It May Not Be the Best, But I Think it's My Favorite...

Saturday saw me finish The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess. It's the first Wii game I've bested (I bought the Wii and the game in May) and this franchise, once again has demonstrated its ability to sweep me away in wonderment. With the exception of the GameCube's Wind Waker and the myriad of Zelda titles that have popped up on portables over the years, I've taken care of them all. From the games humbly amazing origins on the old NES and its not-nearly-as-good first sequel through Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. If I've missed important events in the series by what I've not played, I don't care.

This one, while not the masterpiece of gaming in both innovation and entertainment that Ocarina of Time was 10 years ago chose its path very wisely and became, in my opinion, the most entertaining Zelda game ever. In the 10 years since playing and finishing the N64 title (I don't remember Majora's Mask all that well), I've grown a bit and changed as a person, but playing Twilight Princess proved that the creators had, with few exceptions, decided to grow the franchise as well. Here we get fabulously shot cutscenes that don't overstay their welcome and take a darker, more adult edge at times. There are great characters from the kids of Ordon Village to Midna (though she gets annoying at times) and the abominable snow couple. The enemies are throwback (as they should be) to previous games, but this time they actually look like living things as opposed to cartoon-ish as they've been in the past. Hyrule is a vast, dangerous and wonderous world full of life and you can go almost everywhere in it. The levels themselves take on the traditional map/puzzle format with, usually, a mini-boss and a boss. Defeating the former usually yields an item, while defeating the latter earns a heart container. What makes this game a joy is that the levels are thoroughly engaging and the puzzles are challenging and the design is amoung the best I've seen ever in a video game. Mind you, I wouldn't consider myself a gamer.

The issues I have with the game are almost nitpicky. Gamers don't need to hear Midna's whining for the duration of Link being a wolf. On the same token, the next great leap - not only for this franchise, but across Nintendo's core franchises - is giving a voice to these characters. Maybe Link doesn't need to speak, but seriously, the script for this game was one of Nintendo's better creations in a while, spoken dialogue would've pushed it into the pantheon reached by Ocarina of Time and beyond. Super Mario Galaxy would benefit the same way (I'm working on that one right now). I also think the bosses of each level could've been a bit more lethal if possible. I found myself not really dying against any of them. I'd get hit here and there, but I was pushed to that edge where losing that last ounce of life was at stake. The last little gripe I have is in terms of scoring - Galaxy benefited from this exponentially over every other Mario title because the music, though still repetitive is surprisingly inviting. Move away from highly produced midi arrangements. They aren't easy on the ears and lose their luster rather quickly.

While I'm sure I've not gone into the amount of detail required to give this title proper due, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess further continues this franchise in fine style with its ability to entertain the kids while being equally inviting for adults. It utilized the gimickry of the Wii controller so intuitively that it was easy to get used to. Thumbs way up on this one. Honestly, I think that I'll probably beat it again. For all of its flaws, I had more fun looking and playing this than any Zelda previously.

And Now for Something Completely Different...

July is winding to a debilitatingly humid close this year and every time I step outside work its like a wall just drops on me. At least I remember the humidity back home being a lot worse. That's a little heartening.



Enough with the small talk though, I'm not sure where this writing's going to go. I just sort of started with no clear intent and am going to see what happens. Nothing all that new to report really. We saw Hellboy II: The Golden Army last weekend. I must say that it's amazing how far comic movies have come. I was clearly the sole member of a minority that thought it was better than the first in our group. I don't think it was without flaws, there were plenty. The love stories of any of the characters didn't really work, but I don't think they were intended to draw people in. I think they were there solely as plot devices for character motivation. On that level they did work, because they provided a reason for everything to push forward. Hellboy's snappy one-liners in the action sequences as well as conversations were lacking the wit they seemed to have in the first installment. In fact, the dialogue as whole was a bit shoddy. After all, it's still a super hero flick.

Flaws aside, here's why it succeeded for me: this time around, the plot was constructed not in the manner of hero vs. villain (even though that element is the premise), but rather more in the vein of the second installment in a fantasy trilogy. Where the first film showed the audience who these characters are and the world they live in, this one shows them playing around and exploring in that world. Hellboy, Abe Sapien, Liz and Manning were all well-established and developed in the first film. Now, they just seem to play around in their personas. Guillermo Del Toro's experience with Pan's Labyrinth has heightened his visual style and sensibility yielding some of his most creative ideas in this film.

