Here’s a forthcoming game I’m looking forward to. An innovative new approach to first-person gaming. Graphic look fantastic for sure and the story seems good. It’s won a pile of awards at some of the gaming shows. If anyone out there gets to play it before I do (or the demo which is coming out) let me know what you think.

You play the character Faith who’s sister has been framed by police for a crime she did not commit. Faith lives in a city under futuristic authoritarian rule (Orwellesque). Its a police state that is under constant monitoring so the movement of info has been put into the hands of "runners" who carry and transfer sensitive data across the rooftops of the city. They have been ignored by the police until recently. Faith is seeking to release her sister and avoid corrupt police who are after her.

 

 

 

When we were living in Toronto we would often hear sirens as firetrucks, ambulance or police cars would go racing past on Steeles Ave. When this happened I really didn’t put a lot of thought into it. I mean, the chances of knowing someone who might be in need of rescue in a region of early 6 million people is pretty low. So – the sirens would go by and I would continue doing what I was doing.

 

When you live in a small town and you hear the sirens it’s different. Your stomach tightens, you forget everything else and your first thought is – "what if it’s someone I know?" You feel a little sick inside and you want to stop everything and go and see if there’s something you can do. At night you look out to see if there’s the tell-tale glow of a fire in the sky. If it’s day you leave your work and look down the street and pray it’s not your child.

 

Small town sirens are heralds of fear and drive you to prayer. I’ve heard them too often these days and hope they are silent for a while.

 

shhhh

they were shackled

and loaded on to train cars

one and one and one

 

gone in

crowd and cowed

none came again

a line of ghosts alive

pulled to sleep

 

wild with quiet

silent screams

what seemed like

resignation

might’ve been resolve

 

fear fell like

drops of blood

while adonais

lifted to the skies

 

praying

 

"let this cup pass

me and mine

but Your will be done"

 

and they walked

to sleep

on their own two legs

because

no one

drags

the sons and daughters of man

 

This went well –

 

skip along bright

while sun bakes down

moving in smiles

keep the pleasant fog

wrapped inside

sleeping in –

 

who’s tired?

not i – no not i

 

i move from

shiny to shiny

and there is no night

it will not come

i’ll close my eyes

to ward the dark away

 

so

chat along

ramble on

stumble upon

and

then

go

and

hide

till

dawn

 

 

this beat pushes life

like a

red river rushing

 

one

     pulse

             at a time

 

flame and fuel

rhythm-engine running

every laugh & cry

 

beating passion

beating pain

beating pleasure

 

beating the waking night

while the cold fresh moon

silvers off singing skin

a caged metronome prisoner

pounding ivory bars

 

but who hears the spaces

between the pressing

where every living crush

longs for an echo

and is met with

                      empty absence?

 

what strange creatures are we

who spend as much time dead

as we do alive…

 

 

Proverbs 17:26-28

"Those who have knowledge use words with restraint, and those who have understanding are even-tempered. Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent, and discerning if they hold their tongues."

 

A short note of remembrance. Today is Sept. 11 and it is memorable for my family not simply for the obvious reasons. It was on this day seven years ago in 2001 when my family and I were in a garage outside of Washington D.C. while our tire was being repaired. We were moving home after living in Florida and watched on the small color tv in the shop as a jet crashed through one of the twin towers.

 

When we hit the road we spent about 9 hours listening in disbelieft to NPR radio as reporters described the absolute tragedy that unfolded throughout the morning. As we drove north we could not go through Washington D.C. as planned because it was closed. There were electronic signs along the highway that stated in large digital glowing capital letters:

 

 

It was surreal.

 

We spent the night at a hotel in New York state and the next day got to the border which had just re-opened after being closed for nearly 24 hours. When we crossed into Canada there was a line of trucks waiting to enter the US that was easily three or four kilometres long.

 

We’ll never forget it. I didn’t even know how to pray that day.

 

There is some new coming out of the film festivals this week (The Venice Film Festival and The Toronto Film Festival) about a movie called The Wrestler. The movie star Mickey Rourke, who I have always thought was a fantastic actor ever since I saw Barfly (based on a script by my favorite poet Charles Bukowski). But Rourke has had a strange and messed up career over the last 15 years that has not even remotely lived up to his potential – until now apparently. Critics are raving about The Wrestler and especially about Rourke’s performance – calling it the performance of a lifetime.

