Apocalypse: Anytime Now...

Are Violent Video Games Adequately Preparing Children For The Apocalypse?


I do want to be there when the already thinned out line between satire and reality vanishes into the harsh winds that blow dryly over the barren post-apocalyptic wasteland.

A prospective classic Onion segment which brings tears to my eyes (Ah-ha, double entendre).

Space Something Miners and Turrets and Enemy Ships Approaching...you get the idea

The game itself is mildly addictive. I call it a net-defense type, a sub genre of desktop tower defense, and its basic premise is that you build a network of resource conducting pipeline to power your miners and turrets. Wave after wave, a variety of enemies attack from four corners of the space, and most quests are about you being able to survive those attacks. It is however a good game if not great. It falls in the category of casual games though. Not that today's hardcore games are much more sophisticated than this one, but the play mechanics dictate so. Follow the link to the game.

Sita Sings The Blues

"Sita is a goddess separated from her beloved Lord and husband Rama. Nina is an animator whose husband moves to India, then dumps her by e-mail. Three hilarious shadow puppets narrate both ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this beautifully animated interpretation of the Indian epic Ramayana. Set to the 1920’s jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw, Sita Sings the Blues earns its tagline as “The Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told.”"
-Reel13 blog

Not much more need be told. 20's jazz and 4000 B.C.'s epic narrative gets a bit annoying after a while but that is the fault of the century that we live in. Enjoy the link.

Movie Generator

Every sci-fi movie ever made in one single chart. Goes to prove that engineering is about taking the fun apart in everything, then adding new fun.

Don't shit your pants

A survival horror game.

When I started this blog I was fully aware the density of the refuse internet could come up with. This particular example shines like no shit has even shone before. Follow the link to a game that will put you under such an unprecedented distress that you might shit your pants.

Michiko to Hatchin

Anime!

I will cut to the chase.
Michiko to Hatchin is produced by
Manglobe which also produced
Samurai Champloo and Ergo Proxy.
Hiroshi Shimizu, and Shinichirō Watanabe key character designer and music producer.

Just those two names should be about enough reason to watch it. Unfortunately I cannot say more about it without further ripping off from this very well written article from "Tim Maughan Books". Pay it a visit for more information about the series and other anime goodness.

Violence?

Blood?
check.
Zombie meatbag creatures?
check.
Shotgun?
check.

Shotgun Fun Fun. Created by a certain Chad the game delivers what its name promises. Violence is the key word here kids and it works like a charm. The game is simple. Walk, jump, climb around, aim with a shotgun and shoot the creatures that awkwardly look like everyone you ever wanted to kill (you know, just to get in that scoreboard), and bathe in their blood, hear the lamentation of their women. I could do without the Conan reference of course but I will not pass away this opportunity. The game is rather dull, and by rather I mean extremely and you will not probably play it longer than a couple of minutes but hey, it gets the message across.

Not much else needs to be said. Follow the link to play the game.

Bossa

Who gives half a crap about bossa nova? Apparently I do. And so should you if you have a sliver of hope left in your heart for all that is aesthetic and pleasant. Which brings me to today's blog du jour.

Aguas de marco, or waters of march is a melancholic bossa nova piece (as if any other form exists HA!) that has been around forever. It is basically a huge haiku, or more precisely a shopping list of things that will portray a nice laid back evening under the spring sun. But the blog entry is about its variations, namely a coke ad, trader joe's fan advert, an original performance, a sealab episode bum pumpumpum... To be honest the coca cola ad really hits the spot.

Russian Animation

Russian Animation always hits the nail on the head when it comes to pinpointing human discomfort and despair even in the most lighthearted variations of its genre. Or so do the ones I have seen so far.

It is indeed rare in a sense. Except for the occasional anime which goes deep into human psyche but does not cut down on the giant robot battles and teen drama, and pseudo-artistic independent french animation that only gets the third place in international award ceremonies because it is french and artsy, we are only offered unadulterated ingenuity by the Russians much like in the previous centuries when the books were still cool.

So there you go, the link leads to an article with the latest examples of flash animations of Russian origin. Lucky for us it is not a variation of [#] [adjective] [noun] genre internet lists and gives a nice background story and critique of each animation it presents.

Robokill

A fantastic flash arcade shooter by Rock Solid Arcade where you control a robot and guess what... shoot things. It reminded me of the Alien Breed series from back in the good old days. To play the full game you have to pay, but you can play the first 5 levels for free and it is a good amount of play. Follow the link for the game.

Black Thin King from Birdo Studio on Vimeo.

Do I know what Black Thinking is?

Yes I do, it is a sales pitch website for OCB, rolling papers I presume, trying to get people to buy more rolling papers. Also it sounds a lot like a porn movie starring an black person who does a lot of thinking about which of them bitc... nevertheless, my point is neither of those, but a promo for the company, a neat animation called Black Thin King, reminiscent of the very first cartoons with jerky characters and objects who cannot stand still for a second as if they have been popping some pills for the very first time.

So try not to smoke, but buy rolling papers, they seem to come up with neater promos than tobacco companies anyhow.

