BEST OF 2008!

Well, it's been a pretty long year, what with school, girlfriend, work, moving, and a very disturbed sleep schedule. But, I have been able to keep my eye on a bunch of awesome new things to have come out this year. So, without much more introduction, here's the top 3 best of multiple categories of 2008.

BEST NEW ALBUMS OF 2008
3.Protest the Hero - "Fortress"

I became a fan of this band as soon as I heard their previous release, Kezia. This is a group of extremely talented musicians writing EXTREMELY talented music. One noticeable aspect of this band is the unique use of vocals on top of the incongruent guitar style. The voice is reminiscent of almost a whiny, pop-punk at time, to anywhere around power metal, and even black metal at times.
Kezia showed how talented these guys were technically, but 2008's Fortress showed just how flexible and creative these fella's are. The whole album is constantly on the border of multiple genres, and is never dissappointing. Tracks like Bloodmeat, the Dissentience, and Goddess Bound carry the same feel as the original Kezia, but a tad more involved and technical, while tracks like Sequoia Throne and Palms Read rely more on a modern Progressive Metal feel as found in bands like Dream Theater and Between the Buried and Me (more of the latter). Great production, great mastering - a very fun album to listen to entirely. Definitely a fantastic album, and definitely deserving of being on the top 3 of 2008.

2.Bohren und der Club of Gore - "Dolores"

For those of you who are not aware of this band, they are a Doom Jazz outfit from Germany. A very dark band, focusing a lot on suspension and silence, utilizing very few and powerful instruments, the band consisting of drums, bass, keyboards, and a very airy saxophone. Bohren is known for writing songs that are long, and usually very unsettling in their environment, usually leaving the listener very vulnerable. They have been known to perform in complete darkness on stage, wearing only white glow-in-the-dark gloves while the rest of their bodies are shrouded in black. A very depressing and solemn band, for sure.
Dolores, on the other hand, is not nearly as scary or dark as it's predecessors, but is instead astoundingly sad, focusing on slightly faster melodies, but with a specific tamber that you can only describe as heart-breaking. This album is, of course, very beautiful in composition and production. Really, any album that can force a listener into a certain state of mind or emotion is a true work of art, and should be recognized as such. This is a wonderful album.

1. Opeth - "Watershed"


Opeth is one of my very favorite bands, so therefore I had HUGE expectations for this album. Oddly enough, none of them were met... They were changed(?). See, I am used to the Opeth most people are familiar with - Insanely heavy riffs, 6/8 time signatures, E-minor, and Mikael Akerfeldt's signature death growl. So, when Watershed was released I was expecting to hear all of those signature sounds that made Opeth one of my favorite bands. However, this was not the case. Heavy keyboards, mellotron, jazz compositions, and nearly 75% of the album is clean, and fantastic, singing.
What?
See, this album is a perfect example of a metal album being influenced by everything BUT other metal albums. Mikael Akerfeldt states that he was very influenced by an artist named Scott Walker, not too mention Mikael's consistant tuning into the Zombies, when making this album. Sure enough it made for a very interesting sonic experience. The production is the best it's been since Steven Wilson stopped with Blackwater Park, along with astounding performances by Opeth's two newest members, Martin "Axe" Axenroth (of Bloodbath fame) and Fredrik Akkeson (formerly of Arch Enemy). I was one of the many Opeth fans who feared the departure of Martin Lopez and Peter Lindgren, believing that the band would never be as strong as they once were with those two behind the scenes. Fortunately, I was proven very, very wrong.
And Jeph Jaques can go to Hell. The use of mellotron is not only appropriate, but stylistic of progressive rock as a whole. Sure, Opeth can afford to pay musicians to play organic flute on an album, but why not have it be something that fits sonically and genre-specifically, and that can also be preformed live everytime.
Watershed, though still not the best of Opeth's many albums, is an amazing album. Opeth has still shown that they are at the forefront of what is acceptable as metal, always pushing the boundary as to what people recognize as within the genre. This album is worthy of the title of Best Album of 2008.

