Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Why the 1856 Leaves of Grass is a better value than Wii Fit Plus

Wii Fit Plus: 6 more yoga/strength exercises, 15 new minigames, for a total of 21 new items
Leaves of Grass: 20 more poems than 1855 edition, total number of new pages difficult to ascertain due to smaller size
Winner: Wii Fit Plus

Wii Fit Plus: Requires Nintendo Balance Board, which can be stowed neatly under a seat or leaned against a wall
Leaves of Grass: Fits in a large pocket, definitely in a purse, briefcase, or backpack
Winner: Leaves of Grass

Wii Fit Plus: Lets you imagine yourself Mario
Leaves of Grass: Lets you imagine yourself a kosmos
Winner: Leaves of Grass

Wii Fit Plus: Rowing, squats, downward dog, jackknife crunches, sun salutation, skateboarding, others
Leaves of Grass:
The swimmer naked in the swimming-bath, seen
as he swims through the transparent green-
shine, or lies with his face up, and rolls
silently in the heave of the water,
The bending forward and backward of rowers in
row-boats, the horseman in his saddle,
Girls, mothers, house-keepers, in all their per-
formances...
The young fellow hoeing corn, the sleigh-driver
guiding his six horses through the crowd,
The wrestle of wrestlers, two apprentice-boys,
quite grown, lusty, good-natured, native-born,
out on the vacant lot at sun-down, after work,
The coats and caps thrown down, the embrace of
love and resistance,
The upper-hold and under-hold, the hair rumpled
over and blinding the eyes;
The march of firemen in their own costumes, the
play of masculine muscle through clean-set-
ting trowsers and waist-straps...

Winner: Leaves of Grass

Wii Fit Plus: Allows you to create exercise routines of 20, 30, or even 60 minutes
Leaves of Grass: Contains poetic sequences which can take well over an hour to read
Winner: Tie

Wii Fit Plus: No jumping on the Balance Board. No sex. Ever.
Leaves of Grass: Jump in the grass. "Jump" in the grass. "Jump" the grass itself, if that's your thing.
Winner: Leaves of Grass

Overall winner: Leaves of Grass

4 comments:

chief said...

Damn this is good! I jump on the Wii board - can't help myself - every time, yet I can jump around with Whitman much as I want. I can swim with the swimmers, wrestle with the wrestlers. march in line with the firemen [oh, those firemen!] Wii with the wee yoga lads and lasses, and pause, listen, count.

Whitman wins, definately... tho I do like the Wii trapset.
Tamam

JeFF Stumpo said...

Tamam,

I'm a fan of our Wii as well. Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party is a great parody of Wii Fit and the various minigame selections (slaloming on a Wildebeest, using your butt on the board to steer, for example). But Whitman wins (cue cheering crowd)!

Anonymous said...

Thank you for those other resources for poetry!! So awesome! So great to hear from the guy in the video :) And duh...Whitman. :)

JeFF Stumpo said...

Hi, Nicholette,

Glad the other ASL poems worked out for you. In case you're interested in other stuff I've done that isn't ASL, I've got various other performance pieces (both mp3s and video) up at my website: www.jeffstumpo.com.

Thanks for stopping by :-)