Review of Steve Jablonsky's GEARS OF WAR 3: THE SOUNDTRACK CD!

Ooh-boy, how am I going to handle this?! I mean, Gears of War 3 doesn't come out until September 20th, this coming Tuesday. And there ain't no way that I'm gonna get an advance copy of the game itself. Hey, I've got connections, sho 'nuff... but they don't penetrate into the inner sanctum of Epic Games (even if it is just a few miles away in Cary).

But a package arrived in the mail this week: a copy of the CD of Gears of War 3: The Soundtrack, composed by Steve Jablonsky.

Hmmmm. The score CD for the next Gears of War game. Composed by the dude who did the score for Gears of War 2, the Transformers movies and a bunch of other great stuff! Y'all think I'm not gonna review this bad boy?!

The thing is, I can listen to this abundawonderful score all I want... as I already have! But until I play the game itself, there's nothing to put this music in context with. I've done reviews of Jablonsky's Transformers scores and posted a review of Gears of War 2: The Soundtrack three years ago.

But writing a review of a Steve Jablonsky album without first experiencing the work that it's been composed for? That's a new one...

Okay so here's what I wound up doing. I set this CD a'playing and as each track ran, I composed my thoughts for it. So what you're about to see is something of a "running commentary" for the score.

I'll preface that stream of consciousness by saying this: that Gears of War 3: The Soundtrack is already one of my favorite scores for any medium! This album easily represents Steve Jablonsky's finest work to date. His Gears of War 2 score was already one of the most-played on my iPod (it's terrific listening for when you're in the chair at the dentist's office) and for Gears of War 3, the man has ratcheted up his game to intense new heights of instrumental emotion. Jablonsky's work on the previous game garnered great acclaim and some awards... but what he has turned in for Gears of War 3 will arguably set a whole new standard for the art of video game music. This is legendary accompaniment for a legendary saga.

Awright well, on with the tracks!

1. “Restless” – Some subdued strings building up to... something. Trailing off with a nice bit of piano.

2. “Gears Keep Turning” – This must be the “main” theme music of the game. The now-familiar Gears of War titles that Jablonsky so beautifully elaborated upon in Gears of War 2, given a drastically industrial tone. LOVE THIS TRACK!!

3. “Meanwhile Below Deck” – Lot of rising tension. About what, I haven’t a clue. Brief but wicked.

4. “Stalk City” – Having read all of Karen Traviss’ Gears of War novels (including Coalition’s End released last month) I’ve a pretty darned good idea what’s going on here. The Lambent are coming, people... and now we have proper music for it!

5. “High Seas Tension” – A bit sneaky and espionage-ish. Why am I thinking of Chairman Prescott when I listen to this?

6. “Infected Large and Hungry” – Hard, harsh, fast and riveting! Whatever this is music for, it sounds honkin’ big and pure angry. No doubt something that needs to be killed in the worst way...

7. “Marcus’ Rock” – More industrial with lots of heavy drums. Well, it’s a track named for a heavy guy, ain’t it?

8. “Calm before Chaos” – A quieter piece with underlying menace.

9. “Bridge Too Far Indeed” – Probably a track for an extended action sequence in the game with heaps of frantic. At 3:42 this is the longest track of the CD so far.

10. “Those Aren’t Stranded” – A piece with an urban edge to it. Can’t help but wonder if this might be used with Ice T’s character somehow...

11. “Forever Omen” – One word has come to best describe the Gears of War saga in my mind as this story has progressed over the past five years: “desperation”. This track, more than anything else on the CD thus far, evokes that sense of dread and increasing hopelessness. A beautiful and provocative piece.

12. “Hanover’s Favorite Son” – Didn’t Augustus Cole play thrashball for Hanover? Seem to recall that from the books. So I’m thinking this track has to do with Cole. Starts off surprisingly quiet then uplifts to a very patriotic-sounding crescendo. Another beautiful piece!

13. “Fence House Suicide Pills” – Something terrible is happening alongside this track, and I could write that even if it had been named “Happy Little Squirrels Dancing”.

