Attending: Poetry Slam

Ok so strictly speaking this happened on Friday but we've had a long weekend here and it's been nice moving away from the 'puter for a bit. (But it's ok baby, I'll never leave you again :)

Uh - anyways, the ANU Writers (group? kollective? liberation front?) puts on a poetry slam at the Front Cafe in Lyneham on the last Friday of every month - a night of open mic uni student poetry as well as a mixture of local bands.

My housemate's band Snowbug was playing and there's often some fairly decent poetry thrown into the mix (you still get your quota of the other as well but pretentious, overly personal/intellectualised guff read in earnest poet voice is all part of the entertainment really) so it was all a bit of a fait accompli.

The Front Cafe is a nice space, light and open with retro stylings, comfy couches and a gallery space - they also sell drinks now. (Although, they haven't quite gotten around to organising the key ingredients in a Gin & Tonic - uh gin and tonic). It's the kind of place that Canberra needs a lot more of - preferably with a big lush beer garden out the back.

The event itself has a really friendly vibe and is often a bit of a wall to wall crush of people - being a long weekend in Summer before uni is back though this one was a little more spacious which was nice.

I have to confess that I was one of those people that I've known myself to tut-tut about in my less easy-going moments at shows - I didn't make a big effort to catch the poetry this time around as it seemed that half the people I know in Canberra decided to turn up this time around (as well as some new friends) so it was nice to get some quality catching up and chatting time in. (At least I wasn't doing this in the performance room, so it's not like it was really rude).

The Snowbug sets were (obviously) a highlight though, the band appeared as a stripped back 3 piece this time around which suited their sound (offbeat loud keyboard-edged pop-rock) and banged out a range of songs to popular acclaim. This is one of their last shows in their current form - singer Tim Gummersall is UK-bound shortly - so it will be interesting to see where they go from here. (But just quietly, there is an outside chance I'll be hopping on stage in a backing vocals capacity sometime soon - stay tuned for details).

As I said earlier, I didn't hear a lot of the poetry although I did note one girl doing a pretty impressive line in Ani Di Francoesque hiphop delivery that I wish I'd heard a little more of. (My cynical ex thought it had something to do with the fact that she was quite cute but to that I say Tish Posh. )

One of the things I liked best about the night was the sense of being in a little hub of creative energy - in addition to everything that was happening on stage there were pockets of discussion all around, people talking about ideas and projects and teaming up - it was great.

And nary an Australian flag to be seen.

Finishing: Scarface: The World is Yours.

Ok, this is the last post on this topic for sure - honest.

So I finally get 100% completion of the game after driving around for an eternity, dodging gangs, delivering drugs, over and over and over and over, like a monkey with a miniature cymbal. (Sorry, I think I was briefly possessed by Hot Chip)

Do I get the aforementioned fireworks shooting out of the cd tray of the Xbox? Well, no, that probably was never going to happen. Are there onscreen fireworks? Some kind of triumphant fanfare? Flashing lights and colours? Again, no.

What I do get is plain white text, all capitals that says "You are Scarface".

I kid you not.

I can still "play" the game, drive around, do deals, kill gangs (which again, I though I had already done) and accumulating money. There are some changes. When I walk down the street I'm now accompanied by the six women from my mansion, all clad in black lingerie and according to the internets, they will defend me from bad guys.

The bank no longer charges me interest to launder my money and instead of being able to carry 3 types of weapon, I can now carry four.

But where I ask is the closure?

There was some reference at the end of the storyline missions to going to Bolivia. Maybe I need to have X amount of cash in the bank to be able to do this but frankly, I don't think I will. The game says it's 100% complete and that will do.

Time to spend hours at a time in slightly more constructive pursuits perhaps.

(Of course, I did also get the The Sopranos: Road to Respect game - maybe just five minutes of that... :)

Explaining : Neighbours

I enjoy watching Neighbours. I'm not even sure that this is on any kind of post-modern/GenX/ironic level either - there's just something about the show that reels me in.

Yes it's simplistic, yes it's whitebread, yes it's toned down for its 6.30 slot and yes, like all dramas (soap operas if you will), storylines move sometimes at a pace approaching continental drift.

