If You Haven't Seen This Yet

Here's a video I made a couple of months ago of myself playing Shira Kammen's 'Downstream' on Mandolin. it is on youtube, can you dig it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9ByH25YL9Q

My debut free album 'naïve music'

My debut free album. It is pretty unprofessional so I am releasing it for free on cdr and for download. Right click save as to download each track. Let me know what you think on facebook or joshuagreen at gmail.com.
Let me know if there are problems. The album cover painted by my brother, Dusty, is below.

Joshua Green - naïve music 01 - Sunstroke (electric)
Joshua Green - naïve music 02 - The Old Blind Man - A Dream of Death and Relief
Joshua Green - naïve music 03 - He Was A Friend of Mine (traditional)
Joshua Green - naïve music 04 - Forever Should
Joshua Green - naïve music 05 - Nostrum
Joshua Green - naïve music 06 - Impermanence
Joshua Green - naïve music 07 - A Pretty Mess
Joshua Green - naïve music 08 - Sunstroke (acoustic)

Album cover

Album cover drawn by Dusty Green. India ink on thick paper.

Lyrics for my upcoming free album 'naïve music'

Hello,
Thanks for coming to this site and thanks for your interest in my album(naïve music).
It's so bad it's free :)

Right now I'll just post the lyrics to some of the songs but in the near future I would like to, for whatever reason, provide either a readable or listenable commentary on the songs and their meanings. Most of the songs are about events in my life.
Who cares about shit like this? Nobody.

Sunstroke
Way out in the desert,
the sand is choking our throats,
the sky is writing us lovenotes.
I can't see for the sun,
and there's no water to be found.

I'm choking on it,
I think I got it from you.
She's choking on it,
I think she's got it too.

Sunstroke.

We're bone-dry now,
the birds'll at us soon,
those black-winged bastards they can hardly wait,
to taste you.
I can't see for the sun,
and there's no drinking water to be found.

I'm choking on it,
I think I got from you,
She's choking on it,
I think she's got it too.

Sunstroke.

Forever Should
I know I should,
I just haven't got around to it yet.
I know I should,
I just haven't found the time for it yet.

There's always tomorrow,
things'll be okay.
There's always tomorow,
And I live for today.

Now I'm dead and I don't have time to spend with those I should have told them that I should have told them that I...

We'll meet again in a land where,
Golden summer reigns forever,
We'll have all time to spend together.

Now there's time to tell them,
Now there's time to say,
I love you.


The Old Blind Man - A Dream of Death and Relief
oh, the old blind man,
amongst the dunes.
he's got nothing but Mexican radio.
"shoot me", he says.
"shoot me", he says.
"shoot me".

My Mother had a dream,
she was in the forest.
He was there with her.
"I like it here, everything is alright".

I'm sure they think about him every day,
I'm sure it's hell without him.
Gone.
I'm sure they think about him every day,
I'm sure it's hell without him.
Gone.

He Was A Friend of Mine (traditional)
He was a friend of mine.
He was a friend of mine.
Every time I think about him now,
Lord, I just can't keep from cryin'.
'Cause he was a friend of mine. He died on the road.

He died on the road.
He never had enough money,
To pay his room or board.
And he was a friend of mine

I stole away and cried.
I stole away and cried.
'Cause I never had too much money,
And I never been quite satisfied.
And he was a friend of mine.

He never done no wrong.
He never done no wrong.
A thousand miles from home,
And he never harmed no one.
And he was a friend of mine

He was a friend of mine.
He was a friend of mine.
Every time I hear his name,
Lord, I just can't keep from cryin'
'Cause he was a friend of mine.

Nostrum
Past instances in which I professed to liking you were, in truth, false.
Impossibly distant childhood projected on our walls.
Can't divide everything into black or white.
Account for the plurality of and distortions over time.

Consider lifetimes, yours and mine, collections of events.
In the endgame, grass and sky, gone are you and I.
Recollection whole, and monochrome nostalgia,
threads of the soul.
Pre-complications, mechanizations, were you ever there?

Wii Still Cool

It is true that my girlfriend, a few friends, and I (as well as 30 or so others) waited for 24 hours inside a Wal-Mart to get our Wiis way back on launch day. I, like most early Wii buyers, had a great time intially and (just as I had hoped) the console turned out to be a great multiplayer experience. In the past few months, however, I haven't had a whole lot of time to play video games because I've been fairly busy with school. Without people around all the time to play Wii Sports, Raving Rabbids, and Warioware the Wii has been seldom used, I have to admit.

