Remember When You Dreamed of Being Flown Out to Nintendo in Seattle to Battle…?
I think it was around my seventh Christmas or so, a couple years after making up fibs about seeing Santa’s boot disappearing outside the corner of my bedroom door, right around the time I was figuring out that if you’re with your mom in line at the grocery store you can usually get around ten Charleston Chews into your pockets before they’re done bagging, that Nintendo came into my life.
As kids, our heads were all filled with the same memories of magic mushrooms, the neighborhood legend who could beat Tyson, the one dude whose parents got him every game and so on. But, the years went on and some kids started playing Sonic and some, well they turned to Turbo Grafx 16 and were never heard from again. Perhaps saying something about how life works, the diehards chose to stick by their old friend and kept the SNES alive by having mom purchase Street Fighter 2.
Now, with a candy-coated catalogue of games unfit for a generation of kids who prefer killing hookers and stealing police cars to Charleston Chews, the once slanted-eyed God of the video game universe is barely hanging on to a 30% market share (which is mostly due to the hordes of frequent flyers constantly clad with Game Boy Advances).
I don’t own a GameCube (or at least I didn’t until the bountiful generosity of the Nintendo PR team graced me with one) and had had very little to do with the company these past years, sorry, decade except for an occasional round of River City Ransom (violence!) at 2 a.m. Then last weekend came and along with it, the wet dream of every kid before they’re old enough to have a real one: Nintendo sends my homeless ass to Seattle for three days just to play some video games with nerds and eat sandwiches!
Tasty meals paid for and days planned, my first night of Seattlesploration, filled with purchases of wet paper towel nuggs in a dark alley and drunken hill bombings (yeah brah: Skate and/or Die!) left me as the final member of the group to show up in the lobby of the swank-y Marqueen Hotel the following morning. Of the other 25 “journalists” flown out, all were guys, and socially awkward mega nerds to Santa’s boot.
So…Nintendo headquarters – that palace of Wonka-gone-Japanese fantasies is an office building with cubicles everywhere and people doing layouts for the once-popular Nintendo Power magazine underneath motivational posters proclaiming “Mario Has Extra Lives, But You’ve Only Got One: Power Up!”
I searched for sewer escape tubes and warp zones, but was met with Wal-Mart steez display cases of GameCube games and Mario bibs with “let’s play” (lowercase) embroidery. Yep. There was a brief gift shop-style history of Nintendo – one of those tours where gremlins are supposed to attack. Adult life sucks. Nintendo’s HQ looks exactly like my storage space a month ago (plus a Robbie the Robot).
Most of the College Day experience was just sitting around and either playing Mario Kart: Double Dash or listening to the software “localizers” pat each other on the back about how cool their jobs are in between mouthfuls of popcorn.
There was also another tour around the DigiPen campus (another office building chock full of guys who have been rocking ponytails since they started rocking Pony sneakers), which Nintendo claims to have had no part in, but did help fund.
For those of you unfamiliar with the world of video game journalism, let me summarize an issue of Rolling Stone you missed: blahblah Digipen: a college for those amongst us who like computers so much that 13 hours of daily life is spent writing 0101001010 or tweeking costumes on Photoshop for Megaman XV. Subhead: It’s A Block Party BlahBlah! There’s definitely “top secret” stuff going on at DigiPen, but according to this wizard wearing most of his lunch on his shirt, I should, “Save myself while I can!” So I did.
Which leads me to Life & Art’s sole goal for the trip besides me getting loaded and trying to score heroin.
Every question brainstormed beforehand, actually, spontaneously, was about the possibility of The Wizard 2, the location of the cryogenically frozen corpse of actor Jackey Vinson aka Lucas “I Own the Power Glove” and why Mario grows when he eats mushrooms. All were met with giggles and stares – and some of these fucking nerds were probably more stoned than I was, for real.
You’d figure that in a day so reminiscent of the “only movie about video games that matters starring Fred Savage and Jackey Vinson”: kids traveling cross-country to compete in a new video game, that the spirit of the film would still be present; but no, no plans for a sequel.
Whatever, I got eliminated in the second round of the Mario Kart tournament, two kids won Game Boy Advances and then we all got drunk on Famicom’s (that’s Nintendo in Japanese blahblah010110) tab at a brewery; so I can’t bitch: Nintendo done proper (dubbed ebonic type).
