Haines Logo Text
Column Archive
January 27, 2013:

OBSESSION

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, do you know there are people whose whole world becomes these games they make today, like The Sims? It’s shocking, actually. I think for these people The Sims becomes their life – they’re literally creating a world and they become obsessed and it’s hours and hours out of a life, day after day, month after month, year after year. Online multiplayer games like Worlds of Warcraft, too. But it’s The Sims that seems sketchiest to me – and thank heaven that even the thought of learning more about the game would make me want to vomit on the ground. It’s a wildly successful game, having sold over 150 million copies. I have personally known one very bright young woman who, while in school, became obsessed with the game. It wasn’t good. Then it stopped, but from what I can gather it’s now an authentic obsession and time-waster, not that people who are addicted to it (and it is an addiction) consider it a time-waster. The oddity of it is that it’s about a world you create yourself, but, you know, there’s this other world called the real world and that one seems to go wanting, which I find so peculiar. I am so happy to have been a child when I was a child. Our games were for occasional playing, stuff like Monopoly and Scrabble. They really didn’t confuse us as to what the game word and real world were. No, instead of sitting on a computer for hours upon hours at a time playing games, we were outside for hours and hours at a time, growing up, seeing things, discovering things, going places. This really began happening in the very early 1980s and you could see it becoming an obsession even that far back, with the really stupid games like Pacman and Frogger. But the generation who came of age in the 2000s, well, it’s something wholly other and it’s just this crazy thing and one wonders when these people get a little older just how much of their lives they’ll have wasted doing this stuff. Oh, they’ll have their little Sims world, and if that makes them happy I suppose it’s all fine, but I look at this and I shake my head in wonderment. I do understand that for some it’s relaxation, but from what I can see online and from what I’ve read, for most it’s not relaxation at all – it’s an addiction as palpable as any.

And then there are kids like the ones I’ve been working with. Good kids, fun kids, focused kids, who know what they want even at their young age, and who don’t waste their time on games, but who take classes, get out in public to perform, with parents who care about them and guide them and keep them away from too many distractions. I know I sound like an old fogey, but all it really is is just looking at what’s happening. I would have hated all this stuff if I was ten, fifteen, or twenty-five. It has nothing to do with age and everything to do with making something of your life and having goals and doing interesting things. I read up on The Sims and it gave me a headache just reading about it. But how can you argue with a generation that buys 150 million copies of such a game? You can’t. You can fear for them, but you can’t argue with them. End of whatever that was.

Yesterday was a long day. I got up early and soon thereafter was on my way to Juliana Hansen’s photo shoot. I just basically went to say hi and chat with the photographer. I chose some dresses I liked and then I left and did some banking, after which I came home. At noon-thirty, the Staitman clan came over and we went to Casa Vega for lunch. I had my usual beef taco and two cheese enchiladas. Sarah and Sami both had beef tacos and they thought they were incredible, which they are. Then we came back here and they went on their merry way and we had our final rehearsal. The singer’s boyfriend was here to watch, as was our very own Adryan Russ, who’s acting as co-producer of the act. We began and the singer immediately forgot some lyrics and had to start again. Once she got passed the opening, she was much more at ease and began to have fun. The run went very well and our two audience members were laughing so the humor is coming across just fine. After, I gave notes, and we ran a couple of numbers, and that was that. I think it’s a miracle this thing has come together as well as it has in just a week. But then, the singer isn’t spending twelve hours a day playing The Sims. She went home to drill, and Adryan and musical director Shelly Markham went to CPK. I was trying to be very good, but in the end I had one of their bite-sized small portion dishes, a tiny wedge salad. Then I moseyed on over to The Smoke House to a little birthday bash for Juliana Hansen. It was a small gathering. I hung out for about forty minutes and then came home.

I then ran my contextual commentary, which seemed to be fine. I did as I always do and finessed things and it’s smooth and not too long. Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get a good night’s beauty sleep.

Today, I must be up early and then to The Federal by eleven to judge a singing contest, in which there will be both singing and a contest, not necessarily in that order. I have no idea who my fellow judges will be. These things usually last three or four hours, but I must be out no later than three-thirty to go to the singer’s sound check from four to five. Then Adryan and I will just hang out at the club until six, when we can get our table and sup. Then it’s the show at eight.

Tomorrow, I will begin proofing the new book in earnest. And no, Adriana Hofstetter does not become obsessed with The Sims, but that’s only because she has a good mom and a good brain. Tuesday is our first Kritzerland rehearsal – the two weekday rehearsals were almost impossible to schedule, which rarely happens and I can tell you won’t be happening again. So Tuesday is this hugely long day, from one to almost seven with two useless breaks in the middle. Friday is the same. On Wednesday or Thursday I’m going to try to get down to see Teddy for a haircut. Sunday is our stumble-through and Monday is our show, which is selling very well.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, judge a singing contest, do a sound check, eat, and watch the singer’s show. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I will happily not be dreaming of The Sims or other such fol-de-rol.

Search BK's Notes Archive:
 
© 2001 - 2024 by Bruce Kimmel. All Rights Reserved