We’ve been having warm and fuzzy feelings about Stephin Merritt ever since the Magnetic Fields’ ’90s revival track “Andrew in Drag” hit the internet, but turns out the oddball frontman just as keen on the future as he is on the past. In collaboration with D.I.Y. video arcade collective Babycastles, the Museum of Natural History is presenting Space Cruiser, a 200-person video game starring Merritt, available to play next Thursday only.
As The Observer explains, the planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space has been re-imagined as a spaceship, which you will be able to control (with a bunch of other music and video game nerds). Babycastles co-founder Syed Salahuddin elucidated further: “A multi-player control deck at the center of the theater will offer a small crew the chance to navigate the spacecraft together, piloting through treacherous asteroid belts. The crew is an unassigned, free-form team that works together to pilot the spaceship, with various parts of the ship spread out over the theater while being guided by a on-board computer system that is voiced by Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields.” This may be crazy, or this may be totally awesome. The only way to find out is to buy a ticket (try the discount code “BEYOND”) and let us know. [via Stereogum]