More Sketches

Here's some more random before meeting drawings:

Early Disappontments

Arcade Fire – Neon Bible

Some bands have a distinctive sound so, when you hear it, it’s unmistakable. With Neon Bible, the Arcade Fire proves that this isn’t always a good thing. The band’s latest sets its sights on all things religious, which is commendable for its audacious ambition. Unfortunately, the music’s tone and approach are so narrow that the lyrical content could be on just about anything and it would still sound like Funeral. The same insistent drumming, the same vocal inflections, the same mid-jangle tempo and the same kitchen sink instrumentation that starts small and builds into white noise strings. For any other band, maybe this works, but with Arcade Fire’s patent set of grandeur, monotony comes too quickly. Perhaps it’s too much to be asking, but this sophomore release doesn’t better what the band has previously done.

Bloc Party – A Weekend in the City

There’s no avoiding it. This album is a clunker. Bloc Party tries to go big or go home on A Weekend in the City and they fail miserably. Every song turns into an epic with devastating lyrical precision. The only problem is that the band forgot to make the music interesting. A Weekend in the City is plagued by mid-tempo yawners that are either hookless or simply too distant or too cluttered with self-seriousness to go anywhere interesting. If I wanted to listen to Coldplay, I would listen to Coldplay. By the way, I don’t want to listen to Coldplay, and after a few spins of this record, you won’t want to listen to Bloc Party either.

Quickie Reviews

Here's some of the stuff I've been listening to this/last week.

Boris with Michio Kurihara - Rainbow

So, this is what it sounds like dripping acid into your eyeball.

Albert Hammond Jr – Yours to Keep

The lead guitarist of the Strokes writes his own album, betters anything Strokes have done in last five years.

Angela Desveaux – Wandering Eyes

Sometimes I’m in the mood for roots music. With a song like “Bury Me Deeper” it’s hard not to be. Pretty, gritty, hard luck tales.

Bert Jansch – Black Swan

Without going too much into backstory, Jansch is an old-hand folkie making a return after a number of years. His sound certainly isn’t updated as it’s filled with that throwback feel of 60’s slash 70’s folk rock ala Donovan or Nick Drake. Not that it’s a bad thing. A little meandering guitar and fond recollection goes a long way.

The Bicycles – The Good, The Bad and the Bicycles

Where the Kooks are a little too smart for their own good, but play incredibly catchy pop tunes, the Bicycles are a little too sweet to be enjoyed on endless repeat. Sorry boys (and occasionally girls), but any good recipe needs a little sour to go with the sweet. There’s some great songs here, but it occasionally takes cute to stomach churning levels. Maybe next time folks.

The Blow – Paper Television

Catchy girl-sung indie-rock played over farty keyboards. Thomas Moog meets Kelly LeBrock circa Weird Science. Soulfully bent, bargain basement pop songs by your friend’s bratty younger sister. You know, the one you always crushed on.

Oh yeah...

I did make a non-exhaustive list of things I liked; in no way does this reflect everything.

The Dudes – Brain Heart Guitar

The Cape May – Glass Mountain Roads

Wood Pigeon - Songbook

Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up I Am Dreaming

Shearwater – Palo Santo

Agalloch – Ashes Against the Grain

Junior Boys – So This is Goodbye

Midlake – Trials of Van Occupanther

The Hold Steady – Boys and Girls in America

Ladyhawk – Ladyhawk

Jacob Kirkegaard – Four Rooms

M. Ward – Post-War

Misery Signals – Mirrors

Tussle – Telescope Mind

Supersystem – A Million Microscopes

Mastadon – Blood Mountain

I'll Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours

iPOD This!

I realize this is an incongruous title, but after spending some hours researching website design and eye-tracking statistics, I’m learning that the key to a good webpage, and invariably a good blog, is a good title and sub-heading.

So, in light of the fact I didn’t publish my favourite music from last year (not out of effort, but out of the sheer inability to remember everything I really liked this year, er, last year), I’ve decided to publish what I’m listening to and liking as I go for this year. That way, come this same time next January, I can recall all the audible delights.

So here goes:

Tim Hecker – Harmony in Ultraviolet

Droooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnneeeeeeee thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat iiiiisssssssss gooooooooooooood.

Converge – No Heroes

Somewhere between Noise, hardcore and metal sits Converge. I haven’t anything that delicately plays the balance between catchy and anarchy quite like this record, or their previous records actually.

The Golden Dogs – Big Eye Little Eye

Sort of in the same vein as Hold Steady with piano/guitar boogie rock with some decent lyrics. Not especially special, but still enjoyable.

Misery Signals - Mirros

A DNA splicing of hardcore and metal. It sounds like it would suck, but honestly, this record kicks my ass. Love it.

Insomnium – Above the Weaping World

Like Agalloch, it’s metal with a touch of class. Melodic, yet punishing. Like a fine bottle of Baby Duck drunk from a brown paper bag behind a convenience store.

