90 « geekent’s stuff’n things

22/04/2009

[...consumed anew #90/91] Couch vs Disco Inferno

Filed under: ...consumed anew — Tags: 90, 91 — Graig @ 2:28 pm

Two more holdover artists/albums acquired many years after first hearing and mixtaping them on Brave New Waves (see anew #86 for details).

couchfant Couch: Fantasy - I had “Linie Gegen Strich” on a mix tape for years, listened often enough that I know it’s movements and rhythms, it’s bass-centric maneuvers with intimate familiarity, even if I didn’t know it’s title. When I bought the “Fantasy” album (likely in 2001/2002, used) I was surprised to find another 8 songs that were in a similar vein of post-rock instrumental. To my ears, though, listening to a full Couch album, it honestly sounds like incidental/interlude music for small-market television channels. It’s a few notches above elevator music for sure, but it’s by and large forgettable and in a large dose, a little hokey.

Disco Inferno: D.I. Go Pop - finding this album whose opening track was “In Sharky Water” seemed like a major coup for me, as I was trying in the early 2000s to recreate my BNW mixtapes digitally. “In Sharky Water” is a melding of found sounds, post-punk instrumentalism, experimental tape looping, and lo-fi aesthetics. It’s dark and dirty, intense with an occasionally lulling serenity, shifting tempos about a dozen times through its 4:40 time. The D.I. song I’m more keenly interested in is the manic “It’s A Kids World”, which sadly doesn’t appear on this album. The remainder of D.I. Go Pop is a challenging mash of avant-gardeism that generally defies rules of song structure, and rarely aims for listenability. Apparently my obtaining of DI Go Pop in 2002(ish) was another coup since it wasn’t released by a North American distributor until 2004. *Shrug*

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02/04/2009

[...learned #90] risky business

Filed under: ...learned — Tags: 90 — Graig @ 2:51 pm

Sat down for a three hour quasi-lecture on our company’s financial risk solutions. The discussion broke down the distinctions between market and credit risk, credit risk and counterparty credit risk, as well as what banking book and trading book are, not to mention what Economic Capital and Regulatory Capital represent. I learned about derivatives, asset and mortgage backed securities, and CDOs, and I learned how they contributed to the current liquidity crisis in the international markets, as well as how Canada’s banks were somewhat protected from it by our regulatory agency (despite the desire to do more bad loans etc).

My understanding of how commercial banking differs from investment banking has improved, as does an understanding of who our clients are and what they want to get out of our software. I’m by no means an expert, but I was able to keep up with the conversation, which… was surprising.

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01/04/2009

[...i ate #90] English pub grub

Filed under: ...i ate — Tags: 90 — Graig @ 10:40 am

After a long, gruelling day at work, I needed a time out with gin and something greasy. We found ourselves at the Dark Horse on Bloor@Jane where I opted to try something different. I forget what it was called, exactly, but it was some sort of beer battered, deep fried sausage drizzled with ketchup and a sweet BBQ sauce, accompanied by baked beans and mashed potatoes.

It was about as delicious as it sounds, which is to say it was kind of revolting. In the hierarchy of nasty things I’ve eaten this year, it’s sandwiched right in between the stinky Quebec cheese Kevin fed me and the allspice-intensive blueberry muffins Aden made.

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31/03/2009

[...about me #90] 1980’s shows in the 1980s, part 2

Filed under: ...about me — Tags: 90 — Graig @ 3:11 pm

There were three things which freaked the hell right out of me as a pre-teen, two of them TV show theme songs and one of them a tv show (in name only based off a movie) that was supposed to be scary.

I watched Doctor Who episodes infrequently as a kid. As a life-long sci-fi fan even at 10 years of age, I wanted to like the good Doctor, but the BBC production values didn’t quite appeal to me (I liked my sci-fi with lots of make up, elaborate sets and special effects). It was conceptual sci-fi which would take me another 15 years to fully appreciate. But yeah, like so many, the theme song would make me crap my pants.

