Culture kills... wait, I mean cutlery

Sunday Video: Husk Musk

A Classic sketch from The Kids in the Hall. I know this isn't everyone's favorite, but I've always enjoyed the Danny Husk sketches.

I almost went with Spy Models or a Francesca Fiore sketch, but I thought better of it.

Labels: television, videos

Week 27: Pageant of the Transmundane

A high school in Massachusetts have made a strange 4-letter word an offense worthy of suspension. That word is Beaker from the Muppets exclamation Meep, because apparently students were causing a disturbance saying it, so if you say it or wear clothing with it on it, you can be suspended. I am trying to figure out how a nonsense word that has no offensive meanings in the context it is being used in became so serious that it would deny you education.

Anyway, this week's winning entry comes to us from the site Tunelab.

It is a video of British band Muse on an Italian music show... one which they were being forced to lipsync on, something they really didn't want to do. So, in the spirit of slightly silly acts of petty rebellion everywhere, the band played that gig, only the members decided to play different roles on stage, with much hilarity ensuing.

And since this is related to a band that started in the mid-1990's I thought this was the most appropriate image for the Homer Simpson Transmundanity Award this week.

Congrats to the staff of Tune Lab. Here is your badge.

The rules of this little contest: Every week I will be selecting one blog post that I have seen from the vast reaches of the blogging village to bestow with the Homer Simpson Transmundanity Award for being one of the freakiest(in a funny way) things I've seen or read during a 7 day period. It doesn't necessarily have to have been written during the week, I just had to have encountered it. That means that if you find something interesting and repost it like a movie or whatever, if I saw it at your blog first, you get the prize. Of course, creating your own content is also a very good way to win.

Now, if you see a post that you think is worthy of this illustrious prize, just drop me a line at campybeaver@gmail.com and we'll see if we can't get your suggestion up and award-ready while giving you some credit and a link to your own blog.

Labels: transmundanity

Learning Narrative Lessons from Gaming: What Not To Do

There are rules that every writer involved in the crafting of fiction has learned through rout memorization or from seeing positive examples of how to do things from quality work. But there are times when you as a writer just need to see when things go wrong to fully sense why certain guidelines are in place.

I happened to have that experience with a game I've been playing, and I thought it was worth sharing. Now, some of you out there are likely thinking that picking on a game for having a bad narrative is like kicking a medium while they are down. I just think that they can get better, and in many cases, they do an admirable job telling a story while following the narrative rules other media follow.

And again, it is a learning experience for me doing this, so I am not going to complain. I also can't really fault the game in question on technical grounds because aside from the narrative problems, the gameplay was solid, so no complaints about that.

The game that made me think about all these issues was one titled Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana, which is the sixth game in a long running series of Role Playing games (and the first title from that series to be released in North America). If you've played a modern role playing game with a lot of item synthesis, you have the Atelier series to thank for that.

However, despite the innovations which the series introduced into the console role playing game market, the story line has some real problems. Suffice it to say, if you are planning on playing the game, well, there are naturally some spoilers here, so you may want to skip this entry.

1. There is a character in Eternal Mana who is really fleshed out, has an interesting back story, an engagingly blunt personality and is generally so likably persnickety that they dominate whatever scene they are in. Is this character part of the main cast of playable characters? Are they an non playable character you keep running into wherever you go? No again. Who is this super rounded character? A shopkeeper named Veola who you meet in the first town you visit. For those of you who have played an RPG, the idea that a shopkeeper that doesn't travel is the strongest and most developed character in the narrative you are being led through says a lot. Especially since the six characters who make up your party throughout the game in different configurations are much less interesting and developed than this NPC. The best way I can describe this situation is by comparing Veola to another character who shares some of her traits.... 24's Chloe O'Brian. I mean, most of us really enjoy watching the super competent and blunt Chloe do her thing... but she isn't the main character... she needs someone compelling to be the supporting character for, and she has that with Jack Bauer and other characters around her. Now imagine if Chloe as written on 24 was the supporting character for a couple of lead characters as written for a crappy 1950's educational film. Scratch that... imagine Chloe was the most developed character in that entire world... even more developed than the antagonist. I mean, you can get away with something like that in postmodern literature or an art film (I could totally see David Lynch or Thomas Pynchon trying to pull something like that off for instance), but in a traditional role playing game... well, not so much. Hell, I think Atlus could have pulled that off in one of their Shin Megami Tensei games... but Gust/NIS sort of missed the boat on this.

