I'm obsessed, Janelle Monae edition

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   Dear readers, I've been super busy lately.  My writing is in high demand, now!  I've got a review to write on Invizimals (a PSP game) for Blogcritics, I've got aricles I'm writing for ehow.com, and I've been writing articles for Dragon Blogger, as well.

  My personal blog, this one, is still very important to me, and part seven of 'A Brief History of the Web' will be online tomorrow, but not today, as I originally said.

  My 'Obsessions' series posts take a lot less time to create than my longer, more text and research heavy articles.  I didn't want to miss a second day posting here, so I'm writing another 'Obsessions' article, as a snack to tide you over until tomorrow.

  There is a very talented young lady who released her first complete major label album in May.  Her name is Janelle Monae, and she's getting a lot of recent buzz, deservedly.  (Unlike some people I know, cough, cough, Ke$ha, cough, cough!)

  I love innovative soul and hip hop, and her recordings are revolutionary.

  The album she released in May, The ArchAndroid, is a very creative concept album, loosely based on the classic 1920s film, Metropolis.

   My fellow Blogcritics writer, Jelani Sims, wrote a very thoughtful review of The ArchAndroid.  You should check it out!

   Enjoy a little bit of the album here:

  See you tomorrow!

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I'm obsessed, Jamiroquai edition

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    It's the return of my cheesy obsessed/music/Youtube series!  This is my equivalent of speeding down the road, in my car (I don't drive!) with the stereo blasting at top volume.

   'Hey, everyone!  I'm so cool!  I've got such great taste in music!  Listen to it!'

   People who know me well know that I'm one of the biggest Jamiroquai fans in Canada.  Most Canadians are totally unfamiliar with Jay Kay and company, so I don't have much competition here.

    The good thing about being a Canadian Jamiroquai fan is that when the band plays Toronto once every 3-5 years, I get to go to an intimate gig at the Koolhaus, instead of having to go to a massive over 50,000+ capacity arena like Wembley Stadium in London, England.

   Well, the last time Jamiroquai played Canada was at Toronto's Koolhaus in November 2005.  That was the last Jamiroquai concert I attended.

   Now that Jamiroquai have left Sony and signed to Mercury, the first totally new album since 2005's Dynamite will be released next month, Rock Dust Light Star.  I expect Jamiroquai will play Koolhaus again this winter or spring 2011.

   If you are a Toronto-area Jamiroquai fan, I'm sure I'll see you there.

   I've been a huge fan since Return of the Space Cowboy (a masterpiece!) so I'm really looking forward to RDLS.

  I know us long time fans often say that Jamiroquai's sound hasn't been the same since Stu Zender left, forcing Synchronized to be rerecorded with a new bassist.  But, I think Synchronized, A Funk Odyssey and Dynamite had plenty of gems.

   What disappoints me is when Jay wants to get all experimental and veer away from the acid jazz or funk genres.  World That He Wants had a great political message, but I'm not a fan for the ballads, you know!

   So, for me, first single Blue Skies was a big disappointment.  White Knuckle Ride is pretty good, though, I don't care what the other fans on funkin.com say about it.  But the videos for BS and WKR are very similar, and quite boring.

   Yes, Jay, I know you can pilot a helicopter!  I don't care!

   Most of the other tracks on RDLS are very promising, though.  Here's a Youtube video with 30 second samples from each and every track:

 And here's White Knuckle Ride, without the cheesy video:

  Here's some classic Jamiroquai, from ROTSC and Emergency on Planet Earth, respectively:

And, to finish, a couple of my favourite B-sides:

  See you tomorrow afternoon for part six of 'A Brief History of the Web'!

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I am OBSESSED with these songs, Jazz Funk edition

   I'm very busy churning out articles for this blog and for Blogcritics, but there's always time for music!

   This time, I'm focusing on a genre, not one artist in particular.  In an hour or so, I'll be posting an article here about DADT and the Chilean miners.  Until then, enjoy!

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A handy guide to the Fall 2010 anime season...

  Here is my handy guide to the Fall 2010 anime season, for all you otaku out there.  There isn't much for me to contribute to what's already out there, so I have a few handy resources all listed in one post.  You can find out what you want to watch, then go ahead and watch it, all from here.


  Series I'll be trying:

• Panty and Stocking with Garter Belt: Because it sounds so absurd.  I like stuff like Excel Saga, Paniponi Dash and UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie, so bizarre, grotesque humour is right up my alley.  Anyone who watches this show will either love it or hate it.

• The Hidamari Sketch specials, because I love SHAFT.

• Hetalia Axis Powers fourth season: Because if you understand that Hetalia doesn't give accurate history lessons, and you can laugh at national stereotypes, you'll like this season as much as the ones before.  This is a DO NOT MISS for me.

•  My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute:  Based on a light novel that explores otaku culture.  'Nuff said.

 So, what should you watch?

• Check out Anime News Network's preview guide for reviews.
• Simplicity blog has some good reviews.
• T.H.A.T. Anime Blog's got a great preview, too.

 An excellent visual guide is provided by chartfag.wordpress.com.

  Now, are you ready to watch?


 Do the anime community a favour, and make sure that if there are any series you want to watch that have been licensed by Crunchyroll, that you watch them there.


 List of series licensed by Crunchyroll as of this writing (you can click on each show name to watch each series):

• Fortune Arterial
• Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt
• Squid Girl
• Sora no Otoshimono F
• Super Robot Wars OG: The Inspector
• Yumeiro Patissiere Professional
• The World Only God Knows

 For other titles, you can check out which fansub group is handling which series, and find out when new episodes will be airing in Japan on the Fansub Wiki.


 FTP and HTTP episode downloads are available from downloadanime.org.


  Animesenshi.com is an excellent torrenting resource, download torrents directly from here.


  And last, but not least, Veoh is much better than Youtube for streaming anime, because more fansubs get uploaded to Veoh, and Veoh doesn't take them down quickly like Youtube does.


  What do you think of this season?  Leave me a comment...











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I am OBSESSED with these songs, Al Jarreau edition

  Ah, my last post for today.  I did a previous post featuring a Youtube video of a Bob James song that I LOVE, but I've got to be one of the biggest Al Jarreau fans in the world.


 Today's a great day for lots of awesome Al Jarreau music!  Enjoy!










































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I am OBSESSED with this song!

  I am OBSESSED with this song right now.  It's Bob James at his finest, recording a Rod Temperton song, and Rod happens to be one of my all time favourite songwriters.


  The Steamin' Feelin'













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