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Sunday, 02 January 2005, 21:49:29 EST

Jay and Jacky (permanent links will be added later) gave me the Alien Quadrilogy for the holiday that just past. Needless to say, I was astounded and overjoyed; I have been wanting this thing since I found out it was going to be produced. I love the Alien series and this collection was made specifically for people like me — die hard fans of the series. So far I have only watched the alternate cuts of Alien³ and Alien: Resurection.

Alien³ is probably my favorite out of the four movies. I like it for several reasons. I think Sigourney Weaver is hot in it, particularly after she shaves her head; I have no idea why, I just do. I think the alien in the movie is the coolest in the series. The atmosphere of the movie is great and I like Ripley's John Wayne attitude about the situation. That being said, I don't particularly like the alternate cut of this film. Let me be quite clear, the alternate cut of this film is exactly that — a wholly new movie! The director was basically railroaded in to creating this alternate cut, as all four evidently were for their respective movies, and it is very clear why he prefers the original theatrical release. I can't really tell you about this movie and why I don't like the alternate cut without ruining the surprise that is this movie. Don't get me wrong, this movie is still good, it just isn't the movie I like as Alien³.

Alien: Resurection I had only seen once. I like the movie minus the twist at the end. Ripley is even more awesome in this movie than she was in Alien³ which probably explains why I like this movie. The alternate cut of this one is rather good. They basically went back and finished all the scenes that they did not have the technology to finish originally and stuck them in the movie. The added scenes don't detract from the movie but they do alter the outcome. The original cut of the movie is much more definitive while this new cut leaves it open for another movie. I would love to see another Alien movie but I don't think it is going to happen; it really shouldn't happen to tell the truth. Any way, the extended version of Resurection is rather good.

I have not had a chance to watch the other two yet but I will write a review of them. That isn't completely true. I have seen the extended version of Alien when it was released in theatres but I will wait to write a summation of it. On to some CD reviews!

Last Wednesday I went to Media Play to get a new wall calander. Media Play is the last place I should have gone for such a thing. Media Play has the best techno selection in town and nine times out of ten when I go to that store I end up buying at least one CD. This visit was not the tenth time. Along with my lovely Maxim wall calander, I walked out of the store with Orbital's last album, the Blue Album, and Tiësto's Parade Of The Athletes.

After ten years of producing some of the best music ever the brothers Hartnoll, Paul and Phil, decided to create one last album and move on to solo projects. This last album, as I have already mentioned, is titled the Blue Album. The album has been out for a while I just had not purchased it due to budgeting. This album is nothing short of amazing. It is completely different than their first album, the Green Album, yet strangely similar. Just as the Green Album was a "collection of tracks compiled over the years" the Blue Album is a collection of tracks that spans the evolution of their music. Everything is included. The dark tracks, dark and angry tracks, wispy and ambient tracks, the quirky tracks, and even some acid tracks. Heck, track seven is titled Acid Pants which sounds like they either hung out too much with Josh Wink or just had too much fun with a TB-303. If you are an idle fan of Orbital you will probably enjoy track nine, One Perfect Sunrise, the most. The rest of the album you probably won't dig too much; this album is really for the fans throughout the years — sort of a parting gift you might say. Personally, my favorite track is number five, You Lot. You Lot, is their political track for the album. It features a sample from The Second Coming that is quite profound; I like it. I could sit here and talk about Orbital and this album all night but I have been composing this post for over an hour now and I want to do some things in World of Warcraft before I go to bed so on with the other CD.

It seems that Tiësto was commissioned to play the opening cerimonies at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. Had I known that I might have watched them. This album, The Parade Of The Athletes, is the set he played during those ceremonies. Part of the committee's rules for Tiësto was that he could not use anything not produced by him and that the music could not contain words as they could be interpreted incorrectly in translations. The result is a collection of classic Tiësto brilliance. He made use of some of his best tracks, like Adiago For Strings, and created some very good new ones, such as Olympic Flame. The album can only be described as yet another Tiësto masterpiece. If you don't know what one of those sounds like, well, this album is as good as any to pick up to find out. I had this album in MP3 for a long time before it was released on CD and listened to it during almost every math test I took last semester.

And, finally, I have a new test to determine if you are geek or not. If, when you clean out your old POS car, you find at least one of either a t-connector or a jumper shunt then you are geek. If you find at least one of both then may your $DEITY help you. If you decide to keep them because you think you might have a need of them later then there is nothing your $DEITY can do for you.