Cyber Nations I was looking around for a free, in-browser, text-based MMO that wouldn't take too much time and came across Cyber Nations. I tried Nexus Wars but didn't care for the interface and found it tedious. Not to mention the game is set up such that people can (and will) kill your character while you're signed off. Not sure about Cyber Nations yet, but I've got my first trade partnership and am fending off lots of Alliance invitations until I decide if I'm going to stick with it. If you're looking for a free game with a low time commitment and somebody you know already playing, check it out.
Gold-Titanium Alloy Man Does whatever a Gold-Titanium Alloy pig can ... d'oh!
I like Robert Downey Jr. I liked Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. I think I've liked him in other things, so why is it I can only call to mind his supporting roles in US Marshalls (bleh) and True Believer? I keep wanting to say he was great in The Grifters and Grosse Pointe Blanke -- and then I remember that was John Cusack. Anyways, he was a great Tony Stark here: charming, sharp, and just this side of dissolute. (Keep in mind, I've never read an Iron Man comic in my life, so whether he's Comic Book Guy's Tony Stark is beyond my ken.) Iron Man delivers superhero/comic book fun that left me hoping the planned trilogy comes to pass -- with Favreau at the helm of all three. I liked Batman Begins, it was my last 'favorite comic book movie', but I'm really not looking forward to the sequel. I'm just not that goth, I guess. I like the bold primary colors comics more than the brooding I'm-so-dark-I'm-cool genre calculated to appeal to the NIN set. Those less dark superhero movies have been a mixed bag to this point: Superman Returns, Daredevil, Ang Lee's Hulk, Raimi's Spider-Man movies, the X-Men movies -- there's some wild inconsistency there. Hammy to stilted acting (Maguire the former, any X-(wo)man the latter, Affleck both), distractingly awful CGI, ludicrously overstuffed/semi-coherent stories, there's been something fundamentally wrong with all of them. While each of those movies had elements I liked, none of them have held up particularly well for me. The first two Spideys would be best of that lot. [Update: A day later, I find myself thinking, "How could those Afghan soldiers have been stupid enough to let Stark build the Iron Man 1.0 suit right under their noses when he was supposed to be building them missiles? Instead of watching on grainy video monitors wondering what he was up to ('Maybe he made some modifications?' one asks another) they could've asked him directly and made him show progress.) Of course, I wondered the same thing during the movie, but I stopped wondering as I got caught up in the tension of getting the suit built in time, etc. I think it would be hard to sit through that a second time.]
Downey wasn't the only actor doing fine work in this movie. Jeff "The Dude" Bridges was great as Downey's mentor and (obligatory spoiler alert, if needed) ultimate nemesis. I didn't even recognize him at first with that bald dome-full beard look. Are his meaty, arms dealing paws in this movie the same hands that balanced White Russians so delicately in The Big Lebowski? None of the performances here were so one-dimensionally bad that they distracted me from the flow of the movie. Can't say that about many (any?) other superhero movie.
I like too that Iron Man isn't as powerful as the Hulk and Superman. You don't find yourself wondering things like "Could he really pick up a whole continent like that? Wouldn't it break in half in the middle, or the weight of the whole continent focused where he's standing cause the part of the earth's crust he's standing on to sink?" And the suit has that Gundam/Mech appeal that satisfies the tech/gadget lover in me much more than Batman's token nod.
Stuck in the Middle Fittingly for a band that pissed away so much of its potential, the Replacements still haven't really gotten the posthumous treatment they deserve. Rhino will be reissuing all the 'Mats albums, the Twin/Tone era is already out and getting good reviews. Rhino generally does a good job with this sort of thing and it'll certainly be better than All for Nothing/Nothing for All the greatest hits/B-side collection that was limited to only the major label years.
Still, a slew of reissues, featuring some bonus tracks looks more like a money gouge for those of us who already have the original and some boots. I can't buy a CD for one song. I just don't work that way. Sooner or later they'll get a boxed set. Every moron with more than six albums gets a boxed set eventually, are you telling me the 'Mats won't?
I recently finished The Replacements: All Over But the Shouting, An Oral History by Minneapolis rocker and writer Jim Walsh. Good enough, I'd even say it's must ... for the fans. A really great history of the Replacements would probably be interesting even to people who didn't like indie music. The youth - Tommy Stinson really was 14 when they started - the booze, the expectations, pissing away those expectations, playing the greatest rock songs ever written, playing so poorly you get things thrown at you. All Over But the Shouting captures some of it, but it's not the history they deserve.
Apparently the story about the 'Mats sneaking back into Twin/Tone to toss their master tapes into the river is true. Manager Peter Jeperson had made other copies, making the reissues possible. Smart guy.
"President Bush is well aware that the banner should have been much more specific and said 'mission accomplished' for these sailors who are on this ship on their mission," White House press secretary Dana Perino said Wednesday. "And we have certainly paid a price for not being more specific on that banner. And I recognize that the media is going to play this up again tomorrow, as they do every single year."
