More Musicals!

Listening to new musicals while I work is always a great thing.

Curtains was great when David Hyde Pierce was singing, and had some other very nice moments, but on the most part it was kind of… meh. I’m sure it’d be fun to be in/watch, but it’s not one that really sticks with you.

La Cages aux Folles was wonderful, even if it makes me feel bad for liking it because it beat Sunday in the Park with George at the Tonys… It was deserving, though, even though I would have given it to Sondheim (big surprise).

You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown was nice…? Kinda? Maybe? I guess… To be honest, I got halfway through and then had an urge to listen to Sweeney Todd. Which I then did. And it was awesome. I may go back and listen to the second half of the album, or I may just listen to more Sweeney.

You’re always safe with Sweeney. The musical, not the person, I suppose.

The Gathering

One thing I love about being a Uni student is the complete and total removal of the ‘I’ve got to look cool in front of everyone and must dismiss all quote-unquote uncool pass-times’ thought in your mind that kind of dominated high school.

Which is why my mates at Uni got me a Magic: the Gathering starter deck for my birthday and convinced me to dust off my old Magic cards to start playing again.

You don’t realise how much you miss playing card games until you start playing them again – they’re quite awesome – and we all seem to be around the same skill level, which makes playing with each other much more fun, than being dominated by one person each round. Victory is earned by all, depending on how you draw.

Now I just need to convince them to play D&D and all will be well.

All Work

And no play causes me to make lame The Shining references.

Award Winning

Tonight were the Company awards for the community theatre company which I performed with in The Producers.

In reality, it was the Annual General Meeting for the committee, but it was a lovely wee night, where we celebrated the past year of shows.

I may have been awarded ‘Best Supporting Actor’, too…

But the important thing is that we all enjoyed the shows we were in and supported community theatre.

The awards were just a bonus. An awesome bonus, but a bonus none the less.

The Binding of Isaac

I’m totally getting into Indie games at the moment. I don’t think I’ve ever really been all about the ‘mainstream’ games – sure I’ve played my share of Call of Duty (I love the crap out of Nazi Zombies) and Halo and those types of games, but they’ve never really been my favourite – but I’ve never really delved into the real Indie area until the past year or so.

My introduction to some awesome Indie titles does come through the Humble Bundles, the idea of which I love, and while my initial interest into my first Bundle was through the game Psychonaughts, I’ve now decided to get the Indie Bundle each time it comes around, regardless of what’s on offer. There are some really interesting games out there.

The one that’s caught me at the moment is The Binding of Isaac, which beautifully combines random map generation with interesting, intense game-play. I love the idea that you are given very, very limited information about the maps that you’re playing, the enemies you fight and the items that you come across, without it being an annoying gimmick.

What I’m enjoying about Indie games is that they’re usually quite short, which means there’s no useless padding and we receive more concentrated quality immediately. They’re usually built on simple, yet interesting mechanics and, when they aim to tell a story, it’s done very effectively and in a minimalist fashion – an excellent story was told in Limbo, with absolutely no dialogue or context, it was thrilling.

I’d really love to just spend a couple of days doing nothing but playing Indie games, just to see the vast range that’s out there… Damn life, getting in the way of gaming and being antisocial…

Late Night

Getting into the house at 7:30 in the morning is a pretty awesome experience, I must admit. Especially after spending the entire night at an awesome cast party in a heated pool with the most awesome cast and crew people ever.

So I slept most of today… Sleep was great.

Closing Night

Tonight is the final performance of The Producers.

I expect it to be very emotional… But hell, it’s been bloody great fun! I’ve loved every second if it!

Dream Super-Group 2

Alright, after much thought and deliberation, I’ve come up with some of the members for my super-group! These are just some artists that I think would be amazing to work together, and to see them all in the one place would be incredible.

I’ve decided that my super-group should have five members in it, and that awesomeness would stem from their collaboration. That said, I don’t have a complete band yet, so any suggestions would be most appreciated!

Vocals – Glen Hansard
There’s an unrelenting, raw passion that comes from this man every time he sings. He gives every performance an honest 1000% and makes every song he sings unforgettable. For me, he’d be an amazing front man. Plus, he plays guitar, so that gives us a rhythm guitarist too!

Keyboard – Imogen Heap
The things that this woman can do with a keyboard or synth and a looping machine is simply magical. She creates layer upon layer of magnificent ambience, but knows how to completely rock out when she needs to – there would be many a keytar solo in this band.

Bass – Christopher Wolstenholme (of Muse)
Wolstenholme is one of the most laid-back bassists I’ve ever seen, as well as knowing how to work his instrument. His bass-lines are always interesting, but never intrusive, providing a strong backing for the other instruments to show off over the top of. That said, you always admire the bass-work and it always stands out, almost like he’s not even trying to.

And… that’s where my list kind of ends. I still don’t have a Drummer or a Guitarist to add to the line up.

For the Drummer, I’m entirely sure who to pick… Gavin Harrison (of Porcupine Tree) is an awesome candidate, as was Dominic Howard (of Muse). I’m tempted to suggest Dave Grohl (of Nirvana/Foo Fighters), which would give me another singer to add to the awesomeness, but I don’t know at the moment… I don’t know enough about drummers as I should, or who the best drummers are, as most of them are stuck behind the shadow of the lead guitarist or singer. Then again, I could always pick Ringo.

The Guitarist I had in mind at first was Matt Bellamy (of Muse), but since I can only have one member from each band, I decided to go with Wolstenholme instead. Part of me is really considering The Edge (of U2), as his effects stuff would work really well with what Heap does, but I think that he works best in U2, with his band around him. Brian May (of Queen) would be awesome, but a very traditional choice, and I think that the choices I have so far are slightly less traditional and more alternative.

So… any suggestions? I really want to fill this band out, just for my own benefit. And what about your own super-groups? Any musicians you wish would work together to create awesome, awesome music? Let me know!

Taking Time

I should be doing uni work right now, but I made the grave mistake of going onto the ‘How It Should Have Ended’ website.

I can’t get out of it… I’m trying to tell myself to stop watching videos and start working, but… Batman…!

I’ll get out of it eventually.

Maybe.

…

No. I probably won’t.

South Park

While I used to watch the show when I was younger, I don’t have too many memories of South Park. My parents weren’t fans of the show, and for a while, I just lost track of it. Every now and again, I saw a random episode and usually, I enjoyed it.

But the more I heard about South Park, the more respect I gained for Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The respect came to a peak when they eventually released The Book of Mormon, which is easily one of my favourite musicals (and I’m not the only one who thinks so, since their shows are sold out until about 2015 – or so they say). So, I’ve now decided to start watching the show from the beginning, and catch up on what I may have missed.

I’ve got a lot of episodes to get through!