Honorable Mentions
Utada Hikaru - "HEART STATION"
Deerhoof - "Offend Maggie"
Meshuggah - "Obzen"
Kayo Dot - "Blue Lambency Downward"
This or the Apocalypse - "Monuments"
An Albatross - "The An Albatross Family Album"
YMCK - "Family Genesis"
Becoming the Archetype - "Dichotomy"
Genghis Tron - "Board Up the House"
Powerglove - "Metal Kombat for the Mortal Man"
There are still about a hundred other awesome ablums that came out this last year, but these are the ones I'm going to mention... and that's it.


BEST NEW MOVIES OF 2008

3.WALL-E



American animation nowadays seems to be lacking a lot of substance. Cartoons on TV tend to be based solely on ADD, having an attention span of maybe 2 seconds, lots of loud noises, little artistic detail. Blah. The folks at Pixar animation, however, have proven themselves once again as masters of animation with this years sci-fi family film, Wall-e. John Lasseter, head honcho over at Pixar, is a big fan of Japanese film maker and animator Hayao Miyazaki, Miyazaki having produced some of the greatest films and cartoons of all time - Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away), Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke) and Kaze no tani no Naushikaa (Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind). Miyazaki's films focus a lot more on story, character developement, and detail detail detail. There are a few times where you sort of forget that you are watching an animated film when witnessing one of these titles, what with how emotionally attached you become to the characters and just how real they are. Lasseter, being a fan of Miyazaki, has aspired to be similar in his attempts at animation, having produced most of the Pixar films to date.
What these CG films by Pixar have over the rest of American animation today are there grips on human detail - even if the protagonist is in fact a little robot. Love and humor seem so real and natural in these films, something that you just don't see in the majority of cartoons. The audience instantly becomes attached to Wall-e as soon as he utters his first line of dialogue, and watch every single frame with great wonder and amusement, hoping that he will in fact get the girl in the end. Ah, Robot love...

2.Cloverfield

I guess what made this movie so good was not the film itself, which was pretty good, but was instead the hype that was built up around it. Cloverfield was first exposed as a teaser before the Transformers flop last year, and ended up being the only thing I really got excited about the rest of the night. An American big monster film, and they wouldn't even give you the title. Virtually no information was available on the film, so anything people could find out was based on hearsay and rumor, further perpetuated by the internet. Obviously, nothing that was surmised was correct about the film, but that's what made it even better when it was finally released.
Cloverfield was the brainchild of J.J. Abrams, the man responsible for shows like LOST, Alias, and Fringe, and is certainly known for his ways of mystery. The fact that the movie didn't even have a name until about four months before its release was awesome. For about 6 months people knew the movie only by the date that it was to be released - 1.18.08. Genius. Simple and Genius. The movie ended up being pretty visually stunning, though a little lacking in the whole acting department. Still, it was quite a "ride" I guess, and I think earns its spot as number two simply upon the mass hysteria it created as a nameless movie so early in the game.

1.The Dark Knight


I know, I know, you all saw this one coming from a mile away. But, I have to admit, this one really caught me off guard. I haven't watched much Batman since I was a little guy wearing the caped crusader on my huggies, but I've certainly been stoked on some of the films based on his antics. The first two were great. The next two... not so much. But then Chris Nolan came along, and the game changed. The feel was different, the music was different, and of course, Batman was different. However, no one could deny that Christian Bale fit perfectly as the Bat, and he was back with some kind of bizarre vengeance.
But, of course, the real star of the newest Batman film is Heath Deadger. Ledger first popped on the screen with Terrible films like 10 Things I Hate About You and... ugh... A Knights Tale, proving that he was very prone to doing dumb, dumb things. But, then he started doing REAL films, and all of a sudden people found out that not only could he actually ACT, but he could do it extremely well. I admit, I was reserved when I heard that he was going to be the next Joker in the upcoming Batman film... but after watching it I understood what a perfect decision it was to have him play the single craziest villain comics have ever known. There are those who method act, and then there are those who live their characters, and Heath was certainly the latter. The slip into insanity was blatantly apparent while watching his performance throughout the film. It really is unfortunate that he had to die after the completion of the film. He was truly a perfect addition to the legacy of Batman, and all of Film. Blah blah blah, sentiment, blah. HERE'S THE NUMBER 1! w00t!



