Great Guitar Solos – Steven Wilson and Guthrie Govan Play Porcupine Tree’s “Radioactive Toy”

(You probably noticed how this is not part of the Self Care series. There’s a reason for that…)

Remember back on February 24th, when I posted about how Agent Orange wants to expand the US’s nuclear arsenal? Well, now you know where the “radioactive toys” in the title comes from…

It reminded me of this song. Written by Steven Wilson, and originally recorded and performed by his band Porcupine Tree, this is a song that is, basically, about a nuclear holocaust. Here, it’s Steven Wilson’s solo band that performs it. It’s dark, but very much apropos…

Perhaps it needs to serve as a warning…

And, as it happens, it also has an incredible guitar solo…

There’s a short solo played by Steven Wilson himself that starts at 2:45 and ends at 3:10. But the solo that I really want to highlight is played by Guthrie Govan. It starts at 10:08 and ends with the end of the song.

Enjoy, and don’t let it get you too down or scared…

Self Care: Astronomy Picture(/News) of the Week – NASA Finds a New Solar System with 3 Habitable Planets

Okay okay… potentially habitable planets… the title was already long enough…

(Thanks to Rob Grigjanis for alerting me to this…)

Allowing for the fact that NASA is known for its sensationalism (routinely mocked, actually, by some astronomy podcasts I listen to, like Awesome Astronomy), this is actually really intriguing. From Vox…

TRAPPIST-1 System... planets e, f, and g are the potentially habitable planets

TRAPPIST-1 System… planets e, f, and g are the potentially habitable planets

[Read more…]

Self Care – Great Guitar Solos: Led Zeppelin Plays Ten Years Gone

In honor of Physical Graffiti’s 42nd birthday (back on February 24th), here’s Ten Years Gone, an amazing song with an incredible guitar solo…

The solo starts at 2:29 and ends at 3:20. There’s another bridge, with a sort-of solo, that starts at 3:42 and ends at 4:07. There’s more lead guitar throughout the rest of the song from there, as well. The whole song is incredible.

This is just audio, so nothing to watch.

Enjoy!

Batman v Superman Spoiler-Filled “Review” (Four YouTube Videos)

I posted a spoiler-free review of this trash a long while back. I promised a spoiler-filled “extended edition” review, but never delivered.

The reason?

I just don’t want to. The film still pisses me off (and that’s why this isn’t a Self Care post). I still get angry and want to go on cuss-filled rants thinking about it and thinking about what could, and should, have been.

The only reason I don’t want a reboot is because I want to see what Gal Gadot does with Wonder Woman. And that’s it. If anyone else was Wonder Woman, and wasn’t a huge fan of the character before playing her (as Gal has basically proven she was), then I’d maybe not feel so bad about a reboot. But she was just about the only bright spot in BvS, and I am genuinely looking forward to the Wonder Woman film (and getting as close as an atheist can to praying that WB leaves it alone and lets Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot bring their vision to the big screen).

And yeah, the first footage of Justice League released actually looks a tad promising, though that may be because my expectations for it are basically negative, so it would actually take almost too much to not reach them.

Oh… and I obviously don’t blame the actors for the problems with BvS, as I do think they all did the best they could with the drivel they were given. Given better stuff to work with (better scripts, better stories, better directors, etc), I think they could all actually do phenomenal jobs with their characters.

But… I did promise a spoiler-filled review. And I guess I have to deliver.

But because I really don’t want to write this, I’m taking a short cut. I’m just going to post four videos below that really explain my thoughts on this film a whole lot better than I ever could.

So…

[Read more…]

Self Care – Eddie Murphy’s Delirious: White People in Haunted Houses

Yet another comedian that needs the problematic disclaimer. But this makes me laugh so much because it is so true, and is a very good question…

Why the hell do white people insist on staying in a haunted house?

I’m with Eddie on this one… (assuming ghosts are real for the sake of argument) if I walk in to a house, and it turns out to be haunted, I’m out. I’ll sell it to you if you really want it, but I’ll find somewhere else, thanks.

[Read more…]