The Mosh Pit Rule

I totally lucked out on winning tickets to an intimate concert of Chevelle, one of the best rock band in the world  from the Chicago area.  I give thanks to 95 Will Rock for not only know being the only modern rock station in the Chicagoland Area now (R.I.P. Q101) but getting tickets to me and some other awesome people last Tuesday.

Mystic and I attended and stayed on the second level.  Mystic doesn't like big groups and even though the Subteranean is a great intimate setting, second level was a bit better if you just wished to spectate.  Which we did, and Chevelle put on a fantastic show, and we got to hear a song from their new album (and coincidentally, that album comes out today, so I guess go crazy and buy Hats Off to the Bull right now!)

There was another show we could watch--the mosh pit.  I've never been in one myself but I fully support the idea of this controlled chaos.  There are a lot of people out there who scoff at the idea of a mosh pit being one of the friendliest things you can do, but it is!  There's a little system to it, like it's own law, that everyone in the pit understands.  Well, everyone who wants to stay in the pit, that is.  I'm sure some of you out there have had different experiences but these have been mine.

There are three different positions you can have in a mosh pit.  Two of them actually involve being in the circle.  I call them the Smashers and the Statues (terms I literally just made up, so don't think this is official lingo).  Smashers are the ones who go all out, looking for people to run into.  It's hard, yes, but it's not to injure.  They'll usually use the sides of their bodies, and not do a lot of limb flailing, instead just running around like pinballs in a machine.  Then you have Statues, who are not necessary for  a mosh pit but they add a little umph.  They'll stay in the middle of the mosh pit, solid and secure, and push any Smasher that bumps into them.  The one I saw used a little bit more arm than any of the Smashers, but you can also just make it a torso thing.  Smasher want to bump into everyone.  Statues want to show how solid they are.

Finally you have the people standing around the pit, which as a collective I refer to as the Boundary.  People in the Boundary are responsible for pushing Smashers back in the circle, keeping the mosh in one singular place and making sure it doesn't spread too far.  People in the Boundary don't necessarily want to be dragged into the pit, and that usually isn't an issue.

With the position are some simple rules.  You keep the pit in the pit.  You do not drag people into or out of the pit.  If someone falls in the pit, you pick them back up.  If you get smashed into, you do not take it personally; the pit is there for the enjoyment of horseplay and you should know that going in.  No weapons in the pit.  And do your best not to be drunk in the pit, because that is a great way to forget about all the other simple rules previously established.  Like I witnessed one guy do...

I can determined if he was drunk since he was a story beneath me, but I could see he was a trouble when he decided it would be a fun idea to pull the Smashers out of the circle while he was part of the Boundry.  He was this tall guy picking fights, and decided to really mess with one Smasher.  The Smasher almost gave him a fight but other people part of the pit pulled them away from each other, giving security at the club time to keep things cool.  After that the pit was back in action for a while.  The tall disrupting guy almost came back to start another fight, this time with anyone in the pit.  Security took him aside ASAP.  Mosh pit continues, with smiles and awesome music in the background.

It's just funny how something so violent can actually be an example of spontaneous governance.

Lazy Sunday: Nimoy Version

This is Leonard Nimoy improving upon the original Lazy Sunday music video with his own:

Happy April First

In the central time zone the April Fool's day jokes are almost over.  I wasn't feeling super creative today, but I figured I would at least give you a link to this old gag.  It's an old one I know some of you are tired of, but it's still a favorite of mine.

In somewhat the same vain, I can't wait to post up some music from my brother, EsTeeKay, when he does some video game remixes I've prompted him to do.  If you want a sample of some of his likes and work, his facebook page for him and his company is here.  Enjoy!

Happy Carl Sagan Day!

For those of you who don't know who Carl Sagan is, find out now.  He is a scientist who wanted the world to know how beautiful the intricacies of the universe are, and was willing to share the information.  He was brilliant, prolific in writing and in television production, and one of two men that Asimov admitted surpassed his own knowledge.  Essentially, a scientist and an intellectual badass.

