Masquerade

Imagine if Disney ended up buying Dueling Dragons and put it in Animal Kingdom. I would laugh myself into depression. Nothing a vile of Lexapro and some alcohol won't fix though.

Option A: Buy out a good 400 acres of empty green space in Aventura, Florida (near Miami) and build a Rock N' Roll-themed park. Option B: Buy out the Renaissance Fair space and surrounding area in Tuxedo, New York and build something there. Option C: Build a park near Washington D.C. themed to the history of America and watch retired Disney execs from the 90's cry and reassess their life choices.

Skyrush. Just in case suicide was ever an option for me.

Congratulations to Whitney Houston for being drug free for almost 24 hours.

Yes! I'm not the only one that listens to them. Arena - Out Of The Wilderness http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnsVxqfyonQ

Why? Um, because it sells a lot of underwear? Facts: - Many Super Bowls parties were held. - Both men and women attended many Super Bowl parties. - Women and gay men appreciate David Beckham standing around in his underwear. - Many men left Super Bowls parties thinking they'd attract more women if they wore that underwear. - It's pretty simple, really. - And wait, how is this any different from a Victoria's Secret ad???? Well played, sir.

Since it's Grammy season (an award show I do not understand), might as well post my top ten albums of 2011: #10. M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming Either new wave is back or I'm just going crazy. The French shoegazing electronic act went with an ambitious concept with this one...having two disks that mirrored each other like twin siblings for one cohesive experience. For a band trying to evolve their sound by trapping themselves in the 80's, their stylish cosmopolitan, grandiose, and sprawling interpretation of the style is distinct and unique working in an accessible yet symphonically provocative splendor. Highlights: Midnight City, Wait, New Map, Steve McQueen #9. The Black Keys - El Camino I may be spilling a Patrick Bateman here, but I'm one of those people who think this band has improved with Danger Mouse. Since then, they have fined tuned their raw garage rock sound to a tasty blend of bluesy riffs and Detroit soul influences. Although personally I prefer the more richly nuanced sound of Brothers to this effort by a hair, this album is a real kick in the balls, going in full force with Dan Auerback's dirty fuzz guitar, Patrick Carney's groove anchoring drumming, and Danger Mouse's tasty thick bass lines and lush keyboard work. As for the songwriting...it's almost as if someone plopped eleven 45rpm singles on one album. Highlights: Little Black Submarines, Run Right Back, Sister, Hell Of A Season #8. Pain Of Salvation - Road Salt Two As countless other bands in the prog metal realm are notorious for being clones of a certain "thinking man's metal" band who shall not be named until further down into the list, this band has a unique trademark of being "emotional man's metal," prog metal with soul; each of their albums containing a deeply human concept backed by a soaring yet schizophrenic sense of melody. Undoubtedly their best album since 2004's BE, this album expands on the more Celtic and classically influenced sounds of that album with the retro 70's hard rock stylings they've been experimenting with as of late, yet bringing back the complex, dark songwriting that makes the whole package feel like a true Pain Of Salvation classic. Highlights: To The Shoreline, 1979, The Deeper Cut, The Physics Of Gridlock #7. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake To be honest, I've never heard of PJ Harvey before a month ago. This album has made me a fan. This is a dark album, dealing with themes mostly related to death and war while accompanied by the sparce instrumentation of jangly guitars, distant drums, fading mellotrons, and any type of horns able to be played while keeping the dark atmosphere; Harvey's voice sounding as if they were recorded underwater advancing the tone with her high register while creating both challenging yet enchanting melodies. It's not music that's immediately easy on the ear, but damn catchy in its own right. If anything, this album has convinced me that she deserves a place next to art pop greats of the like of Kate Bush, Bjork, and Peter Gabriel. Highlights: The Glorious Land, The Words That Maketh Murder, On Battleship Hill, Bitter Branches #6. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues Want a good album to curl up by the fire enjoying a nice cup of Joe while a ray of winter sun falls on the sofa from the window on a Sunday afternoon and float away in its pastoral imagery, this is it. Influenced by 60's and 70's folk-pop from the likes of Van Morrison, Simon & Garfunkel, and Neil Young, this is a completely acoustic affair with an almost hymnal atmosphere. That isn't to say this is a Bon Iver like showcase where it's completely stripped bare, the music gets blown to such huge soundscapes that range from simple to flat out psychedelic. As spectacular as the band's debut was, this release provides a fresh rush of folk rock revealing something new each listen in its massive yet soft intricate sound, firmly placing them as one of today's best baroque pop bands. Highlights: The Plains / Bitter Dancer, Helplessness Blues, The Shrine / An Argument, Grown Ocean #5. Mastodon - The Hunter This is where things get heavy. Coming from a band who has improved upon each release and making their songs more complex (eventually going over the ten minute mark on some), they somehow managed to one-up themselves again by accomplishing musical satisfaction in only half the time it took on, say, Crack