4472C297-AFE9-4B30-A087-AE810045736C: [Music]
B7B4E8D4-8CBE-4B1B-B92F-8365BF04CB8B: This is GamesItWork.biz, your weekly podcast about gaming, technology, and play.
B7B4E8D4-8CBE-4B1B-B92F-8365BF04CB8B: Your hosts are Michael Martine, Andy Piper, and Michael Rowe.
B7B4E8D4-8CBE-4B1B-B92F-8365BF04CB8B: The thoughts and opinions on this podcast are those of the hosts and guests alone,
B7B4E8D4-8CBE-4B1B-B92F-8365BF04CB8B: and are not the opinions of any organization which they have been, are, or may be, affiliated with.
B7B4E8D4-8CBE-4B1B-B92F-8365BF04CB8B: This is episode 537 of reading, listening, and building together.
4472C297-AFE9-4B30-A087-AE810045736C: [upbeat music]
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: Hello and welcome again to games at work.biz. This is Michael Martine coming to you in
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: 2026. Oh my gosh, it is a new year. So happy new year everybody and while Michael is focused on
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: Work activity as he needs to today. I'm delighted to be joined by co-hosts mr. Andy Piper Andy. How are you doing today?
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: Happy New Year, Michael. I'm well thanks. It's good to see you and nice to mix it up a bit,
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: having done the last show of last year with Michael and Ian. It's good to see the other Michael today. Yeah, we've kind of freestyled our set list a little bit here. We've got some fun things to talk about. So yeah, let's dive in.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: Yeah, let's let's do. So a little different from what we normally do on the podcast,
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: but won't be that different in terms of our free ranging ability. We've got some stories here and the stories from a series of books that I've been reading recently, and I'm eager to dive into those. As Andy alluded, we have a set list here too, which does have some music and corporate into it. So we'll hit some of that. And in our pre-show production meeting,
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: Andy and I were riffing a lot on Lado as we do once or twice on the show for long-term listeners.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: You know that, and there's some fun stuff going on in that world. So we're going to hit all of those.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: So in the reading section, when I'm on vacation, I try to spend my time reading, and I try to get as many of the books in as I possibly can. I was delighted to have a week off. And my most recent area of major interest has been a real...
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: around neurology, around consciousness, around astrophysics, and quantum physics, and the interrelationship amongst all of them.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: And in the last week and a half or so, plowed through well over a thousand pages that incorporated a number of those themes.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: And one of the ones that I was really ear to share with you, Andy, and with our listeners and everyone else kind of goes around music.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: And you might say, "Well, Michael, what the heck does quantum physics, the holographic universe, and all this have to do around music?"
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: And you have a point right away, don't you?
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: What I just want to ask Michael, what the hell does all of this have to do with music?
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: So, you did ask all that.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: I couldn't remember exactly what you just said, so I just kind of hand waved on video, on audio.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: And, yeah, no, that worked out pretty well.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: It has a lot to do with music. And it has a lot to do with the meditative qualities and the ability to change an emotional set of intentions of how you want to be and represent into the world.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: And it's really intriguing to me how that kind of comes...
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: Let me kind of explain the meditation component of it and how that comes into where music comes.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: We've talked on our show here. I'm more than one occasion about
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: how you get into the zone. You are able to be so focused in on what it is that you're doing. That time seems to stand still and you are reading. You are playing game. You are working. You're playing music in a way that you get the chills.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: And that is an entry point in many ways around how that intention, that the music, whether you're performing.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: Or whether you're listening to it or whether you're surrounding yourself with it in one way or another all comes to play in a really intriguing way.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: And the book that got me going on this, it really called to me, which is kind of funny, was a national bestseller. I think in the UK was published as music as medicine or something along those lines.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: But in the US, it was the title was I heard there was a secret chord.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: And that is the opening, well, not opening, but one of the lines in the Hallelujah song that may be you and some of our listeners are familiar with.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: And this particular book talks a great deal about how music has operated as medicine for people and help with people in the right frame of mind for miraculous recoveries and certain circumstances and in others to be able to really crystallize.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: and focus intention in the world and as we're starting a new year, a lot of folks think about their goals and objectives and what is it that they want to accomplish, what are they going to stop doing start doing continue doing.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: And this really called to me in a major way and it was super funny for me, the level of synchronicity that happened.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: I was reading the book, I was listening to some live music as this was going on and the musicians there.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: I decided to sing Hallelujah, it came to them, they made mention of the fact that they haven't sung this song before someone in the audience suggested it and they really enjoyed it and after their set was over, I went up to them and I said, hey, I just want to show you this book because this is what I've been reading and it was one of those moments of like synchronicity and time that was really super.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: Have you experienced this sort of thing before Andy where you've been so lost in the music that.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: It's really been like that flow state for you.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: I don't think... I'm trying to think of that whether or not.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: I mean, I enjoy music.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: I'm gonna... I'm gonna... I'm gonna kind of jump ahead a bit here because we've got a few things that I've been watching.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: Yeah, do, do, do.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: I've seen lately, which have been fascinating to watch, but they've been about the act of creation of music,
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: which is not something I'm
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: very familiar with in terms of the theory, the understanding. There's one particular video that I watched recently, which is a young man called Jacob Collier who live improvises tune with Symphony Orchestra on stage and he literally, he refers to Ben Folds, who's one of my favourite musicians, having done this, having done this at the Kennedy Center a number of years ago. And I've, I've, I've, I've now also watched the Ben Folds
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Of the Anne-5, yes?