1a. This is related to the above section, so I can't make it an entirely different entry. You see, the writer/producers tried to almost set up a love triangle between the lead male character, Klein, the lead female character Lita and the aforementioned Veola. What would happen if you were watching a movie where the male lead had to choose between a fleshed out, interesting neurotic romantic interest and a relatively flat and underdeveloped one. I mean, it is obvious which is the better choice, but as a player, you know who will win that battle based on positioning. So the basic gist of this whole first point is if somehow you lifted Veola right out of this narrative then for the most part everything would seem to fit together better because you don't have something which is calling attention to how seemingly undeveloped the other characters are.

2. As I mentioned earlier, even the antagonist gets sort of short shrift in all this. I mean, you as the player/viewer have to feel that there is some reason why you should be chasing the big baddie... and really, the things that the foe you are working your way through the game to fight just didn't do it for me, especially when you look at other games in the genre. I mean, Kefka was a villain... Sephiroth was a villain. Mull is just an arrogant prick really who in the grand scheme of things, aside from one final act of hubris, wasn't really evil. And I don't mean he was nuanced or anything like that. He was sort of flat too. There was never a sense that I needed to see that guy get taken down (like Officer Tenpenny in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas). The secondary recurring villain (who is not really a henchman) is a lot better, more interesting and yes, actually has some development as the story goes along. Of course, in terms of villainy, he is on par with a Dwight Schrute... not even the Diet Coke of evil. Yes, those of you who are familiar with the story know that I am mischaracterizing Beggur a bit... but only a little bit.

3. Like a lot of role playing games, Eternal Mana follows the tried and true method of structuring the narrative around a series of plot coupons which must be collected in order to get to the end, and it is only when you are near the end of that journey (I mean, right near the end) that you discover that you may be saving the world (because the menace at the end might not in fact destroy the world). First of all, that is a definite pacing problem... I mean, yes, you build to a climax like that by ratcheting things up, but come on, you don't just suddenly spring that on someone in the final act. It also doesn't help that when you get to the end, it almost takes you by surprise... because precedent indicates that the moment that you've arrived at is never really that ending point... it is a boss battle that is unbelievably the last battle of the game. And as I mentioned earlier, you really need a villain that actually pulls an ending together from its disparate threads, which he can't.

Now again, I don't hate this game. In fact, I was the person who started the entry about it at TV Tropes, so clearly, I have given it some thought. But point #1 in all this is just a full on narrative breaker in all this, and those other problems are sort of minor compared with it. As someone who has some minor aspirations when it comes to the written word, seeing something which clearly broke a lot of the rules was very enlightening. Figuring out why those points bothered me has likely made me a little more critical about the work I do now too.

Labels: video games

Midweek Video: Yo La Tengo play Springfield

Yo La Tengo were playing a show in Springfield, Missouri, and they felt it was rather appropriate to start with an instrumental TV theme.

I think I'd like to see the seedier version of The Simpsons this would go along with. It sort of reminds me of Jack White's intro to Loretta Lynn's Portland, Oregon.

Labels: music, television, videos

NBC and Jay Leno: Is it time to pull the plug?

As we all know, NBC took a gamble by devoting 5 hours a week in prime time to Jay Leno at the expense of dramatic scripted programming. It seems that gamble isn't paying off.

The Jay Leno show would be profitable if it garnered a 1.5 share of the audience. As of late, it isn't even reaching that meager goal. Shows have been cancelled this year that were generating much better ratings than this. In fact, earlier shows in the Monday 10PM slot like Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and Journeyman did better than Jay Leno is doing now.

Put it this way: on Monday, WWE wrestling on cable beat Jay Leno, and those were troubling numbers for RAW.

So can someone please put the viewing public out of its misery and finally cancel Jay Leno. I am even willing to bet that if NBC bought the rights to the other shows that have recently been cancelled, I don't think they could possibly do worse than they are right now (and it would likely garner them some great press too). Or they could show reruns of shows which get good DVR ratings to perhaps buoy their ad sales (since there would be no additional production costs for doing that).

Of course, if it was ultimately their goal to seriously weaken Jay Leno as a late night threat after his time at NBC, well, they have likely more than succeeded. I don't think he is a threat to anyone in late night now.

