Potpourri III

Cap’n Crunch is known infamously as the cereal that cuts up the roof of your mouth. But I cannot stop eating it tonight. It reminds me of the CD-ROM that came in boxes of the cereal for a few months in the 90s: Cap’n Crunch’s Crunchling Adventure. It was a surprisingly awesome promotional game in which you trained a creature called a Crunchling to defeat the evil Crunchium Theives. Crunchtastic! As a bonus, you could insert the CD into a CD player and listen to a story about the Crunchlings narrated by the good captain himself. It was probably the best prize to ever be included inside of a cereal box.

Another delicacy that I am sampling tonight is the “apple pear” which is apparently actually an Asian pear that has apple-like qualities. It is delicious.

I went into BigLots! looking to see if they had any wireless keyboards. They did, and I bought one, but a wireless Bluetooth speaker also caught my eye. This is somewhat frivolous as I already have wired speakers, but the allure of transmitting sound across the room proved too much. So far I really like it. I am slowly coming to terms with the fact that this Christmas season, I am spending an awful lot on myself. Pros: joy. Cons: it makes me more materialistic.

Speaking of materialism, I think I am finally okay with idea of receiving a tablet. We are donating to charities already, and I need to give myself a break. Not buying a Nexus 10 is not going to save someone’s life.

Tonight I plan on watching Another Earth. Brit Marling gave a sharp performance in Sound of My Voice, so I am expecting good things from her here.

Two of my friends have worn cardigans around me. I have jumped on the bandwagon.

Just like the Lochtepus.

I had a one dollar credit towards mp3 purchases at Amazon. I purchased My Head is an Animal by Of Monsters and Men, since it was on sale for $3.99. I am not crazy about the album, but I figure that if I can find three songs on it that I really enjoy, it will be worth the money. Their sound reminds me very much of The Head and the Heart and songs like “Little Talks” include sweeping soundscapes, but I have not found the lyrics to be anything to write home about.

Of Monsters and Men - My Head is an Animal: Amazon | Google Play | iTunes

Low Hanging Fruit (2012)

I found James Adomian’s debut album to be good. Not incredible, but good.

Adomian is known around the Earwolf podcast network for his inventive, lively impersonations (including a paranoid, defensive Jessie Ventura, a maniacal Richard Branson, and an addled Gary Busey). His first comedy album, which was released through Earwolf, shows more of his normal personality, although he slips into several voices throughout the record to hilarious effect.

I first heard the comic on a number of Sklarbro Country episodes, performing as characters for mock interviews. They have several recurring impersonators, but I find his personas to be my favorites. He brings a great amount of energy to the table. In a recent episode, the brothers Sklar interviewed the man himself, and this got me interested in his standup. On the page for his album, you can listen to a great track that tackles the homophobic advertisements for beer that air during football games. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to buy the rest of the album (for a reasonable $10). While the rest of the bits do not quite live up to the sample track in my opinion, I got a great deal of enjoyment out of listening to them. At first I was lukewarm towards some of his material, but I must admit that upon further review I found myself laughing more and more. Taste in comedy is especially subjective, so it is difficult to judge how much Low Hanging Fruit will appeal to other people, but I liked it. I am not a fan of most stand-up, but I do appreciate the occasional alternative comedian, and Adomian is now one of them.

Plus, I just like the guy. I have written twice before about my tendency to latch onto personalities I like and support their work. I do wonder, then, how much I actually enjoy the things they produce because I want to like their stuff. Has my opinion of something been tainted if I have a desire to hang out with person who wrote it? Does the fact that I first was attracted to these people because of the quality of their handiwork remedy this?

In addition to the Sklarbro interview, Adomian appeared on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast. There he talked about growing up and coming to terms with his sexuality. As an out comic, he incorporates being gay into a large chunk of his act. I find his treatment of the topic agreeable; he talks about his sexual orientation as just another part of his personality, but is not afraid to utilize it to great effect. We need more people like him to help people understand sexual minorities as something more than stereotypes. But that is a topic for a whole other post (or series of posts).

Adomian seems to still be finding himself as a standup, but I feel that Low Hanging Fruit is a good first effort.

To the Moon (2011)

Roger Ebert once said that videogames, by their nature, could never truly be art (see the comment beginning with “Roger if you don't really consider games as art then would be it be fair to say…” and Ebert’s pithy response for a real treat (use Ctrl+F, kids!)). The resulting internet firestorm brought forth some interesting counterarguments. There was a lot of back and forth—too much for me to link to everything, so I’m not going to try.

Ultimately, I found some of Ebert’s arguments to have merit—like the idea that the mechanics of goal-and-reward-based gameplay are not conducive to artistic expression—but he misses the larger picture. In recent years, we have seen videogames that forgo traditional gameplay in favor of experimental interactive experiences.  Even outside of artsy (yes, artsy) indie games, there exists a genre which encourages the creative process (something which, as Will Wright points out, can bring strong emotions of pride when a player succeeds and guilt when they fail).

