Script:

http://ryanwhebert.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/andrea-gibson-profile-script/

Andrea Gibson is an admired slam poet in America. She made her first appearance in Atlantic Canada on Thursday at the Student Union Building. Ryan Hebert has the story.

—

Clip- her poetry

VO
After two months of touring, Andrea Gibson was able to bring her poetry to Fredericton.

Clip- I’m part of this group called Vox Feminista, who do radical political theatre and our motto is : Comfort the disturbed, and to disturb the comfortable. So I guess I hope I disturbed the comfortable, and comforted the disturbed.

Clip of Maine- I grew up right acros the border in Maine and when I was a kid I used to come to the Fredericton fair every summer. I feel like I know you people.

VO
Gibson used her appearance in Fredericton as a fund raiser for the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan.
Clip- The fact that the planet is dying, the fact that were in an endless war, the fact that queer people don’t have equel rights, the fact that women are being assaulted, all of those things tie back to a source of dysfunction that we aren’t looking at and were not healing.
Stand-up- Gibson continues her tour across the United States, where she hopes her message will shake people up. For tour dates and samples of her work, you can check out AndreaGibson.org.

It was my project this weekend to finally overcome this final obstacle, which would mark the ultimate completion of the game. What better symbol of having mastered Bowser’s Inside Story than by beating every single major Mario+Luigi boss, plus a revamped version not found anywhere else? It’s a shame there isn’t a replay for bosses as Bowser, but I assure you the challenge I beat today was difficult enough to make up for that. It’s too bad Bowser is so overpowered that a boss rush with him would not be as difficult… For enemies like the Tower of Yikk, Bowser just wails on enemies with nearly no consequence. Anyway, on with the show.

It took me three full failed attempts before I reached this point, at least. The Boss Rush had given me slightly blurred vision several times, from watching too many successful ‘falling star’s. My thumb was numb from all the ‘snack basket’s, but I’m sure the brothers were glad for the break from all that running and hammering around.

The Challenge… in thirty-five rounds, revisit all the amped up bosses, and add to that mix a version of Bowser with really damaging attacks… but even more special, the ability to REMOVE YOUR SPECIAL ATTACKS AS SOON AS YOU USE IT. That’s right- you get a single use of every special attack… that’s it. This time Bowser can grow huge, by the way. The huge fireballs aren’t really a problem- it’s that after this attack comes a gauntlet of flame pillars pretty guaranteed to kill one of your bros if you miss a single hurdle.

Even with all the stress, all the button mashing… I have to say that this challenge did it’s job. Nothing freaked me out more than realizing Bowser’s vacuum removed my hopes… or at least, consistent damage. I lost to that final boss in every way imaginable, honestly. The turns ran out, I was murdered by the goomba storm even when I had many turns left… I had to prepare in the best way I knew how…

Random items.

Thank goodness for that easier version of the Smash Egg! With the Mighty Meteors, I was getting maybe the max nut that would save my life… perhaps a one-up deluxe, those are never bad… or more importantly, a star candy that would give me the ever-important bro points. Friends, you may call attempting to break the item allowance by grabbing those rare and powerful items cheating… but I say I was just using every avenue I had available to me.

Really, is it cheating to get more items than the round allowed? It’s random, but there always IS an item if you can keep the meteor in play. I relied on those items… HAD to have them. I’m going to say the game designers considered this and still allowed it, because this round really is hard enough to let me think I’m taking advantage… only to realize what little ground I gained was of no consequence when a single attack from Bowser can kill both my home-bros.

I defeated this true final boss with seven rounds or so left to spare. It came to me as a surprise… after having come so far, and with still some options, I was so prepared that it was not down-to-the-wire as previous games. I had defeated Elder Princess Shroob after over two hours… no bro item points left… no 1-ups to spare… literally tired of fighting… this boss, I was tired from my many failures after so much effort… so when he finally exploded as all bosses do, I was left feeling a  bit dissapointed.
“GET BACK HERE YOU VACUUM LIZARD!” I wanted to yell. “THERE’S SEVEN TURNS AND A FIRE FLOWER, A MAGIC WINDOW, AND A SPIN PIPE STILL WITH YOUR NAME ON IT”!… of course, I did so only in my head. Not that the room full of people playing Monopoly distracted me, I was so shocked I had beat him with resources to spare had me double-taking the screen.

