Back again! And a day or so late, once again, but hopefully this will all be worth the wait, especially considering my promises of special updates and so forth. It’s been a reasonably busy week in some (life related) regards, but I’m still going to try and get through all this as speedily as I can.

Website-wise, I’m a little concerned that the images are making it hard for some people to view the site. It takes a few seconds to load at my house, and my Year 12 Information Processing and Management teacher told me that the page should load as quickly as possible so as not to annoy people and drive away prospective traffic. Of course, most people I knew back then had 56K modems still, so maybe that’s all changed and maybe most people have faster internet connections than my fairly sluggish 512K one. Probably. Ain’t Australian broadband grand? Vote Labour, kids.

Actually, speaking of the upcoming election, I am glad to hear that we finally have a date: 24th of November. That’s just before my birthday, so if anyone’s stuck for what to get me, maybe just vote for Labour instead of actually buying anything, eh? That would make me super happy. I’m not ashamed to admit that I bawled like a little girl after the last election, and I’m not afraid to do the same thing this time around. That said, despite the strong showing in the polls, I’m trying not to get my hopes up about a Rudd government getting into power. It’s better if I don’t.

Still, the facts are hard to ignore - there are polls showing swings of up to 16% in some divisions, and that’s pretty heartening. The seat I’m living in, Hindmarsh, is one of the most marginal seats in the whole country, though. Steve Georganas, our sitting Labour member, only got in with 50.06% of the vote last time after preferences. This time he’s up against Liberal member Rita Bouras who appears to be attempting to play off the high aged population of the seat by promising improvements to aged care - not exactly something the Howard government has excelled at.

I may or may not be about to cut down the propaganda she’s tied to the light pole in front of my house.

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I know little about classical music, on the whole, but I do, as they say, know what I like. I developed something of a fascination with Jascha Heifetz a few years ago, mostly due to the fact that his grandson, Danny, played in Mr Bungle (and is currently living in Sydney, I believe). I haven’t exactly built up a collection or anything, but I’m always amazed at any footage of him I see, because it’s obvious even to me that he really was one of the greatest violinists of all time.

This video on YouTube is probably the best introduction I can find. It’s a little hammy at the start, but it does reference his legendary perfectionism, at least. I understand that he received some criticism for this search for perfection - apparently it did, to a degree, make his work a little soulless at times. As someone who appreciates lo-fi passion far more than shiny perfection, I can see where those critics would be coming from, but I don’t really feel that way myself. I’ve always felt that being able to play to this degree of virtuosity is sign enough of extraordinary passion for the music you play.

Plus, there’s also the fact that - according to legend - Heifetz requested that microphones be close enough to his violin that people would be able to hear the scratching of the bow across the strings, and the movement of his fingers. That strikes me as being at least some kind of precursor to lo-fi recording methods. I’m not going to try and critique the video or anything, because, like I say, I can tell if someone if good or not, but I’ve just got no idea about classical composition. That said, Wieniawski’s Scherzo Tarantelle is a great piece, and Heifetz plays it incredibly well.

So, while we’re on the subject of virtuoso violinists, I also stumbled upon a young Chinese girl named Tianwa Yeun, who is just phenomenally talented. The blog Classical Virtuoso had a post about her the other day featuring her renditions of Niccolo Paganini’s 24 Caprices - or some of them, anyway. Paganini was a composer and virtuoso from the late 18th and early 19th century rumoured to have developed his incredible skills by selling his soul to the devil. Coincidentally, the 13th Caprice is known as “Devil’s Laughter”. I’m not sure sure whether or not Paganini named it or not, but Yeun does an amazing job of playing it, especially the section before the end. Still, the really impressive one is the 1st Caprice, the very appropriately named “Arpeggio”. Check out the middle section. Mind blowing stuff.

