Supanova 08

Well, Supanova hit Melbourne for the first time, and had a pretty interesting time.

I went briefly on Saturday to scope it out and look around, and was appalled to find out autographs from the stars started at $30! Fuck that.

But I did go to the Cosplay, and took a heap of pictures which you can find on facebook.

The detail of the costumes and the funny little skits these kids worked on for the costumes was awesome. Some went on for a little too long, and I'm not sure who won, but it's really great to see this kind of thing happening here as it does in the US and Japan.

* * * * *

On Sunday I was a volunteer at the Queensland Games/Krome Studios stall. We demoed Viva Pinata and had Ty The Tasmanian Tiger posters, as well as Ty himself!

Some things I noticed about working this stall:
- We should have had Ty on display as well as Viva Pinata. Ty is a very popular game - I had people asking when the next one was coming out, or if we are making it for PSP / PS3 / Xbox360, constantly.
- Actually, we should have been showing Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Whenever the QG video showed the trailer for that, people stopped to watch it. We would have been bigger than the SingStar stall if we had.
- Kids recognise and associate with the Viva Pinata cartoon, whereas older teens and adults know the game, and it really causes confusion. Our game, Viva Pinata Party Animals is based on the cartoon series and aimed at kids, and is not a true sequel to the original Rare game.
- There's some really sad and lonely people out there and games and game characters really touch them (and I'm not just talking about Steve in the Ty suit...)
- There are a lot of yummy mummies at conventions (or maybe I'm just being less picky in my old age)


I also attended the talks by John Rhys Davies and Lou Ferrigno.

Lou's talk was good, although he has trouble hearing and with the accent so had to get someone to repeat every question and the intention of some questions sometimes went awry. It's interesting to hear that he is 57 and still works out, and has trained with Chuck Norris, and how no one hassles him out in bars. He's a sheriff now with the California police, which is sure to freak out some drugged out crim he busts I bet!

John's talk was very moral and philosophical. He began by telling us he's pissed off that the UK government is thinking of denying ancestry rights to Australians. As he said, there's only 20,000 aussies in the last 5 years who've emigrated and not many of them have used Ancestry to stay there. He then went on a big diatribe on how he thinks pornography is wrong, how his generation championed rights but not responsibilities, and how he thinks we abandon children at 16, amongst other things. It was very interesting and although I don't agree with every point he made, it was very enlightening hearing that sort of talk from a celebrity.

I really wanted to stay for Jewel Staite and David Harris's talks, but I was pretty over it by 3... geeks/nerds are nice and all, but they're a little bit full on when in large numbers, even for me and I'm a pretty major nerd.

Why? Why!? WHY!?!?!

Apple and Microsoft spent millions of dollars on developing FREE video editing software and it's pretty simple to use, so why is it that NOBODY edits videos on youtube?

Everybody just sits there and talks into a camera, "Big Brother" style. Is the world really full of so many morons?

Staring into a camera and talking for 5 minutes is NOT INTERESTING, no matter HOW WITTY YOU THINK YOU ARE.

I was browsing a few things, and being an atheist myself I saw one titled "the Amazing Atheist", and decided to watch.

After a minute or so of him yabbering on and procrastinating, I shut it off. If he's amazing, then I'm afraid us atheists are in a lot of trouble because he was pretty uninspiring.

Check this guy out here... And compare it to a preacher such as Tye Tribbett

Yeah, sure, Tribett is full of shit, but if I was some impressionable young kid looking for meaning in the world, I'd know who I'd prefer to listen to...

A week in Adelaide

I just spent 10 days in Adelaide.

Every single day was over 38 degrees... and I didn't get burnt once! YAY!

I went over for Womad, which was very hot, very dusty, but a lot of fun. Highlights included Mojo Web, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Billy Cobham, John Buttler Trio, Soul Jazz Sound System and Nickodemus.

I caught up with most of the people I wanted to catch up with, and spent most of the time either watching TV and drinking, or at the beach and drinking, or in the park and drinking.

There's no pictures because I forgot to take my bloody camera :(

RIP Gary Gygax

RIP Mr Gygax.

