Author: Daniel Blees

Song of the Week for April 29, 2018

OK, I’ve featured songs from video games, and covers. What’s the next category? I know! Anime!

Song of the Week: Deja Vu from Initial D

If you are a seasoned memes-man, you will recognize this song from various videos of cars going sideways. The reason for this silliness is Initial D, an anime about drifting. I haven’t watched much of it, but I have it on good authority that cars go sideways and overall, it’s pretty entertaining.

This song isn’t the best song in the world, nor is it a tribute. However, it does serve an important purpose. Studies have actually shown that listening to faster music can lead to improved mood. There is a limit, of course. Don’t crank every song’s speed up to 11. But the Eurobeat style is very quick, with a percussion track that keeps the pace up.

If you’re feeling down, find yourself some faster music. The Initial D soundtrack is a good place to start, as are the works of Archie and nanobii. I’m also partial to Shawn Wasabi.

Film Appreciation: Music

Time to take a break from video games, and move onto another thing I like: movies. There’s a lot of ground to cover here as well, so I’ll try and stick to a specific topic each time. No guarantees.

If you have a copy of The Dark Knight Rises, pop it into your player and watch two scenes: when Batman and Bane first meet and have a bit of a punch-up, and near the end when (spoilers) there’s a big fight and Batman and Bane have a bit of a punch-up. If you don’t have a copy, or you’d rather just watch clips, here’s clip #1 and clip #2.

What was the difference between those clips? Batman wins in one and loses in the other, but there’s something more subtle than that. There’s no music in the first clip, and that does a lot for the mood. Music goes a long way to increasing drama during movie scenes. The lack of music makes that first fight feel real. After all, real life doesn’t have a soundtrack. It’s easier to imagine these two superpeople punching each other for real because of the music choices.

Sometimes, the music is part of the movie. Usually, you see this in musicals or Disney movies, like Moana. I’m partial to We Know the Way as an example of integrated music used to raise spirits. But music can take your emotions in multiple directions. For example, this song from Return of the King is not intended to raise spirits. A hobbit put into an uncomfortable position, a ruler who cares more about his next meal than his own children, and his son who knows that he rides to his death. Of those three, the son’s part in this story is silent. All around him, the sound continues, but his cry to battle is not heard. It’s powerful stuff, and takes place over one minute.

The best way to use music in a film, especially a franchise, is to have a strong main song. It’s recognizable, you can have movements that modify that melody to fit the mood at any point, and it can stay with a film through multiple movies. At this point, I’ll just link a bunch of main themes that fit this bill.

There’s more, of course. What movie music do you find especially cool, or heartwarming, or emotional?

Inspiration from El Burrito Mercado

I like food. I don’t necessarily “like” cooking. I’m perfectly capable of cooking, but most of the time, I like my food pre-prepared. However, because I do cook from time to time, I need to know my way around a grocery store. The best local option is Cub Foods, a big store with just about any standard food option. It gets the job done.

I bring this up because my excursion this week was to El Burrito Mercado, a Mexican supermarket in St. Paul. I’ve never really been to a cultural supermarket before. My frozen food diet rarely calls for any specialty ingredients that can’t be found at Cub Foods. But this store has an integrated restaurant, so how could I say no?

I was pleasantly surprised by all the recognizable selections available. Near the door is a frozen food section with namebrand ice cream and frozen pizzas. The selection is smaller than at a big grocery store, but it’s not as big of a store, so that’s fine. The fresh fruits and vegetables were more than sufficient to prepare various meals, the meats section was staffed by jovial meatsmiths, and the bakery section had both traditional treats as well as massive cookies.

At the restaurant, I made a bit of an ass of myself not understanding the options available to me for a burrito, but in the end, the employees made themselves understood. It’d good, every once in a while, to be on the other end of not being understood, so you gain perspective when you’re not being understood. The burrito was more expensive than Chipotle, but I could tell that the ingredients were prepared in my favorite style: use only the ingredients that you need, and throw it into a burrito.

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They also had a selection of Mexican soda, which is still made with real sugar. As for the burrito, it had only the flavors that it needed. Chipotle is my closest comparison; Chipotle has a lot of flavors going on at once, sometimes too many. It was nice to have a burrito that felt like it was compiled from homemade ingredients around a kitchen table.

