On to the great gig in the sky
Richard Wright, a founding member of Pink Floyd, has died at age 65 or a rare form of cancer. This is very sad news and I wish his friends and loved ones well.
Pink Floyd’s music had a profound impact on my psychosis level as a youth. The voices in my head would not have been quite so loud had it not been for their influence. Rest in peace Richard. You will be missed.
Playing: Rock Band 2
Watching: Weeds Finale
Working: N/A
San Francisco Dragon Boat Festival
(EDIT: This is a post I made a year ago on another incarnation of this blog but I just noticed that a recent article linked to this so I am reposting it here to avoid confusion. Sadly I missed the Dragon Boat Festival this year.)
Dragon Boat Racing is a long standing tradition in China. It is centered around a holiday that memorializes the death of the famous Chinese Poet, Qu Yuan. The story goes that Qu Yuan was so disillusioned by government corruption that he threw himself into the river to commit suicide. He was so loved by the people that they instantly raced into the water to save him. The racing of the Dragon boats symbolizes their futile rescue attempt.
Knowing little of this history beforehand, Linh and I decided on a whim to check out the Dragon Boat Festival in San Francisco this weekend.
The festival took place on Treasure Island, which marks the halfway point across the Bay Bridge that connects San Francisco to Oakland. Even though it was a cloudy day, the typical bay fog had not set in. From the island we were able to get an amazing view of the San Francisco skyline.
Contrary to the typical San Francisco experience, we found parking easily. And were even more surprised to find out that the festival was entirely free. Best day out ever!
From across the parking lot, we were greeted with the familiar sounds of drumming coming from a nearby stage. We made our way around to the front to catch a Lion Dance show in progress. A two man team, one holding aloft a huge crafted lion head while the other lifted and maneuvered his teammate, performed various acrobatic feats, all in time to the beating of drums. 
Throughout the day, this stage would be home to many different martial arts demonstrations. Everything from Kung-fu to Wu-Shu was performed by members of local martial arts associations. The weapons sparring displays put on by young kids was particularly impressive.
We made our way down a corridor populated by food tents and an odd collection of vendors, where a Canadian Pride jewelry booth found its home nestled between Hawaiian coffee growers and “Got Adobo” novelty t-shirt sellers.
Following the cheers coming from a crowd that populated southern shore of the island, we came to where the heart of the festival was taking place. A channel, between the Bay Bridge off ramp and the main island, was home to a meter 500 meter race course.
Each race was made up of 6 boats with 20 rowers, one steerer, and one drummer per boat. It was very similar to the rowing teams you see at those fancy Ivy League schools except the dragon boat rowers face forward and they row in time to a drummer sitting at the front of the boat instead of some frat guy with a megaphone.
Linh and I found a perch on the rocky shore where we took in a few races. It was amazing to watch these boats power their way across the water, traversing the 500 meters in roughly two minutes.
The competition between local high schools was fierce as as crowds of teenage girls, fresh from completing their own race, cheered on there male classmates as they made their way to the finish line.
Behind us, the other teams went through their warm up rituals. Some did stretches, while others belted out motivational cheers.
One team faced each other, with paddles held high, in anticipation of the battle they had before them.
We finished out the day by watching a few more martial arts demonstrations before eventually heading back to the car. Our impromptu journey had been rewarding. Educational and entertaining at the same time, it was a good day.
Click the dragon for more pictures from the event.
View pics from the 2008 Dragon Boat Fest
Fringe is borderline
After the premiere of Fringe last night I am not sure what to think about this season’s line up. If the hype-train is to be believed then Fringe is cream of the network crop for the Fall but I am not sure that the premiere is strong enough to warrant that level of excitement.
Fringe has been billed as a cross between Lost and X-Files. The Lost comparison comes from the fact that J.J. Abrams is attached to the show (and it ends there). The X-Files parallel, however, is apropos. Both shows have a similar premise where a couple of agents are set upon a path of investigating strange and unexplained occurrences. Fringe has switched it up a bit with a male lead playing a wise-cracking version of Scully who is always there to chime in with a “don’t do that!” or an “Am I the only sane one here?” The part of Mulder is played by a female who will do anything for the love of her translucent ex-partner. Oh, and just to one-up the previous series, Abrams has thrown in a funny old man that comes off as an amalgam of Dr. Hans Zarkov and that bearded nutjob from The Black Hole. Remarkably the old dude manages to pull off the most believable performance in the show (that is when he isn’t being used for comic relief and toilet humor.)
