Super Mario Bros. 2

I just beat Super Mario Bros. 2. I am so flipping mad. If you haven't beaten the game then this might come as a shock to you but ..... IT'S ALL A FUCKING DREAM! IT'S ALL IN MARIO'S HEAD! I feel so cheated. Worst deus ex machina ever.

Arrested Development Movie

During the life of this blog we've seen the return of X-Files, Futurama and Star Trek. And while those returns had varying degrees of greatness, I have high hopes for our next resurrected franchise.

While this has been bounced around for a while now, I have a lot more confidence in the creation of an Arrested Development movie now that Jason Bateman confirmed it on Inside the Actor's Studio. It is also up on IMDb and looking pretty real.

Also, for bonus points, try watching the series backwards. It's really interesting to see how the plot unfolds that way.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Name: Sonic the Hedgehog 2
System: Sega Genesis
Developer: Sonic Team
Publisher: Sega
Release Date: 1992
Genre: Platformer

Sonic Team’s magnum opus, arguably the greatest game ever made for the Sega Genesis, or by Sega period, Sonic 2 is the embodiment of the franchise and its pinnacle. It improves upon its predecessor with the introduction of the spin dash, the best level design of any Sonic game and the pin point precision of its platforming elements. But what sets Sonic apart from the plethora of platformers of the 16-bit era, like all the Sonic games, is its sense of overwhelming speed.

Even though I could never manage beat the game as a kid, I always got much further than any of the other Sonics… I think it has something to do with the levels being easier, on average shorter, but also because I played the game to death I managed to know the levels better than in any of the other games. I would beat Chemical Plant, Aquatic Ruin, Casino Night, Hill Top and all the way to Mystic Cave, where I would undoubtedly die many horrible deaths, wasting continue after continue until I got frustrated and quit. I must have played this game more than any other in my Genesis days, but somehow it never got old. I even played the crappy two player game quite often… which was basically just racing against someone else to see who could finish a level faster, except everything was squished pretty horribly.

This game is brilliant in every single way, but truly excels in the area of control. Sonic moves quickly, agilely, but without the sense of loss of control (maybe with the exception of the speed shoes) of many games. The level designs are, in my opinion, the cleverest of the series, with Chemical Plant, Casino Night and Hill Top Zones leading the way. Chemical Plant was the first major test to anyone playing the game and delivered splendidly with divergent paths and the toxic sludge atmosphere. Hill Top was perhaps my favorite, mostly because of the wonderful music and the Loch Ness lava monsters popping up all over the place. There can be little argument that Casino Night is the best, though… it is by far the most immersive level. The true joy of the zone is that you don’t want to leave, you just hang around gambling for coins, bouncing off the plethora of bumpers and glowing chili dogs and enjoying the atmosphere. Yet, it never seemed to lose the sense of speed that is essential to the game.

The graphics were wonderful, with everything having just a little more depth than in the first game and a little more vibrant look. While the visuals certainly were not as pretty as those of Sonic 3 or Sonic and Knuckles, they have a charm of their own. The music is outstanding and fitting in every zone.

The biggest addition to the game was the spin dash, which contributes majorly to the game’s sense of speed, but Tails can’t be forgotten. This is his first game and while he’s up there at the top of the pantheon of annoying sidekicks, I always had a soft spot for him and he is a help at times in the game. The player has the option of playing as either Sonic and Tails, with Tails either computer controlled or being controlled by the second player. I never found controlling Tails to be all that easy, but he can be helpful at times, Sonic alone or Tails alone. Unfortunately, Tails cannot fly when player controlled like in Sonic 3. The new bonus stage is interesting, if only for its 3-D, and has Sonic running along a halfpipe picking up rings and avoiding bombs. It always gave me a headache, but it was decent.


From the rehashed Green Hill Zone, which never felt like a cop out, but simply a homage, to Wing Fortress and Death Egg Zones, Sonic 2 is an amazing game and one that I simply cannot do justice. While not a long game (it can be finished in one sitting if you’re good enough), it will surely take most players many hours to complete it. It took me about fifteen years. During that time, I took years off from playing it, but every time I picked it up it was as enjoyable as the last. It is rare to find a platformer that is this perfect, but Sonic the Hedgehog 2 surely does everything it sets out to do perfectly.

Score: 10/10

Space Cowboys and Werewolves

Happy Halloween everyone! While it seems our usual tradition of going to see movies at the Old Redford is skipping a year, I'm headed up to State tonight to reunite the BSD brain trust. I have no idea what we're doing, but it should be good.