I wonder if any other players have this experience… Or just didn’t want to find out what really awaited them after the conventional upped bosses.

Technically… there’s still challenges. I have yet to have the patience or time to really get to 120 with ANY of the items, let alone the magic window. Then of course, there’s Bowser’s special attacks to master… but those challenges, they don’t have the same feeling behind them as a boss rush.

What’s more special to claim- that you were able to get the A rank for the jump helmet, or that you just beat every single boss with 7 rounds left to go?
The bosses, that’s what! They aren’t set apart from normal enemies for just fun! They’re rough, cruel, and you’ve got to seriously sit down and go at that thing alone to survive.

…and yet.

Those challenge node things STILL are yet to see a B rank from me. There isn’t the same drive to get to say, 80 super-bouncer-points as there was to finally take out Bowser X. I would say… yeah, it’s TOUGHER to actually go through and get all the A ranks. But is it the kind of tough, like getting every single item from Gulliver in Animal Crossing Wild World, or that toughness that can only come from feeling that happiness within turmoil as you realize that last attack that left your fingers near-bloody just smashed the bosses’ hp meter into peices?

It’s like the only thing left is difficult, not because of pure challenge but time efforts. Yeah, it’s hard to get 120 as a score. It’s hard to sit down and get 50 without getting tired of it, let alone double that number, and add in the requirement that you can’t screw up a single time! That’s like, take PM2′s pit of 100 trials… but remove all the enemies, and instead make the player go through an increasingly longer version of Mario Bros. world 1-1. Yeah, there’s a challenge… that you don’t pass out halfway through!

So having beaten the Gauntlet… triumphant and moderately satisfied… I will say that this game is over. It was challenging enough that I was really feeling the heat by the end of it… so I’d say for a boss rush, this one really was a fight to remember even if in the process of getting there, I had expected my defeat too early.

By the way, I did it with M+L at level 41, when the suggested level was 50. I just didn’t have the patience to go back through the airway to level up, it was enough of a chore doing that to move from 31 to get to that all-important Rainbow Rank. Seriously, without that Excellent!! badge, I would have had no chance.

Dare me to do it again without it? I don’t think I could… and yet, there would be a second story. Or more of a Bowser’s Inside-joke.

Let’s-a-go.

~Ryan

Script here:

http://ryanwhebert.wordpress.com/2009/11/01/hebert-bottle-coalition-vo-script/

INTRO

Do you see bottled water as an environmental problem?

Several student groups including the union are backing

an initiative to stop bottled water from being sold.

VO

Grabbing a bottle of water from the caf or vending machine is convenient.

The Coalition for Bottle-water-free-campuses believes that for cost, and harm to the environment, buying a bottle just isn’t worth it.

Clip-ELLA HENRY

-The bottled water you see behind there-

both Aquafina and Dasani bottled water is actually sourced

from municiple tap water… various cities… so you’re just

sort of getting the city of Mississauga’s tap water rather

than the city of Fredericton’s tap water. Um. They filter it

slightly- but -you can filter tap water also, but it doesn’t cost

two dollars a bottle.

VO

For them, a gradual switch to fountain water means slowly

fighting climate change.

But the group has to deal with opposition calling

them just an Eco-Fad before they can pass a student referendum.

Clip-

This is something that we see on a daily basis, and it’s really tangible, and it’s really accessible, and it’s very easy to do because it’s something

that we know has been done before.

Script:

http://ryanwhebert.wordpress.com/2009/10/18/montaguehebert-signalcrash-script/

Most Final battles have bosses that have several forms, making one part of the battle not ‘Final’. Instead, the player just THINKS that this is the moment they were waiting for… until something else happens, making them realize that their troubles are not over, that things are actually worse… but if they can pull through it, the feeling that they had beat the odds is so gratifying.