Labels: television

If this is true, ABC just made my day

I had a completely different post in mind for today, but I read something juicy on an entertainment site, something that I couldn't wait to talk about, so I preempted today's scheduled post.

This is a story which almost mimics the very show it is about.

It all starts with the disastrous failure of ABC's Eastwick to find a consistent audience on Wednesday nights. After its initial run of 13 episodes, it looks like it isn't coming back.

The prevailing thought was that Lost would soon come in after that and take the 10PM Wednesday slot in January... but there is a rumor going around that another ABC show may end up taking that time slot instead.

Ugly Betty.

Why would the network be considering such a move? Well, the prevailing wisdom seems to be that their successes with their other comedy series on that night might prove to be a great lead in to a show which, despite the network's previous death sentence time slot, they still apparently believe in the series.

It is my hope that if they do indeed end up with that time slot that the show brings back some of its gay elements that were stripped over the past year and a half, like Marc in a relationship, and perhaps Justin's first forays into the world of dating in the open, because I think that would strengthen the whole package. And with Eastwick's cancellation, I guess Alex Meade is back in play too.

I know that this time slot would likely reinvigorate my love for the series, and I would choose it over the other show which I've been watching on cable for years now.

If it comes to pass, I know there will likely be a lot of Lost fans who are disappointed, though a solution that I've heard bandied about in comment sections is that perhaps Lost and Flash Forward would also be put into a block so that they strengthen each other as a unit.

But somehow I think Lost is getting the Wednesday slot no matter what because it still has the juice at the moment.

Labels: television

From the Files of TV Tropes #1

Semaj has an interesting feature on his blog where he explores the Urban Dictionary and plucks out gems from within to show the world at large. When I started frequenting TV Tropes, I thought I would do the same.

And with no further gilding the lily, let's get on with the show.

Nintendo Hard: When I was a kid, games were hard by design, especially on the namesake's first system, the NES. Part of the reason for this was it helped games last longer, though the little known fact I discovered reading this entry was some of this difficulty was artificially added by Japanese game makers to make the prospect of renting a game and beating it in a night very difficult (Japan did not have game rentals). The game that immediately comes to mind for this, and anyone who is around my age and played a lot of Nintendo when they were kids or is a student of gaming will probably know the name Battletoads. Or anything from the Ghosts and Goblins line of games. And if you've ever tried playing Contra without the most infamous cheat code in existence, you know exactly what Nintendo Hard is. For modern gamers, think about Gran Turismo's licensing tests, or the challenges in Stuntman or God Hand (the whole game), Ikaruga and so many others. These are the kinds of experiences which convince you that game designers are sadistic bastards who get their kicks from torturing gamers. I even recall seeing a T-Shirt somewhere that said "Real Life is Nintendo Hard" which I thought was very fitting.

The Geek Reference Pool: This is a term that TV Tropes has come up with to describe how geeks and nerds are portrayed on television through the things that come up in scenes devoted to them. You know, stuff like all geeks being into either Star Wars or Star Trek to an insane degree, or Dungeons and Dragons, or only the most modern of games (because no one likes retro games, do they). My addition to the entry was to note that collecting and comic books get thrown into that mix a lot more too. I mean, when you think about it, geekdom is filled with less than nuanced interpretations in the media, which is a shame because when you think about television writers, especially on sitcoms, the word that immediately comes to mind is geeky.

Brick Joke: In the most concise way I can put this, this is when you are watching a movie, television show or the like, and there is a small joke or reference to something which might be mildly amusing at the time, which comes back when you've almost forgotten about it and ends up being hilarious. Now to me, the longer it takes between the initial mention of the joke and its ultimate fruition, the better the payoff. I am loathe to mention it, but one example that comes to mind is there was an episode of Family Guy where the Griffins get put into Witness Protection in the Deep South and as part of that adventure, Brian tries to jump through the closed window of a General Lee replica and gets knocked out. Four years later (a time span that included the cancellation of the show), Brian finally gets his retribution for that act during another episode and the payoff was great. From reading the entry at TV Tropes, it seems that How I Met Your Mother is the master of this kind of thing (as are Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright). Frankly I love anything that rewards an observant viewer/reader/player. If it is a single movie, having the Brick Joke appear in the Stinger/movie coda is especially cool too.

Labels: movies, pop culture, television, video games