Semi-Articulate Ramblings from a 20 Something Geek

A Femnist Rant in 2 Parts

2009-08-20T20:11:00.001-07:00

I'd like to start this off by saying, I'm glad I didn't see the Time Traveler's Wife before I read the book. As the book is a philosophical beautiful moment in time using science fiction to weave a story of two real people and the love that they share.

Whereas the movie is what male directors and male screen writers and male writers in general can do to women characters and female books.

Second to point out is that I dropped DC comics a year back, because after 52, Didio and the rest of the she-hating men in the comics department insisted on making the already unbalanced female comic heroes worse when women were actually starting to become a big influx of readership. The cornerstone being basically a vagina shot of Mary Marvel.

I could go into certain issues that have always been there and made worse lately, such as the costumes. How none of them actually think about what is logical for a crime fighter and instead think about where to show tits and ass. Where so many flying heroes wear skirts and panties. Where Huntress is constantly overly sexualized in her costume with short-shorts that make no sense for someone who's used to be shot at. I could go into the inequality in the medium for female writers doing female books. That Birds of Prey didn't always have a female pen to it. That Spoiler was basically raped and murdered, only to have that whole ordeal that has been put into much discussion and nothing really done about it.

It's like everything is slipping backwards.

The Time Traveler's Wife is a marriage between the characters of Henry and Clare. They bothtogether. And where Henry's other selves from other timelines played into it more.

It's the fact that the male screen writer had no clue what the book was about, ignored it and wrote a schmaltzy piece that he hoped would bring in the chicks. It was that they had some of the best people to play the roles and the dialog was already on the pages and yet changed it, simply for the assurance of women being overly emotional, stupid, and the men just drifting.

I had issues with the book, which had much to do with an issue of it focusing on Henry and sort of skipping over Clare at one point, but it was nothing compared to the film. Clare was never demonized, subtly or not, in the book. She knew what she was getting into.

But apparently that was too much for an audience to handle, because we need women crying about their life, being manipulative in a two-wrongs don't make a right situation, and dumb as bricks as a child to trust a crazy naked man coming up to them.

I'm not saying that some of these issues wouldn't have shown up with a female screen writer, or that a female writer is required for this type of thing. Or even a female director. But it'd be nice. Or maybe grabbing some of those few men who actually understand the source material and writing it up. Those men out there who wouldn't feel the need to completely underscore the meaning of the book and give it a flair that they predict women will like.

Stop underestimating your audiences. People are only as stupid as the studios expect them to be. As the screen writers or the directors expect them to be. Men can handle a strong female character. Having one does nothing to detract from the male character at all. If anything it makes the men stronger. It makes it more real, more vibrant, just more.

In that fact of matter, give Stephanie Brown, give Cassandra Cain to male writers who can handle her. Or let a female writer take over a female book. Because you know they're never going to let them touch Batman. His penis might fall off.

Women characters in comic books become strong, not through the direct influence of their creators most of the time, but through amazing luck. Catwoman could have been and was at times the most sexist tripe ever (Halle Berry's version very much summed it up), but she's gone through growth and change that has made her a invertible landmine of strong influences.

Batgirl wasn't a strong female character. Barbara Gordon was. Batgirl was a throwaway. There was no Batboy. There was Batman and Robin. The girl at the end of her moniker which she wore far into her adulthood until she was brutally fridged (and became more awesome out of that, only because Babs is and the character can survive) - and then Batgirl was made amazing by Cassandra Cain. A character in her own right that could have been ruined (as many Cassie's have been), but at first came out of the box kicking. She was silent, a basic smack you in the face representation of how female characters are treated in comics, but she could kick your ass. A sign of her potential.

So what happens to her? She gets brainwashed, ignored, turned evil for no good reason, ignored, and then who the hell knows what happened next?

Her spot gets taken over by Robin.

By a character who straight out of the box proved every thing that those bastards have grinded down wrong. Stephanie Brown came straight out of the box, awesome, written by a male writer. She was Spoiler, a girl with a costume that made sense, who had an attitude and an actual sense of self. There were things that happened to her, but they didn't break her down, she grew from the. She had more determination than any other character I could ever think of, especially ones turned away by Batman - who basically represented THE MAN.

And then she was Robin. And for a glorious moment all that was achieved was perfection. Stephanie was a great Robin. She had the best qualities and skills of Dick, Tim, and Jason and even her own play with Cassandra. She was a great fighter (took down a pretty kick ass assassin after Cass was still reeling from the effect of Lady Shiva), had a mind of her own, and basically was everything Robin should be.

So she was of course, beaten, tortured, and then promptly shelved, forgotten about, used as Tim angst, and never really treated like she was Robin at all.

So no, I don't think making her Batgirl is making up for any of this shit. I think Batgirl is a crappy character. I think it's just another example of little miss sidekick in her short skirt not quite sexy and villainous enough to be Catwoman, but ready to bake cookies and be shoved into a refrigerator.

Cassandra Cain is a great character. Barbara mother f-cking Gordon is a great character. Stephanie Brown is a great character.

Batgirl is a token that we get thrown at the end of the day.

So no, I don't accept it as the throwaway consolation prize, just like I don't accept you completely ruining a perfectly good book in an adaptation that could have easily been handled well - but instead was twisted, not for time constraints, but for fueling the kind of drama that you think female audiences will not only agree with but understand.

I still want that 50/50 thing boys, some of you even get that. But right now, we're barely at 20/80 and you still think we're getting too much.

Once Batwoman starts crushing jaws through Gotham, while Batboy swings alongside waiting for the next female writer to completely destroy their character.

Then. Then we'll be even. Because we'll both be at zero. Maybe then at least, you'll have even a clue as to what we're feeling and what we're talking about. get a part. They both have conversations and developments. In the film, Henry was the focus. And his proximity to Clare not only had no meaning, but so much dialog was taken needlessly out of scenes that Clare appeared either dumb or manipulative, no matter what Rachel McAdams did with her. Ignoring the idiotic movements that made the film hard to understand at points and scene changes that ruined characters (Richard, Gomez, Clare's dad, the Doctor). It was the addition of scenes such as Clare calling the situation a cheat to get her into it from Henry's perspective, where she had only understanding in the book, because they'd both been through a terrible situation. Where a decision was made

From RomCom, to ComRom - The Proposal

2009-07-07T22:11:00.000-07:00

The Proposal, starring the undeniably charming and funny Ryan Reynolds and awesome lady extraordinaire Sandra Bullock is a romantic comedy with a simple, probably overused premise - mean lady, nice man, thrown together, hilarity ensues with smoochies.

The specifics being that when Bullock's character, a sharp minded editor of a publishing house is about to be deported back to Canada, she convinces Reynolds into marrying her so that she can stay in the country.

I wasn't expecting much out of this movie, because Romantic Comedies tend to follow a certain path of standard stuff. Tension leads to quiet commonalities, which leads to romance, which leads to some kind of conflict dealing with previous tension, which leads to resolution, which leads to smoochies. But that's kind of what you have to deal with, it's a RomCom, it's going to have some of the details of a RomCom. If it didn't, it would be in another genre.

The thing that was different about The Proposal, is that instead of focusing on the romance, it focuses on the comedy aspect (in a non-vulgar kind of way). It's still a female driven movie, in the sense of it having a female character in it, but it's not cookie cutter. There are different shades.

Sandra Bullock's character is a bitch. But not in the way that a female Simon Cowell would be. More in the empowering sense of the term. She scares her subordinates, but it's made clear that her assistant (Reynolds) and her bosses really respect her. She gets the job done. In an early scene when she talks down to another employee, he kind of deserves it. He was lazy and she ended up getting the job done for him. And especially in Publishing, with the kind of severance he was offered, she was ridiculously nice to him. (Two months to find a job in any economy is gracious indeed, but with a career field that has such a high turnover rate - it's next to sainthood).

So when she shows her sensitivity, it's through awkwardness and not thrown in your face. Not once does her character give a long speech about why she is the way she is, because of having no social life and focusing on work. Nor does she ever apologize for it. She shouldn't have to. It's only through the development and the friendship she creates with the family and with Reynolds that these things come out.

Oh and it helps that Betty White was hilarious as a 90 year old Gammy.

