Ponderance

Underworld

Underworld has had so many bad reviews that I really wasn't expecting anything more than some pretty costumes and zappy special effects. But I was in the mood for a "popcorn" film, so to Underworld I went (I say "popcorn" because the expression is all well and good, but I don't actually like popcorn ... the white M&Ms and Crunchie chocettes were much better ... thanks Karen!). Kate Beckinsale actually does a pretty good job as Selene, the morally righteous vampire. Sure, Underworld completely screws with any recognisable vampire mythology, and all the twists and turns keep the characterisation very strained, but in the end, I quite enjoyed this leather-clad immortal war (and the glowing bullets are really quite funny!). More to the point, once you get over trying to look for the "normal" vampire or werewolf mythology rules, the film's script, while convoluted, isn't actually as bad as other reviews had led me to fear. And I quite liked the idea of there being a sensible solution to a blood war that, well, sort of relies on modern genetics and immunology to make sense! So, by no means a classic, but quite a fun little film and very, very pretty.

Angel's 100th Birthday

The 100th episode of Angel is coming ... the trailer is here. (Needless to say it's a trailer, ergo SPOILERS for those who don't want to be.) Also, the Hollywood Reporter ran a series of articles to celebrate the milestone episode: 'Angel' 100th episode (on the unlikely sucess of the show, although no promises about a sixth season), Genre busters (on Joss and the writers), Masters of illusion (on makeup and sfx) and Groovy ghoulies (a rundown of cast and character arcs). All worth reading.

Not Quite Sylvia

A great many teenagers who have done English Literature at high school (and sometimes beyond) in the last few decades have come across Sylvia Plath's writing. More so than most other poets, she tends to make a serious impression. Perhaps it's the authenticity of her tortured artist story; perhaps it's that some of her poems marry precise language and agonising depression so beautifully. Either way, a biopic has probably been on the cards for ages. The surprising thing about the film Sylvia is that Gwyneth Paltrow does a truly excellent job at playing Syvia Plath. Likewise, Daniel Craig does a pretty decent Ted Hughes. At least, they do as good a job as the script allows them. Paltrow's performance is powerful, but it's almost as if the director lacked confidence in her and resorted to an overdramatic score and far-too-obvious and cliched a script. Neither director Christine Jeffs nor screenwriter John Brownlow have done anything else of note, and the lack of experience is obvious. The sets are precise for the period, most of the other actors are well cast (especially Michael Gambon as Sylvia's neighbour who witnesses parts of her decent toward suicide), but the film fails to quite capture the Sylvia Plath I had in my head. As others have commented, a script dealing with poets, giving them words to speak, needs to be beautiful and poetic in its own right. The script for Sylvia is not.

Oscar Nominations

Okay, Academy Award nominations are out. No huge surprises with the rather exciting exception of Keisha Castle-Hughes' nomination in the Best Actress category. I thought I'd go through and nominate who I *want* to win (as opposed to who will, although I suspect in Return of the King nominated categories, the alignment will be pretty close!). Obviously I've not seen films in some categories, and none of the shorts, so I've left them alone. Do you disagree horribly? Let me know! :)

2004 Academy Award Nominations

Actor in a leading role
Johnny Depp in "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" (Buena Vista)
Ben Kingsley in "House of Sand and Fog" (DreamWorks in association with Cobalt Media Group)
Jude Law in "Cold Mountain" (Miramax)
Bill Murray in "Lost in Translation" (Focus Features)
Sean Penn in "Mystic River" (Warner Bros.)

Actor in a supporting role
Alec Baldwin in "The Cooler" (Lions Gate)
Benicio Del Toro in "21 Grams" (Focus Features)
Djimon Hounsou in "In America" (Fox Searchlight/20th Century Fox)
Tim Robbins in "Mystic River" (Warner Bros.)
Ken Watanabe in "The Last Samurai" (Warner Bros.)

Actress in a leading role
Keisha Castle-Hughes in "Whale Rider" (NewMarket Films)
Diane Keaton in "Something's Gotta Give" (Sony Pictures Releasing)
Samantha Morton in "In America" (Fox Searchlight/20th Century Fox)
Charlize Theron in "Monster" (Newmarket Films)
Naomi Watts in "21 Grams" (Focus Features)

Actress in a supporting role
Shohreh Aghdashloo in "House of Sand and Fog" (DreamWorks in association with Cobalt Media Group)
Patricia Clarkson in "Pieces of April" (MGM)
Marcia Gay Harden in "Mystic River" (Warner Bros.)
Holly Hunter in "Thirteen" (Fox Searchlight/20th Century Fox)
Renée Zellweger in "Cold Mountain" (Miramax)

