It's amazing how one band can stick with you and keep you company for a majority of your life. For me, that band is Mindless Self Indulgence. It's going on the 10th (!) year of listening to them for me, and it got me thinking. I get into bands a lot and get out of them just as easy, but with MSI, once I got into them, it was like falling in love for the first time. I remember, I was only in the fifth grade and I was hanging out at my cousin Nikki's house. It was New Years Eve, 1999. Her and I were talking while all of our parents and relatives were getting drunk and playing cards, and she invited me to her room to play some super nintendo and listen to this new band she just found out about. She was older, about 16, so she had more access to these things than I did, and I relied on her to find out about new music. We entered the room and she popped in the CD, it was called "Tight". Now, before I go on about my love of this CD, I need to give you a little musical background of mine. My mom listened to a lot of music, so we always had a bunch of cassettes and CDs in the house. I would always take them when she wasn't looking, not knowing what band or artist they were and just listen to them. In this way, I found a lot of really good music such as Green Day, The Offspring, Toni Braxton, TLC, The Police, The Ramones, and my favorite band at the time, No Doubt. I liked a large variety of music, and I listened to it as much as I could.
So anyway, there we are in the room, and she puts the CD in. I remember thinking to myself when the opening song came on: "This is so different, It's crazy and it's amazing!" I was instantly in love. I asked her immediately if I could have a burned copy of it (the technology was just getting popular, and they had a burner, which at the time was amazing!). She gave the CD and I listened to it on repeat for ages. After just a short time, MSI easily usurped No Doubt as my favorite band. I would listen to them all the time in the subsequent year, and I would sing the songs (Which I knew quite well by that time) to myself when I couldn't listen to them. About a year and a half later, I still listened to them all the time, still in love. I was at a family gathering that Nikki was also attending, when she told me that MSI had come out with a new CD entitled "Frankenstein's Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy" which I thought was absolutely hilarious. I asked my mom for some money to buy a CD, and she made me do a ton of chores for the money. I did them without question as this CD was extremely important to me. She took me to the store and I found the CD, I remember the hilarious scene that ensued. My Mom took the CD up to the counter to pay for it, and the lady noticed she was buying it for me. The dialogue went something like this:
Lady: "Um, maam, you do realize that this CD is highly inappropriate for kids, right? There is a lot of bad things in here."
Mom: "He can handle it, it's just music. He'll just get the CD from his cousins anyway"
Lady: "Still, I think you should really think about buying this for him, I mean, I've listened to it and it's got some really bad stuff"
Mom: "Don't tell me how to raise my kid and just ring up the God damn CD, will you?"
Lady gets really offended look on her face, I laugh.
I get home with the CD and I'm all excited. I pop it in and listen to it all the way through while playing pokemon. It was beyond words for me, how much I loved and still love that album. If there was one album that I could listen to for the rest of my life, it would be Frankenstein's Girls. The songs were so unique, and each one was so different. There is just a certain sound that attracts me when it comes to music, and that album nails it perfectly. From Jimmy's crazy vocal range, to the amazing bass lines, to the absolute best composition I've heard in my life, everything was so perfect about that album for me. I don't know about anyone else, but there are certain songs that will move me emotionally and make me inspired and ready to take on the world, and this whole album does that to me, even to this day. The day that CD came out is the day the cemented MSI as my favorite band for the rest of my life, at least so far. (The prospect is looking bleak for other bands) MSI is the only band I have listened to consistently for all these years. There has been no breaks, no lapses in listening, just always MSI. There are other bands that I absolutely love as well, and that make me happy to listen to, but there is no other band that has had such an effect on me as MSI. Tub Ring is the only other band that comes anywhere near close, and even then, not so much. (Even though I absolutely LOVE Tub Ring.)
The whole point of this post was to point out how great music can be, and the effect it can have on some people. It's amazing, it is.
Listening to: Kill the Rock - Mindless Self Indulgence
Friday, August 7, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Welcome
Welcome to my blog, in which you delve into the unpredictably inane fathoms of my brain. I'll use this as sort of an introduction post, so you know who I am and what I do. (If that is your wish, if not, oh well)
My name is obviously not DeadHex, but I use it as my name on the internet, because I'm a paranoid freak when it comes to giving my name to people I don't trust. So just call me DeadHex, that would be lovely. As much as I dislike being labeled into a clique of any sort, there is no other way to describe than to call me a nerd, or geek. I am an avid fan of video games, movies, music, and electronic entertainment in general. I chose the name "Blue Roses and Red Tides" on a whim. I found it entertaining to switch the percieved colors of each and make it into a darker title than it should have been, although I think I might change it because it makes me sound emo as hell. I usually don't do these blog things because I find them pointless, and no one will read it anyway, but I just couldn't resist the lure of having a spot to write and feel like someone is reading. I'm off on a tangent already and I just started, oh my.