The romance develops, but not in big sweeping gestures and grandiose speeches, but in simple interactions and conversations. It is almost a realistic development surrounded by unrealistic circumstances which gives the movie it's premise.

The cast helped a lot too. Many of the lines could have been pulled off by anyone but Reynolds, and Bullock made a likable character from the beginning, even with her rough edges.

All in all, I'd probably put The Proposal as one of those RomComs who made it past the frame of what they're supposed to be and became more, but with subtleties rather than sweeping changes. It was a good film, I laughed very hard in a fair amount of places and said "aww" in quite a few parts (along with the rest of the audience).

All the good of RomComs and none of the bad.

If you've got a kid, bolt to the theatre--

2009-01-09T20:04:00.001-07:00

Bolt (PG)

Everyone seems to make a big deal when John Travolta makes a movie, no matter what it is. Even Battlefield Earth (which I'm still trying forget), so paired with Hannah Montana, Bolt was properly hyped.

A cute, new concept, Bolt is about a dog that has been cloistered on a set of a television show about the same dog having super powers and saving his "person" Penny (Miley Cyrus), having no idea that he is just a normal dog (so that the emotions on the dog are real). During an attempt by the network to get better ratings, a cliffhanger is left where Bolt is convinced Penny is actually captured and breaks free of the set.

I've been wary of Disney movies of late, but since the Pixar merge, the animation story lines seem to be improving (though I wish they wouldn't completely give up on traditional animation). Bolt proved that the merge has been working, because is has enough entertainment value for kids and their parents.

Bolt ties himself to a cat Mittens (Susie Essman) believing she is the agent of Dr. Calico () the evil fiend who captured Penny. Mittens, is just an alley cat, who is now tied to a crazy dog and is one of the more witty parts of the film. Although she did have one moment where she claimed all cats wanted to be dogs, which anyone who owned a cat would find laughable. They're later joined by a brave hamster in a ball named Rhino (Mark Walton) who has seen Bolt on the magic box and thinks he's real.

The thing that really puts Bolt over the edge is just the general care and detail about dogs and how they behave. It will really hit with not only dog lovers, but any children. There's something enjoyable to get out of this film, even while some six year old is kicking the back of your chair.

Not so curious after all--

2009-01-09T19:58:00.002-07:00

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (PG-13)

It is no surprise that most people went to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, because they were curious. A movie about a man growing younger instead of older in a post World War I New Orleans is a bit of an oddity in itself.

A beautiful piece of filmmaking, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is very visual, but misses the entire point of its own story. The film starts off as Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) is left at a rest home and taken in by one of the caretakers. So an elderly infant is left with elderly people, an interesting commentary and concept. Unsurprisingly the movie focuses on time and the passage of it (brought more succinctly in the small prologue about a blind man and a backwards clock expressing his grief about lost sons in World War I).

As he grows he is stuck in the body of an old man, but clearly has the mentality of his actual age, which his main love interest Daisy Fuller (Cate Blanchett) seems to notice immediately when she meets the young/old Benjamin. The movie wants to be a love story between the carefree, effervescent Daisy (who utterly shines in this role) and Benjamin, but it falls flat. Instead of putting together a series of highlights from a couple in love, it instead settles for much more sex (nothing graphic, however) than you'd expect from this type of film.

Pitt and Blanchett have fair chemistry, so I think I'll lay this at the feet of the writing where most of the problems lie. The directing is beautiful and all the acting is a solid good (excluding Blanchett who is superb), but the writing doesn't seem to know what to do with itself. The Curious Case is making a statement, an obvious statement, that time isn't meant to be wasted - yet that is what the film seems to do. A few characters that should be important (Benjamin's surrogate father, his sister, and his and Daisy's daughter) seem to only be in the periphery.

One of the films biggest mistake in regards to this "time wasted" message is that Benjamin does just that, after he's supposedly learned this message. In an act of supposedly self-sacrifice he instead does something immensely selfish and loses (and takes from his loved ones) years of good years because of his fear of growing younger.

Another flaw in this movie is that Benjamin doesn't actually grow younger. In appearance he does regress in age, but in mentality it is a normal development. This is not a different view of the world in terms of living backwards (like Merlin in Arthurian legend), but a physical deformity.

In short, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is another one of those glorious big budget art films that tries too hard to have a message, and yet has no message at all. Blanchett has a wonderful performance, and some of the side characters light up the screen, but overall the writing brings it down too much and in the end the only thing I was curious about was when the movie was going to stop.

Marley is heartfelt, but I still wouldn't want that dog--

2009-01-09T19:46:00.002-07:00

Marley & Me (PG)

It's hard to understand why the person who cried like a baby at the Fox and the Hound would intentionally see a movie where (spoiler) the dog dies at the end, but I'm glad I did. Not to say there weren't an array of tissues spilled over the empty popcorn tray by the end of it, but I'm kind of a wuss when it comes to animal (don't even get me started on the sobfest that was 8 Below).

Marley and Me is a tale of life between a newly married couple John Grogan (Owen Wilson) and Jenny (Jennifer Aniston) with the time line of their terror of a Labrador Marley (named after the famous Bob). It is based on the real life of John Grogan and the real terror of a dog that he based his column and later book around.

Some of the draw for seeing the film (other than the chance to ogle an adorable puppy reeking havoc for the first twenty minutes) was Jennifer Aniston, who hasn't been in a memorable movie since the ill-fated turn in The Good Girl (which I'm still not sure if I liked or hated). I had a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of her and Wilson as a couple, but they not only managed to make that work, but I actually liked Owen Wilson as the protagonist (something I have trouble with in every film he's been in).

I'm not sure if part of this is his change, since the recent suicide rumors last year, or if the writing was just more attributed to his character (rather than the one sided flop as part of Wedding Crashers - not everyone can be Vince Vaughn). Wilson as John takes us through mostly his view of development as he and his wife (and eventually three children) raise this rambunctious dog.

Marley is a horrible dog, one I'm not sure even I could put up with, but just like the Grogans the audience will easily fall in love with him. It's clear that even through his terrorizing house-sitters and delivery men, not to mention the couch, Marley is all heart.

It's a heartfelt film and hard to dislike with Marley's crazy antics that would seem less funny if they were happening to you. The only downside is a slightly cut off ending that should have summed up where John Grogan was with his life, not just when it pertained to Marley. Because one of the things that really makes the film is that it is a story about a man with a dog. Not just a dog.

A highlight of the Holiday movie season, I would recommend Marley and Me, because it goes into exactly what you want this time of year. It's a great family film, has serious laughs, a solid look at family, and a tearful, heartfelt ending.

How-To Write Video Game Reviews

2008-06-21T13:10:00.002-07:00

(Written for my Spring 2008 Review Writing Class)

How-To Write Video Game Reviews

The trick about writing video game reviews is that the audience mostly likely has the intention of purchasing the games written about and a very short attention span to read about them. That is why video game reviews have to be succinct and entertaining. There is almost always a rating system and the best of these rating systems have a list of requirements (Concept, Graphics, Sound, Playability, Entertainment, Replay value, etc) that are listed, rated and given a small explanation as to why. This means getting to a point and really driving home what the buying audience needs to hear. If the game is riddled with bugs and things that are going to hinder game play than that needs to be upfront in the review. It is so important for the reviewer to be honest about the evaluation of the game, because many of their readers do actually go out and buy these games – and if they find the game to be substandard without any warning they might drop those reviews.

A good opening is always warranted to draw a reader in, in any type of review, but with Video Games there are so many reviews out there if a reader doesn’t have direct interest in a game s/he might just drop the review if the opening doesn’t have any punch. A particularly bad game usually leaves room for humor, as seen in Jeremy Dunham’s review on IGN of Super Rub-a-Dub:

“Spoiler alert! In George Clooney's 2005 political drama Syriana, his undercover alter ego Bob Barnes was the subject of a brutal torture scene. During the disturbing sequence, the captured CIA agent is repeatedly punched in the face before having several of his fingernails ripped out via pliers. It's a terrible moment for sure and, while drawing parallels between that kind of pain and what it's like to play Super Rub-a-Dub isn't fair to victims of such inhumanity, you shouldn't lose the metaphor -- it applies.”

