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Pocket Pixel Artist
Pocket Pixel Artist
2021 | Party Game
Ahh good ol’ NES. How I miss thee. My very first video game console, and still I remember it fondly. Somewhat recently a revival of 8-bit art has flown around various mediums and board games were also infused with this love of the pixelated art style. But how well can YOU create 8-bit art? Do you think you are able to create a masterpiece with pixel cubes in, say, 60 seconds? Let’s find out.

Pocket Pixel Artist is a cube-artistry game for teams of any number of players. In it players will be assuming the roles of the next great 8-bit artist and creating magnum opuses of block art for the enjoyment of all.

DISCLAIMER: We were provided a prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this review. These are preview copy components, and I do not know for sure if the final components will be any different from these shown. Also, it is not my intention to detail every rule in the game. You are invited to download the rulebook, back the game through the Kickstarter campaign launching March 9, 2021, or through any retailers stocking it after fulfillment. -T


To setup separate the players into teams of at least two players. Shuffle the deck of prompt cards and keep the colored cubes handy for the artists. The game will last four rounds and the winning team will be they who finishes with the most Victory Points from correctly guessing assembled art pieces. Choose a team to create first and the game may begin!
On a turn one player from the active team will draw a card from the stack, choose one of the eight words on the card, and be ready to begin building the word once a 60 second timer begins. The goal of each round is to have the current artist’s team guess the word being built for a VP, but each round has slightly different rules to follow.

In the first round, “Head to Head,” each team will nominate an artist to begin. Each artist will then draw a card, choose a word to create, and then begin building their words simultaneously against the other artists. The team that guesses the word correctly first will receive more VP than the teams that follow.

The second round, “Pixel Boogaloo,” has artists choosing a word and building their art in secret. Once the 60 second timer is up the artist will then uncover their creation. The artist’s teammate(s) then have 30 seconds to guess the word. If they cannot, the next team in table order will have 30 seconds to earn a VP with a successful guess. This round is played until all players have had a chance to be both artist and guesser.

The third round, “Palette Crash,” the team to the left of the active artist’s team will choose a color from green, yellow, blue, and red to shout to the active artist. The artist will then be forced to choose one of the words on the card matching that color as well as being limited to using only cubes of the matching color (players can agree to use black and white cubes as well for an easier challenge). This word building is also done in secret and then revealed after the 60 second timer for their teammates to guess within 30 seconds. Should the teammates guess correctly the team will be awarded with 2 VP. If they fail to guess correctly, the next team in table order automatically receives 1 VP. This round is played until all players have had a chance to be both artist and guesser.


The final round, “Final Render,” the artist will draw a card, choose a word, and begin building in full view of all players. For each correct guess the guessing team will earn 1 VP toward their total. Once all players have had a chance to build in this round the game ends and VPs are tallied.
Components. This is another mint tin game of cards and colored cubes. The cards are all fine and the cubes as well. There is some art on the cards, and it is also fine 8-bit renders. I have no complaints other than the rulesheet does not fit in the tin along with the components – the tin will not shut.

Gameplay is easy for some and not so easy for others (like me). As you can see in the image above, that is my lame attempt at a rainbow. When you only have 60 seconds to create something that actually looks like what is on the card, the stress and lack of actual art talent can certainly play tricks on you (me). But that is also part of the fun. In my head I can see exactly what I want to build, but getting all the cubes in the right order and correct colors causes my hand-eye coordination to fly out the window. Others must have been better at putting the square peg in the square hole when they were babies because I just can’t do it very well as an adult.

Now, again, I am in the minority of people who just aren’t that great at this game. At least in my experience. Having the game follow different rules each round is a refreshing spin on the Pictionary style of creating something for others to guess. I do enjoy fiddling with the cubes and at least attempting to make something recognizable. I enjoy seeing many different choices on each card and not being limited to just one word on a turn. Obviously these do nothing for my artistry, but they are appreciated.

