Thursday, 28 January 2016

2016.01.28 It Takes a Village


4-Players: W, Si, M & G
Game: Village + Inn + Port
Location: W
Choice: W


the Port expansion upgrades the traveller options in the original game
Game One:

PlayerPoints
Si69
G66
W59
M41

Final Tally:

Si was declared this week's winner.

Game Notes:
  • First time for all: playing with the Inn expansion
  • First time for all: playing with both the Inn and the Port expansions
  • First time for Si & M: playing with the Port expansion
  • Not as complicated as the Cones of Dunshire

Music Notes:

Queen: Night at the Opera (1975)

[AllMusic Review by ] Queen were straining at the boundaries of hard rock and heavy metal on Sheer Heart Attack, but they broke down all the barricades on A Night at the Opera, a self-consciously ridiculous and overblown hard rock masterpiece. Using the multi-layered guitars of its predecessor as a foundation, A Night at the Opera encompasses metal ("Death on Two Legs," "Sweet Lady"), pop (the lovely, shimmering "You're My Best Friend"), campy British music hall ("Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon," "Seaside Rendezvous"), and mystical prog rock ("'39," "The Prophet's Song"), eventually bringing it all together on the pseudo-operatic "Bohemian Rhapsody." In short, it's a lot like Queen's own version of Led Zeppelin IV, but where Zep find dark menace in bombast, Queen celebrate their own pomposity. No one in the band takes anything too seriously, otherwise the arrangements wouldn't be as ludicrously exaggerated as they are. But the appeal -- and the influence -- of A Night at the Opera is in its detailed, meticulous productions. It's prog rock with a sense of humor as well as dynamics, and Queen never bettered their approach anywhere else.


Little Feat: Waiting for Columbus (1978)

Classic live double album. Recorded August 2, 1977 - August 10, 1977. Lowell George's last release before he died. Has all of the bands greatest songs played by the band. They jam out a number of their hits, some seven years old at this point. Apparently there's quite a bit of post-production but nonetheless, a great showcase for the band's material.

Chris Robinson Brotherhood: Betty's Blend Vol 2 (2015)


Live Album. Recorded in the summer of 2014 by famed, former Grateful Dead recordist Betty Cantor. Features a cover of the Grateful Dead's They Love Each Other. Also features a cover of Drivin' Wheel, a song by Ottawa-native David Wiffen.



McCoy Tyner: Live at Newport (1963)

First live recording. Played piano with Coltrane. The first jam announces: this is jazz, baby! It's all there with some strong bass and drums backing up the bottom and horns and keys dancing above. Some of the players were using borrowed instruments and the show was very spontaneous. They play a couple of standards after the opening jam and then a couple of Tyner's. Quite enjoyable, although: jazz.

Thursday, 21 January 2016

2016.01.21 Imperial: Meady Beady Big and Bouncy


4-Players: W, K, Si, G
Game: Imperial
Location: W
Choice: Si

Game One:

PlayerPoints
G95
W81
Si69
K60



Final Tally:

G was declared this week's winner.

Music Notes:


Circles Around the Sun: Interludes for the Dead (2015)

Former Black Crowes and CRB members jam on the key of GD. This double-cd was commissioned by the film-makers responsible for the video/still montage that aired before and during the intermissions for the Grateful Dead's Fare Thee Well shows this past summer. We only listened to the first two jams before popular opinion forced a change in music. This was unfortunate because we didn't hear either of the two best songs from the set: Kasey's Bones and Farewell Franklins. Neal Casal, the guitarist said this of the latter song: "That song is a tip of the hat to the 'Eyes of the World' vibe; not exactly like the song, but just as a feeling, the breezy feeling about 'Eyes of the World' that was always an important pillar in their catalog," Casal explains. The quartet had originally finished the song at about 13 minutes, but MacDougall kept playing after the other three put their instruments down. "He developed this new, simple theme he was playing over and over again. We all just stood there silently watching and listening to him do this and realized he was not finished yet, so we put our instruments back on and started another theme and developed the second movement of the song. It happened on the spot and we went on for another 10 minutes into an entirely different feeling and sound and ended up with a 25-minute piece of music out of just trying to give Grateful Dead fans a little taste of 'The Eyes of the World.'" Don't fear, dear reader, one day soon this song will find it's way to the air some game night for all to enjoy.


