#but for context this is from 'waiting on a sunny day' from the rising tour

[up-beattt]

(x)

[justforbooks]

On Western Stars, Bruce Springsteen Rides in the Whirlwind

A look inside the LP being hailed as The Boss’s best since Magic

In his memoir Born to Run and its live companion piece Springsteen on Broadway, Bruce Springsteen describes his first drive cross-country, when he was 21 years old. That would place that journey around 1970, ’71. Let’s pretend that at the end of the trip he found himself in sunny Southern California (not “down San Diego way,” but in Los Angeles) and decided to hang around there, writing songs, playing acoustic gigs, and by ’73 was getting some cuts on Linda Ronstadt albums, generating buzz as a solo performer from shows at the Troubadour, and the record labels started showing interest, resulting in a deal with Asylum, or Reprise.

Springsteen’s L.A. debut album released that year, let’s call it Greetings from Griffith Park, Ca., might’ve sounded something like his new Western Stars. When he began hinting about this solo project a few years back, Springsteen referenced the SoCal sound of the late ’60s, specifically Glen Campbell’s records of Jimmy Webb songs, and on Western Stars you can hear him aiming at the sweepingly melancholy vibe of “Wichita Lineman,” “Galveston,” and “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.” In Dylan Jones’s upcoming book The Wichita Lineman: Searching in the Sun for the World’s Great Unfinished Song, Springsteen says about Campbell’s singing, “It was simple on the surface but there was a lot of emotion underneath.”

Reviewers have been scrambling to play spot-the-musical-influences on Western Stars, and that’s fun to do. I hear some Johnny Rivers with the Wrecking Crew and Marty Paich’s strings lurking in the corners; Waylon Jennings’s version of “Good Time Charlie’s Got the Blues” (many people have pointed out how much “Hello Sunshine” resembles that song); the string arrangements Nick DeCaro did on Reprise albums for Gordon Lightfoot (Springsteen even has a song called “Sundown,” like Lightfoot’s big hit from ’74), Arlo Guthrie and Randy Newman, or the ones Bergen White charted for Tony Joe White; the hyper-literate, vivid Americana of Mickey Newbury. What a cool game! Nilsson! Jim Croce!

But Western Stars isn’t just evocative of the California sound of the early ’70s; it has, underneath its cinematic strings, the downbeat feeling of the movies that were coming out in 1973, populated by characters who couldn’t really be called heroes: Badlands (of course), Charlie Varrick, High Plains Drifter, Kid Blue, The Last American Hero (which Springsteen referenced on The River’s “Cadillac Ranch”), Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Scarecrow, Walking Tall. (In ‘73, Springsteen’s not-yet-manager Jon Landau was reviewing films—including some on this list—for Rolling Stone.) Those Watergate-era films, road movies, neo-Westerns, stories of outcasts and revenge-seekers, inform the landscape of Western Stars. On the title track, Springsteen reaches back a bit further: “Here’s to the cowboys, riders in the whirlwind” (see: Ride in the Whirlwind, Monte Hellman’s existential black-and-white western from 1966, starring a pre–Easy Rider Jack Nicholson). Sometimes Western Stars feels like an unmade film with Michael Sarrazin, Barbara Hershey, and Warren Oates.

Oh, I haven’t mentioned how good this album is, how memorable many of its lines are. “Fingernail moon in a twilight sky/Ridin’ high grass of the switchback”: his imagery is as crisp and clean as his fictional Montana sky. “Boarded up and gone like an old summer song.” It’s Springsteen’s best album, by far, since Magic (2007), and I already prefer it to the much-revered (in some quarters) The Rising. For one thing, it isn’t carrying the burden of expectations of The Rising (“We need you now!” someone supposedly shouted at Bruce in the street after 9/11, and can you conceive of the pressure? Would anyone have yelled that at Billy Joel?), and it isn’t bearing the heavy sonic weight of Brendan O’Brien’s production. Western Stars feels more open. These tracks have been in the works for some time; he mentioned the project in interviews around the time of the autobiography, but it had to wait until the whole Born to Run/Springsteen on Broadway phase was over. Maybe, by that point, he’d tired of his own narrative voice and his own story and got down to shaping others. These songs are all in the first person, but that person isn’t Bruce Springsteen. They’re hitchhikers and wayfarers (aren’t they kind of the same thing?), stuntmen and bit players. They’re like the characters in the early ’70s novels by Larry McMurtry (Moving On and All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers), and I wonder how Springsteen missed out on writing a song about a rodeo cowboy.

Springsteen is also liberated musically. He didn’t have to consider, as he did with the woeful Working on a Dream and the clunky, well-meaning Wrecking Ball, how the songs would translate in the context of a live show with the E Street Band. You can’t imagine them schlepping around a big string section to recreate these songs, and there wouldn’t be anything at all for Jake Clemons to do, and even Max Weinberg would be fiddling his thumbs for a big chunk of the set. No doubt a few of these tracks will find their way into the possible 2020 tour (please, not “There Goes My Miracle” and “Sleepy Joe’s Café”; we don’t need him straining to be Del Shannon, or the band pretending to have fun on a Jay and the Americans knockoff), and if “Hello Sunshine” gets to replace “Waitin’ on a Sunny Day,” all the better.

Western Stars suggests an America divorced from this moment in history. The only cultural reference is to John Wayne (in ’73 he was doing junk like The Train Robbers), and the one allusion that nudges the album into the late 20th century is to a blue pill for ED. Otherwise, the album would have sat pretty solidly in the Nixon era. For anyone who expected Springsteen to be a beacon of hope that the country will get through this current crisis the way it did through Watergate and 9/11, or who wanted him to draw stark pictures of our heroes and villains, Western Stars may feel slight, or like a challenge he gave himself to complete a genre exercise. But if Darkness on the Edge of Town was Springsteen’s film noir, this album is his bleak road movie, his characters nursing drinks, recalling old loves and old wounds. By the time we end up at the final track, looking at the remnants of a beaten-down motel, we’ve been along on one of Springsteen’s most rewarding rides.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[hylukotranslations]

FOOL'S MATE - May 2005 Album: Juusankai wa gekkou (13th floor with moonshine)

Atsushi Sakurai (Vocal) Interview by Koh Imazu

Your new album is a type of album that Buck-Tick experimented for the first time, isn't it. I mean the point where you always keep the same context and let the songs evolve around it.

This was a point we paied attention at while making the album. So we tried not to go outside this frame.

As the lead vocals and as the lyric writer ?

Yes. This time there was "the gothic" as the general theme. If I wished it, I could work deviating more or less from it, but I tried docilely (laughs) not to go out of it.

When you say you tried not to deviate from it, we can hear it as an obligation, but wasn't it naturally that you did it without deviating ? That what I thought when I listened to this world.

Yes. Since it was a theme that I like, I could do it quite naturally.

If you wrote all the lyrics except one, was it also because you like this world ?

Because of it, and also for what Imai said : "this time if I write lyrics they may sound like explanations. So, it's preferable that the singer writes them himself." Also because when you try to enter the lyrics of someone else, there are limits.

Even after all these years you experienced ?

Yes. Even if you take just one word, only the one who wrote it knows in which intention he used it.

And you can't ask him his intention for all the words he used.

Since there is a kind of impatience about it, and since this time it was about a world that I personnally like, I also managed to write as many lyrics as possible. Unlike the previous albums, there was a concept at the beginning so it was more easy for me to write them.

Above all, where did this concept of "gothic" come from ?

As usual, from Imai. He was thinking about it during the tour for the previous album. He also said that he was convinced it was the right theme when he saw my solo stage.

About your solo stage, the set was very simple. If he got that conviction watching this stage, he was surely inspired by your performance itself.

Well, probably.

By the way, when we ask you "gothic", you can answer one hundred things about that keyword, right ?

Said excessively that way, that's right (laughs). I thought that if time permetted it, I wished I could always go on with that recording session.

Lately we can hear in various domains the term "gothic", or "goth" in an abbreviated form, but as far as you are concerned, when did you know about it for the first time ? I guess around Bauhaus ?

That's right. When I knew Bauhaus for the first time, I had unconditionally a kind of feeling saying : "I found what I like !". Until that moment people recommanded me stuff saying : "this one is good", but I wasn't that interested in them. Like the Pistols, I couldn't like their stuff as much as the other persons.

About Bauhaus, were you interested in their music like in their visual as a whole ?

Yes.

When we watch the PV of one of their representative song "Telegram Sam", we can see the parts of the shadows which aren't lit up by the light are used in a very efficient and powerful way.

Yes. I really can feel it. If they didn't have this kind of aspect, I think I haven't liked them that much until now. I really liked that intention from the members of showing the shadows.

You, Acchan, also try to show shadows.

Yes, in the moments where I am overexcited while writing lyrics or when I am on stage. Usually when I am on stage, I pay attention to the spotlights, but after years I also started to go intentionnally a bit away from the center of the light.

By moving away from the light, some parts on you become shadows.

Yes, when the light strongly lights up my face I am dazzled and I can't see anything, so I have a moment's panic. But I like that feeling too (laughs). So I also like to move away from it and make shadows. For that, I watched Bauhaus' videos and I found it so cool, so I studied them. I learned that there is the shade since there is the light, and there is the light since there is the shade. I also knew that it wasn't interesting to only light up everything.

And how is it at home ?

While writing the lyrics I only light on one lamp. And when the sun rises, thank to the curtains wich intercept the light it's still dark (laughs).

Do you have gothic items in you room ?

I would so like to buy some thoroughly, but I'm not someone that assidius. Thought I have some masks. (pointing his head) Since it's deranged in there (laughs).

Including the new album, do you always write the lyrics in the dark ?

Yes. In the daytime when the weather is good and sunny, I have the impression that I can't defeat the sun. Since its light seems to be justice.

You say justice (laughs)

If I want to feel peaceful, I think it would be like everyone under the sun. But it's during the night that various stories come to my mind. Since the night can be just as well evil as pure... About the day and the night, I think it's the same thing as what I just said about the light and the shadow. One of the two can't be accomplished alone. So when I'm on one side I'd like to be always aware of the opposite side.

Then in the daytime are you aware of the night ?

Yes. I'm a night owl and I can like doubtful stuff (laughs). And in the daytime there is no place where I can hide.

I guess that the hero of "Romance - Incubo-" would hide inside a coffin.

Ahahahaha (laughs).

Do you like the vampires ?

I think they are attractive. The way they can't live under the sun but give free rein to all their talents at night (laughs). But an adult like me shouldn't say such things (laughs).

Usually as we become good adults we tend to be of the morning side, but you Acchan are still of the night side.

I'd like to be always a one of the night side. Today I'm still waiting everyday for the night.

Finally this new album fits you like a glove. Since from the opening song "Kourin (Advent)" you sing : "Wake up. The night is beginning right now"

Indeed (laughs).

This time it appears that they are many songs, not only "Romance - Incubo-" and "Kourin", where the stage is the night. But on the other hand, I noticed several twisted situations. For example, in "Cabaret" or "Doll", there are parts where you sing as if you were a woman.

Maybe before I could feel resistance for doing it. But when, for my solo carrier, I did the cover of "Amaon wa Chopin no shirabe (rain's sounds are Chopin's melodies)" which is sang by a woman, I knew that "I just have to change my feeling to become one character". Since I had that experience, this time I could do it quite easily.

Is writing lyrics with the words of a woman and singing it like a mental disguise as a woman ?

Yes, though I could never be a woman. But in the songs I used the words of a woman so that I can be a woman in an almost vulgar way.

By writing yourself these words of a woman, is it more easy for you to put yourself in a woman's shoes ?

Whichever lyrics I write, I put into words what comes in my mind, so in my head I'm already in her shoes. Well, another way was probably to ask a woman to sing.

But then the meaning tends to change.

Yes. What I wanted in "Cabaret" was the vulgar side of a man who tries to dress up as a woman. Moreover, it's not about an external disguise as a woman, but he is inwardly a woman. It's about that kind of man who wants a man. In "Doll", one of the characters is a doll, but mentally it is awoken as a woman.

There are parts for a man and parts for a woman. When you sing such songs, do you record them separately ?

No, they were recorded at one go. But I did the changes paying careful attention. In the first and second lines I have the role of a little girl who is a doll, in the second verse A the role of the master, and so on. I can say it for the whole album, but this time I don't sing as the lead vocals Atsushi Sakurai, but as someone who acts a role in each song.

Then in "Doukeshi A (Clown A)" you act a pierrot ?

Yes. And when I'm on stage somewhere I feel like I'm a pierrot.

Did you ever think you were a pierrot ?

Yes. In the fact of entertaining the audience by showing myself. I felt in particular opposition to be seen as a known artist. The others know me but I don't know them. I thought : then, what am I ? At the time of the album "Six/Nine", I had plenty of time to feel unable to understand myself. This way I could plunge deeply into it, and as a result I think we did a good album.

And today, how do you feel about being watched ?

It's like : come on, look at me (laughs). I became kind of bold, or tough faced with it. In "Doukeshi A" I sing : "noone cares about you", so I think today I feel sufficiently at ease so that I can say that. Especially for this album where there are numerous songs where I act a role, I must not be too much conscious of myself. Unless I feel embarrassed and I can't get right into the part. Then after I can regret it. So I stayed as much as possible in a condition where I was into the part and felt full of confidence (laughs). This was another thing from singing right or not.

What about the fact of singing right ?

I and the director give more importance to the "taste" than to sing well or not. And during the recording session it could occur that I sing intentionnally sharp. I payed attention at least not to be too much false, but I fundamentally favoured the characters (laughs).

However, I think you can do that since you possess a solidly-based technique. For the lives, from a certain period your singing began to lead the band. Moreover you've been maintaining perfect notes.

It's true that if I'm not self-satisfied to a certain point, by twisting my way of singing I'll only become a bad singer (laughs). I think there is also the fact that I can sing now at a high level since I use the ear-monitor. Though with it the feeling of the lives disappear.

What do you mean ?

I can't hear at all the audience, so that sometimes I feel anxious : "maybe I'm not popular ?" (laughs).

Where did the title of the album "Jyuusankai wa gekkou (13th floor with moonshine)" come from ?

It's Imai who found it. He surely wanted it to sound disturbing (laughs).

But when we consider the album as a whole, it doesn't end at all in a total blackness. Humour is hiding too in an inevitable way.

