Long Player with D. R. Adams: Tron, 1982 (Bally Midway)
I remember the light of the sun shining straight lines of rays through the hollowed-out space above the street—and the dark shadow in the bulky concrete shafts of bleh that rose to the side. I also remember pain. Total pain in my fucking heart and mind. Total static…. It was the end. Manhattan was meant to go cheesecloth and me butter—like the oil of eternity through the laugh track of a commercial in outer space where a mop dances with Fred Astaire and he accidentally drops a sardine off his cracker and says, "Oh dear, summer plums, I have spilled my hors d'oeuvres." Then a bunch of spiders crawl from the subway and he blasts them with his donut lazer. Ah shit.
Okay, now that paragraph there is amazing as fuck. But seriously nobody believes that shit even when you don't write about the subway spiders. That said, in Tron's "Grid Bugs" level you battle spiders… How is this possible? I mean, besides the fact that it's just a silly video game (well, not to me), how was anyone to believe there were spiders in this microscopic world within a world? You see, you ARE Tron.
You are locked into the grid, and—like it or not, this column is jumping all over the place.
There are workers outside the window blasting through a retaining wall bluff that had all these dying tropical plants in there. I like southern plants, I like oak trees and I like crepe myrtle trees a lot.
Anyway, everyone knows that the best shit about Tron is the black-light stripes around the game, the galactic ice-cream cone level where you shoot your way up through the existentialist cone into the rainbow-room-topped flowing "going off the air" electric show top.
I once was so high on LSD on this trip through the back roads of NC when I was a youngin' sprout that I recall my buddy pulled over to the side of the road for something or other. I walked over to this dumpster and I went behind it to take a leak (the whole thing was shrouded in trees and we were in the middle of nowhere (why a dumpster then, right?)), anyway—
As I was takin' a leak, the entire dumpster started to disappear right before my eyes, in a digital glitch type way, and all the particles and glips and beeps and bobs all kind of started to rise up and before my very eyes, as I was looking up into the baby blue fucking sky with white cotton ball USA fucking clouds, those blips and beeps became a swarm of bees. For real (or not, I was tripping).
Anyway all I could do was laugh.
That is totally how I feel about the spider screen. Those fucking spiders come out of the space ice cream cone store in the game and they are just all over your shit.
It's like the people coming out of Macy's or Barneys in their new cloaks, in their new outfits, to better plunder the world more colorfully. I am not the enemy. I just wanna skate and rebuild a few video games.
California is a state of mind, or whatever. Something. Something here about that.
As the columnist pounded his meat fists into the skin of the keys—one last go round for the day—he could imagine that towering futuristic city looming in his near future. Towers of light and blah blah….He was returning to the city. To the city. New York City.
The splintered light of the TV screen inside the game lit his brain and he turned to look out the window of time and realized, "I am not the writer I would like to be yet, certainly under pressure. Better use music."
Previously: Gravitar and Excuses
David Ryan Adams is a musician, writer, and visual artist. A one time plumber and Hardee's employee, his new collection of original paintings will debut at the Morrison Hotel Gallery's Bowery space on September 23. The gallery will also be featuring a new series of works for auction, with the proceeds going to benefit the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe. His second book of poetry, Hello Sunshine, hits the shelves this fall. You can find him in the B.C. Rich section of most guitar stores. He is amazing and much taller and far more handsome in person. Also, he has a new record label all his own, called Pax-Americana.
That first screen grab is a big-gay-cock, right?
and the second one, well…
what is a screen grab? is that a new video game on, what is that shit, a whii com or whatever the small video shit is?
If you have to ask…
ok, no problem
Ah, my old nemesis, the MCP cone.
Maybe not for the spiders, but I bet LSD would help with the bike level on Tron.
Oh, and the other day I was revisiting my favourite impromptu, acoustic and performed in the back of a taxi versions of songs by Spoon and the New Pornographers, and saw that our dear correspondent is also now among the initiates of the black cab session:
http://www.blackcabsessions.com/sessions.php?id=1231499191&type=1
Not bad!
thanks. i was SO SICK that day- i could barely stand for how dizzy. ah the road, turn the page, blah blah.
That was very entertaining. I had a roommate once who was obsessed with Tron. I played a little, resisted the obsession, but it's cool to see it again.
As for the music part, amazing how soulful you can sound about grid bugs. As for trees, I grew up in Virginia and my grandmother had a crepe myrtle that was awesome in bloom.
This makes me sad that all we had was a blueberry colored hedgehog. :(
I think a spider got into Joni's ear!
A month or so ago the local hangout had the Tron arcade game for one night only, and the damn owner pulled the plug on me just as I was supposed to get the high score. Where's the justice?!
I'm sure it was a 'butterfly flaps its wings in China' sort of justice. You probably freed a hostage.
*pats on back, hands quarter.
I remember this one time I got really high and wrote a blog post, and the trippiest thing is that this was it.
hand in front of face/ never really looked at/ column melts
DRA, How would I go about purchasing Tron? I have looked everywhere :(
Tron! And the spiders, ack. I gotta get me that t-shirt that says "We have nothing to fear but fear itself. And spiders."
DRA, wasn't there a level or game in Tron where you had to get inside the machine with the big face and destroy it? Just imagine if you'd seen *that* near that dumpster…
I so remember playin that game… love the song and Joni was killing me..such a sweety :)
raleigh, nc… 94-95. there was an arcade on hillsborough st. down by nc state called the blue bassoon. steve popson from polvo worked there. they had tron and dig dug. my buddy and i used to leave high school for a gumby's lunch and some classic games. we'd order the pizza and get in as many games as possible while we waited. the stray cats greatest hits always seemed to be on the stero and occasionally a funny smell would emanate from the back. i miss those days…
DRA, how would I go about purchasing Tron? Cant find it anywhere
I think you'd find quite a few old arcade games on websites like eBay, plus probably there's online speciality stores and forums where people would be selling them, parts etc.
