I have a few too many video cameras at my disposal recently (I’ll post a video to show you). Given that, I was able to compare the new Kodak Zi8 to them and help you, the loyal consumer looking for a great gift this winter, find the best product that fits your needs Remember when Motorola Razr phones were all the rage? I do. Every 7th grader had one that fit nicely into their pocket while I had an unpopular yet better quality, bulky Nokia phone – my brick. Now that I’m older, I have a purse and don’t worry as much about the huge bulges in my pocket, so I will naturally opt out for better quality, yet chunkier things – much as our society now does with phones. One of those things is a camera. My mom bought a nice Canon camera that was affordable, large, and great quality.
Now, back to video cameras. People tend to treat the new Flip Cam as they treated Razr phones. They’re cool, hip, desireable — BUT the quality is sub par. Sure, it has a USB jack like the Kodak Zi8, but it hardly has the quality. The Kodak Zi8 features both Macro and Distance shooting (which doesn’t work as well if you’re right in between both). It also has a feature that sends it miles apart from the competition: a mic jack. No, not necessarily so that you can hear sound (although I’m sure you can do that), but so that you can have better sound quality in your videos as opposed to a dissonant sound from afar.
I also compared the Zi8 to my red flip HP v5040u (gosh, that’s a mouthfull) and the professional Canon we use to shoot our interviews. All of these offer HD recording at 1080p (p = pixels, presumably). Although the Canon fares way above the rest, it is also the most expensive and least pocket-worthy. I would not randomly throw it into my purse as I would with my HP v5040u or Zi8. Those are camcorders meant to be sold to the populace, for the common man, the average joe. And for that reason, you need to know that you are getting the best product for the most appropriate price.
According to Tiger Direct, a website perfect for comparing electronics, the Zi8 is around $180 (but only $150 at Walmart). and the Flip UltraHD is $140. From the HP Direct site, the v5040u is $150. Thus, you get what you pay for. I find the Flip Ultra HD not user-firendly given its tricky touch screen and multiple options, and it also lacks in video and photo quality. The HP camcorder is similarly difficult, although cool with its flip-out capabilities and light for dark situations. By far, I prefer the Zi8 since it is easy to use, has great quality video and camera, and fits the best in my purse. I guess its not the fancy name that counts, but the use you find out of it. By far, I would go with the Zi8.
If not, just use your bulky digital camera’s video capacity to get the job done – although it won’t have the massive storage capabilities (each camcorder comes with a memory card with a heft GB memory like 40GB) or quality of the aforementioned products. Try out the products at a store nearby, but whichever fits best is your hand, purse, or pocket is ultimately the right fit.

Check out the Kodak Zi8 at: http://store.kodak.com/store/ekconsus/en_US/pd/Zi8_Pocket_Video_Camera/productID.156585800
And don’t forget to look for my videos that I’ll be posting soon.

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Now, instead of having to dig in your purse or pocket to whip out your cell phone to check the time, you can easily look at the nice accessory on your wrist known as a watch. I hope they haven’t lost their practical value since cell phones have rapidly replaced them.
Now that you’re convinced that life without a watch is meaningless – and that a cell phone is not a watch – allow me to demonstrate why an ice watch is the hottest new thing to grab. While working, I complimented a customer whose watch seriously stood out (prior to being introduced to Ice watches) was one with a studded faceplate and braided-texture silicone band akin to an ice watch.

Similarly, a week later I read an article in Neurology Now featuring Cindy McCain, John McCain’s wife, sporting a similar item in white. I was given a purple one to review. That’s the beauty of these ice watches: they come in such a variety of colors that they can be easily matched or mixed up. While I’m bland and prefer black, nothing stopped my mother from “borrowing” my watch and receiving some praise about it, too. Even if my fancy customer and Cindy McCain might have worn different brands than Ice Watch, only this brand has so many different colors, from plain white with different faceplates to a plethora of band colors to match the season (check out their new winter line!). Buy them and wear them like skittles, or have only one that makes you stand out every day.
For more info, check out www.ice-watch.com.  My video is coming soon!!

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I have great difficulty characterizing concerts. They are composed of the quality of music, the band and the crowd. That’s a given. But, concerts can be phenomenal for a singular reason, possibly a gag (like balloons or feathers) or a beautiful person (there are tons of those at concerts), not necessarily a combination of those three factors. Last night, the Matt and Kim concert was amazing not because of their unique music or the insane crowd, but due to the band’s energy.

Kim, with the widest, goofiest smile on her face, hopped around the stage when she was not beating her drums vigorously. She occasionally stood on the drums, ever-raising the audience’s energy level. The variety of their songs did not matter, everyone just ate it all up with smiles on their faces the whole time. However repetitive the songs may have seemed – you can’t expect too much diversity from only a synthesizer keyboard and drum set – the duo threw in a few exciting covers, like Biz Markie’s “Just a Friend” and Major Lazer’s “Pon De Floor” which featured Kim wildly shaking her booty.
Finally, Matt announced that he was playing the last ‘thong’ (since apparently that’s what he slipped and said at a concert in Louisiana where he got too man thongs thrown on stage). He prefaced it by saying that this is a song that you should listen to if you ever need to cheer up, and that’s all I could think of while dancing to it.

