Skip to main content

Neglected announcements

Aside from the fact that I so rarely post during the school year, I have been wondering lately why I don't throw some more stuff onto the blog more regularly. I guess part of it is that I don't feel that my life is that fascinating, and without the time and creative desire to put a more thoughtful blog together, I guess I've simply avoided it.

I haven't announced that Peter's last (we hope) surgery is coming on June 10. Nor have I announced that I have been given a work contract at Maeser, meaning I get to keep my job for another year.

Important announcements, yes. So why did I not put them up earlier? I couldn't say. I suppose part of it is simply knowing that the blog is more for me than for others. Or perhaps it's because I don't like being so public with my private life. On Facebook, I only post a status update every, oh, month or so. Maybe less. So it's just me being my typical, quiet self.

Well, whatever. I'm on to a new book (another announcement), and I hope to do a solid reread and rewrite of Words of the Silenced in the next month or so. With my video game essays percolating perpetually in my mind, perhaps I'll fire up the blog with updates again soon.

Oh, that reminds me of one other announcement: I'm moving all video game related stuff to a new blog. I feel like there are two extremely small audiences for what I have to write: One is interested in the sparse details of me and my living, and the other is interested in my analyses of interactive media. So I'm creating a schism.

The new blog is http://videogameessays.blogspot.com/ and it will contain all of the old essays from this blog. I'm not deleting the old posts and comments; however, if you'd like to say anything about the old stuff, please put it at the new blog.

Thanks to those few, those happy few, who read my blog.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What Awaits

Where I live, there's just enough light pollution to keep most stars at bay. How interesting it is to consider that technology can push away the ancient photograph of celestial bodies that nightly parades, moving so predictably that we long assumed the stars more permanent than kings, more powerful than rulers. Were a civilization 65 million light years away to look through its telescope at our pale blue dot, they would see the light reflected off of dinosaur hides and feathers. Maybe that's why aliens haven't visited our planet: They're afraid of our teeth. The vastness of space is so mind-boggling big that it's sometimes easier to entrench than explore, to recoil instead of redouble our efforts to learn more. That emptiness--the same sky that almost everyone I know sleeps beneath--means something different to each person. How interesting it is to consider that the immensity of the galaxy in which we live, despite its ubiquity, can mean something so separate fr...

Dark Necessities

The second of my "music video essays", I'm exploring the single from Red Hot Chili Peppers' newest album, The Getaway , "Dark Necessities". As I did before, I'm posting the video and the lyrics here on the essay, and encourage you to watch and read along. In the case of the Peppers, it's always a good idea to have the lyrics handy, as the lead singer, Anthony Kiedis, has a tendency of mumbling and/or pronouncing words uniquely to create a particular effect--or he's super high, either possibility is there.  The Set Up Here's the video: And here are the lyrics : Coming out to the light of day We got many moons than a deeper place So I keep an eye on the shadow's smile To see what it has to say You and I both know Everything must go away Ah, what do you say? Spinning off, head is on my heart It's like a bit of light and a touch of dark You got sneak attacked from the zodiac But I see your eyes spark Keep the breeze and go Blow...

Rage Against the Video Game Machine?

NOTE: If you haven't read the ' Foregrounding ' blog post or the one entitled ' Rough Draft ', please do that first. They're both short, but they matter a lot for what you're about to read. Okay. Done. Enjoy. Zach de la Rocha: "On truth devoured/Silent play in the shadow of power/A spectacle monopolized/The cameras eyes on choice disguised." Rage Against the Machine's single "Guerilla Radio" from their Battle of Los Angeles album is a reaction against the political circus and faux-choice presentations during the 2000 elections. The quote is not in full context (it is much more political than theoretical) here, but it provides a powerful starting block. A little bit of re-punctuation will help to clarify the thrust: "On truth devoured, silent play in the shadow of power [is] a spectacle [that] monopolized the cameras' eyes-on choice disguised." Line by line, we see parallels between how video games are perceived outside o...