Journey: Entertainment or Art?

 

Are video games a form of art?

 

I’ve seen that question raised more and more over the last few years as games begin to blur that line between art and entertainment and it can be hard to convince people that they are. So to most non-gamers, even the ones who are the least judgemental, video games are seen as a worthless distraction or a waste of time at best. I suppose the problem is that games have to be experienced in order for their value to be recognized or understood and most people do not see the benefit of taking the time to do that.

 

However, every once in a while something comes across that is so amazingly unique, it renders the argument moot. This time around, that something is Journey designed by That Game Company, the studio responsible for other PSN exclusive titles such as Flow and Flower.

 

Perhaps the most impressive thing about this game is that no words can possibly explain the feelings that Journey conveys. I can’t describe what Journey is; it simply must be experienced in order to be understood.

 

Perhaps its charm lies in its refreshing simplicity. Or maybe it’s Journey’s amazingly heartfelt story which is presented to the player without a single word of dialogue being uttered. It could be the gorgeous landscapes that seem to stretch on infinitely. Or possibly it’s the incredible score which manages to induce the proper emotions at precisely the right times. I’d like to think that it’s a combination of these attributes which are blended in just the right way that they transcend the game beyond merely playing it.

 

 

You begin your Journey as a lone humanoid wanderer in a vast desert. Cloaked in red, you are given no background, no instructions (save for a quick wireframe indicating how to move) and most of all no direction. Atop a lone dune off in the distance is a small thin stone sticking out of the ground. You make towards the top and as you crest the hill you see it… the mountain. Simultaneously foreboding and awe-inspiring with a shaft of pure white light emanating from its peak; somehow you just know, that mountaintop is your destination.

 

Your travels take you through the endless seas of dunes and sand, through ruined city remains of what was once an expansive and mighty civilization. From deep, dry dungeons (that feel oddly like they’re underwater even though they’re not), to frigid snow-covered mountainsides. Along the way you are told the hauntingly sad story of what happened to this world you now traverse as you learn the fate of its previous inhabitants.

 

 

I won’t go into specifics about game play or mechanics because to a game like this, they simply don’t matter all that much. One aspect I would like to touch on however, is how they handle the multiplayer. During your travels, you may come across another wanderer like yourself. You are given no screen name, no back-story and most interestingly of all, no way to communicate, save for a melodic “chirp.”

 

 

It seems like this wouldn’t be very conducive for multiplayer but it works out surprisingly well. In a game where you are meant to feel isolated and alone (sometimes terrifiyingly so), your first encounter with another living soul like yourself will actually invoke REAL emotions. You can choose to travel together, help one another out or you can simply chirp in acknowledgement and continue on your way. Regardless of how you handle it, it’s a unique way of interacting with others in the game world.

 

 

Journey will take about two hours or so to complete, roughly the equivalent a full-length feature film. During that time you will experience the entire gamut of emotions. You’ll feel happy and you’ll feel sad. You’ll experience loneliness, wonder, amazement, terror and awe. At one point you will actually feel COLD. I can’t quite explain how a game manages to do this, but it does.

 

And should you finally reach your destination, you will encounter a philosophically brilliant ending that you will spend weeks turning over and over again in your head. That is what Journey left me with; a desire to ponder the knowledge that it attempted to impart for weeks after I finished playing.

 

If that isn’t art, I don’t know what is…

 

Coming Soon: Donavon Frankenreiter, Rise of the Guardians, Dark Tower, Thundercats, Risen 2

Early spring tends to be a slow time of year for media. Most industries typically take a deep breath as they prepare for the plunge into thesummer release season. Today, rather than discuss some things I’ve already experienced, I figured I’d talk about a few upcoming movies, shows, music, books and games that I’m particularly excited about.

 

 

Start Livin by Donavon Frankenreiter

 

Donavon Frankenreiter’s next album will apparently be titled Start Livin’. Frankenreiter himself says “To me, the most beautiful thing about this record is it really reflects who I am today. Start Livin’ means stop worrying about where you’ve been, where you’re going—just start embracing what you have around you. Start loving what you have right now.”

This track, called A.I., was inspired by the unfortunate death of his close friend and fellow surfer, Andy Irons, who passed away in 2010.  If you listen closely to the lyrics it’s quite jarring but still an excellent, albeit tearful tribute.

The content of this track already lends a little more weight to Frankenreiter’s typically carefree, laid-back fare so this could definitely be an interesting LP. None of his albums have ever disappointed and I’m guessing this one will happily join his others in the Surf Rock section of my collection alongside Jack Johnson, G. Love, Current Swell, Bag of Toys, and Zach Gill.

Start Livin is slated for a May 9th release.

 

 

 

Rise of the Guardians

 

I don’t go really seeking out “family” films. While I do have quite a collection of them, it’s mostly comprised of movies from my childhood rather than more recent releases. However I will say that Dreamworks’ How to Train Your Dragon was a pretty kick-ass film which I enjoyed immensely.

So what happens when you take the creative team behind How to Train Your Dragon and put them together with noted visual filmmaker Guillermo del Toro? You get a hulking, sword-wielding, naughty/nice-forearm-tattooed, Nordic Santa Claus. Rise of the Guardians just looks freakin cool and I kind of dig the idea of Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Jack Frost and the Sandman being portrayed as a team of superheroes.

Alec Baldwin, Hugh Jackman, Isla Fisher, Chris Pine and Jude Law are voicing the main characters and the talent seems to fit the roles perfectly. I’ll admit I was a little leery about Alec Baldwin until I realized he was doing the narration in the trailer. Jude Law as the villain, Pitch, seemed spot on, as did Hugh Jackman’s Aussie Easter Bunny (which seems to be more of a jackrabbit than a bunny).

Should this film do well, I could definitely see it as a new franchise for Dreamworks. Especially since they now seem to be putting down the Shrek series for the time being. 

 

 

The Wind through the Keyhole: A Dark Tower Novel

 

Of all the Dark Tower books that Stephen King has written I’ve found myself enjoying the stories of Roland’s youth before the world “moved” on, over the stories relating the current struggles of Roland and his Ka-tet. Consequently I’ve a soft spot for certain parts of The Gunslinger and almost the entirety of Wizard and Glass as well as the Marvel Comics Gunslinger graphic novels.