Should you be in need of a small game that gives the feel of Pictionary without being pen and paper, I urge you to check out Pocket Pixel Artist. I can see it working in many scenarios, just like its cousin from the same publisher Swearmints. At the end of the game players typically did not seem to care much about which team won, but always had a great time playing and remembering the ridiculous monstrosities that were constructed.
  
You Said You Could Draw
You Said You Could Draw
2021 | Humor, Party Game
Excuse me, title of game, but I NEVER said I could draw. Is it just me or does nearly everyone feel the need to preface every drawing game with a declaration that they are horrible artists and will probably perform disastrously? I have found this to be the case, as least for myself and about 90%+ of the people with whom I play, and it is especially rampant with the tongue-out drawers in the world. But we all still enjoy the old favorites like Pictionary and Win, Lose, or Draw! How about if we add another gimmick to these classics in order to turn the games on their ears? Enter You Said You Could Draw.

In You Said You Could Draw (I will just acronymize to YSYCD) players are attempting to win the game by scoring the most points. The provided score board has space for each player to earn 20 points, though agreements could be made by players to stop at any number of points.

DISCLAIMER: We were provided a prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this review. These are preview copy components, and I do not know for sure if the final components will be any different from these shown. Also, it is not my intention to detail every rule in the game, but to give an idea of how the game is played. You are invited to download the rulebook, back the game through the Kickstarter campaign launching May 8, 2021, or through any retailers stocking it after fulfillment. -T


To setup a game of YSYCD place the score board anywhere on the table and players choose which color board they wish to represent themselves. Players are also given a dry erase marker. The large deck of cards is placed somewhere near the score board, along with the blindfold. Players will roll the die to determine the first player, and the game may now begin!
YSYCD is played in turns until a player reaches the aforementioned ending score. On a turn a player will draw a card, roll the die, then draw. On each card is a list of six prompts to be drawn by the player and the result of the die roll determines which prompt the player must draw. Once the player is ready they will don the blindfold and begin drawing on the large board. When the masterpieces is complete the artist will write the name of the player they believe will guess correctly. Both the drawing process and the name writing are secret – no lookyloos! When the artist reveals their labor each player will secretly write their guess on their player boards, to be revealed simultaneously once all players have finished. The artist reveals their choice and the other players reveal their hilarious guesses. Points may now be awarded.

The artist will receive one point if at least one player has guessed correctly, with a bonus one point earned if the player they wrote on their board guessed correctly. Each player who guessed the prompt correctly also scores one point. If ALL players guess correctly except for one lonely player, the lonely player will earn a painful NEGATIVE two ( -2 ) points!


Players will notice that one prompt on each side of the card includes a star icon. Should this prompt be rolled for the turn the points awarded for the artists and correct guessers are three, versus the typical one. Play continues in this fashion until a player has reached the agreed score threshold and claims victory!
Components. This game boasts two large and eight smaller dry erase boards with eight dry erase markers. The boards are fine, but the markers (at least in this prototype version) are very low quality, especially the erasers. We resorted to using napkins for our erasing needs, as they did not smear as much. The 1d6 is fine, and the blindfold is very comfortable (thank you, JPN Games!). The cards are fine quality and there are 100 double-sided cards, offering 1200 prompt options to draw! I normally also cover art direction and theming here, but there is very little art, with most of it on the box cover. The box cover in this version features two players having a great time playing the game in a color VERY close to our logo’s Volt color. So I’m a fan of that for sure.

The rulebook is a simple folded cardstock that could easily become a duplexed sheet of paper or stock. The rules are incredibly simple to learn and teach, which makes this a great entry for families.