Honorable Mentions:
Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea
Run, Fatboy, Run
.... um, I guess I didn't watch too many movies this last year...

B-E-A-Youtiful

I had a dream last night. In this dream I was in a place that I don't know, but recognized as home. It was big, but the rooms were really dark save a few randomly placed lamps on desks, most of which had blue lights in them. With me at my home (I'm not sure if it was supposed to be Boise or Idaho Falls) was a beautiful, racially ambiguous woman. She looked like some kind of Asian/American mix, short hair, tall (maybe 5'7", being tall for both asians and my family) and curvaceous. Her full name was りゅうぐめい (Pronounce dYuuGuMae), which is a Japanese sounding name, but is not an actual name at all. She also went by a few nicknames, including ぽくぽくめい (PokuPokuMae), and せっぷっくめい(SeppukkuMae). I was in love with this girl - truly, truly in love. She felt like some kind of inner part of myself that I didn't show around my family and friends made manifest into a physical form. She was beautiful, but very natural. She had an "alternative" look, I guess you could call it - a few piercings here and there, punk-ish, but fashionable clothing. There was nothing superficial about this person. She was honest.

Then, I woke up. I still felt a lingering feeling of longing for My Ryuugume, this lasting for a few hours into my day. And, for whatever reason, this whole experience has affected me in a really intense way.

Lately, I've been questioning what I consider to be beautiful in life. I mean, normally people look towards something attractive to the eye or sensitive to the heart (love, mostly) for something to qualify as beautiful. I certainly fit into that group once. However, now it seems that my opinions are being challenged by little, seemingly insignificant moments in my everyday life.

Recently, me and Ryan have been working on a little musical project that we like to call a "band," and in doing so have stumbled across a barrier that gets pretty tough to get through - Originality. Being fans of music, we're inspired by a lot of different artists and bands, and trying to find a balance of originality and inspiration is very difficult. Plus, this band is somewhat of an "emotive hardcore" band (kinda), a genre relatively common today. We started writing a few songs, and sure enough they were a little too reminiscent of other musical acts (i.e. Ulver, Misery Signals, Jument, Cult of Luna, etc.). However, we've been listening to a lot of non-metal related music, and sure enough that started making some cute little ideas pop up in our head. We played around a bit in our rehearsal space in Garden city, and eventually we began to notice some strange things.

Garden City is creepy. It's a city within a city, it's dirty, and at night it feels very unfamiliar. Still, it's safe in our practice room (not like there's any danger outside, mind you. It just feels that way sometimes, not too dissimilar from the hallway downstairs), and we could be locked up in there and be away from the world. Other than our amps and drum equipment, inside our practice space are a lava lamp and a mini strobe light. It's pretty common for us to have only those two lights on while we write music, and it's very uncomfortable.

One day in the rehearsal space Ryan played a riff he had been writing. I jumped in, and pretty soon we had a whole song hashed out in about thirty minutes. For the start of the song, Ryan decided it would be interesting to have Tom play his bass with a Cello bow, making a variety of bizarre overtones and frequencies not normally associated with the instrument. We tried it out... and my heart sank. The sounds Tom began to make were so real, vulnerable, and heart-wrenchingly sad. It was beautiful. Definitely one of those, "Holy crap. What have we DONE?!" kind of moments. With the limited light, one couldn't help but feel alone and vulnerable, scared. It was so primal and honest that it was beautiful, and we knew we had come up with something awesome. (Here's the song so far... Mom and Dad probably won't like the last half, seeing that it's "pretty Heavy" Download Plaza - We're Almost There


When did THIS happen? When did feeling scared and vulnerable translate into something beautiful? All I can assume is that Beauty for me has become something that I deny myself... Something just always out of my reach. Beauty is not something for me to witness, but something for my heart to cry out for. I guess for the sake of my blog format, I can make a list of what Beauty has become for me.

3. Beauty is Natural
Beauty cannot be made or forced. It is something that occurs due to our environment, past experiences, opinions, mood, anything... it's a raw form of natural emotion brought about by not you, but everything else.

