I knew when I got my Nintendo DS that it was going to get a lot of use–no system since the original NES has had so many titles that interested me. I may have to start renting again.
What follows is a list of the DS games that caught my eye the most last time I was browsing through Gamestop.com.
Today’s featured art is not by me, but rather by my sister, Meredith. These are (very cute) pictures of her (very cute) dog, Madeline. This is the first time I’ve posted something made by someone else, but I was really impressed when Meredith showed me these. I’m well-acquainted with Maddie, and she is both an energetic creature and a creature who can’t stand cameras. Getting her to stand/sit/lie still long enough to capture some of her typically adorable poses is no small feat.
Behold!
I have quite a story to tell about how Madeline and I began to forge the relationship we have today, but that can keep for another time. For now, I’ll close by saying that her head is exactly as soft as it looks…and she loves it when you pet her between the ears.
So was it worth the wait? Or is it, to quote a friend, “embarrassingly bad?” I think it’s all in how you see it.
I agree wholeheartedly with those who say they miss the loveable doof Homer Simpson, and would just as soon see an end to the ignorant ass who slowly took up residence in his shell over the years, the many seasons of The Simpsons TV show. At a glance, moments like the admittedly catchy “Spider Pig” song coupled with Homer’s betrayal of Marge (you’ll know what I mean…it’s a moment that’s supposed to be funny) seem to suggest that The Simpsons Movie is telling us that good Homer is never coming back, the jackass of evil Homer in a devil suit dancing on his grave. Or is the movie attempting to square away the old with the new? A big part of the story, after all, is Homer having an epiphany (through a big contrivance, but anyway)–is this the writers’ way of saying that Homer can see the change in himself when he’s forced to, that in fact the whole world of the Simpsons still has enough reality left in it that it’s been perceiving the change over the years as well, just like we have?
As I’m going back through the chapters of The Gauntlet in preparation for the book, it occurs to me that not everyone necessarily played Flag Tag in elementary school like I did. When I wrote The Gauntlet, I was sort of taking it as a given that anyone who read it would sort of be familiar with the game…but now I’m not willing to make that assumption. So, for those of you who are interested, either because you might like to try it yourself or because you want to understand the story better, here are the rules of Flag Tag:
As I read back through The Gauntlet preparing to collect all the chapters into a single book, I’ve been realizing that I have one or two things to say in some spots. World-building things, mostly…ideas I had that would have slowed down the story if I had put them in directly. Deciding how much to give the reader in a story is always a calculated decision, or so I learned in college.
Anyway, following the vein of Friendly Hostility (one of my favorite comics, if you recall), I’ve been posting comments on a couple of the chapters when I think of some liner note I want to add. Commenting on my own blog is kind of a weird feeling, but it seemed like the most efficient way to do it. Check out the comment RSS if you want to know where I said something about The Gauntlet.
Once the next episode starts running, both to add some color and to try and stimulate discussion, I’m going to try and do this in real time, as the chapters go up.
Remember a couple of weeks ago when I posted a picture of my beansprout plant? Well, I think the term “bean stalk” may now be more appropriate. Here’s a picture taken at around 8:00 PM yesterday:
Compare the size of the plant now to its size in the previous post. This thing’s growing fast! I like it–it adds a lot of green to my apartment. What’s really hilarious is how smart this thing is…I didn’t intertwine it with the blinds, it grew through them to get to more sunlight! That’s even more remarkable than the explosion of dirt it left around the can when it first erupted to the surface.
I had to buy a bigger pot for the plant that you’ll see next time I decide to take a picture…maybe it’ll be covering a whole wall by then.
It was actually one of my friends who said it first, and I had to be brought around to their way of thinking over the course of a year. Almost everyone I know has embraced it now, and this seems like a good time and place to lay claim to the idea on behalf of us all. For too long, Brooklyn has been the only hip place to live outside of Manhattan; it’s easy to forget that Park Slope and Williamsburg weren’t always artsy places where the dreams of successful yuppies came true. And the more of those dreams do come true now, the harder it gets for newcomers to afford their dreams.
So, the stream of exodus leading away from Manhattan will have to find a new direction to point in…and like I said, my friends had a theory. 20 or 30 years from now, I officially predict that my generation will be known as the Generation of Queens.
