In the waking world, I am a very quiet guy. I've was a quiet kid most my life and grew into a quiet adult. I wear headphones all the time, tend to have a perma-scowl on my face and go from point A to point B without engaging most of humanity.

This comes from a combination of slow building rage for my fellow man, addiction to ether frolics, and the fact that I work on a college campus full of college students who, I have come to realize, are essentially high school students with even less responsibility. No disrespect to any high school kids here. You will love college. It's great. However, once you get out of college you tend get annoyed by college kids much like college kids tend to get annoyed by high school kids. It's just part of the gig. If you're a college kid reading this, don't stand in the damn hallway chatting with your friends blocking the entire hallway.

However, when I come to this site, I find myself engaging in others in a (for the most part) friendly and civil manner, enjoying reading entire articles on things other than Suda 51, and genuinely having fun. I tell all my friends and fellow video game nerds about Destructoid. Once I get to work and drink my coffee, I open the site where it stays open and I just hit refresh every hour or so see what's going on. The personalities of members and staff alike make this place feel like an actual community to me which is why I come back everyday, dolling out wisdom and decoder rings.

So yeah, ramble ramble. Thanks Destructoid staff and my fellow members. It's a real treat to come here everyday and laugh and talk shit and just have fun with all of you. May the next 4 years for this site be as prosperous and enjoyable as the past four.

So, to Niero, Destructoid, and all of you who make this site worth coming back to:

I know nothing of Pokemon and it's Friday and I'm ready to go home so:











I REGRET NOTHING!

I love to day dream. I excel at it. It’s how I got through 3rd, 7th, 10th grade and being 20. One of my favorite day dreams is creating my ultimate musical super group. Another is beating up a life-size version of my grandfather made up rocky road ice cream (don’t ask). Now I’m keeping this a fairly basic setup for a band but that’s just what’s in my head. So, for your amusement, I offer you my own, personal musical supergroup. :


Guitar: Johnny Marr (The Smiths)



In my ever so humble opinion, Johnny Marr is one of the greatest guitarists of all time and is THE greatest pop guitarist ever. I’ve had too many conversations with people that disagree with me on this because he didn’t “shred” or whatever it is that guitarists do when they noodle up and down the fret like they are trying to seduce a humming bird with noise. No, none of that. What he did do was create some of the most complex, robust sounds in pop music and gave a generation of kids wanting to form a band a guitar idol.


Bassist: Les Claypool (Primus)



Les Claypool, you weird, magnificent bastard, you make the bass sound like what I imagine heroin withdrawal feel like in the best way possible.


Drummer: Keith Moon (The Who, Muppets)



'Nuff Said


Singer: Tina Turner (Ike and Tina, Mad Max)



Tina Turner. Tina Fucking Turner. What an amazing woman. Tough as nails, sexy as hell, and able to punch holes in time and space with her voice. Plus, she was the Acid Queen in Tommy and Aunty Entity in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. That cannot be fucked with. Cause if you try, Master Blaster will show up and ruin you.


Keyboardist: Max Rebo



Blue Hell Elephant with Donkey features. Plus, he's my favorite Star Wars alien. He's in the group.

So there's my band. I don't know their band name or what their music would sound like. I just know that if I heard it, it would be the voice of God in my ears. So do any of you have a super group like this? Feel free to add or take away instruments. Like I said, this is just what's in my head.

Cover songs are a strange beast. Both adored and reviled with equal fervor, cover songs wield the double-edged sword of potential. You average local rock band that plays at your average local bar swears by them. I personally have seen lines snaking out the door and around the building for a Sublime cover band. If that isn't a testament to the power of the cover song, I don't know what is. However, I kinda hate most covers. Bands tend to just play the song and do little to make it their own. It's a best a novelty and at worst does a disservice to the original. Example:


Hello. I want to drown you in piss.


I don't need some extreme version of a song that totally departs from the source material, like a trip hop remix of Freebird (someone make this a real thing in my life please). I think that a good cover version is one in which the musician adds his/her own personal touch to the song. So in that spirit, I want to share with you today a few covers of songs that I think are pretty neat. I like them and hope that you will too.





