While browsing Twitter after class I realized that Celebration was happening now. And there was a live stream. Couple minutes later Dylan and I had it playing on the projector in the Gallatin lounge. Then they announced that they were about to show the teaser. One of the grad students turned off the lights in the room (because who cares if a couple people are studying, this is Star Wars). Dude. Dude. Dude. Dude. There were cheers. There was swearing (hey, that opening shot of the crashed S
Essays, Not Rants! 067: Protagonists, Goals, and Conviction Let’s talk about the characters in The Last of Us. Because I still want to talk about that game. For the sake of direction, we’ll focus on Joel and Ellie, because they’re the protagonists (and arguably each other’s antagonist) and you spend nearly eighteen hours with them. I’m going to try to keep this mostly spoiler-free, but since this’ll be discussing characters and arcs and development, be warned of mentions and implications and
Essays, Not Rants! 017: Worlds Need Rules I like writing. No, not just my weekly essay (which is certainly not a rant), but fiction. Sometimes I write stuff grounded firmly in this world, but I really enjoy building worlds of fantasy or science fiction. I’ve got a science fiction side project I like to fiddle with here and there and I run a fantasy RPG with some friends. For both of these I’ve made intricate worlds with some semblance of a history and culture. But just as important as the sett
Essays, Not Rants! 289: Giant Robots It is no secret that I absolutely adore Pacific Rim. Granted, and watching giant mechs and giant mechs beat the stuffing outta each other is only a part of it. See, there’s the pure childish glee to it, the great speech, and, of course, its youthful and hopeful worldview. Pacific Rim is a movie about giant mechs and giant monsters, but it’s because it’s so much more than the battle between Jaegers and Kaiju that the movie made the impression it did, it’s wh
I'm taking Games 101 this semester and a lot of people laugh or are jealous because sometimes my homework is playing Halo, Settlers of Catan, or Mega Man 2 (or this week: Civilization V, Advance Wars, or StarCraft II). Thing is, my midterm is tomorrow (Monday) and I'm cramming. People, I will have to see a picture of a game in play and write down the name, date, developer, platform, and country of origin. AND THAT IS JUST THE FIRST PART OF THE TEST. I HAVE NOTE CARDS. I HAVE NEVER NEEDED NOT
Essays, Not Rants! 219: Being There It’s a stormy night in 1995 and you’re a college student just returned from a year abroad. During that time your family moved to a large house on the outskirts of town. A house, you discover, without anyone home that looks like it’s been stolen. That’s how Gone Home opens, a game where you assume the role of Kaitlin and explore your new house, trying to figure out what happened during the year you were away. Now, Gone Home toes the line of being a video
Essays, Not Rants: 028: The Hero and the Antihero The Avengers came out on BluRay (and DVD, but I’m a BluRay person) on Tuesday. Naturally, I have it. Now, stop your groaning: this isn’t another post just about how good that movie is. Well, okay, it kinda is, but not only. Trust me. See, Iron Man and Captain America embody two distinct archetypes. Cap’s the hero, Iron Man’s the antihero. But neither Steve Rogers nor Tony Stark fall into the abyss of dull stereotypes. Typically, these stere
Essays, Not Rants! 179: Learning From (Others’) Failure You can learn a lot about storytelling from taking in great stories. Let The Last of Us teach you about immersive storytelling. Don Quixote effortlessly plays with the characters’ relation to the narrative. Learn how to have a bunch of different character arcs in motion from The Avengers. Bad stories can also teach you a lot, especially bad movies. I’m not talking so-bad-it’s-good stuff like The Room where the movie fails so hard it cre
Essays, Not Rants! 148: I'm Complaining About The LEGO Movie Snub Too I’ve made it clear that I don’t really care for movie awards. Mostly because there’s a level of snobbery and predictability to them and also because, well, mostly because of the snobbery. So naturally, like many people, I have great opinions on the stuff I don’t care about. Like how this year’s acting nominations are blindingly whitewashed. Which, sure, happens, but is also incredibly indicative of culture as a whole and
