The Finger Points Outwards - No. 114

AUSTRALIAN RULES FOOTBALL/HUMOUR: The AFL club songs ranked by ambition and boastfulness.

FILM: Someone tries to argue that the big bad guy of the first three Star Wars episodes was meant to be Jar Jar Binks. I would like to believe it was true – it would make those movies a lot more interesting – but I still think Jar Jar was simply an attempt to appeal to the kids.

FILM/BOOKS/TELEVISION/COMIC BOOKS: Still on Star Wars, an argument as to why Disney’s erasing the expanded Star Wars Universe – i.e. the novels and comics that followed the movies – was a good thing.

ECONOMICS/CULTURE/SPORTS: Sadly my favourite website, and one which I linked to often here, GRANTLAND, is gone. This article discusses the problems about making a website like GRANTLAND profitable, and how it may be done so.

BOOKS: The 10 worst typos in the Bible, including the incorrect translation of Yeshua.

The Wooden Finger Five – November 2015

5. Clearest Blue – Chvrches

There is not really all that much to Chvrches – lyric-wise, songwriting wise, voice-wise, or music-wise. But their beats are pretty good, and their new album really works, at least for the first six or seven tracks.

‘Clearest Blue’ gets my nod as the best of the tracks, mostly for the moment when it explodes into a beat and sound that is kind of like Depeche Mode’s ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’, but possibly better. Chvrches seem to think it is the centrepiece of the album as well, deciding not to follow it up in the track sequence with another Lauren Mayberry-sung track that is likely not going to measure up, but shifting the mood by inserting in a track sung by Martin Doherty instead.

4. One Thing – Beach House

I saw a link to a review for a new release by Beach House, and I thought that it surely couldn’t be a new album, given that their latest ‘Depression Cherry’ came out just a couple of months ago. But indeed it was. As opposed to a lot of their recent output, which seems to just float on by to me and is barely remembered, ‘One Thing’ lurches along, particularly in its intro, with a guitar reminiscent of late ‘80s British rock bands such as Ride and My Bloody Valentine. It then doesn’t have too much up its sleeve after that, but I always like a good shoegaze guitar riff.

3. Namaste – Swim Deep

What does Namaste mean? What are the lyrics to this song? Even if I see the lyrics typed out I don’t know what they mean. The bursts of sound are what get me on this one, both the keys at the start, and then later on with Austin Williams’ scream/shout. The Swim Deep album as a whole is actually pretty good as well, with ‘Hotel California’ (which I’ve mentioned here before) and ‘Great Affection’ being other seemingly instantly recognisable tracks.

2. All The Same – Deerhunter

‘My home, anywhere, expect no comforts save for air’ sings Bradford Cox to start off Deerhunter’s seventh album.  The lines suggest adaptability, but by the time Cox gets to the chorus of ‘it’s all the same’ they are more suggestive of apathy instead. Except Cox is not a guy who ever really sounds apathetic; that is more the domain of his bandmate Lockett Pundt (see Lotus Plaza, ‘Desire Lines’). Hence rather than sounding like it doesn’t give a damn ‘All the Same’ gets Deerhunter’s new album off to a lively start. 

1. Flesh Without Blood – Grimes

Grimes has a lot more lyrics on her new album. Since I like a good pop song more than I like a good instrumental track this is a good thing to me, and therefore I’ve probably listened to her new album more than her last, with ‘Oblivion’ being the obvious exception.

‘Flesh Without Blood’ comes from the popular 21^st century genre of pop disses to exes, though reportedly not an ex-partner in this case. ‘And you had every chance/You destroy everything that you love … If you don’t need me/Just let me go’.  But the tune is so jubilant that it took me a couple of listens to realise that essentially the cat claws were out. Going ‘pop’ can be a dicey proposition, but if it means Grimes keeps making music like this – which does sound like the type of music we imagined we would someday be listening to in 2015 – then I am for it. (I’m less keen on her making album covers like this.)

The Leaden Finger Gamer’s Review – The Beginner’s Guide

For a leaden finger gamer, and one who is not averse to selecting the easiest difficulty setting, a game that is known as ‘The Beginner’s Guide’ sounds like it is made for my type of skill level. In that respect this game does not disappoint – one does not have to do much at all except for move around a bit through various settings, and occasionally click the mouse button. Also if you are stuck on a part for a minute or two the narrator will bail you out, and you are on to the next location. Basically then you cannot fail this game, and it will only take you about an hour and a half to complete. Achievement unlocked!

