This has been a great year for music, and while all the big music magazines and blog are publishing their “best of 2015” lists, I’d also like to share my favorite records of this year, not just strict new releases, but all the albums which I kept returning to over and over again. Midlake – Bamnan & Slivercork… Continue reading
This is the last song and title-track of the new album Rituals by Other Lives, which has been one of the most satisfying new releases this year. I’ve been listening to it almost daily since it came out on May 5th, at home or on the go, and just can’t seem to get tired of it. It’s music that plays out like a movie, slowly intertwining scenes and after-images of something always out of grasp, and yet so strangely familiar.
To engage with Rituals is to barrel along a winding, hidden dirt path; peering into its bounty is to be swept away into the pines and deep, briny brush revealing a new, almost utopian existence. […] Ambient soundscapes (“New Fog”) buttress against prog-rock stomp (“2 Pyramids”) lending the album the experience of embarking on a choose-your-own-adventure novel. – otherlives.com
Update: this live concert is a great showcase of this band’s multi-instrumental genius:
https://youtu.be/
I’ve finally put together a little video showcasing my new gamebook for German learners, the first in a trilogy, and perhaps the first of its kind. This book is available as Kindle edition and paperback. See here for more information.
Ever since my sister recommended the indie game Eufloria, I’ve been completely fascinated. As someone who grew up with realtime strategy games such as Dune II, I was intrigued by the idea of Eufloria from the very beginning, because it was such a fresh take on an old concept. Both the idea and the visuals… Continue reading
I still remember the day when I was on the phone with someone from Israel and first heard that squawking call in the background. It sounded a bit like a muezzin or demonstrators proclaiming their demands.
As someone who grew up with early computer games I’m very well aware of the stigma surrounding this … past-time? Procrastination device? art form? And it’s true, many computer games are like Facebook: you play them but you’re not too proud of it (or they’re the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree). Once in a while… Continue reading
Last week I visited Tiberias, that small town next to the Lake of Galilee. Looking for nothing in particular we stumbled over a little garden/open air museum which was home to a few hot springs, an ancient hammam of Suleiman and archaeological remains of an ancient synagogue. Of the synagogue there’s not much left except… Continue reading
Recently I read an interesting article that looks at the facts and numbers of Facebook’s business model. “On the one hand, Facebook is mired in the same relentless downward pressure of falling per-user revenues as the rest of Web-based media. The company makes a pitiful and shrinking $5 per customer per year, which puts it… Continue reading
As much as I love the Internetz there’s something that really irks me, and no, I don’t mean the time-wasting (isn’t that its true purpose?) but something else entirely. “When you’re not paying for it you’re the product.” Companies like Facebook (and others) live from the fact that people happily open their hearts, minds and… Continue reading