Exaggeration to start with and a sense of drama works with the audience and this quote draws out a real torture scene from a current movie and applies it to the fact that the game was so horrible. Not only is it drawing it is very effective and the potential buyer is going to think twice about picking up this game if it elicited such a strong reaction from the reviewer.

It is also important to shift the review to the tone of the game itself. A game rated M for Mature can have swear words in it or violent epithets to connect with the audience, but a game about the latest Mario game should rethink that approach and limit any strong language to fricking sweet.

The reviewer also has to make the point clear about the verdict of the video game, whether that is in a rating system or in the review itself (usually the review itself needs a clear conclusion either way). The clarity has to be accompanied by reasons and also an enthusiasm one way or the other beyond It was good (baring that the game isn’t mediocre, then the reviewer takes on that tone). Kristan Reed of Eurogamer reviewing Bioshock attempted to relay her point about the entirety of the review in this paragraph setting up for the rest of the review:

“So to have any shred of doubt surrounding BioShock comprehensively swept away within the first ten minutes, well, you feel like dancing. You want to tell people about this game who you know won't even care, just because it makes you so giddy inside. Before we get into the nitty gritty, here’s the deal: Bioshock doesn't just meet your expectations, but completely redefines them forever in ways you never even expected - in ways that games used to in the past, routinely.”

Reed even narrowed down her opinion with a qualifier about really narrowing it down.

The voice of video game reviews are always casual. It is a well-informed person giving a concrete opinion of a game, but it could be over a couple of sodas and an Xbox. It is important to keep this personal tone, because that is what the audience is drawn to – a more academic tone will leave the readers bored and questioning the validity of the reviewer. A good example is Robert Workman review in Game Daily of Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath, where he uses casual language, slang abbreviations and a commonality sense of knowing the top-popular games: “One: just too darn quirky and not really as accessible as it deserved to be. Two: Halo came out the same day. 'Nuff said.” There is a sense of the audience already being knowledgeable about the systems, the reviewer cannot dumb down things within the genre (everyone reading will know what Halo is, what RPGs are, and most big companies within video games like Rockstar and Lucasarts). If the audience’s understanding of a certain subject is in question, the reviewer should briefly touch on it without focusing on that so that no reader feels s/he is being talked down to.

It is very important for a review to be descriptive. Video games are a very visual medium (it is in the name) and it is important to relay that sense of visual understanding into the reviews. Descriptive, salient details are required to really draw a reader into a game and make them understand what the reviewer has seen and visually played out. Ben Reeves of Game Informer reviewed Turok with a good sense of dramatization and style: “You’ll see a T-rex shove over a few trees and your stomach will drop as he comes at you, dry swallowing any small creatures that get in his way like they were meat candy.” There are a lot of very grabbing, interesting words meat candy especially.

It is not just description for style, however, it is also the importance of getting a good feel for the game play. The reviewer needs to set up a sense of credibility that they have played this game thoroughly and that the reader can step in with some sense of what is happening in the game. This is especially important, because of the buyer’s audience – the buyers want description of what is in the game so they can decide whether it is worth the $30-70 of un-returnable merchandise. Aaron Thomas of GameSpot in his review of Sega Superstars leaves a very good trail marker of how the game is set up in each section, something very important for a game with mini-games and separate sections:

“Many of these missions are really fun, and some of them are especially creative. In the Virtua Squad minigames, you shoot (aim the ball at) the bad-guy targets that pop up while trying to avoid hitting the civilians, just as you would in Virtua Cop. In Puyo Pop Fever, you're essentially playing the actual puzzle game and clearing the Puyo with tennis balls. […] The only knock against these stages is that the game doesn't do much in the way of explaining the gameplay, so if you've never played ChuChu Rocket before, you're going to be clueless as to how to proceed here. […] But even with these issues, game mode is an entertaining and enjoyable way to play tennis.”

It is important to see how he spreads judgment in with his descriptions. This applies to all the points of good video game reviews, it gets the point across quickly, the style is casual, and it’s descriptive enough for a buying audience to be involved in.

Even though the style is casual, the video game review is a complicated process and a very important one for the economy of that specific market.

Sources:

Left without a Climax: The Incredibly Unrealized Potential of Neil Gaiman’s Stardust

2008-06-21T13:05:00.000-07:00

(Written for my Spring 2008 Review Writing Class)

Stardust
By Neil Gaiman
248 pages. HarperCollins Publishers. $13.95

Left without a Climax: The Incredibly Unrealized Potential of Neil Gaiman’s Stardust

Queen Victoria is reigning, still in her youth; Dickens is writing and publishing Oliver Twist; Mr. Morse is finally done fiddling with that code of his; and Mr. Draper has caught the moon on camera. All of which is of no importance to a small little town, too far from London to walk, on the edges of a long wall which borders the lands of Faerie. The town, aptly called ‘Wall,’ holds a man named Dunstan Thorn who gets to know the locals of Faerie a little too closely during the nine-a-year fair. And nine months later gets his own package; a son, Tristan Thorn, the hero of this tale, a boy from both worlds.

Fantastical with a starting jolt of humorous irony is just what one would expect when cracking open a Neil Gaiman book and in the land of Wall and Faerie, there is no disappointment on that front. In Stardust, the town of Wall is very country and as commonly described as Faerie is whimsically and so the hero of the tale Tristan is just as so. He is a young boy of seventeen remarkably stupid in love with a woman who has no interest in him. Even in this possibly dull setting with an exceptionally familiar situation, Gaiman’s prose manages to capture the reader into his spell. This does not stop throughout the rest of the novel and if prose alone would make a masterpiece, Gaiman would have one on his hands. “Victoria Forester [Tristan’s object of affection] laughed at the skinny shop-boy, laughed long and loud and delightfully, and her tinkling laughter followed him back down the hill, and away.” The reader will feel the rhythm and movement of the words, but be so enraptured with it and never notice the mechanics involved. Tristan’s quick plight where he ends up promising Victoria to get her a star that fell out of the sky, an idea that even Victoria (the rational, logical, and somewhat catty) finds laughable. Tristan being completely enamored and stupefied by love goes off beyond the wall to find the star. But the star landed in Faerie, and in Faerie all is not what it seems and Tristan soon finds that the star is a stubbornly beautiful woman who is more than a little pissed that she had just been knocked out of the sky. Tristan, unhindered by the fact that she is not bits of rock, decides to bring her to Victoria anyway.

The star, named Yvaine is not dreadfully pleased with this idea either and Tristan is not the only one after her. In one of two subplots that artfully come together, the royalty of Faerie filled with a cast of fratricidical Princes who in the grand tradition of the recently deceased King are set to all at once, kill their brothers and capture the stone which Yvaine wears and which consequently (by the dying King) knocked her out of the sky. Three witches are also after Yvaine, hoping to eat her heart and regain their power and youth. These plots intertwine as one and the tension mounts and builds up as they perfectly fold into one another and meet up with the main plot. Tristan has some troubles before and after that and proves his bad taste in women and manners does not apply to the earnest nature of his heart as he slowly grows on Yvaine.

The plot is whimsical, funny, and easily adaptable to children and adults alike if not for a few placed adult words and themes that could easily be removed for bedtime stories. Still catching onto the fantasy steeled in real experience that Gaiman is so crafted at, Stardust manages to lighten in evocative prose as well as plot, to be more diversely enjoyable. This novel would be near perfect, except with all the mounting tension and build up to a climax – there is none. Stardust, in still completely entrancing prose, tapers off into walking and discussing things with Deux Ex Machina of the balloon losing air kind. The subplots do not achieve the grand conclusion they deserve and Tristan and Yvaine come to sensible ends with no real tension involved, something of quaintly ever after. There is something to be said for the quietness of the ending and epilogue, which may have be better achieved with Gaiman’s usual medium of graphic novels – but what instead occurs is the reader left feeling swindled after they finally come down off the sweetly affective prose high. It seems to be easily solved if Gaiman were to instead of summarizing a large portion of Tristan and Yvaine’s journey (all of which sounds interesting and easily readable) that he would write this out in the same manner as the rest novel. Then perhaps the reader would reach the tapering slow conclusions as the characters have and not feel so shafted by their sudden decisions and less than dramatic plot wrap-ups. Unfortunately the promise and artistry of the writing and plot of Stardust leaves the taste of the ending ultimately bitter and stale.

Neil Gaiman’s Stardust manages to be all at once enjoyable and effortlessly readable, but where it could have been exceptional easily with a hundred more pages, it manages (with a lightened ending and stilted climax) to be just slightly above average. Maybe that is good enough for Gaiman, but with light and airy prose, it was not quite good enough for me.

Cheaper than Starbucks and Just Around the Corner – Cupz Coffee

2008-06-21T12:54:00.002-07:00

(Written for my Spring 2008 Review Writing Class)

Cupz Coffee - $
Arizona State University
777 College Ave, Suite 101
Tempe, AZ 85281
Phone: (480) 557-5245

Hours: Mon - Fri 6am to 8pm
Weekends 6am to 2pm
cupzcoffee.com

Cheaper than Starbucks and Just Around the Corner – Cupz Coffee

It’s a safe bet that building a coffee shop right within walking distance of Arizona State University, you’ll be getting a lot of foot traffic from the student population. A student population that might not have completely discerning tastes, considering how full McDonalds is during Finals Week. That said, with four Starbucks on Campus, and a couple of roving coffee carts, not to mention Dutch Bros over by Cholla Apts (think Eaaaaast Campus), what does make Cupz Coffee such a big hit among the students?

Well to start off, the Starbucks on campus are less than professional and you’re more likely to get a bad-shot (that badly timed, metal tinged espresso) than anything else. Not to mention how much you’d be paying for that Starbucks. The carts are carts so they’re not always right where a student needs them to be (and easily missed), and well, Dutch Bros isn’t exactly a hop-skip-and-a-jump to the nearest classroom. Location alone was enough for a college student (namely me) to take a trip over to Cupz for the first time. Right at College and University and right before the Fulton Building Parking Garage is the only coffee place in the myriad of tiny food shops built for college students tired of campus cuisine.

On first trip the baked goods were all gone, but according to the menu there is a random assortment of danishes, cookies, and muffins. Opting for one of their Eye-Opener Breakfast Sandwiches ($2.99) with a choice of English Muffin, Everything, Blueberry, Cinnamon Raisin, or Plain Bagel, and Croissant (add 50¢), egg or no egg, ham, sausage, or bacon, and a cheese of my choice from America, Swiss, Cheddar, and Pepper Jack, and a cup of cappuccino ($2.60), I felt promise. More promise when I bit into my toothsome Everything-Bagel-Egg-Sausage-Swiss sandwich. Hot and exceeding fresh it had more of a homemade feel without any of the work, the egg was consistent in texture, not overdone, and a little fluffed. The bagel was toasted perfectly on the outside and inside, leaving a crisp bite to it. The sausage was the right blend of sweet and savory – and the Swiss topped off with a mellow flavor. All in all it worked very well, except when I drank my cappuccino.

To be fair to Cupz and coffee markets everywhere, coffee tastes are very personal, and the current trend of making cappuccino into basically a flavorful latte has left me completely surprised for an actual portion of espresso mixed with steamed milk and foam. The problem, after reassuring myself that this was the real thing, was that the espresso was vaguely bitter in a way that left a mildly astringent aftertaste. It wasn’t enough to suddenly have the urge to tip the coffee out into a trashcan or put a drinker off, but it wasn’t as exciting as my sandwich.

The atmosphere of Cupz wasn’t exciting either, but for a smaller place was very nice. It wouldn’t be great for quiet studying, but watching the D-backs game on the fairly large television and sitting on one of the couches would be a comfortable fit for light conversation. There are also some tables that are a little too close to the front for my liking and some booths in the back away from the crowd.

On my next outing they were out of baked goods once again, so I opted for the drink of the day, hoping for better fare. What I got was a Raspberry White Chocolate Mocha ($3.45), a mix of ridiculously sweet flavors that really knocked my socks off. Espresso with white hot-chocolate, raspberry syrup (sans the whipped cream) blended together to create a mix of flavors, after getting the smooth culling flavor of the white chocolate a shot from the mildly sour raspberry would kick in. And as one who likes my coffee either dark and delicious, or so sweet I’ll get a cavity, this really hit the spot. The only unfortunate part, like all drinks of this sugary caliber, is the aftertaste that cries out for water once the drink is done. It can’t be helped, however, so I won’t hold it against them.

On my last trip, I finally got my hands on some baked goods and had my choice of a mini apricot danish (.95¢), a three-times as large cherry danish ($1.95), a Co-Co bar which looked to have chocolate and coconut ($1.85), and some bagels (.95¢). I opted for a cherry danish, which was probably too much danish for one person to handle. The cherry filling was tartly sweet in a way, similar to my ras-whi-choc-moc (name not on menu) from before, mixed with a tough dough with icing, that didn’t exactly wow me. I topped this off with a frozen vanilla latte ($3.45), which had a nice placid flavor (not exactly worth the price, which was comparable to a Frappuccino at Starbucks). Once I’d finished my desert and coffee it was time for lunch.

For lunch, I was excited to try their grill again and ordered a half-sandwich/ half- soup combination ($6.49) that includes Cupz’ Grilled Hot Panini. Ordering the Tomato Basil (the soup of the day, the other choice was Italian Wedding) and a turkey and Swiss, I sat back for an extremely short wait (with great smiles from the workers).

The sandwich once again proved that their grill is exemplary, and while it was no Everything Bagel, the rosemary crusty butter-infused bread really hit the spot, as did Cupz’ knowledge of perfect grilling. The fresh deli turkey was sliced just thinly enough not to flake and piled high, where it was warmly pillowed beneath a gooey slice of Swiss cheese. I was about ready to dip it into my soup, but what I opened was a neon orange that I wasn’t sure should be soup at all. The overflow of onions was also disheartening, as the fact that it was lukewarm.

Not being a rabid visitor of Cupz Coffee, I can’t pass a final judgment: Word of mouth says they have better coffee than most of campus, great Chai tea, and I’ve been told the soup is better than what I’ve had. But with decently priced coffee (except iced) and a great grilling selection, I would recommend Cupz for any college student feeling up to the two minute walk from the Language and Literature building at ASU.

Bioware’s—I mean, Jade Empire

2008-06-21T12:36:00.003-07:00

(Written for my Spring 2008 Review Writing Class)

Bioware’s—I mean, Jade Empire

In the past decade of gaming there are very few companies that can just come out with a game and you know people will buy it, just because they made it – Bioware is undeniably one of those companies. If RPGs are your thing Bioware is the place to go, so trying to hold back salivating to pick up a copy of their latest: Jade Empire, there were already high hopes. Luckily, as always Bioware delivered, though they still haven’t managed to top their Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

Jade Empire is an interactive martial arts first person based RPG set in a magical Feudal China. Fans of the turn-based gaming system shouldn’t be too worried, as JE’s system sets a nice middle ground between that and regular first person. The main character (once again, the chosen one, but who’d want to be anything less) can only take one of his or her companions, who doesn’t actually do much to support if put in attack mode (The Black Whirlwind and occasionally Silk Fox come in handy that way), but offer interesting back ups if put on support. The enemies focus only on you, but you get extra ‘chi’ (magic points), ‘health’ or ‘focus’ (it lets you use weapons). There’s also an option if you picked Hen Pecked Hou to use “Drunken Master” a martial arts style that lets you pick up jugs of wine as you go (belching sound effects included). The thing that really makes the fighting system is the harmonic combos, which include a chi and a focus attack done in a certain way that lets you trigger an animated action – such as lets say exploding someone’s head. Very satisfying result after all that hard work.

Now it wouldn’t be a Bioware game without a rich array of supporting characters, unfortunately we’ve seen them all before in KotOR. Dawn Star hits you in the face with a less feisty Bastila Shan; Sky is trying to be Carth Onasi not quite hitting the mark (he’s basically there to hit on any female and that’s about it), the wizened ex-mercenary figure, the old coot, the young girl and the monster, etc. While this does get a little distracting (and disappointing in the romance department if you’re playing a female character who doesn’t want to be a lesbian), several of the characters work anyway. Sagacious Zu provides interesting commentary and moves the plot along, Silk Fox has her own twists and taking a sharper tongue with her provides pleasing results, Hen Pecked Hou and The Black Whirlwind are hilarious and the interaction between the NPCs themselves really hits its stride.

