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| Thursday, October 6, 2005 10:31 AM |
| Smatterings and Smithereens |
 by Fëanor |
- My review of the stellastarr* show is up on Phillyist. I'm pretty proud of this piece for a couple of reasons: 1) I think it's pretty well written, and 2) it's the first piece I've sent in that wasn't altered in any way before it was posted (which might be because it got posted late and they probably didn't have time to go over it thoroughly, but still). Also, now that I have my own account (although no staff page yet), I don't even need a by-line anymore, because my name appears at the bottom of the story automatically. Sweet.
- An interesting longer article from Wired about one of the founding fathers of videogaming, Nolan Bushnell, and his plan for a new high tech restaurant franchise, sort of like an adult version of Chuck E. Cheese (a restaurant which he also helped develop). The restaurant is called uWink Media Bistros, and it sounds pretty cool - there'll be video game consoles throughout featuring hundreds of new games designed by Bushnell, TVs showing short entertainments like music videos and movie trailers, and a touchscreen order system instead of a waiter or waitress (although humans have sadly not been replaced entirely; actual people will still have to run the food out to you). Sounds awesome!
Problem is, Bushnell's "new" games aren't exactly innovative; they're all basically just slightly different versions of already existing games, like his new version of Pong called Ping, where you can move the paddles forward and back as well as from side to side. Bushnell is also a bit of a video game prude, deploring violent and filthy games like Grand Theft Auto, and I don't like anybody who wants to take away my violence and filth. Video games are often a rather solitary, immersive pursuit for me, but Bushnell feels they should be a background facilitator to social interaction - a way to meet girls, in other words. Now, I don't mind playing games with other people - I love to, in fact; anybody up for some Mario Superstar Baseball? - but I think the game should be strong enough to be the central part of our pursuit, instead of something so dull and mindless that I don't even need to pay attention to it.
Still, despite his odd ideas and seeming lack of imagination in terms of game design, I'd still definitely like to haul along some friends to check out one of these uWink places. They aren't quite the restaurants of my dreams, but they sound like they're close enough.
- Kds just gave me the bad news that stately Wayne manor has burned to the ground. Suck!
- As soon as I heard that Katie Holmes is pregnant with Tom Cruise's demon seed, I thought of that scene in V where the little green lizard baby is born.
- Renee Zellweger is apparently going to be the star of the American remake of the terrible, awful, stupid Asian horror flick The Eye. Hideo Nakata, director of the original Ringu, is helming this one, but can he save it? I would say probably not, considering that his last film was the thoroughly disappointing American Ring 2 (which had nothing to do with the rather interesting and well done Japanese Ringu 2, despite the fact that he also directed that one).
Nakata is apparently also set to direct a film adaptation of Natsuo Kirino's novel Out, which was a recent selection at poppy's book club. Hopefully he'll at least be able to pull that off well...
- I love that there are some Senators (though admittedly only 9) who actually voted against a measure that would standardize army interrogation techniques and ban the use of "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" against anyone in the custody of the US government. Even better, the White House is threatening to veto it, and has released a statement saying (and I'm paraphrasing a bit here), "But...but...we like to torture people!" I'm so glad we have a compassionate administration that endorses a "culture of life."
I seriously can't believe something like this is even in question, that we even have to pass a law that says you shouldn't torture people. WTF?! I thought we were supposed to be the advanced, humane nation, the leader of the free world! I also thought there were already international laws in place that kind of covered this. Oh, wait, but those are "quaint" and we can just ignore them. Gar!
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