Love is, with very little doubt, my favorite album ever. Not only my favorite The Beatles album, but even above some other favorites of mine like Queen’s A Night at the Opera  and Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon. However, Love  is a compilation album, so it normally wouldn’t be classified in the same category as the two regular albums mentioned above. So what makes Love different from The Beatles’ 1, or the 4-disc 1962/1966|1967/1970? What makes it different is the production.

Love is actually the soundtrack of a whole Cirque du Soleil show of the same name. It was mainly created by George Martin, who was The Beatles’ producer back in the days, and his son Giles Martin. The original Beatles members, Ringo Starr and Sir Paul McCartney, as well as Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison (representing their deceased husbands), gave their blessing to the production, which was released in 2006.

Enough with the story: let’s talk about the 26 tracks, plus the 2 bonus ones, that comprise this fantastic piece of music. The interesting part is how it mixes the songs with other Beatles tracks, making some truly unique sounds. This article will be divided in seven parts, each containing the lyrics (from the Love version, not the original one) and details about four tracks from the album. While I write, I’ll count the real number of songs built into the album.

Because

Because the world is round, it turns me on

Because the world is round…

Because the wind is high, it blows my mind

Because the wind is high…

Love is all, love is new

Love is all, love is you

Because the sky is blue, it makes me cry

Because the sky is blue…

The first thing you’ll notice on Love‘s version of Because (1) is that the simple, but majestic, guitar is gone. That riff was created when John asked Yoko to play Beethoven’s Sonata backwards. In this version, we pay full attention to the finely-tuned chorus.

When you listen closely, you’ll also notice that there are birds chirping in the background. A deep Beatles fan will quickly notice those are the same birds from the Past Masters release of Across The Universe (2) (the Let it Be version does not have those chirps). A few extra chirps are also in the track.

The song ends with droning strings. I believe they’re from the last note of A Day in the Life (3), but backwards. It’s difficult to confirm this, however.

Get Back

Jojo was a man who thought he was a loner

But he knew it wouldn’t last

Jojo left his home in Tucson, Arizona

For some California grass

Get back, get back,

Get back to where you once belonged

Get back, get back,

Get back to where you once belonged

Get back, get back,

Back to where you once belonged

Get back, get back,

Back to where you once belonged

Get back, get back,

Get back to where you once belonged

Get back, get back,

Get back to where you once belonged

This is probably my favorite track in the album. Right off the bat, you’re greeted with the strong guitar intro from A Hard Day’s Life (4). Suddenly, Ringo’s drum solo from The End (5) kicks off, bringing the main riff of Get Back (6) soon afterwards. A piece of The End‘s guitar solo concludes the intro, with the two most famous notes of Get Back mixing with it. During that same solo, you can hear the orchestra from A Day in the Life (this is head several times during the song’s duration).

The song continues normally for a few moments, distinguishing from the original song only through the crowd noises (7) in the background. Naturally, it’s impossible to pinpoint which live recording originated those sounds.

Finally, during Billy Preston’s keyboard solo (between the second and third choruses), the percussion changes from Get Back‘s to the one from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) (8). Shortly after, A Day in the Life sends us off to the next track.

Glass Onion

(Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah!)

(Hello, hello!)

(Nothing is real)

Fixing a hole in the ocean

Trying to make a dove-tail joint

Looking through a glass onion

Glass Onion (9) is, perhaps, the biggest mish-mash in Love. It starts with the same drums as its White Album counterpart, but with them comes the acoustic guitar from the intro of Things We Said Today (10). I’m pretty sure the drums from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) are blended in with the original ones, and A Day in the Life makes yet another appearance with it’s orchestrated background, also blending with Glass Onion‘s original orchestra.

The quick “hello, hello” is, obviously, from Hello Goodbye (11). Right after it, we hear the brass instruments from Penny Lane (12), but the mixing makes it very different from the version we’re used to. At first glance, you may think that “nothing is real” is from Strawberry Fields Forever. However, upon closer inspection, it’s noticeable that the verse is actually from Glass Onion itself (“I told you about strawberry fields, the place where nothing is real”).

The track ends with yet another instrumental piece and some distorted vocals, which I have not yet distinguished.

Eleanor Rigby

Ah, look at all the lonely people

Eleanor Rigby

Picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been

Lives in a dream

Waits at the window,

Wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door

Who is it for?

All the lonely people

Where do they all come from?

All the lonely people

Where do they all belong?

Father McKenzie

Writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear

No one comes near

Look at him working,

Darning his socks in the night when there’s nobody there

What does he care?

All the lonely people

Where do they all come from?