Here I’d like to talk about the different ways the Final Battles have been treated in Mario games, and what was the best approach. More importantly to me… what happens AFTER the ‘Final Battle’ and how that affects the game overall.

The classic games such as SMB, the Lost Levels, and SMB2 even- the thing with them is that once beaten, you can still play them all again, be it for score or just for fun. There’s no difference to beating the final boss, except adding to the experience that there’s a chance you could beat it a second time in the same sitting (though that’s a bit hardcore even for me).

With games where you could easily replay levels like SMW and SMW2, it’s the same thing. Though with SMW, beating Bowser doesn’t add to your game completion making it a bit of a waste to go through Bowser’s Castle in the long run unless you want to sit through the long credits. SMW2 on the other hand gives you a bonus if you’ve beaten the final boss stage with 100%, leading you to unlock further hidden stages.

What I want to focus on is how final battles are treated in the Mario RPGS (Again, I never played SMRPG so I can’t include it).

• Paper Mario

After beating the boss, you remain at your last save point. A bit of a let down because you come back later to finish side quests and you need to backtrack, then double over to fight the boss… and yet, when you think about it it’s still as if it never happened.

• Thousand Year Door

Now here is where it goes a bit downhill, in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong, the Final Battle itself was spectacular. The fact it was so good is what makes this a shame. This is another game where you may want to come back and finish things- such as the Pit of 100 trials… but when you get back, the boss has been beat. Saving after the boss, well, that means you can’t go back and do it. That leaves an empty hole… where more fights with the final boss would have been amazing, but you just don’t have that ability.

• Superstar Saga

You go through the battle, come back exactly before. You can go back and fight her again, but really you don’t get anything. Plus travelling through Bowser’s Castle is a chore if you’re revisiting the boss of the game. A warp point or something would have made things much better. It’s that -it’s as if the battle didn’t happen- syndrome that first made me look back at what things were like.

Partners in Time

THIS is a masterpeice treatment of after the Final Battle! Having gone through a really strenuous battle, you can save in present time after everything gets fixed. There is still one more battle to come, but you don’t actively fight so it’s not like it’s taking the place of a final battle. Not only that, but you can travel back in time… to fight BOTH final battles again! In this game they were particularly challenging, so that’s a real bonus. It shows that you’ve beaten it by your location… AND you can change time to do it again!

• Bowser’s Inside Story

I was hoping for something similar to it’s predecssor, but without the time paradoxes it makes sense that I’m out of luck. Here, you save before the very last instance, but after you beat it you go back to where you saved at least, so you can re-do the final battle again. There is a nearby warp point this time, so it’s not so bad. I would have liked to fight Fawful again sadly… but at least there’s a Gauntlet mode so you can revisit even stronger bosses. It’s a good balance.

So really, the issue with Final Battles is the contrast between accomplishment and replay value. The classic Mario games never had such an issue because their replay value was inherent. You just play it again, simple as that. But with completionist RPGs where you need to go through the storyline, what you’re left with is either a boss that is beaten yet you can’t come back to do it again even if you choose to revisit the game and complete the side quests… or bosses where it doesn’t count that you beat them, leading to an end without accomplishment.

The only one that had the perfect balance was Partners in Time. I’m starting to accept the -revisit boss- such as with Bowser’s Inside Story, but I’m still hoping for that winning combination… Such as with Super Paper Mario. I’ve never played it, but I know that how it works is perfect. You can play every level again as if it’s the first time so you can again go through the story, fight the battles again… and know that once it’s all done with, you can have the completion percentage reflect your skill as a gamer.

We all like to feel accomplishment at the end of a game, but we don’t want the game to end.

That’s the real paradox. Or at least, mine.

~Ryan Hebert

Where I thought I’d be reviewing it like everyone else I realized my knowledge of Mario has the concept of “review” far too oversimplified. There’s the battle scheme, the characters, even what I think about how they handled the final battle to talk about!

