Should be a musical week here at IBNttT and I think I’m gonna start it off with my impressions on OK Go and Vampire Weekend’s new offerings, Of the Blue Colour of the Sky and Contra, respectively. OK Go - This Too Shall Pass from OK Go on Vimeo. It’s been ~5 years since OK Go released one of my favorite album s, Oh No, and started to find some mainstream success thanks to the music video for “Here It Goes Again”. A lot can change in five years for a band so I was curious as to how it would turn out (and sound), especially since I’d heard it was a result of them touring for so long they hardly felt like themselves. Sonic shifts can be completely disastrous or they can turn out like OtBCotS and turn out pretty well. ...

Ok, one of these is fairly normal and the other is completely random and… strange. I think you’ll be able to figure out which is which. This first one is (lyrically) NSFW. Don’t blast it anywhere that language is an issue. See more of the internets best videos at CollegeHumors Web Celeb Hall of Fame.

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“422” caption=“Like Phoenix and Apollo, I was slacking off last night playing Apollo Justice…”] [/caption] I slacked off hardcore this week, so I don’t really have any real news stories prepared for you this week, but I did have tons of fun last night playing Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. I’ve finally resolved to finish the game’s final case after a hiatus that lasted nearly a year. A new game has been announced by Capcom, but no details have been announced yet. Personally, I can’t wait to find out what happens to Phoenix and Apollo. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“424” caption=“False Advertising”] [/caption] While running errands the other day I saw a girl wearing a blue pair of sweatpants that had the word “Pink” in large white print on the back. It got me thinking about the discrepancies between who we are and who we tell people we are. I can honestly say that I’ve never met a girl in a bar and opened by saying that I play approximately 20 hours of video games a week or that I run this blog. Instead I’d be far more likely to mention the movies that I like, the music I listen to, or the fact that I love baseball. It’s not really a lie, I’m not proclaiming to be pink when I’m clearly blue, but it’s not being totally honest with myself or the things that I spend most of my days doing. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“496” caption=“Can you figure out which picture was taken was before he started taking steroids?”] [/caption] To absolutely nobody’s surprise, Mark McGwire admitted on Monday that he used steroids back when he played in the ’90s. Regular readers of this blog already know how I feel about the Steroid Era in baseball, so I won’t bore you with my indignation and anger, but it’s a real shame that we’re seeing yet another big player admit to cheating the system. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“Wallpaper courtesy Pet-Shop on DeviantArt”] [/caption] Ruminations on video games as an art form - this could very well become a Mother 3 review. There will be spoilers here. Seriously, don’t read it if you want to play Mother 3 and not have the plot spoiled. There’s a trite comparison that floats around the internet almost every month that always gets my eyes rolling. Inevitably, someone will call such-and-such the Citizen Kane of video games or ask what the Citizen Kane is or claim that the medium is immature because we’ve yet to hit our Citizen Kane. It’s exhausting and, quite frankly, futile and stupid. To begin with, Citizen Kane opened with good reviews and was generally well-received, but it didn’t start to gain notoriety for ten years. It didn’t even make #1 on a top movies list until twenty years had passed. When the Citizen Kane of gaming hits (god I hate that phrase), we probably won’t know it for quite some time. The more important point is that movies and games are apples and oranges. ...

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“624” caption=“JACKFACE!”] [/caption] If you fully intend to catch up on Lost, do not watch this video! It has spoilers to catch you up to the events so far. So good.

With the release of Super Street Fighter IV rapidly approaching and the convenient timing of CES, Capcom has started its marketing blitz in earnest these past few days. The most recent trailer highlights the new features in the game, including new costumes, rival battles, and, most excitingly, new Ultra Combos. Video Games | Super Street Fighter IV | Exclusive Features Trailer HD XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii ...

Last month I found myself worrying about a friend of mine who was going through a tough time. Kim had just lost a friend and was headed to Louisiana for the funeral, so I wouldn’t be hearing from her for a week. I told her I was sorry and that I was there for her and then she left. Funny thing is, I’ve never met Kim. I only know her because I love to play Left 4 Dead. I’ve never even seen a picture of what she looks like and I’m only 98% sure that Kim is even her name. With all those layers of abstraction, you’d think it would be difficult for me to call her a friend, but I’ve come to realize that there can be value in the tenuous, ephemeral online friendship, so long as it doesn’t replace the ones you have in your physical life. ...