All the lonely people

Where do they all belong?

Ah, look at all the lonely people

Ah, look at all the lonely people

Eleanor Rigby

Died in the church and was buried along with her name

Nobody came

Father McKenzie

Wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave

No one was saved

All the lonely people

Where do they all come from?

All the lonely people

Where do they all belong?

This is a relatively simple track. It starts off mixing both the original Eleanor Rigby‘s (13) instrumental tracks and the instrumental Eleanor Rigby (14) from Anthology 2. It also uses the same distorted vocals as the ending of Glass Onion several moments. 

It ends with a bit of the acoustic guitar from Julia (15), which then turns into what appears to be an ambulance (which is probably not from a previous Beatles track), as well as some crazy sounds which are probably from a song… I’ll have to check more on that.

Well, that’s it for today. Stay tuned next time, when I’ll explain I Am the Walrus, I Want to Hold Your Hand, Drive My Car and Gnik Nus.

So let’s talk about the latest news. There’s Duke Nukem Forever confirmed, the death of Guitar Hero, the awesomeness factor of Gran Turismo 5, me finishing The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass and starting The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World comics completion, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, Tetris, Queen albums reissued… Yeah, I should really post more frequently.

Well, I beat Four Swords Adventures. I started playing the game because I thought it wouldn’t be very long, since I was travelling a lot and didn’t have much time for games. I was wrong. The game consists of 24 stages that easily take over 20 minutes to beat. So I played a few of them every time I could. It was worth it, though. It’s a very nice game (I believe it would’ve been even nicer with three pals, four GBAs and four GBA-GCN cables, but I have no idea of where to find such cables). I guess the coolest part is that it features both Vaati and Ganon(dorf) as villains, closing the Four Swords storyline (Minish Cap, Four Swords and Four Swords Adventures) and setting the path for the classic Zelda storyline. Beating this game now forces me to play Minish Cap, since it’s the only “toon” Zelda game I haven’t beat. I’ll get to it soon.

And Gran Turismo 5 simply got me addicted. I played so much of it these last few weeks I couldn’t concentrate on anything more while at home… I seriously don’t know why people complain about it. I guess it’s because they got perfection when they expected something above that. People complained about the menu, I found nothing wrong with it. I have only three complaints about the game. Firstly, the sound cars make when they hit each other. That “THUMP” gets tiresome really fast. Secondly, the custom music feature. Trust me, the existence of the feature is absolutely awesome. The fact that I can race all I want while hearing songs like Headlong,  Running With The Devil,  Highway Star, Slide It In, Drive My Car, Highway To Hell and other classic rock songs that fit perfectly with the high-speed theme is brilliant. The problem is that the system is buggy. It sometimes simply turns itself off, and I have to go through a few loading screens to set it back up. Worst: The variation of the Daytona Speedway track crashes when I have custom music on. Finally, the Bugatti Veyron is a standard model car, not a premium. Yeah, the current fastest road car in the world is not between the extremely high-detailed cars in the game. Sad.

As for Guitar Hero, I’ll quote what I posted on the Metroid Database:

“Well, after having

• Guitar Hero: Metallica
• Guitar Hero: Smash Hits
• Guitar Hero on Tour: Decades
• Guitar Hero 5
• DJ Hero
• Band Hero
• Guitar Hero: Van Halen
• LEGO Rock Band
• The Beatles: Rock Band

all in 2009, I think it was obvious the market would get saturated.”

Personally, I always preferred Rock Band. The Beatles and Van Halen are, respectively, my second and third favorite bands ever (only behind Queen). So it’s natural that I’ve played and liked both The Beatles: Rock Band and Guitar Hero: Van Halen. But if you put the two games side-by-side, the superior one becomes obvious. One has over 40 songs, all from the theme band, plus beautiful background videos showing each phase of the band’s career, while the other only has songs from their first 6 years of rocking, and is filled with songs from other bands (though I can’t  complain about I Want It All, Space Truckin’ and Master Exploder), not to mention only showing a single stage with the old versions of the band members. Guess which game was treated better by their developers?

Well, I think it’s all for today. I’ll be back soon (I hope).

However, I’m also doing some other stuff. I’ve been watching pretty much one movie per day. In the last two weeks, that sums up to movies I haven’t talked about here like Tron (the old one), Kick-Ass, Goodbye Bafana, Tron Legacy, Date Night and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Threader. I’ve also watched Scott Pilgrim vs. The World again with a friend (judging by how I can’t stand re-experiencing a story lately, it’s a great sign for the film). Tonight I’ll watch The Wizard of Oz with Pink Floyd music. More about that later on.

