Magical:

In an Attempt to Just Write Something

So I've never bought anything from the rhythm game genre before. I didn't think I'd find it very compelling because I can play music and pretend to sing in a fairly less than slightly competent manner. But I received a gift card for my birthday and was browsing the video game selection when something caught my eye: Bob Dylan. His name was on the box of Guitar Hero 5 and I could not help but examine it. It intrigued me but I put the box back down and walked around a little more, going to the new instrument section of Best Buy and messing with some guitars (I'm curious as to whether the popularity of these music video games was what drove Best Buy to start carrying instruments). My thoughts kept being drawn to that box with Bob Dylan's name on it though, so I went back.

I noticed some other artists whose songs I enjoyed (White Stripes, Rolling Stones, Muse, Arctic Monkeys) so I caved in and bought it. I have to admit, I'm fairly happy with this game. Even if I'm arguably not creating the music, there's something quite satisfying about interacting with songs I enjoy and having the whole band sound that I couldn't get if it was just me and my guitar. I'm currently addicted to mastering Beck's "Gamma Ray", My Morning Jacket's "One Big Holiday" and the Gorillaz "Feel Good Inc.". I'm really excited about checking out some Beatles Rock Band. If I had a rating system, I would totally give this a "lobster.5" not quite "gopher", but definitely better than "beaver".

Retrun of Space Dude: The Reckoning: A Space Dude Adventure

Space. It’s awesome. Check it out.

I write this fresh off finishing Mass Effect 2. Certain interactions in that game made me really enjoy it- particularly playing as Space Dude Esquire and Space Dude Seducer- but I felt that either of those roles could have taken place in somewhere that’s not space- specifically Earth. What intrigued me about those events was not that I was dealing with aliens, but that I was dealing with enigmatic characters and cultures- but these characters and cultures are just a re-skin of humanity. Mass Effect 2 is just Earth in Space, which I think is a great disservice to the sci fi genre.

When I think of the Space I think of mystery. I think of stars that change color as they take millions of years to swell and millions more to explode. I think of silent expanses that can’t be traversed. I think of heat death and entropy. It’s an unfathomable place that could swallow me up, so it’d be rather anticlimactic if when humanity got up there, we’d find that a bunch of aliens have already figured everything out- and put up a space Wal-mart. Unfortunately this is the context of Mass Effect, and despite the slow synthesizer music that reminds me of 70’s educational videos I watched in high school astronomy, the story has a much more modern influence, casting the main character not as Space Dude, but rather Space Dudekiller: Savior of Space.

I enjoyed Mass Effect 2 and I reccomend it. This post is more of a vent than anything else. It’s me just wanting to see developers explore different aspects and characters in the sci fi genre than just the space marinc cliche. Instead of blowing up space, I’d like to explore it.

The Misadventures of Erandi In Mexico

Episode IV: For Lack of A Clever Title

Well I´m finally in the boonies of Mexico. Paracho, Mitchocan. Ane here I
am, some tall, light skinned guy among short, dark skinned villagers. The
wheather is pretty wet. I mean, just now it all of a sudden just started to
rain really hard. I mean really hard. The community itself is pretty
awesome. Pretty much all day there´s people out in the streets just chilling
or selling there wares. They make super awesome sweet bread here. In fact I
think I´ll make up a new word here just to describe the awesomeness of this
bread, Supaweweet. Or not. The village is surrounded by mountains and a
constant fog. A large amount of the villagers make their living off the work
of their hands, so that´s pretty sweet. There´s a hella lot of them that
work with wood. Beatiful craftsme(a?)nship for extremely low prices. I
think I´ll buy a lot of stuff and sell at jacked up prices in America. Just
like every good capitalist should. J.K. One of my uncles is a guitar luthier
and I got him making me a super sweet acoustic for a third of the cost of
one of equal quality in the U.S. Plus it appears that he´s the only luthier
in the whole village that has made anything other than classical/flamenco
guitars. The only thing is that he´s not all there. A bit eccentric. His
strings aren´t all in tune if you will. (Pun totally intended!) He´s cool
though. The weird thing was that I could easily see myself growing up to be
very much like this man. Sorta creepy.

I met a guy from a super sweet ska band down here. Pretty cool guy. Awesome
guitar player. We hung out for a bit and played together. We both had to
repeat everything like two times though because he dosen´t speak any english
at all. Pretty funny. Uhmmm... I saw these two classical guitarists play a
show or ¨concert¨here in the church. This guy was totally busting out this
piece called Jota and was like ripping up the guitar yo!!! The Slash of
classical guitar. Tearing up the tiny strings all the way down on the
fretboard. He was all like ¨deedley-deedley-deedley-deedley¨!!! And then he
went to the bass strings and was all like ¨buhmm-baahh-buhmm-baahh-buhmm¨
And I was all like ¨Rock on dude. Rock on¨ Then the Padre stood up and
whipped out his Zippo lighter and was all swaying. Then the guitarist got
all crazy. He kicked his chair out from under him and then started playing
the solo from ¨Seek and Destroy¨. Then he smashed his guitar over the statue
of Saint Peter and lit the reamins of his axe on fire. It was pretty
intense. Well actually none of that happend. It was just a super chill
concert. Thoguh he did rip it up.

