The Booky Man: Murakami Fiction is the Weirdest
Way weird. So weird you have to hold the arm of the chair when you read. Or feel for a seatbelt. Or just pinch yourself.... read more
Start Press: It's Not Me, It's You
Dear Final Fantasy, We’ve had some really good times. Hell, we grew up together. Remember that summer of 1991 when we first fell in love and I had to leave you for a couple weeks to go with my parents on a church trip to the Philippines? I thought about you every day, looking forward to returning home to pick up where we left off. When I finally made it home, my friend who’d borrowed you while I was gone had already completed the quest to obtain the rat’s tail from the Castle of Ordeals, thus proving the party’s courage... read more
High Definition: Wild Kingdom and Discovery's Life
I grew up watching Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, so it was a while before Nebraska’s biggest city lost its exotic luster. I assumed Omaha was one of those untamed locales where Marlin Perkins revealed the mysteries of animals, just like the “Trails of Saguaro Springs”, the “Wild Shores of Patagonia,” the “Land of the Dingo.” I watched in awe at a world beyond my suburban home and developed an appreciation for these remote habitats untouched by man—save for brave explores like Perkins and his cohorts. They would wrestle pythons and alligators, throw sticks at charging elephants, and—most ridiculously—bring down... read more
Listen Up: jj @ sxsw, wtf
Here's what I know about the duo called jj... read more
The Booky Man: A Little Prince of a Story
I heard the most heartrending story recently. I’ll tell it in a moment.... read more
Start Press: Not Just Another Pretty Pixel
Before leaving San Francisco after the conclusion of the Game Developers Conference, I carved out some time to visit Dog Eared Books. It’s one of those exceedingly rare bookstores where the clerks are so genial and eager to help, you’re almost disappointed when you realize there’s no tip jar by the register. Some men dream about Megan Fox; I fantasize about being rich enough to walk around Dog Eared with a grocery cart, filling it to the top with any titles that seem remotely interesting. Considering how heavy books are, it’s astounding how helium-balloon light they make you feel as... read more
Listen Up: Battling Belligerent Newness at SXSW
You have never done enough... read more
The Booky Man: Little Star and Loose Change
The inaugural issue of a new periodical, Little Star, arrived in the mail last week. It’s something outlandish, in this day of e-v-e-r-y-thing. Who would imagine that a high-literary periodical would have a readership?... read more
Start Press: The 2010 Game Developers Conference
Hordes of game-industry developers and journalists converged in San Francisco this week for the 2010 Game Developers Conference. Tuesday was the first proper day of the conference, and I’m already dizzy with new perspectives on the artform I love most. Floating between the various game summits in the Moscone Center will do that to you. This year’s conference included summits for areas such as artificial intelligence, international game development, mobile devices, indie games, social & online games and serious games. There was even an entire summit devoted to people who are developing games for the iPhone.... read more
High Definition: Farscape Revisited
I’ve been traveling a lot lately, and it’s given me a chance to start tackling the Farscape Megaset that arrived back in November. I’d caught assorted episodes during its run from 1999 through 2003, but watching sequentially has given me a deeper appreciation for a show I’d mostly sloughed off as overly dramatic and full of muppets.... read more
Listen Up: The Whores of my Youth
Sometime in the late 1960s, Townes Van Zandt wrote a song called "Tecumseh Valley"... read more
The Booky Man: Barry, We Hardly Knew Ye
I spent most of the 1970s in Tuscaloosa, in substantial, if not constant, pain.... read more
Start Press: Project Natal Better Get Ready To Rumble
As I press the electric razor to my face, it vibrates in my hand, emitting that familiar shrill hum. I finish mowing the overnight stubble from my chin and shut off the razor. For a second afterward, my hand courses with a dull ghost vibration. As I turn the key in the ignition of my old beater ride, I feel the engine buck and settle into a low idle before I shift into gear. In a confrontation with a knife-wielding assailant, I feel the thud of his rushing body as it collides with mine. Quantic Dream’s new interactive thriller Heavy... read more
High Definition: When Every Channel is the Travel Channel
Last week, I visited Miami before the Cayamo cruise with Emmylou Harris and Steve Earle. I haven’t spent much time there, but as we drove around the city and walked the streets of South Beach, I couldn’t help but think of Dexter, Showtime’s eponymous serial killer, and his slow steps towards redemption. Setting is key to good television, and the best series make you feel like you’re becoming as attached to the place as to the characters.... read more
Listen Up: Crazy Heart Ain't No Place
Crazy Heart certainly has done well for itself... read more
The Booky Man: Steal This Book, Too
Last week, I went off, in a good way, on one of two great novels I’ve read so far in this sharp-fanged new century. (Please note that these literary judgments are personal, based only on novels that The Booky Man has read personally.) More great novels are out there, certainly. I hope to meet them soon and often.... read more
Start Press: Oh Brothers!
My nephews are videogame enthusiasts. After firing up New Super Mario Bros. Wii, they slip into their respective signature playing postures. Isaac (nine years old) stands stiffly upright and alert in front of the TV, like an English Pointer signaling the death of yet another Koopa Troopa. Seán (seven) sprawls across a nearby armchair, with his nunchuck arm lolling over the side. He looks like a boy sultan in a floral-print gaming throne. They laugh. They scream when somebody inadvertently—ok, vertently—steals their power-up. My brother Trey goads Isaac with a chuckling, “hey, you snooze you lose,” after forcing him off... read more
Listen Up: My Night With Lil Wayne
The notices went up early in the week, printed out on tabloid-sized school letterhead, taped to dorm doors and tacked up in the student center: A crew would be on campus over the weekend, filming a music video on the academic quad... read more
The Booky Man: Steal This Book
The Booky Man has read a great many novels in the first 10 years of this millennium. Fat novels, thin novels. Novels of substance and novels I didn’t care to finish. If the weight of every novel I’ve consumed went to my head the way meals have gone to my middle, I’d now wear hat size 66.56083°.... read more
Start Press: A Whore No More
You’ve gotta give Microsoft credit. Their invention of the Xbox Live system of achievement points and gamerscore was a stroke of mega genius. It lifted a playbook page from the videogame medium itself—the compulsive quest for nudging high scores ever higher—and applied it to the larger experience of gaming. How do you boost your gamerscore? Simple: play more games (or, put a different way, buy more games). But not just any games—only Xbox 360 games will do the trick. Also, for gamers who have both an Xbox 360 and a PlayStation 3 in their living room, which console do you... read more
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