Kinda-sorta-not-really political post incoming:
I've been thinking a lot lately about ideas: how they are created and transmitted, accepted or rejected, absorbed or inverted. It's been weighing on my mind for a few years now, and has seemed increasingly urgent in our current political and cultural environment, with massive war camps drawn up and each side not only disagreeing on policy, but not even sharing the same facts from which to debate.
In times when the stakes feel incredibly high, it's natural for every person who cares to say, "I need to do something!" But what, exactly? With the rise of the Internet and social media, people are naturally inclined to spread their beliefs and message online. But this seems to be more or less useless. I don't think I've ever seen anyone who has said "I used to believe in X, but then a stranger online yelled at me, and now I believe in Y instead."
That isn't to say that online discourse doesn't have an effect. I think it can be effective in suppressing the expression of dissenting opinions - which sounds bad, but isn't necessarily. (If people know that they will be slapped down for hate speech on a particular forum, they're less likely to abuse other ethnicities, regardless of their personal beliefs.) Conversely, echo chambers can motivate people, making them more focused on their cause and more likely to take offline action. That might be good (donating to charities, voting) or bad (doxxing, bomb threats, murder). And, if you're lucky enough to find someone who hasn't yet formed an opinion, you may have a shot at convincing them that you're right.
But, as far as actually changing minds? It seems hard enough in the offline world. As human beings, we tend to stubbornly adhere to our world-views: we accept all evidence that supports our positions, and argue against or discredit evidence that challenges it. There's a reason people don't discuss politics in social settings: not only do such conversations get heated, but it tends to be very unproductive. And online, it's far, far worse. We can easily retreat to our bubbles and mock those on the other side... and everyone else is doing the same, or staying out of it altogether.
So, what can be done? The best solution is real-world experience. Not words, but actions. Actually changing your environment, living side-by-side with someone else, seeing problems and solutions with your own eyes. This will necessarily be anecdotal and isolated, but it's also real, and as living creatures we viscerally respond to our lived environments.
While I didn't appreciate it all that much at the time, I think one of my more formative experiences while growing up as a white suburban boy was a church youth group trip to Chicago, where we lived in the inner city and worked at public-housing projects. (And this was the grim 90's Chicago of Cabrini Green and Robert Taylor, not the shiny 21st century Chicago of Millennium Park and Navy Pier). The things we experienced were very different from our daily experiences back home, but what was far more important were the commonalities: seeing the human, finding shared expressions, recognizing that despite our differences we shared much. If I hadn't experienced that then, I don't know if I ever would have; and how would I now filter discussions about poverty, race, justice? And there are so many other things I haven't experienced: life abroad, in marginalized communities, etc.
Those kinds of first-hand experiences are the most powerful, but you can't force someone to have an experience, and most of us won't have more than a few during our lives: most of us naturally find our milieu and stay in it. The next-best thing is direct contact with someone who has had those experiences, especially if they're a person you work with on a team or otherwise have an invested relationship with. To some extent, you are forced to acknowledge them: at least as an anecdote, at least as a single data point. This doesn't trump your own experience, and you'll set it against the experiences you've learned of from others in your life. But it's real, and something that, in one way or another, you'll incorporate into your worldview. (As a side note, though, I think this is only true of people you physically meet with and cooperate with. Watching someone on TV share an emotional story won't change your mind.)
Given all the above, I, personally, have been feeling pessimistic and unmoored. I've been donating money, which is useful; I've been attending rallies and marches, which lifts my spirit; but ultimately, the project of America will require changing minds, and I don't think either of those activities really helps with that. They can win battles, of defeating bad policies and electing good leaders; but the tumor in America will still be there, poisoning the body, pulsing out hate and ready to metastasize.
So, how to change minds? I think that there's one other option, which is the weakest one but one that lies within my grasp: creating art. When people are presented with Discourse, their brains switch into combat mode: ready to fight for their side, defeat the arguments sent their way, marshaling their defenses and allies. But art bypasses all of that. When someone is watching a well-made movie, or reading a novel, or playing a video game, or listening to music, or looking at paintings, they are engaging with it as a creative work, not as a piece of polemics. Any messages, viewpoints, values, are transmitted as the artwork is consumed, and have a chance of lodging in the brain, another vector through which ideas can travel.
I've recently heard some people, who I respect, make claims along lines like "All art inherently increases empathy and is helpful." I don't think that's true. Art can transmit ideas, and artists are often compassionate people, but it can absolutely be used to transmit ideas that are incorrect or evil. The example that immediately springs to my mind is the TV show "24", which poisoned the American mind and led to disastrous policies that have damaged the world. And the relentless adoration of violence in our media prepares us, both as individuals and as a society, to consider it a natural solution to problems.
So, making art doesn't necessarily help by itself, but it does provide a narrow channel that has a chance at changing a handful of minds. If someone is a liberal, then they aren't likely to spend their time reading right-wing thinkpieces; but if a conservative enjoys fantasy, then they may spend hours reading fantasy novels or watching fantasy movies, and along the way they might absorb a couple of perspectives that they otherwise might not have encountered. Art can meet people where they are, and take them to new places.
This is absolutely not a panacea, and honestly probably not even the best use of my time. Hundreds of hours of labor might (just picking numbers at random) cause four people to soften their views somewhat. I'd make a bigger impact by spending more hours working and directing more resources to helpful organizations. But creation is an approach that can help me feel like a more full human being, bringing one other set of gifts to the table, and possibly seeing a direct line between actions I take and small changes in the world.