(I understand it's not the same, but everyone knows about MAME, right?)
i miss arcades
i agree
Hmm, yes and no. Yes to the games, hanging out with friends, rebellion. No to always being broke and having to sell records (that would now be worth a fortune!) to buy cigarettes and get quarters. No to the chain smoking and smoke getting in everything. No to the fights, near fights and general bad vibe with the jocks, ginos, headbangers, out-of-town skinheads…No to having to take the bus everywhere, and it always being winter.
D.R.: You stayed away for too long. Thrilled to see you back! Don't let it happen again. ;)
Screen Grab = (command) + (shift) +(3) at the same time. Ryan, I know you're on a mac. It saves a picture of your screen to your desktop. I thought I taught you better than that.
But I WANT QIX!
Ryan A's home arcade doesn't have it.
Sigh.
ah, grid bugs. i had a dream the other night where grid bug like critters were coming under my door. kinda freaked me out. no LSD necessary.
oh and btw the black cab session was pretty dope. this was great too though:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdFBqEVeyiQ
Jonineeds flea treatment or as mybluesky said – she has a spider in her ear.
The spiders creeped me out.
nah, she was out playin in the hills rigt before, she's the best ever.
I love the "goin off the air electric top" description. I plan to put on my GOTAET Hat around noon today. Help Joni!!!
DRA, a pleasure to visit your blogs and TV updates at http://www.ryanada.ms. I find it very cool that you love metal rock and can write so gracefully in coordinace with the heart in regards to your songs. There is an aspect of childlike fun in your interets though, I think with the mix of your likings you might dig some songs from Trevor Bricker. "End of Days" and "3-2-1" are pretty cool tracks, he's on iTunes.
Wow. Since when are you proud of being from N.C. ?! Also, you have always said you had no friends and everyone hated you when you were there. Now you're dropping acid and pissing behind dumpsters. Selective memory?
You must be really bored RyRy. xoxo
I'm sure when he said "everyone" he didn't mean litteraly everyone in N.C.
nah, it was you I hated.
: )
look you're in the "comments" me too….
oops though, i wrote "the article" funny how that is more of the same eh?
hey good to hear from you again.hope the meniers isnt too bad,sister has it may be trying some kind of chemo injection into ear soon.anyway hope things are good for you.
I can't wait for the sequel to "Tron" to come out
The only thing I remember about the TRON arcade game is the MUSIC (which was the same as the movie score).
I remember it because it sounds exactly like a portion of the Beatles song, "The Night Before" — specifically, the part was where Paul sings:
"Now today I find/You have changed your mind .."
And also, later:
"When I held you near/You were so sincere …"
The melody and chord progression is exactly the same in the music that plays at the start of the TRON game. So every time I played Tron, I heard Paul singing that song in my head …
So Ryan, when are you going to feature Defender (the best arcade game ever)? I'm waiting with bated breath …
I like how, during the Tron song, the dog tries to scratch out its ears and, when unsuccessful, leaves.
OMG Tron. That brings back memories. Nice articles Ryan.
Very amusing too. Hey how do we get the new song. I bought it and everything but there was no download link. Will it be emailed to me?
I'm dying to hear it. :)
Again nice articles and nice to see you again on the internet. Foggy has been missed. :)
Thank you.
dear ryan,
have you ever watched starcade?
it was a game show based on video games that aired in the 80s.
http://www.starcade.tv/
(and they played tron too! look in the 'videos' section!)
[oops. not the 'videos' section, the 'games' section! sorry]
Reading this column and watching the videos makes my week! Thanks DRA!
Hey DRA, since you love video games so much, you should come to Rochester NY… Home to the National Center for the History of Electronic Games (http://www.ncheg.org/) and a current exhibition going on now called Videotopia (http://www.museumofplay.org/things_to_see/videotopia.html). You can crash with us, we don't mind.
R.A.'Cade
(ryan adams arcade)
Risen Lord Jesus' Peace!
e.t./sue > *:D (: +
my sig isn't happenin right
lessee if thiss wwerks
>
>
nope
notttyet
o'ell
http://www.peopleofwalmart.com
spoonerism:
Mall wart…
http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/ohio-man-breaks-pac-man-world-record/1353236
pac man record broken
http://www.twingalaxies.com/index.aspx?c=19&id=1849
more about the feat and folks who recognize it
http://games.yahoo.com/free-games/marble-lines
try this ridiculousness
It is so lousy out here in Beantown, I'm actually enjoying this.
19000 so far dang
I always got screwed at those damn light cycles. Didn't stop me from emptying my pockets into that game (or any others) though! Oh, the memories of childhood savings gone wayside.
DR- Next time around, how about Crystal Castles?
you're collum is silly
i like it though (:
you should just do videos of you saying that stuff, like your other one when you were walking your dog and playing Gravitar…i liked that one more (:
but you write for yourself right?
because it feels good…
not for us
i mean your.
shit i'm tired ;/
DRA- how do you feel about the new tron movie coming out?
Let me just say that I can completely understand your motives in not wanting to inform us that you pissed yourself laughing at bleeps and bloops in the sky.
What I really want to know is whether or not you tried to shoot any of them with your blaster (penis).
I mean, if you didn't, what a waste of LSD.