Wizardry for Apple II (1981) is perhaps the most influential of the early sandbox-style computer RPG games. There was no plot to speak of, but the gameplay mechanics were revolutionary compared to earlier computer adventure games. I got a serious nostalgia overload while watching a youtube clip of the gameplay.
The almost complete lack of a plot was an integral part of the charm of this game. There were no walk-throughs available at the time and every new encounter with a new monster sent my blood rushing through the veins. Like a drug addict, I find myself looking for that same buzz on all the new games I try, but somehow it is precisely all the bells and whistles that make them a bit too predictable for me. Somehow a lot of the modern games seem like a scripted rides through the ghost train. A tutorial level makes me feel like I’m at a driving school, not in some faraway imaginary world.
Shadow of the Colossus and We Love Katamari are great examples of the kind of games that provide a background setting and sandbox-style environment to explore, but still leave a lot of room for the imagination of the player. I wish there were more games like that available. For me, a true sense of curiosity and discovery is a really essential element of an immersive gameplay experience. I’d be happy to hear any recommendations of modern PC game titles to try out and satisfy the explorer in me.
In 1982 Steven Spielberg bought the Rosebud sled used the film Citizen Kane
Substance:
That which underlies all outward manifestations; substratum; the permanent subject or cause of phenomena, whether material or spiritual; that in which properties inhere; that which is real, in distinction from that which is apparent; the abiding part of any existence, in distinction from any accident; that which constitutes anything what it is; real or existing essence.
Cathexis is a Freudian term referring to the process of investment of emotional energy to an idea, object or a person. Although I’m not a big fan of Freud (and who is?), I do think that he is onto something with this particular concept. People do, more or less consciously, invest serious amounts of time in contemplating about their favorite thoughts. Whether they are about ideas, physical objects or persons is really irrelevant.. you become more and more emotionally attached to your “pet thought” as you pet it by thinking about it. This is a mental mechanism that enables advertising to work so well. It enables products to be sold for much higher exchange value than their actual use value is. A beauty product is not only some cheap mixture of chemicals in a jar, but a symbolic vessel of an entire lifestyle carefully constructed by the manufacturer and the marketer of the product. A heirloom signet ring of a family is a circular, metallic concentration of generations of memories and traditions. A special photograph or a letter can be the most valued possession of a millionaire. Emotionally speaking, objects like this are worth thousands of times more than a seemingly similar, but a “non-authentic” e.g. copied or pirated object. Even if it has the exactly same signature, logo or picture on it, a non-authentic object may fail to satisfy the emotional desires of the observer.
As technology proceeds and memories are more and more frequently stored in digital form, an interesting dilemma with emotional attachment is bound to emerge. When a particularly meaningful photograph is originally stored only as a digital file only, are the identical, bit-for-bit copies indeed as good as the original? Will people store and cherish old e-mails, screen shots, text messages and chat transcripts with as much care as people used to store their love letters? How about the cloning of pets and, who knows, perhaps even children in the future? The insurance companies sure are careful to include a clause to not compensate for the “emotional value” of anything.
Cathexis is often a pro-active process. An individual’s hopes are sometimes projected and concentrated onto a single target. It might be their family or a business venture or a piece of art they are creating. The more time we spend thinking about a single subject, the more dependant we become on it. In the film Citizen Kane, the word Rosebud written on a sled is a token for poor, but happy childhood. It is sometimes worth to stop and think over what are the most valuable Rosebuds in one’s own life. They are often much more vulnerable and fragile than you might initially think. If you do not prepare for it, suddenly you realize that you’ve lost some of them only when it’s too late. A loss of inspiration or dignity can be just as devastating as a loss of a friend or, to some extent, even health. To quote another great film, Fight Club…
You’re not how much money you’ve got in the bank. You’re not your job. You’re not your family, and you’re not who you tell yourself. You’re not your name. You’re not your problems. You’re not your age. You are not your hopes. You will not be saved. We are all going to die, someday.
Valentina Tereshkova was born to a peasant family in the Yaroslavl’ region of the former USSR in 1937. Yaroslavl is now a part of Russia.
