Track of the Day: Creatures of the Night (Madison Mars Remix) – Hardwell

By 20-somethinglife | September 9, 2017

Madison Mars consistently puts out only high quality tunes and remixes. He just never misses. This remix of Hardwell’s original Creatures of the Night is the type of remix that could get someone who isn’t interested in electronic music to appreciate it and want more. The wobble slowdown is such a fun move and he uses it to perfection to build and release tension throughout the song.

Bonus Madison Mars track: A bit different from his Hardwell remix, this Madison Mars original is a more traditional electronic song but shows his true skill as a producer. I can’t wait until I hear this dropped live at a show because it will definitely get the crowd going. If you’re into EDM, definitely check this one out.

Track of the Day: You Might Be (GoldFish Remix) – Autograf

By 20-somethinglife | August 31, 2017

I can’t say that I have ever listened to a track by GoldFish before but this remix is a great place to start. A chill remix with a surprise sax at the end that adds a beautiful touch. Who doesn’t love a surprise sax? Check it out below.

Want more music? Listen to Ryse Radio Ep. 2

Game of Thones Season 7 Finale Predictions

By 20-somethinglife | August 26, 2017

Zombie. Ice. Dragon.

Will it breathe fire and melt the wall? Or be way more bad-ass and breathe ice. I mean, winter is coming, right?

Let’s first recap the predictions from last week and see how we did:

North of the Wall

Capture a wight? Yes. Anyone die? Yes, but Thoros and not Jorah which is way too predictable which I had hoped the episode wouldn’t be. But of course the dragons got there exactly when needed and saved the day. Did Uncle Benjen show up? Yep! Nailed it.

Winterfell

Did Arya and Sansa go at it? Yep. Did Bran step in? No, because what are you doing Bran? You know more than everyone and you’re just sitting back and chilling? You better redeem yourself in a big way. Just do something, anything.

King’s Landing + Euron + Sam & Gilly

No movement here so I technically wasn’t wrong about anything…

Dany

Yep, she took the dragons North and saved all of them…but lost Viserion. At least that solved the problem of not knowing who the third dragon rider would be.

Predictions for the Finale

From the “On the Season Finale of Game of Thrones” I really only see three environments or locations (with one taking the majority of the screen time) so those are the three I’ll cover below.

Winterfell

There are a few different ways to look at Sansa and Arya’s interaction from episode six. At face value and up until the very end of the final scene between the two, it seemed as though Arya was threatening Sansa and essentially saying she has all of the skills needed to take Sansa’s position from her and essentially be her by way of her Faceless Man skills. However, she hands the dagger to Sansa which to me is her saying “This is up to you…prove to me that you’re a loyal Stark”. She’s asking Sansa to kill Littlefinger with the same blade that was once used during Bran’s assassination attempt, which Littlefinger most likely helped orchestrate. (Side note: I heard Home Depot is starting to sell Chaos ladders…apparently they’re the most effective way of getting anywhere). Arya is also telling Sansa that she can be Littlefinger, when Sansa needs her to be. This would help Sansa immensely. Together, they could assassinate Littlefinger and then stage a wedding between Sansa and Arya in Littlefinger’s face. Sansa would then be the Lady of Winterfell as well as have some power over The Vale. By the end of the season, expect a dead Littlefinger and the Stark sisters making moves.

Dragonstone

This is only one shot of the quick teaser for the finale and it just looks like Theon walking out to the water. However, he’s shown about ten seconds earlier on a boat approaching King’s Landing with Tyrion and Varys, so I’m thinking not much will happen at Dragonstone in this episode other than the gang leaving to head to the capital. Theon – please redeem yourself just once for us. Prediction – Theon will be irrelevant.

King’s Landing

This is the big one. This will likely be 80% of the episode and with good reason. It’s the first time Jon Snow, Cersei, and Dany will all be on the same screen together. Cersei finds herself in a tough situation as King’s Landing will be mostly surrounded with the exception of the sea which Euron will control. But with two dragons overhead, how much damage could that fleet really do before they’re wiped out. She’ll be forced to negotiate but here’s the thing: Cersei is a psychopath. She’ll negotiate and play the game for as long as she must until she does something very messed up. Dany will try to strut her power and Jon will try to keep her in check, be the voice of reason, and undoubtedly do or say some dumb hero stuff. I don’t think there has been enough hinted at in previous episodes that Cersei would have anything major up her sleeves. Even if the Golden Company managed to circle around behind Dany’s troops, I still don’t think they would have enough men to take on both the Dothraki and the Unsullied in an open field. The scorpion weapons are effective, but I don’t think she would so blatantly use them and take out a dragon because we still need to see Jon and Dany riding them together.

I don’t think Jon will find out that he’s Dany’s newphew quite yet. Sam and Gilly are somewhere but I don’t think they would have left the Citadel to go to King’s Landing and the only other person who knows is Bran. Again, WHAT ARE YOU DOING BRAN?!?

