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I have a great many weaknesses, but one of the more prominent lies in the area of cooperative gaming.
Oh, how I miss the blocky good times.
I remember, back in the day, that occasionally Blades of Steel (hockey) on the 8-bit NES, a glitch would occur and somehow you and your friend could both control players on the same team. It was chaos as the controls mirrored each other so the defence guy had to be careful not to interfere once he passed the puck out his area of responsibility. It was often traumatically funny, with our pixelated little hockey avatars swooping around seemly at random, the game confused by two sets of input, while the computer went in and scored on us. Oh the angst and thrills of victory (especially over the pink tinged Montreal Canadians). In the same vein, Contra, another 8-bit classic we played to death as it was one of the first legitimate two player co-op games on the home console market. Life was good, but things were poised to become great back in the summer of 1991.
Nineteen years ago, Electronic Arts (back when EA was just another good budding developer) released NHL Hockey. My best friend and I had been waiting for this game to be released for the Sega Megadrive/Genesis for about a year. I can still remember coming home from school and seeing the large cardboard box wedged in the mailbox. My pulse still quickens at the memory.
Co-Op + Playoffs = Awesome!
You see, EA Hockey was not available in Canada(!) when it was first released, I sent away for it, buying directly from EA via snail mail. We got our copy an entire delicious month before the rest of Canada had retail access to the game. EA Hockey was innovative for its time, the first game featuring a top down vertical play action, but more importantly, you could choose to both play on the same team.
Sweet Mother of Jebus, but was it fun! The Edmonton Oilers, back in the 1990 still featured amazing talent and my best friend and I relished making the one timer players, and those oh so sweet cross ice passes from Messier to Kurri, not to mention those wacky breakaways with the speedy Petr Klima. EA did not get the license from the NHLPA so the avatars only had numbers, but that was fine, back then we knew all the numbers for the Oilers.
Oh, Mega Drive, with the crappy homemade s-video to RCA converter.
I’m sure, if I found my school records, I could track the dip in my academics when that first game was released. I’d do it again though, in a heart-beat as those were some great times for me on the video game front. Yes gentle reader we’re getting to War in the North, but know that the road getting from there to here passed through many a classic co-op title – Streets of Rage 1,2 (especially 2), 3, Double Dragon (sega master system), Contra, of course the EA NHL and NFL games, Altered Beast, GOLDEN AXE 1,2 (Oh how I miss you sweet barbarian princess),oh don’t forget NBA Jam (boomshakalaka!!).
After about 2003ish, gaming companies finally got the idea that people like playing on the same team together and titles began to pour out – Soldier of Fortune 1,2, Serious Sam, Team Fortress, SW Battle Front, Counter-Strike, Diablo 2, and of course the current pinnacle of co-op shooter gaming Left for Dead 1 and 2. (I realize this is far from comprehensive list, add your favs in the comments). The number games now that feature co-op gaming are simply too numerous to list here, however it is nice to have your particular gaming addictions properly fed. :)
Having played the Lord of the Rings games for the original xbox (and being a Tolkien fan, pre-movies) the idea of entering realms from the fantasy series has always been particular appealing. As a side note, I always wonder why developers try and take a game based around a successful and wildly popular co-op mechanic and make it into a turd-a-rific single player experience; yes I’m looking at you Golden Axe: Beast Rider.
Back to the LoTR though, on the PC-gaming front not much has been done (well) with regards to cooperative play until now. The Lord of the Rings: The War in the North fills out the cooperative role nicely so far (I’ve only played 2 of the 8 chapter of the game). Like its Mega-Drive predecessor LotR:WiN is based around the singular concept of finding neat new ways to put the pointy end of your sword into nearest Orc baddie. I was leery of purchasing the game reviews were mixed at best. What won me over was the price drop from $50down to $20 dollars. Twenty dollars is the sweet spot for purchasing most computer games, as they tend to disappear from shelves and not return until a “new and improved” gold edition (for more $$) is released later in the year. Anyhow, for forty dollars, even lacklustre hack and slash is fairly good deal.
Economics aside, I did feel a certain amount of trepidation due because this was one of those “gut-purchases” more than my usual “brain-purchases”. Hmm…how does it look?