The first clip is a nice homage to Firefly from Castle, which is a pretty good show. Nothing groundbreaking, but enjoyable none the less.



And, what is probably the greatest Halloween song ever.

Man's Best Friend

This is late, but I don't think that matters much. The following comes from Iowa football blog Black Heart Gold Pants:

"Senior linebacker Pat Argerer tore ligaments in his right thumb early in the Arkansas State game, but he said it won't affect his status for this week or beyond. 'You don't need thumbs,' he said. 'My best friend is my brother's dog. He doesn't have any thumbs and he's doing fine.'"

That just might be the most epic quote ever.

"....more like a cemetary than an avenue...."

Just as I finished the first book of Roberto Bolaño's posthumously published last work, 2666, my lending time form the library ran out and it was recalled. Someone else had placed a hold on the work and I will have to wait another month before I can enact my revenge, perpetrating the same grievous act against them.

I am left with a hauting feeling from the opening book of 2666, The Part About the Critics. It was a strangely interesting and obsessing read. Although for the most part while reading the book, carrying the massive 900 page slab from place to place with, trying to fit in a few minutes of reading and rumination whenever I could, I felt that the work was slow and retarding I could not keep myself from reading more. Unlike so many books that have presented themselves to me as being nearly plotless and void of direction of plot The Part About the Critics was strangely, and borderline upsettingly, obsessing. The story is about four German literature critics and scholars from all over Europe (England, France, Spain, and Italy.) Each is considered an expert in their field of study and on the work of the mysterious German author, held to be the greatest German author of the 20th century (with the exception of Franz Kafka), Benno von Archimboldi. As the four scholars become friends a love triangle develops within the group, Norton and English woman in her late 20s, and two of her male companions, Pelletier, a Parisian, and Espinoza, a Spaniard. As their private lives take over their work and daily tasks the critics find themselves suffer as a result of one another. The stroy windingly leads out of Europe and into a Mexican boarder town, Santa Teresa in Sonora, where, among a mystery concerning hundreds of young women's deaths, the critics hope to find the seemingly mythical figure of their mutual lives, Archimboldi.

The book reads like a Francisco Goya painting. Some figure like his Colossus or Saturn, devouring his son, hangs over the writing. The language is baroque and gothic but without the added weight of romanticism. So much of the story is interrupted by the dreams of the characters of their false memories of such that entire sections of the work feel surreal and unread after a time. As the characters slowly lose all connection to their own lives so does the reader and eventually you find yourself reading without purpose or direction or concern. The work is so disconcerting and unnerving that its easy to forget what you are reading and why. Some of its most stylish,stunning, memorable, and enjoyable lines and passages are constructed with such a dichotomy of grotesque beauty, of clarity juxtaposed with insanity that its hard to not feel upset reading them. Like when Norton, Pelletier and Espinoza, stopping their car along a Mexican highway leaving the city look out across the desert and into Arizona and "the sky at sunset looked like a carnivorous flower."

Middlesex

A few weeks ago, Stef, Caleb and I went on an expedition down into the heart of Detroit and then out into Grosse Pointe. It was a journey of nostalgia as well as a literary pilgrimage. While we've never gone to find Salinger so he can hit on our girlfriends or sought out the wisdom of Ray Bradbury, we did find Middlesex.


But I'm getting ahead of myself, that's the end of the journey. The beginning was a drive down Michigan Avenue, the mainstreet of our hometown of Dearborn and one of the main spokes that radiate out from the center of Detroit. We drove into Detroit past beautiful old buildings, some shoddy, some painted gaudily, some in wonderful condition and housing Mexican restaurants. Soon enough Downtown was visible, but we took a bit of a detour as we past the wreck of old Tiger Stadium, one wall left emblazoned with two defiant tigers and headed up Trumbull towards Warren.

While I had been into the city plenty of times, never had I done so at such a leisurely pace. We weren't heading to a ball game or a concert or driving around in the middle of the night because we're stupid and eighteen, we were exploring. I was to come see what I would soon be leaving behind, coming to appreciate what I had always taken for granted as my home, but never truly stopped long enough to take it all in.

We took a turn down a lonely little street and looped past the Michigan Central Station, one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen, even though it is now only the deteriorating shell of an idea.

Michigan Central Station

We headed along Warren past Wayne State's campus and then hit Woodward and took that down into the heart of the city. We drove passed Grand Circus Park, Campus Maritus and to Hart Plaza, dwarfed by the skyscrapers above... the Penobscot Building and the Renaissance Center especially.