Animated feature film
"Brother Bear" (Buena Vista)
"Finding Nemo" (Buena Vista)
"The Triplets of Belleville" (Sony Pictures Classics)

Art direction
"Girl with a Pearl Earring" (Lions Gate)
Art Direction: Ben Van Os
Set Decoration: Cecile Heideman
"The Last Samurai" (Warner Bros.)
Art Direction: Lilly Kilvert
Set Decoration: Gretchen Rau
"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (New Line)
Art Direction: Grant Major
Set Decoration: Dan Hennah and Alan Lee
"Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" (20th Century Fox)
Art Direction: William Sandell
Set Decoration: Robert Gould
"Seabiscuit" (Universal/DreamWorks/Spyglass)
Art Direction: Jeannine Oppewall
Set Decoration: Leslie Pope

Cinematography
"City of God" (Miramax) Cesar Charlone
"Cold Mountain" (Miramax) John Seale
"Girl with a Pearl Earring" (Lions Gate) Eduardo Serra
"Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" (20th Century Fox) Russell Boyd
"Seabiscuit" (Universal/DreamWorks/Spyglass) John Schwartzman

Costume design
"Girl with a Pearl Earring" (Lions Gate) Dien van Straalen
"The Last Samurai" (Warner Bros.) Ngila Dickson
"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (New Line) Ngila Dickson and Richard Taylor
"Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" (20th Century Fox) Wendy Stites
"Seabiscuit" (Universal/DreamWorks/Spyglass) Judianna Makovsky

Directing
"City of God" (Miramax) Fernando Meirelles
"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (New Line) Peter Jackson
"Lost in Translation" (Focus Features) Sofia Coppola
"Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" (20th Century Fox) Peter Weir
"Mystic River" (Warner Bros.) Clint Eastwood

Documentary feature
"Balseros" (Seventh Art Releasing)
A Bausan Films S.L. Production
Carlos Bosch and Marcos Loris Omedes
"Capturing the Friedmans" (Magnolia Pictures)
A Hit The Ground Running Production
Andrew Jarecki and Marc Smerling
"The Fog of War" (Sony Pictures Classics)
A Globe Department Store Production
Errol Morris and Michael Williams
"My Architect" (New Yorker)
A Louis Kahn Project, Inc. Production
Nathaniel Kahn and Susan R. Behr
"The Weather Underground" (Shadow Distribution)
A Free History Project Production
Sam Green and Bill Siegel

Documentary short subject
"Asylum"
A Constant Communication & Make-do Production
Sandy McLeod and Gini Reticker
"Chernobyl Heart"
A Downtown TV Documentaries Production
DeLeo
"Ferry Tales"
A Penelope Pictures Production
Katja Esson

Film editing
"City of God" (Miramax) Daniel Rezende
"Cold Mountain" (Miramax) Walter Murch
"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (New Line) Jamie Selkirk
"Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" (20th Century Fox) Lee Smith
"Seabiscuit" (Universal/DreamWorks/Spyglass) William Goldenberg

Foreign language film
"The Barbarian Invasions"
A Cinémaginaire Inc. Production
Canada
"Evil"
A Moviola Film & Television Production
Sweden
"The Twilight Samurai"
A Shochiku/Nippon Television Network/Sumitomo/Hakuhodo/Nippon Shuppan Hanbai/Eisei Gekijo Production
Japan
"Twin Sisters"
An IdtV Film Production
The Netherlands
"Zelary"
A Total HelpArt T.H.A./Barrandov Studio Production
Czech Republic

Makeup
"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (New Line) Richard Taylor and Peter King
"Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" (20th Century Fox) Edouard Henriques III and Yolanda Toussieng
"Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" (Buena Vista) Ve Neill and Martin Samuel

Music (original score)
"Big Fish" (Sony Pictures Releasing) Danny Elfman
"Cold Mountain" (Miramax) Gabriel Yared
"Finding Nemo" (Buena Vista) Thomas Newman
"House of Sand and Fog" (DreamWorks in association with Cobalt Media Group) James Horner
"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (New Line) Howard Shore

Music (original song)
"Into the West" from "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (New Line)
Music and Lyric by Fran Walsh and Howard Shore and Annie Lennox
"A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow" from "A Mighty Wind" (Warner Bros.)
Music and Lyric by Michael McKean and Annette O'Toole
"Scarlet Tide" from "Cold Mountain" (Miramax)
Music and Lyric by T Bone Burnett and Elvis Costello
"The Triplets of Belleville" from "The Triplets of Belleville" (Sony Pictures Classics)
Music by Benoit Charest
Lyric by Sylvain Chomet
"You Will Be My Ain True Love" from "Cold Mountain" (Miramax)
Music and Lyric by Sting

