Most Random. Synchronicity. Ever.
I had two little treats planned for class today:
1) I was going to lead off class with the tale of the North American Mountain Walrus, to start a discussion of intellectual property and copyright law.
2) Later, I was going to talk about emulation software, using MAME (the arcade machine emulator) as an example.
I've used both in lectures before, but the second I've always done using Pac-Man as an example, because everyone recognizes Pac-Man.
Today, I wanted to shake up #2 with a game they wouldn't recognize: A little game named "Journey" featuring, well, the band JOURNEY. The object is to take little digitized versions of the band members into space in their "Scarab ship" (which looks like a large housefly) and retrieve their instruments. They do this through a series of nonsensical minigames while Journey songs play in the background. Specifically, I wanted to expose them to the sheer lunacy of digitized Steve Perry working his way through swinging pixel-gates to the moving strains of an 8-bit "Don't Stop Believing". Think I'm making this up? Check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3BDXlMtyUo&feature=related
In the few minutes before class, I plugged my laptop into the projector and set up MAME so I could make sure the sound was working right. Then I realized that I hadn't bookmarked the archived "Save the Mountain Walrus!" page, so I had to re-find it. I googled "Mountain Walrus" which brought up a number of tribute pages, which I minimized into the background before I bit the bullet and went through archive.org for the original: http://web.archive.org/web/19990220164601/www.end.com/~jynx/walrus/index.html
Now the fun begins. I'm trying to start class, and a song starts playing over the speakers. It is Journey's "Don't Stop Believing". Only it is NOT the 8-bit video game version, it is the ORIGINAL version, a song which is NOT in my music collection. I check to see if iTunes is running anyway, but no, it's not. I check to see if the sound on the media system is hooked up to any other source: it's not. I briefly consider the possibility that I have LOST MY FUCKING MIND and none of this is actually happening, but the students seem to be grooving out to the Steve Perry. What the fuck? It's 2010! Shouldn't they have *better* crappy music to ironically enjoy by now?
Then I start flipping through my minimized webpages while the class wonders what the hell their teacher is up to. It turns out that http://mountainwalrus.webs.com/themountainwalrus.htm - the mountain walrus tribute page, just HAPPENS to auto-play "Don't Stop Believing" when you load it.
Reality is a fucked up place, man.
1) I was going to lead off class with the tale of the North American Mountain Walrus, to start a discussion of intellectual property and copyright law.
2) Later, I was going to talk about emulation software, using MAME (the arcade machine emulator) as an example.
I've used both in lectures before, but the second I've always done using Pac-Man as an example, because everyone recognizes Pac-Man.
Today, I wanted to shake up #2 with a game they wouldn't recognize: A little game named "Journey" featuring, well, the band JOURNEY. The object is to take little digitized versions of the band members into space in their "Scarab ship" (which looks like a large housefly) and retrieve their instruments. They do this through a series of nonsensical minigames while Journey songs play in the background. Specifically, I wanted to expose them to the sheer lunacy of digitized Steve Perry working his way through swinging pixel-gates to the moving strains of an 8-bit "Don't Stop Believing". Think I'm making this up? Check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3BDXlMtyUo&feature=related
In the few minutes before class, I plugged my laptop into the projector and set up MAME so I could make sure the sound was working right. Then I realized that I hadn't bookmarked the archived "Save the Mountain Walrus!" page, so I had to re-find it. I googled "Mountain Walrus" which brought up a number of tribute pages, which I minimized into the background before I bit the bullet and went through archive.org for the original: http://web.archive.org/web/19990220164601/www.end.com/~jynx/walrus/index.html
Now the fun begins. I'm trying to start class, and a song starts playing over the speakers. It is Journey's "Don't Stop Believing". Only it is NOT the 8-bit video game version, it is the ORIGINAL version, a song which is NOT in my music collection. I check to see if iTunes is running anyway, but no, it's not. I check to see if the sound on the media system is hooked up to any other source: it's not. I briefly consider the possibility that I have LOST MY FUCKING MIND and none of this is actually happening, but the students seem to be grooving out to the Steve Perry. What the fuck? It's 2010! Shouldn't they have *better* crappy music to ironically enjoy by now?
Then I start flipping through my minimized webpages while the class wonders what the hell their teacher is up to. It turns out that http://mountainwalrus.webs.com/themountainwalrus.htm - the mountain walrus tribute page, just HAPPENS to auto-play "Don't Stop Believing" when you load it.
Reality is a fucked up place, man.