After two episodes without Alex! Games of discussion possibly entail the Halo: Reach Beta (again), ModNation Racers for PSP, Fruit Ninja, and much much more. Like always, we hit up users' live questions by maintaining a "Live Questions Thread" for a couple hours and look at some awfully random Wikipedia articles. We also read off a couple emails, which you guys thankfully sent! Keep them coming at minorissuesmail@gmail.com! You like when ZombiePie hates? Totally does that here.
Andrew, Jay, and Colton for this one. It's got soul. It's got bros. It's got games. Like Splinter Cell: Conviction, Halo: Reach beta, Dead To Rights: Retribution, and Sam & Max: The Penal Zone. There's also Live Questions. And Random Wikipedia Article. And issues. Emails go here: minorissuesmail@gmail.com. Actually send them. Incomplete sentences not included.
This is one of the freshest ideas I've seen for a music video in a while. Take a stupid, karaoke (with actual karaoke) jamboree, and crank things up to 11 by the end. It was kind of weird the first view, since I didn't know what to expect, but directors Spike Jonze and James Murphy had a pretty funny vision and pulled it off.
The Mixcast is something that I've done for a couple weeks on my temporary website, but I felt like bringing it here would be cool too. It's essentially what your mixtape was back when there were mixtapes with some radio show-esque commentary by me thrown in. The artwork from all of the mixcasts is photography that I myself have done so I figured that I should let you know that.
Keep in mind that the end is a big joke accompanied with a long story that might be revealed in the near future... or someday.
For the third edition, I filled it full of songs that aren’t depressing or generally have support and irony. And again, I’m sorry for another MGMT song.
MIXCAST03
Excuses - The Morning Benders
The Meeting Place (Acoustic) - The Last Shadow Puppets
MIXCAST01 Forced to Love - Broken Social Scene On Melancholy Hill - Gorillaz Believer - Goldfrapp Tron - Joker I Wonder - Kanye West Most Wanted - Cults Sing - Se & Him Sticky Thread - Local Natives DOWNLOAD HERE 4 Comments
We hit the one year-mark of recording Minor Issues and talk with that guy from the first episode, Ben (Jayge) and finally here for his first successful appearance, Community Czar, Chris (ZombiePie). Games talked about include Mass Effect 2, Tropico 3, The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom, Dragon Age, and of course deep, deep conversing on Heavy Rain. We also bring Random Wikipedia Page back for one more episode (okay, maybe more). Chris also spins his tale on his hate for Cloverfield out of nowhere while we answer Live Questions. Also, we want you emails, so send them to minorissuesmail@gmail.com! Dude!
The Minor Issues gang (with the absence of a Mr. Colton David) takes a trip into the future to consult our most anticipated games along with community member MasterOfPenguins_Zell. In the process, we utilize the creation of the Live Questions thread and peg poor Jay about his unfortunate inability to like good games. Don't forget to send emails to the email address, which is...... minorissuesmail@gmail.com (There has been an insane lack of it in these past few episodes).
We're nearing the end of the year and the end of a decade. In this relatively brief time, I have been in elementary school, middle school, and three-fourths through my high school journey. However, it's only been since 2005 when I entered the world of enthusiast gaming. That year, I started listening to Jeff Gerstmann, Rich Gallup, and many other Gamespot staffers on The Hotspot, slowly gaining their knowledge and inside jokes of the industry. I was involved in the boards fairly regularly, but never rose to any form of popularity or received renown for my posts until what is now Giant Bomb.
Giant Bomb
Then it was November 28, 2007. Jeff was dismissed from Gamespot and my source of laughs and entertainment disappeared into the depths of the internet to start his own blog site. I read it everyday for news on his next venture, every click accompanied by a gleaming hope of good news. The months went by and Gamespot staff members were leaving by the weeks, the first of the bunch being Ryan and Alex. Ryan joined Jeff over Skype for the first of what was to be the Arrow Pointing Down Podcast, and in March, they released their vision for Giant Bomb in the form of a blog. It never crossed my mind how large the website could possibly get, but my interest piqued greatly when they nabbed recently-departed Gamespot employees, Brad and Vinny. The Logo! Before I knew it, my calendar told me it was July 21, 2008: the day the site would launch in full. Immediately, I ran to my computer to register my user name, post some wiki edits, and take a few looks at the forums of madness. It took a little longer for the users to develop a hunger for something larger: a community. Around September, a few users (DualReaver, Lies, and tokyochicken) developed a "manifesto" for what we should become. Within weeks, the thirty or so core-contributing users talked through the IRC, the original community podcast Bomb Should Have a Face was starting to gain listenership, and our form of game nights called "Bombing Runs" were being planned regularly. It seemed like there was only forward-moving from there.
Entering the new year, Bombing Runs began to diminish in quantity due to lack of other users pitching in, the quality of Bomb Should Have a Face became questionable, and the forums started to gain popularity for groups of users with lesser intentions. Still, the site continued to live on through editorial content and the Bombcast.
