A few years ago I wrote a piece about Superman for Time in which I ruminated about whether Big Blue really had a future as a character. Maybe he’s just too strong and too tough to write good plots around — those big muscles tend to break down any nuanced or believable plot-mechanics. Maybe he’s [...]

You know, there are times when I seriously wonder whether, if I had infinite amounts of money and time, and if I were capable of dropping my literary pride for a cotton-pickin’ minute, I would ever read anything besides comic books. There just aren’t a lot of other media that reliably deliver that kind of [...]

This is a geek culture blog. It’s specifically here for me to blow off steam when I’m sick of writing tech-biz-gadget stories. So I frequently excuse myself from weighing in on hot-button topics like DRM. I’m going to do that again by linking to this fine analysis of the Apple-EMI announcement yesterday by the competition [...]

From the online SF mag Darker Matter comes a little-seen interview with Douglas Adams from 1979, complete with vintage audio samples. It conjures up visions of an Edenic counter-Earth on which the Graham Chapman-Douglas Adams-scripted Ringo Starr TV special actually saw the light of day. (Or maybe it’s a nightmare alternate reality that we barely [...]

Still haven’t beaten that deadline. Still posting YouTube clips. FTW. Herewith the PG-recut of 300, via Penny Arcade.

I think it says something about my personal psychology that until I actually went and looked it up online I thought “FTW” stood for “f___ the world!” I am now given to understand that it means “for the win.” Who knew.

One reason I know I’m not a true nerd is that a) I don’t think I’ve ever actually enjoyed a piece of machinima, and b) I don’t see the point of large orchestras performing music from video games. That said — and maybe I’ve said too much already — I’m going to “embed” below a [...]

The Grand Theft Auto IV trailer is here.