Review of Steve Jablonsky's GEARS OF WAR 2: THE SOUNDTRACK

Today marks the release of Gears of War 2: The Soundtrack, featuring the score that Steve Jablonsky composed for Epic's already mega-selling game. Last week I won the single-player campaign and a few days later an advance copy of the CD arrived in the mail. I've been listening to it non-stop ever since! It's also now a proud addition to my iPod, and I had it blaring out of my car's stereo on the way to and back from rehearsal for Oliver Twist last night.

Okay, so for a proper review...

Many of y'all know how this very blog ended up the focal point for the drive and petition to see a release of Jablonsky's score for the movie Transformers and I was honored to be able to write up the first review anywhere of that soundtrack. So pretty much everyone knows that I'm a huge fan of Steve Jablonsky and his work.

Well folks, I gotta tell ya: as much as I loved his Transformers music, Jablonsky's score for Gears of War 2 might be even better!

Why is that? I thought the music for Transformers brilliantly evoked the sense of majesty and raw power of the Autobots and Decepticons. "Arrival to Earth" is still one of the most-played tracks on my iPod, and I continue to be haunted by the utter alien-ness that Jablonsky brought to his track "Decepticons". Many times I have said that Jablonsky's music was one of the bigger reasons why Transformers the live-action movie finally brought the whole concept to the level of maturity that it deserved to be at and could at last be appreciated for by the widest-possible audience.

Okay well, that's doing music for big robots. It's something else altogether to compose for the human condition. Especially one that covers such a spectrum of emotion as the Gears of War mythos. But here again, Jablonsky has triumphed immensely.

Gears of War 2: The Soundtrack begins with "Return of the Omen", the music from the opening screen. The next track is my favorite: "Hope Runs Deep", the piece that plays over the end credits. Track 6, "Armored Prayer", is the composition from the part when Chairman Prescott is making his speech to the assembled army while we watch Marcus, Dom and the rest of the Gears heading off to rendezvous with the derricks. Most of the soundtrack is "situational" music lasting less than two minutes, which is to be expected from a score for a video game... but Jablonsky's "heavy metal mayhem" style means that they are still tracks that you should be careful playing while driving your car, 'cuz the beat will more often than not entice you to drive a little faster :-)

And then there is "With Sympathy". If you've played the game then you probably know which part of the story this piece is from. I've played it three times now. And that's as much as I can really bear to listen to it so far, it has so darn nearly brought me to tears. Of all the tracks of music from Gears of War 2, "With Sympathy" is the one that brings the whole thing from the level of mere "video game" and takes it into territory that only movies like The Empire Strikes Back have enjoyed. Jablonsky poured his heart and soul into "With Sympathy", making it a grief-stricken aria of despair and brutal necessity. It is an overwhelmingly heart-rending work. For this one track alone, Jablonsky deserves a wazoo-load of awards.

The other track that I think is going to be a favorite is "Finale", the music from the last scene of the game as Marcus and Delta Squad are beholding their handiwork, as we listen to the Locust Queen talking about unintended legacies... which is no doubt a hint of what is to come in a future installment.

Gears of War 2: The Soundtrack should be at your friendly local electronics and entertainment store, or you can purchase it from Amazon and it's on iTunes as well. This one's destined to be a classic, folks. Highly recommended not just for fans of Gears of War, but for all fans of Steve Jablonsky and every earnest soundtrack collector.

And if you want to know more about Steve Jablonsky and his work on Gears of War 2, check out this in-depth interview conducted by Music 4 Games.

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And to think that I sometimes loose a screwdriver in the kitchen drawer...

A few days ago during a spacewalk at the International Space Station, astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper accidentally lost her bag of tools and it went floating away.

But don't worry: Kevin Fetter of Brockville, Ontario found it last night! He was in his backyard with his satellite-observing gear, which was also armed with a good video camera. And Fetter not only spotted Stefanyshyn-Piper's bag as it scooted past the star eta Pisces, he filmed it too...

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U.S. elected officials flunk test on basic civics and history

On a quiz covering fundamental American history, civics and economics conducted by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, United States elected officials crashed and burned. Politicians averaged 44 percent, while average citizens scored better but not by much: 49 percent. The test was given to 2,500 Americans.

Want to try it yourself? Here it is.

How did I do? Not bad: my score was 90.91%. I missed three questions, but one of them I'm inclined to contest if that were possible and the other two, I have to wonder about also. Maybe that's giving away too much already about which questions they are :-P

So... what does this test say about us as a country?

