Fresh bloggin’

So, as this blog’s original content waned in the last couple of months (and really my output on all writing fronts started to dip), I came to the conclusion that not only was this blog a little too spastic for my liking, but I didn’t really care for what I was writing about. My move away from the arts has been a gradual and extended one. I’m not really sure why I’ve become so disinterested in them. Part of it may be my lack of genuine human interaction. I spend a lot of time with people at work and a few bartenders who I’ve gotten to now over the past year, but rarely to I have the chance to engage people–interesting people–in the kinds of dicussion that harbors good ideas and an interest in things like the arts. It’s difficult to relate to human emotion when you haven’t really had any fluctuation in your emotions for a year.

But the one thing that I did gravitate toward (as the posts on this blog show), more so than ever in the past, was sports. I became invested in a lot of sports I wasn’t previously, and more deeply invested in those that I was. As such, I’ve started a sports blog. I waste too much time on message boards, talking to the same people who disagree with me and think I’m an idiot. I’d rather avoid that. But talking about sports still interests me. The blog is called Burgeoning Wolverine Star–the name explained here.  Otherwise, the blog is just about my random thoughts about sports: Breaking down teams/plays, looking at polls and stats, essays on players and leagues. If you’ve ever talked to me, you probably know what the blog is about. Check it out. Or don’t.

Postscript: Man, the user interface is so much better on Blogspot than it is at WordPress. Day N Nite, I tell you.

Sports games feature

So continuing my completely boring trend of not actually supply any original content on this here blog, I wrote a feature about sports video games and our ability to, like, play them, for Splice Today. The basic gist is that as video games tend more toward reality, our understanding of the reality they represent needs to increase similarly. For first-person shooters and racers, this isn’t that difficult: We know how to shoot guns and drive cars (mostly). For sports, however, the intricate schemes and formations that go into head coaching and offensive/defensive coordinator positions need to be deployed. Playing these games becomes ever more difficult.

But technical issues such as this can be brushed off as minor glitches that will work themselves out as the technology becomes ever more powerful. However, with the astronomical increase in graphics capabilities, we’ve also seen the rise of something far more complex than left joystick, X button, and R triggers. Sports video games, like Gran Turismo and others before it, are no longer for the weak-hearted and uninitiated. Do you know what defensive set most effectively neutralizes the spread offense? How about the neutral zone trap and left wing lock? What do you do when a slashing shooting guard is painlessly getting into the lane? No doubt, some of you will know the answers to these questions, and some of you may even think them harmless decisions not worth a second thought. But do you think your 10-year-old cousin knows what defensive set to call facing a third and four, up by three points, in the fourth quarter of a football match?

Punch-Out!! review

I reviewed (a while ago, though it just ran today, go figure) Punch-Out!! for the Wii. There’s really not much to say that I didn’t already mention in my review, but basically, it’s kind of mediocre. Money quote:

Ostensibly, Punch-Out!! is the perfect game for the Wii: simple intuitive controls, the ability to successfully take advantage of the Wii’s motion-sensor capabilities, and a remake of a classic Nintendo title. The game seems so well suited for the Wii that it’s surprising that it took Nintendo so long to adapt it to its next-gen system—in retrospect, it would’ve been the ideal launch title with the system. Unfortunately, Punch-Out!! nary deserves the marquee release that it’s been given; it is a game wholly limited by it’s greatest selling point: its adherence to its source material.

Video Game feature

So a few years back, a Web site called Splice Today started up. It was, essentially a free form culture webzine devoted to just about every type of pop culture media you can imagine. The particularly devoted EIC/founder Russ Smith, at the sites inception, tapped The Michigan Daily (where I was then an editor of some sort of another) for writers, with it basically being the premiere college newspaper arts section in the nation. I told him I might be interested in the future. And I was. I wanted to write for the site and told Russ on several different occasions that I wanted to contribute to the site. But on all of those instances I flaked and ended up not writing anything.

