A Review of Flatland

Flatland is a 1884 English Novella written by Edwin Abbot Abbot. The story takes a satirical look at Victorian England society, using its own warped and exaggerated class system to comment on the discriminatory system of the time. In addition Flatland gives an interesting take on dimension and our perception of them, which to me was the most interesting part of the book.

The basic premise of Flatland is of dimensions. Most of the books plot is spent in Flatland, a two dimensional world, and more than half of the book is spent merely describing the way in which Flatland and its residents are able to function: by moving about as objects on a two dimensional plane. This section is also where we learn of the aforementioned class system, which divides "people" by their geometric shape. Triangles are the lowest classes, and the lowest of the triangles have the smallest angles. After the triangles are the squares, who could be considered the upper middle class, and from there on the classes keep growing in respect based on the number of sides a "person" posses. This system continues all the way up to the high class of "circles," who have so many sides it is impossible to discern them from a circle with only the naked eye. The circles are of a class comparable to that of Victorian Royalty and/or that of High Priests.

In other sections we are introduced to the three other worlds: Pointland, Lineland, and Spaceland. Pointland is a point. It has a singular inhabitant who, to himself, is omnipresent. He is the only thing that he can perceive to exist, as he takes up all space he can understand. This of course is only a point, which has no height, width, or length.

Lineland is merely a line, it has many inhabitants, who all are also lines, and all inhabit the same line. They are unable to move around their neighbors and communicate by only their voices.

Then there is Spacland, which is made up three dimensional objects (cubes, spheres, pyramids) floating about and interacting with each other. Think of our world except instead of people there are perfect shapes.


The Part that I enjoyed the most about Flatland was its ideas of a fourth dimension. One recurring theme is that of a visitor, from a plane with more dimensions, coming to a plane with fewer dimensions to try and explain the extra dimension that the visitor can perceive but the hosts cannot. (e.g. an inhabitant of Flatland goes to Lineland, and trys to convey left and right to its inhabitants, who of course can only percieve forward and back).
Our main protagonist, a square inhabitant of Flatland, builds off this concept by trying convince us readers, along with the Spaceland inhabitant who is visiting him, of the possibility of a fourth dimension. Or a fifth. Or a sixth.

I personally found this possibility, and the way in which the book presented it, to be fascinating, and it made my head hurt as I tried to conceive the idea behind it. Though in researching for this review I learned that the fourth dimension is now widely considered to be time, and not another "direction." Though it should be noted that some theorists have created rules about what they believe would be a fourth directional dimension. Imagine a left handed glove. In three dimensions you can turn it about in which ever way you want. The theory states that if you could manipulate the fourth dimension, you would be able to "turn" the glove in a way that caused it to become a right handed glove. I thought this was cool.

In conclusion, even though it's written in painfully old English, Flatland is a short but sweet story that made me think, and presented a creative, clever, and original idea. I enjoyed it a lot, and would highly recommend it to any one.

Why "A Love Supreme" is my favorite Jazz L.P.

A Love Supreme is a 1965 Jazz long-play record written by legendary saxophonist John Coltrane and recorded with his equally mythical quartet featuring Coltrane, bassist Jimmy Garrison, pianist McCoy Tyner, and one of my favorite drummers: Elvin Jones.  Since its release, A Love Supreme has become a Jazz standard, as well as one of the most acclaimed and successful Jazz albums of all time. When I first discovered this masterpiece of music, it was almost instantly one of my favorite pieces ever, and sits even higher on my list of Jazz favorites.

So why is A Love Supreme so good? Well it's hard to say what makes any music good. Classic chord progression and song structure is constantly being manipulated to create new genres that are arguably better then their predecessors. Just look at Hip-Hop, Funk, and even Jazz itself. All these came from creative manipulation; by combining different old genres and rhythms with new ideas. A Love Supreme does this as well, occasionally using of Afro-Cuban rhythms and note structures that at times almost remind me of classical compositions.

Another part of A Love Supreme that stands out as exceptional as its ability to let the amazing instrumentalists who worked one it shine like only a quartet can. Don't get me wrong, my personal preference swings in favor of the big band route, but in big bands solos are kept short, sweet, and there are usually a lot of them. That, or the big band is only to back one big player, where that one person is almost always featured, think something like the Count Basie Orchestra (Please note I'm not hating on the Count Basie Orchestra, I am a huge fanboy when it comes to them).  A Love Supreme can't and doesn't do this. It has multiple solos from each of the quartet members, each lasting several minutes. This allows the musicality of each musician to shine, and combines several rhythmic and difficult licks into the pieces; and all the solos on the record are impressive and beautiful by themselves. Me being both a percussionist and bass player makes the inclusion and focused moments of Jones and Garrison stand out even more.

In summary, A Love Supreme is an epic and beautiful Jazz composition, that combines many rhythmic varieties and chord structures, as well as allowing several outstanding members of the team that recorded it to solo and play at an extreme and professional level. All of this is why I find it so enjoyable to listen to. Plus of course my personal preference and whatever science makes our brains listen to music at all.

A film review of The Nice Guys

The Nice Guys is a spring twenty sixteen buddy cop flick starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling. The basic premises teams the two private investigators in trying to find and protect a young woman, who happens to be the daughter of a government official, as well as uncover the secret behind a pornography film. The story of the film has many traditional themes. Two private eyes. A brutal yet fun set of fight scenes. And a twist of who the actual bad guys are.

Unfortunately, though original and often funny, The Nice Guys turns out to be a sub average movie with few redeeming quality's. Though it posses originality, the film lacks a feeling of completion. The directing, acting, special affects, and so on are all there, and are all reasonably good; but when all paired together, the film is only forgettable. Much like this review.....

A game review of Cities Skylines

Cities Skylines is a real time strategy and management game set around a life-like world simulation. The basic goal of the game is to build a wealthy and happy community while having to manage your economy, the happiness of your population, and the infrastructure of you various districts, all within you large but not unlimited patch of land. I have not been playing Cities Skylines for very long, I bought it a few days ago on sale, but I already am falling in loves with its vast stores of game play.

The first thing to stand out me when opening Cities Skylines for the first time was its graphics. The bright colors and intricate detail combined with the amazing but simple physics and light engines, gives a visually appealing, but never distracting set of visuals that quickly fade into the game play in a seamless experience.

And boy is the game play enjoyable. It is amazingly absorbing to meticulously place roads, houses, shops, factory's, and power generators. All while trying to build your city to a Chicago level metropolis. The easy controls give the game an illusion of ease, but mastering the game and achieving a stable and thriving large city is proving fairly difficult. And the pace is kept constant by always needing to supply more power, water, money. If the the game at any point starts to get boring, it quickly will set you back a distance by throwing a fair sized natural disaster for you to deal with. If I had to name one thing I didn't like about the game play, it would probably be how easy it is to lose track of time and get lost within the game. The intense focus that sets in I can best relate performing music, a steady focus on exactly whats happening and slightly looking forward to make sure I don't mess up. This focus on the present and only the very near future makes some of my experience with the game seem almost meditative.

The finishing touch that makes Cities Skylines a masterpiece is its perfectly crafted soundtrack. The bright and cheery chords and computer generated notes matches perfectly with the game play and is quickly forgotten and taken for granted, but when disabled is sorely missed. And when disasters strike, the music turns dark and adds a bigger sense of urgency and panic. Though I would never listen to the music on its own, no other series of tracks could be paired with the game in any way that would come out better.

In conclusion, Cities Skylines is a visually beautiful, game play rich, and well paced masterpiece I am sure I will slowly but surely sink hours of time into. It's rich and rewarding progression make it a great choice for new and/or casual gamers.