The Wind Through the Keyhole is another tale that Roland tells his friends, relating events that happened to him years ago. It is not a prequel or sequel, but apparently a side-story. When discussing the sequence of Keyhole, King says “for longtime readers, this book should be shelved between Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla . . . which makes it, I suppose, Dark Tower 4.5.”

The Dark Tower cycle may be finished (or not depending on whether you read the Afterward) but there are still many stories to tell. I’m looking forward to a short trip back to Mid-World.

 

 

Thundercats

 

Thundercats was a staple of my childhood and I can still remember watching it for the first time. When the Cartoon Network announced that they were going to do a reboot of the series I was pretty stoked. However, as more and more details emerged, I started to worry a little. The art style was reported to have shifted over to a slightly more anime format. The origin changed as the cats went from a spacefaring race to natives of Third Earth. And perhaps most egregiously, there was a complete lack of any details about Panthro, which was the all time favorite Thundercat of my childhood (c’mon, he had nunchucks!), while all other characters were accounted for.

Any doubts I had about the Thundercats were laid to rest after I watched the 1 hour season premiere, and while Panthro’s whereabouts still remained an unknown, the series definitely kicked things up a notch. Whereas the original show introduces us to the main characters after their society has already been destroyed, the reboot shows us Thundera in its prime and when we witness its destruction there’s a sneaking suspicion that they might have deserved it.

 

As I continued to watch throughout the season, I was amazed at the subject matter they touched on. Social issues like racism, psychological vices such as pride, obsession, and impatience, and abstract concepts like death and reincarnation are presented in very thought-provoking ways, while not taking away from the fun an animated program is supposed to provide.

Really looking forward to Season 2 this year and while Season 1 left Panthro with BOTH HIS ARMS SEVERED (how the hell is he supposed to spin those nunchucks?), I’m sure the Robear Berbils will whip him up a pair of sweet robotic arms so he can get back to kicking lizard tail.

I’m a little obsessed with Panthro, huh? Whatever, he’s a baddass…

 

 

Risen 2: Dark Waters

 

I could easily bring up some of the more well-known franchises that will have entries this year, Halo 4, Bioshock: Infinite and Assassin’s Creed III will all be making blockbuster appearances in 2012. But I’d like to give a little love to the sequel of Piranha Bytes’ 2009 RPG, Risen.

I’ve spoken about Risen before and it’s easily one of the best RPGs I’ve played before. Now, with Risen 2: Dark Waters, we get a sequel that apparently fixes the few flaws from the original and adds a seafaring/pirate theme to the mix. How can anyone go wrong?

If you haven’t played Risen yet, I’d highly recommend picking up a copy which you can probably do for a very cheap price. And if Risen 2 isn’t on your list, do yourself a favor and add it.

Black Taxi live at Skipper’s Smokehouse w/bonus Bright Light Social Hour vid!

Black Taxi is an indie rock band out of New York that I’ve been following for about a year and a half now. I was lucky enough to catch them at Skipper’s Smokehouse last night. We managed to wind our way pretty close to the stage and I got some decent videos although the bass player on the right was absent in most of these because I couldn’t fit him in the frame.

Black Taxi is a really phenominal group. They’ve got an interesting blend of garage punk and really gritty pop with some songs almost echoing some of the 80′s groups that influenced them. They’ve got a unique stage presence and in one song the keyboardist played a trumpet, a glockenspiel, and sang through a bullhorn all in the same song.

These guys just really have a lot of fun on stage and it was great to be able to finally see them live. Check out some of the vids below, especially the last two.

Black Taxi opened for The Bright Light Social Hour which was a favorite at last year’s SXSW music festival. They are a great band in their own right and I intended to get some footage of them as well but my camcorder ran out of batteries. In lieu of that, here’s a clip from their NYE performance of Shanty:

Once again I sing the praises of Skipper’s Smokehouse for bringing bands like this to the bay area. I’d encourage anyone to get out there and support them in their endeavor. Will be catching Enter the Haggis there next friday so hope to have some vids posted from that concert as they always put on a kick-ass show.

Being Human, The Stars are Indifferent to Astronomy and The Recipe Project

Being Human

The premiere of the second season of this show aired last week and this is a series that I’ve meant to talk about since it started last year. So I figured this would be a good time to do so.

I was attempting to describe the plot of Being Human to a friend of mine and I started with “A vampire, a werewolf and a ghost…”

“Walk into a bar?” he interrupted. Honestly I should have seen that coming.

I’d read reviews about the original British version of this show which typically used the words “dry” and “soulless” and I wasn’t comforted by the fact that the American version was being produced by the SyFy channel. Normally anything produced by SyFy tends to be pretty bad but every so often they knock one out of the park. In my opinion, Being Human is one of those home-runs and I’m glad I took a chance on it.

The series follows two friends, Aidan and Josh, a vampire and a werewolf respectively, as they make a decision to try to stop living like monsters and instead attempt to live normal lives (or at least as normal as is possible for a vampire and a werewolf to live). They rent out a house close to the Boston hospital where they both work as orderlies and are surprised to meet Sally, the deceased fiancée of the house’s owner who was recently killed on the premises (being supernatural creatures, they can see and hear her). Sally soon joins them in their attempt to obtain some semblance of normalcy and rounds out the trio.

As cheesy as the plot may sound, it’s actually a great deal more layered and complex. There’s an overarching inference that a monster lurks inside all of us and learning how to resist those primal urges and desires is no small feat for anyone. However in addition to this, each of the three main characters brings a further metaphorical layer to that.

The vampire, played by Sam Witmer (who serious geeks may recognize from his role as Galen Starkiller in The Force Unleashed series), is a metaphor for addiction. Aidan is attempting to quit “live blood” cold turkey, ingesting only the pre-pumped blood of voluntary donors rather than seducing and biting living people. This puts him at odds with the coven he recently abandoned (and their leader who happens to be Aidan’s “sire”) as they don’t take kindly to either deserters or “vegetarians.”