Eminem Presents the Re-Up - Music Review

Various Artists

Eminem Presents: The Re-Up

Shady Records

The holiday season is truly a paradox. It’s the only time of year we embrace the most unwanted of things: drunken relatives or a seasonal filler album like Eminem Presents: The Re-Up. Surprisingly, the record isn’t as bad as its premise, as long as you discount the fact Eminem barely appears on it. Aside from a couple of singles and short verses, Eminem’s absent. It’s a good thing though since new Aftermath members Stat Quo, Cashis and Bobby Creek bring a hunger that’s been missing from the label’s bigger names. The standout here is the oft-forgotten Obie Trice who lays a vicious set of lines on the menacing “Pistol Pistol.” It more than makes up for the abysmal Eminem and 50 Cent duet “Jimmy Crack Corn,” which features the worst use of a nursery rhyme in a rap song ever, a true feat in itself. Only on the scathing closer “No Apologies” does Eminem redeem himself with a fiery rebuke to critics for blowing up his personal failures (drugs, divorce). The Re-Up is as inconsistent as mix tapes go, but oddly, it delivers just enough punch. Lower your expectations and you won’t be disappointed.

Upsell Working Draft

Upsell

privilege a kind of sieve,

gaps or sieges

score, in the exegesis.

it excises it,

daylight.

stultified

by broader fugues,

survivalist ethos

returns with don’t

egg them on.

hands across

America,

then gradually,

scissors.

married to the

revival,

whose Ohio

had ceased.

villainy can

plateau,

soften than

old rhubarb

all the oil in heaven

won't move me

Sketch Head

Another work-related sketch while waiting for a meeting to start. The notes at the top are my reminding myself to download Tom Wait's Nighthawks at the Dinner for my girlfriend.

Early Day Miners - Offshore - Music Review

Early Day Miners
Offshore
Secretly Canadian

Perfectly suited for winter’s bleak early nights, Early Day Miners’ moody soundscapes offer post-rock odes to the indeterminate grey of snow-covered cities. On their latest, the band re-imagines the previously released Offshore by adding it into a six-song cycle full of restrained melancholy devoid of highs or lows. Instead, the band opts for plaintive drums that plow through washes of pensive reverb white outs. While contemporaries like GSYBE or Mogwai eventually fall into cacophonous crescendos, Early Day Miners strive for a different payoff. Moving from the opening instrumental of Land of Pale Saints to the desolate Deserter and finally into the glowing Return of the Native, the band maintains a tight focus on tone, which underscores the subtle shifts in melody. This propulsive effect infuses Amber Webber’s lyrics “losing you to your desire, in rooms with ocean views” with aching vulnerability. On Offshore, don’t mistake subtle for slight. This brief song-cycle packs an emotional wallop.

You Am I - Convicts - Music Review

You Am I
Convicts
Yep Roc

While they’re a mystery stateside, You Am I are already rock legends in their homeland Australia and abroad. Convicts is the band’s seventh release and finds them searching for footing after a few years of label battles and a few too many public meltdowns by lead singer Tim Rogers. Out to prove they still have it, You Am I fire off Thank God I’ve Hit Rock Bottom with a squall of feedback and the line “I’ve got dime bags lined up like trophy wives.” The band keeps the throttle maxed across the album’s brief 36 minutes with Roger’s punchy verses on Nervous Kid or the chiming guitars and organ on Gunslingers. Yet, among all the hooks and verve, the band also exorcises four years worth of bitterness through slow-burners such as the patently ironic The Sweet Life. Convicts was recorded in 16 days and it bears this mark by being hardly perfect or consistent. Despite its flaws, or perhaps because of them, You Am I’s latest has plenty of thuggish charm though to make it memorable.

Paul’s Team – 1

It’s been a long haul for you this year; there wasn’t the same certainty emanating from this team as last year when you basically walked away with the crown a few weeks before season’s end. This year, your team was still strong; in fact, you’re in the top five for almost every category. Still, Lindsay had a good year too. While there’s one week left, it would take a total meltdown for things to change, so congratulations on a repeat. That’s no easy feat in the land of fantasy football.

Philosopher you most resemble:

Immanuel Kant – your team has nothing but positives to consider so it basically can be said that you are a living model of transcendental idealism. Your team appears to be great; thus, it is.

Lindsay’s Team – 2

I will give you credit because I had you ranked as number seven at the beginning of the year. Like a perennial underdog, your team Mighty V’d all over our fantasy football league (yes, that was a Mighty Ducks reference – Emilio Estevez at his true acting pinnacle). Your team is like the embodiment of a David Blaine street magic trick; we have an idea how you might have achieved number two, but it’s difficult linking the perception to the reality of actually doing it. I guess having a 1000-yard rushing quarterback helps. So does having a surging Vince Young and making a smart trade on Marvin Harrison to some pathetic loser who needed the picks (oh wait, that’s me!) Well, good job fighting for number two and doing it basically with the team you drafted.

Philosopher you most resemble:

Thucydides – you certainly are a pertinent example of how man produces the ordinary world (in your case fantasy football success) without the intervention of the gods. Or as he said it himself, “the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”

Larry’s Team – 3

Speaking of hard fought victories, Larry had to battle it out every week just to keep this spot. As I said weeks ago, it’s an unenviable position to be in. Not only are you fighting off at least three or four potential rivals, you’re doing it for Lindsay and Paul’s table scraps First things first, you should send a personal thank you note to Marc Bulger for deciding to drop a huge game when he did. Sure, he was inconsistent this year, but his performance last week has basically sealed you spot number three. At the beginning of the year, I asserted that you had a strong stable of running backs. What’s the lesson we’ve learned at the end of the year? I think it’s that I’m a poor judge of talent. This team made it on Bulger’s arm and some great performances by wide receivers. Next year though, it’ll be a rough ride if the backs don’t perform.

