Video Games as the Highest Art Form

First of all, I'm real sorry I haven't been writing anything for these past 5 months. Sometimes you just shut yourself down and you lose touch with the things you used to do. But I'm back once again and I'll try to become a more serious writer/blogger from now on. I won't change the direction or the things I usually talk about, I'm still going to be writing about language, philosophy, music, films and other stuff but I'll try to write more often and in a more serialized way, maybe two or three posts per month. I'm also in the process of writing a science fiction novel called Solitude Adventures; it's not the first novel I attempt to write, it's actually like the third, but I would like to publish some chapters here and see what kind of reception (if any) does it get.

This post it's going to be a little bit different from the other's I've written, because this time I'm going to be talking about video games.  This is weird because it's actually the first time that I talk about video games in this blog and I'm quite an active player, so I wonder what took me so long. But anyway, this post it's completely inspired by the whole debate surrounding the following question: Are video games art? I'm sure that all gamers would agree and I'm sure that all non-gamers would NOT agree. One of the most peculiar things about video game criticism is that people who criticize video games in the most savage of ways are people who never play them. There are people who speculate that video games are only meant to entertain and again, these are people who don't actually play video games or they are not knowledgeable players because video games have shown us again and again that they're not just about entertainment, games like Deux Ex,Grim Fandango, Journey, Mass Effect, Half-Life, Heavy Rain, Metal Gear (even tough Kojima doesn't have the same views on this) Ico, Okami, Flower,Limbo, The Last of Us, The Walking Dead, Spec Ops: The Line and many others are perfectly capable of exploring the human psych and to show beautiful landscapes and situations in which the player is not only watching but he's actually engaging with them. Of course triple A games suffer the same paradigm than hollywood blockbusters, they need to appeal to the masses ,so they have to follow a general structure and they have to stay inside the box. But for more indie or adventurous games this is not the same and they can follow or break the common gaming rules whenever they want to, they don't need to make their video games appealing to the masses, they can just use mechanics to express and create the experiences they want to. Video games like this are becoming more present because the technology is already available and accessible to different kinds of artists, that's why we are seeing all sorts of video games that seem to break the paradigm of what we previously believed in.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="550"] The Passage of an entire life time in just five minutes[/caption]

But in this post I won't be discussing this question at all because, for me this question is a no-brainer and it's not worthy to be discussed; of course, video games are art and the ones who are not able to see this are either non-gamers ,people who don't know what art is or people who don't know in which type of art to categorize it. I'm actually here to make a bolder statement. In my point of view, video games are not only an art form but they are the highest art form there is (or well, they are showing signs that they are). Of course as Dr. James Asher affirms: "Teaching is the highest art form of them all" and I completely agree but when it comes to aesthetic and visual arts; video games are the winners.



First, we need to consult our friends, the ancient Greeks, to understand what are the proper divisions of classical arts that they originally developed. Before anything else, we must understand that in the process of art there are two entities involved: The artist and the audience. According to the ancient greeks there are 2 types of fine arts: The high arts and the low arts.

• The high arts are the ones in which the audience can perceive the art only with their superior senses (which according to the greeks were sight and hearing) and there was no need to interact physically with the art. In this category we can find: Painting, Music, Architecture, Sculpture, Theater and Dancing (and I guess we could also add Film and Photography).


• The low arts are the ones in which the audience has to perceive the art with their inferior senses (which according to the greeks were taste, smell and touch) and a physical interaction from the part of the audience is mandatory. In this category we can find: Gastronomy and Perfumery.

If we are to begin to think of video games as an art form, in which of these two categories would they belong?, or maybe this distinction between art forms is already to obsolete for this era. But anyway, let's say that we are trying to classify video games in this spectrum. Soon we realize that something curious happens. Video games can fit in the category of high arts. We engage with them with our eyes and our ears but they have something different from all of the other high art forms, the audience actually engages with them, the audience has to interact with them, a feature that none of the other high art forms has. By this maybe we can consider it a low art, after all, the interaction of the audience is mandatory. But here comes another point of view to this whole "category" thing: At one point in time, people said that theater was the ultimate high art form because it involved all of the other ones such as music, dancing, architecture, painting. Then it came film, and people considered film the ultimate art form because it also included photography. Now let's look at video games, they include all of the other art forms and even more. In a video game you can find photography, music, acting, scripting, drawing/painting, architecture and also things that are not consider art forms such as programming and development of artificial intelligence. So, how can an art form (that combines all of the other high arts) be a low art? Seems like we're facing a paradox here. But this exercise makes us realize something: Video games are a complete new revolutionary art form by its own and I guess we cannot really categorize them with the old ones.

