I spent about a half-hour playing The Stanley Parable, a free artsy-fartsy sort of "game." These artsy-fartsy sort of "games" are popping up more and more now, and I have yet to see a truly great one, although they're still in their infancy. Based on what I have seen, there is tremendous potential here and someday an art game (other than 'The Stanley Parable') is going to be huge. This one came highly recommended, as Ars Technica gave everyone a homework assignment to go play it and cautioned that you not read the review until after you had played it through. Without giving anything away, I found it kind of sophomoric, shallow, and a little pretentious. I heard a great interview with Paul Simon once. The interviewer was asking him about some of his early work, and Simon said that he didn't care much for Richard Cory. The gist of the song (and the poem) is that Richard Cory is a wealthy man-about-town whom everybody loves and who has power, grace, and style - yet, at the end of the song/poem, he kills himself anyway. Simon concludes that the "shocking twist ending" is the kind of thing a high schooler might think was cool or ironic, but honestly it's just kind of obvious and without subtlety. This "game" made me feel the same way. Feel free to download it and play it and see what you think. I was interested to see that, in the Ars followup, many people who played it thought it was actually deep and meaningful. FOCUS: What is supposed to be deep and meaningful, but honestly you just think is pretentious and full of bullshit? ALT FOCUS: Have you ever gotten in trouble with a friend or significant other because you called bullshit on something they thought held the key to the secret of life?
I don't like The Beatles, and I've caught a lot of hell for that. Clearly, they are talented, I just don't like their sound. I'm a Rolling Stones man. The Stones were singing about slamming dope, fucking under-age girls, and sticking a "knife right down your throat," whereas The Beatles were singing "I wanna hold your hand." The Rolling Stones were hardcore, and The Beatles were one of the first boy-bands. EDIT: GARTH BROOKS--I love country music. I was raised on country music. But I think that man ruined country by bringing the whole "pop" aspect into the equation. His over-produced music changed the whole industry. I know that if it wasn't him, it would have been someone else, but he's the one who sticks out. There's a reason why my favorite bar doesn't have any music by The Beatles or Garth Brooks on the juke box. EDIT: Incase anyone denies my claim about sticking a knife down a victim's throat, here's "Midnight Rambler," an awesome song (the line comes near the end of the song):
Focus: I think most street art, while being clever and usually interesting to look at, is portrayed as this grand rebellion against the establishment when it really isn't. I get the whole idea of stalking around at night putting up ironic portraits or art scenes that interact with a ridiculous symbol in society, but broken down, it's basically just juvenile angst. I'm not against it, but there isn't some grand "movement" that's going to get off the ground through street art.
Focus: 90% of poetry, particularly free verse and poems which look like ... this Don't get me wrong, there is some great poetry out there (and if anyone wants to link me to some, please do!), but after studying the Metaphysical poets and a stack of feminist poetry for Uni, I really think that at best the emperor is wearing some tighty whities over his mostly naked form. Alt Focus: Oh dear. A good friend of mine has a deeply religious mother. That's all well and good, the mother's religion helped her move past a traumatic experience in her past, and is generally a good influence on her. However, recently she (caught?) a mental illness, and begun having psychotic breaks. She believes that God is talking to her, and she can see angels and demons in the room that nobody else can. Some of her concerned family took her to see a shrink, but the other half of her family are convinced her visions are a blessing from God and took her back to the Phillipines to go to a faith healer. The strain this is putting on my friend is immense. How do you convince someone that far from being a prophet they are actually mentally ill? And how do you have a rational discussion with someone who believes critical reasoning is a tool of the devil to destroy faith?
While I'm inclined to believe you, to me street art is about telling a small subset of the population that they aren't alone. That there are other subversives out there. That not everyone finds total fulfillment in wearing a suit, billing some hours, and then going home to their big screen tv and well manicured lawn. Also, I love this.
I despise most poetry, but Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Edgar Allan Poe made some damn good stuff. I remember having to do a research paper and a presentation on a poet sophomore year. Most kids in the class just chose names off the list; I immediately grabbed Edgar Allan Poe. After my presentation, (I read Annabel Lee) one of the kids said, "Now THAT's poetry. What the fuck is this e.e. cummings garbage? I want more of that stuff."
A friend of mine had (or still does for all I know) a near religious belief in the Law of Attraction. His bible was a book called The Secret. He tried to tell me all the bullshit that goes along with this, like if you want something all you have to do is want it bad enough and the universe will manifest it out of thin air and give it to you. If you don't get something you desire it's simply because you didn't want it bad enough. If this were true, I'm pretty sure no one would starve to death. He tried to show me videos about this and every time the videos were idiotic and easily refutable.
