Crime is Pride

Think: all men make mistakes

But a good man yeilds when he

Knows his course is wrong,

And repairs the evil: The only

Crime is pride.



The Greek playwright of Sophocles wrote these immortal words within Antigone. Before I get into whether or not this statement has actual validity or not, let's analyze this quote. I think we can all agree that men make mistakes. The quote notes that even though this is true, it only matters what is done to make up for those mistakes. The only crime is having too much pride to admit that what you've done is wrong.

 

Now, as for the validity of this statement, I believe that it carries some weight to it, but isn't entirely correct. Sophocles seems to impress upon his readers that no matter what has been done it can be fixed by what the perpetrator does to correct it. In this regards, I don't agree with what he says in this quote. Regardless of what is done to correct a wrongdoing, there are still repercussions to one's actions. For instance, take a common thief stealing a simple lighter. If they get caught, they will face the authority of the law. If they are successful, however, there have been cases where they return to the clerk and admit their crime. While their actions redeem them of their action of stealing, they still must deal with the possible punishment that the clerk chooses to bestow upon the perpetrator.

However, while the above may be true, I think the statement made by Sophocles also has a sort of validity to it in one aspect. While people should still face the consequences of their actions, there is a sense of salvation in attempting to correct any harm done to anyone or anything. To revisit the anecdote of the clerk and the thief, he showed honesty and courage by telling the clerk that he took and admitted it was wrong to do so. By doing this, he still has to face the person he stole from and, by apologizing, may have lessened his punishment by doing so, demonstrating that there is some redemption depending on how one handles the situation.

My dad always told me that it's not what you do to mess up, it's what you do to fix it. And being a man is having the courage to deal with the consequences of your actions. I'd like to offer this as a counter-quote to dear Mister Sophocles, for there is little that can be fully redeemed by undoing what has already been done.

I Wish I Had a Portal Gun

Perhaps one of the most unconventional genres of games are puzzle games. From the classics such as solitaire and Minesweeper to more recent developments like Bejeweled, people of all kinds and all ages partake in the occasional puzzle game from time to time. However, a gaming franchise has taken the notion of a puzzle game to an entirely new level. Valve Corporation, company known for games such as the Team Fortress and Half-Life franchises and their content delivery service, Steam, developed a game that revolutionized the meaning of a puzzle game with the Portal series.

In Portal, the primary objective of the game was to navigate your way through the Aperture Science Enrichment Center designed by an artificial intelligence known as GLaDOS. To do this, you must use the Aperture Handheld Portal Device, or "portal gun" to create wormholes between two flat planes. In some cases, the only way to solve a puzzle was to carry momentum through a portal, a key game feature that was developed for the game. In the second installment, they added more features such as repulsion and propulsion gels that allow the player to jump higher and accelerate much faster respectively. They combine to make a challenging game that requires some thought as opposed to the shoot first without thought games that most first person games end up being.

The Blame Game-Football and Hockey

Many people love to watch sports in this country. Whether it be the American pastime of baseball or the ridiculous notion of curling, everyone has their preference, or lack thereof, towards sports. But when it comes right down to it, there are certain things that tend to occur within teams that deal with victory and loss conditions. In many cases, there is a primary focal point around one player that always seems to take the fall. In golf, it is typically the player (or the wind if you're a dishonest golf player). In baseball, it may be the outfielder that misses the game-ending catch. But the two sports that have the most black and white, clear cut player that get blamed the most are football and hockey.

In football, the star player of any team is almost always the quarterback. They have to make the right move, keep track of the plays and make the right call as to which option is the best. Not to mention they have to throw the ball to their receiver with enough precision that they can hit their mark and not turn it into an interception for the other team. These are the players in football who, I believe, receive the largest portion of the blame even if it's not entirely their fault. I've seen games where people blamed the quarterback for a bad throw when, quite honestly, the receiver was a high enough caliber player he could've caught it no problem. But he didn't and the quarterback is blamed for the mistake that was made by his teammate. Now, don't get me wrong there are definitive times when the quarterback is at fault for a bad play, but in general they get blamed way too often for a teams success.

Goalies are another great example, being victims of the "blame game." No doubt a good hockey team needs a good goalie in order to be successful, just like football with their quarterback. However, just like football, it's not all about the one player, it's also about the team overall. While a good goalie can make or break a team, sometimes they get too much credit or, in some cases, not enough credit. For instance, the other day in a Penguins game, they lost to the eighth seeded team, the Islanders, in the playoffs four to three. Two of the goals were made, not because Fleury wasn't good enough, but because of the skill of the two players that scored. the game-winning goal was scored on a fluke, yet Marc-Andre Fleury will still be blamed for the ersatz goal.

I Hate Tanks (The Zombie Kind)

Perhaps one of my favorite games is Left 4 Dead. The game is based around four heroes fighting off the zombie hordes, or infected as they are called, in a sort of post-apocalyptic world. Bill, the unofficial leader, is an older man in his fifties or sixties and relies on his skills in the US Special Forces in Vietnam to survive. Opposite him is Francis, the rebellious biker covered in tattoos revealing him to belong to the biker gang "Hell's Legion." Behind him is Louis, a junior systems analyst in the IT department of his company. And last but not least, Zoey, the freshman in college working in filmmaking. Each of them have different relationships with one another that can help or hinder their survival in a number of ways and help them defeat the infected.