Recognising all these things (which aren't unique to this programme and should be considered the price of admission to soap land), Neighbours is still a good show.

It's lightweight escapism for the modern age. In Ramsey St (incidentally - why is it called a street when it's clearly a court? - Pinoak Crt in Vermont Sth, Victoria - and I must say I like the fact that it's right near Billabong park).



Sorry, got sidetracked there. In Ramsey St, everyone knows each other and for the most part cares about each other as well. There is no terrorism, water is plentiful, the disadvantaged are taken care of and everyone with a job is treated well and paid fairly. If you don't have a job, you probably have some other kind of problem (eg alcoholism) which your family and friends will help you through.

There certainly aren't idiot politicians jumping up and down about the sanctity of the flag or the Maoists ruining education by teaching biased history. (And if they did, Susan would no doubt set them straight).

It was last night though that I really got my full appreciation of Neighbours - my housemate Tim had his girlfriend Steph over and in the course of bringing her up to speed on happenings and characters (most people have watched a bit of Neighbours at some point or another), I realised how funny and jam packed of soapy action the show actually is.

In the last six months or so we've had an evil twin (the other was in a coma), the hot girl with a dark past involving drugs, car stealing and what we hoped was hardcore porn (but was only FHM level) - who was also in a coma briefly, a Russian mail order bride (I love hearing the word "bogan" in a bad Russian accent), two brothers arguing which is the father of their girlfriends baby - and threatening to sue the doctor (Dr. Karl - old skool Neighbour) for malpractice, not to mention the evil twins' sister playing pranks (to drive him mad) on the guy who ran over the good twin (thinking it was the evil twin) while trying to save the hot girl.

Add to this mix a teenage goth girl who never listens to goth music, self mutilates, hangs out with other goths, watches vampire movies, writes bad poetry or does anything remotely gothlike beyond dress like one and the this-would-be-so-much-funnier-if-they-were-gay odd couple comic moments between Harold and Lou (old skool Neighbours) as well as Paul Robinson (Neighbours very old skool) returning and dumping his wife on their wedding night and you have dramatic gold.

Other things I like about Neighbours are the writing - it's usually tucked away, almost subversively, but every once in a while, there is a line that beautifully takes the piss out of the whole suburban dream or the construct of soapies or some other aspect of Neighbourilia and makes me think that there are some very cool people writing for this show. Yes, they have a tight formula that they work within but this is where the creative types really get to shine. (I noticed that a one off character late last year was named Bob Mould - the lead singer of alternaRock band Husker Du)

I must confess that I also like the Melbourne feel of the show - I've been in Canberra for 5 years now and have no plans to return to Melbourne in the immediate future but I guess it will always be "home" in some way. When compared to the very Sydney styled Home and Away (which I should admit I really never watch beyond what I might catch for a minute or so while flicking around during ad breaks), even the look of the programme is quite different.

I can't tell exactly but Home and Away looks like it's been shot on some glossier higher definition digital system while Neighbours still has that slightly older, warmer Betacam feel. (I'm sure Neighbours uses digital as well now, it just seems a little softer - but in the right way).

Home and Away has always seemed to use more dramatic lighting as well - for years Neighbours sets were illuminated by what is known in the industry as wank-banks - massive ceilings full of fluoro-like lights that washed the whole set in soft light, killing all shadows - but of late, there seems to have been a shift in this approach, introducing a little more contrast.
(Ever seen a ceiling in a soap opera?)

Anyway, there you have it, my love of Neighbours in a nutshell. Putting aside the fact that Erinsborough is one of the whitest neighbourhoods I have ever seen (token ethnic families have lived in Ramsay St but they never stay long), Ramsay St is just a nice place to visit for half an hour on weekdays.

If you want to get up to speed on happenings in the neighbourhood, you might like to check out The Spin Starts Here - they do a weekly Neighbours wrapup (with a healthy dose of humour). Enjoy.

