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Freshman's GoodMusicAllDay.com Emerging as Internet Hit

By The Observer · Monday, Feb. 1, 2010

For young entrepreneur and Notre Dame freshman Tim Weber, music is more than just a passion or a hobby. "I absolutely love music. I believe that college students listen to the best music." Weber, a resident of Knott Hall, has turned this personal credo into a rapidly growing website called GoodMusicAllDay.com geared toward the musical interests of young adults. Hailing from Wilmington, Delaware, Weber has always gravitated towards a musical calling. Formerly a guitarist and vocalist, he began doubting his ability to advance as a performer. The trajectory of his passion thus shifted from performance to sharing. More recently, Weber developed an inclination toward producing music of various genres such as hip-hop and alternative. Weber's exploration of the production side of music led to the genesis of his website. GoodMusicAllDay's mission is simple: to publicize and share the music that interests college students. The site's interface closely resembles a blog, with daily entries featuring artist descriptions, videos, links, and published opinions. For music savvy fans, the site may resemble other music advocacy websites such as nahright.com, aurgasm.us, and even Kanye West's official blog. The distinction, of course, is a focus towards collegiate interests. As founders and operators of the website, Weber and fellow Notre Dame freshman Tim Ryan of Siegfried, were careful to consult Notre Dame's Office of Informational Technologies' rules, as well as copyright laws, when developing the site to ensure that all content on the site is legal. GoodMusicAllDay does not allow peer-to-peer sharing. However, all content may be previewed and even downloaded free of charge. Downloaded music is iPod ready immediately upon completion. GoodMusicAllDay.com officially launched on December 1, a little more than a month after its conception in late October. Originally restricted to the Notre Dame community, the site has expanded largely without advertisement. Word of mouth exported the news of the website beyond the Notre Dame bubble, and now GoodMusicAllDay.com boasts roughly 1,000 views a day. The website's popularity was also boosted by exclusive interviews with emerging artists, and later, the sponsorships of various mixtapes submitted expressly by musicians. GoodMusicAllDay.com has been officially recognized by the likes of Chip Tha Ripper, the Incomparable Shakespeare, DJ Trackstar, and even Kid Cudi. Though Weber claims a wide variety of musical interests, he admits that country music and metal are turnoffs. A distinct hip-hop flavor is palpable in the entries of the website. Visitors of GoodMusicAllDay will encounter plenty of underground rappers, DJ's, and some indie and jam bands. Weber collects submissions from up-and-coming artists as well as fan submissions. Though each submission is reviewed and rated, Weber contends that irtually all suggestions submitted to the site are posted, provided that the music is worthy of the attention and praise of college students. Weber boasts that his website's most appealing feature is its recently completed list of 2009 top fives. Visit this section of GoodMusicAllDay to hear the top five mash-ups, covers, beats, and more from last year. Like all other submissions, each track may be previewed and downloaded. Though GoodMusicAllDay is still in its infantile stages, Weber has high hopes for the site and his own career. He is optimistic that the website will continue to receive more views and submissions. In fact, GoodMusicAllDay is scheduled to drop its first official mixtape on March 1 of this year. The mixtape, which will feature exclusive tracks available only through GoodMusicAllDay, is expected to feature seven to eight artists and roughly fifteen tracks. As for his own career, Weber says that his dream is to become the CEO of a major record label. Certainly he is on the right path with his unwavering love of music and attention to new and exciting trends. However, given the swift success of GoodMusicAllDay, he may soon find his hands full with the requests and attention of a quickly growing fan base.