I recently broke this one out to play with my brother-in-law, his wife, and their twin 10-year-old children. When I say that it has been a long time since I laughed so hard while playing games, I certainly mean it. Most drawing games favor the talented artists of the group, but YSYCD offers the great equalizer – that blindfold. Sure, someone could be able to draw an excellent Sonic the Hedgehog (not a sponsor), but once you take away the spacial awareness drawing becomes a lot more difficult. And having a 10-year-old look into your eyes and tell you they drew a Chef instead of your guess of Quasimodo makes for a very interesting adult-child dynamic.

All in all I have had a great time with this game. The blindfold is what makes this special, and rolling the die to select the prompt causes each player to begin their turns on the same artistry level as their opponents. I dig that. A lot. I will be honest here – this is not a game that I would see at a store and be interested in buying or playing. But I gave it a shot with the family and I now have a party game that differs from my other party games in my collection and I am all the happier for it. You Said You Could Draw is not for the hard core gamer. It is for the gamer who needs a break from the brain burning and is able to relax a bit and have fun – even at their own expense. If this sounds interesting to you, I urge you to check out the Kickstarter campaign, launching May 8, 2021. Pick up a copy or two or twelve and give some away. The holidays are always just around the corner. Also, be warned that some children cannot accept that their Chef looks like Quasimodo. I learned this the hard way.
  
The High Season
The High Season
Judy Blundell | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.7 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Summer Drama never felt so good! I really enjoyed The High Season - it was just what I needed to get me into a summer mood, and it made me love to loathe the rich and famous Hamptons crowds even more! (kidding... sorta.) This book kept me wicked entertained and I breezed through it in two days. The writing is so good, hilarious at times, and the story is masterfully crafted and really clever!

Ruthie is sort of losing it all. Her marriage is over, her 15 year old daughter is struggling and distant, her job is on the rocks, friendships are tested ... and it's shaping up to be one crazy summer. The Hamptons-ish house Ruthie lives in with her daughter Jem, is rented out during the summer to the rich, in order for her to pay for it the rest of the year (aka The Summer Bummer). Adeline Clay, a wealthy artist widow rents her house and in turn, unknowingly shakes up the entire summer, for just about the whole town of Orient.

The dynamic of these characters and how their lives intertwine is artfully crafted through exclusive parties, a small local museum group, a summer farm stand job, secret rendezvous, texts/emails, and typical small town gossip. There is art forgery, a $250,000 watch, past lives and secrecy and the unnerving balance of power and social statuses. It's all so cleverly written and flows together seamlessly. I was thoroughly impressed how Judy Blundell twisted it all together so skillfully.

As an artist I love the snippets of the artist scene and it's inner workings and social circles. I loved the references to various famous artists and painting descriptions. I hated the museum board members and the way some people tossed money around and waved it in the locals and year-rounders faces. The characters were well developed and you feel for each and every one of them, especially Ruthie, who loses so much, and starts to lose herself while making some seriously questionable decisions.

My decision to read this was NOT questionable though! I really enjoyed it and would give 4.5 stars!
  
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Angelicalynnn (21 KP) rated Spotify Music in Apps

Jun 15, 2018 (Updated Jul 3, 2018)  
Spotify Music
Spotify Music
Entertainment, Music
1
8.6 (230 Ratings)
App Rating
Worst app update ever.
Seriously confused on why you “updated” this app only to make it worse? This update took away many features that users were used to having. Plus it just looks bad.
- The Premium tab is completely unnecessary! It is just there taking up space. You should have at least made it possible to purchase Premium in the tab solely dedicated to Premium.
- I am disappointed that I no longer have my saved songs. Where did these go? I had over 300 songs saved now they are no longer on my account.
- The new playlist set up is of poor design. Now when you click on a playlist you can only see some of your songs, you have to click in further to actually see the hole playlist adding an unnecessary step. Also Spotify now adds many unwanted songs to your playlist. Plus you can no longer edit your playlist ie. changing the order of the songs.
- When viewing albums again extra steps were added before you can actually reach the information you want. You can no longer add a whole album to a playlist in one step you must now add each individual song to the playlist again taking up more time.
- When viewing an Artists page there is no longer any information about the artist on their page. I like to read about a new artist before I add them and I can no longer do this.
- Design fails include: clumped together songs on playlists and albums instead of neatly listing them. The giant create button is unnecessary. The location of the heart for liking an album/artist/song.
These just list a few of the problems I now have with this app.
It almost seems like these updates were made to discourage the free users of Spotify and point out all of the cool features you could have if you purchase Premium. Unfortunately all it does is discourage users in general, if I am disappointed with the free version of the app why would I ever pay to get more bad features? Paying for Premium is not going to fix the issues I have with the app. Sorry not sorry.
  
