Febraury 26, 2007 Ameri TELEVISION 1. “American Idol” (Tuesday), Fox. 2. “American Idol” (Wednesday), Fox. 3. “House,” Fox. 4. “Grey’s Anatomy,” ABC 5. “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” CBS. (From Nielsen Media Research) Zelda Twilight By OLVER EISLER Staff Reporter OPESOOO@PSU.EDU Twilight Princess was always intended to be the last ‘traditional’ Zelda game before the franchise took a leap into the unknown with a ground-up Wii title. The switch from Game Cube to Wii gives an aura of change, but after a few hours getting comfortable with the control scheme, you will find yourself in very familiar territory. It seems Nintendo has been listening closely to its fans, or at least that vocal contingent crying out against cel-shading, and the general direction the franchise took in the Wind Waker. As a result, Twilight Princess (TP) is a lot of things the Wind Waker wasn’t —long, taxing and ‘realistic’ for a start. It most closely resembles A Link to the Past in structure, Ocarina of Time in gameplay and Majora’s Mask in tone. It’s said to take place a hundred years after Ocarina of Time (or 99.9 years after Majora’s Mask), and the evidence is there —Castle Town, for example, is a clever riff on the Ocarina of Time version, complete with static angles and stray dogs. Even so, anyone holding their breath Bobby Steele: By JOHN FOX Staff Reporter JTFIS3@PSU.EDU Bobby Steele has more punk-cred than most of today’s poseurs who spend too much time searching for their own identities by waving meaningless flags of social issues in which they are not educated enough to explain the concepts thereof to prospective recruits. Moreover, Bobby knows who he is and where he came from. Bobby played with two of the most notorious and influential punk bands in history, the original guitarist of The Misfits, a horror-punk band started by Glenn Danzig in 1977, and The Undead, formed by Bobby in 1980. Throughout the last several years, Bobby has had to deal with his share of demons. He is currently engaged in a lawsuit with his property owner in Manhattan. He is also dealing with an imposter band recently claimed they are The Undead. There are also issues with Amazon.com selling his CD, Dawn of the Undead at an astronomical price, as well as claiming it is out of print. Amazon is refusing to remove the listing. In response to the phony band claiming to be The Undead, Bobby had this to say. “Fans are telling me it’s the worst THE CAPITAL TIMES ca's top five p FILM 1. “Ghost Rider,” Sony. 2. “Bridge to Terabithia,” Disney. 3. “Norbit,” Paramount. 4. “Music and Lyrics,” Warner Bros. 5. “Tyler Perry’s Daddy’s Little Girls,” Lionsgate. for a little Timeline love should probably stop now. TP revisits and recycles elements from previous games in the franchise, but doesn’t do much about making this story ‘fit’ in some neat illusion of sequence, the Wind waker attempted to make progress in the broader Zelda narrative by setting itself up in the far flung future as a new beginning. If anything disappoints me about TP, it is that. Rather than build on an amazing premise for genuine exploration, Twilight Princess takes a step back to give us more of the same. As for the story itself, Twilight Princess will go down as a minor work when compared to the emotional complexity of Majora’s Mask and the Wind Waker. It didn’t reach the same places for me. Still, I have to give them credit —this is NOT about the Triforce. TP tells the story of Midna, and how her destiny becomes intertwined with that of Hyrule. It gives a predictable formula of a pinch of spice, so in its familiarity it feels somewhat fresh. Think of it as Ocarina of Time, if it were about the Skull Kid—epic and intimate at the same time. And that’s not to say there aren’t some beautiful, unexpected moments that hit me where I lived— |ust that the main narrative thing they ever heard, and if anyone buys that one first - they’ll think we suck. That case is almost settled - the Trademark Office has already decided in my favor, but the other guy has a few more days to file an appeal, which I’d welcome. I’d like to see it go to court and get to the bottom of it. He turned up at the same time Joey Image was drumming for The Undead and we were getting huge press in Europe. It’s sidelined me for a few years, but now I’m getting ready to pull out the big guns.” This brings us to the topic of The Misfits, Jerry Only’s lengthy lawsuit over the rights to the bands music and likeness. Although Bobby is compensated very well for his work with The Misfits, he still is not receiving the entire sums that are due to him. “Yeah, said Bobby. “However, that was only for Legacy of Brutality and Collection One , which was only a total of about eight tracks, so I figured he screwed me out of about $30,000.00 max. It was after The Misfits Box Set that I got screwed out of close to a quarter-million dollars by Jerry.” In addition to Collection One and the Box Set, Bobby performed on some of the oldest and most sought after 45s from back in the day. "That gets too complicated for me CONCERTTOURS 1. Bob Seger St The Silver Bullet Band. 2. Aerosmith / Motley Crue, 3. The Who. 4, High School Musical. 