Friday, October 24, 2008

That Thing Creeps Me Out


So Thao recently bought a red wig for her Halloween costume this year. I won't say exactly what she's gonna be dressing up as, but she did braid the hair into two separate pig tails that hang neatly off the sides. Since Halloween isn't for a week or so, she had set the hair prop hanging on a cabinet handle near the bathroom. Later that night, as I made my way toward the bathroom to empty the tank, I nearly jumped backward in horror at the sight of something I'd never thought I could be afraid of. Now, keep in mind, the hallway was dimly lit and I didn't know it would be there, but yeah, I was a bit unnerved at the time.

Funny thing is, even now, as I pass by the thing, it's still a little creepy, and for some reason I can't help but think, "Kill it, kill it, kill it". I don't know what it is. Maybe it's that the short strands of braided hair that almost appear to form a pair of furry legs or claws. Maybe it's some weird undiscovered fear of small, furry, mutant animals that I've repressed until now. Maybe it's just the idea of a disembodied head of hair. Or perhaps, it's that when viewed from the proper angle, with your eyes squinted just right, it has the look of a headcrab. You know those super-annoying staples of the Half-Life series that lunge at your head at every opportunity? In any case, Halloween will be over before I know it. That pillow wearing the Lambda Team scientist uniform will hopefully buy me some time and distract it until then.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Music in Games


So yeah, haven't been posting much on this blog anymore.. since I've been busy w/ another site. Not gonna make any more promises though. The posts will just come when they come.

Anyway, I've been playing a lot of Rock Band 2 recently and have enjoyed it pretty well, as you can see here. Something's been nagging me though. Namely, that some people have a problem with others liking music due to it being in a game. Even if they really only get into that one song and don't dig much deeper into that band's discography, the fact that someone was exposed to some new music they wouldn't ordinarily listen to is really all that matters. Naturally, you develop a sort of positive association with a game's music, much like you would with the composed pieces from a Final Fantasy game or from any orchestrally scored movie. Regardless, the fact remains that you did open up your palette just a bit to something new. Who cares where that motivation came from?

The way I see it, it should make no difference whether you hear about a song from a friend, uncover it on the iTunes music store, find it on some Pandora playlist, listen to it on some classic rock radio station, discover it in your dad's old collection of vinyl albums, catch it playing in some movie's soundtrack, or play it in a video game. After all, music is about discovery. It's an art form that can be easily shared with others in many ways. The more mediums, the greater reach it has. And since the recent Guitar Hero: Aerosmith game has made them more money than any album of theirs ever has, you should probably get used to it.