Without you I wouldn't have made the friends I have made or be the person I am today.

And I'd probably be worse at math too!



Gary Gygax - creator of Dungeons & Dragons dies

The rattling of dice across tabletops around the word falls silent today with the news that co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons and TSR, Gary Gygax, has passed away at the age of 69. The news came via the forums of Troll Lord Games, who publish Gygax's Lejendary Adventures and Castles & Crusades sourcebooks, delivered via his son Ernie Gygax. He died in his home, having been in failing health for some time, suffering several strokes and a near heart-attack. Gygax was an inspiration to the gaming industry, with his work directly or indirectly influencing entire genres - role-playing games and MMORPGs specifically. Gary Gygax may have passed on, but the legacy he leaves to gaming will live on forever. Rest in peace, Dungeon Master.

(from Kotaku)

Back online!

Thanks to hostonce's terrible customer service, my domain expired.

I was notified on Friday last week, and cut off on Saturday. I sent 2 emails and posted 3 help desk questions and got a response on Tuesday.

That's not good enough.

And now because I wanted my site and email back on ASAP I'm locked into another 6 months with them...

At least everything is functioning now.

Melbourne Big Day Out 08

This was the second Big Day Out I've attended in Melbourne; the first was back in 2001.

This time it was a Flemmington Racecourse, and I must admit I prefer the old Showgrounds (and moreover, Adelaide Showgrounds) because there's hardly any shade and no where nice to sit. The stages are miles apart, and you have to walk pretty far between them.

There were a few things different - they had a single entry to the 'D' - basically the area right at the front of the stage, and prevented people entering when it was full. This meant I didn't get anywhere close to the stage at any time. They had drink tickets, but this time they sold them in lots of 10 for $30, and drinks were 1 ticket for water, 2 for beer, and 3 for spirits, which works out really well when you think about it.

But I had a really fun time.


Got there for Muph & Plutonic and they were heaps good... ;)

Midnight Jugernauts were meh, and didn't excite me in the slightest, so I wandered around and heard a local Melbourne group called Mammal, who weren't too bad.

Dizzee Rascal got me bouncing, and performed lots of stuff from English & Mathematics. He closed with Stand Up Tall, which I love.

Hilltop hoods started with a couple of covers - "Just To Get By" and "It's All Good", then dropped into their usual set. They had a singer and the string quartet with them as well, but I was a bit disappointed they didn't do any of the songs they wrote about Adelaide - "City of Light", for example.


Grinspoon annoyed me because they didn't even say hello to the audience - not that I heard anyway, so I grabbed a beer and did a wander. Managed to catch a little of Billy Bragg and I'm such a little commie that I was singing along to it, knowing all the words.

After him I popped over to the Lillypad and caught some of Dexter's Gorilla Step, which is a lot of fun. Dexter DJs whilst drummers drum on logs, and dancers dance around like gorillas, but in hiphop / break dance battle style. It's really cool.


Tom Morello is a funny guy. His banter between songs really humanised him. He did an acoustic cover of "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap", changing the lyrics to be all about the evil that is George Bush. He then said "Not bad for a guy who's been digitised for Guitar Hero III" and proceeded to tell the crowd how crap he is at the game. He was quite folky, and I'm sure it would have put a lot of typical rage fans off, but I liked it. At the end he told everyone to go download his album, saying "we sold so many of that Rage Against the Machine record that it doesn't matter".


However, most of the day I felt like something was missing, and it wasn't until UNKLE Live came on that I realised what it was - straight up rock! Most of the acts I had seen were hiphop or folk, and when UNKLE came on and proceeded to rock I was really surprised and really happy. They reminded me a lot of Depeche Mode actually, and the lighting in the boiler room was top shit!

Krafty Kuts and Dynamite MC played after, and I gotta hand it to Krafty, he certainly knows how to rock the festival crowd. I wasn't really feeling it though, so wandered to the bar and chatted to some randoms (Melbourne is so friendly and so full of freaks it's awesome!) and then caught 5 minutes of Pegz, who was rocking his home crowd well.


