DietroVetro.com

Track #4: Kitty – The Presidents of the United States of America
Listen to it on my mixtape!

When I was 10 years old, I bought my first CD. I listened to it a lot for some months, until I had enough. I have tried to keep the album as far away from my CD-shelves ever since. Celine Dion is just not my favourite artist anymore…

The second album I bought in my life, however, is an album I have listened to a lot. The Presidents of the United States of America’s first album was amazingly cool, absurd and definitely something quite different than Celine. The summer I bought the album (in 1995, I think?) I was at our family’s summer house in Bergen. And we all had fun singing about millions of peaches, blue dune buggies, and kitties that had to spend the night outside. Me included – without really knowing what it all meant.

It still is a fantastic album. Tomorrow my parents(!) and I are going to their concert together here in Oslo. I know the band has made some albums over the years. I still hope they know that their first album still is the best one – and will squeeze in at least Dune Buggy and Boll Weevil for me and my parents. And preferably Stranger, Peaches and Feather Pluckn too. If they throw in Body, Kitty, and Back Porch, the night will be just perfect. Ooooh, it’ll be fun!

Download three of the songs from the album for free at Last.fm
Or just buy the album right now :)

Track #2: Oxford Comma – Vampire Weekend
Listen to it on my mixtape!

Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?
I’ve seen those English dramas too. They’re cruel.

This song by the Vampire Weekend is funny, weird and just perfect. And if you are wondering what an Oxford comma is, I will explain it to you in just a minute. First I have to tell you that I finally have finished my paper in the course Computer games and computer game culture! It’s called “Games Combatting the Dictatorship of Entertainment. A Study of the Newsgaming Phenomenon.”, and is about the development of the newsgaming genre, including an analysis of the game September 12th. I also look closer at the games Operation: Pedopriest, New York Defender, and Airport Security.

And I don’t care that much about Oxford commas (a.k.a. serial commas), but I do know that I just used one in the previous sentence. To keep the two games ‘New York Defender’ and ‘Airport Security’ apart in the list of the three games, I felt I had to use it. It helps you as a reader to put in the required pause in your head when reading. Read more about this kind of comma in Wikipedia.

Luckily, my sister cares a whole lot about such things, having studied translation and all. She devoted a night to reading through my paper, correcting my English errors with fancy color coding, using her word wisdom. Thank you! I am now confident that the language is delicious, so I guess it comes down to the content. I will publish the paper here as soon as I am allowed to. In the meantime, you can get as hung up on the band Vampire Weekend as I am.

Vampire Weekend: On my mixtape, MySpace, Last.fm
Oxford Comma: Wikipedia, strong feelings on the matter in the article “Serial Killer”
Newsgames worth a try: Airport Security, September 12th, Operation: Pedopriest, New York Defender, The McDonald’s Video Game, Faith Fighter.

Track #1: Jack Johnson – Banana Pancakes.
Listen to it on my mixtape!

This song is meant to keep you
From doing what you’re supposed to

The song is about waking up slowly, staying in bed all day – and a bit about banana pancakes. I’ve been staying in bed since I woke up some hours ago. I’ve got everything I need right here, and everything I need is indeed enough. You see, I have been out in the kitchen for a moment to make a cup of tea and bread with banana on it (banana pancakes sounded a bit too heavy for a breakfast). Now I’m going to do what I’m supposed to do while still in bed – read the rest of the very interesting book about persuasive games: Persuasive Games. The Expressive Power of Videogames by Ian Bogost.