 

The movie won the Golden Lion (best picture) at the Venice Film Festival. There is already Oscar buzz building around Rourke. Anyhow – the movie will be released in 2009 so we’ll see how it does. I am really looking forward to seeing it. To top it all off Bruce Springsteen (my favorite musician) wrote the song for the closing credits. Below is the text of an article about the movie from CTV.ca –

 

Mickey Rourke KO’s crowds in ‘The Wrestler’

Updated Thu. Sep. 11 2008 4:11 PM ET

Constance Droganes, entertainment writer, CTV.ca

Beaten by life but not broken by it, Mickey Rourke delivers the performance of his career in "The Wrestler." Better believe all that Rourke Oscar buzz.

Mickey Rourke may no longer be the smoking hot hunk that made women weak in the knees in the 1986 romance "Nine ½ Weeks." But talk about a comeback.

Just like Randy "the Ram" Robinson, the washed-up character he plays in "The Wrestler," Rourke’s return from has-been land is a knockout.

Just ask Adrien Brody. "I haven’t seen many films at the festival but I did see ‘The Wrestler.’ Mickey is amazing. His work blew me away," the actor told CTV during the Toronto International Film Festival.

Thanks to director Darren Aronofsky ("The Fountain") Rourke appears on screen like some mottled, puffy bull who is at least 20 years past his prime. He’s penniless and without friends at the film’s outset, although kids still seem impressed by his dusty, tough-guy history.

Other than a few moments of connection with an aging stripper (Marisa Tomei) and some boozed-up dudes at a gentleman’s club this blonde-haired hulk who lugs cartons at a big-box store is left with nothing much to contemplate about life other than death.

"You ought to see "The Passion of the Christ," stripper Tomei tells him. "They threw everything at him." It’s a statement that compels "the Ram" to consider Jesus one "tough dude."

Rourke delivers plenty of black humour as he tries to reconnect with his estranged daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) and give his "relationship" with Tomei’s character more permanence. He even tries to find some kind of normalcy in his life by working at a deli counter. The stint leaves him as cold as the slabs of beef in the cooler.

Ultimately it’s the call of the ring that lures this aging outcast on. Stepping out of retirement "the Ram" signs on for a 20th anniversary rematch against the Ayatollah, one of his legendary opponents from his glory days. The fight that follows is as far removed from "Rocky" pomp and syrup as Dakota Fanning is from a bottle of Jack Daniels.

"The Ram" doesn’t ask for our sympathy. Neither does Rourke. There he stands before us, his nipped-and-tucked mug battered by life. Rourke pours out all that he is — and is not — in every look, gesture and word, delivering not merely an Oscar-worthy performance but one of the greatest screen moments Hollywood has seen.

At 51 Rourke, like the character he plays, may no longer be young and beautiful. But if ever there was truth to the saying that age counts before beauty this comeback kid proves it in "The Wrestler."

 

father flees

flying farther

till

like a Rembrandt

He is

 

             "light shining in darkness

 

soft candle glow

in the pitch centre

 

and…yes…I think I see…

subtle smile

mourning eyes

on the edge of all things

always watching me

 

 

Just finished watching a fantastic 24 episode anime series called Trinity Blood. We bought it in Minneapolis and have been watching four episodes per night. It had a very open ending and I anticipate more in the future. A fantastic and well written story set 900 years after a global war into the future tells the story of two races Terran (Human) and Methuselah and the battle between the two of them. The Methuselah are a result of genetic engineering in humans in the past.

 

In this future the Vatican and Albion (England) are major world powers centered in the west and the Methuselah empire is centred on Byzantium (Istanbul/Constantinople). The series depicts violence and bloodshed so fair warning it is not for children. The music throughout the series is also very well done. Since the Vatican plays such a major role in the series there are periodic portrayals of faith and prayer. The series creators did their homework – it’s quite interesting to watch a Japanese interpretation of western culture. The animation is also very well done.

 

Definitely worth a watch for anime fans.

 

 

In other news – despite my best efforts I still managed to catch poison ivy while camping. This is probably my sixth bout. Grrrr.