Air Guitar Nation
After our "high energy" presentation, the questions were even strangerSomeone asked why humanities research got left out, and we had to say that we couldn't find it to be directly relevant on our top 10 list of bulleted pointsIan made the point, and I agreed, that doing the research for this panel made us think differently about academic researchWhile I'm not going to say that what we've done personally has no value, it was a definite challenge to try and make it *directly relevant* in a BULLETED POINT for developersAnd there are huge gaps in what we don't knowWhere is the research about sports games, to take just one example? Anyway, the point is, I enjoyed the exercise, and learned a lot from itI hope the audience did as well
But overall, I like to think that the attendance demonstrates that developers are interested in what academics might be able to tell them (again I will point out: no fruit was thrown)And all week, I talked with developers who were interested in what was going on with research, from the smallest to the largest companiesMaybe the issue is the "larger" communityIt's always easy to abstract and oversimplify at that levelBut I know that on an individual level, there are real conversations and collaborations going onI don't want this to turn into some rosy "it's better than we think" or "can't we all just get along" thing, but I do think that perhaps the situation is not as dire as it's hyped to beBut then again, I haven't gotte my evals back yet
You can Buy SWG Credits, a professional, loyal and reliable Final Fantasy XI Gil exchange corporation work groupWe are fairly confident that, in fact, Bob Moore is the brains behind the operation (Bob, if you're reading this, give me a call)But since we were uncertain about who was responsible for all the good work, we decided to grab as many of them as we couldEspecially those who, like Eric, are big fans of Jane Austen, have spent years living in Southeast Asia, and who hold the conviction that every American 13 year old should be packed off to live with a Third World family for a yearEric is particularly interested in quantititative methodologies of research in MMOGs
Air Guitar Nation Reviews
A battle of naked ambition played out on the national and world stage, AIR GUITAR NATION chronicles the birth of the US Air Guitar Championships as legions of aspiring rock stars compete to become the greatest air guitarist in the worldTwo would-be rock legends emerge and strum their way towards glory and the coveted national titleSamurai warrior CDiddy emerges as an early favorite, but his arch nemesis Björn Türoque is not far behindWill Björn s technical prowess, attitude, and airness be enough to take him to the top, or will CDiddy conquer all to become America s first supreme being of air guitar?
OVER 60 Minutes of Bonuses Including: Behind-the-Scenes Footage; Additional Air Guitar Performances; Where Are They Now Updates; Deleted Scenes; Theatrical Trailer; 5.1 Surround Sound; And More!
Is it a sport? A game? An artform? It may be hard to define, but it's easy to see that air guitar is a lot of fun and immensely entertaining, and so is director Alexandra Lipsitz's Air Guitar Nation, an utterly charming documentary about the young men (and a few women) who in 2003 competed both at home and abroad to determine whose "airness" would ruleHaving visited Finland, the longtime home of the World Championship finale (who knew?), the previous year to check out the scene, Kriston Rucker and Cedric Devitt realized that no Americans were included, so they organized the first U.S., er, air-off in New YorkIt's there that we meet guys who are restaurant managers, software developers, budget analysts, and such in daily life, but who assume names like Air Raid, Krye Tuff, and The Shred when they hit the stage and perform to the music of Motorhead, Judas Priest, Steve Vai, and others while the crowd goes nuts (judges include Tom Morello, who plays real guitar for Rage Against the Machine)Two stars emerge from the pack--David "C-Diddy" Jung (an Exeter-educated actor whose immigrant parents wanted him to be a doctor or lawyer) and Dan "Bjorn Turoque" Crane ("to err is human, but to air guitar is divine")--and we follow them as they head to Oulu, Finland, to take on competitors from all over the globe (more than one of them compares the event to the Olympics)They must first endure Air Guitar Boot Camp, with lessons in "Air Guitar and Groupies" and "Maintaining Your Instrument," but the film takes off when it gets to the competition itself; the performances, all of them about a minute long, are an absolute riot, with all the laughs (intended and otherwise), macho grimacing, and showy moves used by real heavy metal axe-grindersBut while these are basically young folks having a good time, most see air guitar as something, well, transcendent"It's instant meditation," says one"It's about freedom to be yourself," adds another"I'm going to out-weird the world," says C-DiddyAbout 40 minutes of bonus material includes deleted scenes and additional performances--Sam Graham