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JAG18

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  1. JAG18

    Spotify Year in Music 2016

    By JAG18,

    With another year almost come and gone Spotify has sent all its users their year in music, which means it’s time to talk about how I listened to music in 2016. This time around, Spotify was a lot less revealing having replaced a dedicated site with a simple email with regrettably less detailed statistics, but whatever it’s still interesting (to me) so let’s go with it.
     
    In numbers:
    This year I listened to 35,330 minutes of music (580 hours, 24 days), which is way up from last year’s 22,000 minutes. And also 1,309 different artists (double last’s year number of 648). However one place I lagged behind is in the number of unique tracks I listened to: 1,720 as opposed to 1,943 last year.
     
    Top Tracks:
    “Pray to God” – Calvin Harris feat. Haim: you know, while writing this I just realized that this was also my second most played song of 2015.
    “Red Eye” – Kid Cudi feat. Haim: this is the year I went from being a passive fan of Haim to them being my third or fourth favorite bands ever, which is my guess as to why they’re featured on both of my top two tracks.
    “Oh No!” – Marina and the Diamonds: probably still favorite Marina and the Diamonds song so I’m not surprised.
     
    Top Artists:
    Marina and the Diamonds
    Chvrches
    The Veronicas
    Charli XCX
    Halsey
     
    As I mentioned already, I was so happy when I saw that I’m in the top one percent of Marina fans and CHVRCHES is still one of my favorite bands ever. The Veronicas I discovered this year just in time to see their great new tracks drop “In My Blood” and “On Your Side”. Charli XCX is an old favorite of mine who released a pretty great EP earlier this year and Halsey is a more recent favorite. I’m more than a little surprised not to see Dua Lipa here or even Kyla La Grange, but whatever.
     
    Top Genres: Pop, Post-Teen Pop, Dance Pop, Indietronica, Metropopolis
    The only change from last year is that I’ve apparently stated listening to less synthpop and replaced it with Post-Teen Pop.
     
    Favorite Day to Listen (more like the day I have the most time to listen): Monday
     
    Your Top Songs 2016 Wrapped:
    Finally, Spotify also takes your one-hundred and one most streamed songs and puts them in a single playlist for you, and these are the first ten tracks on that playlist.
     
    “Hummingbird” – Kyla La Grange
    “Hotter Than [Karzahni]” – Dua Lipa
    “Higher Than Life” – Bella Goldwin
    “Chewing Gum” – Nina Nesbitt
    “Lush Life” – Zara Larsson
    “Love Is the Name” – Sofia Carson
    “Blow Your Mind (Mwah)” – Dua Lipa
    “Real Love” – Florrie
    “Pray to God” – Calvin Harris feat. Haim
     
    Unsurprisingly, many of my favorite songs of this year as well as an obvious old favorite; the other eighty-one songs are about the same.
     
    And that’s all I have to share from this year in music; as I said not as detailed as last year, but then I guess it’s kind of a moot point seeing as I do have a Last.fm account (although unfortunately one I didn't get 'til this past July) so I have some pretty elaborate statistics of my listening habits over there. Either way, I hope you some enjoyment out of this and look out in the coming weeks for all of my music related year-end lists.
  4. JAG18

    Movies I've Seen Recently

    By JAG18,

    In the last couple of months I've seen a few new movies both in theaters and on DVD; a couple of which are several decades old, so their only new to me, but whatever here are my thoughts on all of them along with some pointless number ratings.
     
    "Krampus" 8/10
    This is a movie I wanted to watch as soon as I saw Red Letter Media's review of it last December, and I finally did see it last month and I was not disappointed. It was a silly over-the-top horror comedy and it worked perfectly as that with a good cast, great dark humor, and stellar creature and monster effects. Of course, that last one shouldn’t surprise anyone because the same people who did all the wonderful effects for “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy also worked on “Krampus”, I’m talking, of course, about Richard Taylor and his crew at the Weta Workshop and I can’t stress how much they hit it out of the park on this movie.
    If there's one thing I regret doing is seeing this film when I did, because this movie got me in the mood for Christmas, oddly enough, and I'm one of those people who hates any mention of Christmas until mid-November-ish so that was a bit of a mistake on my part. I wouldn't be too surprised if this ends up like “It’s a Wonderful Life” as a movie I screen every Christmas; I now it would be really strange, but I don't care.
     
