The Last Candle

Family and peers who have been unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity of me blathering on about my musical tastes have most likely heard the name “Stevie Ray Vaughan” dropped from my mouth more than once. Far from being some bizarre, cosmic coincidence or abnormality in my frontal lobe that cause me to repeat the same phenoms over and over, ones that just happen to make up the name of a famous blues singer, songwriter and guitarist, the real reason for my constant swooning is that, in fact, I am a major Stevie fanboy. It’s true.

Much like how I listen to power metal for catches, hooks, and overemphatic and irresistable melodies, I listen to the blues for the soul. In my experience, there is no genre that comes close to collectively pouring its heart and voice out into music and truly meaning it. Other genres and artists offer their own takes and sketches on living, love and all of the little moments in between wakefulness and slumber, but I feel that the blues is comprised out of the only artists that can really tell how powerful those little moments can be.

Stevie Ray Vaughan is not only my favorite bluesman, but he’s definitely one of my favorite artists. His sweet, soulful Strat playing is bright and mellow, chunky and smooth at the same time, high and low and sweeping through at once. As Albert King, Vaughan’s mentor, said to him on the television show In Session during a live duet performance, Stevie can fiddle like the best shredders, but he has something more important than playing fast: playing with soul. While I never expect to play my own guitar as well as SRV, his legacy has a profound effect on the direction I want to take my own playing and musical voice.

On August 27th, 1990 — seventeen years ago this day — Stevie Ray Vaughan was traveling with passengers by helicopter after a show that included fellow greats Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy and Jimmie Vaughan, Stevie’s older brother. The helicopter took off from East Troy, Wisconsin at 12:44 PM due for Chicago, but seconds later crashed into a nearby hillside, killing everyone inside and throwing wreckage hundreds of feet.

Eric Clapton and Jimmie identified the body of the 35-year old Stevie Ray the following morning. Vaughan had personally overcome terrible and dehabilitating cocaine and alcohol addictions in the late 80’s, only for his thread to still be cut short, but because of pilot error.

The bluesman’s body was buried in Dallas, but his four album catalogue of music keeps his soul alive. In recognition and remembrance of the anniversary of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s passing, I’ve put together a small collection of some favorites. An embedded player is below, but I’ve made a pop-up player with the same tracklist available, allowing listening in the background while organizing chicken recipes or snowshoe orders.

Pop-up player.

The playlist tracks will be removed next Monday, a week from today. Until then, enjoy the music of this fantastic bluesman who continues to live, despite his tragic death.

The new demo for BioShock, the “spiritual successor” to one of my favorite games, System Shock 2, came out on the Xbox Live Marketplace for the Xbox360 in the past week, and hoo boy, it’s a dandy. For us System Shock 2 fans (which should be just about everyone who’s played or seen the game — it really is that good), we finally have evidence that the developer’s claims of making another really good Shock-ish type have come to fruition, and the result is golden delicious.

Besides the game being of good quality, playing through the demo a couple times (and watching someone else play it a couple times) did make evident that the spirit of Shock was in BioShock: the atmosphere, narrative and player progression are very similar between the games, but several gameplay devices and plot occurances in BioShock are clever and well-placed nods back to the previous game.

One of the joys of discovering another homage back to SS2 is seeing how they implemented the device into BioShock, seeing as how BioShock takes place in 1960 and System Shock 2 occurs in 2114. In the face of the multi-century gap, none of the implementations have seemed strained or shoehorned, another testament to smart development.

Several homages and simularities (and you may not want to read these if plan on playing the game and would like to be surprised):