Yah, okay…I’m sold. It is as fun as it looks (so far). Seeing that this is already some eight hundred words, I’ll continue this nostalgia/anecdata/game review in another post when I have more of the game under my belt. :)
I love choir. The people, the music, the practising and the good stress of being put in a position where one has to focus and do a myriad of things well. How am I standing? Is my posture correct, is my belly loose and larynx low? Am I breathing correctly? What is the next pitch I need to come in on, is my counting accurate? Why are the damn alto’s out of tune *again*?
Very stream of consciousness I realize; but it is what goes on when you are singing. When performing though all those thoughts(hopefully) melt down into just two. “Am I producing a beautiful sound?”, and “do I have a connection with my conductor?”. Life is good when singing if these two conditions exist.
I’m still learning about singing and getting to know my body and how it reacts. The rub is that singing, in theory, is a uncomplicated process. The problem is that we have learned and habituated to a whole passel of bad habits that need to be unlearned so the natural tone and splendour of our voice can be unlocked.
Undoing the naturally wrong way is the complex part of learning to sing. It’s hard and frustrating and I love it. :) But that is just the technical/mechanical bits about why I like singing. We have not even touched the really important features of singing which transcend the mere production of notes.
We sang Libera Me from Faure’s Requiem at the annual Kaslo singing work shop.
The Latin text with English translation.
| VI. Libera meBaritone solo Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna in die illa tremenda Quando coeli movendi sunt et terra Dum veneris judicare saeculum per ignem |
Deliver me, o Lord, from everlasting death on that dreadful day when the heavens and the earth shall be moved when thou shalt come to judge the world by fire |
| Choir Tremens factus sum ego et timeo dum discussio venerit atque ventura ira |
I quake with fear and I tremble awaiting the day of account and the wrath to come. |
| Dies illa dies irae calamitatis et miseriae dies illa, dies magna et amara valde |
That day, the day of anger, of calamity, of misery, that day, the great day, and most bitter. |
| Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine et lux perpetua luceat eis |
Grant them eternal rest, o Lord, and may perpertual light shine upon them. |
| Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna in die illa tremenda Quando coeli movendi sunt et terra Dum veneris judicare saeculum per ignem. |
Deliver me, o Lord, from everlasting death on that dreadful day when the heavens and the earth shall be moved when thou shalt come to judge the world by fire. |
When you sing a work like this, you cannot help but be moved and drawn into the music. Once you get past worrying about singing the right notes and counting (hopefully you’ve practiced and are doing it right) the magic begins.
Listen again to the soloist set the hauntingly rich sombre tone and establish the theme for the piece: “Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna in die illa tremenda…” (Deliver me, O Lord from ever lasting death on that dreadful day…) You become part of something bigger, something more important in which you play but a small part. Harmonies resonate and surround you, the audience leans forward. There is no going back now…
Singing a part becomes more like weaving a tapestry, with you adding your fine thread to the work producing beauty, artistry and to borrow a term from the woo world, raising *Wind Horse. I apologize in advance to my rationalist readership, yet I cannot find a better description of being in choir while singing a pulchritudinous work that enlightens not only the audience but the members of the choir as well . It is sharing beauty on such a grand level, it humbles one and yet, increases the yearning to do and share more.
I’m so grateful and lucky to be able to participate in a choir and I believe that it is an experience that should not be missed by anyone. So, get out there people and join your local community choir, you’ll be so much richer in experience and joy. That is all. :)
(*)WINDHORSE: the experience of raising windhorse, [“Ta”]: raising a wind of delight and power and riding on, or conquering, that energy. … The personal experience of this wind comes as a feeling of being completely and powerfully in the present. The horse aspect is that, in spite of the power of this great wind, you also feel stability. you are never swayed by the confusion of life…excitement or depression. You can ride on the energy of your life. So windhorse includes…practicality and discrimination, a natural sense of skill. This quality is like the four legs of a horse, which make it stable and balanced… you are not riding an ordinary horse, you are riding windhorse.”
