I really liked the season 5 premiere of Mad Men. The drama between Joan and her mother was especially intriguing. There’s a strange dynamic there that brings out the worst in Joan, even when she’s away from her mother’s clutches.
So much happened to define how the characters have changed since Season 4. The end of the episode sees Don and his new girlfriend Megan literally clinging to each other for support after a passive aggressive fight. Peggy is letting her inner alpha out in a big way. Pete is throwing his weight around and demanding all the attention. The owners of SCDP are acting out with silliness in the face of losing everything they have, leading to a waiting room filled with African American men and women applying for a job that doesn’t exist.
Yet, if you read about the premiere from most sources, the only thing that happened is that Megan sang “Zou Bisou Bisou” as a gift for Don’s birthday. A silly moment? Yes. An enjoyable one? Of course. The key takeaway from two hours of Mad Men? Hardly.
Really interesting happenings in other media were ignored all week to talk about a French nonsense song. See if you can pick up which references I’m laying down. One is political, one is cartoon, and one is just fabulous.
I like Doctor Who. I think it’s a fun sci-fi show with a good sense of humor and a big heart. What started as an educational TV show transformed into something far bigger than anyone could have ever expected.
I’m also fascinated by this My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Internet culture. I’ve only seen one episode–the now-redubbed Derpy Hooves episode–and can’t get over how a simple little children’s show about tolerance (and magical ponies/unicorns/pegasi) has become an all consuming meme.
MLP:FIM versus the Daleks
Naturally, the good Doctor would eventually encounter the ponies. There had to be a crossover. I mean, I saw it at NYCC. In the venn diagram of sci-fi/fantasy fans, Doctor Who and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic had to meet. Both have such a large online presence that the mashup is inevitable.
This is not to say Dr. Whooves and Assistant is the first meeting of Doctor Who and MLP:FIM. It’s not even the first time someone has called him Doctor Whooves.
What this short video does is provide a slick crossover story. The Doctor crash lands on Equalia, completely unaware that he has taken on the form of a pony. He runs into a confused little pony (Derpy Hooves) who gets him to realize what he has become and why the TARDIS has taken him to Equalia.
Dr. Whooves and Assistant is supposed to be the start of a collaboration series on Newgrounds. Whether more episodes are made is another issue entirely. The only short so far is cute, funny, and well-executed. I’ll be looking forward to more in the future.
Anne Thompson takes a thorough look at the history of the dreaded NC-17 rating through the lens of critical response. Indie Wire
Ever hear of Hisss? It’s a bad horror film about sexual politics in India…and a snake turning into a woman turning into a snake. A new documentary is coming out that tries to decode what, exactly, went so wrong that writer/director Jennifer Chambers Lynch quit her own project. Shock Till You Drop
Dieter Laser, the best part of The Human Centipede, is being sued for backing out of The Human Centipede III mere weeks before it’s supposed to start filming. Fangoria
Speaking of nightmares far more beautiful than they deserve to be, Bit Rebels shares the 3D art of Dain Fagerholm. Can you believe he uses a ballpoint pen and simple software to achieve the effect? Bit Rebels
Dain Fagerholm makes hand drawn pen art come alive online.
Genevieve Burgess calls out irrational haters of all things popular so I don’t have to. Pajiba
8 iconic film moments re-imagined with Mass Effect morality choices. Dorkly
Bruce Geryk explains why gamers need to stop hating themselves so much. Must read. Quarter to Three
Finally, this caramel candy maker seems to have found a way to profit off of his artistic training. Delicious and beautiful.
A few years ago, I thought the success of Timbaland’s Shock Value album was a novelty. Producers can have success, but they’re just not meant to be household names if they can’t do something else. That his Shock Value II release did significantly worse on the charts and radio seemed to confirm my suspicions.
But that’s not entirely true at this point. There’s a reason that the Grammy Awards were able to get away with a huge tribute to dance DJs who don’t sing at their last ceremony. The cache of producer clout is rising fast as more and more labels clamor to jump on the latest trends in digital and dance music.
Two years ago, a DJ/producer like David Guetta getting multiple Top 20 hits off of one album would be unimaginable. A crossover hit from the dance charts was always a possibility. It’s how people like Enur can score a hit every once in a while. However, in those cases, normally the guest artist/singer is the one credited for the song. The vocalist is who we can connect with even if the DJ/producer is the one who put in all the work.
