Sunday, May 29, 2005

Yesterday, while at work, I was idly flipping through Friday's paper when I came across an article about Camper Van Beethoven, a favorite band of mine currently out on tour. I was very surprised to see that Yakima was one of the stops. (That evening, at 9 PM.) So I decided to go, despite not really being the sort of person who, traditionally, decides to go to rock shows at the drop of a hat, not least of all because there are very few rock shows to go to. I called up my friend Jeremy, to see if he wanted to come with me. He did, and so I went to pick him up, and then we went to the show, after some difficulty finding the venue. And then the show rocked.

So I have stood very close to Camper Van Beethoven at a smallish (less than thirty people?) gathering, is what I'm getting at. Aside from being thoroughly excited musically, I felt very cosmopolitan.

I'd write more, but I got very little sleep last night.

Thursday, May 26, 2005

Everything I have to say about Star Wars 3 (6) [Revenge of the Sith]: It had all of the problems of the other two: goofy interpersonal relationships, leaden dialogue, weird pacing, among others, but, unlike them, it did not introduce any new problems of its own. And if that sounds like powerfully faint praise, it is, but I went in with greatly lowered expectations and was not disappointed.

But is there anything that makes this one better than its predecessors, as opposed to merely not worse? I think there is: there's some actual menace, and a feeling that something important is at stake, both of which were absent from the others. (And is it clear when I say "others" and "predecessors" that I'm talking about The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones? And that my failure to include the original films is based not so much on a belief that they're so superior to the prequels, but comes from me not having watched them in several years? Not to mention that I wouldn't know where to begin in a critical analysis of films I first saw at age three. So anyway this hypothetical you I'm addressing probably shouldn't listen to me.)

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Game developer still intent on releasing Prey.

Reading through the article, it seems like what's actually in the works is a new game based on Prey's original design brief, which was, I think, unearthed in a series of clay pots stored deep in the Arizona desert.

Vaporware jokes aside, I'm interested to see what developers do with the Doom 3 engine. (I'm sure there are other games in the works that use it, but since I haven't bought a computer since the TNT 2 was a cutting edge graphics chip, I don't really keep up with the video game news like I used to.)

Is 3D Realms still pretending to make Duke Nukem Forever, I wonder? Yes, apparently. What kind of bizarre hothouse seige mentality reigns in those offices?

And of course there are the fan forums. Some sort of millenarian metaphor applies there, but I leave that to you.

(I'm not so sure about the distinction drawn in the Wikipedia entry, between "Millenialism" and "Millenarianism;" my understanding is that different scholars tend to use the terms interchangeably, and that there is no universally agreed upon distinction, as intimated here. On the other hand, what do I know?)

Monday, May 02, 2005

So far this week, my acts of thesis procrastination have included listening to This American Life, doing some laundry, baking a cake, and composing a list of things I've done instead of working.

If I were to write five pages a day (that is, of a final, ready to hand in draft, as opposed to the pile of disconnected and isolated notes, false starts and false conclusions, and general philosophical ephemera I've so far produced) I could knock this off in a week.