    "I'm Not Ashamed" 6/10
    From the studio who brought audiences “God’s Not Dead” and “God’s Not Dead 2" comes a film about one of the first victims of the tragic Columbine Shooting, a girl named Rachel Joy Scott whose inspiring life and writings have led to several books and talks made by her family in the decade-and-a-half since. I did enjoy this movie a lot more than I thought I would; it’s a fun, inspiring, teen Christian drama, and if you’re in either of this film’s target demographics, people of faith and teens (although preferably both) then I do recommend it. Of course, having done some research into Columbine before hand, just because, I knew going in that everything involving the Columbine shooters in this movie was going to be awful and wrong and it was. But, this isn’t a Columbine movie (or at least it shouldn’t be) it’s a story about Rachel Scott and I’d definitely say that this movie’s subject matter and lead Masey McLain (who needs to be in more things right now) allows it to rise above its genre to being pretty good.
    One last thing, I do hope that after this comes out on DVD that someone will make an edit of this movie without any mention of Columbine expect for the very last scene, but just like the “Mockingjay” one film edit that’s probably just a wild dream of mine.
     
    "The Thing (1982)" 10/10
    I’ve known about this movie for the longest time and I actually saw a good half of it on Sci-Fi a year-ish ago, but last week was the first time I sat down and watched the entire thing and I was absolutely amazed. I loved everything about from the overall tone and feeling of the movie, to the music, the through the roof practical effects (literally in one scene), the great performances all around (especially from Kurt Russell) everything was just incredible. Yeah, this might be one of my favorite horror movies of all time if not one of my all time favorite movies; if there’s one thing I don’t like it’s that I don’t understand why a group of scientists has flamethrowers at their base, but who cares because the movie's ten times better with flamethrowers.
     
    "The Thing (2011)" 4/10
    After watching the original, I was excited to see the prequel, which I never knew starred Mary Elizabeth Winstead (who btw was great in this year’s “10 Cloverfield Lane”) and it was alright, but obviously it wasn’t going to be anywhere near as good as John Carpenter’s film. I thought Winstead was good, although she wasn’t Kurt Russell and I liked some other minor things, but overall this movie was very middle of the road and forgettable for me. I could go on about all the ways this movie failed where the original, but I’d rather not; overall another forgettable late 2000’s prequel/remake/soft reboot.
     
    "Hacksaw Ridge" 6/10
    Mel Gibson’s first movie as a director in almost a decade is about Desmond Doss a World War 2 soldier who refused to carry a gun because of his religiously beliefs, but still won the Medal of Honor for his actions as a combat medic. Overall, I liked this movie, in the first half it’s mostly just alright, but then it almost shifts into another movie when the fighting begins. I know this sounds like an exaggeration, but I think the action in this movie comes the closer to toping the opening in “Saving Private Ryan” than any other film since. Putting some big questions aside like whether this is an anti or pro war movie I would recommend this as a good war movie with the caveat that if you have any problems with extreme violence than this might not be the film for you.
     