The werewolf, played by Sam Huntington, is a metaphor for adolescence and the torrent of awkwardness and emotion that often accompanies it. What kid goes through their teenage years without thinking at least once, “no one is going to understand what I’m going though?” Josh was bitten two years before the show’s start and he still hasn’t come to grips with the fact that he turns into a beast every full moon. He up and left both his family and his fiancée for fear of hurting them during the transformations and he spends every full moon isolated in the remote woods hoping he doesn’t stumble across people he could potentially hurt. He carries that isolation even further by refusing to get close to anyone and thus refuses to date or even keep friends outside of his two supernatural roommates.

The ghost, played by Meaghan Rath is a metaphor for feeling lost. Sally, being recently deceased, has no idea how to exist as a non-corporeal entity. There are rules to being a ghost that no one ever taught her, specifically those governing how she is supposed to “move on.” To make matters worse, she doesn’t remember the circumstances of her death and she is reluctant to leave the house for fear that she won’t be able to return and it the only anchor she has to the world.

Of the three main characters, I can relate the closest to Josh with his awkwardness and isolation and he has fast become my favorite character (compound this with the fact that I’m more fascinated with werewolves than I am with either vampires or ghosts). Both Sally and Aidan’s plotlines are definitely interesting however and still manage to keep me interested. If anyone is going to relapse and give into the monster, I’ve got my money on Aidan.

I’ve never really been into the True Bloods, Vampire Diaries or any other vampire-centric television show. Admittedly, I’m the kind of viewer who always looks at the deeper meaning in everything I take in and I feel that Being Human is more of a meatier production than a lot of what’s out there now. In addition to that multi-layered storytelling, there is a healthy dose of both drama and humor and they all combine to form something really worth watching.

As with most SyFy shows, each season is only 13 episodes long so it’s doesn’t take long to experience. In my opinion it’s worth it.

 

The Stars are Indifferent to Astronomy by Nada Surf

I’ll be honest here, I haven’t really been nuts over a Nada Surf album since 2003′s Let Go which is definitely on my list of favorite LPs of all time. Some of the more recent additions to their discography were simply weaker than Let Go. This isn’t to say any of those albums were bad; they’re still great indie rock, mind you, but weaker nonetheless when compared to that insanely stellar performance.

The Stars are Indifferent to Astronomy may not quite reach the lofty heights of that album, but it comes about as close as they’ve gotten in almost a decade. This newest LP takes me back to that moment almost 10 years ago when I laid down on the floor to listen to the first track and stayed there transfixed and unmoving for the length of the disc as I mentally turned phrases like “drowning in my id” over and over in my head.

Nada Surf is quite well known for not loading their albums with “filler” songs. Their albums are meant to be experienced as a whole and I’ve never had to buy an mp3 of one or two songs to test drive them before purchasing one of their full discs. You can trust Nada Surf to deliver an experience that’s worth the price of admission. The melodies on this album remain smooth and lyrics are still delightfully poetic. 

Some of my notable favorite songs so far are Jules and Jim, Teenage Dreams and the rather catchy Looking Through. However Waiting for Something is without a doubt the most memorable track on the album and manages to hit a deeply personal note with me (so I could be biased). Bear in mind I’ve not yet had the experience of absorbing the complex layers with multiple listens so these are surface favorites as of now.

If you’re a long time fan of their music, you’ll dig this album, and if you’re new, I’d recommend starting with the aforementioned Let Go before moving into this one. Understand that Nada Surf is coming up on almost 20 years old which probably puts the trio close to their forties if not there already. “Age is a state of mind” is not a phrase that is lost on them and The Stars are Indifferent is their proof-positive of that.

 

The Recipe Project

The Recipe Project was a Christmas Gift given to me over the holidays by one of my closest friends who really knows how to hit the nail on the head when it comes to books I’ll dig. I never really thought I’d be reviewing a cookbook, but this particular one is something special. I’ve made no secret about my love for cross-media and I’ve written numerous articles detailing specific instances over at the Cover Stories website. Hell the entire premise of Cover Stories itself is the fusion of music and prose. This is probably why I’m enjoying The Recipe Project as much as I am.

The main goal of the Recipe Project is the merging of food and music. Recipes from some of today’s top chefs are simply set to music by the band One Ring Zero (the CD of which is included in the back of the book). It all seems kind of arbitrary at first until you actually sit down and try to cook Mario Batali’s “Spaghetti with Sweet 100 Tomatoes” dish while listening to the music which is surprisingly catchy and quirky.

The recipes themselves are varied and I’ve loved the ones I’ve tried to make thus far. The book also includes various essays, stories and musical playlists from the included chefs as well as some of the country’s most notable culinary writers and food bloggers.

I think the Recipe Project initially intended itself to be more of a gimmick but it wound up totally transcending that and becoming a legitimate culinary curiosity in its own right. As the back of the book states, it’s “fun stuff for the super-music-nerd-foodie who has everything.”

The Visible Man, Super 8 and Bastion

Well, the holiday season is over and the year has come to an end. What better way to fight off the post-holiday blues than by talking about some of my favorite media from 2011. Today I’d like to discuss Chuck Klosterman’s The Visible Man, Steven Spielberg and J.J. Abrams’ summer popcorn flick Super 8 and Xbox Live Arcade’s artistic dungeon-crawler, Bastion.

 

The Visible Man by Chuck Klosterman

I tried to read Klosterman’s first attempt at fiction, Downtown Owl, but I really found it lacking. It sounded more like he just wrote himself into a bunch of characters and then spouted the same pop culture observations that he makes in his non-fiction pieces. Not that this kind of device is a bad thing, I just didn’t see much difference between it and his other books which made it seem less like fiction. I know some critics trounced it and they weren’t necessarily that far off the mark.

I’m happy to say that Klosterman has apparently learned from his mistakes.

The Visible Man is what I can only refer to as a fictional triumph for Klosterman. It’s an intelligent, creepy look at human nature and a cutting observation of our culture’s obsession with voyeurism.

The Visible Man’s plot device is a series of transcripts submitted by therapist Victoria Vick to an editor in the hopes that they can be worked into a manuscript suitable for publishing. The transcripts center around her sessions with an anonymous man who she only refers to as “Y___.” Initially contacting her via phone, Y___ claims to have perfected a technology that allows him to become invisible and is now somewhat addicted to “observing” people. Not interacting, but just watching.

Part of the novel is Vick’s attempt to figure out whether or not Y___ is completely delusional. Klosterman writes his character very well and Y___ indeed straddles that line between crazy and sane with the utmost dexterity. The other main plot point is her attempt to distill Y___’s rather candid observations about the people he claims to be watching.