And I’m no businessman, but I do have a little Kid Icarus heart in my chest somewhere, so Nintendo, here’s some advice: You high IQ niggas need to learn to give in a little and make games with tits, blood, and everything else that churned Vice City into the Sony monolith that kicked your ass across the nation like Bad Dudes.
Please Mr. Yamauchi, with all due respect, break into the college market like Beat Takeshi in Brother, but dropping the GC’s price to a bill and pimping out Link like he’s Zelda year after year is a damn horrible strategy to blast through the closing gates.
Until then, this serves as a teary salute into my cold Modelo: cheers to the digital pillar of my and all of our misspent youths.
Sven Barth is busy preparing for Saturday’s Mustachio Bashio, but you can reach him at big_sven@hotmail.com.
UM files lawsuit against Big East
In a shocking turn of legal events, the University of Miami has decided to fight the lawsuit filed against them this summer with a suit of their own.
On October 20, UM filed suit against the Big East Conference and the University of Connecticut, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, and West Virginia in the Miami-Dade County Circuit Court. The suit alleges breach of contract and a conspiracy to defraud on the part of the conference and the individual schools. UM also sued the University of Connecticut for defamation.
This suit comes after the same Big East schools took legal action against Miami for deciding to leave the Big East and join the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2004. The suit had accused UM of taking part in a conspiracy to destroy the Big East.
“We took this action very reluctantly, because we think litigation in this matter is neither productive nor desirable,” UM Athletic Director Paul Dee said. “However, the barrage of lawsuits emanating out of Big East member schools have forced us to take steps to protect our rights and reputation.”
Since the University of Miami gave its notice of intent to leave the Big East and paid the requisite $1 million exit fee, it has been subjected to lawsuits and verbal assaults, most notably by the Connecticut Attorney General.
“I am appalled at the behavior of the Big East and the Universities who are now defendants,” said Miami attorney Eric Isicoff, who, along with co-counsel Roberto Martinez and Aaron Podhurst, filed the lawsuit today on behalf of the University of Miami. “The actions and words, especially, of the Attorney General of the State of Connecticut, and the University of Connecticut, are reprehensible.”
The first section of the text of the lawsuit says, “Miami brings this action against the Big East to enforce a written agreement governing the rights of the Big East conference members and to obtain a judgment declaring the rights and legal relations of Miami under that agreement with respects to its right to leave the conference.”
Isicoff said this is one of the most bizarre cases he’s ever seen.
“At the end of the day, this is all about one party living up to a legal and valid contract, and the other parties deciding, after the fact, that they didn’t like the contract,” he said.
The contract spelled out the proper way to leave the conference, and the amount of money it would cost. Yet, when UM followed the terms of the contract, it was sued. And if that weren’t bad enough, the Connecticut Attorney General has apparently decided this would be a good issue upon which to build a campaign for governor.
“It’s disappointing to see universities and an Attorney General behaving in such a manner,” Isicoff said.
-UM Sports Information Department provided facts in tis article.
Swimming and diving loses first home meet
If a new era for the swimming and diving teams actually began last week in Tallahassee, then it was reinforced Saturday in Coral Gables.
Even though the Hurricanes lost their first home meet of the year to Florida Atlantic University, several freshmen on the team won key races. This was also the first home loss for first-year Head Coach Mariusz Podkoscielny.
“I am disappointed with the overall result because we lost to Florida Atlantic, they are a very good team but it’s always hard when you lose at home,” Podkoscielny said.
The ‘Canes fell into a large deficit early and it became too difficult to overcome at the end of the meet.
UM did have some highlights in the loss, however. Junior Katalin Ferenzci won the 100 and 200-yard backstroke. Freshman Nancy Gajos won the 100 and 200-yard butterfly. Freshman Terra Erwin won the 500 and 1000-yard distance freestyle and sophomore Adrien Ferguson won the 400 IM for the Hurricanes.
“We made some mental mistakes in the first part of the meet, we recovered pretty well in the second and last part of the meet but we still have a ways to go,” Podkoscielny said.
This year the Hurricanes cannot afford to fall behind early in any of their meets due to the lack of depth on the team. Although Podkoscielny intends to address this issue during recruitment, he still finds himself and his team in a transition.