Best picture
"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (New Line)
A Wingnut Films Production
Barrie M. Osborne, Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, Producers
"Lost in Translation" (Focus Features)
An American Zoetrope/Elemental Films Production
Ross Katz and Sofia Coppola, Producers
"Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" (20th Century Fox)
A 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures and Miramax Films Production
Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., Peter Weir and Duncan Henderson, Producers
"Mystic River" (Warner Bros.)
A Warner Bros. Pictures Production
Robert Lorenz, Judie G. Hoyt and Clint Eastwood, Producers
"Seabiscuit" (Universal/DreamWorks/Spyglass)
A Universal Pictures/DreamWorks Pictures Production
Nominees to be determined

Short film (animated)
"Boundin'"
A Pixar Animation Studios Production
Bud Luckey
"Destino" (Buena Vista)
A Walt Disney Pictures Production
Dominique Monfery and Roy Edward Disney
"Gone Nutty" (20th Century Fox)
A Blue Sky Studios Production
Carlos Saldanha and John C. Donkin
"Harvie Krumpet"
A Melodrama Pictures Production
Adam Elliot
"Nibbles"
An Acme Filmworks Production
Chris Hinton

Short film (live action)
"Die Rote Jacke (The Red Jacket)"
A Hamburger Filmwerkstatt Production
Florian Baxmeyer
"Most (The Bridge)"
An Eastwind Films Production
Bobby Garabedian and William Zabka
"Squash"
A Tetramedia Production
Lionel Bailliu
"(A) Torzija [(A) Torsion]"
A Studio Arkadena Production
Stefan Arsenijevic
"Two Soldiers"
A Shoe Clerk Picture Company Production
Aaron Schneider and Andrew J. Sacks

Sound editing
"Finding Nemo" (Buena Vista) Gary Rydstrom and Michael Silvers
"Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" (20th Century Fox) Richard King
"Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" (Buena Vista) Christopher Boyes and George Watters II

Sound mixing
"The Last Samurai" (Warner Bros.) Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer and Jeff Wexler
"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (New Line) Christopher Boyes, Michael Semanick, Michael Hedges and Hammond Peek
"Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" (20th Century Fox) Paul Massey, D.M. Hemphill and Arthur Rochester
"Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl " (Buena Vista) Christopher Boyes, David Parker, David Campbell and Lee Orloff
"Seabiscuit" (Universal/DreamWorks/Spyglass) Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer and Tod A. Maitland

Visual effects
"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (New Line) Jim Rygiel, Joe Letteri, Randall William Cook and Alex Funke
"Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" (20th Century Fox) Dan Sudick, Stefen Fangmeier, Nathan McGuinness and Robert Stromberg
"Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" (Buena Vista) John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and Terry Frazee

Adapted Screenplay
"American Splendor" (HBO Films in association with Fine Line Features) Written by Robert Pulcini & Shari Springer Berman
"City of God" (Miramax) Screenplay by Braulio Mantovani
"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (New Line) Screenplay by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson
"Mystic River" (Warner Bros.) Screenplay by Brian Helgeland
"Seabiscuit" (Universal/DreamWorks/Spyglass) Written for the Screen by Gary Ross

Original Screenplay
"The Barbarian Invasions" (Miramax) Written by Denys Arcand
"Dirty Pretty Things" (Miramax and BBC Films) Written by Steven Knight
"Finding Nemo" (Buena Vista) Screenplay by Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson and David Reynolds Original Story by Andrew Stanton
"In America" (Fox Searchlight/20th Century Fox) Written by Jim Sheridan & Naomi Sheridan & Kirsten Sheridan
"Lost in Translation" (Focus Features) Written by Sofia Coppola

Golden Globes

Okay, so maybe it's not 100% patriotic, but at least part of my Australia Day is going to be rather US-centric (or Middle Earth-centric depending on how the Awards go!) ...

After watching the SBS documentary on Friday night about the Golden Globes and being reminded who exactly constitutes the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, I found it even harder than usual to take these awards seriously. That said, I'm still a sucker for a red carpet, so thought I'd check out the results as they happen online. Of course, it would help if the official Globes site, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association Website actually worked today; I can't connect at all, so either it's down or can't handle the web traffic it's getting ... either way, seriously unprofessional! NBC's website isn't announcing the results as they happen either, possibly since all Americans are supposed to be watching the show. The only decent updated-as-it-happens site I could find is the Coming Soon Globes website. Results (only for the motion picture categories):

2004 Globe Globe Awards

BEST MOTION PICTURE - DRAMA
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE - DRAMA
Charlize Theron - Monster

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE - DRAMA
Sean Penn - Mystic River

BEST MOTION PICTURE - MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Lost in Translation

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE - MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Diane Keaton - Something's Gotta Give

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE - MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Bill Murray - Lost in Translation

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Osama - Afghanistan

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
Renée Zellweger - Cold Mountain

