Plimpton. As a book the story is just downright weird and nonsensical.
This book was so depressing that like after I read ‘Sounder’ I wanted to start cutting my wrists. I don’t know what happened in the sixties to make every book a depressing moralist story but I literally was left disappointed when I reached the end. How Mike Rutherford ever made his wonderful record off this agonizing piece of fluff is beyond me. If anything Ruthford’s album at least ends on a happy note (pun intended again).
While I understand where Mr. Brown was going for the combination of weird formatting of the book and the surreal story make Smallcreep’s Day a very disgusting journey. You finish no more enlightened than you already are. The book leaves you wanting your money back from the iTunes store.
To: Various Bird Toy Makers
Dear Corporations,
I am writing to inform you of a possible problem with some of the toys in your distribution channel. We believe the following toy presented had bells that contained zinc, which killed our beloved bird Rudy. As seen by the photos included the bells themselves are corroded and present a possible threat to birds.
Rudy was found to have extremely high levels of Zinc in his system. This caused him to become anemic and as such pass away.
I am pretty sure this toy was purchased from the Petsmart store located in Lewis Center/Polaris Ohio. The manager there indicated that he had never seen the toy within his 16 years of management there. I would like verification of the age of the store if all-possible.
Also I would like someone from Petsmart to contact me to pull my Petsmart Perks card number and review my past purchases to see if this toy did exist at the store at some point.
I’ve also noted several other toys located at the store that contain the same type of bells. I would request that you immediately remove these toys from the store and distribution channels as they contain a possible threat to birds. These toys appear to be coming from China.
My goal here is help prevent the heartache and suffering to other bird owners that our family had to go through. I respectfully request that your company take the appropriate action to protect bird owners that is required.
Thank you in advance.
Anthony S. Anselmo
Update: 2011-11-27: Found the toy at Pets Supplies ‘Plus’ and it’s manufactured by Penn-Plax. Letters have been sent to Penn-Plax and Pets Supplies Plus. PetSmart did reply to me and indicated they do not carry the toy.
Progressive rock isn’t supposed to be catchy. In fact, most true prog-heads will tell you that you must listen to a progressive rock song three times before you just begin to understand the conceptual meaning of the music. Not so with Gravity. The band’s latest release “Midnight Sonata” proves that you can combine the elegance of progressive rock with the memorizing tales of a story-telling wrapped up in a tune that you actually remember the first time through.
“Midnight Sonata” shows a massive improvement in both songwriting and collaboration from Gravity’s first album “Into Oblivion.” Starting off with “The Darkest Hour” you are immediately pumped up for an incredible journey into the unknown. If you ever needed a song to start your day, “The Darkest Hour” is definitely a recommendation – but use all caution while driving to work.
The second song, “Chasing the Sun,” is another heart-racing, soaring song that takes you up to a musical plateau of emerging essence. Seven minutes later, you feel like you have literally left your body and returned after a whirlwind journey across the universe. Eric Potapenko’s amazing guitar styling literally leaves you breathless at the end of this song.
“Burning Sky,” probably the most off-the-wall track on the album, will most definitely blow your mind. Drummer Matt Kerschner provides some amazing sounds that rival the liking of Phil Collins or Neil Pert. The instrumental progression on this song is an absolute joy to listen to for anyone who enjoyed long progressive epics of the past. Warm fuzzies will occur in your belly at the end of this tune.
“Serenity,” probably the best track on the album and a guaranteed hit, will do exactly what its title indicates, in that it provides peace and calm as you listen. Not only will the incredible playing of Eric Potapenko put the tune in your head for the rest of the day, but the soulful fingers of Joe Capka combined with the hard hitting bass of Brian Craft will produce an intense emotion in you, only coupled with the joy of watching a baby bird grow. You will shed at least one tear at the end of this song, or have the strange sensation to call your mom.
After peaceful bliss comes epic hard metal craziness with the track “Taken,” which according to the band was somewhat inspired by the movie of the same name. Joe Capka really stretched his signature keyboard sounds to produce an immense soundscape that makes you feel like you’re right in the middle of a spy-thriller.
“Beyond the Horizon,” the second to last song, brings the pace back down a bit, with a bit of a somewhat Irish/Celtic theme. Once again Eric Potapenko’s playing really shines here, especially on acoustic guitar. Finally, the journey concludes with the monstrous epic “Nightmare Sonata,” with bass lines that will leave the mirrors shaking on your car. This combination of all of the key talents of the group shows – no proves – that their playing ability and skills are equal to the progressive greats of the day (a.k.a. Dream Theater). When the final bits of the song come to an end you are already hitting replay on your iPod because you are ready to take this journey again.
Instrumental rock usually requires a bit of patience, but not with Gravity. Each of their songs has a style, a flavor, a feeling and an emotion that will resonate with you throughout the days of your life. At the completion of listening to “Midnight Sonata” you will be thankful that you were blessed to be alive and have heard this masterpiece. It truly is an amazing piece of work. From cover to content, Gravity has done it again. If you ever get chance to see these guys live, I cannot recommend enough a front row seat!
Check them out at gravity33.com!
Download Midnight Sonata today via iTunes here and enjoy!