5. Dixie Chicks. (From Pollster) Princess last traditional game drive didn’t live up to my hopes for it. But what TP may lack in narrative, it more than makes up for in variety and presentation. I took the most direct route 1 could find through the game, eschewing much side-quest meandering, and clocked in at just over forty hours. Twilight Princess doesn’t give you the option of saving your file for another play through, so where you save as you’re approaching the endgame is where you’ll end up after you beat it (or at least that’s how it seems —if someone else played differently, let us know). 1 saved at the entrance to the final obstacle, so after defeating the Big Bad I was plunked back down in front of a dungeon that the game didn’t remember I completed. No skin off my nose —pretty much every area of TP is a joy to play. And it gave me the option of turning back to Hyrule proper to take in all the sights I was too busy to see before. I’m going to stay a while. There’s still so much to do (for example, I didn’t even discover the fishing hole until after 1 beat the game). Nintendo’s A Team has brought us a world teaming with content, and 1 am eager to get the most from it. That from Misfit to Undead to go into,” said Bobby. “As far as individual songs, it is hard to remember which ones I played on and which ones Doyle played on. As far as the 455, that are now highly sought after and rare collector items, 1 played on the Horror Business, Night of the Living Dead, 3 Hits and Halloween. I am also on 35 of the Box Set tracks.” Bobby briefly talked about how Jerry kept Glenn in court for years over the rights for Jerry to reform The Misfits. “First, let me set the record straight,” said Bobby. “Glenn started The Misfits. The original bass player was a girl named Diane, who looked like Marilyn Monroe. Jerry came along later. Since Jerry’s whole case was based on a lie, it took a long time to bring the lie to fruition. Jerry is so adverse to the truth that he couldn’t even tell the truth if it were to his advantage, which he has done.” Bobby is none too pleased about the outcome of the case and the reformation of the ‘New’ Misfits. “It’s total sh**,” said Bobby. “It amazes me that so-called punks claim to be so f**king mentally superior, and spout all this self-righteous Leftist bullsh** on politics, but then they fall for Jerry’s scam.” As far as the genesis of how Bobby joined The Misfits, he said that he ran an ad in The Aquarian, a famous DVD SALES 1. “Cinderella III: A Twist in Time,” Walt Disney Home Entertainment. 2. “Flags of Our Fathers,” Dream Works Home Entertainment 3. “Open Season,” Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. 4. “Flicka,” 20th Century Fox, 5. “The Grudge 2,” Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, (From Billboard magazine) alone puts TP in my top tier of All Time Greats. It is a game of volume. You have to fetch, joust, fly, float, ride, wrestle, protect, attack, swim, climb, detonate and participate in community fund-raising for starters. That doesn’t account for the variety of new items; some of which you’ll discover by happy accident; many of which go down without question as my series favorites. The franchise affection for ‘transformation’ is put to good use in the wolf mechanic —being a wolf felt very ‘wolf-y’ to me, although not as complete an experience as being a seagull in the Wind Waker. The quest is divided into two main sections, and gets increasingly broad the deeper you go. Twilight Princess acts as a master class in How to Build a Game Epic. For the first leg, your attention is localized in the Southern and Central provinces of Hyrule. Each success opens more of the map, brings more characters into play, and gives you greater opportunity to explore and a ton of new ways to do it. By then end, 1 was left feeling a little breathless that all the varied experiences belonged to the same game. While much has been made of its somewhat ‘last gen' graphics, I don’t tri-state music rag, looking for a punk band. Glenn called him and he passed the audition. They auditioned 16 guitarists before Bobby came along. In the years since Jerry was granted the right to reform The Misfits, play all the old songs and the ability to write and release new material, many rumors have popped up in the scene on Jerry's less than stellar persona and questionable business tactics. “Jerry is clever, said Bobby, "He played Glenn like a violin. He knew Glenn’s insecurities, and made Glenn think I was the f**kup. Jerry always puts on the ‘nice guy’ act, and plays it well, lie’s always got someone else to say “no” for him, while he’ll tell you “yes” himself. Jerry conned me into trusting him, and thinking he was my friend. 