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
Tim Robbins - Mystic River

BEST DIRECTOR - MOTION PICTURE
Peter Jackson - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

BEST SCREENPLAY - MOTION PICTURE
Sofia Coppola - Lost in Translation

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE - MOTION PICTURE
Howard Shore - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

BEST ORIGINAL SONG - MOTION PICTURE
"Into the West" - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Music & Lyrics by: Howard Shore, Fran Walsh, Annie Lennox

Peter Jackson's Best Director win is fantastic not least of all because it makes him firm favourite for a well-earned Oscar. The Best Drama statue may very well keep Return of the King in the US box office top ten until Oscar night. Howard Shore's final score for the epic Rings trilogy must have been as close to a sure thing as you can get, the Annie Lennox song less so, but I quite like it anyway.

I'm very pleased to see Bill Murray getting Best Actor (musical or comedy); this surely places him as front runner for the Oscar. Coppola also right deserved the Best Screenplay and the best picture (comedy of musical) is a good sign, althought I suspect the Oscars not having a musical or comedy category will see the Oscar going to Middle Earth! I've yet to see Monster, but I've seen a preview and Charlize Theron's transformation is rather like Hillary Swank's amazing portrayal in Boys Don't Cry, and Oscar voters always seem so shocked when attractive people choose to play physically unattractive characters, so the Globe may very well indicate an Oscar for her, too.

TV awards included 24 winning Best Television Drama and The Office taking Best Television Series (Musical or Comedy). Sarah Jessica Parker got a goodbye nod for Sex and the City with Best Actress (Comedy or Musical), and sort-of-Australian Anthony LaPaglia took Best Actor for a TV series with Without a Trace.

New Teasers

Kill Bill 2 teaser trailer is out and it's, well, unsurprisingly ... cool!

Pixar's new short Boundin' is in production, and the teaser is, ahem, a very silly shiny singing sheep. Hehe.

Google Bombing: The Next Generation

Google Bombing has always been amusing, but the amount of people playing the game is increasing and the best bombs are becoming more fluid. The New York Times reports:

Time was - say, two months ago - when typing the phrase "miserable failure" into the Google search box produced an unexpected result: the White House's official biography of President George W. Bush. But now the president has a fight on his hands for the top ranking - from former President Jimmy Carter, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and the author-filmmaker Michael Moore. The unlikely electoral battle is being waged through "Google bombing," or manipulating the Web's search engines to produce, in this case, political commentary. Unlike Web politicking by other means, like hacking into sites to deface or alter their message, Google bombing is a group sport, taking advantage of the Web-indexing innovation that led Google to search-engine supremacy.

Perhaps we should be wondering how long before Google tweaks their search algorithms ('the google dance') and works out a way to block the bombs. I hope not too soon ...

It's All Too Silly ...

Today's Onion has a great article which is only a parody because it makes sense! A bit:

CAMBRIDGE, MA—Scientists at MIT's Advanced Machine Cognizance Project announced Tuesday that, after seeing the final installment of the Matrix trilogy, they will cease all further work in the field of artificial intelligence. "As scientists of conscience, we must consider the ethical ramifications of AI development," said Dr. Gregory Jameson, director of machine epistemology and ontology at MIT. "The Matrix taught us that we cannot ignore our obligation to the future of mankind. We must free our minds to this fact, or we will accidentally unleash a nightmarish army of sentient machines."

And today's super-silly online game (specifically designed to waste hours at work when no one's watching) is: Smack the Pingu! (Cute, a bit mean, and very addictive!).

Update (23 Jan 2003 13:50): Smack the Pingu! is now here (the other server seems to have overloaded!)

Lord of the Opinions

USA Today ran an annoying article the other day about actors and filmmakers having opinions outside of their creative endevours:

Political preachments, on or off camera, only interfere with the entertainment value of creative work by major Hollywood stars. Recent comments by some of the prime participants in the triumphal box-office hit The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King illustrate the uncomfortable implications of trying to impose timely messages on timeless fantasy. Viggo Mortensen, who plays the title character in The Return of the King, has used the publicity platform provided by his role to trumpet his anti-war and anti-Bush views. Since the release of last year's Rings installment, The Two Towers, he's turned up for numerous press interviews wearing a ''no more blood for oil'' T-shirt and freely offered his bitter critique of U.S. foreign policy.

So, being involved in someone else's creative vision means you suddenly can't express your own? Rubbish. Yes, it helps me to be sympathetic given I agree with Viggo on his anti-Bush stance (as did the majority of US voters last election), but in general I think gagging anyone on the basis of a character they portray is nuts. You do your job at work, and can have your opinions when not working. Yes, it might be argued that actors and other celebrities are 'at work' 24/7 in the Hollywood limelight, but good on them if they want to respond to the Orwellian cameras that follow them around to express their opinions.