You Got My Heart - Single by Charlotte Morris
You Got My Heart - Single by Charlotte Morris
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Rating
Charlotte Morris is a singer-songwriter based in New York. Not too long ago, she released a lovely sunshine-pop tune, entitled, “You Got My Heart”.

“I don’t always know what I wanna say when I look at you. And every time I think that I’ve made up my mind, you do something new. When I spend the whole day wondering if you’re ever gonna call, you never do. But as soon as I decide that I’m walking away, then I hear from you.” – lyrics

‘You Got My Heart’ tells an interesting tale of a young woman who is head-over-heels in love with a guy who she shares a long-distance relationship with.

But she wants to know if her beau loves her the same way how she loves him. Also, the answer to that question kinda bothers her deep down to her soul.

Later, she admits that she doesn’t know if their relationship will last because she doesn’t know if she really has him as a committed partner.

‘You Got My Heart’ contains a relatable storyline, pleasing vocals, and guitar-driven instrumentation flavored with sentimental elements.

“‘You Got My Heart’ is a sunshine-pop take on the struggles of long-distance relationships. This isn’t your typical summer song about falling in love, but it has the upbeat, bop-along groove while expressing something that can be difficult to face. Instead of wallowing in a sad ballad, this became my pump up jam as I figured out where to go next. ‘You Got My Heart’ is a great song for summer, windows-down road trips, and anyone looking to find the silver lining in a less-than-ideal situation.” – Charlotte Morris

Charlotte Morris draws inspiration from many of her favorite artists including Delta Rae, Brandi Carlile, Christina Perri, and folk legends like Peter, Paul and Mary, and Simon & Garfunkel.

Her songs, which are mostly auto-biographical, also reflect her years in the theatre. Also, when she’s not writing and releasing music, Charlotte can be seen performing in theatrical productions across the country, playing with dogs, and eating cheese.

https://www.bongminesentertainment.com/charlotte-morris-you-got-my-heart/
  
Child's Play (2019)
Child's Play (2019)
2019 | Horror
Predictably Gruesome, But Entertaining
Child's Play is a 2019 slasher/horror movie directed by Lars Klevberg and written by Tyler Burton Smith. It was produced by Orion Pictures, KatzSmith Productions, and BRON Creative and distributed by United Artists Releasing. The film stars Aubrey Plaza, Gabriel Bateman, Brian Tyree Henry, and Mark Hamill.


A revolutionary line of high-tech dolls, designed to be life-long companions to their owners, called Buddi, is launched by the Kaslan Corporation. Buddi dolls learn from their surroundings and act accordingly by connecting and operating other Kaslan products making it a success with children world wide. Before committing suicide after being fired at a Buddi assembly plant in Vietnam, an employee disables all of the doll's safety protocols on the doll he is assembling. In Chicago, Karen Barclay (Aubrey Plaza), a retail clerk, encourages her son, Andy (Gabriel Bateman), to make new friends as she prepares for his upcoming birthday. She blackmails her boss to procure a Buddi doll as an early birthday gift but once Andy activates it, the doll begins to display violent tendencies.