So… I’ve found myself considering what they’ve done to the character of Fawful throughout the games of

-Mario + Luigi Superstar Saga ; Mario and Luigi Partners in Time ; and Mario and Luigi Bowser’s Inside Story which has recently graced the gaming world.

So, let’s get to the mustard on this delicious sandwhich of fury, that is Fawful… shall we?

Remember to watch out for spoilers, for any of the games. You really need to see them to get the full feel so this is at your own risk really. Scroll past sections as necessary.

To start off with, consider Superstar Saga. His first appearance…

To me Fawful is one of the largest reasons I see this game as comical. I mean, from naming the kingdom “BeanBean” I was worried from the start the game was going to be filled with low-brow humour… but as the character of Fawful can attest, it’s a different kind of awkward funny… and he’s the mustard that glues this sandwhich together.

Here he’ shown as some kind of intelligent green-bean, as others of his race. What distinguishes him are swirly-glasses, a red cape that basically conceals his entire body save for his head, a set of toothed headgear that allow him to fly around, suck things up, and shoot energy projectiles… oh, and a really strange laugh that seems to show him having an oversized mouth. But what stands out more than that is his dialogue.

“And this battle shall be the delicious mustard on that bread! The mustard of your doom!”~Fawful, S.S.

“I need no long speech before this battle, which shall be mighty! Snack on my wrath fink-rats!” ~Fawful, S.S.

Every single line he says is memorable. He’s got the desire to stop the heroes, the willingness to serve the bigger boss… but there’s just something about how he expresses himself that makes him unique from every other Mario villain. It’s that oddness that really makes the Mario and Luigi series, really. Paper Mario, that’s Mario comming back from a direct defeat at the start of the game to bring back the natural order of Stars granting wishes. That’s deep. M+L is deep too with plot, but there’s just so many shenanigans and turn-arounds that you just have to stop yourself, laugh for awhile about what’s just happened, and then start laughing again as it escalates.

Back to Fawful. He’s memorable, he’s odd, he’s got gadgets. In this game, he’s also really weak. He’s the enemy the player learns action commands by defeating. His method of impeding the heroes is dropping statues to stop their progress, or scare them rather than fight them with his projectiles. At the first climactic battle with his superior- the witch Cackletta- Luigi knocks him under the floorboards with a single hammer strike, shutting him up. Now, that’s not to say he doesn’t have a really important role. He’s the one who saves Cackletta from poofing out of existance like all other Mario enemies- and actually has her possess Bowser of all creatures! But where he really shines is as the main boss before Bowletta- as a difficult boss battle in his own right.

Now, he gets even more outrageous for this one (yes, that’s possible). Instead of a red cape, he’s got a skin-tight pink outfit that looks out of Cirque du Solei, and an antenna apendage on his head that shoots electrical orbs. Was he hiding it under the headgear the whole time, or he grew it, being a BeanBean and all? Regardless, he’s also got a huge dome that looks like his head- which is impenetrable until it performs a certain really dangerous attack, that overheats it. Even after the battle you can’t keep Fawful down- in faux-cutscene he takes out both Mario and Luigi, and it takes a surprise appearance from stereotypical fairytale character Prince Peasley to finally knock him out of the Castle and into the distance, Team-Rocket style.

It’s probably that dialogue, those inventions, and that thirst for fury that had the creators keep the character into the other two games.

Then consider Partners in Time…

Unless you’d seen reviews or guides or something about this game, meeting Fawful here is a complete surprise for the player. Partners in Time in essence is totally new game- there’s no BeanBean kingdom mentioned, no evil witch… Actually, it’s a sci-fi alien invasion story, combined with time paradoxes and enemies that are overpowered, but it’s totally reasonable that they are.

You find Fawful in this game fairly late depending on when you want to venture to the Toad Town sewers. It’s not totally necessary to travel there, and meeting Fawful isn’t required. I’d be surprised if anyone missed him though, as his reputation for me made him something I COULD NOT miss. In this game, you see his red-cloaked figure skulking amongst the pipes under Peach’s Castle. After stalking him with Baby Mario and Baby Luigi, you find what seems to be a secret lair. Unfortunately there’s no battle here. It’s comfy pad that’s actually a shop.