PS 2004's first big virus, the 'Beagle' (which has landed), is causing headaches. Be careful of emails with 'Hi' as their subject line. It's not particularly deadly, just annoying with email bulk. More here and here.

PPS BAFTA nomimations are out: check them out here.

More on Games...

I've had some interesting discussions about games and theory after posting my review, and thought I'd mention some other useful and interesting places to visit. Game Studies is the online academic journal of game studies and theory and is well worth a look. Gonzalo Frasca's ludology.org is also interesting, although perhaps more design oriented than many people are seeking. For silliness, check out the lastest StrongBad Email for a very funny take on the history of video games (and hang around at the end for your chance to play in the StrongBad arcade!).

Video Games, Theory and Irony...

I think it's sadly ironic that I find myself writing on the theory of video games, but because of the demands of writing in recent years, I can't actually remember the last time I played a computer game! Anyway, I've been working on some reviews today, and have just finished looking at The Video Game Theory Reader. The review is below, and comments are most welcome!

The Video Game Theory Reader begins not with a bold statement or manifesto for interpreting video games but in a far more grounded manner with a foreword from Warren Robinett who is widely regarded with having revolutionised gameplay in 1978 with his design for the Atari 2600 Adventure game. Robinett opens with an obvious but inescapable question about the acceptability of video games: 'It is hard to say what ranks lower on the artistic food chain than video games. Comic books? TV sit-coms? X-rated films? These ratlike vermin at the bottom scurry to avoid the thunderous footfalls of the towering behemoths of the art world.' (vii-viii). Robinett argues that most new art forms require an 'enabling technology'-cinema had the motion picture camera-and now video games have the affordable home PC (preceded somewhat by dedicated gaming systems like the Atari, which seem to have come full circle with new console Nintendo, Playstation and Microsoft's Xbox systems). With the technology firmly entrenched and a large body of work (the games) available for analysis, it's time for the critics and theorists to pay attention. As video games become increasingly complex and, more to the point, socially entrenched, the humble video game has become a worthy subject for critical analysis and a new cultural studies field is emerging. Moreover, the fact that in the US, UK and Australia video games sales outstrip the box office takings for first release films indicates that video games are playing an increasingly substantial role in our leisure hours and social interactions. While editors Mark J. P. Wolf and Bernard Perron may be overstating the case somewhat in claiming that 'the video game has recently become the hottest and most volatile field of study within new media theory' (1) , this collection certainly goes a long way to ensuring that video game analysis will have firm critical footholds.

Wolf and Perron's excellent introduction goes a long way to illustrating that the field of video game study and theory does have both a lineage and its own proto-canon of important texts. As well as sketching the history of video game design and analysis, Wolf and Perron highlight four key elements of video games which distinguish them from the amorphous umbrella of new media: graphics, the changeable display almost always on a pixel-comprised screen; interface, the all-important connection between the game and player, which usually includes the graphics, but also speakers, microphones, keypads, joysticks, as well as onscreen elements such as sliders and menus; player activity, 'the heart of the video game experience' (15) and key to video game design; and algorithm, the program and procedures which must be to some extent unique for each different game.