Video games are not the art of sounds, nor the art of movement nor the art of color and pigments, they are the art of experiences.



They're emulators of experiences, they create an experience and you have to engage it and live it, this is something that none other art form can perform, so why we cannot consider this the greatest art form? All art forms try to imitate or express the beauty of life, video games are capable to do this in a deeper way because in video games you have the factor of choice, you have actions and you have consequences and you have to live according to the things you've chosen, just like in real life:



And if you're still cynical about this idea, try to make a good video game yourself and you'll realize this. Or watch the process of making a good video game and you'll see everything that its require and how immensely creative these programmers need to be to work in this medium.

Video games haven't reached the goal of becoming  the greatest art form or even a recognizable one yet, but everything indicates that they're just in the right path to become the highest art form, new artist are joining this medium and creating things that we have never experienced before so the possibilities are endless and let's face it, this medium is still in diapers. I would recommend you to watch Extra Credits, it's an amazing web series that will give you a completely new perspective of what video games are and everything correlated to them, it will give you a new perspective of this entire medium.





Here's the link for Loneliness: http://www.necessarygames.com/my-games/loneliness/flash

I also recommend you to watch Errant Singnal's videos, amazing video games analyzes there:

Well, this is all that I have to say right now and I would like to know what other people think about this topic, leave a comment if you have another point of view that I'm missing. This would be all for now and thanks for reading. :)   

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Soen - Cognitive (Review) A Hard Album to Talk About.

Ok, this is a great album but a hard one to talk about and you already know the reasons why.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="346"] Everyday without the sun[/caption]

I think that the problem lies in people who are always looking for something new, something that they haven't heard before or something that doesn't remind them of anything. And that's completely ok, I even share some of their thoughts honestly. The reason for this is that it's not only about the music, but about the identity and style of the music also. The identity and the style of the music are equally as important. Why? Because if a band doesn't create their own identity or style and they borrow it heavily from other bands, a lot of people are not going to appreciate their music for what it is because they are going to be too busy comparing it with those other bands. And I think that's exactly what's happening to Soen.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="562"] Does your singer has to be bald to?[/caption]

But in all honesty, Cognitive is a great album and it has a lot to show for. It's not an original album by any means but it does an amazing job at capturing key elements of the bands that influenced them, combining those key elements in a perfect harmonic and balanced way. Believe me, that is not as easy as it looks. Sadly, a lot of people are not going to be able to realize this because of the reasons that I already described, but thinking about it, I cannot really blame them either.

With all that said, Cognitive is a perfectly balanced album, entertaining and a living proof of what the genre of progressive metal is capable of doing, combining key elements of their most important bands nowadays. It's not an album that is going to change your life, unless you have never been exposed to this kind of music before. If you haven't, this album is going to be the magic door that will introduce you to the iconic bands that influenced them and to the genre itself.

In this sense, I like to compare Cognitive with Flying Colors. They are not the greatest and most original ground breaking albums in existence but both of them are a great way to introduce yourself to the genre. Flying Colors with Progressive Rock and Cognitive with Progressive Metal. If you don't care that much about styles or identities you will also enjoy this album a lot and for those who do; It's completely OK to dislike this album but you cannot say that it's a bad album, it's not original, it doesn't create anything new, but is not bad music in any way. I care a lot about the style and the identity of the music, but I was still able to appreciate the elements that they were able to compose in a lot of the songs.

Drums, Bass and Guitar were perfect. Vocals pretty well but I felt like they needed something else to create a different and more original identity. The exact same goes for the artwork and music videos.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="515"] Not the most convenient art direction to take, just saying.[/caption]

The themes that the album explore are also interesting to analyze, they mainly revolve around the conflicts of reaching cognitive freedom and the struggles to protect it.

These are the most influential songs, in my opinion.



I specially love the ending, reminiscing of April Ethereal.



