Miles Davis - Nefertiti

Whoever posted this song to Youtube used the wrong album cover - that's 1958's Round About Midnight.  Ah, well.  Nefertiti is one of the great albums by Miles' Second Great Quintet, featuring Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams.  I love all six studio albums they made as a unit, and it's some of the finest 1960s jazz ever recorded.

For frustrated jazz fans who felt betrayed by Miles' evolution into electric music, fusion and funk, the Second Great Quintet holds a special appeal.  But I think on this period in Miles Davis career, we can all agree.  This is a brilliant song on a spectacular album.  I'm very glad I was able to find a "360" press on vinyl.  The sound is tremendous, full and deep and very melodic.  This digital version on Youtube is great, but just cannot compete with the original analog.

Todd's Adventures in Slime World - Some Screenshots

 

 

Here are some screenshots from another one of my all-time favorite videogames, Todd's Adventures in Slime World, designed by Epyx for the Atari Lynx.  It's atmospheric, underground caverns were endlessly pulsing, gurgling, breathing.  There was nothing else like it before or since, and it's a smashing great time.

The gameplay of Slime World essentially beat Super Metroid to the punch by several years, yet the focus is squarely on exploration and survival.  The most legendary feature is multiplayer deathmatch for up to eight players.  There were a lot of deathmatch games on Lynx, and all of which predated Doom.  Too bad everyone else you knew had Gameboys.  Multiplayer Lynx remains of the lost Holy Grails of video games.

I can't remember if I posted these screenshots years ago, but I've always been proud of them.  They were snapped on the Handy emulator on my PC.

Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer (GBA) - Some Screenshots

 

 

 

 

 

I'm porting thsi review from my old arts website, DanielThomas.org.  I think I was playing around with Visualboy Advance here and there, and remembered how much I loved Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer on Gameboy Advance.  It was just about my favorite game for the handheld, and the only title in the "extreme sports" genre to really succeed on the Advance.

Isn't it strange how this genre just upped and died?  I'm not surprised to see the Tony Hawk series run into the ground (only the first two Pro Skaters were classic).  But why no other games in 2009?  What's the deal on that?   In any case, here is one of the greatest examples of the genre.  The animation of the surfers is impeccably smooth, and the rolling waves remain a dazzling visual feast.  This water on this Advance version is better than the Playstation 2 and XBox!  The console versions used smooth polygon graphics that felt wholly out of place, just flat and awful.  I suspect that's why Kelly Slater was overlooked as a game.

Meanwhile, Hot Gen Studios created a modern masterpiece on the Gameboy Advance, and I daresay barely anybody ever noticed.  It's a shame, a real shame.  This is one of the finest sports video games ever made.  Oh, how I wish a sequel could have been made, but the studio, like so many small studios at the time, went under for good.


Anyway, enjoy these screenshots that I snapped back in 2003.  I was so proud of myself for capturing such great action shots.  Feel free to steal whatever you want.

Videogame Classics - Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer

April 14, 2003

Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer

Hot Gen Studios

Gameboy Advance

2002

One of my favorite games from the late, great Atari Lynx was California Games. This was the best version of any of Epyx's sports games, offering extreme sports before they became "extreme" sports. The best of the lot was surfing, which allowed you to swim a surfboard across an ever-tumbling wave, cutting turns and performing stunts, all the while looking cool. The animation of the water was amazingly fluid, and the thrill of spinning 360's over the waves was untouched.

What the Gameboy Advance really needs are more of the fast arcade-style games that made the Lynx so cool. I was thinking of this as I started up Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer. I missed the game when it debuted on the consoles, so I can't say how accurately it captures the feel of surfing, or if its 3D environments recreate that old California Games thrill. But on the Advance, Kelly Slater delivers. It delivers magnificently.