Storyline wise, Jade Empire could be longer, but that’s mostly because it’s so damn enjoyable I wanted to keep playing. There is definite replay value, especially to play the Dark Side/Light Side Routes, called Closed Fist and Open Palm respectively. Though probably not a reason to stretch yourself playing a different gender than the one you prefer, there’s no visible difference in storyline (as there was in Knights). The philosophies of Open Palm and Closed Fist come up a lot at different points of the game and are very interesting, although Closed Fist (more of a ‘let people do things on their own so they can get stronger’) turns into literally kicking puppies (you get hit points). Though on the rare occasion an option for a real Closed Fist choice arises, the results are very compelling. My favorite was convincing a girl to kill the man who was going to make her a slave, which shifts her entire demeanor and she starts to seem like she won’t need you to rescue you her again.

Overall, Jade Empire has great graphics, great game play, and plenty of entertainment value – but I probably didn’t need to tell you that, because if you’ve played any of the other Bioware games you’ve probably picked this up already.

Giant Robots Fighting Each Other: Do we really need more for our Summer Blockbuster?

2008-06-21T13:00:00.000-07:00

(Written for my Spring 2008 Review Writing Class)

Transformers
Dir. Michael Bay
Run Time 144min
B-

Giant Robots Fighting Each Other: Do we really need more for our Summer Blockbuster?

I have to admit, the second I saw the preview for Transformers where a giant robot threw another giant robot off of a freeway ledge, I was already forking the eight-fifty out of my pocket. That’s really all anyone wants from their Summer Blockbuster Action flick. What I wasn’t expecting was to see a new level of action movies, and a new level in regards to a franchise that started of with Hasbro toys in the eighties – “Robots in disguise!”

Transformers is a classic story about a boy named Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) and his first car. Except that said car happens to be a giant shape shifting robot from outer space. Oh, and there are other giant shape shifting robots that came to Earth to find their means of creation called the ‘all-spark.’

The movie starts us out in the Middle East with a group of soldiers; we immediately assume (and are pleasantly surprised to find out differently) that they are all going to die within the first fifteen minutes. The base camp in Qatar is attacked by a giant shape-shifting helicopter, a Decepticon (the bad guys), and the group of soldiers, lead by an occasionally charismatic Captain Lennox (Josh Duhamel) escape the attack and come back several times through the movie. In doing so they provide stable military background and a sense (as much as you can get from a movie about giant robots) of realism. And most assuredly paying off lip service to all those military/USAF permissions that the movie needed to secure for it’s larger and extremely vivid action scenes.

Rounding off into our main plot, the movie, directed by Michael Bay, but clearly showing Steven Spielberg’s influence as producer at this point, skips to an expositional where our main character Sam Witwicky, played constantly charismatically by LaBeouf is attempting to “hock” his Great-Grandfather’s “crap.” This slides right into Sam and his exceedingly cheap father picking up Sam’s first car, in one of many extremely charming and funny scenes with the Witwickys (even their Chihuahua with a broken leg Mojo lights up the screen). Of course the car Sam ends up picking out ends up being our first Autobot (the good guys), Bumblebee, in the form of a gorgeous faded yellow ‘72 Camero (if robots don’t do it for you, the car choices certainly will).

Sam does what any boy does with his first car; he hits a party and tries to get chicks. He ends up (after radio encouragement from his Camero) giving Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox) a ride home. Bumblebee, who only speaks through the radio, gives Sam some hints and stalls the car – Mikaela then shows an unusual talent for cars (which nicely pairs out her inability to find an adult sized shirt) and in an awkwardly familiar scene thanks to both LaBeouf and Fox, the pair ride off, establishing the romance for the film and pairing Sam’s coming of age story with a love interest.

Unfortunately for all the good familiarity about our own branching out into puberties (without the giant space robots), the pace of the movie doesn’t even remotely match up to director, Michael Bay’s usual style for the better. With the exception of a side plot including Analysts and Hackers attempting to find out who is hacking the Government’s systems that could be completely lifted from the movie without changing anything else, the rest of the movie streams together with heart, laughter, and amazing special effects (giant robots fighting, seriously). Every scene where any Transformer well… transforms is mesmerizing in detail and transition, from every bolt and screw, to the shine of the metal panels – you actually believe it.

Of course Transformers being an action movie, it is very clear where the pace of the film takes off and goes into nonstop giant robots fighting each other. Which is probably why everyone bought their tickets in the first place – the only problem is, by this time the audience is so enamored with the story line, bit parts such as Agent Simmons in a ‘Men in Black’ type Government Orginazation called Sector7, done flawlessly by John Turturro, and the Witwickys family dynamic, that the shock into a fast paced non-stop action sequence is jarring. All of the characters that the audience had firmly taken hold of as their own, get about four seconds of face time with plot advancing lines about getting out of the way and shooting things.

In addition to the shift in pacing, there’s never a moment, except with our lovely yellow Camero Bumblebee, where the audience feels attached to the title characters. There’s no real reason for the Autobots to be fighting for the humans, or choose a human over their own species and the awkwardness of this makes every very well voiced speech by the original Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) almost boring and inconsequential to the fighting.

Transformers provides what it advertises, a hard hitting thrill ride for those hot summer days, but it also throws in great human characters that the audience ends up liking more than the robots. Pulled together by great acting and some obvious intervention by Spielberg for the movies opening sequences, Transformers becomes more than just a great actions movie – and then it doesn’t. But in the end, amazing action sequences, and that scene of Megatron and Optimus Prime fighting over a freeway bridge really did deliver the reason you shelled out for an overpriced ticket and some stale popcorn.

Three Things

2008-01-26T12:17:00.000-07:00

I’m deathly afraid of three things. Strangulation. Rope Bridges. And E.T.

I wish I was kidding.

Basically, I’ll break it down for you. The first one is not so bad. I mean lots of people are afraid of being choked to death. Even the fact that seeing anyone be hit in the neck or strangled on screen makes me queasy is not so bad. There’s actually a phobia of that – Al Gore’s daughter has it with wrists. It does mean I can’t wear turtle necks, I tug my collars so there’s a weird stretch that still confuses my mother, and that I have a smacking reflex if someone even gets close to my neckline.

The Rope Bridge thing is probably where I lost you. But that’s not so bad either. Ever watch a movie? Indiana Jones, anything really with a rope bridge? Have you ever once seen it where it didn’t break? And if it doesn’t, it creaks and crackles and builds the tension even if it’s not accurate to the scene. I may have also fallen off one when I was younger. Either way, it’s a logical fear—one that doesn’t happen to come up too much. At the movies those scenes are usually arm grabbers anyway and I think I’m safe as a sane person to say “no thank you” if anyone tries to convince me to cross a suspension bridge. I’d rather take the long way around.

Now, the E.T. thing. That’s… even I don’t really have an excuse for that one. There’s just something about that little freak that just gives me the shivers. Even just thinking about the fingers that stretch out with those little globs and --- ugh that’s just horrifying. That voice… that scratchy voice that just stretches as long as the fingers and I really have to stop writing about him, because it’s freaking me out. You should have seen me during the anniversary where all those car commercials had the little creep in it. I screamed and threw the remote at the TV, before I realized I couldn’t turn it off that way.

It hasn’t gone away either, just today the Food Network had something about Reeses Pieces and showed that little moon and bike thing and I had to flip the channel.

Just the thought of it is making me not want to sleep.

I’m probably the most afraid of E.T. than I am of anything else on that short list, which makes the logical part of my brain shake its head. After all, the thing was made out of playdough and chicken wire.

Doesn’t mean I’m not sleeping with the lights on tonight.

Boob Windows

2008-01-26T12:16:00.000-07:00

Strong female characters that wear no clothes are not strong role models and they perpetuate a horrible example for young men. This statement seems clearly made and logical for anyone who thinks about it for a second, yet in video games, comic books, basic media, women are still portrayed by their appearance first and their personality/skills second. Click onto the new line up and just watch any show. Chuck NBC’s new, admittedly funny, show has a normal looking guy as the main character. His friend is normal and not fantastically attractive.