What Fringe does manage to do is eschew the X-Files “I want to believe” trap by clearly explaining to both the viewer and the characters that some real f’d up shite is actually going on. This sets the characters along the path of getting to the bottom of the groovy mystery instead of aimlessly going from episode to episode with amnesia of all the paranormal events that happened just seven days prior. At least I hope that this is the intention of the writers. If Fringe falls into the monster of the week rut it surely can’t last. In this respect it really needs to take its cue from Lost.
The real trouble with the pilot is that the characters don’t seem to have a lot of chemistry going on. I don’t need sexual tension right now (or ever) but it would be nice if the writers could have given the players some personality other than “she wants to save her boyfriend” and “he doesn’t like his daddy”.
And I know that this is totally nitpicky but those 3D floaty title cards have to freakin’ stop. They were out of place in the credit of Panic Room (though ultimately they were the most interesting part of the movie) and they are just plain annoying here. Twice the camera flew through the letters and made a whoosh sound effect and one shot had the words “Bagdad Iraq” blanketing a war torn city scape then switching to ground level where we see the edge of a 40 foot tall letter B looming over a soldiers head. Maybe if we could employ this sort of weapon in real life we could scare the Iraqi populace into submission but I feel that it is ultimately just a waste of an effects budget.
Overall, I think that Fringe shows a glimmer of promise. I am intrigued to know what sort of conspiracy is at the heart of the unexplained events even if I don’t really give two hoots to any of the characters at the moment. I will give it another few episodes before passing my final judgement. After all, I watched the entire season of John From Cincinnati and that show was total shit from the first episode to the last.
Writing: Cover Letters
Listening: to Genius suggestions
Watching: Dexter Season 3 (a bit early)
Castle Crashers
I have to hand it to Microsoft, their Summer Of Arcade promotion has been fantastic. Traditionally gamers have found their hobby dead in the water during the long Summer months. Studios spend this time gearing up for the lucrative holiday season but, ironically, Summer is when gaming geeks have the most free time on their hands. Our pasty complexions are no match for the harshness of the sun and besides there are too many bikini-clad girls that we might be forced to gawk at if we had to go outside. Luckily Microsoft saw fit to save us by releasing a slew of downloadable titles over the course of the past few months just to keep us nestled comfortably in our evil lairs. Geometry Wars 2, Braid, and Bionic Commando Rearmed were all excellent (and in some cases revolutionary) titles and now, at the end of the season, comes the coup de grace…Castle Crashers.
Castle Crashers is the second game by The Behemoth and the long awaited follow-up to the beautiful yet obscenely punishing Alien Hominid. The game takes the form of a 2D side scrolling hack and slash in the vein of Golden Axe or Final Fight. Not wanting to appear derivative, the developers also threw in a few RPG style elements in the form of EXP leveling, item shopping, and weapon upgrades. This aspect alone increases the game’s replay factor considerably. I have found that when a certain level is too difficult for me to pass I can go back to a previous board and beat the hell out of some inferior minions until I get enough strength to thwart their superior cohorts. This also has a cathartic effect that I didn’t experience while playing Hominid.
The Behemoth have also dialed down the difficulty a tad from their previous effort (making the game actually playable) but this by no means indicates that Castle Crashers is not without its challenges. In fact, there are some levels where you will readily get your ass handed to you again and again. Brute force isn’t always the best approach and some bosses have tricks that you will need to figure out in order to take them down. But if all else fails you are welcome to call in reinforcements to help you through the difficult bits.
Castle Crashers allows up to four people to play simultaneously either locally or over Xbox Live. This is a welcome addition. However, at the moment, it seems the implementation is flawed. In every game I tried to play the connection was dropped at inopportune moments and it seems that I am not an isolated case. The Behemoth has acknowledged the issue and is promising to quickly rectify it with a patch. Let’s hope it comes soon because there is a certain two headed sock puppet dragon that is in serious need of a gang bangin’ from me and my pals.