2. Beauty is Best Reflected Through Primal Instinct and Emotion
Beauty, to me, is represented not through twitterpation, but through emotions like fear, vulnerability, heart-ache, ecstasy, worry, mystery, doubt - emotions that remind us that we're alive, and conscious beings. You cannot fake those emotions. They don't lie.

1. Beauty is Less About What You Desire, and More About What You (Or Your Heart) Can't Have
I think this is why people are so attached to stories of Romance. What is beautiful in stories like Romeo and Juliet, or the Fountain is not what we see on the outside, but the deep, internal struggle their hearts feel. They cannot have what they need so badly, even if it is as simple as another person to hold their hand. The pain and sorrow of love and longing is much more impactful than the look of it all. りゅうぐめい wasn't beautiful because she was attractive. She was beautiful because she was so real, and so pure... but I couldn't have her.

So, that's my mopey post for today. It's not as pessimistic, I guess, but it's dark and truuuuuuuuuue. I'm interested to hear what you have to think about all this, what with the appearance of beauty, my dream, etc. I'd especially like to hear from Challis and my Mother about what they think of the dream, seeing that they're into that crap.

It's late. I'm going to bed.

Let's hope I don't fall in love aaaalllll over again.

P.S. If it helps at all, PokuPoku in Japanese is an onomatopoeia for the sound of eating, and Seppukku is the act of killing yourself in the name of honor... Those were the nicknames Ryuugumei went by in my dream, so if it's of any interest...

Ugh... Suuuuuuuck

So, I'm going to rant about this while it's still fresh in my mind. Is it so strange that as a Japanese student I despise other Japanese students? Not Japanese in origin, but Americans who study the language? I went to Cold Stone today with my roommates, and as I hand my debit card to the cashier she says, "arigatou gozaimasu."

I reply: "Oh. Nihongo da. Bikurishita. Sugoi na..." ("Oh, Japanese. I was surprised. Awesome.")

The cashier then begins to ramble on in a mixture of poorly structured colloquial and formal Japanese, all of which was done in a very masculine tone. Obviously she had learned the majority of her vocabulary via Japanese cartoons... and I instantly became uncomfortable. The more I think of it, however, the more I realize that I've always felt this way about things that are significant to myself, taking things waaaaaay to personal, never able to recognize that something can be special to someone else. Like in elementary school, I remember arguing with kids about who loved Power Rangers more, or more specifically, who was more obsessed with Kimberlee, the "hott" Power Ranger. Now it seems to have translated into bands and studies for me. For example:

I went into the SUB today and was instantly drawn into the arcade for some reason I could not fathom. It turns out that Dream Theater was playing on the radio, and there were a bunch of kids talking about how "sweet this song was on Guitar Hero." I got really mad, feeling that something sacred was being defiled. Maybe I get way too obsessed with my past times.

Anyway, for today's list. Suddenly, I've been thrown into the bowels of Winter, my least favorite place to be... so, I'm going to give you...

3 Reason Why This Winter Already Sucks
3. It came INSTANTLY
This is something that we're not that used to here in Idaho. Usually the transition from one season to the other is drawn out and annoying, as in Spring snowing three or four times before finally staying green (relatively. This Winter was going just fine for me, staying warm and snow free. Then, out of nowhere, there was about five inches of snow. Oh. Good. I don't know, I may not like snow, but I'd certainly appreciate a little warning before I realize that my sweatshirt is not enough to keep me from dying. Alas, that would be convenient, and we know that convenience is out of the question when it comes to Idaho.

2. I Have to Drive
Now that there's snow and ice everywhere it has become necessary for me to actually drive my butt around town instead of just riding my bike. This poses a few problems, including the fact that I don't have a parking permit, I HATE driving, and people in Boise are idiots. The general Boise population appears to be for the most part genuine, intelligent members of society... but when even a touch of snow hits the road they revert back into their most basic, primal form, acting only on the emotion of panic and basing all of their decisions likely.

"SNOW! SLICK! I FORGOT HOW TO DRIIIIIIIIIVE!"

