cultural overload musical appreciation.

It's the month of culture in Adelaide (for some reason our state government decides that February/March will be the time they hold all the major cultural events (Adelaide Festival, Adelaide Fringe, Womadelaide, Adelaide International Film Festival, FUSE Festival, and the Clipsal 500). Although from what I hear, it is so that they can report the increase in tourism and business from all of the festivals in each of the reports back to Parliament, regardless of whether or not that event was the actual cause of the aforementioned effect. After all, politics is perception. Still it means that a lot of stuff happens at once. Which has left me kind of overcultured this month, which is why I really didn't spend a great deal of time in deciding my musical selections for this month. First off I finally got around to collection the remaining Machine in the Garden albums, namely Underworld and Asphodel. I found Asphodel to be a bit bland, mainly because Summer's voice wasn't as prominent as in later albums. Underworld was definitely better in that regard, and had the bonus of being much more musically intricate. Still, I do prefer their later albums (and Summer's Mirabilis contributions). The next purchase was The Elephant's Baby by Clare Fader, which was a pure impulse buy with no background, and was one of my best buys for some time. Extremely good folk jazz cabaret with more than a touch of music hall. Good vocals and intricate and deep music. Isle of Summer is a particularly fun jazz tango piece. The final purchase was The Bittersweet Constrain by Jill Tracy, which is in a much darker cabaret style. Quite good, and sufficiently musically rich for my tastes, although it's probably not something I'll listen to a lot. Whereas Clare was often quite laconic and melancholic, it was the type of music I prefer, since it set a rather defiant tone, laughing at the surrounding mood (consider, if you will, the philosophical underpinnings that gave birth to the tango). Jill's work, on the other hand, was generally dark and despairing and spoke of lost opportunities and forlorn hopes, and could easily suck you into a dark morass without providing any catharsis. Although maybe it simply suffers in comparison with Jill's work and I shouldn't listen to them together. <grin> On the physical CD side, my copy of The Eternal Lies Suite by James Semple arrived. Interesting, but it seems to lacks a lot of the punch of his earlier pieces. Then again, it is the soundtrack for a specific adventure, so I'd better wait until the adventure comes out before I really come to a decision. From the track-list, it's to be a world-spanning hunt on the Trail of Cthulhu. I shall have to listen to it a few more times, but I'm afraid nothing really grabbed me when I first listened to it (unlike the previous stings that he has produced for games [especially the Esoterror sting]). And as soon as the Fringe is over Lili has promised to send me a copy of her War Notes CD. Yay! Old WWI and WWII music hall songs. Oh, and 6000 points for Slytherin for producing this video.

retinitis pigmentosa

If anyone is interested in six rather fine indie RPGs for only US$10, as well as donating to a good cause, then I heartily recommend the Sight For Sore Eyes bundle of games. This is really good value for some really good games. I highly recommend Ben Lehman's Polaris, especially if you are fan of games like Nobilis, and is worth US$10 all by itself. [This is politely referred to as a pointed "Hint" for certain regular readers of a game I think they will like a lot.] Greg Hutton and Elizabeth Shoemaker have produced some excellent games (although whilst I have both Remember Tomorrow and Murderland I'm afraid I have yet to get around to reading them, but their other games have been really really good). I'm not immediately familiar with the others [although I suppose I could open the archive and read them <grin>], but they are keeping good company. And it's for a good cause. ETA: Perfect is a story game of crime set in a steampunk dystopia. Polaris is a really excellent story game of tragedy and chivalry in the uttermost north. Remember Tomorrow is a quick and dirty cyberpunk game. Geasa is a game of faery stories. Mars Colony is the story of how you tried o save the failing colony on Mars. Murderland is a set of rules for storygaming Cluedo. I should note that while I use the term role-playing game, many of these are actually story games. In both you role-play a character, but in story games you are explicitly trying to tell the story of your character with the assistance and opposition (depending on the game) of the other players.