If you liked them, and if you keep an open mind, you will definitively like the album and draw your own conclusions.

Thanks for reading :)

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The Stupidity Of Debating The Existence of God

Look, I love debates. They are fun, exciting, entertaining and if they are done in a correct and in a deep manner, they always leave you with something to think about. In a debate there's no winners, well, that's actually not true, there's no official winners, you're the one who must decide who the true winner is at the end on the day, based on the arguments presented by each of the opponents and how well they defended them and formulated them.

So, debates exist because they allow us to examine challenging questions looking at both sides of the coin.  They expose us to all the arguments and counter-arguments regarding that question and at the end of the day you are the one who decides what's the triumphant argument or what is the triumphant point of view regarding that challenging question and the  current status in which that question is viewed or perceived.

In seems like something ethereal.

Now bearing that in mind, is easy to assume that if we try to apply this phenomenal activity, this beautiful exercise into one of the most challenging questions ever imagined by philosophy or theology (that been the existence of God) We are going to witness  the greatest exercise of human intellect and expression in history.



But the funny thing is that the answer is a complete NO!

The act of debating the existence of God is one of the most fruitless, repetitive, time-consuming and  non-progressive things ever imagined. If you are ever entangled in a debate about the existence of God, I don't care if you're a theist, an atheist, an agnostic, a pantheist, an ignostic, whatever. Get the hell out of there, because let me tell you, that discussion is going to lead you nowhere and I will give you my reasons.

The reason why almost all the debates discussing the existence of God fail (and I'm not only talking about those mundane arguments that you get yourself into with your friends, relatives or so, I'm also talking about professional debates with academics, audience members and everything.) is because the debaters almost never define what the hell are they discussing about, they never defined what God is in the context of this particular debate. As I expressed before, "God" is a term that could express a myriad of completely different things. The term "God" is an ocean that englobes any kind of deep meanings in which a person could relate to or appreciate. God could be the beauty that you perceive in nature, God could be the essence and the rules in which we discover how this universe works, God could be your inner self that is always demanding you to transcend, God could be this world when this world favours you, God could be the love or the strong emotions that you feel for someone else.

Now, you realize how many meanings that word could carry and if you're going to get yourself into a debate about this vague term, the first thing that you must do is to define what are you discussing about specifically , the first thing that you must do is to define God in the most specific way possible, if you're not able to do this then this debate will be completely meaningless and a waste of time.

Don't believe me? Take a look at this debate.



I know, the debate is too long, and the most probable thing is that you're not going to be able to watch the whole thing. When you have the time watch it, to make a long story short Hitchens basically wipes the floor with these dudes single-handed. Nevertheless is a really bad and poor debate, because nothing is clearly defined, nothing is clearly defined by the apologists, nothing is clearly defined by the moderator (which in my humble point of view is the worst moderator in the history of debates) and nothing is clearly defined by Hitchens (although he sometimes try).

And by this, you get a debate that goes nowhere, debaters that don't move forward and that keep spinning around in the same arguments and counter-arguments that they already established.

If you look deeply the debate doesn't move forward because of how these apologists portray the Christian God. After watching this debate and making a few observations, I realized that must of people are actually wrong when they assume that religion never changes, religion chances to and their Gods chance with them. By this I've realized that the Christian God has truly evolve.

The concept of God that these apologists are defending is vague also, but for what I saw I can say that their views of the Christian God are formulated by the combination of 4 key distinct aspects:

1.- The God of Jesus Christ (every time they say "Yeah, but Jesus Christ said... ").

2.- The Cosmological God ( every time they pull out the "fine tuning" card or when they say "but look how everything is in order in our universe... ")

3.- The Hardcore God of the Old Testament ( Yahweh, this is a dangerous card but they only use it when it seems convenient, generally saying "Yeah, but in Genesis says..." ignoring pretty much everything else that this God did. They know this is a dangerous move and they don't use this card very often anymore.

4.- The Personal God  (every time they say "Yeah, but it doesn't matter what you say, ever since I started to believe in God I have found my purpose and I've been living in happiness everyday of my life" etc, etc.)