Polish Movie Posters

It seems that there is something about USA that makes the rest of the world so irritated that they end up doing one thing much better than Americans could do, just to spite them. And fuck up the rest. I do not really know much about Poland, other than that it is nothing great, and has a border with Germany. But they did co-produce Avalon with the Japanese and they have absolutely fantastic movie posters. I mean some of them are actually better than the movies themselves and make American movie posters look like elementary school collages.

The site hosts a personal list of the best 50 polish movie posters and gracefully spares us the shit by not littering them with useless comments. Actually there is not much to say apart from how amazing they are. So enjoy the link.

The Political Compass

Are you a communist, or a neo-liberal? Do you have anarchic tendencies, or do you lean towards taking fascist measures because those minorities are stealing your job?

To be honest I do not partake in internet quizzes, nor do I click to those Learn Your IQ adverts since they are as useful as an asshat on your elbow (to cover that asshole), however I must say that there are a few online tests which hold some scientific ground. The Political Compass is one of them. The only actual political leaning test that has somewhat valid results. The test itself is tuned for American public and some of the questions hold references to present issues in US politics. On the other hand if you cannot say that an anarchist is an anarchist in America and elsewhere in the world why do we even bother coming up with an terminology, right? So it should be applicable to anyone from the western democracies as long as they read the newspapers once in a while to see what is going down. In the case that you still believe that Stalin was the man, or chairman Mao is looking over your shoulder to see that you take care of that makeshift steel mill I would not say that you can get accurate results.

They also have a map that shows the famous composers' leanings. It is always nice to know that Wagner, however good a composer he was, also was leaning towards neo-liberal authoritarian, much like Thatcher and Bush.

Follow the link straight to the test.

Dresden Codak

"What: Dresden Codak is an illustrated celebration of science, death and human folly."

Dresden Codak is a delectable webcomic that is oftentimes laced with philosophical and sciencific lingo cooked with content aged in geek barrels. Here are the latest two episodes (59, 60) which are hilariously forcing you to google some of the terms and names just to get a fair percentage of the overall humour, that is unless you know your philosophy and mathematics.

Follow the link for the homepage.

Robot and the Cities that Built Him

A very promising flash game prototype. Concept is simple, well conveyed, and prospectively addictive. Needs more blood and mayhem in my opinion but it is a matter of taste I suppose. The developer claims to have created it in one week and uses this fact to lower your expectations masterfully. Enjoy.

Free Will: yeah right!

Fun article from Scientific American about the nature of the thing that we perceive as free will, and why it does certainly not exist. The article takes the issue in hand providing a "scientific buffer zone of uncertainty" while explaining the facts so that it does not offend any of the major gods of science, but the message is subtly there in case you did not know it already: You can never be as spontaneous as Natalie Portman wanted you to believe you could be in Garden State, and yes, movies lied to you once again.

Apparently knowing that you are just a simple organism who has no more free will than any other makes you more prone to cheat on psychological research tests and slightly more inclined to listen to Cure and to cut yourself just to see if you still feel. Since logically you cannot feel responsible for your actions given that they are predetermined and you do not really stand a chance to change anything at all, only thing that is left is to accept the bitter fact that you are just deterministically inclined to feel sad and gloomy when shit hits the fan that is stoic morality (i.e. whatever distorted representation of altruistic or egoistic rulebook chiseled in your brain along with reptilian instincts).

Also it turns out that the inherent feeling that things could have been otherwise if you were given a chance, and knowing that you should have had the power but you failed with every consecutive breath you took, and you will never be presented a chance, ever, tends to make you a humbler and eventually a more moral person.

I would say it is good to know, but what's the point if I was already meant to say th...gah, what's the p..

Jazz Update: the final update?

After the previous post I ended up attending the Soul Prophets' live performance in SJU Jazzpodium, a newly formed jazz band whose music I stumbled upon in the ever endless depths of the internets by divine interference of sheer luck. Their music was in accord with the regulations of jazzyness, well executed, and entertaining. To put it more informally the performance was quite awesome. Only slight downside of the place was awkward light setting of the podium, a bit to bright and colorful for my taste, but I cannot really complain too much about it without making a nitpicker out of myself.

Jazz Update

I have been looking around for some decent jazz concerts lately. Okay, I will be honest, not lately, just tonight. So I look around for decent music once in a while. Sue me. Anyhow, I came across several bands out of which alban darche trio sort of got my attention. Follow the link to their website.

Mindfuck Movies

16 supposedly mind fuck movies. Like all internet lists it is missing some, and adding others that do not belong to the list. Fuck all internet lists anyways. But let's admit this: they are a good way to get to know new stuff. So even though I watched most of the list anyhow I am still going to post it for the occasional reference. Follow the link for the list. Oh I also forgot, there is actually an article. Do I read articles that are attached to subjective internet lists. No. Neither should you.

European Cannibalism

Fun article about European medical cannibalism. I wonder how primitive modern brain surgery protocols will look in two centuries.

Prince of Persia

Prince of Persia Animation Reference 1985 from jordan mechner on Vimeo.

Prince of persia animation ref... Brings back memories.