Drift

I haven't been able to write this week.  I've hardly been able to think.  Between a partial failure in my creative pursuits, my frustrations with my financial goals, and the news, I've been feeling overloaded, overcomplicated, and just muddled to the point where I couldn't really think straight.  At times like this, I know I need to just drift away, float off, and just let go.  There are two techniques I use to do this, and neither of them involve drugs.  One of these techniques is meditation.  Closing my eyes, breathing deeply, and allowing everything to settle out.  The other technique involves listening to the music of Jack Johnson.  I just find my Jack Johnson playlist, hit shuffle, and go.  Here are some of the songs that I listen to.  Enjoy. 

 

"So, what do you think this piece looks like?"

"Well...Um...I think...Maybe it's...It could be...Ahh..."  I had something on the tip of my tongue, but I did not want to say that I thought the piece looked like a giant penis.

"I think the piece looks like a giant penis."

Volume 11 by Hunter Red.  Serialization to begin August 7th at Redertainment.com

What Is Satire?

Satire is a kind of writing that seeks to put everyday things into an absurd context for the purpose of pointing out the inherent absurdity of that thing.  Most satire is directed at political figures, but can also be directed at celebrities, businessmen, athletes, as well as typical ordinary citizens.  Satire is most often used to make some sort of statement that the writer feels is being ignored by most of society.  Satire can be a way to put an issue in a context that is more understandable for the audience.

An example of satire is the Monty Python sketch "The Ministry of Silly Walks".  "The Ministry of Silly Walks", as performed by John Cleese and Michael Palin, is meant to point out the many, various, and often useless departments in the British federal government.  The concept of a department of the government giving grants to people developing "silly walks" is of an absurd nature, while also being a slight exaggeration of things that were being funded by the British government.

Many other sketch comedy troupes utilize satire in their acts.  Examples of this include "It's Illegal To Say" by The Whitest Kids U'Know, the CCCP-1 Episode of SCTV, and the Communism sketch by The Kids In The Hall.

Although often presented as such, a satirical piece of work is not necessarily comedic.  As example of a non-comedic satirical work is Arthur Miller's The Crucible.  First performed in 1953, The Crucible takes many of the elements of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, which people attacked as a witch hunt, and applied it to an actual witch hunt.

Other examples of non-comedic satire include George Orwell's 1984, Animal Farm, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, and Warren Miller’s The Siege of Harlem.

Weekend Plans

There is something that I, along with many others, will be watching this weekend.

This is something I’ve been looking forward to for a while and am so excited to finally see.

I've seen many various versions of this throughout the years, and have always had a good experience with them.

I remember watching one of these with my father.  Maybe that’s why this holds a special place in my heart

Like many others, this weekend I’m going to get my popcorn, my giant thing of soda, get comfortable, and watch-

golf!  The Open Championship is this weekend, and my plan is to watch eight hours of coverage on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, culminating in the Final Round on Sunday.  I can’t wait.  What are you doing?

Red Review- XIII- The Series

Red Review: XIII: The Series

In 2003, a video game called XIII was released by Ubisoft.  Upon its release, it received a lot of praise from the nerd community, and not just because it contained the voice talents of David Duchovney.  The game was lauded for its conspiratorial storyline, unique weaponry, and cell shaded graphics.  Despite this praise, a sequel to this game has yet to materialize.  However, this is not the end of the story of XIII.

In 2008, a miniseries called XIII: The Conspiracy was produced by the Canadian studio  Prodigy Pictures and Cipango Films.  The miniseries received mixed reviews, and is mostly known for being one of the first projects Val Kilmer did after his long drought from acting.  In my opinion, the miniseries was not that bad, and may have served as a jumping off point for a full run television series.  When the miniseries was released, not much noise was made in the nerd community.  The only way I knew about XIII: The Conspiracy was by way of Salt Lake City Weekly’s Bill Frost.

Earlier this month, Bill Frost wrote of a television series based on XIII.  Again, not much noise was made about this series in the nerd community.  I thought this might be because it is a Canadian series getting rerun on Reelz Channel, which is apparently a channel that actually exists.  Being a voracious watcher of television, and a owner of XIII: The Conspiracy on blu-ray, I eagerly anticipated this series showing up on my TiVo.  Then I watched it.

XIII: The Series sucks.  Hard.  Very.  Fucking.  Hard.  XIII: The Series sucks in every way that a TV series can suck.  The acting sucks.  The plot development sucks.  The character development sucks.  The way the show is shot sucks.  The locations where scenes in the show take place sucks.  The sound design sucks.  The pacing of the show sucks.  The broadcast quality of the show sucks.  This show completely, utterly, and completely sucks.

XIII: The Series does feature Aisha Tyler, playing the role of Special Agent Lauren Jones.  So, if you are a HUGE fan of Aisha Tyler, you might want to check this out.  Other than that, I cannot recommend XIII: The Series to anybody at anytime for any reason.  Not even as something to watch purely as a joke.  Because, if you want to watch something as a joke, there is always Syfy, and anything, ANYTHING, that runs on Syfy, or most any other network for that matter, is better than XIII: The Series.

XIII: The Series: F