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Contributors
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Cave Story: Nostalgia, celebration, and exploitation
I have to admit that I am way behind Daniel and Gavin in my playthrough of Cave Story because I have been clocking a lot of hours into Diablo III, which actually makes for an interesting comparison. Like Cave Story, Diablo III is a game that panders to one’s nostalgia, in this case nostalgia for … Read more
Keeping it weird: A night with Maria Bamford
In her 2009 comedy album Unwanted Thoughts Syndrome, Maria Bamford prefaces a bit about aging with the following warning: “This joke might fall under the category of something only I enjoy.” This is one of those cases where it’s funny ‘cause it’s true. Though I find Bamford’s work hilarious, playful, darkly intelligent, and fun, I’ve … Read more
Cave Story: The zig-zag world
Last week, I promised that this week’s post would be about narrative in Cave Story, but I’m going to put that off a bit, in part because the game is doing a great job of doling out the story bit by bit in ways that are keeping me interested as a player, and making me … Read more
Cover story
Earlier this week I picked up The Distant Hours by Kate Morton. I purchased the book almost a year ago but never started it. Back when I first became the used book buyer for our bookstore, I wanted to buy every book that came across the desk for myself. I forced myself to leave some … Read more
Cave Story: Power up
I would say the key to any decent platformer is a variety of fun power ups. Be it turtle shells, rocket launchers, or leaf shields — power ups can make or break a game. And being 100 years old, I have seen quite a few in my time. Much to my delight, the weapon power-ups … Read more
Butter, browned
I like to think I can work hard on some things, but for the most part, I’ll take the lazy route if you let me. So lately my cooking has consisted of an arsenal of 10 dinners or so and just cycling through them, week after week. Finding a new recipe takes time and then … Read more
May 15-18, 2012
“There is an entire meditation, in Journey, on writing. The visions are iconographic — the graphemes it uses are representations of embodiment and embodied action, and like all representation, it operates by demanding interpretation. The revealed story — the story communicated through the visions — is perfectly clear and perfectly ambiguous. Life, living cloth, both … Read more
Three meditations on Journey
The first time I played Journey, I was a sojourner in a strange land. I started alone, climbing a sand dune to catch my first glimpse of a mountain with a brilliant light glowing at its peak. As I walked toward the mountain, I encountered a glowing mark which wrapped itself around my neck and … Read more
Stirring the pot: How coaching changes landed two ice hockey teams in hot water
A spate of coaching changes rocked the NHL during the regular season. The litany of leadership switches landed ESPN’s front page on the regular and at the time I remember thinking: “Is this really going to help?” There are a zillion good reasons to fire a coach, but seven firing/hiring stunts in about two months … Read more
Cave Story: Jumping into story
Oh, Kevin, you make me nervous when you talk about Daniel as being “100 years old.” I’m the old man of the bunch, after all, and if anyone ever goes back to those first Final Fantasy VII posts and figures out how old that actually is, I might get my game columnist license revoked. Anyway, … Read more