Much of what Y___ observes is based upon Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle; once you interact with something you change it. He insists that the only way to truly know a person is to see them when they’re alone because that’s the only time they’re truly being themselves. Through Y___’s twisted filter we are introduced to a humanity that is extremely raw when compared to the humanity we see every day.

Perhaps it’s the fact that I live alone which made the book resonate with me, but more times than once, I caught myself looking around the room in search of a hidden watcher. When a work of fiction causes that kind of thought in the “real world” you know it’s hitting chords on many levels.

Give this one a shot folks. If you’re already a fan of Klosterman I don’t see why you wouldn’t like the Visible Man and if you’re not, this is a perfect opportunity to get acquainted with his entertainingly superfluous writing style.

 

Super 8

A recent Blu-Ray purchase is what inspired me to talk a little bit about this film today.

Maybe it’s my love of all things 70′s. Or perhaps it’s the fact that I spent much of my youth trouncing around my neighborhood with a video camera on my shoulder barking orders at my siblings and cousins as we filmed the next great action/adventure epic. It could be very fond memories of the first time I saw Close Encounters of the Third Kind with my dad so many years ago. Whatever the cause, Super 8 definitely struck a chord with me and stands out as one of the best movies I got to see this summer.

If I had to catagorize this film I’d call it a cross between Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the Goonies with a dash of J.J. Abrams signature mystery-building thrown in for good measure. Both did what they do best and the end result was just a great film.

While filming a zombie movie in rural Pennsylvania outside Pittsburgh for a local film festival, six friends witness an astonishing train crash. They soon come to realize that the train was a military transport and something escaped that night and took refuge in the surrounding area. What results is an exciting adventure that captures something that has really been missing in summer movies as of late: heart.

The filmmakers addressed something that has been overlooked ever since digital effects rose to prominence; you can have the greatest effects in the world but if you don’t care about the characters they serve no purpose whatsoever. Transformers: Dark of the Moon was filled with amazing eye-popping effects, but after three flims, I still don’t give a rat’s ass about Sam Witwicky, his relationship with his comic-relief parents or the vapid women he’s shacking up with. Super-8 tackles this by giving us main characters that are both deep and realistic and by putting them in personal situations that are very relatable. Additionally, the decision to use less mainstream or no-name actors really helped to suspend disbelief.

I can’t go into much more detail without spoiling one of the main plot elements so I’ll just say that I can see this becoming a summer classic. While it can’t quite completely replicate that sense of wonder that was often evoked by Spielberg’s earlier summer popcorn flicks it comes about as close as any film I’ve seen in years.

Bastion

It was my intention to do a full fall harvest season gaming wrap-up, but to be honest, this year they really overwhelmed me. The sheer number of games that came out, the size and scope of some of those games and the fact that I’ve had less time for gaming as of late resulted in a poor sampling of each title and even one or two that are still in the package (I’m looking at you Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition). Perhaps as the holidays wind down and I have some more downtime I will be able to toss out some reviews of some of the most impressive fall titles.

But seeing as it’s the year-end, for now I’d like to focus on one of my favorite titles of 2011, Bastion. Bastion was a summer title but it still sticks out in my head as one of the best and most visceral gaming experiences of this year.

Developed as an Xbox Live Arcade downloadable title, Bastion is both artistic and unique in a way that I’ve only ever seen matched by 2010′s Limbo. When I first saw the preview screenshots it appeared as just another dungeon-crawler. However, once I loaded the demo I realized that’s where the similarities ended and it was so much more than that.

You begin the game as “the Kid.” Sometime after an apocalyptic event called “the Calamity” you set out to find and restore the “Bastion,” a sort of spiritual fallout shelter where any survivors were supposed to meet if they could. The most interesting thing about this game is that the moment you awaken your every move is narrated by an old man who is observing your journey.

The story line is incredible and in some moments heartbreaking. I haven’t vicariously felt the sadness of a video game character since watching the glassing of New Alexandria in 2010′s Halo: Reach. That’s an impressive feat for an Xbox Live Arcade title.

The storyline is accompanied by an AMAZING score and soundtrack. It manages to add a tremendous feeling of immersion that really helps you connect with the characters and to feel what they’re going through. Once I heard “Build a Wall (Zia’s Theme)” by Darren Korb, I immediately began scanning Amazon’s Mp3 downloads until it showed up a few weeks later and that tune became a mainstay on my playlist.

The visuals are on par with the rest of the title. The whole game feels like an artist is painting the landscape around you as you move forward towards each destination. This style really helps to solidify the dreamlike state the story is supposed to exist in. The enemies are sometimes simultaneously funny and creepy. Moving through areas that were once populated only to see the frozen remains of once living people crumble to ash as you touch them establishes the gravitas that you feel throughout the game.

The gameplay, while far from original, is solid with plenty of ranged and melee weapons to level up and tinker with, elixirs to drink which create different effects and a shard system that helps you power up the Bastion which in turn helps you to do more.

Bastion is one of those special titles that prove gaming can be just as artistic as other forms of media and I would love to see more titles follow this line of development. I really can’t recommend this title enough. If you haven’t gotten a chance to pick it up, do yourself a favor and at least download the demo. If you’re like me you’ll instantly be hooked and the full title purchase will be as good as yours. As this was a summer title I’d have to imagine it’s selling at a pretty hefty discount at this point and if it’s not, it soon will be.

Enjoy your 2012 folks. There’s some great stuff on the horizon for this year and I hope you all get to enjoy it.

Keb Mo: The Reflection, “What the Dog Saw” by Malcolm Gladwell and Dead Island

 

Keb Mo: The Reflection

Whether you’re familiar with blues artist Keb Mo or not, is irrelevant. If you’re a fan of old school R&B you’ll dig this album. I’ll admit, I’m not much of a fan of straight-up blues. Granted blues has the right amount of lyrical poetry, mellow acoustics and soul, but it just happens to have these things in the wrong enough proportions to make it less than pleasing to my ear.