Kamasi Washington: The Epic (2015)

Favourite jazz album of the year. This triple cd treasure trove is the debut for this artist who gained some notoriety for collaborating with Kendrick Lamar on his popular album To Pimp a Butterfly. Just give a listen to the heavy fusion reminiscent of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew line-up: Re Run Home. We listened to discs two and three.

Thursday, 14 January 2016

2016-01-14 Wednesday Night is Keyples Night


6-Players: W, K, Si, Sc, J & G
Game: Keyflower
Location: K
Choice: Sc

Game One:


PlayerPoints
J57
K55
Sc53
G48
Si45
W41


Final Tally:

J was declared this week's winner and he basked in the glow which warmed him on what would otherwise have been a  cold walk home.

Game Notes:
  • First game for J. Obviously, he was both well taught and a fast learner.
  • Fixed two mistakes from previous play through: (a) allowed movement of outbid keyples to an available action space; and (b) allowed unlimited keyple bidding (while maintaining the max of 6 keyples per action space)
  • The rule correction (b) was only effected after the first season
Music Notes:


Hawkwind: Warrior on the Edge of Time

Featuring the late great Lemmy of Motorhead fame. Lyrics by sci-fi/fantasy author Michael Moorcock. Notable, otherwise terrible. We skipped some spoken word drivel (that is to say: we did once Si found the correct switch on the damnable cd player K lets us use).


David Bowie: Singles 1969-1993

Greatest hits from the recently deceased man of a thousand faces. Mostly enjoyable with a few grating tracks; endured tactfully in respect for the singular achievement represented.

Disc 1

1. Space Oddity
2. Changes
3. Starman
4. Ziggy Stardust
5. Suffragette City
6. John, I'm only dancing
7. The Jean Genie
8. Drive in Saturday
9. Life on Mars?
10. Sorrow
11. Rebel Rebel
12. Rock & Roll Suicide
13. Diamond dogs
14. Knock on Wood
15. Young Americans
16. Fame
17. Golden Years
18. TVC 15
19. Sound & Vision
20. Beauty & The Beast

Disc 2

1. Heroes
2. Beauty & The Beast
3. Boys keep swinging
4. D.J.
5. Alabama song
6. Ashes to Ashes
7. Fashion
8. Scary Monsters (and super creeps)
9. Under pressure (featuring Queen)
10. Wild is the wind
11. Let's Dance
12. China Girl
13. Modern love
14. Blue Jean
15. This is not America (featuring Pat Methany)
16. Dancing in the streets (featuring Mick Jagger)
17. Absolute beginners
18. Day-in Day-out
19. Jump They Say




Tuesday, 5 January 2016

2016-01-05 This one's a keyper



6-Players: W, K, Si, Sc, M & G
Game: Keyflower
Location: W
Choice: M

Game One:

Player Points
G 62
K 62
Sc 47
Si 42
M 40
W 21


Final Tally:

The game rules state that in the event of a tie, the two players should play again to break the tie. No winner declared, yet.

[Edit: A winner was determined in a subsequent play (Jan 09, 2016) . The winner was G.]

Game Notes:
  • First play through of new xmas game
  • Very enjoyable and playable though we stayed a bit late (midnight) just to finish. Once we know the game it's definitely going to be a playable option for schoolnights
  • It took some getting used to the orientation of the tiles and how to play our key-ples but we were all used to it by the time winter came around.
Music Notes:

The Grateful Dead: Dave's Picks Vol 13 (2015, recorded on February 24, 1974 at the Winterland Arena in San Francisco)

"Dark Star"> "Morning Dew" "Sugar Magnolia"> "Not Fade Away" > "Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad"> "Not Fade Away" Encore:"It's All Over Now, Baby Blue"

Frank Zappa: Hot Rats (1969)

First one without the Mothers. Rock-Jazz fusion that smokes. Features Capt'n Beefheart on madness but it's the instrumental pieces of this album that make it one of my all time favourites. It's got it all down: from dirty blues riffs to tightly orchestrated pieces that can draw tears.

Various Artists: Acid Jazz on the Rocks Vol 3 (2012)

Shameless cash-in after the success of the previous volumes from the small label. Same artists with different tunes/remixes. Still fun to listen to.