“NOW MORE THAN EVER” 1

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On November 8th and 9th, video game goliath Activision Blizzard is hosting BlizzCon 2013, a not-quite-annual gathering dedicated to Blizzard’s wildly popular Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo series. The event brings together gamers from all over the world to compete in World of Warcraft raids, massive Starcraft PvP tournaments (which are so dominated by South Korean players that even on Californian soil anyone competing from anywhere else is considered a “foreigner”), and...whatever it is Diablo players do competitively. Gold farming? But let me wax personal for a bit, because, for me, BlizzCon evokes a certain nostalgia for a time long past for myself and many others. A time when we actually cared about World of Warcraft. I was an addict. No, seriously. At one time, I spent more time playing WoW in a week than I did at my full-time office job. I got cranky if I was kept away for too long. I logged on when I came home from work and didn’t log off until I went to bed – and for much longer on weekends. I would pick on younger friends who logged off for family dinners, telling them they should eat at the computer “like an adult.” And what’s worse, I was a role player, using the game as a sort of virtual LARP. I wrote thousands upon thousands of words about my characters and spent many of those hours not playing the game at all but socializing in character in some in-game tavern. 24 Since the event is used as a stage to “NOW MORE THAN EVER” A lament for World of By J. J. Ulm Warcraft announce new expansions for WoW, BlizzCon was a time to gather with friends around the computer to watch live-streamed events that would tell the futures of us and our characters. Where were we headed next? The broken wastes of Outland? The frozen mountains of Northrend? What new things would we learn about the world we played in, what villain would we gather together to fight next? And then lots of people, literally millions of people worldwide, lost interest. It may not be a coincidence that the biggest drop in the game’s popularity came with Cataclysm, the first expansion made after Blizzard Entertainment was absorbed into gaming megacorp Activision. It may have been that, after 6 years, many of the game’s players had experienced and accomplished everything they wanted to and Activision was unwilling to let Blizzard be innovative enough to create new content that would hold their interest. For me, that feeling of stagnation certainly played a part. Too many good characters in the setting had been killed without being replaced by anyone nearly as compelling. The fights I wanted to be a part of had been fought, and I didn’t care enough to pay $15 a month (the game’s subscription fee, which has remained unchanged despite the growing popularity of MMOs with lower or no fees) to be involved with any of the new ones. So this weekend, while thousands of people will be attending BlizzCon and perhaps hundreds of thousands will be watching the livestream, I will be missing that feeling of excitement, nostalgic not for the game itself so much as for how much it used to mean to me. PHOTOGRAPHY BY STUDZINSKI Robert Studzinski 614-483-5225 studzinskiphoto@gmail.com studzinski.smugmug.com
DJ Pos 2’s love movement By Wes Flexner DJ Pos 2 and I sat down to talk about his monthly gig at the Rehab Tavern Vibes N Stuff which has its 4 installment Friday. “We wanted to do something different than Buggin’ Out.” said the Hip Hop veteran comparing it to the successful bi-monthly Hip Hop showcase at Carabar that Pos and Zerostar have been promoting for two and a half years. “We just want to do something for the older crowd. It was just, ‘let’s do jazz fusion. Ohio funk.’ Just something different from Hip Hop.” In addition to Pos spinning jazz fusion staples such as Miles Davis and Donald Byrd, Vibes N Stuff also incorporates down-tempo music such as Flying Lotus and Diabese, which Columbus instrumental Hip Hop producer Maggz will be playing. Envelope will also be doing a guest deejay set of rock and soul classics. If Vibez N Stuff is different than Buggin’ Out, a beloved Hip Hop showcase that has had performances by some of Columbus’s finest such as Illogic, P.Black, Path, J. Rawls, King Vada and more as well as out of town acts such as Nemo Achida and Supastition, then it is a WAY different mood than the event Pos cut his teeth on. Pos 2 was the late DJ Przm’s understudy during the bulk of Columbus’s Legendary Fonosluts Hip Hop Night at Bernie’s Distillery. The