I believe that we are on this planet for a designated purpose, and it is up to each individual to discover what that purpose is. I was lucky enough to be born with a clear understanding of mine, as I cannot think of a time when I didn\u2019t want to be a rollerblading graffiti artist. They say it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert, but honestly, I feel like I\u2019ve dedicated my entire life to my craft.<\/p>\n
So you can imagine how excited I was when I heard \u201cJet Grind Radio\u201d was being released for the Sega Dreamcast back in the summer of 2000. Finally, my vocation would be getting the long overdue attention and respect it so profoundly deserved in the digital world. However, when I purchased my game and excitedly popped it into my console on that sunny June afternoon, my elation quickly turned into disgust and embarrassment. How could my life\u2019s work have been conveyed in such a dismissive and reductionist manner?<\/p>\n
For example, do you have any idea how long it took me to master the soul grind\/tagging combo? There\u2019s no way you think it\u2019s easy to spray paint your signature onto the side of a bus stop awning while zipping past on a nearby handrail, yet the game has you performing this onerous task after a quick tutorial with Gum in the very beginning. People earned doctorates in the time it took for me to successfully pull that off, for Christ\u2019s sake. Was it too much for me to expect my field be given the same deference that crazed taxi driving and combative kart racing had? Apparently so.<\/p>\n
I won\u2019t even get into the more insulting aspects of the game, like the assumption that all rollerblade graffiti artists are members of gangs and operate exclusively on the wrong side of the law. I\u2019ll have you know that I\u2019ve worked with both municipalities and businesses to make public and corporate life more aesthetically pleasing in my town, but try telling that to Sega. I guess a decent and upstanding citizen pulling off sick tricks while improving his community just wouldn\u2019t sell as well, and that\u2019s a goddamn shame.<\/p>\n
So go ahead and play \u201cJet Grind Radio\u201d or its even more offensive sequel \u201cJet Set Radio Future\u201d if you\u2019re so inclined. Just know that these are absolute parodies of a noble, honored profession that takes decades to perfect. In the meantime, I\u2019m going to grab some cans and hit the streets.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I believe that we are on this planet for a designated purpose, and it is up to each…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88,165872,180199,180200],"class_list":{"0":"post-366764","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-hdmain","14":"tag-jet-grind-radio","15":"tag-jet-set-radio"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}