Philosopher you most resemble:

Leo Strauss – Why? Because it is your adherence to real politics that sealed your success. By acknowledging that Machiavellian tools are needed to function – you understood what lengths were needed to beat out the other competitors.

Brian’s Team – 4

In terms of our fantasy football league, it can be said that fourth place is the first loser. About the only thing you have as a positive to the season is some modicum of pride for beating out six other people. Unfortunately, those same people, who like you did not get any money, will have better picks than you next year. The sliver of a silver lining here is that you have a team with potential. Although they had to dunk Pennington into the Lazurus pool to revive him after every game, he did survive. Plus Bush and Rivers will be mainstays in the fantasy world, which means future success for you.

Philosopher you most resemble:

Saren Kirkegaard – your team truly embodies the existentialist duality between faith and doubt. On one hand, there is faith in your team to perform well. On the other, you could always end up in the same place next year.

Ian’s Team – 5

Well, at least Steven Jackson did what was expected of him. Otherwise, this is a team I had ranked pretty high (number two!) and it didn’t perform as expected. Perhaps it begins and ends with the quarterback play – both Big Ben and David Carr proved to be colossal busts this year, as did Clinton Portis and Stephen Alexander. Those two injuries alone probably cost you at least two spots in the league. Looking forward though, this team has potential once again; with new additions like Jones-Drew and Jay Cutler, you might have enough depth to make a little noise next year.

Philosopher you most resemble:

Ludwig Wittigenstein – if for the only reason that like him, your team attempts to defy the limits of logic by looking so good on paper, but completely was disappointing in the real world.

Dean’s Team – 6

I can’t even lose good. In terms of beating out expectations, my team is second only to Lindsay’s. What that means, I don’t know. My best running back is Rudi Johnson, who only appears to be getting worse. My second quarterback was Jon Kitna, who will soon be out of a job. This team is poised for a another run at the bottom, since I have only development projects for the future and my team’s performance sealed me with a less than stellar pick for next year. Who do I have to blame though? Somewhere in my profoundly absurd logic, telling myself that Musa Smith was a steal seemed to make sense. After a full season to look back on, I understand why I got all those looks on draft day.

Philosopher you most resemble:

Plato – For two reasons; my team only appears half-way decent because I somehow accrued points, but don’t believe it, this team is like the shadows on the cave wall. And the other reason is because my team is about as brutal as having to listen to the Philosopher Kings (I’m referring to that really bad neo-soul canadian band – yeah, I realize this analogy is about as bad as my team).

Derek’s Team – 7

Having Seneca Wallace on your team at any point during the season says a lot. In plain english it means, your team isn’t doing too well when you’re digging so far into the well you’re hitting dirt. On the upside, Drew Brees decided to revive the moribund franchise that is the Saints. And despite Larry’s continued insistence, the answer is no, New Orleans would not be where they are without Brees. Sean Payton coach of the year you say? If that’s the case, let’s make the Bronco’s the team of the year. This team is sitting somewhere in the middle and probably will be again next year – it’s hard to really put a finger on why – there just seems to be no momentum either way – either up or down. By the very least, hopefully Derek picks better defenses for next year (negative four points in week 16 – ouch!)

Philosopher you most resemble:

Jean Claude Van Damme – well, he’s not really a philosopher but he does churn out mean windmill kicks with the best of them. And really, isn’t that really what the world needs more of?

Dennis’ Team – 8

In an alternate universe, this team might have topped our fantasy league. Of course this alternate universe would have Drew Blendsoe and Jake Plummer setting the NFL on fire. Also, the Dallas Cowboys would win the Superbowl, so you know it’s totally the opposite of this world. This insane universe would also have Ron Dayne collect 44 fantasy points in one outing; wait, that really happened! Man that Colts defense is rougher than prison intensity beard-burn.

Philosopher you most resemble:

Jacques Derrida because he is french, and like the french, your team quit early. Also because his theories while interesting have little retail value in practical life. Same thing for your team.

Ryan’s Team – 9

It’s a long way to the top if you want to rock’n’roll. So says ACDC. It’s also a long way to the bottom for this team, which I had pegged at a much higher spot. Well, Frank Gore proved to be a quality pick. Others, like Charlie Frye and Aaron Brooks will be riding the short bus to unemployment. Perhaps they can star in a sitcom together ala Perfect Strangers, but instead of being cousins, they’ll just be crappy quarterbacks. You never know, perhaps Ryan, you could get a guest spot. Your receivers could certainly drop by for a cameo since they were equally terrible. Rough year for this team.

Philosopher you most resemble:

Boo boo from Yogi Bear - "I don't know Yogi, I don't think that's a good idea."

