These past few years I've found myself somewhat fascinated by interactive fiction. I've dabbled with Infocom classics like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Zork and more recently Planetfall. Most people I know are unaware of text adventure games or steer clear of them, preferring more visual modes of entertainment. Personally, I'm a big fan of graphical computer games and could just as easily go on about Myst, Deus Ex or Morrowind. However, after playing through a couple of text-based games, I feel like I've taken part in something unique and special. Infocom's text adventures are astoundingly well crafted. They're filled to the brim with humor, wit and thought-provoking scenarios. Just like great novels, they present fascinating worlds filled with interesting and often-hilarious characters. If you play, you'll be impressed by the visuals created from your own limitless imagination! Well, maybe I'm getting carried away. This post is really about feelies anyways. What? You don't know about feelies? Every single Infocom adventure came with physical objects called feelies. These artifacts were relevant to the games and sometimes needed to solve puzzles. They were also mind bogglingly cool! For example, the game Leather Goddesses of Phobos included maps, a 3D comic book, glasses and seven scratch 'n' sniffs to be sniffed synchronously with the game. So, if you're a nerd like me and find all of this fascinating, check out The Infocom Gallery website which is packed with game info and feelie photos.
SE Exercise has received Garageband.com's highly prestigious "Experimental Electronica's Track of the Day" award. I'm curious how this could have happened because it has gotten no reviews and appears to have never been listened to since I posted it 3 days ago. Congratulations Proton Pigeon! You make us all so proud.
I think I express the feelings of everyone involved with OCR when I mourn the loss of one of music's greatest innovators and virtuosos. I personally fell in love with the music of Les Paul about a year and a half ago, amazed by the bizarre and wonderful multitracked sounds he produced as early as the late 1940s. For me he represents the often forgotten capacity for excitement, experimentalism, and innovation in popular music. He is also behind one of my absolute favorite performances ever:
One thing I have trouble understanding is why country music is the most hated genre on the planet. Ask any group of people under 25 and I can almost guarantee a 90% rate of country-haters. I'm making up these statistics, but, basically, there's a lot of people who don't like it. “It's annoying,” they complain, “It's for hicks,” they remind me, joking about the down-on-my-luck lyrics and outdated cowboy fashion. Maybe country's just not your taste. Fine, whatever. But I maintain that anybody with a serious interest in music or in American culture needs to give it another chance.
Country & Western is America's most singular contribution to the music world. There was not and never will be a "British Invasion" of country music (well, there's Keith Urban, but let's forget about that for a minute). This is not one of those genres we stole from Jamaica or Sweden.
Symbolically, America has always been an escape for people around the world, a place where an "Average Joe" from anyplace can work hard, think creatively, and earn themselves a happy life. A society made for the hardworking, regular people, and not for the privileged royalty.
Consider the early days of country music: everyday citizens of southern Appalachia teaching themselves an instrument and belting out their church hymns in their distinctive drawl. Virtuoso musicians born not from formal lessons, but from pure homegrown devotion to their hobbies and culture. America is a melting pot, supposedly, the only nation on the planet whose identity is actually determined by its very lack of common ethnicity, culture, or tradition. In theory, America is at its greatest when the mix of ideas come together for the betterment of tolerance, education, and innovation. So it is with country music, combining an extremely diverse set of influences into something uniquely...American!
Country borrows steel guitars from Hawaiian music and yodeling from Switzerland It incorporates influences from, among other things, Broadway musicals, Polka/Waltz, Jazz & Swing, Minstrel Shows, and harmony vocal groups. And don't forget about the obvious ones like gospel music and appalachian folk. Even in more recent years, diverse influences persist. The Barry Gibb-penned Islands in the Stream was made a hit by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, and years later reached a more modern audience courtesy of the Bulworth Soundtrack . Speaking of soundtracks, Parton's own mid-70s composition would 20 years later fuel the highest-selling of all time. All of this means that some people might have liked part of a country song without knowing it. Woopsie daisies!
To those who would call it superficial: an analysis of the music itself shows Country to be frequently quite sophisticated. Early on, Country musicians showed an understanding of the expressive visual power of music. Even in the Bristol Sessions of 1927, the "Big Bang of Country Music," you can find Henry Whitter performing the strange old folk tune "Fox Hunt," evoking a chase through the woods with harmonica and vocal squeals. Years later we have a good example from Pee Wee King, using a steel guitar to create the musical equivalent of a spine-tingling sensation.
Pee Wee King - "Keep Them Cold Icy Fingers Off Of Me"
Henry Whitter - "Henry Whitter's Fox Hunt"
The instrumentation tends to be unique and varied - a counterpoint to the guitar-bass-drums-organ(maybe) template of rock music. Country artists regularly include those instruments in addition to flares of banjo, mandolin, harmonica, or fiddle, not to mention the occasional pedal steel, accordian, or autoharp
Bonus Video! :
(I guess this is technically appalachian folk but it was too cool to pass up)
The point is Country is all around us, even hiding in places you really wish you hadn't found it. So catch up to the rest of us and give it a try. It's cooler than you think it is. And heck. It's American, baby!
Can you name a place that old people love and young people hate? That place is OCR's hometown of San Jose, California. This storied town is a hub of technological innovation and the largest city in Northern California. Its biggest problem is that everyone under the age of 30 wants to leave. So why is OCR based in such an unhip town? Here follows part of a three-part examination of why San Jose is secretly the greatest city of all time. Part one will focus on cool and interesting places.
The Pink Poodle - This legendary strip club next door to Babyland has represented the city's seedy past for decades. Apparently there was a gruesome death there in the late 90s. Many youngsters claim to have once ventured inside, but all these tales have proven false. So the legend, the engima remains. Furthermore, the sight of the PP sign is a surefire symbol that you've reached Burbank, the shabby, shady part of town with awesome thrift stores.
Nickel City - There used to be 2 of these in San Jose. Now as far as I can tell there's only 3 in the country. The place to be for cheap NFL Blitz or X-Men vs Streetfighter and free classics. And occasional concerts.
Hicks Road - This pathhway to San Jose's best view at Mount Umunhum is surrounded on all sides by bloodthirsty albinos and features an entry to the Devil's Door - or so the legend goes.
Camera Cinemas & The Capitol Drive-in - Most Californians don't realize what a privilege it is to have easy access to indie/foreign movies. In many parts of the country you would have to drive for hours if you wanted to watch anything other than the biggest studio blockbusters. A drive-in theater is also a rare treat, a dying breed that provides cheaper entertainment with crappier audio quality but the ability to sit through as many movies as you want without leaving. This one also happens to double as a Flea Market during the day, in a city with a great Flea Market tradition - the one in Berryessa claims to be the biggest in the country.
Party people in place! This is the elite hacker, yours truly Mr. Y.T. about to jot down some smooth lyrics for y'all on this blog. Imagine the beat...
I sit with my computer, right on my desk
a bubble to fill, I'm makin' a test
so grab it, take it, just try and ace it
the truth be told, you'll only deface it
so leave my room, you don't qualify
my test's the best, and suckers I'll fry
My record Shock 2 Da System drops this Tuesday FREE track
Tomi, inform us about some cool places in San Jose for the next post
