Couched

I've been in video game mode all week long and actually most of last week too. Call it a craving. I have more than enough to keep me busy through March and probably April right now but I want more. It has become difficult to stay away from EB Games and more difficult yet to leave without spending money.
There will be Halo on Tuesday night, like last week, and probably next Tuesday also. I'm in training, on Ubisoft's XIII though. I cleared through quite a few of its levels pretty quickly the other day, then realized that the difficulty was set to 'Arcade'. They don't ask you to set the level prior to commencing this graphic adventure. 'Arcade' is the default and the easiest setting, so I upped it to 'Realistic', the most difficult setting, 'Normal' sits between the two. It's much harder now. Almost painfully so.
Also played this week P.N. 03 and Sphinx and The Cursed Mummy. PN3 is cool, a tactical arcade shooter on the GCube and Sphinx I really need to play more before I comment. Most everyone says they like it. I had minor concerns right off, some are aesthetic and some relate to gameplay.
After quite a few listens I'm starting to get 'The Rapture'. Their album Echoes will make you want to move if you let it. I don't find it incredibly inspired, as of yet, or groundbreaking and I have a hard time considering it Pitchfork Media's #1 album of 2003 (espescially over Broken Social Scene). But Interpol's 'Turn on The Bright Lights' was their 2002 pick for #1 and it took me a bit to get into also. My feelings on that album? Well, I listen to it more often then Wilco's 'YHF' and Wilco is the proverbial shit, in my book. Interpol fashioned a brilliant album.

FYI -- My top picks of 2003

1. Broken Social Scene ~You Forgot it in People
2. Radiohead ~Hail to The Thief
3. The Shins ~Chutes Too Narrow

I also recently picked up Sufjan Steven's 'Michigan' and I have to say that had I gotten my hands on it in 2003 when it came out it might've displaced the 2 or 3 spot. That was a hard record to get my hands on.