Soon after starting work in a textile mill at the age of 18, Valentina joined an amateur parachuting club. She was a hard worker. Later, at the age of 24, she applied to become a cosmonaut. Just earlier that year, 1961, the Soviet space program began to consider sending women into space. The Soviets were looking for another “first” at which to beat the United States.
As per the paranoia of the time, the entire program was shrouded in secrecy. When she left for training, Tereshkova reportedly told her mother she was going to a training camp for an elite skydiving team. It wasn’t until the flight was announced on the radio that her mother learned the truth. The identities of the other women in the cosmonaut program were not revealed until the late 1980s. Valentina Tereshkova was the only one of the group to go into space.
According to the about.com article she became a rather influential figure in the politics. She was a member of the parliament and the president of the Women’s Committee. In recent years, she has lead a quiet life in Moscow.
Pleistocene Park in the Sakha Republic in northern Siberia is an attempt by Russian researcher Sergey Zimov to reproduce the ecosystem that flourished during the last ice age, with hopes to back his theory that hunting, and not climate change, destroyed the wildlife.
Russian scientists are restoring the old ecosystem with plants and animals that thrived in the region 10,000 years ago. Japanese and Russian scientists hope to clone woolly mammoths, and to re-introduce them to the park. However, they have yet to find intact mammoth DNA to use for cloning.
So far, the scientific crew has successfully introduced reindeer, moose, musk oxen and yakut horses to the region, and the introduction of American bisons (instead of the extinct steppe bisons) is ongoing. Future introductions include saiga antelopes, yaks and siberian tigers.
Pleistocene Park is a 160 km2 scientific nature reserve (zakaznik), owned and administered by a non-profit corporation, Pleistocene Park Association, consisting of the ecologists from the Northeast Science Station in Chersky and the Grassland Institute in Yakutsk. The reserve is surrounded by a 600 km2 buffer zone that will be added to the park by the regional government, once animals have successfully established.
When general Yi Song-Gye overthrew the Goryeo (Koryö) dynasty in 1392, he transferred the capital from Gaeseong to Hanyang (Seoul) and had a defensive wall built around the city. It was finished in 1398 after three years of work. In keeping with East Asian precedent there was a gate at each of the four approaches to the city: north, south, east, and west. Of the original four, the south gate is the best preserved, dating from 1447. Since goods used to flow into the city through here, a bustling market grew up along the adjacent street. Though the walls have vanished, the market remains, and is larger than ever.
The wooden part of the gate was destroyed by fire on February 10, 2008. According to some witnesses, the fire was incendiary. The identity of the arsonist is not yet known, but a taxi driver in the area observed a male approximately 50 years of age climb to the second floor with a lighted bag and run from the area.
Stonehenge, Statue of Liberty, the pyramids of Gaza… national monuments around the world have incredibly powerful symbolic value. That’s why they are often blown up in epic action movies.
My condolences to the Korean people. This was indeed a very regrettable incident.
There are moments when you want to come back in the childhood for a short while, because there were so many interesting things that remember cordially till now. From our Soviet childhood they are Souzmultfilm’s cartoons, Olympic Bear, planetarium, Sportloto lottery, football at the yard. They are pioneer camps at the Black Sea, horn sounds, walking-tours and songs near the campfire. They are walks with parents and friends at the Parks of Culture with ice-cream, fizzy drink and candy floss, and more — Arcade Games.
Arcade Games were a part of childhood and youth of soviet people. They were made at the secret military factories from the seventies up to the Perestroika. Forgotten and broken down Soviet-era arcade games are being restored for Moscow’s newest museum and now it is possible to play and feel atmosphere of the passed epoch.
Around 20 of the 37 different kinds of machines are now in working order. They operate with old Soviet 15 kopek coins, the hammer-and-sickle emblem of which itself conjures up a bygone time. Visitors can try their luck with games like ’Sea Battle’, where the player looks through a periscope and pretends to be a submarine commander, attempting to torpedo passing ships. In ’Tankodrom’ the player tries to knock out rocket launchers and jeeps with a small plastic tank. The museum also features Soviet pinball tables, ice-hockey games for two and four players, a target shooting game called ’Sniper’ and early video games with titles like ’Gorodki’ and ’Skachki’ (’horse race’).