Wayne’s Team - 10

Here’s one team I had accurately pegged. Sorry Wayne, another year of promise, another year looking up. Where did it go wrong. Not sure, but I would guess around week five to six. Rex Grossman started being gross and almost all of your starters decided to watch the games rather than play them: Hurt Warner, Lamont Jordan, Mark Brunell, Kevan Barlow and Donte Stallworth. I’ll give you credit, you made a gamble. And, you lost. Just remember, the promise is all in next year’s pick. My recommendation: go for Musa Smith!

Philosopher you most resemble:

Denny Green: Your team is what we thought it is! Your team is what we thought it was! That man's shit, is deep.

Tales from the Box - Burning Ring of Fire

To name this segment more appropriately, it should be renamed Tales from the white plastic thing sitting on my coffee table that doesn’t work. Yes, I’ve now joined the unfortunate and growing subset of humanity known as an Xbox owner with a defective Xbox.

See, it was working fine prior to around the first week of December. And then, kaput. Aside from a couple of freeze-ups playing Dead Rising with Kevin, my Xbox had been free of issues. If anything, I was mightily pleased and surprised by the quality of Microsoft’s offering.

Not only was the Xbox easy to use and get into, but its features such as Live, were a dream. Where Sony and invariably on the PC, online gaming is a jungle of mind-boggling tasks not unlike a frat boy frosh test, Xbox made it clean and quick to hook up to online play.

So, was my experience too good to be true? From reading online, the answers is perhaps. There was a mighty cry into the empty night from many a nerd following Microsoft’s latest software update. Apparently, this update was something of a covert nature – intended to produce HD TV in the new downloaded televisions shows now offered in the Xbox Marketplace.

Alas, from the forums I’ve browsed, the updates had the unintended consequence of messing up a number of people’s consoles, maybe including mine. The problems after this supposed Dec. 6, 2006, update are various including visual problems (like my console) to bricked units where the little indicator light turns red (called the red ring of death).

So, after three phones calls to Microsoft and testing my console at a friend’s house (where his Xbox worked), Microsoft has agreed to replace/repair/hit with hammer my console for free since it’s under warranty for a year (I only got the system in September).

Hopefully, once I’ve packed away my little white friend and sent him away, I will in return receive either my same little friend, only repaired, or a cousin who is equally operational. The real stress of this situation is that the Xbox was a gift – an expensive gift – and I hate the feeling it gives to the person who bought me the gift in that the gift they got, is no longer working (say that last sentence five times fast – it’s almost as hard as “Scott Stapp sex tape.”).

Conversely, the universe did balance itself by rewarding me with a Wii; but more about that adventure in my next post.

Tales from the Box - Gearheads Unite!

Kevin and I spent the better part of last night, between our usually productive comic creation process, testing a few delicious samples from the box that is the, uh, Xbox.

Dead Rising

The first game we tried was Dead Rising, which in concept sounds like a lot of fun – basically, you are trapped in a mall with hundreds and hundreds of zombies and you have three days to survive. You can basically use anything you can pick up as a weapon. With a mall full of stores and time on your hands, the idea of being creative with fighting off zombies got us pretty excited.

In execution though, the game’s only so-so. Sure, it was fun watching our character peel through fifty zombies with a shopping cart, as well as, throw cans of pop from a box, but it did get a little tiresome pretty quickly. While we didn’t exactly dive into the story whole-heartedly, it seemed as though it would be enough to hold interest for a few hours and nothing more.

The final verdict was Dead Rising is fun, but fun in the “rental” sort of way. Once you’ve played it, the freshness fades faster than a budget can of feminine hygiene product at an all girl rugby tournament.

Gears or War

The proclamations are largely true. Our jaws collectively dropped upon popping this into the Xbox 360. I’m not a “shooter” guy and even less so a “tactical shooter” guy, but this game had me at “finish him.”

Gears or War is graphically the best game I’ve seen on a console; from the minute our character went running into a firefight in some bombed out hotel with couches flying apart, pictures falling off walls and wood splinters kicking up with bullet ricochets, Kevin and I knew this deep within our very souls.

The gameplay supports graphical muscle in a way few games with nice graphics do. My first thought upon seeing the game was, man this blows me away like “Resident Evil 4.” The way characters roll, hide against cover and scan for enemies is top notch. The movements are smooth and surprisingly fast, plus there seems to be levels of complexity getting to know the intuitive controls. When we played, we were handed our rear-ends more often than I’d care to mention; this isn’t your grandma’s run-and-gun game like Doom. You need to know your environment or your likely going to be on the wrong end of a chainsaw gun; yeah, it’s as pretty as it sounds.

The final verdict; this game looks and plays great. And, I hear there is a feature where you and your friends and can together over live on a solo campaign (but sadly not multiplayer) which sounds like good chainsawing fun.

Call of Duty 3

Like the familiar hobo you threw epithets to every morning at the train station, Call of Duty comes around, whether you want it or not. This was the last game we tried and it was basically my idea to rent it because I heard the multiplayer could support some unheard number of people on one map (24, 24?)

The presentation is standard, the gameplay is exactly the same as it’s always been. Basically, it’s the game you know and love less and less each time.