Yes. Humour and pathos were for me elements of gothic as well. We can also talk about fantasy for this album. I thought it would be nice if it gives the impression to read tales moving away from the reality. When we say gothic we can also imagine pretty demons.

Like the combination between the lolitas and the gothic in the fashion...

That's right ! But in this album, apart the gothic I had my own theme. Like light and shade, life and death. So, the songs begin by the birth, and at the beginning it should have ended by the death, but Imai changed the order of the songs so that it became : "in fact I was alive" (laughs).

And this last song "Diabolo - lucifer -" ends by the phrase : "to your darkness, I give a toast !" If we follow this interview, it can be interpreted by : the night isn't that bad after all ?

Yes (laughs).

So in conclusion, the two inevitable questions for this period. First, about the 20th anniversary.

It's so different from what I really feel. Talking about the real time it must be something considerable, but I don't remember all the events that occured during this time. I feel it shorter than the figure of 20.

When did you know it was your 20th anniversary ?

When we were interviewed about it for our fan-club's newsletter, there I knew it for the first time (laughs).

What did you think at that moment ?

That it was like the singers of enka (note : traditional japanese songs) (laughs). The fact that it's about "anniversary", it sounds like if we're making many efforts and I don't like it (laughs).

Then the second question, about your next tour.

Considering the subject of this album, we are thinking a lot about the visual aspect. Since we even wished that the world of each song could become a movie, we want to do lots of things.

--fin

translation: hyluko [livejournal] scans: tigerpal [livejournal]

NOTE: these translations are not mine also might not be very accurate. i took them from hyluko’s site using the wayback machine. thought they’re great to share. if the owner is around and wants me to take them down i will!

[michelemoore]

Takhuk

May, 2021

Michele Moore V

THEM, THEY, US

And Me, in Savannah, Georgia

I was in Gone With the Wind territory, one of those places that had lived in my mind since I was 15 and had read through several nights to dawn, finishing that famous historical romance. I was with Rogerio, taking advantage of his annual travel to a professional conference that was being held this time - 2014 - in Savannah, Georgia. Atlanta, the Georgian city and scene of many of Scarlett O’Hara’s romantic vexations, was a few hours drive away, but Savannah’s surrounding countryside and old town fit perfectly with the vivid scenes in my mind.

Sitting under an umbrella of live oak trees in one of the city’s historic squares, flitting chirping birds innocent and free flashed and disappeared into the green drapery that guarded the fountain, benches, and gardens of the square. Lined up along each side of the square were immaculately preserved stucco and brick homes. Geometric symmetry and timeless materials both hallmarks of these architectural gems, these little mansions. Amongst their clean white exteriors trimmed in glossy black or green shutters and window sashes, their generous iron rails and fences and refurbished stone steps, and the square’s scrubbed clean statue commemorating a past Georgian military or political figure, I, was, there. Smack dab in the middle of the ‘old South’.

Although Gone With the Wind was a torrid love story that certainly appealed to my teenage sense of romance, it was the cultural and historical setting that was the real story, to me. It was the American civil war, that brutal dirty war over abolition. Scarlett O’Hara’s family owned Tara, a large and lavish cotton plantation. If slavery was to be abolished, how would they manage to maintain their mansion and grounds and grow and harvest their cotton crop? For Scarlett, saving Tara became more important than satisfying Rhett Butler’s desires , but what mattered most to my teenage mind was finding somewhere in those hundreds of pages proof that Scarlett would realize the enslavement of Mammy and Prissy and all the other servants and plantation workers was wrong.

Recreating in my mind scenes from the novel, I imagined a luxurious cigar scented ‘drawing room’ beyond the windows of the mansion in front of me. Convening inside were wealthy plantation owners raising money to support ‘the Cause (the war)’, while being served by slaves. When Margaret Mitchell, a native Georgian born in 1900, wrote and published Gone With The Wind, it was 1936, just 70 years since the end of the American Civil war and the abolition of slavery, and years before the era of Martin Luther King’s civil rights movement. (It would be another 32 years before Martin Luther King was murdered.) In Georgia in the 1930’s, the Ku Klux Klan was a cultural staple and racial segregation was legal standard practice – in other words, it was legal in states like Georgia to prevent black Americans from living, learning, working and recreating where they wished. Those laws are what are commonly known as Jim Crow laws that, although finally banned thanks to people like Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement of the 60’s, are still in de facto operation today, as I saw firsthand while visiting Savannah.

Jim Crow laws and the KKK. These facts were Mitchell’s context. Her reality. Yet she wrote a book that disregarded the truth of the slave era, imbuing her black characters with simple minds, suggesting they were content and fulfilled in their roles as slaves.  Through those long nights of reading those hundreds of pages, I kept looking for evidence that Mitchell knew. Because as any 15 year old would tell you, the Margaret Mitchells’ of the world, and every single other person, should know.

Sunshine warmed my bench and back. Women pushing baby strollers passed by, their southern accent adding an audio dimension to the scene in my mind of southern belles in their elaborate gowns, and men in breeches and tall leather boots. All being served by slaves. Those anonymous individuals central to the economy of the slaving era and the production of the wealth still being enjoyed today by the ancestors of plantation owning families and those associated with the corresponding commercial network.

I stood and walked around the fountain, the gardens. The place felt peaceful enough, yet lacking in something. Lacking in abundance – of people, of the layers of life I have witnessed and felt in other squares in the world where old ladies jammed together on benches laughed and pointed, and children chased each other around fountains and families bought sweet and savoury snacks from a rolling cart food vendor.

This square was pretty and pleasant, but it was lacking. And so I moved on.

***

At our first breakfast of the conference,  Rogerio came and went from our large round table as ever more of his professional associates appeared, leaving me with four other women at our table, also wives or partners to engineers attending the conference. (Yes, there were also female engineers in attendance, however, you are right to imagine there were far more males.)

During our initial polite introductions I learned two of these women were from Georgia, one was from South Carolina, and one from Alabama. They had been enjoying these conferences with their husbands for years. As Rogerio and I were outsiders, these friends naturally fell into their own conversation while we did the same. Being a compulsive eavesdropper, I did note references to children and family, revealing they were all mothers with kids in high school or college.

Rogerio and I were eating and talking about my day’s plans when he spotted an old friend across the room and dropped his cutlery to go say hello. Left alone to my own thoughts, I sipped my coffee and opened a small tourist magazine I had brought to breakfast.

But the conversational tone of the other women at the table pricked my ears; they were into something deep. With my eyes on my magazine, I listened to the women complaining. I heard words like ‘maid’, and ‘servant’ and multiple references to ‘she, and them, and they’.  

Although the women had their heads together and were speaking quietly, one of the ladies frequently burst out loudly with hostility over her maid’s failings. Phrases such as, “I don’t see why she can’t just…” or, “they have no business expecting…”

Perhaps it was the fact that I was the only one of us to thank the young black woman who refilled our coffee cups that finally caused comprehension to explode in my mind. I can still feel now the shock I felt then.

How naïve of me, I discovered, to expect that the breakfast conversation at a professional conference in Georgia in the year 2014, 150 years after slavery had been abolished in the United States, to be about ideas that might solve, rather than exacerbate, systemic problems, whether those problems be scientific or social.

The woman who tended to loudness was becoming riled up about ‘them’, so much that my heart began to race with the desire to fight, or flee. At the moment I was freezing. One of the other women caught me looking up from my coffee cup at the hostile woman. Our eyes locked, she saw my distress, she whispered urgently to the loud one, who immediately stopped her tirade.

This was truly an awakening in my life I never expected, imagined, or known could happen. Despite Canada’s own glaring social inequities, despite being perfectly aware of racism in both Canada and the United States, the idea that white Americans still had black domestic servants of whom they would so openly and routinely speak of with such disdain, such separateness, came to me as a true shock. No name was used to reference the individuals. Rather, ‘she’, ‘her’, and ‘they’ were the only identifiers. Speaking a person’s name, of course, acknowledges a level of humanity that would require the speaker to bestow a person with a degree of dignity these women were steadfastly withholding from their subjects.

I went back to my hotel room to record this experience in my journal. Soon after, still shaken, I headed out to spend the day walking the city’s historic centre and riverfront, and to try to understand more of the life of the ‘old South’.

Branching out from another square, I wandered up and down streets lined with more of those stately homes and attractive walk-up low rise apartments, all shaded by the green drapery of those generous old oaks, now whispering to me to look closer, look closer. The breakfast ladies had thrust upon me a new lens through which to view these homes, these squares lacking in life’s richness and diversity, these historic monuments and plaques commemorating selective people and events; expressing a preferred story, but not the whole story.

Eventually, I found the Owens-Thomas House and Slave Quarters. Here, I was able to walk through the simple wooden cabins behind the structured gardens separating the quarters from the mansion. While the mansion was busy with staff speaking with visitors, no staff was in attendance to interpret or answer questions in the slave quarters. And so I moved on.

I walked away determined to find evidence of Savannah’s black community. Where did the waiting and cleaning staff from my hotel live? Where did they go for a cup of coffee on a sunny day off? Down the streets I walked, passing homes and shops exuding prosperity and comfort.

Until I saw ahead a long line of black adults waiting on the sidewalk next to a church. I slowed in front of the building and realized I had found the African First Baptist Church, one of the Underground Railroad’s  hiding places in the south. The Underground Railroad being the secret network of people throughout the U.S. and Canada that provided refuge to enslaved black Americans escaping north to safety and freedom.  

Inside the church’s entry, I followed a posted notice of a self-guided tour of this still active church. I went downstairs first, to the basement, to stand on the wooden floorboards and discover the hundreds of miniscule nail holes in the floor, hammered there to allow oxygen down into the hiding place below. As I tried to imagine the dark damp hole in the ground under me, I wondered if any of the slaves from the Owens-Thomas House hid there, in darkness and silence, inhaling life, exhaling dreams of freedom through those nail holes, those determined, defiant nail holes.

From the website of the church:

The holes in the floor are in the shape of an African prayer symbol known to some as a BaKongo Cosmogram. In parts of Africa, it also means “Flash of the Spirits” and represents birth, life, death, and rebirth. 

Up the worn wooden stairs from the basement I went to the main level and up another flight of steps to the balcony where some of the church’s original pews were still in place. From the church’s website:

The pews located in the balcony are original to the church.  These pews were made by enslaved Africans, and are nailed into the floors. On the outside of some of the pews are writings done in a classical West African Arabic script from the 1800s.

I found examples of that script, by squatting down and looking low, as if the engraver wanted even this evidence of his or her existence to remain hidden. I wanted to touch the script, the patterns were beautiful, but I stopped myself. There was good reason the signage asked visitors not to touch. Such artifacts are truth telling. It seems these artifacts will need to keep speaking for a long time yet.

Feeling sombre over all that I had learned, I left the church and weaved my way back to a street where I had seen a sidewalk café with tables along the paving stones under the shade of those beautiful trees. I needed to sit and reflect, to process things.

But while sipping my coffee, more reality rudely elbowed itself into my space. Two businessmen carrying coffees and sleeves of papers wrangled themselves into the chairs at the table beside me. The space was close, I could smell their cologne, see the precise separations in their gelled hair. They were already talking before they sat down and continued enthusiastically, pouring over papers while they planned openly and urgently to remove from office the president of the United States, who at the time was Barack Obama. Their language and tone was unequivocal: ‘he’ was an affront to the office of President and nothing else in the world mattered but to return dignity to the American people by removing ‘him’ from the White House. Their hatred of Barack Obama was as plain to see as Georgia’s blue sky. Everywhere in the white population here in Savannah, it seemed, was evidence of a bitter, ingrained culture of contempt toward black Americans. I must stress: it was open, shocking, and repellant.

That evening I joined Rogerio on a river cruise and dinner, a special event organized for the conference attendees. Several hundred guests mingled under the shelter of the riverboat’s canopies and inside where a lavish meal was being laid out for our enjoyment. All the waiters were black. The guests were not.

***

I had now spent three days walking to Savannah’s old town and gone in every direction down side streets lined with those lovely houses and walk-ups. I had strolled a famous cemetery, the business district, and the Savannah River, yet I had not found a neighbourhood where I could see people living that might be the staff at our hotel. So on this last walk, I went back to the First Baptist African Church and continued further beyond that landmark. Soon, an abrupt change in the landscape presented itself, and I was walking down narrow cracked streets with no sidewalks fronting small homes and low apartments without adornment, most in need of painting and repairs. A few seniors were sitting together in front of one house on a street otherwise empty and devoid of motion. On another street one little girl skipped her way toward the open door of a home. No other people, no cars were coming and going from these streets, they were almost eerily silent.

Nearby I found a small park, the grass worn down to bare soil. It was a scrappy, sorry looking patch of land, I remember only a low, curved concrete wall, damaged so that I could not read the stamped words along its length.

I returned to my hotel that day feeling profoundly disillusioned and heartsick.

***

We were in a cab heading for the airport, our stay in Savannah was over. We passed a beach where dozens of people were out enjoying the water and sand. Our white cab driver slowed and watched the scene. His window was open, his arm hanging lazily over the door. With his hand he casually indicated to us what he was looking at while saying, ‘yep, them people like that spot, hellofa mess, look at it, but they keep to themselves there so that’s good anyway…”  “us kind have our places, them kind have theirs…”

They. Them. Us.

Postscripts:

I did find one statue in Savannah, far from the squares of the historic centre, of a family of slaves in chains. A quick Google search while writing this piece revealed that Savannah’s leaders are only now beginning to discuss the gaping absence of public art and the complete lack of preservation of the places and acknowledgement of the lives of the enslaved people whose ancestors continue to live in the city and region.

There is a term being used today – ‘food desert’ – which means a lack of grocery stores or other whole food vendors within a low income urban area. The neighbourhood through which I walked where black residents of Savannah live had no grocery store, no corner market, no vendor of food. These ‘food deserts’, throughout the United States, have a high correlation with diseases such as cancer, obesity, and diabetes. Reasons for the existence of food deserts include systemic indifference to the needs of the people living in such low income areas.

www.michelemooreveldhoen.com

photo by Ali Arif Soydas, courtesy of Unsplash

[skywardsoul]

The Bridge Between You and Me (chapter 5)

It’s here! The fifth chapter of my SucyAkko story!  We are nearing the end of this work, with only one planned epilogue chapter in mind! I want to start off by apologizing a bit for such a large time skip, but I want to assure you that this is what I had planned for the start. It's not me trying to wrap this up quickly or anything. I just really wanted to take a crack at grown up Akko and Sucy! Next order of business is to say thank you to everyone who followed this story. It's been a real fun time writing it, and has helped me in writing from a singular perspective a bit. Lastly. Any way, I hope you enjoy, and keep on the lookout for a possible spin-off story, focusing on Akko and Sucy's Summer vacation in Japan.