Honestly, I was apprehensive about just how “cultural” this market would be. There were some aspects that I didn’t understand and clearly weren’t intended for me, but then again, there are some aspects of Cub Foods that aren’t intended for me. If you live near Cesar Chavez St and State St, I recommend you try their food, and if you need a grocery store, you could do worse.

Song of the Week for April 22, 2018

It’s time for another song from a video game that makes me want to bang my head, but this time, it’s from a video game event: the League of Legends World Championship.

Song of the Week: Legends Never Die ft. Against the Current

I normally have a lot to say about why this song is good. This time, it’s pretty simple: it feels momentous. The verses build to the chorus, and the chorus rocks through to each verse and bridge. The lead-up to the chorus makes me throw my head back and sing to the sky. Be careful of spontaneous headbanging while driving or walking.

OK, I can find a little to talk about. Of the major eSports games (LoL, DOTA 2, CS:GO, Starcraft, various fighting games), no other game has the kind of musical extras that League of Legends has. (I am aware of Elder Tauren Chieftain, but they are primarily for World of Warcraft.) Getting songs commissioned for use at world championships is not terribly new, but their other work is stellar. Tune in on other Songs of the Week (probably) for:

  • What sounds like the backing music for a diss track, except it’s got manatee noises
  • The heaviest metal
  • A really sad song about a mummy that still gives me the goosebumps
  • A song so manly, your mustache will grow a mustache

Each of these songs was created either for a trailer for upcoming content, or because they have taken a joke to the best extreme (this is where Elder Tauren Chieftain comparisons can be made).

Video Game/Art History

Last week, I talked about video games as art. This week, the metaphors are coming out in force, because I’m taking you back to school for an art history lesson. Don’t worry, it won’t take very long, and if I’m being honest, it won’t be too in-depth. But there are similarities between video game history and art history, and I think it’s fascinating.

Art historians believe that art began with cave paintings tens of thousands of years ago. Early cave paintings depicted animals, drawn with simple pigments such as berries or mud and using branches as brushes, if they weren’t drawn literally by hand. Despite the relatively simple nature of these drawings, their forms are easily recognizable. I can only imagine what the first attempts at drawing a water buffalo looked like. There was no art teacher to show these ancient artists how to paint.

At this point, I’d like you to head over to ponggame.org and play one round of Pong. You can play more, or practice, but the discussion works best if you play one game. Win or lose, you can keep reading after the game is done.

Done? Good. The middle schoolers generally didn’t win their game of Pong. In fact, usually half of the students didn’t know how to play Pong, which was exactly what I wanted to get across. Pong is one of the first video games, and definitely one of the first major successful games. The designers did not have instruction on how to program their game. The students did not get instruction on how to play Pong. Pong is an ancestor of modern games, and it was created by hand compared to all the education and training that go into modern games. Pong is the early cave painting of video games.

I specified “early” cave painting because cave paintings evolved. Historically, cave paintings existed for thousands of years before paintings depicting humans appeared. Cave paintings existed for so long; which person decided to draw a person? Who was that innovator? Whoever they were, it was a big change, allowing early artists to show not only hunted animals, but the hunters themselves.

It’s time for another game break. This time, webpacman.com is your target. While you may be crazy good at Pac-man, I’d like you to play just the first level. If you lose all your lives, that’s OK. If you get to level 2, pat yourself on the back and come back here. You can go for the Level 256 kill screen afterwards.

Pac-man is still an ancestor to modern games, but there’s something different about it compared to the games that came before it, especially Pong. Pac-man is in color; before it, Pong, Space Invaders, and Asteroids were all very popular, but they had a limited color palette. The designers of Pac-man didn’t know that they were setting out to create the single most recognizable video game in history. They didn’t know they were breaking new ground, just like cave painters didn’t know that they were starting something new by drawing a person. Pac-man is the later cave painting of video games.

From here, art history moves at a clip, with far too many innovations. Some of them have video game parallels, like 3D graphics and chiaroscuro. But at this juncture in the workshop, I had to find some way to plow through a lot of art history at once. The secret was a Greek temple. Historians can tell it’s a Greek temple not just because it’s in Greece, because some of them aren’t in Greece. The style of the columns, the specific design in the triangle above the columns, even the number of columns indicate which society designed the temple, or which society influenced the architect.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a good free game for you to play. But if you’re reading this, you probably have video games laying around. Boot up a game from a major franchise and play it for a few minutes. While you do, think about what elements of the game, besides the name and possible iconic characters, indicate that this game is part of that franchise. If you don’t have a game like that, here’s some Super Mario World gameplay. I can’t guarantee it’s safe for work or kids, but it is entertaining.

