Lists

It is Christmas Day, and I cannot wait to gorge myself on a ridiculous array of meats. I could do without all the bullshite surrounding Christmas, but the dinner is possibly the greatest thing on Earth.

Anyway, back to the title topic of this entry: Lists. The end of a year and a decade is nigh, and an army of lists marches forth from the pages of every newspaper and website in the land. Despite the miopic and subjective nature of these lists, and the nature of their design being to be a cheap and easy way to provoke a massive zealous response from readers, I can't help but be a sucker for them (damn you, doublethink). I thought over the next couple of days I would try to thrash out a couple of lists, one on music and one on games. I really do not know enough about films to have any authority on them, but I'm working on it.

As a preface to this I would just like to give a brief insight into my likes and dislikes, and my method of judging cultural output.
I believe there is a distinct division to be made between quality, or what is deemed to be "Good" (and will forever have a capital G to make clear this definition), and what I personally like.
This is my confused attempt to wade through the murky waters of subjectivity when judging all mediums - what is "Good", and what do "I like".

The perfect example for me is the Coen brothers 2007 film "No Country For Old Men". I honestly can say that I think this film is Good, but I do not like it. I have no intention of watching it again. I could appreciate the directorial efforts and acting ability on show, but the film left me cold.

So I did talk about films. Oh well.

Specifically in the realms of music and gaming:
Music: I tend to listen to all genres of music and I will usually go through periods when one artist is on extremely heavy rotation (hundreds of listens over the period of a few days). I think the best way to truly listen to music is alone, lying down with no distractions (at least for the first listen to a particular artist or album). After this, good points to listen are on the bus or walking. I spend a lot of time doing both.

For gaming, I lean towards appreciating thoughtful design and innovation in addition to gameplay which is of course the core of any game. I try to think through how the game's designers would have approached their task and their influences, just as you could critique a film director.

Fuck me that was almost devoid of humour and approaching enthusiastic. How did that happen?

Lists to come

Stay classy