Backtracking slightly to the whole fantasy idea - I never really wrapped that one up - here the main characters are thrust into an odyssey of sorts very similar to the second installment of Lord of the Rings or Star Wars here the characters go through trails and have to figure out and make decisions based on who they are. That's something that's not easy to do in the confines of the hero film. Looking back, there are really only 2 hero films that I can think of that did it well: Spiderman 2 and Batman Returns. That worked from a critical standpoint for the former, but the latter was pretty much a failure for critics and audiences, but my memory may be mistaken. Hellboy II takes an intellectual high ground with the fantasy angle, but also a shortcut because, at its core this is all sci-fi/fantasy and the rigidity of audience expectation may not allow for this kind of change. I'm biting off more than I can chew here because I'm a film lover and not too experienced in film criticism. Either way, I loved it. I hope whoever else may see it does as well.



In other news, Sporting Philly has actually had a great summer season thus far. Our first game had the potential of shenanigans because 2 players left without much notice, but it was a friendly affair. Probably one of the more good-spirited games I've played in. Our second game was plagued with a late start and a long halftime because of a rugby tournament that made mistakes of not playing on their correct fields. We drew 0-0, but should've scored at least 4 times. Luck wasn't on our side at all. However, I still wonder how a dude on the other team got man of the match. Their keeper, the only one eligible at that point didn't do anything impressive and had all the post assistance he could handle. They only had one clear shot on goal and never really made it out of their own half. I can't really say who should've been the MVP, but it wasn't one of them. Then there was game 3, we started with 8 players and others came late. I started out in goal and did ok for my first competitive game appearance in that position. I let in one, but I should've stopped it. Then Zaire went on a tear and played the game of his life. He only scored once, but he was essential in our 3-1 win.

Then there's our new logo (above) that was designed by my wife. I think she did an amazing job on rather short notice. She rocks. I personally think she did a great job in incorporating the Liberty Bell into Sporting Lisbon's crest. Sure it could be called a rip-off, but still. It didn't take her very long and she didn't even have to do it in the first place. I personally love it.

Then it comes to music. Not much all that revelatory here. I'm working on getting more staff for the newswire at mxdwn.com. I've posted 2 reviews (Explosions in the Sky's All of A Sudden, I Miss Everyone and Wolf Parade's At Mount Zoomer) recently and am working on the reissue of U2's The Joshua Tree
and K-Os' Atlantis: Hymns for Disco concurrently at the moment. The latter's not all that great and the former is a masterpiece with a bunch of unnecessary bells and whistles attached. Other than that, my time with mxdwn.com is always good and I still enjoy doing it.

As for the subject of what I'm listening to, I've found it really hard to escape 2007. There were so many great things that came out of last year that 2008 really seems a bit of a downer. The potential that Black Kids showed on their EP Wizard of Ahhhs was completely passed over on their debut full-length Partie Traumatic. Sure, it was the entire EP plus other unabashed guitar/synth pop that owed much to The Cure that sounded pretty, but the best songs were the 4 that came from the EP. Wolf Parade's sophomore effort proved to be better than 2004's uber-acclaimed Apologies to the Queen Mary and No Age, with Nouns, more than trumped last year's Weirdo Rippers, a collection of their 7"-only EP tracks that made me amoung others stand up and take notice. There are plenty others that I've been digging this year. Here's a list in no particular order:

1. Air France - No Way Down
2. Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer
3. No Age - Nouns
4. El Guincho - Alegranza
5. Headlights - Some Racing, Some Stopping
6. Portishead - Third - Probably the most perfect album released this year.
7. Hercules and Love Affair - Hercules and Love Affair
8. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
9. British Sea Power - Do you Like Rock Music?
10. Titus Andronicus - The Airing of Grievances

There are plenty more, but my memory is kind of shot.

The only other thing I can really mention is that I'm so bored with football not going on. The season starts August 16th and it can't come soon enough.

Peace y'all.