I also have a tendency to go unprepared to concerts, either bringing the wrong shoes or too much stuff. By now I should be an expert, only wearing sneakers and bringing a cell phone and wallet. This concert was a point in case of my stupidity. At the Passion Pit concert, I lost my bag; at the Against Me! concert I lost my shoes. Now, I somehow held onto both but wasn’t as able to fully enjoy the constant motion of the crowd. My huge purse hung around my neck as I pushed and was shoved around. I had just gotten acrylic nails for the first time, and was so afraid of breaking a nail. As girly as that may sound, my alternative was to protect my nails and fist pump throughout the concert. Somehow no one was bothered by my Jersey Shore-like habits since they all were in their own realm of joy.

This was a happy concert. You could just lose yourself in the high energy and strong beat. I was happy as a lark (singing causes dopamine release in birds, surprisingly). So, I highly suggest that even if you may think all their songs sound the same, they are worth seeing for whatever price even if the concert was only $15. I left less stressed and sporting everybody’s sweat, not only mine, but also sporting a big, albeit exhausted, smile.

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AIR Concert Review by Diana Ciuca

What do an isosceles triangle, parallelogram, two vertical rectangles, a right triangle and a semi-circle add up to? The fantastically abstract name design (that would make your geometry teacher proud) of the French techno-pop band, AIR.

I hopped out of the car concerned that I was late. It was nine-ish. That, to me, meant that half the set was over and I would never be able to capture the full essence of AIR. I was wrong on two counts. Firstly, when I walked in the theater, people were still mingling as if the show were about to start much later. Next, in one song or two, I would be able to capture the full essence of AIR (whether that’s a good thing or not).

Similar to Ratatat and Animal Collective, AIR provides psychedelic visual effects to complement their technologically-infused melodies. Surprisingly, the venue matched this aesthetic quality of the show. This was a chill show. By no means did it require being smushed by crowd surfers or the sweaty guy next to you. Obviously the trend of more experimental technopop bands (Passion Pit, Arctic Monkeys, Band of Horses) migrating to the Jackie Gleason Theater in Miami is a sign of the suitability of the venue. Yet, the venue can only go so far.

Unlike I expected, the music was not the most riveting portion of the show. Undoubtedly, the low bass reverberated through the crowd seats like a mild earthquake, but the rest of the tones were too light to be appreciated without any visual aids such as lighting effects. Nevertheless, the poetry of AIR’s works are not in their lyrics (for instance, LOVE: Love, love, love, love), but rather in their evocative combination of guitar textures with creeping sound effects. The have a quirk for artiness and abstraction, but that sometimes leads to an under-appreciated mystique. Their mixing pretentiousness should not be mistaken for a simplistic noise, yet instead should be characterized as a minimalistic harmony of keyboards and guitars.

The show was short. Too short. I was waiting for the intermission so I could quickly take a restroom break. But, all my waiting was in vain as the show ended around 10:37. Much too soon. Five minutes prior to the end I was futilely expecting a short break, but when my break finally arrived, I was disappointed. At least the duo finished with an energetic triple encore featuring their most popular song Sexy Boy. The audience members stood up, danced and jeered as energy pervade throughout the crowds and seeped into their skins.

If you desire quirky, upbeat music, look further. AIR is the definition of chill. Their laid back music borderlines boring, but can similarly spark a profound interest in the subtleties of harmony.

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This interview was done in his van with flashlights hence the low light and video quality.

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Santa seems to be messing with me. I got some S-S-Stuff this Christmas. No, that’s not a stutter. It just so happens that some elf was looking through the music dictionary and decided to send me a stack of s-starting bands. He also attached a note with the words, “Santa Says Sorry”…And for good reason. Since we’re on the subject of studying the structure of the band names, we might as well also focus on the titles of their songs – all of them scream angst and non-conformity: Scar Symmetry’s Noumenon and Phenomnon off of their album Dark Matter Dimensions (2009), Samael’s Black Hole off of Above (2009), Suffocation’s Cataclysmic Purification off of their album Blood Oath (2009), Sonic Syndicate’s Burn This City from their forthcoming album in 2010, and finally, Sonata Arctica with Flag in the Ground off of Days of Grays. (2009).
But, to better understand the great weight of all of this metal, I’ve decided to make a guide to help myself and you in the meantime.

How to be (Heavy Metal) Hardcore

They’re more scared of you than you are of them. They loathe society. They are commonly known as punks, outcasts, rebels… but don’t be so quick to judge what is commonly known as HEAVY METAL.