They start with the God of Jesus, when Hitchens refutes that, they go with the Cosmological God, when Hitches refutes that they go with the Personal God, when Hitchens refutes that, they go with the Old Testament God, when Hitchens destroys that, they go back to the Cosmological God once again. Hitchens is trapped in a debate that he will never absolutely win because the concept of God is not clearly defined and these apologists keep bringing different concepts into the table. He is in reality debating about 4 different Gods (which are not really that bound to each other, except the God of Jesus and the God of the Old Testament) and if one of those is true, all of them are true to.

That is what happened here and that is what will happen in pretty much every debate like this.

And even if you're able to endure a debate like this, at the end of the day is that pretty much nothing will change, the christian will still be a christian (almost all christians that engage into debates are strong christians that will not change their beliefs) the theist will still a theist (maybe he chances a little bit his perception of God but he will still a theist) and the atheist will still be an atheist  (almost all atheist that engage into debates are strong atheist that will not change their lack of beliefs).

Note: I'm not saying that we should never debate about religion, if the subject is focused on religion and religious values in society, then go for it, there's a lot of substance and a lot of stuff to talk about. But if the whole debate is only focused on proving or disproving the existence of God, then everything becomes meaningless, a waste of energy and a waste of time.

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Reading Methods: Review of LingQ & Learning with Texts

This is the second review that I do of this website, I made the first review when I was just beginning to learn languages on my own so I didn't have a lot of experience about a lot of self-learning techniques or programs or softwares out there . I'm not saying that right now I'm a complete expert on the subject, but I have tried almost all of the most famous self-learning languages courses and websites out there and I think I have a better opinion about them.

So now I'm going to start with LingQ, or to be more accurate LingQ 2.0.



The owner of LingQ is a fellow language learning blogger called Steve Kaufmann, who has quite a reputation on YouTube.

First of all, a lot of people might ask: What is LingQ? Steve Kaufmann defines it as: "Simply the best way to learn languages" mmm... ok, I don't like when people promote something they did in that kind of way and I'm sure that you neither so I'm going to talk to you about LingQ without all the drills and exaggerations.

Ok, LingQ basically promotes itself as a website in which you can "learn languages", but I don't find that accurate. LingQ is not a guide, LingQ is not a course, LingQ is not a systematic method that will teach how to learn languages. LingQ is just a platform where you can find , read and listen to texts in other languages, that's it. Yes, you also have the video calls, professional tutors  and all those things but I think you have to pay for the premium account if you want to get those. Mainly LingQ is a reading platform and a really good one if I may add. Reading a text with LingQ, is pretty much like reading a foreign text with an e-dictionary completely at your disposition. But listen to this, I don't recommend this method at all if you're just starting with a language. If you are just starting try Assimil or Pimsleur better, because in LingQ you already have to know how to read the language and a good decent chunk of basic vocabulary. Otherwise you will not understand a lot of stuff you're reading despite using an e-dictionary and you might get really frustrated because only few texts have complete translations you can look at, so you already have to know the basics.

LingQ is basically a library, a really big online library and let me tell you something: You might hate Steve Kaufmann, his attitude, the way that he promotes himself and his business but I have to admit that he has managed to create the biggest online library of foreign languages texts out there. You have hundreds of texts and books in Spanish, German, French, Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, Russian, Italian... . I have never seen a library with so much content as this one and entirely free, every text has its MP3 audio which is really easy to download and the overall settings are easy to use.



For me this is the greatest aspect that LingQ has, you can find so much free material with audio. I think LingQ is the only website that I know that offers this and for "free".

But sadly there's a huge downside on this website, a huge letdown that made me stop using this site until I found a solution to it.  The point of reading with LingQ is to create definitions of the words that you don't know, every time you read something you don't know, you click on that word and LingQ will tell you the definition of that word in your language. That word will be highlighted in yellow and saved in your database. That's how you learn vocabulary with this method, the more definitions you do, the better, that's the whole point. But when you're using LingQ (the free version) you only get to create 100 definitions and that's it, and believe me, when you're reading  multiple texts in a foreign language 100 definitions is not enough.

You have to go to your database, erase the definitions you already have and then you can return to read. That was a complete pain in the ass for me, I was completely comfortable reading with this method and bum! you have created 100 LingQs that's your limit!, I had to return to my database, erase a few words and bum! I reached the limit again. That just made this method so annoying and uncomfortable that I stopped using it. That's the greatest flaw of this site , and that's why I don't use it anymore. Well I still use it but in another way...