(Some of the other stuff on that site is a bit patchy and web-cliquish but the wrapup is a highlight)

Actually, before I go, I should mention that I also really like the Howard Arkley inspired opening titles of the show - this is what the NGV has to say about him.

Simultaneously serene and edgy, Arkley’s work creates an intriguing tension between the inherent beauty of suburbia and its darker more menacing side.

Neighbours on the other hand, has taken the style and removed the menace - but you can't help feel that behind the selection of this style there was again just a little subversion.



So there you go.

Alright, one more thing - here's an interview with the supervising story editor from a Neighbours fan site.

Writing: Boonsville

(For those who came in late...)

Four hundred weeks ago a washed up man in a remote Richmond sharehouse, sole survivor of a call centre, was rescued by friendly pygmies. (ok, they weren't that short).

He swore on the skull of George Romero "to devote my life to the creation of piracy, comedy and horror.... My sons shall follow me." His sons, and their sons, will follow -- and will be thought to be the same man . . . immortal. "The Ghost Who Walks," the "Man Who Cannot Die." Now the 1st Phantom, nemesis of mediocrity everywhere . . . he writes alone.

(And apologies to those who aren't as familiar with The Phantom as I am :))
(If you're not, here's an interesting article about Phantom history - particularly from an Indian viewpoint.)

Anyway, just when I was trying to make an effort to make these posts more reader friendly and put the gist of the story in the first paragraph. (Actually, strictly speaking I did, in my own way).

(But while I'm side-tracking, I might just give a little cheer on reaching 50 posts in this blog - huzzah)

Ok, back now.

Anyway, 8 or 9 (maybe 10) years ago I started to try some serious writing on a film script that had been buzzing around my head for a little while. It's a zombie film (at which point let it be recorded that the readership decided that they really needed to get on with work stuff) which tries to follow in the Romero tradition of infusing a healthy dollop of humour and pointed social commentary.

So without giving too much away, we have a story with evil corporations, feisty leftwing community radio dj's (the radio stuff in the story came long before I ever got into community radio), meathead bogans, technohippies, psycho religious fundamentalists and the war on terror.

Anyway, after a productive burst of writing, the first draft was labouriously born from the (every analogy I can think of here is very wrong) of the worlds slowest printer.

And there it sat. I've shown it around, scribbled on it, jotted down ideas, changes, lines of dialogue that have occurred to me in the intervening years but as yet there is no draft two.

Hopefully though, this is about to change. After a productive screenwriting short course run by AFTRS last year, I got back on the horse and have been fleshing out my characters. I found a really interesting character questionnaire online which forces you to think about every nuance of your character and their life and history. This has also been good in terms of working out what happens to them in the story.

I took a small writers retreat to the coast last year, just me in a house with notepads galore (I like to write in pencil - as a left hander it's less messy and the sound of the pencil on the paper is more appealing) and I started to nut out the main characters.

And to bring you up to date - pretty pointless trying to do too much over Christmas, got stuck into typing these up last night. The typing process is interesting as there isn't as much creative pressure but it still allows for tweaks and tightenings and changes if needed.

So Sharyn, the surprising heroine of the story, is much more formed now than ever before. She's more corporate and snobby - name is pronounced Shah Ryn, or Shah for short - where it used to be Cheryl. She has a phobia about being stabbed by junkies with HIV needles and she loves Rove live. Not necessarily details that will come out but helpful nonetheless.

Stay tuned.

Cringing about : Big Day Out / Australian Flag Kerfuffle

Moves to discourage patrons from bringing Australian flags to the Big Day Out (Australia's largest music festival)in Sydney sparked ugly displays of outrage from politicians and other morons across the media and web.

Fortunately there were still some voices of reason - I recommend checking out these columns in particular: Noise Pollution by Clem Bastow in The Age and The Daily Truth with Jack Marx in the Sydney Morning Herald.

(And this is an image I borrowed from Clem's column :)


Here are a few choice quotes from the two. Clem first:

I have many fond memories of my various Big Days Out: sooky Goths stomping around in the heat as their make-up melts in the lead up to Nine Inch Nails; disgusting sauce-covered Dagwood Dogs and loads of Hare Krishna nosh falling off pitifully inadequate environmentally-friendly plates; Frenzal Rhomb's gleeful destruction of comedy effigies of politicians; singing The Darkness' I Believe In A Thing Called Love with Andrew G in a brief moment of televisual infamy; and, of course, the music.