Showing posts with label pop culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pop culture. Show all posts
Thursday, June 08, 2017
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Forever Weird on the Internet
I got to meet Felicia Day! It was really fun!
I think I first saw Felicia in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, but I didn't really know who she was until I started watching The Guild a couple of years later. I don't personally play World of Warcraft, but a lot of my friends from a previous company did, and introduced me to the series through the amazing music video one-offs she did for it. Once I started watching the web series proper, I was completely hooked: I'm deep into fantasy, and gaming, and awkward relationships, all of which The Guild totally nailed.
I've avidly followed her career since then. In particular, I've greatly enjoyed her Geek & Sundry YouTube channel, which has a really fresh and positive attitude towards video games and other elements of nerd culture. Her personal video journal series The Flog has introduced me to lots of great things I wouldn't have otherwise known about, and Co-Optitude (a series where she and her brother play through the console games they weren't allowed to play as a child) is always fun.
Recently, she has shared some funny promotional videos for her new book, You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost). The book just came out, and I was lucky enough to attend an interview and book-signing with her at the Jewish Community Center here in San Francisco.
The event itself was fantastic. It was moderated by Jane McGonigal, who I hadn’t heard of before but sounds very interesting - she recently finished writing SUPERBETTER, a book about the neuroscience behind gaming. That shared background with Felicia made her a perfect interviewer.
The whole program is available online if you'd like to see it!
The overall event was very funny - Felicia is a quick thinker, with perfect reactions to a bunch of small unplanned things that occurred throughout the evening - but also very inspiring. She talked very frankly about her successes, the steps she took to achieve them, and the unexpected hardships that resulted. She spoke encouragingly to other people who want to become creators, sharing both specific and general advice in completing your projects and bringing them to the world.
Two things from the talk especially stuck out to me. One was Felicia’s optimistic view of fan culture and the way it can bring us together as human beings. As she pointed out, a lot of the topics that are most important to us as individuals are also things that divide us from others. If I start talking about religion, or my political views, I’ll immediately alienate a good number of people. Similarly, people who come from different economic and cultural backgrounds will find it harder to relate to one another, since we don’t share the same experiences and reference points. Nerd culture, though, instantly transcends and cuts through all of those differences. If you’re obsessed with a particular show/game/book/movie, and find another person who shares that same obsession, then it doesn’t matter what race they are, what gender, what school they did or didn’t attend. You feel an instant sense of connection with them, and suddenly have a way to relate and enjoy one another’s company.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard such an eloquent defense of nerd culture before, and it really resonated with me. Like a lot of people, I’m more or less ashamed of the things I love. I always feel kind of guilty when I talk about entertainment that I enjoy; it feels like I should instead be talking about the DEEP things, the things that REALLY MATTER, and not nattering on about some made-up stories. I think Felicia makes a great point, though. There IS value in the connections this shared culture enables. It’s a means of bridging the gaps between people, and can open the way to increasing empathy and understanding. That’s a very good thing!
The other thing that particularly resonated with me was her inspiring rhetoric about creativity. How important it is to work hard and bring new things into the world. How we shouldn't worry about the people who will scoff or devalue the work we do - there's an infinite supply of criticism available on the Internet! - and should instead pay attention to the people who receive joy from our works. Even if only a handful of people enjoy the thing we do, we're still making the world an incrementally better place by making new things that they can love. And creation is not only a gift from the maker to the consumer, but it's also a privilege, a way to commune and communicate, to share our thoughts and ideas.
That's something I immediately took to heart. As I sat there in the auditorium listening to her, I immediately thought of my own Shadowrun campaigns, which have been a major aspect of my personal creativity over the last two years. By many external barometers, they have been quite successful: well over twenty thousand people have played my games, they've been highly-rated, and I continue to receive many kind compliments from people who have enjoyed them enough to take the time to write me about them. And yet, I feel weirdly ashamed about them. I think that might partly be because very few people I know personally really understand the franchise and the lore; any time they come up in conversation, I try to change the subject as quickly as possible, afraid of... I don't know what, exactly. Boring people, or revealing an unsightly passion, or revealing that I cared too much about something and thus opening myself up to hurt if other people dislike it.
After hearing Felicia talk and reading her book, though, I became determined to take more pride in my work. Plenty of people don't care about Shadowrun, but that's okay! I shouldn't obsess about that. I should pay attention to the thousands of people who have engaged with my storytelling, and even more than that, I should listen to the hundreds of people who have reached out to share their own joy. I don't know exactly what I'll do with this newfound outlook, but I'm hoping to carry it forward with me into future creative endeavors, focusing on the people I'm reaching and not the ones I'm not.
There was a fantastic Q&A as well. I really liked the format - people submitted their questions on index cards, both before and during the event, then organizers screened them and the interviewer picked a few to ask. I would ordinarily transcribe what I remember of the best questions and answers, but since the entire program is available online, I’ll take a runner this time.
I stuck around for the book-signing afterwards. As usual, I spent some time thinking of a single thing to say before meeting her. I vacillated between asking “Are you looking forward to Shadowrun: Hong Kong” (which had come out that morning) or thanking her for introducing me to Fallen London via the Flog. I settled on the latter. She got really excited when I brought it up, asking if I’d played Sunless Sea yet, and telling me that an upcoming Flog would be covering the latest game. As a veteran con-goer, Felicia is a master at dealing with slightly awkward nerds, and it was probably the best interaction I’ve had with any of the authors or celebrities I’ve met.
