Soft and Music

pSometimes it is just plain hard to look at, analyze, and review a game. Sometimes they have caveats that you can just not get into words, or are so unique that you are left struggling to find a way to describe the game. Sometimes, as in the case of RainbowNinja, the game is just not like a game at all. /p pFlash games, and those like them, are simple and easy to play, but they are addictive as hell; RainbowNinja continues this policy. The game is basically a color test, where you either click the color that is written or the color the writing is in. It is just like Brain Age for the Nintendo DS, and it has the same basic challenges. After decoding what color to click, you simply click it, and the new challenge shows up. That is all that this game is. Yet, somehow, it is highly addictive./p pimg src=http://soft-and-music.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/52892.jpg /Now, don#39;t get me wrong, while it seems that RainbowNinja is exceptionally easy, the game is actually quite hard. In fact, the developers even describe it as quot;evilquot; and quot;deviously simplequot;. This combination makes the game fun and enjoyable to play while also making it highly addictive. The game is designed simply to make anybody play it, and it does that well. RainbowNinja is like crack in the gaming world, a game that keeps you coming back for more./p pSpeaking of playability, one of the nice features of RainbowNinja is how easy it is to pick it up. The graphics (not that there are many) are easy for anybody to see and read. The actual game play is exceptionally easy to learn. This game is designed to be used by anybody, and everybody can use it. This sort of inclusive design is reminiscent of Nintendo#39;s Wii design and seems to be doing well in the market./p pDue to the simplicity of RainbowNinja, it is hard to find anything that should be added to, or that is a problem, with the game. To be honest, there is nothing really wrong with the game; it is just missing a few good features. For starters, we should be able to post our high scores from the game onto a worldwide high score board. As this is like every flash game out there, we know that this is an essential part of the game. Additionally, I would like to hear background music during the game. While the sound effects are amazing and downright cool, the lack of background music is a missing feature./p br

img src=http://soft-and-music.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/52876.jpg / pIf you’re a proud iPhone owner we know it’s highly likely you’re always on the lookout for the latest hot app to impress your friends, not to mention people who stare at you using the phone while on public transport. If you’re also a fan of Canadian dance star Deadmau5, you can now combine your two loves in one spiffy iPhone application./p pTouching down for the Good Vibrations Festival tour this month, Deadmau5’s visit is timed perfectly with the launch of the new app Touch Mix, which he’s put his name/face/music/mau5head to. The app is described as ‘revolutionary’, with Beatportal even going so far as to say “Touch Mix could also be a forerunner to how DJing software on the platform should work.”/p pThe program features two ‘virtual decks’, as well as a crossfader and volume controls, sound effects #8211; like filter, flange, loop and delay #8211; and adjustable BPM. There’s catch however; the app’s appeal is going to depending on what side of the love/hate Deadmau5 fence you stand#8230; At this stage you can only mix his music with the download coming pre-loaded with 10 of his tracks./p br / br

pBorn in Mexico City, this multi-talented artist currently makes his home in Los Angeles, California. Creative and always cutting edge, Beto Hale is an artist but he is more than that. He#39;s a writer, producer, and father trying to make a living in a field we creative types dream about. His songwriting is excellent and the guy is a monster on the drums. Here is what Beto had to say:/p pWe#39;ve played in several bands together a few years back in Colorado, how did you get started playing music? /p pYes! I had a lot of fun playing with you!/p pIn terms of my beginnings: I listened to the Beatles when I was eight and that was it! I started learning all their songs on the drums and then on guitar and piano. I took classical guitar lessons at 10; then was self taught for quite few years… then went into serious musical study around 18!/p pYou#39;ve played/collaborated with some pretty big names. Can you give us a few examples and what you did? /p pTony Levin (bassist for Peter Gabriel) played on my first CD, Sube. I met him after a show he did in Boulder, and just asked him straight out if he would do it! He was so cool about it and recorded some amazing tracks. /p pHere in LA I#39;ve written songs with some great Latin American songwriters, among them Alejandro Lerner, who is a huge star in Argentina and other countries./p pWhat projects are you currently involved in?/p pI am writing the Spanish lyrics for Santino#39;s album; he is a very well known indie artist in the L.A. scene; he is originally from Peru. /p pI am also co-writing and playing drums with Devlin Murphy, an amazingly talented young artist from L.A../p pI am writing new songs all the time for a future album of my own. Not sure when it will come out yet!/p p What are your plans for the future musically? /p pTo write, produce and play for other people#39;s projects, collaborate with diverse writers, write musci for film and TV, and release many new albums (or whatever they will be called) of my own!/p pIs there a particular adjective or two you would use to describe the LA music scene? /p pCompetitive. Inspiring. /p pWhat is the highlight for you so far, in your music career? /p pHonestly, I have had many. I was very fortunate to attend and graduate from Berklee Collego of Music; there, I was able to meet and collaborate with some amazing people. I also did a Masters in Composition at Denver University where I heard two of my pieces played by a full Symphony Orchestra!/p br