“I think we had some bright parts on the team but we definitely don’t have enough depth to be more consistent in a season and you know that something that comes with recruiting,” Podkoscielny said.
The overall mission for Podkoscielny this year is to learn more about the competition and more importantly, learn more about his team.
“But we have some people that are going to step and start getting better, I think the outlook for this year is going to be pretty bright considering what the team went through in the past year with the transition,” Podkoscielny said.
One of the most important qualities of Podkoscielny is the way he manages his team by understanding the current situation. He recognizes that while he has to make a transition from Oregon State University, his team has to get used to a new coach as well.
“With the change in coaches there’s always a new philosophy and the team has to adjust to that,” Podkoscielny said.
Due to the change at both head coach and assistant head coach, the team started this season without much training over the summer. When taking into account the lack of preparation in the off-season and coaching change, the ‘Canes had a lot to overcome and improve upon before the first meet last week.
“We didn’t come back in the greatest shape after the summer. We need to make sure from now on we come back ready to train when we hit August and September and we just didn’t do that this year,” Podkoscielny said.
Podkoscielny will look to his freshmen to carry the team in the years to come. He hopes that the recruitment classes of the next few years will help improve the ‘Canes’ NCAA ranking.
“Every time you have a freshman class coming in, you’re going to be looking at them as a bright spot in the future and we really have a great freshman class. [The Freshmen] have a lot of stability and a lot of good top swimmers combined with the starters. They’re going to be the core of the team for the years to come,” Podkoscielny said.
The Hurricanes will participate in the Minnesota Invitational from November 20th through the 22nd. On an overcast day for the ‘Canes, you can’t help but think about the future of the team.
“We didn’t win the meet but we raced hard…we had people getting up on the blocks today with 2 or 3 minute rests and racing hard. Those are the kind of things that make you smile and make you think about the future and being excited about the future,” Podkoscielny said.
Spencer Weinkle can be reached at fontier33@yahoo.com
Big East streak snapped
The University of Miami volleyball team lost its first Big East match of the season falling 3-1 to Connecticut Saturday afternoon in Storrs, Conn.
Miami lost the first two games 30-20 and 31-29 before rallying to take game three 30-25. The Huskies answered right back downing Miami 30-18 in the fourth game.
“We didn’t compete enough today, we didn’t find a way to win every point and every rally like we had to. It was a disappointing loss,” Head Coach Nicole Lantagne Welch said after the loss. “Jamie Grass and Karla Johnson each really stepped up and played great for us, Jamie on passing and defense and Karla attacking and blocking.”
The Hurricanes posted a season-low .107 hitting percentage in the match.
Senior Leyre Santaella Sante led Miami with 15 kills while sophomore Johnson tallied 14 kills. Red shirt freshman Francheska Savage had 12 kills, junior Elizabeth Tyson had eight, and sophomore Robin Lewullis added six for the Hurricanes.
Junior Mallorey James had a team-high 28 assists, while junior Grass had 25 digs.
The Huskies were led by Jamie Hadenfeldt, who totaled 20 kills in the match. Raftyn Birath added 14 kills and Megan Crawley had 13. Setter Julie Erbez had a team-high 53 assists, while Xaimara Coss led the Huskies with 27 digs. Hadenfeldt contributed 12 digs as well.
The Hurricanes were able to rebound against St. John’s on Sunday afternoon in Jamaica, New York, sweeping the Red Storm 3-0. Each game was close, as the ‘Canes pulled out a 30-24 win to start the match and took the next two games with scores of 30-25 and 30-26.
With the victory, the Hurricanes improve to 17-6 overall, with a 6-1 record in the Big East. The Red Storm fell to 22-7 (4-3) with the loss.
Savage had a big day for the Hurricanes with 17 kills. Santaella Sante was second on the team with 14, and Tyson added 13. James paced the ‘Canes with 53 assists, and Grass finished with 15 digs.
The Red Storm were led by Rosalyn Dang, who totaled 12 kills, setter Robyn Kurasaki, who added 23 assists, and libero Nicole Coaluca, who came up with eight digs in the loss. Dang and Puna Richardson combined for 11 blocks to lead St. John’s.