    "Breakfast at Tiffany's" 5/10
    I liked Audrey Hepburn in “My Fair Lady”, and so when I heard that “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” was what most people recognized her for, I was on board for seeing it even if I’ve never liked romantic comedies and can’t name one I’ve seen from beginning to end. So, what did I think of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”? Well, it was fine, yeah Hepburn’s good in it and so is George Peppard and I didn’t find anything I really hated in it except maybe the generally boring plot even if did have some nice moments and hints of more interesting plot points, but still the plot was fine, just like most of the movie. Again it’s not bad and having looked into the film a bit I can see why other people would like it, but at the end of the day it’s not my cup of tea. I'll admit the whole time I was watching it I felt like I’d rather be watching “The Thing” because I want to see grotesque things set on fire with flame throwers in my movies. Either way, I’ll still probably give “Roman Holiday” a chance though.
  5. JAG18

    There is a Fifth Dimension

    By JAG18,

    Last week(ish), I finished watching the entire first season of one of my favorite TV shows "The Twilight Zone".
     
    So, for as long as I can remember I've always enjoyed Sci-fi's "Twilight Zone" marathons, but despite always considering it a favorite show of mine I've never actually had any exposure to the show outside of the marathons. Well, recently I decided to change that and so I borrowed the first season from my local library and went to watching.
     
    I'm not going to ramble on here about my favorite episodes or any observations I've had while watching, but I will say that very quickly the episodes became very predictable with only the finale's twist ending making me grab my head while shouting, "OH MY GAWD."
    I don't know if this is because I have a lot of experience with the show or if the episodes really are just that predictable or what, but either way it didn't really matter because the writing and Rod Serling's insights into human nature still kept me interested, but its just something that stuck out to me.
     
     
    Favorite Episode(s); "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street", "Judgment Night", and "One For the Angels".
     
    Alright, now on to season 2.
  6. JAG18

    In America

    By JAG18,

    In America, you scare your daughter's boyfriend:
     
    Man throws bullet at daughter's boyfriend,
     
    "It gets a lot faster after 10 pm."
     
    In Soviet Russia, your daughter's boyfriend scares you!
     
    FPSrussia drives up to girlfriend's house in T-14 Armata tank and emerges from turret draped in machine gun belts,
     
    "I'll bring her home when I feel like it."
     
     
     
    Thank you, I'm here all week.
  8. JAG18
    This may seem like an odd time to review my Spotify Year in Music since we’re two-thirds of the way through this year and I’m going to be doing this again in December, but whatever I’m going to do it anyway. Now, this Year in Music has particular meaning to me for two reasons, one because I joined Spotify the last couple of days of 2014 so this is my first Year in Music and almost reflects how the medium changed my listening habits the more I used it. And two, the simple fact is I almost exclusively use streaming while listening to music so this almost doubles as a look at my year in music period. Ok, with that out of the way let’s do this.
     
     
    Top Artists
    Marina and the Diamonds – 418 Streams
    Ok, so this is a no brainer, I discovered Marina and the Diamonds last April/May and since then she’s become one of my favorite artists ever. In fact, for good part of the year it seemed like all I was doing was playing her entire three album discography back-to-back non-stop.
     
    CHVRCHES – 402 Streams
    …Which is probably why she has a pretty decent lead over the runner-up who coincidently (or maybe not?) is another one of favorite bands, Chvrches; again a no brainer “The Bones of What You Believe” was one of the first albums I went looking when I first joined Spotify and it’s been a staple of my music listening ever seen. Not to mention they also released their sophomore album “Every Open Eye” in the fall of last year, which only helped them get this second spot and which I’ll talk about again later.
     
    Halsey – 334 Streams
    So, in the three spot we have alt-pop darling Halsey and hey I’m not complaining I loved her debut album that dropped in the summer and, in fact, of my 100 most streamed songs of last year a staggering nine were from either “Badlands” or “Room 93”. I do think it’s kind of cool how almost a year ago I had just discovered her music right before she dropped her debut album and now a year later she already has a number one hit on Billboard (with The Chainsmokers).
     
    Bea Miller – 250 Streams
    First, look at the drop in streams it took to make this list, but whatever, Bea Miller was one of the first artists I discovered via Spotify who I really liked so of course she’d end up here. Although I have noticed that I don’t seem listen to her as much I used to, now I am trying to fix this, but at the end of the day while her EP and debut album made for some great listening last year I’m skeptically if I’ll be very interested in any of her follow ups.
     
