“Letter to the Editor: CRA: Another wedge issue - Marconews.com” plus 2 more |
- Letter to the Editor: CRA: Another wedge issue - Marconews.com
- The (Game)play's the Thing: The Retro-RPG Eschalon - Huffingtonpost.com
- REVIEW ROUNDUP: Women, Power and Politics Opens at the Tricycle Theatre - TheaterMania.com
| Letter to the Editor: CRA: Another wedge issue - Marconews.com Posted: 15 Jun 2010 05:00 PM PDT Despite the impassioned advocacy of Chamber of Commerce President Vip Grover's finely tuned "CRA: Fact v. Fiction" guest commentary (Eagle, June 6), neither inconvenient facts nor convenient fictions could ever replace Marco Island's historic: (1) Free enterprise system and unfettered market place; (2) Record-setting economic growth rates dating from the early 1960s; (3) Limited government intervention, mostly devoted to public infrastructure; (4) The absence of government subsidies and special business incentives; and (5) Competitive, private business, commercial and residential sectors attracting enlightened buyers and savvy shoppers as well as sophisticated sellers and successful entrepreneurs. Taken together, these critical economic-political-social environmental conditions effectively sustained our very exceptional barrier island community for more than a half-century without a costly CRA imposition. Thus, the proposed CRA and its concomitant Tax Incentive Financing (TIF) subsidy for Town Center have surfaced as still another wedge public policy issue favoring special interests and elite lobbies at the expense of all residential taxpayers. Since 2002, deficit spending and borrowing caused by excessive public works projects — STRP, sanitary sewers, water treatment facilities, gray water distribution, street paving, swale destruction, inequitable utility rates, extravagance and waste in street lighting and Collier Boulevard rebuilding, the Jolley span boondoggle, et al. — have created serious polarization fissures between and among full- and part-time resident property owners, business owners and operatives, and resort-denizen landlords along with their guests and tenants. Let's never forget that such a ravenous appetite for public spending totals, today, in excess of $270 million of funded debt acquired since 2004 without a single public referendum except for a paltry voter twitter of $10 million for the yet-to-be-completed Veterans' Park property. We now witness the increasing growth of this destructive Balkanization fracturing our community at an aberrant rate. Yet, there is no serious relief forthcoming from neither our elected councilors nor county commissioners. With growing alarm, all Marco Islanders now face reduced assessed property evaluations while property taxes, utility rates and budgeted public expenditures remain either sumptuously stagnant or growing from year to year. As a community, we have borrowed to such an extent that we now face outrageous annual public debt payments that will continue to threaten our solvency for generations on end. Additionally, as now proposed, the CRA-TIF scheme calls for a minimum of $75 million of property taxpayer largesse for a decade or more to subsidize a minority of Marco Islanders whose continuing presence is neither vital nor essential to the survival and prosperity of the vast majority of our residents and our community's historic exceptionality. Despite his very comprehensive public commercial, Chamber President Grover should now be asked, by all concerned citizens, the following CRA-related questions whose answers remain mired in hype at best, and opaqueness at worst, as our community debates the merits of the CRA for our Town Center. 1. What are the reasons why a public referendum for the CRA proposal is not being promoted by our Chamber of Commerce and Area Realtors Association? 2. Should not the Chamber of Commerce advocate significant tax cuts, reduced public expenditures and diminished public borrowing as reasonable, imperative accompaniments to the CRA's funding? 3. Why do current proprietors and owners of our Town Center appear so resistant to pursuing exciting, new marketing ideas based on free enterprise, competition, service and creativity? Come to think about it, and in summary, why doesn't the Chamber of Commerce hire Capri's Angela Reynoso, successful proprietor of the wildly popular, Marco Islanders-patiently-waiting-in-line, "Island Market and Deli?" She could teach the Chamber's obviously clueless Town Center members the know-how in offering variety, convenience, quality and reasonable prices daily to the ever-selective, knowledgeable, mobile, fastidious residents and visitors comprising our Marco Island community! Based on Ms. Reynoso's established reputation and proven business acumen, she knows all about new ways and means to increase sales and profitability while deftly meeting consumer-customer-patron current demands and new expenditure patterns. Indeed, she's a living CRA without all of its silly trappings and selfish, misdirected financing from already abused, exhausted and cynical taxpayers. Sayre Uhler Marco Island Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | |
