One of the things I’ve always said is that no one should be allowed to enter politics until they’ve played Civilization:
Not only is it a spectacular game that offers all kinds of insight in to running an city, tribe, empire, monarchy, and so on, it also demonstrates just how easy it is to be horrible to other people. How many of you, when you played it, broke alliances, invaded your allies, and generally drove people underfoot like so much cattle? Do I see some raised hands? Yes, I think I do.
Now there’s a second must-play for all of you who want to rule the world: Defcon:
Defcon, which is roughly a simulation of a global thermonuclear war, is an important game for politicians for two reasons. One, it’s multiplayer. Two, you can alter alliances in the middle of the game. Hello, Machiavelli. The chances for abusive diplomacy are just shockingly high.
So call up your country’s leader and ask them: have they ever tamed all the barbarians and brought peace to the world? Have they ever knocked out all of an ally’s radar with submarines before launching a precise tactical strike, saving their nation in the process?
I mean, I can’t speak for everyone, but I’d vote for anyone who’s done both.
Let’s just hit some highlights from a memorable and exhausting few days:
– Standing in the parking lot at Apex with my records, two tanks of gas for the generators, and the promoter’s sister, debating if we should just set the parking lot on fire and leave.
– Hanging from some scaffolding at VEMF on Sunday night, watching a full Centinnial Square dance around to Adrienne Sanchez
– 0500 Saturday night now, playing twisted techno with Caleb at Apex, so much so that someone decided to pitch his sleeping bag right in front of our speakers, and nod his head to sleep.
– Going to bed about as hard as possible on Sunday night at 0200. Good times.
Oh, and by the way, this long weekend is both VEMF here in sleepy Victoria, and Apex Project in somewhat spastic Chilliwack, outside of Vancouver.
I can’t speak for Apex ’cause I’ve never been before, but VEMF is more fun than a barrel of monkeys, and if you even have the slightest interest in electronic music, you should go. It is basically all day in Centennial Square, and then at Hush and the Jungle Room after that. I am helping out with the “How to make music with Reason” production seminar at around 1300 on Saturday. I am then playing at Apex at 0400 hours on Saturday night. I am then coming BACK to Victoria for VEMF part 2 on Sunday, which will be both tired, tired, and awesome.
Hope to see you out. : )
Two new clips have been posted – one is a work-in-progress of a tune called ‘Soft Places’, and one is basically a finished look at the dub of ‘Soft Places’.
Also, I removed the clips for ‘Fightmagicitem’ and ‘Save vs Wands’ – Save vs Wands will be out on Tide Pool soonest, and you’ll just have to wait for Fightmagicitem. Neener neener.
Gabe & Tycho have kind of, maybe, somewhat, lost their razor-sharp edge as they’ve become fathers and gotten older. On the other hand, they tend to strike these gold mines of quality on a fairly frequen basis. Today’s comic is one of them.
One is dead, one is alive. One was Polish, (but wrote Greeks, Indians, and Englishmen) , one is English, but has a knack for writing immortals and Americans….as well as screenplays, comics, children’s books, and so on. More importanly, they both share an uncanny knack for myth and population in their writing – that is to say, you finish a book (or comic, film, and so on) that they did, and your first thought is “But what about the rest of the world! What about the rest of the characters? What about New York? (in This Immortal) – What about Death and Delirium? (in Sandman) – What about Tak and the witches in the east? (in Lord Of Light) – What about the monsters in the rest of the city? (in Mirrormask).”
You, poor reader, are left desperately hoping for more. Isn’t that a shame?
Neil lives here. Roger lives on here. If you read any one thing by either of them, read Lord of Light and all of Sandman. But then you’ll have to read them again. And then you’ll probably need to know more…
I, personally, know that I’m old (and out of shape!) when I managed to hurt my knee dancing around to Shiloh. Well, specifically to Shiloh playing a LoStep track, but whichever. Shiloh are pretty good times, say I.
I was also going to write a long and profound post about the development and progression of popular house music, but I think I’ll wait a bit, as I want to get some useful work done today.
Two more things that I can check off my DJing to-do list:
– Played a B-52s accapella:
– Dropped ‘Rockit’:
…the adventure continues tonight at Hush, where I am opening for the always-mighty Shiloh!
Lives at: www.diterlizzi.com.
Whilst his choice of web design is something I find deeply questionable, I cannot find any sort of fault with the man’s art:
…but this is fantastic, especially the B1, ‘Untight’. Clips are at Juno.
Also, I fixed all the links. WordPress >> me.
