I’ve been a big fan of Grand Theft Auto ever since the series made the jump into 3D seven years ago. GTA3 was clunky and flawed in many ways, but it was my first “open world” game. I spent hours just goofing off, exploring the city and causing havoc. I really appreciated being given so much freedom to complete objectives, which turned each mission into a creative puzzle. To this day GTA3 is the standard to which I hold every other sandbox style game. In my eyes, Crackdown is GTA with super powers and Assassin’s Creed is GTA set during the Crusades. The sequels Vice City and San Andreas became incrementally better, adding small improvements while maintaining the high production value and brilliant attention to detail.
→ 4 Comments Grand Theft Auto 4 · Xbox 360
As part of the Software Engineering curriculum, I was required to take “Principles of Electrical Engineering” this semester. This is a mandatory course for all engineers at Concordia, so the class was full of people working in a somewhat unfamiliar domain. It was a tough course, but fortunately I had a good background in electromagnetism from my pure & applied science Cégep degree (Cégep is pre-university in Quebec.)
→ 4 Comments Engineering · Science
The Major’s Response – Cover Artists:
Despite rock ‘n’ roll’s widespread success across America, the major record labels were initially mostly uninterested in this new phenomenon. Indeed, until 1955, the independent labels had a “virtual monopoly” on rock ‘n’ roll artists1. They were the leaders in the rhythm and blues market, and when rock ‘n’ roll took off they simply had to: “modify the arrangements, simplify the beat, and promote rhythm and blues as rock ‘n’ roll.2”
→ 1 Comment Blues · History · Rockin' The Boat
Technology and Teenagers:
Before further examining how rock ‘n’ roll brought the races together, it is important to retrace the convergence of certain economic and technological factors which gave white teenagers access to music.
The major label’s lack of interest in the specialty markets may have been largely due to the fact that, until the fifties, recorded music carried the label of class1. Only the upper and upper-middle class could afford a phonograph, and their tastes encompassed big band, crooners and classical music. Country and rhythm and blues music was mainly enjoyed on the radio.
Blues · History · Rockin' The Boat
Preface:
Rockin’ The Boat: Rock ‘n’ Roll and Race Relations in the Fifties was the extended essay I wrote in my last year of Cégep. The topic of the essay was at our discretion, and I was a young man who wanted to write about rock ‘n’ roll. Being a science student, I had studied neither sociology, history nor music but decided to write in an unfamiliar domain anyways. I consider the result to be one of the strongest and most well-researched pieces of work I have ever written (which isn’t saying much, really.) Being in the middle of exams and a little pressed for writing time, I thought I would split the essay into three parts and share it here.