In addition to different characters with individual traits, there are also various types of infected called special infected. Each one has mutated differently from the common infected, thus giving them certain abilities others don't. The boomer can vomit bile onto a target, attracting infected and temporarily blinding them. It also emits this when killed, causing an eruption of it within a small radius. Hunters are the opposite, being very small and nimble, capable of pouncing on survivors and pinning them to the ground until knocked off or killed. One of the more disgusting types is the smoker, who strangles its victims with its incredibly long tongue. Then there's the tank; a virtual Hulk of a zombie minus the radiation and regenerative properties. But perhaps the most dangerous and unassuming of them all is the witch. These thin little women sit crying and moaning but once provoked can incapacitate the survivors with one swipe of its long sharp claws. However, none of these infected, including the common type, should be underestimated.

Due to the success of the first one, they made a second, this time with a few changes. They added a new cast of characters; Coach, the PE teacher at the local high school, Ellis the mechanic, an ex-prisoner named Nick and a minor associate producer for a news station by the name of Rochelle. They also added three new special infected to add to the challenge. The charger will charge forward with an over-sized forearm and use the respective hand to grab survivors and pummel them. Jockeys will jump onto your back and attempt to ride you into packs of infected or other dangerous obstacles. One of these threats could be the product of the final special infected, the spitter, who spits a potent acid that forms into a pool on the ground. The sequel also adds several new scenarios and weapons available for use.

Brooklyn - Youngblood Brass Band

I Wanna Be a VIP in Brooklyn

If you couldn't tell by my last post, I've been on a major jazz kick lately and would like to address it. The jazz band that has captivated my attention for a while now is called the Youngblood Brass Band. It consists of two trumpets, two trombones and, albeit they are actually woodwind instruments, two saxophones. Their percussion section is actually three people with the various parts of a drum set, but not arranged into an actual set (in fact the bass drum is a marching bass drum worn on the chest). And no one who listens to them could ever forget their legendary sousaphone player Nat McIntosh who is renowned for his use of polyphonics* in a sort of beatboxing almost. They all combine in a glorious amalgamation to form one of the top New Orleans-style jazz groups. However do not be fooled as they are no jazz group.

Youngblood Brass Band incorporates several other genres of music into their style, most notably hip hop. This shows in a lot of their music, but one that exemplifies this the best is in the song "Brooklyn." As with all their songs, it has layers of sounds done by the various instruments, the musical lines erratically lining up, especially in the intro. During the verse and chorus, they use call and repeat lines and repetition between instrumental parts to drive home melodies with a constant bass line running though the sousaphone, although the trombone is the featured and most prominent voice among the band in this piece. Then comes the bridge with all instruments playing everything in unison, blasting out a virtual barrier of sound before turning the volume down for the trombone and sax solos, ending with some antics from Nat and a repeat of previous elements.

And All That Jazz

Perhaps one of the greatest styles of music is also probably one of the most underrated styles out there in the music world. Jazz music typically incorporates trumpets, trombones, saxophones of all types drums, bass and sometimes piano, guitar and vocals. Everything in jazz music seems to form together using harmonies that fit sometimes and sound dissonant at others to form a sort of controlled chaos. To quote my friend Bel, "[Jazz is] a ton of melodies bouncing off each other [with] several unique features blending to make utter glory. It can convey any feeling." The last portion of this statement is especially true, as jazz truly can express every emotion from happy to sad to angry to relaxed. But when it comes to the overall sounds that accompany jazz I separate it into four groups: jazz bands, jazz singers, jazz guitarists and swing bands.

The jazz band is the average jazz band that most people probably think of when the word "jazz" comes to mind. It is the conventional jazz band with four or five trumpets, four trombones, three altos, two tenors and a bari accompanied by drums, bass, guitar and piano. This style of band tends to focus mostly on  the instrumental aspect of their music with no words. Some of the most famous bands that made this style famous are big names like Duke Ellington, Thelonius Monk, and Count Basie, among many others. They essentially turned the music world on its edge and reinvented the way music was played.

Jazz singers are one of my personal favorites in the jazz world. Unlike many of the auto-tuned "wonders" of our musical world today, singers back then actually had to have at least something that resembled talent, especially with this style. The other thing I greatly admire about this style is the choice of words and how they convey their feelings. One image that I always like to use as an example compares how lyrics used to convey feelings compared to today. "With each word your tenderness grows, tearing my fears apart." This is how the first song goes, "The Way You Look Tonight," originally performed by Fred Astaire and covered by numerous others, including the legendary eponymous voice of Frank Sinatra. This is compared to what's now considered "genius" by some (aka mostly teenage girls), "baby, baby, baby, oooooh." See the difference? One is well thought out, conveys much more meaning in a much more meaningful way and lasts throughout the ages while the other is just "kinda catchy." Some other famous jazz singers are Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald and, more recently, Michael Buble.

Jazz guitarists are somewhat of a synecdoche as they typically also have a band accompanying them. They may not be as big as your typical jazz band (Brian Setzer Orchestra being a great example), but have some brass and/or saxophone and almost always with drums and bass.They are guitarists that play a multitude of jazz styles, typically blues or rock, but add it to accompaniment of other instruments. Some of the most influential of these would be B.B King, Jeff Beck and T-Bone Walker.

Perhaps one of the most fun are the swing bands, specifically the nineties revival era bands. These are bands that have very energetic melodies and songs that come in both major and minor keys with few slower songs. These bands have vocalists and use them extensively, but also have some members of the band sing background. With some songs they will also omit vocals for the song, but keep the energy that goes in tandem with their other music. The major three that emerged were Squirrel Nut Zippers, Cherry Poppin' Daddies and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.