So we’re left with a discussion on how who will fight the Knight King and how they’ll do it. I could absolutely see Cersei saying that she’ll agree to fight with Dany and Jon, given that they turn over Tyrion to her so she can enact her revenge. Dany, who has been wavering as of late on Tyrion’s allegiance, will seriously consider it but ultimately decide against it. This will leave Cersei to say that if they aren’t willing to sacrifice one of their men to the cause, why should see risk any of hers? Which leads to a “let’s fight for it” scenario which means CLEGANEBOWL. The Hound will win and Cersei will submit all the while planning her next crazy move which we’ll see next season.

Odds and Ends

One of the main complaints about last episode was about how fast things happened. Gendry got to The Wall in no time, a raven flew faster than possible, and the dragons could beat an F-1 fighter jet in a race. But let’s take a step back. We don’t know how long Jon & the crew were trapped on that island. It looked to me while watching that the army of the dead wasn’t waiting for the ice to freeze; they were waiting for the guys trapped on the island to freeze. Once the rock was thrown by The Hound (what an idiot! Just chill guy!), it was obvious that they were mostly waiting for the ice to freeze. But still, what was their rush? They had them outnumbered and surrounded. There’s also the potential theory that the Night King has greensight given his interactions with Bran and knew it would draw a dragon to him that he could snipe and use. So I think it’s fair to assume that those guys weren’t sitting there overnight, but were there for a few days. That’s why The Hound lost his patience. He wouldn’t have done that after a few hours, but after a few days of being surrounded, that’s when he would get frustrated. Additionally, no one complained with how fast Dany used to get around Essos and if you look at the official maps, it is much, much larger. At the end of the day, it’s a fantasy show first. Just because they didn’t film in that way initially, doesn’t mean that’s what it wasn’t all along.

The final shot of the season will be the Night King on undead Viserion flying over the wall and his army breaking through it. For sure. Count it.

Track of the Day: Getaway (feat. Jack Wilby) – Razz

By 20-somethinglife | August 17, 2017

I’ll be honest and admit I’ve never heard of Razz before but after listening to Getaway, I’d recommend following him. Old school EDM was focused on the instrumentals and in more recent years vocals have taken over. It’s a hard thing to blend the art of instrumentals with quality vocals and lyrics. It’s what separates the best artists from the pack. Razz shows that he’s able to do this well by having both a vocal track and a melody that play off each other well and keep the listener engaged. Take a listen below.

Jon Snow Tormund Thoros Beric Gendry Jorah and the hound north of the wall

Predictions for Episodes 6 & 7 of Game of Thrones Season 7

By 20-somethinglife | August 15, 2017

Game of Thrones Season 7, Ep. 6 & 7 Predictions

[Caution: Spoilers below. If you haven’t watched up to the end of episode 5, stop reading this and go watch. Right now.]

Much like episodes 1 & 2 of this season (with some exception scenes), episode 5 was all about re-setting the chess table that is Westeros for the final two episodes of the season. Below are some predictions of what may happen for you to consider. They’ll most likely all be wrong because this is Thrones and who ever really knows what will happen.

Jon Snow and the Crew/Avengers/Expendables/Suicide Squad north of The Wall

What a gang. These guys will probably accomplish their goal, in some form, of bringing back a wight down south of The Wall but will lose a few members along the way. I don’t see Thoros or Beric dying as they haven’t added enough to the story line quite yet and seem like the type of guys who could harness their God to keep them safe (i.e. the flaming sword you’ve seen since the first trailer of this season). The Hound still needs to participate in the Clegane bowl so he’ll most likely survive this. You can’t kill off Jon Snow again especially with the revelation coming that he’s actually the rightful Targaryen heir from Bran or Sam, if he ever stops being mopey and listens to what Gilly is laying out right in front of his eyes. Gendry being brought back in episode 5 after rowing his boat for 4 seasons means he’ll likely survive this encounter too, but if he goes, eh, who cares. So that leaves Tormund and Jorah. Tormund and Brienne still need to happen so I’m being optimistic that he’ll survive. So, I’m sorry Jorah, but you’re probably not going to survive this. It would be a tragedy for Dany to think that Jorah will succumb to Gray Scale, only to actually find a cure, only to die soon after sacrificing himself for the greater good (See! He really is a good guy Dany! He loves you!). So with that being the biggest tragedy, that means it’s most likely to happen. We’ll see all of this next episode for sure. Uncle Benjen is also still north of The Wall, so expect him to make a surprise appearance.