Well I guess that´s alll for now. Just a liitle over a week and I´ll finally
be back. Albeit a little more Mexican then when I left. Miss you all much.
Send me some Cali sun becasue as I said, it´s pretty gloomy over here. Much
love from the Dity South, Erandi.

The Misadventures of Erandi In Mexico

Episode III: Rails and Runs

Well let´s see, I´ve taken the metro and the bus here in Mexico, and
it´s definelty an interesting experience. The term ´personal
space´dosen´t exist in matters of public transportation here. I´ve been
groped more times on one Metro ride than I would have liked to be in one
lifetime. You don´t board the train, you force yourself on. The harder
you push, the less likely the doors will slam shut on you. The bus is
sorta fun becasue it´s constantly in motion. It´s very action
movie-esque. And buses are hailed down. They really don´t have
designated stops. They´re like huge taxis. They´re also driven like
taxis. You know how in America people pass buses becasue they´re slow?
Well here, buses pass regualr cars routinley. Lane lines and traffic
lights are like strong suggestion instead of hard law here.

But enough about that. I went to this reading by some famous author here
who makes intresting musings on life and explains them through
anecdotes. He was pretty good. Smoking is still allowed in restaurants
here, so it had this cool, smokey, jazz club ambiance. I went to eat
food from a region called Oaxaca (I think I spelled that right) and the
resaurant was very down to earth. And when I say down to earth, I mean
EXTREMELY UNSANITARY!!!!!! But it was pretty damn good food though. Even
though It gave me the runs. Thank God for Imodium AD. These Mariachi
guys came in and started busting out some Mexican folk music. I had no
idea what they were singing, but this guy was totally wailing on the
accordion. I watched in awe. (Uno mas compadres!!! Uno mas!!!)
Speaking of music, I finally have access to a guitar!!! Throw up an Amen
to that becasue my hands and spirt were going through some sort of
withdrawl. But now I have my daily hit of musical euphoria.

And finally, just as in America, Starbucks is almost everywhere. I never
thought corporate evil and a false sense of community would go down so
smooth. But whatever!! Miss you all much!!

Love and Peace from the Dirty South!!!
Erandi

The Misadventures of Erandi In Mexico

Episode II: Life in SAP

Well I´m finally getting adjusted, more or less, to stuff around here. I
finally participated in that whole jaywalking thing. It was pretty cool. By
my count, I´ve been a situation where I could have been hospitalized 6 times
already!! That´s not including the times I´ve drank unbottled water or used
a public restroom. As it turns out, the most popular thing to do here isn´t
jaywalking, but rather having sex. They both pretty much serve the same
purpose though. But I mean DAMN!!!! There are 20 million people here!!! If I
were to give everybody here a pound of Twinkies, the whole country would be
20 miilion pounds heavier. But that´s sort of a non-sequiter ( did I use and
spell that right?). The city would be all uneven and tipping, which it sort
of already is. And that´s not just becasue half of the population of Mexico
is overweight, the city is built on top of a canal system used by the
ancient Aztecs. Buildings and landscapes are all lopsided. If Dr. Suess saw
this place, that chubby guy would jiggle with delight. Or because of an
earthquake. Either way he´d be jiggling and that´d be a damn funny sight to
see. But anywho, I miss all you guys and I hope things are going well. My
love to you all. Erandi

The Misadventures of Erandi In Mexico

These e-mails are almost 4 years old, but they were fairly amusing when I was that young.

Epsisode 1: Some Stuff Happens
Well guys I´m finally in Mexico. I finally bothered to check a map as to see
where I was, and it´s pretty deep inside Mexico. If Mexico were a person, I
would be around the anus of Mexico. I say that because it´s hot, smelly,
dirty, and diseased. Just like most of our anususes (s´, sus´, I don´t know
how to spell that). The plane ride was o.k.(my first one ever), but we made
like two stops and that was a pain in the butt. I also got into and
arguement with one of the stewardesses because she wouldn´t let me open a
window even though it was hella stuffy....... jerks. When I finally got here
I went to eat with my tio Rodolfo at some Mexican Denny´s called Vips. I was
shocked by the prices ´cause I forgot that the the dollar equals about 11
pesos. I thught I was buying a burger for 65 bucks!!!! But I´m just an
idiot. The streets are flipin´crazy here, man!! Traffic laws are more like
traffice suggestions. Jay walking is like some sort of domestic sport here.
So is trying not to run them over. The whole place is so overwhelimingly
urban, which is sort of cool. Apartments are the main type of housing here
so there are no front or backyards. In fact, now that I think about it, I
don´t think I´ve seen a park or any large piece of green earth since I´ve
been here. So many people too!!! Solitude is a thing of legends around here.
You can´t really go anywhere without having someone else there with you. I´m
not going out to Paracho until next weekend, sorta dissapointed about that.
But I guess I can learn a lot here in the capital. Like corruption. Also
more shooping time. Oh wait..... I don´t really like shopping. I´ll try to
find you guys something nice though. Wel I miss all of you and I´ll write
again soon. Unless nothing interseting happens. In which case it might be a
while.