• The setting of System Shock 2, or SS2 as I’ll call it from now on, features “bio-regeneration machine” scattered around the setting that revive your character after perishing. BioShock’s version is the “Vita-Chamber” (properly proper), which does the same thing as the bio-machine, except the player doesn’t have to active a Vita-Chamber. Personally, I like the satisfaction and relief on finding and activating on another bio-machine, thus personally saving my future-self from yet another fatal bludgeoning or shotgun wound, but the basic game mechanic is a welcome one.
• Most health and temporary skill augmentation in SS2 was induced by the usage of hypodermic needles, or “hypos.” BioShock too features hypos, except that the hypos are physically several folds larger, being about the diameter of a ear of corn (ouch!), and play a more prominent role in character development.
• The claustrophobic setting: in SS2, the player character was worried about the interior of a spaceship rushing outside into space; in BioShock, the PC is mildly concerned about the water pressure of many, many fathoms pushing the outside in.
• A wrench is the first weapon picked up in both games. It matters to us fanboys.
• In SS2, the player’s main communciation channel is a remote radio, usually hailed by a non-playable character somewhere else on the gargantuan ship, creating a feeling of both isolation and relationship. BioShock features a very similar mechanic, using instead a shortwave radio instead of SS2’s brain-implant radio…thingy.
• In both games, the setting and people have been ransacked and ruined by an ulterior force months prior to the player character’s introduction. So, basically, the player steps right into the mouth of Hell from the onset. Exciting!
• Both games feature security cameras that trigger security — in the case of SS2, that means sending out extra monsters, where BioShock sends out security robots — and that can also be turned to your own advantage by hacking ‘em. Yes, hacking is back, and I have to say that BioShock’s mid-20th Century version of hacking is super cute. I don’t want to spoil what mid-20th Century hacking looks like, but here’s a hint: pipes, not circuits.
• Apparitions are back, and they are, once again, one of the spookiest parts of the game.
• Much of the backstory is heard through NPC diaries (or “logs”) who have since died or relocated themselves to other parts of the setting. This device was one of my favorite parts of SS2, and I’m really glad to see it return in BioShock.
• The first “deck” of the starship setting in System Shock 2 is Medical-Science, or MedSci; the first major area encountered in BioShock is the Medical Pavillion.

There are plenty of differences between the two games, of course. One major difference is the state of the setting between the games. SS2’s setting, the experimental Von Braun starship, is in relatively decent and working condition, excepting that most of the crew is dead and that the ship has been overrun by a hive-minded army of denizens. In BioShock’s underwater city, Rapture, the architecture is frequently in shambles, and the threat of water rushing into the living areas is constantly present.

BioShock setting’s also has a very contemporary, concrete worldview-guided universe, steeping itself in Art Deco and Ayn Rand-ish ideology. (Andrew Ryan, the purse and power of Rapture, has a name that’s a rough anagram of Ayn Rand.) Much of the architecture harkens back to the angular, embossed early-20th Century artwork that adorns many of Ayn Rand’s book covers, although the period is another obvious influence. I can’t comment how closely the game’s setting attaches itself to Rand’s Objectivism, but the giant banner that reads, “No Gods. No Kings. Only Man,” during the introduction is probably indicative.

Finally, there seems to be some religious allegory going on in, erm, Rapture. Additionally, the player uses a magical-like power called Eve, and a substance called Adam is evidently some sort of commodity used to manipulate people’s genes. I don’t have a clue how that all ties together, but I guess the public will find out when the game is released this Tuesday.

For several years the two annual highlights of my summers have been the Saline Celtic Festival and the Michigan Shakespeare Festival. While the Celtic Festival has since fallen by the wayside and actively neglected — once you’ve seen the booths of cheeky Irish-themed bumper stickers and Guinness-pint hats, you never forget them — and never need to see them again — the Michigan Shakespeare Festival puts out a solid couple of shows every year. This year was Henry V and MacBeth; last year was Hamlet.

Unfortunately, the Shakespeare Festival shows also have a perennial tendency to feature overactors. For example, last year’s Hamlet production was helmed by an actor who per “artistic license” or some nonsense changed the introverted, morose protagonist into a bouncy, wily and very silly caricature. (After the performance, a question and answer session was scheduled between the audience and the main cast – the first question asked, directed to the actor who played Hamlet, was, “Why did you choose to play Hamlet so non-traditionally?” The actor appeared to be taken aback, and replied, “I don’t know what you mean.” Had he or the director even read the original play?)

This year’s MacBeth was similarly and unnecessarily overbaked. I was looking forward to seeing MacBeth, the play being of the few popular Shakespeare plays that I have yet to read or see performed, but besides the show being almost like a big parody, I couldn’t hear hardly anything the actors were saying! By the end of the play I extrapolated the general story, but having missed out on almost the entirety of the wit and beautifully articulate language of the original play was very disappointing.

I saw Hamlet and MacBeth consecutively, making two Shakespeare Festival shows in a row that proved to be lackluster. Disillusionment was setting in on the Festival, as it had once set in and eventually dragged down the Celtic Festival.

I had faith in the Festival, though: my favorite Shakespeare show of all time was The Taming of the Shrew, performed several years ago at the Festival, but outside in sunny, 90° weather. That show was so lively and enjoyable that the momentum has almost single-handedly kept me returning to the Festival up to the present, even through the lacking plays seen in the interim.

Fortunately, this year’s performance of Henry V was equally as good as The Taming of the Shrew, renewing my love for the Festival. I’m back in the bard’s camp.