Welcome to play, discover and enjoy!
Address of the Museum: 7-aya Parkovaya street, 9/26, Moscow State Technical University “MAMI”, el metro Pervomayskaya
This is like an alternate universe of video game history. One in which Space Invaders, Pacman and Donkey Kong didn’t exist.
Comrades, take good care of those treasures… I’ll come over and visit you one day.
Sir Edmund was apparently so shy that he even proposed to his wife with a message via her mother.
In the years that followed his famous ascent, he shunned the celebrity that had become his overnight.
On the 50th anniversary of his achievement, he even turned down an invitation from the Queen, so that he could instead travel to Kathmandu to be with lifelong Sherpa friends.
He was made an honorary Nepalese citizen in 2003.
Sir Edmund was far happier exploring.
During the next two decades, he led expeditions to the South Pole, searched for the fabled Yeti, and completed six Himalayan ascents.
And he became increasingly concerned by the plight of the Sherpa people he had met on his expeditions.
He spent two years as New Zealand’s High Commissioner to India, and founded the Himalayan Trust in 1964, which helped establish clinics, hospitals and nearly 30 schools.
It also supported the construction of two airstrips, bringing in more tourists than Sir Edmund liked.
He continued this work after personal tragedy in 1975, when his wife and daughter died in a plane crash on their way to meet him at a construction site.
Although the explorer was inconsolable for a long time, he found solace in the Nepal landscape and its people.
David Keith McCallum, Jr. (born September 19, 1933) is a prolific Scottish actor and the son of concertmaster violinist David McCallum, Sr.. He is best known for his role as Illya Kuryakin, a Russian-born secret agent, on the popular 1960s television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E..
Although McCallum subsequently became a familiar face on television, he was never able to achieve the same level of popular success as he had done with his role as Kuryakin. His best-known roles were in Sapphire and Steel (opposite Joanna Lumley), as the lead in a 1970s remake of The Invisible Man, and as Judas Iscariot in The Greatest Story Ever Told.
In the 1960s, McCallum recorded some albums for Capitol Records with producer David Axelrod, such as Music: A Bit More of Me (1966) and Music: It’s Happening Now! (1967). The most well known of his pieces today is arguably The Edge, which was sampled by Dr. Dre as the intro and riff to the track The Next Episode. There is some controversy over what role McCallum actually played in these recordings, as he did not sing on the tracks (they are instrumentals), nor did he write them.
DJ Majestic Mood played a really nice set a few weeks ago at Palmenhaus. I asked him about a particularly interesting tune and it turned out to be from a weird 60’s album conducted by none other than David McCallum.
I wrote a draft for this entry earlier, but decided to postpone publishing it due to..uhm.. some eBay bidding activity. I am now the proud owner of both of his 60’s vinyl albums. I can’t wait to get back home to listen to them.
As a quick update to our Balkan tour, we’ve succesfully visited Budapest, Ljubljana, Split and the Island of Hvar. On the last night at the island we met an interesting character. He was a local island man, who had studied archeology and came up with the concept of “herbal tourism”. In a word, he was a herbalist. He graciously gave us a whole bunch of wild herbs which he had been collecting earlier that day with a group of Swiss tourists. Sadly, we had to leave for Split and we didn’t have a chance to interview him in more detailed manner. Split was a superb experience as well. Our accommodation was right next to Jupiter’s temple in the Diolectian palace, which is the most active and well preserved site of it’s kind in the world. It is part of the Unesco world heritage program and so is a part of Graz, where we are lodging at the moment.
I’m typing this at the hotel lobby internet terminal while slightly intoxicated, so this will have to do for now. Resuming normal blog update schedule when I’m back in Finland in the beginning of July.