Essays, Not Rants! 164: Let’s Talk About That Whole Black Widow Thing People are mad on the internet. As usual. The hubbub recently, though, is about choices made regarding Black Widow in Age of Ultron. Now, I’m a big fan of Black Widow. I’d really like her to get her own movie and Nathan Edmonson’s run on the comics has been fantastic (issue #13 is framed on my wall). And I’ll be the first to admit that a character beat in Age of Ultron did throw me off for a bit. But I didn’t realize the fur
So my RPG group (Well, Sasha/Leesi) wanna do a prison break. So tomorrow we're doing a prison break. And I'm working on the adventure now 'cuz I've had a busy week. First things first, they gotta get in prison. So during a brief stint on Cato Nemodia, they'll be given a parking ticket. Knowing the group this should spiral nicely out of control. Now I'm working on a prison. I figure I gotta find weak points for them to exploit, but really, these guys are creative. I think I'll throw in a guy
Essays, Not Rants! 144: Of Movies and North Korea I have a strange fascination with a certain North Korean dictator. Maybe it’s because he’s barely eight years older than me, hangs out with Dennis Rodman, and tyrannically rules a country of 25 million people with a combination of a cult-of-personality and sheer terror. Like I said, fascinating. So naturally I was really looking forward to The Interview. I had passes to a preview of it on Thursday and was all set. Only, it turns out, North
As promised, here are a few more shots from the midnight showing. Looking important Pepper helping adjust the repulsor arm Just plain cool So hard to resist
My brother's a big fan so I asked her to hold up my notebook so I could send it to him. Which I did. I also saw Andrew Garfield, Daniel Mindel, and Marc Webb. Film sets are cool, man. Anyway. I need to go edit my film now. The one that I shot in Grand Central and stuff.
Because once upon a time the kid visited a ship when it was berthed in Ireland. And that ship, though it was not my ship, was the successor to my ship. By the transitive property of ships, that makes him cool. Real cool. He's also a neat guy who does a good job of living life and not dying. Which, really, is harder than it sounds. Take it from me. And because he posts entries like this. *raises glass*
Essays, Not Rants! 212: Something Something Diversity Something Star Wars There’s a new Star Wars trailer out, this time for Rogue One! Now, when they announced it to be about a ragtag band of Rebels stealing the Death Star plans; that got me excited. I’m all about ragtag teams pulling off heists. But then they announced the cast. We’ve got Felicity Jones starring and, in addition to Forest Whitaker, people with last names like Luna, Yen, Wen, and Ahmed. If there’s one thing I like as much as
Man, I want some Legos. And I have a measure of disposable income I could use to by some. And I can probably rearrange some of the shelves in my apartment to accommodate the space. And I'm getting a big paycheck this Friday where I'll get a couple months worth of pay at once. And now that summer's over my electricity bill has gone down. And, y'know, that Palace Cinema looks downright dope. Or that Falcon. Or that new AT-AT. And/or the Hulkbuster. And the set with Miles Morales.
Essays, Not Rants! 247: Thoughts on the Prequel Trilogy Last year I watched all three of the original Star Wars movies and commented on them in the lead to The Force Awakens. Since we’ve got another prequel coming out, I figured I’d do the same thing for the prequels before Rogue One (which I’m seeing on Thursday [!!!] on the biggest freaking screen in New York City[!!!]). Now, I have a soft spot for the prequels, so this isn’t going to be the angry nerd ranting you may expect. In fact, I
There was a moment tonight, at the Lego Store Event, when the Bionicle folks said "anything you build tonight you can take home." Deevee's face lit up and all of us made a mad dash for the pieces bin. Some people built part hogs (I have never seen so many ball joints on a technic axle before), some built multi-armed multi-weaponed multi-headed beings, I... well, I did this: I even added gear functionality! I wasn't near the actual sets, hence some of the not-rightness in comparison to the