Walter Holland, Henry Jenkins and Kurt Squire's first chapter 'Theory by Design' looks at the feedback loop between design, play and theory in the realm of 'edutainment'-educationally oriented games-and uses four case studies to illustrate how designing games-to-teach involves utilising, critiquing and extending video game theory. Wolf's own article in the collection looks at the role of abstraction in video games. He traces abstraction from a technological necessity, due to the processing and graphics power of the earliest game devices, to an exploratory artistic potential for current games which almost all now tend toward representational techniques and the digital holy-grail of photorealism. Alison McMahan's 'Immersion, Engagement, and Presence' then looks at methods for analysing 3-D video games as opposed to their 2-D predecessors, focusing on degrees of presence and immersion in different games and game types, including a useful case study of Myst III: Exile. Miroslaw Filiciak's 'Hyperidentities: Postmodern Identity Patterns in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games' (MMORPGs) looks at the phenomena of MMORPGs where hundreds or thousands of game users participate in a shared virtual environment and argues that MMORPGs actualise postmodern ideas of self more so than any other medium. Filiciak's chapter, while ambitious, tends to get stuck in explicating various postmodern theories of self rather than the specifics of MMORPG gameplay, making this the weakest chapter of the collection. By contrast, Bob Rehak's 'Playing at Being: Psychoanalysis and the Avatar' intertwines a rich knowledge and appreciation for the historical spectrum of video games with an equally broad knowledge of psychoanalysis and film theory to produce a provocative chapter which explores how the video game avatar operates from a mediated mirror stage through to far more nuanced and subtle notions of identity. Torben Grodal's chapter 'Stories for Eye, Ear, and Muscles: Video Games, Media, and Embodied Experiences' starts from the premise that video games are primarily 'different realisations of real-life activities' (129) and makes the argument that the best critical tools for engaging with video games are thus drawn from cognitive psychology. Maintaining a focus on embodiment, Martti Lahti's 'As We Become Machines: Corporealised Pleasures in Video Games' examines the oft-touted idea that video games and cyberspace fetishise a 'meatless' disembodied view of subjectivity. In contrast, Lahti argues that the technologies of video games complicate corporeal responses in a number of ways, not so much erasing the body as reincorporating it in a cybernetic system which to some extent actually re-emphasises the material body for game players. Mia Consalvo's 'Hot Dates and Fairy-Tale Romances: Studying Sexuality in Video Games' also delineates how video games can complicate aspects of identity, but this chapter focuses specifically on sexuality. Consalvo conducts tight focused readings of Final Fantasy 9 and The Sims, exploring the ways sexuality is portrayed, the potential for non-heterosexual readings and activity, with the latter especially interesting in Consalvo's examination of the massively popular The Sims. Markku Eskelinen and Ragnhild Tronstad 'Video Games and Configurative Performances' add performative perspectives from theatre and drama studies, highlighting the role of pleasure in reading video games. Gonzalo Frasca's chapter 'Simulation versus Narrative: Introduction to Ludology' follows in which Frasca outlines ludology-the study of video games not anchored to analyses of narrative-and shows how useful Espen Aarseth's ideas of cybernetic texts are in studying video games as simulations rather than representations. The following two chapters by Bernard Perron and Chris Crawford both focus on interactivity and narrative, the former from a more theoretical viewpoint and the latter more technical. The final chapter, Patrick Grogan's 'Gametime: History, Narrative, and Temporality in Combat Flight Simulator 2' examines similarities between gametime, gameplay and recent feature films, such as Pearl Harbour, and concludes that gametime is inherently ergodic; temporality is dictated by the episodic experiences of the game itself.

As this brief overview illustrates, the chapters in The Video Game Theory Reader range across a huge spectrum of academic disciplines, from new media studies to cognitive psychology to literary analysis and gender studies. Most of the articles are extremely well written, making firm arguments for the importance of analysing video games in contemporary society, and providing many theoretical tools with which future work can be performed. Video game analysis and ludology may be a newly emerging field, but The Video Game Theory Reader guarantees that it's a field which will have considerable theoretical groundings and provide important insight into contemporary popular culture.

Comments or thoughts anyone?

Mars Ahoy!

Okay, so while it's a political stunt to try and deflect from the economy and the occupation of Iraq, Bush's announcement of NASA's longterm planning does capture the excitement surrounding the current focus on Mars. Yahoo! News reports:

President George W Bush proposed to develop a new spacecraft to carry Americans back to the moon by 2015, and to establish a long-term base there as an eventual springboard to Mars and beyond. According to details released by the White House ahead of a presidential speech to NASA, Bush will withdraw the US from the International Space Station by 2010 and retire the space shuttle fleet at about the same time. Bush wants to use the moon as a base for more ambitious missions to Mars and into the deeper reaches of the solar system, the White House said. An extended human presence on the moon "will enable astronauts to develop new technologies and harness the moon's abundant resources to allow manned exploration of more challenging environments," the White House said in a prepared statement. "The experience and knowledge gained on the moon will serve as a foundation for human missions beyond the moon, beginning with Mars."

Sadly telling, though, is that all the long-term goals are set long after Bush's term of office ends, leaving other Presidents to carry the economic follow-through! Oh, and this has to be the funniest sentence in space-related reporting I've read for ages:

The moon has one-sixth the gravitational field of Earth, so moon-based aircraft could launch from there more cheaply.

Aircraft?!? Silly Yahoo! News people!

The Lord of the Rings: an allegory of the PhD?

Tolkien hated allegory, but this is just too funny to let pass ...

The Lord of the Rings: an allegory of the PhD?

The story starts with Frodo: a young hobbit, quite bright, a bit dissatisfied with what he's learnt so far and with his mates back home who just want to get jobs and settle down and drink beer. He's also very much in awe of his tutor and mentor, the very senior professor Gandalf, so when Gandalf suggests he take on a short project for him (carrying the Ring to Rivendell), he agrees. Frodo very quickly encounters the shadowy forces of fear and despair which will haunt the rest of his journey and leave permanent scars on his psyche, but he also makes some useful friends. In particular, he spends an evening down at the pub with Aragorn, who has been wandering the world for many years as Gandalf's postdoc and becomes Frodo's adviser when Gandalf isn't around.