As one may suspect then, offering a challenge to the player is not really the point of ‘The Beginner’s Guide’. However it is difficult to talk about what the point is without spoiling the plot, and the experience. On the other hand, after I played this game all I did was want to talk about it. What then can I say about it here?

One thing I can say without giving away too much is that ‘The Beginner’s Guide’ did change my view somewhat about what could be called a (video) game. Without wanting to sound too highfalutin about it, one could think of ‘The Beginner’s Guide’ as art taking the form of a game as much as it is a game itself. That description not only applies to the overall game, but also to the games within the game; that is the games supposedly produced by a designer named Coda which ‘ … Guide’ creator Davey Wreden has repackaged for his own purposes. Few of these games really have all that much that is ‘gamey’ about them; they are as much set pieces, or pieces in a gallery, as they are an interface for the player to interact with. Some of them even seem to resist being played, are almost ‘anti-games’. Yet you still have to do the tasks to progress, even though some of those tasks are rudimentary, so I guess games they are.

Apart from the somewhat unusual imagery what stayed with me from this game was the story. Again I cannot say too much about this without spoiling the game. But what the story of the game does explore is the relationship between the game and the designer, and what each may say about the other. It also explores the relationship between a game and its audience, and the question of whether a game necessarily has to have widespread appeal. It is a question often asked of other media, but not often of video games.

So the game made me think, and it was easy to play. Given my preferences and gaming dexterity I would not be surprised if I end up getting a lot more enjoyment out of this than I do from ‘Fallout 4’.

The Finger Points Outwards - No. 113: Counterbalance

‘Counterbalance’ was a weekly web column on PopMatters, in which two (mostly rock) music aficionados would discuss one of the greatest albums of all time, starting from the ‘best’ of all and going down the list. This list was deemed The Great List, and referred to a list of the most recommended albums put together by another fellow using a mathematical formula from more than a thousand ‘greatest album’ lists by critics. Hence by following the list the two authors were considering the albums that the critical consensus had determined were the best, rather than simply advocating for their own personal favourites.

The result was not only a discussion of the albums themselves, but how critics viewed those albums, particularly how critical favour gathered around certain records. One theory they used several times was that some albums often appeared on ‘best of’ lists as representatives of entire genres or eras; for example, Carole King’s ‘Tapestry’ is a ‘placeholder’ for the early 1970s singer-songwriter genre, and Miles Davis’ ‘Kind of Blue’ is the jazz record that is often included. A theory they had that I quite liked is that ‘great’ double albums can generally be categorised as a Grand Artistic Statement, or A Pile, with the latter term not necessarily meant in a derogatory sense, but just meant to denote that the album is more a hodgepodge of styles than a focused effort. The Beatles’ self-titled ‘white’ album, for instance, is a definite example of a double album ‘pile’.

One trend that I noticed is that rarely did both authors consider a particular album as being among their favourites. Further, often the reaction – such as, for example, with Bob Dylan’s ‘classic’ records – was that an author would like the album and appreciate it, but not love it. Considering the list myself, there are probably quite a few albums on there than I own and like, but don’t play all that much: Bob Dylan’s records for me as well, but also, say, Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’, and even the supposed greatest album of all time, ‘Pet Sounds’. I found their approach quite an honest one as opposed to the fawning evaluations of great records that accompany many ‘best of’ lists. It highlights that, to most listeners, some of the great albums will seem vital, while others will seem merely important, and which is which will say as much about the listener as the album itself.