    Zella Day – 223 Streams
    I don’t have much to say here, like all the other four she had a major album release last year that I was a big fan of and, as we’ll see soon, “Hypnotic” was a song I couldn’t get enough.
     
    Top 5 Albums
    “The Bones of What You Believe” – Chvrches 200 Streams
    No surprise, not much else I can say about this album.
     
    “The Family Jewels” – Marina and the Diamonds 198 Streams
    Ok, I know if you asked me this at the time I probably would have pegged this as my favorite Marina album in a heartbeat, but now I might actually go for “Froot” instead, but either way this got almost as many streams than both of her other albums put together.
     
    “Kicker” – Zella Day 167 Streams
    Yeah, great album, no further comments.
     
    “Queen of the Clouds” – Tove Lo 158 Streams
    Despite liking “Habits (Stay High)” when it hit radio in late 2014 I didn’t immediately look into Tove Lo’s debut album “Queen of the Clouds” until about April and obviously I liked it a lot.
     
    “Badlands” – Halsey 152 Streams
    For reasons I can’t explain because I don’t fully know myself I decided to listen to the standard version of this album before moving on to the deluxe edition that I exclusively listen to now with the result being that “Badlands” is down here in fifth place. C’est La Vie.
     
    Top 5 Songs
    “Paperweight” – Bella Thorne 53 Streams
    Uh, I can explain…
     
    “Oh No” – Marina and the Diamonds 44 Streams
    For the longest time I jumped on this as my favorite Marina song (probably because it’s off “The Family Jewels” that I talked about earlier) and hey since I just listened to it today maybe it still is, but either way good song.
     
    “Pray to God” – Calvin Harris; Haim 42 Streams
    For the record, I’m here more for Haim than Calvin, but either way this is the song that put Haim on my radar and I couldn’t be happier for it.
     
    “Hypnotic” – Zella Day 41 Streams
    I wrote earlier this was one of my favorites of 2015 and I don’t have much else to say about it, but I do want to point out how close in streams all these songs are with this song only needing two more streams to get the three spot.
     
    “If Only” – Dove Cameron 36 Streams
    I think she’s got a great voice, and that’s all I’m going to say about this being as high as it is.
     
    Top Genres: Pop, Synth Pop, Metropopolis, Indietronica, Dance Pop
    If you’ve seen my posts in What Are You Listening to Right Now? Or just read the previous paragraphs this shouldn’t come as a surprise at all. Although I do find at least a little weird that Country didn’t show up here at all I mean I know I don’t listen to the genre anymore except for some choice acts, but still like I said it’s weird.
     
    Ear-Worm: “Paperweight” – Bella Thorne (streamed 8 times in one day)
    Ok, now time to explain, and well I’m just going to say that I really like this song yes I know it’s flawed (to say the least), but I don’t really care because it connects with me and that’s the only thing that should matter when it comes to music. That being said this on top of my non-existent list of songs that I wish would be covered just because I think that there’s a great song hidden somewhere in here waiting to be made.
     
    Listening Habits:
    Number of minutes listened to in 2015: 22,000 (or 358 hours or 15 days)
    Number of artists streamed: 648
    Number of tracks streamed: 1,943
     
    Since this is just raw stats I’ll post them here and move on.
     
    Outlier: “Music People” –IAMX
    According to Spotify I “ventured into the unknown,” by listening to song, which I guess is a good thing?
     
    Sounds of the Seasons: Most Streamed Artists by Season
     
    Winter: Avril Lavigne (74 streams), Chvrches (73), Cassadee Pope (54)
    So, this reflects my beginnings on Spotify, and is a pretty good example of what I used to listen to back then, not that I don’t still stream Lavigne and Pope, but it’s getting rarer these days to be honest.
     