Overall, I would say that The Behemoth have redeemed themselves completely with Castle Crashers. I really wanted to love Alien Hominid but my affection was rewarded with a sharp blow to the nads every time I tried to play. With Castle Crashers I feel that there is always a method to succeed. I can buy a new weapon, grind up my stats, or call in a couple of hard pipe-hitting MFs to get medieval on some asses. This will keep me coming back to Castle Crashers again and again and makes it totally worth the $15 download price.
Watching: Prison Break
Playing: Assassin’s Creed
Attending: Weddings (congrats you two)
Salo
Let me start off by saying that I am not advocating that anyone under any circumstance go out and actually watch the movie Salo.
Salo, Pier Palo Pasolini’s final film (he was murdered prior to its completion), is a retelling of the Marque de Sade’s 120 Days Of Sodom set in fascist Italy. Pasolini chose the setting perhaps as a means to exorcise the demons of his youth having grown up in the region during the time of Mussolini. The story revolves around a group of young males and females that are abducted by Nazis and forced to endure various forms of sickening torture over the course of several months.
Rather then give a review or debate its merits (better people have done so for years now) I will instead speak to the importance of such a film’s existence. It can be no coincidence that Criterion decided to reissue the DVD at this point in history after it being so long out of print. The film depicts a society that has corroded to the point where its citizens are no longer looked upon as humans by their own government. Rather they are playthings to be exploited for their leaders’ enjoyment. It serves as a very extreme example of what could happen in our own country if we continue to give up our civil rights and let those in power bend and break laws to suit their whim. I don’t have a hard time at all imagining a few people in our current administration wanting to partake in events similar to those portrayed in Salo.
Pasolini created this film as an example of what happens when a government corrupts absolutely. It served to show Italians why they should never forget their country’s past. And it should be a warning to every American that freedom and democracy are fragile things that can be banished at the blink of an eye by empowered opportunists. While I don’t necessarily encourage you to rush out to watch this film, I do think that you could do worse than taking the time to ponder its overall message.
Reading: The Walking Dead
Watching: Weeds
Walking: 2 to 3 miles a day
Jesus must be spinning in his grave
What happens when you have a religion that condemns pop culture while simultaneously co-opting it for nefarious purposes? Hypocrisy? Maybe. Profit? Hell yeah!
I suspect that no one knows this better than the folks over Digital Praise where their mantra is “Glorifying God Through Interactive Media”. Guess no one told them that Satan’s minions and perhaps the Jews control the media. I mean, haven’t they paid attention to Fox News lately?
It seems that what these guys really are all about is taking a secular product that would cause most fundamentalists to go on the righteous warpath and slathering it with just enough Jesus juice to make it acceptable for said fundamentalist’s children’s consumption. In short, they give video games a godly spin.
Enter Guitar Praise, a complete and total rip off of the Guitar Hero
Nevermind that Rock-n-Roll has long been a jewel in the Christian’s condemnation crown. It is now perfectly ok to rock out as long as you are doing it to the sickening strains of bands that haven’t yet been able to make the crossover to popular music. Give Amy Grant a call guys she will show you the way. Oh and kids if you get tired of playing fake guitar you can always work on undulating hip motions to the greater glory of God with Dance Praise 2: The Remix!
I have long felt that any religion so undignified as to market itself through t-shirts should be stripped of its tax exempt status. But the products at Digital Praise make me wonder if Christians have any idea of what they actually believe or do they all fall for the “If it has God on the cover then it must be good” mirage. Geez, no wonder we have the anti-christ in the White House right now. Nice job fellas.
Next thing you know the Christian Science Church will launch their own faith healing version of Trauma Center.
Re-Reading: The Watchmen
Watching: Delightful Girl
Writing: Side Stories
Do you get into heaven for turning friends on to anime?
Maybe I have been reading too much Chronicles Of Wormwood
After dinner we went back to Wen/Grace’s new pad where Doug decided to follow-up on a conversation that Wen and I were having about anime earlier that day. Wen pulled out his anime box (yes it was a wicker basket with the word “Anime” written on it in magic marker) and we let Doug gaze upon its wonder. We thought it best to take it easy on the uninitiated and started them off with the first episode of Ranma 1/2
Reading: Chronicles Of Wormwood
Watching: Gunbuster
Working: Side Stories
Testing WP iPhone app
This is a test of remote blogging.