Dave’s Music Database has links to the ‘Counterbalance’ columns on the top 100 albums of The Great List. Of those first 100 columns, these are my 10 favourite discussions:

10. The Sex Pistols – Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols: Both authors think the myth of the Sex Pistols far outstrips the music.
18. Bruce Springsteen – Born To Run: Can one buy into the world of the Boss?
28. The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead: Two Americans try to appreciate a quintessentially British album.
31. Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin IV: How you can come to like music that was liked by the wrong sort of people during your youth.
42. Stevie Wonder – Innervisions: On learning to love Stevie Wonder.
54. Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band – Trout Mask Replica: In which the narrative that this album is an obscure masterpiece is stomped upon.
58. Fleetwood Mac – Rumours: The important album from 1977 that was actually a hit, and for which perhaps more has been read into than is actually there.
59. Pixies – Doolittle: These guys love the Pixies.
67. John Coltrane – A Love Supreme: An example of how jazz can be hard to get into, but can be rewarding if you do (I haven’t yet, though I own this album).
95. Back in Black – AC/DC: A band that was looked down upon by music snobs has now, seemingly through sheer longevity, made its way into the canon.

Who Has The Easiest AFL Draw in 2016?

With the release of the 2016 AFL fixture this week, it is time for my annual assessment of the difficulty of each club’s draw. Which clubs have the easiest and hardest draws in 2016?

To recap here is how my assessment is done: a club’s draw is rated by summing up over every match the ranking points of its opponents as determined by my end-of-season AFL Power Rankings, while adjusting for net home ground advantage.

This means the rating for each club’s draw is in effect the result of three components:

-          The effect of not playing your own club: If every club played each other the same amount of times the best club would have the easiest draw and the worst club would have the hardest.

 

-          Net home ground advantage: This is the net effect of the adjustments for home ground advantage across the season. Not playing your home matches interstate helps out here, as does playing clubs from out-of-town.

 

-          The effect of which clubs your club plays twice: This is the collective strength of the opponents that each club plays twice. A higher rating for this component means that you have easier opponents in your return bouts.

Putting that all together, the easiness/difficulty of each AFL club’s draw in 2016 is shown in the table below, ranked from easiest to hardest:

And the winners of this year’s fixture are … the Gold Coast Suns. The Suns have relatively easy return bouts, playing Brisbane, Essendon, Melbourne, and GWS twice, with only Fremantle expected to be a tough return engagement.

After years of tough draws Geelong’s can look forward to an easy fixture in 2016 after missing the finals for the first time in nine years. The Cats also get Brisbane, Essendon, and GWS twice, and as always, are considered here to be helped by playing some Victorian clubs down in Geelong.

Port Adelaide, Carlton, and St. Kilda should also be pleased with their fixtures. Essendon should be pleased about which clubs it plays twice, but less pleased about the number of times it travels interstate compared to the number of times it hosts out-of-towners.

At the other end North Melbourne is rated as having the hardest draw, slightly ahead of Adelaide. North Melbourne’s chief executive even admitted to the difficulty of North Melbourne’s fixture, though it is not helped by the Kangaroos playing some home matches in Tasmania. Adelaide, meanwhile, has the toughest return matches against clubs, playing West Coast, Fremantle, North Melbourne, Port Adelaide, and Geelong twice.

Reigning premier Hawthorn also has some tough return engagements, playing West Coast, North Melbourne, Sydney, and Richmond twice. But as has been the case for the past few years Hawthorn’s biggest advantage is that it does not have to play Hawthorn. That puts it from having one of the hardest draws to one that is rated somewhere in the middle.

Note again though that the difference between the easiest draw and the hardest draw averages out to about a goal a match. Surely North Melbourne can easily make up that difference with Gold Coast, can’t they?

The Wooden Finger Five - October 2015

5.Bob Lennon John Dylan – Phoenix Foundation

This is a fun, fast few minutes of indie pop-rock nonsense from my favourite New Zealand band the Phoenix Foundation. I don’t think the mixing of names is meant to be significant, more likely it just sounded like a funny idea at the time. Moments of flippancy aside, I found the Phoenix Foundation’s new album ‘Give Up Your Dreams’ to be their most consistent, focused full-length to date, and definitely recommend giving it a few plays if you like blissful, melodic indie rock.

4. Ui Yia Uia – No Zu

We were watching the TV show Rage on a Wednesday night, when this strange and propulsive clip showed up. First these guys that looked like they came from a late night 1970s lounge band came in. Apart from the bass and sax, there were keyboards, a guy with curly hair and a moustache playing bongos, and two other drummers for some reason.