Full disclosure: I'm an old fart (62). I've never watched much — no, make that any — of the last two decades' gross-out comedy, not because I'm a prude, or particularly weak-stomached (the sexual stuff makes me laugh, the barfing makes me and everybody else over 25 shrug), but because I have a low cruelty threshold. Just hearing about a dog thrown out the window or "They've killed Kenny!" is enough. I'm outta here. More full disclosure: I would never have watched or even heard of Star-Ving, the new Internet TV comedy on Sony's edgy Crackle network, starring David Faustino (Bud Bundy in Married … With Children) and Corin Nemec (formerly of Parker Lewis Can't Lose), if the director, Seinfeld veteran ("The Switch") Sam Henry Kass, weren't the son of my husband's late best friend, Peter Kass, who taught acting to Val Kilmer and many others. That said, I couldn't stop laughing. I developed a bothersome jones for the next episode. And I came away convinced that if Laurel and Hardy had lived in the 21st century, they'd be doing exactly this. Each episode is a gem of compressed cultural trash (like those diamonds you can get made from a loved one's ashes) five to seven minutes long, featuring drug and alcohol abuse, sex orgies, casual accidental death, and equally offhand chainsaw-massacre cover-up, and other forms of depravity. Every possible disadvantaged group is made fun of — the senile, the retarded, cancer survivors, blacks, Latinos, Jews, Nazis — and all who are able participate with enthusiastic self-mockery. There is barfing, masturbation (albeit depicted graphically from the waist up), and copro-whatever. There is cynical Hollywood sleaze and showbiz hope-and-despair springing eternal like a diseased weed on an abandoned back lot. The attitude of all concerned seems to be that a disgusting culture and species deserves disgusting treatment — and rewards it with outrageous fun. The faux-reality show premise is that Faustino, his glory days as a child star far behind him, now can't get arrested (his ex-wife really does live with Coolio, according to Wikipedia!), and his roommate and fellow overgrown child star, Nemec, is his cheerful enabler in failure. Every episode opens with a manic, inept suicide attempt by David (which reminds me of the joke, "Wait a minute. You said you throw up every morning?" "Doesn't everybody?"), interrupted by the dawning of a great hope — the tantalizing prospect of a job, a break, a comeback. As you can imagine, it comes to no good in a variety of ways. There are a few limits. There's no full frontal nudity, which is made up for by lots and lots of full rearal nudity (it's almost the show's trademark). The director has promised me he'll never harm an animal, even in jest. ("People, no problem.") All signs are that neither will he allow his vilest characters (producers, agents) to get their paws on a child. The show features a startlingly stellar roster of guest stars, among them Gilbert Gottfried, Ed Asner, Katey Sagal, Christina Applegate, Ed O'Neill, Seth Green, and Coolio. If you can stomach the content, which is not easy — but probably easier the younger you are — the form is absolutely classic slapstick. Now excuse me, I need to go watch the new episode.

One of the hardest-working R&B stars to come out of the New Orleans area during the Oldies era would have to be Lloyd Price, who even today — after more than fifty years of performing — still has a few irons in the fire. Growing up in nearby Kenner, young Lloyd's education in the music of New Orleans included everything from singing in his church choir to hanging around the jukebox in his mother's small restaurant. While still in his teens, he joined with his brother Leo to form a local musical group that eventually began to draw wider attention, leading to a 1952 recording session — one of historical significance. With a moonlighting Fats Domino handling the piano, Lloyd sang what would become one of the all-time classics of New Orleans R&B music, "Lawdy Miss Clawdy." It made the young singer a star, and when he followed up with several other good songs, including "Tell Me Pretty Baby" and "Ain't It a Shame," he appeared to be on his way to a long career. Unfortunately, the Korean War — and the draft — was next for Lloyd, and when he finally got back to music in 1954 he found that the ever-fickle public had moved on to singers like Little Richard and others. But Lloyd began rebuilding his career and making recordings, first for his own newly-formed company and later through a tie-in with ABC-Paramount. By 1958, he'd generated a huge Number One hit with "Stagger Lee," an updated version of the old song "Stack-A-Lee" made more appealing to mainstream audiences. As the years passed, Price continued to veer toward a more pop-oriented sound, selling a lot of records with songs such as "I'm Gonna Get Married," and one of his biggest, "Personality." (Video below.) He also continued to follow his business sense, re-forming his own recording company and finding success not only with his own music but also by promoting newcomer Wilson Pickett. But trouble was right around the corner. Price's longtime business partner Harold Logan met a violent death, and music began to seem less important. Over the last couple of decades, Price has still found the time to sing once in a while, but has become more and more involved in business investments and opportunities. For one thing, he's very involved in a specialty food company that might have its roots in a childhood spent at his momma's restaurant. In any case, he's still workin' hard.