Hey Friends! I was torn this morning as to whether or not to keep up with MixTape Mondays or to create a more topical post returning E3 shows today. I opted to keep the series rolling forward and I guess tomorrow I will return to my crappy coverage of E3 events. For those unaware MixTape Mondays is my series where I share a playlist aka the closest thing we have to a real MixTape these days. I was one of those kids who used to create them a lot given I had the magical dual tape cassette deck stereo allowing me to record all the things. Instead of sharing them on a one by one basis, I am sharing them with all of you my readers and internet friends.
Waiting for Now
Sometimes all it really takes is a single song to send the brain off in a specific direction. I love How Soon is Now by the Smiths. There is something so iconic about the guitar vibrato and big train horn chords that I legitimately never get tired of hearing it. Because of this fact I had no clue that the song was actually over six minutes long. What ended up happening as a result was me trying to match the feel of this song occasionally skimming the top of new wave or diving down into goth classics. The end result I think “works” for reason I can’t really fully explain. This has been in my listening rotation an awful lot lately and I have technically had this one finished for almost a month before unleashing it upon the world.
How Soon is Now? – The Smiths
Whisper to a Scream – The Icicle Works
True Faith – New Order
For Her Light – Fields of Nephilim
Fascination Street – The Cure
Under the Milky Way – The Church
Wasteland – The Mission
Love Will Tear Us Apart – Joy Division
Under the God – Tin Machine
She Sells Sanctuary – The Cult
Never Let Me Down Again – Depeche Mode
How Not To Drown – Chvrches feat. Robert Smith
Listen On Spotify
Listen On YouTube
There you have it folks, my attempt at doing “How Soon Is Now?” some justice in MixTape form. Tomorrow I fully expect to return with a post about the Microsoft and Bethesda E3 show, but for now I wanted to keep the pattern of Monday MixTape releases. I managed to make a post every single day last week and even over the weekend so I am hoping that I have finally reached a place of equilibrium with my life in spite of still going through work hell. For those new to the series there is of course always the archive allowing you to catch up on the series.
As I alluded to yesterday, I am still struggling pretty hard right now. While I am not putting in near the hours I was at the beginning of this current crisis, the fact that it continues to drag on over a month into it… is just grating. The only word I have to adequately describe where I am mentally is “weary”. Part of what has helped me deal with all of this is the fact that I could come home and spend a few hours running around the galaxy with my cast of “friends” in Mass Effect Legendary edition. Unfortunately that is now coming to its own end as I have reached the point of no return in the third outing. Essentially if I move the story forward at this point I will be on a downhill slide to the end of the game.
I find myself somewhat wistful about this most recent outing in the Mass Effect universe. This was my first time playing a female Shepard and I enjoyed it greatly, apart from the less than awesome romance options. I’ve learned something about my particular brand of “pan” in that I am just not attracted to traditional straight white guys. If I could have romanced Cortez or maybe even Joker… then possibly. Instead I basically clung to Liara like a life raft in that department. Mass Effect Andromeda has a mod that opens up all romances to all genders, and I am hoping eventually someone figures out how to do one for the Legendary edition because Tali and Jack are far better than anything I had open to me apart from the non-paramour characters of Chambers and Traynor.
It is really interesting how different the three games in the series are. Mass Effect 1 is this very tight and focused adventure with extremely sharply focused storytelling. Mass Effect 2 is this big meandering adventure with a truly staggering cast of playable characters. Then Mass Effect 3 narrows the focus once again and makes everything about this driving conflict of the Reapers trying to annihilate all life in the galaxy. I still after all of this time prefer the second game and its pacing, but I prefer the mechanics and visual style of the third game. There are some pretty staggering cinematic moments that feel integral to the story and not just window dressing.