“In this place, beans are like precious treasure milked from a famous cow made of jewels!” ~Fawful, P.I.T.

Yes, he’s the new outlet for your bean-hunting goals. Before, you turned beans into coffee which upped your stats. In this game, Fawful will take your beans, and give you really rare badges. It’s important to note that his dialogue is the same as ever. His appearance is different, however. First you talk to him in the red cape, and then he ceremoniously throws it off. Now he’s wearing a white skin-tight leotard, with dramatic moves full of obssesive fury, that could rival most pop stars. Still, he’s a shopkeep. But the most memorable one in the entire Mario series. Other than gathering beans and aiding the player, he’s holding a deep hatred for Mario and Luigi… one that might’ve hinted at the third game, if anyone had seen it comming.

Then, Bowser’s Inside Story…

Here we have the main attraction! Fawful as the central villain! Was it his odd speech, dress, or gadgets that came to this? Maybe it’s that most other Mario villains have been defeated beyond renewal except for Bowser since… he’s Bowser. Heck, big Mr. B had his flesh burned off during New Super Mario Bros only to come back as Dry Bowser, and then bigger and badder than that! But enough about Bowser- this game starred him as a hero. I want to talk Fawful.

His first appearance is a very shady one at that. Garbed in a gangster-esque gray hoodie that transforms into his signiture red cape, we finally see what he may be hiding under it… and it’s knobbly shaped legs, a pair of hands, and… well, an assortment of ray guns. Fawful in this game permeates every nook of the Marioverse, as small as the new map is. Almost every enemy has been Fawful-ized. There’s Fawful-looking moles, ants, robots, and dinosaur things roaming the overworld. There’s no explanation for this, nor is there one for why Bowser’s minions are “brainwashed”… they could actually have turned sides legitamately based on the success of Fawful’s takeover!

First in his plan, is he gives the mushroomers the blorbs- a sickness making them swell to a huge roundness, unable to move. Then, he feeds Bowser a mushroom that causes him to inhale everything around him… including Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and her entire court.

With help from some kind of Bully-like pig named Midbus, Fawful basically takes control of one landmark after another. He transforms Bowser’s own castle from the inside out, even mechanizes Peach’s Castle into a killer robot fortress! He’s got the ambition of previous Bowsers, but with the tools to make things happen. His plan is even diabolical! He goes after an ancient and dormant evil hidden in the Mushroom kingdom, and drains it with his headgear to make himself even more powerful!

He isn’t like the other version of Fawful… in fact there’s not much mention of his past habits, save for the near-final battle at him with he utters familiar phrases such as “I hate your faces” and “Fink-rat!” again. He’s had a totally new transformation- mocking Bowser through Fawful-looking copters, turning the Mushroom Kingdom into his own image, and avoiding battle until the very end. He’s got Midbus to occupy Bowser, and even those fights turn out to ploys in Fawful’s favor. About the only thing that he does wrong, besides attacking the badest turtle in the Kingdom, is taking a greater evil’s power for his own.

After he’s done so. we see that evil take on it’s own persona, and have a sense of what is to come. Regardless, the fight with Dark Fawful is one to remember, with his signiture headgear finally comming into play. Fawful’s got some new moves, but with a superstrong Bowser things turn to the player’s favor as is the usual with games (Who would have the player lose most of the time? They’d never play). Regardless, Fawful is defeated, and turns into a… spider like thing. He’s just a head, with some legs and pincers, but he seems an evil, shadow of his former self… as Bowser calls it, pitiful.

In the final battle though, Mario and Luigi have to contend with this new incarnation. It’s very similar to the final boss theme of the other games- fight an immense enemy, destroying various parts until you can finally target the one part of it that will actually deal damage. In this case it’s the Dark Star’s core- leading me to think that Fawful is actually more like he’s possessed than actually acting of his own will. In the end though, he’s beaten… and like other finished villains, pretends to be vanquished… only to cause a huge explosion in a final attempt to destroy the heroes… which also is doomed to fail.