You'll note that not one of those happy reminiscences included "Being given a spray by brick-headed tools insisting I 'kiss the flag!' or face the consequences."

Certainly my stance on the BDO has changed through the years; where I would've once studied the line-up intently, highlighting favoured acts and noting possible clashes with blue biro, more recent line-ups have been average and the day more a chance to hang loose, drink, and catch up with mates - oh yeah, with music in the background - and I don't think I'm alone.

As such, the crowd becomes less populated with various gaggles of die-hard fans and more a generalised scrum looking to party. The "good old days" of packs of roaming fairies, frog-people, colour-coded pals and sombrero-wearing nongs have gradually been replaced by beer hats, shorts, flags and thongs. Who wears thongs to a festival, anyway? Someone who doesn't think it's an epic day of music appreciation and is just there to have "fun" in the sun, clearly.

And when "fun" means drinking to excess, punching-on, groping women and intimidating just about everyone, the real motivation for attending the Big Day Out - MUSIC - becomes irrelevant. And if music is irrelevant to your day, well, I suppose you may as well wave a flag, given that for all intents and purposes you are not at a music festival.

So, it's dickheads that are the problem, and if the Australian flag makes them easier to spot - and weed out - I'm all for discouraging its use. After all, Lees and West have a duty of care when it comes to BDO patrons, and if they reckon discouraging Our Flag's use means I'm less likely to be punched in the face by a drongo with delusions of patriotism, then I thank them.

and now here's Jack:

Traditionally, politicians aren't known for harmony, which is why it's notable that there's a "chorus of disapproval" from John Howard, the RSL and assorted trumpeters for the opposition, all belting out a tune against Ken West's discouraging punters flying flags at the Big Day Out.

They say the Australian flag should be allowed at concerts, though I suspect they're only referring to the sorts of concerts politicians don't attend - somehow I don't think I'll be allowed to wave one at the Opera House, particularly if the Prime Minister's in the seat behind me.

The New South Wales premier says a flag "ought not to be used to be making political points", which is not only a trifle ridiculous of him, but utterly hypocritical.

Discussion has been heated - the comments sections under both of these posts have been unsurprisingly supportive of the bloggers - the fun sections have been on the discussion boards on the Herald Sun (right-wing Murdoch owned newspaper in Melbourne) and it's also been interesting getting an international perspective on things from Digg.com.

(Damn, can't find the comments on the Herald Sun site any more)

For what it's worth, I was at the Australia Day Sydney Big Day Out last year and the mood was ugly. The Australian flag was being used as a clear sign of "whiteness" and was draped all over aggressive obnoxious drunken young men and women all over the place. If people weren't wearing it as capes, it was temporary tattoos on cheeks and arms.

In addition to the story of the guy being bashed for refusing to kiss the flag, I know of another girl who felt a similar level of discomfort with the vibe, went off and bought an Aboriginal flag badge with the word sorry on it and was promptly surrounded by a group of these people chanting Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi at her.

Nobody needs a flag at a music festival - what are they going to do, barrack for Australian bands?

If you want to look at it from a truly conservative perspective (outflank Howard and the other dickheads - Rudd and Iemma included), the use of the Australian flag in the way that these people have chosen to do so (as a fashion accessory) is actually quite disrespectful to the flag. Dragging the flag along the ground is one of the worst things you can do. (Personally I'm not so precious and think that it's ultimately just a bit of fabric but if these people want to make a fuss about it, they should do it right).