    Spring: Marina and the Diamonds (165), Tove Lo (142), Chvrches (104)
    Note, the massive spike in the number of streams, which marks when I really got on board this streaming thing and more importantly is a great example of what I’ve always believed that Spotify is great at turning either occasional or non-listeners into much bigger consumers of music. Anyway, as I mentioned before it was around this time I discovered Marina and Tove Lo.
     
    Summer: Marina and the Diamonds (178), Halsey (152), Zella Day (143)
    I wasn’t kidding when I said that I was listening to Marina non-stop after I first discovered her; and also here is reflected the June and August drops of “Badlands” and “Kicker” from Halsey and Day respectively.
     
    Fall: Halsey (182), Chvrches (130), Melanie Martinez (119)
    I really liked Halsey’s album, and the drop of their stellar sophomore effort “Every Open Eye” in September precipitated the return of Chvrches in these rankings (although I do find it interesting that nothing off that album made any waves here either in the form of a top album or top song). Also, in August I made, what might still be, the best discovery off of Spotify’s much buzzed about “Discover Weekly” playlist namely Melanie Martinez. And it was the appearance of her song “Pity Party” on aforementioned playlist that made me an instant fan the second I heard it.
     
     
    And that was my Year in Music and I can’t wait to see how much my listening changed in December when my next Year in Music comes out.
  9. JAG18

    Risk: Star Wars Edition

    By JAG18,

    A couple of days ago I turned 20 and one of my gifts was a board game called "Risk: Star Wars Edition".
     
    Now, any serious board gamer (full disclosure: I'm not because I'm new to the hobby and frankly don't have the funds to get into) Risk is at the end of the day not a very good game or at best their are a lot of game that does what Risk does a lot better, but that doesn't matter because this game has absolutely nothing to do with Risk. Instead, this a spiritual successor of an older and exceptional Star Wars game that came out in 1999 called The Queen's Gambit and both were designed in part by Craig Van Ness who worked on my favorite board game of all time "Star Wars: Epic Duels".
     
    Anyway, Risk: Star Wars Edition is a fun game, very reminiscent of a Commands and Colors game only Star Wars themed (come to think of it, that actually sounds like a great idea) and while there isn't much deep strategy involved in this game who cares because its just a lot of fun moving ships around and chucking dice. I did encounter the same problem that most people who bought this game did; that the Rebels win almost 90% of the time, but fortunately I was able to find a rule clarification sheet online that, in my experience, balances the game out by pointing out some rules that really help the Empire.
     
    Star Wars: The Emperor's Gambit is a great game that's strangely, also a mass market game; I like it a lot and will probably play it again as soon as I can.
  10. JAG18

    Exo-Force Spin-Off Idea

    By JAG18,

    For whatever reason, watching "Star Trek: Beyond" as sent me into a Sci-Fi craze (note: I do mean "Sci-Fi" not "science fiction" because the only thing I've been reading/watching recently that has anything to do with actual science is "War of the Worlds") and this, somehow, has made me think of an old LEGO theme I've always liked: Exo-Force.
     
    Now, I really like Exo-Force to the point that it might be my second of third favorite LEGO theme overall after "Hero Factory" and, of course, "BIONICLE", but rather than talk about the actual theme I want to talk about something I've dreamed of doing if I was in a position to do it namely an Exo-Force movie. If you like Exo-Force or mecha in general I'm sure you can imagine how awesome a live-action (or pure CG because, let's be honest, it would probably work just as well if not better) Exo-Force would be and I for one have spent lots of time thinking up spectacular and exciting action pieces that a movie about human and robots battling it out could have.
     
    Although, thinking about it now the movie I'd really like to see would probably be "Starship Troopers" meets "Terminator" with some more Sci-Fi military action thrown in, but that wouldn't really be Exo-Force, which gave me the idea for a movie that distills the theme of Exo-Force to it's essence: humans making an Alamo last stand against overwhelming robotic forces.
     
     
    And now, some incoherent thoughts from the brainstorming I had last night:
    1) It's really, really hard to come up with a logical explanation as to why the robots don't just go around Sentai Mountain and I'm not talking about going around the mountain to strike the village, but why not just surround the humans and attack them from all sides?
    2) Thus, the "plot" of the movie would be a single battalion of division of a human military defending a mountain, or other easily defended nature position, against the robots as a kind of delaying tactic. The humans are preparing a massive counterattack that could turn the war in their favor, but they can't go through with their plan if the robots are allowed to take this mountain.
    3) Even though, it would be hinted that their is a large conflict going on, for the sake of focus the movie would center exclusively on this one front of that conflict; one human battalion defend one mountain against overwhelming numbers.
    4) The robots would be an utter ruthless and merciless enemy looking gritty and terrifying like the Terminators who want one thing and one thing only; to destroy all humans (or "Blast some meatbags" to quote a certain fictional killer robot). They have grunts they rush forward in suicide charge to set off land mines so their superior soldiers can advance, they field jetpack wielding paratroopers in the vein of the Fire Vulture and massive attack helicopters.
    5) I love the idea that the humans fight the robot paratroopers by just knocking them out of the sky with a massive jet; no really they just fly it right through a swarm of them and just watch them shatter on their wings.
    6) The humans are, of course, a small band of space marines who have a very modern military feel...you know if the military had advance Sci-Fi technology.
    7) The humans have craved out helicopter pads into the mountain and I have a great idea for a scene where the robots scale the mountain on grappling hooks and force their way onto one of these pads forcing engineers and pilots to fight robots in brutal hand-to-hand combat.
     
     
    Alright, that's enough rambling, my point is I came up with a lot of action shots and world-building gimmicks for this idea. Will anything actually came of this? Probably not. Other than maybe another story treatment/script draft that will end up stored somewhere deep in my computer or maybe a short story I would post in OTC, I don't know. Either way, it was a cool daydream.
  11. JAG18

    Beowulf Translations

    By JAG18,

    A few days ago, I finished reading "Beowulf", while I was reading I kept anticipating specific cool moments I've heard of over the years; like when Beowulf pulls Grendel's arm out of it's socket like a wookiee, but one moment I was really waiting for was when Beowulf kills the Frankish standard bearer.
     
    Now, here is how Tom Shippey described the moment, in the special features for "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug",
     
    ...and here is how Marc Hudson put it in the "Wordsworth Classics of World Literature" edition I read,
    (lines 2505-2508)
     
    Maybe a slight difference to some, but clearly not as exciting or epic IMO; no offense to Hudson and his publisher, but now I think I really should have read whatever translation Shippey is quoting.
     
     
    Anyway, I now need to find something new to read.
  12. JAG18
    If you've seen my posts in the "What Are You Listening to Right Now" and "Official Music Topic" you'd know I like and listen to a lot of music. Also, if you've seen my posts there you'd know that I don't necessarily have the best taste in music. Regardless, in no particularly order, here is a list of the music I've been liking and listening to this year so far.
     
     
    1. “Real Love” – Florrie
    Florrie (English singer Florence Arnold) has been active in music for many years now and has released a lot of great, 80’s influenced, pop music, but her latest single “Real Love” (released just in time for Valentine’s Day) is her first song to be released by a major label serving as a first taste before her debut album comes out late this year. “Real Love” is an amazing pop love-ballad with good lyrics and Florrie’s usual stellar vocals. Just a side note, the song is just a little similar to Taylor Swift’s “Style” a song Florrie said she loved and has even covered.
     
    2. “Hummingbird” – Kyla La Grange
    An incredible electro-pop song about being, to quote Grange,
    “…hovering between the different versions of yourself…about how having too many choices makes you dissatisfied because you always think you'd be happier if you'd chosen the thing you didn't choose, which usually isn't true…”
    This has been one of my favorites since it came out in April and is a solid pick for one of the best songs of 2016. Give it a listen.
     
    3. “In My Blood” – The Veronicas
    The first new music to come from the Aussie rock/pop duo since their 2014 self-titled album. “In My Blood” is a different sound from what we’re used to from The Veronicas being the kind of dance pop you’d except to hear at night clubs or music houses, but regardless it’s an amazing dance song for the summer.
     
    4. “Criminal + Dreamers” – Willa
    A more obscure release from electro-pop Canadian new comer Willa (Ali Milner) who debuted her first single “Stay the Night” (Track 4) in 2014. This debut EP features 8 songs and overall makes for a very good listen; album opener “Swan” (which also has a radio edit at the EP’s end) is more rock-influenced with Willa belting out some defiant lyrics about not being eye-candy (I’m not a swan/pretty in the pond). The next two tracks “Criminal” and “Hey” as well as fifth track “Stare” are my favorites featuring some interesting and solid production and wonderful vocals from an artist who all fans of pop should keep an eye on.
     
    5. “Hero” – Maren Morris
    For whatever reason, most of my favorite LPs for each year are released in the second half of the year; which probably explains why this debut from Texas native Maren Morris is the only LP to be featured on this list. This is a solid country album with more to offer than just Morris’ breakout hit “My Church” (about the strong connection between music and driving) and follow up single “Rich”, which I would recommend particularly to fans of Kacey Musgraves. Favorite tracks include, “Sugar”, “80’s Mercedes”, and “Drunk Girls Don’t Cry”.
     
    6. “Summer EP” – Cassadee Pope
    I very much enjoyed Pope’s debut album “Frame by Frame” (2013) and eagerly anticipated her follow up album all of last year; whether the release of this EP is a sign the album is coming sooner or later is unknown to me. Either way, the four tracks presented here are all very good and very much what Cassadee Pope fans have been hoping for. Opening track “Summer” is a fun, upbeat, perfect for the summer song, but I personally prefer either “Piano” or “Alien” for their superior writing. Third track “Kisses at Airports” is the only genuine low point for me, but is still fine; a great EP overall.
     
    7. “Bella Goldwin”
    Another debut EP from a rising Canadian female pop artist; the really outstanding track here is opener “Higher Than Life”, which is a deeply moving, atmospheric song, about death and wishing to be reunited with a lost loved one. The performance here by Goldwin is absolutely amazing and is the heart of this incredibly sentimental and touching song. The rest of the EP also features the artist’s quality vocals (except for the third track, which is almost entirely instrumental) and good song writing; definitely worth a listen.
     
    8. “Bubblebath” – That Poppy
    This is a very good debut EP that features four very fun pop songs. My personal favorite is "Money" although like I said this all quite good especially if you're a fan of less-serious kind of bubblegum pop. All in all a solid EP, which is definitely going to put me on the look at for future music from this artist.
     
    9. CHVRCHES
    The marvelously talented band that defies genre description and released one of my favorite albums from 2015 (“Every Open Eye”) released a good song for the video game “Mirror’s Edge Catalyst” called “Warning Call” written from the perspective of the game’s heroine. They also just came out with a different version of one of the best tracks off their last album, but this time featuring none other than Hayley Williams the front woman for rock stalwart Paramore; both these songs our definitely worth a listen.
     
     
    That’s what I’ve been listening to and loving so far this year, again like I said most of my favorite music is released in the second half of the year, but still I’m both pretty happy with the music that’s come out this year and also very optimistic for the future. Speaking of the future, I’m greatly anticipating three LPs in particular from pop stars Tove Lo and Charli XCX as well as from the amazing pop/rock sister band HAIM.
  13. JAG18
    Over the last week or so, I've been rereading all 49 of the old Bionicle comics for the first time in years. Here are my (completely random) thoughts on them.
     