Farewell, My Friend...I'll Never Forget You

It's been a long time since I posted anything here. I wonder if anyone checks this anymore. Did they ever? Probably not, but I have to return with sad news. Our dog, Brixton left us on Saturday, July 29th. After 2 and a half weeks, I still wake up looking for him.

In my life, I've had many best friends leave me. I think I've even left a few myself. To those whom I've left or have gone away, I still remember you and will do so always. I remember the good times and the bad, but that's life. It's a double-edged sword that serves up sweet as much as sour, if not more of one than another. Unfortunately, we have no choice which one to eat. We have to take what's given and get on with it.

Brixton came to us via my sister-in-law and her friend on cold November 29, 2006. I still remember the night. I'm involved in an intense game of FIFA 07 and the doorbell rings. Next thing I know, Diana shouts excitedly from the door, "Look what we got!" I was frustrated at the game because I was losing, so I turn expecting something insignificant and see nothing more than an eight-week old brindle boxer running as fast as his tiny legs will carry him towards me looking as happy as he could be. Immediately, everything else disappeared. I'll never forget how happy my wife was to see him. She was even happy when he peed on the rug. We knew he was one of us right away. He jumped up on our shins and into our laps, licked our faces and stole our hearts in one short night.

We named him Brixton after where my favorite band formed (I'm glad that my wife agreed with this) and one of the first full days I spent with him, I actually just listened to music and played with him. We'd take time to just sit for a bit and he would stare attentively at the speakers leading me to believe he was even okay with the name as well as the music that spawned it. He sat with us as we watched movies, tv and on weekends he would wake up with me, I'd take him out, give him his food and he would watch football with me all day long. He was there for me when I was at my most scared and most happy and, no matter what, he always wanted to make everything better.

We were there in his best and worst times too. When he was fixed, all we wanted to do was make him feel better. When we found out he had a heart condition, we tried everything we could to keep him as calm as possible. He had Boxer Cardiomyopathy (if that's spelled right), which is basically additional heartbeats that shouldn't be there. For this, he had to take medication everyday. We found that out when he was fixed. Subsequently, he collapsed because of that condition and his heart problems really became at the forefront of our thoughts. We saw cardiologists that said he's contracting this at amoung the youngest ages they've ever seen. He had to wear a Holter monitor over a weekend which made him look like a terrorist with a bomb strapped to his back which was another heart-wrenching experience for us. He hated to see us leave the house when he had that on him and all we did all we could to let him know that he was a good dog and that we loved him. From outsider eyes, this seems to sound a bit crazy, but Brixton was worth every penny of every doctor bill and the cost of every ounce of food and the annoyance of every squeaky toy we ever bought him.

Then on June 29th, he collapsed and just didn't wake up. Diana saw him collapse and called for me. I got into the room to comfort him. I started petting him and trying to console him before we took him to the emergency room. I watched his eyes as he looked at me, gave one last, strained whimper as if saying "I wish I didn't have to say goodbye."

I wish I knew what he was thinking...now that I look back. I'd like to know what he thought of us, our friends, the neighborhood, the fact that the dog park near our house closed. Did he enjoy our company as much as we did his? Most of the time, this is just blind faith and hope. The fact that he still came to us when we called should probably be an indicator, but I'd still like to know more. I still wish that he'll be there when I get home from work, I still look for him when he doesn't come to the door and I still here him walking around our apartment when it's all quiet. I also still look at his collar and remember his expressive face staring back at me.

Last Friday night, I watched Errol Morris' Gates of Heaven. Still the best documentary I've ever seen, by the end I was in tears as these individuals speak of their deceased pets, estranged kids and problems with their pets' graves being moved. Despite the corniest analogies of this idea, I found the experience very therapeutic. In the one of the closing montages that shows the headstones of the graves, I lost all composure when it cut to a headstone that read, "I knew love because I knew this dog." Indeed and I'll remember it forever. I know that I've probably not shed my last tears in rememberance of Brixton, but that the year and 7 months he was in my life were full. He got to see the ocean, he had a girlfriend Lily, he got to play with Tasha and Alley, he got to try some good beer and he had 2 owners and several of our friends and family that loved him. Not bad for a puppy.

You Can Crush Us, You Can Bruise Us, But You'll Have to Answer to...

"Brixton"

10/7/2006 - 6/29/2008