Don't know if you've seen them around town, but team USA is on the streets sweating for the gold in Bejing. It took me over a decade to make the easy jaunt across town, but if you haven't ever visited the Olympic Training Center now seems like it'd be a really good time to do so.
Here is a shot of a Bejing triathlon hopeful that was peddling, along with the team, down Colorado Ave. last Sunday.
When the NY Times decides to cover Steampunk, the deliciously neo-victorian aesthetic, you know it has made it out of the realm of indy comics and off-beat web sites. The next big thing? I don't know about that, but I'd love nothing more than to see lower Manhattan awash in top hats and brass goggles. Why not? It is a whole lot more accessible and DIY than a lot of cultural phenomenon that I see around. I love this stuff to death.
The whole movement seems to be a reflex against the tsunami of high tech that has invaded our lives, but lacks a lot of the wonder, style and pure aesthetic extravagance that once accompanied such things. For example, a great new desktop computer comes in a plastic case built for economy. Our modern efficiency has largely robbed us of style. Where better to look than the Victorian era to right this utilitarian shortcoming?
The elaborate mourning dresses, waistcoats, hacking jackets and high-button shoes are goth’s stepchildren, for sure, but the overall look is “not so much eyeliner and fishnets,” said Evelyn Kriete, who sells advertising space for magazines like Steampunk, The Willows and Weird Tales, and who manages Jaborwhalky Productions (jaborwhalky.com), a steampunk Web site.Ms. Kriete and her eccentrically outfitted cohort of teachers, designers, writers and medical students, drew stares last week at a picnic at the Cloisters in Manhattan, but provoked no shudders or discernible hostility.
“As a subculture, we are not the spawn of Satan,” Ms. Kriete said. “People smile when they see us. They want to take our picture.”
Robert Brown, the lead singer for Abney Park, a goth band that has reinvented itself as steampunk, echoed her sentiments. “Steampunk is not dark and spooky,” he said. “It’s elegant and beautiful.”
This is probably my favorite art show that comes around. The fabulous and most excellent Lauren Potereiko will show some of her new work, plus there will be live entertainment and magic. Check it out. You gotta love those Edifice folks.
When I say GTA IV is #1, I really mean #1. No video game on any platform has received such widespread and unanimous critical praise. Gamerankings.com has posted an aggregate score of 99% from assorted media outlets. Scan a couple of the reviews linked from Game Rankings, what is being said is that GTA IV marks a moment in entertainment history, a moment in which interactive fiction has become truly compelling as a story telling medium and possibly even on par with film. It is being reported to be a quantum leap in the medium. It's easy to think back to when Half-Life was released and remember the way that it revolutionized the first person shooter, but this is bigger and the grades are even better. So what do I think? Is GTA IV really all that? I'd have to answer, "mostly yes." The game is mind boggling in its scope and detail. The writing is beyond superb. The humor is spot on. It's fun. The medium has obvious ways that it can mature and develop, but in essence the vision of a believable and open fully interactive game world has been brought forth. The future of interactive fiction looks bright.
Published by Rockstar Games, Grand Theft Auto IV is a violent, intelligent, profane, endearing, obnoxious, sly, richly textured and thoroughly compelling work of cultural satire disguised as fun. It calls to mind a rollicking R-rated version of Mad magazine featuring Dave Chappelle and Quentin Tarantino, and sets a new standard for what is possible in interactive arts.
This kind of thinking is terribly flawed. I'm no fan of the oil companies, but forcing them to pay $0.18 cents for each gallon of gas that I buy feels like an abuse of power. Besides, they'll just raise the price, probably by more than 18 cents. What does Hillary plan to do then? Place a regulation on the price of gas?
This is bad liberalism.
Clinton has proposed lifting the tax on gasoline during the summer and making up the revenue with a windfall profits tax on oil companies. Obama has said that the tax would not save Americans much money and that oil companies would likely raise prices.'What I've proposed is that the oil companies pay the gas tax instead of consumers and drivers this summer," Clinton said on ABC's This Week.
When asked to name an economist who supports her proposal, Clinton said, "I'm not going to put my lot in with economists. … We've got to get out of this mind-set where somehow elite opinion is always on the side of doing things that really disadvantage the vast majority of Americans."
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