Game franchises are like artistic movements. People who know games can tell if a game is from a certain franchise. Mario, Zelda, Kirby, Metroid, Halo, Gears of War, Uncharted, Ratchet & Clank, Madden, NBA 2k, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, etc. You don’t need to see the name of the game to recognize any of these titles.

I’ve been writing more for this article than any of my previous posts, and there’s still more I could talk about. I’ll end it with my list of “games I don’t have or are too complicated for students to play but everyone should play anyways”, and a call for responses. How do you believe games parallel art history? Is there an example game I should look into?

The List:

  • Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (and all Metroid games in general)
  • Psychonauts
  • Ikaruga
  • Jet Set Radio Future (and the other Jet Set Radio games)
  • Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
  • Portal
  • Shadow of the Colossus
  • Undertale

Stuff Stores: Inspiration from Art Scraps and Ax-man

Art Scraps and Ax-man provide similar environments and are both downtown St. Paul, so I was able to get to both of them in one trip. Since they’re so similar, I decided that, rather than create two similar posts, I’d lump them into one description of “stuff stores”.

I don’t use the term “stuff store” lightly. Wal-mart and Target sell all of the commercial products you would ever need. Thrift stores sell that product again, gently used. Stuff stores sell stuff, the kind of stuff you never knew that you needed until you saw it on a shelf. They sell the kind of stuff that you probably won’t find at Target or a thrift store. Stuff stores are an important part of creative processes; these stores truly provide inspiration.

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Collage on wall outside Art Scraps.

Art Scraps is a recycled supplies store run by Art Start, a local organization that runs art outreach. If you’re not looking for supplies for art projects, they probably don’t have much for you there. The store is quite small, and when I visited, there were half a dozen patrons. It felt very cramped.

As an artist and especially as an artist that employs collage, one visit to Art Scraps started to give me ideas. How could I use hundreds of old CDs? What about giant sheets of sticker paper? Some things in that store spoke to me, but most of them didn’t. I definitely have to remember to go back when I start on my next major project, which will almost certainly feature in an Exploration post.

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Hyperbaric chamber with product inside at Ax-man.

While Art Scraps is an art stuff store, Ax-man is the platonic ideal of a stuff store. While I was growing up, Ax-man was a regular stop for our family. There was so much for our growing brains to take in, and if we saw something fun, it was probably only a dollar. I hadn’t gone back in probably over a decade, but some things have stayed the same, like the sarcastic hand-written price signs. A brief, non-exhaustive list of products available: bull whips, rubber chickens, camo-patterned tissues, solid fuel for camping, and selfie sticks. This list was pulled from what I could reach from the checkout counters. The store is the size of a CVS pharmacy, and it is packed with the most eclectic collection of surplus items.

Much of the product available is commercial product that is no longer being sold in stores, but Ax-man also boasts an extensive collection of electronics, both materials and antiques. If you need transistors or an ancient predecessor to the USB hub (for the computer nerds, they had an eight-port serial hub old enough to use printer port-sized plugs with serial adapters), this is your store.

Art Scraps and Ax-man are not stores you shop at every day. That’s not their business model. They are stores you shop at when you need to, and when you need to, there is no other store like it. Ax-man especially is an experience best had when you can take fifteen minutes to walk the aisles and look for all the bad puns, collage’d signage, and products you never knew existed. If you want to find something to do, a good first stop would be Art Scraps or Ax-man.

Art Scraps is on the corner of Snelling Ave and St. Clair Ave. Ax-man is on University Ave and Fry St near the Snelling Ave light rail station.

Song of the Week for April 16, 2018

I promise this song isn’t a cover. This song makes me want to bang my head and motivates me to get stuff done.

Song of the Week: The Instinct by Mick Gordon

The first Killer Instinct was a video game from back in the days of Nintendo 64. It was known for having crazy combos (for the non-gamers, that’s when your character punches the other character a lot without them being able to stop you) and for its great music. Killer Instinct was made by Rare, whose other games included Donkey Kong Country, Banjo-Kazooie, and Battletoads, all of which had great music.

