MTV Australia Awards

First off, just wanted to say that the GTA: IV available in NZ is NOT the unedited version, it is infact the Aussie version. Stupid Take Two submitted the Aussie version to be classified. So it's not the NZ censor's fault, it's bloody Rockstar!

But anyway, the awards.

Absolutely horrible. We'll start with the beginning. That is Mischa Barton introducing the show and the host... "Wyclef Gene." [sic] From that moment on, it was destined to failure. Next came Wyclef's failed attempts at trying to connect with the Aussie audience. Then awards, and failed humor, performances, and more awards and everything all over again until it finished.

Highlights of the night:

• Scribe - It was pretty obvious Scribe would win, hell he was sitting right there with Sir-Vere. But the best part was his drunken speech. F***ing o-sum!
• The voiceover dude from Mythbusters - You know that voice that would come out of no where to announce a performer or a presenter? That's the dude that does the voiceovers on Mythbusters! The narrator. Robert Lee.
• Juliette Lewis and the Licks performance - No, I didn't put this as a highlight because it was great. It was okay... up until the extended, full-band drum solo, or whatever it was. I had to change the channel, then change back, then change away, and then back, many times. Finally it seemed over, until Juliette proclaimed that we thought we knew her. Then the madness went on for about another minute or so. So satisfyingly horrific, I wouldn't be surprised to find it on Youtube one day soon.
• Potbelleez performance - The only performance that seemed to really connect with the whole crowd.
• Swearing - 'Nuff said.
  

Lowlights of the night:

• The Veronicas having their mic's turned off - At the beginning of the performance, they had their mics turned on, but their voices kept on being drowned out, so the directors or whatever decided to turn down their mics and turn up the pre-recorded vocals. And the tell tale sign was when they came together and walked to the front of the stage. They were saying things in the mic, but nothing was coming out :D
• Wyclef hosting - Dude's a great performer, song writer, all that. I'll give him props. But dude can't host awards shows. Get someone who knows what they're doing.
  
• The whole freaking concept! - Sports, acting, and karma awards, etc.? What the hell happened to best R&B/Hip Hop? Best Rock? Album of the Year? Way to go MTV Australia, you devalued all of your artists by not giving them something to go up against, just themselves. And you devalued the NZ artists. You completely fail at awards.

It had it's moments, but mostly it was just a study into the depths of mediocrity. Let's hope next year they get their act together and do a proper awards ceremony.

Lost Theft Auto: IV

Only a few more hours till Episode 9 of Season 4 finally hits our screens! I'm planning on rewatching all of Season 4 so far tomorrow, and finish it off with the new episode. I hope it lives up to all this hype :D

Also, I preordered GTA:IV. Thank god New Zealand has an R18 rating, unlike Aussie. That's right, UNEDITED! Woo! April is a month of greatness!

Lost - Midseason Break: Week 3

Well, it's the end of our 3rd week without Lost, most of my withdrawal symptoms are fading, and I'm just generally looking forward to seeing some more Lost.

As of this moment, only 14 more days left to go!

Okay, so I lied, I'm dying for a Lost fix. I'm so tempted to buy the Lost season 3 dvds, but I really want to get them on Blu-ray, and they're not available on Blu-ray over here. So I'm forced to rewatch Season 4 so far, again. Did any of y'all catch the changing machines and the different breathing apparatus of that dude when Michael was in the hospital and he dreamed about Libby? I thought that was strange.

But anyway, not a whole lot of info. According to DarkUFO, there may be another hour of Lost this season! So that takes it from 5 remaining hours to 6!

What are y'all doing to sate your Lost cravings?

Hip Hop Blog Update

So as you are probably all aware if you keep up with the NZ Hip Hop blogs, the Tour of Dirty has made it's way around NZ, and that's pretty much all the talk has been on the blogs. Well there have been a few gems posted up lately that everyone should take a look at.

First up, over on Slick Talk, Slick-Van XL (a.k.a. PNC) has a great post up about his song Just Roll. He's got a mix up that takes all the lines he references from 80s and 90s songs and puts them actual song. See if you can get them all :D He also explains about how he got the sample for the song, and it's quite an interesting story.

Next, over on Full Disclosure, P-Money's got a post about the NZ music industry, and how one might go about selling beats. The disclaimer at the start mentions it's not an indepth explanation, but even this on-the-surface look at the NZ music industry is fascinating, and worth the read.