This movie was pretty good, and that goes for remakes/reboots. I think everyone has seen a bad Chucky movie and this is not one. I really didn't like the redesign or new look of the Chucky doll but it grew on me as the movie progressed. Also I guess I'm just so used to his voice being different, that I also didn't think Mark Hamill's voice fit either, until the movie progressed further. I agree with certain critics that complained about the inconsistent tone, and how it lacked the principal's perverse originality. It definitely didn't have the me vibe of the original but I like how it made it, its own thing. But I think this was a very successful remake. The acting from Gabriel Bateman was really good and I wound up really liking Mark Hamill's performance as well. He actually made me feel sorry for the doll. I give this movie a 7/10. And I say you should definitely check it out, especially if you are a fan of the Child's Play movies.
  
Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop
Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop
(0 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"There is something faintly off-putting about this book’s subtitle. We live in a world where the obsession with music’s past threatens to overwhelm its present, where the only music magazines that sell in any quantity deal in heritage rock, where virtually the only TV coverage of music comes via retrospective documentaries: the story of modern pop has been told and retold until it’s been reduced to a series of tired anecdotes and over-familiar landmarks. But Yeah Yeah Yeah’s brilliance lies in the personal, idiosyncratic route Bob Stanley takes through the past: for him, the modern pop era begins not with Elvis or “Rock Around the Clock”, but the release of Johnnie Ray’s 1954 album Live at the London Palladium, the first time a screaming teenage audience had been heard on record in the UK. He devotes more space to 1970 one-hit wonders Edison Lighthouse than to Led Zeppelin, delivers a withering verdict on some surprising sacred cows – Joni Mitchell, Patti Smith, Steely Dan – and is great at unearthing a forgotten quote that challenges what you might call the authorised version of events: at the height of the 1967’s Summer of Love, he finds the Who’s Pete Townshend not boggling at the new frontiers mapped out by psychedelia, but grumpily complaining that “people aren’t jiving in the listening boxes in record shops any more like we did to a Cliff Richard ‘newie’”. Stanley has a way of tackling well-worn topics – not least the Beatles – from unlikely angles, and of talking about artists you’ve never heard of with a contagious enthusiasm that makes hearing them seem like a matter of urgency. Best of all, he makes you laugh out loud while getting directly to the heart of the matter. The lugubrious late 70s output of Pink Floyd sounds like music made by people “who hated being themselves”. The punk-era Elvis Costello sang “like he was standing in a fridge”, and the experience of listening to novelty ska revivalists Bad Manners is “like being on a waltzer when you’ve had three pints and desperately need the toilet”. If you’ve ever heard them, you’ll know exactly what he means."

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Confessions of Doctor Dream and Other Stories by Kevin Ayers
Confessions of Doctor Dream and Other Stories by Kevin Ayers
1974 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

Lady Rachel by Kevin Ayers

(0 Ratings)

Track

"I’ve always had a soft spot for those artists that came out of the sort of psych-folk scene in Canterbury in the late ‘60s, but of all those performers Kevin Ayers is probably my favourite. “‘Lady Rachel’ has a real Englishness about it, which is kind of alien and almost exotic to me, because it’s a place I don’t really know much about; I never lived there. There’s something so far removed about the way he sings and pronounces words, like he’s from some far-off land. It feels like it’s come from the world of King Arthur and Alice in Wonderland and maybe a little bit of Mary Shelley or something. It’s a little bit Victorian and again, the themes are dark - it suggests death in the water. I liked that section of the ‘60s, where the psychedelic stuff was becoming a little bit more playful and wacky. “I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get really obsessed with songs and hunt down every version I can find of it. With ‘Lady Rachel’ I always felt like no one take of the song completely captured everything that was good about it; instead, each version captures one element of what I loved about it. The one that ended up on the album, Joy of a Toy, is really full and rich and very produced, but it’s played too fast and it loses a bit of the suspense - that glittery other-worldliness that gets lost in the speed of the performance. “There’s an amazing rendition of it that he did on The John Peel Show in 1973. Again, it’s a really beautiful version but there’s just this one line where he kind of steps out of character - he says “at least not very much!” in this kind of dorky, jokey voice and it undermines the mood of the rest of the song. It’s like going to see a play, getting to a critical moment and then the lead actor turns to the audience and says, ‘Hey, everyone - I’m actually just an actor.’ I’m always going, “Oh, man! Why did you do that?” Anyway, what the fuck am I doing, chasing perfection in music"

