crucial
With the winter months upon us I’m becoming more and more bear-like: wishing only to stay inside for long periods lounging in my lair, growing fat from lack of exercise, sleeping and reading more, growing a thick coat of fur, and spending much time playing video games.
It’s one of my favorite times of the year (truly, I love this luxurious coat of fur). I have many great memories of events of years past, and so I grow nostalgic and often find myself reminiscing over those memories. Most of them involve a small band of nerdy characters who spent many hours and many more days holed up in one of two person’s homes playing videogames, ordering out for pizza and sodas or beseeching one’s parents to make us food and bring us snacks. Hours, hours of my life were spent this way. They were good times.
So, here I am, it’s mid-December, and I’ve just hit that point when I start thinking about those times again. This is when I really dig my NES and SNES emulators out of the ol’ hard drive and boot-up some classic games that I grew up on as a kid (I might even download some “new” ones that I never played in the past); it’s a time when I start thinking about Josh, Garrett and Matt and the times we spent playing Goldeneye, Super Smash Bros. and Super Mario Kart; it’s a time when I reminisce over Josh’s and my love of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, of all the metal and hardcore bands we started listening to at the time–Darkest Hour, Hopesfall, Fordirelifesake, Unearth–and of the tightly knit friendship that we shared; and it’s a time when I think about contacting them, but usually don’t unless it’s to share a “Merry Christmas”, despite the fact that they’re all still in the area (this is what happens when you don’t own a car, nor enjoy being a burden on people by asking them to pick you up and drop you off). However, perhaps I may burden them this year….
This December is slightly different, though not much so. I’ve begun playing a couple, old, PC adventure games from back in the day, neither of which I finished then, though one of them I hardly even played as it wasn’t my own copy. The first is Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle. The second, Kings Quest 6. In addition to these two fine games I’ve been playing absurd amounts of the classic game, Tetris for the NES, as well as a good amount of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.
Day of the Tentacle which was released in 1993 is your typical point-and-click adventure game. In this particular rendition of the genre you play as three different characters: Hoagie, a heavy-metal roadie who sounds as though he’s smoked one too many doobies; Laverne, a somewhat neurotic med. school student; and Bernard, a stereotypical engineering/computer nerd who was also a character in the original Maniac Mansion. Your task is to, using Dr. Fred Edison’s time machine, go back to yesterday and turn off his sludge machine, of which its waste was consumed by Purple Tentacle (an actual tentacle!) who is bent on taking over the world. The great problem here is that Dr. Edison already attempted to send our three heros back to yesterday but failed because in constructing the time machine he used a fake diamond instead of a real one. So, what happened? Hoagie was sent 200 years into the past, and Laverne 200 years into the future while Bernard stayed put in the present, so now of course you need to retrieve Hoagie and Laverne. In order to do this you require? Yep, a diamond.
Gameplay is interesting in that you can send objects and tools back and forth from character to character through time via the “Chron-o-Johns” (the individual transporters for the time machine created out of, you guessed it, portable latrines. By sending these various objects back and forth you solve various puzzles and eventually win the game. Woot!
Kings Quest 6: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow, released in 1992, is arguably the best of the eight games that make up the Kings Quest series, produced by Sierra Entertainment. In it you play as Prince Alexander, and as in most point-and-click adventure games wander the land–in this case several islands–while acquiring a variety of items and talking to various people in order to solve puzzles, and in this particular game rescue the beautiful Princess Cassima who is being held prisoner in a castle. Not the most original plot, but the great puzzles, excellent character design and the humor and wit with which Sierra put the game together is evident when Alexander interacts with the world around him, and provides for a merry, thought-provoking time.
I can’t stop laughing. It may have something to do with the previous pitcher of beer, but I can’t stop laughing. The full version of Sumotori Dreams has been released recently. It’s a drunken sumo wrestling sim. Yes, you read that right, a drunken sumo wrestling sim. There has been some footage of it released on youtube. Video below.
This particular bit of footage was found at Wired.com’s GameLife blog. The full game can be bought for a very expensive $4. Be careful.
La Blogotheque has everyone’s favorite pop/dance group of 2009 video’ed and up on their site. Live acoustic goodies for your consumption, all recorded in hi-fi throughout various places in Paris. Smile.
Here’s one for you below. Think of it as an appetizer. Two more after the link.
The Danish architect group, MAPT have just designed a pavilion in Copenhagen made of unused, recycled (or as they call, upcycled) freight containers. Its purpose to display what can be done using reusable materials to create a living space, it contains an exhibition focused on urban sustainability.
An interesting concept, the main premise seems to be that these shipping containers can be used to create buildings and living spaces, then when needed for their original use be removed and replaced by others currently sitting vacant and unused. This seems fine for temporary, or small public structures, but obviously flawed in the case of creating a home for a family. In that case I assume the containers would be removed permanently from their crypt, as there are thousands simply sitting wasted and unused.
found over @ Dezeen
Above, is the trailer for the documentary, entitled I Love My Bicycle, about FBM Bike Company. FBM (Fat Bald Men) has been around for about 16 years. They started out making shirts, videos and the like, then moved on to parts, and then frames. Now they’re one of the biggest names in BMX, have a line of completes and even make a fixed gear frame. All made in the good ol’ USA too.
I busted out laughing at the footage of that lunatic, Lou Bickle screaming with the Albert St. sign at the beginning of the trailer. Oooooh, memories!
And regarding that….
Albert St. is the title of a video released by FBM back in 1999. I remember watching it many times over, and loving it, though I’m not sure if I was more impressed by the riding, or the mayhem and shenanigans these guys were able to create and get away with. Admittedly, much of BMX, and life within and amongst that community of delinquents involved a great deal of stupidity, as well as much irreverence and disdain for “normal” behavior.