Don't you love how the White House pretends Bush is the victim here? Me too. Of course, the reason they weren't more specific and said mission accomplished for these sailors is that they didn't invent that excuse until months after the fact.
What a crummy article. The only fault I can see is that we all misinterpreted a perfectly clear banner and beat up a poor defenseless president. It also continues the myth that Bush flew the plane. I wonder what percentage of Americans believe that Bush was the pilot. I bet above 90.
If you'll forgive me for patting myself on the back, but that day five years ago I told anyone who would listen - not many - that Democrats were going to wind up using that image in political ads.
How Did I Not Know About Moe Berg? Tooling around Barnes & Noble before seeing "The Forbidden Kingdom" this past weekend, I read the first few pages of The Catcher was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg. Berg was a back-up catcher for the Red Sox in the late 30s, then a coach for a couple years, and (as you may have guessed) eventually a spy working for the OSS during WW2. One of his assignments was to attend a lecture by Werner Heisenberg, determine if the Germans were close to developing an A-Bomb, and shoot him if they were. Fascinating stuff. [Moe Berg Wikipedia page]
Crouching Tiger, Spanking Monkey I've been burned too often (I'm looking at you, The Tuxedo) by American-made Jackie Chan movies to have it be an automatic thatI'll be there opening weekend; but, largely because of Armond White's review [New York Press - ARMOND WHITE - Mash of the Titans], I did open the wallet and make the trek to check out The Forbidden Kingdom.
I was a little worried about five minutes in when the gang of toughs reminded me a little too much of the Rumble in the Bronx baddies. Luckily, the magical transport to the Middle Kingdom happened pretty quickly and the movie hit its stride. Jackie and Jet worked well together, the fight scenes were fun, and there were lots of nods to classic movies to give the geeks like me some chances to buff our Shaw Bros. merit badges earned for learning to recognize the animal styles before they're called out.
This Michael Angarano kid they found to be the student to Jackie and Jet though ... I read he had to learn kung fu to get the role, so I hoped that meant he could already act. He learned enough kung fu to convincingly play a novice but maybe they'd have been better served finding someone with a martial arts background who could learn to act. If he had any screen charisma at all, I'd be pulling for a sequel where Jackie's Lu Yan character continued to mentor him through another adventure.
Good Ol' EHHS The former stomping grounds of several Cryptonauts only shows up in my news feed when: (1) Sexual Assault charges lead to the dismissal of faculty member, (2) the basketball team (or Doug Wiggins) either does well or some current or former player gets in trouble (eg. Doug Wiggins), or (3) the high school receives a bomb threat.
The most important thing I want to see right out the gate is Tina Charles and Renee Montgomery healthy. They both left the floor injured during UConn's sweet sixteen win over ODU. UConn has been saying they're fine, but that's probably what they'd say if they were banged up. They "practiced," but did they practice with other players or a stationary bike? Having already lost two starters during the season, UConn can't afford this.
The other storyline for UConn fans is the end of Brittany Hunter and Charde Houston's careers. Hunter, troubled by a chronic sore knee, turns in amazing stat lines - 9 pts/6 rbs/2 blk 11 min - and won't be able to play basketball after this. Houston has been alternately electrifying and horrible. She's been great for the last handful of games, even got the MVP of the Big East tournament. Hunter can leave everything out there and Houston can erase all those "what if" stories.
Rutgers isn't that deep either, and they play a shovey, grind it out, aggressive (trash-talky) sort of defense so officiating will also be key.
The biggest story seems to be "Just how good can Maya Moore be?" At this point, the only comparisons that make sense are Taurasi (best ever) or Lobo (taking a program to another level - and UConn already is at the top tier). Believe the hype. And since she's come through every time I've typed it, I'll type it again - if you haven't watched Moore play, here's your chance.
(Update: Did I mention Ketia Swanier? On a night when absolutely nothing went right, the Huskies come back from 14 down to win. Rutgers is not a team I'd like to spot 14. As an optimist, I'm going to regard this as a get-it-out-of-your-system game. Too bad for ESPN both this and Tennessee's game were fairly ugly. Tennessee should thank the NCAA. No way they'd be in the Final Four if they were facing Rutgers last night. I thought UConn was the top seed overall.)
Lucius in Stride Lucius Shepard's Hugo Nominated short story, "Stars Seen Through Stone." The intrusion of other realities into troubled relationships is Shepard's meat and potatoes. I like this as a relatively upbeat alternate version of his recent short novel, "Softspoken."
Arthur C. Clarke dies. And so the last of the triumvirate of early sci-fi giants, along with Heinlein and Asimov, is gone. Phil Dick once said that every time someone used a robot that thought it was human he should get paid. For Clarke, it's every time a giant spaceship hovers over a city and people gather together to look up in awe and fear. Childhood's End is a legitimate classic. The stories stay with me more. "The Star" and "Nine Billion Names of God" are perfect, mind-blowing constructions. R.I.P.