14. “Ghost Town” – This brings to mind the journey to Mount Kadar and into Nexus from Gears of War 2. Maybe the fight through the ruins of Landown as well.

15. “A Fine Mess” – Most likely something for another crucial battle scene.

16. “Loss of a Leader” – Some mournful segments throughout this piece. But as for which leader (and who or what he/she/it is a leader of) I can’t clearly tell, though there is a COG-ish suggestion to it.

17. “Deadland Dance” – At 5 minutes and 17 seconds this is the longest track of the Gears of War 3 score. Somewhat bifurcated around the 2:20 mark, make of that what you will. The second part is fraught with increasing tension. Love how Jablonsky has worked the Gears of War main theme into this (as he is doing with much of the score already).

18. “Creeping Dread” – This has me thinking of the very first time that I played the original Gears of War, that first level where Dom breaks Marcus out of the Slab.

19. “Hammer Meets Anvil” – The title of this track alone has me giddy! The Hammer of Dawn being used at Anvil Gate perhaps? Hey, I’m stoked simply about the fact that Anvil Gate is reportedly a location in the game! A hard, brooding and threatening piece ending with what could be a countdown chanted by the Locust Horde’s Kantu priests.

20. “Corpser Ambush” – Another action-ish track. I’m guessing it has the player shooting at a Corpser. Maybe even more than one...

21. “Last Resort” – I have no idea what this is supposed to be music for. It’s beautiful, but... it could be set to anything.

22. “Full Circle” – Opens as if it’s written for a dramatic cutscene then quickly jumps to fast-paced action, before resolving into an even deeper and darkly brooding piece and ending with soft piano interlude. Something massively important is taking place here... I can feel it.

23. “Jumped Species Barrier” – That doesn’t sound good. If you’ve read the last two Gears of War novels, then you know that doesn’t sound good at all. This track echoes that.

24. “Ashes Fall Down” – The second-longest track of the CD (4:02). A wrathful piece of sound and fury.

25. “Fathoms Below” – If this is supposed to be “fathoms below” the surface of the ocean, there’s an awful lot of combat taking place down there. Or it could be fathoms below down in the Locust tunnels.

26. “Gasbag Airways” – Does this mean we’re gonna ride a torture barge again? Track continues the fast action pace of the previous few.

27. “Paradise Found” – There is a slightly alien sound to this track. Or at least exotic. And then it ramps up fast and crazy toward... what?!?

28. “Father and Son” – Another track whose title alone makes me eager with anticipation. Listening to it, I honestly can’t help but envision Marcus Fenix and his father Adam Fenix having their reunion. Gears of War has become a multi-generational epic on the same level as Star Wars and Harry Potter (not to mention The Godfather saga). This piece resonates that quality.

29. “Fury of the Tempest” – Stormy and apocalyptic. Full of rage.

30. “Live for Me” – A track of tragedy. Reminds me too much of “With Sympathy” from the Gears of War 2 score and if you played that game, you know what scene it was set to. Are we gonna cry just as when we get to this part of Gears of War 3? But no time to be tearful ‘cuz then it finishes on an action-suggestive tone.

31. “Finally a Tomorrow” - WOW!! The chorals alone set this track apart from darn nearly anything else we’ve heard from a Gears of War game. Could it be? Dare we hope that… there really will be a happy ending to this story after all?! Jablonsky is evoking an optimism that we just haven’t heard at ALL in this series. This is the flip side of the coin from the sinking of Jacinto at the end of Gears of War 2. And it sounds stunning!

Gears of War 3: The Soundtrack by Steve Jablonsky is published by Sumthing Else Music Works, and will be available on September 20th from Amazon.com and other fine retailers. But if you just can't wait, you'll be pleased to know that it's already available via Apple's iTunes Store! So you can buy it now and buy it next week too (hey, I wound up getting it from iTunes as well as the nice shiny physical media currently and legally in my grubby lil' paws).

However it is that you buy it, Gears of War 3: The Soundtrack gets this blogger's highest recommendation! Go get it. Or perish in flame. It's your choice. But, not really.

