Culture – Page 7 – Xaviar X. Xerexes

RIP Roger Ebert

by Xaviar XerexesApril 6, 2013

Roger Ebert passed away this week. Cancer sucks. No one growing up now will get how I and others looked forward to seeing Siskel & Ebert’s show. They argued about movies, they showed clips — it was the only thing of its kind at the time. I thought Ebert had better taste and the better of most of their arguments on the show but when I got older I think I appreciated Siskel more. Now they’re both gone. The role of the critic in the era of the Internet is different. There is no more scarcity of reviews and very …

Wrangling the Family Photo Collection

by Xaviar XerexesMarch 30, 2013

I grew up with film not digital cameras. My whole life has been a constant stream of changes so I’m never surprised at how different things are from childhood to adulthood but it doesn’t make it any easier. Families stored all kinds of FILM capturing memories when I was a kid. That doesn’t mean anything anymore. I do have stuff in boxes but it’s an entirely digital world now. And how you store that binary code is different too. At one time it made a lot of sense to back up things on CD-ROMS. Now with the explosion in the …

Asking for Trouble: Yet Another Ryan Estrada Project

by Xaviar XerexesMarch 24, 2013

Seriously I wonder if Ryan Estrada is secretly identical triplets? Another effort he’s undertaken is a gameshow conducted via Google Hangouts called Asking For Trouble. One of his very latest featured a couple of webcomic creators I have known online for a long time – Brandon Carr and Tom Brazelton [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA99Od4ekCw?rel=0]

Secret Identity Wars

by Xaviar XerexesMarch 24, 2013

Nerds have written Homeric epic-length essays on the nature of secret identities in the super hero genre. But I think from now on I’m going with R. Steven’s succinct meditation on the question:

Life on Mars

by Xaviar XerexesMarch 16, 2013

John Rogers wrote a post and engaged in a lengthy twitterbuster (filitwit?; really 21st Century filibusters could be conducted via twitter) with a writer of an article critical of the very recent (and already funded) Veronica Mars Kickstarter. FWIW Kickstarter is a tool not an ethos or a culture or a moral judgement. It or clones of it will be used by everyone and everything, inc. from now on in an ever increasing scale. Money raised from Kickstarter is data-laden money — it’s capitalism plus and that will make it worth it to all kinds of companies to pursue. Step back …

Advice to Beginniers

by Xaviar XerexesMarch 14, 2013

I think I’ve linked to video of Ira Glass saying this before but someone did a very nice visual representation of it: [vimeo 24715531 w=500 h=281] Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

Strip Search: This One Goes To 11

by Xaviar XerexesMarch 13, 2013

Wow – very entertaining episode. Jerry and Mike strike a nice balance as judges between honesty and encouragement. As usual – spoilers after the break. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC-BIRVsThk?rel=0]

Tropes in Distress

by Xaviar XerexesMarch 9, 2013

This first entry in The Tropes vs Women in Video Games project from Anita Sarkeesian (successfully funded on Kickstarter) covers “damsels in distress” and is quite good: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6p5AZp7r_Q] We all grew up with videogames and while I don’t think any of it controls anyone’s behavior (as in the constant political grandstanding over violence in videogames) it does reflect and reinforce attitudes and patterns in society. Examining games with a critical feminist eye is fascinating both because we’re looking at vital pop culture and because Anita is a really good communicator making what could be pretty dry stuff into an interesting walk through …