Anyway, this is all kind of a roundabout way of me saying that, yes, To the Moon is art. I will cede that the way in which it is art—essentially eschewing gameplay in favor of creating an interactive story—actually gives some credence to Ebert’s arguments about gameplay mechanics—the game had to become less game-like in order to successfully tell its story. Nevertheless, it utilizes what gameplay it does have to move the plot along and takes advantage of videogame elements to tell the story. I will also admit that upon misty-eyed completion, I wondered how the story would work in cinematic form. Whether it suffers from its choice of media is unknown. To the Moon did not need to be a game, but since it is, it makes the most of the art form.

The story itself deals with themes of loss, memory, relationships, and loneliness. The premise, which is better explained by this video than by me, raises some interesting questions about whether our actual experiences are as valuable as the memories we take away from them.

The main character’s narrative is told in reverse chronological order as the memory technicians jump back through memories using “mementos”—specific objects linked to different points in the character’s life. Most of the gameplay takes the form of exploring and finding significant objects within the memories. I confess that I found parts of “Act I” repetitive and slightly boring, but the plot was interesting enough that I retained the desire to play through. The game is around 5 hours long, by Steam’s estimation, and I completed it in three sittings.

I found To the Moon to be an enjoyable, cathartic experience. To quote my friend, who introduced the game to me on facebook, “Anyone who has ever been remotely interested in games as interactive storytelling should definitely check out To The Moon…”

Sleepwalk with Me (2012)

I had the pleasure of seeing a screening of Mike Birgbiglia’s Sleepwalk with Me. I had to drive to Pittsburgh to see it, because independent cinema has no place in Indiana, PA, but it was worth it. The screening I attended was actually packed, and I wondered if I would get in when I saw that there was a line outside of the theater to buy tickets.

The film is the fourth incarnation of Birbiglia’s tales about his sleep disorder (the others being his appearances on This American Life (which produced the film), a one-man stage show/album, and a book). In each version, he chronicles his life after college as a struggling stand-up comedian, his relationship with his girlfriend, and his increasingly dangerous sleepwalking episodes.

The film certainly feels “indie,” but this is a good thing in my book. Birbiglia gives a solid performance as a version of himself, and the cast is rounded out by myriad comedians. Notable cameos include producer/co-writer Ira Glass as a wedding photographer, and Dr. William C. Dement as himself. The story is strong and the film weaves together the different plotlines deftly, unifying the thematic elements.

One of the few problems I had was with some of the main character’s dialog. It might be because I am familiar with his material, but some lines felt like a comedy routine shoehorned in instead of naturalistic dialog. Then again, the character interactions between fellow comedians just hanging out rang very true to me (based on hearing many stand-ups shoot the shit on podcasts).

I especially enjoyed the dream sequences. Glass said in an interview on Fresh Air that he normally despises dream sequences in film as cheap, and you can tell that special attention was paid to ensure that the scenes were uncanny but realistic.

I will admit that this review is heavily biased in favor of the movie. As I have noted before, I enjoy seeing people I admire get exposure. I was a fan before the film was even released. It was great (and sometimes a little surreal) to see comedic bits I know portrayed in cinematic form, like the stilted confessions of love featured on Wedding Story Tales, or the dismal lip-syncing contest.

Me, being biased.

I would certainly recommend this film to anyone with a sense of humor—or anyone who is a little weird. Fans of Birbiglia will get exactly what they expect, and new viewers may find themselves introduced to a wonderful world of awkward moments and strange conversations comparing abstract concepts to pizza, tinged by a healthy dose of self-deprecation.

Wiki-Documenting My Mind

While going through the back catalogue of Writing Excuses, I was turned on to a piece of software known as WikidPad. The short explanation is that it lets you create personalized, local wikis about anything and everything. Naturally, this is a powerful tool for any writing that involves world building. Since I am flitting between stories that I want to work on, and was in the process of using word documents to write my story bible, I decided to give it a try. I was initially frustrated by a couple of issues regarding how the links are displayed hierarchically, and I have yet to find a way to create category pages, but after trying competing software, WikidPad seems to be the best option for me._­

If you need to keep entire histories of civilizations straight, or even just want an easy guide to your main characters, this could be a useful tool for you.

Project ADD

I think I have it. I made it a chapter and a half into something and now another story I have worked on pleads for attention. Is this a pattern of behavior that will doom me to never complete anything? Or am I utilizing my time wisely?: I am stuck in one story so I work on another.

The story that begs my involvement again is sort of a retelling of the King Arthur mythos, except not. But it borrows enough elements and characters that I think saying it references Arthurian legend is not strong enough. Perhaps “inspired by” is the term I seek.

A Shins song is playing in the coffee house as I write this. This is the perfect writing environment, yet I choose to spend my time worrying about writing instead of writing. Except for now. Now, I’m writing about worrying about writing.

I meant to write a review of Sherlock Holmes (2009), but this blog has morphed from its intended review format to something else. I enjoyed it, for the record.