There is even government policy about the proper handling of the flag -

Australian Flag Protocol: 'The Australian National Flag should be displayed only in a manner befitting the national emblem. It should not be subjected to indignity... It should always be flown aloft and free and should not be allowed to fall or lie upon the ground. When the Australian National Flag is raised or lowered, or when it is carried past in a parade or review, all present should face the Flag, men should remove their hats and all should remain silent. Those in uniform should salute.' (http://www.australianflag.org.au/protocol.php)

From a purely political perspective, I can see the reasons for Kevin Rudd to come down on Howard's side - John Howard is a master of wedge politics, inflating unimportant but highly emotional issues to a point where it's almost impossible to express an opposing/sensible view without being shouted down. Flag stuff is always a wedge issue and Kruddy would know that. (I'm just glad Julia Gillard didn't do the same).

All in all, another day in Howard's Australia. (I just hope things don't get ugly on Thursday).

(Update) - Something else that has just occurred to me is the economic hypocrisy in this fuss from our Prime Minister. John Howard is a dyed in the wool free-marketeer - taking the position that the market works things out and that as long as business follows the letter of the law, they should be allowed to behave as they wish. If people disagree with the way a business behaves, they are entitled to take their business elsewhere.

Following this logic, he could perhaps advise people not to go to the Big Day Out but he can't suddenly tell them what policies to impose on their customers.

I'd like to see Lees and West take a stand, declare an outright ban on flags and make all patrons wear a burqa or something similar. (Maybe a "Sorry" tshirt with an Aboriginal flag).

Whinging about : Scarface : The world is yours

Ok, so this is the last one (unless something amazing happens if/when I get 100% completion in this game - but I'm talking actual fireworks shooting out of the cd tray of the XBOX kind of thing, which at this point I feel like I deserve)

So as you may have guessed, I'm still hanging on with my Scarface game on the xbox - well past the point where any sensible and less ridiculously stubborn person would have said "to hell with it", I find myself still driving around, dealing drugs, buying stupid things I don't need and killing gangs.

Actually, technically speaking, I shouldn't need to kill gangs anymore and this is the subject of my (hopefully brief) whinge today.

I mentioned in a previous post that there is a stats screen that shows you in absurd detail everything that you have done in the game and the things that you have not yet done as well. A big part of this is removing all the enemy gangs from your four territories. All up I think there are something like 70 of the bastards and when you are out and about doing your big drug distribution missions, they make life hard, chase you, try to kill you and attack the front businesses that you are attempting to take the drugs to in the first place.

Ok, so that's the cost of doing business. Anyway, yesterday I finally cleared out the final gang - beauty, I thought. I should be able to jump in my slowest, most rickety 1920's car and cruise from front business to front business at my own pace, mindful not to run over too many pedestrians and attract the police and off I go.

Yet mysteriously, the city was again full of rival gangs. Trashing my jewellry shop, my clubs, the cigar shop and the pawn shop and raising merry hell on my antique car into the process.

For a game that is all about "the American dream" - working hard (or being ruthless) and earning the rewards - where is my reward?

I can see from a game developer's point of view that they might worry that people would get bored if things got too easy but why not simply ramp up the police vigilance? I mean, here's me, good Miami entrepreneur and employer to hundreds of people, making the streets safe from gang warfare and what do I get? Nothing. (Ok, aside from big slabs of cash).

(I'm a little worried at this point that I'm getting into this character's headspace just a tad much here :)

Brown Couch - Ultrahuge

Brilliantly written and acted by our main two female stars, Ruth Carroll and Tania Watson, this was just a matter of turn the camera on and let them go.

Brown Couch - Couch Crisis

A simple gag but we're like that :)

Brown Couch - Rent Day

The Brown Couch team was lucky enough to have some talented musicians (Sean Barley, Chris Magor, Tony Sawry,) who played in a swag of Melbourne bands including Mullgrinder, Beanflipper and Stoney Creek Backwash in addition to doing other musical/techno/stunt/etc projects and when it all came together it sounded pretty impressive.

Again, technology limited us to SVHS and 4 track mixers and there wasn't time to work on a proper video so it was a matter of scavenging existing footage but all things considered, it worked out ok.