(Since then, I've found out that she actually has her own NPC in Shadowrun: Hong Kong, which makes me wish I'd brought up that instead... but hey, that will give us something else to talk about if we ever meet again!)
I was planning to make a separate post when I finished reading You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost), but I finished it by the time I finished this post, so… here it is!
First, a tiny little "wow" moment I had was reading Felicia's obsession with the Ultima series. I think we're about the same age, and Ultima was also an incredibly formative game for me. Felicia wrote poetry about it; I drew maps and wrote short fiction. In the book, Felicia talks about how she met other Ultima fans online and the funny/weird interactions they ended up having in the real world; I was lucky enough to have some real-world friends with a similar love of the series, and I strongly related to her reminiscing of shared enthusiasm for the wonderful gameplay and lore of those games.
The book as a whole is a really fantastic memoir. Felicia has a wonderful voice, which you know if you’ve watched The Flog or her various public appearances. She’s very frank and self-deprecating, but also has a wonderful spirit and keen sense of humor. She eschews false modesty, but also places things in their proper context.
For example, during college she was very proud of her 4.0 GPA (while pursuing a double major in mathematics and music performance). She still seems a little proud of it today, but is also very clear that it made absolutely zero difference in the rest of her life after graduation. One of her professors suggested that getting a B might be the best thing to happen to her, which she reacted VERY strongly against, while acknowledging from the present that he may have been right.
Her personal upbringing was fascinating, and she draws a pretty clear line from it to her adult success. She was homeschooled, and grew up with NO friends at all. That was a deprivation in many ways, but the advantage was that, without any peers, she never had anyone to tell her “No” about any of her obsessions. There weren’t any boys around to tell her that girls couldn’t play video games; there weren’t any girls around to tell her that math was hard and dumb; there weren’t any teachers around to keep her from watching Lost in Space every morning. So, by the time she went to college and did start encountering peer pressure to conform, she was secure enough in her likes and dislikes to hold on to the things she loved. If she’d faced those pressures earlier in life, she might have lost those passions, and ended up with a much more mundane career.
Of course, there are also downsides to that lack of socialization. Throughout the book, Felicia is extremely honest (although also funny) about her struggles with anxiety, panic attacks, and imposter syndrome. Ever since childhood she’s had a deeply-ingrained need to succeed, which pushes her to always try harder and never feel like she’s accomplished her goals. Even in situations when the people around her are praising her accomplishments, she obsessively focuses on the imperfections of her creations. That drive has contributed to her career, but has also made her miserable.
One of the major points Felicia makes, and observes that almost nobody else does, is that success does not make things better. As she points out, that sounds like a dishonest thing to say - “If you achieved your dreams, you would hate yourself!” - but she’s hoping to help warn future people who may follow in her path. It’s easy to think to yourself, “Oh, if only I could accomplish this goal, I would be happy!” Then you accomplish that thing, and you don’t magically become happy, and the fact you don’t become happy after working so hard and making so many sacrifices makes things even worse.
The book is extremely frank about her struggles. When she seemed to be at the peak of her career - The Guild extremely popular, she had launched a multimillion-dollar company, and was featuring in a popular television series - she was suffering from depression, had massive health problems, and obsessively thought of suicide. She’s also very candid about what she did to pull herself out of that hole, including the things she tried along the way that didn’t work.
The last couple of chapters are about her interactions with the misogynistic GamerGate mob, a topic that’s horrified me ever since it began. Much of this is in the public record already, but she shares some additional information in the book that underlies how terrifying the situation was. That whole story is so sad on so many levels. You feel bad for what’s happened to Felicia, and how terror tactics are being used to silence women in the field, but in the context of this book what’s especially tragic is how it seems to strike at the very heart of her optimism about the Internet and nerd culture. Virtually all of her experiences up to that point, from her Prodigy dial-up days onward, saw the Internet as a way of connecting with other people, of discovering like-minded individuals unfettered by the constraints of geography or lifestyle. It’s an engine of creation, of germination, capable of cultivating and birthing wonderful new things that could never be born in the traditional physical world.
The sad take-away from these last chapters, though, is that the Internet can be turned to evil purposes as well as good. It can destroy things, destroy people, crush ideas before they have a chance to grow. Felicia’s solitary nerd childhood allowed her passions to flourish away from the harsh judgment of peer pressure. If she grew up today, though, and shared her early works online, an army of millions of trolls would stand at the ready to crush her dreams into the ground. The Internet is a wonderful tool for bringing together communities of people who share a love about something, but it’s also a deadly tool for organizing hate mobs who feed on each other’s self-righteous anger.
Felicia herself remains mostly optimistic about the Internet. During the Q&A, when an aspiring YouTube vlogger asked her for advice on growing her channel, one thing Felicia emphasized was building a core community who enjoys you and supports your work, rather than chasing a larger number of people who will be fickle admirers. These days, Felicia feels most connected to smaller communities, like her GoodReads book club and her Twitch subscribers. There are many trolls out there, but also lots of wonderful people, and she tries to stay focused on the good.
So, yeah! This was a fantastic book, in all honesty much better than I was expecting. I had hoped for a funny read and maybe a bit of gossip. It delivers, but it’s also a very engaging personal story and has some very valuable insights on navigating the digital world we live in, how to accomplish our goals, and how to stay happy and sane while doing so.
I think I first saw Felicia in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, but I didn't really know who she was until I started watching The Guild a couple of years later. I don't personally play World of Warcraft, but a lot of my friends from a previous company did, and introduced me to the series through the amazing music video one-offs she did for it. Once I started watching the web series proper, I was completely hooked: I'm deep into fantasy, and gaming, and awkward relationships, all of which The Guild totally nailed.