I made my way over to the blue stage in preparation for RATM, so caught most of Bjork. I really enjoyed her set, although lots of people around me whinged like little bitches about her playing right before Rage. The video showed her horn section jumping around, and the freaky instruments she uses. One was this large round touchscreen that you put cups on, and the different cups have different sounds, and the closer they are the different frequencies they make. Really interesting and I want one! (I've since found out it is a ReacTable)

Then Rage Against The Machine came on, and if I was lamenting the lack of rock, they fixed it for me. Playing all their hits, they simply smashed it. Although I got to take issue with one thing - Zac had a rant about the system, as he is want to do. It's all well and good to rant about "the system" comrade, but "the system" is the thing that's got you in front of 50,000 people singing and earning millions instead of doing an honest day's work... But it's only a minor gripe and I love the commie bastards.

Things got a little out of control in the crowd too - there were people up on the roof of the bar tent, people on the scaffolding, people in trees, and security and cops couldn't do much, although I saw one security dude just laying into one of the crashers. Not good.


But all in all it was a pretty good Big Day Out, although I think I might head to Adelaide next year, for the simple fact that there are nice places to sit and see the action, unlike at Flemmington, because my legs and feet are fucking killing me right now!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I spent the evening sitting with Betty and Sezzy and Skreetch and Kilz on the Yarra watching the fireworks. It was cool, but they had a total ban on alcohol so being sober at midnight was a little odd.

New Years Day we went to Hot BBQ and it was pretty good. Saw a tiny bit of Q-Bert, the Stanton Warriors (who were rather poor), Gotye who was good, and De La Soul who were awesome.

I also went to see Blackalicious and People Under the Stairs last Thurs and Deekline & Wizard last Fri, both which were excellent nights! And tomorrow I'm off to see the Plump DJs, who I missed at the Hot BBQ.

It's good being back at work too - straight into a new project so goodbye Star Wars: The Force Unleashed PSP! It's going to turn out ok, but the PSP is such a shitty platform for gaming - it's heavy and uncomfortable after an hour, so holding it for 4-5 hours a day is just horrid.

Being in Melbourne just feels like one big holiday. I really wish I had done this earlier in my life, but then again I didn't have a job I enjoyed this much when I was younger, so I might have hated on everything (even more ;) and become emo or something...

Who Do You Think You Are?

I've been watching SBS's Who Do You Think You Are?

It's a show that traces one UK celebrity's family history per episode.

It's so amazing what some of these people - nearly all of whom are as British as beans on toast - Bill Oddy, Stephen Fry, Jeremy Clarkson - have in their family history.

Stephen Fry had one side of his family wiped out by the Germans.

Last night they had Gurinder Chadha, the woman who directed "Bend It Like Beckham" and she's Indian, but from Kenya. Although wealthy, her family were in refugee camps after the separation of Pakistan from India. Her brother's sister died fleeing Pakistan.

These things were happening only 50 - 60 years ago.

Over a million people were dispossessed when India and Pakistan split. A Million people who had family, friends, history, land and homes told to piss off somewhere else. And I don't need to mention the Holocaust. Even if it's exaggerated the amounts of people killed, it's still a terrible waste.

And it happens over and over and over again all over the world.

This is why I get so upset with people who are racist and blame immigrants for everything and anything - I've got a sense of home, a sense of history. Sure, my knowledge of it only goes back 3 generations, but that's 3 generations of people who've lived in the one place not having to deal with being told we had to move or be killed because we prayed to the wrong god, or had the wrong coloured skin.

Merry Christmas!

My first Christmas in Melbourne was really nice.

Spent it with my house mate and his family, all of whom are really nice people. His mum gave me a George Foreman grill, and his sister and I bonded over our love of archeology and Time Team.

His other sister has two twin boys aged 9, and they refer to themselves as the "terrible twins" which I thought was pretty funny. They loved playing the Xbox, although they weren't any good at Guitar Hero, and after lunch I went back to their house to play PS2.

One really touching moment was when one of the twins was asking Bill, a 90 year old bloke and friend of Michael's Mum, all these questions about his life growing up.