After Frodo has completed his first project, Gandalf (along with head of department Elrond) proposes that the work should be extended. He assembles a large research group, including visiting students Gimli and Legolas, the foreign postdoc Boromir,and several of Frodo's own friends from his undergraduate days. Frodo agrees to tackle this larger project, though he has mixed feelings about it. ("'I will take the Ring', he said, 'although I do not know why.'")

Very rapidly, things go wrong. First, Gandalf disappears and has no more interaction with Frodo until everything is over. (Frodo assumes his supervisor is dead: in fact, he's simply found a more interesting topic and is working on that instead.) At his first international conference in Lorien, Frodo is cross-examined terrifyingly by Galadriel and betrayed by Boromir, who is anxious to take the credit for the work himself. Frodo cuts himself off from the rest of his team: from now on, he will only discuss his work with Sam, an old friend who doesn't really understand what it's all about, but in any case is prepared to give Frodo credit for being rather cleverer than he is. Then he sets out towards Mordor.

The last and darkest period of Frodo's journey clearly represents the writing-up stage, as he struggles towards Mount Doom (submission), finding his burden growing heavier and heavier yet more and more a part of himself; more and more terrified of failure; plagued by the figure of Gollum, the student who carried the Ring before him but never wrote up and still hangs around as a burnt-out, jealous shadow; talking less and less even to Sam. When he submits the Ring to the fire, it is in desperate confusion rather than with confidence, and for a while the world seems empty.

Eventually it is over: the Ring is gone, everyone congratulates him, and for a few days he can convince himself that his troubles are over. But there is one more obstacle to overcome: months later, back in the Shire, he must confront the external examiner Saruman, an old enemy of Gandalf, who seeks to humiliate and destroy his rival's protege. With the help of his friends and colleagues, Frodo passes through this ordeal, but discovers at the end that victory has no value left for him. While his friends return to settling down and finding jobs and starting families, Frodo remains in limbo; finally, along with Gandalf, Elrond and many others, he joins the brain drain across the Western ocean to the new land beyond.

Frodo Lives!

The Net isn't Geeky?!?

Yahoo! News reports that a new global survey shows that netizens are far from the geeky stereotype of earlier compting days:

The typical Internet user -- far from being a geek -- shuns television and actively socializes with friends, a study on surfing habits said Wednesday. he findings of the first World Internet Project report present an image of the average Netizen that contrasts with the stereotype of the loner "geek" who spends hours of his free time on the Internet and rarely engages with the real world .Instead, the typical Internet user is an avid reader of books and spends more time engaged in social activities than the non-user, it says. And, television viewing is down among some Internet users by as much as five hours per week compared with Net abstainers, the study added.

I'm not sure about the less TV aspect--maybe during the dreadful Aussie summer season--but I certainly think Net-users are getting more and more socialible. Systems like IRC, ICQ and messengers all scream sociability, not seclusion, so a super social web world it is! :)

It's Funny Because It's True ...

The B.A. is Back

The Australian's "Higher Education" section today reveals that after far too many years of shrinking numbers, the Arts degree has jumped in demand this year:

THE much-maligned arts degree is making a dramatic comeback in 2004, with universities reporting an increase in undergraduate applications of up to 22 per cent. A survey by The Australian of university application trends across the nation reveals a renewed interest in the once-favoured generalist degree, which suffered a decline in popularity in the 1990s as students veered towards more vocational degrees such as law, commerce and journalism. The greatest surge in enthusiasm for arts was at Victoria's Deakin University, which experienced a 22 per cent increase in applications to study the classic humanities degree.

Personally, I think a rise in Arts enrolements is fantastic. You can't beat a generalist Arts undergraduate degree to build a thinking nation! (And it doesn't hurt to finally have some sign that a career path into Arts Academia isn't completely insane!).

Aussie Blog Awards

The Australian Blog Awards are now available for voting. Sadly, I only heard about this after nominations closed, so didn't get to nominate any of my fave blogs. And I don't read any of the WA ones listed regularly. Hmph.

Winamp 5!

That's right, they've skipped a number after the disasterous release of WinAmp 3, with 5 now available. I've only had a quick play, but it seems much more stable and functional and a lot smoother (although looks too much like MusicMatch at times). The big news for Winamp fans is that you can now BUY WinAmp Pro which allows full CD ripping, encoding and burning, somthing WinAmp could never do before. One of the best free PC products is now a pay-product, although the free version still kicks butt as the best mp3 player out there... check it out.