R&B on the other hand is different story. My Dad was a huge R&B fan so I grew up steeped in artists like Barry White, Luther Vandross, and Earth, Wind & Fire. The Reflection isn’t just a foray into R&B; Keb Mo artistically blends into it layers of blues, pop and jazz. The Whole Enchilada is just a catchy tune and a lyrically interesting play on words. Crush On You is a slightly cheesy albeit heartfelt ballad. One of These Nights is a cover of the Eagles song by the same name and a new take on an old favorite. Walk Through Fire is an interesting and soulful throwback old James Ingram-esque songs from the early 80′s.

Some may find this LP a little too “smooth jazz” With the guest performances by leaders in that relatively cheeseball genre like Dave Koz and Mindy Abair, that’s probably not too far off the mark. Existing fans of Keb Mo’s straight-up blues albums are probably going to loathe this one (likely for the same reasons I enjoyed it and dislike straight-up blues). But if that kind of thing is not likely to bother you it’s worth a listen.

 

What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures by Malcolm Gladwell

I received this book as a gift from some very good friends who know what I like to read. They must know me even better than I thought they did because they hit this one right on the money.

What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures is a collection of Gladwell’s articles that previously appeared in the New Yorker. I love this kind of format. I tend to read at least 5 or 6 books all at once so when they’re broken down into easily digestible parts I tend to absorb more of what I read simply because I pick something up and put it back down so often. It’s one of the reasons why I loved Chuck Klosterman’s Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs and the format totally works.

Like Klosterman, Gladwell looks at the world in a very deep and unique way. He draws connections and sees correlations which ultimately wind up explaining things that most of us would likely miss. I’ve been to the grocery store thousands of times in my life and I have never once questioned why there are at least twenty different types and brands of mustard, but only one type and two or three brands of ketchup. Gladwell not only notices this, but he sees the reason why and once he’s explained it, it’s so logical you wonder why you never noticed it before.

Some readers may find 20 pages on ketchup boring, but there are plenty of other articles to satisfy your curiosity. How the owner of the Ronco Corporation (Set it and Forget it!) could sell ice to an Inuit, a cautionary story about the inventor of the birth-control pill and a rather amazing article about “The Dog Whisperer” Cesar Millan which focused primarily on his success as an effect of his body language.

My first experience with Gladwell’s work is overwhelmingly positive and I’ll definitely be looking to check out some of his other books.

 

Dead Island

I’m really batting 1000 with video games lately.

I really wish an independent game studio could come up with a decent summer game. Not that I’m complaining about the new iterations of tried and true franchises, it would just be nice to see something new succeed. If you had seen this trailer which was pretty awesome, you probably had high hopes for Dead Island to do just that:

It did not.

What advertised itself as a story-based survival horror game, actually turned out to be a crappy 1st person shooter with RPG elements. Think Fallout but with unresponsive controls, a buggy interface, horrible weapon degradation, a shitty leveling system and quests that basically amount to fetching crap for an annoying NPC.

The zombies themselves are not zombies like you would expect to see in Dead Rising or Left 4 Dead. They basically are undead punching bags that take forever to die. How the hell can a zombie get back up after I run over it with a truck? The developers obviously did no testing for balance whatsoever.

Anyone who knows me knows I loathe weapon degradation. It’s the modern-day equivalent of the Pac-Man developers just speeding up the ghosts to make it more challenging. In this day and age, with the technology and innovation they have at their disposal to make a game challenging, using a cheap technique like this is inexcusable.

Then there is the story. There have been games that have had their problems but I will always be willing to suffer through them if it tells a good story. Not here. The story was virtually non-existent. I did not care about any of the main characters nor did I give a rat’s ass about any of the irritating NPCs.

Needless to say, Dead Island is yet another game that makes me thankful for rental services like Gamefly because if I had shelled out $65 for this turd of a game I would have been livid. With the 2011 video game harvest season coming up I’m hoping to have some more positive gaming reviews in the very near future, but for Dead Island, I recommend staying as far away from it as possible.

Black Keys: Brothers, Troll Hunter, L.A. Noire, Alice: Madness Returns

 

The Black Keys – Brothers

Was out with some friends this past weekend and the house band at the bar we were at played a track from this LP (“The Only One”) which spurned an earnest discussion. So I thought I’d talk about it. Yes, I am aware it’s almost a year old but it’s got such a phenomenal sound that it has managed to be my go-to album for the majority of the past 12 months.

I’ve been a Black Keys fan for quite some time and I will admit after their previous album (which was a collaboration with Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton) I was a little worried that they were trying to experiment way too much. Don’t get me wrong, I like musical experimentation but in their case I thought they were leaping rather than stepping in their evolution and it was doing too much to alienate their fans.

Brothers not only pumped the brakes but did a 180 back to their tried and true blues-rock sound. It’s just an incredible album. An old throwback to a by-gone era, the Keys have managed to resurrect what was great about old, bluesy, southern rock from the 70s and make it fit in our modern age.

There aren’t a lot of albums where I’m completely in love with every track but Brothers is definitely one of them. I do have a few favorites though. “Black Mud” is a bad-ass guitar anthem and if someone played a live version and then told me it was Hendrix, I would be inclined to believe them. “Ten Cent Pistol” is a Doors-esque track with a lyrical story about a guy trying to deal with a crazy, jealous woman (something I can definitely relate to) and it’s so good it’s already inspiring me to write a new euphiction piece. “Too Afraid to Love You” is an empyrean love ballad and the harpsichord/hammered dulcimer that they use in the background just lends an airy, atmospheric note to a great song.

Anyone who’s a fan of the Black Keys likely already loves this album, so this is more of a push for those who haven’t experienced it yet. Even if you know nothing about the Keys, pick this one up. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

 

Troll Hunter

Independent films are usually hit or miss especially if they’re foreign but every once in a while something really special comes along. Troll Hunter is that kind of film.

Made in the style of the Blair Witch Project, Troll Hunter follows a group of three student filmmakers from the University of Stockholm as they travel through Norway attempting to track down and expose a hunter who is rumored to have been poaching bears (a highly illegal crime as bears are protected animals in that country). They come to discover that the dead bears are just a cover-up and the hunter is actually stalking something much more deadly. After the first encounter, the hunter agrees to allow the crew to follow him and document his exploits.

There are three things that immediately stand out to me about Troll Hunter.

