ValueChip's Place
ValueChip's Place
This is where I post by appreciation and criticisms for various art and other things I've experienced. I hope you find my comments insightful, and if you haven't seen something on here that I recommend, go check it out!
By Porter Robinson
I would like to start this review by providing context for my relationship with Porter Robinson's music. Back in middle school, I actively recall loading up Pandora and playing the radio that progressively transformed from C418's serene Minecraft music to hard bass EDM. Among this list of EDM artists, was Porter Robinson. Pandora really enjoyed feeding me his song "Spitfire" and "The State". I thought it was alright, but later on I got floored by his album, Worlds. I won't go into Worlds for this review, but initially I didnt even know that the artist behind Worlds was the same one behind Spitfire. You could tell he was a person of rising standards.
It was a bit strange to listen to Nuture when it initially released. Worlds seemed to explore fiction, the internet and existentialism. Nurture on the other hand is a sort of genre on its own, or at least it feels like a genre that I do not know the name of. It's softer, including acoustic instruments blended with kinder synthesizers. It dives into what I can only describe as the highs and lows of being a human with passion, dreams and nostalgia. As with most music albums that I listen to, I did not fully appreciate the album on the first listen to it. but what hooked me first was the song Wind Tempos.
I remember being furious about some lemons life handed me. I won't go into details, but upon playing a mashed playlist of songs I threw together while working, Wind Tempos came on. Even with how burned out my head was with bitter thoughts, the song was able to slowly pick up my mind and carry me away to somewhere more beautiful. To me, it's rare for a song to have that kind sway over me. It caused me to realize that this album was made with a serious heart. So I sat down and listened to the album with real intention.
This album is one of the more powerful forms of music I have come across. As someone who struggles with stress, anxiety and the slew of other things life puts in front of happiness, I realized Nurture is an ode to the pursuit of remaining genuine and appreciative of life. There is a song that has made me cry multiple times, and there is a song that I danced to with my wife for our wedding.
You can tell by the timing between Worlds and Nurture that the album is a product of Porter Robinson's transformation and growth as a person. I will refrain from being parasocial, but I'm glad that there is someone out there that made the decision to be honest of their pain, and to make something beautiful out of it.
Porter Robinson is a successful musician. My recommendation for his music would be marginal for his own success at best. Instead I recommend this album for anyone who is reading this review. If you feel like you are struggling to remain genuine in a world that does not nuture such behavior, and you feel your ambition warning, this album understands that struggle, and it might just help you a little bit.
By Neal Shusterman
I picked up the first book of this series because of the striking cover art, as shown in the image.
The hook summary on the back describes of a futuristic utopian Earth that has gained ultimate peace and prosperity through the guidance of a "perfectly" benevolent AI. Death by age, disease, or injury is no longer a concern to the people of Earth. All is well, save for the fact that the AI cannot allocate enough resources to keep in pace with the exponential growth of the population.
To counterbalance this, a group of a select few people are assigned to be "Scythes", who are obligated to kill (or Glean as they say in the books) a portion of the population.
I found this premise very interesting, and the book rewarded my interest. It follows what it is like to be introduced to the Scythedom society who are treated as fearsome elites.
In honesty, when I first got the book, I was hoping it would reflect on the more existential parts of death. You would imagine that killing people for a living would have you often questioning what it even means to die. Neal Shusterman somewhat dodges these questions, and for good reason.
Writing about the experience of death, the meaning of death, and the afterlife deals with such an unknown, yet touchy subject that it can easily cause more problems for reading than it's worth. Rather, the Arc of a Scythe series often deals with the morality of killing and the general power struggle dynamics of an elite society.
Regardless of my expectations, the story of the first book was so engaging that I ended up buying the other two books. The pacing and twists of the series are where Shusterman's strength shows. Though certain elements are the standard twists that have been used among stories a little too much, but in all, he is a very good writer. I found the end of the series very satisfying.
As with the other entries in this review series, I recommend reading these books. These books are good if you're into character drama, action, political drama and a dash of sci-fi.
I suspect that many people, like me discovered Picayune Dreams through AndyLand's Youtube Channel.
Truthfully, I did not pay much attention to this game at first. I have a high filter for internet noise, but after seeing Steam eventually recommend the game, I took a good look at its trailer, its reviews and its $5 price tag and thought it wouldn't hurt to try.
I'm glad I did. This game drops you right into action without even knowing how anything works or why you're even here.
The mechanics are rather simple, and after your first few failures (this has rougelike elements), you'll get the gist of how the game works.
What really strung me along was the story. Through repeated runs you can begin gathering that your circumstances are not as senseless as they seem to be.
There's a rather tragic and personal story that develops as you progress through the game.
I'll say that the true ending of the game (which requires some jumping through difficult hoops) leaves some things to be desired, but overall I'm very satisfied with Picayune Dreams.
Had I known what was in store, I would have gladly paid double for what I got the game.
I actually enjoyed it so much that I've scrawled together some fanart for the game that you can see in the Gallery.
If you want to check out Picayune Dreams on steam, click here!
They have a free demo for you to try!
(PS: Don't enable the "Amnesiac" upgrade from the main menu of the game if you wish to actually see the story)
I feel like this is a good way to start off this category of the website. The Fox and the Bird is a metal fusion album from the band, Ok Goodnight. The band has made some singles and EPs but this appears to be their first fully-fledged album, and it's a great album at that.
The album is one of those story-focused types, which seems to be rarer than I'd like them to be. It follows the titled Fox and Bird as they embark on a journey to end the drought that is plaguing their home. Lyrics for the songs can be found on Genius Lyrics, and I advise following them to understand what is going on. There is some debate on the YouTube comments about what the lyrics are, and the different interpretations have a large impact on how the story is affected by it.
The metal fusions of jazz, fairytale and folk make this album very unique, and Casey Lee William's vocals definitely shine through during key moments. Overall, this Album is an adventure of hardships, despair, and the tragedy of kind creatures in an extremely unforgiving world.
PS. If you ask me, The Bear and The Crocodile ought to be swapped in their order on the album.
Here is the first song of the album: