Argobot

Not sure if people have already seen this or not, but the New Yorker did a really great profile with GRR Martin a few months before the fifth book was released: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/04/11/110411fa_fact_miller I'm fascinated by the two conflicting responsibilities that he has: his role as a creator and also his role as a purveyor of a product for sale/consumption, and how these two roles have affected his writing process. The profile also gets into a huge issue with book serials; as the sequels increase, so by default, do the number of characters/settings/etc. It's crazy to me that Martin basically employees a fan to act as a fact-checker not only for the HBO show, but for his own writing as well. Anyway, it's a good article.

Or with last few films, he makes really good characters that you can't wait to see murdered/get their comeuppance. (I'm mostly thinking of Kurt Russell in Death Proof)

Given all the class issues in the book, I love that the major enemies you have to 'kill' in this game are butlers.

After seeing the trailer for the second game (which I think looks really good), I decided to try and play this game first. So far I really am enjoying it, much more than I enjoyed other, shooting horror games like Dead Space. I studied Russian and even lived there for a year, so I thought it'd be fun to play this game in Russian. Having the game language in Russian definitely adds to the atmosphere -- I'm more excepting of that fact that you're in the remnants of the Moscow metro system, for instance -- and even adds more the horror element, because every command or warning takes me a few seconds longer to process. It's a hard game -- harder, I think, than Dead Space -- but I think I'll stick with it for a while.

Well now, this seems relevant: http://www.salon.com/2013/01/04/thomas_pynchon_to_publish_new_novel_the_bleeding_edge/

Dr. Mrs. The Monarch

I'm going to assume that Pynchon was selected as a lead up to the eventual DFW bookcast selection, right?

In other Great Gatsby movie news, it was announced recently that Jay-Z will be composing the music for the film: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/01/too-dope-for-words-jay-z-is-the-ideal-composer-for-the-great-gatsby-score/266739/ I feel pretty neutral about this whole announcement, but I really like the idea of an extremely wealthy, famous black man writing the score for a movie that is basically 'white people problems' personified (although I'm sure that's the juxtaposition Luhrman wants you to think of).

I don't know, Watchmen was my first comic book read and I understood most of the references based on the comic book history I'd learned through general pop culture osmosis. Sure I could tell that there were references that I wasn't getting, but my enjoyment of Watchmen was so great that it encouraged to me eventually seek out those missing gaps in my comic book knowledge. Personally, I think it's a good first read because the story is so masterful and because it has this reputation of being a more 'intelligent' comic book story.

I am also really excited about seeing this movie. I'm not a diehard Tarantino fan, but I generally enjoy myself while watching his movies. Every review I've read has said that Christoph Waltz is as good in this movie as he was in Inglourious Basterds, so that's reason enough for me to see the movie. As far as the racial issues that this movie raises, I'm going to wait until I see it before I pass any judgement. I know that everyone jumped down Spike Lee's throat after he said he wouldn't see the movie, but there's a chance he has a valid point; I won't know until I actually watch it.

Second to last episode of that season, perfect way to end the penultimate episode and completely floor the audience before the finale. It's a moment of my TV-watching history that I will remember for a long time.

Unrelated to Breaking Bad, but this will forever be my favorite use of AD quotes:

Well now I feel the need to jump down the wormhole that is Arrested Development/any show ever mash-ups.

The recent holiday gave me a chance to actually reread this book. I sat down on Christmas Eve morning and didn't get up until a few hours later when I read the whole thing. At this point, I still can't decide if I actually liked it or not. I kept rolling my eyes during Nick's opening section and especially during Tom's monologue on the superiority of the white race (although I think Fitzgerald wanted the reader to have this reaction), but once I got into the book, I couldn't stop reading until I finished. It's so strange to revisit a book that I haven't thought about in over 10 years. I remember being 14 and so confused by all the characters' actions and not really understanding the sexual subtext that is present in everyone's relationships. I also remember hating, HATING Daisy as a kid and I was pleasantly surprised at how sympathetic she came off as now that I'm older. I'm also even more wary of the Baz Luhrman movie. Everything in the book is so straightforward and contains surprisingly little melodrama. I was expecting it to take forever for Daisy and Gatsby to reconnect and even longer for them to reveal their relationship, but all of those events happen fairly quickly and the novel never feels like it's wasting your time. The way the movie looks (or at least the way the trailer was edited) all of these emotional scenes that are handled with such subtly in the book are blown up 10x on film. Whether that was Luhrman's intent or just the fault of visuals being so much stronger than the written word (and therefore easier to abuse), is something that I'd have to wait in see in the finished movie. I'm really looking forward to this discussion because Gatsby is so unlike any other book that's been previously talked about. I'd especially be interested in hearing if everyone agrees that this book still holds up as a classic of America literature, because that's definitely something that I'm still wrestling with.

Someone from Breaking Bad posted this picture, titled 'Hank's Decision,' (spoiler tag because it's related to last season's finale): I am so excited for this to come back on the air.

I guess I just get really turned off by this type of oversaturation of style. I understand what Luhrmann is going for, and maybe the film is actually successful, but the trailer just rubs me the wrong way. It looks like Moulin Rouge x100.

I know just what you mean. I already have terrible impulse control when it comes to buying books, and having an outlet like this where people are recommending so many good books only exacerbates that problem.

I hate to judge a movie based on a two minute trailer, but, this does not look very good.

I'd love to hear what you think about the execution scene. That was the only part of the book that I was trepidatious about before reading, because I knew how easy it would be for Mantel to oversensationalize everything. As it's written though, I think that scene is perfect.

That interview makes me think that the creator of FC 3 doesn't really understand what satire/irony are.

That just means that we get to start the whole conversation over from the beginning! Won't that be fun everyone? Edit: Jeeze, that's 0-2 for me in this thread today. It's just not my day.

Another Eurogamer article, this one about how Irrational has created the best AI companion since Alyx (topical): http://www.eurogamer...e-2s-alyx-vance Love this quote from Levine: “A million times during the course of the game, because it was so hard to get right, there were people who said, 'we really should cut Elizabeth.' When we started working on it, we'd do level reviews and I'd say, 'So where's Liz right now?' They'd say, 'Well, she's back in the closet over there,' Nobody knew how to manager her."

Whoops, my mistake. Apologies all around.

Personally I don't have an opinion on the Alyx character because I don't remember enough of HL2 to make a convincing argument one way or another. If some people are displeased with her representation and can back that up with examples, fine. If other people see no problem with how she was portrayed, also, fine, as long as they can support their opinions. Sexism as a concept is often hard to define, it's one of those 'I know it when I see it' situations. Something that I find sexist might not bother other people, and I'm always willing to have a discussion. But when the specter of sexism is raised and your reaction is to immediately reference feminazis and their mission to eradicate all fun, then you're destroying any chance of having a civil conversation.

Ah my thought process behind getting this joke was amazing.