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Autolux and The Peels at Northstar
Alisa and I went to see Autolux play at Northstar bar in Philly on June 1st, and it was great. We both like Autolux (Alisa especially so), so we really went just to see them. Unfortunately, because we have early-morning jobs (I have to get up at around 5 AM when commuting to NYC), we didn’t stay for the headlining Ravonettes. But The Peels were new to both of us and they were on first, so we did get at least a little extra rock culture exposure from the night.
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You Can Buy It How!?
I just bought chicken tikka masala by the pound today, at a local farmers’ market.
There is no going back from this point.
If you find me underneath a mountain of delicious Indian morsels, you will know why.
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Deep Throat? Really? You Don’t Say…
Does anyone else get a kick seeing most of the major news outlets in the United States displaying the phrase ’deep throat’ on their front pages and covers?
I mean, think about it. Am I the only one thinking this?
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Requiem in Use
This past weekend, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that a gorgeous typeface I’d (very prematurely) considered a touch too mannered for the staid realm of book typography, is actually a pleasure to read. That face is Hoefler & Frere-Jones‘s gorgeous and classically striking Requiem. -
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
Well, I officially forgive Lucas for Episode II‘s tepid romance scenes. But that’s about it. Episode III is very cool when it’s good, but otherwise it’s swatting you with obvious plot points or making you squirm with dead, unecessary scenes when it’s not.
Go see it, but don’t expect too much. Watch it for the sci-fi space war and Jedi fight scenes, nothing else.
Ass kicks Yoda does.
Ad Exec Reviews: The Saga is Complete; The Light Side to the Dark Side
MPAA Review: sci-fi violence and some intense images -
City of God
City of God (Cidade de Deus), directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, adapted Bráulio Mantovani from the novel by Paulo Lins, is easily one of the best films I’ve seen in a long time, if not ever.
Buscapé, ’Rocket’, the fragile and vibrant thread that runs furtively through this stunning and frenetic film.I can really say no more than these few things, without minimizing the story and the truth behind it: this film shows how easily foreign films can eviscerate even the best efforts of American filmmakers. It is hard to believe that an American director or writer could even conceive of, let alone create and produce, such a horrifying, effusive, scrutinizing, and empathetic work. City of God takes the efforts of some of our greatest and most stylistically masterful films (the Godfather trilogy and Pulp Fiction come to mind), rolls them up, smokes them with a casual look, and blows them back at us, leaving us reeling in the fog of violence and desperation, with visions induced by the potency of truth.
Go, see it now. There are few films I can recommend more highly.
Ad Exec Reviews: Fight and you’ll never survive….. Run and you’ll never escape.; If you run it will get you. If you stay it will eat you.; Drugs Guns Music Love
MPAA Review: strong brutal violence, sexuality, drug content and language. -
Project: Snowblind
I bought and beat Project: Snowblind a few weeks ago, and it had its moments, but is ultimately not worth replaying. The reviews it’s getting say something similar: it’s not very original, but it’s a fun, solid shooter. Well, I agree and disagree.
Snowblind is a first person shooter that repeatedly reminded me of Halo (one of my favorites), but lacks the tight, clean integrity of Bungie’s classic in terms of gameplay, interface, and story. I’m going to guess that the developers either: had planned a great game and lacked the time/money to work out the flaws and polish it, or a bad game that benefitted from a lot of love and appreciation for great shooter gaming. I can’t tell which, but the project did start off as a Deus Ex spin-off, and became what it is now, so perhaps that shifting prevented Crystal Dynamics (which is related to Eidos of Tomb Raider fame) from giving it the amount of attention and refinement it really would’ve benefitted from.
But first, let’s focus on what Snowblind does right.
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Activist Judges Are Made Up, You Idiots
Alright, everyone. Apparently many of you need my help here, so I’m going to put it in simple terms: Activist judges are not liberal or conservative. They are imaginary.
Some people in politics, particularly conservatives in the media’s light, are railing against ’activist judges’ with phrases like this one:
“Ideologically driven courts have disregarded and dismissed the president’s evaluations of foreign policy concerns, in favor of theories generated by academic elites, foreign bodies and judicial imagination,” Ashcroft said.
I will translate. What he’s saying is that he’d rather have judges that agree with him and the current administration, than with someone else. Notice the lack of specific examples.
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Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger: First Impressions
So, this year, I didn’t geek out completely and go to the ’Night of the Tiger’ at the local Apple Store (but I came close) for the release of Apple‘s latest OS upgrade: Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. I went to the Night of the Panther for Mac OS X 10.3, and it was fun, but the hassle didn’t seem worth it this year (I don’t work near the store anymore). But I did go the next day, so that counts for something, right? Well, now that I’ve been working with Tiger for about a week, and putting it through some of its paces, I believe I can confidently say: Tiger’s pretty damn cool in some particularly useful and immediate ways (Dashboard and Spotlight being the obvious ones), but much of it isn’t quite as glorious as I’d like, especially in contrast with my jump from Mac OS 9.2 to 10.3, which was like waking up on a sunny day after a week of rain.A big part of this less-than-perfectly-happy feeling is Tiger’s addiction to RAM (and the apps I run). My machine meets the minimum RAM requirement for Tiger: 512 MB. The minimum requirement (Apple’s always forging ahead, for better or worse). I figure 1 GB is the only way to get truly smooth performance out of this OS’s fancier features. It’s not to say that my workflow has slowed or anything, it definitely hasn’t, but the prettier features have a slightly noticeable lag to them, rather than their intended immediacy. makes it not as snappy as I believe it was meant to be. Also, if you have and use Panther, much of the surface OS is functionally identical, so the difference isn’t as dramatic…kind of.
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Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy
Alisa and I caught Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy this weekend. I really like it. You could like it to, as long as you do one thing (no, it’s not “Don’t panic.”): don’t take it seriously at all. If you can do this, then the movie should be an utterly zany and very funny experience. If you can’t, it’ll probably be frustrating and annoying. Which sucks for you.I’m not going to go into great detail, but the acting is great (go, Mos Def!), the production design is a solid combination of old and new school effects, and the story makes no sense but in a completely fun way, and the Guide‘s graphics are clean, sharp, and very well designed (for the entertainment purposes of a movie; Shynola is the British animation company responsible for them). There’s a tacked-on romance that falls just short of Neo and Trinity’s completely ham-fisted romance from the first Matrix movie in terms of horrible train-wreck narrative flow, but in a klutzy, drunk-at-a-wedding way that makes you feel uncomfortable, waiting for it to play itself out. Fortunately, it’s not a big component of the film.
Go see it! It’s fun. End of story. Also, there’s probably going to be a sequel based on The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
Ad Exec Review: Don’t Panic
MPAA Review: Thematic Elements, Action and Mild Language
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