NES

I am fairly obsessed with the NES games as cultural objects these days. The imagery of them, the levels on which they can be understood, as games, as screens, as individual sprites, as puzzles to be TAS-ed, etc. And a general creative/lazy/postmodern urge has drawn me to a variety of art projects around these things, which maybe I'll post some day.

In particular, super mario brothers is becoming a point of obsession. I wonder what percentage of people my age, especially males, have played that game at least once. The layout of 1-1 is a powerful image. The sprites themselves are burned into our brains (though my image of the turtles has been replaced by the more satisfying, rounded ones from later sequels). There is great lore surrounding the locations of invisible 1-up blocks, and of course the mythic infinite water level.

I did some research into how NES graphics are constructed, read this article on bizarre bugs in the game, and seen this thing that shows you what graphics are loaded at each moment as you play - the underlying skeleton is being revealed, and while it ruins the magic somewhat, it reveals a far more powerful magic underneath, far more interesting, somehow.

Its like if we found out a championship runner was actually a complex construction of gears, springs and counterweights. Sure, he's lost his appeal as a fast runner, but holy shit! How does he actually work?

Braid

If you have an xbox360, there's no excuse not to play Braid. Gorgeous graphics and music, extremely satisfying puzzles, and a compelling, if cryptic storyline*. The whole thing just comes together, one of my favorite game experiences ever.

* That I was going to resist calling Lynchian but then David Lynch was one of five folks mentioned in the special thanks section of the credits so maybe its valid. Plus, it really is. I could go on for paragraphs.

play your part!

The new girl talk lives up to the last one. Hit it.

on a smaller scale

the second half of the new islands album doesn't quite live up to the specatular first half, but i think it might be a grower half.

also, is it a concept album? seems like it might be. the end segues strangely well into the beggining of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, so if so they can be friends if I ever want to make a 19 hour concept album concept mix consisting of whole concept albums back to back to back.

top 3 recent debut eps whose promise has thus far not been lived up to

3. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
2. Los Campesinos - Sticking Fingers into Sockets
1. TV on the Radio - Young Liars

I'll need to hear the newly released Tokyo Police Club album, but I can't see how it could live up to A Lesson in Crime.

orange county

I had a moment yesterday where I actually felt some attachment to orange county, where my nostalgia for all the time I spent here overcame my cynicism about it as a place, and where I identified it as a place I belonged. weird, huh?

impossible

I finally saw no country for old men, and found it, as most did, pretty great. it somehow reminded me of a david lynch movie, say, mullholland dr. or inland empire. Stories with hidden meanings, vs meanings with hidden stories. And all three were filled with a lot of patient shots, with a rich style that infects you, and that haunts you after the movie's over.

Update: There's spoilers in it, but this discussion about NCfOM made me see the lynch connection more directly, espcially, of course, when one of the commenters explicitly draws the connection. I have more thoughts on it, but they're not for those who haven't seen it, so ask me some time.

flashmute

i was just realizing how much i love flashmute. It's an app that turns off all sound from flash, or from your browser altogether, with a quick shortcut to re-enable as you see fit. Its great if you want to play flash games with music on, or just don't want horrifying ads hassling you.

Also:
blur's self-titled is really a underrated album.

surprisingly enough

pitchfork.tv is pretty good. great video quality, some nice content

like video evidence supporting my suspicion that of montreal is the weirdest """pop""" band going these days

smash brothers

I'm largely done with video games these days, playing them mostly as art/culture/media, rather than entertainment/escapism/time sink. I'm either too busy or too smart or too full of shit, depending on how you look at it.

But this new smash brothers is something. Its got the same basic formula as ever, but:

a) its a great formula. Retro value, 4 players on a single screen, fast-paced, one-more-game gameplay, unpredictable turns of events at every turn.

b) this thing is PACKED. 35 characters, with only a handful of clones, 41 levels, tons of game modes, challenges, single player modes, cooperative play.
Sometimes you get something like portal that's a finely slice of originality. Sometimes you get something like smash brothers thats a giant heap of good content so well crafted and curated that it hardly matters that its been done.

shout out

A public-as-I-have-the-ability-for thanks to Robin and Christina for watching the dogs and putting up with the mad way of life I've taken on these two weeks. You guys are the best.

barfzil

In Brazil. Busy busy. Learning possibly too much about some research group members, which is fun.

The new Why? is pretty good, still not sure. Though These Few Presidents is amazing.

Album of my life lately, that acursed Tokyo Police Club album. Bristling with nervous energy.

stuff i've been doing

Here's some objects I've created recently.

KatamariI made this Katamari for Chad for Christmas late last year, his girlfriend Mary posted some good pictures of it here. Hear that? It's lovely.

Light Wars Circuit Bend
Here's my first circuit bending project. It started with a toy called Light Wars, a game where little lights whip around these tracks and you try to deflect them. The bottom two buttons were rewired to my bends. I tried to rig all my connections this way, but it turns out the built-in buttons induce some resistance even when the connection is closed, which messed with two of my other bends, so I ripped two of the buttons out and put in two of my own. Most importantly, I put in a volume control knob, shown at the top. This thing is fucking loud.