Learning With Text was the solution that I found to this problem, and without any doubt LWT is the best way to use this reading method.

Learning With Text is not a website, is a software, kinda like an app. You use LWT exactly the same way that you use LingQ. But! LWT is completely free to use, and you can make as many definitions as you want to! no limits, the way it should be.



The only thing is that you have to import everything to it,  when you install LWT the whole software is empty you have to import your texts and audio to it, but this is really simple (copy/paste kinda stuff) and you also can choose two online dictionaries to use. And with that, you can study and read so much comfortably without limitations, without erasing words from you database, with a proper dictionary of your choise where you can see multiple definitions, and all of the data is in your computer so you don't really need the web to use it.

The downside of Learning With Text and there's really only one: Is a little bit tricky to download, is completely free, it doesn't take a lot of time to download but the way to download it and install it is a little weird.

There are several methods to install it, you can go to http://lwt.sourceforge.net/ to see them.

This is the method I used (using Windows and EasyPHP):

1. First you go to this link http://sourceforge.net/projects/quickeasyphp/files/EasyPHP/5.3.6.1/


2. Click in EasyPHP-5.3.6.1-setup.exe and a program will download into your computer, install it in Program Files.


3. Now go to http://sourceforge.net/projects/lwt/ and download the zip of Learning With Text.


4. Once you have the zip of LWT, copy it and paste it in C:\Program Files\EasyPHP-5.3.6.1\www.


5. Unzip LWT inside this www folder. You'll have a lwt folder, after that you can delete the zip if you want to.


6. Open the lwt folder, you'll see a file named connect_easyphp.inc.php changed that name to connect.inc.php.


7. Now go to your Windows Start Menu, you'll see an EasyPhP icon, click it to activate it.


8. Now go to your browser and try these addresses: http://127.0.0.1:8887/lwt , http://127.0.0.1:8888/lwt or http://127.0.0.1:8887/lwt_v_1_4_9%20(1)/, one of them should open LWT for you, when you find it, bookmark it so you don't need to write all those weird numbers again.


9. Now, when you want to open LWT again, just click in your EasyPhP icon at your windows menu and go to the address that you bookmarked and that's it.


10. Another thing, if you want to import audio, just go to your lwt folder, inside create another folder called media, you'll import all your audio there.
    

And that's it, once you've already installed it you can use LingQ and LWT combined.

As I already told you LingQ is a big library and you should use it as such. LWT is the best way to use this reading method and you should use it as such.

Go to LingQ, pick a lesson and import it to LWT so you can study it more comfortable, with no limitations and no cash spend. You can also import to LWT whatever kind of text you want, you can import songs (which are really useful) news and all kinds of stuff.

Do this!,because this reading method really works, if you already know the basics of the language and you use this method; you can pretty much read and understand every text in that language and at the same time acquiring a lot of information, vocabulary and the overall rythm of the language.

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Dream Theater - Images and Words (Album Review)

Okay, so, where do I even begin with this album? Some people call it the very first Progressive Metal album ever made (something I don't agree with), others call it the greatest Progressive Metal album ever and the greatest album DT has ever and will ever made. Yes I'm talking about the mythical and groundbreaking Images and Words.



Ok, so first of all, this album has this messianic complex that we all love. This album was made during a really tough moment for Dream Theater. Their debut album "When A Dream And Day Unite" was a complete commercial failure but this wasn't really DT's fault, there were serious problems with the record label when it came to the management and distribution that WDADU had.

DT was basically ripped-off by its first label company which offered them a tour, a single and even a music video and we all know that at the end of the day they didn't get a thing. It was also in this moment when DT realized that Charles Dominici wasn't the right singer for them and they decided to "let him go". I love that phrase, "let him go" ,come on dudes, it sounds pretty but you fired him, say it like that.

That's something that I have always thought was kinda cruel, especially when you watch Charles Dominici's early basement interviews with DT and you can see that he has the DT logo tattooed on his arm, OH DAAAAMMMNN, that must have hurted; It's like tattooing the name of your ex-girlfriend... but a little bit cooler.

Miraculously they managed to find a new label and a new singer, the infamous James Labrie. Now, they were ready for their second album but I'm pretty sure  this was their last chance; I don't think that DT would have survived another failure.