I’ve also returned reading, after an year’s worth of books for History and Literature classes, The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass. I’m currently in a flashback, which isn’t my thing, so I’m going slowly. I’ll probably speed up when the past is dealt with. In parallel, I’m reading Olga, a Brazilian book about an young Jew communist that stood against the Brazilian dictator. After I’m done with those two, I plan on reading The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla and The Physician.

Comic-wise, I got my hands on the first Brazilian volume of Scott Pilgrim Contra O Mundo (which contains the North-Americans Scott Pilgrim’s Perfect Little Life and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World). I must say the movie follows the story fantastically, but there are a few elements (some traits of the characters or flashbacks) that the comic has and aren’t on the movie, so it’s worth a read. I also read two first volumes of different versions of Witchblade and the first Wolverine Noir. I’ll soon read the first Fathom and then various The Dark Tower comics (friends said I should finish the fourth book, Wizard and Glass, before reading the comics, since they contain spoilers).

I’ve been watching a lot of Family Guy lately, too.

I’m still listening to the same kind of music (60s, 70s, and 80s rock and game music mostly) and rusting a bit on the piano. I just don’t seem to find a song that makes me really want to play it that isn’t insanely difficult. I’ll have to keep on trying.

I’m currently waiting for a friend to send me a list of anime and movies I should watch. Once he does, I’ll get on to watch it all.

I’ll be going to Rio de Janeiro and Florianópolis next month, it seems. I do need some sun and exercise, so a few days without technology might be good.

I have many more interesting ideas for my blog, YouTube and other stuff. But that’ll have to wait until later. See you next year! May 2011 bring good games, movies, music and books, and may it bring me an entrance to the University!

Computer nerds looking at a monitor: just like real life.

Mark is portrayed like the average genius. He reminds me of characters like Mozart in Amadeus or Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory: a person that’s just too smart to be understood by the average human being (considering they aren’t, in fact, aliens here to spy on Earth). The big issue is that you can’t actually root for Mark: Through the movie, you aren’t sure if he’s the good guy or not. It ends ambiguous with The Beatles’ Baby You’re a Rich Man playing. It really leaves you wondering whether it was he who screwed up his friends or allies. Go watch it now. You won’t be disappointed. If I worked in Hollywood, it’d be my choice for the Oscar (it wasn’t my favorite this year, but in the context of the Oscar, it would be the obvious pick; more on that ahead).

I also watched the Family Guy special It’s a Trap!. After Blue Harvest, that tells the story of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and Something, Something, Something Dark Side, a parody of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, it was time for Return of the Jedi to be made Family Guy-style. Despite what creator Seth MacFarlane said in the opening roll, I enjoyed more than the previous parody. It’s a brilliant TV movie/special episode, and really makes you laugh. It features cameos from American Dad!, The Cleveland Show and Star Trek, plus guest voice actors like Carrie Fisher (the original Leia).

Star Wars, again.

Finally, there’s the real gem of the week: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. I haven’t read the comic yet (working on it right now), but the movie is fabulous. No, really. Like one of the best movies in recent history. This movie will be remembered years from now as the gem of the 201st decade (if you don’t know that means the years from 2001 to 2010, you need to read more Wikipedia). The sounds, the music, the effects, the story, everything just rocks. Scott fighting Ramona’s seven evil boyfriends is just awesome. It’s the awesome of awesome. It’s so awesome, it’d get a friggin’ Oscar if critics weren’t so close-minded. Just go watch it. There isn’t anything more to say about this movie. It rocks too hard to explain.

Donkey and Diddy return for a new adventure.

Disney Epic Mickey is one of the latest games released for the Wii. I was never hyped about the game, but I was genuinely impressed and curious about the game’s story and gameplay. Well… I got a slap to the face. The story is a tad crazy, but the tragedy really gets you going. When the game starts, you watch some cutscenes for a few minutes and are eager to start playing. And when you do, it seems like you’re playing a game from 1999. The paint/thinner mechanic is interesting, but gets old quick. There’s something about the  movement and jumping that I can’t get my finger on, but it seems outdated. The camera is horrible. Worse than when a Super Mario 64 Lakitu camera tried to go through a wall. Most of the time you’re fighting against the controls and camera instead of the actual enemies.

Mickey looks at Wasteland, never imagining the gameplay waste he'd find there.

Most of the puzzles feature a “good solution” and a “bad solution”. For example, near the beginning of the game there’s a shut door. You can either fix and open it or just destroy it. The decision you make will alter the type of help you’ll get from spirits. But most of the time it will only get you curious to see what would have happened if you had chosen the other option. The good solutions normally reward you with collectibles, while the bad solution normally gives you money (that can be used to buy collectibles).