I was scared of all the old people when I was young; Mum worked in a nursing home and they all smelt funny and were a bit crazy, so I was never curious about their lives at that age. But Bill was sharp as a tack and seemed to enjoy the questioning, and I enjoyed listening to the pair talk.

I miss my friends in Adelaide terribly though, and am really looking forward to getting back there in February and March.

Raining Much

This is my first ever YouTube video.

It's the view outside my window during a torrential downpour.

It was so loud I couldn't hear the TV.

Yesterday this amount of rain caused my flat to flood.

Luckily today, because the rain was falling straight down and not at an angle so it could seep in underneath the weather board, the place didn't flood.

Spoilt little rich girl

Oh, poor Hilary Martin.

Went to Brisbane Girls Grammar School and leaves school and through mummy and daddy slipping a couple of bucks the editors way gets published in the Australian.

She sounds like a spoilt little brat to me.

I went to quite possibly the worse public school in South Australia in the late 80s / early 90s... And I wouldn't give up what I was taught there for all the world.

In my year 12, we had an English Teacher who was just stuffing around for the year, so at the halfway mark, when we still hadn't read any books, we took action.

We went to the head of English, and the head of the school, and got a new teacher.

But do you know WHY we felt we could take action?

Because, unlike miss silver spooner here, we were taught independent thought! We were underprivileged and were taught by the good teachers, the ones you would probably dismiss as "stupid lefties", to fight for what we believed in!

We were taught not to sit back and take crap. And we didn't.

I was told I would amount to nothing, and treated as such, just because of where I came from.

Yet I got through school with excellent results, got a degree and post grad diploma, I'm now doing something I absolutely love and am the envy of most of my peers.

If she didn't like her schooling she should have done something about it a long time ago.

Why is she whinging about her schooling now? Why criticise and moan like a little girl after the fact?

It can't help her now.

If she acted at the time, she might have helped not only herself, but all the other people in her school, like we did.

God, I hate people like this.

When did "Average" become "Bad"?

I went and saw Daft Punk the other night, and said online that it was pretty average.

I enjoyed their music, but thought the rest of the night was pretty average. There was a lot more they could have done with the set up to make it really outstanding, like having screens to show the Daft Punk guys pushing the buttons in the pyramid.

Now I've been flamed for saying this, and people have assumed I hated it.

I didn't hate it. I never said I hated it - in fact I'm glad I went... however, because I called it average there's all this hate being directed to me.

Its the same when I review computer games.

If I say a game is average, and give it a score of 6 or 7, people assume that means I am saying the game is bad.

It's not bad, it's just not great. In other words - Average.

So, when did "average" come to mean "bad" in most peoples mind?

I wonder how many of these are worth listening to?

Nude Album Covers

I wonder how many are actually worth listening to though?

RIP James M

A friend of mine passed away in Adelaide this weekend.

"James M" as he was very affectionately known, was a funny bastard, very entertaining and always up for some fun.

He was a risk taker and it sadly caught up with him.

Really sucks being away from everyone back in Adelaide right now.

I'm hoping to get back for the funeral, even if it's just for the day.

Thoughts on the Election

I wouldn't have voted this election if I didn't have to.

Really don't see that much of a difference between the two parties, and Rudd won't undo too much and won't go far enough to put Australia on a decent path again.

Oh sure, he'll sign Kyoto, give us broadband, make tampons GST free, but I'm talking about the "little" things Howard did that Rudd won't undo.

The spending on Government Advertising should be capped - but Rudd will spend more than Howard.

Certain privacy laws were brought in by Howard - laws which effectively silence the press and prevent whistleblowing. These won't be undone by Rudd.

Certain media laws which allow cross media ownership won't be undone by Rudd, meaning we're stuck with a media duopoly.

Certain "anti-terrorism" laws which the Liberal government has shown are totally worthless anyway, won't be undone.

And not to mention the total lack of accountability by government ministers to their constituents... pioneered by the Liberals, but no doubt furthered by Labor.