First of all are the effects. At no point do the trolls we see on screen look hokey or fake. They look exactly how you would expect a troll to look. Each variety of troll the hunter and the film crew encounter is unique leading right up to the final “Mega-Troll” in the ending sequence which would give Godzilla a run for his money. The sounds the trolls make are incredibly realistic and at times more than a little spine-chilling.

Second is the general feeling of conspiracy. As the story unfolds the writers do a good job of setting up a valid explanation as to how the existence of trolls has been kept so hush-hush for so long. The fact that they only hint as to the reason why leaves a good deal for the viewer to ponder after the credits have rolled.

Third is the lore. The troll is embraced by Norwegians as a national myth in the same way Scotland embraces the Loch Ness Monster. In fact when the documentatians see their first troll they display a childlike wonder and excitement even though it tried to kill them. The little details they add pulling exclusively from troll mythology (such as trolls being able to smell Christians) go a long way towards lending credibility to the film and enabling the viewer to suspend their disbelief. This is enhanced by providing scientific explanations about certain troll physiology and characteristics. At one point it is explained by a scientist that trolls have an inability to convert light into vitamin-D and it causes their bodies to calcify, hence the reason why trolls exposed to sunlight turn to stone.

Is Troll Hunter winning any Oscars any time soon? Probably not, as it’s not going to appeal to a widespread audience. Does it borrow heavily from other types of “recovered documentary film stock” movies? Yes, right down to the one female and two male documentarian formula established by the Blair Witch Project. Is it a highly entertaining film which manages to capture a little bit of the magic and romance of a mythological creature while making it plausible in the modern day. Most definitely.

When Peter Jackson’s first Hobbit film is released in December of 2012 and mainstream audiences are introduced to three trolls named William, Bert and Tom I will imagine interest in trolls will spike and this movie will likely gain a new appreciation. Until then I’ll count it as one of the films I’m glad I got to experience first, kind of like a good band that no one really knows about…

 

L.A. Noire

Rockstar, Rockstar, Rockstar… I don’t understand how you can come out with an incredibly polished and well-done game like Red Dead Redemption which succeeded on every level and then follow it up with something like L.A. Noire?

Now let me backtrack and just say that L.A. Noire isn’t a bad game. It’s just does not live up to the standards that Rockstar has spent years defining. Let’s face it folks, if you’re the one setting the bar for the industry when it comes to sandbox style games, you better damn well make sure you’re at least reaching it.

There are things about L.A. Noire that are definitely done well. Stylistically it’s probably the second best visuals Rockstar has ever come up with next to Red Dead Redemption. The setting of 1940′s Los Angeles looks pretty cool, but there’s never any chance to really enjoy it. Their facial recognition system, while innovative still doesn’t look quite right. I would have preferred straight forward animation to the capture system they used.

And then there is my main complaint. Repetition, repetition, repetition. As Ubisoft learned YEARS ago with Assassin’s Creed, you cannot expect a game with this kind of repetition to succeed. The entire game play consists of finding clues, interviewing/interrogating witnesses/suspects, chasing them down either on foot or via car and killing/apprehending them. That’s it. The first four or five cases it’s cool but then it just gets old. Very old. There is no variety, and the stories themselves just feel unfinished.

It impressed me enough, in the same way the first Assassin’s Creed impressed me enough to play the sequel. If Rockstar fleshes out the next game a little more I’ll definitely give it a chance. But on its own I have to say pass on this one.

I wanted to like this game, I really did. But after completing about seven cases there was literally no incentive. It left me with two choices, either grind through just to finish the game or move on to something else. Assuming the remaining fourteen cases were going to play out like the first seven I decided to just move on.

 

American McGee’s Alice: Madness Returns

I very rarely write about things I don’t like. I just prefer not to waste my time on things that don’t appeal to me. That makes this entry somewhat strange because I’m doing it twice.

The reason I want to talk about American McGee’s latest Alice game is because I really did like it. I just couldn’t get through it. I played the original Alice on PC and it was probably one of my favorite PC platformers ever. I spent quite a bit of time studying the works of Lewis Carroll in college and they loaded Alice with references that fans of his satire will appreciate while simultaneously taking a dump on that animated Walt Disney garbage from the 60′s.

So when I heard about the sequel being released on PC and Xbox 360 I was more than a little psyched. Alice continues the story of Alice Liddell the Alice who originally visited Wonderland when she was a little girl. Driven close to insanity after watching her entire family burn in a fire, she returns to Wonderland as a teenager only to discover that because it existed in her head and she was now crazy, it’s been turned upside down.

In Alice, Madness Returns, Alice is now a young woman in her twenties who still hasn’t mentally healed. She is pulled into Wonderland yet again to find that it has gotten even more horrid than the last time she was there. To give you an idea of how dark and twisted this story is, your first main task is to reassemble the Mad Hatter after the March Hare and the Dormouse have torn his head and limbs from his torso in a vicious coup d’état. You wield literary-inspired weapons like a Pepper Grinder and the Vorpal Blade and traverse the bizarre land in order to restore order.

The visual style is phenomenal and totally worthy of the standard that American McGee set for himself years ago; the Cheshire Cat in particular remains one of the coolest-looking characters of all time in my opinion. The voice acting is excellently done and listening the March Hare insanely prattle on in his broken brogue is hilarious to the point that you almost feel guilty for laughing given what he’s actually doing.

Alice is a sensory success which enhances what appeared at first to be a great story. I would have liked to experience the rest of the story but the game play got in the way; which brings me to my main gripe about this game. I realize there are masochistic people out there who wax nostalgic about insanely difficult games like the original Castlevania, Ghosts and Goblins, Ninja Gaiden and the like; if they want to subject themselves to a frustration that gives way to controller-throwing rage, that’s their call. Those games are platform driven, not story driven.

To apply that kind of difficulty to a rich story-based game is downright irresponsible. I basically surrendered towards the end of the second chapter of the game where you are forced to jump up seven individual platforms. This seems normal, except for the fact that the platforms are fucking invisible and you can only force them into sight for a few seconds. Then to further screw the player they put the whole thing on a timer and all the platforms disappear after a certain amount of time.

No thank you.

I will continue to praise every other aspect of Alice: Madness Returns because I can’t deny that every other aspect of it is well done. They even give you a copy of a PC port of the original Alice to boot which makes it almost a double-value. If you can deal with that kind of frustration, check this game out. But if you’re like me and you are inclined to keeping your LCD TV screen from experiencing controller damage, skip this one.

