July 2009

Groucho And Me by Groucho Marx

Rating: 
5/10

This autobiography was pretty uninformative. Reads more like a compilation of unrelated essays about with a little bit of anecdotal commentary added to personalize it. Not awful, but would have been better as an audio book read by Groucho himself.

Submitted by Robert Gomez on Tue, 2009-07-28 12:58

Liar by Jesus Lizard, The

Format: 
CD
Rating: 
9/10

Goat laid the ground rules for the Jesus Lizard's sound and Liar solidified it into a formula. It's a swell formula indeed, but after Liar, the JLs records start to blend into one and other. This is still a great CD.

Submitted by Robert Gomez on Wed, 2009-07-22 21:17

Goat by Jesus Lizard, The

Format: 
CD
Rating: 
10/10

Jesus Lizard's finest record. Crazy bluesy licks on top of a pounding rhythm section and off-the-wall vocals. This could possibly be the best record of the 90s. Seriously.

Submitted by Robert Gomez on Wed, 2009-07-22 12:28

Head/Pure by Jesus Lizard, The

Format: 
CD
Rating: 
10/10

I'd have to say it's a toss up between Goat and Head as my favorite Jesus Lizard album. Pure/Head shows a lot more variety than the later records which is both good and bad. It's good because the songs are never boring, bad because the experimentation doesn't always work (Happy Bunny Goes Fluff Fluff Along). Because of the drum machine and distorted vocals, this early JL is much more industrial sounding than later efforts too, which I sorta like.

Submitted by Robert Gomez on Wed, 2009-07-22 12:27

For Your Own Special Sweetheart by Jawbox

Format: 
CD
Rating: 
8/10

More of Jawbox being Jawbox. The only thing that signing to a major may have changed about the band is that this CD seems to have been mastered louder than previous releases.

Submitted by Robert Gomez on Wed, 2009-07-22 12:26

T.S.B. (Tom's Strip and Bowl) by Mono Men

Format: 
CD
Rating: 
4/10

As much as I appreciate Dave Crider and his label Estrus Records, I could never get in to his band, Mono Men. They always seemed like the most generic of the already generic garage rock genre. Anyhow, this is a live recording of a show in Bloomington, Illinois. I guess you had to be there to "get" this.

Submitted by Robert Gomez on Tue, 2009-07-21 15:27

Novelty by Jawbox

Format: 
CD
Rating: 
8/10

Good 90s post punk music. Much more rockin' than say, Fugazi, but the songs are not as memorable.

Submitted by Robert Gomez on Tue, 2009-07-21 14:23

The Happy Return (aka Beat to Quarters) by C. F. Forester

Rating: 
8/10

Thought I'd give this series a try after finishing the Aubry/Maturn series. Hornblower is definately a simpler read, and it's almost as good O'Brian. The characters were not as vivid as O'Brian's.

Submitted by Robert Gomez on Mon, 2009-07-20 14:19

Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Platform: 
Nintendo DS
Rating: 
9/10

A nice, light-hearted version of Zelda for the DS with some interesting stylus controls.

Submitted by Robert Gomez on Sun, 2009-07-19 20:04 | Posted in

"Dippy Golf" - Another Apple ][ Game I Wrote as a Kid

After posting Malfunction, my text adventure game for the Apple ][, I have been spending a whole bunch of time tinkering with my old Apple ][ software creations. Another one of my better creations was a golf game that I titled, Dippy Golf. This game featured nine holes which were loaded in from external graphics files and, even more impressive, was the use of audio samples of my voice! The game worked but still felt somewhat unfinished, so I decided to complete the game and post it here on the Pages of Fun! Read More »

Submitted by Robert Gomez on Fri, 2009-07-17 22:25 | Posted in