top ten on-going comic book series of 2007:
1. Captain America
2. Immortal Iron Fist
3. All-Star Superman
4. Casanova
5. Criminal
6. The Spirit
7. Checkmate
8. The Brave And the Bold
9. X-Factor
10. The All-New Atom

best limited series: Dr. Strange: The Oath
best writer: Ed Brubaker
best artist: Darwyn Cooke
best new books: The Brave and the Bold, The Order, Booster Gold, Nova
best archival series: Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Omnibus 
biggest disappointments: Civil War; Countdown; Cooke leaving The Spirit; Thor
biggest surprise: that the guy from My Chemical Romance could write a comic as great as The Umbrella Academy. 
best graphic novel that made me cry like my uncle did when Dale Earnhardt died: Laika, by Nick Abadzis.

Posted by Garrett Martin on 31 Dec 2007 at 12:40 pm

No Comments »

I kept meaning to write something up about Portal, because I believe it’s the most important game this year from a big budget studio, but school and other responsibilities kept me from doing so. Fortunately, the guys over at the awesome PC gaming blog Rock Paper Shotgun have pretty much said everything. So, go read their take on it and then come back here, at which point I will nod and say “yeah, totes!” (WARNING: Do not under any circumstances play the video embedded at the end unless you have beaten the game!! Woah, we need some more exclamation points over here!!!)

I’m afraid, unfortunately, that most sites and magazines will give nods in Portals direction for Game of the Year, but in the end will be reluctant to actually give it to Portal, due to it’s length and status as sortof a pack-in game. I suspect it will (deservedly) go to Bioshock for the most part (though NY Times gave it to… Mass Effect? Really? Don’t get me wrong, the game is totally rad but in this year of so many amazing games… really?). I guess I don’t really blame them though, as Portal’s place in Orange Box is sortof akin to the cartoon before the feature film, and as amazing as Bugs Bunny is, it would be odd for a Looney Tunes cartoon to get Best Picture.

I’m gonna take a stand here though. I think Portal is the most important game of the year, and one that everybody interested in games should play (and has little excuse not to). I am hereby officially naming Portal the official Nick Sondgeroth section of kindercore.com/words  officially official and 100% for reals Game Of The Year. (Note: this in no way reflects the opinions of Kindercore or it’s staff or anything really all that official.)

Valve should be so honored!

Posted by nick on 24 Dec 2007 at 12:03 pm

4 Comments »

It has been a hectic week of making gingerbread men and holly wreathes but we managed to mangle this weeks #1 on elbo.ws track chart. This week it is the amazing “Gila” by the beautiful Beach House. I have to admit I missed the boat on them the first time around, but I am glad I found them now, they are really great and it is really cool to get to cover one of their songs.

Here is what Mark had to say about the song itself:

“Gila is a reverb laden, wurlitzer drum box driven 5 minute tragedy served on a platter of farfisa chords. It’s heavenly, if you get the fuzzies from minor keys like I do. The lyricist seems to harbor some pretty severe resentment, she suggests in a very clever way that this person is a monster of the lizard variety - it’s only my assumption, but if in fact it is the case, it’s a brilliant way of really sticking the knife into someone without ever calling them out directly. The linear chord pattern follows a mad trail up and around the minor key. Once again, in the instrumentation department, the Chan Marshall type melody is complimented by an Ennio Morricone type clean echo guitar. I’m starting to become aware of patterns in these #1 tunes. One of them being reverb, whereas your basic Billboard top 40 song today favors a dry mix. Also, the elbo.ws list leans towards cryptic lyrics, the kind that would never fly with all you Clive Davis types scouring the blogs for the next…uh….Daniel Johnston… I mean Alicia Keys, of course. Actually, there’s one person in top 40 who I bet could pull off a sweet version of Gila. I wish I had the money to get a duet between the two (DJ + AK).”

As usual Mark sent me some very basic tracks to start out and I had no idea how this thing was going to end up. I got a really rough vocal the synth hook and a guitar that really didn’t even make it to the final mix. I spent a lot of time destroying a drum loop lifted from a very big producer (see if anyone figures that out) and added the bass and some synths. It was still pretty straightforward when I sent it back to Mark. Then he went to town on it and made it the monster it is now. I was really blown away with what he did with this one. I don’t think anyone would even know the songs were the same if they heard them out of context.

I hope fans of the band enjoy it as it is really out of left field. I hope the band does too!!!

Ruby Isle - Gila (Beach House Cover).mp3

Posted by dan on 21 Dec 2007 at 09:58 am

No Comments »

In no order:
Lily Allen - Alright Still
The Hives - The Black and White Album
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
The White Stripes - Icky Thump
!!! - Myth Takes
Maserati - Inventions for the New Season
The Darjeeling Limited Soundtrack
The Young Sinclairs - Feel Bad
Spoon - GA GA GA GA GA
Bald Eagle - Hot Shoulders

and the BIG LETDOWN AWARD goes to:
The New Pornographers - Challengers - I cannot think of another band who so thoroughly let me down with a new album than these dudes (and lady). Way to go jerks.

Posted by ryan on 20 Dec 2007 at 03:19 pm

3 Comments »

Read it all HERE

Posted by ryan on 20 Dec 2007 at 02:54 pm

No Comments »

Keep in mind there are a few movies releasing in 2007 that I haven’t yet seen like Juno and Charlie Wilson’s War that might claim places on the list later.

So in no particular order (because narrowing them down to 10 was hard enough) here are my top 10 movies of 2007:
Darjeeling Limited
No End in Sight
Grindhouse
Hot Fuzz
In the Shadow of the Moon
No Country For Old Men
Eastern Promises
Once (one of the biggest surprises of the year for sure!)
The King of Kong: A Fist Full of Quarters
Superbad 

Honorable Mention:
Michael Clayton
Smokin’ Aces
Waitress (which the wife says should be on the main list - but this is my list not hers right?!)
Tears of the Black Tiger (this was released in 2001 in Thailand but in 2007 in the States)
Rescue Dawn 

Biggest Letdowns:

Spider-Man 3
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Across the Universe 

Discuss…

Posted by ryan on 20 Dec 2007 at 02:14 pm

1 Comment »

Fox is trying to destroy my man John Edwards and my second choice Obama. Surprise, surprise!

Posted by ryan on 19 Dec 2007 at 01:58 pm

No Comments »

Walt Disney may have had suspect personal views but he sure did have good ideas about the future - which would be the present if only people had listened and spent money on science and education instead of killing poor people around the world and letting corporations dictate the pace of progress… This holiday season tip your 40 for the life we should be living:  

Thanks Craig for the link!

Posted by ryan on 19 Dec 2007 at 01:54 pm

No Comments »

read all about it HERE

Posted by ryan on 13 Dec 2007 at 04:16 pm

1 Comment »

Here is a little teaser for the new Buddy System song we started working on for our next show which will be announced shortly…

Posted by ryan on 13 Dec 2007 at 04:08 pm

1 Comment »