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: version of that, of this same practice. But in the case of Ben Folds, he is on the piano and basically giving keys to sections of the orchestra and the all the conductor is then conducting the orchestra. Whereas Jacob Collier walks on stages as young man with crazy hair and does it directly himself without like reference to the conductor.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: And he literally is getting the conducting each bit and getting them to produce the note and doing it.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: And just watching both of them with an understanding of the music and the notes and the different instruments in the orchestra and the ways in which they can be manipulated or brought together or layered together is, was just incredible to me.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: So I think for me, it's been the mechanics and understanding of how they music layers together are watching it come together.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: as much as what you described where there may be
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: this particular music that causes me to kind of zone into a flow state.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: So I'm coming at it from a different angle, but I am very curious to learn or read potentially what you've just been talking about because I wasn't aware of of that. I mean the thing that when I saw the secret chord on our list reminded me of an episode of Doctor Who, which was the Devil's Court, which is it's different, a different thing.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: Oh
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: But yeah, really, really fascinating stuff.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: So I've like three reactions in my head and I'm going to try to parse them out and maybe not lose all of them.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: One of the pieces that I was listening to and so I'll put the link tree into the secret cord and I'll at least put this particular song in place so folks can hear it.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: Ella Fitzgerald sang "Mac the Knife."
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: And this is one of the, in the book,
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: they were so nice to give you the examples of all the music so you could listen to the music as you're going through the book.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: You could hear what the author was trying to talk about by listening to the piece.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: So one of the things that this particular rendition from Elephant's Gerald, it was Song Live in Berlin.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: And for our German listening officers, so people, you might know the song as a Mackey Messell, and that's the song that kind of goes through my head when I think about it, it's from the tri-closhing opal. So you have here.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: Some of that stuff. So Elephus Gerald was singing this live. It was very popular at the time.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: And she forgot the words. And she was able to improvise, to do some scats, to rhyme into the song and deliver it anyway. And it's one of those moments that you listen to it, even as a recording from years and years ago, that the hair stands up on the back of your neck.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: *sigh* Hm.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: Because she admitted that she didn't know the lyrics, she sang and improvised anyway, and it worked, and it was fantastic, splendid.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: And that reminds me, sorry, of what both Ben Folds and Jacob Collier do, which is in the end, not to spoil it too much, repurpose existing tunes with different words, so kind of similar situation.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: Yes. Yes. Now, now that's the other thing that you reminded me of with Jacob Collier was something I learned in Puerto Rico as we were on vacation. A really intriguing thing that I had no idea about is that in typical Puerto Rican music, there are drums and the drums are a major component of the musical scene in Puerto Rico and what I learned.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: The dancers don't dance to the music, the dancers lead the music and that the drummers watch the dancers for the movements that they make and they alter their drumming based on that.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: Hmm. Okay. Right. Yeah.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: So the dancer is the conductor Andy and to me this was fascinating, it's like oh my gosh I had, so anyone with the Puerto Rican background is probably of course Michael I knew that and you did but I didn't this was new to me and I'm so used to a
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: conductor and the Jacob Collier kind of example is him getting on stage and his outfit and conducting the orchestra
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: kind of reminded me of this being a new thing and it was it's just it's again another fascinating thing that you think the world is one way and it's not
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: - Yes.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: necessarily Ah the the the the other pieces of
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: - Interesting.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: What I've got in the book section that I think are useful is a book that I read a long time
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: ago, but haven't recently from Rosamund Stone, Xander, and Benjamin Zander about the art of possibility, and this particular book has as a corollary to it a TED talk that Benjamin Zander gives on the transformational power of classical music.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: It's one of the things I like to watch every year or two. You have to be in the right frame of mind to watch it.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: You need to be in a space and a place where, if you were to become a little emotional.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: That's okay. So you need to be some place that's a little quiet, but he talks about what the power of classical music is.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: So maybe after you watch the Jason Collier piece, it'll be fun to also then watch and listen to that particular TED talk.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: It's kind of short, but it really talks to what the power is of music to move people, to create that intention and emotion and then deliver it into the world in a meaningful way.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: So really, really love that. The other book that I did read, and I'm not going through my entire bibliography around this, but I came across this one in Boston, and I was so enamored with it, and I was like, I need to get this, and I was reading it on our vacation last week, and it is how music works by David Byrne.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: Mmm, kind of ground to the musical layering again. Yeah, okay
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: Yes, so this is from from the talking heads if you guys recognize
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: Yeah