Apple's 1984 Meets the iPod

Many people know about Apple's Ridley Scott-directed 1984 commerical, but very few people have seen it. To celebrate their 20th anniversary, Apple have gone back and re-released the commerical with a twist. The original featured model Anya Major throwing a sledgehammer at an Orwellian style bigscreen announcement-cum-brainwashing session. Now, Apple have gone back and given Anya Major an iPod ... digially, of course! Check out the new ad here. Of historical interest, and a fine short in its own right, the original is also available for your viewing pleasure here. Perhaps most interesting is the actual history of the development, screening and almost non-existance of the ad. Read the history here. In fact, looking at a lot of Apple's past advertising efforts, you'll see they often make impressive little stories. Check out a collection of the best of Mac ads here. Happy viewing!

Lost in Translation

Sofia Coppola's second written and directed feature film shows that she's an auteur to be reckoned with in her own right, no longer living under daddy's (sizable) industry shadow. Unlike many people, I thoroughly enjoyed The Virgin Suicides, so it was with welcome relief that Lost in Translation confirmed Coppola's talent. Lost in Translation seems to have polarised audiences; there's no middle ground, you either love it or hate it. I, as you've surmised by now, loved it. Coppola extracted the best and most subtle performance I've ever seen from Bill Murray as the aging movie star protagonist, Bob Harris. Combined with Scarlett Johansson's wonderfully lost character Charlotte, Coppola manages to map a world of neon, jetlag and culture shock, otherwise known as Tokyo. As Bob is paid to millions to endorse a Japanese whiskey, and Charlotte drifts in her inattentive photographer husband's wake, the two gravitate together as insomnia and a hotel bar see an unlikely friendship kindled between the two. Charlotte is searching for direction, while Bob has almost given up on his, and the two bond surprisingly intensely over karaoke, sushi and cultural displacement (but not really wanting to return to their 'real' lives, either). Coppola wrote the character of Bob with Murray in mind, and she milks his usual dark humour for all its worth. Johansson, by contrast, brings a certain naiveté to her role, but the two mix perfectly. Combined with some brilliant scenes and amazing cinematography, Coppola shows no fear as a director. Some shots seem to last forever, but end up capturing the sense of people out of time, out of their comfort zone, with precision. Murray and Johansson are definitely Oscar contenders for their work on Lost in Translation and while Coppola might not have been in the trade long enough for a Best Director nod as yet, she's definitely well on the way. A must-see film!

Once More, With Hobbits!

What happens when Buffy: The Vampire Slayer's fan favourite musical 'Once More, With Feeling' hybridises with the mega-super-film-of-a-pretty-good-book Lord of the Rings? What, Once More, With Hobbits, of course! Hehe. Clever, funny and quite catchy!

The New Online Superstar ... Mars!

As NASA's Spirt Rover starts to explore the Red Planet (no longer the 'Dead Planet' in terms of dead space probes), Mars is quickly establishing itself as the hottest online superstar of 2004. Australian IT reports that NASA servers are serving the first 3D images of Mars to millions of people every hour:

By yesterday, the tally was 250 million-plus, as NASA employed 1300 servers to cope with demand and the number of hits approached the 150 million daily average of the ubiquitous Google search engine.

I've got to admit, exploring Mars is so much more fun than writing the chatper I'm supposed to be working on. In case you've not yet been corrupted, click here to see what all the fuss is about! (And get yourself some 3D glasses!)

Oh, and since I forgot to mention Emma Tom's amusing IT sum-up of 2003 (all spam and Google-whacking), why not take a quick read here. Ciao4now.

FanFic Article

A surprisingly well-researched article on FanFic and Slash appeared in today's Age. Helen Razor begins:

In the marketing milli-second that parts the latest Harry Potter book from an impending Harry Potter movie, lunch box or confectionery range, J. K. Rowling's mass audience has found a way to amuse itself. Hungry for Hogwarts, and always eager to follow fresh narratives, addicts of Harry have found a way to take the edge off: they simply create new stories themselves.

Razor also, quite rightly, points to the origins of fanfic which pre-date the internet by decades. :)

Instant Messaging Across The Generational Divide

The New York Times recently ran a fascinating article exploring the way Instant Messaging has become (in the US, at least) something that happens between parents and their children, as much as between similar-aged socialites. At one point, the article suggests that online communication takes a different form to face2face interaction, and I have to agree. I find communicating with parents or even my sister via email (or Instant Messaging if they were so inclined, but no one else in my family uses MSN Messenger [yet?]) is quite different, and I tend to "hear" what they are saying or asking in quite different ways. Maybe it would be a good way to simmer down after an argument? Of course, as the mandatory Sherry Turkle quote which ends the article points out, Instant Messaging might be a good supplement, but you do need face2face communication every now and then! :)

Happy New Year!


And a Google of a New Year good wishes to you! :)

The digital millennium might be unfriendly to the humble Vinyl, but the New York Times reminds us how easy it is to covery LP to digital here.