Max Ernst

This is excellent news. KRZ was the last game I fell in love with, so I am excited to jump into this next section. I think I guessed the plot already, but that hardly matters. Every 'frame' (as in, the composition of each scene) is absolutely screenshot worthy. The way they use perspective and environment design is more akin to film than most games I have played. A fixed perspective is cool like that.

I found my old copy of It and flicked through it and then remembered why I stopped reading King when I was 18. A shocking amount of his writing follows the format "As [name] went to [window, door, another room], she/he thought about [events]." It happens so much I started to think it was intentional character device, but I don't think I can give him that much credit. Also, he does a lot of "and that was the last time they saw [name] alive", which is a cheap way to build suspense. This weekend I also started and gave up on The Recognitions for the third time. Next time!

I walked out of the second Lord of the Rings film and it has the honour of being one of the very few decisions I have made in my life that I do not utterly regret.

I just watched the first season of Nathan for You and it is the funniest thing I have seen in a long time. The "sex offender" stunt is going to go down as a highpoint of television history. Here is the intro to that particular episode to explain its premise: The guy has comedy flowing through his veins.

Frustratingly, this looks really inventive and wonderful.

Yeah, Roger Ballen is a beast. Really great contrast between prison scenes and childhood insecurities. I don't know if the piece you mentioned is meant to be a comment on sexuality, but it sure is an eerie composition anyhow. On topic: blasting my way through Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber short story collection. They are incredible. They are retelling of fairy tales, yet so much more than the hacky 'adult versions' you see littered in book stores. I'll let the author explain: Tackles a lot of gender, sexuality and power issues. Plus, her prose is wonderful. Can't wait to read the rest.

This is a weird case in which I really liked those games and then I read up on Doug TenNapel and then I liked them a lot less. Earthworm Jim has a special place in my heart, but TenNapel being a gross bigot is going to stop me throwing money his way. A lot of creativity wasted on such a terrible person. I kind of wished I stuck to the 'worship art, not artists' aphorism and kept my blinders on.

Thank you for confirming how unfunny Penny Arcade continues to be.

Is everyone in this thread a real person or is my life like The Truman Show and everything is designed to provoke a reaction from me? Also, watch this:

This is my favourite passage in the novel, as it both stands on its own but is also a great explanation of Cromwell's power and intrigue: I really think that occasional allusions to the protagonist's past is such a powerful story device. A really great example of how small glimpses can be much more powerful than encyclopedic background stuff. From nerd's perspective (not me, I am not a nerd I am a cool man), try to remember how the wonder of Star Wars erodes away as the backstory gets fleshed out further and further. The same applies to Cromwell's character, I think.

Sometimes I hear people complain about the direction of the Star Wars films and I think "being an adult is hard".

Just started J.M.G. Le Clezio's The Giants. Really strange and interesting so far. His experimental 1960's novel The Flood blew my mind earlier this year, so I can't wait to get around to it.

Sometimes I read someone's Twitter bio and read the phrase "Tech Enthusiast" or "Gamer" and unfollow unmercifully. "Gamer. Mother of four. Tech enthusiast. Vegetarian. Liberal. Deadhead. Interesting Person."

I think your complaints and the book's epigraph are linked pretty strongly. I think it is a perfect commentary of those who refuse to go anywhere, but I can understand your gripes.

Mystikal is the only rapper to do a James Brown rap song and actually get it right. Guy has incredible skill, he just needs to keep doing this and less of that awful stuff that put him in jail: Seriously, this is one of my favourite tracks from last year. That delivery is incredible. He totally owns every line, and doesn't rest for one minute, switching up his flow constantly. And that beat!

I like a lot about what you said here, but I disagree that Andre went too far on Stankonia. The closing song on that record is so perfectly weird. That baseline! It has the power to impregnate! That said, I agree that their prior two records are five star. Also, speaking of Killer Mike, he and El-P are releasing at tape soon. Pretty pumped. Crazy how many great records those two have between them.

Do you think that Dave Grohl's rockstar friends are paranoid that he is going ask them what they actually think of the Foo Fighters?

My favourite Hoobastank song is 'Chumbawamba'.

Hey, remember when GTA IV did the big Koyaanisqatsi thing for its first trailer, right down to the Glass score? Oh man, I was so hyped. No indications of fart-cops satire or ridiculousness there. Also, I would argue that along with being out of place, the satire is also really bad. "America is fat" "People are stupid" "Ass is a funny word" "Have we made fun of gay people yet?" The Cohen brothers suggestion would solve their dissonance problems, I think, yet I would argue that a Catch-22, "the world is absurd" attitude, which fosters comedy as well as fundamental human truths, would serve just as well. Also, it is crazy that game doesn't have a female protagonist yet.

Also, speaking of bands I wrote off because of their popularity, I've been getting into a lot of early R.E.M., which I have always been assured was very good but I never spent the time to dig through their first few releases. This last month or so, I can't stop listening to their first two records. So fucking good:

OutKast became a weird, perfect clash of personalities, which resulted in some truly groundbreaking music. Their first three records showed that they were wonderful MCs. They knew their way around the microphone, and you never found a dud verse on any tracks. The beats were sounded pretty neat and edgy, but nothing too groundbreaking. They just made great rap music. Cut to Stankonia, where Andre is getting into Prince, Squarepusher and psychedelia. The music gets real weird. Voices get pitch shifted, there is a weird album concept through-line, squealing guitars are mixed with future sounding synths and low sounding bass... their music just went next level. Yet, Andre's exploration was always grounded by Big Boi's refusal to become anything more than a rap artist. The songs still had structure, the duo still rapped fantastically, and there was always a solid beat behind each track. Big Boi stopped them from losing focus, and the album is so much better because of it. It really is a classic. Then they went and made Speakerboxxx/The Love Below which is a decent record but duo to the fact that the album is essentially two solo records, their songs sometimes fell off the rails. Big Boi's half felt unadventurous, while Andre's wandered too far into Stevie Wonder territory, as sub-standard crooning replaced his experimental rap. Their next record, Idlewild took it even further. That album is a weird, interesting, mess. But yeah, essentially, forget what you thought you knew, and start with Stankonia and go backwards through their catalogue. They have so many home-run records it is kind of astounding. Here is one of my favourite cuts from Stankonia, and exhibits just how wonderful this record is: It still stuns me that she covers so many genres, yet the whole album doesn't feel like a cut and paste mess. While her influences can be pretty clear, she makes each song her own. Her personality and voice totally come through. Hell, she does a weird K-Pop song and, where it sits in the album, it totally works. Here it is: http://youtu.be/Iv10t488Zpo

I just finished all of the DYAD levels and I am just going to say that playing that shit late at night with headphones is a transcendent experience.

I think you might like The Bible because you can level up to heaven.

I feel like the secrets of the universe are contained in that one video. Like watching waves crash against the sand, immersing yourself in Brian's seven seconds of glory long enough will make you understand your place in the cosmos.

I'm obsessed with bad audition reels. For example: http://youtu.be/nxOcDpOYZdM