The Boy Who Flew: A Piece on Michael Jackson

There's a famous story in Greek folklore about a father and son named Daedalus and Icarus. They were imprisoned by King Minos and kept in a tower on the island of Crete. Fortunately, Daedalus was a skilled craftsman and created wings for both of them to escape from the tower out of wax and feathers. As they escaped using the wings, Icarus wanted to fly as high as he could to be with the gods. Despite his father's warning, he flew higher and higher until the wax melted. With nothing to hold the feathers, the wings gave way and he fell to his death.

I'm reminded of this story because when the news of Michael Jackson's death first broke, I realized the parallel between his life and that story. With a few but vital and sad differences.

Michael was imprisoned in such a tower; created by his own mind and kept there by his father who was not a Daedalus but a King Minos. So with Michael acting as both Daedalus and Icarus, he fashioned wings for himself to escape this prison. However, these were no ordinary wings made of wax and feathers. They were created out of his talent. His passionate vocal, his keen songwriting, his powerful dancing and his boundless creative spirit. With these wings, he flew into the clear blue sky.

As he went higher and higher, many others started to exploit all of the cracks in his armor from the damage inflicted on being in the tower. With this fear, he became scared to land, so he continued to fly higher and higher. Unfortunately, for all of his talent and wealth, he could only fly so high. So on June 25, 2009, his wings, just like Icarus', gave way and he fell.

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When I was 7-9, I was a Michael Jackson freak. I listened to him obsessively, emulated his dance moves and saw him as a hero. This, like many of the musical phases of my life, passed me by. However, when I heard he had died, it all came back.

He brought so much to this world despite all of the bull that happened to him or that he brought to himself.

He will be missed.

The Compliment: A Story

The concept of the compliment is pretty easy to explain. It's usually given to someone you care about that deserves praise or accolades for doing something ordinary in an extraordinary way. In the case of the performer (actor, musician or otherwise), most of them are short and straightforward, like "you're awesome", "you rule", "you're incredible" or perhaps simply "I like you... I like you, a lot". Though I wonder, have you ever truly paid someone a compliment? I mean, the ones that go deeper than the ones you see above. The kind of compliments where you communicate a sense of understanding and deep appreciation, for both their presence in pieces of work that you love and their dedication to their talent. In doing so, you honor the person you are complimenting and yourself.

To that end, let me tell you a story. I went to Ohayocon 2009 about two months ago. It was the first anime convention I ever went to and, as expected, it was rather crazy. In the middle of this madness, I was on a mission which involved an actor named Caitlin Glass. Caitlin Glass is a lovely and talented voice actor/director who mostly works for Funimation Entertainment as well as some occasional ADV Films projects. Although I hadn't seen her in very many things yet, she had already captured my attention from her performance as Winry Rockbell, in the anime "Fullmetal Alchemist". I knew that if she was at this convention, I was going to give her my regards if it was the last thing I would do.

So at 5:30 PM, I arrived at her "Ask Caitlin Glass" panel, ready and waiting. She was a little late and flustered when she arrived, notifying us that due to poor scheduling the panel had to be shorter than most voice actor panels. For you see, she had to attend the "Ouran High School Host Club" panel, an anime which she directs and plays the lead character, Haruhi Fujioka. After waiting for several people to get in their questions first, I was ready to give it my all. I knew that in the spirit of the panel being shorter, I had to be as hasty as I could. I raised my hand and after one other question, I was called.

I shall recount what I said the best I can, as well as add some annotations that I didn't get to say.

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I have a tremendous affinity for voice actors. Voice acting, to me, harkens to two things. One is silent acting, which is essentially the inverse of voice acting; where the actor shows their entire history and emotional complexity from the look in their eyes and the expression on their face. Whereas in voice acting you bring out the history and complexity through the way you speak a line. On that level, the other thing voice acting harkens to is singing, which deals in the same principle. There is a sense of sincerity in the way you sing or the way you speak if done well. To that effect, I want to tell you when I fell in love with you as an actor. In "Fullmetal Alchemist" you play Winry and there is a specific scene that stuck with me. I don't know if you remember this or not. It's in episode 26 (Her Reason) and it's the scene where Winry is sitting in a hotel room with Ed (Edward Elric) after she had just repaired his automail. She asks him whether or not he can come back to Resembool (the respective hometown to both of them) to see if she can update her work on him some more. He thinks for a second and decides not to do it, he'll pass for now. After this answer she bows her head in sadness and she says quietly, "Haven't you been satisfied with my automail, Ed?" When you say that line, you say everything. You are emotionally pure and open in this moment. The question itself is not about whether her work is good or not, it's more about the hurt you feel for him and his brother Alphonse, and the loneliness you feel without them. These are two people who lost their mother and are continuing their lives as if they are the only family they have; but you've always seen these two as your family along with your grandmother, Pinako. You want to take care of them, give them a home and relieve them of their hurt as well as your own; you want to help but they either refuse or don't listen, especially Ed. You have a deep love for them and you hurt with them, but you're still faraway yet so close to them. Only a great actor can show that much emotional depth by doing so little. So I have the utmost respect and honor for you because of that.