I've avidly followed her career since then. In particular, I've greatly enjoyed her Geek & Sundry YouTube channel, which has a really fresh and positive attitude towards video games and other elements of nerd culture. Her personal video journal series The Flog has introduced me to lots of great things I wouldn't have otherwise known about, and Co-Optitude (a series where she and her brother play through the console games they weren't allowed to play as a child) is always fun.
Recently, she has shared some funny promotional videos for her new book, You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost). The book just came out, and I was lucky enough to attend an interview and book-signing with her at the Jewish Community Center here in San Francisco.
The event itself was fantastic. It was moderated by Jane McGonigal, who I hadn’t heard of before but sounds very interesting - she recently finished writing SUPERBETTER, a book about the neuroscience behind gaming. That shared background with Felicia made her a perfect interviewer.
The whole program is available online if you'd like to see it!
The overall event was very funny - Felicia is a quick thinker, with perfect reactions to a bunch of small unplanned things that occurred throughout the evening - but also very inspiring. She talked very frankly about her successes, the steps she took to achieve them, and the unexpected hardships that resulted. She spoke encouragingly to other people who want to become creators, sharing both specific and general advice in completing your projects and bringing them to the world.
Two things from the talk especially stuck out to me. One was Felicia’s optimistic view of fan culture and the way it can bring us together as human beings. As she pointed out, a lot of the topics that are most important to us as individuals are also things that divide us from others. If I start talking about religion, or my political views, I’ll immediately alienate a good number of people. Similarly, people who come from different economic and cultural backgrounds will find it harder to relate to one another, since we don’t share the same experiences and reference points. Nerd culture, though, instantly transcends and cuts through all of those differences. If you’re obsessed with a particular show/game/book/movie, and find another person who shares that same obsession, then it doesn’t matter what race they are, what gender, what school they did or didn’t attend. You feel an instant sense of connection with them, and suddenly have a way to relate and enjoy one another’s company.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard such an eloquent defense of nerd culture before, and it really resonated with me. Like a lot of people, I’m more or less ashamed of the things I love. I always feel kind of guilty when I talk about entertainment that I enjoy; it feels like I should instead be talking about the DEEP things, the things that REALLY MATTER, and not nattering on about some made-up stories. I think Felicia makes a great point, though. There IS value in the connections this shared culture enables. It’s a means of bridging the gaps between people, and can open the way to increasing empathy and understanding. That’s a very good thing!
The other thing that particularly resonated with me was her inspiring rhetoric about creativity. How important it is to work hard and bring new things into the world. How we shouldn't worry about the people who will scoff or devalue the work we do - there's an infinite supply of criticism available on the Internet! - and should instead pay attention to the people who receive joy from our works. Even if only a handful of people enjoy the thing we do, we're still making the world an incrementally better place by making new things that they can love. And creation is not only a gift from the maker to the consumer, but it's also a privilege, a way to commune and communicate, to share our thoughts and ideas.
That's something I immediately took to heart. As I sat there in the auditorium listening to her, I immediately thought of my own Shadowrun campaigns, which have been a major aspect of my personal creativity over the last two years. By many external barometers, they have been quite successful: well over twenty thousand people have played my games, they've been highly-rated, and I continue to receive many kind compliments from people who have enjoyed them enough to take the time to write me about them. And yet, I feel weirdly ashamed about them. I think that might partly be because very few people I know personally really understand the franchise and the lore; any time they come up in conversation, I try to change the subject as quickly as possible, afraid of... I don't know what, exactly. Boring people, or revealing an unsightly passion, or revealing that I cared too much about something and thus opening myself up to hurt if other people dislike it.
After hearing Felicia talk and reading her book, though, I became determined to take more pride in my work. Plenty of people don't care about Shadowrun, but that's okay! I shouldn't obsess about that. I should pay attention to the thousands of people who have engaged with my storytelling, and even more than that, I should listen to the hundreds of people who have reached out to share their own joy. I don't know exactly what I'll do with this newfound outlook, but I'm hoping to carry it forward with me into future creative endeavors, focusing on the people I'm reaching and not the ones I'm not.
There was a fantastic Q&A as well. I really liked the format - people submitted their questions on index cards, both before and during the event, then organizers screened them and the interviewer picked a few to ask. I would ordinarily transcribe what I remember of the best questions and answers, but since the entire program is available online, I’ll take a runner this time.
I stuck around for the book-signing afterwards. As usual, I spent some time thinking of a single thing to say before meeting her. I vacillated between asking “Are you looking forward to Shadowrun: Hong Kong” (which had come out that morning) or thanking her for introducing me to Fallen London via the Flog. I settled on the latter. She got really excited when I brought it up, asking if I’d played Sunless Sea yet, and telling me that an upcoming Flog would be covering the latest game. As a veteran con-goer, Felicia is a master at dealing with slightly awkward nerds, and it was probably the best interaction I’ve had with any of the authors or celebrities I’ve met.
(Since then, I've found out that she actually has her own NPC in Shadowrun: Hong Kong, which makes me wish I'd brought up that instead... but hey, that will give us something else to talk about if we ever meet again!)
I was planning to make a separate post when I finished reading You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost), but I finished it by the time I finished this post, so… here it is!