Over on MTC, they've got a few vids of their artists up. The two I found most interesting are of Young Sid. One is a behind the scenes clip of the making of Sid's latest video for his single "My Letter", and the other is a preview of said video. The video looks like it's set to be pretty good from what I can see on the behind the scenes clip, although the preview looks quite... self-indulgent. So I won't make any decisions or anything till the whole thing comes out. I'm a fan of Sid, being from South Aucks and all, so yeah.

David Dallas is still pumping out the content like nobody's business. You'd think he'd want to relax after being on tour, I suppose that's why his manager upped the latest mix. 41 has just remixed one of my favourite songs off of Magic City, Get Back, which features none other than Dave and PNC. If I'd never heard the original beat for this, I think this could have been a great choice, but the original can't be surpassed on this occasion. So go check it out, and if you haven't heard the original, watch this after the 1.59 mark:



One more MTC post, this time from veteran DJ Sir-Vere. Dude put up a post hyping Smashproof's new stuff hard, and I've got to say it's got me excited. He makes a great point concerning Tyree, and people not feeling his flow or lyrical ability, and I have to say I was one of them. I know the guy has musical talent (I was in his music class in High School, the dude is hella talented), so it's great to here Sir-Vere say he's a lot better than he was. So yeah, I'm looking forward to hearing some new Smashproof.

Finally, we end our journey with Straight From The Horse's Mouth, Mareko's blog. Dude posted up some massive news about one of his Deceptikonz brothers, Savage, making it all the way to #16 on the iTunes US Top 100 Hip Hop charts. I think that's seriously the highest a New Zealand hip hop artist has ever gotten in any US chart... unless you count OMC as hip hop. But even then I can't remember how far they got. I may not like Savage's music, style or lyrics, but I got to give him credit for doing that, man. That's almost unbelievable.

That's all for now.

Peace

Fat Lazy Gaming

As a Fat Lazy Guy, it should be obvious that I'd like gaming. And I do. I have a PS3 and a Wii. Unfortunately, every day that I continue not to play my Wii, just makes me want to sell it that much more. It's not that I have anything against the Wii, it's just not for me. I played Wii Sports to death, and I haven't played another game that makes use of the motion sensing capabilities as good as it does.

As for the Xbox 360, again, I have nothing against it, I just prefer not to own one. I mean most of the games that are available for the Xbox 360 are available for the PS3, aside from a few exclusives.

But anyway, there are 3 or 4 games coming out soon (sort of) that I am absolutely dying to play.

1. Gran Turismo 5 - This game is just... Okay, here's how good it is. The Prologue version which could be called a demo (BUT SHOULDN'T!) went platinum before one copy was even sold. That's right, over 1 million pre-orders. That's how much people want this game. Kazunori Yamauchi has already released info that damage could be coming to Prologue as soon as fall (in the northern hemisphere) this year... DAMAGE. The one thing people held against GT for all these years will finally be a part of the GT series. And you can bet your ass it'll be perfect. Maybe not in this first iteration, but come GT5, the full game, it'll just kick your ass.

2. Grand Theft Auto: IV - If you've never heard of this game and you come from an English speaking country... I'm just sorry. One of, if not, THE MOST hyped games for this year, and it's almost here! There's not really much I can say about it except that it just looks freaking awesome.

3. Rock Band - This one's just a personal one. I've never been a fan of Guitar Hero. Hell, I've never even played it. Maybe that's because I play guitar myself and actually appreciate the subtleties of the instrument. But Rock Band takes it further, and gives you the ability to take on the role of drummer, lead singer, guitarist, or bassist. The thing about Rock Band, though, is that it's already out in America. It has been for a good while now. It hasn't however, seen a PAL edition. Europe, Aussie and NZ haven't gotten a chance to play it yet. And now that they've actually set a release date, turns out it's just for the Xbox 360. There is the option of importing it, but there's no point in importing just the game, you have to import the big box with everything in it, and that costs. So hurry the hell up, EA!

4. Home & Little Big Planet - I decided to put these together since they'll be released on the PSN, and technically Home isn't a game. Home is kind of like Second Life for the PS3, but then, it isn't JUST a Second Life-like app. It's really like a home for your PS3 online. Instead of using the chat feature on the XMB, you'd just go into Home and meet up with your friends. Then you can all decide to play a game. I believe GT5 is incorporating Home into the game, allowing you to go back and forth between them, inviting people to race and such.

Little Big Planet... well the title just explains it, really. It's this small game that does huge things and is a huge step for Sony. It could almost be seen as Sony's attempt at a Wii game for the PS3, and based on the information and footage thus far, it just looks amazing. I almost hate to put it last, because it's certainly not my least wanted game.

But anyway, those are just a few games I'm looking forward to, and y'all should be too!