Downtown Detroit from Belle Isle

We headed northeast up Jefferson and crossed the river to Belle Isle, where we parked and wandered about the south end of the island. Avoiding goose poop, we walked down to the water's edge where huge rocks are piled up and looked at Downtown, then headed over to the beautiful statue before the pond. Eventually, we hopped back in the car and circled the island, stopping by the Aquarium to peek inside (it isn't open anymore) and the Conservatory. We drove past the Detroit Yacht Club (looking quite pompous) and the Detroit Boat Club (the burned out husk of a building) and then headed back to the mainland and up Jefferson once more. We drove around Indian Village, marveling at the beautiful old houses of the revived neighborhood and then into Grosse Pointe, which while beautiful and old, had a definite flavor of aristocracy.


It was there where we found Middlesex and on that street a house which seemed to us suspiciously like the house from Jeffery Eugenides' book by the same title. It looked smaller than I imaged it from the book, but it did seem to stretch back quite a ways and we didn't go traipsing about the backyard or anything, but it seemed to fit the image of that big-windowed monstrosity of modernism.

I'm not sure I can capture what I felt staring at that house, but I must have been part pilgrim, part detective, part wonder-struck child...

Middlesex

We spent a bit more time in Grosse Pointe, just soaking in what the city (or cities, I should say) felt like, before heading back into Detroit and then home. We stopped by a Mexican place to eat and then by a comic book store on our way back up Michigan Avenue and into Dearborn.

happy birthday edward

love is a place
& through this place of
love move
(with brightness of peace)
all places

yes is a world
& in this world of
yes live
(skilfully curled)
all worlds

The Absurdist Triumvirate

“Restraint! What possible restraint? Was it superstition, disgust, patience, fear -- or some kind of primitive honour? No fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger is; and as to superstition, beliefs, and what you may call principles, they are less than chaff in a breeze. Don't you know the devilry of lingering starvation, its exasperating torment, its black thoughts, its sombre and brooding ferocity? Well, I do. It takes a man all his inborn strength to fight hunger properly. It's really easier to face bereavement, dishonour, and the perdition of one's soul -- than this kind of prolonged hunger. Sad, but true. And these chaps, too, had no earthly reason for any kind of scruple. Restraint!” (71)

In consideration of the publication date of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, 1899 puts the work 34 years after Lewis Carroll’s initial publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. With no evidence as to whether or not Conrad was influenced in any way by Carroll’s earlier text the likenesses between the two stories are striking and surprising. From the Chief Accountant’ lingering smile (like that of the fading Cheshire Cat [“`All right,' said the Cat; and this time it vanished quite slowly, beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone.”]) to Kurtz’s writing “'Exterminate all the brutes” (characteristic of The Queen’s proclamation “Off with her head!”) each text experiences it’s characters slow lose of stability and sacredness for life as the characters, Alice and Marlow, become deeper entrenched in their respective rabbit holes.

One such examination of this slowly leaking sense of decency towards the mortality of others is found in the passage above where Marlow examines the power of self-restraint. If taboos exist to insure and keep peace then cannibalism must represent one of the most disruptive behaviors to the colonials. However, as Marlow observes the natives restraint in the face of hunger he comes face to face with his own weakening sense of peace and right or wrong. As Marlow recognizes that “disgust simply does not exist where hunger is” he too recognizes his own hunger and his own loss of disgust or morale sense of propriety. Throughout the text this same loss is represented in different characters but most strongly in the civilized characters who coming from an established community of morals become less and less adverse to barbarism as they travel deeper into the jungle. Marlow’s restraint is his disgust and his feelings of horror which keep him from giving in to the hunger of the jungle.

Taking all of this into consideration its also interesting to think about something that Matt first pointed out to, that Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland and Kafka's The Trial (1925). When taken together the three texts make for a perfect Absurdist Triumvirate, a series of parables bridging from one century into the next.

Metro Detroit High School Football Map

After hearing about the demise of the Michigan Mega Conference I got curious as to what new conferences were formed and which schools went where. That, coupled with my obsession with maps has produced the map below. I marked all the public High School football teams in Metro Detroit by conference. Hopefully the quality is good enough that it can be blown up.

The schools themselves are not marked, because the map would be too crowded and while the dots which represent schools are not necessarily in the correct location, they should be in the correct cities.

Teams can be extrapolated by heading here.