Being Banal (Banana)

I feel like writing today, but I don’t really have anything burning on my mind. I’m a real airhead. However, what might be enjoyable would be to write a list of points about things that are enjoyable and interesting. Maybe even intruiging. Hamm.

1. Video games that I like
First and foremost, wing commander. Observe:

Breaking Free from sprite imaging. Wing Commander: ARMADA (featuring me about to roast a kitty)

Angel, your awesome belgian pal from WC1 (by WC3 you're dating her)

WING COMMANDER 3 HAD FULL MOTION VIDEO (nothing suss)

I love these games to tears because they’re so very immersive. The whole point of them was to take you along on a white-knuckle ride through a distant future, where giant spacefaring cats (the empire of Kilrah) insist on trying to destroy us all (hence the object of the game is to fly around destroying them, how delightfully black and white).

I freely acknowledge that the premise is harebrained and borrows heavily from most sci-fi TV series and movies of the time, but that’s beside the point. In these games, you get to fly around dispatching the enemy yourself, then come back to the carrier and listen to the barman giving you tactics advice while you’re trying to flirt with the mechanic. It’s vicarious living at it’s lighthearted best.

The only problem is, when you’re not busy with onboard intruigue, the game itself, that is the flying and lasering bit, is really quite hard. I’m slowly getting better at it but it’s a lot of rough and tumble. One of the great things about the wing commander games is that you always fly in pairs. Your wingman is usually better at attacking enemies and saving your skin than you are!

Also, in Wing commander 3, you play as Mark Hamill! And the hot ship’s mechanic is played by Ginger Allen. Fans are still compulsively re-arranging the game’s cutscenes into a feature film. Awesome.

I haven’t played WC4 yet- Strange that WC3 should be so easy to find anywhere secondhand games are sold but WC4 almosr unheard of. Someone promised me they’d give it to me for my nineteenth birthday, but I think it turned out to be too much bother. If anyone wants to give me a gift at some point, that’d be cool!

As a review, this had been a bit confused, but anyway. These games are really enjoyable, and I’m sad the company that made them has gone bust.

Oh and, Katamari is a great console game. A lot of fun to play with a pal. I played it last night on a friend’s PS2 and it was cool.

2. Blah Blah Housework

It’s almost time for me to vacuum the floors and mop them. Two days ago I was visiting a friend and we cleaned up the kitchen together after dinner and I realised it was quite enjoyable in company. I get annoyed having to clean the floors here though, by myself with the stupid loud vacuum. It’s boring. It’s also almost time to do the dishes.

3. Reading

I just finished reading all the stories in burning chrome, a collection of William Gibson’s short stories. Not being much of a literary critic, I struggle to explain why I like them, and the way they are written, but here goes.
I hate to use tags like ‘cyberpunk’ because once you put SF or anything really in a narrow slot like that there’s no escape. Copycats flock to pigeonholes like ‘cyberpunk’ and ’steampunk’, producing a work that conforms to a bizzarely rigid style for a genre as imaginative as Science Fiction.

you very pretty, yes

But I digress. I liked Burning Chrome because the stories somehow tread the line between adventure stories and examinations of characters and setting. It works, somehow. I can’t enjoy most of the ‘wow, postapocalypse/dystopia/war’ novels I find in the library, because they’re so damn overwrought, or dull. What can I say, I’m a picky reader. Anyway, I like Gibson’s style because it’s the future as told by the people of the future. It doesn’t stop to whinge over teenagers having thier eyes surgically replaced with cameras and computer programs that roast people trying to hack into them because that’s part of the everyday. It’s nice to read about people getting on with thier lives, I guess.

okay forget what I said about being a picky reader

I also just finished reading ‘take it like a man, an autobiography’ by Boy George and Spencer Bright. It was quite an enjoyable read. I read it with a curious mixture of envy and releif- I wish I’d been able to sneak into a Bowie concert when I was 11, I wouldn’t mind becoming famous for singing and dressing strangely, but I’m glad I haven’t been addicted to heroin, and involved in a  long term relationship where my lover and I have punch-ups on a regular basis. Being rich would be cool though.

Next I shall read ‘Everything is illuminated’ by Johnathan Safran Foer, because Clare said it was good. Her word is good on such things.

4. Chewing gum

I like to chew gum. I like to try all the different flavours. I especially like cinnamon chewing gum, but I so rarely find it in shops, even candy-specific shops.

5.Conclusion

Well, that’s that out of my system. I hope you have enjoyed this (and are now inspired to download wing commander games) and will be back soon.

Comment, lest I be made to feel unloved

Tags: Armada, Books, Boy George, Chewing gum, Ginger Allen, Katamari, Mark Hamill, Science fiction, video games, William Gibson, wing commander