Rappers love sampling Street Fighter…And it’s much appreciated by me as a funny (and sometimes even pretty dope) combination my 2 favorite pastimes. Dorrough joins the ranks of Lupe Fiasco, some random named Sidewayz, & even Gandhi, showcasing his love for the stretchy fool you could never win with.

Dorrough Music – Yoga Fire
[via Stay Hatin’]

Catherine – Rossini - William Tell Overture Part 2 'The Storm' And Part 3 'The Ranz Des Vaches'
Catherine - Borodin - Polovtsian Dances
Catherine - Bizet - L'Arle'sienne Second Suite 'Farandole'
Catherine - Bach - 'Little' Fugue In G Minor
Catherine - Chopin - Piano Sonata No. 2 'Funeral March' 3rd Movement

So recently in the Fighting Game Community, there’s been a big fuss about Catherine, a puzzle game with a seductive, but surprisingly mature storyline. In fact, much of the hype is due to a few friends of mine, and their hilarious streaming & commentary on their respective playthroughs of the game. Check ‘em out over at FinestKO.

While I have yet to play the game for myself, for the past few weeks I have had the tunes from the game wafting through my head, seducing me much as the titular character entices the player. And I’m not the only one.

Many of my friends who normally find themselves singing along in Japanese to anime & game themes, or spinning glowsticks to House & Techno, have fallen captive to Catherine’s soundtrack. While game music garnering a cult following among gamers is nothing particularly new, what is interesting is that the songs heard during the gameplay sections of Catherine are all arranged versions of classical pieces.

Old (and recognizable) standbys such as Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus”, Chopin’s “Funeral March”, & pieces from Rossini’s “William Tell Overture” obviously have crossover value due to their introduction into popular culture through cartoons & television. But they are also joined by relatively unknown pieces by newer composers such as Borodin, Mussorgsky & Dvořák.

While I can’t say I listen to classical music often, I can say that I do enjoy the genre, and that I’ve been introduced to many of these pieces beforehand. It’s awesome to see new life breathed into these pieces, so that they may find a wider audience, and perhaps even entice some to expand their musical horizons and listen to the music of some—as my friend put it— “old white guys in wigs”.

I was just getting into the Muxtape Fluid.app too...

So I came a little late to the Muxtape party. After sleeping on it for a while–I figured I had enough new music with all the mp3 blogs–I got around to trying it out, and instantly fell in love with its simplicity. But though I listened to a quite a few tapes, I never got around to making one of my own.

Well that changes now.

Thanks to OpenTape, which allows you to host your own Muxtape, I’ve finally created my own online mix. The whole thing runs at about 1hour & 18 minutes, so one could download and burn it if they so choose. With the exception of aforementioned MP3 links, OpenTape looks and works almost identically to the Muxtape of yore.

As always, my mixes are a slice of my current music listening pie, and are highly personalized/eclectic. Inside, you’ll find “Golpe De Estado” (aka Coup d’etat), an all Spanish rap from Immortal Technique’s 3rd World Order. Damn I wanna see this one live! (Tech is fuckin’ bomb when he performs). There are also a few hipstery-tracks from Adult Swim’s . You might recognize Osborne’s “Wait a Minute” from some of the late night bumps that show up during the best 4 hours on tv. Finally, there’s also some piano renditions of a few epic Super Mario Galaxy themes. I got these from a few users on YouTube, where there’s a whole scene of piano players covering and sheeting video game music. They’ve all inspired me to dust off those old Chrono Trigger sheets I printed out a year ago and start workin’ those digits!

Speaking of YouTube…

OpenTape isn’t the only service that carries on the spirit of the Mux. Like its open-source cousin, MixTube also tries to duplicate the mixtape interface of the original, but instead of uploading MP3s, MixTube uses YouTube videos as the source for the tracks. It’s a little clunky, but it works. I just recently got into the whole YouTube music video scene (I lagged mainly because the audio was crappy, but that’s changed since the “High Quality” option came about), and made a couple of Nintendo themed mixes. Check it out before it’s shutdown.

So while MuxTube may have been cut down by the IP hoodlums,just like the mythical Hydra, twice as many heads pop up to replace it. When will they learn?

Who knows, but as Justin Ouellette, the creator of MuxTape states, “The industry will catch up some day, it pretty much has to.”

Long Live the MixTape!

PS: For some unknown reason, some of the tracks’ total times are messed up. Weird.

Almost walked outta the store; then I re-picked Kart.

Charge it, done deal.

Came home and misplaced it.

I didn’t even try to play it.

Are my days as a Gamer done?

I dunno. I just wanna say that I didn’t care cuz I heard that MKwii was shit and that cycles ruined the game buuuuut…

I played it.

Jump powerslides are reminiscent of OG SNES MK (enough acronymns for ya?), or at least so I believe. I haven’t figured out the boost system for MKwii yet… right now it seems that you simply “charge up” a speed boost, but I doubt that’s all there is to it. There’s depth to this game; it should not be slept on. Fuck. I gotta take this game seriously! No looking for contacts, kill the monks!

We’ll see.

But really though?

Its crazy that I said “We’ll see.”

