Yeah, Well, Cool.

I don't know about some people, but Twitter, the social media platform that I used to think was "Facebook without the Faces...or the books, for that matter" is just suited for my mind. In my schoolyard days, I would make quips and one-liners that would merely evaporate into the ether, never to be heard again. Then as time went on, writing for the satirical school magazines, I'd make up headlines without copy to go underneath - why should I? The headline was amusing enough, why sully it with even more words? If the joke delivers itself a laugh, why keep going and risk falling flat by adding more bullshit to it?

Trending topics like "failed TV pilots" allow for people to flex their creative muscle in a discrete format. I enjoy seeing some of the wonderful creations people come up with. Even better when others give me a "ReTweet" for something I've contributed.

Sure, some people (read: Elyse) think I'm a complete wanker, but for "media professionals" such as myself ("yeah, you're still retarded though" I can hear her say) that have something to say, no matter how condensed, it can be a very useful tool to connect to other people with. Doesn't that make you feel all special?

In actual news: I'm going to review about a million discs this month and I have an interview with Amorphis in the can. Sounds like...fun

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http://twitter.com/crushtor

What do we call Metal?

Looking at various metal websites and publications, the new track produced by Blind Guardian for the Sacred 2 RPG (the inevitable formalizing of the relationship between Blind Guardian and uber-nerdy genre RPGs) has been described as "progressive metal." Recently, many bands have also been labeled as progressive. Now, the ultra-rigid pedantic metalhead bastard in me wants to scream "No it isn't!"; and well, using progressive as a catch-all term in metal seems apt, since "progressive" metal seems to be on a higher level of abstraction than most other sub-genres.

People use the word "progressive" as a synonym for "complex" which others take as "superior." Blind Guardian are the genre leaders of Power Metal and show more variation than repetition in their music. They are also ahead of their time in their approaches to songwriting. Hence the rationale behind "progressive." Black Metal are the most ardent Aristotelians; they class many black metal influenced bands, which would would be best termed under the umbrella of "black metal" as not, instead using the term for an elite cadre of bands that pioneered the genre. Since the cult-like fandom of black metal enthusiasts do not own the rights to the term, it is used much more liberally than they would care for. Also of note that the label of Progressive Metal has crept up to include non-Power Metal based bands such as Opeth, Gojira and Mastodon as of late, all bands that employ death vocals in preference to clean singing exclusively.

Thus more confusion abounds when describing "Heavy Metal" and "Metal" - the latter term in favor during the late 70s and early 90s until newer audiences lopped the "Heavy" from the name and merely used "Metal" to describe the entire genre. If you ask Gen X/Y's what Baby Boomers refer to as "Heavy Metal" they may agree on Iron Maiden and such, but beyond the 90s with the rise of melodic death, nu-metal and etc., the younger generation tend to get more specific while the older generation prefer to continue to use the term "Heavy Metal" instead.

Using an abstraction ladder, I believe that we can appropriately order the terms to avoid confusion, hence:

Blind Guardian -> Power Metal -> Progressive Metal -> Metal (or Heavy Metal)

Please note that Power Metal is not a direct subset of Progressive Metal. However the genre terms have yet to please anyone beyond doubt; the bar-room debate as to whether X band is part of Y genre shall inevitably continue as we both hear the same music flowing from our speakers but ultimately decide to call it something else.

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http://twitter.com/crushtor

In Error

Well, what exactly have I been doing? Looking up websites. It's what I do. Oh, and try to transmit myself across the internet to the girl I'm totally in love with. So far it hasn't been working. I'll have to buy that plane ticket after all. Damn it all to hell!

Which is kind of daunting, to say the least. Arriving in Seppoland and getting all my necessary paperwork in order might just drive me batty. I'll be set up there in no time at all, I just don't have much fundamentals here, scarcely less than over there (but still more, damn you!). I'm sort of stuck, scrambling for ideas on how to pass myself off as a journalist when next to no-one believes that's what I (have been) do(ing) since I was in high school, essentially. Except for those 20 readers a day. I love YOU guys heaps.

I've got interviews set up with all kinds of interesting people; but I can't for the life of me figure out who wants to read about them. In a world that thrives on hearsay, uninterested as hapless facts look on in disillusion, what exactly do I do?

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http://twitter.com/crushtor