Articles by Michael Anderson

The Grammy’s Again Raise the Question: WHY Did I Stay up So Late for this Crap?

YOU MUST READ THIS POST! IT IS GOING TO BE HISTORIC! EVERYONE WILL BE TALKING ABOUT IT! I swear that every time I heard that last night during the Grammy Awards, I was certain of one thing – mediocrity was the best thing to hope for. If ‘everyone would be talking’, it would be like Nicki Minaj’s terrible performance that might signal her 15 minutes has played out with her singular stylistic droppings getting tiresome.

Music Diary, News & Features

RIP Whitney Houston, One of the Truly Great Voices of Popular Music

Yesterday we heard about the death of Whitney Houston, one of the all-time best selling female vocalists. She was extremely popular from the mid-80’s through the 90’s, but more than that she brought to the stage a voice that ranks her among the great all-time vocalists in popular music. Here is a bit from the news item: Whitney Houston, who reigned as pop music’s queen until her majestic voice and regal image were ravaged by drug use, erratic behavior and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, has died. She was 48. Publicist Kristen Foster said Saturday that the singer…

Game Diary, Reviews

Virtual City for the Kindle Fire Review

A while agoI reviewed the iPhone and iPad versions of Virtual City, noting that my only real complaint was the lack of a sandbox mode – and the high initial price of the iPad version (which has been lowered). The game already took advantage of the high resolution Retina display which made it shine on the iPad, so my assumption was that there would be a minimal difference in the move to the Kindle Fire. Turns out I was right … and wrong. Read on to find out what I mean. The Hype: Build a city of your dream –…

Music Diary, Reviews

Journey Greatest Hits, Volume 2 Review

Journey – Greatest Hits, Volume 2 When you look at some of the best ‘greatest hits’ collections, it is hard to think about augmenting them by going back to the same well a second time. The Beatles 62-66 and 67-70 are complete enough that a second set would feel superfluous, the same is true with the Rolling Stones Hot Rocks, The Eagle’s Greatest Hits and so on. Journey’s Greatest Hits is one of the top-selling collections of all time, posting more than 25 million albums sold through the years. Now we get Volume 2 of the greatest hits, encompassing basically…

News & Features

Check Out this Awesome Recreation of the Original Star Tours Disney Ride!

Have you ever taken a ride on Star Tours at Disney? The first time we went as a family in 2001 was on a Star Wars Weekend, and taking the Star Tours ride was a major part of the fun for all of us. We rode it again the other two trips we made, and it possesses great memories, although it is clear that it is time for a revamp. This year the ride gets that revamp – but an independent film maker has recreated the entire ride in a 2D and 3D video experience! Here are some details: In…

Game Diary, Reviews

Special Enquity Detail – The Hand that Feeds for Kindle Fire Review

Mix together a crime-drama mystery, puzzles, hidden objects, and tons of twists and turns and intrigue … and you have the makings of one of the most compelling casual games made this year. The name of that game is “Special Enquiry Detail: The Hand that Feeds” from G5 Entertainment, and I reviewed the iPad release earlier this year. Now it is available for Android! Let’s take a look and see how the port stands up to the original release!

Music Diary, Reviews

Vinyl Re-Visions: The Art Ensemble of Chicago – Reese and the Smooth Ones (Jazz, 1969)

Art Ensemble Of Chicago – Reese And The Smooth Ones When I first thought about doing a ‘Vinyl Revisions’ series, there were three records that came to mind: Anthony Braxton’s Five Pieces 1975, Steve Lacy’s The Wire, and this record. As mentioned in a comment on my Braxton review, that music was compiled in 2008 on the Complete Arista Recordings as a digital release. This record was briefly available in 2002 on Get Back Records as a CD release but has otherwise been out of print – even though Amazon claims a 2009 re-release on vinyl, it has been ‘out…

Editorials, Music Diary

Reflections on the Music Industry in 2011

Over the last couple of weeks details about the music industry results for 2011 have been trickling in, and at this point I figured it was time to share a few interesting (to me, anyway) tidbits … and then discuss them in more detail. Here’s one of the points that I think is really important that also really makes me smile: I am enjoying watching the industry rush to get behind Adele (or more to the point, jump on her bandwagon), while in reality they were never rooting for her. Her album didn’t have huge marketing, and took off thanks…

Reviews

Adobe Premiere Elements 10 & Photoshop Elements 10 Review

If you use a Mac, then you probably use iPhoto for basic image editing and iMovie for basic video editing. But what if you use a PC? The tools included there are not nearly as capable, friendly or integrated. And what if you want to go further than the basic editing capabilities of the iTools? That is where Adobe Premiere Elements 10 & Photoshop Elements 10 come in – offering integrated photo and video editing and production tools for both OS X and Windows 7. The folks at Adobe sent me a review copy, so let’s take a look!