AO3 Link: http://archiveofourown.org/works/12312885/chapters/28502308

FF.Net Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12682030/5/The-Bridge-Between-You-and-Me

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4.

Sucy lay silently on the blanket she had lain out on the grass, starting at the sky, watching as the clouds drifted by. The sun was shining brightly and a nice breeze was blowing. She supposed many would consider this a perfect day, but Sucy was slightly irked by it. She personally prefered shady days, and didn’t really mind a bit of light rain either. Today wasn’t about what she liked however, it was about something much more important, and in the context of said important thing, she supposed she couldn’t have asked for better weather. The day she met Akko had been particularly sunny, so it seemed only fitting that the day she asked her to marry her would be too.

Sucy let out a content sigh as she fiddled with the small ring box in the pocket of her jacket. She knew that things like this were supposed to make people nervous, yet as she was planning her proposal Sucy had been nothing but calm, if not excited. The thought of a life spent with Akko at her side was simply one that left little room for her to feel apprehensive. She smiled as she slipped the box out of her pocket, and opened it, gazing fondly at the ring inside. Sucy had never been one for fashion per say, but she knew a pretty piece of jewelry when she saw one, and she made sure the ring for her love was the most beautiful ring of all. It was fairly simple by most standards; a gemstone inlaid in the middle of a polished silver band. It was the stone in question that made the ring however. An Eldin ruby, enchanted to always shine, no matter how dark. Just like Akko herself, the stone would never cease to be a source of light.

Of course once she had seen it in the window of the Last Wednesday Society, Sucy knew instantly that it had to be the ring for Akko, no other would suffice. Despite being on relatively good terms with the shopkeeper, it still ended up costing her an arm and leg. She found it hard to mind however, as the purpose she had in mind for it made it more than worth it, and it wasn’t like she was exactly strapped for cash. Having spent almost all of her time at Luna Nova researching various fungi and poisons, it was no question that she was an expert on the topic. That’s why when it came time for her to graduate, the newly appointed headmistress Du Nord made her an offer, one too good to refuse. Continue her research, but in the name of the school, creating new cures and potions for magical maladies. Not only would she be getting paid quite nicely for it (It’s surprising how fast a school budget rises when its students helped save the world), she could live in the old research house near the edge of school grounds. It hadn’t been used in quite awhile, but it was spacious, out of the way of other people, and even came with it’s own expansive laboratory. Perfect for a reclusive mushroom lover like herself. Thanks to help from her friends and her love herself, the house was renovated in no time, and it wasn’t long before she had moved in. Of course, she had planned on asking Akko to move in with her, as the house was more than big enough for two, but with Akko being Akko the brunette girl had already started moving herself in during renovations.

“What? We’ve been together for four years now! I think it’s pretty safe to assume I would wanna live with you,” Sucy remembered her saying with a smile.

The only snag in came in the form of Akko’s schedule. Since the day they met, Akko had made her goal in life clear; become a witch like Shiny Chariot and inspire millions around the world. So, it was to no one surprise when she made good on that promise after she had graduated. She had started off small, doing a few local shows here and there. It wasn’t hard for her to draw crowd. Everyone wanted to see the magic of one of the witches they saw fight a missile live on TV, and it wasn’t long before ‘Shiny Star,’ was an international hit. With a little help from Chariot in the form of setting her up with an old agent she trusted, Akko was off to wow kids and adults alike the world over. This of course, meant long stretches of time away from home. It wasn’t uncommon for Akko to be away for weeks on end, leaving their old house feeling quite empty. It was hard at first, getting used to the days that Akko wasn’t there. After all, she had spent the last four years of her life dorming with the bright, happy girl. Akko was like her own personal sun, warming her house, and her heart. Not having that sun around made even getting out of bed in the morning seem like quite the arduous task. It made her wonder how the Sucy of the past could have ever possible lived the loner life she had, completely devoid of sunny smiles and warm, cuddly hugs.

Things got better, eventually. Sucy found that marking down the exact days Akko would be gone, and when she would return, seemed to make time fly by much faster. She didn’t let Akko in on this little tidbit though, keeping up an air of playful indifference whenever the brunette did return.

“Oh? You back already? Didn’t you just leave?” She would tease, relishing in the pout Akko would give in response.

“No I did not! I know you missed me Sucy! You were going on and on about how the house felt ‘cold and lonely’ without me in your messages!”

“You know what else the house was when you were gone? Quiter.”

“Hey!”

It also helped to focus on just how much traveling meant to Akko and her dream. Just picturing the joy her girlfriend must feel before every show she started made all the waiting more than worth it. Of course it didn’t hurt that when Akko did return and all the jokes were out of their systems, she was extremely cuddly. For most of her first day back, the Japanese woman would do nothing but cling to Sucy’s side, and while she pretended to be annoyed, both of them knew she was more than happy to have her there.

And that was how their life had been going on for past ten years. Sucy, working hard in her lab to develop medicinal potions, and Akko stunning the world as Shiny Star. It was a comfortable life, and one Sucy wouldn’t trade for all the mushrooms in the world. There were some snags, like the time their roof collapsed during a particularly nasty storm. Some unexpected troubles, like the time she had accidentally released a venomous fairy into their house while trying to study it, (Akko gave her quite the earful while she was giving her the anti-venom) They even had their fair share of excitements, like when she was asked to attend an award show by the magic council for a potion she had created. She chuckled to herself as she remembered how Akko had tripped over her own gown during the reception that followed. It was anything but an elegant fall, and the clutsy woman ended up crashing into the refreshment table, splashing everyone in a five foot radius with champagne. Without question, Akko made her life happier than she had ever thought it could be, and now she was hopping the brunette would do it again.

Akko had just gotten back from one of her tours when Sucy had approached her with the idea of a picnic.

“Just the two of us, on a blanket or whatever. You like that kind of junk right?” she had asked.

Akko had beamed at her in response. “Really!? A picnic!? I’d love to!”

Sucy didn’t really have a chance to say much else as her girlfriend had swept her up in a big, bone crushing hug.

“Who are you and what have you done with my Sucy?”

Of course Akko had no way of knowing that she was going to propose to her at said picnic, or at least Sucy hoped she didn’t. The shorter woman was annoyingly perceptive when it came to matters of the heart. Not perceptive enough to see just how important this picnic was however, as she was running late. If there was anything hadn’t changed about Akko since her days as a student, it was her terrible sense of time. She had mentioned earlier that day that she was going to visit Diana. The two hadn’t been able to talk in a long while, what with Akko’s travels, and Diana’s duty as a teacher at Luna Nova. In Akko’s own words, “They had a truckload to catch up on.” Sucy couldn’t bring herself to be annoyed however, although maybe she would act a bit like it to mess with Akko. If need be, she would wait till the end of time for her love.

She ended up not having to wait that long, as she soon spotted her girlfriend running across the grassy hills to her. Sucy stood up, and gave Akko a sly smile as she ground to a halt at the blanket’s edge.

“Hello there little guinea pig. Nice of you to finally join me,” Sucy said teasingly, addressing Akko by her nickname.

“Sorry...I’m...late,” Akko wheezed out in between pants.

Akko was quite the athletic individual, so she must have been running awhile and at a considerable speed to be this winded. Judging by the fact that she was wearing the same outfit Sucy had seen her putting on earlier in the day, a deep blue blouse and a tan skirt, she must have come directly from her lunch with Diana.

“Geez, didn’t even have time to go home and change into something comfy did you, you big dummy?” Sucy thought to herself affectionately.

“I ended up talking so long with Diana that I lost track of time!” Akko said, confirming Sucy’s suspicions. “I pretty much ran directly from her office at the school to here. I didn’t really have time to go back home and change…” Akko finished somewhat embarrassed.

It was like Akko read her mind, repeating exactly what she had been thinking. Maybe it was just a sign of how good Sucy knew her girlfriend by this point.

“That’s alright,” Sucy said with a slight purr. “You look lovely.”

Well there went her idea of pretending to be annoyed. Turns out she was just too in love to bother. Sucy, took her girlfriend's hand in her own, and moved to sit them down on the blanket. Akko narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

“I was making a joke yesterday when I asked, but are you sure you're the Sucy I know?” Akko asked as Sucy opened the basket of food she brought.

“What do you mean?” the lavender haired woman asked innocently.

Akko’s expression didn’t change.

“I mean that not only did you plan this picnic, but you didn’t even give me too much grief about showing up late.” Akko explained matter-o-factly.

“The last time you were this unabashedly sweet was when you accidently turned my skin blue.”

Sucy couldn’t help but chuckle to herself at the memory. She had accidently swapped a potion that Akko had wanted to use for a show with one that she was testing to help cure skin diseases. When Akko threw the bottle, expecting a splash of magical confetti, she instead got a face full of a choking cloud of blue. The Japanese woman was not a fan of her new pigment, and was even less of a fan of how funny Sucy found it. She spent a few nights on the couch for it, and a good amount of time more trying to make to her.

“Hey that totally wasn’t my fault. You grabbed the wrong bottle,” Sucy said through her laughter.

“You labeled them wrong and you know it!” Akko said with another pout. “Besides, you’re defracting-”

“Deflecting, is the word you're looking for,” Sucy corrected teasingly.

“Ugh fine! You’re ‘deflecting’ the question! What are you planning Manbavaran?” Akko questioned.

Sucy gave her another sly smile, holding out a tray of sweets she brought.

“Nothing. I can’t just want to have a nice time with my girlfriend?” she questioned sweetly.

She could see Akko’s resolve melting as the brunette eyed the presented pastries hungrily. Her sweet tooth was beating out her need for an answer.

“Fine,” Akko said, taking a tart from the tray. “But I’m watching you. These better not make my hair fall out or something.

“Never. You’re hair is way too pretty for that,” Sucy said as she leaned over and ran a hand through her girlfriend’s locks.

They sat in comfortable silence for a bit, Sucy watching lovingly as Akko devoured the sweets she had brought her. She relished in the small sounds of delight Akko made as she bit into each one. From the way she was eating, one would think she didn’t just come from lunch with a friend.

“Did you actually do any eating at this lunch visit of yours?” Sucy asked. “You’re scarfing down tarts like a maniac.”

Akko paused to swallow her comically large mouthful of pastry before responding.

“Yeah I had plenty to eat, it’s just that we were talking for so long that by the end I was getting hungry again…” the brunette said bashfully, rubbing the back of her head.

Sucy giggled to herself at this. That was her Akko alright.

“What did you two talk about that took so long anyway? You plotting to kill somebody?”

“What!? No! Of course not!” Akko said, stopping mid bite.

“Because if you are I could whip you up plenty of potions that would do the job silently. Or at the very least melt away any evidence that’s left,” Sucy said as she chuckled darkly.

“Suuuuucccyyy,” Akko said with a whine. “We’re not killing anyone!”

“Fine, fine. What was it that you were actually talking about?” Sucy asked, as moved to sit Akko in her lap.

The Japanese woman didn’t protest, and leaned back against her girlfriend before continuing.

“It’s wasn’t anything important really. Just a lot of stuff about our jobs and day to day lives.”

As she spoke, Sucy wrapped her arms around her waist, and nuzzled her neck. It had been awhile since she had last gotten to hold her close like this.

“Diana was telling a lot about what it’s like bein’ a teacher,” Akko continued. “She was telling me about a girl in her second year classes. She admires her work ethic and her respect for the rules, but is worried she’s being alienated by her classmates as a teacher's pet.”

Sucy snorted in laughter at this.

“Remind you of anyone we knew?” She said slyly.

“I know right?” Akko said as she too started to laugh. “The first thing I did was tell her that she was basically describing 16-year old Diana. She didn’t even try to deny it.”

Sucy smiled as she pictured the younger version of their blonde haired friend, strutting the hall purposefully, stopping to correct anyone who was out of line, usually one of them...or Amanda. Suddenly, Sucy realized that Akko had stopped laughing. She didn’t need to see her face to be able to tell that she probably had her serious face on.

“There was one thing she was telling me that was kinda important though…” Akko started slowly.

“Hmmm? What’s that?” Sucy asked

There was a pause before Akko answered. Sucy could tell that whatever she was getting ready to say was definitely important to her. She prepared herself for a variety of possibilities. No matter what Akko said, Sucy would be ready to support her.

“Sucy, what would you think if Shiny Star took a break for awhile?”

Okay so she had to admit that she definitely wasn’t ready for that question. Leave it to Akko to come up with a question entirely out of the blue. Still, if she was asking it, it must have something to do with what she wanted to talk about, so Sucy thought about it earnestly. What did she mean by ‘take a break’? Did Akko not want to be Shiny Star anymore? Did something happen on her last tour?

“Akko, what do you mean?” Sucy asked carefully. “Are you okay? Is something wrong?”

“No nothing's wrong really,” Akko said quickly, most likely to keep her from worrying. “It’s just that…”

There was another pause, and Sucy waited patiently for Akko to continue.

“Diana was telling me how there is a job opening at Luna Nova, to teach transmutative magic. Nothing is set in stone quite yet, but if I were to interview with Ursula for the job, it’s almost certainly mine,” Akko finally explained.

Sucy thought for a bit before responding. Traveling the world had always been Akko’s dream, but she could tell from her girlfriend’s tone that she really wanted this job as well. It was out of the question for her to try and do both, so she would have to make a choice. A lot of the time, when she was faced with a decision, Akko already knew what she wanted to do. She just needed some help realizing it. Over the years together, Sucy had become a master at getting there.

“Is this something you really want to do?” Sucy asked calmly.

It didn’t take long for Akko to answer.

“Yeah! Of course I do! It’s just that if I do, I’ll have to stop being Shiny Star, at least for awhile…”

“And?” Sucy offered.

“And I don’t want to end up disappointing anybody. Getting to where I am today, it’s all I ever talked about. won’t I be letting people down if I stop?”

Akko’s voice was at a near whisper now. She always had a habit of speaking softly when she was troubled.

