They All Fall Down: Domino Extravaganza in Brattleboro

Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

There is something terrifically satisfying about watching a careful array of dominoes collapse. Maybe it's the pleasing clickety-click, or the careful design, or (my candidate) the ephemerality of the whole thing. It takes hours, maybe days, to set up one of those complicated, thousands-of-dominoes arrays, and just a couple minutes for the whole thing to come crashing down.

But then, that's the whole point, right?

Aficionados of tiny, colorful, clacking controlled chaos need to get themselves to the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center for the Seventh Annual Domino Toppling Extravaganza on Monday, February 17, at 5 p.m. Thousands upon thousands of the colorful little tiles will fall on cue to the delight of onlookers.

Last year, the event set a record: 27,134 dominoes. The video of that event is huge fun to watch. Check it out below.

Birnam Woods' Pathogen Is Spreading

In last week's Seven Days, arts writer Ethan de Seife checked in with Burlington-based Birnam Wood Games about its new release, Pathogen. The strategy game, published by Boston-based Gameblyr, debuted on the App Store on Thursday.

BWG held a Pathogen launch party on Friday night, complete with pizza and beer. Dozens of the gamers' friends and supporters crowded the street-level gallery in the Maple Street building, downstairs from the BWG office, to congratulate its designers, including developer Matt Brand and designer/creator Zach Bohn (pictured below). Several iPads were set up for game play, including one that projected its screen onto the floor (right).

Pathogen got some good press upon its release, and not just in Seven Days; arts and culture site the Verge also noted Pathogen's infectious potential.