Ever since I can remember, I've had the band Yes in my life. My parents were big fans from way back, so I grew up with all their classic albums, and I've listened to them as an adult and kept tabs on them. I've seen them live on the Ladder tour, and hopefully will see them live again soon.
So far I've never disliked anything they've put out, but oh. my. god. "Fly From Here".
"Fly From Here" is an amazing album. Not just an amazing Yes album, it's an amazing album. People have no idea what they are missing if they don't fracking-love "Fly From Here".
So, first of all, I'm a huge Jon Anderson fan, but I grew up with Yes; I understand that their line-up is malleable, even when it comes to their lead singer. As a kid I admit I used to cringe when "Drama" (Trevor Horn) came on, or when Trevor Rabin would take over on vocals on some songs. But as an adult I recognized the brilliance of each different singer. So hearing Benoit David as the lead here, now, in 2013 (well, 2011 when the album was released) was actually kind of exciting. I wanted to hear what someone else might bring to Yes.
Hell, let's face it, if you're a band that's been around for 40 years, you are bound to get a little stagnant sometimes, or maybe you'll get an identity crisis. Or maybe you just want to mix things up a bit. But for a while I was feeling that Yes wasn't being terribly, well, progressive any more. Not that the term "progressive" really ages well. After all, progressive rock was progressive 40 years ago and now it's just a form of "oldies". And I understand that "progressive" does not and should not mean "sounds like 70s rock". I want the word "progressive" to be a real adjective, not just the name of a bygone genre.
I'm not sure how "progressive" the album "Fly From Here" is, but it's at least progressive for Yes in that they have brought in a new singer, an old producer, and old keyboardist, and they've taken the feel and spirit of an old album (Drama) and reinvented and revitalized it.
Apparently "Fly From Here" is based largely on a demo track by the Buggles, so it's very pure in its 1980s sound and sensibility. And I don't think many people would argue that Trevor Horn as producer is a bad idea; the man has produced some amazing albums in his time, and certainly some of the most amazing Yes albums have featured him in some capacity.
So if you're a Yes fan and have stalled in buying "Fly From Here", you can safely purchase the album. I waited two years to buy it but now that I have, I'm making up for lost time by playing it nonstop for days at a time. It's a good one!
Friday, May 3, 2013
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Steam on Linux Beta
I've been using the Steam beta for a few weeks now, and let me just say, it's awesome. This is EXACTLY what we all have wanted, and what Linux needs.
OK let me back up a little. If you're a gamer who also uses Linux, then this is what you need. Linux doesn't need it, but if you want the convenience of playing games on your computer, then it basically does.
I know some Linux users want to take over the desktop market but that doesn't excite me personally. I don't feel the need to be using the same OS as everyone around me, or having everyone use the same OS as I do. But, I do want to be treated like a first class citizen the same way as everyone else. I don't want to go to a store to buy a peripheral and have to do three hours of research to see if something works on my OS. And I know it's not that hard to make it work on other OSes because the kernel development team (of volunteers) do it all the time, without any support from the manufacturers.
The point is that Steam will make Linux a more significant OS to companies, ideally. And that, in addition to being a gamer, is why I support it.
OK let me back up a little. If you're a gamer who also uses Linux, then this is what you need. Linux doesn't need it, but if you want the convenience of playing games on your computer, then it basically does.
I know some Linux users want to take over the desktop market but that doesn't excite me personally. I don't feel the need to be using the same OS as everyone around me, or having everyone use the same OS as I do. But, I do want to be treated like a first class citizen the same way as everyone else. I don't want to go to a store to buy a peripheral and have to do three hours of research to see if something works on my OS. And I know it's not that hard to make it work on other OSes because the kernel development team (of volunteers) do it all the time, without any support from the manufacturers.
The point is that Steam will make Linux a more significant OS to companies, ideally. And that, in addition to being a gamer, is why I support it.
Friday, January 18, 2013
New Artistic Find
I was listening to one of the tech podcasts I partake of, and the host mentioned a new artist he had found, Ruji. The artist is a "she" and she's into Linux. So I thought I'd check her shit out.
