DreamFeel

I cannot believe I missed this song when it was released last year: insane, inspired, and hilarious.

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Sunday's batch of interesting articles!

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Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and their frequent cinematogapher Jack Cardiff, were an English filmmaking powerhouse, known as the Archers, creating a plethora of classics: The Red Shoes, A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus, The Tales of Hoffman and many more. Generally, Powell was the driving force and the visual pioneer, whereas Pressburger would be the talent behind the scripts, a symbiotic partnerhip that greatly benefited both and resulting in over 20 films together.

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Odd Blood was one of my favourite records of 2010, experimental and an unexpected departue for Yeasayer but also full of melody and great hooks, and I hope to write about it along with some other of the year's best albums.

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Here, I'll try and gather some of the interesting links and articles I find through the week on the internet. Like the rest of the blog they might not necassarily tie into games, but I think they make for interesting reading all the same. If I have a new year's resolution it is take inspiration from as diverse, and eclectic a stimuli as possible. ;)

- In this article (part 1 of a series on the Dark Mod), Robert Yang takes an interesting look at the Dark Mod community and Dark Engine games (Thief), and the mindset of the creators. Why the less accessible route is sometimes the more interesting (or how stubborness prevails), and the difference between analog and discrete choices. Great stuff.

- Edge ran a great interviewwith both Jonathan Blow (of Braid fame), and Chris Hecker (soon to be of Spy Party fame).

- Latest in the series of insightful Iwata Asks, is Donkey Kong Country Returns. I can't say I loved this game, and perhaps I'm reading slightly too much into things to think there is a lack of respsect between team members in Japan and the USA. It is admirable to see the head of such a large company, is still so down to earth and one on one with his employees.

- Kieron Gillen, ex-Games Journalist and now comic writer extraordinaire, posted his annual tracks of the year list. There's always a number of great, usually pretty poppy, gems in this, and 2010 is no exception.

- Tom Service gives an extremely interesting lecture on the current state of contemporary classical music, and where they can go from here. While, comparisons to gaming, an industry in its infancy, may seem slim, there are lessons to be drawn here about reinvention and not following the traditional routes. 

- The joys of Minecraft seem to have no end. First we have this frankly charming illustrated guide, and we also have this wholly incredible kinect hack to import 3d body shapes into the game.

- The very cool siftables technology is finally seeing a commercial release as 'Sifteo'.  

- Terry Cavanagh is running a selection of posts on his favourite indie games of 2010. The latest one is Cactus Block which has very simple, but very clever gameplay idea.

Kentucky Route Zero is a very interesting looking game: a unique stop motion animation tour through southern USA meets Another World? 'Magic realist', I can get behind that. This is the Kickstarter page, s make sure you throw some support behind it.

- In tribute to xkcd, I link wikipedia's 'Common misconceptions' page for New Year's! Required reading.

- Interesting place of the week:  Jatinga. For some still largely unknown and bizarre reason, nearby birds have a tendency to fly straight into the ground when they approach the area! Magnetism, what can't it do?

- And lastly, the possibly weekly poem (sue me): Do not go gentle into the good night, by Dylan Thomas. 

I present the best video I've seen all this year, five days in, from Destroyer's upcoming 2011 album.

A time to meet, eat and pause with family. The days are getting longer and everything is ahead of us.

Here's a beautiful and haunting combination of Andrei Tarkovsky's Zerkalo (Mirror) and Arvo Part's Spiegel Im Spiegel (Mirror in the Mirror).