“Akko, no one is going be disappointed in you for following your heart. If you really want to be a teacher, than go teach,” Sucy said in a comforting tone. “If anyone raises a stink about it, they’ll have to answer to me.”

She gave one of her signature shark-like grins at this, and judging from Akko’s shudder, she knew it. Still, once again Akko surprised her with her next question.

“You won’t be disappointed in me?” Akko asked quietly, turning in Sucy’s lap to look her in the eye.

Sucy started her answer by moving forward and pressing a light kiss to her girlfriends lips.

“Of course not you dummy,” She said as she pulled back. “I could never be disappointed in you. Besides, if you take the job, I can see my sweet guinea pig more.”

Akko giggled as Sucy moved to kiss her again, this time kissing her all over her face rather than just her lips.

“Touring as Shiny Star was fun, but I got to admit, it got exhausting spending all that time away from you Kinoko,” Akko said sigh.

It wasn’t often that she used Sucy’s nickname, as the alchemist found it quite embarrassing. She’d let it slide this time though.

“You sure you won’t miss being the girlfriend of a star?” Akko asked after another quick kiss.

“You mean having some of your crazy fans track down our house to try and ask you to sign one of those goofy posters? Not in the least.”

“Hey!” Akko said with a laugh, knocking her girlfriend over playfully.

Sucy continued laughing at her jab as the two wrestled around on the blanket, any remaining tarts forgotten. The brief struggle ended with Akko on top of her, her knees holding down her sides, and her arms her wrists. Despite being the shorter of the two, especially after Sucy hit a late growth spurt in their second year, Akko always had been the physically stronger of the two. Even now, Sucy could tell it wasn’t taking her girlfriend much effort to hold her down like this.

“Caught you~” Akko said in a sing song voice as she leaned her face closer to Sucy’s.

Sucy responded with a toothy grin.

“How terrible,” she said in mock fear. “The big scary guinea pig has me cornered…”

“That’s right my Kinoko,” Akko said, her breath brushing against Sucy’s lips. “And now I’m going to eat you up.”

“I don’t think guinea pigs eat mushrooms.”

“You get the point.”

And with that, Akko brought their lips together. The kiss was different from the ones they were sharing earlier. It was deeper, more passionate. Sucy sighed into the kiss, and wrapped her arms around Akko’s waist as she released her wrists. She pulled the brunette closer, relishing in her love. It was Akko that finally broke the kiss, moving back for air. It was a good thing too. Sucy still had something important to do. She couldn’t afford to get lost in Akko’s charms just yet. Ignoring Akko’s whine of protest, Sucy moved the other woman off of her and stood to her feet.

“Hey Akko,” Sucy said, turning to her love. “Come take a walk with me.”

Akko raised an eyebrow in question, but took the hand Sucy extended out to her all the same. She pulled the brunette to her feet, and started to walk towards the river bank. She had purposefully set the blanket near it, knowing way back when her plans were just a passing thought were she needed to propose.

“Where exactly did you want to walk to?” Akko asked as they followed the river.

“Oh, nowhere in particular,” Sucy said slyly, turning to her girlfriend with a smile.

She knew it wouldn’t take long for Akko to realize where they were headed. After all, they had been there many times. It was where they first met, where they shared their first kiss, and where they had stopped on countless of other dates over the years. It was special to them, so it didn’t surprise Sucy when she saw her girlfriend’s eyes light up as they approached the familiar worn cobblestone.

“Aww did you really miss me that much?” Akko said teasingly. “Taking me to such a lovey-dovey spot?”

Sucy’s smile only widened as she started across the bridge, stopping once she hit the middle. Slowly she turned to face Akko.

“Do you remember? It was just like this when we met,” Sucy said calmly. “Well, not exactly. Our places were swapped.”

Akko simply stood still. Sucy could tell she was probably confused. That’s alright. She wouldn’t be for much longer.

“The day we met, you asked me a question, one that ended up changing my life,” Sucy said as Akko slowly walked towards her.

The Japanese girl smiled at this, giggling slightly.

“All I did was ask you your name,” Akko cheerfully.

Sucy simply smiled.

“Yeah, you did. But it ended up being so much more than that. I’m a different person thanks to you Akko, a better one. Thank you.”

Akko blushed at the praise, responding with a quite ‘your welcome’. While she hadn’t been nervous this whole time, Sucy had to admit that as the time grew closer for the her to pop the question, her heart was racing a bit. This was it.

“That day we met, you asked me a question and changed my life,” Sucy repeated. “Now, it’s my turn to ask you one, and I hope you change my life again.”

Akko tilted her head in confusion. She seemed ready to ask Sucy exactly what she meant when the lavender haired woman sank to one one knee. Sucy had to stop herself from giggling as Akko’s eyes widened in surprise, and she covered her mouth with her hands. Her shocked expression was simply adorable.

“Atsuko Kagari, will you marry me?”

Sucy pulled the ring box for her pocket, and slowly opened it, revealing the shining ruby within. Akko didn’t say anything at first, simply standing there stunned. Then she started crying. For a fraction of a second, a small part of her started to worry, but was instantly reassured when she realized Akko was most definitely happy crying. She always blubbered way more when she happy cried. Needless to say, the Japanese woman wasn’t really able to say much through, nodding her head furiously instead. Sucy chuckled as she slipped the ring on Akko’s finger. It certainly wasn’t a very conventional acceptance, but this was Akko. She hardly did anything conventional. Besides, that was one of the the reasons Sucy fell in love with her. The conventional had always bored her. Once the ring was on her finger, Akko pulled Sucy into a big hug, culminating in a big kiss on her lips. Sucy felt her heart soar as she deepened the kiss. That was definitely a ‘yes’.

[trevorbailey61]

Moseley Folk Festival

Moseley Park, Birmingham

Sunday 3rd September 2017

For two glorious days, Moseley Park has been bathed in warm sunshine making it possible to believe that this was the start of glorious extended summer, or possibly a better one to compensate for the one we didn’t get in August. The vibrant greens, however, are now duller and flecked with yellow or brown, the paths are strewn with leaves and the earlier sunset brings a chill to the dark nights. By Sunday morning the pretence was over, grey clouds replaced blue skies discharging their content over the dry ground. The warmth of the sun was now hidden and the shorts and t-shirt I had worn for the first two days would no longer keep me warm; needless to say the shades were left at home. The chill of autumn, however, seems appropriate. Sunny optimism was right for Amy Macdonald, the warm glow of nostalgia for Fairport Convention but today we have the icy cold of Laura Marling, just the time for autumn to announce itself.

There are a number reasons why I shouldn’t like Laura Marling. From her aloof detached manner as she takes to the stage she makes it clear we are here on her terms and we should be grateful for the hour or so we spend in her presence. Her one comment as is to say we all look nice in our “macs”, the mocking tone contrasting our soaked and bedraggled selves with the immaculate figure in front of us. She runs through about half a dozen songs from her latest album, “Semper Fermina”, before she says another word. She is momentarily distracted when a member of the audience shouts out a song request but the girl next to me yelling out “you’re a genius” is ignored, and coming when everything else was silent, there is no way she wouldn’t have heard it. The detached manner seems to apply to her band as well, each works in their own space and there is little sense of camaraderie; as it is the last night of the tour she asks them to share something with the audience but it all seems a little forced and inevitably Marling’s own contribution was the least revealing. The long solo acoustic middle part of the set makes the point that whilst it was nice to have them around, they weren’t essential. The rest of the band had left the stage for this and when they return she asks them what they had been up to back there, a little chink perhaps in the armour, without her domineering presence they may actually have had a pretty good time. This aloof manner may well be due to her being very posh; I’m not just talking Genesis public school posh, Marling is the daughter of a Baronet, aristocracy, the gentry that the music of the people has always been against.

For all this, however, I can’t dislike her. The icy cool detachment gives her a presence that is magnetic and she effortlessly holds the attention of the audience. As the applause dies down after each song, there is silence, no background chatter, everyone held in rapt attention as they wait for the next song. The intricate percussion and fluid baseline of “Soothing” immediately grabs the attention and the subtle textures of the music are so absorbing that she doesn’t let go. The latin title of the album, which means “always woman”, is a phrase she picked up from the Roman poet Virgil and she has had it in her mind for about six years until she felt she had the songs to do it justice. These deal with women’s perspectives of women, as close or more distant friends or as rivals. They may or may not be highly personal, Marling’s doesn’t do emotive and the distance between the songs and their emotional context remains a mystery. The “hopeless wanderer” of “Soothing” therefore could refer to her ex Marcus Mumford finding someone else to give him the security he craved and that she was unable to provide. Alternatively, the song could be entirely fictional, the dying friendship approached as a theoretical exercise to discover what it would feel like to be there, real life and music compartmentalised so that the two do not cross.

In less skilled hands, this could be a weakness but Marling makes the ambiguity work and the songs emotional content displays an impressive lived in maturity, particularly so given that she is still only in her mid twenties. There is an underlying sadness in the songs, the friendships were once close but are now over, the good times remembered fondly but the pain of separation means that they will never be found again. The story in “Wild Fire” is of a friend who “Keeps a pen behind her ear; Because she's got something she really really needs to say”; something that one day will be written into a book. Her own self centred nature, however, means that she is only interested what she will say about the “her time spent with me”. Her negligence also informs “Don’t Pass Me By”; a plea for a closeness she knows she cannot give in return. The highlight is “The Valley”; for once showing vulnerability in that she retains the feelings she once had but wonders why the other person wants to keep their friendship in the past; “I know she stayed in town last night; Didn't get in touch; I know she has my number right; She can't face seeing us”. Her calm dispassionate voice serves to bring out the raw emotion of the words and the effect is magical.

Alone with just her guitar, Marling returns to her earlier work with a delicate “What He Wrote”; another almost unbearably sad song illuminated by her delicate playing and a voice that barely rises above a whisper. Her one cover is Townes Van Zandt’s “For The Sake of the Song”, immaculately played and as dark as her own work, but before the band return, she does allow in some light in with the beautiful “Daisy”. Despite the loss and regret in the lyrics, the pace quicker is a little for “How Can I?” but the mood of quiet reflection returns for other songs from previous albums until she concludes with “Rambling Man”, for once the rhythm in the song being allowed to assert itself without being constrained. There was no encore, but then there didn’t need to be, the set had been pretty well perfect as it was and her songs wouldn’t lend themselves to one anyway. Seeing her at Latitude three years ago, she didn’t quite manage to overcome the scale of the largest stage and fond it difficult to draw the audience in. Now, her stage presence is more assured, her oblique and intense songs are some of the best she has written and in front of a smaller audience who were there to listen, she was mesmerising. A wonderful end to the festival.

As a performer, Kate Rusby is pretty much the opposite of the headline; with her roots in Barnsley, she retains a strong Yorkshire accent despite her years in the business and this gives a down to earth demeanour for the story telling that intersperses the songs. As a mother of two children, her husband Damien O’Keane leads the backing band, she is keen to share her experiences of the joys and challenges of parenthood as well as setting the context for the songs. With the late arrival of their bass player, he gets there just as they make their way onto the stage, she sings the first of these unaccompanied as he sets up. “Yorkshire Couple” is the funny and twisted story of Martha and Amos; approaching retirement Amos learns of the unexpected consequences of his repeated infidelities. Rusby encourages the audience to participate in the final repeated line of each verse, something that she will do throughout the set. With the full band in place, the tardy bass player is immediately called upon to provide the percussive introduction to “Benjamin Bowmaneer”’, a traditional song about how the trivial start to a war can eventually consume the whole country. The subtle accompaniment gives a beautifully sparse setting for Rusby’s wonderfully expressive voice which draws out the tender sadness of the song. The sensitivity of her voice is perfect for the longing in songs such as “The Hunter Moon” and “The Ardent Shepherdess” whilst adding a haunting intimacy to “Life in a Paper Boat”, her response to seemingly endless images of refugees crowded onto the boats that they hope will take them to a better life. Searching for answers, she knows that there aren’t any and as a writer with disarming honesty she acknowledges that “all I have is a song”. The highlight, however, is “Who Will Sing Me Lullabies”; a song written a few years ago that works as a heartbreaking response to mothers carrying what look like bundles of rags that turn out to be their dead children. A rich and varied set where her gift for humour faultlessly counters the often harrowing stories in her songs. 

With his band Idlewild, Roddy Woomble headlined the festival two years ago where the enthusiasm of the response to their anthems led to the spectacle of a mosh pit at a folk festival. With the band paying the bills, Woomble is now over a decade into a solo career that has seen him recently release his third album. On a dreary late evening with the audience recovering from the hoedown that is always a feature of the Sunday afternoon, this was never going to generate that level of excitement but he does cope with the weather and the distractions to hold a sizeable audience around the stage. With a light country rock setting, his solo work seems more personal than the widescreen anthems of Idlewild although after a while it does all start to sound very similar. Earlier in the day, the line-up included various forms of more traditional folk from the angry punk of Lankum to the soft harmonies of The Furrow Collective. The Destroyers anarchic sound is described in the programme as Balkan Brass but that doesn’t really begin to cover the array of influences they draw on. Their punk infused jazz polka even brings in those waiting by the other stage for the quiet restraint of Laura Marling and the randomly choreographed moves are just about contained by the small Lunar Stage. Earlier in the day, Nifeco Costa was the one of the few African acts this year and his intricate finger picking and melodious jazz formed a bright groove that deserved a sunnier setting.

In the short gap between acts, the organisers took the opportunity to advertise the Beyond the Tracks event that is happening in about two weeks. This seems to have drawn some of the indie pop acts that sometimes find their way onto the Folk Festival line-up, The Coral who played here last year feature on the Saturday, and the effect of this seems to have been to return Moseley more strongly to its folk roots. The result of this was that at first the line-up seemed a little underwhelming, I remember having a conversation with someone on twitter along these lines at the time . In truth, some of this did remain, the Sunday afternoon in particular did drag a little, but the festival still managed to achieve what it always does, reminding me how good the acts are I already knew and introducing me to some new ones. That list then; the five best of the weekend:

John Moreland Courtney Marie Andrews Michael Chapman Laura Marling and in their 50th year it was a privilege to finally see Fairport Convention.

[symbianosgames]

Video Game Deep Cuts: Hitman vs. Edith Finch - Go!

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

[Video Game Deep Cuts is a weekly newsletter from curator/video game industry veteran Simon Carless, rounding up the best longread & standout articles & videos about games, every weekend. This week's highlights include Hitman level design, What Remains of Edith Finch, and much, much more.