Most videos of the day did not capture this behavior as well as the crew at FBM, that is if it was even bothered to be recorded at all. It wasn’t a matter of it being taboo, or in bad taste (HA! and HA!), but I think simply an issue of the collective personalities of the various people involved in the different BMX “teams” of the era; FBM simply attracted the crazy, fucked up crackpots more so than other companies. Maybe it was some astrological weirdness completely inexplicable, or maybe it was just a virtue of being in New York. I don’t know, but I do know that I’ve never seen a video like it, and I don’t think I ever will.
Ah yes! it also had a great soundtrack:
- Intro: The Lovin Spoonfull – Summer in the City
- Misc Section (After Toilet Bowl Explodes): Integrity – Darkness
- Misc Section: Stiff Little Fingers – Alternative Ulster
- Misc Section (After Lou Eats Lightbulb): Motorhead – No Remorse
- Misc Section: Clutch – Binge & Purge
- Misc Section: G.G. Allin – Fuck Authority
- Misc Section: The Rolling Stones – Under My Thumb
- Misc Section: Circle Jerks – Wild In The Streets
Below, is a short and hilarious excerpt from Albert St. that slightly contextualizes the “I’m doing it for Albert Street! I’m doing it for FBM!” portion of the I Love My Bicycle trailer.
and, again below is a trailer for Albert St., which I never knew existed until about five minutes ago.
I found the I Love My Bicycle trailer over at Defgrip. Muchas gracias!
listening to these (breathtaking + synonyms)
Mogwai – Mogwai Fear Satan
Mogwai – New Paths to Helicon Pt. 1
Let me preface this post by saying that this is sports-related only in so far as it provides a context for what it is that I wish to be read. This post is about being a man, a real man — a gentleman. It’s about giving a damn. It’s about sharing. It’s about community. It’s about family. It’s about friendship. It’s about prosperity. It’s about philanthropy. It’s about love. It’s about doing your best. It’s about doing what is best (for yourself, and for others). It’s about the rich, and it’s about the poor. It’s about taking less and giving more.
Abe Pollin was the owner of the Washington Bullets/Wizards basketball franchise, which he purchased in 1964, among other business ventures — he was also owner of the Washington Capitals, though he was forced to sell the team in 1999. He was the NBA’s longest tenured owner, owning the franchise for nearly half a century.
This is somewhat old news, he died two days ago, but after reading numerous quotes and anecdotes told by friends, industry people, sports columnists and players all over the web, and a story in the Washington Post I thought I’d drop some of them here, I think because it’s good for anybody to know that there are generous, hard-working, philanthropic, business owners in high profile positions. I’m not sure if that gets overlooked, simply because I’m not sure there are that many people that fit that criteria. I think for the most part the general conception of rich, business owners — whether it be sports, banking or technology related, etc. — is that of a parsimonious, old scrooge only and always looking out for his bank account — players, employees and community be damned. Whether that’s generally true, and an accurate portrait of these men I can’t be sure. Perhaps it’s just a dirty stereotype. Based on what I’ve read though, Abe is as much the polar opposite of that as one man can ever hope to be.
“The first time I met him one-on-one was when I came down to interview for the job. I sat in his boardroom here, and it was an interview that lasted about 10 minutes. He shook my hand and says, ‘You’re my coach.’ And I said, ‘I wanna be your coach.’ I don’t think any other interview has gone like that in the NBA. He said, ‘We don’t need a contract, your handshake is good enough for me.’ And I walked out and said, ‘Jeez, I gotta tell my agent that I took a job and there’s no money involved.’ But that’s the kind of man he was … he knew and I knew. He was very special, no doubt about it.” –Eddie Jordan
“I remember when I came up here to interview for my first time. He asked about me. He didn’t ask too much about basketball, he wanted to know about my family. He wanted to know about my children, my parents, my background. We probably spent the first half hour about that before we ever talked about the game or basketball. That’s the kind of person he is. He wanted to know you as an individual. He’s very big on family. He was very, very big on loyalty. And he was very big on good people.” –Ernie Grunfeld, GM
“Pollin sometimes was criticized for the so-called “mom and pop” way he ran the franchise. He sometimes was criticized for his devotion to his employees — he was loyal to a fault, they said. If that is so, his was a fault to be valued in sports today, when loyalties are too often measured by the bottom line. The bottom line about Abe Pollin was that he was ours. He was part of the District.” — Thom Loverro of the Washington Times
“Antawn Jamison nodded at the portrait being painted of Mr. P, whom the veteran forward said worried as much about his millionaires as his minimum-wage minions. “I have a friend here who said to me today, ‘If it hadn’t been for Mr. Pollin, I’d probably be dead.’ It wasn’t just the players he cared about; he got people off the streets in D.C.” –Mike Wise, Washington Post
“His prime development legacy, let there be no doubt about it, will be the MCI Center, which Pollin built out of his own pocket while the city suffered from crippling financial woes and went on to anchor the rebirth of downtown Washington. Though well known as a hellish negotiator, Pollin was generous with his riches, donating heavily to Jewish causes (he helped save the Sixth & I Synagogue, for instance) and, among other good works, paying for an entire elementary-school class to go to college.” –Matt DeBonis, Washinton City Paper
All quotes taken from Truth About It and Bullets Forever. There is much, much more good stuff following the links.
There’s also a great article at the CBS sports website that goes into a little bit more biographical detail.
And last, but by all means not least, the Washington Post has a nice selection of vintage pictures in a slideshow for you to peruse.