I just found out that Donald Duck magazine is the biggest periodical in Finland. It is read weekly by 1.3 million people in a country with a population of 5 million. In the 90’s a version of the finnish national epic poem – Kalevala – was published in the magazine. Kalevala has had a rather extensive influence on many different fields of art and culture… Beginning with the paintings of Akseli Gallen-Kallela a century ago and finishing with the lyrics of the modern heavy metal bands, not to speak of all the various contemporary art pieces that deal with the concept of Sampo – a magical mill that perpetually generates three important commodities out of thin air – flour, salt and gold.
During my first years at school, I was immediately casted as Joukahainen (the skinny and impulsive rival of the main character Väinämöinen) to act in the following scene for the school’s end of year party. It was a somewhat traumatic experience to be magically sank into the swamp year after year, but these days I see Kalevala as a great source of inspiration and pride just like it bolstered the self-confidence of a new nation to be 150 years ago. I much prefer a national epic with magic, spirits and interdimensional travel to actual historical stories about kings, monarchies and endless wars with actual neighbouring countries.
I think that there is a tremendous amount of untapped creative potential just waiting to be unleashed in works based on Kalevala.
Vainamoinen chanted and the coat of Joukahainen became a cloud
in the sky. His hat turned to a water lily on the lake, his belt to a
snake among the reeds.
Vainamoinen chanted and Joukahainen sank in the marshy ground,
up to his waist in the swallowing earth.
Cried Joukahainen,
JOUKAHAINEN: (desperately) Reverse your words, undo your spells!
I will give you a hat full of silver, a helmet full of gold!
VAINAMOINEN: (disdainfully) Keep your wealth. My coffers overflow.
He chanted again, and Joukahainen sank to his chest.
JOUKAHAINEN: Reverse your words, undo your spells! I will give
you fields for plowing, meadows for pasture!
VAINAMOINEN: Keep your land. My farm stretches beyond sight.
He chanted again, and Joukahainen sank to his chin.
JOUKAHAINEN: Reverse your words, undo your spells! I will tell
you of the fairest woman, the finest maiden!
Vainamoinen stopped his chant.
JOUKAHAINEN: She is lovely Aino, maiden of Northland, daughter
of age-old Louhi. She’s called a blossom sweet to smell, a fruit ripe
to pluck. Her fame spreads far, the suitors gather. But no proposal
has she smiled on, no suitor given the nod.
Then Vainamoinen chanted again. He reversed his words, undid his
spells. Joukahainen rose from the marshy ground, up from the
swallowing earth.
The cloud became again his coat. The water lily turned back to a
hat, the snake to a belt.
The log became again his sleigh. The boulder turned back to a horse,
the reed to a whip.
The lightning became again his sword. The rainbow turned back to a crossbow,
the hawks to arrows.
The young man wept in shame. The old man raced for home.
The final resting place for Bruce Lee and his son Brandon Lee, photographed by Dwyatt1
“If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.”
Smokey the Bear web site has an inspiring Museum section.
The campaign is the longest running public service campaign in history. Tv infomercials have a long tradition of using motion graphics and animation to convey their message. It is interesting to explore the various visual styles and approaches to the subject over the decades.
The flash intro of the site is a little spooky. As several horror movies have demonstrated to us, you can turn almost anything a little spooky by combining it with a children’s rhyme. The intro reminds me of Twin Peaks and the first poster of the museum reading “Death Rides The Forest”. Quite different from the 70’s Remember, there are babes in the forest poster. The new flash intro is a re-using a visual idea from a 1972 tv spot though.
The TV & Radio section of the museum has radio ads by celebrities and artists such B.B. King, Grateful Dead, Cheech & Chong and Dr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy). Ripe for sampling.
M.A.Numminen, the legendary figure in Finnish underground (and also popular) music and culture since the 60’s, is known for his need and ability to always move forward and seek new dimensions and ways for expression.
In 2003 he came up with an idea for a new band: M.A.N. Scratch Band, which consisted of keyboardist Pedro Hietanen (his long term accompanion and a member of the legendary prog rockers Wigwam), young jazz cats Olavi Louhivuori (Ilmiliekki Quartet, Oddarrang…) on drums and Lasse Lindgren (Severi Pyysalo Band etc.) on bass and Santeri Vuosara as Dj Sane on turntables. M.A.N. Scratch Band played Numminen’s greatest hits with a groovy, jazzy and sometimes quite strange touch. Sane had a stack of original M.A.N. vinyl records that he used to add scratches and effects on top of the band’s playing.
