Author: Chuck
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He fights and he smites with repulsor rays
Holy crap this movie is awesome! I had zero interest in seeing Iron Man. I’ve always been a DC guy, not Marvel. All I knew about Iron Man was that he was a drunk, and that his cartoon had the best theme song. So I’d be sitting in theaters with my peer group, seeing a…
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Going through the motions
In the universally-praised game Grand Theft Auto IV, you play as a swarthy immigrant with a weird accent, recently arrived in a new country. The game’s much-acclaimed, complex storyline has you fighting the locals, occasionally stealing their vehicles, while you wander around an enormous game world, taking on the local gang leaders who are trying…
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Literacy 2008: Book 7: Salt
Book Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky Synopsis The history of “the only rock we eat,” and how finding, producing, and transporting it has shaped economies and governments from pre-history to the modern day. Pros Extremely well-organized, with short chapters presented in chronological order describing how a particular region and a particular group of…
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Experimentation
Anybody who’s been reading this blog for a while knows two things: Every year or so, I try to redesign everything. It always ends up being a ridiculously laborious process and it always ends badly. I guess there’s also 3. I need to get out more. This most recent time, I decided I wanted to…
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Not without my daught… well, okay then.
I’m always hearing people (sometimes it’s me) complaining about a TV or comic series, saying, “They’re making it up as they go along!” Most of the time, I don’t see the big deal about that — they don’t have everything planned out? Cool! It means they’re “nimble,” right? But sometimes it gets awkward. This week’s…
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Marshall, Forgetting Sarah
I’d been looking forward to seeing Forgetting Sarah Marshall, since I’m a fan of “How I Met Your Mother,” and Knocked Up was one of my favorite movies of last year. I wasn’t disappointed; the movie’s hilarious, and I’d recommend it to just about anybody. Anybody who’s not in my immediate family, at least, since…
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Chumpatized
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters got a ton of attention from videogame sites around its release last year, as well as from the critics. It’s all deserved; it’s just a great movie. Of course, to appreciate it to the fullest, you have to have spent a good bit of the 80s in…
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From the people who made that game “Rabbit Dog and Bunnyman”
I’ve gotten back into the Homestar Runner site lately. It’s pretty cool; y’all should check it out. Especially the new toon they put up today. No, seriously, check it out. That’s about as cool as videogame promos get. This one is good too: As is the teaser, which was released on April Fool’s Day: In…
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“That’s me. I’m his mother. Word to me.”
Where is that from?!? At some point in the distant past, there was a commercial, or a TV show, or music video, or something, where a guy ends saying “Word to your mother,” and then his mom comes on and says “That’s me. I’m his mother. Word to me.” I can’t remember where it’s from,…
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Literacy 2008: Book 6: The Screwtape Letters
Book The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis Synopsis A collection of letters sent from the demon Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood, advising the younger demon on the best ways to tempt a human soul away from Christianity to become food for Hell. Pros Brilliant concept, with a ton of potential for satire. Has one moment…
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There’s no second chance to make a first impression
Rejecting the idea that endlessly branching paths and infinite content yields to better interactive entertainment
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Frakky Friday
The fourth season of “Battlestar Galactica” starts this Friday, and I couldn’t be more excited even if I were the guy from Anthrax. The SciFi.com home page is currently overtaken by a bunch of video clips intended to drum up anticipation and make you buy a Walkman phone. The “Phenomenon” clip has a bunch of…