Remembered sometimes as the borough where George’s parents lived on Seinfeld and home to Shea Stadium even though Mets fanfare transcends time and place, Queens is long overdue for a Brooklyn or Lower Manhattan-style renaissance. Why Queens? For one thing, it’s safe–”renaissance” may well be too strong a word, as much of Queens is quiet, clean and family-friendly already, in sharp contrast to the youth gangs and drivebys that plagued Brooklyn neighborhoods like Boerum Hill in the 70s and 80s. In order to make the leap from merely nice to totally “hip,” Queens only has to attract the young middle class commuting to Manhattan, and why shouldn’t it? Queens is far more convenient to Midtown and Lower Manhattan than even some of the far reaches of Manhattan Island itself. The 7 train, which stops at all the major hubs on the 42nd Street parallel, can reach halfway out into Queens in just 20 minutes, and with its express option, even the end of the line in Flushing isn’t too far away. The N/W train that curves into Astoria covers its route into Queens in about the same amount of time; add the E/F/R/V track that goes through Forest Hills and Jackson Heights all the way out to Jamaica, and you have half a dozen ways to get to Manhattan from Queens in less than an hour, no matter where you live.
Know what else is great about Queens? Besides being safe and convenient, the borough is also beautiful–the terrain gets hilly in spots, the cold (if convenient) gridwork of the Manhattan streets breaks down with quaint curves and triangles that create quaint neighborhoods, and the views from Woodside, the stop at the center of the 7 line, can go all the way back to the George Washington Bridge on a clear day. The architecture has a unique style to it that’s getting nicer all the time, and some of the annoying yet clean-cut stone facades you see in the suburbs are starting to come into vogue, but some of the buildings show the ghosts of coal company logos and other pieces of New York history, so Queens’s heritage is far from lost. Even some of the more impersonal neighborhood designs, like the huge cluster of 6-story boxes in Jackson Heights near Northern Boulevard, carry a kind of collegiate look, and like many of the single-family homes around Queens, these bigger complexes have a lot of greenery around them. You’ve never seen so many private gardens and trees inside of New York City but outside of the parks.
Queens is already catching on, which might be bad news for those looking to break in. For all the convenience and cleanliness it brought, gentrification in Brooklyn was far from 100% positive, as it robbed the dwindling New York middle class of one more foothold. Now that it seems to be Queens’s turn, some of the same problems are already rearing their ugly heads–three of the borough’s neighborhoods were featured in Time Out New York last January (Astoria, Sunnyside and Forest Hills, I believe) and you could see the difference overnight. Rent prices in Sunnyside skyrocketed, and the bumper crop of daily Craigslist postings for one bedrooms under $1200 a month thinned out to one or two listings for cramped, dirty studios at $1100. And then, of course, the brokers came in. Even Long Island City is almost impossible to afford, now that its proximity to Manhattan has been discovered in spite of its dingy, post-industrial ugliness. The subways have started to advertise luxury condos there.
But don’t despair–there’s still plenty of Queens to go around, and before this next decade is done, the island on the right of Manhattan will be transformed into the next trendy place to live. Hopefully, it won’t change too much. I’d hate to see the influx of a younger crowd cause Queens to trade away its unique identity, which is steeped in family and calm…the heretofore forgotten borough actually has the potential to defy all New York conventions of gentrification, and feel more like “home” than Brooklyn ever could. It’s going to be interesting to see what Queens grows into now that its time has finally come, and who knows? With friendly landlords still a reality in spots, this place just might dodge the worst effects of becoming popular.
Either that, or in 10 years, we’ll all have to go live on Staten Island instead. Anyone up for a ferry ride?
A few weeks ago, I spoke of the ill-fated Traveler as if it were the meeting point between LOST and 24. Now, here is Kyle XY, one of my current favorite series and a show that’s done much better in the ratings than Traveler did, and which is, to look at it one way, the meeting point between LOST and The O.C. Strange bedfellows indeed…so why is it successful? Why is it good? Speaking as someone who currently watches LOST and used to watch The O.C. (a shameful admission, some might say), I think that Kyle XY recalls the best parts of both the genres that inspired it while improving upon some of their weaker points, arriving at a third kind of reality that’s uniquely its own.
I was going through all my digital photos on Sunday, searching for a handful that I want to get printed, and I came across this. As I’ve said, I’m no photo major, but this is one of the only pictures I’ve ever taken with an eye towards making something artistic. I’m calling it “The Library Staircase” for now. Let me know what you think!
Click on the image to view a larger size.
As part of the cover production for the print version of The Gauntlet, I drew this backdrop image of Main Hall, which should be a familiar locale to you if you read the story.
Obviously, this is a stage-one drawing, with many elements still to be added in Photoshop, but I still thought it would be cool to give you all a first glimpse at the world of School Kids SG as I envision it. The “camera” in this drawing is near the eastern end of Main Hall, past the point where it intersects with Two-Window Hall, and facing the doors to the Underpass. In other words, thinking of the map of Woodvale High I posted a couple months back, to have this view of Main Hall, you’d need to be standing right about here:
Neat, huh?
