Friday the 13th: Radiohead remix and cool games
Friday, June 13, 2008
Hey, I was actually able to hold out for nine days before posting again. Below are some highlights I’ve been compiling for a couple of weeks.
Music
The remix of Radiohead’s “Nude” by James Houston using a bunch of old computer hardware is awesome. Don’t get discouraged by the extended intro. A Sinclair ZX Spectrum performs the guitars (rhythm & lead), an Epson LX-81 Dot Matrix Printer serves as the drums, a HP Scanjet 3c is the bass guitar, and a hard drive array is the vocals. Brilliant!
Nine Inch Nails recently released a free EP, called Lights In The Sky: Over North America 2008, featuring bands they’ll be touring with this year.
I forgot to mention in my last post: The Flat Tail Festival (formerly known as Roots, Rock & Reggae) took place in Corvallis on the Oregon State University campus on Saturday, May 31. Ghostland Observatory headlined the music festival this year. Blair Cook posted some video clips of Ghostland Observatory to Vimeo.
Music, movies and games
My friend Warren’s been sending me a lot of weird and funny links lately. These include a video for a song called “Turn It Up” by Robots In Disguise; the Street Fighter Baby Kick Remix (and also Street Fighter Baby Kick Remix II Turbo); a sci-fi action movie trailer for Babylon A.D., starring Vin Diesel, that seems similar in plot to William Gibson’s Count Zero; The Militant Guild of Rural Tailors Research Group; and so on.
Games
If you haven’t heard, Homestar Runner has become a game for WiiWare and PC: Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People.
Here’s a PlayStation 2 tip that came in handy the other day: How to turn off the annoying parental controls setting. If you buy a used or refurbished PS2, there’s a good chance it will ask you for the parental controls password when you insert a movie. At the screen where it asks you to input the password, press Select and enter 7444. The old password will be deleted and you can choose to setup a new one, such as 0000. Then the movie should begin to play. Once it starts playing you should stop it and bring up the DVD menu by hitting Select (or the Display button if you have the remote). Choose the Setup icon, then scroll over to the Custom Setup icon and scroll down to where you see Parental Controls. Once you’ve highlighted Parental Controls, press the right directional button to receive a password prompt. After entering 0000, you should now be able to change your password and parental controls level, or completely turn it off. (Note: Within the Level field, you have to scroll all the way to the top, above 8, to find Off.) Now, click Select/Display to return to the DVD menu. Press Play to make sure the movie plays. While the movie is playing, press the Eject button and remove the DVD. Close the tray. Once the tray is closed, turn off the PS2. This will store the updated Parental Controls settings. Now turn your PS2 back on and insert the DVD. No more annoying parental controls!
And lastly, I give you Rose & Camellia, a game of the elegant art of feminine conflict. It’s a slap-fight.