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The most heartbreaking post in The Knight Shift history

sigh...

For a week now, even during the trip to D.C., my mind has been in agony over how to approach this.

I've gone over it a thousand times and more. But, I suppose there's nothing left to do, but to go ahead and address this. And maybe... maybe... some of us can get up the courage to move on.

For a while now I've been posting photos on this blog of my incredibly sweet and ravishingly beautiful cousin, Lauryn. And they've become something of a hit. In fact, I've even received numerous e-mails from single guys asking, sometimes begging, me to get them in touch with Lauryn.

Here she is from a few days ago, as a bridesmaid for my cousin Angela's wedding. That's Lauryn on the right (with Angela's sister Rachael on the left)...

Lauryn is a beautiful bridesmaid.

And she's going to be even more beautiful as a bride.

It is my great pleasure to announce that as of a few days ago, Lauryn is engaged! She'll be taking the vows with her boyfriend Jason later this year.

Congrats to Lauryn and Jason! Y'all are an incredibly lovely couple and I'm really looking forward to seeing the two of you embark on this journey that God has set you upon.

As for this blog's single male readership, be of good cheer: there are lots of young lasses in my family that probably won't mind becoming The Knight Shift's new pinup girl!

(But for the time being, I'm taking a rest from wielding that big heavy stick. To say nothing of Lauryn's dad Bob finally able to put the shotgun down...)

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Pat Robertson sez: Alzheimer's is grounds for divorce (Pat, shut up sir!)

I'm looking at this one of two ways: that Pat Robertson sincerely believes what he is saying here. Either that, or as I have heard it said a number of times in my life: "Whom God would destroy, He first makes mad."

During a broadcast of his 700 Club this week, Christian Broadcasting Network founder and "evangelist" Pat Robertson said that it was perfectly justifiable to divorce a spouse with Alzheimer's disease, on the basis that the illness is "a kind of death".

What. The. Hell. ?!?!?

In all honesty, I can't see how Pat Robertson - if this is his genuine belief - is any different from those who support abortion and the "right to choose". You know: the things that his Christian Coalition was alleged to be standing against for all those years?

(Well, as a follower of Christ, I always thought that the Christian Coalition was a bullsh-t organization anyway, which was only concerned with accruing political power. It had nothing to do with earnestly seeking after Christ and what He would have us to do in this world.)

Yeah, how is this different from aborting a child? The rationale that Robertsin is offering is the same as that for killing an unborn within the womb: that it is a life too "inconvenient" for those who would rather live life to their own ends.

Marriage is something that a man and woman enter into "in sickness and in health". When a person enters into marriage he or she is publicly declaring that it will be to the end, enduring all trial and hardship. Alzheimer's is not a "kind of death". It is a disease that gradually robs a person of precious memory and identity...

...and Pat Robertson says that if the other spouse cannot take it, then he or she is free to abandon his or her husband and wife and go after another?!

My God.

Whatever the hell it is that Robertson is espousing, it is NOT a love that is scriptural or suggested at all in the Bible. Love between a husband and wife is something meant to be patient, kind, and longsuffering. If a spouse falls victim to Alzheimer's or any other illness, the other spouse will never abandon and leave them. That is, if there was truly any real love at all.

To say this sort of thing is beyond the pale. I have been saying for years that if Pat Robertson was serious about making the Bible the pattern to follow in this land, then he should have long ago been taken outside the Virginia Beach city limits and stoned to death for all of his nutty false prophecies (made in the name of God). But now, there is no question: his family should take him off the air. And lock him down in the basement for good measure.

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Pssst... Hey, iTunes Store not opening for ya?

So for the past several weeks my iTunes hasn't been up to snuff. iTunes starts up okay... but when it comes to the iTunes Store it did nothing but show a blank white page with "iTunes Store" printed in the center. And whatever has been the problem with that, it also has kept iTunes from properly updating my iPad. I'm still using Windows Vista (no jokes, please :-P)

I tried everything but nothing worked to make iTunes Store functioning on my computer. I even uninstalled and re-installed iTunes... three times! And still the iTunes Store wouldn't come up. When I ran the Diagnostics tool it gave me some crap about how iTunes Store couldn't make a secure connection.

