The HV20/30 is one of the best pieces of personal property one can own. It just does the job so well for the little money it costs that it makes no sense to not own one. Sure it’s still tape, but it’s as close to prosumer quality than you can get today for the price.

Latest example is the excellent work of Blake Monahan for the band “House of Fire“. He shot with the HV20 the music video clip for their (very nice) song “Walking along the sun“.

Note: The following is a minor “Lost” spoiler, that it might even be a foiler.

The “Lost” writers always give a codename to their season finales, and this year’s they said that it’s called “The Donkey Frozen Wheel”.

Additionally, the same person who spoiled last year’s “Lost” season finale to the forums is back with information about this season’s upcoming finale. So, if this person is to be believed, the finale will actually be featuring an actual “frozen wheel” that will “move” the island.

Now, that’s where I have a problem with the whole thing (if this spoiler is true). A “wheel” can’t move shit, let alone an island. No matter how “cool-looking” they might have wanted to make Lost’s finale look, they should not expect us to buy the argument that some sort of actual “wheel” does anything spectacular.

I would not have had any problem if they would show something that resembles a particle accelerator, or anything that’s science-like, to present to us their sci-fi vision. Using pseudo-science to present science fiction works for me because it makes it more realistic, even if the spectacular aspect might not be there. But “frozen wheels”? What are we, 10 year olds?

As I wrote to a forum that I know that the writers do read: “what’s next? The Smurfs will get to the island?”

Four years ago I wrote how much I love the music of the Warcraft II game from 1995. I just found out that Blizzard released the whole soundtrack for a download in 2005. Download it here, and if you are using iTunes, you can use this image as your album cover. The mp3s come properly tagged with the composer’s name, Glenn Stafford.

This is the best video game soundtrack ever. If the musician was able to strike a deal with Blizzard, use a real orchestra (instead of just a synthesizer), and release an audio CD, I would buy it in a heartbeat. This music is the strike of a genius, and apparently, after googling about it, many agree with this sentiment. Not only that, but they also agree as to how sterile and flat the WoW music was compared to WarCraft II’s.

Best pieces in the collection is the “Human 2″ and “Orc 2″. Give it a try, the download is just 22 MBs.

I have this theory about how the episode format will be for Lost’s next season, Season 5 (S5).

I believe that there will be two distinct narrative timelines, one in the island with the remainder of people, and one off island with the Oceanic 6, Ben and possibly Desmond/Penny. There will be very few flashbacks, possibly no more than 4-5 for the whole season.

The off-island story will stop being out of order, but it will pick up from the S4 finale’s flash forward (which will take place after the S3 finale with Jack trying to suicide). From that point on, the story off island will be as narrative and in-order as the story so far in the island has been. So it won’t be a flash-forward anymore, but what viewers will perceive as “current”. The on-island story will continue to also be narrative and current, but with a catch.

Remember that on the latest episode Locke said that they need to “move the island”. I believe that the “movement” won’t be necessarily in space, but definitely in time. As you might know, at least 3 years have passed by the time the Oceanic Six were rescued and Jack tried to suicide. Even when taking the island’s time displacement into account, you can’t hurry up the storyline by 3 years in a single season on-island in order to match the off-island storyline. That won’t fly with the viewers because the on-island story is the default story.

You see, at the end of S5, we will see the two stories/groups merge again, as the off-islanders will have made it back to the island for the final act in S6. This leaves no alternative to the writers but to have two in-order narratives that their timeframes will match at the end of S5. And this can only mean one thing: time travel for the whole island in order to match the off-island timeline.

As for S6, I don’t expect many flashbacks either, except maybe a few Dharma-based ones. Flashforwards won’t be relevant anymore and flashbacks won’t fly either as the story is not about a few survivors as it used to be in S1, but a whole lot more.

Oh boy, oh boy… True story.

Last night I was reading on wikipedia about Madonna’s “Hard Candy” and I noticed that minus one song, all the songs I didn’t like on the album were all co-written by Pharrell. All the rest of the songs, which I did like, were all co-written by Timbaland. I found this interesting, and I thought to myself “ok, now I know who ruined that album”.

An hour later I went to bed, and had this uneasy dream about losing my mom in the crowd and not having my iPhone with me to reach her. Eventually, while walking around I end up in an open arena where Madonna was giving a concert. I didn’t have a ticket, but I found a cousin of mine (Panos) and we sat down to listen from afar (somehow I forgot about my mom, heh). Lo and behold, Pharrell approaches us, friendly and all:

Pharrell: Lots of problems tonight with this concert, I was told. The computer started playing the background music out of order.
Eugenia: Gawd, I hate software.
Pharrell: How do you like “Hard Candy”?
Eugenia: Except “Give it to me”, I dislike all your songs in it. I found them lifeless and they ruined the album.
Pharrell: I see…
Panos: Eugenia reviews stuff all the time…
Pharrell: Oh, I see. So you are a music critic now?
Eugenia: No, I am a technologist. I wrote my opinion on the album on my personal blog, not any official medium.
Pharrell: Then what makes you think that you can criticize my work?
Eugenia: Well, everyone has an opinion about music. Is this a difficult concept?
Pharrell: No, but I am pretty sure you are a third rate journalist. Bye.
Eugenia: Wait…

At that point I wake up, and I felt terrible. I had hurt his feelings and the dream felt so real that for an hour after waking up I felt really bad. I guess my brain accomplished its target by sending me such a dream: “learn to shut up once in a while”.

