Bright September afternoon in Victoria harbour.
Skywatch Friday 4.8: British Columbia Afternoon.
Cream of the crop
RUN DLC’s feature lists quality games on consoles that did not sell too well. They missed Jeff Minter’s awesome take on Tempest for the Jaguar, but the sole decent game on the n-gage, Pathway to Glory was a nice addition.
Game of the Week: Angry Birds
Rovio’s Angry Birds is a bona fide finnish software success story.
Angry Birds features a feud between the birds and pigs. The birds assault the pigs holdings with the aid of the player and a big slingshot. The touchscreen is used to control the power and the angle of the shot, thereafter the game’s physics engine takes over to determine which objects on screen break or fall under the impact. Later levels feature increasingly complex structures in which the pigs are hiding, and correspondingly additional species of birds that provide special effects to the assault. Completion of a level requires a direct or indirect hit on each of the pigs.
Angry Birds has been released for Maemo 5 (Nokia’s N900) and Apple’s iOS (ipod touch / iphone), with ports in the pipeline for Palm’s WebOS and Google’s Android. Definitely a game for all the touchscreen devices.
Thus far the game has sold more than six million copies, and looks destined for movie screen.
The game is simple, but addictive. The levels have been built with care. The first few are almost trivial, towards the end the puzzle-like missions demand perfect hits and effective use of the different birds special abilities. Success is rewarded with one to three stars, and reaching a triple on each of the levels takes time and practice.
Bones
Back in the late nineties I was introduced to the world of medical examiner-genre of mystery novels by the Kay Scarpetta-series by Patricia Cornwell. Originally I got quite hooked by the plots and characters. The attempts at describing technology were vicariously embarrassing but half of the effect can be explained by Moore’s law, the other half by trying way too hard.
But the relationship soured as the series grew. Cornwell clearly disdained the use of editorial services and the quality of books sunk accordingly. The sudden turn towards vigilantism felt out of place. The previously tightly wound plots evolved into hard to follow multi-novel monstrosities. I gave up around Blow Fly and haven’t looked back.
However, Cornwell’s success roused imitators. I picked up Kathy Reichs‘ debut novel and quickly discovered that the while the genre expectations are plenty of anatomical descriptions and academic characters with plenty of baggage, it’s not enough. Going through Déjà Dead felt like hard work, and I thought that’d be the last sight of the author and her protagonist, improbably named Temperance Brennan.
A couple of years ago a few friends stated that they’d quite liked the new quasi-CSI series shown over the summer: Bones. Upon first sight Bones felt quite all right, it was clearly far enough removed from the original and effectively turned into a police procedural in one of my favorite cities: Washington.
I ended up missing most of the first season and I picked it up in the States cheap later on. And as with Deadwood, a quick, innocent “one episode before going to bed to stave off jetlag” turned into a watching the first disc instead.
Compared to the cardboard characters of CSI the cast on Bones felt quite a bit more human. And the fact that cast included David Boreanaz was a definite bonus. As was the use of proper long arcs in the plot. So quite unlike the syndication-friendly CSI-franchises where the reset button is conveniently pressed at the end of an episode.
The series stayed strong through its first four seasons. Though the writers’ strike did impact on both the length and the quality of the third, the show bounced back on the fourth.
Even though Subtv the series’ vehicle in Finland has not been a reliable channel, it gave quite a surprise last saturday by starting the fifth season well ahead of its release on dvd in the US.
The first episode was return to normality after the quite unorthodox fourth season finale. So yet another show lands on the “record weekly” list of the DVR. Even if Cyndi Lauper’s medium character isn’t a permanent addition to the crew, Bones looks to be a staple of the second half of 2010.
Mongoliad
Neal Stephenson, whose Quicksilver trilogy I still haven’t finished, has kicked off his first digital novel.
Too bad the iOS application is still undergoing review for entry into the appstore.
Weekday Photos / Urban #14: Boat/Ship
A well-rusted boat in the Hyannisport harbour.
Weekday Photos / Urban #14: Boat/Ship.
Carma sunk by a 419
Carma, the site of my first ever Michelin-starred meal shuts down, allegedly on account of falling for a Nigerian scam.
5k
This blog is now five thousand entries old.
No candles, no cake, and absolutely no singing.
The fifth thousand took almost an year to achieve (the previous milestone was reached on 11.9.2009).
Motion comic?
Stumbled upon a completely new product category the other day.
The eighth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, originally developed in graphic novel format will soon be available as a motion comic as well.
File under: “must see before passing judgment”.
Indiana Jones, in LEGO
Nothing short of amazing, and the techniques employed are not out of the question in the home studio either.
Therapy counters w35
- Books catalogued in LibraryThing: 362 (two weeks – no progress).
- Stars discovered in Super Mario Galaxy: 28 / 120 (Gusty Garden Galaxy done).
- Crew members recruited and made loyal in Mass Effect 2: 10 / 12, 4 / 12 (no change).
- Pending movie review articles: 3 (did Heat).
- Pending game of the week articles: 5 (Plants vs. Zombies).
The attached image, very appropriate to progress in Super Mario Galaxy depicts what could happen if goombas weren’t just bits.
My first (and likely, only) Manolo Blahnik
A promotional coca cola light can, as reimagined by somewhat famous shoe designer Manolo Blahnik.
These cans were distributed rather liberally in Akateeminen Kirjakauppa during the recent night of the arts. Picked one up, just in case (and was anyway short of soda for Saturday morning).
Thus far I’ve had no need to own anything by him, and I’m unlikely to change my opinion based on this object.