I have Twilight Princess but I am holding firm on my promise to beat the 'main' Zelda games leading up to it before I pop it in. As a sidenote on that, I am about 3/4 of the way through Majora's Mask (a decent game, if only people didn't judge it by the first relatively lame bit) and about the same way into Minish Cap, which is great. So, I have to beat the rest of Majora and then play Windwaker from start to finish.

Back to the Wii pickle, I recently picked up Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 and, I have to say, it is a ton of fun and has me playing the Wii solo again. Despite that some reviewers, GameSpot in particular, were rather harsh on it I can assure everyone that the game is fantastic. GameSpot summed the game in this sentence: "burdened by clumsy controls and predictable artificial intelligence, Tenkaichi 2 is a game that can be loved only by forgiving DBZ fans". Fortunately for Wii owners skeptical about the majority of titles out right now I'd like to let everyone know that I am not a big fan of fighters or Dragon Ball but this game manages to hold my attention easily. First of all, it has 120 characters (!) and manages to mix button-mashing and motion controls quite fluidly into an excellent (and extremely intense and fast-paced) fighter. The battles aren't your typical 'from the side' type (e.g. old Mortal Kombat) fare, rather, you fly around in a relatively large, semi-destructible 3D environment as you battle, which is an interesting twist on the sometimes stagnant genre. So far I really enjoy progressing through the lengthy story mode and upgrading my characters along the way, too. You can't go wrong throwing some "RPG" elements into an already fun fighter : )

In short, if you can, pick this game up for $18.98 (at Real Canadian Superstore a.k.a. Atlantic Superstore). Otherwise, take your $60.00 dollars to your local EB and bend over.

Just kidding, never pay the full price for games. Contact me and I'll help you scam them somehow, folks.

A (Hopefully) Recurring Thread: Game Fuckups I Or My Friends Have Discovered (G.F.I.O.M.F.H.D. for the sake of simplicity)

So, I just wanted to post some video game fuckups that I have either personally discovered or my friends have discovered and told me about. Discovered fuckups can come from any official game related materials as well, e.g. spelling errors on posters or in game manuals. Who would care about such minutiae? Nerds, of course. Anyhow, I think it might prove to be fun (or in some cases funny) for those involved,
Here's the meagre 'list', it's just the beginning, I hope. Off the top of my head...

On the Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS) timeline/poster the entry at 1852 reads 'Casletevania 64'. I never played the Casletevanias for N64 much, though I hear they are decent.

In Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS) the item description for the Long Spear says something like "spear with an especially long haft". As long as the Long Spear's "haft" may be it likely wouldn't compare to my own haft.

In Final Fantasy Tactics (PSX) when you use the Lich summon in battle, the word "Rich" flashes. I'm assuming it is something to do the Japanese to English 'r' sound to 'l' sound problem.

On the back of the Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories pre-order display box (not the actual game case) there was a spelling error in the game's description. If anyone remembers the actual error (yeah, right) let me know.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

I picked up Portrait of Ruin yesterday with my box of preorder goodies which included an artbook, a Castlevania stylus made by Hori, aPortrait of Ruin poster/Castlevania timeline, a soundtrack cd, Castlevania 2-game DS game case. I've played the game for roughly two hours so far and it seems pretty sweet. I was a bit worried that the changes they'd made would be too weird or gimmicky but, fortunately, this doesn't seem to be the case. I was concerned namely with the two characters at a time mechanic, but luckily the developers haven't made playing with both dudes out simultaneously mandatory. You can have one character followed your main one around (a la Ninja Gaiden II shadow guys, though they don't mimic your main character's actions) or you can simply leave the other character out all together and by clicking 'R' have them pop in for a sec to use their special move, which I prefer.
The game seems a tad on the easy side at first (the non-boss regular baddies are pushovers initially) although the first main enemy managed to kill me a few times, he deals a fair amount of damage. I'm now in the second painting and things have grown considerably more difficult, some of the little baddies can piss you off and really eat away at your health, challenge is good. I was trying to just use whips at first (because I greatly prefer the distance and 'feel' of it) but now that I'm in the second area I'm finding I have to use the more powerful weapons, spears and such, just to keep up. For example, the little burning skeletal ghosts (simply called 'ghosts' in game) take three hits with the whip, that's crazy. Tthe second boss, some sort of Egyptian Queen or something, is pretty hard too. She has handed me my ass a few times already...

