Doug Hell

Oshawa’s adopted son Doug Hill, known as Doug Hell to those that know him best, isn’t just another resident of the city –he’s also it’s biggest fan.

“I made so many friends in Oshawa so fast. It’s a good place to be.” Said Hill about why he stayed in the city.

Hill’s newest album when a madman loves a woman pays tribute to Oshawa as well as the friends and the woman Hill found there.

Durham college mechanical engineering student and long time local area musician Jason Osborne worked with Hill supplying the fiddle for when a madman loves a woman. “The good thing about playing with him is he sticks to technique. He understands the craft that is songwriting which makes picking up and playing with him really easy,” said Osborne about Hill’s music.

Although the majority of the album revolves around Hill and his Guitar Hll did what he could to involve other local talent. The liner notes feature the names eight other artists including Osborne for their “invaluable contribution.”

“there’s a lot of fucking talent in this city.” Said Hill about his reason for working with so many other people on what is essentially a solo album.

The theme of madness reoccurs through out this album, in fact the word crazy appears prominently during the first half of the recording on the disc. Hearing Hill play live leaves audiences with the feeling that Hill has battled a demon or two in his life --in fact Hill refers to the song Ajax 3 West as a “trying time in my life,” but if there’s a theme to Hill’s work it’s that through great effort and thanks to great friends a man can beat even the greatest of demons.
The woman to Hill’s madman, Jacyntha Morahan, could be the biggest reason Hill’s songs although raspy and regretful leave listeners with a sense of hope. “We give each other support,”

said Morahan. “I know it’s gushy but it’s like we make one person.”

Morahan calls her and Hill’s relationship a “entertaining and head scratching seven months” with a laugh and Hill says that with Morahan he’s been “lucky enough to find love” and he’d be the first to thank Morahan for the effect she’ has had on his song writing . The track Bloom is a slow and borderline morbid love song that explores the depths of Hill’s feelings for Morahan.
Hill will be kicking off an Ontario Tour with fellow one-man acoustic act Mr. Plow at Annies in Toronto on April 25. Hill and Mr. Blow will be making a durham region stop on April 28 at Johnny B’s in Whitby.

Sam and Bill

Sam Kinison and Bill Hicks need no introduction buts it's a blog so I'm obligated to say something.

These guys are legends. Cut from similar cloth as Lenny Bruce and and George Carlin but what sets them in their own class is a furious delivery that could have only came from a post-70s party culture. Their relationship has been well documented in the past and before the eventual death of both comedians--Sam by a car crash in 92 and Bill by pancreatic cancer in 94-- allegations of joke theft went back and forth.

It only makes sense if the stories about the many nights on the road they spent together doing coke and contemplating existence are true. Naturally, similarities between content and style would appear after that sort of friendship.

All the modern greats and not-so-greats owe something to these two.

Everybody dies, OnEscapee

I ask you, who doesn't like free stuff?

the answer is no one of course.

With that in mind, here's two free computer games that will help you waste all your time and not have a single productive thought all day


Everybody Dies

Written by Jim Munroe with illustration by Michael Cho Everybody dies is a piece interactive fiction that deals with subjects such as prejudice, death, and teamwork. Cho's art is done sparingly and very rarely depicts a scene, more often than not it's used to express emotion through small groups of surreal pictures.
Monrue's writing is spot on and made me laugh at moments of utter darkness that should by all reasoning make me cringe.

You can download Everybody dies here




OnEscapee

Released in 1997 for the amiga OnEscapee is an adventure game that owes a lot stylistically to Another World. In this Adventure game with a hint of action you play Daniel White, a young man who is abducted by aliens. Daniel escapes and goes on a journey through an underground alien world trying to escape from his captors.
This one has a lot of puzzles, some of which are so hard and frustrating that you might find your self stuck on the same section for days. Perhaps I'm just slow and not in the same Adventure game shape as i was back in the 8th grade.
This game was made available as a free PC version by the original creators in 2005, it can be downloaded here

The Best of the worst: Role playing Games.

Pen and paper RPGs, that's how i roll.

Since the tender age of 13 I've had an on and off love affair with role playing games and in that ten-year time span I've come across a large pile of shite games. The Palladium system comes to mind. I've always said that Kevin Siembieda has a way with setting and concept but his grasp on rules and layout is loose at best.

The worst of Siembieda's rules can't even hold a candle to the crap-itude that is F.A.T.A.L.

Ah yes F.A.T.A.L. for those of you that don't know it's a almost 1000 page book with just enough rules that you can accurately simulate your most depraved sexual fantasies done to the size of the ogre dick you're sucking on.

Instead of reviewing F.A.T.A.L. I'll just leave you with some samples of this monstrous manual.



Aww yes, a urination table, that's exactly the kind of rule missing from my fantasy role playing experience


Wow, i can only imagine the domestic dispute that led to this weapon condition being created.



The grand daddy of them all. I've always wondered if my Orc PC could anally penetrate a pubescent halfling with out killing them.



and the best part of F.A.T.A.L.? judging by this rebuttal to a particularly nasty review, the author seems to take his work seriously. That takes the game from hilarious to frightening instantly.