It may just be where I was raised, what with torrential snow storms and icelandic road systems, but I'm pretty sure that cars can drive on roads, regardless of the fact that there may be a little bit of frost on it. It took no less than an entire half hour to drive down fairview ave., a trip of normally five minutes, people acting in a frenzy, forgetting which side of the road to drive on, what lane they're in, which light to turn on to turn in which direction... it was MADNESS.

1. There's Nothing to Do

With there being no school, I have nothing but a job at a frozen yogurt shop to look forward to. Ryan and Tom are going to be in IF, William works all night so he sleeps all day, and I hate driving myself around (as fore mentioned). Cool? What am I going to do? This Winter seriously sucks...

Our First Delve into Insanity...

Welcome, friends (not likely), Family (less likely), and, I don't know, peers (?) to the inner workings of my poor little mind. My name is Austin. Hello. How are you? To sum this whole blog fiasco up, I am the type of person who loves to categorize things in specific order; a list of Absolutes, if you will. Everything in my little life is separated into genres, sub-genres, and then finally into a rank of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Movies, music, food, emotions, experiences, people, EVERYTHING in my life has been organized in a such a way.

So, I've decided to start off this blog with such a list. *ahem* Presenting:

3 KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF AUSTIN ALLEN
3.I Am Obsessed With Music
Music is what I do, and it has been so for many years now. I've been working towards a degree in music at Boise State University, talking about starting up a label, been in more bands than fingers on my hands, and spent more time in my studio than in school. Music has been the best way for me to express emotion in any sort of subtle, or not so subtle way. People who know me will tell you that I'm creative... or lazy, depending on who you ask. Music is the best way for me to show my creativity, making something that is special and unique to me. Some people get their kicks from sports, school, work, whatever. Me, I'm way too obsessed with my keyboard to sometimes even notice that I'm not wearing pants (truth).

I'm also very smart about music. I can tell you just what's going in at any moment in any song, and I can tell you exactly why you're wrong and/or suck for liking any type of music. Music just makes sense to me, while many things do not.

Dude: "So, [band] is pretty cool."
Austin: "Actually, said band was formed back in the late 80's with Generic Dude on vocals, later opting for More Generic Hot Lady to up record sales. The riffs are bland, sparse, idiotic, and way too radio friendly. I mean, come on, they basically end every song with either a dominant to tonic or Octave to tonic resolution. Very boring."
Dude: "Right. So, anyways, you should come by later to check out my Audi."
Austin: "... I've got an inny...?"

Which, now leads me into number...

2. I Am Very Opinionated
...and I'm often a jerk about it. As proven, I categorize just about everything in my life, so I have pretty solid opinions about everything. I have developed my tastes around things that I consider to be legitimate, unique, or honest, and I will defend those things to no end. I will also argue till I'm red in the face, even if I'm absolutely wrong, simply because I'm that stubborn about my opinions. I'm right, unless proven completely wrong, which, yeah right.

I honestly think that if you aren't picky in life you simply don't care.

I guess this probably fits in, but I'm afraid of looking stupid, so I develop my opinions around as much fact as I can gather, sometimes stretching the truth a bit to make my opinion shine a little more true than it actually is... I believe my older sister can agree with me in how I am tenacious in a debate, even when I'm in the red, just to keep myself from looking like an idiot. However, this usually ends with me being a bigger idiot than I could've imagined.

1. I'm Driven Almost Completely By Emotion
This can prove to be problematic at times, but everything I do in life is usually driven by my emotions. I'm a super affectionate person, and am driven into relationships by this need. I'm attracted to emotionally stimulating activities, music, movies, people, etc. I'm more affected by a dark, moody day laden with fog and contrasting colors than a bland, sunny afternoon.

I thrive on my alone time at night, right before I go to bed when I get to think about everything going on in my life, considering every emotional vantage point, categorizing the most impactful moments for me to utilize in my creative outputs.

According to the infamous Color Personality test, I'm exactly half blue, half red. I am emotional and aggressive... maybe aggressively emotional. Good luck with me.

But, don't be worried. I'm a really friendly person, and I'm very open.

Welcome to my insanity. You here long?