Step 1: Appearance.
Hello! Dreads, much? A valley girl accent sounds worse to them then their grating voices may ever sound to us. Nevertheless, to be truly metal, your hair has to be either too long, too short (in all the wrong places, not there at all, or too dirty (example: Suffocation). The main singer in the follow A bit more difficult to bear and transform than the mass of whatever growing on your head is the coloring of your skin. Yep, tattoos. Prepare to get tatted up usually with an anarchist symbol or dragons. Maybe you will see some designs you like in the following videos, especially on the guitarists’ forearms. Last, but sometimes least, is the clothing. Keep it dark, dreary, and different. Surprisingly, tight black shirts are not as metro-sexual as one might believe (see Scar Symmetry’s lead singer as an example).

Step Two: Video Magic
We’ve covered the general basics, so let’s move on to the videos – appearance in action. Thankfully, unlike pop videos, the bands do not attempt to recreate the scene they are singing about. This occurs because of two reasons: 1. if this were in fact the case, most Heavy Metal music videos wouldn’t look that different (more on that later) and, 2. the video usually tries to capture the band in action, playing, since this is their most pure environment.
Effects:
Black and white
although really cheap, this effect worked well to show contrast in Scar Symmetry’s Noumenon and Phenomenon
A better documentation of this effect is evident in Samael’s Black Hole
In this video, they attempt to provoke nostalgia in a very 70s concert setting. They also used an old-video border (lame!) to enhance this effect. A for effort, but C for artistic creativity.
Cartoons
I know, right? You’re probably thinking that cartoons are such a childish idea. But, of all these heavy metal concepts, this is the best integrated one. Cartoons aid in depicting the utter havoc expressed through the song lyrics. Also, like in Black Hole, these cartoons/drawing repeatedly strike the same concept to ingrain an idea into your memory.
Quick Camera Angles
Although this may have the consequence of making your audience nauseous, this effect is apparently hardcore. All of the videos included this to a greater or lesser degree.
Setting
If it’s not in someone’s garage or an abandoned dirty factory, then some might say that you’re taking this “Heavy Metal thing too far, man.”
Nevertheless, an example of a more progressive Heavy Metal Video is Sonic Syndicate’s Burn This City which features some classy FX, like a helicopter scene along with a artistic background (of wrecked city rummage)
Fire
See Samael’s Black Hole,
and Sonic Syndicate’s Burn This City
Rammstein, Anvil, and Kiss all mastered the use of fire in live concerts. However, fire in live videos (albeit ‘hardcore’) doesn’t have the same desire effect. Scar Symmetry featured the most pathetic recreation of fire using a green screen which made them look more penniless than ruthless.
Along with fire comes burning and blood.
RED
a symbol for anger, hate, pain, and suffering. Widely used to emphasize a certain point and goes well in contrast to the widely used and abused black and white effect.
See Suffocation’s Cataclysmic Purification
Head-banging
Obvious, but true. You cannot achieve any level of hardcore-d-ness if you are incapable of producing an intense headbang. Just like machine guns, the guitarists (most often) attack the camera with their head banging flair/hair.
The more you move your head, the better you are at being hardcore.
In Suffocation’s video, the band members move so much that one would assume that they are absolutely faceless.

Step Three: Music
ahh, yes, we finally arrive to the musical aspect of this sub-culture. Heavy metal music has 3 distinct melodic components: Percussion, Guitar, and voice. Also, it has the ever recurring theme of isolation, death, depression which they use to attract a distinct audience.
Percussion
Continuous percussion results in a hardcore headache. Sonic Syndicate, for instance, alternated the drum pounding with vocals and light to moderate guitar.
Nonetheless, the drums need to be banged extremely hard. The more action the better. If you can actually break your drums (or your arms) during a show, mad props to you.
Guitar
Guitar riffs can be frequently over-used, such as in Scar Symmetry’s song. Again, in moderation, this effect will work well especially a bit after the halfway point of the song. Led Zeppelin was famous for their guitar solos. Sonic Syndicate and Sonata Arctica managed to skillfully demonstrate enough guitar to sound hardcore, but not too much to end up sounding like some punks.
Vocals
RAAAAAAAAAAWR
No, really. Gimme a throaty scream, growl, anything. It’s not just to create noise (although I would disagree), but it’s purpose is to reflect emotion.
In moderation, this effect can equate to a nice balance of actual singing and strong growls.
The growls also create an interesting rythmn by balancing out the percussion (as in Suffocation’s song).
Light vocals can create too much of a similarity to love ballads (which is soft/pillow/plushy metal). Sonata Arctica almost crossed the line with their (over)incorporation of soft vocals and extended ballads along with the desperate, “”Hope to hear from you soon,” lyrics. They also featured a Rush-like voice along with a keyboard-guitar (Key-tar!). This resulted in an eerie Hair-Metal mix of Pirates of The Carribean.

Need more help on being Hardcore? Just go to a show! For that, you’re going to need some protection (helmet, mouthguard, kneepads, life insurance). I’ll be sure to give you a How-to Article on that later. Don’t forget to keep listening and observing. Some good guides are Vh1′s heavy Metal Documentaries, the Anvil Docudrama, and my personal favorite THIS IS SPINAL TAP.

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The Aquapod is a soda bottle launcher that works with an air pump and a 2 liter soda bottle.

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