February 27, 2004
Latest issue of Straight No Chaser
In the latest issue
In Search of Devotion
Inspired and intrigued by the book Monument Eternal, Kate Wharton flew to California to spend a fortnight at the Sai Anantam Ashram in the Santa Monica Mountains.
Japan
Earlier this year, both Gilles Peterson and 2 Banks Of 4, deejayed in Japan and ventured down parallel routes.
Cloud Cuckoo Land
He may have been around since the late Sixties but that doesn't mean Robert Wyatt isn't still climbing musical mountains.
Chaser Posse in Puerto Rico
October 2003, the Chaser crew kicked of their 15th Anniversary celebrations at the second Candela Art + Music Festival in old San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Posted by richard ting at February 27, 2004, 07:08 PM
Reception for BLIP: Arcade Classics from the Museum Collection + Hop-Fu: Behind the Remix
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February 27 from 6 - 8 pm
A reception honoring BLIP: Arcade Classics from the Museum collection. During this time, tokens allowing you to interact with these touchstones of digital entertainment will be free and unlimited. Also at the Museum at 7:30 that evening is the theatrical DJ/VJ Martial Arts extravaganza, Hop Fu: Behind the Remix..
For more information.
Posted by richard ting at February 27, 2004, 10:25 AM
February 23, 2004
Era of Eidolon
:: Fight and communicate with people from around the world in the first worldwide multiplayer roleplaying game for mobile phones.
:: Enjoy great graphics and animated battle scenes.
:: Specialize your hero with a choice of more than:
- 100 Weapons
- 100 Spells
- 65 Combat skills
- 25 Armours and lots of magic items
:: Start a clan with friends and compete against others for a monthly prize.
:: Participate in events and tournaments to win special game equipment.
:: Fight the Queens elite gladiators - each with a personal speciality.
It was a real toss-up on deciding where to post this, Richard. Looks like this could be the dawn of MMPRPG (mobile multiplayer role-playing games). I'll have to dig a bit deeper to see if it's "massive" as well....
Posted by richard ting at February 23, 2004, 12:33 PM
February 17, 2004
Academics Turn to Video Games
Interesting article on Yahoo:
Some of the new questions in a very young field: How do you judge a game? As you would a novel? Should we think up a whole new vocabulary for evaluating games? What do the social dynamics of online worlds -- those massively multiplayer games -- tell us about human behavior?In Copenhagen, Denmark, the IT University has established the Center of Computer Games Research, which just graduated its first Ph.D., Jesper Juul.
Juul appears to be the first person anywhere to ever get his doctorate exclusively in video game studies. His dissertation 'Half-Real: Video Games Between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds' seeks to define what video games are, and how academics ought to go about studying them.
...and here are some simultaneously interesting and heartbreaking quotes from old coworker Eric Zimmerman and Chris Crawford:
"What we try to do is provide not a single way of looking at games but a whole series of ways," Zimmerman said. "We would like to have an audience that thinks about games as more than boy power fantasies."Some in the industry, however, are not so sure that games will ever mature. They fear games could be a dead end like comic books -- valuable as a social phenomenon, but outside a select few titles like Art Spiegelman's "Maus," not worth a great deal of individual study.
"I seldom play computer games, because it's such a depressing experience," said Chris Crawford, a game designer who is building a program to create interactive stories. "I end up shaking my head in dismay at how stuck the designers are in a rut."
Posted by richard ting at February 17, 2004, 06:15 AM
February 05, 2004
It Must Be The Shoes - NIKE AND EA SPORTS
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If it's on their feet, it's on their feet.
Electronic Arts, the company whose mantra stressing realism is "If it's in the game, it's in the game," has taken it to the next level in NBA Live 2004. Better keep those stats up if you want some old school Jordans. Not only do the players and arenas look like they do in real life, now the footwear is accurate. Nike, Reebok and adidas all have presence in the game.
Vince Carter is wearing his soon-to-be released VC Shox III's, Allen Iverson is wearing his Answer line, while Tracy McGrady sports his T-Macs. Nike, which formed a strategic partnership with EA for the game, benefits the most from the additional advertising. Looking to capitalize on the "sneakerhead" culture that has become a huge part of NBA fandom, 40 different Nike shoes appear in the game, 130 in all, if all the different colorways are counted.
Posted by richard ting at February 05, 2004, 11:36 AM
February 01, 2004
Steady Rocking - Romanowski
{from Earplug}
San Francisco's longtime party-rocking DJ makes no mystery of his inclinations on Steady Rocking, which, as the subtitle makes clear, features him Inna Jamaican Stylee. And what a style! Technically an EP, this collection of six songs (and three remixes from J. Boogie, Jack Dangers, and the Gadget) covers far more territory than many roots-ripping long-players. Check "Flat Picker" (featuring Poets of Rhythm's Jan Whitefield), in which deadweight bass drums go blaaap under curiously out-of-tune country blues guitar. "Why?" — featuring acid jazz vet Jacko Peake on sax — reinvents bluebeat with a flurry of samples and a cool, gusting solo. And "Chalice" and "Speaking Of" both send shivers down the spine, splicing classic vocal fragments into Romanowski"s drum-heavy, echo-perplexed sound. The looping piano and falsetto counterpoint on "Speaking Of" make it the saddest sampladelia since RJD2's "Here's What's Left." (Dangers' remake of the tune, true to form, drowns its sorrows in waves of delay that spool out like smoke rings). (PS)
Posted by richard ting at February 01, 2004, 12:55 AM
Beatport - Dance music specific download site
{From Earplug}
Crate-diggers and DJs take note: the launch of dance music-specific download sites may signal the end of pre-gig sprints to the record store and weekends spent shuffling through boxes. January 1 brought a notable new player to the expanding list of high-quality sites — Beatport.com. This slick new site boasts a deep catalog of both high-profile and trendsetting independent labels representing genres from trance and drum 'n bass to electro and downtempo. Designed and developed by and for professional DJs and dance music enthusiasts, Beatport.com features high quality mp3, mp4, and .wav tracks, Top 10 lists from some of the world's best DJs, clubs, and labels, major club and tastemaker playlists, genre-specific community forums, detailed label profiles, streaming flash track previews, and even a white label club. Jonas Tempel, president of Beatport.com, says that "Beatport was custom-designed for a single purpose — to build a name that is really on the forefront of the dance music scene by creating a cool online record store with a vibe." Tempel also notes, "Demand for vinyl and dance music has shrunk dramatically because it's not as popular anymore, and access points for entry level DJs are limited. This should open up access points for people to discover dance music on their own, and grow the dance music marketplace at the same time." Beatport adds a strong new voice to an impressive and ever-growing list of sites dedicated to dance and electronic downloads, a list that already includes such standouts as Audio Lunchbox, Nufonix, and trax2burn. (CW)
