Life is a Game

I don't generally post videos as updates (Music Monday doesn't count) but this is too fascinating to not distribute. The idea that there are more people playing Farmville than are using Twitter is astonishing. A future that has 'bonus points'? Well, watch the video. I don't think the future will be as he says, the past is filled with predictions that went nowhere, but I think he's onto something all the same.


http://g4tv.com/videos/44277/DICE-2010-Design-Outside-the-Box-Presentation/

You Probably Haven't Seen One of These Before, Unless I Showed It To You Yesterday

 

I like old technology. I think it's the 'Museum' in me. I'm going to guess most of you reading this have never, ever seen one of these before. It's not a Laserdisc. It's a VideoDisc or, more accurately, it's a CED. That logo does appear on the back.

 

 

 

CED appears in small letters in the corner. This is a demo disc and was probably used in a store like Sears to display the technology. This appears to be one of the earliest such disks as it's dated 1981, the same year the players were launched.

 

This was only the third time in my life I can remember seeing this technology. I saw it on display once in a store, probably Sears. As it was only in sale between 1981 and 1986 (more or less), that dates that experience somewhat closely. After I graduated high school, somewhere around 1993 or 1994 probably, I met someone that actually still had one, and it was set up! We didn't get to play with it though. Then Monday I saw this platter at Goodwill for $2 and figured I needed to snag it. 

The platter is a thin cartridge from the outside.

 

 

I don't have a picture of the disc inside as I'm not sure how to open it without breaking it. I had to look it up to remember how it worked as it's been years since I read about it. Wikipedia has a picture of an open one so I'll link to it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CED_player

For those of you who don't want to spend time reading all that, inside it's a record! It's essentially a large LP that can play back video and audio as a stylus reads it.

How wild is that?

LaserDiscs were already appearing at the same time and they were a better, if more expensive, experience. Between VHS and LaserDisc, there was no room in the market for these CEDs and that's why they died out so fast.

Still, it looks neat.

Music Monday - Guided by Voices

Ladies and Gentlemen! Children of Most Ages! It's Guided by Voices!



The Guided by Voices story is a simple one, a familiar one if you will: a bunch of guys from Ohio got together to be in a band, lead by fourth grade school teacher Robert Pollard. Following in the footsteps of their musical heroes, this ever changing group sought to make music, even if their early efforts were recorded in their basement. This is one of those earlier, less polished sounding songs.



But Lo! Their indy qualities were perfect for the mid-1990s and they were seen as being at the forefront of the 'low-fi' scene. Did production money destroy their sound? Presumably you already watched 'Bulldog Skin' from that later period, but see how this sounds to you.



Live even! I saw them live once at Summerfest. It was the afternoon of a sunny day. Maybe. I don't remember the weather, I just remembered enjoying the show. It was early yet so they weren't drunk yet. Rock stars like to drink I guess and by this point the guys were Rock Stars.

So of course a year or so after I saw them, they broke up. 2004 was the end of the band named Guided by Voices but since the mainstay of the band was always lead singer Robert Pollard, it's hard to say the band is really gone.  Bob still makes music and it sounds pretty much the same as it always did: catchy as hell.