Jump to content

Laughing Man

Premier Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    5,520

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    11

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by Laughing Man

  3. Laughing Man
    okay so it's a few days late but that's the postal service's fault.
     




     
    I almost pre-ordered this from their UK webstore for about $40 USD when it was first announced. thankfully I didn't, because less than a month after it was released, I was able to get it from Amazon for $20.
     
    great set. I'm pretty sure the DVD is region-locked so it won't work for me, but I bought it for the CDs anyway. I'm a bit iffy on Judgement's remastering, but it's still great to finally own these albums, especially in a package as nice as this. the case is pretty much a hardcover book, and while I didn't get pictures of them, the actual pages inside are pretty cool. full lyrics, artwork, and credits for each of the albums plus some additional commentary and information.
     
    I also own a physical copy of their latest album Distant Satellites which I probably could've shown here, but maybe I'll save that for when I have more of their albums and I can do a collection post.
  4. Laughing Man
    absolutely loved it.
     
    without spoiling anything: 10 Cloverfield Lane is an all-around better film than Cloverfield, a very different film in some ways, a very similar film in other ways, and a worthy successor in every possible way.
  5. Laughing Man
    almost 16 years since I joined this site as a kid. it was a major part of my life for so long. to say that my time and the people I met here was instrumental to my development would be an understatement.
    so many friendships came and went, even a relationship started and ended here, and the drama - so much drama. all the arguments, bullying right-wing bigots, carving out an identity and (infamous) reputation through so many different phases and identity crises. Laughin'Man, Scythey, Ryuujin, Serein, Heck - I changed so much from the time I started here till I faded away that it feels like I was five different people, and there's a little bit of every one that's made me who I am today.
    shout out to the 3 people who might see this and think, "hey, I remember him". and to the handful of people who joined after I left who are reading this and thinking "who's this weird old guy?" just remember when you're pushing 30 the people, places, and things that got you there.
  6. Laughing Man

    Every Time

    By Laughing Man,

    every time I have a long, well-thought-out and important reply ready
     
    before I can post it, either somebody else says the same exact thing or the entry gets locked for precautionary purposes
     
    :<
  7. Laughing Man

    throne of games

    By Laughing Man,

    ..is a great song by Machinae Supremacy, the world's premier video game-themed SID metal band, which is who this entry is about.
     
    roughly 3 years since I got into MaSu, I finally ordered physical copies of all the albums they've released since signing to a label, after previously only owning them digitally. still hope to find copies of their first two independent albums someday, but that's looking unlikely since those are ultra-rare and highly sought-after.
     

     
    from top to bottom:
     
    - Redeemer
    - Overworld
    - A View from the End of the World
    - The Beat of Our Decay (UK-only promotional best-of album, I got this not long after I got into them and it's since become incredibly hard to find)
    - Rise of a Digital Nation
    - Phantom Shadow
     
    Overworld was a pain to get ahold of. it had been fairly widely available for a while, but by late last year virtually everywhere was sold out of it. I ordered a copy that I thought was in stock from one of their webstores and was told that it was backordered. a month later I got an email telling me they had stopped selling them completely and that it was out-of-print. this turned out to be false, as yet another month later the same webstore got several more copies, actually in stock this time. I ordered one about three weeks ago and it finally arrived today.
     
    I recently completed a few other collections so I'll probably be doing entries on those sometime soon.
  8. Laughing Man

    The Agony Scene

    By Laughing Man,

    not to be outdone,
     

     
    from top to bottom:
     
    - The Agony Scene
    - The Darkest Red
    - Get Darned (European special edition ft. bonus Bad Religion and Dead Kennedys cover tracks)
     
    also owned, but not pictured:
    - "Devilock" (bonus Misfits cover track for The Darkest Red, bought digitally)
  9. Laughing Man

    Dead Cities

    By Laughing Man,

    just three days after ordering it, I've got a copy of M83's out-of-print second album Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts.
     
    normally this goes for anywhere from $30 for a used copy to $150 for a new one - but I lucked out and got this complete "Used - Good" copy for only $7 plus shipping, likely because of an automated price-matching bot dropping the price to match an incomplete "Used - Acceptable" listing from another seller.
     