I was interested to see how the story would end, but it seems I’ll just have to search for the cutscenes on YouTube, since I don’t know how much longer I can stand the gameplay. Suddenly, dying a dozen of times in a row in Donkey Kong doesn’t seem so bad.

It all started last Saturday, November 20th. I started the day by beating Kirby’s Epic Yarn. I haven’t collected everything, but I can say the game is pretty fun and distracting. It isn’t a fantastic game, but it sure is a good one. My biggest problem with it is that you can’t die. Getting hit by enemies or falling in pitfalls will only result in losing some “beads” (the game’s currency) that you can collect again. In fact, that reminded a lot of the old Sonic the Hedgehog games, which used a very similar damage system. In Sonic, however, an empty wallet meant instant death. In Kirby, you’ll just get hit without losing the nothing you don’t have (pun intended). Despite the low difficulty of the game, I enjoyed the exploration involved in getting all the treasures and medals. There is a reason for why Kirby & The Amazing Mirror is, for me, the best Kirby game ever made, you know.

I spent the rest of my Saturday working some more on my CCP, which was already pretty close to done, so most of what I did were bugfixes and so. The day ended with a trip to the movies. My parents and I watched the Brazilian film Tropa de Elite 2: O Inimigo Agora É Outro (or Elite Troop 2: The Enemy is Now Another, in English). I started watched with a grain of salt: I hated the first movie. The sequel, however, impressed me. It involves much more of the politics and strategy behind the police than the actual front. I really hope this film shocks the Brazilian population, since it shows exactly how we’re manipulated to believe our governors and congressmen. It would also be nice to see it getting some international attention: maybe that’ll put our politicians on the line.

Sunday started with a trip to the country club. As the average geek, I went with my laptop so I could continue working on my CCP. During the afternoon, I rested and prepared my backpack for the flight the following morning.

Monday was epic. We caught a plane to São Paulo and at 6:40 PM we were at the Morumbi Stadium waiting for Sir Paul McCartney to show up. He only did at 9:40 PM, but that doesn’t matter. For about 2 hours and 50 minutes, all that mattered was music. He started the evening with The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour, as opposed to Sunday’s show (and the majority of the Up And Coming Tour shows), that started with his own Venus and Mars. His dedications to John Lennon and George Harrison in Here Today and Something were beautiful and moving. I was disappointed at how few people were singing Give Peace a Chance, but the unison in Hey Jude made up for it. Live And Let Die presented a great set of fireworks and songs like Dance Tonight and Ob-la-di Ob-la-da were fun to sing to.

Tuesday was tiresome. I spent an hour waiting at the airport and another waiting in the plane. The flight, however, lasted 37 minutes. As soon as I got back to Curitiba, I went to school where my colleagues were doing their own CCPs and got to work.

Wednesday was pretty much hell. All the pressure of the following day, which was the hand-in of the CCP, added with the stress of the trip to São Paulo resulted in a very bad psychological state. My group, however, had pretty much done all that was possible, so we weren’t stressing it out too much. Some of the people in my class decided to spend the night at school completing their projects. The best part was the release of Gran Turismo 5. At least I got to check out some of the 1031 cars available.

When I arrived at school Thursday, I found the classmates from Wednesday’s evening almost dead in their chairs. As people who actually went home arrived, I noticed that you don’t need to be at school to remain awake during the night. I, having slept from 11 PM to 6 AM, was one of the most alive ones. In the afternoon, some of my friends came to my place and we played some Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Friday was a pretty average day. There was lame lecture going on at the auditorium. I watched some of it and fled in the first coffee break. Luckily, I found the Sociology teacher and asked him to go teach our class during the lecture. That reminds me… I have two texts to hand-in and a book to read until Friday! Anyway, I went to my afterschool course for the first time in almost two weeks Friday afternoon. We had lunch at the “four fifty”, a place that costs… Four bucks and fifty cents. In Reais, of course. I can only say the food was edible. We then spent a few hours chatting, since the first class started at 4:10 PM.

I had Physical Education for the first time in about 4 weeks yesterday. I really hate PE. Even if it was a theoretical class about soccer mafia. And that reminds me even more of one of the two papers I have to hand in… During the afternoon, I went to my cousins’ birthday party. Their birthdays are in October and December, so my aunt decided to do a single party in November. Oh great, as if November weren’t stuffed already. It was fun, though.

