http://www.glest.org/

After some time and quite some expectation, a new version has been released that includes the single most awaited feature in the history of the game: Multiplayer!

At this point the multiplayer feature is reduced to the bare bones, but it works. We are hoping on the community to help us test it

Also published in Spanish by Articmist

Heather Dale is a fantastic canadian singer and producer, able to take us to places long ago forgotten while she tells us stories with her wonderful voice.

J:Thanks for your time, Heather… Give us a global vision of your musical trajectory.

I am always looking for new stories to tell… I enjoy studying legends and stories from around the world. I think that every story, no matter how old it is, or how strange it seems, can tell us something about ourselves — it can help us Read the rest of this article »

“What do the cruellest criminals do when they are all together?” This looks like the beginning of a joke, but still isn´t… Perhaps if I say “Simon West’s Con Air”, you will guess what the joke is. Wow! What a horrible film (in my opinion)! More than a blockbuster it seems a “blockbastard”! -Sorry for the pun.

Ok. Let’s start again. I am not going to talk about the ridiculous script, the non-existent sense of measure, the extremely confuse action scenes, or the inappropriate performances. I think that something better could Read the rest of this article »

Yesterday I heard the umpteenth version of the Righteous Brothers’ song “You’ve lost that lovin feeling”, a huge hit from the middle 60’s. They say it’s the most versioned song ever (even more than Beatles’ “Yesterday”).

Many song versions are made by not very popular singers or groups, but sometimes there are well-known artists that decide to make their contribution. Oops! But what a contribution sometimes! It’s like a photocopy.

I think that versions must add something to the original piece. It’s not a matter of respect to the original, but a question of being creative. I remember when, for example, Nirvana was going to version the great David Bowie’s “The man who sold the world”; I expected a new powerful song, but Read the rest of this article »

A gang of highly professional thieves is committing a series of robberies… An assassin performs his very own nightly tour de force… Two anti-vice detectives pursue the typical delinquent. While looking forward to seeing on screen Miami Vice´s cinematographic version, both “Heat” and “Collateral” offer us a characteristic mark of Michael Mann´s work as a director, which is not in the detective stories but in his way of portraying the city. In fact, these two movies Read the rest of this article »

http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/cars/

Lightning McQueen, a hotshot rookie race car driven to succeed, discovers that life is about the journey, not the finish line, when he finds himself (…) in the sleepy Route 66 town of Radiator Springs.

For the sake of honesty, I´ll say that I went to see Cars almost forced by a friend. Though I usually love animation films, the way the cars are portrayed looked somehow too bland, too gentle, so to say, and I feared that the whole would share that same spirit.

In fact, while perhaps mild, Cars is nevertheless a good movie. Read the rest of this article »

or this synth is da Bomb!

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~concuss/concussor/vostok.htm

a powerful amount of modular synthesiser power into one small suitcase.

The Vostok is a sort of modular analog synthesizer with a cover that doubles as a suitcase: add a handful of solar cells and you´ll have the companion of choice to make noises on the field for synthesizer lovers and nans alike. The synthesizer is certainly appealing and promises endless hours of modular patching or EMS pinning, plus tons of weird cool sounds. Drawbacks? maybe the price, £1499 -modular synthesizers tend to be expensive. Also, an article in the sound-on-sound magazine pointed out some other issues, especially the behaviour of the digital oscillator, but the last version has replaced it with an analog one. This said, the Vostok looks superb as a portable semi-modular synth and I would take it everywhere, except airports: it wouldn´t be easy to convince the person behind the scanner that that thing actually is a music instrument (let me show you -I just have to switch it on, connect this pin, and it´ll make awesome sounds! the bass is so powerful, it can blow… the speakers I mean…).

ps. I have just found another modular-in-a-box (second thumbnail from the left). It´s not as sexy, but the case looks much more reliable.

I like Pink Floyd very much. They have handed down to Rock music history not only a fistful of memorable albums (the indisputable “Dark Side Of The Moon“, “Wish You Were Here”, the visionary “Ummagumma”, a less known gem titled “Meddle”, etc), but also a worldwide influential style due to their music, lyrics, performances… Very few times has a band been so unanimously acclaimed by public and critics.

But that symbolism which Waters and Gilmour liked so much (I think) has three great exponents: “The wall” album, the song “Wish you were here” and my favourite album, “Animals”. All of them full of that nonconformity (sometimes naïve nonconformity, but never unnecessary). Read the rest of this article »

Subliminal messages allow us to communicate something without being direct, and are usually quite effective in reaching the target. Let´s practise!

Imagine you want to leave your girlfriend/boyfriend because you have discovered something you don’t agree with. Now imagine you have to take her/him home in your car. How can you tell her/him your feelings without saying anything, but only playing five songs? Read the rest of this article »

http://www.gamedevmap.com/index.php

Publishers, development studios with a staff of five or more, studios with previously published games, and studios under contract with a publisher are listed.

Gamedevmap is a growing database of video game companies. For the sake of general curiosity, you can spot at a glance the most prominent areas for video game developing -this is a little tricky though, since the spots don´t give visual information on the number of companies on each one of them-. However, I believe that this link will be most valuable for those interested in entering the business, since it saves countless headaches searching for the companies´ locations and sites. Beware that not every company is covered: the webmasters rely on the readers´ help to complete the list, so this could be your opportunity to add a spot!

We all know that the producers’ aim is to make a profit. And it’s logical: like any company, they are moved by obvious interests:

Then, it’s sensible to think that every film will be considered a product to exploit economically. There’s nothing wrong with it.

Simplifying a lot, let’s Read the rest of this article »

This is a great video featuring Giorgio Moroder playing one of his most famous hits, “From Here to Eternity”. Moroder was one of the greatest contributors to the electronic music scene in the seventies and eighties, producing music for countless artists (i.e., donna summer) and a handful of soundtracks, like The NeverEnding Story, Top Gun or Midnight Express, for which he was awarded an Oscar. In some aspects his music hasn´t aged very well, but he was a pioneer, and many of his songs will remain fresh forever. My personal favourite: chase!

Well. I don´t know the reason, but this afternoon I feel naive. Maybe it will be the nearness of summer time, or maybe not. One thing is true, today we are going to talk about romantic moments in the movies. Why not? Don´t I have the right to be mawkish (I expect I won’t) at least once every quarter?

Love or romantic scenes in the movies seem (too often) to be written by teenagers while hugging their pillows. Ugh! Bad vibrations, if we want to make a high-quality film. Is there a hope? I think so, and that is the reason why I will Read the rest of this article »

There´s no doubt that Goldfrapp is one of the most interesting groups in the current music scene. But let’s start by the beginning. In the late 90’s, Allison Goldfrapp, alter having collaborated with some indie artists, joins Will Gregory so as to Read the rest of this article »

http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/thedavincicode/

(…) a secret that threatens to overturn 2000 years of accepted dogma

I wonder if “The Da Vinci Code”, the movie, will ever have a life outside of “The Da Vinci Code”, the book, just as much as I wondered before if “The Da Vinci Code”, the book, would ever have had a life outside of its title. In my opinion, both the book´s title and its cover design were the true reasons for its success, more than the plot, which albeit interesting was nothing new sub sole (for instance, check Peter Berling´s “The Children of the Grail“). In this way I would say that I Read the rest of this article »