The friendly neighbourhood club Musik Kiosk had a night of Finnish Tango on Sunday. As a strange conincidence I stumbled upon Myspace page of another Finnish gift to the music lovers of the world… M.A. Numminen. Needless to say, I am not surprised at all that he has recently released an album of poems by Heinrich Heine.
Other recent cultural delights include a Mozart concert at Musik Verein and a visit to the Spanish Riding School. To ensure an overdose of high culture, we booked tickets to Wagner’s last music opera, Parsifal.
Look at those incredible rays of light. What are they? Laser beams from an alien mothership? Angels crying in the heavens above? A photo manipulation study in Photoshop?
The most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated, the 50 megaton Tsar Bomba, was designed to destroy an entire city even if dropped 10 kilometers from it’s center. Tsar Bomba was tested in Novaya Zemlya in 1961. That’s a couple of thousands of kilometers away from Finland but reportedly some windows were broken here as well.
The MIRVS like the Peacekeepers pictures above are designed to “carpet” an area and to result in greater ground damage.
The concept of containment springs up from the idea that isolation will lead to stagnation. In earlier times, containment was followed as a tactic, rather than a strategy or a policy. Laying a passive siege to a castle where a powerful or influential lord resided, and cutting off supply lines, was a form of containment. This made the lord helpless, as his tactical ability was limited with only a few soldiers at his command.
A secretive group of 13 or 14 Christians called the Second Coming Project propose to obtain a small sample of DNA from the shroud or from a relic that people believe can be traced to Yeshua of Nazareth’s (Jesus Christ’s) body. They propose to clone Yeshua by taking the ovum from a woman, removing her DNA and replacing it with the DNA obtained from a relic. If the fertilized ovum successfully divides, it would be implanted in the womb of a woman and hopefully result in a birth nine months in the future. They targeted 2001-DEC-25 as the date of birth, even though there is a consensus among Christian theologians that Yeshua was born circa 4 to 7 BCE, probably in the fall. There are obstacles to this project. There is no consensus among the scientific and religious communities that Yeshua’s DNA is present on any relic or artifact. There is no assurance that DNA that has been in existence for two millennia can be made to replicate. Bill Merrell, vice president of convention relations for the Southern Baptist Convention, said that this effort is “the height of foolhardiness,” “the highest silliness in the category of neither science nor religion” and “perfectly reprehensible.” The project appears to be founded on the belief that Yeshua is the son of God and that this condition was determined by his DNA. Thus, a cloned version of Yeshua would also have divine status. In essence, they would be creating a God — a fourth member of the Trinity.
2 The project apparently failed, because there was no further information in the media.
I personally believe that cloning and genetic manipulation will be as commonplace as aspirin and band aid within a hundred years or so. That is, if we don’t manage to blow the entire planet up before that.
Compiled From:
Breakaway
Ring Around The Moon
Another Time, Another Place
Background
This movie was edited from three episodes to launch the series in Italy. The poster shows astronauts fighting; the spacesuits are white. This scene was not in the movie. It was subsequently released to Italian video.
Music
The title music and incidental themes are by famed composer Ennio Morricone (A Fistful of Dollars, Once Upon A Time In America). Most of the music is random tonalities, but it becomes more lyrical during the return to Earth sequences.
Yes, yet another post related to space exploration! It must the Christmas that’s approaching ever so quickly (and those clever Swedes that made it space before us, dammit) that is inducing these fantasies about unexplored frontiers.
I still can’t believe that I missed the Ennio Morricone concert in Hammersmith Apollo while I was practically there… just a few tube stations away. The 50 pound ticket price seemed too steep at the time, but after I saw what eating out and living cost over there, it seems like a bargain now.
He is already 78.. I hope Lady Fate will grant me with one more chance to hear the master before he passes on to the eternal hunting grounds.