First, a tiny little "wow" moment I had was reading Felicia's obsession with the Ultima series. I think we're about the same age, and Ultima was also an incredibly formative game for me. Felicia wrote poetry about it; I drew maps and wrote short fiction. In the book, Felicia talks about how she met other Ultima fans online and the funny/weird interactions they ended up having in the real world; I was lucky enough to have some real-world friends with a similar love of the series, and I strongly related to her reminiscing of shared enthusiasm for the wonderful gameplay and lore of those games.
The book as a whole is a really fantastic memoir. Felicia has a wonderful voice, which you know if you’ve watched The Flog or her various public appearances. She’s very frank and self-deprecating, but also has a wonderful spirit and keen sense of humor. She eschews false modesty, but also places things in their proper context.
For example, during college she was very proud of her 4.0 GPA (while pursuing a double major in mathematics and music performance). She still seems a little proud of it today, but is also very clear that it made absolutely zero difference in the rest of her life after graduation. One of her professors suggested that getting a B might be the best thing to happen to her, which she reacted VERY strongly against, while acknowledging from the present that he may have been right.
Her personal upbringing was fascinating, and she draws a pretty clear line from it to her adult success. She was homeschooled, and grew up with NO friends at all. That was a deprivation in many ways, but the advantage was that, without any peers, she never had anyone to tell her “No” about any of her obsessions. There weren’t any boys around to tell her that girls couldn’t play video games; there weren’t any girls around to tell her that math was hard and dumb; there weren’t any teachers around to keep her from watching Lost in Space every morning. So, by the time she went to college and did start encountering peer pressure to conform, she was secure enough in her likes and dislikes to hold on to the things she loved. If she’d faced those pressures earlier in life, she might have lost those passions, and ended up with a much more mundane career.
Of course, there are also downsides to that lack of socialization. Throughout the book, Felicia is extremely honest (although also funny) about her struggles with anxiety, panic attacks, and imposter syndrome. Ever since childhood she’s had a deeply-ingrained need to succeed, which pushes her to always try harder and never feel like she’s accomplished her goals. Even in situations when the people around her are praising her accomplishments, she obsessively focuses on the imperfections of her creations. That drive has contributed to her career, but has also made her miserable.
One of the major points Felicia makes, and observes that almost nobody else does, is that success does not make things better. As she points out, that sounds like a dishonest thing to say - “If you achieved your dreams, you would hate yourself!” - but she’s hoping to help warn future people who may follow in her path. It’s easy to think to yourself, “Oh, if only I could accomplish this goal, I would be happy!” Then you accomplish that thing, and you don’t magically become happy, and the fact you don’t become happy after working so hard and making so many sacrifices makes things even worse.
The book is extremely frank about her struggles. When she seemed to be at the peak of her career - The Guild extremely popular, she had launched a multimillion-dollar company, and was featuring in a popular television series - she was suffering from depression, had massive health problems, and obsessively thought of suicide. She’s also very candid about what she did to pull herself out of that hole, including the things she tried along the way that didn’t work.
The last couple of chapters are about her interactions with the misogynistic GamerGate mob, a topic that’s horrified me ever since it began. Much of this is in the public record already, but she shares some additional information in the book that underlies how terrifying the situation was. That whole story is so sad on so many levels. You feel bad for what’s happened to Felicia, and how terror tactics are being used to silence women in the field, but in the context of this book what’s especially tragic is how it seems to strike at the very heart of her optimism about the Internet and nerd culture. Virtually all of her experiences up to that point, from her Prodigy dial-up days onward, saw the Internet as a way of connecting with other people, of discovering like-minded individuals unfettered by the constraints of geography or lifestyle. It’s an engine of creation, of germination, capable of cultivating and birthing wonderful new things that could never be born in the traditional physical world.
The sad take-away from these last chapters, though, is that the Internet can be turned to evil purposes as well as good. It can destroy things, destroy people, crush ideas before they have a chance to grow. Felicia’s solitary nerd childhood allowed her passions to flourish away from the harsh judgment of peer pressure. If she grew up today, though, and shared her early works online, an army of millions of trolls would stand at the ready to crush her dreams into the ground. The Internet is a wonderful tool for bringing together communities of people who share a love about something, but it’s also a deadly tool for organizing hate mobs who feed on each other’s self-righteous anger.
Felicia herself remains mostly optimistic about the Internet. During the Q&A, when an aspiring YouTube vlogger asked her for advice on growing her channel, one thing Felicia emphasized was building a core community who enjoys you and supports your work, rather than chasing a larger number of people who will be fickle admirers. These days, Felicia feels most connected to smaller communities, like her GoodReads book club and her Twitch subscribers. There are many trolls out there, but also lots of wonderful people, and she tries to stay focused on the good.
So, yeah! This was a fantastic book, in all honesty much better than I was expecting. I had hoped for a funny read and maybe a bit of gossip. It delivers, but it’s also a very engaging personal story and has some very valuable insights on navigating the digital world we live in, how to accomplish our goals, and how to stay happy and sane while doing so.
Monday, September 28, 2009
September Cavalcade of Whimsy
Miscellaneous thoughts. Assume a "mini spoilers" heading under each category.
NEW SEASON OF HOUSE
I LOVED the ending of last season. From checking reviews and such afterwards, I found that I was in the minority, but I thought it was amazing. In my opinion, House's best moments are the shows that mainly ignore the body and focus on the mind: anything that deals with hallucination, memory, reality, or whatever, is generally an order of magnitude cooler than the (still decent) procedural shows that make up the bulk of each season.