| The (Game)play's the Thing: The Retro-RPG Eschalon - Huffingtonpost.com Posted: 15 Jun 2010 03:27 PM PDT Five and twenty years ago, far back in the mists of time, a cyber-aficionado friend invited me to see her new game. Despite the primitive graphics, I liked the game's feel, the sense of adventure and story, the witty allusions and non-linear play. The game was King's Quest I. At about the same time, Rogue showed up. Since then, the major reason that I haven't become a quest game addict is that developers stopped bringing them out for the Apple OS. Among my favorites I count Gabriel Knight, Syberia, Myst, King's Quest, Circle of Blood, The Journeyman Project, the sui generis System's Twilight, Christminster and its fellow interactive fictions -- and of course that labor of love, Nethack. The list will tell you something about my gaming tastes. I detest open-ended, multi-player, shooting and arcade games. If given a choice, I play a wizard or rogue and advance many skills rather than specialize. What captivates me is worldbuilding: story, atmospherics and the quality of the quests. That's why the only Zork game I liked was Nemesis. It had a coherent storyline and context, and you became invested in the fates of its protagonists. And I don't mind sparse graphics, as long as they're evocative (System's Twilight is a prime example). Fast forward to 2007. Having decided not to buy any playstation, I was glumly contemplating the slim pickings for Mac users when I stumbled on Basilisk Games. They (well, he -- it's a single person who "followed his bliss") had just launched Eschalon 1, a retro RPG game and the first of a projected trilogy for all major platforms. I looked at screen caps, downloaded the demo... and three years later, here I am in Eschalon 2, Grand Magus hat and Scout sandals on, Warmoth bow and Abyssal Freeze spell readied, facing rift harpies in the windy crags of Mistfell. Like most games of this kind, Eschalon (henceforth EB) is based on the Dungeons and Dragons concept and is vaguely Tolkienesque. In a devastated world, a champion undertakes a quest upon which the fate of that universe depends. S/he starts with very little, acquiring knowledge, skills and ever more powerful accessories as s/he explores the world, completes quests, solves puzzles and dispatches enemies. In EB 1, the future champion also starts with the too-common total retrograde declarative amnesia. In Anglosaxon: she doesn't even recall her name, let alone past deeds, though she still wields a mean blade. The handicap allows bystanders and texts to fill in the background story in carefully apportioned snippets, but at least here it fits into the story arc. EB 2 starts where its predecessor ended but is reasonably self-contained. So the two games can be played independently, although playing both makes for a far more satisfying sense of story. Unusually for such a game, at the end of EB 2 what was up till that point solid fantasy veers into science fiction. The twist becomes intriguing after the disorientation of the shift dissipates, and it literally embodies the Clarke precept that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. EB has the usual player classes, "races" and alignments. Quests can be completed in any relative order until the story funnels into the endgame. Unlike Nethack and its many clones, it unfolds both above and below ground. It's turn-based, which means you can relax and enjoy its ambience instead of frantically pushing buttons in an adrenaline haze. And though you cannot advance in levels without a good deal of slaughter, Eschalon also requires strategy -- especially if you play warlocks, as I do. The Eschalon games are not perfect. Names are the usual pseudo-epic hodgepodge. Unlike the clever, vital exchanges in Gabriel Knight, interactions with non player characters are limited and underflavored. The dialogue is by-the-numbers ("Do you want this quest?" Choice 1: "Yes, I will undertake it and gain umpteen experience points!" Choice 2: "No, I'll just go eat some worms!"). Entire squares of the map are featureless waste through which you must literally trudge. Worse yet, if you meet enemies in such regions you have no recourse but brute-force bashing coupled with fleeing to regroup. In some parts, the enemy throngs are numbingly monotonous. You cannot attain the highest levels unless you resort to the cheat of reloading a previous character into a new game. And unlike Nethack, Eschalon has no class-specific quests. At the same time, the game has truly wonderful touches. Non-player characters fight enemies if you maneuver them within each other's range. You can kill enemies by luring them under portcullises or near gunpowder kegs (which you can even place strategically in EB 2, though they're damnably heavy). There is no respawning of hostiles and containers generate random loot that can be literally marvelous. In EB 2 you also have weather, which affects skill and equipment efficacy; and foraging ability, that gifts you with sacks of alchemy ingredients every time you camp. The EB universe has beautifully rendered and logically varied environments - mountains, plains and coasts; tundras, forests, prairies, deserts. Also, this is a water world, like Le Guin's Earthsea. Rivers, lakes, seas are never too far away and play an active role in the game. During the day, birds sing or frogs peep. At night, crickets trill and fireflies twinkle. Then there is the music. It warns you if enemies are nearby, even if you can't see them. It swells to a paean when you're engaged in combat. And in EB 2 it has become a beguiling, elegiac mixo-Lydian background that is integral to the game's mood, although it is not linked to quest context as it is in Myst. Despite its quotidian larger concept, Eschalon