Fast-forward to 2013. Rare, previously a publisher for Nintendo, had been bought by Microsoft and released some real stinkers. Even their venerable series Banjo-Kazooie had been tainted by a new released. When they announced a new Killer Instinct, people were cautiously optimistic. And then the music hit.

This is a modification of the original song from 1994, like a different movement of the same melody. The composer, Mick Gordon, has worked on other major video game releases, like the new DOOM and Wolfenstein games. One of these weeks, I’ll feature a song from DOOM, I’m sure.

Gordon’s compositions would grace Killer Instinct’s stages for the first two “seasons”, or major content groups. By the third season, for whatever reason, he left to work on other projects (probably DOOM, which is a fine choice). Composing duties were given to Celldweller and Atlas Plug, who are both really good composers and I don’t have time to get into them right now. You’ll definitely be hearing a song from them eventually.

Video Games as Art

This is the first post of the Exploration topic, so it deserves a quick introduction. In Exploration posts, I delve deeper into something I already enjoy. I’ll try to come at it from a different angle, or from a specific perspective.

While I worked as the Youth Outreach Coordinator at Metropolitan State University, I had the opportunity to run workshops for middle schoolers. I knew immediately that I wanted to give those students an experience they wouldn’t get from middle school, or even from a traditional college classroom. So I knuckled down and took a look at my major (art) and my interest (video games) and how to combine the two.

At this point, I need to make a list for myself of topics that I want to look at specifically, much like Extra Credits does. Extra Credits is a group of industry professionals that, like me, take deeper looks into video games and why they are important, but unlike me, they are actual video game professionals. I hope to one day have half of the content they do. Anyways, here’s a smattering of specific topics I want to talk about one day:

  • Video Game/Art History
  • Why Mario was good
  • Why Portal was good
  • Why Undertale was good
  • Why Bastion (the game, not the Overwatch character) made me cry
  • Why Bastion (the Overwatch character) made me almost cry
  • Why Mass Effect 3 made everyone mad
  • My favorite video game music
  • My favorite video games

And that’s just video game topics. This doesn’t include movies, music, art, Magic: the Gathering, and craft sodas.

OK, back to art and video games. I crafted this workshop to show that video games were art, and that video game history paralleled art history. Today, I’ll cover the first part (video games as art) and next week, I’ll tackle Video Game/Art History.

Art is creative expression of human effort, usually admired for its beauty, but not always, and usually visual, but not always. Among the artistic mediums, many stand out. Traditional art like painting and sculpture are good examples, but movies, books, and music are all artistic in their own way. Video games are expressions of human effort, and they are usually creative. Are they art?

The sticking point I found was “usually admired for its beauty”. Very few Madden or NBA 2k players play those games because of the beautiful graphics. They play them for enjoyment, and because marketing practices have convinced them to purchase the latest version of the game that has the best graphics. But that’s fine. Not all art is beautiful to everyone. Video games can be appreciated for other factors.

Video games can tell a good story, but in a way that other mediums cannot. Even choose-your-own-adventure books have their limitations; Undertale and Doki Doki Literature Club are two recent examples of games using choices as a game mechanic in ways that movies and books cannot hope to match. And the story doesn’t have to end positively. Both Undertale and DDLC, as well as Spec Ops: The Line, have endings where the player is meant to contemplate serious subjects, much like classic tragedies or thrillers.

Video games can entertain through interaction. They are unique in that the player is a part of the action. Theater plays and screenings of Rocky Horror Picture Show have elements of interaction, but the show will continue even without audience participation. Video games require a player; they need to be played to function as intended.

Video games can be beautiful, and in different ways. Far Cry games have incredible graphics. Portal has a very clean, simple design. Thomas Was Alone uses rectangles to paint a vivid picture. VVVVVV combines nostalgia for the original video game consoles, and Cuphead takes that nostalgia back to Steamboat Willie. I could list games that have high artistic merit until I’m blue in the face, but thankfully, someone has done it for me, and they have a lot more experience.

The Modern Museum of Art in New York has a permanent collection of video games, many of which are playable. Portal is on display, as well as many others that are beautiful not just visually, but also from a design perspective. When I (eventually) take a vacation to Washington, DC to visit the National Gallery, I’m going to take the train into New York to check out the MoMA.

Thanks for sticking with me through this first cursory look at video games and art. If anyone out there reads this, I’d love to hear what you think. Why do you like video games? Do you agree or disagree that video games are an art form? What video games do you appreciate on an artistic level?