I consider the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series to be among the finest videogames ever made, with its brilliant mix of action, sport, stunt work; the game was a witches brew of different genres, distilled into the perfect depiction of skate culture. This formula, for some reason, hasn't worked as well with other sports; other games may capture the control scheme or the scoring system, but not the spirit. You don't understand what its like to snowboard, or ride a bike. You only know you're playing Tony Hawk in a new suit.

That's fine, but where's the connection? Where's the spirit? Kelly Slater has that spirit, that spark that feels familiar and is yet unique. This may be the first game since Tony Hawk to get everything perfectly right.

Playing through the game, you are introduced to the wealth of tricks, turns, spins, and waves found in surfing. I have to admit that I expected the same wall of water, but I was wrong; the many different beaches carry their own feel and style. On some beaches, the waves are tall and wide, others shallow and swift. Waves crash left-to-right or right-to-left, in daytime and sunset. Surfing in each beach requires different skills; what works at Trestles won't work at Mundaka; if anything, your progress relies on the depth of your skills. You will only win championships if you keep learning.

The temptation is certainly there to dismiss Kelly Slater as one unending half-pipe, but this is just ignorance. Those willing to invest the time will discover a wealth of skills and techniques; how easy is it to dismiss those surfer bums without spending a minute in their shoes? These boys and girls are smarter than you think. Just like skateboarding, you have to learn a whole new vocabulary - carves, snaps, slides, arials, rotations, grabs, floaters. One of this game's absolutely essential functions is the tutorial mode, where you must learn how to perform all these wonderful maneuvers. And these skills will come into play as you progress. In addition to the tournaments, there are challenges on every beach: score a set amount of points, perform a series of tricks, pull off specific combos.

Hot Gen Studios was put in charge of the Advance version of Kelly Slater, and they have poured amazing results out of the hardware. Gameboy Advance is often derided as a portable Super Nintendo, but I think that's unfair. Its power to render 3D polygons is limited, but its ability to paint two-dimensional landscapes is arguably without peer. Observe the beautiful motion of the waves, the effect of sunlight reflecting on the oceans, the way the waves crash as they finally hit land (here, a time limit makes sense). As fluid as California Games on the Lynx was, those graphics suddenly seem outdated, terribly outdated by comparison. This may be the best depiction of water I've seen in a videogame. The modern consoles make much about their ability to render water, but it still isn't perfect; you still feel like you're looking at Jell-O instead of water. 3D worlds may be hip, but hip only goes so far.

Kelly Slater shows that, in the right hands, there is life in the two-dimensional videogame, and that polygons and sprites can mix (the surfers are smoothly rendered in polygons). It also shows the fun to be had in fast-paced, arcade thrills and the never-ending quest for that high score. This style didn't have to go away because the Playstation showed up. Great videogames don't have to be dictated by marketing; they can define for themselves what's hip.

NASA Global Temperatures - Summer 2009

This chart comes from NASA, who clearly know nothing about, like, science an' stuff.  So clearly this means global warming is, like, all fake, an' stuff.

Okay, now, for the less stupid, notice that blue patch over the continental United States?  That means it was cold this summer.  Now take a look at the rest of the map.  This is what NASA likes to call the rest of the world.  Global temperatures from June to August 2009 were the second-hottest on record.  Also, the temperatures for the world's oceans reached an all-time high this summer.

And you will notice the hottest reds occur at the poles.  This correlates to global warming theory, which predicts that climate change will be most affected at the poles.  The temperature at the equator may only raise 1 degree Celcius, but at the North Pole, it's 6 degrees.

The obvious conclusion, then, is that Rush Limbaugh and Fox News are right, and global warming is a hoax.  Because, um, science said so.  And the earth is really cooling.

I like money.

Climate Change Will Melt the Snows of Mt. Kilimanjaro in 20 Years

Gee, it's a good thing global warming is a hoax, right? La la la la...

The vast ice fields of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania are melting at a faster pace than at any time over the past 100 years and at this rate they will be gone completely within two decades or even earlier according to one of the world's leading glaciologists.