His sister is modelesque attractive. The secret agent he’s assigned to (a woman) is skinny, attractive, and uses her feminine wiles on him to start with.

It’s not hard to tell that looks come first with female characters and then whatever personality happens to be required gets filled in. Watching a movie you’ll see a wide variety of male shapes and forms. You’ll see two of women. There will either be the skinny, very unrealistically attractive woman. And then there’s the fattie. There’s no middle ground. No ‘real’ looking woman who has maybe arms or a little bit of a stomach. And usually when this character is the main of the movie the entire focus is centered around her weight.

It’s not hard to flip on the news and see models getting skinnier, more anorexic actresses yet flip over to the entertainment network and all there is – is showing who’s wearing what and what looks bad.

It’s image appeal. And it’s killing our society.

Little girls are growing up with serious image issues from what they are bombarded with every day and no one is doing anything about it. There are no normal looking actresses or newscasters. There’s no one telling clothing companies to stop shrinking their sizes. There is just a constantly flow of hot women as the first and only ideal.

And what about our boys? It is not their fault that by the time they’ve hit their teens that they’re hormonal driven on the road to find the hottest girl. Women are trying to appeal to this idea and all that boys are bombarded with is scantily clad women.

Take comic books for example. Power Girl still has, what can only be described as a ‘boob window.’ New female heroes get short skirts to fly in. I don’t know about you, but if I was flying up in the air, I would not be wearing a skirt.

Even when a female character is not drawn in a revealing costume, her breasts are enlarged, her outfit is skin tight. She is gorgeous. She is woman.

And this is just the stuff the kids are reading.

What do we expect of our men when this is what they get as boys?

What do we expect of our women when this is what they get as girls?

What do we expect of anyone when we keep ignoring it and saying ‘well that’s the way it is’?

Different

2008-01-26T12:15:00.001-07:00

I never could have imagined it was going to be different, because it started the same. My palms were sweating, I stepped out onto stage with my heart banging against my rib cage, and I tried to pretend that acting from six to sixteen had actually helped my stage fright. What really changed was my own reaction. I usually start and then my pulse is still pounding in my ears, but it’s nothing compared to my deafening voice and just complete absolution in getting lost in the part. Acting was fine. I’d never sang on stage by myself before. I should have known this was different.

I held the microphone in my hand, gripped just lax enough so that I wouldn’t drop it. Too many things went through my mind. Was I going to trip? Which of my parents had shown up? How many were in the audience? I should look at the on point above the audience since I’m facing them so I can’t see faces. Faces always ruin it.

The music turned on. I waited for my cue (beat one, beat two, beat three – one more) and started my speaking part. It was easy, I slipped into the Puerto Rican New York accent like a charm and went through it flawlessly – then the singing happened. I sang through the first verse easily, with no catch or thought.

Then the first repeating chorus came up – instead of singing the right part, I sang the next. As soon as “And I trieeeeeed to meeeeeelt!” came out of my mouth, I knew I had completely screwed it up. I’d flubbed lines on stage before; you have to know how to react and improvise to get to the next one. I was great at improv.

But this was different. I had completely skipped half the song and the music was still playing. My bowels froze and options ran through my head at a breakneck speed. I could either keep going from that junction or rack my brain to skip ahead to where I should have been and hope no one noticed.

Would they notice? They didn’t know the song, but they had to know, because I’d screwed up so badly. I just knew they would, but then I tried to convince myself that they couldn’t, because they didn’t know the song.

And in that horrible thought process there was nothing on stage, but silence. The fear that crept up in me every time I got on stage was now back stronger than ever. I had never done this before. I had never stood on stage and completely still—my legs were locked together and I was just staring straight ahead. I could just hear the thought processes of everyone there –What’s happening? Did she screw up? Did we actually pay to see this? How dumb. I can’t believe I got off work for this. Stupid, Mia.—and my heart pounded louder and I felt like I was going to fall through the stage.

So I ran.

I ran offstage to the safety of the thick curtains blocking out all the scrutiny from the audience I could hear pounding my ears. I stuffed the microphone into someone’s hand and left everything up to them to do on stage, while I threw myself in the corner by the curtain wires and just cried my eyes out. I was crying like I hadn’t since I was a kid. It was all over me and down every part of my body. I was humiliated and horrified with myself and just wanted to curl up and never talk to anyone again.

A few girls came over and tried to comfort me. It wouldn’t help though; I was too disgusted with myself. The crying had added to it. The fact that people were surrounding me had just compounded how completely revolting I was.

So I got up. Stopped sobbing and knew that if I didn’t go out there and do the song that I had practiced for two months I would hate myself this much forever. I walked right up to my high school theatre director who’d never once given me any of the respect that I deserved and said just that.

“I want to go out again. I’m going to.”

He went out and introduced me again.

Those fifteen steps back on stage echoed in my ears. They were some of the toughest of my life. I went anyway to the middle of the stage, right by the lip and faced the audience.

I stood again with no thudding heart beat and just grim determination.

And the music came on. I started again, the same repetitions. And then I got to my screw-up. I slid flawlessly into the right verse just as easily as I’d messed up the first time.

I finished the song. Every word punctuated and my ecstasy just eluding from all the songs. I could hear my voice on the microphone, I actually liked it. All my fears from this had gone away and I felt unequivocally proud of myself for facing the humiliation I was so afraid of and just doing it anyway. For me. I’d never enjoyed singing as much, if I wasn’t in character I wouldn’t have been able to stop grinning.

I was on my knees singing the prayer part. I was almost at the end.

“And a voice from down at the bottom of my soul,” and I lifted myself up, slowly and steadily like I was reaching towards the heavens, “Came up to the top of my head. And a voice from down at the bottom of my soul, Here is whaaaaaat it saaaaaaid:” I let the rest fly, because it wasn’t just Diana Morales singing it. It was me.

“This man is nothing!” And even stronger. “This course is nothing! If you want something go find another class. And when you find one,” And I smiled. “You'll be an actress.”

Then I stared out at the audience and I sang the last part with every thumping beating of my heart. “And I assure you that’s what finally came to paaass.”

I couldn’t feel my legs, but I smiled as the music ended and walked calmly offstage.

Every thought that could have come to mind about how I’d screwed up before, what i could have done better in that performance was roving through my mind, but that part of me that had managed to walk out there just told it to shut up and it did.

When I walked off stage my theatre director was waiting there, right by the curtain and he said: “I’m proud of you.”

And that didn’t even matter, because I was proud of me and I knew I’d never be too afraid to go out there again.

It was different.

Scorching Buttons

2008-01-26T12:14:00.001-07:00

Name a hot-button issue and I’m sure I have an opinion for it. I’m a pretty opinionated gal and I’m very strong in all my reasons for them. I know my history. I know my human decency. I know my bible. I know my literature. I know the news. But when it comes to feminist issues – well it’s not just because I have a couple of xs in my chromosome list that lends me some creditability on the subject.

Growing up I can’t remember a time I wasn’t told that boys are built differently than girls. That a woman will never be as good as a man in sports, because she has a different body type. That women can’t handle math, can’t handle science, because their brains are different. Even if it wasn’t stated outright it was always there. I never believed this. I never had someone telling me not to, but I never believed it. I was a feminist by the time I was six. A feminist is just someone who believes that women should be equal to men. A guy can be a feminist. I hope there are a lot out there.

I always believed this. In every aspect. I still believe it.

I went on to believe it even more when I had to a research project for my senior year in High School. I wanted to find all these ‘scientific studies’ that proved that women were so different and so incapable of all these things.

After countless hours of research – I found nothing.

Which was great for my theory and made me pleased, but left me a little screwed when it came to the paper. That’s besides the point.

Later, in my junior year of college, I found a scientific article on why men and women are built differently and women can’t work up to the same things. It was a propaganda published extensively in the 1700s.

It’s amazing that it is still around today.

That I still have to deal with sexism at school, at work, everywhere I go. That I get boys thinking I can’t play video games. That I can’t know about sports. That there is surprise in the industry that women read comic books, when they’re a huge part of the consumer process. That a lot of the games out there are bought by women and played by women.

If that’s the case, there should be a female character for us to play in every game. There shouldn’t be the default of thinking everyone is a guy in every case. We’re out there. I know a huge community. I also know a lot of men writing for the industry who think we’re not.