    2001:
    -Why exactly were the Turaga telling the Bionicle Tale at the beginning of Comic #2? I know it's some kind of tribal thing to tell myths and legends over and over to preserve them, but they weren't any Matoran around so were the Turaga just telling it so they wouldn't forget?
    -I never realized how diverse, and honestly sometimes odd, promotions were in 2001; having a contest to meet some skater is probably the strangest (to me).
    -The last of this year has the Toa finding ways to beat random Rahi without physically hitting them and thereby violate LEGO's no violence policy; it ends with the heroes striking poses and leaving us to play MNOG to see how the story ends.
     
    2002:
    -Six issues allowed for the room to tell a more in-depth story and cooler year overall making '02 my favorite year of the original three.
    -LEWA WHY CAN'T YOU GO TWO SECONDS WITHOUT LOSING YOUR MASK!
    -It's kind of a shame that so often in BIONICLE so many sets were shoehorned into the story for just a few seconds of screen-time in which they don't really do anything. The Exo-Toa are good example of this (but I guess the whole point of the comics and entire story was just to sell all these sets so it's fine.
     
    2003:
    -Bohrok-Kal filler is fill-y.
    -I find it hilarious how the so many BIONICLE fans over the years kept asking Greg about what must have been something he did without a second thought at the time (sending several Tahnok and Lehvak-Kal to space).
    -In Comic 14, Kopaka stood his ground against all the Rahkshi LIKE A BOSS.
     
    2004:
    -Another great year for story with the first half involving the Toa pruning weeds and second half running away from Vahki
    -I find it funny how much time and effort was spent giving the Vahki different powers and tactics only for them to be more or less completely forgotten in later years.
     
    2005:
    -Seeing the Toa Hahga (well, two of them anyway) in action in Comic 25 still makes it one of my favorite comics of all time.
    -The sub-plot involving Nokama and Matau hitching a ride on a Visorak Battering Ram (that Roodaka orders destroyed FOR HAVING A SINGLE CRACK) was a lot more fun than I remember.
     
    2006:
    -For some strange reason I don't have "BIONICLE Ignition Comic #0"
    -I knew about BIONICLE at the end of '01, bought the sets, saw "MOL", but I didn't have massive nostalgia rush until I started the '06 comics; the nostalgia value alone will always make 2006 my favorite year in BIONICLE.
    -Anyone remember Free The Band? I wonder what the All American Rejects would say if some fan bought that up with them now.
     
    2007:
    -You know in retrospect, '06 with all the backstabbing and secret alliance of the Piraka made that year feel more like "Game of Thrones" than '07 should have had with the Barraki.
    -Nocturn is one of the best sets and characters of Gen 1, which is why he had to be reincarnated as Skull Slicer in Gen 2.
    -Jaller set Mantax on fire, WHILE THEY WERE BOTH UNDERWATER.
     
    2008:
    -Only four issues is a bit of a let down (yeah I know the first is super long, but still)
    -The Makuta follow inverse ninja-law...for some reason.
    -You know what, Mata Nui never kept his promise and returned to the MU (unless you count when his fist were bashing Makuta in their final fight).
     
    2009:
    -Because of "TLR" whenever I read Mata Nui's voice I hear Michael Dorn's voice.
    -What exactly was the point of having a reboot only to reintroduce Mata Nui halfway through the year?
    -For some stranger reason I only have the small version of Comic 3 that I got with "TLR".
     
    2010:
    -GIANT EPIC ROBOT FIGHT.
    -I have so many fond memories of that day in 2010 when that guy on BZPower was uploading the last comic as fast as he could scan it and I was refreshing the page over and over so I could see the end of BIONICLE, which was so important to me as a kid.
     
     
    One last thought, the only non-BIONICLE comics I've ever read are some Deadpool and Batman comics and also some Spider-Man when I was a lot younger and to be honest, I think the BIONICLE comics actually aren't all that bad compared to them. You know, keeping in mind that the BIONICLE comics were just to promote children's toys (and condense the larger story)...I definitely prefer the artwork throughout all the comics more than the kind found in Deadpool.
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