Tag: Blogcritics

Interview with DJ Tina T

On a non-writing contest related note, I recently had the opportunity to have an exclusive interview with DJ Tina T regarding her DJ youth camp, Camp Spin Off. Because arts education is one of my passions, it’s my pleasure to share this interview about an artist who focuses on giving back to young people.

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DJ Tina T, voted Las Vegas’ “Top Female DJ” for the third consecutive year, is a well-known disc jockey playing in the hottest clubs in Vegas. Despite her meteoric success, DJ Tina T also has a passion for mentoring teens.


She founded Camp Spin-Off (now in its second year), a one-of-a-kind camp focused on teaching music and positive messages to teenagers.

Q: You’ve had a successful career thus far. What made you decide to start Camp Spin Off?

DJ Tina T: I went to all types of summer camps growing up and have the best memories from it all. Camp Spin-Off is a way to combine my passion for DJing with traditional summer camp in a positive way.


Q: Camp Spin Off is the first and only sleep-away DJ camp of its kind. What advantages does a sleepaway camp offer for musical kids?

DJ Tina T: Having it be a camp where we actually stay in cabins and live together as a community for one week allows everyone to be fully submerged in the culture. You eat, sleep, breathe DJing at camp. For many of these kids, it’s their first time staying away from home and it becomes a much more unique and memorable experience than just a day camp.

Q: What is your favorite class offered at Camp Spin Off and why?

DJ Tina T: My favorite class at Camp Spin Off is the basic DJing class using turntables and vinyl. Most of the kids have never touched a turntable before and with the technology these days, many of them will not end up using vinyl records. Its nice to see everyone taught in the original format before moving on to other platforms.

Q: I love the motto on your website: Less Skin, More Skill. What other positive messages and ideas does Camp Spin Off offer?

DJ Tina T: Every staff person, camp counselor and guest DJ brings a positive message to camp. I feel like we also break down stereotypes of DJs and show the kids that we are normal, down to earth people that they can talk to. Another positive message specifically to the girls who attend is that it’s not just the boys anymore.

We have an equal ratio of girls to boys at camp which helps girls not feel intimidated in a male dominated industry.

Q: You were voted best Female DJ in Las Vegas in 2010, 2011 and 2012. What special challenges do female DJs face? What do you find easier to accomplish because you are a female DJ?

DJ Tina T: The biggest challenge is being taken seriously as a DJ and not just a “female DJ.” As much as I am honored to get awards like this and love representing for the ladies, I also want to just be recognized as a great DJ and not someone who is good (for a girl).

It is easier to accomplish things like: getting your foot in the door with clubs who are doing niche female DJ promotions and getting booked for female industry related events in fashion, beauty etc.

Q: What makes you passionate about helping young people discover music?

DJ Tina T: Discovering my love for DJing when I was 15 makes me passionate about working with young kids who are in the same place I was. When the interest is there, you need people to support, motivate and inspire you. It feels great to make a difference in someone’s life.


Interested in Camp Spin-Off? You too can be a summer DJ star!

WHAT: Camp Spin-Off, where aspiring young DJs between ages of 13-17 go to play and learn

WHERE:
Forest Home Ojai Valley
655 Burnham Road
Oak View, CA 93022
Topatopa Mountains

WHEN: July 29 to August 2

WHO:
This five-day, sleep-away camp is located in beautiful Ojai, CA, where young teens get access to great hiking and outdoors activities. The teens are mentored by some of the biggest names in the DJ world.

Tina also sponsors a limited number of scholarships that fund the education of kids in need.

Learn more about Camp Spin-Off: http://www.campspinoff.com/

For more about DJ Tina T: http://djtinat.com/

Article first published as Interview with DJ Tina T on Blogcritics.

PC Game Review – The Book of Unwritten Tales

The Book of Unwritten Tales begins with a “spirited leap” onto the back of a dragon and doesn’t let go till the very end, some 20-odd hours later.



The action in the game is third person point and click. You play as a number of characters throughout the game: the gnome Wilbur Weathervane, elvish Princess Ivo, Nate the human buccaneer, or his creature Critter who is a…creature.

Some videogames have annoying and repetitive music and voices. This is not the case with The Book of Unwritten Tales. The few times when I had to play in a quiet area, I got my headphones so I didn’t miss a moment.

In fact, the music and vocal work is truly exceptional, the soundtrack nuanced with believable sound effects. Unlike some games that force two voice actors to create five or six different voices, this game has a sizable vocal cast about a dozen and you can tell as you encounter people throughout the world.

The visuals are five star, a dizzying array of locales. There are icy mountains, underground caverns, and dark forests.



 The pacing of the plot dynamic and keeps you interested.  The puzzles range in challenge from easy to ‘scratch your head difficult.’  The game raises the difficulty by disguising objects so perfectly into the background that you can’t perceive them.

Several mini-games require a series of quick key presses to progress, which creates a little urgency in a linear game since you cannot progress otherwise. Like most adventure games, the player has to combine unexpected elements. Fasten the rubber chicken to the torture device to create a makeshift slingshot? Check.

You also often have to switch characters during cooperative play as you often need to use a character’s specific skill to solve a puzzle.