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: this particular guy and he talks about his musical journey and he talks about how technology shapes music and how advances in technology moved things further in the musical sphere.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: So I'm a big talking heads thing and have been for a really long time and he illustrates all of the pieces around it both the sound, the technology, the instrumentation, the vocals, and then all the other pieces that go along with it, the marketing aspect.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: The costuming and a whole range of others about what the what the venues look like and why certain music works in certain venues and others don't another really fantastic thing.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: He talks in this book about mix tapes and and you know this and several others do you know do too and the notion of a mix tape is certainly a big thing for our generation because we used to use cassettes to exchange music with our friends.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: And it created that sort of reciprocity kind of moment in time if you created a mix tape for someone you were sending a message or nearly you were sending a message that you couldn't or wouldn't or couldn't say yourself, but you could express yourself through song and he talks about mix tapes in here too, which I found so delightful given the fact that for my convocation speech to the school of science and math this year.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: That was exactly what I ...
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: I was trying to do too was to express my thoughts both in prose and in music.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: And I thought you did a great job with that. I really enjoyed that, both that talk and the mix tape that you delivered for the school. I thought that was really, really fun as well to
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: I just loved it.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: connect kind of a life journey or a life lessons into music and musical beats and things that are
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: reminiscent of your time going through the same stages of
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: what you see for those young people I thought that was really fun.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: Thank you. Thank you, Andy. I had a delightful time doing it. And every song means something.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: And sometimes it's the song. Sometimes it's the emotion. Sometimes it's the lyric.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: And it's one of those things where going back to my English classes in high school,
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: you were oftentimes having to write an essay about what did the author really mean when the author did this, that, and the other. And that annoyed the heck out of me so much that I remember panning short stories with all of the
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: Hmm
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: deliberate dangling hooks there for a reader to say oh here's what Michael was thinking when he wrote this so I could say you don't know what I was thinking I put that in there to mislead you so you would think you knew what I was thinking but I didn't.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: Oh my goodness now you had something from Bolero that you had really enjoyed sharing too.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: So well, so there's a few things that we could. We could run through real quick, probably.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: We've got a couple of other music related things. One that came up on my radar this week that I enjoyed watching is a Swedish gentleman who has done a lot of, actually, I'd never come across him before, at least I don't remember having done so, but it's done a lot of different things.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: I think I'm going to be doing a lot of things with CID. So the 8-bit kind of music synthesizer that was in the Commodore 64 and other things will come up back to later on.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: Point a little pin in the show notes there for coming back, coming back around to Commodore 64. But he's done a lot with chip tunes and other sets of things and he's created over the course of a number of years.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: Instruments out of retro computers. You may remember a while ago I think we talked about it.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: We talked about or saw somebody who built a cordion out of Commodore 64's where you had a kind of an old Commodore 64 other side.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: He certainly plays one in this video. I don't know whether he was the person that invented that particular one, but he's got a load of other instruments in it.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: Spent, evidently at least six months last year, putting together this performance of the Belero. It's quite a long 14 minutes or so video of him playing it using a number of these different instruments.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: And the other cool thing about his website is he makes all of his music available to download his MP3s as well.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: So if you do enjoy it, then you can put it on your music player of choice and jam out to some 8-bit chip tunes.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: But it's just so inventive. I spent most of my time watching it just trying to figure out the instruments and then I went to look at his blog and discovered that he's written about the instrument.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: So it's really neat and he's a very inventive person.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: We also, as we were talking about this at the beginning of the show, you mentioned to me something about toothbrushes making music.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: And I said, "Oh, yes, of course, toothbrush orchestra." And we searched for it and it was the device orchestra.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: I've come across a few times before, which is a bunch of retro and modern gadgets that typically have googly eyes applied to them.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: And I then orchestrated together to cover such things as Lady Gaga or Queen or Queen.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: Or, you know, other well-known tracks. So it's super funny. It's quite annoying depending on your preference for music and the low fidelity of trying to recreate it using buzzing noises and old receipt printers.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: - Oh, how cool. - Yeah.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: But it's also super fun to watch.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: you know, one of the things that the Balero example reminded me of because what he does is he's showing a multi-track kind of thing where he's playing multiple times together, you know, with different views with something that my son Cal did during the pandemic. And I think I shared some of those with you guys too. So I'm going to drop in one of the show examples of Empire State of mind where Cal is the performer on