Now, the situation doesn't seem all that different to the average forum user's eye, but improvements truly have been set in play. With ZombiePie being the committed editor of the Community Thread since March, well-produced content by the users has never been easier to access. Bombing Runs have also begun popping up here and there without the leadership of a certain user (who is proud of this) and it seems that those thirty core users from a year ago are not the only ones who desire a better place to converse with people who really fucking love Giant Bomb.
Minor Issues (the podcast I work on)
It wasn't until the very end of 2008 when I met user Coltonio7 (Colton David) in a Left 4 Dead PC Bombing Run that I hosted. Immediately, we hit it off and started talking over Skype. Around the middle of February, Colton pinged me the message "dude we should make a podcast". I thought he was being crazy so I just shrugged it off by saying "we totally should," not knowing what I was about to get myself into. Later that month, we recorded our first episode of Minor Issues, which was more or less a test podcast. It was 15 minutes of him and I chatting about random subjects off the cuff.
We decided that we should make the podcast longer and sought out easier, more effective ways to record our Skype mischief. Since we didn't really have much of a budget, we figured that using the trial for Skype recorder and recording 15 minute intervals with constant breaks would suffice. We got together with albedos_shadow to record our first real episode, and boy, that went to hell fast. Recordings were corrupted and the inside jokes and mayhem was lost forever. After a couple weeks of sitting out the podcast, we got back in the game and recorded the next episode with Jayge.
Minor Issues artworkAlready we were achieving minor notoriety by having Giant Bomb's own Drew for the second episode. Guests for episodes 3-6 included former moderator BoG, Arkthemaniac, StarFoxA, and OmegaPirate. For lucky number 7, Colton and I talked to Eat-Sleep-Game's Arthur Gies of RebelFM fame, just days before E3. We felt like we were totally now on the map, but in reality we hadn't ventured as far as we thought.
After episode 7, two entire episodes were made, but were never released due to technical challenges. Those episodes were joined by our next Minor Issues member, TheGamerGeek (Jay Malone) and veteran guest, Jayge. Being wary of failure, it became difficult to put out a show, with only four out of eight episodes in 3 months (July-October period) being a success.
In our entrance of double digits, it seemed as if Minor Issues was dead with the release of Episode 10 when I stayed absent. I told Colton earlier in the week that I might stop doing Minor Issues around December, putting us at each others' throats and out of frustration to his reaction, I abstained from the recording. The following morning, we made up and started to plan out the next episode with John Drake, PR Manager at Harmonix, to talk about The Beatles: Rock Band and other business. Not only accompanied by him, we also acquired our next permanent member, ajr123 (better known as Alex Rubens on Twitter).
Now, it's December. I have no intention of leaving and every intention of continuing it into the new year. With Colton, Jay, Alex, and the occasional guest of importance, I want to make Minor Issues a more enjoyable podcast by improving on the formula that is beginning to feel a little stale.
Veckatimest Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest is a fantastic, long album. It's the standard 12 songs, but each track is so intricately put together that it seems like a journey has gone by as soon as "Foreground", the final track, has come to an end. All that crap people hear about this being hipster music is absolutely ridiculous, because this album had to have given these guys at least some mainstream recognition, since they were on Conan for God's sake. Unlike most albums, I latched onto all of the songs immediately rather than listening to the first three tracks until I was ready to take on the remainder. I can't say that this album is for everyone, but I think it's worth a shot to listen to, because I had no idea I would start admiring the band so much since July.
Noteworthy Tracks
Southern Point Ready, Able While You Wait For The Others I Live With You
Mos Def
The Ecstatic
The Ecstatic It's been a long time since a proper Mos Def album was released, and when I mean proper, I mean his album from 1999 "Black On Both Sides" and The Ecstatic just about as close to that as you can get, quality wise. Mos Def is known for his solid, innovative beats, but also for his interesting, hard lyrics. I had bought this album on the day of its release in June, but I felt kind of disappointed after listening to it, because it took me a little off guard. I took another listen to it in October and couldn't believe how I could have ignored it for all those months. I recommend this album to anyone who loves hip-hop or even anyone with a vested interest in the art of music.
Noteworthy Tracks
Quiet Dog Life In Marvelous Times History (feat. Kweli) Casa Bey
Monsters Of Folk
Monsters Of Folk
Monsters of Folk I knew little to nothing about the previous exploits of these artists before Monsters of Folk, but I immediately fell in love with their sound on "Dear God (Sincerely, M.O.F.)" This supergroup has something I appreciate more than anything in music: consistant quality. Every song on the album is ladened with care and has a memorable sound. Though not truly being folk, it's got plenty of roots planted in the genre. Oh, who am I really kidding? This is an indie rock album with a little folk flavor. Every song was likable from the get-go and it has a certain nostalgia factor to it.
Noteworthy Tracks
Dear God (Sincerely, M.O.F.) The Right Place Baby Boomer Man Named Truth
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