The Hurricanes return to action on Wednesday night in Boca Raton to take on non-conference opponent Florida Atlantic.
Hill proves doubters wrong with stellar play
From the very beginning, Quadtrine Hill wanted to be a Miami Hurricane, but people in his hometown of Sunrise, Fla. constantly told him to quit dreaming and focus on schools where he could earn playing time.
Despite the pessimism from his peers, Hill never wavered in his desire to earn a football scholarship at UM.
“I’ve been a Miami Hurricanes fan since I was in first grade,” Hill said. “Coming into high school, my goal was to play for the Hurricanes. I told people that at the beginning and they thought that maybe I could do it. As time went on, everybody started doubting me, saying that Miami had too many great running backs.”
When Hill earned national attention as a junior at Piper High School, some of the doubters began to come around. It wasn’t until his senior season, however, that his dream of playing football for the Hurricanes became a reality. After rushing for 1,356 yards and 20 touchdowns, Hill impressed the Hurricane scouts enough to earn a scholarship.
Hill red shirted in 2001, playing for the scout team in a season where the ‘Canes would win their first national title since 1991. As a red shirt, he couldn’t play a down for the team, but he still felt like an important piece of the puzzle.
“The highlight of my career definitely was when we won the Rose Bowl, even though I wasn’t playing,” Hill said. “It felt great to be on the team and help the team do so much. I had a big role to play on the scout team as a running back week in and week out.”
An overload of tailbacks on the depth chart forced Hill to move to fullback, a position he had never played at any point in his career. He started every game of the 2002 season, catching 15 passes for 192 yards.
Hill said that he didn’t feel like he was being thrown into the fire as a red-shirt freshman, despite having to block for Willis McGahee in critical games.
“I was expecting to play that early, so it wasn’t like I was caught off guard that I was in there. I wanted to be in there,” Hill said.
The transition from tailback to fullback was difficult, and Hill has developed a great deal of respect for the position.
“Fullback might be one of the hardest positions on the field,” Hill said. “If you ask college coaches, they’ll tell you how difficult fullback is. You have a lot of responsibilities…like reading the blocks, reading the holes, and knowing where you’re going. Then, you add the responsibilities of a lineman, blocking somebody downfield.”
This season, Hill has been battling injuries that have forced him to miss considerable amounts of time in certain games. He dislocated his shoulder during the Florida victory, rolled his ankle against Boston College, and aggravated the ankle injury a week later against West Virginia.
Hill feels that the injuries have had more of an effect during the week than in game situations, with the missed practice time hurting his overall preparation.
“It has been harder in practices than it has been in games,” he said. “In practice, a lot of things can bother you while you’re trying to get mentally ready for a team. But when it comes to game time, the adrenaline starts pumping and it doesn’t really bother you until something actually happens to aggravate it again.”
After losing in the Fiesta Bowl last season, Hill is once again a key component to a Hurricanes team that is competing for a title. According to Hill, the success of this year’s team is about the only thing it has in common with the 2002 squad.
“Every team has its own personality,” Hill said. “You could bring back 10 out of 11 guys on offense and the team will still have a different personality because of the one guy you lost. The biggest difference between this year’s team and last year’s is that certain people are different.”
Hill foresees another championship appearance for the ‘Canes as long as they maintain their focus in the critical stretch of games against Virginia Tech, Tennessee, Syracuse, and Pittsburgh.
“We have to keep playing like Miami,” Hill said. “We go into every game knowing that we’re going to win. We practice every day knowing that we’re going to win but we’re going to be in for a fight. We don’t take anybody lightly.”
Johnson grows up fast
The women’s volleyball team is picking up right where they left off last year. In only their third season, the Hurricanes have established themselves as a strong contender in the Big East.
One reason for their success over the past two seasons is sophomore middle blocker Karla Johnson. Johnson played a major role in the ‘Canes qualifying for the NCAA tournament last year, as she was named Big East Co-Rookie of the Week on two different occasions.
“She’s just so strong offensively,” freshman middle blocker Ciara Michel said. “She is also very consistent.”
The Hurricanes had won eight consecutive matches up until their loss to Florida A&M last Tuesday and were undefeated in the Big East until their loss to Connecticut on Saturday. Johnson said that there is a reason for the great play.