USA is involved in wars since 2002. Art, especially popular art, is always influenced by current events. So why the heck are there no military TV series on TV? And take that from a person who doesn’t like anything but sci-fi.

Someone could argue that the war is so far away that the average American who has no children serving, doesn’t “feel” that his/her country is in the midst of a war. However, even if the “we are at war feeling” is not that strong, it’s possibly stronger than a ghost or paranormal TV series. I mean, come on. What’s more likely to happen? Hear that someone saw a ghost, or that someone you know just flew over to Iraq or Afghanistan to serve? In US, it’s the latter.

So why are there no TV series about the US military in times of war? An action/drama TV series that could depict, for a change, a bunch of females, following their story from training all the way to ground zero in Iraq and Afghanistan. Real stuff, not made up little incoherent stories as in CBS’ “The Unit” action/drama.

Money ain’t the problem to recreate such an environment. Fear could be though. Are studios afraid how controversial matters are going to be taken wrongly by some people (e.g. the rape of a woman during service, or the over-zealotry of both sides)? If that’s so, it’s stupid to halt such a production for that reason, because the more controversy there is, the more advertising comes for free.

The conspiracy theorist in me could go as far as saying that the US military itself would not like such a TV series (or even extensive war coverage by the media) and so the studios keep mum (even the legendary “M*A*S*H” TV series aired years after the Korean war was over).

Personally, if I was a TV exec, that’s the kind of TV series I would pitch to the networks right now. And if the networks don’t like it because they are chickens, there is always cable TV, where the rules are much more relaxed. I strongly believe that the clever thing to do right now in terms of TV business is to have the guts to create a controversial war action/drama around females.

It’s gonna get you hated by some weirdos around USA’s bible belt, but also is gonna get you rich. It has nothing to do with “exploitation of the war and our children who serve there” (so spare me the preaching). It has to do with business, and art. Art, and topics of interest in general, should never be halted because some people “might feel hurt”. Get over it people! It’s interesting, it’s current, it’s art, and that should be enough to be a done deal.

Update: Mike emailed me about the “Over there” war drama that lasted 13 episodes in 2005 in the cable FX channel. Apparently, it never picked up an audience, but reading about the plot, this is not the kind of drama I envisioned. This had a too traditional format.

I am a bit bummed about the lower quality of Madonna’s new album “Hard Candy”. In my opinion, this is her worst major studio album ever. I don’t think that the problem is that she doesn’t know how to put a good album together anymore, but I do think that she doesn’t care as much. You see, that’s an album that she “owes” to Warner Bros. before she gets out of her contract with them and move to her new label family. I would not be surprised if I found out that she didn’t care much about this album. Testament to this is the fact that she did very little TV promotional work for this new album compared to the older ones. Except 1-2 interviews on TV, she appeared nowhere else.

So, I put together my own ratings for her major studio albums (rating all the songs one by one per album), and here’s what I came up with. Apparently I like her early album work and her 2000-era better than her middle “erotica” career and her latest one. Special thanks to JBQ who helped me put that chart together at Google Docs, as I am a complete buffoon when it comes to spreadsheets.

Deep down inside, I have a girlie side too (where the hell did it go? ah, there it is). This version of Madonna’s “Erotica” song really brings out my girlie, romantic, even sexual side of me. I always kinda disliked the original “dirty” version of Erotica, but this one, along with the choreography, touches me so deeply that makes me take advances towards my husband. Only to be crushed by him 3 seconds later: “I am tired tonight baby…”.

Oh well, there’s always the weekend!

This is so much like real life. We all fall in love for the good looking one, but we end up marry the one who gets it right down with us. Same story for the well known Youtube celebrity ObamaGirl. She supposedly has a crash for Obama, but she ends up doing a video with the purer Gravel.

I have this negative opinion for music artists who can’t write their own music, or at least actively contribute in the production of their own album. But once in a while, an album happens to be so good, that even if it’s put together by a label and it’s just “a product”, I can forgive all that.

That’s the story with Rihanna’s “Good girl gone bad” album. I don’t like hip-hop (we are mostly into alt.rock in our home), but damn, that’s a good dance and R&B album, plus she can sing. It’s much better than Fergie’s album, and also better than Nelly Furtado’s. Definitely a better album than Madonna’s “Hard Candy” which used the same producers too. It seems that Madonna got just the left overs from the producer’s creativity.

Best songs on the album: Umbrella, Push up on me, Don’t stop the music, Shut up and drive, Rehab, and Good Girl Gone Bad. Except 1-2 songs that are not super but still acceptable, the rest are very good too.

1. Umbrella 9/10
2. Push up on Me 9/10
3. Don’t Stop the Music 9.5/10
4. Breakin’ Dishes 7.5/10
5. Shut up and Drive 10/10
6. Hate That I Love You 7.5/10
7. Say It 6/10
8. Sell Me Candy 7/10
9. Lemme Get That 6/10
10. Rehab 9/10
11. Question Existing 6/10
12. Good Girl Gone Bad 8.5/10

Overall rating: 7.9/10

Best hip-hop/RnB album I ever listened to.