There’s a documentary on Paganini floating around as well, in case you’re interested. It’s a really good introduction, though it’s a little lengthy. Here’s part one, and I’m sure you can follow the links in the related section to the other parts. It basically paints him as an abnormally talented man, but one who was unable to separate himself from his work properly, both in terms of being able to step back and be capable of self-criticism, and in terms of putting his work and his desire for fame above everything else. Because, as brilliant as his compositions are, he was truly obsessed with becoming famous for his own ability to play the violin. He was as theatrical and flashy and demanding as his pieces are, and this didn’t always make him popular. It’s a really fascinatingly, slightly tragic, story.

Aaand, just because it wouldn’t be Little Mathletics without some kind of random Mario insanity, I’ve also been searching through Mario Paint composer videos. Here’s the first one I found - it’s someone doing the Meow Mix theme, and it’s absolutely hilariously brilliant. It might actually be a bad one to watch first, because it kind of diminishes the awesomeness of the other videos.

Maybe not, though. Here’s the inevitable Chocolate Rain, a very funny rendition of In Da Club, and a surprisingly passable version of Drop It Like It’s Hot. However, this is probably the best one: John Cage’s 4′33″, which is pictured above. I laughed. A lot. I do find 4′33″ abnormally funny though.

Also, I gather this is kind of old, but a few of the videos were made using this program. It’s called Mario Sequencer, and basically performs the same task as the actual one in Mario Paint, but allows you to do full compositions. And it clearly works well - there’s some great full length songs from Japanese Mario Paint composers, though I’ve got no idea what they’re meant to be. I haven’t played around with it myself yet, but I might give it a shot sometime and post the results. Maybe I’ll use it for my much delayed solo album.

Or not.

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I only got my TV back a few hours ago, but I still played a few games last week on the 51cm. I got my review in for Atelier Iris 3, so I went into dB Magazine and picked up a couple more that were sitting in my pigeon hole. I didn’t play the first Stuntman, but I did hear a lot of people talking about it, and how enjoyable it would be if it weren’t so damned frustrating. Stuntman Ignition is probably making those people happy. I say “probably”, because it is still really frustrating in parts, with faultless memorisation playing as much a part as anything. It is possible to get through the levels without hitting every single stunt mark you’re given, but it’s kind of missing the point. I’m not great at it, to be perfectly honest - although I have only been playing it for a few days now - but I generally try to get through on at least 4 out of 5 stars.

5 starring a level is pretty challenging, because it involves hitting every mark, and keeping a steady flow of stunts going the whole time, whether it be simply going to close to an object or car, or pulling a wheelie on the motorbikes, and so on. If you thought simply memorising where the marks are was hard, then try memorising exactly how close you need to get to that box in order to keep your chain going.

Still, nothing wrong with a good challenge. The game leaves it just short of yelling at the TV territory (hello Spider-Man 3) and well short of controller throwing territory. But it’s going to get annoying by the very end, I can feel it. I think I’d be more open to that if I was playing the 360 version, though - I’m no Achievement whore, as my Gamertag will attest, but I do like to get points if I can, and the addition of badges to the PS2 version just feels like teasing. Who cares about my badges? No one’s going to see them.

It’s weird, really - as a console gamer, this whole online thing is pretty new to me, but there’s already a sense of isolation that comes from playing PS2 games. It’s not even the Achievement thing, it’s just the idea that I’m connected to the people on my Friends List. I’m late to the party with this, I know, but it does surprise me a little.

So, with that in mind, it’s also surprising that I’ve sunk more time into Stuntman Ignition than I have Blazing Angels 2. It’s probably just the fact that I’m not the biggest fan of the flight sim genre, and so even if Blazing Angels 2 does lean more toward the arcade-y side of things. Despite that, though, I’m really enjoying what I’ve played of it so far.

Except for the vagueness. Man is this game vague at times. There are times where you’ll only have the most basic idea of what to do, and really won’t be able to get through a mission until you’ve given it three or four shots. The game just has a habit of introducing new play mechanics, like the a rear gunman on your plane, or enemy radar coverage, without actually explaining how it all works. I managed to get through the first rear gunman mission by switching to in-cockpit view and flying around randomly.

I don’t know how that worked, but it did.

