Favorite Video Games, Part 1

During the month of February, the editors over at IGN presented write ups on their favorite games. A gamer as long as I can remember, it got me thinking about my favorite games and how I'd never really quantified/categorized them in that manner. In high school, we were tasked to write about a collection of ours and I wrote about (and was mildly ridiculed for) my video game collection. But even that was more focused on what my collection of video games said about me as a person. For example, I argued that video games were, in part, responsible for my intelligence and problem solving skills as I grew up playing more on strategy games or role-playing games than first-person shooters. It has been nice to see these thoughts validated in the years since through numerous studies about the positive effects video games have on a variety of faculties.

Anyway, I've decided to tackle this on a system by system basis (and I didn't realize how many I've actually had/played until compiling this list). Below you'll find the games that stood out to me in on each system I've owned. It was hard to classify the two and a half decades of PC gaming into one chunk so I've divided it up into three: the Early Years (featuring the old school Floppy Disks), the Middle Years (CD/DVD-ROMs), and the Modern Years (Steam).

More Water Please...

Review of H2O by Jane Martin at Arizona State University

Last week I saw a performance of a two-night only engagement of H2O by Jane Martin. Jack Reuler directed and the play featured three MFA students I had the great pleasure of working with on The Last Days of Judas Iscariot at Stray Cat a couple seasons back: Meg Sullivan, Tyler Eglen, and Adriano Cabral. It was by far the best ASU production I have seen in years for a myriad of reasons but it all boils down to this:

It was the least “ASU” production I have seen in years.

How The Whale Surprised Me in All the Right Ways

Review of The Whale by Samuel D. Hunter – Stray Cat Theatre

If this is your first time reading, welcome. It's kind of my first time posting. I encourage you to read the background and "ground rules" of the blog if your have the time.

Full Disclosure #1: I currently serve as the Stray Cat Board President so I invite you to take anything I say about the company and its work with a grain of salt. Although, I would argue that you should really take any review with a grain of salt because they’re always just one person’s opinion.

But when a lot of people start saying the same thing about a show, you can season your meal with those grains of salt and bring out the flavor. I’m not really great in the kitchen so feel free to call me out on that being a crappy comparison. But the point is a lot of people are saying a lot of really wonderful things about The Whale.  You can see it in the social media buzz that Artistic Director Ron May keeps updated on the Stray Cat website.

Full Disclosure #2: When I first read through the plays of Stray Cat’s 13-14 season, The Whale was the show I was least looking forward to this season. I didn’t hate it but it also didn’t grab me in the way that the other shows did.

About This Blog

About This Blog

I have recently found myself wanting to exercise my creative writing muscles.  I see a lot of theatre and tend to have a lot of thoughts on these various productions so I’ve decided to start writing some of those thoughts down. Read them or don’t. This is pretty much for me but if I spark a reaction in you, that’s cool too. After all, I’ve named the blog “Trevor Trove.” If I’m willing to be that cheesy/stupid with the title, maybe you shouldn’t take it too seriously.

Where I’m Coming From?

First and foremost, I want to point out my basic belief that all art is subjective. The thoughts in the blog posts that follow are based on my own experiences with the productions. I kind of go into this with the understanding that as an artist writing about productions, there’s every possibility I’ll inadvertently burn some bridges and never work in this town again. I obviously hope that isn’t the case. But it has bothered me for a long time that we tend to be a largely thin-skinned bunch when it comes to criticism so I'd rather have the conversation.