The Founders understood that the United States would only endure and thrive if her people were educated, vigilant, and actively seeking enlightenment. Hard to say that we're doing any of that.

So does anyone seriously think that these same politicians are really bright enough to get us out of the trouble that our economy is in?

If anyone says yes, then I've got one thing to say about that...

"PPPPPPPPPPHHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

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Johnny Robertson: child exploiter (and this blog calls bullcrap on "Religious Review")

Before I get to the meat of this particular post, there's something that I'm gonna share here, that I think is nigh worth passing along...

In the past several days, two individuals - each of whom is a highly respected and admired member of the community in this area - have volunteered to me their opinion of WGSR Star 39: the television station "serving" the market around Reidsville, North Carolina.

The first person said that WGSR is an "embarrassment" and that it "makes the people here look dumb".

The second person was more precise in their assessment: that WGSR general manager Charles Roark is not a serious broadcaster, that he is only out for "tabloid television" and that Reidsville's television station never tolerated such "nuts like Johnny Robertson" when it was operating as WAEU Channel 14 several years ago.

I agree, one hunnerd percent. WAEU had a much more professional operation than what has transpired under the "leadership" of Charles Roark. And a man as evil as cult leader Johnny Robertson would never have been allowed the airtime on WAEU. Back then, the station practiced civic responsibility. To have let Robertson and his self-described "Church of Christ" cabal use the station's facilities would have been like letting David Koresh broadcast for four hours a week just because he had enough money. And I've no doubt that if Koresh were alive and active in this area, that Charles Roark would sell him airtime.

But anyhoo, back to Johnny Robertson (who a number of people have also told me that I wasn't wrong in comparing him to Jim Jones a few days ago)...

I happened to catch Robertson's broadcast at 10 p.m. last night on WGSR. The highlight of the show was Robertson's son out harassing people going into churches with a camcorder, calling himself a "reporter" with an outfit called the "Religious Review Multimedia Group".

First of all, there is no such thing as "Religious Review Multimedia". It's something that Johnny Robertson pulled out of his own butt, just to add an air of legitimacy to his twisted activities. And second, his son is a horrible reporter (but I guess he's working for WGSR in a sense, so that jibes). From my understanding, this is a fifteen-year old kid that Robertson is sending out to do this kind of stuff.

But as it turns out, exploiting pre-adults is something that Johnny Robertson is rather fond of.

This blogger received some information not long ago and has been working to confirm it. The Knight Shift can now report that Johnny Robertson, of the "Martinsville Church of Christ" in Martinsville, Virginia, has been handing out twenty dollar bills to the children of his congregation. But this isn't money he's giving out of the goodness of his heart. No folks: Robertson has been passing out the bills to the kids, with orders to confront fellow students and even teachers in the schools that they attend. The instructions to the "Church of Christ" cult's youth are: "if you can prove that your denomination is in the Bible, I will give you twenty dollars." Just as Robertson has publicly offered thousands of dollars on live television to anyone who can offer biblical evidence of denominations.

(Personally, I think that the seven churches described in the Book of Revelation correspond precisely with denominations as we understand them today. But I'm not holding my breath for Robertson to make good on his offer...)

It's already been well established that neither Johnny Robertson's "Martinsville Church of Christ", or the "Reidsville Church of Christ" that his henchman James Oldfield runs, is financially self-sufficient. That Robertson is being funded by the proverbial "mysterious Texans" out west.

This is what all his donors in Texas give money to support? I mean, Robertson and Oldfield complain all the time that other churches and preachers don't care about the Bible... yet they spend their entire time not only not talking about the Bible, but instead condemning those churches and preachers. And now, Robertson is apparently using that same funding to send children out to harass others?

Once again I have to ask: how is this demonstrating Christ's love and grace to a lost and dying world?

No wonder so many people laugh at Christianity.

(But a lot of people are also laughing at Johnny Robertson and Charles Roark...)

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eHarmony to allow homosexual matching following lawsuit

Yeah you read that right: eHarmony, the relationship-matching website that's found especially strong popularity with Christians, is "going gay".

From the story in The Wall Street Journal...

A settlement Wednesday between eHarmony Inc. and the New Jersey attorney general requires the online heterosexual dating service to also cater to homosexuals, raising questions about whether other services that target a niche clientele could be forced to expand their business models.

The settlement stemmed from a complaint, filed with the New Jersey attorney general's office by a gay match seeker in 2005, that eHarmony had violated his rights under the state's discrimination law by not offering a same-sex dating service. In 2007, the attorney general found probable cause that eHarmony had violated the state's Law Against Discrimination.