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: Yeah, exactly.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: Mmm, I think I've seen it before. Yeah.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: that it's really kind of cool stuff that way to all right so let's switch gears to the Lego side because there's so much fun stuff here to talk about
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: So, first of January, well first of every month,
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: not every month, but there are certain months of the year where Lego does a big drop of new stuff.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: And I think yesterday, the first of January,
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: we were recording on the second, there were over 100,
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: I think over 150 new sets that all arrived at once,
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: across all of their different ranges.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: And Michael sent a little picture to Michael and I,
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: showing highlighting a couple of players in a band.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: one of them has got a Sousafone which is Michael's instrument and I was looking at thinking what what what set is this from and it turns out that it's from one of the new Lego modular buildings it's a particular set and there's a bunch of many figures in there and one of the things in this particular modular building set is meant to be kind of like a shopping street corner of a European shopping street kind of area so you've got kind of got a little bit of a town square-ish section and then you've got a couple of shops on either
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: one of them is a music shop which I hadn't looked inside but Michael did and found these these cute little musicians in there so yeah how are you feeling about Lego finally finally making it on your on your onto the map with a with a your kind of character.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: Yeah, I don't know. I mean it's it's interesting how they created it almost to me would be like they they need to have a special You know, Susan phone with sort of that would fit around the neck so you could put it on that way and
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: Hmm. Right. Well, it looks like they've used, you know, some, some existing curved pieces.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: It looks to me like they've got, they've got a piece on the minifig around the waist,
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: which has got a little clip that you probably plug a couple of curved pieces onto that then come around the back of his head with the, with the horn, but yeah, I can't exactly see how it's built, but it looks, certainly looks fun.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: Yeah, I need to find a way to build that myself.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: You know, I'm sure I can with, you know,
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: You don't, you mean you don't want to pay $300 for the, for the set to, to get that one character.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: with other pieces somewhere or another.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: Well, you know, I thought about it and, you know, there's a related thought here too.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: So Commander Riker, you may or may not know plays the trombone.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: Yes, yes
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: And his trombone is likewise an interesting creation in Lego.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: It's not exactly, you know,
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: super-dalex trombone looking.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: You can't exactly do a slide easily with Lego pieces, but you can get Commander Riker and his trombone if you were to buy the next generation Enterprise set because he amongst a variety of others, Deanna Troy and Picard and so many others are in there if you wanted to get that particular set. Oh, that's true. Yeah.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: You see, there's no Tasha Yar, which is very upsetting in that particular set.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: They replaced it with Guine and I guess.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: So this is definitely series three onwards TNG set, the Enterprise.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: So the Enterprise sold out immediately when it was released on Black Friday,
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: and has been backorder, although it is now back on the shelves in some stores.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: But I don't know whether it's available on the website.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: But again, this is a very expensive set.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: And as I was saying to Michael beforehand,
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: you know there's what nine minifix in the the enterprise set and it's typically the minifix that that increase a significantly increase the price of the model.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: If you're looking at a model that is in the you know two three hundred pound dollars kind of range then there's probably quite a few minifix with it which which I mean yes it will probably have a lot of pieces as well and be complex to build and probably be targeted at adults because they're the ones that have the extra
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: pounds to throw onto purchasing small plastic bricks but yeah I'm looking at the Commander Riker figure and his yeah I see what you mean it's a brick built trombone but it doesn't look too complicated it's one of the joys of lego is they do and they do generally try to avoid creating brand new pieces unless there's a good reason to and it can be reused in a different way so yeah it's cleverly done.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: Yeah, I like it and I've got here in front of me my my grouping of doctor who characters and that they have of course the sonic screwdriver, which you know looks remarkably the same across doctors, but you know which
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: Oh yes, Doctor Who pieces, yeah.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: Not until until you get to the 13th and 14th or 15th doctors, but anyway, yes, uh, yeah
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: Yeah, yeah
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: And there's also the the fabulous site minifigs.me so if you do need a particular minifig that is a great great place to go to get one
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: Mm-hmm
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: And they do phenomenal works. I love what they do
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: So we also geeked out the beginning before we started recording
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: with retro LEGO console. So I have the
