JOURNEY WITH
RAY MEARS
RAY Mears, bushcraft extraordinaire and self-titled “Founder Of Woodlore”, takes
a trip to Cardiff to tell us all about his snowshoe-clad adventures trekking and ca-
noeing through Canada. The adventurer, who has become a household name with
television series such as Ray Mears Goes Walkabout and The Essential Guide To
Rocks, (yes, essential) swaps his paddle for a projector as he tours the country
throughout October and November with his Journey With Ray Mears lecture-tour
alongside the release of his new book and BBC 2 television series, Ray Mears,
Northern Wilderness.
He promises to take the audience on a “fascinating journey” through Canada,
enhanced with “the help of video projection” (wow?), which seems like quite an
impressive feat for what sounds like a slideshow about a camping trip.
He will start the night with a short lecture on the lives and discoveries of the early
explorers Samuel Hearne and David Thompson, as well as recalling his explora-
tions through the vast Boreal Forest and travels through Hudson Bay by canoe.
Mears’ recollection promises to include his views on the uncomfortable subject of
Canada’s fur trade, the new knowledge discovered by observing the ways of the
Inuit, and his encounters with Canada’s diverse flora and fauna.
As well as this, Mears is promoting his hands-on bushcraft courses which range
from being two days to a week long, or for the more extreme campers, you could
even apply to take part in a Woodlore expedition in which you travel through
foreign wildernesses with one of Ray Mears’ fellow bushcraft buddies. Perfect for
those of you who are up for the enviable experience of sleeping on a bed of twigs
and eating bark. If the wise words of this enthusiastic uber-scout sound like your
kind of thing, you can find out more information about the tour and courses by
taking a look at
www.raymears.com. FRANCESCA GARDNER
Ray Mears, St David’s Hall, Cardiff. Mon 2 Nov. Tickets: £12.50.
Info:
www.stdavidshallcardiff.co.uk
VIDEO GAMES
BACK in ‘olden times’, video game music amounted to little more than the sort
of atonal bleeping and digital flatulence that we associate with dial-up internet,
if you can even remember what that is. These days however, it’s all French
LIVE
horns, Bassoons and Violin concertos. With that in mind, world-famous video
game composers Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall have created Video Games Live,
an epic multimedia concert extravaganza celebrating the best music in gaming
history, and it’s coming to Cardiff in December.
Video game music has evolved as quickly as the rest of the industry, and today
while A-list actors queuing up to provide voices for digitally rendered psychotic
gun-men and adventurers, A-list composers are getting in on the act too. Harry
Gregson-Williams, music-master behind films like Shreck and Michael Bay’s
explode-em-up The Rock, composed the frankly epic theme to Metal Gear Solid
2, while film-scorer extraordinaire Hans Zimmer is set to get involved with the
mega-selling war franchise Call of Duty. Clearly then, there has never been a
better time for video game music, and Video Games Live has been showcasing
that fact worldwide since 2005.
With a full choir and orchestra to bring the noise, Video Games Live promises to
deliver everything from laser shows to live action performances to accompany
the music on offer from classics like Metal Gear Solid, Tomb Raider and Sonic
the Hedgehog. A handful of audience members will even get the chance to play a
game on stage while the orchestra play along with them. While this could argu-
ably lead to that slightly irritating sensation of watching someone else have all
the pixel-based fun for several thousand people, at least that lucky handful will
get the chance to win what the organisers are calling ‘valuable prizes’. Goodies
will also be handed out at the pre-show festival, with gaming competitions and
costume events providing the entertainment.
If you wish to indulge your inner geek (and we use that term in a positive way),
then you need to follow a trail of gold ring to the CIA on Dec 3.
ANDY SWIDENBANK
Video Games Live, Cardiff International Arena. Thurs 3 Dec.
Tickets: £27.50-£40 Info: 029 2022 4488 /
www.videogameslive.com
BUZZ 16
NOVEMBER 2009.indd 16 28/10/09 12:53:45
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