I'll cut to the chase and just say that Ruji is a true indie artist in ways that shock and surprise and delight me. I love that she is a real indie, too, she's not one of those corporate-sponsored indie artists that gets marketed to us while we stand in line at Chipotle or the Apple Store. In ten years, I guarantee you we're all going to look back at some our most beloved indie celebrities and see nothing but Monkees.
Not Ruji though! She's got it all: talent, brains, wit, and rugged individualism. She's definitely not a cookie-cutter artist or geek. She strikes me as someone who truly walks her own path, putting out what ever kind of art she damn well pleases. I wonder how someone gets to be so fearless and confident? and then I also imagine that probably she's really not, in real life, at least not all the time.
Art is funny, and Ruji made me think about that a lot. And she made me think about a lot of other things. And any artist who can tear me away from games and computers long enough to ponder life gets high marks.
Check her site out at http://rujic.net
I'll cut to the chase and just say that Ruji is a true indie artist in ways that shock and surprise and delight me. I love that she is a real indie, too, she's not one of those corporate-sponsored indie artists that gets marketed to us while we stand in line at Chipotle or the Apple Store. In ten years, I guarantee you we're all going to look back at some our most beloved indie celebrities and see nothing but Monkees.
Not Ruji though! She's got it all: talent, brains, wit, and rugged individualism. She's definitely not a cookie-cutter artist or geek. She strikes me as someone who truly walks her own path, putting out what ever kind of art she damn well pleases. I wonder how someone gets to be so fearless and confident? and then I also imagine that probably she's really not, in real life, at least not all the time.
Art is funny, and Ruji made me think about that a lot. And she made me think about a lot of other things. And any artist who can tear me away from games and computers long enough to ponder life gets high marks.
Check her site out at http://rujic.net
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Ubuntu Phones, My Brain Just Asploded
I love my Android phone. It does everything I need, and more. Until today, I'd have said you wouldn't be able to pry it out of my hands for anything. And then I saw the announcement: Ubuntu Linux is comming to phones.
I don't mean a dumbed down version of Ubuntu, and it's not some phone hack that a kid in his mother's basement created (although to be fair, those kids in their mother's basement have made some fracking COOL stuff for me in the past, so no disrespect!). This is a full Linux distribution on a phone.
The interface will be a phone interface, so it will look and feel and act like what we all pretty much expect from smart phones now. So, what's the big deal?
Well, imagine this. You're out at school or work, you're using your phone for chatting and texting and internet stuff, maybe for a phone call here and there, and then you get home. You take your phone out of your pocket, and you put it on your desk, and plug it into your monitor. A full desktop comes up on your monitor. You turn on your bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and suddenly - you're using a DESKTOP...off of your phone. And you don't have to sync your files to your desktop - what is that anyway? Whose idea was it to sync your phone to your desktoo? Not on Ubuntu Phones you don't, because all of your files are already there! And all of your apps are there. And since it's a full Ubuntu install, you can install more applications that you might want to use on a desktop but not on a phone (like an office suite or a paint program).
This isn't just cool, it's AMAZING. It is everything I've ever dreamed for, except..more because I didn't even have a concept that this was possible. I am so excited right now.
WILL BUY!
I don't mean a dumbed down version of Ubuntu, and it's not some phone hack that a kid in his mother's basement created (although to be fair, those kids in their mother's basement have made some fracking COOL stuff for me in the past, so no disrespect!). This is a full Linux distribution on a phone.
The interface will be a phone interface, so it will look and feel and act like what we all pretty much expect from smart phones now. So, what's the big deal?
Well, imagine this. You're out at school or work, you're using your phone for chatting and texting and internet stuff, maybe for a phone call here and there, and then you get home. You take your phone out of your pocket, and you put it on your desk, and plug it into your monitor. A full desktop comes up on your monitor. You turn on your bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and suddenly - you're using a DESKTOP...off of your phone. And you don't have to sync your files to your desktop - what is that anyway? Whose idea was it to sync your phone to your desktoo? Not on Ubuntu Phones you don't, because all of your files are already there! And all of your apps are there. And since it's a full Ubuntu install, you can install more applications that you might want to use on a desktop but not on a phone (like an office suite or a paint program).
This isn't just cool, it's AMAZING. It is everything I've ever dreamed for, except..more because I didn't even have a concept that this was possible. I am so excited right now.
