Katy Andrews

I'm back on the motorway, again.

The opening of Metronomy album: “Nights Out” starts like an underwater Western.  Brass, drums and strings bubble and reverberate through water with a Cowboy making leaden steps along a dirt road.

Track 2 breaks into what you can expect for the remainder of the album – a pleasant cacophony of semi-electronic beats with disembodied vocals strengthened by the Cowboy instruments from the dramatic introduction.

Singing about “going out and having a crap time” the lyrics bring a strangely bitter edge to the album.

Stand outs:

1. The End of You Too
2. My Heart Rate Rapid
3. On the Motorway

Fig 1. Blood splattered title card - first of more splattering to come.

Jeff Lindsey’s inspired Showtime series DEXTER is an absolute favourite of mine.

For those not familiar with Dexter, he fills his day as a forensic analyst with Miami Police Department, focusing on blood-splatter. In his spare-time, Dexter satisfies his blood-thirsty “Dark Passenger” by performing ritualistic killings of victims who themselves are guilty of murder.

Dexter meticulously orchestrates his kills and leaves no forensic evidence – following the “Code” of his father with a strong focus on remaining un-caught.

I admire the writing, production and actor performances – all of which are subtle, deliberate and significant. Continue reading

Fig. 1 - Team Fortress 2 - The Team

Team Fortress 2 originally came as part of Valve’s “Orange Box” collection. This shotgun blast comprised of five games: Half Life 2, Half Life 2: Episode 1, Half Life 2: Episode 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2 (TF2) – now sold separately.

TF2 (and Portal) are stand outs for me. Visuals in the game are very appealing and while it looks like a first-person-shooter cross with a Pixar film, it can get a little messy. The aesthetic is something to be marvelled, a far cry from first glimpses – which was along the same lines of Counter Strike mould – boring and generic (please see Fig. 2).

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