Then in the middle of those guys two women started singing in what sounded like a made-up language. It may well have been a perfectly legitimate language, but it sounded made-up the way they sang it; the phrase ‘Ui Yia Uia’ sounds like it comes two miles east of ‘Ganggajang’ to me.

 

And all the while that this was going on, the camera also panned around these bodybuilders that were surrounding the band. As if the moustache and bongos were not ‘Boogie Nights’ enough.

And somewhere in the room there was also a kangaroo.

When it was finished, not being able to remember either the name of the band or the song, I typed into Google the words ‘video clip kangaroo bodybuilders’ and came up with this article that identified it. I’ve since listened to the track a few more times on Spotify, though a couple of times I’ve mistakenly typed in ‘No Bu’ (a Japanese restaurant in Melbourne) when searching for it.

What a weird and wonderful find.

3.Come Back – Deafheaven

I was first lured into Deafheaven by seeing their beautiful album cover to ‘Sunbather’ on Pitchfork’s year-end best albums list, unaware that they were a heavy metal band. I got about three minutes into the first track, and then my ears rebelled … But something possessed me to give their new track ‘Come Back’ a go, and not only do I like it very much, I went back and listened to more of ‘Sunbather’ again and I like that too. As the Jesus and Mary Chain, and My Bloody Valentine have shown me, there is something soothing about ear-splitting white noise when played right. ‘Come Back’ though is more than just noise – listen to the last-third for an outro that compares favourably with Eric Clapton’s ‘Layla’.     

2.Academic – New Order

Catching me somewhat unawares, New Order have released their first new album in over a decade, without founding member and bassist Peter Hook. In worrying news for bass players New Order do not sound much different for the change in personnel. Though in part that is because their new bassist seems to have been ordered to play pretty much like Peter Hook. Actually the whole band sound pretty much like they did back in the 1980s, or at least like they did on ‘Get Ready’ a decade and a half ago. ‘Academic’ is yet another New Order track that has a seemingly cerebral title, but is basically about Barney singing of a girl he recalls.

1.Downtown – Majical Cloudz

As I have raved about somewhat incoherently on this blog before, I find Majical Cloudz’s music to be beautiful. Despite the title of their best song ‘Bugs Don’t Buzz’ it has this captivating, buzzing, feel to it, but it’s also very simple and direct, which is a rare feat for electronic music. There are a few tracks off the new album that I could choose to fill this slot, but ‘Downtown’ is my current favourite, though it took a few months of listening for me for ‘Bugs … ‘ to emerge as the standout from the last album. It’s a little bit creepy, dealing with obsession for a lover, but it’s delivered so delicately that the feelings feel more pure than they probably do if you just see them written on paper. If you haven’t listened to Majical Cloudz before don’t let them pass you by this year.  

AFL Power Rankings: Post-Finals 2015

So Hawthorn and West Coast met in the Grand Final, as these rankings expected they would, and Hawthorn came out on top, which was expected as well. Watching the Hawks is kind of like watching a computer at chess. Hawthorn has now finished atop these rankings for a fourth straight year.

North Melbourne was perhaps the only significant surprise in September, or the only other team to raise its form in the past month. Sydney dropped back the most, but it was hit by injuries which likely made it play below its best.

Over the year Hawthorn held the top spot in the rankings for all but one week, all the way back in Round 2. Fremantle, Sydney, and West Coast – the other top four teams after the home-and-away season – were the only other teams to be in the top eight all season. The Eagles making the finals wasn’t a surprise at all to these rankings. The Eagles making the Grand Final was a surprise compared with their position at the start of the season, though less of one after Round 7. More surprising was the capitulation of Carlton and Essendon, particularly the Bombers after the first few matches.

Five teams had a highest ranking of third during the year: Fremantle – who was actually never ranked in the top two despite being the minor premier – Port Adelaide, Adelaide, Richmond, and the Western Bulldogs.

That’s it until 2016!

The Finger Points Outwards - No. 112

TENNIS: Who is the greatest male tennis player ever? And which is the greatest rivalry?

BASKETBALL: How to fix pickup basketball using analytics.

SPORTS: The 100 worst blowouts in sports history.

AUSTRALIAN RULES FOOTBALL: Hipster Australian Football League logos.

ECONOMICS: The economics of commuting – why train strikes actually help passengers.