It’s a great looking game, even in SD. The detail in the city levels is really nice, in particular. But the most visually impressive element is the targeting, where the camera follows the enemy plane (or ground unit, or whatever) from around your plane, allowing you to attempt to get it in your sights. It looks incredible, and the fact that you’re still able to pull of some pretty flashy moves with the camera rotating like that - and not crash - is a real highlight of the game. The graphics can be a little too “next-gen” at times, with a whole lot of motion blur and the like, but it’s not really noticeable when you’re playing. In fact, it wasn’t really apparent just how much motion blur there is until I posted that screen to the right.

I’m yet to play much multiplayer, by the way, but I probably will for the easy Achievements. If anyone reading is interesting in jumping on with me and playing some co-op, that would also be fun. Gamertag is down the bottom of the page.

Speaking of multiplayer, I’m mildly stunned at the lack of people playing Puzzle Quest’s versus mode on XBLA. I assumed there would be more people taking advantage of this, but I’m yet to even play a game online. Not that it matters - the single player is fantastic, and it’s really great to have such an absorbing title there as something to just jump into for 20 minutes every now and then. I’m not exactly great at it yet, but I’m a Warlords fan from way back, so the map play is pretty exciting. Back when all I had was an Macintosh LCII (in, embarrassingly, 1996 through 1999) I played that game over and over again, because it was pretty much the only thing that I could play over and over without it losing any of its charm. That and Spaceward Ho!, anyway.

I’ve got another two games in my pigeon hole at the moment - Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights (which, according to Drew from THQ Melbourne, is not a Neil Diamond reference, a fact that disappoints me no end) and Buzz: The Hollywood Quiz. I’m not exactly jazzed about either of them, I’ll be honest, but it is nice to be busy reviewing a whole lot of stuff. Though, I think that’s more to do with the fact that I’m more or less about the only games writer at dB right now, since superstar dance writer and games reviewer Julian Cram is heading off to Melbourne. So, hey, if you’re interested in doing some games reviewing, now’s probably a good time to get in touch with the magazine.

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I picked up a bunch of CDs from dB too, but I’m still trying to get through the ones from a few weeks back, so I’m actually trying not to listen to them yet. That said, I did submit to temptation for two of them, and I don’t feel even remotely bad, because we’re talking about albums I’ve been really hanging out for. And, of course, there was the new Radiohead album.

I don’t know if I had a lot of expectations for In Rainbows. I definitely wasn’t as disappointed by Hail to the Thief as a lot of people seem to have been, but Radiohead seem to be one of those bands that I just never have too many preconceptions about. I was looking forward to hearing the album, but I didn’t want it to sound more like The Bends, or more like Kid A or anything. I just wanted to hear what they had been doing. That strikes me as a pretty good way to go into this sort of thing, especially when the build up to the album was so…idiosyncratic.

It’s pretty safe to say that In Rainbows is probably the first “must hear” release of the year. Not because of it’s quality, but simply because of what it did - levelled the playing field so that there were no promo copies, no leaks, no reviews and no real ideas of what it would be. If you were there downloading your copy at 12am GMT on the 10th, your opinion of it was as important as everyone else’s, including Pitchfork, et al. And that’s pretty strange, but it was really interesting to see that everyone was really excited to share their feelings on it.

Unfortunately, this did seem to mean more than a few rushed opinions. If I had a dollar for every time I’d read “album of the year” or “best Radiohead album ever”, I’d probably have…$24 or so. Still, considering I mostly just stuck to NeoGAF and Stereogum, that’s a lot. That kind of thing is why I tend to take two weeks reviewing something if I can, because there is that real danger of going on first impressions and being entirely too favourable during the honeymoon period, so to speak. See, for example, the first review I ever did - Ribbon Device’s Saturation Day. Not bad, but certainly not awesome. Whoops.