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As I said these words, which I had spoken in my head many times leading up to this, I was looking at her. She was visibly moved by what I said and soon after my finished she agreed with what I said and started talking about how personal it was to play Winry. At that moment, I felt so accomplished. I had given someone I respected something really personal. At that moment the dichotomy wasn't performer and fan, it was a level of mutual honor between two different but similar individuals. It was beautiful. I later received an autograph and a picture from her while I told her about how these words were one of the main reasons I came to the convention in the first place. This knowledge made my words move her even more.

This experience is exactly what a compliment should entail. A moment where you let someone you like know that you were given something so special from the simple words of a performer, courtesy of their talent and their acute awareness of humanity.

Thanks, Caitlin.

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Oh, I almost forgot to mention, she's a beautiful singer, too.

(Yours Truly & Caitlin with Haruhi Fujioka wig)

An Open Letter to Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw

Dear Ben... no that's too obvious...

Yahtzee, you god-like excelsior,

As we near the one-year anniversary of you posting Zero Punctuation on both YouTube and The Escapist, I would just like to thank you for causing a mini-revolution in gaming criticism and entertaining the heck out of me and many others.

I'll admit it now, I'm not a regular gamer, (I'm mostly into music and film), nor do I actually have a system of my own (unless you consider PC a game system, which you do). My best friend, however, is a very ardent and passionate gamer and he introduced me to your videos through your "Grand Theft Auto IV" review which I watched on Memorial Day 2008. I've been a fan ever since, and I've even helped some of my family and friends to become fans of yours as well.

How did I become a fan if I'm not a true gamer? Well, let's figure it out. For starters, I love the visual style of your pieces. Your little avatar figures, including yourself (with your awesome, pimpin' hat) and your little cat-like imp creature run around the screen with inspired anarchy. They've flown helicopters, brandished chainsaws, gone to prison and blown up, just to name a few of their adventures. You use so much of your unadorned blue and yellow backgrounds with just simple graphics and text that it never becomes visual radio. There's always something going on and it comes so fast and furiously that you could watch it multiple times and still find something you never noticed the last time.

Besides the visuals, I love your voice, darn it! As an American, British voices are always really fascinating. Even words that I've heard my entire life are more lively when you say them, most notably "stupid." Also, considering that you talk really fast it gives me a more interesting challenge to memorize what you are saying. For you see, I love memorizing quotes and yours have been some of the most fun to memorize and speak. Both the visuals and your voice appeal to that eternal kid in me that will never die. Much like that kid part in you that still loves finding fun in video games.

Aside from the videos themselves, I really admire your style of criticism. You remind me of the late Pauline Kael, who was a respected film critic for many years. She was a tough cookie who was not easily impressed and was not afraid to call a film out to the mat. She was in a minority with her negativity towards such films as "West Side Story," the Holocaust-themed documentary "Shoah," and one of film's sacred cows, "It's a Wonderful Life." She also didn't lie down from a fight; she fought with other respected critics like Andrew Sarris and filmmaker/author Peter Bogdonovich. What distances me from her is that she's a bit too cruel and serious, even though I've read how she was a nice person in regular life. You on the other hand, even though you can be just as cruel, you have a sense of humor. Even when you're ragging on about "Halo," "Zelda" or gaming webcomics, people will still got a kick out of your methodology. In fact, every form of criticism needs people like you and Pauline Kael, because otherwise you have people blindly loving everything that's given to them (something I have been known to do). Someone has to be the voice of stubborn reason. Also, since you are a game designer as well as a critic, no one can call you out on never having actually created a game, so you aren't entitled to review them.

I really admire your belief that games can be an art form as well. I think any form of entertainment can become an art form if people truly believe it can be one. Unfortunately, there isn't that much academia on games unlike fellow modern entertainments like books, music, movies and TV. The problem may be that there are either people who mostly put out games for the lowest common amusement or you have people like Clive Barker, Richard Garriott or Hideo Kojima who do believe in the art form of gaming but don't know how to balance between true story intelligence and smart intuitive interactive gameplay. If we can do that, we can have more games like (as you state them) "Painkiller" and "Psychonauts."

When the time comes when you feel accomplished your mission don't be afraid to end like Bill Watterson did with "Calvin and Hobbes" and I will understand. Until that day comes, I'll always be a proud and loyal fan of yours and I hope you continue to enjoy what you do. I certainly enjoy it.

Sincerely,
Recliner Man
"Arts Through the Autistic Mind"
(artsthroughautism.blogspot.com)

P.S. In all honesty, is "Fantasy World Dizzy" the best game ever made? My own personal opinion is that the best game ever is "You Don't Know Jack," period!

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The "Grand Theft Auto IV" review:


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