New unknown label, new unknown singer, only one bullet left and... this thing came out

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300"] There was no time for pain, no energy for anger[/caption]

You know... just..one of the greatest albums of all time... it happens... it happens.

A lot of people call Images and Words the greatest album that DT has ever and will ever release, and I know that because I'm one of them.

Yes, for me, Images & Words is the greatest DT album ever, this album is just perfect in every way. There's nothing I have to complain about it, nothing! Every single second of music is perfect: poetical lyrics, beautiful melodies, technical compositions that are not from this world including a great number of the greatest guitar solos that you'll probably ever hear and an overwhelming emotional atmosphere ( we must to thank Kevin Moore for that, honestly).

There's only one other album that sometimes manages to battle my I&W preference, but it all depends in what kind of mood I am, but generally I&W is the one.

Every song of this album is a famous classic: Pull Me Under is probably the most famous progressive song ever, Under A Glass Moon is one of the greatest guitar composed songs of all time. The lyrics of the songs have also been memorable and analyzed through the years. Whether or not Metropolis is about Romulus and Remus, whether or not Wait For Sleep and Learning to Live are about HIV or about the struggle of fighting a mortal disease, whether or not Pull Me Under is really about Hamlet. There are a lot of interpretation of these songs that have risen over the years and that's because they wrote those lyrics in an amazing metaphorical but also literal aesthetical way.

I also think that this album has the greatest lyrics of any other DT album... well maybe except Awake. When it comes to lyrics I&W and Awake are in a complete tie for me. Awake lyrics are a little bit more literal but full of emotions and strong feelings.

Metropolis is my favourite DT song. Pull Me Under's guitar riff that starts at 4:03 is my second favourite guitar riff ever, only top by one of the final riffs that you can hear almost at the end of The Ivory Gate of Dreams by Fates Warning.

For me this album just represents the real and honest Dream Theater, this is not DT trying to copy or imitate other style, they started imitating bands like Iron Maiden and Rush but they soon evolve and here you can see a truly form style completely developed by them, a style that changed this whole genre and inspire many musicians to come. For me this is the real Dream Theater, every time that someone mentions DT; this! is the first album I think about and every time someone asks me about them I just say: Go and listen to I&W first! Because for me, that album is who they are, or well, who they really were.

I could talk about this album just on and on but I'm afraid all that I have left to say has already been said. Images & Words is just simply one of the greatest albums of all time (talking in general not only inside the genre), the greatest Dream Theater album, and a perfect candidate for the greatest Progressive Metal album of all time.

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Why DC heroes are destined to fail in film from now on

How many films has Marvel released in this last decade? How many films has DC released in this last decade? It's obvious that you can remember way more modern films based on Marvel comics than on DC. Marvel has tried, at first they failed many times with a lot of their superheroes but they kept releasing films. They were constant and optimistic about them until they finally managed to craft their art with this new wave of Marvel hero films starting with Iron Man (2008).



These new films that Marvel has released (Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk)  are actually good, decent films. I mean the characters are well-developed and also they are incredibly well adapted to the big screen, the films are entertaining and you can really relate to these heroes. The only downside for me are the villains, non of these movies have great or memorable villains, just Ok villains. But despite of that, Marvel has managed to release good solid movie after another in a short period of time without any of them been disappointing. And let me tell you, the success that they are having right now is not a lucky streak, the success that they are having right now is the results of pure trial and error.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="258"] And when I say trial and error I MEAN trial and error[/caption]

Starting with X Men in 2000, they have been releasing films for the last 12 years and in this last 4 it seems that they have finally manage to make all their films solid, good and constant culminating with The Avengers.



And what about DC? well... Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy was enough to battle all these Marvel superheroes films alone, but now it's over, The Man of Steel is the next in line, but c'mon, Superman can't battle alone The Avengers as Batman did. Batman is frozen now, Superman alone and DC is pretty much screwed.

But now let's think this trough Ok? After all those films that Marvel has released, hero film after hero film for this last decade. I'm afraid that there's no room for DC heroes anymore and from now on DC heroes are pretty screwed in the art of cinema.