Favorite Covers

Given the nature of Cover Stories, I thought I might spend some time talking about some of my favorite musical covers. I typically enjoy covers; getting to see one artist’s interpretation of another artist’s work is something I find very interesting. I especially like seeing the covers span different musical genres than the originals.

So without further adieu…

Ray Lamontagne – Crazy (Gnarls Barkley Original) – I really love this tune by Gnarls Barkley and Lamontagne’s interpretation is just perfect if you’re a fan of his work. The mellow acoustic guitar combined with his raspy, smokey voice lends a completely different feel to this song.

Red – Ordinary World (Duran Duran Original) – I will admit right off the bat, I am not a fan of Red as their Christian rock proclivities do not jive well with my view of the universe. However this new take on Duran Duran’s Ordinary World is a hodgepodge of hard, alternative rock and post-grunge, which breathes new life into it.

Various Artists – Jamming: A Bluegrass Tribute to Bob Marley - This is a full album and not an individual song but needs to be experienced as a whole. I’ve only recently started listening to bluegrass with anything more than a passing interest, but I’ve been a huge Bob Marley fan for as long as I can remember. You wouldn’t think that reggae would lend itself well to the bluegrass sound but it does so surprisingly well. Waiting in Vain, one of my all-time favorite Marley songs, turns out to be an amazing tune in bluegrass format and the entire album is worth multiple listens.

Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins (feat. Ben Gibbard, Conor Oberst & M. Ward) – Handle with Care (Travelling Wilburys Original) – Yes that’s a lot of names, but they’re covering a band with a lot of names in it to begin with so it kind of fits. Handle with Care is an iconic classic rock song and I’m glad Lewis and crew didn’t change it up too much.

Donavon Frankenreiter – Theologians (Wilco Original) – Donavon Frankenreiter brings his traditional surf-rock feel to an already great song by Wilco. As usual, Donavon puts applies his signature style and gives it a significantly mellower feel than the original. It totally evokes images of oceans and beaches and sandy campfires at sunset which, if you really listen to the lyrics, is probably something much different than what Wilco originally intended.

Various Artists – 50 First Dates Motion Picture Soundtrack – Another full album. Whether you’ve seen the movie or not, this is just a flat-out fun album that contains lots of artists doing reggae covers of 80′s songs. My favorite track is the Ziggy Marley cover of Drive, originally recorded by the Cars. It’s a surprisingly good album especially given the fact that it’s a film soundtrack.

M. Ward – Let’s Dance (David Bowie Original) – Another extremely mellow cover of an otherwise upbeat song, M. Ward takes one of Bowie’s classic 80′s hits, removes all the adrenaline and applies his uniquely quiet voice to this tune which gives it an almost sad feeling.

Gary Jules w/Michael Andrews - Mad World (Tears for Fears Original) – Anyone who’s seen the film Donnie Darko should recall this song as the score to the ending montage. Perhaps it’s because of that association or perhaps it’s the acoustic piano and Jules’ unique voice, but this is just a raw and hauntingly beautiful song and I feel this version has much more of an impact on the listener than the original.

Whiskeytown – Dreams (Fleetwood Mac Original) – Whiskeytown did a really good job of retaining the soul and feel of the original song while still making it their own. It simultaneously comes across as both an old classic rock song and a recent composition.

Smashing Pumpkins – Landslide (Fleetwood Mac Original) – Another Fleetwood Mac cover, there is not much to differentiate this song from the original other than Billy Corrigan’s voice which is more than enough. However, like the previously mentioned Travelling Wilburys song, it came across as more of a tribute than a remake. For a time this was one of my favorite songs… until the Dixie Chicks took a dump all over it by covering it as well. And I realize I have no right to be a music snob because I admittedly like some pretty horrible stuff, but I draw the line at that kind of garbage.

Bonus!!!

Northern Kings – I originally had 10 covers lined up for this article, but I HAD to add a bonus. For those not familiar with the Northern Kings they are a symphonic-metal supergroup from Finland that almost exclusively covers 80′s and early 90s songs. They were formed by already-famous finnish musicians, most notably Marco Heitala from Nightwish. These guys come across as pretty ridiculous but that is a part of their charm and I absolutely love their stuff (which is duly interesting because I’m not the biggest fan of metal).

Their first song was a cover of Tina Turner’s “We Don’t Need Another Hero.” In and of itself this is a pretty cool cover. However, once you see the music video which consists of the band members in top-hats and tuxedoes singing and over-emoting in an old candlelit library which has been placed at the top of a snowy remote mountain it adds to the effect.. Now throw in the fact that the lyrics which deal specifically with the Thunderdome really don’t make any sense (unless they’re taken in the context of the accompanying 80′s post-apocalyptic Mel Gibson film for which the song was written). Put it all together and it’s a formula for something insanely ridiculous but it’s almost as if they understand that and embrace it. The end result is just something so out there that it reels you in..

But don’t take my word for it. See for yourself:

Do a youtube search for Northern Kings to see what I mean and you’ll come up with their covers of almost everything from Bon Jovi to Lionel Ritchie, to Seal to Ah-Ha to Journey and many more.

So there are some of my favorite covers. Now I want to hear from you! Don’t be shy, leave a comment with some of yours and let’s spurn some earnest discussion!

*** Crossposted to www.coverstoriesbook.com ***

Yo Joe!!! A deeper look at some new incarnations of a classic franchise…

Every Saturday morning I attempt to remember what it was like to be a kid by pouring a bowl of cereal and watching some cartoons. Today I thought I’d talk about a few of the most recent inceptions of an absolute staple of my childhood: G.I. Joe.

G.I. Joe has undergone quite a renaissance in the last few years. Re-releases of the entire animated series on DVD, remakes of the 80′s action figures, and re-issues of the classic Marvel comic books in graphic novel format have all served to bring a real American hero back to the front lines.

Soon after, we had updated action figure molds, completely new comics from multiple publishers, (some continuing where Marvel left off, others reimagining the series altogether) and even a live action movie (which could have been better but any time you put Snake-Eyes and Stormshadow in an epic ninja battle in front of me, I find it very hard to complain).