Working on : Brown Couch episode 3

For some reason I had it in my mind that Brown Couch episode 3 was a big pile of alternate clips and an unholy mess waiting for me to make some sense of, so when I finally got on with the job, it was fantastic to see that the whole 22 min show was broken up into 4 clips, all taken from the edit master. (Excuse the jargon - the edit master is the final tape of the show that was broadcast and given that this was all in SVHS - a step about standard VHS - and video technology has moved on somewhat since then, it's good to not have to use second or third generation copies).

Anyways, this is our take on the lifestyle genre - which was just in it's early days at the time but it has always begged to have the piss taken out of it. The recycled toilet paper gag I saw on one of the late night comedy shows fairly soon after - some say it was Vizard but I think it might have been Denton. Nice to see that our ideas were sound - ok, some of them.

There are three more to come.

Feeling: the heat.

Warm day today - apparently up to 36C but feeling warmer.

Creating: My first mashup

Ok, this is very rough but it was fun. I've had the mashup word Vanilla Ice Cream in the back of my mind for a few days now and this is the result. Vanilla Ice's song Ice Ice Baby vs Cream's Sunshine of your love - otherwise known as Sunshine of your icecream baby.

(This lives on my seldom visited Vox site - haven't figured out where else to host stuff yet)


http://col.vox.com/library/post/mashup.html

Browsing: Guitar tab sites.

Ever since I got my first (acoustic) guitar in my early teens, I've primarily strummed or picked away at three tunes I learnt in a guitar course at the Gisborne community centre. Greensleeves, some classical piece played with two fingers on the bottom (physically) three strings and The House of the Rising Sun.

Since then I've added a 12 bar blues riff to my repertoire and have picked up Guitar for dummies and a bunch of other books purporting to teach me how to go further - but at the moment my dreams of rockstardom are sadly unfulfilled.

So I thought I'd try something new - learning songs that I actually like. (Not that I dislike the others but you know what I mean).

Now if you wander about the web (and play guitar), you may be aware that there are sites where other guitar players have patiently sat down with their favourite songs and kind of reverse engineered them, figuring out chords and riffs and such and writing them down in a special notation called tablature.

Tablature is cool because it's music for people who can't read notes. This is what it looks like. (Click to enlarge)



As you can see, it represents the six strings on the guitar and the numbers show you the frets that you need to hold down. So theoretically, if you play according to the tablature, it should sound just like the song.

You can also find songs that just have the chords on these sites, which is closer to where I am but it's nice to know that when I'm ready, I can start learning the riffs as well.



Ok, great right? A community resource for guitarists, people sharing their knowledge and skills to help other people learn new things. No-one is sharing files created by someone else, people are regularly inspired to go out and buy new music so they have something to play along to and they play to more people who are likely to discover music that they haven't heard before (and presumably go out and buy that as well).

Everybody wins and nobody spoils the party.

Well nearly nobody.

In recent years, publishers of sheet music have been flexing their corporate muscle and issuing "take-down letters" under the US DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) to the websites hosting these guitar tabs and chords. One of the most well-known of these, the Online Guitar Archive is still down although they do have a copy of their takedown letter up on the site for your perusal.

Apparently cutting into the sales of sheet music is far more important than having millions of people learn a constructive and creative skill. Let's not get into how accurate the tablature pages are, whether someone has thrown in their own flourishes and particularly how the artists feel about having people learn how to play their songs and buy their music, these are obviously trivialities compared to the needs of the sheet music industry .



Obviously, this isn't the first time that this kind of behaviour has been seen from the music business. I read that with the introduction of radio, manufacturers of piano rolls had a fit about the free distribution of their intellectual property and often banned the stations from playing their artists. This, not surprisingly, didn't last long, as musicians aren't morons.

Fortunately, the internet being what it is, the moment the sheet music publishers shut down one site, ten more spring into it's place, so it's a bit of a non-issue in some ways but it's still interesting to see the depths to which big business needs to control everything, even the music.

(I don't have any particular favourite guitar tab sites, I generally just google whatever I'm looking for but you might like to check this site out - this guy has most impressively put together a list of his 500 favourite guitar riffs, with accompanying YouTube videos and tablatures - http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2278011

(Still) Playing: Scarface: The World is Yours

(I think that heading needs some more colons, but let's press on regardless)

I guess the fault exists with me but even though I've finished the storyline part of the game (to my knowledge), I find myself still trudging through the remaining missions - wipe out opposition gangs and acquire property - in Scarface: TWIY, working towards 100% completion of the game.

