This past holiday Monday I attended an event many may be familiar with, while some may have only heard about. That event is called Video Games Live, and it’s pretty well the most fun any gamer could have at the symphony. Yes…the symphony. Video Games Live tours the world, and uses local orchestras and choirs to perform music from some of the greatest video game titles both past and present. In my case it was the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and the performance was held at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium.

Now when I describe this concept to those who are unfamiliar with the event and don’t bother to read the internet (pssst…they have a web site. I linked to it above), the usual tropes for going out to the symphony come up. Things like "Oh well I don’t have anything nice to wear," and "It’ll be boring having to be so quiet when the music from <insert awesome game here> is playing," are often uttered as talking points. You can dress up in your Sunday best if you want to. It’s a free country after all. But you don’t have to. You can come dressed in your day to day wear, or even come as a video game character. As for being quiet, I doubt the orchestras who perform at these events will ever receive more boisterous praise from a crowd then what they receive here. The picture above pretty much says it all. The team of Jack Wall, as conductor, and Tommy Tallarico, as MC and host, work hard to encourage the crowd to express their gratitude through the age old method of yelling and cheering as loud as possible. As the pictures and videos after the jump will show, they don’t have to work hard. In Edmonton the audience comes prepared. This city is the home of BioWare after all, as well as Fragapalooza. We have a very decent gaming culture around here.

Even in an area with a tight gaming culture, it’s not just the crowds that set  VGL apart from your average night at the symphony. There’s a few events surrounding the concert that make it more of an event. In the case of the Edmonton show, Future Shop held a couple giveaways, and the folks behind VGL also had a costume contest and some other fun contests. The costume contest had an assortment of gaming characters, as well as some pop culture icons. There were a couple Team Fortress 2 characters, but unfortunately in this contest Engineer wasn’t credit to team.

There are still many other audience participation events and contests, including the one pictured above. I think I’ll let the VGL Wikipedia Article describe exactly was is going on here for me.

Space Invaders: A random person is picked out of the audience to come up on stage to become the video game. The person is tracked on stage and moves left and right to control the spaceship from the game. They are given a button to fire with. The orchestra, once again, improvises the game music in real-time with the competitor’s actions. The player has 2 minutes to finish the first level of the game. As an added challenge, each time a bonus ship comes across the top of the screen, the player earns their score amount in cash. However, the player can only win this money if they complete the level within two minutes.

Unfortunately the guy who was called upon for this contest didn’t manage to complete the level. He didn’t win the grand prize but he did receive a couple consolation prizes. This package included a home version of Space Invaders so, in Tommy Tallarico’s words, "he can practice."

Inbetween each of these events, we were treated to pieces from titles like Mass Effect, Chrono Cross and Chrono Trigger, Beyond Good & Evil, Halo, The Legend of Zelda, and a full rendition of One Winged Angel from Final Fantasy VII which included a full choir. I’ve managed to get some videos below.

Videos

Now if you’re asking why I didn’t take any videos of the popular pieces, like Mario or Zelda, I have one answer for you. You’ll have to go to the show yourself to experience those. Video Games Live is indeed an experience, and it’s one that should be had by any and all who would call themselves a gamer. It’s a community event that brings together local gamers, local musicians, and local singers. It places eveyone on equal footing, and gives the world of game music the credit it deserves. Check out my gallery below for the few photographs I did manage to take. I hope to see you next year.

Gallery

The Edmonton Oilers have seen many stars pass through their ranks. Sometimes they’ve passed a little too quickly through, moving onto to other teams without making much of an impact on the blue and copper. Still there is one roster of guys that captured the hearts and minds of Edmontonians, and have gone down in the annals of hockey history as one of the best squads to ever play the game. They managed to re-write the rules of NHL hockey on many fronts, and formed a dynasty that is recognized throughout the league. I’m talking about the team composed of Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri, Grant Fuhr, Paul Coffey, Mark Messier, and many others. They were the Oilers dynasty team, and on 18 Jan 2009 about 16,000 fans descended on Rexall Place to honour yet another great from that era.

As the video said, Glenn Anderson was known for driving to the net to score goals and setup plays. He was the one of the de facto power forwards of the 1980s, scoring 498 goals and 601 assists in 1129 regular season games. He was known for being there when his teammates needed him, even scoring 17 playoff game wining goals in his career, the 5th most in the NHL. Off the ice he was just as much of a thoughtful guy, dedicating a great deal of his time to the Cross Cancer Institute, both in donations and surprise visits. There even one story where he visited a 4 year old girl by the name of Alicia Maryniuk, who was battling leukemia. He didn’t make one stop though, he followed up with her as he did with all the people he visited. She managed to beat cancer, and 23 years later has a family of her own. She and Glenn were reunited for tonight’s ceremonies. They even posed next to a picture of her at 4, propped up in the Stanley Cup, next to the moustached Anderson.