WILL BUY!
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
No Such Thing as Feminism
Well, what can I say? you post on feminism and you get feedback. So one more post to try to explain my stance on feminism.
First of all, there is no feminism, because the term itself has been through too much. Originally it meant that women should have the right to vote. It faded for a while and then came back in the 60s and meant, at least from what I could tell, that women shouldn't have to wear bras or follow the same fashion as their mothers did. So, basically, hippies. Then in the 80s it became this thing about equal pay, and how women should become businessmen just like real Men. Why that was desirable to anyone, I'll never know. Then in the 90s it was about how women should be "empowered" like in the 80s but still retain their feminine identities, which doesn't seem possible to me, and that contradiction is still with us today.
Feminism is by now a muddled post-modern mess that nobody can define. The things I hear a lot about lately are that women should have equal pay, they should be better represented in different "non-traditional" fields, and they should never ever be sexualized. Well, unless they want to be sexualized...but not too much, because if they want to be sexy then they are probably suffering from patriarchal brainwashing. In addition to all of that, women should have kids and a family, and we should be ok with pushing those families off onto day care services and nannies.
What we really have in modern feminism is every possible role a woman could ever want to play, all thrown into one big pot and blended up and labeled "feminism".
In fact, feminism isn't actually a thing at all. When you say "feminism", you're basically saying "women exist, and they do a bunch of different things". The shame of it is that we women start thinking that we're supposed to be everything that "feminism" says we can be. And "feminism", or people who claim to be "feminist", doesn't shy away from telling us that we are supposed to be every possible thing a woman can be, all at once. In fact if you're a woman and you say something like "I want a career, not a family" then feminists will yell at you for suppressing your female nature. If you say you want to be sexy, then they yell at you for objectifying your body. If you take advantage of your sexuality, you're a criminal - but if an established "approved" industry pays you to be sexy then you're ok. And God forbid you say that you don't want a career and that you just want to stay home and raise your children while your husband works.
In short, with feminism, we all lose. Women and men are confused, frustrated, and oppressed. Feminism was supposed to "liberate" women, but all it does is judge us.
Give me "person-ism", where people can be whoever and whatever they want. Leave me, and the gender I happened to be born as, out of your political and business agenda.
First of all, there is no feminism, because the term itself has been through too much. Originally it meant that women should have the right to vote. It faded for a while and then came back in the 60s and meant, at least from what I could tell, that women shouldn't have to wear bras or follow the same fashion as their mothers did. So, basically, hippies. Then in the 80s it became this thing about equal pay, and how women should become businessmen just like real Men. Why that was desirable to anyone, I'll never know. Then in the 90s it was about how women should be "empowered" like in the 80s but still retain their feminine identities, which doesn't seem possible to me, and that contradiction is still with us today.
Feminism is by now a muddled post-modern mess that nobody can define. The things I hear a lot about lately are that women should have equal pay, they should be better represented in different "non-traditional" fields, and they should never ever be sexualized. Well, unless they want to be sexualized...but not too much, because if they want to be sexy then they are probably suffering from patriarchal brainwashing. In addition to all of that, women should have kids and a family, and we should be ok with pushing those families off onto day care services and nannies.
What we really have in modern feminism is every possible role a woman could ever want to play, all thrown into one big pot and blended up and labeled "feminism".
In fact, feminism isn't actually a thing at all. When you say "feminism", you're basically saying "women exist, and they do a bunch of different things". The shame of it is that we women start thinking that we're supposed to be everything that "feminism" says we can be. And "feminism", or people who claim to be "feminist", doesn't shy away from telling us that we are supposed to be every possible thing a woman can be, all at once. In fact if you're a woman and you say something like "I want a career, not a family" then feminists will yell at you for suppressing your female nature. If you say you want to be sexy, then they yell at you for objectifying your body. If you take advantage of your sexuality, you're a criminal - but if an established "approved" industry pays you to be sexy then you're ok. And God forbid you say that you don't want a career and that you just want to stay home and raise your children while your husband works.
In short, with feminism, we all lose. Women and men are confused, frustrated, and oppressed. Feminism was supposed to "liberate" women, but all it does is judge us.