Fuck, you beat me to it. I had the same problem with my sister. I hate this goddamned book. I mean to say, if it has done you some good and positive thinking and all that jazz works for you then by all means have at it. I'm willing to put money on the fact that you're a person that thinks positively and then you use this mental affirmation as a means to set the stage for having your ass in gear, working your fingers to a nub and hustlin like a boss. This doesn't apply to my sister. No, not my sister. She feels like she can think positively about money and all that it could provide, sit in her (paid for by my brother) house at the age of 40 with her 4 children (wait, thats 3 because my mom has taken one in) and wait for the cash to roll in. Go fuck yourself you lazy cunt. I don't have any lingering anger towards my sister... No none at all.
The guy who created The Stanley Parable is a friend of mine, and I can honestly tell you he's about as far from pretentious as they get. The whole point of the game was just playing with the conventions of gaming, but not making big statements or preaching about anything, as I would think the sense of humor in the game would indicate.
The Game by Neil Strauss Every douchebag I went to college with referred to it as if it were the Gospel for getting pussy (Hint-hint: it's not). Apparently the secrets of Pick-Up artists were unknown until one bravely curious pseudo-journalist decided to shadow a guy named "Mystery" who wore tranny clothes, a boa, and used his penis as a magical fife to lure retards to his bed. Bullshit. I have a strong feeling those guys couldn't land chicks, because they read that book and took it seriously. Enjoy your "peacocking" fellas, the rest of us will be over at the bar drinking and having conversations like adults.
I read about half of it and remember that it was far from a guide and Mystery was a suicidal loser. It had a pretty standard journalist voice to it but it was a decent look at a odd sub culture of weirdos. Though I was only half way through it Strauss didn't paint them than anything but the insecure losers they ultimately were (there were a few exceptions as some of the dudes were actually decent people). On the other hand I did read most of The Art of Seduction by Robert Greene and was bored to fucking tears. It is more of a guide and his prose is so damn dense. He does his research but the text book fashion he delivered it was just boring. After the 80th example of some random French lord seducing a maiden in the 17th century country side I stopped caring.
Like I said in the rep, youre probably correct about the theme of it. I haven't read it myself, but what i have had described to me on many occasions seems to be the exact opposite and taken as a fix-it manual for guys who can't get ass. That being said, and the fact that it's interpreted incorrectly to begin with, makes that interpretation much more retarded.
Strauss' book isn't about how to pick up women. Like Kubla said, it's about pick-up artists of various walks of life. The shit below is a guide, written by Hacken McHackenstein himself. Fuck, I'm ashamed he's Canadian. Strauss is a glorified author. Usually his books consist of letting people like Motely Crue write an entire chapter, then he throws in his obvious two cents at the end. He's the John Madden of journalists.
I have a cousin who converted to Mormonism at the age of 27. While it was helpful for her (it got her to move out of her mother's house and get a job) it has made her extremely righteous for all the wrong reasons. She smokes more weed in a day than I do in a week (I think she has a legitimate addiction to weed. She is the only person I know who this has actually happened to) but my drinking coffee makes me "unclean." Also, she drinks alcohol, but now she bitches about what a horrible person she is the entire time. I have nothing against Mormons, but I do have an issue with the fact that she uses her religion as an excuse to bitch and moan even more than she used to.
There are a few movies that friends claim is "so totally deep and speaks to our generation". The ones off the top of my head are "Donnie Darko" and "Garden State". I watched "GS" in the theater with my roommate who was incredibly high at the time. Ever since then she would talk about how it spoke to her and how it was "The Graduate" for our generation. Um, no. It was a decent movie for an actor turned writer/director, and you're kind of a pothead. Almost anything can be deep and meaningful when you are stoned.
The Social Network, which was a very good movie; but I've heard self-proclaimed film experts that it's the next Citizen Kane, and it (and potentially Apocalypse Now, which always seems to somehow get mentioned) are the pinnacle of human achievement on the medium
James Lipton If this guy was an actor, he couldn't get a town crier gig at a medieval fair. What a fucking kiss-ass HAM this motherfucker is. Can I get an amen? Jewel therapy, Energy Healing, New Wave Douchebaggery We get it. You like wearing soft white clothes and prefer to sit on the floor. Hoping something were so doesn't make it so. Those Loudmouth Divorce Lawyers on TV I'm guessing every one of these assholes at one point had a relationship fallout that wounded their clit so bad they had to strike back at society by making a profit off a horrible time in a person's life. These extremely amplified whispered promises they scream at you the viewer like they should be wearing red boots and a cape. FUCK OFF.