As part of the agreement, the Pasadena, Calif.-based company will develop and market Compatible Partners, a Web dating service for same-sex couples, and will allow the site's first 10,000 users to register free. EHarmony will also pay $50,000 to the attorney general's office and $5,000 to the man who first brought the case.

This is so wrong that I don't know where to begin.

Okay, it's like this: I have my own beliefs about homosexuality. And I do have friends who are "gay and lesbian". And they understand where I'm coming from when I say that I can love them as God wants me to love them... but I can not condone what they are doing. Any more than I would want anyone to condone my actions when I do something wrong. It goes back to that "grace" thing or as someone eloquently put it: "hate the sin but love the sinner".

But that's not what infuriates me about this case...

eHarmony is a private corporation. It was founded by Dr. Neil Clark Warren for the purpose of establishing lasting relationships between men and women, based on Warren's research. As such, eHarmony has every right to pursue business as it sees fit. Nobody else should be telling eHarmony how to carry out its own operation. If a homosexual person thinks that there's enough pressing need for a similar service for his or her "lifestyle choice", then there's nothing stopping him or her from attempting to establish that service, and either it will be successful or it will fail. But there is no obligation at all to force another company to do business that way.

I'm sorely tempted to point out that this kind of government-mandated management of privately-held corporations was at the economic heart of Nazi Germany.

Dear Lord, what the hell has gone wrong with the free enterprise system in this country lately?! First it was the $700 billion bailout that is going to God Only knows where. Then this week it's the auto companies come begging for help when it was their own decisions that bankrupted them to begin with. Now it's this. And if it can happen to eHarmony, it can happen to any business in America.

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First snow of the season

A photo I took a few minutes ago...

The forecast doesn't call for any accumulation this morning. But this far ahead of winter, it's no doubt a good omen. Or maybe a bad one depending on how you look at it.

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Tomb of Copernicus found after 200 year search

It's turning out to be quite a week for the science of genetics. First the DNA of the woolly mammoth has been mostly reconstructed.

And now comes word that the final resting place of Nicolas Copernicus has been positively identified.

Copernicus was the sixteenth-century astronomer who turned human understanding of the heavens upside-down (and would later on invite the wrath of religious officials especially after it was championed by Galileo Galilei) with his treatise "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies". Copernicus contended that in spite of the unquestioned assumptions of Ptolemy fourteen hundred years earlier, the Earth was not at the center of the universe! That in fact the Earth and all the other planets revolved around the sun, which was just another star among countless others. The heliocentric theory was of course correct and for this, Copernicus is widely regarded as the father of modern astronomy. The one snag in Copernicus's theory was that he believed that the planets went around the sun in perfect circles (the idea of elliptical orbits was still waiting for Kepler, Newton and Halley to discover).

Anyhoo, Copernicus passed away in 1543 and for two centuries there has been a search for his burial place. In 2005 remains were discovered at Frombork Cathedral in north Poland. Working from two strands of hair found in a book owned by Copernicus and a tooth from the grave, geneticists and archaeologists today announced that there was a perfect match.

Incidentally, church officials are already happily mentioning doing something that "...will be able to pay homage to Copernicus with a tomb worthy of this illustrious historic personality," according to Jacek Jezierski, the Bishop of Frombork.

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Scientists reconstitute most of woolly mammoth's DNA

Working from balls of hair recovered from Siberia, scientists have reconstructed two-thirds of the woolly mammoth's DNA sequence. The mammoth, a close relative of the modern-day elephant, has been extinct for ten thousand years (although there is some evidence that they lived as late as 1,700 B.C. and possibly survived into even more recent times).

There has been discussion for several years about possibly "resurrecting" the mammoth, by using its DNA and fertilizing the egg cells of modern elephants. There is also said to be potential to bring back the quagga and the Bali tiger, and a few have even suggested using genetic technology to restore the passenger pigeon, which was once the most numerous bird in North America. Admittedly there's a long way to go still, but it wouldn't surprise me if within a decade we might yet hear news of a baby mammoth being born.

Just as long as these scientists don't start messin' around with velociraptor DNA...

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LIFE photo archive on Google

Millions of photos from the LIFE Magazine archives going all the way back to the 1750s (they had photography in those days?) are being hosted on Google for easy searching. The complete archive isn't available yet, but Google is promising to have the full range of pictures up within a few months. I've been playing around with it since yesterday, mostly seeing how many photos from the Civil War are already up. And I have to admit that I've been pleasantly surprised at what Google has done so far. This'll no doubt be a terrific research tool when its fully implemented.