Anyway, I like In Rainbows. It’s not album of the year, or the best thing Radiohead have ever done, but it’s a good album. It feels like what Radiohead should sound like in 2007 - mature, and a little wiser than before. There’s very little of the paranoia that saturated Hail to the Thief, and none of the bleakness and distance of Kid A and Amnesiac. It’s very warm, very beautiful, and actually kind of fun. I can see myself listening to it a lot, because I think it fits a lot more moods than anything else they’ve done, possibly ever.

For the record, I paid 3 pounds for it, which I think is pretty fair. I’ll be buying it on CD anyway, I would think - especially if the retail release has the bonus tracks that come with the discbox. As much as I love Radiohead, I’m not paying 40 pounds for their music.

Although, the temptation of the vinyl is reasonably strong. I’m on a real vinyl kick at the moment, having just inherited 70 or 80 LPs from my aunt, which has significantly boosted my record collection. I’ll be DJing at my 25th in a month or so, which means that I can actually put together a pretty good set, unlike the last time I DJed, when I literally played every record I had. That was still 2 hours or so, but maybe trying to scratch over Loretta Lynn wasn’t the hottest idea I’ve ever had. Oh, damn you alcohol.

Doing that set also means I’m stuck in eBay mode again. I’ve only bought about $25 worth of stuff so far - that’s two awesome Santana LPs, including Abraxas - but it could get ugly. Deep breaths.

By the way, if anyone knows anything about getting into DJing in venues in Adelaide, let me know. I’m not exactly talking about dance clubs or anything, but I could do a pretty mean indie/funk set these days. I promise to lay off the Loretta Lynn, too.

So back to my point, the two albums I did actually listen to are Curses by Future of the Left, and La Cucaracha by Ween. Both, as I said, are albums I’ve been waiting for.

I’ve been a Ween fan pretty much since I started listening to music that wasn’t on cassettes called Smash Hits Volume Whatever. The Pod blew my mind when I was younger, and probably started me listening to a whole lot of stuff I wouldn’t have even touched otherwise. But, for me, nothing has really been super amazing since 12 Golden Country Greats. Yeah, The Mollusc was cool, and had some good songs, and White Pepper had a few nice moments, and Quebec had some really great stuff on there, but nothing felt as coherent as their earlier work. Shinola was the closest, but that was a rarities collection, and doesn’t count.

But it’s not like I lost faith in them or anything stupid like that - I liked those albums, but I just didn’t love them. And the live Ween stuff that you can find at The Archive is absolutely amazing. I wondered whether it might have been the glossy production of White Pepper and Quebec that I found offputting, but La Cucaracha is pretty shiny too, and the fact is, I really like it.

I’m not even sure why that is yet. I haven’t been able to figure it out, which is why I’m yet to even start writing the review, despite having listened to the album at least 10 times now. I think, possibly, it just feels less restrained than the last two albums - White Pepper in particular. It feels like the band letting loose, especially on the 10 and a half minute Women and Men, which is arguably the most epically psychedelic thing they’ve put on tape since Voodoo Lady on Chocolate and Cheese. I’m going to give it a little more time before I write up the review, but I can say at this point that there’s a lot to like about this album, and not a lot to dislike. Friends could maybe have been left off, because it really doesn’t fit, and I just can’t quite love Your Party as much as other people seem to, but that’s pretty much it.

Future of the Left is the new band for Mclusky’s Andy Falkous and Jack Egglestone, after Jon Chapple packed up for Melbourne. And the album, Curses, is brilliant. As I’ve been saying to people, along with Chapple’s latest album with his band Shooting at Unarmed Men, it’s enough to make me stop caring that Mclusky broke up.

And that’s really saying something, because I loved me some Mclusky. In my second year of university (well, the six months before I dropped out, anyway) Mclusky Do Dallas was pretty much all I was listening to. I saw the band twice, and each time was incredible. But the albums put out by the two bands that spun off Mclusky are both good enough, and inventive enough, that I honestly wouldn’t want it any other way.

Shooting at Unarmed Men’s Triptych is a great album, and has some tracks that really benefit from the space Chapple gives them, which is something that couldn’t have been done in Mclusky. Similarly, Curses moves in different directions from Mclusky by using synths and playing around with repetition in a way that Mclusky would never have done. And the bass playing of former Jarcrew frontman Kelson Matthais is fantastic - rumbling, fuzzed out and utterly uncompromising from, literally, the first second of the album.