1 had a lot of fun - but it was all a setup, according to Jerry’s own recent statements.” Bobby also talked at length about Glenn from back in the day. “Aside from [Glenn’s] paranoia, which is somewhat justified, he was fun to work with for the most part,” said Bobby. Many underground punk fanzines have been reporting for years on the nature of Glenn’s sexuality. Bobby elaborates fact from fiction. “I thought he was |gay] too,” said Bobby upon meeting Glenn. “That’s JTTSTINTiMBi;} r n sx:xr:x/i,< HOT FIVE 1. “What Goes Around.. Comes Around,” Justin Timberlake. Jive. 2. “Runaway Love,” Ludacris (feat. Mary J. Blige). DTP. 3. “Say It Right,” Nelly Furtado. Mosley/Geffen, 4. “Not Ready to Make Nice,” Dixie Chicks. Columbia. (Gold) 5. “Don’t Matter,” Akon, Konvict/Upfront/SRC/ Universal Motown. (From Billboard magazine) think haters have a leg to stand on. Twilight Prineess marries the stylistic flourish of the Wind Waker and the attempted realism of OoT into a game world that is at times stunningly, startlingly beautiful. It’s not high def —there are blurry textures —you’ll see the tip of your cap pass through your shield in close-ups. These things are there, so there’s no point in pretending they’re not. Just as there’s no point in pretending they’re a deal-breaker either. I am definitely of the camp that thought cel-shading was a step in the right direction —it is timelessly good to look at, but TP is a very handsome game. The world is complete unto itself, and it plays so believably within context that 1 found myself buying into it whole-heartedly. Miyamoto always said it wasn’t about making it ‘real’ —building a cohesive game world is about enabling the player to suspend disbelief —and the Hyrule of Twilight Princess very ably does. The lighting effects are spectacular —cloud shadow moves over the green plains and the distance extends to the visible horizon. Animation is silky and precise. Clear water ripples with reflections and petals float in the air; mist makes still a tough one to call. I never saw him with a guy. Then again, even the girls he was with never seemed to be romantic with him. He used to say he was asexual. I think he had his own frustrations, but I doubt he was gay.” Because of the fact that The Misfits were punks and not embraced by the mainstream back then, Bobby claims that bogus stereotypes plagued the whole band. “The rumor went on that we were all gay,” said Bobby. Which was fine with me because there were all these girls who had this ego thing about ‘turning around’ gay men, and I was getting ‘turned around’ by a different girl every night it seemed.” When Bobby left The Misfits, Glenn was supportive. He even put up the initial money to launch The Undead. Bobby said that his fondest Misfits moment was the night the entire band was able to walk on top of the audience. According to Bobby, no band has done that before or since. Upon recalling his favorite Undead moment, Bobby said simply, “Pissing off The Misfits.” Bobby said that he is proud of the notoriety that The Undead has earned and is grateful to be such an influence to so many bands over the years. “I got booted [from The Misfits] in late 1980,” said Bobby. On January cks ALBUMS 1. “Not Too Late,” Norah Jones. Blue Note. 2. “In My Songs,” Geral Levert, Atlantic. 3. “2007 Grammy Nominees.” Various artists. Grammy. 4. “Corinne Bailey Rae,” Corinne Bailey Rae. Capitol. (Platinum) 5. “Infinity on High,” Fall Out Boy. Fueled by Ramen/Island/ IDJMG. (From Billboard magazine) the early mornings dream-like and rosy. There is a lot of there, there. One last thing—the temples. There are seven big temples, two shorter but-satisfying ones, and about five that stand out for me as the best of the series (Snowpeak being number one). Everything 1 wanted and more — challenge, variety and atmosphere. I’ve used ‘best of the series’ twice now. That’s no mistake —TP very consciously sets out to be, at its core, fan serv ice to those of us who have been following along. It takes a little bit from everything that came before and refines it so it works perfectly. This IS the definitive Zelda experience. Play Twilight Princess, and you will understand completely where the series has come from. It lives up to its pedigree in a big way. It is the very essence of the Zelda as-we-know-it, an indelible image that will define what the series was before it becomes what it will be. As for what the future holds —who knows. I won’t get to speculating until I’m ready to move on from TP, and I can assure you that won’t be until well into the next year. It is great to be back in Hyrule again. I intend to make it a long goodbye. 31, 1981, I debuted The Undead in a dive speakeasy in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in America. That was the birth of the East Village Music and Art Scene, as we know it today. Within two months, the stars of SNL were regulars at the A 7 Club, as it was known. Our name spread like wildfire in 1981 and by the time we played The Ritz - opening for The Misfits - labels were already checking us out. In January 1982, we were signed to Stiff Records, while The Misfits were still languishing. They were pretty low on the totem pole.” “Our first EP, Nine Toes Later, was released on Stiff on June 25, 1982 and sold out the first pressing in five days. However, they were also trying to strike a new deal with me. If I was willing to ditch Natz and Patrick, they’d put a lot of money behind me, and give me a huge push. I wasn’t interested in fucking over my friends, who eventually fucked me anyway, so I asked Stiff to let The Undead out of our deal altogether.” Bobby is in the process of putting up a new website, but for now, you can email him at undead@juno.com and check him out on Myspace at www.myspace.com/54441044. Also, pick up The Undead CD’s Dawn of the Undead and Till Death, both of which will be reviewed in the CD review section of this issue.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers