Wed, 21 November 2007  Pol here from the Fuzzy Typewriter podcast to serve up some musings on this rainy Turkey-Day Eve.
First, I'd like to thank Louis for inviting me to write this guest blog while he's off wedding the girl of his dreams. I wish both of you the best of happiness together, and many, many appliances. Much love, man. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in America. Many strange birds will be consumed, some of them violated by beer cans and deep fried in vats on our patios. A few will be stuffed inside as many as two other birds before making their way to our gullets. Of course, most turkeys will simply enter the oven surrounded by hopeless expectations of domestic grandeur. Calculated measures will be taken to recreate the perfect lacquered orange symmetry of the poultry seen on television, only to be dashed when the bird emerges from under tinfoil looking like a level boss from the original Doom. We will suddenly remember the yam (that Brigadoon of root based vegetables which appears but once a year). Cranberry sauce will plop into styrofoam bowls, still retaining the texture of the aluminum can; smooth, glossy, and eerily ribbed, as if for her pleasure. Family may be there too. They will need to be if all of this food is to be done away with. They will probably wear sweaters and tug at specially designed jeans with hidden elastic waistbands. They will ask us things that make us uncomfortable like, "Did you miss me?" And there will be much wondering. Whether we'd involve ourselves with such people if our blood weren't so similar. Whether anyone else has noticed that one of the cousins, probably named Glenn, is well on his way to becoming a serial killer (he does seem to know most of the tendons in the creature he just carved). Whether anyone will notice if we slip quietly out the window to go climb a tree with one of the cousins who isn't Glenn or remove the air from the tires in Uncle Dennis' new S.U.V. We wonder. Whether things have changed, if anyone else has noticed, if the magic of the holidays has a half life. We gather here this night around the charred husk of a previously magnificent (if incredibly inept looking) bird--once considered by Benjamin Franklin to be the benchmark of fine feathered American friends--to give thanks betwixt the bickering. And who is to blame? Well, the pilgrims for one. Eternal masochists (They even wear buckles on their shoes), those confounded puritans set sail from one dismal gray island to another. New items of interest like bears, cougars, and disease kept this from simply being a lateral move, swinging the scales toward harrowing downgrade. And for what? The right to come up with a new holiday and an opportunity to bury fish and corn in the same hole. A-maize-ing. Then there's us. We kept ourselves just healthy enough to survive to the next endurance challenge. (It should be mentioned that those of us who've indulged in the many layered turducken deserve a little less shame in this staying alive business.) And now that we're here at this wretched gathering, what are we to do? There are no Thanksgiving carols. No gifts. No elves or blinking noses. In recent years it's even a bit early for snow in most regions. There isn't even any mail. This leaves turkey and family and all the baggage entailed therein. The glum consolation that this bird gave its life to endow us with the chemicals needed to make us drowsier than on most nights, an excuse to yawn and drive home early. What are we to do? Well, hopefully at this point in the piece you're saying, well...it isn't nearly all that bad. I hope so anyway. I hope only a small part of you relates to this holiday hyperbole. That's healthy. Because everyone in your family truly is addled, and many of these dinners turn volatile. We're all a little stressed out. But we make the effort to come together, no matter the size of the table. Whether the turkey is something you took down in the woods beyond the highway with your dad, or from a grocery store, whether it's not even a turkey at all. Maybe it's Chinese food. Could be Froot Loops. Maybe it's just a phone call. We do it because we have to, and maybe we leave with a bruise or a restraining order. But next year we're gonna try again. Because it's worth the pause. Thanksgiving is maybe the only chance each year to stare frustration in the face and be thankful for the good stuff anyway. It's a year's worth of stress crammed into one day like cranberry sauce in a can (or again, a duck into a goose for you turducken crazies). If we can survive this day, we can survive all the other ones. It's perspective. And like the yam, you're not gonna see it again for a whole year. There's nothing all that glamorous about a turkey. There's nothing glamorous about Thanksgiving. But there's something special about saying thanks. You get to gloat about all the things you have that maybe somebody else doesn't. You get to make your own Academy Award speech. Sitting down. In stretchy pants. ******* Pol Montgomery, 23, is the host of Fuzzy Typewriter, a creative lifestyle podcast dedicated to inspiration and what we do with it. He lives in Philadelphia with his parents and two goldendoodle puppies, but he's thinking about kicking them all out so he can have one room with just a tire swing in it. Category: general -- posted at: 1:38 AM Comments[0] |