Assassin's Creed II Impresses Despite Simplicity

By The Observer · Monday, Feb. 1, 2010

"Assassin's Creed II" is the second major installment of the successful and critically acclaimed series by Ubisoft. In this episode, the player takes the reins of Desmond, a descendent of the assassin Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Through some far-fetched futuristic technology, Desmond is placed in a "Matrix"-like virtual simulation of his ancestor's memories, which are apparently decoded from his DNA. Within this simulation, Desmond relives Ezio's life story, including the assassin's training, the cold-blooded murder of his family, and his corpse-littered, blood-soaked path to revenge. You know, the normal stuff of a Renaissance Italian. To those new to the franchise, you are initially introduced to Desmond and the plot of the series through a tedious sequence of escape scenes, where you have to follow a woman who won't tell you where you're going or why you're getting into the trunk of her car. After a successful getaway, you're itching to get into the "Matrix," if only to learn player controls other than walking, and the slightly faster but incredibly stupid looking power-walk. Once inside the simulation, the game opens up with a tutorial of the controls, which varied on the spectrum between "obvious and insistent" to "aggravatingly unhelpful." What it explains thoroughly need not be said, and where the player is pitted against a non-player character (NCP) in an unavoidable building-scaling contest, the tutorial offers little more advice than "Beat your brother to the top of the church." This, the hardest and most frustrating part of the game, comes within five minutes of putting the disc in. Having conquered the tutorial, the player is introduced to Ezio's world by completing a series of tasks for his father. It begins to seem like Ezio is just a trouble-making courier, until the delivery of a secret package results in Ezio's entire family getting murdered for a conspiracy his father was fighting against. This event fuels Ezio's thirst for revenge, tracking down and killing every member of the massive group of coconspirators guilty of the murder of Ezio's family. Once into the flow of the game, the missions come very easily. Each assassination of one conspirator results in leads to three others, taking you to various Italian settings — Venice, Florence, a rural area, Ezio's villa. All of these magnificent landscapes also come with different peacekeepers, different vehicles (horses, boats in Venice) and different malicious leaders to take down. These different settings make the difference in what are basically variations on a theme — platforming and fighting. Not to say that these two components combined cannot make a great game — on the contrary, many great games are solely comprised of them. What makes this troublesome in "Assassin's Creed II," however, is that these platforming and combat tasks are unbelievably easy. Despite countless controls, by holding two buttons, Ezio enters Spider-man-mode, where he leaps and bounds in the direction indicated, through whatever means necessary. The secondary plot, which is collecting relics of historical assassins, is the only time you'll ever have to think about platforming, because these areas are designated platforming challenges, designed to test the mastery of the skill. In all common town areas, holding the two buttons renders Ezio uncapturable. The second element of the gameplay, combat, is also excessively easy. Unless you manage to aggravate a small horde of guards, Ezio's combat skills, weaponry, and speed will result in a large pile of guard corpses. The plot is present, but not essential enough to really be a factor in the game. Once you turn into a revenge-seeking Renaissance ninja, with the puzzle-solving and invention-making sidekick Leonardo Da Vinci, it is easy to tune out the names in favor of the little red "kill this guy" indicator on the minimap. The result is a sandbox game that plays through well once, then leaves you as a heavily armed misanthrope with a weird compulsion for jumping off of the top of church steeples into big piles of hay.

Documentary 'End of Poverty?' Comes to DPAC

By The Observer · Monday, Feb. 1, 2010

The DeBartolo Performing Arts Center hosted a showing of the documentary, "The End of Poverty?" a film directed by Philippe Diaz about poverty primarily in Latin America and Africa, on Saturday. Filmed in less than eight months by a two-person crew of only the director and producer, "The End of Poverty?" is about the alarming increase in poverty around the globe despite a worldwide growth in wealth. By talking to professionals about the matter in several different countries as well as conducting interviews with people and families who live on less than $1 a day, the film highlights important issues about poverty, namely how it began, where and why it exists, and what are the implications of this for our lives in the future. A distinctive feature about Diaz's approach to poverty is to explain the reasons why it began. The economists, historians and scholars interviewed discussed the history of colonialism and the imprint it leaves until this day in most third world countries where poverty is predominant. By providing an insight into the history of a culture and of the colonial-imperial relationship — which prevailed throughout the 17th, 18th and even 19th centuries — the viewer can understand that the reasons for poverty in these countries is so rooted in its country's historical background and that poverty is far from being an easy fix. Natives to a country discussed the loss of culture, and how the white European would arrive with "a Bible in one hand, and a weapon in the other." However, the three issues highlighted as a consequence of colonialism and which, ultimately, are what prevent a country from climbing out of its conditions are trade, debt and monopoly. For example, it was mentioned that sub-Saharan Africa is paying $25,000 a minute in international debt. The film asks, how many schools and hospitals could be built with that money? The focus soon shifted from the historical reasons for colonialism to what the consequences of this history are, from international debt to the poor individual's view of his or her placement in society. Finally, the documentary took a turn towards discussing how a similar structure to imperialism still exists today between countries of the north and of the south. Namely, at how the United States is the new superpower dictating the rules for underdeveloped countries to abide by. With a documentary on poverty, the possibilities are endless. In "The End of Poverty?" a unique feature is its very clear and instructive explanation for why poverty exists and that its origins are deeply rooted in historical issues. As well as instructive, the people interviewed included a perfect balance, from a well-educated scholar (in a comfy couch and a fancy desk lamp) to father of six who works 15 hours a day to make $6. However, "The End of Poverty?" lacks in one simple aspect. It does not create any hope nor is it very emotionally appealing. It provides a background and hard facts, but does not instruct the viewer on what he or she can do their part to fix the situation. As it reached the end, the documentary began to focus more on pointing fingers at who is preventing things from getting better than actually suggesting a way in which the viewer can do his or her part in aiding this global issue. It seems that the film simply sank into its comfortable seat as it sadly said that there isn't anything we can do unless the northern superpowers change the way they handle capitalism, which is neither an effective nor an inspiring conclusion to such a devastating and powerful theme. Interesting at first, instructive without a doubt, but, unfortunately, "The End of Poverty?" fails to live up to its expectations, and to what it could have been.