Well, I like all the classics like early Megaman, Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda, Hitoshi Sakimoto, anything from Falcom (Y's, Xanadu, etc).
There are some truly oddball compositions out there that are dear to me, like a lot of the work of Zuntata, which was an in-house band for Taito in the 90's. Similarly, a lot of the weird, sample-based music from the Amiga-era, from people like Chris Huelsbeck, Dave Wittaker and Rob Hubbard.
In recent years, from Japan I've really gotten into anything that Yoko Shimomura has done, and Michiru Yamane upended/revitalized some of the later Castlevania's music in the best way possible.
I will always go to Koichi Sugiyama's Dragon Quest music whenever I want to turn someone on to truly beautiful game compositions (chills), or just relax. Also Matt Uelmen's music for Diablo 2 and Torchlight games also veers toward more contemporary genre's, but is atmospheric, masterful and provides a really well-done alternative sound for what we usually get in interactive media.
Some super strange stuff that just sticks out as not belonging anywhere else: Katamari Damacy's OST, the VibRibbon soundtrack, the Neverhood soundtrack by Terry Taylor, the hidden gem that is the "Moon: Remix RPG Adventure" soundtrack (seriously a great one; check it out).
I have a lot of game music and it's my primary soundtrack while I work.

I don't care for the song at all, but I have always wanted throat-singing to work it's way into some more contemporary genres of music, and now it has!

It also seems that his schooling didn't cover the early history of the U.S. education system, or he'd quite likely have mentioned that at first almost all schooling was entirely practical and contemporary rants complained about that too.

Kids in the Hall sketches are also more thought provoking than SNL. SNL is more of a contemporary pop culture reference machine like Mad magazine and Family Guy.

The pop cultural references in KitH are to things of higher value like early cinema classics (Citizen Kane), Nietzsche, Morrison Hotel, surrealism, film noir; and with heavy pro LGBT, pro environmental (the beaver!) and anti corporate themes; displaying the frivolity of office politics, and the HARDCORE Canadian law enforcement.

What does SNL give but a couple'a chuckles, eh?

I nominate Predestination as a contemporary, really good (and slightly fucked up) time-travel movie.

Yeah, it has Ethan Hawke, which might turn some off. But is very, very good.

One of the best movies I've seen in a while.

Watch it cold. Don't read anything about it.

I swear I've seen a couple of these in my parents collection. They did the whole Christian Contemporary thing in the 70s and 80s.

Check out the roughly contemporary British civilian aeroplane the de Havilland Comet, too. I don't know of any link between the two, but they both feature engines much more set into the wings than U.S. designed aircraft, and both look much more futuristic than many later designs.

Honestly,when it comes to action I just go by what strikes me as cinematically interesting, and what I enjoy. There tends to be a lot of action and other genre stuff among my favourite films, mostly because I try not to draw any distinctions between so-called "serious" films, and genre stuff like action/horror/sci-fi. If a film works, it works. It takes just as much thought and craft to make a really good action film as it does to make a really good drama. More, possibly.

My problem with a lot of contemporary big blockbuster action filmmaking is the idea that bigger is ALWAYS better. Bigger effects, bigger explosions, and longer, more drawn out action set-pieces. Like, if I see one more film where the third act is entirely devoted to an enormous action set-piece where a city is rocked by a big, over-the-top battle, I'm going to jump out a window.

My other big problem with most contemporary action is the style of shooting/editing that dictates that you put the camera as close to the action as possible and then just ping pong from one split-second close-up of something happening to another. There's no real coherence, just a jumble of imagery and the hope that the viewer will be fooled into thinking they're watching something exciting.

I appreciate films like the Raid 2 or John Wick because they're clearly made by people who understand what makes a good action scene exciting. They're well paced, exciting, and they're just fun to watch.

Rand was certainly not a great writer (as is often the case with those who write novels in a language that isn't native to them). As such, there's no comparison between Rand's use of English and say, Dickens' (but you could probably say that about Dickens and almost anyone else, John Oliver included. And Harry Potter isn't much better than The Fountainhead! Or most popular fiction for that matter.)
I doubt most of Oliver's audience have read Crime and Punishment, or The Brothers Karamzov, or The Sound and the Fury. I doubt Oliver's fans are any more "intellectual" or well-read than Rand's, quite honestly.

But Rand didn't even believe in small government. Just limited government. She was certainly no anarchist. John Galt was, perhaps, but not Rand. (The character is not the author.) Both Murray Rothbard and Ayn Rand learned from Ludwig Von Mises, and they took what they learned in very different directions.

Yet, most of Oliver's audience probably haven't even read Rand and she's hardly that much of a contemporary topic worth talking about.. So why would Oliver (HBO) want to spend valuable broadcast time talking about her? She wouldn't be a "thing" if they chose to ignore it, and yet they aren't. Why? Might this bit be (the $beneficiary of those who are) uneasy with a potential Rand Paul presidential run, thus needing a straw man with which to link him with "libertarians" and Ayn Rand?