Yet, listening to Top 40/Contemporary Hit Radio stations in recent months, when a David Guetta track is played, it’s credited as “David Guetta featuring [guest],” not “[guest].” You could argue that Usher, Nicki Minaj, or Sia are the real draw. The fact still remains that somehow, the rise of dance/club music into mainstream culture has seen an equal rise in the recognition for DJ/producers.
Skrillex is gaining recognition for his music and his public image.
It goes beyond DJs just getting credit. They’re being recognized in big ways. Remember Skrillex being a surprise Best New Artist nominee and actually winning more Grammys than any other nominee in that category? His music is suddenly everywhere in advertising, films, and TV shows. People know who Skrillex is even if they don’t understand what he’s doing.
Then there are the singers who crossover from being well-known and well-credited producers. Ryan Tedder of One Republic was been scoring a lot of hits for other artists like Kelly Clarkson and Beyonce long before his band was given a chance at a record deal. Neon Hitch produced for a bunch of dance acts before a label gave her some promotion.
The difference between these modern acts and an older industry crossover story like Carol King is intention. People like B.o.B. and Bruno Mars may be having successful solo careers right now, but they’re still pursuing work as producers with more press than usual. You’re just as likely to read a print article in Billboard (or like publication) about a new artist as you are to read about a new DJ/producer crossing over with an album or single. Working behind the scenes has never been hotter in recent memory.
The reason the trend sticks out for me is simple: the people making the music are starting to become household names. If the trend continues, who knows how many aspects of the creative industry will suddenly be recognized by the public. Will songwriters get their due without having to judge a reality show? Or will this emergence of DJ/producers stop when the sound of the lubs inevitably shifts in a new direction?
Best to live in the moment and appreciate what we have. The music industry is nothing if not fickle. Embrace the trends that make you happy and hope they become evergreen in the long run.
On this edition of Play It, we look at a deeply personal biographical game. The experience is all about using the form of video games to create a sense of familiarity with a less discussed subject.
Dys4ia has been getting a lot of press, for better or worse. The concept receives praise even if the execution has been criticized. I’m willing to argue that issues that people have with control and style are an essential part of the gameplay process.
Anne Anthropy's story is her own, but she does introduce these struggles to a wider audience.
Anne Anthropy, aka Auntie Pixelante, makes art games. Dys4ia is her online video game memoir. Anne is a trans woman who faced a lot of struggles to transition from medical, psychological, and social perspectives. She stresses that Dys4ia is not a reflection of every transgender person in the world.
That last statement is the key to understanding and appreciating Dys4ia for what it is meant to be. It is a computer simulation of one woman’s life experience. The fact that Anthropy is willing and able to share her individual story at this level of detail and receive positive attention is reason enough for people to play this game. She is not a statistic or novelty. She is a person whose story deserves to be told.
No matter how hard you try, you just won't fit in at the start of Dys4ia.
Dys4ia is broken into four levels, each comprised of multiple mini games. These include tasks such as fitting an odd shaped peg into a too small hole, avoiding detection in a public restroom, and keeping your blood pressure down while a doctor lectures you on you why you aren’t a good candidate for hormone replacement therapy. The controls are explained onscreen before each task and you advance in the game no matter what happens.
This last element, the automatic advancement, is the one that has created the most controversy in discussions of the game. Is Dys4ia still a game if you can’t lose? Should it just be called a simulation or interactive video instead?
There are a number of reasons why I believe this is a narrow-minded view of video games. For one thing, there have been big video game titles in the past where you can do every task right and still fail in the end. It’s an intentional decision on the part of the game makers to create a novel experience. Why can’t the opposite also be considered a valid strategy to tell the same story? I feel like some games could benefit from a more realistic view of the world. No one ever succeeds at everything they try, so why should a game based in reality be discounted for reflecting that?
Second, just because you fail the task the first time and advance doesn’t mean that it serves the story to do the task again immediately. The structure of Dys4ia is built on the conceit of challenges and setbacks. Just because you fail the first time does not mean you won’t try again later. It just means that you might need more experience to know how to best handle a situation in the future.
Is it a traditional game? Why not? Because you can fail and move on?
Most importantly, this game is Anne Anthropy’s experience. She knew that she was going to transition no matter what. She faced setbacks and challenges that she learned to overcome. She was going to finish her journey no matter what. The only way for that mindset to truly be shown in a video game was to have the game move on whether you were ready or not.
