Art Machine
Just another former infatuation junkie

There are certain mix-ups that a community should avoid at all costs.

Take the wreath-laying Memorial Day service in Bristol, which I would summarize here, but my father has already done a good job of that.

As 11:00 neared, we looked for the mayor, vice-mayor, the VFW honor guard, or just anyone who looked like they were part of the memorial service. The WJHL guy with the microphone was suddenly on his cell phone, someone said “Call the mayor!” “The Mayor’s in Italy, he won’t be here!” “Who’s in charge of the city?” “It’s Memorial Day! Everything’s closed.”

So, I took three photos. We chatted with a few people. I called Glen, who was doing his laundry to go back to Johnson City and asked him to drop off a couple of cold Diet Cokes on his way out of town. I’m really glad he did. We had something cold to drink as we walked home.

It seems that the event is scheduled for Tuesday at noon! Sorry, Veterans. My wife and I have to work during the day and can’t make it. Noon keeps the event small and intimate – just right for the city leaders to have their photos taken without a lot of folks standing around taking up valuable megapixels of that new digital-film stuff.

Bristol is a small town, and people are used to things in the town – particularly public events – being just a little bit screwy as a result. But to schedule a Memorial Day event, announce it, and then shift it to the day after Memorial Day without telling anybody? That shows a blatant disregard for the community as a whole.

Okay, okay. I’m tired – Renaissance Faires are a lot of work.

And answers to last week’s ten are posted.

If you know the song and artist for this week’s songs, give us a comment!

1. “See these tears so blue? An ageless heart can never mend.”
2. “They say I better get a chaperone because I can’t stop messin’ with the danger zone.”
3. Monty Python, “Sit On My Face” [Fred] – “I love to hear you oralize.” Sit On My Face [Digitally Remastered 1997]
4. “Take care of my beaker ‘cuz I’m Honeydew Bunsen.”
5. “Wherever I goes, I come from the sea, believe it or not.”
6. “The face forgives the mirror, the worm forgives the plow.”
7. “Remember how she said that we would meet again?”
8. “But I’d never steal from Santa ‘cause that ain’t right.”
9. “Here’s your ticket, hear the drummer get wicked.”
10. “Maybe I ain’t used to maybes.”

John McCain – a man I once had respect for – is complaining about the icy reception he had when he delivered the commencement address at The New School

McCain, who appeared at a fundraiser for Republican gubernatorial hopeful David Emery, told reporters he was saddened by the reception he received Friday from hecklers during his commencement speech at the New School. Dozens of faculty members and students had turned their backs and raised signs in protest.

The New School had been roiled in controversy for weeks over the selection of McCain to deliver the commencement address. Some 1,200 students and faculty signed petitions asking the university’s president to rescind the invitation. Petitioners said McCain’s support for the Iraq war and opposition to gay rights and legal abortion do not keep with the prevailing views on campus.

I had a friend who was in the graduating class at New School this year, and who was in the audience listening to John McCain. What upset her in particular about McCain – who she doesn’t agree with politically – was not his political statements, but the fact that he was making those political statements at an event that was supposed to celebrate the graduating class.

She likened it to being the bride at the wedding, and the preacher won’t shut up during the ceremony about how great the wedding he presided over last year was and how he worked so hard to make that wedding great, and doesn’t everybody wish they were at that wedding?

The reports I’ve heard say that McCain used his commencement speech at least in part to both explain and praise his own vote in favor of going to war in Iraq. In essence, he delivered a stump speech from the podium. Granted, the environment was already hostile – the students had already petitioned to have him uninvited from the event – but at an event that should have been celebrating the graduating class, he chose instead to build the case for his campaign in the next election. I could argue that McCain needs to learn about appropriate subject matter for a given event, but I think there’s an additional lesson that needs to be learned here.

Take a look at these next two statements from McCain.

“And when I mentioned a friend of mine who had died, people laughed,” McCain added. “I was saddened that these young people live in such a dull world that they don’t want to hear the views of someone who disagrees with them.”

...

“I’ve got to say that maybe the students at the New School could learn a lesson in courtesy from the students at Liberty University,” he said.

Blink. Blink.

I don’t know. It seems like McCain could use some of his own advice there. He seems upset that his audience didn’t treat him with respect because they disagreed with him. And he knows this because the reaction wasn’t as good as the one he got at Liberty University. And he thinks New School should learn some manners from Liberty University. Because, y’know, it was their manners that were lacking. They should have paid quiet attention to dissenting views. Just like the audience at Liberty University.

My brain just got all explodey.

