What
is the last fiction book you read?
A
few years ago I had rarely read a book since high school, one evening
I made a conscious decision to try to expand my horizons by trying to
read more and that the best way to get started would be to read books
of which the films I had enjoyed, were based on. The first of which
is the book I have most recently returned to, Trainspotting. A brutal
and unapologetic look into the dark world of heroin and all the
baggage that comes with it with a large side portion of black humour.
I love the way the author tackles the often taboo subjects head on,
while creating empathy for the characters even when they are morally
iffy at best.
The
novel has an almost disorientating writing style, written in Scottish
slang, each chapter is told from the perspective of a different
character (alternating between a handful of characters). It is then
the reader’s responsibility to figure out which character’s
perspective the chapter is being told from by clues in the way they
speak and how they define there relationships with the other
characters. This creates a feeling of knowing each character
intimately after a few chapters, as you can identify them within a
few lines of dialogue.
What
is the last non-fiction book you read?
I
have just recently finished ‘Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created
an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture ’, a look behind the scenes
of ID software and it’s two biggest personalities; John Carmack and
John Romero. Id software created some of the most iconic video games
of all time, arguably creating the modern first person shooter genre
with ‘Wolfenstein 3D’ moving onto creating revolutionary
immersive 3D worlds in their next hit series ‘Doom’ then going on
to refine online deathmatchs with the ‘Quake’ series. ‘Masters
of Doom’ takes an uncompromising look at what was
occurring behind the scenes at Id software, leaving no stone
unturned.
Developing
each person involved into full fleshed characters, explaining each
and every back story, ambition, the journey that lead them there, so
as the reader you can see every perspective and every side of the
story as the books gets into some of the nastier goings on; the
personality clashes, friendships damaged and careers hindered. It also
delves deeply into the culture of Id software (the offices littered
with pizza boxes, empty coke cans and destroyed keyboards) and their
development process; going into detail on programming obstacles, design issues and
gruelling crunch schedule to get the games finished.
What
is the last live performance you attended?
The
last live performance I attended was my own bands gig at The Bull in
Colchester. I play bass and sing backing vocals in Popgun, we are an
eighties tribute act performing songs from a variety of genres from
pop hits from Duran Duran & Madonna to rock hits from Bon Jovi &
Guns ‘n’ Roses while covering a little bit of everything
in-between. We create an energetic live show creating an authentic
eighties experience.
The
majority of the time we perform at weddings and private functions but
on occasion play in bars and venues, The Bull was the first bar gig
we had played in a while so it was great fun to play in a different
environment and see a few friendly faces in the crowd. Playing bars
or venues can be a little daunting as the majority of people there
had never seen us before, but everything went smoothly, there was a
great atmosphere, the crowd kept dancing and we’re pretty sure the
rivers of alcohol kept flowing through out the night. Feel free to check us out www.popgunmusic.co.uk
What
is the last film you watched?
Based
on the true story of corrupt wall street stock broker, Jordan
Belfort, ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ at it's core, is a rags to
riches story with a twist. It dives no holds barred into excessive
lifestyle of Jordan; taking obscene amounts of drugs, countless
sexual affairs, horrendously, humongous parties and exponential displays of wealth.
It
would be easy to criticise the film for fetishisation of wealth,
watching the young playboy living his life of ludicrous luxury
through out his pursuit for power, if the film wasn't also as
downright unflattering about his dark side and downfalls. Jordan
Belfort is a lovable character despite his questionable morals, he is
an entertaining and hilarious personality taking you on a journey
through the lifestyles of the obscene, but as his ego grows and he
lets his pride get the better of him, you probably won't feel too
much sympathy for him in his downfall.
How
often do you read a newspaper?
To
be honest I very rarely read newspapers, occasionally I'll be stuck
in a waiting room (probably at the local Chinese take away) so I'll
flick through whichever dreadful tabloid they have that week that
will no doubt be selling us on how terrible our country is becoming,
how benefit spongers are taking all our money or how some celebrity I
couldn't care less for is having an affair. I consider myself quite
liberal minded and favouring left wing politics so if people were to
be pigeon hole me into a type, I guess it'd be the Guardian reader. I
do occasional end up on the Guardian website as I follow games
journalist Keith Stuart on twitter, to be honest social media is how
I get almost all my news lately. By curating the people I follow on
Twitter down to games journalists and friends whose opinions I find
interesting, I find most the news articles I end up on have been
linked from a social media site of some kind. I do often check
various video games sites daily to keep up to date on what's
happening in the industry. Now I find myself commuting by train for a
few hours a day, I may consider picking up the metro on route to see
how I find it.
Which art gallery/museum/exhibition did you last visit?
This
is the part of the blog where I start to seem even less cultured. Off
the top of my head I honestly can not remember the last time I went
to a gallery/museum/exhibition. The only thing that comes to mind is
a vivid memory of a primary school trip to a museum in Cornwall, in
which one of the other pupils accidentally hit me in the head with
the a big metal lever from one of the exhibitions, leaving little
primary school aged me in tears. I doubt this memory is the reason I
have neglected to visit a museum since but this question itself has
made me realise I should make a conscious effort to visit more
gallery/museum/exhibition's in the future.
How
many hours a week do you spend playing video games?
This
number can vary greatly week by week. As a child I spent a huge
portion of my life playing video games. At an age far to young to
remember, my parents would tell me, that I would never speak,
concerned, they took me to a speech therapist but they found no
problems. Then one afternoon I apparently sat next to my brother in
awe watching him play 'Sonic the Hedgehog', the first video game I'd
ever seen, I then rushed to the living room trying to explain to the
rest of the family my amazement at what I'd just witnessed. Ever
since, they haven't been able to shut me up. Now at an age that some
would consider me an adult, I have less time on my hands due to
commitments and my other fixes in life such as playing musical
instruments, watching films and spending time with friends &
family. Some times I can fall out of love with games, feeling a
fatigue for the medium, playing none or as little as two hours of
video games a week, but then something new will peak my interest or
I'll discover an old classic and can literally binge all week on
video games, spending from ten to possibly fifty or more hours in a
week playing video games.
How
many hours a week do you spend playing games other than video games?
Up
until recently I didn't play many non-digital games, at an opticians
I worked at a few years ago we would have a poker night every second
Sunday. Other than that the only other non-digital games I
participated in were mostly drinking games. That was until a few
weeks ago I purchased 'Cards Against Humanity'. The best phrase I can
find to describe 'Cards Against Humanity' is by it's own tag line “A
party game for horrible people”, this game is certainly not for the
easily offended, I would almost go as far as to call it the Frankie
Boyle of non-digital games. The game consists of someone reading out
a question card and the other players have to play one of their
answer cards, funniest answer winds the round. To use the example on
the back of the box (with some of the most mild cards in play) the
question reads “During sex, I like to think about ________” with
suggested answer cards “Homeless people.”, “Pulling out.” or
“Explosions.”
'Cards Against Humanity' is best played with
a group of like minded friends with a dark sense of humour and in it
self can raise some interesting questions about the boundaries of
comedy, the 'everything is sacred or nothing is sacred' argument and
if it is better to ridicule a dark subject matter, instead of
sweeping it under the carpet and pretending it doesn't exist. Or
maybe I am just a horrible person.