is immensely appealing to me because it has a coherent story with context -- and because it demands and rewards exploration. Lagniappes abound in the game: a hidden chest in this rocky cove, a skills trainer in that secluded glen. And the fragmentary texts and conversation snippets that you encounter or trigger (especially in EB 2) have echoes, as if there are indeed layers to this world beyond its surface, itself riddled with abandoned buildings and half-completed works that add to the haunting effect. Given that the Eschalon games are essentially the work of a single person, they are a real achievement, especially in evoking the sense of a rich, lived-in, immersive universe. It comes as no surprise that EB 1 won an indie award and created a devoted word-of-mouth following that awaited the advent of EB 2 with baited breath. It will be a real loss to RPG stalwarts if this devotion does not translate to enough income for Thomas Riegsecker to complete his own quest: finish Eschalon as he dreams -- and as we do, along with him. Glimpses of my immersive universe (more in the Stories section of my site): Contra Mundum Note: This article also appeared on the author's blog, with images and the trailer of Eschalon 2. Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | |
| REVIEW ROUNDUP: Women, Power and Politics Opens at the Tricycle Theatre - TheaterMania.com Posted: 15 Jun 2010 09:58 AM PDT
Women, Power and Politics, a group of short plays about the history and current role of women in politics in Great Britain, has officially opened at the Tricycle Theatre. Directed by Indhu Rubasingham, the production will run through July 17. | The series has two parts: Then, which examines the historical aspects of women and politics, and Now, which takes a more contemporary focus. The playwrights who have contributed to the series include Bola Agbaje, Moira Buffini, Zinnie Harris, Sam Holcroft, Marie Jones, Lucy Kirkwood, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Sue Townsend, and Joy Wilkinson. The company features Simon Chandler, Oliver Chris, Claire Cox, Heather Cranley, Niamh Cusack, Stella Gonet, John Hollingworth, Amy Loughton, Tom Mannion, Kika Markham, Lara Rossi, and Felix Scott. The critics have generally agreed that there is an unevenness to the nine plays that are part of the series, and simultaneously found almost unanimous praise for two works: Moira Buffini's Handbagged and Zinnie Harris' The Panel. Among the reviews are: Daily Telegraph ----- "Now (part two) further invites us to wonder how we got from the indomitability of Thatcher and her headstrong contemporaries to a post-feminist, pragmatic mindset that's willing to smile at the cameras and go with the flow when it comes to trading on appearances. The writing is generally sketchier, though seldom less than interesting." ----- "In general, it's hard to praise the efforts of the 12-strong multi-tasking company too highly, and there's terrific work from the younger actresses too, especially Claire Cox, Lara Rossi and Heather Craney. What's additionally impressive, from a male perspective, is that the writing doesn't resort to vengeful fictions of men being castrated or shrilly castigated for their patriarchal ways. It makes its points while interrogating its assumptions." Financial Times ----- "Best of all though is Moira Buffini's Handbagged, a surreal comic look at the tense relationship between Margaret Thatcher and the Queen. Buffini plays fast and loose with the facts - "this is all offensive, ill-researched conjecture" remarks the Queen - but seems to light on some pretty thorny truths." ----- "The plays are nearly all directed by Rubasingham, who deftly juggles tone and pace, and are delivered by a fine, versatile cast. And they are spliced together with fascinating verbatim accounts collected by Gillian Slovo from female politicians. Shirley Williams' testimony in a sense sums the evening up, as she registers her astonishment at visiting the ladies' in the House of Commons and finding a chintz settee and an ironing board." The Guardian ----- "Buffini's work, hilarious and moving, dominates this typically ambitious Tricycle project. She cleverly splits her duelling protagonists into their older and younger selves. Mags and Liz have a spectacular fallout in the 80s. ... Performed by Stella Gonet and Kika Markham as the senior Mrs T and the Queen, and Claire Cox and Heather Craney as their younger selves, Buffini's piece raises serious questions about that balance of power." The Independent ----- "The piece that fits its space best is Zinnie Harris's The Panel, a mordantly funny look at the pompous, variously prejudiced deliberations of an all-male selection committee who are tasked to choose a manager from a women-only short list." ----- "In Sam Holcroft's bracingly bizarre Pink, a female Prime Minister whose husband has been caught buying sex toys from a porn website tries to blackmail its self-made magnate. For a woman, we gather, the political is more prone to be dogged by the personal." Whatsonstage ----- "And [the plays] are backed up superbly by a very fine ensemble of actors, notably in this first programme, Niamh Cusack as the weaver and Queen Bess, and Simon Chandler as a devastatingly tactful Buckingham Palace PR. The second programme of five plays is just as lively and no less surprising." For further information, visit: www.tricycle.co.uk.
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