The Skye. Even with the shorter, more accessible song lengths and emo-esque track titles that almost beat "Sexual Man Chocolate" for most ridiculous title ever, there is no selling out here; the music is both as unpredictable and potent as ever with Brann Dailer's jazzy Phil Collins-esque drum patterns interplaying with savvy guitar arpeggios noodling about in music that can go from spacy and ethereal in one second to downright heavy sludge metal the next. The fact that they got a Grammy nomination out of this is both surprising yet very understandable. Highlights: Black Tongue, Curl Of The Burl, Octopus Has No Friends, The Sparrow #4. Steven Wilson - Grace For Drowning After remastering the entire King Crimson catalogue, it's understandable why the Porcupine Tree frontman would want to make a record giving homage to the classic progressive acts of yesteryear. Musically, it accomplishes this task with a fresh modern tick that's just sublime; the more organic proggy aspects being accented by washed and seeping electronics similar to a chilled out Trent Reznor. Guests such as King Crimson / Peter Gabriel bassist Tony Levin, Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess, and ex-Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett also help Wilson move the album along its deep aural spectrum ranging from quiet piano oriented pieces to loud and powerful walls of sound. It's not a "happy happy joy joy" record at all; it's quite melancholy, but it's one of those albums one just needs to sit back and take numerous listens just to begin to capture its depth. It might just be the man's finest work. Highlights: Deform To Form A Star, No Part Of Me, Remainder Of The Black Dog, Raider II #3. The Roots - Undun For those who don't know, The Roots have been a driving force in hip-hop for the past twenty years. Now, for those who've been living under a rock for the past three, they are the house band for Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. The position of being a late night talk show's backing band has not gotten into their heads however, and only a little more than a year after the fine release that was How I Got Over, it only proves the group's vision and songwriting is better than ever. Even more-so, this is the band's first concept album, a backwards story of a man's life from death to birth. Overall it's some of the strongest slabs of rap my ears have ever graced; concise and tasty beats getting the point across with bursts of brittle funk, hard rhythms, and slow-burning soul backing the powerful lyrical flow of Black Thought (possibly one of the best rappers around) and guests. Thanks in part to Sufjan Stevens, this is also probably the only rap album in existence that ends in a symphony (literally). Highlights: Make My, One Time, The OtherSide, Lighthouse #2. Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn Of Events Can't believe I'm saying this, but Mike Portnoy leaving was probably the best thing that ever happened to the band. Spiritually, this album is reminiscent of Octavarium...except this is the album Octavarium failed to be. It's not to say that was a bad album, it was a very good album and the best of a chain of four "writer's block" albums that came before this, yet it was still a bit inconsistent. This however is a masterpiece. Sonically this album takes the airier and calmer overtones of Falling Into Infinity and Octavarium yet delivers some of the wildest, most complex, and technically demanding "thinking man's metal" they've ever released. There seems to be a new energy to the band; everyone in the band had a shot at the songwriting and overall album construction, leading to some of the most well balanced musical performances and finest lyrics (considering some blunders in the past couple of releases) in a long time. This is by far their best album in a decade, and very close to being the best album of the year. Highlights: On The Backs Of Angels, Lost Not Forgotten, Outcry, Breaking All Illusions #1. Nightwish - Imaginaerum This album has not been released in the States yet. However, I am lucky enough to have a copy already imported from Europe and...oh my God. I'm one of those people who originally thought the band died with Tarja's firing, Nightwish is a band that pretty much evolved their own niche in power metal around her operatic voice. Being the new recruit Anette has a more "normal" sounding voice, the band decided to incorporate more live orchestras and down tune the guitars a little to still keep themselves in the symphonic realm. Dark Passion Play was a bit of an inconsistent beast; the band sounded heavier than ever and the Celtic-flavored orchestration was wonderful, yet half of it sounded off. Yes, Anette's voice was "meh" on that one, but in reality keyboardist and lead force of the band Tuomas Holopainen was just experimenting with new sounds while getting used to working around her voice. This is different though. This is where Tuomas and the guys mastered this sound into one complete, consistent, dark, gothic, heavy, light (oxymoron), symphonic package delivered like a sweet masterpiece of a 19th century play and sweep the listener into its cold, frosty wonderland; Anette's vocals mastered to envelope the music and the band creatively integrated around her vocals. It's an album where you almost think of the liner notes as a Playbill, your headphones as a theater, and enjoy the show brought forth from these deranged yet brilliant bastards. Tim Burton must be proud. Highlights: Storytime, I Want My Tears Back, Scaretale, The Crow, The Owl, And The Dove, Last Ride Of The Day Hell of a lot better than 2010 imo. Had to actually struggle to keep things off the list in favor of others.