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Official poster for LOST Season 5

Kinda reinforces the notion that for the most part, this upcoming season of Lost is going to be practically two different shows. One will be about Locke, Sawyer and the rest who were still on the island when it "moved" to God knows where (and God Himself may not even know if Ben wasn't lying for once). And the other will be about Jack's group that was able to leave, who are now all trying to get back.

Good poster. I like it a lot :-)

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Just finished GEARS OF WAR 2

WOW!!!

Gotta give it up for the crew at Epic Games.

This is certainly a remarkable time for the art of video games. And that is exactly what Gears of War 2 is: art of the highest caliber.

Everything about it is just darned perfect. And there's one scene in particular in the game... you'll know what I'm talking about if you've played it already... that is absolutely heartbreaking. For that bit of music alone, Steve Jablonsky deserves beaucoups of awards.

I thought it was at least twice as good as the original Gears of War, and that one got tons of play already at the Knight Casa.

Okay so anyone who's played it and waited through the credits: is he still alive?!? And what is he talking about?

And did anyone else think that the lab facility segment of the game asked a lot of questions that will hopefully be answered in the inevitable sequel?

EDIT 2:09 p.m. EST: If you've played through the game you've probably busted a gut laughing at Cole's rant on the microphone to the Locust Queen. Here it is courtesy of YouTube (WARNING: harsh language)...

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Dobson should "Focus on the Finances" instead!

Focus on the Family is going broke. The ministry ummm... "organization" is being forced to lay off 202 employees, supposedly after campaigning for Proposition 8 (the "gay marriage" ban) in California cleansed its coffers of over half a million dollars. It still has 950 employees though.

(What does any outfit like Focus on the Family need with more than a thousand employees?! I know of a few others who get by with much less overhead.)

Maybe if Focus on the Family was more responsible with its own house, it might have some legitimate clout. That's been pissed-away though, and a lot of it has to do with silly stunts like "boycotting" businesses that don't use the word "Christmas" enough (read Kevin Bussey's thoughts on that, which I agree with him on most things anyway but on this point I especially have to concur.)

I've written about it before here and I'll do it again: I once came very close to going to work for James Dobson at Focus on the Family. It was a long time ago. Now I thank God that He didn't send me off to Colorado to be an employee of that shyster. Focus on the Family has completely lost sight of the things that are supposed to matter most to us as followers of Christ. Dobson? He's prostituted his principles and sold out the soul of his ministry (if not his own as well) to "sit at the king's table" and hope for a little shred of worldly power. Don't believe me? That fool Dobson doesn't have vision enough to see past his fixation with the Republican Party (yeah I called him a "fool": deal with it) and "winning elections", each one he cries out is "historic" and "too important for Christians to miss out on".

Dobson and Focus on the Family are as much part of the problem with this country as an out-of-control Congress and President Bush wasting our money, an incoming President-Elect who is going to be just as bad, and the whole damn complacent "media" that lets them get away with it. I've no sympathy for Dobson or Focus on the Family and if they go down in flames, so much better for the people in this country who are sincerely following after Christ for the right reasons.

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Recession to rob many of fried turkey this Thanksgiving

See the photo on the right? That's me a few years ago on Thanksgiving, holding a golden brown, succulent deep-fried turkey. It's considered the second most dangerous form of cooking known to man (after preparing fugu) and I've done it plenty of times since 2002. And especially for family and friends, who have always enjoyed the exceptionally juicy meat that comes from preparing the bird this way. It's a taste that I've become rather addicted to. And I was looking forward to doing up one or two or even more next week...

But this will be one Thanksgiving that I'm gonna have to do without my beloved fried turkey. So is everyone else who does this that I've spoken to. I wouldn't mind paying for it but the people around me keep telling me to "save your money".

The reason: the price of peanut oil has gone through the roof.

When I first started doing this, I could buy a three-gallon container of peanut oil for twenty bucks. Last year it was $25. I was in a meat market yesterday afternoon, one of the best places in town, and three gallons of peanut oil this year is a whopping thirty-five dollars.

I always have to buy two containers for my frying needs.

I chatted some with the manager and he said nobody is buying any this year... and usually they've done quite a bit of business selling it already.

"What's your take on why the price has gone up?" I asked.

"Bad biofuel decisions," he replied.

Doesn't surprise me. I've been hearing all year that biofuel subsidies have wrecked havoc with cooking oil across the board. And then you factor in that peanut production is down anyway, and the stuff does become a valuable commodity.