Senator McCain, maybe – just possibly – you got such a polite and well-mannered reception at Liberty University because it is a historically ultra-conservative, fundamentalist religious college started by your good friend Jerry Falwell? Maybe – just maybe – you were not dealing with a polite audience there, but just one that (*gasp!*) shared your political views?

Maybe you just don’t deal well – or politely – with audiences who disagree with you?

Well, at least that puts you in good company in the current administration. Welcome to the Bush leagues, Senator.

CVG is running a teaser for their interview with Sony’s David Reeves. Naturally, we’re talking about the PS3 here and Sony’s big push for the system that begins with asking the low, low price of $499 for the low-end model, $599 for the high-end model, and follows that up with not having games available at launch. No word on the crippling, consumer-crushing DRM that has been promised in the past, but I’m sure we’ll hear plenty of it in the weeks and months to come.

What is interesting in the teaser, however, is Reeves’ idea for how Sony is going to sell the PS3 with no launch titles, a hefty price tag, and industrial design that bears a strange resemblance to the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A (Come on, I can’t be the only one who’s noticed it).

Reeves also revealed that the company plans to cast a wide net during the initial PS3 launch window, saying that “for the first time we are not going to go just for hardcore gamers”.

Speaking exclusively to CVG at E3, Reeves explained that Sony is “going to have a portfolio of social gaming” for the launch window, Singstar and EyeToy an integral part of this battleplan. It’s not clear whether Singstar on PS3 will be out on launch day, but it’ll hit “certainly before Christmas”, said Reeves, with “an EyeToy one [game] after Christmas”. He added: “EyeToy is not playable at the moment, but it will come before March 2007.”

Social gaming appears to be the Next Big Thing^TM^ in this generation of systems. XBox hasn’t spoken much about it, but Nintendo is on the bandwagon bigtime with the Wii. That’s part of why the Wii has a controller designed more like the familiar remote control – so that people who aren’t hardcore gamers will feel comfortable picking it up.

Even so, casual gamers probably aren’t ready to drop $599 on a game system, no matter how new and shiny. It might help matters that it doubles as a Blu-Ray player – after, all, DVD support was what helped the PS2 beat the Dreamcast – but only if Sony can manage to get the consumers interested in Blu-Ray. Right now, the ones paying attention seem much more enamored of HD-DVD, while the rest of us are too busy defending ourselves from lawsuits filed by the MPAA. Otherwise, $599 is an awful lot for a party game machine.

And when your social-gaming launch strategy depends heavily on two products – like, say, Singstar and EyeToy – wouldn’t it be a really good idea to have them at launch? Just thinking, ya know.

Reeves, however, does have one interesting notion. At one point in the teaser, it’s apparent that he is no longer thinking in terms of consumers making an either/or decision. He actually states that the later release date of the PS3 will help sales because when the hardcore gamers get around to the system, “They have also bought Xbox 360 and they have probably bought Nintendo Wii as well.” In other words, multi-console homes have become so common that they’re not concerned about whether you’re deciding which one to spend your paycheck on.

But perhaps the saddest thing about the interview is this:

Reeves maintained that shifting PS3s in the early days won’t be a problem, such is the strength of the PlayStation brand: “We have built up a certain brand equity over time since the launch of PlayStation in 1995 and PS2 in 2000 that the first five million are going to buy it, whatever it is, even it didn’t have games.”

Sad, but true. Sony will be shipping a product with few or no games available. They will be shipping a product based on the strength of promised peripherals that are not yet available but will be “soon” (it worked so well with the PS2 HDD). They will be shipping an exorbitantly-priced unit with little value for the money. It will be packed with intrusive DRM that will destroy the used game market, but – hey – you’ll be able to play import games in languages that you don’t actually read.

And the first 5 million units will probably fly off the shelves before retailers know what hit ‘em. That’ll be somewhere between $2,495,000,000 and $2,995,000,000 crossing the checkout counters of Wal-Marts, Circuit Cities, and Best Buys across the country – and probably a decent resaler boom on eBay.

And I predict: CNN will still tell us that it is the worst retail Holiday season in history.

It’s the Friday 10! It’s alive! Who’da thunk?

All right. Here’s the deal. I’ve hit “Shuffle,” and I’m posting a lyric from the first ten songs that come up. If you know the song and the artist, post away!

Answers now posted.