“I think one of the keys to our success so far is that we all get along really well,” she said. “Even off the court we all hang out and act real goofy.”
Another reason that could be attributed to the great start is that Johnson feels that when the team is having fun and playing their best, winning seems to come easy.
Johnson is used to winning. Hailing from Houston, Texas, she started playing volleyball in the eighth grade. She led her team to a 26-7 record in her senior year while also excelling in track and field at Aldine Westfield High.
“There’s a difference between high school and college volleyball,” Johnson said. “It’s a faster pace and everyone’s stronger in college.”
Off the court, Johnson is studying bio-medical engineering, which helped her choose UM, being one of the only schools to offer the program to undergraduates.
There aren’t too many differences between last year’s squad and this year’s.
“I would say one of the only differences is that we’re even closer this year than last,” Johnson said. “But we’re basically the same team from last year.”
Volleyball is a grueling sport that forces players to constantly be diving and jumping all over the court. Head Coach Nicole Lantagne Welch makes sure the girls stay in shape with constant workouts and practices.
Last year, Johnson came in as a freshman and had a great first half of 2002, showing the enormous potential she has in this level.
“We didn’t have any expectations last year,” Johnson said. “It was nice to come in and have a relaxed atmosphere. It was also a nice feeling to come in and contribute as a freshman.”
This year, the ‘Canes still have road matches against Big East foes such as Syracuse and Notre Dame. The road back to the NCAA tournament won’t be easy, but Johnson is confident the team can advance further than last year’s second round loss to Nebraska.
“We’re definitely just as good as last year,” Johnson said. “Or even better due to the chemistry we have.”
Miami continues play on October 29 in Boca Raton against non-conference opponent Florida Atlantic.
Anti-American sentiment in Iraq, reality or bias?
In the aftermath of the War in Iraq, the media have continually portrayed the democratization of Iraq as a complete failure and never fail to acknowledge the instances in which a suicide bomber ran into a building and three or four American soldiers lay dead from the incident. This must prove that indeed anti-American sentiment in Iraq is growing and, in response, America should consequently remove itself from an instant failure. Negative post-war news has since been plastered on the televisions of millions of Americans, in which an explosion in a school is perpetuated as a week-long crisis while the other 10,000 re-habituated schools are overlooked.
However, the results of the first scientific poll of the Iraqi public, conducted by Zogby International and The American Enterprise magazine, have brought a sound reality to the negative and biased reporting by the mainstream press. By consulting Eastern European pollsters about the best methods for eliciting candid answers from people long conditioned to repressing their true sentiments, researchers made sure the results would accurately reflect the views of Iraq’s diverse people by reflecting a nationally representative sample of Iraqi views. The results seem to contradict the media’s negative statements of a failing democratization program and a growing anti-American sentiment. According to the survey, seven out of ten expect both their country and their personal lives will be better five years from now. After being offered five possibilities- Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, or the U.S. – and asked to name one country they would most like Iraq to model its new government on, the most popular model was the U.S., preferred by 37 percent of Iraqis, more than Syria, Iran and Egypt combined. Saudi Arabia came in second with 28 percent.
The constant portrayal of a failing democratization program as well as the growth of anti-American sentiment in Iraq is indeed bias and not supported by the true sentiments of the Iraqi people. Whether or not the democratization in Iraq will turn out to indeed be a failure is for future generations to judge. In the meantime those who claim that the alleged failure of this initiative is “undisputable” proof of hatred for the cause of democracy would do well to take a second glance. For more information on statistical figures of the Iraq Poll, go to www.taemag.com.
Nathalia Gillot is a sophomore majoring in political science and psychology. She can be contacted at morena90@aol.com.
The mother of the free world appears on Dateline
Recently, Barbara Bush appeared on Dateline NBC in an interview with Jamie Gangel. The interview shed light on the life of one of the most amazing women who has ever lived. As the only person who can give orders to the President of the United States, the Bush family knows her as “The Enforcer.”
A truly special person, the former first lady was funny, intelligent, and articulate throughout the interview. NBC did a wonderful job of capturing the essence of a woman who will no doubt go down in history as a very important political figure.