Back to the introduction. My love of video games came at an early age, back when the NES was big. There was one game in specific that made me love video games for eternity, and that game is Ninja Gaiden. I think I was 4 or 5 when I first played it, and instantly fell in love. I remember it had cutscenes that told a story of a ninja trying to save a girl from an evil corporation, and that was all I needed to propel my imagination to it's limits. I would spend my days outside, pretending I was Ryu Hayabusa, the trained Ninja looking for vengeance against an evil orginization for taking away my Ninja Princess. I would seriously set up stuffed animals as enemies, get on top of my roof, and throw shurikens (Then called Ninja Stars) that I made out of paper at them. Needless to say my imagination was kind of dampered when my makeshift weapons would always fall apart on me, but I was never daunted. That was when I first realized that I wanted to make games, I wanted to write the story the way I saw it, the way I wanted to feel it. I had all these ideas in my head when I was a kid, and I still do. Scenario after scenario running through my head, I found the way to sate my imagination: video games.
I had found one aspect of my life in video games, and it was pretty blatant in the way I found it, the more subtle and growing loves, were movies and music. Music was always there in my life, whether I realized it or not. When I would have a good day, I would pop in whatever cassette/CD was popular with me at the time and sing and dance to it. I would play music whenever I did anything: playing with toys, going to sleep, cleaning my room, eating lunch, whatever I was doing, there was a song playing in the background. That's one of my only real regrets in my life, was that for how much I absolutely adored music, and how much I was around it, I never tried to learn to play it. I was always trying to learn so many other things that I never really got around to it until middle school, when I learned the trumpet. Although I love the trumpet (I mean come on, who doesn't?), it was not the instrument I was looking for. That instrument was always there with me, even though I never realized it: The Keyboard. If there was one type of music that I will love above others, it's synth. You put any sort of electronic beat or sound effects in your music, and you've already got my attention. It's always been like that, and I should have realized it from the beginning.
You see, I had this toy, well, back then it was a toy to me, now I would consider it more than a toy. It was a Casio Jr., which couldn't have had more than 24 keys on it. It had a bunch of pre-played songs in it you could learn from, and different instruments you could switch the keys to. I was always fascinated by it, and played with it more than any of my other toys. The problem, was that I never got any good with it. I was so de-motivated by that, that I gave up hope on learning it, which in hindsight, I would like to shoot myself for. Here I am at 19, starting from scratch with it again, because I finally realized it was the instrument I love. Don't get me wrong, I love other instruments too (It just so happens I'm pretty good at the drums, who would've thought?), but the keyboard was and always will be my first love when it comes to instruments.
Regarding movies, they were pretty self explanitory, but I never really realized how much I watched and loved them until someone pointed it out to me. I was brought up by a movie watching family, my aunt to this day owns at least 2000 VHS and over 1500 DVDs. She was the main catalyst for my movie watching habits, as I was over there quite often, watching the newest Wes Craven flick (at the age of like 6, which in retrospect is kind of funny), or watching some lame drama, which I hate to admit I loved. When we weren't watching movies at her house, she would take us out to the theatre and the arcade (Which just closed. I felt like a part of me died.) I always considered it normal how often I watched movies, thinking other kids probably watched movies just as much as I did. I guess I was wrong. Frequently, when my friends and I would go out to the rental store to get some movies, someone would suggest something, and I would always be there saying "Oh yeah, that stars so and so, and so and so, that movie sucked." or "That is an amazing movie, we should definitely get it. So and so's best performance". I think that it annoyed my friends that not only had I seen just about every movie we wanted to watch, but that I was so damn opinionated on them. I even knew actors and actresses like I knew my family, it was bad. That's when I realized that I was a movie nerd, not that I'm too proud of it.
I feel as if I am ranting, so I'll stop myself where I am. That's a little bit about me, expect more story ideas, gameplay mechanics for video games, movie ideas, excitement about tech, etc.