Fonoslut Hip Hop Night was known as the home base for the internationally revered Columbus Hip Hop scene that the MHz, Weightless, J. Rawls and Spitball were putting on the map. Locally, it was a known as a High Energy Riot/Party. Pos spun there from the summer of 2000 to 2005 alongside Przm and DJ Lo-Zone. The event was hosted by So What aka Daymon Dodson. I used to hang out there. There were fist fights, rhyme battles, bboys, graffiti vandalism, dancing, moshing, public sex acts, drug abuse and all sorts of random campus mayhem. I asked Pos what it was like to be playing music and look out into a crowd of humans punching each other. Pos said they wanted wildness at the time, “Przm used to want to have a fight while we were performing. So if someone was fighting while we were deejaying we were like ‘alright. this is what we need.’ Let’s throw on some hardcore stuff. Unless it got too serious. At times it was just a dumb brawl.” Pos got his start at Bernies because Przm needed to go home to Detroit and so the Fonosluts needed someone to fill-in. It was where Pos developed, “Lo was like, ‘keep bringing your records down here.’ A lot of times I didn’t spin. Sometimes I would. Or Camu would spin my records and steal the crowd.” After paying dues for awhile, Pos became one of the most respected deejays in Columbus, known for his mix tapes. His “Bust-It” series and “the Live 95er” are Bustown Classics. As out of hand as the Fonoslut night got at times, it was always kinda silly. I remember listening to rowdy sets of Wu-Tang and Mobb Deep, later watching emcees rap with vulgarity, and then somehow ending the night playing musical chairs in a very wholesome manner. Pos says having a slapstick sense of humor Photo by Najhla helped the Fonoslut night avoid falling into Hip Hop cliches. They would let the local panhandlers win the rap contest. They would give actually good rappers worthless prizes such as a singing fake fish. The Fonosluts would play the school yard game of “fart touch” while all types of chaos was going on. They enjoyed doing silly things to have fun. Unfortunately, Przm’s heart problems and a few other factors eventually brought the event to close in 2005. Przm, Daymon Dodson and Camu Tao died shortly thereafter, all of Natural causes which brought an end to that era in many ways and also left Pos mourning the loss of some very close friends. Pos spun the Blueprint-Hosted So What Wednesdays (2007-2009) with Detox and did random events until starting Buggin’ Out in 2011. Obviously, if Pos is spearheading a Jazz Fusion monthly, there has been some maturity since the days of encouraging fights and the fart touch. But maintaining a place for people from his era to go is a primary motivation for Buggin’ Out and Vibes N Stuff. “It seems now to have more of a purpose. We are doing it for a reason because there isn’t a lot of what we used to do. Now isn’t exactly what I did back then, People are still around that are our age. They can relate to me. They see a familiar face...It gives some of those people somewhere to go. And hopefully some of the newer people will come out as well. It’s more of a purpose for Columbus than it was back in the day.” Vibes N Stuff is this Friday November 8th at the Rehab Tavern located at 456 W. Town Street. Admission is Free. Let’s save the planet One acre at a time Photo: © istockphoto.com / lopurice What if everyone took responsibility for one small piece of the planet? Now, you can do your part. When you Adopt an Acre, ® you help the The Nature Conservancy preserve the diversity of life on Earth, in places close to home, and around the world. To adopt your acre, visit nature.org/adopt “NOW MORE THAN EVER” 25
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Page 3 and 4: THE COLUMBUS FREE PRESS .....THE ON
Page 5 and 6: Post election issue By: the Free Pr
Page 7 and 8: Ain’t no love in the heart All Qu
Page 9 and 10: Give a Little TENDERNESS ® Save 67
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Page 13 and 14: microrems per hour.” After the pa
Page 15 and 16: TAKE A SEAT TAKE A STAND JOIN EARTH
Page 17 and 18: Continued from pg. 5 Schools? Toget
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Page 21 and 22: One foot rooted in the South By Joh
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Page 29 and 30: PUZZLE ON PG. 26 personalized gifts
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Page 33 and 34: Maybe the Blue Jackets could try th
Page 35 and 36: “A Contest for Supremacy: China,
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