By way of Lots of Co. and Web Goddess, Pitchfork lists its Top 100 Singles of the Decade’s First Half. (Strangely enough, I also received in the mail today a similarly themed mix-CD from a friend of mine in the program, and most of his choices also made the Pitchfork count.) At any rate, while I might quibble with the order here in certain places — I haven’t heard all of these by far, but I’d put 94, 82, 79, 63, 41, 18, 17 and, yes, 5 higher — this list includes most of my favorites in recent years…and it’s nice to see a countdown that doesn’t sacrifice hip-hop and electronica at the altar of indie-rock cred.
Month: February 2005
Freaks of the NSA.
“The sources of this anarchism [the Columbine massacre] are 30 years of liberal social policy that has put our children in day care, taken God out of the schools, taken Mom out of the house, and banished Dad as an authority figure from the family altogether.” Slate‘s Fred Kaplan introduces us to J.D. Crouch, conservative freakshow and, naturally, the new deputy national security adviser. In case you were wondering about his foreign policy inclinations, Crouch also appears to be against missile treaties and, er, pro-chemical weapons.
Out with the old, in with the…old.
“To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve.” After outgoing Attorney General John Ashcroft showed his true colors one last time, incoming Homeland Security head (and former admin torture guru) Michael Chertoff promises to keep an eye to civil liberties at his confirmation hearings. Hmm…I’d have more faith in his espoused concern if he hadn’t already ignored the in-house Justice Dept. ethics office (and lied about it) in the past.
20-20 Hindsight.
Along with Mary Landrieu (D-LA), George Allen (R-VA) introduces a Senate apology for holding up anti-lynching legislation for decades. On hand, given Senator Allen’s role in this and his dodgy taste in “memorabilia”, I can’t help thinking that there’s a whiff of opportunism in the air. But, for the most part, I’d say it seems a valuable exercise for the Senate to acknowledge its prior complicity in racial injustice, as with the move to pardon Jack Johnson and the J.P. Morgan apology noted two days ago.
The Mongoose to his Spider.
“Absolutely we wanted to have a villain not only who would fulfill the character needs but somebody who could entertain the audience on a visceral level and provide great visuals, something we haven’t seen before, and create a real challenge and great foe for Spider-Man and his unique spidery, spider-like powers.” Sam Raimi announces he’s picked a villain for Spiderman 3, but won’t say who it is. After the Green Goblin/Hobgoblin and Dr. Octopus, Spiderman doesn’t have all that many more culturally resonant arch-nemeses in his Rogue’s Gallery: It’d be hard to see them building a movie around Mysterio, Electro, The Vulture, The Sandman, or Kraven the Hunter. And, while Green Goblin II, The Lizard, and Man-Wolf were all alluded to in Spidey II, only the Harry Osborne/James Franco storyline seems weighty enough to build a third feature around, and I’m not sure they’d want to repeat the Goblin so quickly. So, unless Webhead takes on the entire Sinister Six, I think it’s a pretty good bet we’ll be seeing Venom in the next installment. He got really quickly overused in the McFarlane era, which is right around where I stopped reading Spidey (give or take a few issues of the Straczynski run.) But he should also be an FX dream on film if done right.
Dean-N-C.
With the exit (Stage Right) of Martin Frost and multiple endorsements (including that of Clinton consigliere Harold Ickes), it now seems to most observers that Howard Dean has the DNC chair in the bag. (For their part, the GOP were already relentlessly on message: Said Rich Bond, “I think it’s a scream.“) While I’ll admit that I can’t speak knowledgably about all of the candidates’ positions, to my mind Dean seems like a great choice for the post, one that will stir enthusiasm among the grass roots and move the party where it needs to go: towards an independent and progressive message that doesn’t reek of Republican-lite, and a take-no-prisoners feistiness in every political race across the country. So, congrats to the Governor and his supporters — now, the real work begins…
Only a Pawn in their Games.
Well, thankfully the expected post-Christmas gaming binge only lasted one month instead of two — I can now look upon the promise of February with nary a high-end gaming product to keep me from my academic business, pleasure reading, blogging, and/or other pursuits. (Well, that is until Day of Defeat Source or, God forbid, Civilization IV rear their heads. I also hear good things about World of Warcraft, but am too fearful of the egregious time-suck that would undoubtedly occur if I started getting into a well-done MMORPG.) A quick roundup:
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: As clever and immersive as GTA III and Vice City, but I thought San Andreas suffered in some ways from slight overkill (particularly in the food/clothing/weight-room character maintenance and the drawn-out travel times between cities.) That being said, having recently replayed the first two forays on XBox, I think my San Andreas experience was hindered by the graphics capability of the PS2, which made the scenery look muddy or devoid of color at certain times of day. (The fact that puppy Berkeley had long ago chewed my PS2 controller joysticks into jagged, thumb-wounding sculpture probably didn’t help either.) San Andreas is undoubtedly amazing, but I’d probably recommend Vice City first to GTA newbies, at least until the XBox port comes out.
Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords: I spent the first week of 2004 doing very little but playing KotOR I, and the first week of 2005 followed the pattern. The game play hadn’t changed much — ok, the game play hadn’t changed at all — but both KotORs traverse the divide between puzzle-based RPG and action-game nicely, so I actually quite enjoyed this second installment. Obviously, I’m also a sucker for the Star Wars bent to these games — At the very least, they’re more fun (and often better-written) than the prequels. Now if only LucasArts would bring back Sam and Max…
Halo 2: As noted everywhere, the multiplayer is really something else — even if I have yet to figure out how not to get endlessly slaughtered by trigger-happy 12-year-olds. Yet, I actually found the single-player campaign both somewhat dull and hard-to-follow. As this Slate article suggested, the Covenant storyline seemed pretty intricate, but damned if I could figure out what was going on half the time. To be honest, I think I prefer my FPS’s on the PC anyway, since, unlike in games like Call of Duty or Day of Defeat, I rarely feel I have any sense of the hitbox on Halo 2…I’m just blasting away and hoping I’m doing damage. Which leads me to…
Halflife 2: Now this is a first-person shooter. HL2 benefited from being the first game I played after procuring a mid-level Radeon graphics card, but still…while I never got around to the recent Doom 3, I can’t remember being this amazed by game graphics in a very long time. (I may have to go back to the original Prince of Persia from 1989.) With HL2, it really seems that game-makers are starting to find their way through the Uncanny Valley. And, while the single-player is on the short side, the 1984 meets Pink Floyd The Wall storyline is great fun, and the physics of the gravity gun really expand the boundaries for environment interaction in these sorts of games. In short, Halflife 2 was worth the wait.