Sat, 17 November 2007 Why do we keep allowing this to happen? I recently watched the documentary The Devil Came on Horseback. The film tells the story of the devastation and genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan through the eyes, recollections, and photographic evidence of retired U.S. Marine Captain Brian Steidle. The Devil Came on Horseback is an informative film. One of the largest roadblocks to greater international outrage with regard to the genocide in Darfur is a lack of realistic and complete media coverage of the events on the ground. Reporters haven’t been allowed into Darfur. The Devil Came on Horseback, and its principal Brian Steidle, shows us the horror of the situation in gruesome full color detail. Ultimately, The Devil Came on Horseback is also empowering. One of the things that serve as a constant backdrop for the story in the movie is Steidle’s feelings of impotence in the situation that he’s seeing. He was unable to carry a gun as an African Union observer. He was frequently stopped from intervening. They even implied that his mandate was to document the situation rather than take a position on it. He decides that he must do something anyway in the face of this. Steidle has gone on to become an activist fighting for the cause of the people of Darfur. The genocide in Darfur continues unabated to this day. The government of Sudan and their militias are responsible for the deaths of 400,000 and the dislocation of an additional 2,500,000. The goal of the Arab government is to drive the Africans from the province by whatever terrible means they deem necessary. The most pertinent question to be asked about the genocide in Darfur sits atop of this article. Why do we keep allowing this to happen? People like to use the phrase “never again� with regard to the Holocaust that happened before and during World War II. Did they really mean it though? Are we all committed to “never again�? It doesn’t seem so. The world has seen genocide time and again since the Holocaust. Genocides have occurred in Rwanda, Cambodia, Russia, Bosnia, and several other countries. It would seem that we’re all desperately in need of a “never again� attitude. How do we get there? We need to stand up and be heard. I plan to do whatever I can. I’ll send hand-written letters to my Congressional representatives, I’ll donate money, and I’ll try to do what I can to get people talking about this. It’s important to do these things. It’s important to not sit idly by and allow the worst instincts of humankind to fester, boil over, and destroy everyone that they come into contact with. Destruction is the definitive end result here. Please join me in this. We all need to take this opportunity to scream “never again� from the rooftops and mean it. This isn’t a political issue. It’s not about right or left. It’s about all of us declaring that we will “never again� allow murder, rape, and destruction to become the way of life anywhere on our planet. For more information, please check out The Devil Came on Horseback (available from Netflix for online or home viewing). There’s also a wealth of information on the internet at sites like http://www.savedarfur.org and http://www.sudandivestment.org. It’s well past time to take a stand. In Other News I’d like to first say thank you to those of you that read this. I know that it’s a bit of a departure from what most of you are used to from me. I just had to get it off my chest. I hope that it makes an impression on you and a difference in your thinking with regard to the crisis. Also, I’d like to thank Louis for allowing me the chance to guest blog here for the day. It’s an honor to be regarded. I’d also like to say that I met Louis online almost a year ago now and that he seems like a genuinely decent guy. There are too few people like him left in the world. In conclusion, I’d like to say congratulations on your wedding Louis. I’m really happy for you. I wish you and your wife a long and wonderful life together. --Fred Category: general -- posted at: 7:46 AM Comments[2] |
Tue, 13 November 2007 Hello, I’m Will Eslinger or, as some of you know me, Six Gun (editor’s note: Six Gun is not my real name, just a screen name) writer of Entertaining Grime. Louis asked me to fill in this week with a column and well, here I am. At first I was going to write about my Christmas list this year, but I thought that that was either a) too pretentious or b) too much work (you decide) and decided to take you all on a 7-15 minute journey through my various media indulgences of the past week.
Music 
May I say that I am incredibly, musically uninformed; I’m 17 and the last time I was at a concert I yelled “play some Skynyrd� not because I thought it would be funny to bring into play a clichéd statement from my parent’s generation at a decidedly alternative setting. I did it because… well, I wanted to hear some Skynyrd. This tone-deafness aside, I do really enjoy listening to music and while not a critic, I seem to have slightly decent tastes (well, my hipster friends over at revision3 seem to like the same things I do) and I’m always willing to take advice on what I might like. Enter Klaxons’s Myths of the Near Future; an album that has been dominating my iTunes playlist this past week. The group’s decidedly modern and definitely alternative, with a sound about as oppressive as an orgiastic rave from hell, the closest comparison I can make is Franz Ferdinand’s The Dark of the Matinee except scary. The band delivers numerous psychedelic beats and synths accompanied by the occasional guitar riff that really seems to fit their self-described genre of Nu-Rave. While that may have sounded a bit negative, I really did enjoy the release, just not as much as if it was playing at a Halloween party where psilocybin mushrooms were the main course. TV  I’m finally getting into NBC’s Bionic Woman; while the series got off to a rough start I feel that it’s starting getting its legs and really has a good chance of being a fun, popcorn popping series for the duration. I think the problem with the first few episodes was that David Eick (the show’s producer) was trying to recreate the magic of Battlestar Galactica (which he also produces) with a serious action/drama. I honestly don’t think that’s possible when you have an ex-bartender turned Bionic superhero trying to learn the ropes as a secret agent for an absurdly stereotypical agency. Thankfully, they’ve dropped the pretext of absolute seriousness and instead of moody fights ripped from The Matrix; we get a completely unprepared woman getting thrown into clichéd, yet incredibly entertaining situations where her bionics and jaded handlers are the only thing keeping her from some horrible fate. Bionic Woman isn’t at the same level of quality as Rome or Battlestar Galactica; but it is fun and sometimes that’s all I really want from a TV show. I’m not going to get into my opinion of the screenwriter’s strike here because it seems like taking the wrong side on an issue like this makes one about as popular as Michael Vick at a PETA conference. However I am incredibly disappointed that the seventh season of 24 is being postponed “TO ENSURE "DAY 7 PROVIDES NON-STOP ACTION� says a press release from Fox in which we see that the only real outcome of this writer’s strike is that there’s going to be even more crappy reality TV coming out over the next few months to fill in for the good TV we’ll be missing (oh Life, don't go! We just met!) Comics  I read a lot of comic books and I review my favorites weekly over at Entertaining Grime but for convenience I thought I’d post my review for Criminal #10 here as a bit of a preview for what you can see on my site. In a week where I give out three A+ rankings, one may wonder how a title can climb to the top of the pile and become my book of the week. Ask Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, they know. This issue sees the end of the Lawless storyline as Tracy busts up his brother’s old crew on a Christmas Eve heist. Overall this arc has been much more action packed than the previous and I was kind of expecting this issue to have an enormous fight to top the gang hideout infiltration that conclude the last ark of the series. Honestly, that would have been too easy for this comic book. What we get instead are a lot of talking heads and one really cool car chase. I’m perfectly fine with that when the talking heads are written as well as the characters in this book. When looking back over this particular story I can’t help but get the feeling that this was Brubaker’s attempt at a morality play, one that seems to highlight the despair and self loathing that a life of crime typifies. When most of my books blow through the roof quality wise, it just takes something special to truly stand out, this week that something was the morality play of Criminal #10. A+ and Book of the Week Videogames 
As you can see, I really liked the combat; it’s fast, fun and visceral, exactly what I was expecting from the game touted as Goddess of War. 
I just got developer Ninja Theory’s Heavenly Sword for the PS3 in the mail from Gamefly and I though you guys might enjoy my initial impressions. Overall, I though the combat in Heavenly Sword was great. You’re automatically put into a speed stance that is good for moderately powered but lighting quick attacks that can dispatch the average enemy with ease. Then there are ranged and heavy attacks (mapped to R1 an L1 respectively) that really add a good deal of meat to the combat. For an average fight, you’ll want to stick mostly with your light/fight attacks, however if a group of enemies begins to surround you (which happens a lot, Ninja Theory stuffed about as many enemies into this game as Koei does with Dynasty Warriors) the ease of switching between the three stances lets you put some distance between you and the enemies with the ranged attack and then finish them off with a few heavy attacks while they’re momentarily stunned from the ranged. Another of the game’s highlights is its insane graphical
detail o; the game’s environments are bright and (relatively) varied
with plenty of action packed on screen with nary a screen clip or frame drop.