A team led by Professor Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University said that the latest assessment of Kilimanjaro's famous ice cap has confirmed that 85 per cent of the ice that covered the mountain in 1912 has been lost, and 26 per cent of the ice that was there in 2000 is now gone.

I like money.

Republicans Want Your Children to Die

Hmm, that's a bit harsh of a headline.  Then again, maybe not.

There are going to be consequences for Republican obstruction against any efforts to tackle global warming.  They may have suckered the stupids in this Idiocracy to laugh away climate change as a hoax, but reality cannot be wished away.  They are condemning your grandchildren to a horrific future and time is dangerously short.

Speaking of Idiocracy, when I read through the comments to this Guardian UK story on Al Gore's new book, I'm immediately reminded of that movie.  I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth - Classic Gaming Returns

Konami's newest Castlevania is coming to Nintendo Wii, and it's a real surprise for us oldskool gamers.  Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth points back to the first of three Gameboy titles from 1989.  That game was one of Gameboy's real standouts; I can't tell you how frustrated I was that Atari Lynx had nothing that could compete.

This Castlevania is a pure throwback to the original NES and Super NES titles, which is a terrific thrill.  Castlevania once defined retro games - atmospheric, visually dazzling, unforgettable music, and devilishly hard.  Video games were generally much harder back then, and Konami took special joy in punishing us kids.  Heh heh.

It's a bit ironic that the Castlevania series ran out of steam, only to be spectacularly revived with Symphony of the Night.  Since then, every title in the series - six games on Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS - has simply rehashed the formula, until the formula became stale once again.  Now Konami is bringing the series back to its arcade roots.

Castlevania needs to be cool again.  Maybe it's time for a retro rebirth.  I'm just happy to be playing classic action-centered Castlevania again.  And I expect the game to be hard, brutally hard.  All of the post-Symphony games were so easy it was embarrassing.  You shouldn't be expected to just walk through one end of Dracula's castle to the next without breaking a sweat.  The "hard mode" on Days of Ruin (the first DS title and the handheld's best) was genuinely tough at times, but you still had to waltz through normal mode first.

It really doesn't appear that Castlevania Rebirth is a direct remake of the original Gameboy Castlevania.  The one thing that's retained are the fireballs that you hurl from your whip.  I always liked that feature, although it could make things too easy.  I do hope the designers have spent quality time with the classic Castlevanias and learn what made them great.

Everything looks and sounds great so far.  All I ask is that it's not too easy nor too short.  I want a hard game.  Oh, and after this is finished, Konami should work on remaking Simon's Quest.  Heh heh.  Keep your eyes open for this one, kids.

Video - Powerslave (Exhumed) on Sega Saturn

I first wrote about Powerslave (or Exhumed) a couple years ago, and it's one of the most celebrated Sega Saturn titles. This is one of the great First-Person Shooters, in the vein of Doom and Duke Nukem and Quake. Now, thanks to Youtube, I can show a couple gameplay videos.

Since the Saturn is long since deceased, the best way to get games like Powerslave is via the internet. You can burn games onto CD-Rs and play them on your Saturn fairly easily. If you don't know how to perform the required mod, you can just swap discs. It's a minor annoyance but it opens up the entire system library to you. Thank goodness for the internet, kids.

Red Steel 2 Trailer

Red Steel was arguably the "big" launch title for Nintendo Wii among hardcore gamers.  The promise of a first-person shooter that also featured sword fights was an excellent hook.  The final game failed to match the hype, although it has a fanbase.

Ubisoft has been very carefully working on the sequel, and the hard work is showing real dividends.  Nintendo's Wiimote Motion Plus promises true 1:1 movement, which the controller originally promised.  This is where shooters will seriously start to kick ass.

I haven't played any demos of the in-progress Red Steel 2, so it's not fair for me to make any judgements just yet.  But I am rooting loudly for this title to succeed.  I really love the visual style, with its cel-shaded graphics and strong emphasis on colorful effects.  It's a great art style, and I hope we see it again.  Future games will have to skillfully use visual effects and flashy styles in order to compete against Playstation 3 and XBox 360.