As first lady, her focus was on improving the literacy of America and she strongly emphasized to the public the importance of this issue. Mrs. Bush has also been known for her work with the elderly, AIDS, homelessness, and school volunteer programs.
Throughout the interview Mrs. Bush stood up for her son by calling the Democratic presidential candidates a “pretty sorry group.” By the way, I strongly concur. President George H. W. Bush mentioned “they’re all together on this vicious rhetoric.” Again, I agree.
The Democratic candidates have been crossing the line between politics and mudslinging for a long time. There is an amount of respect that is rightfully deserved by the President of the United States.
Mrs. Bush showed her motherly side while discussing how difficult it has been to watch her sons get into politics. “I don’t like it. I mean but what mother would? You don’t like it when your child’s playing Little League and someone says he’s a lousy player. You can criticize me, but, well, you cannot criticize my children. And don’t criticize George Bush, Sr. either,” she said with her strong spirit.
After every few questions in the interview, an excerpt from Barbara Bush’s book was read, and I must say the book sounds quite interesting. Surely, with this First Lady’s humor one can expect a well written book with lots of comical stories thrown in there. Yet, at the same time, the book will certainly be informative as well as interesting.
In Reflections: Life After the White House, various diary entries describe Mrs. Bush’s life. From dealing with the loss of her husband’s election with Bill Clinton, to witnessing her son being sworn in as the leader of the free world, Mrs. Bush captures moments that were unforgettable to her and that will be unforgettable to the world as well.
Ernesto Zaldivar is a freshman majoring in political science. He can be contacted at e.zaldivar@umiami.edu.
We are a world away from the problems in Israel
The recent suicide bombing of the Maxim restaurant in Haifa, Israel in which both Arabs and Jews were killed lead to a turning point in how Israel will deal with international terrorism. This was a particularly nasty attack in which the female suicide bomber casually entered Maxim, a popular restaurant in the seaside town of Haifa that is owned jointly by Israeli-Arabs and Jews. According to reports, the suicide bomber sat down at a table as if she were going to order something to eat. But underneath her clothes was an explosives vest that when detonated killed 19 and left over 50 wounded.
Among the dead were young children, mothers, and both Arabs and Jews who were enjoying a Sunday afternoon meal. The female suicide bomber was affiliated with the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization, a radical fundamentalist group committed to Israel’s destruction and which has carried out terrorist attacks against Israel in the past.
The female suicide bomber, who was from the Palestinian territories, had recently lost a brother and a cousin, who were affiliated with terrorist groups, to raids by the Israeli Defense Forces. She decided to take out her vengeance on the unsuspecting people in Maxim’s restaurant. As one of the few democratic states in the hostile region of the Middle East, Israel has a right to defend itself against Islamic fundamentalist groups committed to Israel’s destruction. Along with the right of self-defense inherent to any nation, Israel also has a duty to protect its citizens who are under constant assault from terrorist attacks.
This summer I traveled to Israel as part of a University of Miami Hillel trip to Jerusalem to study the Jewish religion and learn more about the fascinating country. I found a dynamic and vibrant scene where people of many different ethnic and religious backgrounds come together. The threat of terrorism, however, is a constant strain on the psyche of the people and the economy has suffered from decreasing numbers of Western tourists visiting the Holy Land.
Here at UM we are a world away from the problems of the Middle East. But with continued attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and terrorism in Israel, it’s hard to ignore grim reality. Fortunately, here at UM we have a culturally diverse campus and a strong Judaic studies department that hosts lectures on Israel and the Middle East. I encourage all students interested in the events in Israel and the Middle East to attend the lectures and open discussion here on our campus.
Ben Enfield can be contacted at benjamin_enfield@hotmail.com.
Dear Future Opinion Editor:
You’ve expressed some interest in that brief ad that ran a few weeks ago talking about applying for a job in this paper. Starting today, you can submit your application for the position of Opinion Editor for the Miami Hurricane student newspaper. Work would begin at the start of the Spring 2004 semester, with training of sorts at the end of this year. The Editor-in-Chief is in charge of hiring so it’s his decision who-comes-who-goes. You could have the job for a few weeks or you could have it until you graduate or drop out. You don’t need to be a communications or journalism major. You don’t necessarily need to have worked at the Hurricane before this. It’s up to you to convince us.
You’ll need a r