Which is why I was so thrilled at how last season ended. Sending House to an insane asylum? The possibilities seem endless! The show's creators have shown a huge willingness before to radically shake up the show's structure and keep it from growing stale. I expected that House would eventually return to the hospital - they can't change the basic premise of the show, after all - but I figured we'd get a good four to six episodes of House's recovery in the asylum, probably intercut with his team back home trying to make its way without him (or, possibly, by consulting with a raving lunatic over the phone - even better!). I was a little bummed when I realized that we'd only get the equivalent of two episodes in the asylum, and of that, less than five minutes of House actively being crazy.
Once I got over my disappointment, though, I thought it was a good episode. They got off to a bang by playing "No Surprises" over the opening credits. I would have thought that I'd howl with rage if they ever touched "Teardop," but they lucked out and picked one of the few bands who I deem worthy to succeed Massive Attack. I'm curious if this was a special one-time thing or not... I kind of imagine that we'll be back to the standard opening for the rest of the season. I'll see soon.
The new characters were good. It's a tough balancing act... you want to make them complex enough to be interesting, but at the same time, you have less than two hours in which to do everything you will ever do with them. The overall structure of the premiere really felt like a benign version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest... their Nurse Ratchet is infinitely nicer, of course, but still, you have House as the generally rebellious person who's basically sane and superior to the other inmates, a staff who opposes him, and then an assortment of colorful but ultimately harmless supporting characters.
Random note: I enjoyed House's reaction to the piano in the common room. After the show, I was wondering why House didn't play the piano for the talent show (other than the obvious reason that he didn't want to be in the talent show). After all, he's really good. Then it struck me: I don't think we're EVER seen House play the piano for another person. He has one in his apartment, and it's clearly important to him, but he never shares it with anyone, not even Wilson. I thought that was really sad. Having a gift for music, and keeping it all to yourself, seems... well, maybe not pointless, but like you're depriving both yourself and the world of something precious.
Anyways. All in all, it was good. I still would have enjoyed seeing an edgier and more drawn-out asylum sequence, but for what it was, they did a good job. My biggest concern now is that House will be too "cured." After all, the entire show after the first couple of minutes isn't about making House sane, it's about making him into a good human being. And good human beings are a wonderful thing to become, but they make for lousy television.
DOLLHOUSE
Boy, did this one ever sneak up past my radar. I hadn't realized that it was starting so soon. First of all: HOORAY! I was half afraid that Fox would change their mind and yank it after all. Secondly: What the hell? (Skip this if you haven't seen the unaired final episode from Season 1.) When I first saw that Season 2, Episode 1 was available, my immediate thought was, "Oh, this will probably just be the unaired episode. I'll just verify that, and then get ready to keep watching next week when they start the real Season 2." Nope! It's a totally new episode - and, it follows the aired finale, not the DVD bombshell.
So, again: what the hell? Mainly, I'm curious if we've gotten a sneak peak into the future continuity of the series, OR if that was intended as a non-canon exercise. If it's the first case, then fine, that works... they can drop in the reboot any time the show gets stuck in a rut and switch over to an awesome new story. The only downside is that it makes things a bit anti-climactic, since we know what's coming; and, if they try to work any of that plot thread into the main story line, we know how helpless they are to prevent it from happening.
If it's not canon, then I just have to say "Boo!" Shame on Whedon for getting my hopes up. But in that case, I'd also have to agree that Fox absolutely did the right thing in deciding not to show the episode, which stunned me at the time.
That aside: I enjoyed the opener. Topher is now solidly my favorite character. It was kinda cool to see a mini BG reunion when Lee and Helo fought. (Those actors must know that they will probably never outgrow those characters - I really hope they're OK with it.) The nested engagement thing was pretty cool... it does seem a little weird and petty that Helo would have used Echo like that to chase down an arms dealer, especially when his own plan obviously causes him so much pain. With Echo's skills, there are plenty of other ways he could have brought him in. That said, what makes sense isn't always what's dramatically satisfying, and I'm glad they did it the way they did.
What else... oh, everything was good. Whiskey coming to terms with her identity, the new head of security settling into his role, even the tiny moments we got with the other Actives.
T-MOBILE
Does anyone have them? What do you think? My contract with AT&T is up, and I'm considering jumping. I've wanted to for a while... T-Mobile has a great reputation for being a reasonable carrier to work with, and I like their plans more than the other carriers'. They also have some phones I'm interested in - originally the Android line, but now I'm salivating at the thought of an N900. I skipped T-Mobile when I was first looking at phones two years ago because at the time they didn't advertise coverage at my apartment; it looks like they've since fixed that, and I'm now able to make calls fine from there.
The main things I'm curious about is how good their 3G network is, and how good their customer service is. Honestly, I don't deal with customer service and hope not to, so I hope that they just set things up nicely and don't make mistakes.
PORTAL
I bought the Orange Box! I see why everyone's so excited about Portal! I think it's possibly the best designed game I've ever played... that's probably overly enthusiastic, so wait until I'm more than a week removed from the amazing finale for a more measured judgment. Still, though: I'm hard pressed to think of another game that's just so tightly constructed, with such a consistently high level of quality. I feel like every single minute that I was playing that game, I was doing something awesome. There was no dumb repetition, no leveling up, no clearing the fourth identical room of bad people. Just relentlessly challenging and varied puzzles, a really subtle and dark side plot that eventually overwhelms the main storyline, and the most amazing villain I've come across for a while.