The franchise continues to be used in newer mediums in more imaginative ways. Here are three recent contributions that I’ve found to be the most noteworthy:

G.I. Joe: Resolute

I usually try to work up to the best items when I do these articles but in this case, I was so impressed with Resolute that I wanted to get to it right away. I cannot say enough positive things about this project.

Resolute is a series of three to five minute shorts produced for Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim which intertwines three separate character arcs to tell the story of a new threat from a long-thought-defunct Cobra. Unfortunately I never got to see them when they originally aired but this was actually a blessing as I was able to watch the entire 60 minute series in one go.

Drawn in a slightly more anime style and written by noted comic writer Warren Ellis, Resolute is an animated tribute to the G.I. Joe cartoons of old and is aimed squarely at my specific demographic (30-35 year olds who grew up watching the original show). It’s as if the old Sunbow cartoon went off to war and came back twenty years later a tortured, battle-hardened veteran.

This is apparent after the opening scene which depicts the corpse of Major Bludd in the Lincoln memorial lying dead at the feet of old Abe in a pool of his own blood with a Cobra embossed dagger sticking out of his chest. And yes, this is the tone the show fully intended to set.

There are no more lasers; there are bullets. There are no more characters falling into comas and them mysteriously coming out of them at the end of an episode; characters die, usually gruesomely. There are no more half-cocked schemes; antagonists actually succeed in destroying entire cities and committing atrocities at a genocidal level, which actually adds a level of gravitas to the struggle. This is not your father’s G.I. Joe.

The writers made sure to include lots of favorites and even though they couldn’t include them all or give them all speaking roles, watching the camera pan over the full team during a briefing on the USS Flagg brought lots of “Hey!” moments. As in, “Hey! There’s Shipwreck! Hey! There’s Spirit! Hey! There’s Rock’n'Roll!” Some of the characters have evolved, many for the better. For instance, the aforementioned Shipwreck no longer looks like one of the Village People and now resembles a Navy Seal in a night-raid outfit (although we still know it’s him because of his trademark parrot on his shoulder).

Even the great Cobra Commander has evolved from a raving ego-centric megalomaniac to a ruthless, cold and calculating villain. He even goes so far as to explain his erratic behavior in the original series as a ruse to force his men to think for themselves and his enemies to underestimate him.

And how could you call it G.I. Joe without a face-off between Snake-Eyes and Stormshadow. This most recent display of their rivalry is probably the best depiction I’ve seen to date.

If you were like me and you came home from school every day, grabbed the plate of cookies or crackers & peanut butter from your mom and immediately parked your ass in front of the TV to watch the adventures of America’s daring highly-trained special mission force, you will go nuts when you see this movie. If you always wished you could spend a little more time with the Joes of your youth or if you were disappointed by the latest live-action film, this is what you’ve been waiting for.

G.I. Joe: Cobra

Chuckles was always a very underused character. The Marvel comic series didn’t do much with him and his only single animated appearance in G.I. Joe: The Movie featured him in a non-speaking role. IDW Comics intends to change that.

A new comic series written by Mike Costa and Christos Gage and drawn by Antonio Fuso, G.I. Joe: Cobra is a completely new take on an old favorite. Part Miami Vice, part psychological thriller, part noir and all GI Joe, this is an amazing look at what undercover work can do to the human psyche, especially when dealing with a shadowy organization as ruthless as Cobra.

It’s an extremely dark and gritty story. We watch through Chuckles’ eyes as he looses more and more of himself the deeper he digs into their organization. We look on as he draws a delicate moral line between right and wrong and then leaps over it. We gasp in horror as he finds himself committing the atrocities he was intending to stop while using the mission as a justification.

Not bad for a character whose only claim to fame was his flowery Hawaiian shirt.

Another new and really well done aspect was that of the primary antagonists, Tomax and Xamot, whose Corsican Brothers-type antics were more of a gimmick in the past than anything else. Here they are used with a brutal precision as Costa and Gage give us new insight on old villains who were typically relegated to side-show entertainment in previous incarnations.

I’ve only read the first graphic novel which consists of the first four issues, but It impressed me so much I immediately ordered the second and pre-ordered the third. If you’ve read the old comics and often wished they had a little more weight to them, G.I. Joe: Cobra will definitely sate your appetite.

G.I. Joe: Renegades

Hasbro recently purchased a cable TV channel which they call The Hub. It’s kind of cool in that it airs both old episodes of 80′s animated shows like Transformers and G.I. Joe as well as their own brand new incarnations of the same shows. G.I. Joe: Renegades is their new take on the classic series.

Considering the old show was, at its core, a 22 minute advertisement for their action figure line, Renegades is somewhat of an anomaly. There are only six main Joes, rather than a team of hundreds. All the other classic characters are relegated to cameo appearances in each episode. Barbeque appears as a firefighter, Steeler is a mechanic, Doc is a surgeon at a Veteran’s hospital, Breaker is an Anti-Cobra hacker. You get the idea.

The plot device for the show is a little strange in and of itself. Cobra is not an avowed terrorist orgainization, but rather a pharmaceutical company who deals in much shadier things from behind their front. The Joes are framed for a crime against them they did not commit and are on the run and pursued by not only Cobra agents, but their own government. Flint takes the role of the leader of the team assigned to hunt them down.

It’s all very A-Team. The story works and the show is enjoyable but between the unfamiliar plot and the slightly odd animation style you may find yourself a little confused. I keep hoping they’ll prove their innocence, expose Cobra for what it is and then recruit all the people they’ve met throughout the episodes into a full scale G.I. Joe team.

I’d definitely recommend it; just take it with a grain of salt.

*****************************************************************************

There you have it folks. If you have a hankering for a staple of your youth, you should get some enjoyment out of any of the three and I’m sure there are bound to be more on the way.

Enter the Haggis live at Skipper’s Smokehouse

Got to catch Enter the Haggis at Skipper’s Smokehouse on Friday night. They’re an extremely talented Celtic Rock band and have an incredible sound. You wouldn’t think that bagpipes would lend themselves well to Rock but they totally make it work.

Unfortunately I didn’t have my video camera with me so I couldn’t get any video from the evening, but here’s a quick clip of them performing their song DNA live at the Real Room.

Really wish these guys would be playing somewhere in the Tampa Bay area on St Patrick’s Day but I take what I can get.