    I actually feel like the seller underrated it, too, because both discs look as though they've never been played at all.
     
    while this isn't the rarest or most valuable album I own, it's definitely one I'm most proud of owning.
  10. Laughing Man

    Converge

    By Laughing Man,

    just sort-of completed my Converge collection.
     
    top to bottom:
     
    - Petitioning the Empty Sky (1998 Equal Vision edition)
    - When Forever Comes Crashing
    - Jane Doe
    - You Fail Me
    - No Heroes
    - Axe to Fall
    - All We Love We Leave Behind
     
    I say it's "sort-of" completed because A. Petitioning the Empty Sky is defective and has to be replaced and B. I don't have Halo in a Haystack, their long-out-of-print debut. I'd like to get the two rarities/early material compilations, Caring and Killing and Unloved and Weeded Out, which contain most of the Halo in a Haystack tracks between the two of them, provided I can find them for a decent price. I'll probably also end up getting the 2005 remastered versions of Petitioning the Empty Sky and When Forever Comes Crashing eventually.
  13. Laughing Man

    Stone Temple Pilots

    By Laughing Man,

    in honor of the late Scott Weiland, last week I ordered the remaining albums I needed for my collection by Stone Temple Pilots, the band he was best known for as well as one of my favorite bands of all time. the final album arrived today.
     

     
    from top to bottom:
     
    - Core
    - Purple
    - Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop
    - No. 4
    - Shangri-La Dee Da
    - Thank You (CD+DVD limited edition; greatest hits compilation also featuring an exclusive track, of which
    )- Stone Temple Pilots (Target exclusive limited edition)
     
    and that's it. unfortunately in the band's 20 year career they created a fairly small discography, but what a discography it was - yes, some albums were weaker than others (No. 4, Shangri-La, and the 2010 self-titled reunion album are usually thought to not live up to the standards of the first three) but all of them were enjoyable and good in their own way.
     
    the band does technically have one other release - an EP recorded with, of all people, Linkin Park's Chester Bennington on vocals following the dismissal of Scott Weiland from the band in 2013. I personally don't consider this a true Stone Temple Pilots release and prefer to pretend it doesn't exist. there's also some side-project stuff (Scott's work with Velvet Revolver, Art of Anarchy, and solo career; the DeLeo brothers' Army of Anyone; and the mediocre STP-minus-Scott project Talk Show) but the only one of those I've bothered with is the first Velvet Revolver album. while all the musicians in Stone Temple Pilots were talented in their own right, when taking on other projects they simply never matched the incredible chemistry that they had with one another.
  14. Laughing Man
    "For Those of You Who Kill" by Aftershock!
     
    Aftershock was a pioneering underground metalcore band active during the late 90s/early 2000s and perhaps best known for featuring several future members of Killswitch Engage, including guitarist Joel Stroetzel, former drummer Tom Gomes, and most notably lead guitarist and primary songwriter Adam Dutkiewicz.
     
    in addition to Adam, however, Aftershock also featured his brother Toby Dutkiewicz on vocals - who, as I detailed here, is now known for being an art director at Lego after whom the Bionicle character Tobduk was named. seems like a logical career progression to me!
     
    still, my favorite contribution to the Lego world that Mr. Dutkiewicz has made is and always will be the
    , the song for which he wrote. consider this a Song of the Moment two-for-one special.
  16. Laughing Man
    proving once again that he has excellent taste in music, Tron Legacy director Joseph Kosinski recruited electronic music artist Anthony Gonzalez and his project M83 (whose release Hurry Up, We're Dreaming was my pick for 2011 album of the year) to create the soundtrack for his upcoming science fiction film Oblivion along with Joseph Trapanese (the score composer who had previously assisted Daft Punk on Tron Legacy), and the resulting album has been officially released on CD and digital download as of 12:00 AM EST.
     
    and it's absolutely fantastic.
     
    if you like movie soundtracks and/or dreamy, atmospheric electronic music I would highly recommend giving it a shot. there's an official stream out there and it's on Spotify for those who like to try before they buy, plus it's currently only $5.00 as a special sale price on AmazonMP3.
     
    for the interested, two tracks (including the spectacular end credits song, which is easily one of my favorite M83 songs to date) via the record label's official SoundCloud:
     
    - "StarWaves"
    - "Oblivion" (feat. Susanne Sundfør)
     
     
     
  17. Laughing Man
    I was going to post an entry tonight showing off my recently-completed collection of albums by The Cure along with a ranking of their discography from worst to best, but since the final piece I needed in order to do so didn't arrive today against my expectations, I've decided to do something else.
     
    as a sort of follow up to a recent somewhat-tongue-in-cheek entry of mine, I've put together a collection of songs (11 to be exact, 3 that I consider either favorites or notable from each of my 3 favorite albums plus a couple extra goodies) that I feel would be helpful to anyone who might have recently discovered Tegan and Sara through the song they contributed to The Lego Movie, "Everything Is Awesome", and would like to check out more. I'd recommend listening to at least one song from each album, as their style tended to evolve and vary from one to the next.
     
    If It Was You (2002)

    / "Living Room" / "Don't Confess" 
    So Jealous (2004)

    / /  
    The Con (2007)

    / /  
    Bonus

    /
  18. Laughing Man
    it's looking like I very possibly will be able to go?
     
    and if I do, and if circumstances work out the way they look, then I'm actually pretty excited.
     
    no guarantees though. still haven't worked out the details and it's possible things might change.
     
