“OK GO” – Now there’s a band with great creative force – Especially as shown in their music videos. If you haven’t seen their recently released video for “Needing/Getting”, you really need to take a look. The gist is that the band members drive through an elaborately set course made up of instruments (actual and makeshift) and not only deliver on a great spectacle but also a catchy tune.

If you haven’t also seen their domino effect vid for “This too shall pass”, you should give that a peak.

The band has actually been around since 1998, with a debut album in 2002. Their vid for “Here it goes again” really got things rolling with their treadmill routine (While not as intricate an entertaining device as their later videos, it’s still worth a watch). I might also recommend “white Knuckle” for an interesting collaboration with dogs, and “end Love” for an especially quirky time.

Take a look and imagine what thought and planning must have gone into making those music videos. Some really great work so far. I wonder what they will come up with next.

Their New Vid for "Needing/Getting" can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MejbOFk7H6c&feature=relmfu

"White Knuckle" is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHlJODYBLKs&feature=related

and "End Love" here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2fpgpanZAw&feature=related

Band Website:
http://okgo.net/

-Josh

Remember the days where a video game would come with some quality extra content, like say a map or a poster? Those kinds of neat little physical extras are hard to come by these days...    unless of course your willing to throw down an extra 20$ + for a collector’s edition and even that kind of content is all too often weak.


What we get these days are thin, bare bones manuals and questionable downloadable content if we choose to pre-order at one place versus another. What would that have been like in video gaming's earlier days?

[ABOVE PICTURE] Pre-order The Adventure of Link from K-Mart and you get access to “pink tunic link” via a special code...  

Just last October I sprung for Dark Souls – Collector’s Edition. Why? Because it boasted a map, walkthrough, art book and music CD. “At last”, I thought, a proper throwback to when people actually seemed to care and were creative with extra content that complimented a game. But things were too good to be true, and as drop day approached, all extra content except a delicately bound art book got digitized and was made available only via download. Lame. I mean, I got the stuff, which was excellent, especially the map, but there’s something great in getting something tangible, that I can physically manipulate and use to connect with the game.

Some new games have it, but many more memorable older games had it too... and they had it standard.

Star Tropics for the Nes actually came with a letter that when you were prompted to (via an in game hint), you had to dunk in water to get a secret code to advance in the game.

Final fantasy III for the Snes came with a map and a poster

Earthbound for SNES came in a bigger box which included a very well thought out strategy guide, and some scratch and sniff cards.

What happened? Don’t be fooled by unboxing events on YouTube. More often than not these days unboxing a game for content is as uninteresting as unboxing a blu-ray disc from the store. It’s not really even unboxing. It mostly doesn’t even matter. The content is ON the disc.

It’s not enough to say that money is better spent on the game itself and digitizing is all too often a cop out.

People ought to get back to being creative about what you might package with a game. I say it really adds to the experience. What interesting extras do you remember?

-Josh

Saw movie and Silent Hill creators... "You must be twisted"...I hear this kind of thing all the time. How can the same workings of creativity and imagination be lauded in conceiving the likes of Harry Potter but be condemned in birthing say: Hellraiser? The question is worth some thought. Indeed some of the same creative mechanisms are at work, except that while one author is described as wildly imaginative or even a creative genius, the other is simply sick. In the end, it all comes down to content. It's far more comfortable to imagine J.K. Rowling losing herself in a world a wizardry then it is to entertain how Clive Barker might obsess over the gross and ghastly in his works. The truth is, creators of horror might be more well adjusted and smart than we give them credit.

Consider that horror is everywhere and is very much a part of everyone. It's in our fears, our imaginations, and hiding in our personality... Who knows what we are capable of under certain circumstances. Horror is in our heads, lurking in our minds. It is those thoughts we dare not say out loud, are embarrassed about or try to ignore. It's part of us... and it's O.K. Most of us can keep those little bits in check. It's what makes us human.

Sometimes writers ask questions. Instead of asking, what would be wonderful? Or what would be romantic? A horror writer might ask, what would be scary? And expands on that question or related idea. Sometimes the direction of a story can take a writer to a dark and frightening place, urging them to face something that terrifies them.... The very same things that terrify us... As consumers of horror - chasing a good scare - how can we condemn a writer for exploring subject matter we then elect to explore for ourselves after they have charted the course for us?

To those who are turned off completely to the sick and twisted realm of horror, consider this: that horror can be smart.

To quote Clive Barker:

"We fear death and dismemberment, we fear pain, insanity and loss, we even fear sexuality, and it's only by addressing these fears that we avoid living in a state of constant trepidation. Horror can speak of such things in a way that a more realistic or naturalistic genre can't.

Horror is a leap of faith and imagination in a world where the subconscious holds domination; a call to enter a territory where no image or act is so damnable it cannot be explored, kissed and courted; finally - why whisper it? - embraced."

To be sure, there are many entries in the genre that have more to do with being shocking, gross or offensive as an objective. In many of those cases it's intentional and designed to draw consumers... because we eat that stuff up! For example, the wild ways in which characters die in the Final Destination franchise aren't likely a result of some sick mind in constant thought of horrible deaths - its driven by box office motivation to deliver on " how can we top ourselves now?", "How can we gross them out more?" Because it equals dollars.

That's not to say there aren't those who aren't truly disturbed or tormented by living nightmares... it's just that, creators of horror aren't often times that. No, to put rightly, many are the "imaginative" and "creative"... same as those other authors of different genres in whom many of us more readily bestow the encouragement and prestige of those kind words.

 - Josh