As I battle jetlag after my return from Asia to a sunny California spring, I've been thinking a lot this week about discoverability for games again. Shouldn't there be more niche game subscription services out there for those looking to support underappreciated/'different' titles? I love Humble Monthly, but some of the more mainstream subscribers seem to get grumpy about the quirkier indie titles in it at times - much like PS4 players litter indie YouTube trailer comments with fist-shaking.

And how about adding context to the games in a subscription with dev interview videos, 'Let's Play'-style playthoughs, or even analysis videos? Would any of you sign up for something like this? Curious...

- Simon, curator.]

-------------------

Passing Through Ghosts in Pac-Man (John Harris / Gamasutra Blogs) "This is an excerpt from my book Bug Voyage: A Tour of Classic Game Glitches, available in the current Rogue Souls Storybundle [SIMON'S NOTE: which I curated!]. The book also contains information on pseudorandom number generation, doing low-level math in binary and decimal, and how you can crash any Galaga machine without even putting money in."

Writing Indie Games Is Like Being a Musician. In the Bad Way. (Jeff Vogel / The Bottom Feeder) "Over the last couple years, I've gotten a fair amount of attention for my articles about the Indie Bubble and the Indie Glut.  (And even a GDC talk.) At last, I can complete the trilogy of articles. Now we can look around and see where we've ended up, a phase which I suspect will be permanent. [SIMON'S NOTE: Please read this.]"

Legendary Game Maker Peter Molyneux Talks Regrets and What's Next (Chris Suellentrop / Glixel) "That enthusiasm for the unknown is the hallmark of 57-year-old Molyneux's long career. He stopped by the Glixel offices in March to talk – barely – about his next game, Legacy, as well as to speak at length about everything from No Man's Sky and Pokémon Go to his aborted Kinect experiment, Milo."

toco toco ep.49, Yoko Taro, Game Creator (toco toco TV / YouTube) "In this episode, we spend the day in Osaka with Yoko Taro, director of the famous Drakengard and NieR series. Our first stop will be at PlatinumGames, the studio that was in charge of developing Yoko’s most recent title: NieR: Automata."

How Hitman’s Hokkaido level was made (Alex Wiltshire / RockPaperShotgun) "The latest Hitman['s]... levels are a jetset tour of places you believe could exist, but these aren’t just credible environments, they’re also machines for killing in. And the first season of Hitman closed with one of its best. Hokkaido is at once compact and expansive, melodramatic and credible, and I talked to IO about how it was designed."

Game Over, Uwe Boll (Darryn King / Vanity Fair) "The man known as the world’s worst director is now retired and running a Vancouver restaurant. But he’s still not done waiting for the world to give him his due. [SIMON'S NOTE: you really should read this one, if only for Boll's random Chris Kohler diss, haha.]"

Inside the Resilient ‘Team Fortress 2’ Community on the PlayStation 3 (Aron Garst / Motherboard) "To say that PS3 players got a raw deal is one hell of an understatement. But they've managed, and made friends along the way."

THOTH, And How I Talk About Games (Errant Signal / YouTube) "Just a little thing I made at the end of last month while fighting off some sickness. [SIMON'S NOTE: an interesting - if a bit self-doubt-y - meta-analysis from one of the better YouTube game analysis folks on how you should approach mechanics-led games in terms of commentary.]"

Valve has cut Dota 2 royalties, and workshop creators are crying foul (Arthur Gies / Polygon) "There’s unrest in Dota 2’s community this week, as several artists responsible for many of the free-to-play game’s popular cosmetic items allege that Steam owner and Dota 2 developer Valve Software has systematically reduced their earnings and may be permanently damaging the long-term viability of Dota 2’s business model."

Magic: The Gathering's Head Designer Has A Damn Hard Job (JR Goldberg / Kotaku) "“Magic is secretly, not really … it’s not one game,” head Magic: The Gathering designer Mark Rosewater told me. “It is actually a bunch of different games that all have a shared rule system. Every time I make a card set, I’m making the game for everybody, but for each person, it’s a different game to them.”"

Roam free: A history of open-world gaming (Richard Moss / Ars Technica) "Open-world video games bear the impossible promise—offering compelling, enjoyable open-endedness and freedom within the constraints of what is, by necessity of the medium, an extremely limited set of possible actions. These games provide a list of (predominantly violent) verbs that's minuscule in comparison to the options you would face in identical real-life situations. Yet, we can't get enough of them."

Tom Clancy's Inherent Silliness: Why Ghost Recon Wildlands Couldn't Escape Its Fate (Cameron Kunzelman / Paste) "Ghost Recon Wildlands is a silly game. One might be tempted to think that it’s an intentionally silly game bordering on satire. I mean, after all, it’s almost a parody of games in its genre: it’s a third-person shooter game where four operatives, a handler, and some almost-Communist rebels take on and fully dismantle the infrastructure of a country that’s been fully taken over by a drug cartel."

The Game Beat Weekly: The pressure to stay in line (Kyle Orland / TinyLetter) "These apologetic quotes both get at a truth that's rarely explicitly acknowledged in the world of game criticism: being out of step with the critical or fan consensus on a big-name game or franchise is often not an easy thing to do. At best, having a contrary opinion about a big game these days means being subject to a huge stream of nasty comments, tweets, and e-mails about your view."

The Last Game I Make Before I Die: The Crashlands Postmortem (Sam Coster / GDC / YouTube) "Crashlands was developed by a team of three brothers in response to one of them being diagnosed with late stage cancer. In this 2017 session, Butterscotch Shenanigans' Samuel Coster tells the parallel stories of one family's battle with cancer and the creation of a cross-platform crafting RPG, and find yourself inspired to continue your great work no matter what life throws at you."

The Growing Indie Game Development Scene of South Africa (Lena LeRay / IndieGames.com) "South Africa's video game development scene has been through a lot of ups and downs since it got started in the mid-90s. The indie scene in particular got its first big break in 2010, with the entry of Desktop Dungeons on the world stage."

Destiny's meta shifts are fascinating (Cole Tomashot / Zam) "A meta shift is usually the result of a content release, player discovery, or patch. What makes these meta shifts interesting, is that while they are occurring a push and pull relationship between developers and players reveals itself as both parties play a role in a game’s meta."

Meeting Andrzej Sapkowski, the writer who created The Witcher (Robert Purchese / Eurogamer) "Andrzej Sapkowski has something of a reputation. To start with, he's a big deal. He invented Geralt, witchers, Triss, Ciri, the whole thing - it all came out of his head. He has won awards and his work is revered, especially in Poland. More than once I've heard him described as the Polish Tolkien. But I've also heard he can be difficult - and I'm on my way to meet him."

The sound of SID: 35 years of chiptune’s influence on electronic music (James Newman / The Conversation) "Fortunately, Yannes did know something about music, as well as semiconductors and designing chips. And so in 1981 he began work on what would arguably become the most important milestone in videogame music and one whose influence still resonates to this day: the MOS Technology 6581, also known as the Sound Interface Device, but much better known as the SID. [SIMON'S NOTE: quite a few game soundtracks analyzed in this neat piece!]"

Balancing Cards in Clash Royale (Stefan Engblom / GDC / YouTube) "In this 2017 GDC session, Stefan Engblom, game designer on the Clash Royale team, talks about the philosophies and principles used for balancing cards and gameplay in Supercell's Clash Royale."

The Ten Most Important Early Computer and Video Games (Jaz Rignall / USGamer) "Today's gaming industry is a massive, multibillion dollar entertainment juggernaut. But what are its roots? I thought I'd take a trip back to the very dawn of gaming history and take a look at the devices, inventions, and innovations that gave rise to our favorite pastime."

Mike Tyson's Punch Out NES Nintendo 30th Anniversary (Gajillionaire / YouTube) "30 years ago on March 31, 1987, Little Mac defeated the Super Macho Man for the W.V.B.A. World Heavyweight Title. We look back with YouTube personalities from all over and remember back to that epic night. Then, sit back and watch the original “broadcast” of the classic Championship title fight!"

Three reasons streaming is replacing the Let’s Play industry (Michael Sawyer / Polygon) "YouTube personalities recording themselves playing games is big business, and it seems to be the dominant way for gaming influencers to make money on the platform. The art form is known as “Let’s Play,” although that term doesn’t have much in the way of a set definition. But why does it seem like so many personalities on YouTube are moving to livestreams?"

Jonathan Coulton - All This Time (Official Video) (Jonathan Coulton / YouTube) "From his new album Solid State, out April 28. The album has a companion graphic novel written by Matt Fraction and drawn by Albert Monteys. It's a science fiction story about the internet, the future, artificial intelligence, and how probably only love will save us. [SIMON'S NOTE: this song is wonderful, but the music video is what permits its inclusion in this roundup, heh.]"

Why Video Game Guns 'Feel Good' (Emmanuel Maiberg / Motherboard) "Six out of the top 10 bestselling video games in February heavily featured guns and shooting. The same was true in January and all of 2016. Like it or hate it, video games and guns have gone hand-in-hand for decades and there's no reason to assume that this will change in the near future. [SIMON'S NOTE: part of a series - also see Veteran Developers Remember the Weirdest Guns in Gaming, heh.]"

The sublime horror of the unknown: Ian Dallas and What Remains of Edith Finch (Kris Ligman / Zam) "Director Ian Dallas, as it turns out, was more than willing to discuss the artistic and literary influences behind What Remains of Edith Finch with me -- as well as chat about a few paths the game did not end up going down."

The Game Archaeologist: How DIKUMUD Shaped Modern MMOs (Justin Olivetti / Massively Overpowered) "Even though there are hundreds and thousands of MMOs spanning several decades, only a small handful were so incredibly influential that they changed the course of development for games from then on out. DikuMUD is one of these games, and it is responsible for more of what you experience in your current MMOs than you even know."

The art and joy of video game photography (Simon Parkin / Eurogamer) "Now, when facing up against a Hyrulian monstrosity, my first thought is not, 'Which sword should I use', but rather, 'To which spot should I lure the beast to make the best use of the light?' In 2017, in my game at least, more Links have died taking compendium shots than in encounters with sharks (and not only because the sharks in Hyrule are talkative, handsome and kind)."

Classic Game Postmortem: Maniac Mansion (Ron Gilbert / GDC / YouTube) "In this 2011 Classic Game Postmortem, Maniac Mansion developer Ron Gilbert revisits the classic adventure game and recounts tales from the game's development process. "

Strange Beasts, a sci-fi short about an augmented reality game (Jason Kottke / Magali Barbé / Kottke.org) "Magali Barbé wrote and directed this short sci-fi video about an imaginary augmented reality game called Strange Beasts. It starts off with a “hey, yeah, cool, augemented reality games are going to be fun to play” vibe but gradually veers down the same dystopian path as a lot of augmented reality fictions (like Keiichi Matsuda’s Hyper-Reality)."

-------------------

[REMINDER: you can sign up to receive this newsletter every weekend at http://ift.tt/2dUXrva we crosspost to Gamasutra later on Sunday, but get it first via newsletter! Story tips and comments can be emailed to vgdeepcuts@simoncarless.com. MINI-DISCLOSURE: Simon is one of the organizers of GDC and Gamasutra, so you may sometimes see links from those entities in his picks. Or not!]

[symbianosgames]

Video Game Deep Cuts: Hitman vs. Edith Finch - Go!

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

[Video Game Deep Cuts is a weekly newsletter from curator/video game industry veteran Simon Carless, rounding up the best longread & standout articles & videos about games, every weekend. This week's highlights include Hitman level design, What Remains of Edith Finch, and much, much more.

As I battle jetlag after my return from Asia to a sunny California spring, I've been thinking a lot this week about discoverability for games again. Shouldn't there be more niche game subscription services out there for those looking to support underappreciated/'different' titles? I love Humble Monthly, but some of the more mainstream subscribers seem to get grumpy about the quirkier indie titles in it at times - much like PS4 players litter indie YouTube trailer comments with fist-shaking.

And how about adding context to the games in a subscription with dev interview videos, 'Let's Play'-style playthoughs, or even analysis videos? Would any of you sign up for something like this? Curious...

- Simon, curator.]

-------------------

Passing Through Ghosts in Pac-Man (John Harris / Gamasutra Blogs) "This is an excerpt from my book Bug Voyage: A Tour of Classic Game Glitches, available in the current Rogue Souls Storybundle [SIMON'S NOTE: which I curated!]. The book also contains information on pseudorandom number generation, doing low-level math in binary and decimal, and how you can crash any Galaga machine without even putting money in."

Writing Indie Games Is Like Being a Musician. In the Bad Way. (Jeff Vogel / The Bottom Feeder) "Over the last couple years, I've gotten a fair amount of attention for my articles about the Indie Bubble and the Indie Glut.  (And even a GDC talk.) At last, I can complete the trilogy of articles. Now we can look around and see where we've ended up, a phase which I suspect will be permanent. [SIMON'S NOTE: Please read this.]"

Legendary Game Maker Peter Molyneux Talks Regrets and What's Next (Chris Suellentrop / Glixel) "That enthusiasm for the unknown is the hallmark of 57-year-old Molyneux's long career. He stopped by the Glixel offices in March to talk – barely – about his next game, Legacy, as well as to speak at length about everything from No Man's Sky and Pokémon Go to his aborted Kinect experiment, Milo."

toco toco ep.49, Yoko Taro, Game Creator (toco toco TV / YouTube) "In this episode, we spend the day in Osaka with Yoko Taro, director of the famous Drakengard and NieR series. Our first stop will be at PlatinumGames, the studio that was in charge of developing Yoko’s most recent title: NieR: Automata."

How Hitman’s Hokkaido level was made (Alex Wiltshire / RockPaperShotgun) "The latest Hitman['s]... levels are a jetset tour of places you believe could exist, but these aren’t just credible environments, they’re also machines for killing in. And the first season of Hitman closed with one of its best. Hokkaido is at once compact and expansive, melodramatic and credible, and I talked to IO about how it was designed."

Game Over, Uwe Boll (Darryn King / Vanity Fair) "The man known as the world’s worst director is now retired and running a Vancouver restaurant. But he’s still not done waiting for the world to give him his due. [SIMON'S NOTE: you really should read this one, if only for Boll's random Chris Kohler diss, haha.]"