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: Gameboy, which is super fun and it's got some really nice touch.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: And we were talking about the possibility of having it converted to play real games and I kind of just the way that the the the the set is put together is so faithful and so thoughtful and so cleverly done with the way that the controls are done with a little rubber band or pieces to give them a little squiginess as if you were pressable buttons is is really nice and I think they brought that back into the the retro console.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: Mm-hmm
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: non-branded directory content.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: That's just come out yesterday as well, which I have on order because that looks fun.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: But whilst we're talking retro things,
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: I mentioned earlier on that we were putting a pin in the mention of a Commodore 64 and the Commodore 64 Ultimate is the new old Commodore 64 that's been faithfully recreated using an FPGA.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: So it's one of these field programmable gate arrays, so the process are in it.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: It's exactly like the Commodore 64.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: It's had a few small upgrades to accommodate modern times,
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: so specifically it has HDMI out.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: But otherwise, it is remarkably faithful.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: And according to the reviews, you can run many of your original if you still have them peripherals from the 1980s with it directly without any need for modification or anything like that.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: like that because it is pretending to be the actual self.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: It does sound like I read a few people.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: I think Sean have posted on that on about it and talked about the fact that his kids had had a lot of fun typing in programs, which made me really happy to read.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: Because they were evidently targeting this kind of digital detox kind of idea.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: You're not going to do high-speed internet web browsing on a 8-bit computer,
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: [Laughter]
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: but largely has no graphical computer interface.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: There is, in fact, the, it's not gem UI, what's it called, the GUI.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: G.O.s. or something like that? Yeah.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: Geo, that's right, the geos.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: UI that they provide with it as well to give you that kind of more modern windows-of-ish sense of interaction.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: But yeah, that was, that looks really nice.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: They've got a super blinged out version where with a transparent case filled with RGB LEDs.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: But they also have one that is very faithful to the original look.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: Yeah, no, that's this is fantastic and you know, wouldn't it be fun to plug in your cassette recorder and play your mix tape through your Commodore 64
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: I mean the thing I'm seeing more and more now are people selling SD card or just memory in memory SSD style adapters to pretend they are floppy drives for your retro machine.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: So if you have a retro machine then you typically just stick in an SD card and it will read it as if it was a floppy drive. So when I recently, when I went three months ago to a retro competing exhibit, you know, you know,
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: Mm-hmm
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: I'm still in the town here in Kingston. They almost every, if not every device there had some kind of an actor that left the software be loaded from a modern form of media. And those, typically when I'm browsing around hardware hacking sites are the kinds of things that are quite commonplace now.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: So all we need is a newsletter that is done on a memory graph machine that can be passed around with code so that folks could then type it in manually and see if they get it to work, right?
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: I'm sorry. Yeah.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: 'Cause that's how you do it.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: [laughs]
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: Okay, so we're nearly nearly done here.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: We had a couple of last things that we wanted to touch on super, super Deluxe fast, didn't we?
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: Yeah, so these are these are both links that I threw in here. So one of them is a game on itch, an indie game website and you can go play it in the browser. Apparently it's mobile friendly. I did I play it on mobile. Maybe I did. Anyway, it's it's a text type adventure game. You don't have to really type anything. You just make some decisions and click yes or no. It's a kind of a click through thing. It is from Wo Industries.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: WOE on itch.io and it's titled you have billions invested in generative AI and you play the part of a powerful VC that's got some money invested in generative AI and you make some choices as you go along to see how that turns out for you. So that's one of them.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: And the other one is just a note that and I think I mentioned it on my last episode.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: with Michael and that I think it was that weekend after we recorded the last games at work, I also recorded TechRamps Christmas special as a one-off or irregular appearance on that show. So I've got a link to the TechRamps Christmas special in the show notes here as well.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: Nice.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: And lots of grumpiness on there.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: I can see from the show notes.
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: and that cooking noise behind Michael, which he evidently didn't hear, or if he did hear then he's probably noise-canceled and it came through his microphone and he couldn't hear it.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: Oh. Yeah.
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: well you know that that cuckoo let's us know it is time for us to go so uh... hopefully you enjoyed it it was from from my boy who had my parent uh... grandparents gave that clock to me when I was just a kid and uh...
DD286D6A-988F-4B30-B46E-548C042A97E8: and I love having it and I love the fact that it works still and that there's someone that I know I can trust to go and repair it so because it needs repair every once in a while too
FEA82B7C-79F1-4DBD-AE4A-A48F8C0B7DDC: All right, so on that cookie note, it's been good to get started on another year of games at work, and we will talk to you next time.
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