These things are (apparently) fundamental to a proper working democratic society and have been taken away under a Liberal government, but because they work so well for a government in terms of keeping the government running unabetted by 'people power', none of this will be undone by Labor.

Thoughts on "Up & Out"

Last night I went to see "Up & Out" by Christian Marclay at ACMI after winning free tickets from PBS.fm

Christian Marclay interests me because he's a turntablist in the artistic sense - using records and the experience of listening to and playing with vinyl to recontextualise sound, beyond what a normal DJ - even DJs like DJ Kentaro.

He also plays around with sound and vision in mashup style.

His film "Up & Out" is a mashup of the vision from Blow Up by Michelangelo Antonioni and the sound from Blow Out by Brian de Palma.

It was interesting, but I thought it could be done better... it was simply the sound of "Up" over the vision of "Out" and whilst there was some good congruency at times, it got old pretty quickly.

The start was the best, with the score of "Out" creating a sense of apprehension with the tape loop clicking over the strings of the opening track, whilst the vision shows a bunch of face painted freaks cavort over the screen. Gives the already odd on screen action a really spooky, malevolent edge.

I only watched it for about half and hour though - the film nerd in me enjoyed it, but the rest of me thought two things - a) I could do this and b) I could be doing something better.

I understand the thought behind it, especially as both films deal with voyeurism and things not being as they seem and politicising technology, but personally thought it was a bit weak.

I would have liked to see a little more thought put into it - splicing the sound of one into the other at opportune times, a proper mashup with a bit more thought to it.

The best mashups, musically at any rate, are the ones that not only mash incongruent pieces of music but make them enjoyable as stand alone pieces. The Grey Album works because not only is it mashing two incongruent artists like the Beatles with Jay-Z, but each individual song can be played and enjoyed on it's own. You don't need to know anything about Jay-Z's '99 Problems' or the Beatles 'Helter Skelter' to enjoy 99 Problems on the Grey Album.

"Up & Out" needs knowledge of both original films, and maybe even knowledge of both Antonioni and de Palma, to work. In this sense I feel it suffers. To make it work as a film it needed dialog from Blow Up to come in at opportune times.

Change For Change's Sake

"Change for change’s sake is not a good enough reason"

Why am I not surprised this opinion is held by the editors of the Adelaide Advertiser?

It's exactly this kind of attitude that drives so many people out of the State, and will help keep Adelaide the backwater it is.

It's just so conservative. In everything.

I was chatting to Cut Le Roc on Saturday night and he said he was there the night before and it was "disturbingly quiet in Adelaide". And he's right.

Adelaide is quiet. There's never any people about. In Melbourne and Sydney and even Brisbane there's always people about. There's a vitality that's felt in the city.

Adelaide only experiences this occasionally, at times of the Festival/Fringe and Womad. Not even on New Years Eve is that sense of excitement present anymore.

And it's more than merely a "lack of population" thing.

The future is so exciting and opportunities abound, but when you're living in Adelaide it's like there's a fog and you can't see anything.

When Ratbag closed down I was at loss as what to do. Totally and utterly. I was rejected from both Team Bondi and Pandemic, and if Krome hadn't started I would still probably be on the dole.

I've been in Melbourne two weeks and have seen opportunities in case this job somehow goes sour - opportunities that would work for me in Adelaide but stuff I just didn't see or consider because of Adelaide is so conservative that it suppresses that kind of thinking.

I admit it was also me and my thinking that held me back, but it's more than just that... I've only been living out of the state two weeks, and even though I love the people back there, I honestly can't see myself returning for a while...

Differences in Opinion

Andrew Bolt has done it again.

On the one hand he claims that the bombing of Hiroshima was necessary to save further bloodshed, but then he condemns Penti Linkola a Finnish green thinker for believing the world needs less people in order to save the planet.

I'm really confused by this, because I see these as the exact same kind of thinking.

I'm not sure if my comment is too long, but Bolt has said he's writing a larger article tomorrow, so I might re-post it in those comments. I really hope I get a response, because I'm legitimately worried that I'm the stupid one for not seeing a difference, and hoping he can clear it up for me...