Editorials, Game Diary

Sony Finds One Last Way to Screw US PSP Owners

They say that if you want to learn something about a person take a look at how they treat people they DON’T have to be nice to – you know, anyone from kids to animals to waiters and store clerks. If a person treats them poorly without reason they are, quite simply, a lousy person. And you can only expect to receive the same down the line. On the other hand, if they treat you AND others well, you have a partner you can count on. I can hear you saying ‘what is it NOW, Anderson? What are you griping…

Music Diary, News & Features

10 Artists Who Never Got a Grammy And a Presentation We Won’t See This Year

Before the Grammy Awards last year I highlighted performances by Miles Davis and the double-genre performance by Wynton Marsalis that took more than 10 minutes and would be impossible today … if those categories still even existed. The Grammy Awards are now all about corporate self-congratulation, highlighting the few artists who sell all the records and those who get rich on their backs. Last year there was outrage when Justin Beiber had “his” best new artist award ‘stolen’ by the amazingly talented Esperanza Spalding (of course, ANYONE in the category was/is more talented than Beiber, but that is beside the…

Game Diary, Reviews

Supermarket Mania 2 for the Kindle Fire Review

I loved the PC version of SuperMarket Mania 2, and now that it is available for iPhone and iPad I wanted to take another look and see how it would work as a port! Read on and find out how they did! The Hype: Nikki and her friends are back in Supermarket Mania 2! Help her uncle Ross manage and run his chain of grocery stores on the other side of the country. Keep the supermarket shelves stocked up, floors clean and customers coming as you work on improving the stores and increasing profits. It’s not all peachy though, as…

Music Diary, News & Features

FingerLabs Pounds the Beat with Awesome DM1 iPad Update!

The sophistication of music production tools for the iPad is simply staggering. I can do more on my iPad than my entire multi-thousand dollar mini-studio from the 90’s could ever hope to accomplish! It has gotten to the point where a solid app that lacks a few features – MIDI in, AudioCopy, etc – will get passed over by musicians. Such is the case of DM1, and excellently designed and implemented drum machine and sequencer. It has loads of great programming flexibility and features – but lacking the aforementioned features kept it off of many folks iPads. Now with the…

Game Diary, Reviews

Mystery of the Crystal Portal for the Kindle Fire Review

I had bought and enjoyed Mystery of the Crystal Portal for my iPad and also loved the PSP version in spite of some issues with having to pan around the scene, so I was excited to try out the Kindle Fire version. It had been a while since I played, so it felt fresh as I had forgotten most of the game. Let’s take a loot at hwo the experience translates to the Kindle Fire!

Game Diary, Reviews

XIII Lost Identity iPad Game Review

Almost two years ago I did a review of the 2003 PC game called ‘XIII’, which took a French intrigue-filled graphic novel and brought it to life in a unique graphical style. Late last year the game made the jump to the iOS platform as a hidden object adventure. Let’s see how it did! The Hype: Imagine waking up to discover you’ve led several different lives. Based on the comic book series by Jean Van Hamme and William Vance. A man suffering from amnesia is found washed up on a beach by an elderly couple. He has to unravel who…

Editorials, Game Diary

Server Maintenance Reminds Us Why Ubisoft’s ‘Always On’ DRM is Stupid

It has been nearly two years since I reviewed ‘The Settlers 7: Path to a Kingdom’, in which I trashed the always-on DRM for the single-player, offline strategy title, saying: As for the DRM … it is intolerable and unacceptable. The DRM is this: you need to go through all of the normal serial number and online activation hoops, but beyond that you also need to have a constant internet connection to Ubisoft’s servers. If that connection drops – ON EITHER END – you are booted out of your game. Originally the boot-out would lose all progress from the prior…

News & Features

Corning Unveils ‘A Day Made of Glass 2’

Companies make promotional videos all the time, called commercials. But when they present a vision of the future it is a lot more fun to watch. Last year Corning produced ‘A Day Made of Glass’ that was a fun semi-futuristic look at the day in the life of a family aided by a number of technologies that integrated seamlessly with everything they did. Not coincidentally – everything was made out of glass … and in an area where Corning has commercial products. But the original was a huge hit for the same reason that I remember watching all of those…

Game Diary, Reviews

Hands on With G5 Games Navigator for Kindle Fire!

Late last year G5 Games released a ‘Game Navigator’ for iPhone and iPad, and has since integrated part of it into all of their games. That familiar interface where you see a number of recommended games, the most recent release, and the game you are starting all at once, has become an integral part of every G5 game – which is a testament to how well this app works. Let’s take a look!

Music Diary

Watch The Rolling Stones Rehearse and Record ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ in 1968

Back in 1968 there was not the tendency to capture everything on video in the same way we do now – in fact it is not uncommon to learn that we have lost master recordings or out-takes from some of the great recording sessions of rock, pop and jazz. So finding this gem – a video showing the development and shaping of the classic ‘Sympathy for the Devil’. You see the basic track grow, the rhythm change, you hear Keith Richards (and not bassist Bill Wyman) develop the classic bass part, and we see one of the last contributions by…

Reviews

Movie/Book Retrospective: The Accidental Tourist

I have said before that I have been reading much more since getting my Nook Touch last June, which has really been wonderful. The Nook Touch in my Oberon case is just a thing of beauty to hold and behold. It has allowed me to catch new books like Robopocalypse and recent releases like The Art of Racing in the Rain, re-read almost my entire Kurt Vonnegut collection, get ready for The Hunger Games, and grab books I always meant to read but had long forgotten – like The Accidental Tourist. Whenever a movie is made from a book, the…

Game Diary, Reviews

Royal Trouble: Hidden Adventure iPad Game Review

Even after reading the description of Royal Trouble I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect in terms of gameplay – and frankly I was nervous that I was getting burnt out on hidden object games after Spirit of Wandering (though ‘Letters from Nowhere 2’ tells me otherwise). Fortunately this is an entirely different sort of casual adventure game – and an absolute blast that you simply MUST try! Let’s take a look! The Hype: In this critically acclaimed adventure quest, help two charming royal heirs escape from a secluded island! Princess Loreen and Prince Nathaniel find themselves locked in a…

« 1 … 65 66 67 68 69 … 114 »