Geek Speaking on the Heroics of Miraculous Sound

Geek Speak: Heroics...?

Running an elderly lady over with a bus? Not funny. Have the world's dumbest superhero throw her at a building so hard it breaks? Hilarious. Don't count the old lady out, yet. This may be it, or I might have more in store for her.

It turns out Wuffles has a little bit of a soft spot for his elderly owner after all. Now that she's no longer in the picture I have to wonder if the gruff little dog will put on the tutu from time to time just to remember her...probably not.

One of the ideas I'm looking forward to exploring is superpowers and superheroes aren't always what you expect. Even classic superpowers like superhuman strength and invulnerability aren't necessarily bestowed on the best people to have them.

Captain Dum-Dum is my prime example of this (for the moment). Here is a guy who is so strong he can pull battleships on dry land with this teeth. He's so near to complete invincibility that artillery shells just knock the wind out of him. He can travel miles in a single jump. He just happens to be dumb as a bag of hammers. Think the power of Will Smith's much (and unjustly) maligned superhero Hancock with the mental faculties of Jeff Daniels in Dumb and Dumber. His heart's in the right place, his head just doesn't have the computing power to keep up.

He probably has a super-villain nemesis. I just haven't worked out who that would be yet.

Sounding off on "Miracle of Sound"

Those who play more video games than I do probably already know about the Escapist Magazine, a website dedicated to all things video game, plus some great news and reviews for movies and television. They also have a number of video features. I'm a fan of Unskippable and Zero Punctuation but I'm especially excited about new posts under Miracle of Sound.

Miracle of Sound is primarily a music series with videos instead of the other way around. The music and videos are the brainchild of Gavin Dunne who writes, arranges, and performs all of the songs. To be honest I don't remember how I stumbled onto it, I think I was just clicking around on the Escapist and happened to click the link to his page. What I found when I got there was the rock music equivalent of a candy store; all different colors and flavors of music. 

Dunne is one prolific musician. To be fair because his primary sources of inspiration are video games, movies, and television so he has a nearly inexhaustible resource from which to extract his raw materials. In addition to being a prolific creator his approach to the music is diverse and not chained to a single style or genre. He moves from blues, to rock, to abstract atmospheric pieces and manages to make it all sound good. 

If I'm being honest, the bulk of the songs available from Miracle of Sound are pretty cheesy; but so what? His raw materials are video games. What do you expect? When you get under the veneer or cheesiness there are genuinely well thought out, even provocative lyrics and good melodic work. The blending of styles over both of those makes for a genuinely pleasurable listening experience. 

Here area  few of my favorites.

The Joker's Song was the first one of Dunne's songs I listened to, and the one that completely hooked me. This song has a carnival motif and Dunne does a nearly flawless Mark Hamill that is a nice nod to that actor's work on both the recent Arkham games and Batman: The Animated Series.

After the Joker's Song I explored the website a little and eventually came to The Grind. This is a fast paced metal number that draws on the Gears of War franchise. I don't know what it is about this song, but it's one I like to listen to when I need to get pumped for something.

Finally, and the most different from the other two, is Legends of the Frost, which is inspired by The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. This has an element of heroic ballad to it that I really like, and it's melodic enough I can sing it to my daughter when I'm trying to put her to bed for the night.