So, really, who could complain? We’re getting two albums that bear traces of where they’ve come from, but still show very obvious signs of progression. It’s great.

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Marvel’s One More Day Spider-Man story arc is utterly bizarre to me. I mean, I’m not the type to whine about something like this and shout about how I won’t be buying the next story arc because they’re not doing it right - I will. Mostly, that’s because I really like where they’re going with Spider-Man, with the whole thing with having Amazing Spider-Man three times a month, with different artists and writers taking on each arc of the title. And some of the teams they have lined up to work on the Brand New Day project, as it’s known, are really exciting.

But One More Day is somewhat less than exciting. It stinks of desperation - a story that isn’t being done because it’s interesting or involving, but rather because its outcome is vital to where the company wants the character to go. The general consensus - and stop reading now if you’re sensitive to spoilers - is that it means the break-up of Peter Parker’s marriage to Mary-Jane, and that Aunt May, who is currently is a coma, will be back and healthy again. Most likely, this will involve some kind of bargain with Marvel’s devil character, Mephisto. I couldn’t care less about that, personally. If they want to reset the character, effectively, that’s fine. I have faith in the teams that will be picking up from where this leaves off.

Like I said, though, the way it’s all coming together just isn’t working. I’m not the greatest fan of J. Michael Straczynski’s plots - though his characterisation is generally pretty good - but this whole arc, so far, has just been muddy and confusing. It feels like the end is justifying the means, and in a comic book, when the means aren’t interesting, or well defined, it becomes immensely trying. It’s boring. The whole arc thus far has felt like padding, and I’m assuming the third book will be much the same, before eventually something brings it all home in the final book in November. There’s no resonance to the actions of the characters. And that’s just lazy.

Joe Quesada’s art could have been the one thing that made it worth reading. He’s a fine artist, and while I didn’t really like the overly-stylised look of the first book because it made the more “dramatic” scenes seem trite, the splash page for this current issue made me wonder whether things might have picked up. It really is one of the greatest pieces of Spider-Man art in some time. The webbing is just beautiful, and the posing is really masterful. The Dr. Strange stuff that follows is great too, but the freakishly over rendered musculature from there is horrible, and the layouts seem to lose any trace of the dynamism of the first few pages. And the constant narrowing of the eyes on Spider-Man’s mask? Bleh, no. Isn’t there another way to show emotion without resorting to that? It looks terrible.

Some of the blame for the characters, at least, must fall on inker Danny Miki, who just isn’t a good match for Quesada. His work is too scratchy and thin, and while that would certainly work with some pencillers, it only serves to intensify the problems with Quesada’s anatomy.

So, I’m going to stay with it through the next two issues, but I really can’t wait for the new teams to take over so all this can be left behind. Dan Slott, of She-Hulk and Avengers: The Initiative, and Civil War penciller Steve McNiven are kicking it off, which sounds like it’s going to be great.

Speaking of comic redemption, I was about to drop Punisher War Journal from my pick-up list. For months now, it’s been ridiculously boring - the recent Hatemonger story arc went for five issues, when it really should have been concluded in two. It’s a pity, because the first five issues of the series were brilliant, with the kind of humour and sharp dialogue you’d expect from Matt Fraction. Somewhere along the line, this all kind of disappeared, and we were left with something that felt totally aimless.

The same thing happened with Ariel Olivetti’s art, which was really well suited to the more urban environments of the first three issues, as well as his fantastic rendition of Times Square in the fifth issue. By the end of the Hatemonger storyline, though, it was welcome to have a fill-in artist, just because it was all beginning to look a little to smooth and stylised, and bland, which is a word I never thought I’d use to describe Ollivetti.

