A Sad Day Indeed

A company that is perhaps my favorite company (not named Apple) on the face of the planet is closing it's doors. T-Shirt Hell, a company I've purchased many a T-shirt from is discontinuing business effective February 10. What a shame.

The owner wrote a pretty detailed letter about it here.

For those of you unfamiliar with the site, they sell T-shirts of a rude, crude, and undeniably funny variety. Aside from being crude, the shirts provide an offbeat social-political commentary that you just can't find anywhere else. The problem is, I suppose, that people are narrow-minded douchebags and don't understand humor when they see it. The monthly newsletter always provided some examples of the hate mail they received, always from a narrow-minded viewpoint. 

I have a very open sense of humor, provided there is some intelligence to whatever is supposed to be funny, and I'm not easily offended. I personally love the shirts sold on T-shirt Hell and have purchased several shirts from them over the years. My first shirt said "There are two women fucking on the back of my shirt." Then on the back, it said "Just kidding! Believe in Jesus!" I wore that shirt to a concert one day, and on the way, me and my friend stopped in at Toxic Hell for some burritos stuffed with nigh inedible goop. The lady in line behind us apparently saw the back of my shirt (the just kidding part). After we got out of line, she asked to see the front of my shirt. After taking a few seconds to read it, her eyes got a little bigger, and she reread it. She then looked up at me and asked me very sincerely "Are you Christian?"

To which I responded "Does it matter?"

"Yes."

"Ok, so if I am, you'll think it's funny and go on about your day. But if I'm not, you'll get all offended and tell me how wrong it is that I'm making fun of your religion. Does that about cover it?"

Stupid stare.

"No, I'm not religious in any way, shape, or form."

Cue offended huffing and buggy eyes. 

She walked off rather than confront me on the subject. But it struck me at the moment how completely oblivious she was to the humor in the shirt. The obvious (to me anyway) social commentary. I love that shirt, even to this day.

I knew a guy when I worked at BK; his name is Jeff. He came from an uptight Catholic upbringing, right down to the black-clad-nuns-with-rulers nazi school (did that offend anybody reading this?). One year for Christmas, I bought him a shirt that said "What about all the good things Hitler did?" Again, obvious social commentary, again, very funny. He loved it. No joke there, he thought the shirt was awesome. His parents found it and threw it away and got all mad and forbade him to hang out with whoever had given it to him. He never told them who, so we hung out anyway, but still. 

And no, for those of you that read this blog regularly, that shirt is not even close to being on the same page as the nasty folks who named their kid after Hitler. Don't go there.

See, the thing is, there's an intelligence to T-shirt Hell's shirts that I guess you have to dig to reach. Certain people with no lives see the word "black" or "Hitler" or "slut" or something and go off the deep end of offended. T-Shirt Hell, believe it or not, doesn't propagate hate, racism, sexism, nazi-ism, or any other negative -ism that you can throw at it. What it does do is force people to question what they think they know, and yes, it does it in a very straightforward manner, but what else really gets people to stand up and take notice?

I gripe about society as a whole rather often on this blog between ranting about video games and music. The closure of this site, which is in large part due to the quantity of idiots who consistently get offended, is a terrible loss I think. People like to live in their shut-in, watered-down worlds. We live in this ridiculously politically correct society where you can't say boo without worry of stepping on somebody's delicate sensibilities. Anybody that does step on those sensibilities is subject to criticisms, ridiculous name-calling, sometimes even lawsuits. It's not every day a company says "fuck it" and carries on with business as usual anyway.

T-Shirt Hell released a t-shirt that said "It's 16:20 somewhere" and showed a soldier getting high. Wow the torrent of emails they got about that one. "I can't believe you'd print a shirt that defaces the people who are fighting for your freedoms" yadda yadda. Yet, there wasn't, to my recollection, a single soldier who wrote in and was offended. There were plenty of them, however, that wrote in saying, My name's Bob, and I'm with the something-something unit stationed somewhere in Iraq, and I think that shirt's hilarious. Keep up the good work.

Question: If it's not offending the people it's poking fun at, who the hell is anybody else to jump up on the soapbox and get all bitchy?

Answer: The people who are too lazy to get up and support a real cause. They sit around and wage their mini wars through email rather than stand up and do something with their lives that actually benefits the world around them. Armchair PC police piss me off.

The argument that people use (that one about the people fighting for your freedom) is hilarious and hypocritical. Think about it. The troops are over there fighting for our freedoms. That includes my freedom to jump on this blog and call all the people who are easily offended (and want the world to change so as not to offend them) douchebags. 