It’s that absence that makes me feel like I’m six again, hearing that (like the new playschool commercials are proudly pronouncing) : “Boys are built differently.”

And I still don’t believe it.

Temperature Control

2008-01-26T12:13:00.001-07:00

One of the houses on our block is painted a gaudy color that makes me stall every time. There’s thick gravel that heats up enough to scald bare feet during the summer. A skittering little cat darts across the street like that’ll make you not see her. Her bell jingles and pretends not to hear me calling her name, until she decides to roll around on the ground and get dirt all over her fur.

I’m outside looking at it from her point of view. She’s thrilled I’m on her land, her territory. There to bask in her glow while the other cats stay away. She’s a little runt and would run back to the house without me.

On the corner there’s an entire group of people that I would get the same impression if I was a stranger. Cold. Unfeeling. Kept.

No one opens their door, except for one house that always has the garage open.

It’s a small suburbia with pale Arizona peach and numbers on the houses. They are all evenly spaced out, sameness spreading through every angle and degree.

Walking further up the street and turning the corner, it’s more of the same. And another street and I can see the park off in the distance.

The slide gives static and the swings pinch. The grass gets flooded.

The street signs never get fixed and there are always cars parked in front of things they shouldn’t be.

There is never anyone out of their houses, but there is a few children walking home. They get cold calculating stares as you pass them. The pedestrians are too frightened to walk across the street if a car is coming. They just stand there and stare.

Most of the time this is the right move, because the cars ignore them.

It’s amazing how cold a neighborhood can feel in a place so hot.

Escape

2008-01-26T12:11:00.000-07:00

When I was little and we’d moved to Spain I used to play with the ocean. I used to pretend I was in a race and see how fast I could run to the other side while it tried to splash my legs. I’d jump in the water and under waves. I’d be pushed back and forth by the water and just completely embrace the water in my bones, until it felt like I was water too.

It was an escape.

We went there almost every week; it was a very easy escape. When I moved to Arizona there wasn’t the same option of the beach. Driving to San Diego every other summer didn’t seem to do it. My soul almost cried out for the fresh salty air, the slapping splash of water, and the unforgiving sun tingling my skin.

It subtly tore at everyone, the longer we went without going to the beach. It wasn’t just a vacation to us. It was an escape.

To me more than anyone. I would still rush into the water when it was no longer child-like glee. Just to feel the crisp bite of the cold, until my body accepted the fact and bowed to the whims of temperature. I’d never want to get out. I could be thrown about, but all I could hear and feel were the waves, the water, and the wind.

It was nothing in my brain. No thoughts of school. No thoughts of my family. No thoughts of work. No thoughts of anything other than the tempestuous nature of the ocean and how I could stay in it as long as possible.

And feel like I was apart of that too.

Pink Consoles : The Elusive Girl Gamer

2008-01-26T12:08:00.000-07:00

On the hunt for a most elusive prey, the right tactic is something to draw them in. Some prey likes shiny objects, or a more colorful variety of console. Other prey tends to enjoy vast character profiles and less pixel ratio on their screen. Then of course there’s our prey, hard to snag and impossible to pin down, rare as can be – almost a myth. The girl gamer.

Do we wiggle games based on popular female realities like Barbie or Bratz, use shoddy gameplay and bad graphics, but the same price as the general consumer won’t know the difference? Or should we take a different approach? Perhaps something in pink, that will draw her in!

Or the best bait of all could be set out, what every girl gamer wants – to be acknowledged as part of the market who plays just as hard as the boys.

I know I do.

I’ve been playing video games since the NES first stepped up to plate. The old Nintendo system with it’s pixel to pixel screen play and massively exciting side scroller action was always at the reach of my brother’s hand. Occasionally that second player controller would slide my way and I would actually have a chance to jump into Luigi’s shoes, to dazzle as Tails while Sonic pushed it out there, to squeeze in some time at duck hunt and try not to shoot that laughing dog. Second player, second choice, was my life. I was the little sister, the younger, the odd little child that liked to grab onto the video gaming system and play. I’m probably the only person I know that had to use a step stool to play Mortal Combat on an Arcade, but I have, I did, and I am – female and a gamer.

It sometimes feels like it’s an impossible concept for the main public to wrap their mind around. The general idea is that the gaming gene doesn’t come about unless there’s a y chromosome firmly shoved somewhere in the DNA. More than one third of the video game consumers market would strongly disagree. Because, they’re all girls. Or more accurately, females. A third of the market that seems to be completely ignored.

Shutting my eyes and pretending that Tails was a girl and that one day the Princess would save me, didn’t really last too long. Even the small opportunities presenting themselves, such as Lara Croft bounding along with cleavage I still don’t have, and Terra and Celeste rocking it hard in a Role Playing Game of Final Fantasy. At least Japan seemed to know that girls did exist, though watching my brother and friends play with Lara and watching her bounce along, she didn’t seem like that strong female figure I was hoping for. Though that, and the thousands of other games where squinting might make those tights Link is wearing feminine, didn’t really stop me from playing. I thought that’s all there was, because well… I was all there was. I didn’t know any girls who liked to play video games and mainly people around me held the same opinion.

It’s not hard to figure out why this idea prevails, all one would have to do is browse their local video game store to see shelf after shelf of completely male directed games. The only women usually seen on the boxes look more like they should be in Maxim (which actually had a special issue with undressed video game girls) more than made out of polygons. So where’s a girl like me go when she wants to get a game and doesn’t want to settle?

The answer – she doesn’t. She, like me and many other girl gamers, settle again and again. It’s not like I have anything against playing as a male character, just like I’m sure guys don’t mind messing around with Lara on occasion. I have no problem dawning the tunic and Master Sword and taking on Ganon as Link, while I go save my Princess and I would change him or that fat plumber for the world – but sometimes, I’d really like to be able to play as Zelda. And not just for a mele game.

Growing up where women in RPGs are always the weaker healer characters, pushed aside for stronger male leads. Where if there is a female character, it’s a gimmick made for a multiplayer game. Where most of the time if there’s even a female non-playable, she acts like a complete waste of air. Well it’s more than a little discouraging, especially considering what I know now.

Women have been growing up with video games just as long as men and while I, like many others, started by watching my brother play the first Nintendo, eventually the boys left home and the consoles were left all on their lonesome. It was only right to pick up the controller and have a crack at it ourselves. And like my other—sisteren—it wasn’t long after that that new consoles, games, and adventures began to present themselves.

A few years after the fun adventures of Super Nintendo and that short lived tryst with Sega Genesis, the ultra new consoles started to come out and I got my first taste at what could be. We (foolhardily) picked up an N64 and a copy of GoldenEye, only to ever play it on multiplayer (for you young folks it’s like James Bond in Halo) to shoot at each other. My brother and I had loads of fun with it, even more so when I discovered not only could I play as a female Russian hot stuff who could kick serious butt, but I could also beat him.

And oh did that feel good.

It was just a taste though and my brother eventually got tired and moved onto bigger and better things. Like out of the house. Leaving the console. Finally I had the option to pick up the controller and actually, well, control something. I could play as a first player and shift and change. The first occasion I had the time to beat Ocarina of Time, well I felt like I’d become a woman. I played progressively more and more, enjoying every second of the time where I was actually playing out long quests and not watching my brother do it first. To be fair the N64 didn’t leave me with much and it wasn’t until I bought my Xbox did I discover pure bliss – and the realization I didn’t have to settle.

I popped Knights of the Old Republic into my Xbox on a gaff, I liked Star Wars and it looked fun, and there on the loading screen was a choice between the usual stats and upgrades that are required when you starts, personality points and whatever – but what was really shocking was that there was a choice to play a girl. As the main character. I was excited, but no where near as mind blown as I was once I’d actually finished the game (eight hours from the climax to the end, no sleep, all shaking). The plot was delightfully thought-out and thorough in every sense. There was a deep sense that the characters were actually talking to a woman who completely kicked ass. A woman I was playing. Not to mention the other implications that Bioware did amazingly well and not to spoil anything (if you haven’t played it yet, what’s wrong with you?) but the “Luke, I am your father” level of reveal during the climax of the game pretty much sealed the bad-assness of my character.