Issue 12 was the issue this comic needed. The artwork feels more suited to this kind of scenario, and the range of emotions on every one of the character’s faces is spot on. The fight scenes are equally great, with a real sense of impact, though the sense of movement can sometimes feel a little stilted. But it’s the dialogue that’s really returned this issue to form - Frank and Clarke discuss whether She-Hulk has an “I’m-filled-with-self-loathing-and-I’m-going-to-sleep-with-guys-below-my-station thing going on” while in the middle of a warzone, for example. Also, there’s a gun that shoots swords. Yeah.

I’m still not totally filled with excitement at the idea of the Punisher taking on Kraven’s son in upcoming issues, but at least there’s some definite hope that they’ll be worth reading now.

Leaving aside the awful, awful Michael Turner covers, Dwayne McDuffie’s run on Fantastic Four has been very readable, especially after Straczynski’s bland, lacklustre work. It looks like the Turner covers are staying until the new creative team starts, which is definitely a reason to look forward to that, but it will be a pity to see McDuffie move on, because it would have been interesting to see what he could have done with the team with more time.

There’s a few more issues to go, but this arc has felt a little rushed, especially issue 550, which hammers through plot points and cameos at a rate of knots. It makes more sense the second and third times through, but this and the last issue have both had that feeling - like it was maybe planned to take more issues, before the exact length of McDuffie’s run was cemented. And now, with one more arc to get through before Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch take over (which is really exciting, by the way).

The art, fortunately, is beautiful. Paul Pelletier’s work can feel a little cramped in the more cosmic scenes, but his individual character work is nice, and shows a lot of subtle control. He draws a really great Thing, and luckily, Rick Maygar inks a really great thing, which is most important with that character.

Finally, Tank Girl: The Gifting #4 is everything you hoped for. It’s hilarious, and has some of the most creative uses of swear words ever in print. If anyone ever tried to convince you that swearing isn’t funny, this is the book to show them. The poo and fart jokes can get a little too much at times, but they’re mostly just in one of the stories in this book, and for the rest of the time Alan Martin is in fine form. It’s irreverent and often pretty stupid, but God it’s fun.

And the art! Ashley Wood is magnificent. And Australian. Honestly, I don’t even want to say too much about it, because you really should see it out yourself. If you missed the four part series, it will undoubtedly be out in trade paperback form at some point in the future.

But the really good news is that Wood and Martin are working on a new four part series, with a more consistent narrative (though probably not a more coherent one). Tank Girl: The Royal Escape is set for sometime in 2008, I believe. I can wait. I’ve also heard that Martin is working on a series called Tank Girl: Carioca with 2000AD legend Mike McMahon due sometime in the middle of 2008. This strikes me as being pretty exciting, assuming it’s true.

By the way, IDW Publishing - how about a poster? I would absolutely buy a poster of any of the full page pin-ups from the back of issue 4. I heard there were promo posters for the series before its release, but I hold absolutely no hope of ever seeing one of them, let alone owning one. Still, if someone wants to prove me wrong by sending one my way, the contact details are up the top of the page. It’s my birthday soon, you know.

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Once again with the lots of writing, eh? Nevermind. Oh - almost forgot the big celebrity surprise! Last Friday, I met Australian pop star and former Neighbours actress Delta Goodrem. There’s no real exciting story to go along with that statement - I showed up the hotel, and the Sony rep gave me some coffee and water and then I spoke to her - but she was really, genuinely lovely. Everything she did while we were talking just made it seem like she was actually happy to be talking with me, which made it a real pleasure. I’m obviously not the target audience for her music or anything, but Delta Goodrem is still Delta Goodrem, and I admit to being a little starstruck. And of course, I pulled the really professional trick of asking for a photo. Click for full-sized horror - or mostly full sized, anyway. No one needs to have to deal with 2400×1800 pixels of me. However, apparently the photo will be in an upcoming issue of dB Magazine, so you can cut it out and put it on your fridge if you want. Probably good for losing weight or something, right?

Actually, while I’m doing the whole pictures-of-me thing, I went to a party on Saturday night dressed as one of my childhood heroes. Keen fans unite!

I’ll be back next week.