Newsflash to all these people: the world does not revolve around you. It is not the responsibility of society (no matter what you may think) to water itself down so nobody is ever offended. Not only is that not possible, but in doing so, each member of the society loses his individuality. You know, the thing that makes us unique, special, human.

Here's a new year's resolution for everybody reading this. Grow up. Realize that no matter how much you whine, there are going to be things that happen in this world that offend you. Realize that no matter how much you whine, the people who are offending you probably aren't going to change just because it offends you. Let things slide, roll off, stop taking it personally. You'll be a happier person for it, and people will probably like you more as well.

And the Winner is...

I'm a little disappointed by the nominations for the Academy Awards this year. I typically don't give a rat's behind who wins these things, because mostly any movie/music/tv award shows involve the respective industries patting themselves on the back. Who cares?

This year I was interested though, mostly because of all the buzz around The Dark Knight. Would this finally be the year that a superhero movie broke the mold and actually won a Best Movie award?

Well, the nominations are up, and The Dark Knight is up for a couple, though not for best movie.

• Actor in a Supporting Role: Heath Ledger
• Art Direction
• Makeup
• Sound Editing
• Visual Effects
• Cinematography
• Film Editing
• Sound Mixing

8 is not enough, in my opinion.  Anyway, I probably would have classified Heath Ledger's Joker as a leading role, just because he was the movie. Regardless, it will be nice if he wins. Nobody else who is up for that award, save Philip Seymour Hoffman, was even close.

Other tidbits I'm interested in:

Frost/Nixon is up for 5 awards including best actor in a leading role and best picture. I hope it wins both. It was a very, very good movie. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it. 

Mickey Rourke is also up for best actor. I have not seen The Wrestler, but Darron Aaronofsky is my personal favorite director. Nothing he has ever done has been less than sublime. I have no doubts that The Wrestler is a damn fine movie and that Mickey Rourke did a tremendous job. I wouldn't mind seeing him win either.

The best animated movie of the year was definitely Wall-E, and the Academy is showing the love with a total of 6 nominations including Best Animated Movie. It should win that one easily.

I was completely blown away to see that Tropic Thunder was nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category - Robert Downey Jr. Movies like this usually don't see nominations, so this should be interesting. Not that I think he stands much of a chance against Heath Ledger, but sure.

The one category that completely took me off guard was the Best Original Score. None of the nominated movies (Wall-E, Slumdog Millionaire, Milk, Defiance, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) had scores that were that impressive. As it is, I think I'll root for Wall-E, just because that movie is awesome.

A Long Overdue Farewell

Just a few thoughts on President Bush's farewell speech last night.

Arlene Howard gave President Bush her son's police badge to remind him at all times of what was lost on 9/11. What was lost on 9/11 were people's lives in a truly tragic event. What has been lost since then, with Bush at the helm, has been nearly everything this country has stood for for over 200 years. Our freedom, our prosperity, our national pride. It seems that President Bush not only forgot what has been taken from the people of this country, he stopped caring. 

Since when is Iraq an actual democracy?

It has been 7 years since the last attack on American soil, something that Bush slyly takes a certain amount of credit for. Yet, prior to his term, it had been over 200 years without a terrorist attack.

Bush's presidency was a campaign of terror. Not, perhaps, in the same way as 9/11, but his single-minded invasion of numerous foreign countries in his selfish crusade for power was nothing less than an act of terrorism. In the course of his quest, he has run this country into the ground. He has stripped away freedom after freedom, he has constantly overstepped the bounds of his office as outlined in the Constitution, he has abused every shred of power he was entrusted with, and he leaves us with words of how much good he has done for us. Preposterous.

The environment is not cleaner, particularly after the last few weeks with him lifting restriction after restriction. 

The greatest threat to this country's freedoms is not a terrorist attack. Our greatest threat is the way we idly sit by as our freedoms are stripped from us. That must stop.

America can lead the cause of freedom without interventionist policies and without going to war with any country that doesn't happen to be a democracy. 

In citizens like the ones Bush spoke of, I see the reason that this country will rebound from the catastrophe that was the Bush administration.

Chris Knight over at The Knight Shift posted a great response to Bush's farewell speech in that of Ronald Reagan. It was truly nice to relive what was perhaps the best farewell address in the history of the tradition. It was honest and humble, unlike that of our current president, who sounded very defensive.  Check out Chris's post here. 

I'd like to leave you today, with a couple of quotes from Reagan's farewell address that I think are quite relevant to the current state of this country. 

