January 28, 2008

Wii

Wow. Wii has consumed me. I have spent many of my available hours playing Wii since it arrived last week. It brings me back to the first days I owned a Sega Master System and could not be satiated in my thirst for video games. I kept up for a few years with a Sega Genesis and Nintendo 64, but lost my fire sometime after 007: Goldeneye... until now. This revolutionary gaming experience is a new dimension in interactive media and makes playing feel real with its use of movement-sensing hand controllers. Wii Sports is a complilation of five basic events including golf, tennis, baseball, bowling and boxing, and each sport requires the general motion of swinging a club, racquet, bat, ball or your fist to compete. Mario lives on in Super Mario Galaxy, which maintains the same adventure theme of the original NES version, but in an incredibly complex M.C. Escheresque world that reveals itself as you play... And then there is Guitar Hero, which I would have to say stands alone as my favorite game in history. Strap on a guitar interface and play along with the greatest rock songs of the past 40 years. It brings musical interactivity to the masses and changes the way we experience music. Its kin, Rock Band, takes the concept even further, adding drums and vocals to the mix. Four friends, unaccustomed to playing real instruments, can jam and feel the joy of making beautiful music together.

January 21, 2008

MLK Weekend

What a great few days I had this long weekend to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. On Friday, Alaina and I drove to our old stomping grounds in Middlebury, VT to visit my sister on her birthday. It seems like only yesterday (actually almost 8 years ago) that I graduated from that school, and despite being 30 now, I can still knock 'em down playing Beirut! We spent Saturday on the slopes on Sugarbush...

Saturday night on campus was a performance by Girl Talk, who put on one of the best and most unique DJ shows I've ever seen; rather than mix one song into the next, his computer-based set consists of overlapping elements from many different songs, a funky 70's drum break, mixed with Elton John piano chords and topped off with Biggie Smalls lyrics. It is a highly innovative approach to making music with other artists' samples. He has a great ear for the mix and layers them together brilliantly, keeping the beat steady throughout the odyssey to the delight of the dancefloor, which grew onto the stage and engulfed Girl Talk (a.k.a Greg Gillis). It was similar to Dan Deacon's performance I witnessed on Halloween, where the performer and crowd become one, eliminating the fourth wall and the unnecessary dichotomy that has existed since music beacame a commodity.

Sunday was Championship Day in the NFL, and I was on hand in Foxboro to watch the Patriots win their 18th straight game and advance to the Super Bowl. Their opponent will be the New York Giants, who have shocked everyone with their playoff victories. Will they produce a little more magic and beat the Pats on February 3? It would be crushing to come this close to a perfect season and fall, but it remains a possibilty. My brain allows for the rational scenario of a loss, but my heart does not: The Patriots will complete this dream season in the only way they know how, going down in history as the the most dominant team ever.

January 13, 2008

Rodney Harrison picks off a pass to seal the win for The Patriots!

In Foxboro last night for the team's 17th consecutive victory, I am reminded of all that I love about this game and this team. The outcome of any sporting event is always unknown and the suspense can be heavy at times, but when your chosen representative on the field earns a victory, the reward is great. Intoxicating. Where else am I allowed to scream my head off and cheer euphorically in the company of 60,000 other like-minded individuals? Sadly, my dad was unable to be at the game, but he was on the phone with me when this play occurred. It brings people together and makes us feel good, especially if we are fans of The New England Patriots!

The view from my home...

January 11, 2008

There Will Be Blood

Daniel Day Lewis is INTENSE. He is such a commanding force his eyes seem to penetrate through the screen like it were 3D. He plays an oil prospector at the turn of the century, and the film follows his rise in the industry. It is the beginning of the blood for oil story that we still read about every day: Oil is power and power corrupts; violence ensues. Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead delivers a unique score and the movie feels like nothing else I've ever seen.

January 9, 2008

2008!

Welcome to Supergood ORG 2008! It's gonna be a party! I just got back from a great Mexican Fiesta in Sayulita to celebrate Barry Buckland's 60th Birthday. Wanna see a photo? Believe it or not, this is the first photo that has appeared on this site in its seven year existence. There is, of course, hours of video footage, but it never occured to me that I have never shown a photo until now. It is one of those many little surprises you will encounter here as we march on towards 2009...

Another surprise we will encounter is our country's first African-American president. What a beautiful day it will be when Barack Obama is elected president of our nation. I believe in his vision of change completely. Our country has the potential to be the greatest democracy of all-time, way better than Athens or Rome, if we can focus on the right foundations; not the Right foundations, which favor the use of guns and power to grow rich at the expense of the weak, but the RIGHT foundations, which foster equality for all. Over the past seven years the Bush Administration has done everything possible to infuriate me and counter my every intuition of how a government should act. Let those days be over. I believe there is a candidate for president that would make every decision that I would. It's not even that hard, if you just make GOOD decisions. He will be the leader who ends the endless war in Iraq, brings us universal healthcare, and makes the environment a legitimate priority.

The only question is: can we as a voting population make a GOOD decision?