If I get home at a decent hour, I will focus on pushing the game across that finish line. From what I remember once I start the assault on the enemy base, it is a quick slide to the final moments of the game. As it stands right now… I still don’t have a clue how I am going to finish things up. I know I have three decisions before me and I have more than enough war resources to get the best possible endings down each path. The problem with finishing however is this journey will be over… and right now I have been using the nostalgia that it has brought me to prop me up and keep me from collapsing under the weight of stress. If I wrap things up… I am absolutely going to have to find another big sprawling adventure to dive into in order to keep me focused.
In another side notes… I did 182 pull ups last night that took about 15 minutes of real time and got absolutely nothing for it. If you find yourself down this path… abort because it is SO not worth it. In additional side notes… I am going to try and ease back into blogging again because the entire process is therapeutic for me and maybe will help me weather the storm a bit better. I miss these morning one sided conversations. I hope you are all doing well and I hope tomorrow I will come visit with you again.
The post Avoiding Homeward Path appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.
Hey friends. This is probably the longest lapse I have had in my blog and it isn’t over yet. I just figured I should probably poke my head out for a moment to let everyone know that I am mostly fine. I am going through something right now that is exceptionally stressful and having to just keep my eyes focused on what has to get done right now. Blogging while awesome and often times a relief valve, is just going to go away for awhile until I can come out on the other side of this.
I am extremely appreciative of the comments that I have gotten through various social platforms, but also I just don’t have the “cutlery” to respond right now. I am functional, still showering each morning and all of that. Essentially I am in a mode where it is consuming all of me. Not even able to come home and blow off steam through gaming because the games themselves seem somehow tarnished by the experience.
I hope you are all doing okay, and I look forward to reaching a point where I can tread water instead of drowning like I am right now.
The post I’m Still Okay appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.
Hey Friends! It is that time again, time for another MixTape. I have managed to do this three weeks in a row which is pretty great for me. I have this bad habit of starting a series and then just wandering away like a bored toddler. For anyone who might be tuning in for the first time to this spectacle, I missed the era of building custom mixtapes for friends. Since you are all my friends I am now building custom mixtapes for you my audience. The idea is to put a number of songs together in a way that the combination is more than any of the constituent parts. The challenge however is how to make this actually work for the digital age.
The answer to that is that I am doing this largely on Spotify and also including a YouTube Playlist as a backup. I greatly favor Spotify however because it allows me to make some nonsense custom artwork, but I guess you are going to see that anyway if you are reading this blog post. I also try and come up with a good name for the mix to sort of set the tone. Occasionally these are pretentious nonsense and others like this morning are just pretty straight forward.
Push Me Punch You
One of the things that I love is a music that has a cohesive nature but no real cohesive name. This music is referred to as punk, post-hardcore, indie rock, garage rock, alternative or just the very boring and generic “rock”. Whatever the case it is music with a slight edge but that isn’t super hard about it. This is probably the mixtape of the series that I probably listen to the most because it most represents the general state of what I want to hear in a song. I attempt to parade some b side cuts and maybe some bands doing things that you might not expect from them. This is technically the second mixtape that I created in this sequence but I wanted to try and space things out a bit since the first one also had a little bit of an edge to it.
Bull In The Heather – Sonic Youth
Mistaken for Strangers – The National
Bulldog Front – Fugazi
Somebody to Shove – Soul Asylum
Head Injury – Soundgarden
Been Caught Stealing – Jane’s Addiction
Backwoods – Red Hot Chili Peppers
Relatin’ Dudes To Jazz – fIREHOSE
Out There – Dinosaur Jr.
Cut – The Cure
Jessie – Paw
Nearly Lost You – Screaming Trees
Ana Ng – They Might Be Giants
Hey Now – The Regrettes
Sunday Morning Coming Down – Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
Spotify
YouTube
I hope you enjoy it and drop me a line below with your thoughts. Also what the hell do YOU call this brand of music? I mostly just call it Punk even though it isn’t the sort of Johnny Rotten/Exploited/Safety pin as a nose ring era that the term generally evokes.
The post Mixtape Mondays: Push Me Punch You appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.