"Man is not free unless government is limited." 

"As government expands, Liberty contracts."

-Ronald Reagan

Adolf Hitler Campbell: Update

MSNBC is reporting today that the state of New Jersey has taken custody of Heath and Deborah Campbell's 3 children, whose names all have roots in Naziism and white supremacy, as I posted about here. To that I say: About damn time.

Resident Evil 5

Capcom's got a semi-new viral marketing site up right now for Resident Evil 5. Pretty much the idea is that each time the site gets 100,000 unique visitors, a new movie will be added. There's currently one unlocked, with what looks to be a potential of 5 more, or a total of 6. I'm very much looking forward to playing this game, so the movies are definitely cool. 

Check it out, and help support the community by visiting the site. Click here.

Dead Space - The Review

Over the weekend I finally completed one of the best games I've played on my 360 in Dead Space. From start to finish, there have been few games that I've played that are so thoroughly engrossing, so epically intense, and so wonderfully executed. 

Starting with the technical details, I can find few flaws. The graphics are gorgeous. Particularly the user interface, or lack thereof. Health is shown as a meter on your suit, as is your Stasis (slow things down) energy. Ammo is shown on the guns. There is no mini map or other details obstructing your view. Everything is handled via small pop ups that show video feeds, and points of interaction. This is all handled as if the images are being projected in front of your character, Isaac. He even turns his head to look at whatever is playing in front of him. Also, since the game is third person, you can rotate your camera around the images to see it all from the back or sides. It's a small detail, but it is incredibly cool. the lack of a persistent UI adds to the immersion.

Speaking of immersion, I'm usually not a fan of 3rd person games, because there is seldom the same sense of being there as I find in a first person game. This is definitely not the case here. Everything is cinematic in Dead Space. Isaac reacts to everything that happens around him, and when Isaac dies, there are different sequences for each enemy. After beating the game the first time, I wandered around and let enemies kill me just so I could see all of them. Again, these are small details, but they add so much to the atmosphere of the game. 

Again, I am brought back to the technical details. The graphics are incredibly realistic, which adds immensely to the atmosphere. The physics are refined and, again, realistic. Things move as you would expect them to if you were interacting with them in real life. The sound is spot on, sounding utterly terrific in 5.1. And the soundtrack is, well, intense. 

All of these technical things come together to make for one visceral experience. There are so few games out nowadays that truly get my adrenaline pumping, drag me to the edge of my seat, grab me by the throat, and scream play me! This is one of those games. It's been a very long time since I have jumped out of my seat when playing a video game. It's been a very long time since I've started breathing heavily because the things going on onscreen were so intense. I'd often find myself after a particularly intense fight short of breath. Yes, it's that intense. The first time you fight off a tentacle attack (or the second or third for that matter), if your pulse is normal, you might not be human. 

The storyline, while not particularly deep, is not exactly predictable and has some interesting twists. It is told much like the story from Bioshock, in that there are no real cinematics, only short, in-game cutscenes. There are audio and video logs that chronicle the events leading up to the disaster Isaac and crew are trying to clean up, and if you're interested, there are comics you can download through the Live Marketplace (free, no less) that fill in many of the back story gaps. Like I said, it's not particularly deep (especially where character development is concerned), but it is interesting.

The weapons in the game are unique and fun. They are, for the most part, well-tuned to fit in with the general theme of the combat, which involves dismembering enemies. This combat mechanic adds a surprising amount of depth, because if you aren't dismembering, you aren't doing a whole lot of damage. The amount it adds to the game, strategically speaking, is absurd. Shoot the wrong parts of an enemy and suddenly you are out of ammo and/or dead. Anyway, three weapons of note - I happen to think they're the best weapons in the game and are the only weapons I use:

• Plasma Cutter - Your first weapon. Weak at first, but once you upgrade it, it's a force to be reckoned with. It shoots a projectile that is perfect for dismembering enemies. Furthermore, the secondary fire allows you to change the projectile orientation (vertical or horizontal), which makes it even more useful as the enemies you encounter grow more diverse. Ammo for the gun is plentiful, and the clips are huge, so it takes up very little room in the inventory.
• Line Gun - While the name isn't exactly catchy, the gun is beyond useful. It's primary fire shoots a long horizontal projectile that will often de-leg an enemy with one shot. that in and of itself makes the gun amazing against some of the later, faster monsters. The secondary fire is a timed mine, which is great for taking out smaller beasties and wall clinging things. Ammo for the gun is in short supply and it takes up a lot of room in your inventory.
• Ripper - This is my personal favorite just because it's so damn much fun. The primary fire shoots a saw blade that hovers in the air a few feet in front of the gun so long as you hold the trigger down. The blades only last a certain length of time (that length of time is upgradable), but the blade is absolutely ridiculous when it comes to dismembering things quickly. Run up to an enemy aiming low, and the legs are just gone. You can easily take down multiple enemies with just one blade, which makes this great for saving space in your inventory for things like Line Gun ammo. The secondary fire is a mostly useless saw blade projectile that is akin to the Plasma Cutter shot, though less powerful. 