The Review That Wasn't

The Last Airbender is a travesty of filmmaking. I saw this cinematic disaster in the theater, to much regret, as a loyal fan of the TV series. I downloaded it recently (I do not normally download things illegally, but I make an exception for special circumstances, such as when something is a piece of shit that deserves no money) with the intention of watching it again because I’ve been on an Avatar kick since The Legend of Korra and I thought it would be fun to re-watch the movie. I thought at worst it would be as bad as I remembered, but fun to laugh at. I thought it would be entertaining on some level.

I was wrong.

I could not watch more than five minutes of this movie without skipping ahead to another part. Most of the time, I watched for less than a minute before being disgusted and scrubbing ahead in VLC.

There are so many things wrong with this film that it is foolish to think I could list them all. Off the top of my head: the plot is muddled, the visuals are dark and muted (and not in an aesthetically pleasing way), the character’s names are pronounced incorrectly, Zuko’s scar is barely visible, it took a minute of movement to bend anything (as opposed to the swift, kinetic martial arts portrayed in the series)…

Then there is the whole “racebending” controversy. I was actually okay with the characters’ races changing, so long as 1.) everyone was not white and 2.) it was consistent in the casting. The problem is that while most of our heroes are now alabaster-skinned, the extras that make up their culture are not. Therefore, it would make more sense for the Katara and Sokka to have Inuit features like the rest of their tribe, but then, as I can imagine some bone-headed executive extolling, “white audiences would not be able to relate.” Only with the Air Nomads, who were supposed to be a multiracial culture in the film, does it make sense to have multiple ethnicities. (The Earth Kingdom, in the cartoon, has a number of ethnic groups, but for simplicity’s sake, I am assuming a movie with such a poor attention to detail would gloss over that.)

There is also no excuse for the bungled plot and character development—the show is set up in three seasons that function like a trilogy of books or movies. It literally writes itself. M. Night Shyamalan was in contact with show runners Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, who probably had some ideas ready on how to condense the story.

I hold Shyamalan accountable for many of these… let us call them oversights. He did a shitty job, plain and simple. I say this as someone who does not automatically hate everything the man touches—The Village may actually be one of my favorite movies (but that warrants its own review).

If you have not witnessed this abomination, do not waste time on it, even ironically. Life is too short for The Last Airbender.

The United Stats of America

There is a certain type of glee you feel when someone you are familiar with gets a break. Being a fan of the Sklar Brothers, I was very excited to hear that they would be hosting a show on the History Channel. The United Stats of America saw their first hosting gig on television since CheapSeats ended in 2006. Spanning six episodes, United Stats features breakdowns of topics ranging from how we die to how much money we make to how advances in transportation have affected the distribution of population across the country. It was produced by the same company that made the excellent This American Life.

Overall, I enjoyed the show, but it was not without its problems. A couple of episodes, particularly the first, skimp on the stats. As a result, they are heavy on the antics. While I enjoy most of the brothers’ mannerisms and interactions, a few of the jokes in the stat-lite episodes are real groaners. That glee I felt over them getting work turned to the same feeling you get when you see a friend in a play that isn’t that great.

The strongest episodes were those that focused on cramming a huge amount of information into the hour. The twins seem to really find their comedic footing most effectively when they have narrow slices of joke time and must make up for it by lining the episode with their trademark style of witty, rapid banter. I especially enjoyed the episode about why Americans used to be the tallest country on Earth, but have since lagged behind the Netherlands.

It’s a shame that the show probably will not be renewed, based on the Sklars’ comments about their ratings. It’s practically the only show on History that is not a reality program concerning people of varying levels of hillbilly-ness. That or the fear-mongering tripe they produce on the apocalypse. Remember the good old days, when you could make fun of the History Channel for focusing too much on Hitler, a real person? Nowadays, a viewer must put up with this:

I cannot say that every other show History airs sucks. I have a(n intelligent) friend that insists some of it is quite entertaining. But the truth is, United Stats got me watching History again after a long absence. No other current show of theirs interests me enough to even tune in out of curiosity (the last time that happened was maybe a year ago when I decided to check out Swamp People).

The Descendants (2011)

Make no mistake, this film takes its time, but the pace is a strength rather than a weakness. It is understated and cathartic. I did have some issues with the way the plot seemed to stall a bit at the end.

The performances of the actors form the real core. George Clooney is, as always, likable and could easily carry the movie by himself. However the most impressive performance comes from Shailene Woodley. According to my sister, this is amazing as she stars in the melodramatic The Secret Life of the American Teenager, which has brought us such lines as "Now we're in trouble, we're gonna be suspended, all because of oral sex gone bad!" Based on her acting in The Descendants, she has some real talent, so it is comforting to think that she will have more opportunities to develop her craft as a result of the film’s success. I suspect she is overjoyed to be freed from the ghetto of ABC Family. I certainly would be. She might continue her work on Secret Life, but a whole world of possibilities has opened up for her.

The Descendants won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. It was kind of cool to see Dean Pelton accept an Oscar.

This review is kind of lame. I'm aware of that. If I thought my writing was great, I would not need to write this blog. The important thing is that I'm writing something--I'm not the most disciplined writer.

4/5 stars