    EDIT: officially confirmed for Brickfair! I still have to make the necessary arrangements but YEAH, so far as permission and stuff goes I'm totally set.
  21. Laughing Man
    normally I don't go for these "Original Album Series" box sets because they don't include booklets and the discs are packaged in cheap cardboard sleeves, but I found this on eBay and had to get it.
     
    all three of the Sisters' studio albums - First and Last and Always, Floodland, and Vision Thing - plus the collection of early EPs and singles Some Girls Wander by Mistake and the greatest hits compilation A Slight Case of Overbombing packaged together - basically the Sisters of Mercy's entire discography (give or a take a few remixes) for $20 - I couldn't resist.
     
    here's one of my all-time favorite music videos for one of my all-time favorite Sisters tracks, Dominion:
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeFC-rfQkVk
  22. Laughing Man
    I typically never do these kinds of things but some stuff's been goin on recently so yeah
     
    a couple weeks ago I saw a doctor about a cold, and while I was there he took my blood pressure and was very concerned about how high it was and told me to schedule an appointment with my usual doctor to have it looked at.
     
    about a week later I did so and was sent home with a prescription for blood pressure medicine that I now have to take regularly as well as instructions to have lab work done ASAP.
     
    on thursday I went in and had bloodwork, urinalysis, chest X-rays, and an EKG done.
     
    today I received a call from the hospital, who want me to come back in for more tests to be checked for possible liver and heart issues after some potentially problematic things apparently showed up on the tests.
     
    I've also been experiencing some pretty constant stomach problems that I'm honestly kind of scared to tell the doctor about and have looked at, because they line up pretty condemningly with symptoms of a serious health issue that runs in my family and has already affected my mother and second-eldest brother.
     
    on top of that I was recently dropped from the insurance plan I was on and now everything has to be paid for out-of-pocket.
     
    kinda sucks tbh.
     
    EDIT 12/10/13: I went in and had more bloodwork and an echo cardiogram done. the bloodwork results came back fine, thankfully, but they're still waiting on the results of the echo. should be getting a call about that sometime within the next few days.
     
    meanwhile, last week I had a follow-up appointment regarding my blood pressure. they told me that it was still too high and have doubled the dosage of my meds.
     
    unfortunately the insurance issues haven't been resolved yet, so everything is still being paid for out-of-pocket.
  24. Laughing Man

    Dat

    By Laughing Man,

    Digital Audio Tape (DAT or R-DAT) is a signal recording and playback medium developed by Sony and introduced in 1987.[1] In appearance it is similar to a Compact Cassette, using 3.81 mm / 0.15" (commonly referred to as 4mm) magnetic tape enclosed in a protective shell, but is roughly half the size at 73 mm × 54 mm × 10.5 mm. As the name suggests, the recording is digital rather than analog. DAT has the ability to record at higher, equal or lower sampling rates than a CD (48, 44.1 or 32 kHz sampling rate respectively) at 16 bits quantization. If a digital source is copied then the DAT will produce an exact clone, unlike other digital media such as Digital Compact Cassette or non-Hi-MD MiniDisc, both of which use a lossy data reduction system.
    Like most formats of videocassette, a DAT cassette may only be recorded and played in one direction, unlike an analog compact audio cassette, although many DAT recorders had the capability to record program numbers and IDs, which can be used to select an individual track like on a CD player.
    Although intended as a replacement for analog audio compact cassettes, the format was never widely adopted by consumers because of issues of expense and concerns from the music industry about unauthorized high-quality copies. The format saw moderate success in professional markets and as a computer storage medium, which was developed into the Digital Data Storage format. As Sony has ceased production of new recorders, it will become more difficult to play archived recordings in this format unless they are copied to other formats or hard drives.
  25. Laughing Man

    Megadeth

    By Laughing Man,

    recently bought up the last few albums I needed and finally finished my collection for one of my top 10 favorite bands of all time.
     
    left stack, top to bottom:
     
    - Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good! (1990 pressing which omits "These Boots". might get another copy eventually that includes it.)
    - Peace Sells... but Who's Buying?
    - So Far, So Good... So What!
    - Rust in Peace (one of my favorite albums ever)
    - Countdown to Extinction
    - Youthanasia
    - Hidden Treasures (B-sides/rarities compilation EP)
    - Cryptic Writings (HDCD pressing)
     
    right stack, top to bottom:
     
    - Risk (remixed & remastered version. I hate this album, but if I had to choose, I'd say this version is more tolerable because it removes some of the ill-advised synths.)
    - The World Needs a Hero
    - The System Has Failed
    - Greatest Hits: Back to the Start (signed by frontman Dave Mustaine)
    - United Abominations
    - Endgame (best album they've done since RiP)
    - Th1rt3en
    - Super Collider (Best Buy edition with three bonus tracks and a 3D cover. not a very good album though.)
     
    here's hoping that the new album they're recording now will be just as good as Endgame, if not better.
×
×
  • Create New...