Winterfell

Littlefinger gonna Littlefinger. As always, an expert in misdirection and chaos ladder building. By planting the note from Sansa that she was forced to send by Cersei back to Robb and Catelyn in season one, Arya now has significant doubts in her mind about Sansa’s true intentions, which she already called out to her even before reading the note. Arya wasn’t with Robb or her mother when they read the note and realized that Cersei was forcing Sansa to write it so Arya has reason to think that Sansa is acting only in her own self interest. These two will most likely go at it but hopefully Bran will step in and tell them the truth because he can see everything. Of course, that would be too clean and logical, so expect for this to get messier than it is now which will force Arya to leave Winterfell and resume her quest, head to King’s Landing, and and try to cross Cersei off her list.

King’s Landing

Cersei could not be happier to have an army of dead dudes distracting her two enemies while she regroups and plans her next Sept of Baelor level move. A few things to unpack with her and Jaime. There’s a 50/50 shot she’s actually pregnant. She may be faking it to make sure that Jaime doesn’t betray her at all. She literally said “Don’t betray me again”. I’d venture that she actually is pregnant because while time is passing quickly now in the more recent seasons, as compared to season one when it took 3 episodes to get from Winterferll to King’s Landing, she wouldn’t be able to hide not being pregnant for long. This is important because of the prophecy she was given as a child which stated she’d become queen, her husband would have 20 kids, she’d only have 3, and then she’d be killed by her little brother. All of that is true so far with the exception of being killed by her little brother. Jaime and Tyrion fit this description by the way and it’s Thrones, so it’ll definitely be Jaime after she commits her next horrendous act or is about to. He’s killed off a monarch before; he’ll do it again. So while Jon and the Heartbreakers travel north, she’ll be figuring out a way to cripple Dany, most likely bringing Euron back into the arc or by bringing over The Golden Company. TGC are Essos mercenaries whom the Iron Bank will rent for her. Expect a big power move from her as soon as she sees an opportunity, particularly any chance she can get to take out a dragon or two.

Euron

This one is hard to call. He’ll most likely get another scene or two this season and I imagine it will be part of Cersei’s devious move at the end of this season. His strength is on ships and baiting Dany into a fight over the sea seems like suicide. Except, Qyburn and Cersei know the Scorpion bolts can penetrate a live dragon and Qyburn is a master of poisons. It would make sense for Euron to mount a few on his ships to try to engage Dany and take out the dragons. My prediction is that they’ll succeed once and take out one dragon, leaving only two left; one for Dany and one for Jon. He’s such a wildcard though, that this is a tough prediction to make.

Sam and Gilly + Bran

Sam knows that Bran knows shit. They’re each other’s best bet to figure out a way to effectively stop the army of the dead. So the always boring Sam with the newly boring Bran to have a scene where they figure it all out. Pretty straightforward.

Dany and Her Little Tykes/Children/FIRE-BREATHING MURDEROUS DRAGONS

She is all in on the Jon Snow train. She respects him and the show runners have clearly been trying to build a sexual tension between them. Good thing that the Targaryen’s are historically incestual! It’ll be very interesting to see how she reacts when she finds out that Jon is actually the rightful Targaryen heir. To clear up the background, this was essentially confirmed last episode by Gilly as the annulment of her brother Rhaegar’s marriage to Elia Martell so that he could marry Lyanna Stark makes Jon a legitimate child and not a bastard of any sort. She won’t likely find out until next season though as the word would have to get around really fast for her to find out by the end of this season. Dany is in an interesting position right now going into the last two episodes. She has always had a next move and a next place to go. Right now, she’s more or less waiting on Jon and The Machine to bring back a wight to King’s Landing. Hopefully she’s learned enough about Cersei now to keep on the defensive and prepare for what Cersei might throw at her, but I don’t think she’s there yet. So Dany will likely put a pause on her campaign on hold until Cersei makes her next big move, to which Dany will overreact and unleash the dragons. But maybe, just maybe, we’ll get really lucky and she’ll fly the dragons up north of The Wall and save Jon just in time, giving us a taste of Fire versus Ice before the final season.

Odds and Ends

Remember Ilyrio Mopatis? Him and Varys have been boys for a long time and he’s the one that helped to kick-start the story by getting Dany and Khal Drogo together. He was in a few episodes of season one and his house in Pentos is where Tyrion landed when he first escaped King’s Landing after his crossbow patricide. He’s still alive, has wealth, is connected to Varys, and supports the Targaryen claim. I doubt he’ll come back into play at all, but it would be interesting to see if, how, and when he does.

Theon better have some redemption. How was he not selected in the crew to go north of The Wall? He owes Jon at least that.

Here’s to hoping that Dany has actually been moving chess pieces of her own in the background and have moved Greyworm and the Unsullied into a position where they can catch Cersei off-guard. Don’t expect another love scene with Greyworm and Missandei just quite yet.

P.S. This was the easiest blog to write because it’s Thrones and no one can actually predict what happens. If I’m wrong, well of course I’m wrong. If I’m right I look like a genius. Win-win.