Well, finally, after a whole bunch of time and discussions with friends about video games, I realized that Splice didn’t cover video games at all. Me and a few friends of mine decided to put in some work and write there. Here’s my first article about video games–essentially why and how video games became the preeminent form of media in our current society. Money quote:

The rise of video games has been unprecedented in both its rapidly increasing capabilities and cultural relevance. The current state of next gen systems (Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and Playstation 3) was but a pipe dream 10 years ago. For a point of reference, compare Jurassic Park to Transformers, and Madden 99 to Madden 09. The differences in the latter are more akin to comparing Hitchcock movies to the Transformers series—you know, without all of the aesthetic and quality implications. Hell, compare Ghostbusters with its recent next gen release; the differences don’t compare to the huge leaps made in video game technology. With the rise of the digital age, so too has followed the rise of the video game.

Ghostface track review

I reviewed the new Ghostface Killah track “Forever” for Pitchfork. I rather enjoyed it and, when I submitted it, ended up giving it an 8. It was edited and given a 7 (which is common, but just figured y’all should know). It is from, or at least in support of, his new R&B album that has been rumored.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine review

About a month ago now, I found out that NCAA Football ‘10 wasn’t coming out on the Wii. As I grew increasingly excited about the prospect of my beloved Michigan Wolverines returning to dominating glory (or, ya know, .500), I decided that I absolutely had to own a system to play NCAA ‘10 on. So I got impulsive, went out the next day to GameStop, and bought an XBox 360.

Now I review video games for the system–as well as still reviewing games for Wii. My first review is of the extremely violent X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I said this:

Enter Wolverine, a member of the historic X-Men series. His powers are varied but all increasingly cool (largely the most appropriate word for his skills). He can smell and sense danger, a helpful but mostly innocuous skill. His body heals at super-human speed making him nearly impossible to kill, again, cool, but mostly PG-rated. And he has razor sharp blades that can cut through any material and that rip through his flesh whenever he needs them … wait, what? When thought about logically, the way that Wolverine “subdues” enemies is, basically, to cut them in half. He’s the equivalent of a back-alley mugger that has uncompromising stealth and six really, really sharp knives that he uses to fatal effect. But that never passes through your mind when you watch the popular ‘90s cartoon or read the books. He just seems particularly bad ass.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine, however, is something of a blood bath. And given the frequency of the gory slow motion cut scenes and writhing, limbless enemies for the creators, this is more a blood bubble bath, a playfully enjoyable celebration of dismemberment and blood-gushing death. This isn’t a slight against the game, though, just an aspect of the game that’s glaringly obvious from the get go.

Black Pus track review

Not a particularly informative or interesting post. Here’s a track review I did of Black Pus–side project of Lightning Bolt drummer Brian Chippendale–single “Down Down Da Drain”.

I’ve realized that I don’t do nearly enough recreational writing to spend a lot of time on this site. My fiend Miles at Alpha Fount recently had a kind-of-similar epiphony, only his had more to do with the ethical dealings of his site. And Ian of Sexy Results has recently realized that he spends too much time on message boards and not enough doing constructive things like blogging.

I hope to start writing in here a little more but frankly don’t know if I have time yet. I do want to do a rundown of the NBA Finals and how we got here (including the defeat of the Cavs, a team that readers of this blog will now I was skeptical of, and my sort of being right/sort of being wrong about Dwight Howard). But we’ll see how it all turns out. Chances of me grinding out a 1,000+ word preview/rundown of the Finals is unlikely but I might get around to it.

Annie track review

Here’s my review of Annie’s new single “Anthonio” as well as a short review of the Fred Falke remix, which is pretty great. Long ago, I reviewed Annie’s debut record for The Michigan Daily. I liked her then and I like her now.

Discovery track review

Here’s my review of Discovery’s “Osaka Loop Line”, an early single from Vampire Weekend guitarist/keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij’s and Ra Ra Riot’s Wes Miles. This track is really good but their other single, “Orange Shirt” is really mediocre. You can hear both at their MySpace. Though I’m not a huge Vampire Weekend fan and I’ve never really paid much attention to Ra Ra Riot, I highly suggest you check this track out.

Programming note

There haven’t been a lot of posts lately because there are some shakeups here at work. Our current Online Editor is leaving for Germany at the end of the week because of a teaching fellowship he got through his college. Basically what this means for me is that I’m going to be taking on his responsibilities as well as keeping my own for the time being–until we’re able to hire someone else. It’s been hectic. Meanwhile, I’ve been writing single reviews at Pitchfork which have been taking up much of my time post-work. Hopefully more interesting posts to come.