The best part was after I was done with the game, replaying as a male (and then a female a few more times), I actually found the game had more zest the first way. There was actual thought put it, like they’d actually talked to girls and asked them what they wanted. Turns out, they did.

Notice to all you game companies out there, Bioware’s full of smarty-pants who realized the easiest way in the world to appeal to a third of your consumer market is to just ask them. Turns out what most girls wanted was just a good character to play. No big-jugs-McGee, no ridiculously shallow outlook, no lame assed healing powers as the only thing available, no pink. Don’t get me wrong – some girls like pink. I, on occasion, happen to find the color okay, but that is still not a way to drag girls in. We don’t want much, which works out since that’s about as much as video game corporations are willing to give.

Though it seems the critically acclaimed success of Knights of the Old Republic, wasn’t enough to change video game companies’ mind. My excitement about grabbing up ‘Fables’ which claimed to be even more inclusive and full of crazy choices that would shape every part of your world, didn’t even include the option for a different gender. The only thing that changed for me then was that I put the box back.

I have yet to play Fables and I may never unless they make a version where I can play as a girl. It’s not that I still don’t mind playing as a guy, I preferred it in the sequel to Knights of the Old Republic (but that and Lucas’ apparent attempt at making any Star Wars related product official and giving us girls the throw-away is another story) – and I still wouldn’t trade in Double-Oh-Seven’s gender for anything, but if there’s an option and an advertisement for choice – well then, give me one!

Needless to say it’s not surprising that the games that do well in the market right now in that one little consumer branch that’s over a third now and still growing are the ones that appeal to every part of the brain. The Sims is one of the highest selling computer games out there and its entire market is pretty much picking and choosing what you want and creating your own world. Where you can have an entire Amazonian society if you want.

It’s not that I do, it’s just nice to have the option every once and a while.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be saving up for my Wii and playing my female character on my Nintendo DS’ Pokemon Pearl.

Six Messages in My Inbox

2007-08-28T20:59:00.000-07:00

I’m already tense as the phone rings. I’ve just listened to the prerecorded message relaying system outages on campus and hours that the computer help desk is open for what feels like the thirteenth time, but is more likely the fourth. At least this time there’s no hold music for ten minutes, replaying the same instrumental piece that is all at once familiar and impossible to place.

The phone clicks and a voice answers. It’s male, but I can’t tell if I’ve spoken to him before. A running narrative of my father telling me to write those things down runs through my head, but I ignore it as I once again repeat my computer problem.

I’m never sure if it’s because I’m female, or because the tech support people are prone to disbelieve my situation, but I’m sure when I say, “Yes, I reinstalled it. Twice,” that my voice sounds a little shrill.

The man on the other end, I think his name was Kyle (though that might have been the other one I talked to the night before) just sort of sighs. It’s a sound of confusion and half disbelief that you never want to hear from a tech support person. It means that your problem is not common and they have no idea how to fix it. I am really tired of hearing it.

“Can I put you on hold?” is even worse, but Kyle says it anyway, just a hint of tension that crackles over the phone line.

I resist the urge to slam my head into my laptop and just say as nicely as I can, “Sure.”

There is – thank goodness – no hold music this time. It takes him three minutes (or thirteen taps of my pencil and an exasperated look to my roommate who’s more tired of this than I am and only feigns pity at this point). Finally when he picks up again, my hopes rise. Kyle actually sounds nicer than the others, like he’s really trying to figure it out.

Then he says the worst words possible. “Did you try taking it to the Computer Commons?”

I can practically feel the start of his explanation of what that is on my skin and I just take a tight breath and say, “Yes. Three times. They had no idea what they were doing.”

Not unlike Kyle, but at least he seems less smug about his lack of knowledge and help for my situation.

We run through a few more things, really just time wasters and I know it’s wrapping up. All hope is gone. “I’m sorry,” Kyle says.

I believe it this time, but my voice is just as polite and choked as always when I say, “It’s okay, you tried. Thanks,” before I hang up.

I hold the phone for a moment before putting it back down and staring at my screen. I’ll have to go downstairs to use the internet on computers with greasy keyboards from other people’s fingers.

I just feel like sleeping instead, but I really want to check my mail before bed.

Fuming and Fuming Some More

2007-07-11T13:59:00.001-07:00

It is bad enough when the basis of many comic book heroines are wearing what can only be called "boob windows" refuse any change, because of "tradition." It's bad enough that the colorists for Green Arrow can't remember that Mia's emblem is not a fleshy cut out right by her heart.

It's bad enough that Supergirl still wears a skirt when she's flying through the air. It's bad enough that these figures who are supposed to be positive role models act out of character and wear disgusting outfits, with no realistic support. It's bad enough that the female characters who do wear the proper support and actual coverage, i.e. Stephanie Brown, get brutally killed in an overly sexualized position.

It's bad enough that Donna Troy and Huntress and every other female who for a second changes their outfit to more covering, gets cleavage again, or short-shorts that don't make any sense at all.

It is bad enough that all of that gets put up with by the myriads of female comic book fans, because we don't think we can change anything.

But when I pick up my weekly comic of Countdown, hoping for some kind of storyline, hopefully good art, and characters I'm interested in. I get Mary Marvel in a skirt beyond comprehension, showing panty shots in every single panel. And the most disgusting chest forward shot imaginable where every single piece of skin on her is easily seen.

Now why couldn't little miss Mary Marvel, the girl who's the nice girl, the one who's been around for a long time. Why couldn't she be the next Captain Marvel? Did it have to be Freddy who had less experience, while Mary went off to the dark side, otherwise known as slut junction?

As a female, outraged, and irreconcilable I would like an answer.

Do you not get that there are female comic book fans? That there are kids that read this seeing this misogynistic ridiculous behavior used constantly?

Is the internet not available to you to see the outrage over the action figure styles where women can't even be realistically stood up?

Really, DC, I would like to know personally, what the heck you guys are thinking?

Because I'm just about done with it and I'm sure that the huge majority of females who unsurprisingly buy the actual mainstream comics and not just the ones that "pander" to our lilting femininity, are just about as fed up as I am.

Movie Night

2007-06-15T23:33:00.001-07:00

I think it's the height of sheltered living, when one looks forward to going to a movie with their dad. Not that there is anything wrong with enjoying a movie with a member of your family that can also laugh horribly loud at inappropriate moments.

That's family.

The fact of the matter is the reason I get so excited to go to movies with my father, is that for the types of movies we both enjoy - I have no one else to go with. I am at that crucial state of flux within my life where I am without guy friends. Or that unattainable gal pal that is actually interested in the more geekish side of life that I somehow get along with.

There's no efriendly.com or matchforfriends.net to set you up with a platonic mixed gender buddy, but there should be. After a certain age, it becomes impossible to schmooze for friends. If you approach a man after class, the automatic assumption is that you, the aggressor, are interested in dating.

This is how the male of the species reacts, instantly putting up a tight-fake smile barrier if they don't find you attractive and odd looks if you actually want to engage in a social activity that possibly has nothing to do with the dreaded D word.

Women of the species react in an entirely separate way. They don't automatically assume that a man is approaching them for any kind of goal in the dating realm. This will not cross their mind until a day or two into the conversations (possibly less depending on neurosis levels), where they will obsess:

"Does he like me?" "Do I like him?" "Should I like him?" "If I do like him, what would we do?" "Where would we end up?" "Should we end up?"

All ending in her not hearing one word of your lovely political view of the President's Cabinet, where she will smile vacuously and if she's really talented comment something back to you even though she has no idea what she's saying.

It's an obsession that is literally killing off mixed friends. If you can't keep the ones you made in High School, it's next to impossible to find new ones - unless some odd work situation occurs.

To you all, I say: next time someone of the opposite sex approaches you, don't automatically assume it's about dating. Give it a minute, see if you have anything in common. Consider it. Because it is in fact possible to have friends of the other gender.

It's just hard to get there.

As for me, I will continue to enjoy free movies with my father where we can both laugh loudly and obnoxiously when there's nothing really funny on the screen.

Test Post

2007-06-15T23:12:00.000-07:00

This will be brilliant things, I'm sure. But at the moment it's just a test post. Yay for tests.