Tune in next week, when I explain how Pong is a cave painting.

What is a Phosphate? Inspiration from St. Paul Corner Drug

This is my first Inspiration post, so I’ll give you the what’s what. Every week, I’m going to post a brief recap of my experience somewhere I’ve either never been before, or I haven’t been to in a long time, here in the Twin Cities, MN. I’ll talk about what it was like, what I liked or didn’t about it and why, and throw in a few pictures. The goal is to encourage other stay-at-homes like me to get out there and be inspired by the world that’s already around them.

For my first excursion, I didn’t want to be adventurous. The Greater Twin Cities boasts multiple cave systems, scrapyard art galleries, and an electricity museum (oh, you’d better believe I’ll be going to the Bakken). But for starters, I settled on St. Paul Corner Drug.

First, some backstory on this small drug store. Many people have heard of Wall Drug, a small drug store in South Dakota that has turned into a shopping mall complex of a store. By contrast, St. Paul Corner Drug, which opened in 1922, has stuck to its roots and remained a small drug store. It doesn’t share the notoriety of Wall Drug, but this also means that for the people of St. Paul that want the intimate experience of a mom-and-pop store, St. Paul Corner Drug delivers. Prescriptions are dispensed with the advise of seasoned veteran pharmacists.

One of the benefits of such a small store is pricing. There’s not a lot for sale, but what is for sale is very competitively priced, and nearly every essential basic health product can be found. Vitamins, off-the-shelf medicine, floss, cough drops; if you need to feel just a bit better, this store has you covered. But sage medical advise and affordable products are not the only draws.

In ye olden times, drug stores were not only a place of healing, but a place of relaxation. Soda fountains were commonplace, providing refreshing sodas and phosphates. In keeping with this tradition, St. Paul Corner Drug has a soda fountain, although it has been upgraded to a more modern design. They offer fountain soda and hand-mixed sodas advertised as phosphates. I must be critical, however, and inform you that if you looking for a true phosphate, they are missing the phosphoric acid that gives phosphates their name and distinctive sour twist.

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I selected an orange phosphate; the medium was only $1.25, which is a great deal in comparison to nearly every restaurant soda. It was very good. It tasted like orange, unlike commercial sodas like Fanta, which feel like they’re beating you over the head with orange flavor. This was a very pleasant orange soda. At the same simple counter, bar games sat between nickel-and-dime candy and a selection of sarcastic buttons, neatly juxtaposing traditions of old and new. If I go back (and I probably will), I’ll have to pick up a few buttons and try the chocolate phosphate. I’ve never had true chocolate soda; maybe it’ll be good.

St. Paul Corner Drug is by no means the only small, independently-owned business in St. Paul. However, I know that in my day-to-day, it feels easier to just run into Wal-mart or Target to get quick essentials. Big stores sell everything, so it’s the safe bet. Based on my experience today, I feel like not stopping into this small business does me a disservice, and I would be more inclined to shop at smaller businesses.

St. Paul Corner Drug is located on the corner of Snelling Ave and St. Clair Ave.

Song of the Week for April 8, 2018

Many of my Songs of the Week will be instrumental. Instrumental music is rarely offensive to people’s sensibilities, is easy to play in the background while working, and most importantly, won’t get you into too much trouble at work. (Warning: I will not vouch for you if your boss catches you listening to music at work.) This week, however, I have to highlight a song that gives me goosebumps every time I hear it because I want to sing along and feel the emotion all over again.

Song of the Week: Sound of Silence by Disturbed

(I had to stop writing here because I pulled up the YouTube video and had to sing along with it. Back in a few.)

Those of you who read my introductory post (or who went back in the archives) will notice that this is the second cover of a song in a row. First two SotW posts, two covers. I enjoy covers because they allow for unique takes on established songs, combining the past with the present.

Once you’ve gotten past that, you may have also noticed that this cover is by Disturbed, famous for songs like Down with the Sickness, a favorite of mine during the rebellious teenage years. This song sounds nothing like their other popular songs. When I first heard it, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the heavy metal to kick in, but it never did. They had a vision for this song, and they followed it through.

Paul Simon, of Simon and Garfunkel who originally performed this song, has given his blessing to this cover. It’s Disturbed highest ranked song on the mainstream top music charts, and has easily the most views of any of their music videos on YouTube. Give it a listen, and hear how a metal band pays homage to the musicians of the past.