And these are my reasons why DC heroes are destined to fail in film from now on:

1) Marvel already owns the superhero film genre, which is something that they have been exploiting for the last ten years; that I'm afraid that real soon people will start to get a little bit tired of superhero films, specially films that introduce a new hero right from the beginning; so right now is a little too late to start releasing films about all the super heroes that you have.

2) And most importantly. With the exception of Batman, DC heroes do not work as well in the big screen as Marvel heroes, and this is the reason why: DC heroes are not as relatable to the audience as Marvel heroes are. Contrary to DC heroes, Marvel heroes are charismatic but the most important thing about them is that, it's really easy to relate to them (Spider Man, Hulk, Iron Man, Wolverine, even villains like Magneto) everybody can relate with at least one of them in some kind of way.  Almost any teenager can relate to Spider-Man specially nerdy boys, I'm sure that you know someone who behaves like Tony Stark and really relates to him. Anyone who considers himself a social recluse can relate to any of the X-Men or to Hulk. And this happens because Marvel heroes are imperfect, they have flaws which show their human side (even if they're mutants or something) that's what makes them relatable and that's what audiences want.



DC heroes on the other hand, they're not really that relatable and some of them are just too perfect that you can even consider them demi-Gods, honestly can anyone relate to Superman? or Green Latern? or Aquaman? or Martian Manhunter? No (well maybe some of you can) but my point is that those heroes just don't have that same effect and they will not be that interesting in the big screen to watch. And that's why I think that in an enviroment where Marvel's imperfect and charismatic heroes rule, there's no room for DC superheroes and they are basically destined to fail.

So I don't know what the hell is DC going to do now, a rushed Justice League film is destined to fail and we all know that.

There's only one thing that I know DC could do, to completely kick Marvel in the balls and reinvent the whole comic book film genre forever. I will summarize this in just one word ... Vertigo...

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Dream Theater - When A Dream And Day Unite (Album Review)

So, we start this series of reviews with the very first DT album: "When A Dream And Day Unite". Which is their most underrated album of them all and... maybe I'm alone on this but , its possibly one of their best albums ever too.



"When a dream" is actually an amazing album but not a lot of people and not a lot of fans seem to recognize it as such, but why is it? Well I think there are several reasons for this: WDADU is the band's most different album of them all, especially since James Labrie is not part of it. I'm sure when a lot of people hear the voice of Charles Dominici in this album they say: "What the hell?" "This singer doesn't fit with the band", "they sound nothing like their later records", "they never play any of the songs of this album in their concerts so why bother?". And they're right in all of the above. Charles Dominici didn't fit quite well with the band and that was the reason why he got fired, I wouldn't say that they sound nothing like their later records, their songs are a little rawer than I&W and Awake, but their style is there. And yes, they almost never play any of the songs of this album on tour, but despite of all that; if you see this album as a complete standalone 80's rock/metal work then you'll find out that its an amazing album and you should give it a listen.



I wouldn't call WDADU one the most original albums that I know, the influences of Rush and Iron Maiden are present trough out every song of the album. Basically their whole style is just an amalgamation of these two. But its a beautiful combination indeed. It's also really interesting and amazing the type of compositions that they were already able to create in this early stage of their career, that's when you realize that they virtuosic skills go back to the days when they were basically teenagers.

Another thing that this album has (which is something that I cannot say about other DT albums) is the fact that is really solid, consistent and fluent.  The only weak moment of the album (at least for me) is "The Killing Hand" which is the band's first attempt in creating a narrative epic, but is truly my less favorite song of the album.

The album also has a great dark atmosphere and we have Kevin Moore to thank for that, songs like: "Status Seeker", "The Ones Who Help To Set The Sun" and "Only A Matter of Time". Have an amazing vibe and tune, a little bit melancholic but really beautiful. 


I think that the main problem that this album had, was that it came out too late, 1989. Honestly that was a late year for releasing music of this style, bands like Iron Maiden started to fade away from public attention and bands like Rush had to change their style in order to survive and Heavy Metal itself was in the moment of decline. If WDADU would have been released in 1985, I'm sure that it would have been a blast.

A great album in the wrong time :(

But a great album indeed! and you should definitively check it out, specially if you're a fan of Rush, Iron Maiden or Dream Theater. Just imaging Iron Maiden and Rush playing together with Geddy Lee on vocals.





Thanks for reading :)

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