Essays, Not Rants! 056: Great Artists Steal When explaining what make the Mac so good, Steve Jobs quoted Picasso saying “Good artists copy, great ones steal.” In an interesting twist of fate, that quote often gets attributed to Jobs now instead of Picasso (who may or may not have said it first). It’s a fun quote that definitely is the background for the Mac, it’s also very applicable to, y’know, art. And here that means everything. Especially Neill Blomkamp’s filmography. Who, you ask? You m
Essays, Not Rants! 055: Too Many Characters, Too Little Time I started watching Game of Thrones with a couple friends of mine because everybody and their grandmother (actually, no, your grandmother wouldn’t watch Game of Thrones) have been telling us how good it is. And it is, but that’s not quite the point of this essay (that’s not a rant). One of the great things about Thrones is the incredible amount of characters. Seriously, this show gives Lost a run for its money. Unlike Lost, however, T
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! 054: I Got You Did you see that new Iron Man 3 tv spot that dropped earlier this week? You should. Because this blog post is about it. If you haven’t seen it go watch it. See that bit at the end? When Pepper has the suit on and saves Tony? That’s crucial. You see, Tony Stark saves people. He’s a hero. That’s his job. But sometimes even the savior needs saving. Y’know what makes Tony Stark so special as a hero? He’s incredible vulnerable. He doesn’t have super-strength or
Essays, Not Rants! 053: Earn Your Ending Did you see Warm Bodies? Because you really should. It’s a great movie (and has zombies). And I mean a really great movie. We’re talking that sucker gets added to my BluRay collection the day it comes out. Of course, the comparisons to Zombieland are inevitable and rightly so: both have the same ‘genre’ and tone: zombie films with a level of comedy and romance. It’s their themes, however, that set them apart. Warm Bodies is overflowing with heart. Se
Here we are. Again. Finally. I've been busy. Welcome To The 4th Annual TMD Music Awards! Once again I find myself ranking ten albums from 2012 in order of bestness. As such there is not much need for an interlude, just that all ten of these albums are great albums you should check out. Special EP Mention: Freaks EP, The Hawk In Paris These guys are amazing. And Birds on a Wire is one of my favorite songs of the year. Give the EP a listen, a full album will be out in 2013. Top 10 Albums
Essays, Not Rants! 052: One Year Holy ow. This is my fifty-second post. That means I’ve been keeping up this blog for one year. One post a week for a whole year. Dang. I’m actually quite impressed I’ve managed to keep this up. My last attempt at a weekly blog wound up becoming bi-weekly, then monthly, then wheneverly. The fact that I’ve been keeping Essays, Not Rants! going for the past year with weekly posts of at 600-800ish words makes me want to give myself a self-five. Which I’ve done.
Essays, Not Rants! 051: Instant Tension: Just Add Guns Say three guys are discussing the proper pronunciation of the word milk. Then the argument heats up and they start yelling. Things are starting to get a little intense Now one of them pulls a gun on the others. Things just got real, man! Then the other guys pull out their guns! Just like that the tension in the story jumps through the roof and the argument about elocution is forgotten in favor of will these friends kill themselves over it.
Starting Monday I'll be starting work at the Just Salad on 8th St. I think they sell salad. On the one hand, this might mean so long to bunches of free time and stuff that that entails (like Daily Show trips, long late night conversations, too many video games, Cookies and Coloring Club). But then this means money. Which means I can buy stuff. Like the Iron Man 3 sets, ME3 DLC, a black tie, alcohol, movie tickets, gloves, and so on. Heck, I may be able to eat out now and then. But yeah.