Give me "person-ism", where people can be whoever and whatever they want. Leave me, and the gender I happened to be born as, out of your political and business agenda.
SteamBox At Last
You could knock me over with a feather, because the Steambox is finally finally confirmed.
A Steam-powered console has been a rumor for years but now it's coming true. And better yet, it's almost certainly going to be based on Linux. Well, it's certainly not going to be based on Windows, and Valve of course has made headlines lately by porting Steam to Linux, so I'm sure the Steambox will be Penguin-powered.
The bottom line here is that I am not going to have to put up with Sony EVER again. I'd mention Microsoft except that I never was an XBox user anyway.
Yes, this is a good day in gaming history.
A Steam-powered console has been a rumor for years but now it's coming true. And better yet, it's almost certainly going to be based on Linux. Well, it's certainly not going to be based on Windows, and Valve of course has made headlines lately by porting Steam to Linux, so I'm sure the Steambox will be Penguin-powered.
The bottom line here is that I am not going to have to put up with Sony EVER again. I'd mention Microsoft except that I never was an XBox user anyway.
Yes, this is a good day in gaming history.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Do Not Vote
Have you ever noticed how voting is religiously regarded here in the States? You can insult anything and anyone you want, you can do a standup comedy routine lambasting world religions, cultures, war, death, sex, relationships, your own parents, but don't you dare suggest that someone does not vote.
I am not voting this November. Why? Because at this point, the burden is on the politicians and my "elders" to convince me that voting is worth a f*&k. When will people get it through their heads that nothing changes? You can vote for one of your two parties, or you can even be a "rebel" and vote for a third party, and nothing will change. It's the same political rhetoric year in and year out.
I understand we have to have authority and governance, but the Federal government is not working. Maybe it did at one time (I doubt it) but now there are too many people of too great a diversity for them all to be seved by one big governing body. Local governments need to pick up the slack, and to start making decisions on a state-by-state basis. Maybe then I'd start voting.
The problem with voting is that when you vote, you're signing an agreement. It's similar to playing a video game; you buy the thing, and you break the seal, you put the disc in and go to play it and the first thing you see is this thirty page license agreement that says "oh by the way, now that you've bought the game and opened the packaging, in order to actually play it you have to sign this legal document about what you will and will not do with it, and giving us all of the rights to rule over your ability to play the game". Well at that point you're screwed; what are you going to do, cancel out, repackage it, and return it to the store? Maybe it's technically possible although probably not without a fight. What are you going to say, "oh it's ok, i didn't agree to the licensing terms". When you vote, you're saying you'd rather have one man in this supposedly important office, but you're also validating the very system that you are convinced is not working. You're saying you want change, but you're agreeing that change should not happen because, well, you're just going to keep voting anyway.
Not me. I'm not voting, and in so doing, I'm voting for real change. Bring it on.
I am not voting this November. Why? Because at this point, the burden is on the politicians and my "elders" to convince me that voting is worth a f*&k. When will people get it through their heads that nothing changes? You can vote for one of your two parties, or you can even be a "rebel" and vote for a third party, and nothing will change. It's the same political rhetoric year in and year out.
I understand we have to have authority and governance, but the Federal government is not working. Maybe it did at one time (I doubt it) but now there are too many people of too great a diversity for them all to be seved by one big governing body. Local governments need to pick up the slack, and to start making decisions on a state-by-state basis. Maybe then I'd start voting.
The problem with voting is that when you vote, you're signing an agreement. It's similar to playing a video game; you buy the thing, and you break the seal, you put the disc in and go to play it and the first thing you see is this thirty page license agreement that says "oh by the way, now that you've bought the game and opened the packaging, in order to actually play it you have to sign this legal document about what you will and will not do with it, and giving us all of the rights to rule over your ability to play the game". Well at that point you're screwed; what are you going to do, cancel out, repackage it, and return it to the store? Maybe it's technically possible although probably not without a fight. What are you going to say, "oh it's ok, i didn't agree to the licensing terms". When you vote, you're saying you'd rather have one man in this supposedly important office, but you're also validating the very system that you are convinced is not working. You're saying you want change, but you're agreeing that change should not happen because, well, you're just going to keep voting anyway.
Not me. I'm not voting, and in so doing, I'm voting for real change. Bring it on.
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