This post is a video game idea.

OUTSIDE

 

INSIDE

ACT ONE:
You are on your merry way to Boston city hall to pay up for enormous fines regarding parking tickets, minor infractions, other behaviors you're being charged for. You're kind of a sensational person but that's only because you think life is a bit absurd, and you just can't get away with shit. Angry and irrational, you're cursing, spilling coffee, snapping at people, while walking up gratuitous stairwells to the main entrance. Breath a sigh...

You walk into the building--inside is a convoluted geometric nightmare. Not only are there multiple departments with similar names, but they are physically demanding to get to. Adding insult to injury, the space inside the building is obviously larger then the building outside. A clear distortion of reality, which really unnerves you.

ACT TWO:
The goal of the game is to pay these stupid fines. But every office has the same words in their names mixed around with different suffixes thrown in. On top of that, they give you forms which are incomprehensible and send you back and forth through the obstacle course of stairs, corridors, ambiguous offices, not to mention the many departments.

Attempt to achieve this insurmountable task before your temper goes, otherwise you'll be politely ordered to calm down and start the filing process over because you have caused a disruption, and that is unfair to the other people in line. Who aren't there. I'm being serious. A little bureaucratic humor mixed in with adventure and plat-former elements. It's like Mario except he's been fined for plumbing without a license.

I love you

Hamid Karzai is a fascinating character.

I listen to the news, probably too often. One day I might hear about the scandal and controversy surrounding this person.  I hear how his brother was involved in the drug trade moving opium, another day I hear his brother is killed and as the casket is prepared for burial, he dives in weeping; it takes scores of people to remove him. I hear how he once supported the initial Taliban ideal only to come to a conclusion in line with Ahmad Shah Massoud and the northern alliance. I hear how he is surrounded by corruption, and seemingly uncorrupted himself. How I would love, to sit and ask him all about it.

It's the conflict and aura that attract my attention. I know nothing about him in reality, only reflections of him delivered through media. But something compelling endures that translation, or is it a transliteration in some cases? There are so many events and ideas that surround his existence, that draw the attention of the world--It seems as though he is to be written off as a liability particularly where American politics are concerned, though he obviously possesses an understanding that trumps and theater produced for and perceived by most domestic audiences.

But theater is exactly what draws me to this character. It is such a good story. Imagine a film that captures his persona against the context of the chaos surrounding him. He has these particular flaws, that add so much texture to the story. I once heard that Karl Eikenberry or someone in the embassy staff said that Karzai was off his meds. Who would know what to think of their medication if they were the mayor of Kabul? There's a great fucking story here...

Disintigration loops live was bad

Compare the original to the anniversary performance

Where is the disintegration in this orchestra? Horn stops and bells don't have the flavor of a decaying tape loop. I thought for sure they had conjured some brilliant execution of the piece. All the musical technology in the world is readily available but somehow a glockenspiel is deemed more representative of the source material? Why didn't anyone try crushing the sound up a little bit? It could've been more interesting with a little more creativity in the instrumentation, like doubling the size of the orchestra and having each performer play softer dynamics. Or have the instruments prepared to give them different tonal qualities. How about no glockenspiel. Each performer could create a disfigured tape loop of their part, and play all the loops simultaneously. They could even have the orchestra play along with the loops.

The idea that the Disintegration Loops would be played live seemed promising. But now that I think about it, there was something off about it, it seems more like marketing the emotional impact; 'It's 9/11 so now feel this: original.' But I probably would have liked it anyway if it had been done differently...