But the manager also told me that it's the economy in general which is the reason why most people are going back to basted this year. There's not as much free money to spend on what by all rights should be a gloriously prepared banquet to share with loved ones.

This was the first sign that really hit me upside the head, that we are in a recession. And there's been a helluva lot worse than "bad decisions" about biofuel going on lately, what with $700 BILLION of taxpayer money that Congress and the Bush White House is doling out with NO oversight. For sure, I don't see the lean times ending anytime soon.

For fiscal irresponsibility leading to desecration of an honored method to treat a bird as noble as the turkey, I've got just one thing to say about the miscreants who've wound up in charge of our money:

Boil 'em in oil!

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Fabled "lost" Beatles track may finally see release

Back in 1967, about the same time that the band was working on the "White Album", the Beatles recorded an extremely avant-garde track they dubbed "Carnival of Light". The 14-minute long song was said to consist of the Beatles going completely off the chain, with screams of "Barcelona!", a church organ being played full-tilt, and a bunch of other seemingly random sounds. It was never released because it was deemed too weird and "ahead of its time".

In the more than four decades since, "Carnival of Light" has taken on something akin to the status of urban legend among Beatles fans. Some wondered if it had even been recorded at all.

Well folks, guess what? If Paul McCartney has his way and if he can convince Ringo Starr and the estates of John Lennon and George Harrison, "Carnival of Light" is going to see a release at last.

Think about that for just a moment: it's looking very likely that a "new" Beatles song will be coming out soon.

Gotta also be curious as to whether "Carnival of Light" will be a playable song in the Beatles video game that Harmonix is putting out next year. Then again, I'm the type who seriously wonders if the game will end when you play the "John has a girlfriend" concert :-P

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"You'll shoot your eye out!"

A Christmas Story, the classic film of Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsley) who pines for a Red Ryder BB gun in his stocking in Indiana circa 1940, was released twenty-five years ago today, on November 18th 1983...

"How about a nice football?"

I saw it twice in theaters when it came out. First Mom and Dad took my sister, my best friend Chad and I to see it, and then two weeks later our Cub Scout troop watched it together. Good times!

In honor of today's occasion, this evening leg lamps will be aglow in living room windows across America.

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Thirtieth anniversary of the Jonestown Massacre

This is what happens when otherwise normal individuals don't think for themselves with the minds that God gave them...

It was thirty years ago today - November 18th, 1978 - that the Jonestown Massacre occurred at the People's Temple Agricultural Project near Kaituma, Guyana. Following an ambush at a nearby airstrip (which took the life of United States Representative Leo Ryan), People's Temple founder and leader Jim Jones told his followers that their enemies were coming to destroy them and that the only option left to them that afforded any "dignity" was to commit "revolutionary suicide".

Jones then ordered his faithful to drink cyanide-laced fruit drink. Many families used syringes to squirt the deadly poison into the mouths of infants, before they themselves ingested the fatal fluid. All told, 909 people - including Jones, who was later found with an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head - killed themselves in the largest non-natural loss of American life up 'til the September 11th, 2001 attacks. Four more of Jones' followers took part in a smaller mass suicide not long afterward in Georgetown. The final death toll was 918 people.

If anyone's been wondering why I think loons like local cult leader Johnny Robertson and his self-proclaimed "Church of Christ" need to be countered, this is a big reason why. If left unchecked, God only knows what a hate-filled man like Robertson might do to others. Could you at all trust a man who accuses a congregation of child pornography, regularly harasses other churches, tries to break up families and has a "bomb threat" painted on the side of his own building? I hate to say this but I'm hard-pressed to believe that a mind like Robertson's is at all far removed from the mentality of Jim Jones. Maybe if some folks in San Francisco back in the day had stood up to Jones, the Jonestown tragedy would never have happened.

When authorities arrived at "Jonestown" they found a 45-minute long audio tape that was recorded during the cult's act of suicide. Here is a transcript and if you feel so inclined, here is the audio courtesy of the Internet Archive...

There is plenty more material - including some primary source evidence - at the Jonestown Institute website.

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This is a STAR TREK trailer?!

This is positively unlike anything that I have ever seen done with Star Trek...

...and I think it's awesome!

For this one, I'm gonna direct you to the full glorious Quicktime version (it's Trailer 2). I just took a look at it in 480P and was blown away. Wait 'til you see the first scene in this thing: it's probably the most UN-Star Trek-ish image produced in the entire forty-some year history of the series.

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