A couple of Recommendations

I have been rather busy the last few weeks so the blog has been painfully neglected. I do have a bit to relay about my future plans, but that's for a later post. Tonight I decided to share some "stuff" that's making me happy at the moment.

I don't listen to the radio. I don't watch MTV. The way I acquire music is this: I look up a band on amazon that I am currently fond of, then I scroll down to the "people who bought this also bought-" section and I listen to samples of different albums until I find something I like. Using Modest Mouse as a template, I came upon Foster the People. I honestly have no idea whether or not they are popular or respected. All I do know, is I have been listening to track # 1 (Helena Beat) on repeat more than I have for any song since "Bleed" by Animal Collective. The structure of the song just gets me every time. I've heard it so many times now and yet it still manages to surprise me, if that makes any sense. I also dig the song "Pumped Up Kids" which, after doing some youtubing, I am assuming is one of the singles from this album. It's kind of an experimental album, but it almost sounds like somebody put words to dance music from a nightclub. I mean that in a good way.

I love discovering a group of work of which I had previously been unaware. One good example is the song of ice and fire series. I read the books before the HBO show was announced, but my roommate introduced me to it when there were already four books out for it. Getting to read those back to back with no idea what was going to happen was so enjoyable. Neil Gaiman has now fallen squarely into this same category. My first introduction to Gaiman was an offshoot of being a fan of Terry Pratchett. I picked up Good Omens because I love discworld, and I was excited to see what else pratchett could do. I honestly couldn't tell who wrote which parts of the book, but I enjoyed it all so I decided to give this Gaiman fella a chance and picked up "American Gods." It got off to a slow start for me, but I grew to love it. I loved the story, the setting, the characters, the voice, everything. The next on my list is Neverwhere. I just started reading it and already I'm enraptured by it. I read the first 70 pages in a sitting and I love where the story is going, every moment has been perfect. If somehow you, like me, have been in the dark about Gaiman, this is a good one to pick up.

Hugo is a movie for people who love movies. I don't want to take away any of the surprises so I'll leave it at that.

I'm sorry. I feel like a total bandwagoner, but my God Draw Something has its claws in me deep. I eagerly refresh my screen over and over waiting for it to be my turn again. I love it. My name is Dav3r5 if you want to add me and start a game.

Do it.



There's more, but I think that'll do for now. A more solid update is forthcoming.

The Voices that Effect Us

One of my favorite things to do during a movie, tv show, or game, is it identify actors that I recognize  and try to remember what other things I have seen them in. I'm working on my second playthrough of Mass Effect 3 and thought it might be fun to put together a little piece featuring the (mostly) awesome voice work that this series has brought us (To avoid a 30 page blog, I'm just focusing on the two voices of Shepard and more recognizable members of the cast) So without further ado, I bring you the Voices and Faces of Mass Effect 3:

Commander Shepard (Male)

The male version of Commander Shepard is voiced by Actor/Writer Mark Meer. While his live-action credits are mostly unknown to me, he is no stranger to Bioware games having voiced characters from Dragon Age I & II, Jade Empire, Neverwinter Nights, and Baldur's Gate II. I'll be honest, I prefer the voice acting of FemShep, so I haven't heard his voice as much, but I think he's at his best when Shepard is mad, as ridiculous as that may sound.

Commander Shepherd (Female)

The Female version of Commander Shepard is voiced by Jennifer Hale, also not widely known for live-action roles, but a pretty big name in the voice acting community. Her work over the years includes Naomi Hunter in the Metal Gear Solid series, Samus Aran in Metroid Prime, Bastila Shan in Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic, and literally hundreds of assorted roles across video games and animated movies and tv shows. It's not surprising that her voice work is my preferred vehicle for Shepard.

Admiral Anderson

Admiral Anderson is probably the first really recognizable voice in Mass Effect 3. He is voiced by Keith David, a long-career actor known for roles in Platoon, Crash, Pitch Black, and The Thing. I recognized his voice right off the bat, but I had to take to the internet before I placed it perfectly.

Captain Bailey

Now this voice I would know anywhere. Captain Bailey is voiced by the prolific Michael Hogan, better known to sci-fi enthusiasts as Saul Tigh from the epic series Battlestar Galactica. He is without question my favorite character in BSG, and because of that I always get excited when I see or hear him in another piece of media. He also voiced the leader of the Imperial Army in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

EDI

Here we have another role furnished by talent from Battlestar Galactica, as EDI was voiced by Tricia Helfer. She is well known for playing the iconic Cylon from BSG, and her voice fits perfectly in the role of EDI.

Admiral Hackett

Here we have another role filled by a sci-fi great as Admiral Steven Hackett was voice by Lance Henriksen. Henriksen is well known for his role as Bishop in Aliens and Alien 3, as well as roles in Terminator, Millenium and various other acting roles since the seventies.

Illusive Man

Here we have possibly my favorite character in Mass Effect lore, the Illusive Man and who better to voice him than acting legend Martin Sheen. Unless you've been living without electricity for years, you should be well aware of who Martin Sheen is, though I will say my favorite roles of his are in The Departed and West Wing. He is also partially to blame for bringing Charlie Sheen into the world which could be a good or bad thing depending on your opinion.

Miranda Lawson

The beautiful Miranda Lawson is voiced by the equally beautiful Yvonne Strahovski. I always like when video game characters are made to look like their real-life counterparts which you can see is the case here. Strahovski is best known for playing Sarah Walker on the TV series "Chuck."

Jeff "Joker" Moreau

Ah Joker, the Dolorous Edd of Mass Effect. Regardless of the severity of the mission you just finished, Joker always has a great pun or piece of dry humor to lighten the mood. So naturally Seth Green was a great choice to play him. You should know who this is, but just in case, you would know him from playing Scott Evil in Austin Powers, the voice of Chris in Family Guy, or a number of comedies from the 90s, especially Can't Hardly Wait.

Aria T'Loak

Resident bad-ass Aria T'Loak is voiced by resident bad-ass Carrie-Anne Moss. Moss is most recognizable from playing Trinity in The Matrix series, but also had great roles in Memento, Suspect Zero and Chocolat. I loved this character and thought it would have been awesome to have her as a party member, but alas it just wasn't to be. Maybe in the DLC? C'mon Bioware.

James Vega

This one surprised me the most out of the whole cast, as the 'roided out super soldier James Vega was played by 90's heartthrob Freddie Prinze jr. I've never been a big fan of his work but I enjoyed his character in this. You would recognize him from She's All that, I Know what you Did Last Summer, and the award winning murder-mystery classic, Scooby Doo.

Stargazer

While decidedly not a big role, I thought this was a very cool thing for Bioware to do. The bit part of Stargazer was voiced by Buzz Adlrin. If you don't know who that is, you should probably enroll in a couple general-knowledge classes, as he was the second man to walk on the moon in the Apollo 11 program. It's a great nod for a sci-f epic to make, and I liked it.


There are more characters and actors of course but this already took about three hours to complete so I'll stop here. Let me know if this is something you liked and maybe I can do it again with a little more depth and structure.