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.