One important “however” however. Call of Duty 3 lets you and your friends play together on one console while playing multiplayer. This in of itself is mind-blowingly fun. Kevin and I took to a map like cat people attacking one-dimensional Stephen King characters in a bad horror movie. There is something to be said about playing multiplayer with a friend where you can coordinate attacks, laugh at your foibles and basically have fun with your friend, instead of forcing them to watch.

The final verdict – the solo missions probably compete with “paint drying” in terms of entertainment, but Call of Duty 3 is built for the multiplayer and built on rock-and-roll, especially with friends over.

Hello Mr. Fantasy 8-9-10ish

Fantasy football seasons age in the same way that dogs do – for every one of our weeks, it’s like seven hard weeks on a fantasy football team. While some teams looked great out the gates, the same teams might be looking a little feeble or a touch senile lately - and in some worst-case scenarios – some teams that look poised to take a shot at the crown are now lost, wandering the aisles of Safeway softly urinating in their pants and mumbling about “the man who took their rutabagas.”

Paul’s Team

My fists are beginning to hurt from the amount of beatings I’ve laid to the dead horse known as Paul’s team – but, hey let’s go over it again – as long as Paul’s team keeps Johnson and Tomlinson, the rest of the team only needs to keep a level of productivity somewhere on par with an overweight Polish factory worker.

Lindsay’s Team

I haven’t seen this many rollercoaster rides since Magic Mountain in 2003. Last week, I was ready to anoint you as surefire number two with the revamped Ravens offense. This week, I’m ready to drop you like you were hotter than a Justin Timberlake single. Your team performs, albeit inconsistently like a Jim Playfair hockey team. If this keeps up, Larry just might overtake you.

Larry’s Team

Well let’s get it out of the way: your team has metaphorically fallen backwards out of the sidelines and torn its ACL in the fantasy football race. Your top scorer, and pretty much the league’s top scorer, is out for the season leaving you with Marc Bulger. That’s an ugly prom date and you gotta dance with him, alone.

With McNabb done, I can’t say I hold out a lot of hope. Ian’s not exactly lighting the world on fire, but he doesn’t have to – he has two quarterbacks to produce points every week, and that sadly, is enough.

Ian’s Team

The older brother’s veteran savvy takes over and Ian shoots past Brian on the standings. For a while there, I was going to leave you for dead. It was looking like your team would end up in the scrapheap of history somewhere between a BETA player and episodes of Little Wonder (it’s the one with the girl, who’s a robot and does robot-y things to a canned laugh track…wait…I’ve already said too much…).

Still, with Portis out I’m not loving your chances to go higher – you might hang on to your current spot but I’m doubtful you’ll be in the money by year’s end.

Brian’s Team

With each passing week, Brian’s face is getting longer than the line up for PS3’s. I don’t blame him. Brian’s team is beset by the inequities and tyrannies of evil men; that and depending on Reggie Bush or Carnell Williams to put up consistent numbers, which just isn’t happening enough. To be frank, Bush is looking more like a wide-receiver than a running-back with every game. When you can’t keep Deuce McCallister on the bench, you know something just doesn’t smell right.

Derek’s Team

Picking up Ladell Betts in any capacity is a bad move – it’s doubly bad when Ladell watches T.J Duckett do all the work while Mike Bell tallies in a couple of scores and 90 yards.

It’s these kinds of gambles that sink fantasy teams faster than electronic battleship. Your luck playing the fantasy football field is about as good as Ryan playing the field, period (ouch, sorry Ryan). As Homer once said, “the lesson here son, is never try.”

Dean’s Team

There’s this song by a post-hardcore band named The Fiction called “Kevin Jones.” I’m not sure if it’s about my Kevin Jones but it’s an okay song, and well, Kevin Jones is an okay running back; that is, when his foot isn’t falling off.

Speaking of falling off, all my momentum is dissipating faster than Jon Kitna can throw interceptions. Suddenly, the Lions look like the Lions again which can only mean one thing: Matt Millen’s loss is my loss. I hear rumours Martz might go to Arizona if Denny Green becomes homeless. If that happens, you can bet I’ll be jettisoning Jones and Kitna into space faster than Sigourney Weaver can say “Aliens.”

Ryan’s Team

If I was Doctor Phil, this would be around the time I would be sitting you down and asking “what’s up with you son?” Not like I really need to dig for an answer – Charlie Frye is your most potent quarterback, which is kind of like saying the Kevin Federline is a potent force in today’s culture.

Come to think of it, your team is kind of like Kevin Federline – not very talented, a little unkept, but has a faint glimmer of promise – if by promise you mean a long career of daytime talk show cameos and being featured in a Trivial Pursuit pop-culture question five years from now – yeah, your team has that kind of promise.

Dennis’ Team

If only Edgerrin could play the Lions every week. If only Tatum Bell could play at all. If only Hines Ward and Heath Miller were catching footballs instead of chasing defenders who intercept them. There’s a lot of “if’s” with this team and that really only leads to only thing: the fantasy football dungeon.

Wayne’s Team

There are only so many years one can blame a system on a coaching system or talent level. A perfect example would be the Houston Texans. They’ve had more than a few chances to prove worth and despite player and coaching changes they continue to tank. I’m not sure what stars are aligned to cause this curse to them, but it seems to be the same curse unfairly wreathed on Mr. Garberg.

Regardless of potential, here you are swimming at the bottom of the ranks yet again. Whatever deity you are currently paying homage toward, I’d recommend a change; perhaps Vishnu or Buddha will bring better luck. At worst, you could go Catholic since you’re already paying penance with your team.

Letters from Neo-Tokyo

Letters from Neo-Tokyo (thoughts on various sub-culture subjects such as gaming, anime, movies, and generally nerdy things I like).

I recently came across a couple of articles that really struck me on this topic and I thought I would share what I think…

Addiction: a strong emotional or psychological dependence on a substance such as “…”

Normally this sentence would end with “a drug” or “alcohol” or “gambling” but in recent years a number of therapists and psychiatrists have begun adding “video games” to the list. Sure, video games get the shaft for a number of things, no different than other forms of media that are usually part of some kind of sub-culture, the most prevalent probably being the holy trinity of comics, movies and music.

The most damning articles you’ll see in print are usually about the violent content included in videogames, not so much for the possibility that games may also (inadvertently or arguably for some games directly) prove to have addictive qualities. From what I can tell, this trend was minimal in the days of yore when games were essentially linear: you plugged it in, you played it, you beat it, you stopped playing it. Not altogether different from books or movies, games were an entertainment device aimed of creating a particular experience until the gamer beat the game.

Not so, today. One could make an argument that the prevalence of addiction and video games has come with the birth of MMORPG’s or other online-functional games. What’s the difference? These games are essentially unbeatable, especially today. In the beginning, the lack of sophistication in these games meant that players could in relativist terms beat a game by leveling up to a point where the usefulness of playing was rendered null. With new iterations of MMORPG’s such as World of Warcraft (WOW), this isn’t the case as often. I’ll give respect to Blizzard for one thing and it’s that they know how to make a quality product – and with that – they have learned how to refine continual content and story upgrades to keep gamers playing. From a business perspective it makes sense. The company retrieves subscriptions fees from its players. The company’s best interest is to deliver a constantly dynamic experience so that players continue playing the game.

The problem is, there may be adverse effects from creating such a seamless online world, especially in regard to a tendency for some players to become psychologically dependent on playing. Further, some researchers are starting to point out that the playing of the games may also inadvertently be creating physical changes in the human body that enhance the addictive behaviour.

The psychological findings are pretty straight-forward for anyone who plays any kind of role playing game – it’s called sunk-cost fallacy. When a person commits so much time toward something (as you would need to do in any role-playing game), it’s hard to stop a certain behaviour because so much time has already been committed.

The other psychological motivations behind gaming are kind of obvious as well; games are an escape. The problem is, with increased sophistication the games become a better, more fulfilled escape. One research paper I came across noted that like any behaviour that is rewarded, there is an initial rush. After time, a person will continue sinking time to reach a “higher” high. Of course the other issue that comes out of providing players with an escape, an other world is that there is a tendency for some to choose that virtual world, over the needs of the present one. In the same said research paper, a clinical psychologist noted it as the “Peter Pan” complex. Some gamers become addicted to these games because they feel a strong emotional link between themselves and the characters they spend so much time developing.

What compounds this issue is that although many MMORPG’s create an online community for social interaction; they also bridge a stronger need for some gamers to stay in them, continuing to work for better levels and rewards as a way of proving worth to others. The psychologist noted that this issue was especially prevalent in people with prior issues with social interaction, depression or just plain boredom. A player can possibility become addicted because the world they inhabit online allows them to work hard and see success; unfortunately, real life doesn’t always work that way.

So, what’s the impact?

There’s a wealth of “gaming widow” sites and although it sounds sort of far-fetched and plenty or jokes are made between gamers, one look at site like this one (http://www.gamerwidow.com/) and you come to understand the very real impacts that an online world can have. In all honesty, after reading a few testimonies from gaming widows, I begun to wonder whether the addiction was truly the “exception” and not the “rule.”

The testimonies are real examples of people and how their behaviour changed due to excessive gaming; plenty of the descriptions are symptomatic of addiction such as withdrawal from society, lying to family/friends, changing life patterns such as missing classes/work etc., apathy, depression and hygiene issues. I always think of these as the extremes, but when reading people’s comments, is happens more than I’d like to think.

I found other articles in the press from ex-addicts (particularly Everquest) such as: http://news.com.com/2100-1040-881673.html. Similar to the widow’s descriptions, gamers themselves describe the issues that arose when gaming took over.

Arguably, the true science is still out there – one clinical test noted that excessive dopamine is produced when gaming – still, the real effects of this test and its validation have not been done.

Like doing anything too much, games can be bad. As someone who likes videogames, I do think there are a number of positives and that they are a legitimate entertainment vehicle.

That said, I think that as a society we haven’t fully gauged the impact that videogames will have – particularly so – with the new rise in online gaming and continuous gaming. As the Internet before transformed nearly everything about daily life, I don’t doubt that we haven’t fully understood how online gaming will impact how we are entertained and what that truly means to psychologically and socially.

Upsell

privilege a kind of sieve,

gaps or sieges

score, in the exegesis

it excises it,

daylight.

Hyundai, Fuck Yeah!

What's this? Random sketches from work. I'm moving desks and discovered some of the stuff I've done while supposedly being productive over the last couple of years.

Random Sketches

I'm probably the least productive artist you'll ever meet. When I could be drawing and creating finely tuned art, I find I'm overtaken by procrastination or the need to do other things.

When I shouldn't be drawing (meetings, at my desk waiting for something to upload on our Intranet), that's when I grab a pen/pencil/watercolours and bristol board.

This has been a persuasive affliction from pretty much day one. If not for a constant need to draw things, I might have done better in all levels of my education. Not that I did badly, but I could have been a little more focused. The problem is, when I get bored, my mind wanders and my hand does all the thinking.

Anyway, here's something randomly sketched while waiting for a meeting to start; I have tons of things like this - I'll post more as I recover them from the paper on my desk.

Hello Mr. Fantasy Week Six/Seven

Yeah, so no update last week. My boss flew in from Toronto, which resulted in meetings for two straight days. Lucky for me, I got all my extra work done at home during the evening, when I could be doing something productive like writing these rankings, clipping my toenails or cursing myself for leveling up too much in Final Fantasy 8 (damn those summonses!)

So here’s a snapshot of Week Six/Seven:

Paul’s Team

Still one point out of first place, and as Ryan’s insightful little site shows, your wide receivers aren’t tops in the game - doesn’t matter much you’re your running backs are putting away four scores on a lazy day. As long as Tomlinson and Johnson are running, this team is going to be hard to top.

80’s Music Your Team Most Resembles:

Like Michael Jackson, your team is non-stop hits. And like Michael, everybody loves you and your ambiguous creepiness – although I wish you’d stop calling my house and asking me to come over to your basement to see “bubbles.” I’m not falling for that Paul, again.

Lindsay’s Team

Here’s a movie Linsday should watch: The Deer Hunter. It has Christopher Walken as a Vietnam era soldier who gets addicted to playing Russian roulette. On a completely unrelated note, Lindsay keeps picking Baltimore quarterbacks with the thought that the Ravens can play offense. Lindsay, watch the movie – what do you think happens to Walken?

80’s Music Your Team Most Resembles:

Def Leppard. You also have hits, but your team is crippled by the one-armed drummer that is McNair.

Larry’s Team

I was getting so used to see you and Brian together on the standings, it was like some kind of marriage. A ugly marriage, but, still. I guess Brian didn’t met your emotional needs because you’ve pulled away from him in the past couple weeks. Still, Paul and Lindsay are only spots in the distance.

80’s Music Your Team Most Resembles:

Your team is like Journey. You are kind of rocking it, but then again, uh, you’re Journey!

Brian’s Team

Matt Leinart isn’t so hot these days. He’s throwing it to the other team’s players like they were a women’s volleyball team. Now that Chris Simms was put out of his misery, you have to rely on Chad Pennington to get you through. Um, good luck! I can’t wait to see the highlight where Lavernous Coles is running and he catches something from Chad. Wait, that’s not the ball? It’s Chad’s arm!

80’s Music Your Team Most Resembles:

Toto. They had one good song, Africa. Then, they disappeared. Forever. You’ve had a few good weeks, and now poof!

Ryan’s Team

We’re heading toward the middle of the season and there are probably five teams all floating in the ether of mediocrity. At some point, somebody’s gonna have to rise to take third spot. Ryan, is it you? Is it in you? Or a better question, why is it in you?

80’s Music Your Team Most Resembles:

Much like a famous Foreigner song, “you have stars in your eyes,” but alas, your team is only a Juke Box Hero – there’s no real stardom in the cards.

Ian’s Team

A better week. You should call up Alge Crumpler personally to thank him. You’d think after touchdown number two, the Steelers might try to cover the only guy catching passes. Then again, maybe not.

80’s Music Your Team Most Resembles:

Billy Ocean. Because Ian, you should get out of my dreams, and into my car.

Derek’s Team

With Matt Hassleback out, I think you’ll probably get passed by Ryan soon. Plus, Leon Washington is not enough at running back. Speaking of running backs, Droughns isn’t just abusing his wife lately; he’s beating the crap out of your team this year. Ouch!

80’s Music Your Team Most Resembles:

Captain and Tennille – “Do That To Me One More Time” should be Droughn’s soundtrack; and, because both this band and your team are an abomination.

Dean’s Team

Um, WTF??? Was there kind of solar eclipse I missed last week – somehow my team is coming together nicely. Even I have to admit, I have some hope for next year. Even, Kevin Jones is in the top ten. The gods are treating me like that nerdy kid that gets voted prom king, you know, just for a laugh. No doubt I’m back to earth next week.

80’s Music Your Team Most Resembles:

Aha! My team is a monster this week so c’mon and ‘Take on Me.”

Wayne’s Team

Having Andrew Walter on your team is the kind of rough concession that admits how bad your team is performing. Trust me, having any Raider is something to be ashamed of, like Sloth from the Goonies, keep them locked up. Also, Kevan Barlow further cements his place as “free-agent” for next year and Troy Palomanu’s afro must be getting in the way – it would explain why he can’t stop a tight end from scoring three times on him.

80’s Music Your Team Most Resembles:

You are like WHAM; well actually, your team is like Andrew Ridgeley from WHAM. Both are desperately doling out handjobs for sandwichs. Only your sandwichs are filled with mayonnaise. Mayonnaise and bad fantasy football players.

Dennis’ Team

How do you spell hopeless? Here’s how: D-E-N-N-I-S-‘-S T-E-A-M.

80’s Music Your Team Most Resembles:

You team is like Ronnie James Dio fronting Whitesnake with RATT providing backing vocals. It has become so awful it’s like self-parody. Just talking about your team or thinking about those bands makes me long for a tetanus shot – in the neck.

Tales from the Box...

As mid-November approaches, one can feel the propulsive rumbling of new systems as though they were a stampede of terrified bison ready to buffalo-jump onto unsuspecting consumer's heads. The date's not here yet, but it isn't hard to play armchair quarterback at this point.

Let's get one thing straight; the strategies of the next two systems are inherently as different as the corporate cultures the two organizations represent. Nintendo, for all its lack of technological mucle, understands gaming culture (which isn't hard when you're in the business as long as they are) and better yet, understands non-gaming culture.

Sony, who's background is made on solid products with high quality standards understands how to make hardware that sounds a new boundary in capabilities and consumer expectations.

Both companies have strengths and weaknesses; however, I feel Nintendo's in a better position to be successful in the next round of gaming hardware.

Why? It would seem obvious that the strongest system should win out the day, but I think the next generation of systems are coming into a different culture than their forebearers. The market is no longer in "growth" mode. Video games are now a major market, surpassing that of movies - more importantly, the gaming market is entering the "mature" stage. Nintendo understands this, Sony does not.

Nintendo, in the last few years especially, has understood that market share is not the final determinant in profitability. Rather, Nintendo has agressively filled a niche of innovation, with games that are inexpensive to produce, but sell exponentially due to the inherent "newness" to the gaming. The first experiment, the much-maligned-by-me-and-then-completely-retracted, Nintendo DS proved that a system did not have to be a juggernaut to gain wide appeal. The DS games pale in comparison to the PSP, but the gaming offered by the DS far surpasses what the PSP is capable, regardless of the amount of money and firepower Sony through into its little system. The stats are the stone cold truth; the DS has outsold the PSP considerably and there is a lesson shining like a bright beacon to both companies.

The DS showed Nintendo that the key to the mature gaming market is not making bigger, more expensive systems and games. Instead, the key is finding new gamers - essentially appealing to the wider audience of people who don't play games.

Looking at Nintendo's recent Wii promotions, the company is only going further down the path it set with the DS. The promotional videos Nintendo has recently released show regular people playing the Wii. The concept is genius. There's nothing that makes me more excited to play a system than watching a regular person have a riot playing it; I'm sure this applies moreso to regular people who watch the videos. Further, the system and game design itself is basically targeted to people who don't like the complexity of current games. There's little adaptation to the Wii, like the DS, it's relatively a pick-up-and-play kind of system.

Sony on the other hand, hasn't learned its PSP lesson and it about to try the same trick with the PS3. The company assumes that the market can be wowed with powerful hardware; as I've argued in the past, they're going to be wrong, again.

The problem with Sony's approach is that they are trying to appeal to existing gamers, an already if not diminishing market. This market segment is probably the most difficult to get full engagement and the most costly since they already are the target of most competitor's advertising and marketing. True gamers are not necessarily brand-loyal, rather they are game loyal. The demographics show that most people who align themselves as gamers, play games on a number of systems - it's the games that they are loyal toward.

The PSP, while awesome in capability, is failing because the games can't cut it; additionally, price played a major role in gamer turn-off for the system. It only gets worse with the PS3. Quite a few gamers were "stung" with the PSP and will be more skeptical of Sony's next offering. It certaintly doesn't help that Sony doesn't seem to have an over-arching strategy to its next system; it's not innovative like Nintendo and it's not properly online like Microsoft. As I've said before, in a mature market, simply having good hardware, isn't going to be enough.

Add to the fact that Sony's online capability seems to switch everyday and it doesn't exactly elicit consumer confidence; what little communication from the company has been contradictory. As a communications person, I am amazed at the amount of dis-coordination from Sony's North-American marketing group.

Ironically, the best communications about the PS3 have come from Sony Europe, who's campaigns have been in full effect for some time; in fact, most news about the PS3 has been coming from the European division. That's especially funny since Sony just annouced that Europe won't even be on the list for when the first systems ship. So the gamers with the most knowledge of the system will have to wait until March, while the gamers who have no idea what the system can do will get it November. Good strategy.

The marketing campaigns, and I guess the systems they advertise, are emblematic of the position of the two companies. Nintendo understands the competitiveness of the market and need to grow it to be successful. Sony, on the other hand, assumes the old strategy; that firepower will win just like it did with PS2. While ultimately, I think Sony will do well (it has too much financial backing not to), I think the company is in for a rude awakening come November. As for Nintendo, congratulations on running a good marketing campaign that reflects your product's vision. As a consumer, I get it, and I want to get it.