Larger games these days (particularly in the sandpit-game genre) have honking big stats sections which tell you everything from how long you have been playing the game (never something you really should know) to how far you have travelled using different forms of transport, from how many people you have shot in the left kidney (I kidney you not) to how many conversations you have had with in-game characters and the all important one - how much of the game you have finished.

I'm currently sitting on around 85% at the moment - which considering that I've taken over the four quarters of Miami and killed all the gang bosses that tried to bring me down (not to mention won over half a dozen scantily clad babes at my mansion) - doesn't quite seem enough. As I say though, there are still 20 or 30 gang cells to get rid of and a bunch of things to buy - including an authentic astronaut suit, an Easter Island head and an investment company.

Getting to this point is sheer slog though - and yes, I'm aware of the irony of considering any activity where you spend hours watching telly in a recliner rocker "slog" - I've currently got little money and the meters that tell me how much "heat" I have from the cops and the gangs are way up. This means that any time I try to do a major drug deal or kill a gang, the gangs and the cops (respectively) are all over me, the major drug dealers won't do me good deals and the bank screws me in interest rates for money laundering.

I tell you, sometimes you wonder how drug barons get out of bed in the morning.

So why bother? Who cares? If it's more like hard work now than fun, why don't you just put down the controller and - oh I don't know - get a life?

And here's the thing - my theory is that most of the pleasure that we get from games is the sense of achievement and power we get living in our virtual world. In the game world, you do the things you can't and wouldn't in the real world. (Which all those anti-game people still don't seem to get). Progress is marked increment by increment, giving you constant reinforcement that even if you don't have a lot of influence over the events in reality, everything you do in the game "matters".

When you a playing socially, this is further enhanced. Interestingly, not everyone even needs to be playing for gaming to be social - watching someone else playing through missions can be just as entertaining as sitting watching a movie and oftentimes moreso. Finding the balance between letting someone make their own mistakes and work things out and "helping them" is a fine art.

So why is 100% important? I think it's to do with the relationship you have established with the game over the course of the 40-50 hours it takes to play a standard game. To have gotten to the end of the storyline, the game has to have engaged you enough that you don't just put down the controller disappointedly saying "Well that's really a very average game". It's taught you how to use it, it's given you better and better treats as it has gotten harder and harder, it's drawn you in to the world you are playing in.

It's frustrated you, baffled you, driven you nuts when stupid civilian cars inexplicably turn suddenly in front of you, it's made you laugh when out of the blue, swimming in the ocean after your boat has blown up you are eaten by a shark and it has made you keep coming back for more.

So you get to the end of the story, you've vanquished the villains, the world is yours, you've beaten the game BUT sitting there in one line on the statistics page is a small taunt. "Yeah sure, maybe you think you won but *ahem* - look at the scoreboard. I say you haven't"

And damn it, you know that you aren't going to be beaten by a piece of software.

So on we trudge.

(Don't get me wrong, I'm still very much enjoying hooning along Miami streets in my range of sports and muscle cars, powersliding around corners and whatnot, I just think I'm ready to settle down into druglord retirement)

Blogged with Flock

Listening to : Lush - Ciao!

As I was riding to work this morning, pondering what to ramble about today, I was thinking that it would be a good time to do an overview of one of my top five bands, The Devastations. I mean, they've only released two albums so far (the first acclaimed by Karen O as her favourite of the year) and I've seen them live so there's plenty to talk about without being too much.

Yet while I was thinking about this, a song was buzzing around my head that has seemingly been on repeat for a few days now - Ciao! by Lush. (Listen to a preview here)

Opening with a stripped back acoustic guitar leading into what I think is some kind of French sounding accordion (which actually works - doesn't get annoying or anything :), it then launches into one of the finest duets ever.