Inside the Resilient ‘Team Fortress 2’ Community on the PlayStation 3 (Aron Garst / Motherboard) "To say that PS3 players got a raw deal is one hell of an understatement. But they've managed, and made friends along the way."

THOTH, And How I Talk About Games (Errant Signal / YouTube) "Just a little thing I made at the end of last month while fighting off some sickness. [SIMON'S NOTE: an interesting - if a bit self-doubt-y - meta-analysis from one of the better YouTube game analysis folks on how you should approach mechanics-led games in terms of commentary.]"

Valve has cut Dota 2 royalties, and workshop creators are crying foul (Arthur Gies / Polygon) "There’s unrest in Dota 2’s community this week, as several artists responsible for many of the free-to-play game’s popular cosmetic items allege that Steam owner and Dota 2 developer Valve Software has systematically reduced their earnings and may be permanently damaging the long-term viability of Dota 2’s business model."

Magic: The Gathering's Head Designer Has A Damn Hard Job (JR Goldberg / Kotaku) "“Magic is secretly, not really … it’s not one game,” head Magic: The Gathering designer Mark Rosewater told me. “It is actually a bunch of different games that all have a shared rule system. Every time I make a card set, I’m making the game for everybody, but for each person, it’s a different game to them.”"

Roam free: A history of open-world gaming (Richard Moss / Ars Technica) "Open-world video games bear the impossible promise—offering compelling, enjoyable open-endedness and freedom within the constraints of what is, by necessity of the medium, an extremely limited set of possible actions. These games provide a list of (predominantly violent) verbs that's minuscule in comparison to the options you would face in identical real-life situations. Yet, we can't get enough of them."

Tom Clancy's Inherent Silliness: Why Ghost Recon Wildlands Couldn't Escape Its Fate (Cameron Kunzelman / Paste) "Ghost Recon Wildlands is a silly game. One might be tempted to think that it’s an intentionally silly game bordering on satire. I mean, after all, it’s almost a parody of games in its genre: it’s a third-person shooter game where four operatives, a handler, and some almost-Communist rebels take on and fully dismantle the infrastructure of a country that’s been fully taken over by a drug cartel."

The Game Beat Weekly: The pressure to stay in line (Kyle Orland / TinyLetter) "These apologetic quotes both get at a truth that's rarely explicitly acknowledged in the world of game criticism: being out of step with the critical or fan consensus on a big-name game or franchise is often not an easy thing to do. At best, having a contrary opinion about a big game these days means being subject to a huge stream of nasty comments, tweets, and e-mails about your view."

The Last Game I Make Before I Die: The Crashlands Postmortem (Sam Coster / GDC / YouTube) "Crashlands was developed by a team of three brothers in response to one of them being diagnosed with late stage cancer. In this 2017 session, Butterscotch Shenanigans' Samuel Coster tells the parallel stories of one family's battle with cancer and the creation of a cross-platform crafting RPG, and find yourself inspired to continue your great work no matter what life throws at you."

The Growing Indie Game Development Scene of South Africa (Lena LeRay / IndieGames.com) "South Africa's video game development scene has been through a lot of ups and downs since it got started in the mid-90s. The indie scene in particular got its first big break in 2010, with the entry of Desktop Dungeons on the world stage."

Destiny's meta shifts are fascinating (Cole Tomashot / Zam) "A meta shift is usually the result of a content release, player discovery, or patch. What makes these meta shifts interesting, is that while they are occurring a push and pull relationship between developers and players reveals itself as both parties play a role in a game’s meta."

Meeting Andrzej Sapkowski, the writer who created The Witcher (Robert Purchese / Eurogamer) "Andrzej Sapkowski has something of a reputation. To start with, he's a big deal. He invented Geralt, witchers, Triss, Ciri, the whole thing - it all came out of his head. He has won awards and his work is revered, especially in Poland. More than once I've heard him described as the Polish Tolkien. But I've also heard he can be difficult - and I'm on my way to meet him."

The sound of SID: 35 years of chiptune’s influence on electronic music (James Newman / The Conversation) "Fortunately, Yannes did know something about music, as well as semiconductors and designing chips. And so in 1981 he began work on what would arguably become the most important milestone in videogame music and one whose influence still resonates to this day: the MOS Technology 6581, also known as the Sound Interface Device, but much better known as the SID. [SIMON'S NOTE: quite a few game soundtracks analyzed in this neat piece!]"

Balancing Cards in Clash Royale (Stefan Engblom / GDC / YouTube) "In this 2017 GDC session, Stefan Engblom, game designer on the Clash Royale team, talks about the philosophies and principles used for balancing cards and gameplay in Supercell's Clash Royale."

The Ten Most Important Early Computer and Video Games (Jaz Rignall / USGamer) "Today's gaming industry is a massive, multibillion dollar entertainment juggernaut. But what are its roots? I thought I'd take a trip back to the very dawn of gaming history and take a look at the devices, inventions, and innovations that gave rise to our favorite pastime."

Mike Tyson's Punch Out NES Nintendo 30th Anniversary (Gajillionaire / YouTube) "30 years ago on March 31, 1987, Little Mac defeated the Super Macho Man for the W.V.B.A. World Heavyweight Title. We look back with YouTube personalities from all over and remember back to that epic night. Then, sit back and watch the original “broadcast” of the classic Championship title fight!"

Three reasons streaming is replacing the Let’s Play industry (Michael Sawyer / Polygon) "YouTube personalities recording themselves playing games is big business, and it seems to be the dominant way for gaming influencers to make money on the platform. The art form is known as “Let’s Play,” although that term doesn’t have much in the way of a set definition. But why does it seem like so many personalities on YouTube are moving to livestreams?"

Jonathan Coulton - All This Time (Official Video) (Jonathan Coulton / YouTube) "From his new album Solid State, out April 28. The album has a companion graphic novel written by Matt Fraction and drawn by Albert Monteys. It's a science fiction story about the internet, the future, artificial intelligence, and how probably only love will save us. [SIMON'S NOTE: this song is wonderful, but the music video is what permits its inclusion in this roundup, heh.]"

Why Video Game Guns 'Feel Good' (Emmanuel Maiberg / Motherboard) "Six out of the top 10 bestselling video games in February heavily featured guns and shooting. The same was true in January and all of 2016. Like it or hate it, video games and guns have gone hand-in-hand for decades and there's no reason to assume that this will change in the near future. [SIMON'S NOTE: part of a series - also see Veteran Developers Remember the Weirdest Guns in Gaming, heh.]"

The sublime horror of the unknown: Ian Dallas and What Remains of Edith Finch (Kris Ligman / Zam) "Director Ian Dallas, as it turns out, was more than willing to discuss the artistic and literary influences behind What Remains of Edith Finch with me -- as well as chat about a few paths the game did not end up going down."

The Game Archaeologist: How DIKUMUD Shaped Modern MMOs (Justin Olivetti / Massively Overpowered) "Even though there are hundreds and thousands of MMOs spanning several decades, only a small handful were so incredibly influential that they changed the course of development for games from then on out. DikuMUD is one of these games, and it is responsible for more of what you experience in your current MMOs than you even know."

The art and joy of video game photography (Simon Parkin / Eurogamer) "Now, when facing up against a Hyrulian monstrosity, my first thought is not, 'Which sword should I use', but rather, 'To which spot should I lure the beast to make the best use of the light?' In 2017, in my game at least, more Links have died taking compendium shots than in encounters with sharks (and not only because the sharks in Hyrule are talkative, handsome and kind)."

Classic Game Postmortem: Maniac Mansion (Ron Gilbert / GDC / YouTube) "In this 2011 Classic Game Postmortem, Maniac Mansion developer Ron Gilbert revisits the classic adventure game and recounts tales from the game's development process. "

Strange Beasts, a sci-fi short about an augmented reality game (Jason Kottke / Magali Barbé / Kottke.org) "Magali Barbé wrote and directed this short sci-fi video about an imaginary augmented reality game called Strange Beasts. It starts off with a “hey, yeah, cool, augemented reality games are going to be fun to play” vibe but gradually veers down the same dystopian path as a lot of augmented reality fictions (like Keiichi Matsuda’s Hyper-Reality)."

-------------------

[REMINDER: you can sign up to receive this newsletter every weekend at http://ift.tt/2dUXrva we crosspost to Gamasutra later on Sunday, but get it first via newsletter! Story tips and comments can be emailed to vgdeepcuts@simoncarless.com. MINI-DISCLOSURE: Simon is one of the organizers of GDC and Gamasutra, so you may sometimes see links from those entities in his picks. Or not!]

[symbianosgames]

Video Game Deep Cuts: Hitman vs. Edith Finch - Go!

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

[Video Game Deep Cuts is a weekly newsletter from curator/video game industry veteran Simon Carless, rounding up the best longread & standout articles & videos about games, every weekend. This week's highlights include Hitman level design, What Remains of Edith Finch, and much, much more.

As I battle jetlag after my return from Asia to a sunny California spring, I've been thinking a lot this week about discoverability for games again. Shouldn't there be more niche game subscription services out there for those looking to support underappreciated/'different' titles? I love Humble Monthly, but some of the more mainstream subscribers seem to get grumpy about the quirkier indie titles in it at times - much like PS4 players litter indie YouTube trailer comments with fist-shaking.

And how about adding context to the games in a subscription with dev interview videos, 'Let's Play'-style playthoughs, or even analysis videos? Would any of you sign up for something like this? Curious...

- Simon, curator.]

-------------------

Passing Through Ghosts in Pac-Man (John Harris / Gamasutra Blogs) "This is an excerpt from my book Bug Voyage: A Tour of Classic Game Glitches, available in the current Rogue Souls Storybundle [SIMON'S NOTE: which I curated!]. The book also contains information on pseudorandom number generation, doing low-level math in binary and decimal, and how you can crash any Galaga machine without even putting money in."

Writing Indie Games Is Like Being a Musician. In the Bad Way. (Jeff Vogel / The Bottom Feeder) "Over the last couple years, I've gotten a fair amount of attention for my articles about the Indie Bubble and the Indie Glut.  (And even a GDC talk.) At last, I can complete the trilogy of articles. Now we can look around and see where we've ended up, a phase which I suspect will be permanent. [SIMON'S NOTE: Please read this.]"

Legendary Game Maker Peter Molyneux Talks Regrets and What's Next (Chris Suellentrop / Glixel) "That enthusiasm for the unknown is the hallmark of 57-year-old Molyneux's long career. He stopped by the Glixel offices in March to talk – barely – about his next game, Legacy, as well as to speak at length about everything from No Man's Sky and Pokémon Go to his aborted Kinect experiment, Milo."

toco toco ep.49, Yoko Taro, Game Creator (toco toco TV / YouTube) "In this episode, we spend the day in Osaka with Yoko Taro, director of the famous Drakengard and NieR series. Our first stop will be at PlatinumGames, the studio that was in charge of developing Yoko’s most recent title: NieR: Automata."

How Hitman’s Hokkaido level was made (Alex Wiltshire / RockPaperShotgun) "The latest Hitman['s]... levels are a jetset tour of places you believe could exist, but these aren’t just credible environments, they’re also machines for killing in. And the first season of Hitman closed with one of its best. Hokkaido is at once compact and expansive, melodramatic and credible, and I talked to IO about how it was designed."

Game Over, Uwe Boll (Darryn King / Vanity Fair) "The man known as the world’s worst director is now retired and running a Vancouver restaurant. But he’s still not done waiting for the world to give him his due. [SIMON'S NOTE: you really should read this one, if only for Boll's random Chris Kohler diss, haha.]"

Inside the Resilient ‘Team Fortress 2’ Community on the PlayStation 3 (Aron Garst / Motherboard) "To say that PS3 players got a raw deal is one hell of an understatement. But they've managed, and made friends along the way."

THOTH, And How I Talk About Games (Errant Signal / YouTube) "Just a little thing I made at the end of last month while fighting off some sickness. [SIMON'S NOTE: an interesting - if a bit self-doubt-y - meta-analysis from one of the better YouTube game analysis folks on how you should approach mechanics-led games in terms of commentary.]"

Valve has cut Dota 2 royalties, and workshop creators are crying foul (Arthur Gies / Polygon) "There’s unrest in Dota 2’s community this week, as several artists responsible for many of the free-to-play game’s popular cosmetic items allege that Steam owner and Dota 2 developer Valve Software has systematically reduced their earnings and may be permanently damaging the long-term viability of Dota 2’s business model."

Magic: The Gathering's Head Designer Has A Damn Hard Job (JR Goldberg / Kotaku) "“Magic is secretly, not really … it’s not one game,” head Magic: The Gathering designer Mark Rosewater told me. “It is actually a bunch of different games that all have a shared rule system. Every time I make a card set, I’m making the game for everybody, but for each person, it’s a different game to them.”"

Roam free: A history of open-world gaming (Richard Moss / Ars Technica) "Open-world video games bear the impossible promise—offering compelling, enjoyable open-endedness and freedom within the constraints of what is, by necessity of the medium, an extremely limited set of possible actions. These games provide a list of (predominantly violent) verbs that's minuscule in comparison to the options you would face in identical real-life situations. Yet, we can't get enough of them."

Tom Clancy's Inherent Silliness: Why Ghost Recon Wildlands Couldn't Escape Its Fate (Cameron Kunzelman / Paste) "Ghost Recon Wildlands is a silly game. One might be tempted to think that it’s an intentionally silly game bordering on satire. I mean, after all, it’s almost a parody of games in its genre: it’s a third-person shooter game where four operatives, a handler, and some almost-Communist rebels take on and fully dismantle the infrastructure of a country that’s been fully taken over by a drug cartel."

The Game Beat Weekly: The pressure to stay in line (Kyle Orland / TinyLetter) "These apologetic quotes both get at a truth that's rarely explicitly acknowledged in the world of game criticism: being out of step with the critical or fan consensus on a big-name game or franchise is often not an easy thing to do. At best, having a contrary opinion about a big game these days means being subject to a huge stream of nasty comments, tweets, and e-mails about your view."

The Last Game I Make Before I Die: The Crashlands Postmortem (Sam Coster / GDC / YouTube) "Crashlands was developed by a team of three brothers in response to one of them being diagnosed with late stage cancer. In this 2017 session, Butterscotch Shenanigans' Samuel Coster tells the parallel stories of one family's battle with cancer and the creation of a cross-platform crafting RPG, and find yourself inspired to continue your great work no matter what life throws at you."