Essays, Not Rants! 050: Art or Not Here at NYU I hear a lot of things about movies and art and stuff. With the Oscars being last week and half of my classes being primarily film related, I heard plenty (like how Beasts of the Southern Wild was everything an indie film needed to be [...so?]). But one thing that really stuck out to me was the opinion that Argo shouldn’t have won since Argo was more Summer blockbuster fare as opposed to Best Picture fare. Yeah, I know, I touched on this last week
Essays, Not Rants! 049: Quality and the Oscars So it’s Oscar time. Which means award times. And, well, I’m mildly disappointed with some of the nominations. I find that movies, video games, and so on can’t be judged subjectively or comparatively. Least not on a flat scale of quality+writing+cinematography+explosions. Here’s how I judge stuff: did it accomplish what it set out to do, and did it do it well? It’s an odd scale, yeah, but it’s one that works. Like Lincoln, the movie that snatched
Essays, Not Rants! 048: The Problem With Play Station All-Stars Battle Royale Yeah, I know, the game came out almost three months ago. I got it for free in a bundle a while back and have been debating selling or keeping it. I’d played Play Station All-Stars Battle Royale before and figured it was alright. The other night, some friends and I decided to finally open it up (negating resale value) and beat each other up. Virtually, that is. Now, way back in the Nintendo 64 days (mid-90’s, earl
So Amazon has this thing where groups can crowdsource menial tasks to folks for menial pay. As a broke college kid (who desperately wants to be able to buy books, movie tickets, and Iron Man 3 Legos), it is my duty to perform these tasks. ...while watching TV in another window, of course.
Essays, Not Rants! 047: The Unnecessity of Dialogue I’m in a filmmaking class here at NYU that focuses on visual storytelling. That is, no dialogue. At first that sounds like quite a challenge since it’s the script and speaking that tend to carry a story. So that got me thinking: what’re the benefits when we don’t have dialogue? Anyone remember the video game LEGO Star Wars that came out several years ago? It’s a retelling of (obviously) the Star Wars movies only with LEGO. There’s no dialog
Essays, Not Rants! 046: Why Abrams Is The Man For Star Wars A little more than a week ago it was officially announced that JJ Abrams would be directing the new Star Wars. Some people met this news with a measure of caution. Myself? I think Abrams is the person to direct it. L ook at Mission: Impossible III. Abrams made his directorial debut with the sequel to this established series. He kept strongly to the themes and style of the original TV show (so I’m told). Not only was it considered
Essays, Not Rants! 045: Broken Pieces I saw Silver Linings Playbook the other day and loved it (it is currently my favorite of this year’s Oscar nominations). For many reasons, really. Like the brilliantly intelligent script that doesn’t talk down to its audience, some great cinematography, stellar acting and so on. But what really got me was how the protagonists were just so broken. No, not their lives; they were broken. There’s a difference. Let’s take Uncharted. Nathan Drake is not a brok
My apologies for not updating this more regularly. You really think I would given the whole being in Spain and Morocco thing. But anyway. We spent a day in Cordoba, two nights in Grenada (the Spanish city, not the Carribean island [yes, I have to make this distinction]), then drove to Tarifa and took a ferry to Tangiers where we've been since. I suppose it's time for another list? Have I mentioned how awesome it is to have your school pay for your wine and beer? I may or may not have been p
Essays, Not Rants! 044: In Defense of Fan-Fiction I’ve written my share of fan fiction. Be it about Star Wars, Bionicle adventures, or Mega Man stories; trust me: I’ve written my fanfics. Thing is, that was years ago. I’ve hardly done anything remotely fan fictiony (be it an animation or a piece of writing) in years. I guess I grew out of it; I wanted to make my own worlds and not lean on someone else’s work as a basis. I wanted my stories to be mine and independent. Of course, I still read
I feel like I should have mentioned this earlier. For my January term I, and a group from Gallatin at NYU, are off to Spain and Morocco for a couple weeks. We just arrived in Cordoba today after spending the last few days in Madrid (and one in Toledo!). So I guess here are some quick highlights: Sometimes it seems like Spain has a vendetta against free public wifi Walking around Madrid is loads of fun Having epic group meals are fantastic; especially when your university is paying for both
Essays, Not Rants! #043: Old Made New So y’know how Les Misérables came out over Christmas? Of course you do: your neighbor’s been singing it incessantly since (which song? All of them, duh). While musicals are nothing new, Les Misérables was special because they recorded the actors singing live on set and added the orchestration in post-production. Usually, the songs are recorded beforehand and lip-synched to during filming. The route Les Mis took allowed them to try the songs several differe