1. Green Day, “American Idiot” [no guesses] – “Sing along to the age of paranoia.” American Idiot (Album Version)
2. Quiet Riot, “Cum on Feel the Noize” [no guesses] – “So you think my singing’s out of time – it makes me money.” Cum On Feel The Noize
3. Serge Gainsbourg, “Qui est In, Qui est Out” [no guesses] – “Jusqu’à neuf c’est O.K. tu es ‘in.’” Serge Gainsbourg
4. Jay-Z, “Encore” [no guesses] – “Rap’s Grateful Dead back to take over the globe.” Encore [Album Version (Explicit)]
5. Hoku, “Another Dumb Blond” [no guesses] – “Hook, line, and sinker – you were walkin’ with her out the door.” Another Dumb Blonde
6. Adam Ant, “Goody Two Shoes” [Fred] – “Send a treasure token-token, write it on a pound note-pound note.” Goody Two Shoes
7. Jonathan Coulton, “Skullcrusher Mountain” [Fred] – “Isn’t it enough to know I ruined a pony making a gift for you?” Skullcrusher Mountain
8. The Monkees, “Every Step of the Way” [no guesses] – “You sewed a button on my shirt one day.” Note: This is possibly the only unique line in the song.] Every Step Of The Way (LP Version)
9. Mike Nesmith, “Light” [no guesses] – “They are lights from the shadow, they are lights of good-bye.” Light
10. Warrant, “Cherry Pie” [no guesses] – “I scream, you scream, we all scream for her.” Cherry Pie

It’s the battle of the genre stars!

Some nice editing being done, and an outcome I’m fairly certain will enspire plenty of fannish conversations. “Dude, no way. Yoda wins! Yoda always wins!”

(And Fred – I sent out a package, but I guess it hasn’t arrived. I’ll send another one out this weekend)

I’ve gotten in trouble for saying it before, but I’ll continue to say it until everybody realizes that I am right. There is rarely – if ever – a need for a word other than “said.” No “yelped,” no “exclaimed,” definitely not “burbled,” and for God’s sake, never, ever “ejaculated” (think that’s a goofy example? Try reading the original Tom Swift novels some time).

It breaks up the flow, it adds little, and in fact can subtract from the reader’s experience of making it up as they go along. It’s hard to fill in the gaps when the author has already done it for you.

And on that note, Kung Fu Monkey linked through to How to Write Screenplays. Badly. A new favorite blog. Just take a look at their entry on Onomotopeias.

Substituting onomatopoeic words in place of these run-of-the-mill verbs is a quick and easy way to inject some metaphorical hot beef into your screenplay. Onomatopoeia, of course, is the process of creating words that phonetically resemble the sounds they’re supposed to represent, such as buzz or fart. Not only will onomatopoeic verbs keep your screenplay feeling fresh and minty, but they can also help to splush a more vivid and engaging cinematic vision.

[Did you see what I did there? Splush is the onomatopoeic version of the word paint! In screenwriting terms, this is called a transition (or tranny). As in: “Did you hear that Mamet got caught doing a tranny?”]

“Priceless,” he chortled.

Kung Fu Monkey is fast becoming one of my heroes. At his blog, you can find FISA explained in words of one syllable, since – apparently – some people had trouble understanding exactly what the situation was. (Oh, and just so you know – proper names and the word “warrant” are not counted against the one-syllable count)

Q: Hmmm, but what if the court wants too much proof, and the NSA does not get its wire tap? We could die from bad-dark-man plots and bombs!!

A: It is not hard to get a “yes” from the FISA court. It is, in fact, no sweat, child’s play, slight, smooth, a snap. It is the town bike of courts. It is the Paris Hilton of courts. Pet the dog, buy the third drink, and you are in. Through the end of the year 2004, the FISA court said “yes” to 18, 761 warrants. They said “no” to five. 5<<<<<<< 18761.

Q: Hmmm. It is cinch to heed the law then, and still keep us safe. YAAYYY!

A: But the Bush Administration did not have to heed the law. With no warrants, it spied on some phone lines. It spied on a LOT of phone lines.

It just gets better from there. Go. Read. Understand. And he’s already gotten a jump start on the conservative wonkery comments, so feel free to jump right in in the middle.

There. That wasn’t so difficult, was it?

This time, “Star Wars,” “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” will be available individually and appear on DVD exactly as they did in their respective theatrical runs in 1977, 1980 and 1983.

Each release, distributed by 20th Century Fox, will be a two-disc set that also includes the digitally tweaked 2004 edition.

It’s called options, people. It’s what DVD’s were supposed to be especially good at.

I figure this is going to be a way for Lucas to push the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD editions of the new edits – they’ll most likely be the only ones available on the new formats. But, still, I get to see the movies that I remember or the new versions as I desire. That makes me happy panda.