The only real downside to Red Steel 2 is the lack of multiplayer, which is a real shame.  But the complex swordplay may be too much for 4-play split-screen, or even online games.  But that's fine.  Ubisoft should stay focused on their own agenda, and not try to be all things to all people.  It's not their fault if most developers continue to treat the Wii as a lucky novelty, merely tossing out cheap mini-game packages without any effort or attention.

I'm sure the dedicated hardcore gamers are eager for Red Steel to succeed.  Nintendo's console needs more games of this stripe.  The trailer looks very, very promising so far.

Quake Homebrew on Nintendo WIi

Why aren't there more First-Person Shooters on Nintendo Wii?  The controller is perfect for these sort of games, and I expected to see a flood of similar titles by now.  Instead, the bulk of the library are simple, low-budget mini-games, aiming to be the next Wii Sports.

Like any successful modern games console, the Wii is seeing the emergence of homebrew games, and a homebrew port of the original Quake has emerged.  This isn't an update or commercial release, but a straight port of the original PC game, utilizing the Wiimote and Nunchuk.

Watch this video and see what it does for ya.

I'm still hoping and shouting for Id to bring Quake III to the Wii.  It's still the best FPS ever made, and Nintendo desperately needs killer 4-player games.  Imagine that - multiplayer splitscreen, online matches, a million maps.  Tell me that wouldn't be the best thing ever.  Someone ought to get to that.

Happy Halloween, Kids! Time to Fill Up on Candy!

Wow, this is every kid's dream - to come home with more Halloween candy than you can carry!  Yeeehh!!

It really isn't the same for me, when I can just walk down to the supermarket and grab a bag of Twix.  Which I did.  Burp.  I do hope the kids remember to pace themselves.  That candy should last you through to Thanksgiving.

I'm still in awe of this holiday, or at least its modern version.  You dress up in costumes, then knock on every door in your neighborhood, and everybody gives you FREE candy???  Really??  I wish there was a day like that for the grown-ups, but let's face it, any such endeavor would end in adults shouting at one another and threatening lawsuits for whatever reason.  It'd descend into another episode of Jerry Springer.

That's why Halloween should remain a holiday for the kids.  They're much better sports about it.

Ugh...okay, I better stop eating the Twix now.  The sun isn't even down, and I'm already over my limit.  Ahh, good times.

Pete Cosey Talks to The Last Miles

The Last Miles has a terrific and lengthy interview with guitar shredder legend Pete Cosey.  Read it here.

Some Thoughts About Miles Davis' Pangaea

Courtesy of one dedicated Miles Davis fan, we have the entirety of the 1975 acid-funk album Pangaea available to listen. You won't have to touch anything, since all the Youtube segments are on a running playlist. Just hit play and enjoy the brilliant music.

Pangaea is the final fusion album from Miles Davis, the second in a stunning double bill in Osaka, Japan, on February 1, 1975. The afternoon show was recorded for the Agharta album, and the evening show became Pangaea. Shortly thereafter, Miles finally retreated from performing music. He would not return for nearly six years.

I'm a great fan of Miles' 1973-75 acid-funk band, which was captured on the 1974 studio LP Get Up With It, and three live LP's, Dark Magus, Agharta, and Pangaea. All four were double albums and were immensely long. We must remember that the double album was a rare event in pop music during the 1970s. It was something rock bands did once, to prove their chops and their musical output, but largely to follow in the footsteps of The Beatles' White Album. The Rolling Stones had one, Led Zeppelin had one, even Stevie Wonder had one.

It's stunning when you realize that Miles Davis hurled out so many double-LP's, and in such a short period of time. His fusion era only lasted six years, really, if you begin at 1969's landmark In a Silent Way. In that short period of time, Miles had thrown the music world on its ear, revolutionized popular music, and split the jazz community right down the middle. It's a schism that still exists, even though the wounds have greatly healed. It also helps that the future generations have caught up to what Miles was brewing.