Conclusions?

 Out of a series known for comic relief, we end up with a Mario villain very different from any others. Fawful is quirky, and steals the show in a way that isn’t egotistical for once. It’s a kind of dramatic epicness that just has you take it all in. No longer weak, he’s become a conspiring mastermind, with a small robotic army (though that’s not a big plot device contrary to most robot armies) and a true hatred for heroes that goes behind capturing a priness. No, Fawful goes from motivation of mere subordination, to revenge, to finally a kind of conquering that dictator-villains are proud to be apart of.

He’s surpassed being a minion, and has actually through this game- believe it or not- taken the spot of main antagonist by a storm that I didnt’ see comming until I was amidst it myself. But is it all short lived?

If anyone else has beaten Bowser’s Inside Story, they’ll have gotten the same sort of feeling that this sadly marks the beggining of a legacy, and the end, of Fawful. Even though it is said to be Bowser’s game- the only one where Bowser is the main playable character- it’s also the first game where Fawful is the villain. It’s like Luigi’s Mansion where King Boo has made a lasting impression as a real threat.

I can only predict that like King Boo, this is truly Fawful’s last appearance. I do not know if there is another M+L R.P.G. even talked about, but I do know from playing this that Fawful’s character has been drastically altered. The face we knew and love became something that didn’t seem to really recognize who he was anymore. As such, unless the creators link this new character to the Shadow Queen from Thousand Year Door (because fans like me LOVE it when they link games and stay true to the storylines) somehow, or reincarnate that Dark Fawful as something else, I think it is safe to say that our mustard-referencing baddie has had his final appearance as we knew him.

But in doing so, Fawful shall be remembered as more than a minion. Even if he is never seen in another game, though he could be seen trying to rebuild, perhaps some obscure reference that he survived the explosion… well, we Mario fans have seen a new dimension to “I have Fury” and it will stay with us no matter where he shows up.

~Ryan Hebert

“May I read you a poem?”

You stand there, listening to every word. When he is done, he hands you the book. Inside is a pamphlet on the importance of literacy in British Columbia, and a sticker that says ‘you’ve just been poemed’. Your mystery reader walks off, to find another person.
What just happened was a Random Act of Poetry. You were just read to by acclaimed poet Joe Blades. Across Canada, 30 other poets are doing the same.

This project is put on by the Victoria READ Society in B.C. During the week of Oct. 5-11 poets from Victoria to St. John’s will greet strangers and give them a book. Joe Blades will be in Fredericton to give a taste of verse. It is the sixth year the society has put this on. It is Joe’s third.
“I want people to get a unique story from this. They can tell someone, hey, someone read me a poem today. It’s a positive action, interacting with a live poet from the community.”

Joe has been writing and doing public readings for 30 years. He is Vice-President-Membership-Chair of the League of Canadian Poets, producer of community radio program Ashes, Paper & Beans, and a grad student at UNB among many other accomplishments.

“Poetry is part of what I am for a long time, and this is a way to get it public.”
 He is giving out “from the book that doesn’t close”, one of his five published books. The poems are based on a daily journal he creates, crammed with clips that tell where he’s been and his own unique encounters.

“Even people who say they don’t like poetry end up enjoying the experience. I once poemed Charles Leblanc, who says he hates poetry. Well, I read to him and he took my picture for his blog… He didn’t believe it, he thought it was a candid camera joke.”

English Professor Andrew Titus has also poemed before. He said it is important to bring the spoken word back to the people, and that they get something else out of being read to.

“When you’re belting out a poem to someone, you’re connected to them. There’s something comforting about the human voice.”

“How many adults get read to?” Joe said. “I love the chance encounter aspect- of doing the unexpected.”

Joe plans to head all over, with the market, downtown, and bus stops on his list. No need to track him down- his poetic message is looking for you.