Jarvis Cocker (in his mid-90s Different Class era Pulp finest) joins Lush singer Miki Berenyi in this biting jangle-pop back-and-forth sledge fest between two former lovers singing to each other about how much better off they are since they got rid of each other. (Quite therapeutic really). The beat is lively, the voices both great and Jarvis does one of his trademark low-talking spoken choruses in the middle.

The rest of the album that this comes from (Lovelife) is really worth a listen as well - this track (Ladykiller) is certainly another highlight.



This isn't something I would normally do but I really am taken with Ciao! at the moment, so here are the lyrics
(thanks to http://www.curve.demon.co.uk/lush/lyrics/ciao.html

Together:
I've been so happy since I walked away
I never thought that I could
Feel as great as I do today
'Cause you were nothing but a big mistake
And life is wonderful, now that I'm rid of you

Jarvis:
Oh I must've been crazy to have stayed with you
I can't believe I thought I was in love with you
But now the scales have fallen I can really see
And I say go to hell, 'cause that's where you took me

Miki:
Well, I've felt better since I slammed that door
You always cramped my style, I never noticed before
It's been a non-stop party since I flew the coop
I can't believe I fell for such a loser like you

Jarvis:
And is it any wonder that I felt so blue
When I was always having to put up with you

Miki:
Oh, here we go again, just lay the blame on me
Don't say another word, 'cause sweetheart, you're history

[Jarvis:]
[I bet you're loving every minute of it]
[Sitting in yer kitchen eating meagre meals with the curtains closed]
[Go on, be a bedsit martyr babe]
[I don't give a damn anyway]

Miki:
I know that you miss me really, bet you wish that you still had me
You'll never find someone like me but I've got no regrets at all

Jarvis:
'Cause I've met this girl and she's so good to me
She's really beautiful, fantastic company
Oh, when I'm with her I realise what love can be
'Cause she's fifty times the person you will ever be

Miki:
Good luck, mister, do you think I care?
Since you've been gone the offers have been everywhere
I've got a million guys just lining up for me
I've turned a corner, boy, my life is ecstasy

Together:
Well, I've been in heaven since I walked away
I never thought that I could feel as great as I do today
'Cause you were nothing but a waste of space
And life is wonderful, now that I'm over you

(Author: M. Berenyi)

(And yes, I will come back to the Devastations at another time)

(Oh and big big thanks to Jo for putting me onto this - as ever, you RAWK! :)

Using : Bloglines

I'm a compulsive reader - if something is lying about (junkmail catalogue, magazines, pamphlets, boxes), I'll most likely pick it up and take a look.

This makes the internet a dangerous place for me - it's all to easy to skip from site to site to site, reading whatever new tidbits they have for me (I have around 50 websites, blogs and cartoons that I check out regularly) until I come back to the first one (which by this time has updated) and start all over again.

This is where a site (service?) such as Bloglines comes in very handy.

Bloglines is what is called a feed-reader - it allows you to nominate a list of websites/blogs/etc that you want to keep track of, checks them all regularly for updated content and displays a summary of the story that allows you to click through to the original.



It's not the only tool that does this - any good web browser will have what they call an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) reader which does exactly the same thing. (Firefox, Flock, Opera - even Internet Explorer 7 has a try). Bloglines has a nice interface though and unless you use a portable browser (one that you run from a USB drive), it's the best way to access all of your feeds at once.



If you see a symbol like this one anywhere on a webpage (or the letters RSS - generally in an orange box), it means that content on that page can be gathered by a feed reader.

Setting it up (it's free) is just a matter of going to http://www.bloglines.com and creating an account. There is a directory of sites/rss-feeds that people have already subscribed to (still all free, don't let the language fool you) that you can choose from or you can just add your own.

There is probably much deeper functionality that I've just completely ignored (I think you can share your subscribed lists for one) but it's really just a matter of getting the use from it that you need.

Happy surfing and feel free to give me a hoy if you run into trouble or have any suggestions or comments.

cheers

Feeling : better

thanks.

Feeling: unwell

Stupid stomach.

Creating: Cho

Chomsky meets Che

Philosophising: Mistakes

It's still better to regret the things that you have done than the things that you haven't.

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