The Growing Indie Game Development Scene of South Africa (Lena LeRay / IndieGames.com) "South Africa's video game development scene has been through a lot of ups and downs since it got started in the mid-90s. The indie scene in particular got its first big break in 2010, with the entry of Desktop Dungeons on the world stage."

Destiny's meta shifts are fascinating (Cole Tomashot / Zam) "A meta shift is usually the result of a content release, player discovery, or patch. What makes these meta shifts interesting, is that while they are occurring a push and pull relationship between developers and players reveals itself as both parties play a role in a game’s meta."

Meeting Andrzej Sapkowski, the writer who created The Witcher (Robert Purchese / Eurogamer) "Andrzej Sapkowski has something of a reputation. To start with, he's a big deal. He invented Geralt, witchers, Triss, Ciri, the whole thing - it all came out of his head. He has won awards and his work is revered, especially in Poland. More than once I've heard him described as the Polish Tolkien. But I've also heard he can be difficult - and I'm on my way to meet him."

The sound of SID: 35 years of chiptune’s influence on electronic music (James Newman / The Conversation) "Fortunately, Yannes did know something about music, as well as semiconductors and designing chips. And so in 1981 he began work on what would arguably become the most important milestone in videogame music and one whose influence still resonates to this day: the MOS Technology 6581, also known as the Sound Interface Device, but much better known as the SID. [SIMON'S NOTE: quite a few game soundtracks analyzed in this neat piece!]"

Balancing Cards in Clash Royale (Stefan Engblom / GDC / YouTube) "In this 2017 GDC session, Stefan Engblom, game designer on the Clash Royale team, talks about the philosophies and principles used for balancing cards and gameplay in Supercell's Clash Royale."

The Ten Most Important Early Computer and Video Games (Jaz Rignall / USGamer) "Today's gaming industry is a massive, multibillion dollar entertainment juggernaut. But what are its roots? I thought I'd take a trip back to the very dawn of gaming history and take a look at the devices, inventions, and innovations that gave rise to our favorite pastime."

Mike Tyson's Punch Out NES Nintendo 30th Anniversary (Gajillionaire / YouTube) "30 years ago on March 31, 1987, Little Mac defeated the Super Macho Man for the W.V.B.A. World Heavyweight Title. We look back with YouTube personalities from all over and remember back to that epic night. Then, sit back and watch the original “broadcast” of the classic Championship title fight!"

Three reasons streaming is replacing the Let’s Play industry (Michael Sawyer / Polygon) "YouTube personalities recording themselves playing games is big business, and it seems to be the dominant way for gaming influencers to make money on the platform. The art form is known as “Let’s Play,” although that term doesn’t have much in the way of a set definition. But why does it seem like so many personalities on YouTube are moving to livestreams?"

Jonathan Coulton - All This Time (Official Video) (Jonathan Coulton / YouTube) "From his new album Solid State, out April 28. The album has a companion graphic novel written by Matt Fraction and drawn by Albert Monteys. It's a science fiction story about the internet, the future, artificial intelligence, and how probably only love will save us. [SIMON'S NOTE: this song is wonderful, but the music video is what permits its inclusion in this roundup, heh.]"

Why Video Game Guns 'Feel Good' (Emmanuel Maiberg / Motherboard) "Six out of the top 10 bestselling video games in February heavily featured guns and shooting. The same was true in January and all of 2016. Like it or hate it, video games and guns have gone hand-in-hand for decades and there's no reason to assume that this will change in the near future. [SIMON'S NOTE: part of a series - also see Veteran Developers Remember the Weirdest Guns in Gaming, heh.]"

The sublime horror of the unknown: Ian Dallas and What Remains of Edith Finch (Kris Ligman / Zam) "Director Ian Dallas, as it turns out, was more than willing to discuss the artistic and literary influences behind What Remains of Edith Finch with me -- as well as chat about a few paths the game did not end up going down."

The Game Archaeologist: How DIKUMUD Shaped Modern MMOs (Justin Olivetti / Massively Overpowered) "Even though there are hundreds and thousands of MMOs spanning several decades, only a small handful were so incredibly influential that they changed the course of development for games from then on out. DikuMUD is one of these games, and it is responsible for more of what you experience in your current MMOs than you even know."

The art and joy of video game photography (Simon Parkin / Eurogamer) "Now, when facing up against a Hyrulian monstrosity, my first thought is not, 'Which sword should I use', but rather, 'To which spot should I lure the beast to make the best use of the light?' In 2017, in my game at least, more Links have died taking compendium shots than in encounters with sharks (and not only because the sharks in Hyrule are talkative, handsome and kind)."

Classic Game Postmortem: Maniac Mansion (Ron Gilbert / GDC / YouTube) "In this 2011 Classic Game Postmortem, Maniac Mansion developer Ron Gilbert revisits the classic adventure game and recounts tales from the game's development process. "

Strange Beasts, a sci-fi short about an augmented reality game (Jason Kottke / Magali Barbé / Kottke.org) "Magali Barbé wrote and directed this short sci-fi video about an imaginary augmented reality game called Strange Beasts. It starts off with a “hey, yeah, cool, augemented reality games are going to be fun to play” vibe but gradually veers down the same dystopian path as a lot of augmented reality fictions (like Keiichi Matsuda’s Hyper-Reality)."

-------------------

[REMINDER: you can sign up to receive this newsletter every weekend at http://ift.tt/2dUXrva we crosspost to Gamasutra later on Sunday, but get it first via newsletter! Story tips and comments can be emailed to vgdeepcuts@simoncarless.com. MINI-DISCLOSURE: Simon is one of the organizers of GDC and Gamasutra, so you may sometimes see links from those entities in his picks. Or not!]

[symbianosgames]

Video Game Deep Cuts: Hitman vs. Edith Finch - Go!

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

[Video Game Deep Cuts is a weekly newsletter from curator/video game industry veteran Simon Carless, rounding up the best longread & standout articles & videos about games, every weekend. This week's highlights include Hitman level design, What Remains of Edith Finch, and much, much more.

As I battle jetlag after my return from Asia to a sunny California spring, I've been thinking a lot this week about discoverability for games again. Shouldn't there be more niche game subscription services out there for those looking to support underappreciated/'different' titles? I love Humble Monthly, but some of the more mainstream subscribers seem to get grumpy about the quirkier indie titles in it at times - much like PS4 players litter indie YouTube trailer comments with fist-shaking.

And how about adding context to the games in a subscription with dev interview videos, 'Let's Play'-style playthoughs, or even analysis videos? Would any of you sign up for something like this? Curious...

- Simon, curator.]

-------------------

Passing Through Ghosts in Pac-Man (John Harris / Gamasutra Blogs) "This is an excerpt from my book Bug Voyage: A Tour of Classic Game Glitches, available in the current Rogue Souls Storybundle [SIMON'S NOTE: which I curated!]. The book also contains information on pseudorandom number generation, doing low-level math in binary and decimal, and how you can crash any Galaga machine without even putting money in."

Writing Indie Games Is Like Being a Musician. In the Bad Way. (Jeff Vogel / The Bottom Feeder) "Over the last couple years, I've gotten a fair amount of attention for my articles about the Indie Bubble and the Indie Glut.  (And even a GDC talk.) At last, I can complete the trilogy of articles. Now we can look around and see where we've ended up, a phase which I suspect will be permanent. [SIMON'S NOTE: Please read this.]"

Legendary Game Maker Peter Molyneux Talks Regrets and What's Next (Chris Suellentrop / Glixel) "That enthusiasm for the unknown is the hallmark of 57-year-old Molyneux's long career. He stopped by the Glixel offices in March to talk – barely – about his next game, Legacy, as well as to speak at length about everything from No Man's Sky and Pokémon Go to his aborted Kinect experiment, Milo."

toco toco ep.49, Yoko Taro, Game Creator (toco toco TV / YouTube) "In this episode, we spend the day in Osaka with Yoko Taro, director of the famous Drakengard and NieR series. Our first stop will be at PlatinumGames, the studio that was in charge of developing Yoko’s most recent title: NieR: Automata."

How Hitman’s Hokkaido level was made (Alex Wiltshire / RockPaperShotgun) "The latest Hitman['s]... levels are a jetset tour of places you believe could exist, but these aren’t just credible environments, they’re also machines for killing in. And the first season of Hitman closed with one of its best. Hokkaido is at once compact and expansive, melodramatic and credible, and I talked to IO about how it was designed."

Game Over, Uwe Boll (Darryn King / Vanity Fair) "The man known as the world’s worst director is now retired and running a Vancouver restaurant. But he’s still not done waiting for the world to give him his due. [SIMON'S NOTE: you really should read this one, if only for Boll's random Chris Kohler diss, haha.]"

Inside the Resilient ‘Team Fortress 2’ Community on the PlayStation 3 (Aron Garst / Motherboard) "To say that PS3 players got a raw deal is one hell of an understatement. But they've managed, and made friends along the way."

THOTH, And How I Talk About Games (Errant Signal / YouTube) "Just a little thing I made at the end of last month while fighting off some sickness. [SIMON'S NOTE: an interesting - if a bit self-doubt-y - meta-analysis from one of the better YouTube game analysis folks on how you should approach mechanics-led games in terms of commentary.]"

Valve has cut Dota 2 royalties, and workshop creators are crying foul (Arthur Gies / Polygon) "There’s unrest in Dota 2’s community this week, as several artists responsible for many of the free-to-play game’s popular cosmetic items allege that Steam owner and Dota 2 developer Valve Software has systematically reduced their earnings and may be permanently damaging the long-term viability of Dota 2’s business model."

Magic: The Gathering's Head Designer Has A Damn Hard Job (JR Goldberg / Kotaku) "“Magic is secretly, not really … it’s not one game,” head Magic: The Gathering designer Mark Rosewater told me. “It is actually a bunch of different games that all have a shared rule system. Every time I make a card set, I’m making the game for everybody, but for each person, it’s a different game to them.”"

Roam free: A history of open-world gaming (Richard Moss / Ars Technica) "Open-world video games bear the impossible promise—offering compelling, enjoyable open-endedness and freedom within the constraints of what is, by necessity of the medium, an extremely limited set of possible actions. These games provide a list of (predominantly violent) verbs that's minuscule in comparison to the options you would face in identical real-life situations. Yet, we can't get enough of them."

Tom Clancy's Inherent Silliness: Why Ghost Recon Wildlands Couldn't Escape Its Fate (Cameron Kunzelman / Paste) "Ghost Recon Wildlands is a silly game. One might be tempted to think that it’s an intentionally silly game bordering on satire. I mean, after all, it’s almost a parody of games in its genre: it’s a third-person shooter game where four operatives, a handler, and some almost-Communist rebels take on and fully dismantle the infrastructure of a country that’s been fully taken over by a drug cartel."

The Game Beat Weekly: The pressure to stay in line (Kyle Orland / TinyLetter) "These apologetic quotes both get at a truth that's rarely explicitly acknowledged in the world of game criticism: being out of step with the critical or fan consensus on a big-name game or franchise is often not an easy thing to do. At best, having a contrary opinion about a big game these days means being subject to a huge stream of nasty comments, tweets, and e-mails about your view."

The Last Game I Make Before I Die: The Crashlands Postmortem (Sam Coster / GDC / YouTube) "Crashlands was developed by a team of three brothers in response to one of them being diagnosed with late stage cancer. In this 2017 session, Butterscotch Shenanigans' Samuel Coster tells the parallel stories of one family's battle with cancer and the creation of a cross-platform crafting RPG, and find yourself inspired to continue your great work no matter what life throws at you."

The Growing Indie Game Development Scene of South Africa (Lena LeRay / IndieGames.com) "South Africa's video game development scene has been through a lot of ups and downs since it got started in the mid-90s. The indie scene in particular got its first big break in 2010, with the entry of Desktop Dungeons on the world stage."

Destiny's meta shifts are fascinating (Cole Tomashot / Zam) "A meta shift is usually the result of a content release, player discovery, or patch. What makes these meta shifts interesting, is that while they are occurring a push and pull relationship between developers and players reveals itself as both parties play a role in a game’s meta."

Meeting Andrzej Sapkowski, the writer who created The Witcher (Robert Purchese / Eurogamer) "Andrzej Sapkowski has something of a reputation. To start with, he's a big deal. He invented Geralt, witchers, Triss, Ciri, the whole thing - it all came out of his head. He has won awards and his work is revered, especially in Poland. More than once I've heard him described as the Polish Tolkien. But I've also heard he can be difficult - and I'm on my way to meet him."

The sound of SID: 35 years of chiptune’s influence on electronic music (James Newman / The Conversation) "Fortunately, Yannes did know something about music, as well as semiconductors and designing chips. And so in 1981 he began work on what would arguably become the most important milestone in videogame music and one whose influence still resonates to this day: the MOS Technology 6581, also known as the Sound Interface Device, but much better known as the SID. [SIMON'S NOTE: quite a few game soundtracks analyzed in this neat piece!]"

Balancing Cards in Clash Royale (Stefan Engblom / GDC / YouTube) "In this 2017 GDC session, Stefan Engblom, game designer on the Clash Royale team, talks about the philosophies and principles used for balancing cards and gameplay in Supercell's Clash Royale."

The Ten Most Important Early Computer and Video Games (Jaz Rignall / USGamer) "Today's gaming industry is a massive, multibillion dollar entertainment juggernaut. But what are its roots? I thought I'd take a trip back to the very dawn of gaming history and take a look at the devices, inventions, and innovations that gave rise to our favorite pastime."

Mike Tyson's Punch Out NES Nintendo 30th Anniversary (Gajillionaire / YouTube) "30 years ago on March 31, 1987, Little Mac defeated the Super Macho Man for the W.V.B.A. World Heavyweight Title. We look back with YouTube personalities from all over and remember back to that epic night. Then, sit back and watch the original “broadcast” of the classic Championship title fight!"

Three reasons streaming is replacing the Let’s Play industry (Michael Sawyer / Polygon) "YouTube personalities recording themselves playing games is big business, and it seems to be the dominant way for gaming influencers to make money on the platform. The art form is known as “Let’s Play,” although that term doesn’t have much in the way of a set definition. But why does it seem like so many personalities on YouTube are moving to livestreams?"

