61:!!! ae@technewsiit.com TechNews | Tuesday, September lst, 2015
Feeling ‘Cooped u p?’

Austin Gonzalez
OPINION EDITOR

There is a plague facing today’s
youth. It’s an inescapable evil that affects all
of us regardless of creed, shoe size, or favorite
flavor of ice cream: boredom. There is a val-
iant group fighting the good fight. Nitrome is
a game developer out of London who got its
start with .innovative and cheeky flash games
on the web.

To continue fighting the good fight,
Nitrome releases the highest quality free apps
and games I have seen. I don’t mean free as in

you can play for 30 seconds and then have to
wait eight hours. I don’t mean free as in you
exist so that the players with money can beat
you up. These games are completely free and
playable without debilitating ads or unfair
game mechanics. One of their newer releases,
“Cooped Up,” has eradicated my boredom for
several weeks.

You are a beautiful chubby chicken“
esque bird recently admitted to an exotic bird
sanctuary. You’re feeling a bit peckish and
ready for a snack, but watch out for the other
birds. They’ve been cooped up for a little too
long. Jump your way to safety and be sure to

1

keep an eye out for that special golden bug.

In "Cooped Up,” you must slingshot
your way from platform to platform and avoid
the diseased neighbors of your new avian resi-
dence. The gameplay is as simple as tapping
and dragging from your little bird body to
slingshot yourself to the next level.

Feeling reminiscent of a cross be-
tween “Angry Birds” and “Doodle lump,”
“Cooped Up” is the most perfect blend of fling,
fling, die, repeat gameplay you could ask for.

The style is a bit unnerving at first.
While the form ofthe cartoon graphics is sim-
ple and clean, the content of these red, feather-

less, mad birds seeking to destroy you are a bit
strange without a story behind it.

Boasting a whopping 4.1 stars,
“Cooped Up” may not be the highest rated
game on the Play Store. Some of the negative
reviews will lament that if you touch the other
birds you die, or that losing makes the reviewer
sad.

Ifyou can keep your cool while play-
ing a mobile game, you’ll be in for a good time
with this one in particular. “Cooped Up” is fun,
odd, and polished just like every game you can
expect from the hands of Nitrome’s designers.

 

Image courtesy of nitrome.com

Bonnaroo Music Festival full of
good Vibes, unique performances

Soren Spicknall
TECHNEWS WRITER

Early in the morning, you’re woken
slowly and unwillingly as the rising Tennessee
heat outside your tent is magnified by its in-
terior confines, steadily turning what used to
be a respite from rain into a cloth sauna and
signaling the start of another long day without
access to functioning bathrooms, adequate cell
signal, or even so much as a spare breeze to
cool you down.

It’s Saturday, and you can’t remember
showering since Wednesday morning. The last
time you had access to air conditioning seems
like centuries ago. And yet, you will leave this
place on Monday declaring the past weekend
to have been the greatest you’ve ever had. It’s
day three of the Bonnaroo Music Festival, and
despite the fact that you’ve consistently only
managed three and a half hours of sleep since
Thursday, you’re ready to head to the center
of the festival grounds and spend another day
in the most positive community in the world,
experiencing performances that will become
legendary.

Every year for an extended sun-
soaked weekend in lune, the rural town of
Manchester, Tennessee briefly becomes one
of the state’s largest cities as 100,000 music fa-
natics converge on 780 acres off of I-24 for the
massive spectacle of Bonnaroo, the happiest
of America’s premier music festivals. Campers
from all 50 states and countless countries get
to know each other as neighbors Wednesday
night and Thursday morning while setting up
their sites, sharing with each other their sup-
plies, labor, and tips to survive the coming
days.

For 2015’s festival, IIT’s campus ra-
dio station, WIIT, sent their music director,
Soren Spicknall, and their Publicity Director,
Brendan Kelly, to the festival to chronicle the

world record for largest number of high fives
in an hour; another made it their personal
mission to carry an umbrella around for the
sole purpose of giving extra shade to people

who needed a break. One of Bonnaroo’s chief

danna to be worn all weekend and despite the
dirt that coated everybody’s camping gear and
vehicles by day two, the complete unbridled
happiness of The Farm was infectious, and
once inside, it became tough to find any reason

 

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of experiencing such seemingly disparate acts
as Billy Joel, Kendrick Lamar, Alabama Shakes,
DeadmauS, and Sylvan Esso all at the top of
their game. It’s considered truly to be a “musi-
ciari’s festival” because artists love to go there
to perform, see some of their own favorite acts
as an audience member, and even engage in
truly legendary collaborations. This year, for
example, Mumford & Sons brought members
of My Morning jacket, Dawes, Hozier, and The
War on Drugs on stage for a group Beatles cov—
er to end their set Saturday night, along with
actor Ed Helms.

At the annual collaborative ‘Roo
tradition of the “Superjam,” Chance the Rap—
per curated a stage occupied simultaneously
by Pretty Lights, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels of
Run DMC, Rob Trujillo of Metallica, and lack
Antanoff of Bleachers, among many others,
jamming out all at once.

Some of the best moments of the
festival, though, came not from collaborations,
but from phenomenal individual shows. Rob—
ert Plant brought out old Led Zeppelin mate—
rial with a full band for the first time in years.
Tyler Joseph of TWenty One Pilots scaled a
four—story lighting tower in front of the main
stage, despite explicit orders from festival or-
ganizers not to climb anything, wishing to sing
directly to fans in the back of the crowd. Elec-
tronic duo Cherub screamed through a late—
night DI set all the way to nearly 7 am. Sunday
morning, waking campers in confusion about
how the party could still possibly be going. For
historic performances and life~changing musi-
cal experiences, there’s no place like Bonnaroo.
And really, there’s no place like Bonnaroo in
general. There is no other festival, musical or
otherwise, that matches ‘Roo for sheer fun,
and despite the heat, the drawbacks of camp-
ing, and everything else that might keep some-
body from considering a ticket, every gripe is
forgotten as soon as you enter Centeroo and

the music begins.

This was WIIT’s first time sending
exec board members to Bonnaroo, but it defi-
nitely won’t be the last.

life of a Bonnaroovian. Though many music
festivals claim to create a community within
their grounds, there is simply no sense of unity
equal to that of The Farm during Bonnaroo.
This year, a single Bonnaroovian broke the

mottos is “radiate positivity,” and the environ—
ment in Centeroo and in the campgrounds was
nothing but positive from Wednesday night
until Monday morning.

Despite the heat that required a ban-

to leave. That eager and charitable atmosphere
is what makes Bonnaroo so special. That, and
the music.

Bonnaroo is one of the only festivals
in the world where you can have the privilege

Photo by Soren Spicknall
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