Well, as of about an hour ago it's finally working again! It took me the better part of three days of actively addressing the issue and a whole wazooload of Google searches. Lo and behold the solution came from a YouTube user named audsmithl15, who posted it as a comment on a video demonstrating the exact same problem.

Here is what audsmithl15 came up with. I'm re-posting it here, for sake of anyone else who might be searching for the fix...

1. Go to C:\ProgramData\Apple\Installer­Cache\AppleApplicationSupport 2.0.1

2. Right click

3. UNinstall

4. Go to C:\ProgramData\Apple\Installer­Cache\AppleApplicationSupport 1.5.2

5. Right click

6. INstall

7. Restart PC

Took less than 10 minutes to apply the fix and after that, iTunes Store comes up fine!

Bigtime props to audsmithl15 on YouTube for hitting on the solution :-)

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"Dust to Dust": GEARS OF WAR 3 trailer continues a grand tradition

From the very beginning of the franchise, Gears of War has been as acclaimed for its mesmerizing advertising campaign as it has for its intense and engaging gameplay, its story and its so-very-endearing characters who we couldn't help but to feel for, to sympathize with, to cry for. The first game's "Mad World" commercial is considered by many to be the best ad for a video game in history. Three years ago Gears of War 2 brought us "Last Day": an ad that yanked our heartstrings hard. It also introduced me to the music of Devotchka ("How It Ends" subsequently became one of my favorite songs, for a lot of reasons). Then April of 2010 we got the announcement of Gears of War 3 with the "Ashes to Ashes" trailer, which had me looking for more music by Sun Kil Moon.

And then there was "What Have I Become?", a fan-made trailer for Gears of War 3 that used Johnny Cash's immortal cover of "Hurt". It was an effort so impressive and haunting that Gears of War creator Cliff Blezinski even acknowledged how stunning it was.

Well, it's been out for over a week already but I'd be remiss in my duties as a devoted Gears of War fan if I didn't also point y'all's attention to the final trailer for Gears of War 3. And it proves to evoke no less lingering emotions than the spots that have come before. Accompanied by "Into Dust" by Mazzy Star, here is "Dust to Dust"...

The saga of Marcus Fenix, Dom Santiago, Augustus Cole, Damon Baird, Anya Stroud and the rest of Delta Squad comes to its conclusion a week from today.

"Brothers to the end."

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"We'll never be caught..."

"We're on a mission from God."

The New Blues Brothers! Chris (AKA me) and Ken (AKA my girlfriend's dad) hanging out before a wedding reception this past weekend.

It was pretty cool: the reception was in the ballroom of a hotel across the Potomac River from Washington D.C., so in the background we could see the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the top of the Capitol off in the distance, and on the other side of the room it looked across Georgetown to the National Cathedral.

But I have to admit: ever since playing Fallout 3 I just couldn't look over that landscape without seeing the Capital Wasteland strewn out before me. Too bad my car radio couldn't pick up Three Dog...

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Interesting things are beginning to happen

And, I am feeling much better than where I was the last time I posted.

So it's time to return to blogging, right now...

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Awright, here's what's REALLY been going on lately...

Apparently some quarters are rumormongerin' that this blog has been hacked, that I'm in the hospital, that I'm really missing, stuff like that. Which makes me giggle quite a bit, that my blogging is so closely watched that when I'm absent from it, it becomes cause for alarm :-P

Okay well, as much as the mischievous little "id" creature deep within my nature loves that sort of thing, I'm gonna come clean and be honest about what's really been going on behind the scenes here. It's the sort of business that in recent past I would have kept to myself, but since in the past year I've gone so much on record about it...

The truth is, that for the past few weeks I have been experiencing an episode of bipolar depression. And it has sucked darn nearly all of the passion and motivation out of me.