But the Unsolved Mysteries closing credits theme, that shit would give me nightmares as it would reverberate through my mind… it would give me nightmares IF I could fall asleep. With all the arsonists and murderers and ufos and ghosts, it’s kind of funny that it’s the music that would weird me out but there you go.

11:30 friday nights, after Superforce, our local CTV affiliate would run Friday The Thirteenth, the Series. It was a goofy little show, not really all that scary and having nothing to do with the movie series (had more in common with Halloween 3: Season of the Witch, quite frankly), but there was one episode (I believe it was “Brain Drain”) where there was this elaborate machine with two seats, a person would sit in each and this plunger would swing down and stab both people in the back of the neck, fluids would run through tubes between the two killing one and making the other smarter. For some reason this concept above all others just gave me the total wiggins.

I noticed F13:TS is now available on DVD at HMV. Not willing to pay $50 for it though.

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[...consumed all new #90] The Venture Bros. season 3

Filed under: ...consumed all new — Tags: 90 — Graig @ 2:39 pm

the-venture-bros-3rd-season People go on and on about The Sopranos, The Wire, Battlestar Galactica and other modern, epic series in genre storytelling as the best show ever made for TV. To them I would without hesitation put The Venture Bros. up against them in competition. While handily the aforementioned could win their title for best Mobster, Cop Drama, or Sci-Fi show, The Venture Bros would take best cartoon, best superhero, best adventure, and go mano y mano with Arrested Development or Seinfeld as best comedy. All my opinion of course, but I sincerely believe that this show is absolutely one of the best series ever created.

Season Three debuts with nary an appearance from the titular characters, instead it focuses on The Monarch and his new bride, Doctor Girlfriend, as they are given a thorough brow beating by their superiors in the League of Calamitous Intent. In fact, the machinations of the League is the focal point of this season, with plenty of episodes dealing with the requirements to be an Arch Villain and the rules surrounding the engaging of the Protagonist. It’s applying logic to absurdity, and it’s brilliant.

If it wasn’t obvious before, it is now that the show is about much more than the adventures of Hank, Dean, Rusty and Brock and it’s initial impetus as satire of Johnny Quest. Instead it’s weaving a intricate history around all the characters in the series, as they relate to one another. Dr. Venture Sr. and Team Venture of old are highlighted a number of times, as are the previous generation of villains that he faced. Themes of legacy are strewn throughout. The Monarch has to deal with the fact that he’s no longer allowed to “arch” his hated nemesis Dr. Venture, and his new neighbor Sgt. Hatred gets the gig. Origin stories for Phantom Limb, The Monarch, Quizboy Billy and even (briefly) Baron Underbite all surface, while Rusty’s boyhood traumas and fantasies bubble to the surface. Hank and Dean each manage to grow up in their own way, while Brock manages to avoid finding out he has a son (or so we’re led to believe) and gets himself canned by the OSI. The rich tapestry of characters already introduced come back for more, including Col. Gentleman, Richard Impossible, Johnny Quest, 21 and 24, while also introducing more new characters, including some previously mentioned but never seen (like Truckules). One episode even takes the show back another generation, to the days of Rusty’s grandfather and the gestation for the League.

Yes, the show is dense, but each episode manages to stand on its own, as an adventure piece, an action piece, or a superhero/villain piece, but it’s always an askew take on the genres, loaded with humour and particularly ingenious insight into the absurd workings of genre storytelling. Beautifully animated with a great voice cast (though with the expanding roster of characters involved, some of the vocal talent are taking on too many) and some of the sharpest dialogue ever written for TV, I find myself constantly wide-eyed and smiling wide whenever I have the show on, and no matter how many times I watch an episode I only seem to enjoy it more.

The DVD set of season three is thinner than previous with deleted scenes (recorded audio but storyboard visuals) and audio commentary. The most notable thing about this season’s release is it’s uncensored, which means all the swears are heard loud and clear (and it seems more profound this season than previously) as well there’s quite a bit of mantackle on display. Frankly, and my only quibble, I find it funnier when it is censored.

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