Google CEO spoutings, part 2
According to Eric Schmidt “mankind generates as much data in two days as we did from the dawn of history until 2003″.
The relevant big number is five exabytes. And user-generated content is to blame.
Earlier in the game: people will soon be changing their names to escape an embarrassing digital past.
Indie Game: The Movie
Hot on the heels of GET LAMP follows another film on a minority segment: Indie Game is set to be released next year.
Heat, 5 stars
Of Michael Mann’s considerably good output Heat remains the top entry.
The 1995 heist movie excels in showing off the cat and mouse game between the robber and the cop. Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, here in their first scenes together, spark when they touch – and both characters brim with charisma and determination. The intense coffeehouse scene settles the fact that only one of these guys will be alive when the credits roll in, but that discussion is conducted inconspicuously and in an exquisitely civil manner.
We want to hurt no one. We’re here for the bank’s money, not your money. Your money is insured by the federal government, you’re not gonna lose a dime. Think of your families, don’t risk your life. Don’t try and be a hero.
Thus there’s no avoiding a collision. And that indeed happens with city-shattering force.
But the minutes ticking towards the conclusion are as necessary to the movie as the violence inherent in the last moments. The plans towards robberies are shown in great detail. And both the policemen and criminals are shown to be human beings. Most of whom are carrying a lot of baggage. These sidetracks occasionally threaten to muddle the plot. But life’s rarely free of complications, and hence the extra issues do not feel like they have been glued on.
In addition to the leading duo, the cast is packed with talent. The likes of Val Kilmer and Tom Sizemore fall in perfectly into McCauley’s crowd of high-end criminals while Ashley Judd, William Fichtner and Natalie Portman round out the extra helping of complications.
As with Mann’s other films (and Miami Vice, too), the cityscapes have a role to play here. Apart from Blade Runner L.A. has rarely looked finer – with glorious nightscenes alternating giving way to beach houses, and finally to a bloodbath in the financial district.
Heat is a long film. It clocks in at close to three hours. But slicing off any would make it a lesser experience.
See It Sunday 29.8.2010: Sad
Falcons are supposed to soar, not huddle on the ground. Happily enough, this eurasian hobby falcon is rcuperating fast in Korkeasaari Zoo, and soon will be released to menace the rodent population again.
See It Sunday 29.8.2010: Sad.
Youtube Movies
Youtube has quietly started a movies section.
The initial selection is on the limited side, but there’s plenty of interesting content amongst the Bollywood movies. There are multiple Jackie Chan movies as well as George A. Romero’s original zombie-fest, Night of the Living Dead.
Tavastia 40 Years
Tavastia-klubi, the rock’n'roll mecca of Helsinki, turns 40 years.
To celebrate the long history, the club is opening its archives.
Not in the form of recordings, unfortunately, but in showing who played when. The first ten years, the entire seventies, are now browsable.
Television on the first half of 2010
The finnish television showed quite a decent batch of television shows in the first half. And following the loss of access to Canal+, I’m watching these over the free channels only.
Lost ended on a sour note. Like the reimagined Battlestar Galactica it turned to religion when the plotlines got too twisted. In the case of Lost, this was pretty much in the cards from the first couple of seasons alone. There’s plenty of speculation about the open issues, but I’m not holding my breath for answers from the creative team. That tactic never worked with Twin Peaks either.
Flash Forward, based on the Robert J. Sawyer novel began well and didn’t really falter during its first season. Nonetheless, the time-jumping story with a large cast ended up being cancelled by ABC for unspecified reasons. The first story arc was semi-resolved, but the resolution felt rushed and the last episode raised a lot more questions than it answered.
Burn Notice was a hit from the blue. A spy show that wasn’t all doom and gloom. More MacGyver than anything else in the 21st century (apart from the mullets), it was a delightful discovery, and I look forward to the future seasons. True, the plotlines and characters border on semi-plausible at best, but Burn Notice did feature full-time presence from Bruce Campbell. And even though everybody and their cousin now writes proper long arcs into the continuity, Burn Notice’s take was quite elegant.
House took on a new spin with the fourth season. The regular team having been disbanded in the last episodes of the previous, a lot of the new season was spent on figuring out the composition of the new team. The process gets tiresome after a while, but at least the selection did hit the interesting candidates of the crew. As in some of the previous seasons, the final episode is by far the best of the bunch, and its lingering effects probably do cast ripples well into the fifth.
Castle, like Burn Notice, was an unexpected hit. It also draws from the non-gloomy bin. The characters and plotlines are not exactly depressing. Quite the reverse, at times it feels a lot like an eighties up beat buddy-style cop show. And it has got Nathan Fillion in it. The first season was a half-timer, and whoever is responsible for the show scheduling on Nelonen ought to bump this closer to the top of the stack.
Recorded random CSI episodes from all three shows. And ended up watching only the New York-series. While the plotlines are either plainly obvious or stretch suspenders of disbelief close to the breaking point, it’s less ludicrous than the instances in Vegas or Miami. Maybe the city anchors the plots a little deeper. Or maybe the characters are just written a tiny bit less cardboard-y than their counterparts in the shows started earlier.
Haven’t seen any episodes of the fifth season of Doctor Who yet. The quartet of “specials” done with David Tennant was nowhere near the quality I expected from the finest british show in ages. Let’s see how the new doctor copes with the responsibilities.
Shutterday 28.8.2010: Gathering Storm
After fifteen minutes the storm moving in from the left was upon us.
Shutterday 28.8.2010: Gathering Storm.