Also notable are the game’s textures and animations, these details are best
seen in the cutscenes (in which Andy Serkis, the actor who played Gollum in The
Lord of the Rings is cast as the game’s main villain) that display a surprising
amount of quality, digital acting. Despite its strengths, Heavenly Sword has a myriad of unfortunate flaws. While I enjoyed the combat, the lack of a jump or manual block button took a lot of control away from the fights to the point where I felt more like I was watching some sections rather than playing them. Also, the cutscenes that I praise earlier are indeed great, but the story and settings are an eclectic mix of fantasy tropes that just don’t blend well at all (within the first 20 minutes of the game I played through battles ripped directly from The Lord of the Rings trilogy then set in an Asian setting…but New Zealander’s were still providing voice over) I actually also noticed some odd glitches; at times, felled enemies would get their heads stuck on some invisible object and slump over in the air. This isn’t so much of a problem except their geometry stayed solid and began to get in the way of my rolls and swings. Mostly this glitch was just a slight irritant but I think that the developers really should have caught it. Category: general -- posted at: 7:15 PM Comments[0] |
Mon, 12 November 2007  Got my books late, so we’re doing 10 word reviews this week.Astonishing X-Men #23 – Book of the Week Whedon makes Scott Summers a super stud. Best cover ever. Grade: A Uncanny X-Men #492 Messiah Complex continues its awesomeness. Loved Cyclop’s treatment of Charles. Grade: A The Immortal Iron Fist #10 What the freak is going on? Starting to get confused. Grade: B- Buffy the Vampire Slayer #8 Can’t wait to see how this story concludes. Whedon’s week. Grade: A- Countdown to Final Crisis #25 Ron Lim’s art was a nice surprise. Story still fun. Grade: B Avengers Illuminati #5 I ordered this book? Cool. Even more excited for Skrullmageddon. Grade: A Category: general -- posted at: 10:12 PM Comments[0] |
Fri, 9 November 2007  The Bubbly Animal Combination Episode!"Wait, why is Kwok still writing?! That scab!" said some anonymous NBC writer while texting on his iPhone -Eisley - Combinations -Animal Man by Grant Morrison -Bubble Bobble Revolutions for Nintendo DS -Spacious suitcases & accidental cremations -We're taking a break! --- Click here to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes & write us a review -- Join the discussions on the Kwok Talk forums! Comments[0] |
Sun, 4 November 2007  Grades: NBA-ThemedA - Celtics star trio B - Barkley commentary C - Greg Oden / Sam Bowie comparisons D - Kobe fussiness F - Knicks management incompetency X-Men: Messiah Complex - Book of the Week I've complained a lot about Brubaker not being able to write a good x-book. Well, at least for one week, he's completely made me eat crow. Out of blind trust in the hype that this was going to be a great event for the X-world, I had planned on getting all of the issues for Messiah Complex; if this was any indication of how the series was going to go, I'm really excited. I love how the X-men have been placed almost two steps behind all of the other parties and even more so the fact that there are so many parties (Marauders, Predator X, Purifiers, Acolytes) involved rather than the X-men vs. whoever. I feel like this really adds an element that things are just going to get crazy from here. Silvestri's art really added to the frentic action and dark tone. This issue really felt like the "good old days" of the 80-90s X-men running off to battle and the rekindling of my early love for the X-men tipped this over the edge to narrowly win book of the week. Color me excited for Messiah Complex! Grade: A JSA #10 Every time JSA comes out, it seems to be in the running for book of the week and this issue was no different. I'm certainly curious how Kingdom Come Superman is going to fit in with where the book is going, but this issue was packed with wonderful character dynamics from Johns - whether KC Superman's coming to terms with his situation or Power Girl's disappointment. I really hope this leads to an actual storyline arc and not just further "character issues," but either way I have yet to be disappointed with this book since picking it up. Grade: A Countdown to Final Crisis #26 Wow, what a turnaround. With so many plots running everywhere, this was a great issue to just stop and try to see how it all fits together via the Monitor's speech. The momentum is slowly building and I think this issue started to really try and impress that Final Crisis is going to be something big. Scott Kolin's art was a little wonky and I think I wish there was an origin story at the end, but still a strong issue overall that was much needed for the inconsistent series. Grade: A- Daredevil Annual #1 What I was possibly expecting to be a throwaway issue, turned out to be pretty fun. Black Tarantula's reintroduction to the scene was enjoyable, from his computer problems to calling Dakota "super white lady." The ending sees him leaving to become some sort of vigilante, which leaves me somewhat disappointed. I had hopes he would stay alongside Murdock in a role somewhat vacated by Luke Cage and worry there are enough other "vigilante/Punisher-esque" characters running around to make Tarantula somewhat disposable and forgettable. Leandro Fernandez's pencils were nice and gave us a cartooney treat that was still not too far off from Lark's normal art. Props for the random Yakuza guy running around in whitey tighties. Grade: A- Batman #670 Probably the "worst" book of the week, although it wasn't really that bad. Just more of a function of everything else being so good. I don't know my Batman history so well to know that Ra's Al Ghul was dead, but oh well. The storytelling I found to be a little confusing, jumping to several different places, but managed to get myself up to speed by the second read. I missed out on the Damian storyine, which I gather wasn't very popular, but I kind of like how headstrong he is and his allegiance to Batman. I didn't plan on picking up any of the other tie-ins to this story, and I'm not wowed enough to do so, but this decent start will probably make me want to at least know what's been going on in the other books. Grade: B Category: general -- posted at: 1:11 PM Comments[0] |
Fri, 2 November 2007  The Boston Love Letter Episode!"Kwok stole the ball. I bet he's gonna sell it on eBay," Boston Red Sox pitcher Jonathon Papelbon told reporters while enjoying his free Taco Bell tacos. In a slightly different episode, we deal with our love/hate relationship with Boston sports. --- Click here to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes & write us a review -- Join the discussions on the Kwok Talk forums! Comments[0] |
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