I've been writing for almost a year now about what it means to have bipolar disorder. And if this was "regular" depression I might yet be able to make something in spite of that, because I've had clinical depression and know what that's like. Bipolar depression however is an entirely different beast. This latest episode struck a little less than a month ago (so far as I can tell) and I'm still fighting it. Not much that can be done except that like a hurricane, to just ride it out.

(But even with it, I can at least write about that if I can't write about anything else... because that's how I roll :-)

When you're going through a bipolar depressive episode, you lose your passion and feeling for everything. You can function outwardly, if you absolutely must. But it is a tremendous struggle to do that and it sucks out what little drive and determination you have left to you. You aren't left with a life: you are made to endure anti-life. Existence in the negative range. Sometimes the only feeling you have is feeling like you want God to just let you die and not have to go through this hell for any moment longer.

Happily though... and I know this more than ever before... these times do pass. This episode will pass. I know that I'm not really wanting to die. Heck, this is the first time in my life that I've had a chance to enjoy a normal life like most people get to have! I am not going to take that for granted and I am not going to let it slip because of a temporary relapse of a medical condition!

So that's where I've been: working through this episode, trusting God to bring me through this just as He has brought me through all the others.

But while I have brought myself to the browser (which has been acting wonky lately, enough that it has made blogging unreliable until just the past few days), I'll also address some things which have piled up. First thing is: I thought last week's Doctor Who episode, "Let's Kill Hitler", was the most brain-warping single episode in the show's entire history (I watched it with my girlfriend and we were screaming in stunned disbelief the entire time). I'm keeping a wary eye out on Hurricane Katia: at this point it could go anywhere but my gut is that it might blow on out to sea (though I've been wrong before). Oh yeah, and in the past few days I've had an epiphanous thought about the nature of the church, and when I'm finished mulling it over I'll post something about that.

(And I might have had an idea or two for a new film, which would be my first in awhile... and I'm extremely looking forward to getting back into that saddle again :-)

Anyhoo, there y'all go. I'm good. Just having a bipolar depressive episode that I felt led to write a report about and submit it into the pile of material already accumulating on this blog about it. As always, parse it as you will.

And Lord willing, I shall be back to full bloggin' strength soon :-)

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Technical difficulties...

...please stand by?

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Is it just me...

...or does this photo on the Drudge Report right now of Manhattan getting drenched by Hurricane Irene tonight seriously look like a scene from Blade Runner?

Hope y'all are safe and dry tonight.

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The Gray Man of Hatteras: Hurricane warning system from the Great Beyond

Hurricane Irene should be thrashing the coast pretty hard come this time tomorrow. As of this writing it's a Category 2 storm: weaker than it had been a day ago but still capable of tremendous devastation. Thoughts and prayers going out to those in the eastern part of North Carolina and the rest of Irene's projected path.

A hurricane is never something to take lightly. But given the current situation, I thought it might be neat to all the same share with this blog's readers something that I've always thought was an intriguing story from the already rich culture of North Carolina's Outer Banks. And it is perhaps the most unusual (some say the most accurate) hurricane warning system anywhere...

The Gray Man of Hatteras is a ghost reputed to haunt the beaches in the vicinity of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. If beaches are haunted then I suppose there are few pieces of coastal real estate with as much merit as Cape Hatteras: more than a thousand shipwrecks litter the waters of "the Graveyard of the Atlantic". Over the past few hundreds of years about as many people have lost their lives to hurricanes that Hatteras - jutting out into the Atlantic like a brawler's jaw daring to be hit - seems to draw unto itself.

One of those who are said to have perished was a sailor named Gray, who died in a hurricane off Cape Hatteras sometime in the early 1900s. And ever since, every time that a hurricane takes aim at the Outer Banks, Gray's ghost comes out of nowhere to warn residents and visitors to leave the island... and then abruptly vanishes right before their eyes.

I heard that the Gray Man of Hatteras was last seen before Floyd, one of the most destructive hurricanes in recent history, struck in 1999. He is said to have been witnessed before the arrival of every hurricane. Dunno if the Gray Man has been spotted ahead of Irene this week but somehow, I wouldn't doubt it.

