The Mini Awards (October 2009)
Hosted by Jonatan "Macx" FG.


The cheerful people are outside, enjoying the last of the Indian summer in the parks of old town Odense. Meanwhile I stuff my pipe with good quality Virginia and I sniff a glass of worthy 15 year old malt from a bottle with a Green Label. Why such a choice, the ignorant may ask. It is time for me to judge what is eligible in this round. Nothing but my bitter sweat can aspire for such a task, and nothing but this beauty of an opinionated chapter can have the high standards that is needed for bringing up sceners to understand supremacy of law. It is not easy, wading though the tonnes of garbage being produced, but I have hitherto survived. I will have to, the Mini Awards depend on men like me, and we are a small but headstrong minority in this culture of decay.

As I have told you before, the smaller executions are often those with more flavour. But they are left behind and are seldom given appropriate attention. When the party is over the once again lonely and isolated nerd in front of the blue screen is happy to tune into the emotions emanating from a one file demo. Such is the beauty of the small, bigger is seldom better. That is why in this corner of the universe, which already has grown awfully big, less is more.


Fredrik is a young man from the northern Scandinavian provinces and he has made himself known through a tune spamming frenzy on the black and blue forum. Sometimes he uses the handle Tonhuvudet, which means Tone head in the local dialect. Some time ago he released "Swedish medieval song" and it has a decent atmosphere to it. Sadly it lacks a text with greetings and storyline; otherwise the production might have turned out nice.

Wacek has done dirty music since "Biba" in 1995. The past weeks he has been working hard, releasing both "Mekanik" and "Arise #$10 Promo". One of them lacks music and both of them lacks a scrolltext. Other than that they are quite Arise-styled. Un-polished Polish, pardon the pun. Some claim these productions are a premonition of sorts.

"Rushed" from K2 reminds me about some of the work from the twins in Wrath Designs. It is a story about gastric ulcers being told without text. In the end the underground collapses due to an earthquake. An early ejaculation, but it was still worth it though.

The group MuMu21 released "Grilla med ballen" which either means barbecue with your penis or with your buttock, depending on whether the communicator is from up north or from the enterprising south. We are left without an answer.

A happy surprise was "1004" by BITS. It has quite a decent vibe, different from much of what comes from the West Slavs. Some adjustments to the substance in the upscroll would not harm, however.


INTERMINABLE THREE CHORD BREAK
In order for the uninformed reader to get a grasp of what I am talking of when I refer to substance in text I am gladly making known to you "AT&T Screams" by Grego, sysop of In Living Colour. It is a text written in a notemaker which comes with the option of typing a topic in sprites. He writes about the mundane reality of a hard working sysop, but he is telling it with style. What is more is that his text is accompanied by one of the best audial scores EVER produced on this platform. Download it, read it, weep. Next time you produce, write a text telling of something that has happened to you, like how you got drunk last weekend. Add greetings and a few personals here and there. When doing this you are performing something part of a highly evolved C64 scene skill. If you do it scrolling it might even be a jackpot. Now go leech "AT&T Screams" and indulge!
BREAK OVER


Stilgar and Questor of Albion Crew released "I1". Another nice one pager ending with what seems like an early ejaculation. I guess it goes without repeating once again what wrap means in C64 lingo.

Now things are becoming better. The receiver of the last Mini Award, Jan Harries, released "Horus, Eye in the Sky" under his label SIDwave. He has added some text to this production which gives it another dimension. It is mainly a music demo, a good one at that, building up gentle melodic vibes - peaks - and is transformed into a tune that turns aggressive.

"Seriously Alive" by Celtic is a one pager of a man returning. Free from indelicacy.

Skurwy, stuck-in-the-90s, released "Far Away Trains Passing By" and "Summer Leaves, or Autumn Falls". Demonstrations that could have been.

The tune by Richard in JSL's "The Cave" is quite alright, but obviously not in the same universe as "Echoes" by Geir Tjelta of Maniacs of Noise. The latter one uses some form of $d418 sample playback, which someone needs to expound somewhere.

Closing in, the last three coming up, of which one may be awarded. Zaz of Dual Crew has coded his first piece since "Phantazy" released at the Alvesta Party in November 1988. This time, at Dual Crew Internal Meeting 2009, we are given "Kick Demo 2". It is an impressive release with a scrolling text about achievements and principles acknowledged by Dual Crew and the European Union. The production coordinator was Metal Maniac and the music was composed by Trident, whom recently in the Swedish Public Service Radio P1 was reported having a quality of being prominent in hacking skills.

"Bad Scene Poets Are Back" is all done by 4-Mat of Ate Bit and it is neither saline nor salty. It is a good demo in itself, but the end-quote by Luise Brooks gives it formidable power and augments the impact of the execution to use the style of commenting sometimes used elsewhere by other people.

"Loket Greetings" by Linde of HT. Minimalistic SID. Miniscule coding and graphics (depicting Leif "Loket" Olsson). Contemporary meets old school. Personal messages. A too short scroll text on other matters.


Last time I concluded that I lack quality scroll texts with greetings and personal messages. I was given just that in "Loket Greetings" by Linde. It may be voyeurism of sorts, but I am the one making the calls. Linde is the winner of the Mini Award in VN#52. The decision cannot be revoked. However, in order not to make it as easy for you until the next issue I will not be as explicit in what I mean is deficient in the modern-day trends.

If you produce something worthy of being included in a future chapter of the Mini Awards, and please differentiate between arse and ace, drop me a line with it and tell me your most inner thoughts about the release. If you do not suck (in a bad way) you know how to get a hold of me.

In this corner of the universe, which already has grown awfully big, less is more.