Jonathan Coulton - All This Time (Official Video) (Jonathan Coulton / YouTube) "From his new album Solid State, out April 28. The album has a companion graphic novel written by Matt Fraction and drawn by Albert Monteys. It's a science fiction story about the internet, the future, artificial intelligence, and how probably only love will save us. [SIMON'S NOTE: this song is wonderful, but the music video is what permits its inclusion in this roundup, heh.]"

Why Video Game Guns 'Feel Good' (Emmanuel Maiberg / Motherboard) "Six out of the top 10 bestselling video games in February heavily featured guns and shooting. The same was true in January and all of 2016. Like it or hate it, video games and guns have gone hand-in-hand for decades and there's no reason to assume that this will change in the near future. [SIMON'S NOTE: part of a series - also see Veteran Developers Remember the Weirdest Guns in Gaming, heh.]"

The sublime horror of the unknown: Ian Dallas and What Remains of Edith Finch (Kris Ligman / Zam) "Director Ian Dallas, as it turns out, was more than willing to discuss the artistic and literary influences behind What Remains of Edith Finch with me -- as well as chat about a few paths the game did not end up going down."

The Game Archaeologist: How DIKUMUD Shaped Modern MMOs (Justin Olivetti / Massively Overpowered) "Even though there are hundreds and thousands of MMOs spanning several decades, only a small handful were so incredibly influential that they changed the course of development for games from then on out. DikuMUD is one of these games, and it is responsible for more of what you experience in your current MMOs than you even know."

The art and joy of video game photography (Simon Parkin / Eurogamer) "Now, when facing up against a Hyrulian monstrosity, my first thought is not, 'Which sword should I use', but rather, 'To which spot should I lure the beast to make the best use of the light?' In 2017, in my game at least, more Links have died taking compendium shots than in encounters with sharks (and not only because the sharks in Hyrule are talkative, handsome and kind)."

Classic Game Postmortem: Maniac Mansion (Ron Gilbert / GDC / YouTube) "In this 2011 Classic Game Postmortem, Maniac Mansion developer Ron Gilbert revisits the classic adventure game and recounts tales from the game's development process. "

Strange Beasts, a sci-fi short about an augmented reality game (Jason Kottke / Magali Barbé / Kottke.org) "Magali Barbé wrote and directed this short sci-fi video about an imaginary augmented reality game called Strange Beasts. It starts off with a “hey, yeah, cool, augemented reality games are going to be fun to play” vibe but gradually veers down the same dystopian path as a lot of augmented reality fictions (like Keiichi Matsuda’s Hyper-Reality)."

-------------------

[REMINDER: you can sign up to receive this newsletter every weekend at http://ift.tt/2dUXrva we crosspost to Gamasutra later on Sunday, but get it first via newsletter! Story tips and comments can be emailed to vgdeepcuts@simoncarless.com. MINI-DISCLOSURE: Simon is one of the organizers of GDC and Gamasutra, so you may sometimes see links from those entities in his picks. Or not!]

[symbianosgames]

Video Game Deep Cuts: Hitman vs. Edith Finch - Go!

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

[Video Game Deep Cuts is a weekly newsletter from curator/video game industry veteran Simon Carless, rounding up the best longread & standout articles & videos about games, every weekend. This week's highlights include Hitman level design, What Remains of Edith Finch, and much, much more.

As I battle jetlag after my return from Asia to a sunny California spring, I've been thinking a lot this week about discoverability for games again. Shouldn't there be more niche game subscription services out there for those looking to support underappreciated/'different' titles? I love Humble Monthly, but some of the more mainstream subscribers seem to get grumpy about the quirkier indie titles in it at times - much like PS4 players litter indie YouTube trailer comments with fist-shaking.

And how about adding context to the games in a subscription with dev interview videos, 'Let's Play'-style playthoughs, or even analysis videos? Would any of you sign up for something like this? Curious...

- Simon, curator.]

-------------------

Passing Through Ghosts in Pac-Man (John Harris / Gamasutra Blogs) "This is an excerpt from my book Bug Voyage: A Tour of Classic Game Glitches, available in the current Rogue Souls Storybundle [SIMON'S NOTE: which I curated!]. The book also contains information on pseudorandom number generation, doing low-level math in binary and decimal, and how you can crash any Galaga machine without even putting money in."

Writing Indie Games Is Like Being a Musician. In the Bad Way. (Jeff Vogel / The Bottom Feeder) "Over the last couple years, I've gotten a fair amount of attention for my articles about the Indie Bubble and the Indie Glut.  (And even a GDC talk.) At last, I can complete the trilogy of articles. Now we can look around and see where we've ended up, a phase which I suspect will be permanent. [SIMON'S NOTE: Please read this.]"

Legendary Game Maker Peter Molyneux Talks Regrets and What's Next (Chris Suellentrop / Glixel) "That enthusiasm for the unknown is the hallmark of 57-year-old Molyneux's long career. He stopped by the Glixel offices in March to talk – barely – about his next game, Legacy, as well as to speak at length about everything from No Man's Sky and Pokémon Go to his aborted Kinect experiment, Milo."

toco toco ep.49, Yoko Taro, Game Creator (toco toco TV / YouTube) "In this episode, we spend the day in Osaka with Yoko Taro, director of the famous Drakengard and NieR series. Our first stop will be at PlatinumGames, the studio that was in charge of developing Yoko’s most recent title: NieR: Automata."

How Hitman’s Hokkaido level was made (Alex Wiltshire / RockPaperShotgun) "The latest Hitman['s]... levels are a jetset tour of places you believe could exist, but these aren’t just credible environments, they’re also machines for killing in. And the first season of Hitman closed with one of its best. Hokkaido is at once compact and expansive, melodramatic and credible, and I talked to IO about how it was designed."

Game Over, Uwe Boll (Darryn King / Vanity Fair) "The man known as the world’s worst director is now retired and running a Vancouver restaurant. But he’s still not done waiting for the world to give him his due. [SIMON'S NOTE: you really should read this one, if only for Boll's random Chris Kohler diss, haha.]"

Inside the Resilient ‘Team Fortress 2’ Community on the PlayStation 3 (Aron Garst / Motherboard) "To say that PS3 players got a raw deal is one hell of an understatement. But they've managed, and made friends along the way."

THOTH, And How I Talk About Games (Errant Signal / YouTube) "Just a little thing I made at the end of last month while fighting off some sickness. [SIMON'S NOTE: an interesting - if a bit self-doubt-y - meta-analysis from one of the better YouTube game analysis folks on how you should approach mechanics-led games in terms of commentary.]"

Valve has cut Dota 2 royalties, and workshop creators are crying foul (Arthur Gies / Polygon) "There’s unrest in Dota 2’s community this week, as several artists responsible for many of the free-to-play game’s popular cosmetic items allege that Steam owner and Dota 2 developer Valve Software has systematically reduced their earnings and may be permanently damaging the long-term viability of Dota 2’s business model."

Magic: The Gathering's Head Designer Has A Damn Hard Job (JR Goldberg / Kotaku) "“Magic is secretly, not really … it’s not one game,” head Magic: The Gathering designer Mark Rosewater told me. “It is actually a bunch of different games that all have a shared rule system. Every time I make a card set, I’m making the game for everybody, but for each person, it’s a different game to them.”"

Roam free: A history of open-world gaming (Richard Moss / Ars Technica) "Open-world video games bear the impossible promise—offering compelling, enjoyable open-endedness and freedom within the constraints of what is, by necessity of the medium, an extremely limited set of possible actions. These games provide a list of (predominantly violent) verbs that's minuscule in comparison to the options you would face in identical real-life situations. Yet, we can't get enough of them."

Tom Clancy's Inherent Silliness: Why Ghost Recon Wildlands Couldn't Escape Its Fate (Cameron Kunzelman / Paste) "Ghost Recon Wildlands is a silly game. One might be tempted to think that it’s an intentionally silly game bordering on satire. I mean, after all, it’s almost a parody of games in its genre: it’s a third-person shooter game where four operatives, a handler, and some almost-Communist rebels take on and fully dismantle the infrastructure of a country that’s been fully taken over by a drug cartel."

The Game Beat Weekly: The pressure to stay in line (Kyle Orland / TinyLetter) "These apologetic quotes both get at a truth that's rarely explicitly acknowledged in the world of game criticism: being out of step with the critical or fan consensus on a big-name game or franchise is often not an easy thing to do. At best, having a contrary opinion about a big game these days means being subject to a huge stream of nasty comments, tweets, and e-mails about your view."

The Last Game I Make Before I Die: The Crashlands Postmortem (Sam Coster / GDC / YouTube) "Crashlands was developed by a team of three brothers in response to one of them being diagnosed with late stage cancer. In this 2017 session, Butterscotch Shenanigans' Samuel Coster tells the parallel stories of one family's battle with cancer and the creation of a cross-platform crafting RPG, and find yourself inspired to continue your great work no matter what life throws at you."

The Growing Indie Game Development Scene of South Africa (Lena LeRay / IndieGames.com) "South Africa's video game development scene has been through a lot of ups and downs since it got started in the mid-90s. The indie scene in particular got its first big break in 2010, with the entry of Desktop Dungeons on the world stage."

Destiny's meta shifts are fascinating (Cole Tomashot / Zam) "A meta shift is usually the result of a content release, player discovery, or patch. What makes these meta shifts interesting, is that while they are occurring a push and pull relationship between developers and players reveals itself as both parties play a role in a game’s meta."

Meeting Andrzej Sapkowski, the writer who created The Witcher (Robert Purchese / Eurogamer) "Andrzej Sapkowski has something of a reputation. To start with, he's a big deal. He invented Geralt, witchers, Triss, Ciri, the whole thing - it all came out of his head. He has won awards and his work is revered, especially in Poland. More than once I've heard him described as the Polish Tolkien. But I've also heard he can be difficult - and I'm on my way to meet him."

The sound of SID: 35 years of chiptune’s influence on electronic music (James Newman / The Conversation) "Fortunately, Yannes did know something about music, as well as semiconductors and designing chips. And so in 1981 he began work on what would arguably become the most important milestone in videogame music and one whose influence still resonates to this day: the MOS Technology 6581, also known as the Sound Interface Device, but much better known as the SID. [SIMON'S NOTE: quite a few game soundtracks analyzed in this neat piece!]"

Balancing Cards in Clash Royale (Stefan Engblom / GDC / YouTube) "In this 2017 GDC session, Stefan Engblom, game designer on the Clash Royale team, talks about the philosophies and principles used for balancing cards and gameplay in Supercell's Clash Royale."

The Ten Most Important Early Computer and Video Games (Jaz Rignall / USGamer) "Today's gaming industry is a massive, multibillion dollar entertainment juggernaut. But what are its roots? I thought I'd take a trip back to the very dawn of gaming history and take a look at the devices, inventions, and innovations that gave rise to our favorite pastime."

Mike Tyson's Punch Out NES Nintendo 30th Anniversary (Gajillionaire / YouTube) "30 years ago on March 31, 1987, Little Mac defeated the Super Macho Man for the W.V.B.A. World Heavyweight Title. We look back with YouTube personalities from all over and remember back to that epic night. Then, sit back and watch the original “broadcast” of the classic Championship title fight!"

Three reasons streaming is replacing the Let’s Play industry (Michael Sawyer / Polygon) "YouTube personalities recording themselves playing games is big business, and it seems to be the dominant way for gaming influencers to make money on the platform. The art form is known as “Let’s Play,” although that term doesn’t have much in the way of a set definition. But why does it seem like so many personalities on YouTube are moving to livestreams?"

Jonathan Coulton - All This Time (Official Video) (Jonathan Coulton / YouTube) "From his new album Solid State, out April 28. The album has a companion graphic novel written by Matt Fraction and drawn by Albert Monteys. It's a science fiction story about the internet, the future, artificial intelligence, and how probably only love will save us. [SIMON'S NOTE: this song is wonderful, but the music video is what permits its inclusion in this roundup, heh.]"

Why Video Game Guns 'Feel Good' (Emmanuel Maiberg / Motherboard) "Six out of the top 10 bestselling video games in February heavily featured guns and shooting. The same was true in January and all of 2016. Like it or hate it, video games and guns have gone hand-in-hand for decades and there's no reason to assume that this will change in the near future. [SIMON'S NOTE: part of a series - also see Veteran Developers Remember the Weirdest Guns in Gaming, heh.]"

The sublime horror of the unknown: Ian Dallas and What Remains of Edith Finch (Kris Ligman / Zam) "Director Ian Dallas, as it turns out, was more than willing to discuss the artistic and literary influences behind What Remains of Edith Finch with me -- as well as chat about a few paths the game did not end up going down."

The Game Archaeologist: How DIKUMUD Shaped Modern MMOs (Justin Olivetti / Massively Overpowered) "Even though there are hundreds and thousands of MMOs spanning several decades, only a small handful were so incredibly influential that they changed the course of development for games from then on out. DikuMUD is one of these games, and it is responsible for more of what you experience in your current MMOs than you even know."

The art and joy of video game photography (Simon Parkin / Eurogamer) "Now, when facing up against a Hyrulian monstrosity, my first thought is not, 'Which sword should I use', but rather, 'To which spot should I lure the beast to make the best use of the light?' In 2017, in my game at least, more Links have died taking compendium shots than in encounters with sharks (and not only because the sharks in Hyrule are talkative, handsome and kind)."

Classic Game Postmortem: Maniac Mansion (Ron Gilbert / GDC / YouTube) "In this 2011 Classic Game Postmortem, Maniac Mansion developer Ron Gilbert revisits the classic adventure game and recounts tales from the game's development process. "

Strange Beasts, a sci-fi short about an augmented reality game (Jason Kottke / Magali Barbé / Kottke.org) "Magali Barbé wrote and directed this short sci-fi video about an imaginary augmented reality game called Strange Beasts. It starts off with a “hey, yeah, cool, augemented reality games are going to be fun to play” vibe but gradually veers down the same dystopian path as a lot of augmented reality fictions (like Keiichi Matsuda’s Hyper-Reality)."

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[REMINDER: you can sign up to receive this newsletter every weekend at http://ift.tt/2dUXrva we crosspost to Gamasutra later on Sunday, but get it first via newsletter! Story tips and comments can be emailed to vgdeepcuts@simoncarless.com. MINI-DISCLOSURE: Simon is one of the organizers of GDC and Gamasutra, so you may sometimes see links from those entities in his picks. Or not!]