I hung out with my dad and uncles today and now am doing a Biology PowerPoint presentation about the animal kingdom due for tomorrow. Later I’ll have to do another PowerPoint presentation for my CCP, plus one text for PE and another for Sociology. And then I have to read a book for a History test and study for the final part of the university entry exam. I see another deadly week ahead of me.

Other than that, I want to show my job on creating my first T-shirt image. It’s for my class, so it has everybody in it. Obviously, it was based on Pac-man. Each ghost is one person in the class and each Pac-man is a teacher. I think it turned out very neat! And that’s… pretty much it.

Oh! I forgot to post here that, next Monday, I’ll go to São Paulo to watch Paul McCartney at the Morumbi stadium. Yay!!

Today, I’ll talk about videogames. Specifically, the Nintendo 3DS and whatever will the Wii’s successor be. After reading this post and then checking out VGChartz, I started thinking on what Nintendo is actually planning. It seems obvious they won’t start telling people there’s gonna be a new system in 2011 or 2012, since they still have Kirby, Donkey Kong and Zelda to sell. However, they did announce the 3DS before the release of Pokémon Black and White versions and the DSs lite, i and iXL are selling way more than the 360 or Wii.

CEO of Nintendo of America, Reggie Fils-Aimes and CEO of Nintendo global, Satoru Iwata have given various clues about the whats and whens of the next Nintendo system: we know it’s certainly going to support high definition, though it’s not clear whether it’s going 720p or 1080p, nor if it will use Blu-ray Discs. According to the aforementioned The Escapist article, they only plan on releasing it after the Wii hits 45 million units sold in the Americas; at the current rate, the system would only get there in 2012. After the announcement of the 3DS, Iwata-san said their next system would probably also have 3D support, but only if, by then, 3DTVs have evolved enough for their needs (considering what they did to the 3DS, it possibly means we’ll only see a 3D Nintendo system when 3DTVs don’t require glasses). Finally, they also stated that a new system would only be developed when Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario, Zelda and Donkey Kong, has a new idea that can’t be done on the Wii. Considering Miyamoto-san’s creative mind, it’s very possible that it already happened.

Another thing to remember is Kinect and Move. With their releases, the Wii loses any hardware advantage it had over its competitor. Now, it only beats the PS3 and 360 because of the price and the exclusives (which tend to be among the best, always). It’s hard to imagine what Nintendo will do against these motion-sensing forces. Kinect had good initial sales, though the Move was a downright fail. The Wii Remote Plus is pretty much good enough to counter the PS3′s motion controller, but it certainly is no match for the Xbox’s.

Speaking of exclusives, their next software move is also a mystery. The Wii is pretty much complete when it comes to software: three Marios, two Zeldas, two Metroids, one Kirby and one Smash Bros. I can only suspect they plan on announcing a new Star Fox, F-Zero or Pikmin for the Wii in next year’s E3. After The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword‘s release, Miyamoto-san (along with EAD) will probably focus on finishing Pikmin 3 and creating a Mario game for the 3DS. Masahiro Sakurai (creator of Kirby and Smash Bros.) is busy with Kid Icarus Uprising. Retro Studios is developing Donkey Kong Country Returns. Yoshio Sakamoto just finished Metroid: Other M and is probably planning his next move.

Considering all that, it’s quite possible that Nintendo’s next home console is already in the oven. As always, it’ll probably surprise us with new features. The great question is when it will be announced. E3 2011 would seem interesting, since, by then, the Wii will pretty much be out of new games to offer. But considering it will take place just a few months after the 3DS’s release, I believe the portable  will get the most attention. My guess? Announcement on E3 2012, with a release date between then and E3 2013. I also believe it will be much more than simply a “Wii HD”.

For now, let’s continue playing Kirby, have fun with Kinect and Move, wait for Donkey Kong and Zelda and then dazzle ourselves with 3D awesomeness. But of course we can’t wait to see Super Mario Galaxy 3 in HD.

In other news, Sony announced yesterday that Gran Turismo 5 will be hitting North American shops November 24th, or in 11 days from now. This was a game I got surprisingly hyped about, since I didn’t care much for it before this year’s E3. When I saw the graphics, heard about the around 1000 cars, and read about NASCAR, cart, grand tour, rally and street modes, I lost all doubt that it would be the best racing game ever. I’ll hopefully get my hands on it before Christmas and I believe I won’t be disappointed.

Other than that, I don’t have much to say. Despite what I said two weeks ago, I actually had some time to play Kirby’s Epic Yarn, so I’ll post a review and comments soon. Today is resting day. I’ll watch some The Big Bang Theory, play some Kirby, read some manga and relax.

See you soon!