What is the mother of invention? An idea. A thought so simple that it transforms from fantasy to reality. Changing shapes and shifting. Being born and destroyed, again and again from one incarnation to another. Echoing out as a ripple through time, until it reaches it's final destination. Where upon it's declaration, it shall either be accepted by the commonwealth or denounced as a failed plan. Condemned to a life of solitude as an oft to be forgotten dream that never was. To lie dormant in the dusty recesses of our minds, brought upon by a person who dared to dream. So, what is the mother of invention? Whether by attainment or annialhation, it is the person who dares to dream…

Every now and then a game comes along that sucks you in and pulls on your heartstrings like a drunken cellist with parkinsons. The blood and sweat that you pour into this game, along with hours upon hours of your woken life are teased that much more when an iconic theme pours out from your stereo system during the most dire of moments. Later in life, no matter what you are doing, one drop of this theme causes every thought you might have been having, to be drug right back to the very moment you ever heard the first few notes. Even years after the event occurred, like a form of gamer Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. These are the top three themes that send us back to the warzone of broken controllers and bloodshot eyes. Three themes that most gamers who played these games can't and probably will never forget...

#3 - "It's Okay Too Breath Again" 
Resident Evil 2 - Save Room

Many a dark nights were spent with this foreboding theme of droning keys and melancholy synths echoing through dorm room hallways. The sense of relief that washed over players as soon as this song began to play was like nothing any gamer had experienced before. After holding your breath for the last hour with muttered swear words and sweaty palms, Claire Redfield or Leon Kennedy finally limped their way through a hard fought doorway, past three moaning deadites and six acid spitting tarantuals to finally have this tone great your ears. That moment reassuring you that you are finally safe from the dangers that lurk just outside that very door. And they're gonna be lurking there for awhile because your finally here, and while this tune repeats over and over, you're gonna use the restroom that you've needed to use for the last hour, get yourself a nice glass of much needed oj to replenish the lost nutrients from sweating so much and maybe just maybe you'll take the dog that is crying in the corner with its legs crossed outside like your mother told you to when the sun was still up. All this goes through your mind, until you realize that you used your last ink ribbon two hours ago and never picked up another one... S#$!@!


#2 - "It Might Be Rage Quit Time"
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES) - Underwater

You know this level well, you've played it a thousand times, you've got your path through the map down to a science and that ol' NES A button is well worn. But it's that damn seaweed! You've killed superhuman ninjas, giant toads, chainsaw wielding maniacs, purple lobsters and weird flying W's, hell even B-Bop and Rocksteady were all in a days work, (Especially if you had Donatello). Yet this is how it all ends, all four turtles taken out by some damn electric seaweed. If only Krang and Shredder had thought so simple in the cartoons. Forget all the mutated creatures and super bots, all you need is a bucket of electric seaweed and this music. Not only is it enough to kill all of the turtles a million times over. It's also enough to drive any gamer who ever played this level mad. As they curl up in a ball and suck on their thumb tortured by this sick suppressed childhood memory. If ever there was a theme that produced an emotional reaction, this was it.


#1 - "The World Is Mine For The Taking"
Red Dead Redemtion - Entering Mexico

You are John Marston, a lone outlaw of the iconic west. You've wrangled cattle, fought rival gangs, cheated at poker, and even twisted your dastardly mustache as you hogtied a random hooker and placed her forebodingly on some ominous train tracks. Yet, even after all of this, one thing remains shrouded in mystery. The far off land across the river, Mexico. Even with all of your marksmanship training and pedestrian lassoing practice, one thing poor ol' John never learned to do was swim. Forsaking you to a life of looking out across that blue river with only wonder and a dream. Until finally, one day, a dreadful boat ride and about 200 dead random indians later, you cross that dream, landing with nothing more than your trusty steed, the clothes on your back and that setting sun upon the horizon. The beauty is breathtaking, the anticipation overwhelming, and all of this before the song kicks in. If you are a human being and  didn't get chills, you're either A, an alien or B, probably just a really boring person... Sucks to be you...  

I was talking to a friend of mine awhile ago and the conversation about how far technology has advanced in just the last ten or twenty years came up. I quickly came to the resolution that we are living in the future now. My friend didn't quite agree, but the thought still hung in my mind. I began to wonder, "What constitutes as the future and where does it stop?" In the technological sense of course. I began to think about the widely accepted vision of the future and the most common representation is of course the famous quote "One day there will be flying cars." This quote struck a question in my mind, then what? Let us say that one day everybody owns a flying car (which will likely never happen) then what is the next great technological leap forward for mankind?

Everyday I see how far this world has come and old videos and commercials only cement my thoughts further. Every time I see the old AT&T "You will" commercials from 1993, I'm amazed to see how far we've come and how the technology has even surpassed what we could have ever even dreamed of. To see the kid who is taking his school classes through a screen with a teacher in another country, in what would later become the Internet and a web cam. The mom having a video chat with her kid at a payphone which would become Skype or the i-phone. Even the kids ordering a movie on a flat-screen TV in what would later become Netflix. It really amazes me and excites me for what the future could hold.

Never-the-less, my question still remains. What is it about today that keeps people from believing that we are living in the future now? Is it simply the flying cars? We currently have machines that can cook whole meals in less than a minute, machines that let us play games and talk to people in other countries and interact instantaneously, we can send letters in seconds instead of days or weeks, and depending on the successful application of things like Sony's Move and Microsoft's Natal(Kinect) we're on the brink of controlling the virtual world with out controllers. Not to mention stuff like Nintendo's 3DS, which is bringing 3D (without glasses) to the world in a compact travel format, while at the same time Sony's TVs and consoles are trying to bring 3D mainstream. Given all of this remarkable technology, all that I ask the world is when can we say that the future has officially arrived? Is it only when we have flying cars? If not, then when?

So I've realized that I've had this site for quite awhile now and haven't really done anything with it. I'd like to upload more footage, a demo reel, or just random goofy little videos that I put together, but without a mac I can't access my hard drive with all my work at present time and without Final Cut Pro I'm stuck putting videos together with Windows Movie Maker. Which unfortunately has only one audio track and one video track and crashes if I use it for more than two seconds at a time. Not that I hate WMM, heck, that's where I first discovered my love for editing and even where I put together my "Art of Cinema Trailers" video which is posted in the video section on this site, so it's not all bad, it's just really hard to go back to that. Anyways, after all that pointless rambling and complaining I figure I should probably get back to the original point of this post. Which is; If I have this site I might as well do something with it. Hence the new blog section. I figure this would be as good a place as any for me to ramble about random happenings talk about new movies I've seen, new games I've played, or blah blah blah... Man, I'm already tired of hearing myself talk... or type... or whatever. Anyways if you stumble across these random thoughts I hope it's entertaining. If I somehow cover a topic that catches your interest, please feel free to leave a comment and LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD!!! or LET YOUR TEXT BE READ!!!... Just doesn't carry the same punch does it?... Oh well. Until next time, keep huntin' ninjas!

Peace n' Chicken Grease,
Joe