This Friday’s interlude is a bit different only because I can say that I’ve also sung what you are about to watch. The Scene of the Drunken poet is not only comedic, but musically interesting as well. Listen in the chorus parts while the sopranos, alto’s, tenor’s and basses play with the melody line in quick succession. Let me assure you, it takes a fair amount of practice to get your notes to fall in the right places. :)
Summer vacation is never complete without a trip to Kaslo, British Columbia. Packing up the fiancee and parental unit we embarked on the 12 hour car trip (Oh, and a stop off at Radium Hotsprings as well) to the funky/quaint town known as Kaslo. It is a week of intensive learning, singing and general revelry. This year, as last, was a good time. Let the photoblogging begin!
Getting to Kaslo from Alberta requires a ferry ride. Woo!
In a valley surrounded by mountains and lakes (Kootaney lake in photo), oh the horror.
The Moyie, one of the largest paddle wheel boats in existence. Now a museum.
Kaslo is a hamlet that sees some rain, evidenced by the mossy roof.
A sample of the flowers at the Kaslo townsite.
Ah, singing central, everyday from 10 till 3 of drilling and singing and more singing.
Our trusty steed and lodging for the week at Kaslo. The local ravens decided that our jeep was a great place for their bird-doo.
The beach was a five minute walk away from our lodging. It was lovely, except for the rain. :)
One of the singers brought her Shetland Sheepdog "Mcduff" along for the week. And as in most cases, the experience is always enhanced when dog is added.
Looking North at the continental divide on the Kootenay ferry, and so endeth our Kaslo trip for the year
Recent cutbacks have curbed my employment at the school that I teach in. So today was my last day. Some days you feel like a song. Today I feel like this…
Greetings gentle readers, it is that time of year again when my professional and academic interests overlap. A nice way of saying that between being a teacher during the day and now also a student during the night, the amount of time I have to blog will be reduced dramatically. The posts from me will be less frequent but I hope my fellow commentators Mystro and Intransigentia can take up a little of the blogging slack. I will make sure the DWR Sunday disservice continues though, I’ve been having way too much fun with that as of late and would hate to see it go away.
Your readership and commenting is appreciated, carry on.
Arbourist.
I’ve researched a little into the topic of Heteronormativity in our culture. It is a big word, but really it just means the structural framework of how we view women and men in our culture and the roles and expectations we define as normal and how these roles should be performed. All fine and dandy right? In reality, not so much. It does not take much to transform gender roles into gender stereotypes and beginning the process of ordering people into their “proper” gender identities based on their actions and appearance.
Being an outlier on the hetronormative scale invites a variety of negative responses ranging from quizzical looks and questions all the way to profane gendered slurs. Concepts like heteronormativity and Patriarchy, if you are part of the dominant majority, are sometimes very hard to see or even conceptualize. It is only until you breach a perceived norm (as a member of the privileged class, if you’re in the underclass you get oppressed by default 24/7) do things start to go sideways. I came to this little discovery point about twenty some years ago for something as basic as choice of adornment.
The cause of some controversy? :>
Having worn a gold rings on my index toes for some twenty years now let me assure you that I have received compliments all the way to outright hostility for a simple choice of jewelry. One of the most common responses I get is “Hey, aren’t toe rings for girls?” to which I usually reply to my (almost always) male questioner, “Hey aren’t earrings for girls?”. Which usually makes them stop and think for a bit as the realization that the cultural validity of gendered practices is not static, but rather quite fluid in nature. Okay, well I hope they realize this, but most of the time they, just repeat their first comment again (they having just passed a heteronormative judgment), to which I reply, “I think they look cool, and thanks for asking,” and politely steer the conversation elsewhere.
Less judicious or enlightened individuals have often questioned my sexuality dropping the familiar hetro-bomb, “Are you gay?” with the word gay dripping with scorn and derision. Does wearing toe rings make you gay? It has not worked yet, and I would not be particularly worried if it did because like most decisions of this nature, first and foremost it is my choice. And I choose the gendered slurs and disapprobation from various sources because when it comes down to it, it is their problem, not mine. I can come to this conclusion precisely because I am a member of the dominant class and still retain enough of my privilege so that my outlier choices do not negatively effect my social status much over all.
Still think that patriarchy and privilege are not integral parts of our society? Push your “normal” gender role a bit just to see, as an experiment, how closely heteronormative norms are enforced, I dare ya. :)
Men are not supposed to do nail polish either. I say bollocks to heternomativity. :)
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Mystro
The Arbourist
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