There's a ton I could write about Portal. Right now I'll confine myself to one thing: the computer is identical to and nothing like SHODAN. Comparing it to SHODAN would be one of the highest compliments possible - SHODAN is in the running for best villain EVER. If you list their qualities, they sound identical: "Insane computer with a female voice encourages a human to progress through a futuristic environment and then seeks to exterminate them." But still, everything about them feels completely different. SHODAN is... like an evil goddess, I guess. She's all-powerful, all-knowing, She is supremely confident in her own superiority, and believes that the insect-like mass of humanity are beneath her notice. GLaDOS, on the other hand, is endlessly quirky. She's a little insecure, while still being supremely powerful. She wants to be trusted, even when she admits that she's fundamentally dishonest yet. ("Have I lied to you yet? I mean, in this room?") She steers you to your doom while speaking words of encouragement. Ultimately, GLaDOS is more insane, or maybe just a different kind of insane... I guess you could simplify a little and say that GLaDOS is psychotic and SHODAN is a psychopath.
Either way, they're both fun! GLaDOS is way funnier. SHODAN is way scarier.
HALF LIFE 2
Did I mention that I got the Orange Box? I'm working my way through HL2 now. It's a great deal of fun. It blows my mind that I was playing Half Life 1 exactly ten years ago. That feels like forever! It's also pretty incredible that HL2 has been out for five years; the graphics still look top-notch, at least to my eyes. (Granted, I hardly ever play FPS games and never have a top-of-the-line graphics card.)
This game is reminding me what I loved so much about HL1. It's an action game, sure, but it has a plot, and it's at least as much about solving puzzles as about shooting big guns. HL2 adds some amazing environments to the mix. Not that HL1 was any slouch in that department - I was blown away at the time by just how huge the game was, and how the vast underground environments were broken up with occasional jaunts to the surface and that final weird coda in Xen - but HL2 takes it to another level. I've already experienced a war-torn Eastern European city, a wonderfully creepy horror-movie-style city filled with pseudo-undead, and a gorgeous seaside road that reminds me of California's coastal Highway 1. I'm in awe of the designers who came up with all this.
OTHER THINGS I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO
Dexter. I was a bit underwhelmed by the third season - still, how could you possibly top the first two? I'll keep the third season in mind this time around and hopefully have my expectations surpassed.
Dragon Age. A Bioware RPG is the only game, other than Civilization, for which I will upgrade my PC. DA is coming out for all platforms, and at first I was thinking I might skip the upgrade and just grab the PS3 version. Then I remembered - oh, yeah, mods! Baldur's Gate 2 is one of the most perfect games I've ever played, and it exceeded perfection thanks to the amazing mods people put out for it. I never really got into NWN - never even beat the main game, and didn't play any expansion, although I hear that the expansions are better. Anyways. I've deliberately been avoiding reading about DA, but now that we're about 6 weeks out, I'm finally letting myself dive into the lore a bit. It looks really promising. I doubt I'll buy it on launch (unless there are REALLY GOOD pre-order specials), but it's the sort of thing where I expect that reviews will be good, and I'll pick it up soon after.
Venture Brothers. For some reason I thought we had to wait until November. But nope, it starts in October! Hooray! Just about three weeks to go. I have a friend who's really into this show, and she's been re-watching them to try and figure out the third season. There's a plot twist at the end which doesn't seem to make much sense. It'll be interesting to see if the creators address this head-on, sweep it under the rug, or pull one of their great switcheroos that changes everything.
That'll do for now, though there's still plenty more to come. Whee!
NEW SEASON OF HOUSE
I LOVED the ending of last season. From checking reviews and such afterwards, I found that I was in the minority, but I thought it was amazing. In my opinion, House's best moments are the shows that mainly ignore the body and focus on the mind: anything that deals with hallucination, memory, reality, or whatever, is generally an order of magnitude cooler than the (still decent) procedural shows that make up the bulk of each season.
Which is why I was so thrilled at how last season ended. Sending House to an insane asylum? The possibilities seem endless! The show's creators have shown a huge willingness before to radically shake up the show's structure and keep it from growing stale. I expected that House would eventually return to the hospital - they can't change the basic premise of the show, after all - but I figured we'd get a good four to six episodes of House's recovery in the asylum, probably intercut with his team back home trying to make its way without him (or, possibly, by consulting with a raving lunatic over the phone - even better!). I was a little bummed when I realized that we'd only get the equivalent of two episodes in the asylum, and of that, less than five minutes of House actively being crazy.
Once I got over my disappointment, though, I thought it was a good episode. They got off to a bang by playing "No Surprises" over the opening credits. I would have thought that I'd howl with rage if they ever touched "Teardop," but they lucked out and picked one of the few bands who I deem worthy to succeed Massive Attack. I'm curious if this was a special one-time thing or not... I kind of imagine that we'll be back to the standard opening for the rest of the season. I'll see soon.
The new characters were good. It's a tough balancing act... you want to make them complex enough to be interesting, but at the same time, you have less than two hours in which to do everything you will ever do with them. The overall structure of the premiere really felt like a benign version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest... their Nurse Ratchet is infinitely nicer, of course, but still, you have House as the generally rebellious person who's basically sane and superior to the other inmates, a staff who opposes him, and then an assortment of colorful but ultimately harmless supporting characters.
Random note: I enjoyed House's reaction to the piano in the common room. After the show, I was wondering why House didn't play the piano for the talent show (other than the obvious reason that he didn't want to be in the talent show). After all, he's really good. Then it struck me: I don't think we're EVER seen House play the piano for another person. He has one in his apartment, and it's clearly important to him, but he never shares it with anyone, not even Wilson. I thought that was really sad. Having a gift for music, and keeping it all to yourself, seems... well, maybe not pointless, but like you're depriving both yourself and the world of something precious.