By this point in my life, I’ve seen quite a few varied productions of various plays, including about seven different variations on Hamlet, none of which have been very good. Live shows, audio-only versions, film and filmed-staged productions; remakes and reimagings and tributes; Jacobi and Olivier and Branagh; dramas and comedies and unintentionally comedic dramas – a healthy gamut.

So, here are some my favorites and least-favorite Shakespeare productions.

The Taming of the Shrew, as performed by the Michigan Shakespeare Festival. As mentioned before, this play was performed outside in the hot, hot sun and air; instead of cushy theater seats, air-conditioning and a roof protecting us from the elements, we sat in lawn chairs, swatted at encroaching bugs and spiders, and sweated away our sunscreen for the duration of the show.

The miserable climate was completely ignored once the production unfolded in front of us. The actors, probably steam-cooking themselves slowly within their full Shakespeare-era garb, put on the most lively, charming and enthusiastic live play I’ve ever seen. Having not previously seen The Taming of the Shrew might have helped bolster my pleasure, since the story and language was so new and depicted wonderfully.

Heck, the actors even heckled a few of us groundlings during the performance. Nothing like a little audience participation to arouse further enjoyment, I say.

Kenneth Branagh’s version of Henry V is the most stirring in my memory out of the Henry V versions. The film is generally very well-realized and acted, in Branagh’s typical overacting kind of way, but Branagh’s monologues as Henry are atypically moving and powerful for a Branagh performance. My favorite speech is the Saint Crispian monologue, delivered prior to the Battle of Agincourt. (Part of the Branagh speech is available on YouTube, along with a succeeding section.) Also very enjoyable: the scene where the traitors are revealed, for its palpable and unnerving tension.

The Bad Sleep Well probably isn’t known to more than a few Shakespeare fans, but it’s the closest to a likeable Hamlet performance I’ve seen, even if it only borrows a few aspects from the play of the Danish Prince. It’s also a Kurosawa film, which in my book goes a long, long way.

While I haven’t seen Sir Laurence Olivier’s Richard III since a college Shakespeare class, I recall enjoying it very much. Now that my Dad owns the DVDs, the time has come to reacquaint myself with the spectacular Sir Olivier.

Finally, one of the most memorable venues I’ve enjoyed for a Shakespeare play was in Stratford, Canada, for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. I don’t recall the performance very well — Hamlet, again — but the theater was this lovely modernized heavy wood and thatch Globe-esque establishment; the stage jutted out into the audience, allowing the crowd to see the play on three sides, and the players used the extra space and mobility to their advantage during the depiction.

Does Forbidden Planet count as a Shakespeare show? The movie was inspired by The Tempest after all. If the omniscient judges of Who Stays and Who Goes are merciful — and if they allow The Bad Sleep Well, they’d better allow Forbidden Planet — this seminal 50’s sci-fi show is one of my favorites of all-time, sci-fi and Shake-fi.

I could easily just summarize this section by a blanket statement, saying one play to cover almost all of the live performances I haven’t liked. That said, the play is Hamlet, and it is also frustratingly the play I’ve seen the most, continuing to hold onto a hope that one of the bloody hundred performances will reach me, finally.

So far, that hasn’t happened. Branagh’s version was so laughably and irritatingly over-the-top, although he deserves a mention just for doing the entire play, word for word; Mel Gibson’s version is ordinary and uninspired in every way; Derek Jacobi’s BBC stage play wasn’t bad, but was incredibly slow and lacked passion; and the Jackson Shakespeare Festival’s 2006 performance failed at both being faithful to the original and trying something bold and inventive on its own, coming across instead as boorish, unwitting and completely overwrought. Too bad.

Hmm, I can’t think of any other performances that I really dislike in Shakespeare’s realm. Maybe that Hamlet fellow and I just don’t get along.

I’ve had Kurosawa’s Ran, the master writer-director’s retelling of King Lear in feudal Japan, in my library for a couple months now. I have yet to watch it, and I am ashamed. Ashamed not just because it’s considered Kurosawa masterpiece among a library of some of the best films ever made, but because a so-called Kurosawa fan like myself hasn’t put aside the time to watch it. Judge me fairly.

Kurosawa’s got a few Shakespeare plays in his catalogue, actually. Besides Ran and The Bad Sleep Well, Throne of Blood is a reimaging of MacBeth. Maybe I should have had the DVD of Throne of Blood at the ready after the Shakespeare Festival’s miserable performance to regain my losses.

Finally, Ian McKellan’s version of Richard III awaits my company for the first time, even after repeated recommendations by family and friends. It’s on a very short list of must-watches, so stop telling me about it.

