I don’t know what to do. I like Cat Fancy a lot. I’ve put a lot of time into this site, and I’m proud of what we’ve all done. But I also agree with John. This is supposed to be a team effort. Colin and Nancy just aren’t pulling their weight.
So here we are. Where do we go next? I really don’t know.
You know I really tried to do a T3 at the last second, but I simply couldn’t beat the clock. Since I see no point in having a group blog if only me and Sean make posts, I’m just gonna go back to doing all my posts on my own blog, at least until somebody picks up the slack. This place is like dullsville man…
Into Thin Air (1996)
By: Jon Krakauer
Here’s a new occasional segment, for any Cat Fancy contributor that wants to discuss any literature they feel compelled to talk about, I call it “Bookin’ It” I bet you’d never thought you’d see on the Cat Fancy Blog, a book review. That’s right, it wasn’t any school assignment or anything, I willingly like to read when I can find the time and just recently, I finished Jon Krakauer’s “Into Thin Air” This non- fiction book by Seattle author Jon Krakauer recalls the chilling and tragic ascent of Mt. Everest in 1996 (Of which Krakauer was a part of) where the most recorded death’s on Everest took place. (This being 15 deaths for the season and 8 of which took place on May 11th) Naturally I originally knew Krakauer as the author of “Into the Wild” but decided to start with one of his other novels. “Into Thin Air” tells of Krakauer’s personal experiences while climbing Mt. Everest and is as well a chilling portrayal of survival in one of the harshest environments in the world. This catastrophic event brought on by storms and other complications led not only to the death of a handful of clients and experienced sherpas but as well two very experienced guides. This including notable American climber Scott Fischer and New Zealand mountaineer Rob Hall.
The book begins as journalist/author Jon Krakauer is given the chance by “Outside Magazine” to accompany an ascent of Everest led by the highly skilled climber Rob Hall. Krakauer being an experienced climber agreed to accompany the group and in the Spring of 96′ set out towards the summit of Mt. Everest. Along the way of this brutal expedition, Krakauer tells us about some of the history behind Everest, the people involved in commercial climbing, and the many conditions that the human body goes through in the ascent of a mountain. From the the tolls it takes on a person’s mental stability to the agony it puts the human body through, we learn what it’s truly like to be on Everest. Not to mention the severe consequences that can come with the great task. “Into Thin Air” (as dark and solemn as it is) is as well an informative and compelling novel told with great detail and complete honesty. Chalked full of defintions and explantions of everything you need to know about mountain climbing, “Into Thin Air” is a powerful story and certainly had me absorbed for a good month.
So even though I agree with John that Nancy and Colin should write more, it’s actually been the longest since I wrote one of these. So I guess I’ll give it a shot.
Journey – Escape (1981)
Journey is one of those bands that has a series of pretty good songs spread out in a large library of pretty bad songs. So I thought for the first in what will probably be my on-going series of Journey reviews, I would start with the album that first attracted me to the band, “Escape.” I say album, but really what enticed me was the hit song, “Don’t Stop Believing,” which I’m sure everyone’s heard. I mean, it was on Family Guy.
Escape was the seventh studio album from the band, and at the time its most successful and best reviewed. It was noted for Steve Perry’s lively singing and the band’s more rock-oriented song. Escape is everything you would guess Journey in the 1980’s would sound like, extremely keyboard and guitar heavy.
Opening with the aforementioned “Don’t Stop Believing,” what follows never quite gets that good, but, surprisingly, is enjoyable enough. There’s a certain electricity that flows through the album that kind of makes it fun to listen to. The song “Open Arms” was used in Heavy Metal, which South Park recently made culturally relevant again.
So is “Escape” worth picking up? Probably not. I mean, if you like what you’ve heard of Journey, it’s worth a shot, I guess. It does not exceed expectations and is extremely Eighties, but it is enjoyable enough in its own right. And sometimes that’s enough.
Favorite Track: “Don’t Stop Believing”
Remember when they announced that you would get a guitar, drums, mic and Rock Band for $179, it seemed like a reasonable price? Well it turns out we were getting an incredible deal.
EA recently announced that Rock Band would be coming out for the Xbox 360 only late this May (the 23rd) in Europe. So six months later and only on one console. That already kind of sucks. But now they’ve released pricing details, which are a joke. There’s the instrument edition, which comes with one guitar, one drum kit and a mic, which costs £130/€170. That’s right, there’s no game. To get the game, it’ll cost you £50/€70. For those of you that don’t understand European money, that means that to get the whole Rock Band experience, which I remind you cost us $170, we’ll cost them about $378. More than double what we payed.
A smaller price increase is expected, gaming is more expensive in Europe. But come on, this is ridiculous! For $378, I’d expect the entire DLC library on the disc. Do they get that? No. They do get a few extra songs:
Now we all know German music is perfect for Rock Band, but these are only 9 songs. I’m not sure how that will even work if you don’t speak French or German or English. Will they translate them? Anyway, those tracks will be available as DLC in the U.S. too, probably around the European release. Once again, it kicks ass to be American.
Okay, Sean and I can’t just do these posts everyday, I’m talking to you Tweelde Dumb and Tweedle Dee. Anyways, Hakeem Olajuwon and Patrick Ewing were inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. So let us all remember the greatness of 90s basketball. Especially Mr Ewing for his brilliant acting in Space Jam and for his pathetic stint here in Seattle, where he came to die. AS for “Hakeem The Dream” I’ll always remember his impressive grace as one of the best centers in basketball, especially when he stuffed that shit. I guess some other guys like coaches or something were inducted as well, but I couldn’t care less. Anyways let’s keep those blogs a coming, otherwise I’ll be pushed over the edge.
Charlton Heston, outspoken former-president of the NRA and celebrated film star, passed away Saturday evening. He was 84. Read more on IMDb.
The timing of his death seems really strange to me, it seems like ever since John and I watched Get Shorty I’ve heard his name mentioned multiple times. Just a coincidence, I suppose.
I’m probably not the best guy to talk about Heston, I haven’t even seen Ben-Hur yet, but I’ll freely admit that while I didn’t care for his NRA work, I respect the Hell out of his film career. I mean with films like Planet of the Apes and Soylent Green how can you not like him?
So, sadly, another great Hollywood icon has passed on. But he leaves us behind a body of work that future generations will be able to look back on and enjoy. We’ll miss you, Chuck.