When it comes to finding ammo laying around, the game will actually cater to what guns you have purchased through the in-game store. For this reason, it's best to limit yourself to 2 or 3 weapons. Don't buy any more. By doing this, you guarantee you will find ammo primarily for the guns you own. If you own all the guns, you will find ammo for all of them equally, which sucks for inventory space. 

Also, there is plenty of content available in the Marketplace for purchase (different armor, etc) but the armor and weapons you find/buy in the game (using money that doesn't come from your wallet) is more effective than what you buy using real money. Don't bother with any of the pay content on the Marketplace. 

All told, this was the best pure gaming experience I had on the 360 all year. I would definitely recommend it to anybody looking for a good, intense horror game experience to bide the time until RE5 hits. It sets the bar exceptionally high for a survival horror game; RE5 has some big shoes to fill. 

Score: 9.7/10

The Best of 2008

I what's become a bit of a tradition since I started my fist blog on myspace, I've compiled a list of the best things I've done since the dawn of 2008. Video games, books, and movies, all ranked for my pleasure, below.

Best Movie

Uh, The Dark Knight. There is no question here. Not only was it one of the best movies I've ever seen, it easily takes the cake as the best movie this year. 

Runners Up: Cloverfield, The Wrestler, Ironman

Best Movie Score

Same as above. Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard scored The Dark Knight perfectly. From the pumped up action sequences to the simple yet chilling theme for the Joker, there was not a better soundtrack to come out all year.

Runners Up: Cloverfield (yes, it only had one original song, but it was badass), The Wrestler

Best Book I Read

It certainly didn't come out this year, but Watchmen takes this cake. Again, one of the best books ever, so it;'s easily the best book of the year.

Runners up: Nothing was even close to this good.

Best Movie I Watched That Did Not Come Out in 2008

That would have to go to V for Vendetta. It's one of those movies that I can watch again and again and again and it gives me the chills every time. It takes a special talent for an actor to make an audience sympathize with a man whose face you never see, and Hugo Weaving does a fantastic job of it. Put that together with a drop-dead amazing score, plus great acting from the supporting cast and a very powerful, relevant story, and you have one hell of a movie.

Runners up: Prime, Running Scared, The Da Vinci Code

Best Video Game

I had to think long and hard about this particular one. There were a ton of great games that came out this year, so I had to find a way to narrow the results. After much thought, I narrowed the list to 2 games, but I just could not decide which was better, so I've decided to say they are both the best game of 2008. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Dead Space. I wrote about how great The Force Unleashed is here. A review of Dead Space is forthcoming. They are both phenominal games in their own rights, and they set a standard for what gamers should be able to look forward to from the future of video games.

Runners Up: WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009, Rock Band 2, Fallout 3

Best Video Game Score

Yet again, there were a metric ton of great scores for video games this past year. I could prattle on and on and on about how great a year it was for video game soundtracks and even longer about how much time I've spent listening to them. Again, this was a very hard list to narrow down, but in the end, the award goes to only one. Steve Jablonsky (who also had my favorite movie score from last year with Transformers) gets the nod this year with Gears of War 2. As I said in my short review, I'm not much of a fan of the game itself, but the score is just mind-blowingly good. The themes Jablonsky creates, coupled with the grandiosity of the soundtrack as a whole make it one of the most compelling listens of the year.

Runners Up: Too Human, Infinite Undiscovery, Fallout 3, Dead Space, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Best Album

Death Magnetic, by Metallica. Easy one here. None of my favorite bands came out with anything particularly great this year, but Metallica released a CD that renewed my faith in their music writing skills. After the tragedy that was St. Anger it was refreshing and relieving to hear guitar solos and drums that sounded better than a baby beating on mommy's pot collection. 

Runners Up: Cartographer (Piri Reis Remixes) - E.S. Posthumus

That covers my list of the most awesome of the awesome from 2008. Cheers to a very happy and healthy new year to everybody reading this, and everybody who hasn't discovered it yet.