CreepyNC.com has more about the Gray Man of Hatteras. And if you have met him lately, do the right thing and head for the hills: the dude does apparently have some experience with this sort of thing... even if he is dead :-P

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And now Hurricane Irene is bearing down on us...

In the past week or so I've had, in no particular order: food poisoning, a sick family member, me getting sick (again), earthquake, extended travel, technical problems which kept me away from this blog, and various metaphysical crises...

...so here comes Irene.

Getting a bad vibe about this one, folks. A lot like the one I had back in '96 when Fran came roaring ashore. Even as far inland as Elon it kicked the slats out of everyone bigtime.

Got to have a healthy respect for a hurricane. Admiration, even. A hurricane really is an amazing mechanism: a heat and thermal dispersal engine of ginormous magnitude. Without hurricanes, the oceans - and the Earth in general - would become much too warm. So in a sense, hurricanes are an asset.

But even so, to be in the path of one truly is like looking down the barrel of God's shotgun.

Longtime readers know how much of a hurricane nut I am, soooo I'll be blogging about it as best I can while also catching up on all this other stuff. In the meantime, especially to our friends at the coast: y'all stay safe!!

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5.9 earthquake rocked this house!!!

Looks like I picked the wrong day to start blogging again...

The 5.9 magnitude earthquake epicentered near Richmond, Virginia shook my house west of Reidsville, North Carolina for... darn nearly 30 seconds! Okay, probably not that long but it sure as hell felt long enough. I was working on some stuff on my iPad while sitting up on my bed when I felt the bed shake and heard the windows creaking. First thing I thought was "wow, that wind sure is strong..." Then I looked outside and saw that there was no wind.

Getting reports from friends all over: my girlfriend's apartment shook a few hours north of here. Good friend Chad in Cary felt it there. Folks as far away as Cleveland, Ohio and southwest North Carolina are saying it shook them too.

Wow.

Okay, I know there are lots of you who are like "Chris, this is no big deal." Maybe for good people in California or so but we are not used to this. I have never experienced an earthquake before and all my life I've heard about how unsettling it is. How treacherous an emotion it is, to have the ground beneath you start shaking without warning.

I had never known what it must be to have that feeling. This afternoon, I know.

Okay, gonna try to blog about more... stuff... now. Had some technical difficulties during most of the past week and then was trapped out of town last night. Back in the saddle now. And I didn't even have to resort to posting funny pictures of my girlfriend's cats either... :-P

Y'all stay safe out there!

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"WILMAAAAA!" Driver tries to brake truck... with his feet

"This guy ain't no rocket scientist", said a deputy police chief about a dude in Michigan who tried to pull a Fred Flintstone... by attempting to stop his pickup truck with his feet! He caused two collisions before he was finally stopped (turns out the brakes on the truck weren't working).

Story and video here.

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Paul Jr. Designs rolls out a GEARS OF WAR 3 chopper

It ain't hard envisioning Marcus Fenix riding this lil' baby around while blasting grubs (hey CliffyB, is it too late to put that into the game?)...

Paul Jr. from the hit show American Chopper created this custom trike inspired by Gears of War 3 (coming out next month). Looks gnarly! Dad loves to watch American Chopper whenever it's on so I'll be looking forward to watching it with him when we see how Paul Jr. and his crew assembled this one :-)

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Look! It's a new blog post!

So this past week didn't go as planned. I blame that pesky thing called "real life" (as reliable an excuse as anything :-P)

And last night my girlfriend said that she's missed me posting anything this past week. I told her before I left that I'd be sure to put up something for her to read. Maybe even quite a few things today.

Awright then... Hey Kristen! Hope you're having a great morning honey! I'll do my best to keep you at least moderately entertained until you get off work this afternoon ;-)

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Take the weekend off!

For y'all who have e-mailed wondering where I've been: just been busy with stuff on this end.

Come back Monday. There'll start to be plenty more bloggin' then, including (at last) pics and video of the Popcorn Sutton Acoustic Jam last week.

Until then, it's a nice weekend. Go out and play :-)

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