As much as I’d love to own a couple of these Atari candle holders, it appears that they are not on general sale. It’s such a brilliant, simple idea that I hope someone else jumps on the bandwagon and mass-produces them, if Mixko, the original designers, don’t get their act together and do it first.
It’s just plain enough to be able to fit in the living-room as a functional object d’art, but nerdcore enough to inspire awe in anyone (interested in games) who takes a closer look.
Manager Expresses Hope
Despite today’s 5-1 defeat at the hands of current league leaders, Namslag, Wolves’ manager remains optimistic.
“Our centre-forward, Perek, scored an important goal, our first of the season. We are obviously doing something right. Nobody expected us to win today, and I believe the change in line-up is already beginning to reap rewards.”
Kazimierz Perek was celebrating his first goal of the season, but was less emphatic. “The ball hit my head and it went in the back of the net”.
New Manager Starts Restructure
This evening saw the purchase of Danish veteran, Knud-Erik Thorup, in a bid to strengthen Stockholm Wolves’ lackluster defense.
“There is much to do to make Stockholm Wolves a contender for promotion. Whilst it is late in the season, we felt it important to give the team a boost to encourage the support we so desperately need,” said Wolves manager at a press conference tonight. “We have few players to fill the wingback position, and Knud-Erik has the necessary experience.”
At the moment it is quite fashionable to put on concerts with a live orchestra and play music from videogames old and new. Actually, I wouldn’t say fashionable, more that there are two different tours currently making their way across America and Europe. One is “Video Games Live” who, according to their website, are scheduled to play Sweden sometime this year, and the other is “Play! A videogame symphony“, who played in Stockholm this afternoon. Jo and I were there.
The public was made up of a large amount of gamers, along with a sprinkling of normal concert goers. I have no idea what they (or for that matter the orchestra) thought of the event. Some of the pieces are taken from modern games that are already orchestrated, so I can imagine it’s not so different; however, the retro pieces/melodies are, because of the audio limits of the time, a different kettle of fish. I wondered a few times throughout the concert if the orchestra members were bored because of the (assumed) simplicity of the songs. Arne Roth, the director, did say that the Mario Theme was one of the trickiest to perform, so perhaps it is not at the case.
I enjoyed the whole concert immensely; not only to be presented with game music in a way my ears are not accustomed to, but the surreality of it all. It felt wonderful to be surrounded by folk who have chosen to be a part of geekdom for a few hours on a Saturday afternoon.
Whilst we were there Freya was spending the afternoon with Jack. When she woke up in the morning she was pretty much ready to go, standing around with her bag full of toys to take with her. When we eventually did go (the wait must have seemed like an eternity) she had absolutely no problem with our leaving her. We hadn’t expected her to, but she almost seemed happy to be rid of us.
We had planned to pick up Freya after the concert and go home to an important football match, Denmark vs Sweden. On our arrival we were asked by Mark and Sara if we were hungry (always a yes, at that moment incredibly so). We accepted the offer of food and ended up staying a further 3 hours or so, enjoying their company fully.
Freya was very sad when we got ready to leave, wanting to stay over. It’s fantastic to know that Freya has such a friendship with Jack, and opens up the possibility of a safe haven for Freya in the future, when we go off to do similar “adult” things.
New Owner
The recent change of ownership to Stockholm Wolves has seen an expected turmoil that has amounted to three consecutive losses. Whilst fans are debating the change, management is working hard to get to grips with the club.
Attempts at acquiring new players is currently underway, with the hopes of bringing a few seasoned faces to an eager, though inexperienced, team.
Relegation looks likely, but the boss says “give us time and we’ll turn around the team”.
At present I have 112 members in my supporters club, so the aforementioned debate was probably more like a chat with tea and biscuits.