I never would have said that before. Game woulda been analyzed harder and faster than any magazine reviewer. Back in the day, I was a gamer. I didn’t need no review or strategy guide to tell me how to play a game. Sadly, this was Ninja Gaiden that we were talking about, so beatdowns were given without any mercy. I woulda beat that bird through shear tenacity. Sadly, the bird wasn’t even a part of the equation

So I watch broadened my youtube watching from the realm of funny commercials, inspiring speeches, video tutorials and fighting game matches (in roughly that order), to include the world of StarCraft. For those of you who care nothing of Pro Gaming (in Korea E-gaming is just as valid a sport as soccer), forgive me as I geek out.

In this particular video, one of my favorite players—who is in the midst of a post-championship slump—named “Savior” (The Maestro of Zerg) is seen here in this epic 30-minute battle. For those of you who know whats up, this has a nice “Pimpest Play” and is well worth it. Those of you who don’t know your zerglings from templar, you might enjoy the highlights below with the knowledge that the main commentator is also an undying Savior fan, and is takes out his frustration with the Maestro’s recent failures by trashtalking his opponents.

(If you’re watching this match elsewhere, the YT time is ahead of gametime by 8 seconds).

2:18

“Regardless of his skilIs, and demonstrations as a player, I have very little respect for FireBatZERO”

ZERO. Hah! Yeah, FBH is no Hero in my eyes either… but I must admit its pretty funny to watch. As some would say, “Its just a game”. And to that I would reply: “And so is ___ball!; and people riot over that”

16:34~16:44

“Savior’s got a big mass group of Mutalisks… Looks likes he’s just focusing on that CC…I think he would have been better off killing lots of SCVs…”

I don’t understand pro’s latest obsessions w/ suiciding to kill CCs/Nexus/Hive, especially when the same time could have been used to kill all workers and then some (especially against repairing Terrans). But picking off the CC @ 22:14 was gold, and was the beginning of the end of the end.

22:49~22:57

“Savior KILLS THE CC! I CANNOT BELIEVE Savior has managed to kill that command center. Savior, sends in a Ninja Stealth task force to take out that expansion!”

First time I can remember (at least in a while) getting out of my chair and pumping my fist during a commentary.

Thank god for Savior. Though I’m sure he knew that it took longer than it should/could have.

Good game sense from Diggity too; nice calls on the vultures & lategame mutas

29:24~29:38

Fantasy’s got ONE Goliath. And that goliath’s going to DIE. And then the Science Vessels are going to DIE. (He managed to get a couple Irradiates off, actually, on a couple of the mutalisks. But that’s not gonna bother Savior too much).
But the goliaths are DEAD. Now the siege tanks will DIE, and then Fantasy will DIE. So byebye Fantasy; that’s the end of his fantasy”

Fuckin’ Klaz! Love this revival of the maestro much?

I love these commentaries :) Go to SC2GG for more videos, and join the great community there, whether you’re gosu or newb.

Please play this game.

…And another Videogame changes my life.

Passage

So during these last few days of my Vacaville Summer, I’ve been doing a lot of CAGing around. I’ve picked up a decent load: 2 ‘Speed’ games (Sonic Rush for DS and F-Zero GP Legend for GBA) and 2 RPGs (Suikoden Tactics and DQ VIII). Sadly though, I missed my opportunity to get my dream… =(((

I know its kinda late… but the night of the World Cup I got something like this in my e-mail. Even after all has been forgotten, this stuff still gets a good laugh outta me. And I don’t even watch soccer that much (anymore… hehe)

I’ve also got Sly 2 and Beyond Good and Evil ($9.98 each) waiting for me back in San Diego. In order to get free shipping for it though, I picked up something I’ve had on my wishlist forever now.

Kaki King – Everybody Loves You

I forget where I originally heard about her, and I didn’t even bother to listen to it again before I got it. Trusting my ULTRA KEEN sense in music impulse took over and I clicked blindly. Though the album’s a little short, (less than 40 minutes), “Everybody Loves You” has become one of my favorite chill-time albums. You’ve gotta listen to her play… its kinda hard to describe in words. So… here ya go!

Kaki King Carmine St.

Her style is hella refreshing… simply… man. Apparently she’s got a new album out too… gotta check that out.

Sadly though, this CD is the only gift I’ll be able to use for a while (cept for some threadless shirts), seeing that I bought games for systems that I don’t have yet.
I’m so silly sometimes.

As you can see… I’m getting there again.

I’ve been playing a lot of marvel again… that game just never gets old. 6 years and still strong! I’m currently trying to learn Sent/Storm/CapCom (yeah… I finally went to the darkside and dropped doom for capcom). I can’t fastfly for shit anymore!

Other than that… I’ve just been kickin it with Lyon, drinking New Castle, and trying to stay up with my routines.

Yeeeeeah…

Oh, here’s my new favorite song as of today: Dream Island Obsessional Park A kinda techno japanese adhan… or something. I wonder if it uses elements from traditional Japanese music forms…if so… it seems that’s what has caught my interest as of late.

Its from the Paranoia Agent anime… which is quite interesting in its own right, from what I’ve seen!

omg i love games

(just testing a plug…)

NowPlaying: Stereolab – Avant Garde M.O.R.

Apparently this game is the shit.

Exactly the wrong kinda thing to be posting around Finals.

Yeah… that’s what I’ve been up to (not the game, Finals! I haven’t played the game yet…). Sorry site =(

Who knows what’ll come Spring Break though…