Basically this thing plays itself, since I've rendered the basic game unplayable, while the bends alter the rythmic sounds. Then there's a couple buttons that make it totally flip out if you press them when the game ends, which is fun. Not really enough smarts to make it a wholly satisfying project, but it was good practice for...

Talking Computron Circuit Bend

This was my second circuit bend project, with some much more satisfying changes to it. Each of the four main red buttons I added does something different under different conditions, and I'm still finding interesting combinations. Once I got it to randomly play sound bites from its memory, one after the next, including answers from its spelling and pronounciation lessons, so it just went "Four. Flower. Nine. Your score is. Heaven. Elephant. Three. Times. Please Choose an Activity" and so on, forever. I'm still trying to figure out how to get that loop on cue. There's also all manner of incredibly noisy, sub-word freakout loops to send it off into.

The knob on the top enacts a slowdown/speedup that really screws with things, though I had to also attach a switch to it, since it also sometimes completely locks the thing up. My best guess is that I'm somehow changing the period of the clock signal?

But dilemas like this are half the fun, there is something alchemical, black magical, about it all, where you're just nudging a system beyond your control and seeing what it does. Also, the light display wigs out while all this is happening, resulting in non-standard configurations like this:

Though, man, this project in particular was really time consuming. It was hours finding the bends, then hours of soldering, and hours of drilling holes, mounting buttons and reconstructing the whole thing. Fun, but I don't think I'll do another one for a little while. Some day I''ll have to post a video to prove I didn't shiteaster this whole thing.

Pig Mask

Some random impulse compelled me to make this thing. I had this vague memory from a trip to Home Depot of this aisle of metal brackets that seemed like they might make an interesting mask. Contrary to the circuit bending, this was easier than I expected. I managed to find a satisfying configuration while just using bolts through the holes that were already in the parts, and that restriction was interesting to work within. Then I primed it and sprayed it down with this stone-texture stuff, with flecks of pink and black in it, giving it a pretty organic look, at least surface-wise. Here's a front view.

Its really a horrid object. I sort of like it, but I don't really want to display it anywhere in my house.

Homunculus Pumpkin
I also found a picture of the pumpkin I made last year, in its final days.

Speaking of which, fin for now.

little stuff

- endless ocean, on the wii, is a really nice little design, really unique. Pretty fun, not amazing, but likely worth your 30 bucks.
- Lost is winning me back over, great first few episodes. I love the new approach to the storytelling
- hope kobe's finger can hold up, so much potential in the lakers all of the sudden
- I finished the light wars circuit bend, will try to post a video some time

Rez

I sought this game for a bit, but 90 someodd bucks was too much for a ps2 game. Now on XBox live for 10 bucks. Really? The whole experience is great, on the level of Portal, in that it's short, but you need to really run the course of the artwork to get the full experience. Fully worth the 10 bucks and handful of hours of gameplay to run through its 5 levels. Great, arty, compelling achievement of a game. Bonus levels seem fun so far too.

back in the act

back from trips, they were good. nectar might be might favorite happy hour in seattle, pretty good $6 pizzas and $2 pints of sierra nevada. more or less done bending the talking computron, just need to solder and mount now.

actually

that toyko police club cd should have made my favorite albums of 2006 list, probably at #6. still love citizens of tomorrow.

good qualities for winning

when i consider the co-op pirate game, and its book of tales, i consider the qualities a crew might have to succeed in a given challenge. these are basically the skills one should have to succeed in high adventure.

recent movies ive seen give hints.

fistful of dollars says you need:
weapon skills
cleverness (deception / manipulation)
toughness (bravery?)
stealth

seven samurai says you need:
strategy (deception)
bravery
unity

Both deal with tales of being outnumbered, whether 7 to 40, or 1 to 40. Your approach seems to boil down to:
-trick your opponent
-having tricked him, fight him well
-when the shit gets tough, don't break

But in fistful, being utterly unable to truly muster the ability to fight offyour opponents, you need to rely on:
1) turning enemies against eachother
2) being tough as hell when the chips are down
which is a strange combination of zen-like redirection of force, and pure american fuck-you overpower.

Also, both have weirdly similar fire scenes.

In Samurai, the group aspect is almost a liability. The protagonists' success depends on everyone working together perfectly.

Do you depend on your allies, or turn enemies into allies? At the end of the day, you need help, and utilizing this kind of strength requires cleverness. Neither is a story of raw power, but a matter of raw will. Both are a matter of harnessing power that you have availible. Both somewhat inspirational from a gamerly standpoint.

pats again

id love it if they crushed everyone. id love it like the everything. but at least they're finding a way to win. as jr seau said, they can be part of ever.

gift

i still cant believe the pats get to play the chargers instead of the colts. hope this gift isn't a trojan horse. if they lose, ill barf quarters.

speaking of the playoffs, am i the only one who thinks R. W. McQuarters sounds like an arcade? i picture a mayor mccheese type, with a quarter for a head, shreiking "hey kids! come to R W McQuarter's! where fun's only a quarter away!"