After the video rolled, #9 emerged to greet the crowd. However he didn’t come out onto the makeshift stage like the guests and presenters. No no, he skated off the bench and around the ice like any other player. I’m sure it was quite a trip for him to be back in that historic blue and orange. After a good skate around, the other players who had their jerseys retired were introduced, as were many other former top Oilers, Glenn’s family, and a host of other presenters. Speeches were made, and we were even treated to a good ol’ Glenn Anderson style end-to-end goal. Glenn Anderson’s #9 was raised to the rafters, and then it was game time.

The game that followed versus the Phoenix Coyotes was a treat. The Oilers played fairly well in both the 1st and 3rd periods, and Ethan Moreau even managed to net his first hat-trick of the season. The final has 6 – 3 in favour of the Oilers. If you want to check out a bunch of photos I took at the game, check out my Flickr Photostream. If you have no idea about half of what I’m talking about when it comes to hockey and the terminology around it, check out the Wikipedia article.

What a weekend it has been. This year’s Fragapalooza has had pink hair and bald geeks, Nerf-based weaponry, chair racing and bad dancing, and a whole lot of other mayhem. I’m left sitting in my apartment, looking back on the whole event, and just going "woah".

For those just joining us from work on Monday morning, let me bring you up to speed. The largest LAN party in Canada occurred over this past weekend. Running from Aug 7 – 10, Fragapalooza attracted almost 1,000 gamers from all over the city of Edmonton and the rest of Canada. Now that the whole event is all over. My ID badge is hung up, my stuff is put away, and it’s time to look at the denouement of Fragapalooza 2008 known as Day 4.

For many, Day 4 tends to start rather late. Those that don’t manage to stay up all night tend to crash at very extended morning hours, and as a result sleep in rather late. I myself slept in until about 10:30AM after having lost all energy around 5:00AM. I could have started popping Foosh Mints or drinking massive amounts of energy drinks, but I didn’t want a heart murmur to add to my collection of Fraga swag so I just gave into my body and went to bed.

When I finally crawled out of bed, I decided to do the responsible thing and start packing up my non-gaming related gear (clothes, tent, sleeping stuff). Luckily I was saved from doing something responsible by yet another random contest. This time the contest was to see how fast you could solve a Rubik’s Cube, with the promise of nice loot to the person with the best time.

Some of the contest participants struggled with the tough little puzzle, and were provided some help (and in some cases a complete substitution) by some willing "experts." After a few minutes, a winner finally emerged. Then shortly there after, a 2nd place winner was finished. They pretty well kicked off the prize giving for Day 4.

The lucky winner received a power filter from ZeroSurge, valued at about $160. He actually didn’t complete the puzzle, as he was one of the participants who used a substitute "expert" to solve it. However, the substitute decided to just let him have the prize anyway. As for the runner up, who was incidentally right next the first place winner, he received a minor swag bag with some vendor logo’d trinkets. After that contest it was time to have my morning coffee (Bawls), only to have that interrupted by another random contest.

During Day 3 a Photoshop based contest was announced on the internal Fragpalooza website. Luckily thanks to our incredibly fat internet connection, this years internal site was the same as the external site. In fact if you went to the main page you could follow the action. As for the photo to be edited, EG|Django stepped up to the plate to willingly be humiliated by the Fraga participants and later most of the internet. The top three pictures can be found in the huge gallery at the end of this post.

With all that out of the way, it time to squeeze in the last few gaming hours we had. Some did the responsible thing an started packing up, but most of us kept gaming right up until the network was shut down. Then once again and for the final time, we all head to the main stage for the closing ceremonies, and the giving away of free stuff. Everything went as was expected; sponsors gave a few thank you speeches, the tournament winners were awarded their prizes, and a couple small prizes were thrown into the crowd. Then we were treated to a Fragapalooza first, and what was the inspiration for the title of this blog post.

One of the long-time attendees of Fragapalooza, who goes by the alias of SuperMan, performed the first public marriage proposal in Fraga history. It was quite a moment, and was greeted by a huge wave of cheers from the crowd. Thankfully she said yes, and to show our congratulations and wish them luck on the path they are setting out on we cheered with more much more volume. After that, it was time to give away some more prizes to random attendees. That was basically the curtain call, and everyone returned to their seats to clean up, pack up, and head home. Another Fragapalooza was, to borrow a phase, in the can.