Best: Chevy Apocalypse. Worst: David Beckham standing around half naked to The Animals (why?).

Seventh Wonder - Day By Day

Justin Vernon's the man, love it. I'd also suggest checking out Charlie Winston; he's also a modern singer/songwriter with a soulful twang, except he tends to go more towards a more direct, bluesier approach. Not if you import the album. I got the vinyl shipped from Europe here already, just waiting until Christmas to finally listen to it. Born Of Osiris - Recreate Djent...djent...djent...

How about a 23 minute song? "A Change of Seasons" by Dream Theater. The most life affirming song I've ever come by.

I hope it was subbed. When it comes to anime I usually watch them dubbed, but Ocean Group is probably the worst dubbing company I've ever heard. Do an A/B sub vs. dub test with Wing, Zeta, or 08th MS Team and the differance is like night and day. They're also responsable for translating Crest Of The Stars/Banner Of The Stars, which the dub is so unwatchable in English it's been widely considered one of the the worst dub jobs ever done, yet in reality it's quite excellent in its original form. Rant over. As for my favorites; Cowboy Bebop, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ghost In The Shell (movie), Death Note, Porco Rosso (movie), Akira (movie), and Magnetic Rose (Memories film) are all up there.

As long as they don't make a "Merengue: The Ride." Oye Santo Domingo...

Alien. The fact that nobody thought of this years ago disturbs me. The Jaws plot of land is right there next to the Expo area, and I doubt most people will remember (or want to remember) Micheal Bay's Explosions anyways.

I don't. Not only has the place managed to take one of the world's greatest theme parks and neglect it on SO many levels, they've also (while it's still debatable) managed to take the consensus "Best Halloween Theme Park Experience" and overprice and "under-deliver" on it. So yeah, unless they really get their act together, I've pretty much lost faith in the place at this point. And considering the ownership as compared to the other big players in Central Florida, I'm not holding out much hope either. Good luck, Hollywood. When I went to IOA this summer, something was off. I don't know what it was; I loved the Wizarding World, the attention to detail, ect. However, the rest of the park seemed as if it was missing a fresh coat of paint or something. This was my first time into the park and I went in expecting the DisneySea of the west yet felt slightly cut short. Maybe it is neglect, maybe it's because I went on a few single rider lines, but being alot of people are saying the former is true, someone in the manager's office better be tossed off his ass immediately. I only settle for the best, especially when the potential is there. As for USH...eh. I wouldn't call them a lost cause, but maybe this will turn them around (if they pull the area off uniquely and without overwhelming the rest of the park).

Nightwish - Dead To The World On an unrelated note, ordered the new album which should be shipping from Europe now. If it's as much of a masterpiece as it's already claimed, it should make the whole Tarja vs. Anette argument as pointless as Peter Gabriel vs. Phil Collins or Pepsi vs. Coke.

Did you hear that McDonalds is introducing the McSandusky Burger? It is a piece of old meat between fresh buns. I am going to Hell.

Fighting against communism, one Ferris Wheel at a time.

Genesis - Dancing With The Moonlit Knight http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up5hgIQ8ArQ To be played at high volumes.

It was designed after cargo boats. Of course it's an unholy abomination. The sad part is I end up driving by there at least once a week. How do you think it feels to have to see that...thing, all the time? To hell with mother nature, this needs to be cleansed.

Islands Of Adventure. Sad, ain't it. *This is no slight on IOA what-so-ever, but being a northern NJ resident I live near a bunch of parks within a two hour radius yet didn't get the chance to even go to one.

I thought it would be nice to haunt this little corner of the internet. If you haven't seen the name already, I am Masquerade. I'm also known as "The Ghost" over in Shyguy's World and the abandoned wasteland known as the Atari Forums, and also "CostaFreak" on Visions Fantastic and MiceChat.

Great stuff! Muse - Sunburn http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5Mz6YcHyFM