To have a small celebration to a day that has almost ended, I think a remix complete with autotune and philosophical ideas should do the trick.

Awesome Russian History Music Video

I know the title may confuse you, but don't worry:  the Tetris theme is involved.

Have found a muse!

I had mentioned earlier that I had been feeling a little uninspired as of late.  This is always disheartening for me to feel.  I hate not being able to the type the words I know are waiting to be written down somewhere.

However, it seems my writer's block is over.

On Pandora (which everyone should use!) I had been listening to a lot of A Perfect Circle, and couldn't get the songs from Mer de Noms out of my head.  So I broke down and bought.

I haven't really stopped listening it since I bought it.

And then I couldn't stop writing.  Now I haven't gotten RPG ideas like I complained before, but I've been able to go back to my story and start writing again.  And I'm getting a lot of writing ideas.  Helping the Boyfriend with his story made me want to write it in my own style.  I'm thinking about writing more things for my LARP characters.  I think that the trilogy is the most important though, because it's something that's been stuck in my head for quite some time.  Mer de Noms is making think of certain characters in different ways, looking at them in different angles.  And I've gotten a scene or two from this album that has helped fleshed out everything for me.

For me, music unlocks a lot of things in my head.  But not in such a long time has an album inspired projects I was already in the middle of tinkering with.  Hooray!

Now if only something could give me the kick in the pants I need to get inspired for half of my other projects.

Celebrating the Whedons

This post is partly because a good friend of mine just bought the Dr. Horrible Sing A-long Blog DVD.  If you don't know what this is, then you need to go here for your life to be complete.  Trust me.

Don't trust me?  Well fine, here's one of the fantastic songs from this musical.  Watch it as a sneak peek, and then watch the entire thing.





I actually watched this over a year ago and fell in love with it. It's hard not to.  It's a fantastic cast, a great sound track and it's really well written.  That's what you expect from something produced by Joss Whedon.  But the great thing to find out was that it was somewhat a family affair.

Joss brought in his two brothers Zach and Jed.  Zach helped with writing the script, bringing a lot of dry humor to the whole thing.  Jed helped with the lyrics and with the music.  And if I mention music, I shouldn't forget that Joss brought in his friend Maurissa Tancharoen to help with that as well.  This family team helped produce one of the best free webisode series out there!

I just find it very cool when family members jive together well enough to make something of creative genius.  Not every family can do that.

And for those of you who have seen Dr. Horrible already, please go back and listen to the commentary, that is completely sung.  That's right, it's Commentary: The Musical.  With great song including "I'm better than Neil" by Nathan Fillon.  That's always a favorite.

What are you waiting for, see it now!

Go Play Audiosurf

So I thought the next few days would have involved more playing sims than what has happened.  It's not that I haven't been playing the sims for hours, it's more that I found out the Boyfriend has one of the most addictive games known to man.

This game is Audiosurf.

Here's the deal for this "puzzle racer": The game finds a song file, analyzes it, and from there makes a level for the actual game.  When you play the game you are trying to collect all the colored blocks.  The block then takes up a space on a grid right under your ship.  You can see how it works in the picture I've posted.  When three or more blocks are grouped on the grid, you score major points! Depending on the song it can be either relaxing and easy or brutally hard.  

The best thing about this game is that it's ridiculously easy to pick up but yet hard to master.  It's about finding the rhythm as well as good reflexes.  There are a good amount of variations, but there's no shame in keeping it simple.  I usually just play Mono, the easiest one, because the game is so fun even when I'm not sure of what song I've picked from The Boyfriend's hard drive.

Audiosurf has been out for a while, so I may not be surprising anyone.  But if you don't have just go here and buy it.  It is worth all ten bucks.  That's right, ten bucks for a PC game that uses your own personal soundtrack.  That's a great deal.

I know I sound like a sales person, but this game is fantastic and I think everyone should own it. 

Only downfall, well at least for me, is that it doesn't have a Mac version.  Oh well.