The result of this auto-advancement in Dys4ia is a beautiful and memorable game experience. It will be hard to shake off Anne Anthropy’s story after you finish. Best of all, you, too, will most likely be compelled to share the game experience. Anne may not represent the experience of all transgender people in the world, but she is giving the actual experience of transition an accessible voice.
It’s really hard to imagine how these fantasy structure bed and breakfasts exist, let alone stay in business. Bit Rebels
Chloe Moretz will be Carrie in the remake of Carrie. Nathaniel Rogers is not impressed. The Film Experience
Someone linked me to this site yesterday and it’s interesting to think about. User-voted one word reviews of video games. One Word Reviews
Ben Kuchera gets the Smithsonian’s video game art curator Chris Melissinos to share his favorite video game images. The PA Report
Marble Madness really is a visually striking game. One of my all time favorites.
I’m all for another Child’s Play film is Jennifer Tilly will be returning as Tiffany. Shock Till You Drop
Why context matters: Lawrence O’Donnell flips his hat for really stupid reasons edition. If the article starts with citing the source and includes that cite in the title, how do you jump to the conclusion that the reporter is lying because every sentence doesn’t end “according to [source]?” Bad context in journalism is bad. Angry Black Lady Chronicles
Finally, Willam teaches you all about the joy of NDAs in reality TV. You’ll have to wait for the reunion show to find out why Willam was booted from RuPaul’s Drag Race. Some NSFW language near the end.
There is some really exciting news coming out of the MPAA’s refusal to lower the rating of Bully, a documentary about the epidemic of bullying in schools. AMC has agreed to carry the film, unrated, in their theaters nationwide. Not only that, children under 17 will be able to get in with a signed permission slip from their parent or guardian.
The decision was made yesterday to release director Lee Hirsch’s Bully without MPAA certification by The Weinstein Company. The MPAA have very strict guidelines about the use of profanity. They refused to budge from an R rating after an appeal because the high school students in the film curse. In order to protect the film’s target audience from the language they hear every day, the MPAA wanted to stop the target from attending without a parent or guardian at all.
A simple, striking ad campaign for Bully.
The decision really messes with a great opportunity to educate young people about the ramifications of unchecked bullying. With an R rating, schools would not be able to send students on a field trip to see Bully in theaters. They would not be allowed to play the DVD in classrooms or, most likely, even discuss the trailer. Instead of giving children the opportunity to experience real life stories of bullying and anti-bullying activism in schools just like their own, the MPAA wants to protect their precious little ears from language used all the time in schools.
I work with high school students a lot in theater programs. The language they use would make your hair curl. We constantly have to remind students that profanity is not acceptable in an academic environment and that they are embarrassing their parents who are diligently building sets and sewing costumes while they rehearse. Little Johnny isn’t going to magically start using these words because Bully shows other students using them. Little Johnny is already talking like that with his friends between classes, at the mall, and in the locker room.
AMC Theatres is doing a great thing in making a documentary like Bully accessible to young people. You can access the permission slip here. I have students who want to see the film but don’t want to go with their parents. The children who are old enough to be interested in Bully on their own are most likely the ones who don’t think it’s cool to hang out with Mom or Dad in public anymore.
Unfortunately, other theater chains are not as accommodating. Cinemark will not release the film at all without a rating–even under the typical “no rating = NC-17 = no one under 18 can go, period” release strategy. Regal Cinemas, the nation’s largest chain, has not released a statement or responded to questions about the release of Bully.
These kind of attacks happen every day with language that will shock you.
This isn’t a matter of a pig-headed director unwilling to compromise on his vision. Lee Hirsch understands that if you’re making a documentary about bullying, you’re going to hear certain slurs and profanity. That’s what bullying is. Censoring out the words that the MPAA believes will upset children defeats the entire purpose of exposing the behavior. A neutered film about bullying won’t feel real enough to make an impact on the people who need a wake-up call about the severity of the problem.
Bully opens in limited release on Friday, 30 March. Hopefully, it does well enough to expand. The more people who can see a film like this and understand how messed up the response to bullying in schools is, the better.
I know first hand how eager schools are to sweep these attacks under the rug. I have the training certificates to prove it. Non-staff need to know what’s really going on. Children need to see what their “fooling around” can lead to with actual people, actual consequences, and actual lives. The MPAA’s stand is so driven by strict adherence to rules that they perfectly illustrate the failing of anti-bullying legislation and polices for schools.