This afternoon I traipsed over to the downtown deli to pick up a sandwich. A simple endeavor, it would seem, but the shield wall of my usual defenses against exorbitant food shopping was scattered by arriving at the deli ten minutes early. Within the ten extra minutes, while waiting for my Cuban pork composition to be completed, I decided to window-shop the meat counter.

Oops.

First I inquired about the fresh bacon on display, although it was made of less inquiry and more plea, a plea for good-tasting, good-cured bacon. The kindly assistant recommended an Indian-peppered variety as well as a Applewood-smoked kind. Bacon resistance is, indeed, futile: a quarter-pound of each, please.

While the bacon was being cut and wrapped with butcher’s paper, I made the mistake of browsing the cheese — specifically, browsing the wonderful little cut cubes of Piave. So then there was Piave in the shopping basket.

When the friendly assistant returned with the bacon, I made the further error of asking about the giant, fermenting pig leg behind the window. That leg turned out to be nothing less than a giant hock of irresistable prosciutto di San Daniele.

And then I picked out a birch beer soda. And then, finally, the sandwich.

And then I bought a big-ass bag of basil at the Farmer’s Market across the street, because it was a big-ass bag of fresh herbs that cost exactly a dollar. I have no idea what I’m going to do with that much basil, but holy mother of Moses, the bag smells really nice, which is more than good enough for me.

My budget’s downward spiral is going to leave a exceptionally good taste in my mouth.

Next, I’m going to put Sin City into the DVD player and see if the film plays out as well as it looks, which would say a heckuva lot.

I’ve been sitting on writing a post about the following article for about a week. The title should speak for its own inanity: Resident Evil 5: White Man Shoots Black Zombies.

Here’s the controversial trailer that is the subject of the writer’s opinions.

If you didn’t read the article, here’s a snippet.

Though the full details of the [Resident Evil 5] storyline aren�t public yet, the trailer makes a few things clear: you play as a white Chris Redfield, the same all-American boy who has been taking down old-school leg-draggers for years. And the zombies? You guessed it: the local villagers. Which means that the hordes of undead you�ll be pumping round after round of ammo into�they�re all black.

…But looking again at the trailer, I see a different message: it�s not just that these zombies are black, but that the uninfected black villagers are zombie-like too. See all those spooky shots of the villagers before they get infected? It�s as if race itself were a disease. The white protagonist has to fight back or be infected.

And that�s the other issue with setting a zombie movie in Africa. The whole idea of zombies is based on our fear of contamination. Get bitten by a zombie, or just drop a tiny bit of undead blood in an open wound, and you�re a goner. Soon you too will carry the disease of the living dead.

Sounds familiar yet? Yup, we could be talking about the HIV/AIDS crisis, which has killed 15 million Africans, and infected 25 million others on the continent. Especially since one of the few sentences spoken in the Resident Evil 5 trailer is, �Casualties continue to mount over the long years I have struggled.�

So. Yeah.

Ben Kuchera of Ars Technica has a viewpoint that agrees with my own.

The game is being designed by Japanese artists, not white Americans. The game uses a well-established character from the Resident Evil series who is white, Chris Redfield. Capcom wanted to move the setting to Africa, where most people are black. I don’t think Capcom ever sat down and thought about the political reasons for having a white soldier against black zombies, it was simply an organic continuation of a story and a character that began years ago.

…I don’t think there needs to be any changes made to the game, and I don’t think anyone set out to make anything offensive or racist. What I do think is that some people will become disturbed by the images in relation to real-world events and the effects of disease and military intervention in places like Africa. While I don’t think it’s fair to say that Africans should never be portrayed as zombies in a fictional game where almost every other race has had the honor, people who are extra-sensitive to military atrocities in third-world nations may be very disturbed by what they see in the game.

I don’t see how race can even be an issue here. Resident Evil 5 changed settings from somewhere that featured white-skinned zombies to a setting that features black-skinned zombies. That’s all the trailer gives away. To fume and accuse the next iteration of the famous horror series — which has featuring killing zombies of all species, races and creeds for close to ten games — of being a genocide simulator of sorts on so little evidence is not only a foolish argument, but it’s an argument on very shaky, incendiary ground.

This is zombie-cide, not genocide. If the development team for Resident Evil 5 turns out to be full of idiotic racists after all, then parent company Capcom will rightfully never, ever live it down. But if this minor debacle turns out to be a total misconception as the evidence — or lack of evidence, rather — suggests it is, then hopefully the commentators will spend a little more time before lighting a match. The next ignition may set off a wildfire instead of a brushfire.