Columbia ≈ Alphaville

I was messing around on my computer this weekend just gone – probably building an apartment block in Minecraft or something – when Visage’s one and only (as far as I know) hit Fade to Grey came on iTunes…

This reminded me of Kelly Osbourne’s quite blatant rip-off re-imaging of the song from a few years back, One Word, so I fired it up on YouTube…

It’s actually not a bad song, no doubt because it steals references so many elements from the original.

In any case, the video clip reminded me that although I was fully aware of the ground breaking 1965 French Sci-Fi film Alphaville, I actually had no idea what it was about (apart from modernist Paris architecture). So I looked it up on Wikipedia and was surprised to note a number of similarities with Bioshock Infinite – to wit in both stories a man is sent to infiltrate a closed off, technology obsessed city run by a dictator with an obscured past, and becomes involved with his mysterious daughter.

Of course the resolutions of the stories are completely different, but it was just a kind of cool thing to stumble over on a Sunday afternoon.

Oh, and while on the subject of Alphaville, here’s the song you’re probably thinking of…

Crazy Bioshock Inifinite Theories Number One

I suspect that the developers of Bioshock Infinite didn’t actually want to use Girls Just Wanna Have Fun in the game. I think they wanted Time After Time, but they couldn’t get the rights.

Why? Several of the other anachronistic songs seem to contain references to the plot and general theme of the game. Fortunate Son and Everybody Wants to Rule the World in particular. Time After Time would seem to tie in with the time travel elements and the relationships Elizabeth has with several of the other characters, and hence fits the game better than Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

It’s a theory!

Went to a Quiz Night with Justin and Marika last night. Our table came about 5th or 6th out of 30 or so, which isn’t bad. We were actually in the lead up until the last few rounds, but we had a couple of bad ones, and some other tables had some good ones. It was a good night – although the organisation was shambolic with the result that it didn’t finish until just before midnight.

Additionally, one of the questions was “What did the S.S. in the name of the S.S. Titanic stand for?”. The correct answer – as any fule shud kno – is absolutely bloody nothing, because the Titanic wasn’t an S.S., it was an R.M.S. There was a $50 penalty for challenging questions so we gritted out teeth and ran with it, receiving full points for the completely erroneous “Steam Ship”. Honestly, who vets these questions?

But yeah, stunning ignorance of historical ship designations aside, it was a really fun night and apparently raised a lot of money, so that’s good.

Hmmm, what else has been going on? Oh yes, I’ve been watching some Adventure Time on YouTube. It’s one of those series I’ve been meaning to check out for ages, and against all the odds now actually have. It turns out that it’s every bit as good as I’ve heard – here’s an episode for you to see for yourself! (assuming lawyers haven’t swept down and destroyed it…).

Finally, here’s some nice, soothing music by the Legendary Stardust Cowboy to tide you over…

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