Here's what I wrote:

Andrew, didn't you just today say that the bombing of Hiroshima was required to stop a greater catastrophe?

I'm pretty sure you did:

"In making such judgements, the utilitarian is driven above all by the moral imperative to preserve as many people as possible from harm. Given that, the utilitarian would also seek in war to avoid any needless deaths, especially of civilians."

Unlike many of your blog posts, these are completely your own words. [LINK]

So you agree that those Japanese killed in the dropping of the bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima needed to be sacrificed to save the planet from the greater threat of Nazi and Japanese Imperialism.

Is that correct?

So how can you condemn these people - you were saying the EXACT SAME THING in that people need to be sacrificed for the greater good??

I really can't see what the difference is here.

One the one hand you had the annihilation of everything we hold dear by the Nazis and Japanese, and on the other hand we have the annihilation of everything we hold dear by environmental breakdown.

Either way it's still total Annihilation.

BUT WAIT - I know what you're going to say "Environmental Annihilation isn't certain."

Well mate, neither was cultural annihilation by the Nazis.

If you look at history, you'll see that the Romans tried to do the exact same thing as the Nazis, and they succeeded, and then the Saxons, and then the Christians, and so on and so on, but traditions thousands of years old that we hold dear still exist.

The world took a different course, but many traditions people held dear and fought for were preserved despite them losing to another culture.

So, can you please explain what the difference between Linkola's position and your position is, because I can't see one.

Tennents of FunkyJism Part 1

For a long time I've wanted to get some of my political views out. For a long time the way we frame political discussion has simply not looked right to me, and the political process has become corrupted.

I think we need to move away from traditional notions and adopt new ones so we can move on and more importantly, move better.

These notions are not always fully formulated and often not fully thought through. They are unreferenced and unresearched.

Here is my first post on this:

Personally I think the whole left/right political scale is a load of bullshit and people who use it are just too thick to understand the real workings of modern capitalist society.

If you look at all modern democracies you will see the same thing - even in places 'the left' hold up as leftist paradises like Sweden. The policies are centralist. And you want to know why?

Capitalism, as a system, needed to conquer the conflict between rich and poor or risk falling in on itself and it did by making the middle classes. It needed a group that was easy to keep happy, and we're pretty fucking happy with our lot, all over the fucking world.

And by happy, I mean are you prepared to risk your life or the life of your family to fight against what you think are the injustices of the Political Party you aren't going to vote for if they get into power?

Of course not! If they get in you'll just whinge for another 4 years. Same with me, same with every single person you know. Because either way, you'll be pretty happy with your lot in life.

Sure, it could be better, it can always be better, but it can also be a lot worse. And as long as it doesn't get too much better or too much worse, you'll remain happy.

And by worse I don't mean having to pay 25% extra on your mortgage, I mean forced into slave camps because your hair kind of worse.

Because unless you're prepared to die for your convictions, which for centuries working class and upper class people were prepared to do, nothing will change.

Change can only come from violent revolution, and violent revolution will never happen on the scale it needs to happen because not only is the logistical possibilities of that occurring again so small because of the huge population, we've been fooled into thinking violence is a bad thing.

Violence isn't bad, it's natural. When the Earth changes it's violent - earthquakes, volcanoes, tidal waves. When an ecosystem changes it's always violent - fire, flood, famine.

A fool for music

So I've been in Melbourne a week, and listening to PBS.fm the local community radio.

It's fucking awesome. The music they play in the morning is great, a cross of hiphop, funk, jazz, rock and soul. It actually wakes me up and has made me interested in

Although I think the presenters talk a little too much, at least they're not the obnoxious pricks that you find on commercial radio. And they're not Jay and the Doctor on Triple J - two unfunny wankers who should have stuck to making music.

Today they had a competition open to subscribers to win tickets to Up & Out, a cinegraphic mash up of Blow Up and Blow Out, two films I studied at Flinders Uni for Screen Studies.

I had to become a subscriber to win, but I thought fuck it, I pay $20 for last.fm so why not pay to support Australian music and radio?