1) Johnny Cash - Hurt

Apparently some band called NiN did this song originally? I don't remember that happening but I do know that when I hear Johnny Cash sing this song, I feel it in my heart that it's his. The sadness, pain, and experience in his voice makes the lyrics come to life. The song becomes more than just lyrics set to music, it becomes one man's journey through love, sadness, and regret. Couple that with the video of Johnny Cash sitting in an empty house filled with mementos and memories of his life and you realize that this isn't him just covering a song. This is Johnny Cash pouring his fucking guts out the only way he knows how and we are all lucky bastards to bear witness to it. So yeah, he owns this song forever.








2) Crispin Glover - Ben

Crispin Hellion Glover is a fun guy. Most people know him for being George Mcfly and almost kicking David Letterman in the face but he also is a prolific author and has put out a few albums. In 2003, he starred in a movie called Willard. It's a good movie worth checking out but my favorite thing about Willard is that he covered the classic Michael Jackson song "Ben" on the soundtrack. His creepy, love-you-with-a-knife voice makes my love of this version rival my love of the original. Plus, drill instructor and tough old bastard extraordinaire R. Lee Ermey is in both the movie and the video. Double plus good!







3) Nick Cave - Avalanche

Nick Cave is the scorpion skittering around the desert of my heart. Bluesy, ballsy and fucking badass is about the best way to summarize his music. Then he went and covered my favorite Leonard Cohen song. This match is as close to perfect as one can get without bringing in religious symbolism. With this version, Nick Cave shows that he respects the source material while at the same time pouring his soul into the performance.






4) Scissor Sisters - Comfortably Numb

So, many moons ago I used to love Pink Floyd. That love involved black light posters, suspicious glass sculptures, and more than a few bottles of Visine. However, cut to my adult life and I now find Pink Floyd....lacking. Now that's not to say they are bad, they just aren't my thing anymore. You still love them? Badass. Piper at the Gates of Dawn your jam? Rock out. Now, all the being said, if you are a fan of Pink Floyd currently, chances are you will hate this cover. It is about as extreme as you can get in terms of differentiating from the source material. Personally, I think this cover is brilliant.






5) William Shatner - Common People

Over the past few years, William Shatner has reached Bea Arthur levels of pop culture love from the masses. So it's no surprise that when he decides to cover Pulp's smash hit/youth anthem “Common People”, it goes over like a bottle of Boone's Farm at an after prom party. Shatner's spoken word style singing and rhythmic, deranged cadence makes this cover an amazing thing to behold. The fact that the video for it is from the Star Trek cartoon only adds to the joy.




So those are some covers I love. Now I leave you with this picture:



Have a pleasant day.

Fraggle Rock was an award-winning and beloved children's tv show that ran from 1983 to 1987. Through misadventures, songs, and life lessons, the Fraggles taught a generation of children how to live, love, and laugh. After the show was cancelled, the Fraggles would branch out into the emerging world of video game design. Fraggle Studios was started in May of 1989 and would be an instant success with the release of their first game, Fraggle Fun Time Free-For-All Garden Pick n' Pull.





Most gamers over the age of twenty have fond memories of picking and pulling in the fun time garden, avoiding the Gorgs and saving Marjory the heap from certain doom. Almost universally hailed as the originator of picking and pulling in a garden style game, comparisons to Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros in terms of influence have been made throughout the years. However, the game was also infamous for the visible erection King Gorg had while chasing the Fraggles, an issue Fraggle studios famously declined to comment on.




While this game was a hallmark of innovation, graphics, gameplay, and music, Fraggle studios would never be able to match the success of their first venture. A variety of kart racers, rhythm-based turnip pulling games and the dating sim/bass fishing debacle Travelling Matt Trolls for Bass has left gamers wondering, are Fraggles fit to continue making games or are they relics of a by-gone era?



With Marjory the Heap's new fighting game, Marjory the Heap Beats Homeless People to Death With What Appears to be a Clitoris Made of Trash, coming out in Summer of 2010, only time will tell if gamers still care about the Fraggles.

Turns out that stomach ache I had on Monday was actually the gentle nudging of food poisoning. In honor of what I can only describe as a week........filled with new experiences, here's some pictures:



Monday 3pm




Monday 8pm




Tuesday 4am




Tuesday 9am



Tuesday 1pm




Tuesday 5pm


Late Tuesday night, I started to get better:









Wednesday 10am




Wednesday 9pm




Thursday 11am




Today.


So my week....has been a week. Hope yours was better. Have a great weekend everyone.