All this "OMG Rand!" going around, and yet her work continues to stick around long after she's gone.. And will likely remain so, given ^programs^ (and commenters) like this and their unwillingness to let it go.

I'll watch this in a bit but I just wanted to get some snippets off the Freedom Project Education site.

https://www.fpeusa.org/index.php/about-fpe/what-is-fpe

"Rooted firmly in Judeo-Christian values..." Completely made up after WW2 in order to establish that we were against the Holocaust even though we did little to help the Jews during WW2.

"At FPE we proudly refuse all government funding..." Yes we're all very proud of you.

"Public-school apologists have spent decades convincing parents that their children belong to the government schools. The results have been disastrous to education and undermine the primacy of parents." Because of de-funding pushed by Republicans which these people voted for.

"FPE is in no way influenced by teachers’ unions or answerable to the Department of Education, or state Departments of Public Instruction. We don’t indoctrinate students or promote a liberal agenda. And we don’t advocate for the removal of God from contemporary culture. We teach truth, rigor, and Christian values."

I can't wait to watch this, I'm sure it's a barrel of fun. Going through the courses I noticed there don't seem to be any art classes or theater. I guess that stuff is for hippies and faggots right?

As a Canadian of Asian descent, I just want to back up Colbert, here. If satire is "the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues," then I think he knocked this one out of the park. A lot of folks don't see "Redskins" as an offensive term because they grew up with it being everywhere; exaggerating and applying the same idea to the Asian population really highlights how ridiculous the name of this foundation is, but only because Western culture has only just recently started to agree that phrases like "Ching chong ding dong", "orientals" (unless you're Rob Ford), "gook", "slant", "chink", etc, are actually really offensive. If a pro sports team came up with the name "Vancouver Chinamen" or "Detroit Negroes" today (coupled with stereotypical logos) there would be a massive and immediate outrage. The only reason the Redskins have gotten away with their name is that the team was named long enough ago that the racial slur was widely acceptable to the non-First Nations public.

And really, this parallels racial awareness in North America; although racism is still very much a thing for people of all races, the First Nations population is still being outstandingly and horribly marginalized with very little support or attention being paid to them or their (still appallingly denied) rights. Here in Canada (in which we boast great racial and cultural diversity, the "cultural mixed salad" vs the US "melting pot"), we still haven't done anything to amend the fact that when we got here we took brutal advantage of a trusting and helpful culture, booted them out to the worst parts of the country and stranded them there.

I didn't notice that the video stated otherwise. So it's okay that women are portrayed poorly by the media, just because men are poorly portrayed as well? In my opinion, it's not okay to represent any person or group of people in a prejudiced and outdated way (within a serious and contemporary context).

@ messenger-The solution lies in a combination of radical reform of policy, and that can only happen if people stop following the programming of the people who pay for elections firstly. Then, you educate the hell out of people at a grass-roots level of just how deep the rabbit hole goes i.e., the insidious cabal of those who would profit from incarcerating more and more people to prop-up their money-making scam of larger and stronger law enforcement infrastructure, the inhumane prison industry which is billions of dollars annually. Profiteers who breed future criminals in prisons, and ghettos. It takes people actually giving a fuck about their society instead of thinking that they are safe ans secure with more police.

YOU ARE NOT

Police are made-up of dangerous, self-loathing and damaged individuals who are recruited for the sole purpose of building the infrastructure I described with protecting and serving very, very low on their not-so-hidden agenda.

The power-keepers and their fanatical putsch should be glaringly obvious to anyone with a TV, the internet, and an I.Q. above 100.

"They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."-Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac.

Heed the words of a brilliant statesman and thinker, and of similar, modern contemporaries.

I don't have much hope for it, I have expatriation written all over my forehead in big red letters. Hardly a place to go anymore, the entire world is jumping on board to the 'occupy everything with police and military' route.

Cops are criminals, plain and simple. Continue to believe to the contrary and watch how fast the shit gets non-linear.

Haven't watched the video yet, but... Have you ever watched contemporary Canadian films? You know, ones based in modern times?

We seem to produce two types of films. Excellent, factual, and interesting documentaries...

and semi-intellectual fap fuel that blurs the line between edgy art house celluloid and hardcore porn.

So... the whole "thinking about sex" thing?

@EvilDeathBee Gotz my X-Large Mocha sipping away... less than half the price of the new MacD's Cafe crap, don't want to say HOW much less than Starbucks...

Exactly.
It's a rather clever deconstruction of contemporary pop music trends.

In my opinion they outdid most of Lonely Island's efforts; skewered the industry without needing profanity or sex jokes.*

* i like profanity and sex jokes