Thanks to all the staff and volunteers for putting together yet another wonderful LAN party. I invite you to check out the gallery below. I also encourage you to keep an eye on Futurelooks.com. I will be posting a full article recapping the event in the next few days, and showcasing some spectacles  yet unseen on this blog.

The final full day of Fragapalooza brings with it some interesting times. Where Day 2 is a sedate event worthy of public consumption, Day 3 is where everyone is sleep deprived, heavy stimulated on energy products, and ready to do anything for some free computer hardware. Let’s take a look at some of the weird and wild contests that make up the tapestry of mental unbalance.

The first event to be announced was one that has been suggested several years over. Unfortunately the venue where Fragapalooza used to be was, amongst other things, unsuitable for such activity. However we were in a new venue this year, and it’s floor were ripe for use in some good ol’ fashioned office chair racing. Really, what’s the worst that could happen?

Well as the video shows, there was plenty of oppotuniry for things to go wrong. It was still incredibly fun; the LAN party equivalent of a rally race. No one was hurt, and someone walked away with some pretty sweet gear. Still, we weren’t able to go without causing some damage.

On a collision course with something solid, one participant made a calculated manoeuvre and took a dive to stop himself. It saved him from hitting a decently solid object, but caused his chair to loose an arm. Beyond that the event went off without a hitch, though not due to lack of trying to do some damage.

Actually the floors at the Northlands Sportex were so smooth that we had several participants make it from one end of the venue to the other. After a couple more rounds of Chair Racing, Nick "Yarx" Albrecht was determined the winner. His swag stack included a Cooler Master Centurion case, a copy of Crysis, and a Corsair power supply. Congrats Yarx!

Later on, we were summoned to the main stage for some more fun and interesting contests. First up was a quick Intel related trivia contest. Then we got to witness some of the best and worst geek dancing ever. Finally, one lucky gamer was setup with a bonafide booth babe – she was the girl handing out the Foosh Energy Mints to everyone. Unfortunately her suitor was less then admirable, and the whole fell through. The gallery below captures all the moments. Now it’s time for some sleep, as the final day of Fragapalooza is now upon us.

Due to some of the scheduling conflicts caused by our venue change, the dates that Fragapalooza 2008 were to take place on coincided with The Alberta Cancer Foundation’s Weekend to End Breast Cancer. Gamers aren’t the virtually trained killers a lot of mainstream media make them out to be, and we enjoy participating in a good cause that benefits our fellow person. So it was a natural fit that Fragapalooza had to step up in some fashion, and support The Weekend to End Breast Cancer. This lead the staff to decide to first dye their hair pink the week before Fraga, and then have it shave off at the event.

They brought on the Est-elle Academy of Hair Design as sponsors, so the hair colouring and shaving was at least done by professionals. Everyone then assembled around the stage to witness what was easily going to be the biggest spectacle of that afternoon. Many of the staffers are rather…attached to their hair. Some have been growing it for years. Added to the fact that they are supporting a great charity will make this sacrifice all the more entertaining.

The event was started off with some words from the Vice President of Fragapalooza, Michael "Sphincter" Hollands. He basically welcomed all the media, thanked everyone for their support, and reminded them that there should be many before and after pictures available online after everything was said and done. I reminded him that there was also going to be some "during" media available, which is coming up.

The staff then lined up, posing for some pictures and sharing their last hair-covered moment together. After the blinding array of flash bulbs (there was a lot of media there for this event, including some local TV stations), it was time for some hair cutting.

There’s some great pictures in the gallery that follows this post, showing the aftermath of this rampage of hair trimmers. After all that, we noticed that one staff member still had their pink hair intact.

Gil "StraT" Amores, President and Head Organizer of Fragapalooza, very nearly escaped his date with a set of hair trimmers. He was hovering in the background on stage, hoping not to be noticed. Luckily Sphincter caught him, and took advantage of the opporunity to auction off his balding, with the full bid going to charity. Someone put forth $160, and StraT went under the razor.

Though he was a feeling a little trepidation about losing his locks, once finished StraT was greeted with a huge amount of cheers. We really appreciate what he and all the other Fragapalooza staff put together each year.

When all was said and done, all the staff, many of the volunteers, and about two dozen of the participants were rendered hairless on the top of their heads. The staff is still tallying the total donations received, since nVidia pledged to donate money for each Fraga participant that stepped up and lost their hair. We even had some of our longer haired participants donate their locks to the charity to make wigs for people undergoing Cancer treatment. I invite to look at the gallery below, as it contains highlights from the head shave as well as pictures from the very first random fun contest held at Fraga 08. It’s now Day 3, which is the most interesting test of endurance for a Fraga participant. There will be things going on all night. So I invite you back here tomorrow afternoon for all the highlights.