The soundtrack cd? Yeah, it rocks. I'm listening to it now. Basically the CD has a few tracks from pretty much every Castlevania game from the last 20 years. Plenty of good tracks. The artbook is small but has all of my favourite CV art in it (namely all of the Symphony of the Night style stuff).

So, the game's good people, check it out. Plus it's 39.99 as opposed to Dawn of Sorrow's unbudging 49.99.

Boku no Natsuyasumi (My Summer Vacation) Screenshots!

Here are some great looking
screenshots from the PS2 version.
Mmm mmm, look at those sweet
hand-painted backgrounds:

New Game Evokes Nostalgia!

I've been doing some research on this little known (inside North America, anyway) video game series called 'Boku no Natsuyasumi' or, 'My Summer Vacation', in English, and from what I've seen so far I can say that it appears to be most definitely import-worthy. This is coming from a guy who's never imported anything in his life. The game has been released for PSX, PS2, PSP (a re-release of the PSX version) and is planned for the PS3. So what is the big deal about Boku? Just as the title suggests, the premise of 'My Summer Vacation' is as follows: you're a young boy who is staying with some extended family in rural Japan for the month of August. The 'object' of the game, if you can call it that seeing how the game is apparently quite open-ended, but the emphasis is on exploration. As Boku you can fish, catch bugs, meet folks, and collect a whole bunch of cool stuff. This game sounds like a dream come true to me, any sort of video game throwback to those care-free Summer days of childhood would be a welcome addition to my collection in any language. Fortunately, according to the two reviews I've read of the game ( of the PS2 and PSP versions), absolutely no Japanese is needed to complete the game. One reviewer suggested that knowing some basic Japanese would, of course, enhance one's experience during the game (particularly for the PS2 version seeing as the many side characters speak aloud), but its good to know it isn't necessary to enjoy 'My Summer Vacation'.

Also, you might be glad to know that 'Boku no Natsuyasumi 2' is now part of "The Best" series in Japan and, as such, is available at a greatly reduced price. So, start importin', English.

More Crude Resident Evil 4 Funnies!

My brother treated me to two more Resident Evil 4 comics. They speak volumes about players' distaste for babysitting defenseless types and gun-selling weirdos.

Crude Resident Evil 4 Funnies

Here are a few pictures my brother drew for me while we chatted on MSN about his first real RE4 playthrough. Yes, it really has taken him this long to get around to it. Berate him here .

Bizarre Wal-Mart PSP Employee Only Discount

Whilst I was requesting the 28th of September off (in order to see 3 Inches of Blood at Bugaboo Creek in Fredericton, NB) I noticed a stack of small papers in the Wal-Mart personnel office that read: "Special Offer to Associates Only: Save $30.00 on PSP or $50.00 on PSP value pack. Limit of two per associate. Discount card must be presented at time of purchase." I assume this means that employees are able to get this special discount in addition to their 10% employee discount. If this is the case now is certainly the time to get your friend or relative who works at the store to pick one up for you.

Althought I haven't looked in to it too much, after briefly perusing the PSP games shelf at EB, I can honestly say that only a few of the games thus far seem appealing. Particularly Me & My Katamari, Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth, Loco Roco, and possibly that game with the funny looking orange robot on the cover, you know the one.

Mother 3?

As I sit here in my cold apartment some 4 months after the Japanese release of Mother 3 I have to ask myself: why did everyone stop talking about it? I, alongside of tens of thousands of rabid Nintendo/Earthbound fanboys, have been waiting for even the tiniest mote of information regarding a North American release to slip out but it has been entirely silent. After the huge hype surrounding the release in April folks were speculating wildly about an English release but it seems that with the absence of any reliable information everyone is just going to have continue waiting in silence (as they have for the past ten years). The last interesting (probably somewhat possibly maybe credible) bit of information came via the official Nintendo magazine in UK which guesstimated an English (European) release date of December. A short kotaku post can be found here . But, as commenter AltDelete points out the article never gives any specific information from a translation team or anything. Still, its promising. Maybe it will only be another four months before speakers of the King's English can finally get their nerd-cheese-stinking hands on Earthbound 2.

And if Nintendo decides to scrap the whole translation idea at least we have some dedicated folks over at mother3.org who claim to be 80% done their rom translation of the game. We nerds will get it one way or another.