Denuo - denuology.com

Denuo loves Dreamcast, that wacky Sega gaming console released on 9.9.99 in America.

Denuo loves Dreamcast because it swung for the technological fences against the impending juggernaut of the Playstation 2. It ushered in a new era of videogame console specs: 128-bits, built-in internet connectivity (56kbps worth!), discs that stored more than a CDs worth of data, and VGA-capable graphic resolutions.

Everyone around here knows that Dan is the music-ologist of the group. His recent 100 songs of 2009 post will no doubt be inspiring me throughout 2010. But while spending some time with his list, I realized that the way we experienced music this year was really different. Which is funny, because Dan is the guy I spoke to about music the most this past year.

So, in an effort to show an alternative view of the music world, I present my favorite albums of the past year. There are a couple key differences between our lists that reflect our different listening styles:

• These albums weren’t necessarily released in 2009, but albums I discovered in 2009. I’m not a “new music” searcher, I just kinda stumble upon stuff haphazardly throughout the year.
• These are albums, not singles or tracks. Ironically, I left the “singles” mentality during music’s transition to digital distribution. I’ll discover a song I like and I’ll need to hear the album.
• I’ve tried to keep it to one album per artist, but this was the year I found the Beatles. And I can’t just pick one Beatles album, dammit.
• I’ve tried to approximate what season I discovered the music in. It reflects how long the album has “been with me” – which (sometimes)  effected its position. It’s not anymore specific than that because I have the memory of a goldfish.
• I have a really obsessive relationship of album artwork – so you, dear reader, get to enjoy the fruits of my artwork searches.
• I’ve tried to post a link on the album in some form or fashion – note that some of them are obscure or prohibitively expensive. Sorry, I’ve got weird musical tastes.

The 2009 Chicago marathon starting line (taken with iPhone 3GS).

A couple weeks ago I ran the Chicago marathon. It was a cold, slightly gloomy race – and the last two miles were absolute hell. But I had an ace up my sleeve – or rather in my hand. My iPhone 3GS. It helped me finish the marathon – and (more importantly for THIS post) it shifted my perspective on what experiences the current generation of “phones” are capable of delivering.

E3 is one of the only events where attendees and those sitting at home can have equally valid, but disparate opinions. It’s the strange outcome of a videogame industry where interaction is essential to any experience and a videogame community that demands a flood of news, impressions, and detail to replace the interaction they’re missing out on. With that in mind, I present a counter top 5 (pun!) to Eric’s top 5 of E3. This not only reflects my distinct tastes from Mr. Bee (and they are pretty darn distinct) but also the fact that I was two times zones away from any sort of playable e3 games.

Jimmy Fallon has been making some tech-friendly gestures lately at his new position on the Late Show. Recently he featured Microsoft’s Project Natal only a couple days after it was unveiled at e3 (with John Krasinski in tow in less). The clip above is certainly entertaining in its own right (especially Jimmy channeling a 5 year old right before opening his birthday gifts) and the tech seems to work well – but it’s the larger implications of this appearance that have me the most excited.