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Muito (Dentro Da Estrela Azulada) by Caetano Veloso
Muito (Dentro Da Estrela Azulada) by Caetano Veloso
1978
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"There was a record store in the Times Square subway station, and another one on 42nd Street, both of which had big “international sections,” as they called it. It included everything from the rest of the world, all on vinyl, but with no information. You’d look at the cover and go, What’s this like? It was a total crapshoot. But occasionally, I’d hear something that would blow my mind, like a Fela Kuti record; the first one I picked up was called Expensive Shit, and obviously I picked that up because of the title. The covers were the best—like Cambodian pop records with a bunch of people in traditional garb, all holding electric guitars—and you’d look at them for clues. You’d think, What in the world could that be? You’d buy it, and it would be pretty cool. In 1986, I did a fiction film called True Stories. I guess you would call it a musical comedy. We were doing the mixing in San Francisco, so I’d go down to the big Tower Records on North Beach and go to the international section. One day, I came back with a whole bunch of Brazilian records, because I had maybe heard of a couple of the artists, but didn’t really know what their records were like. One was a Caetano Veloso record called Muito, and then there was a Milton Nascimento record, and probably a Gilberto Gil record, and those blew my mind. They had elements that were psychedelic and that had a Brazilian feel. They were really beautiful, but then I dug a little bit more and found out they were also really political. These guys had been exiled, thrown in jail. I was connecting with it, and I realized that my generation didn’t know any of this music. So I asked our record label, “Can we license this music, and can I make a compilation of my favorite cuts?” That one record led to another one: There was a Brazilian series, then a Cuban series, because Cuban music had not been available in the United States for decades. And I started my own label, Luaka Bop."

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Negro Prison Blues and Songs by Alan Lomax
Negro Prison Blues and Songs by Alan Lomax
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I first heard Alan Lomax's work while I was at university. I did music with visual art and film, but luckily at that time, it was just before this tutor left that had run it for 25 years, and he was quite old school but great because it was still fairly shambolic as a course and there was some good soulful stuff. Alan Lomax did lots and lots of field recordings around America and archived folk, blues and negro music and porchstep music. This particular album is when he went to Mississippi and Louisiana state penitentiaries and documented the prisoners as they were working in cotton fields. They've got music in their blood and that's what came through, I think. It's just absolute badass, amazing rhythms and there's a sort of sex to the music - they're singing about [sings] "be my woman and I'll be your man!", because they're obviously randy as hell and stuck in a fucking prison and working under really difficult conditions in the heat. There are different tracks where you can hear a load of axes and chains, and they would sing along to the axes hitting the stone, choirs of beautiful voices of men. 'Old Alabama's a really good one and 'Rosie' and what's so interesting is that I would listen to that and instantly there'd be a spider diagram going out. PJ Harvey on To Bring You My Love's 'Goodnight', she just stands there with a stick and hits it and there's a guy doing slide guitar. Moby, embarrassingly, sampled loads of it for free. Nick Cave and loads of artists I've loved, you just see bits of it in their music, it's that deep, dark, gothic soul, blues music. This is the raw, concentrated, original bit. There's a kind of spiritual rawness to it, they're spiritual songs about missing love and family. "I'll spend the rest of my days in these four stone walls." The fact that this mad white guy from somewhere decided to go and capture all of these voices - I know there are a lot of rights issues surrounding Alan Lomax, but I think just in terms of being an archivist, I think a lot of that stuff would've been completely lost, so it's great."

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