The twin shows Agharta and Pangaea represent the final peak of that great and stunning era, the grand summary of everything Miles Davis had furiously sought after. Pangaea, especially, reveals a lot of mellower, more otherworldly music that reminds me of "He Loved Him Madly," Miles Davis' masterfully haunting tribute to Duke Ellington from side one of Get Up. Reminds me of Silent Way, too.

Of course, the spectacular heavy funk jams get all the attention, as well they should. The music on Magus, Agharta and Pangaea is the heaviest music on the planet. This band was so far beyond '70s rock that it wasn't even funny. On the two Osaka shows, the afternoon concert (Agharta) gets all the attention from funk and thrash freaks. But don't discount the first ten minutes of Pangaea's evening show, which is absolutely incendiary.

Pete Cosey's wailing, shredding guitar solos...absolutely spectacular. Guitar God, sandwiched perfectly between Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen. And Michael Henderson's growling bass riffs, Al Foster and Mtume's drumming - this is as good as it gets. There's a confidence, a boldness, to the rhythm section that's a thrill. Sometimes I think they steal the show, especially on the first disc.

There's no question that Pangaea is overall more subtle than Agharta, and we shouldn't be surprised when the band performs two full concerts on the same day. I'm deeply grateful that Miles and crew don't repeat the first setlist on the evening show. Pangaea's vibe is very different, alternately heavier and more ambient. In three hours and four discs, you get the complete Miles Davis experience.

Listen carefully to the Gondwana disc. Its first ten minutes are mellow, mysterious, the Duke Ellington funeral dirge reborn. Then the energy slowly burns brighter and brighter, slowly builds around Pete Cosey, Guitar God. By the 20-minute mark, voodoo funk-metal is in the house. Yeehh....the mood swings are organic, natural, smooth. The visable seams in Magus are invisible now.

One of the great thrills of Agharta/Pangaea is spotting the classic Miles riffs. There's the bassline from "Kind of Blue." There's a couple jams from "Jack Johnson." And there's "He Loved Him Madly," and "Calypso Frelimo." Great ideas for improvisations, of stealing moments instead of performing the full songs. Everything is consumed in the giant organic stew.

And through it all lies Miles Davis, his aching body breaking down, his years of fighting the fusion revolution taking its toll. There's been enough said about Miles state of mind in 1975, and I suspect much of it is merely myth-building, to fit into the readily assembled narrative about burnout and retirement and eventual resurgence. It's hard to say where the real Miles lies. It has always been thus.

The evening concert ends, everything has been said, every ounce of energy left on that stage. I have the feeling that Miles couldn't play another note if he tried. He gave all of himself on these two shows, and you can hear it. There's a tone of sadness in the final minutes, the final dissonant organ wails that hang in the air. This spectacular era of Miles' long career, so reviled and misunderstood, so far beyond its time, is coming to its end.

Permanent (Drug) War

Digby on today's helicopter crashes in Afghanistan:

It seems that our two abstract, endless Orwellian wars --- the War on Drugs and the War on Terror --- have officially merged. And the complications stemming from that decision are going to be immense. What are we fighting for again?

Simple.  The object of torture is torture.  The object of permanent war is Permanent War.  These useless wars serve only to maintain the Empire, even if they bankrupt us in the end.

I see these conflicts with a skeptical eye, but I'm an optimist at heart.  We need to realize that the "Drug War" as nothing more than a subsidy to the enormously profitable drug cartels and the political terror groups they finance.  We could completely bankrupt them overnight, and solve a host of global problems in the process.  It's simple supply and demand, folks, and prohibition is nothing more than the world's largest price subsidy.

The War on Drugs is a bailout for the cartels, the guerilla armies, and the terrorists.  You want to win the drug war, really win?  Then bankrupt the bastards.  Make their product worthless.

Oh, and we seriously need to get our Army the heck out of Afghanistan.  These Permanent Wars have got to stop.