Music: Red Flag - Billy Talent
My name is obviously not DeadHex, but I use it as my name on the internet, because I'm a paranoid freak when it comes to giving my name to people I don't trust. So just call me DeadHex, that would be lovely. As much as I dislike being labeled into a clique of any sort, there is no other way to describe than to call me a nerd, or geek. I am an avid fan of video games, movies, music, and electronic entertainment in general. I chose the name "Blue Roses and Red Tides" on a whim. I found it entertaining to switch the percieved colors of each and make it into a darker title than it should have been, although I think I might change it because it makes me sound emo as hell. I usually don't do these blog things because I find them pointless, and no one will read it anyway, but I just couldn't resist the lure of having a spot to write and feel like someone is reading. I'm off on a tangent already and I just started, oh my.
Back to the introduction. My love of video games came at an early age, back when the NES was big. There was one game in specific that made me love video games for eternity, and that game is Ninja Gaiden. I think I was 4 or 5 when I first played it, and instantly fell in love. I remember it had cutscenes that told a story of a ninja trying to save a girl from an evil corporation, and that was all I needed to propel my imagination to it's limits. I would spend my days outside, pretending I was Ryu Hayabusa, the trained Ninja looking for vengeance against an evil orginization for taking away my Ninja Princess. I would seriously set up stuffed animals as enemies, get on top of my roof, and throw shurikens (Then called Ninja Stars) that I made out of paper at them. Needless to say my imagination was kind of dampered when my makeshift weapons would always fall apart on me, but I was never daunted. That was when I first realized that I wanted to make games, I wanted to write the story the way I saw it, the way I wanted to feel it. I had all these ideas in my head when I was a kid, and I still do. Scenario after scenario running through my head, I found the way to sate my imagination: video games.
I had found one aspect of my life in video games, and it was pretty blatant in the way I found it, the more subtle and growing loves, were movies and music. Music was always there in my life, whether I realized it or not. When I would have a good day, I would pop in whatever cassette/CD was popular with me at the time and sing and dance to it. I would play music whenever I did anything: playing with toys, going to sleep, cleaning my room, eating lunch, whatever I was doing, there was a song playing in the background. That's one of my only real regrets in my life, was that for how much I absolutely adored music, and how much I was around it, I never tried to learn to play it. I was always trying to learn so many other things that I never really got around to it until middle school, when I learned the trumpet. Although I love the trumpet (I mean come on, who doesn't?), it was not the instrument I was looking for. That instrument was always there with me, even though I never realized it: The Keyboard. If there was one type of music that I will love above others, it's synth. You put any sort of electronic beat or sound effects in your music, and you've already got my attention. It's always been like that, and I should have realized it from the beginning.
You see, I had this toy, well, back then it was a toy to me, now I would consider it more than a toy. It was a Casio Jr., which couldn't have had more than 24 keys on it. It had a bunch of pre-played songs in it you could learn from, and different instruments you could switch the keys to. I was always fascinated by it, and played with it more than any of my other toys. The problem, was that I never got any good with it. I was so de-motivated by that, that I gave up hope on learning it, which in hindsight, I would like to shoot myself for. Here I am at 19, starting from scratch with it again, because I finally realized it was the instrument I love. Don't get me wrong, I love other instruments too (It just so happens I'm pretty good at the drums, who would've thought?), but the keyboard was and always will be my first love when it comes to instruments.
Regarding movies, they were pretty self explanitory, but I never really realized how much I watched and loved them until someone pointed it out to me. I was brought up by a movie watching family, my aunt to this day owns at least 2000 VHS and over 1500 DVDs. She was the main catalyst for my movie watching habits, as I was over there quite often, watching the newest Wes Craven flick (at the age of like 6, which in retrospect is kind of funny), or watching some lame drama, which I hate to admit I loved. When we weren't watching movies at her house, she would take us out to the theatre and the arcade (Which just closed. I felt like a part of me died.) I always considered it normal how often I watched movies, thinking other kids probably watched movies just as much as I did. I guess I was wrong. Frequently, when my friends and I would go out to the rental store to get some movies, someone would suggest something, and I would always be there saying "Oh yeah, that stars so and so, and so and so, that movie sucked." or "That is an amazing movie, we should definitely get it. So and so's best performance". I think that it annoyed my friends that not only had I seen just about every movie we wanted to watch, but that I was so damn opinionated on them. I even knew actors and actresses like I knew my family, it was bad. That's when I realized that I was a movie nerd, not that I'm too proud of it.
I feel as if I am ranting, so I'll stop myself where I am. That's a little bit about me, expect more story ideas, gameplay mechanics for video games, movie ideas, excitement about tech, etc.
Music: Red Flag - Billy Talent
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