Lots of humor is written into both the dialogue and the tiny reaction animations. The designers don’t take anything too seriously, a great deal is tongue-in-cheek. There are countless gaming and geek references: Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Advanced Dungeon & Dragons, Lord of the Rings, Alice in Wonderland, Magic: the Gathering, Mission Impossible…and those are just the ones I caught on the first go-thru.


Not only are there countless references in-game, but also musical jokes to those attuned to the soundtrack. Early in the game, Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” starts playing to underscore with ominous bassoon a risky venture by the main gnome. I often found myself laughing out loud.

If you are not a fan of puns, some of the humor in the game may strike you the wrong way (i.e. you encounter a cast-iron safe for saved games). On the other hand, who can resist cheeky termites talking in a Cockney accent?  “Get out of our sun, homeotherm!”

The game, however, is not without a few issues. The animation to switch characters is odd; they half walk in a circle around each other to swap instead of instantaneous, which gets old when you have to constantly switch. The same half-circle happens when going in and out of doorways and entrances.

Though the script is very good, the last few lines of dialogue in the game is in untranslated German. It was an odd way to finish, but a small mar of the face of an otherwise excellent game-playing experience.

Some lessons to take away from The Book of Unwritten Tales:
• Don’t tee off the trolls.
• If you can’t see the solution to the puzzle, it’s likely under your nose.
• Individually, tiny creatures are no threat. Collectively, they can cart you off and toss you into the bushes.

The Book of Unwritten Tales definitely gives you your money’s worth. The game is presented as a book, divided into five chapters. I’m quite adept at adventure games and I found myself stuck in several places for a day or two. I opted not to use the walk-thru, as that takes all the fun out of it.



Like any good tale, I did not want it to end and didn’t want to leave these characters behind. Does plucky little Wilbur have the courage to adventure forth and be a true mage? Do Ivo and Nate end up floating off into their own sunset in a gnome balloon? Well, I’ll let you play and write the story on your own.

There are strong hints of a sequel–“Maybe there’s another adventure out there for us,” says Wilbur–and there’s definitely room for more creative adventure games like The Book of Unwritten Tales.

Game Trailer:

You can also buy the full game as a digital download for only $29.99.

The Book of Unwritten Tales is rated T (Teen) by the ESRB

Article first published as PC Game Review: The Book of Unwritten Tales on Blogcritics.

The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart by Matthias Malzieu


What if falling in love cost you your life? Would you be able to resist?

The story opens in Edinburgh, in the late 1800s, during the greatest freeze the city has known. In this introduction, the cold and snow almost become a character on their own. You meet the protagonist, Jack, as a frail infant abandoned by his mother to the idiosyncratic and brilliant Dr. Madeleine.
To save his life, Madeleine grafts a cuckoo clock to his heart, but this alteration requires rules that cannot be broken:
“FIRSTLY: DON’T TOUCH THE HANDS OF YOUR CUCKOO-CLOCK HEART. SECONDLY: MASTER YOUR ANGER. THIRDLY: NEVER EVER FALL IN LOVE. FOR IF YOU DO, THE HOUR HAND WILL POKE THROUGH YOUR SKIN, YOUR BONES WILL SHATTER, AND YOUR HEART WILL BREAK ONCE MORE.”

Jack is tortured by the continual presence of his clock heart, which ticks and whirrs and cuckoos at the least convenient moment. He is bullied and mocked at school and it embarrasses him in public. 
The cast of characters that surrounds Jack as he grows is colorful and eclectic, a peg-leg prostitute and a Scotsman with a musical spine, all overseen by the protective and loving Dr. Madeleine, who has adopted her boy with the cuckoo clock heart.
The heart of the story is Jack’s doomed love for the coquettish, mercurial and short-sighted Miss Acacia, a street singer turned cabaret performer. For Jack, the perils of love are very real and shape all of his choices throughout the book. It’s not only love he has to control, but jealousy and anger ground through the gears of love, as his rival Big Joe vies for the hand of Miss Acacia. 
Jack later teams up with the famous film pioneer and illusionist Géorges Melies, who becomes enamored of his condition and its ramifications. The theme of illusions figures strongly, for nothing is quite as it seems in this little fable.
Malzieu seamlessly integrates the elements of steampunk with literary fiction, allowing this novella to transcend the usually cursed designation of “genre fiction”. It should, for this is really literary steampunk and you need neither to be really very literary or steampunk to enjoy it.
Melzieu’s prose has a dreamy, cinematic elegance, distinctly European. The pacing ticks along steadily – it is a quick read at 172 pages – and the action winds tighter and tighter until you cannot wait any longer for the denouement. The vivid characters stay with you long after you close this slim volume. There is a twist at the end, which cuts sharp as the second hand of a clock.

The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart has already been lauded as an adult fairytale, but it seems even more than that. The story concerns the lies we tell ourselves and others in our pursuit of love and our fear of love’s loss. It’s a magical journey that ends too soon, but makes the re-reading all too pleasurable.
Mathias Melzieu is also known as the lead singer of the French band, Dionysos. I have included the peculiarly wonderful book trailer, set to the music of Dionysos. The book is currently in production to become a full-length animated film, La Mécanique du Coeur, directed by the author and Stéphane Berla. In short, Malzieu proves steampunk offers stories with a beating heart.
Article first published as Book Review:The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart by Mathias Malzieu on Blogcritics.