Alan Abel: An American Satirist

I recently encountered Alan Abel in a recent Wikipedia pedestrianation (Alan Abel's Wikipedia entry). I've took about taking absurd hoaxes to their extreme conclusions, and so it's an almost immediate admiration. He took several politcally-motivated hoaxes (satiring some of the lowest elements of the political system) across several years of active work. Most defining is his 3 year "SINA" (Society for Indecency to Animals) campaign that had Buck Henry pretending to be the President of an organization attempting to clothe large 4-legged animals. People even tried to contribute to the fake organization.

I'm very interested to see the documentary on him, Abel Raises Cain.

On a side note, I'm tempted by the Get Smart Box DVD Set. (Something of the Wikipedia path I meandered the other day: Casino Royale -> Baccarrat (simple Blackjack-like casino game that offers the closest casino bet to 50:50, and the game in the book) -> James Bond -> Get Smart -> Buck Henry -> Alan Abel; somewhere in there was DuMont as well (The Lost American Television Network).)

Ode to a Bottle Opener

This fall's bottle cap artwork is perhaps not as exciting as the previous beerrow, but these caps where a bit worse for wear due to my lost bottle opener.

In more exciting news, I got to see Dmitri Martin live last night at a small venue (The Showbox in downtown Seattle). It was a good show, even though the "seats" weren't too great (a good portion of the venue was standing room only, making it somewhat uncomfortable for comedian watching, but probably more interesting for concerts).

I really like Dmitri Martin. His trendspotting clips on the Daily Show have been pretty good, and he has a weird, yet relatively dry humor, which hits near a sweet spot for me. His Comedy Central Presents special is good and I believe (I could be wrong), but when this current tour ("These are jokes.") reaches New York they'll be taping it for a second Comedy Central Presents special.

The opening acts where good, too. I believe I've seen the first, Irish comedian David O'Doherty, but I have no idea where that might have been other than I watch way too much Comedy Central stand-up. The second, Leo Allen, didn't stand out as too memorable between the sandwich of whimsy that was DOD and Dmitri. The big thing I remember was that he was the creator of the many recent SNL skits about "The Falconer", which are amusing at times, but I think that portions of his set gave me a few better insights into where that came from.

Farewell Redmond

I have one more day of work left here at Microsoft and then I'm one weekend away from flying home. It's been a great experience, but I'm looking forward to the nice break I have before the next hectic school semester.

I packed up my Xbox 360 late last night as I watched the last half of South Park, and I shipped it this morning. It should arrive soon after I do. Only a few hours after I packed it my roommate showed up with a copy of Gears of War (Collector's Edition), which he had been given for free (he's an intern with Bungie). Unfortunately, he'll have to wait until his own Xbox gets shipped here and I'll have to wait for my own copy.

There's a big football game tonight (Louisville vs. Rutgers) I'm looking forward to.

Book of the Moment: Stardust

I just finished Stardust the other night, in my slow attempt to round off what's left of Neil Gaiman's that I haven't read. As usual there was nothing but chocalatey fantasy goodness wrapped in a jaunty bow. I'm looking forward to movie. Speaking of which, Neil Gaiman in a recent blog post on the progress of the Stardust Movie:

So the Stardust Movie News is that the head honchos at Paramount saw a rough cut two weeks ago, and decided that it was strong enough to be a "summer tentpole" movie. So it's been moved from March 2007 to July 2007.

Congratulations and my condolences to Neil and the movie crew. I know that I for one will be in theaters for the film, and hopefully the movie will survive the rough and tumble Summer film season.

Rushing the field...

There have been two big University of Louisville football games that I've watched since I started College where following the game the fans rushed the field. In both cases I watched a good part of the game, but missed the chance to actually physically rush the field. The first was during my Freshman year. It was a rain-drenched victory over a then-nationally-ranked South Florida team that is still a tale I tend to tell because it helped lead me to appreciate football.

Last night was the second. In the "biggest game ever" for the program, albeit until next week, Louisville, ranked nationally at #5 (highest ever) with an 8-0 start to the season (first since 1925 when the school was not even competing in NCAA football), defeated West Virginia, also undefeated coming into the game and ranked nationally at #3. It was a power game between top nationally ranked teams, with not just rankings on the line but conference standings as well.

Watching the ESPN coverage, the shots of my hometown, the skyline in the background of the commentator's box, the fans rushing the field, the spectacle and the majesty of my school making a huge statement on national television in "my" stadium (where I've been when it was half full, and where I've been when it was empty, and where I've been for early Thanksgiving Dinner with friends)... I had the largest twinge of homesickness I've had since I left home in May. I only have a week of work left, so no use in dwelling on it, obviously. For a moment there, however, I certainly wished to be rushing that field...

The Problem with GTA: Satire, Stereotypes, Saints

Consider this part two in an ongoing editorial series. Part 1 was on Trying to Live in a Dead City and I promised examples of cool theoretical gameplay, largely focused on interesting virtual urban geography. I haven't forgot that, but I wanted to briefly tangent.

On something of a whim (and a Best Buy sale) I picked up a copy of Volition's Saint's Row. Saint's Row is Volition's attempt to "pimp out" the GTA formula. It doesn't add anything major, it simply is an iterational evolution of the formula. So far, however, it has been much stickier for me than any GTA game I've tried. Volition has been a company I've built a lot of respect for, largely thanks to the FreeSpace games, and Saint's Row doesn't disappoint my expectations from them.

First of all, one of the obvious changes is to the urban geography. Certainly the buildings and city "life signs" are as frozen in a mystical "single point in time" as GTA, but the game makes up for it at least a little bit by overlaying the concept of gang control. The game has 5 gangs and each has its niche within the urban geography, nicely overlayed on the game's maps. This territorial control changes hands over the course of the game through player missions and semi-random "push backs". Territory changes might not imply as much as I would hope, but it does make some types of impacts such as the probability of seeing particular cars on the road and people in particular colors on the sidewalks.

The key to Saint's Row for me, though, is the game takes itself much less seriously than GTA. It is loaded with satire and bad puns. Every character is ...