Browsing Category
Archive

Tourgasm alumni Robert Kelly is a funny man with some interesting takes on everyday habits, the very funniest of which deals with tube socks and the constant need to wear them, naked, in bed. It’s these little visual flairs that add so much to Kelly’s work on his debut album, Just the Tip from Comedy Central Records.

The album is about 50 minutes of descriptions about life, the universe, and everything from Kelly whose style seems like a manic Dane Cook constantly yelling to get his point across, and all over the place as far as content goes. The central theme to the album is the fact that he loves his life, but that married life, and the things that happen in it, are just ludicrous. His humor centers mainly on the guys for a good portion of the disc, with concerns like how to take a pee with the different states of the penis and his ultimate defiance for colorful poems from his wife about sprinkling on the seat is almost worth the price of admission alone.

One of the portly Kelly’s biggest weaknesses is food, and this is where a good chuck of his humor comes from constantly lambasting himself for being overweight and 3AM freak-outs about lost cupcakes in the trash. Like other plus sized comedians, mainly Kevin James in The King of Queens, the big guys can get all the laughs when making fun of themselves.

The disc has its gross out moments, such as “Nickelodeon Award“; which almost has you cringing in disbelief that someone would actually think this stuff up as well as its sweet and sentimental ones, well as sweet as you can get in the namesake track “Just the Tip“;. Other highlights include “Dude with a Sword,”; “She Knows Nothing About my Penis,”; and my personal favorite “Restaurants.”;

Some topics don’t work as well as others including “Punching Butter“; and the tired bit on Vegas and its all-too-familiar slogan. But more often than not Kelly hits his mark, and when he doesn’t his presentation is what brings even a dead joke back to life with a little flair.

Kelly’s material is nothing dramatically new or explosive, but he does a great job of bringing it to the stage with enough style, emphasis, and oomph that you’ll be laughing along with the live studio audience. Included with the disc is a DVD featuring a documentary so for the MSRP you’re getting a great package with enough material that you’ll be coming back to for a few selected bits time and time again.

Back in the late 1990’s and early portions of this decade all the cool kids had CD players and 64MB MP3 players in high school. One of the inventions of the time was the neckband headphone, with some of the first being released by Sony and quickly picked up on campus by the elite few who could afford them. They were a showcase that you knew how to look good, and keep a neat head of hair while rocking out to Third Eye Blind or Dave Matthews. Today the neckband headset has fallen by the wayside to pave the way for inexpensive and unimposing earbuds ushered in by the Apple-era of MP3 players. Still neckbands are being released, and in the gaming scene they make a comeback with the SteelSeries Siberia Neckband, albeit to some mixed results.

The feature set of the Siberia Neckband is just as rich as all the other entries in the niche manufactures collection. These assets include solid construction, detectable volume control, expanded use for home and gaming, as well as a great sound from the ear cups themselves and the retractable microphone. The previous Siberia model lacked the latter option, instead opting for more functionality as a MP3 accessory with a external mic.

The two biggest options with any headset is sound, and comfort, one of which the Siberia Neckband keeps up the proud tradition of the SteelSeries line, the other, seems a bit off from previous offerings. First the good, the Neckband sounds just as good as its big brothers with deep bass and crisp audio clarity in our standard bevy of tests including gaming (Audiosurf, World of WarCraft, and Portal) and music (both direct from a PC and using a Apple 5G iPod). You can never really complain about SteelSeries and audio quality, their audio processing capabilities of their entire line of headphones is second to none.

However the comfort of this device is the one area where it is lacking and this is a direct effect of the choice in neckband style over the traditional over the head band. While the Siberia Neckband isn’t big, bulky, or particularly heavy, the headset does tend to slip, quite a bit if you’ve been perspiring. As the headphones drift down, and the neckband itself tends to angle downward, the added pressure on the top of the ears can cause some discomfort after extended playtimes. While this can easily be altered by taking frequent breaks (as you should do anyway) sometimes Shattered Halls won’t run itself and you’ll need a marathon session.

The rest of the features are great including Xbox 360 support which just puts icing on the cake (cake which isn’t a lie of course). The 360 adapter plugs into the micro jack on the bottom of your controller, then the included extension cable can be used to plug the output sound (the ear cups) directly into your receiver while allowing your mic output to pass through the console and onto the game you are playing over Live. The retractable mic also makes it easy to stow the unit when not being used, or easily pull it out for the latest Call of Duty 4 match when your buddy comes online. This is easily one of the shinning points for the unit.

As far as construction goes, it’s up to SteelSeries aforementioned solid quality. The headphones don’t feel hollow, the neckband itself stretches to fit just about anyone’s size head, and the spring mechanism distributes the same amount of force no matter the size of your noggin, big or small. The elegant white color matches with both iPods and your Xbox 360, so if color coordination is your thing, consider yourself set.

If you’re able to get past the shortcomings in the comfort of the headset you’ll find that the Siberia Neckband proudly carries on the tradition set down by SteelSeries of producing a great array of units specifically tailored to the gamer. Maybe with some modifications a v2 could eliminate the slipping problem and craft the second coming of the neckband where users are free to once again rock out, without messing up that wonderful head of hair.