Anyways. All in all, it was good. I still would have enjoyed seeing an edgier and more drawn-out asylum sequence, but for what it was, they did a good job. My biggest concern now is that House will be too "cured." After all, the entire show after the first couple of minutes isn't about making House sane, it's about making him into a good human being. And good human beings are a wonderful thing to become, but they make for lousy television.
DOLLHOUSE
Boy, did this one ever sneak up past my radar. I hadn't realized that it was starting so soon. First of all: HOORAY! I was half afraid that Fox would change their mind and yank it after all. Secondly: What the hell? (Skip this if you haven't seen the unaired final episode from Season 1.) When I first saw that Season 2, Episode 1 was available, my immediate thought was, "Oh, this will probably just be the unaired episode. I'll just verify that, and then get ready to keep watching next week when they start the real Season 2." Nope! It's a totally new episode - and, it follows the aired finale, not the DVD bombshell.
So, again: what the hell? Mainly, I'm curious if we've gotten a sneak peak into the future continuity of the series, OR if that was intended as a non-canon exercise. If it's the first case, then fine, that works... they can drop in the reboot any time the show gets stuck in a rut and switch over to an awesome new story. The only downside is that it makes things a bit anti-climactic, since we know what's coming; and, if they try to work any of that plot thread into the main story line, we know how helpless they are to prevent it from happening.
If it's not canon, then I just have to say "Boo!" Shame on Whedon for getting my hopes up. But in that case, I'd also have to agree that Fox absolutely did the right thing in deciding not to show the episode, which stunned me at the time.
That aside: I enjoyed the opener. Topher is now solidly my favorite character. It was kinda cool to see a mini BG reunion when Lee and Helo fought. (Those actors must know that they will probably never outgrow those characters - I really hope they're OK with it.) The nested engagement thing was pretty cool... it does seem a little weird and petty that Helo would have used Echo like that to chase down an arms dealer, especially when his own plan obviously causes him so much pain. With Echo's skills, there are plenty of other ways he could have brought him in. That said, what makes sense isn't always what's dramatically satisfying, and I'm glad they did it the way they did.
What else... oh, everything was good. Whiskey coming to terms with her identity, the new head of security settling into his role, even the tiny moments we got with the other Actives.
T-MOBILE
Does anyone have them? What do you think? My contract with AT&T is up, and I'm considering jumping. I've wanted to for a while... T-Mobile has a great reputation for being a reasonable carrier to work with, and I like their plans more than the other carriers'. They also have some phones I'm interested in - originally the Android line, but now I'm salivating at the thought of an N900. I skipped T-Mobile when I was first looking at phones two years ago because at the time they didn't advertise coverage at my apartment; it looks like they've since fixed that, and I'm now able to make calls fine from there.
The main things I'm curious about is how good their 3G network is, and how good their customer service is. Honestly, I don't deal with customer service and hope not to, so I hope that they just set things up nicely and don't make mistakes.
PORTAL
I bought the Orange Box! I see why everyone's so excited about Portal! I think it's possibly the best designed game I've ever played... that's probably overly enthusiastic, so wait until I'm more than a week removed from the amazing finale for a more measured judgment. Still, though: I'm hard pressed to think of another game that's just so tightly constructed, with such a consistently high level of quality. I feel like every single minute that I was playing that game, I was doing something awesome. There was no dumb repetition, no leveling up, no clearing the fourth identical room of bad people. Just relentlessly challenging and varied puzzles, a really subtle and dark side plot that eventually overwhelms the main storyline, and the most amazing villain I've come across for a while.
There's a ton I could write about Portal. Right now I'll confine myself to one thing: the computer is identical to and nothing like SHODAN. Comparing it to SHODAN would be one of the highest compliments possible - SHODAN is in the running for best villain EVER. If you list their qualities, they sound identical: "Insane computer with a female voice encourages a human to progress through a futuristic environment and then seeks to exterminate them." But still, everything about them feels completely different. SHODAN is... like an evil goddess, I guess. She's all-powerful, all-knowing, She is supremely confident in her own superiority, and believes that the insect-like mass of humanity are beneath her notice. GLaDOS, on the other hand, is endlessly quirky. She's a little insecure, while still being supremely powerful. She wants to be trusted, even when she admits that she's fundamentally dishonest yet. ("Have I lied to you yet? I mean, in this room?") She steers you to your doom while speaking words of encouragement. Ultimately, GLaDOS is more insane, or maybe just a different kind of insane... I guess you could simplify a little and say that GLaDOS is psychotic and SHODAN is a psychopath.
Either way, they're both fun! GLaDOS is way funnier. SHODAN is way scarier.
HALF LIFE 2
Did I mention that I got the Orange Box? I'm working my way through HL2 now. It's a great deal of fun. It blows my mind that I was playing Half Life 1 exactly ten years ago. That feels like forever! It's also pretty incredible that HL2 has been out for five years; the graphics still look top-notch, at least to my eyes. (Granted, I hardly ever play FPS games and never have a top-of-the-line graphics card.)
This game is reminding me what I loved so much about HL1. It's an action game, sure, but it has a plot, and it's at least as much about solving puzzles as about shooting big guns. HL2 adds some amazing environments to the mix. Not that HL1 was any slouch in that department - I was blown away at the time by just how huge the game was, and how the vast underground environments were broken up with occasional jaunts to the surface and that final weird coda in Xen - but HL2 takes it to another level. I've already experienced a war-torn Eastern European city, a wonderfully creepy horror-movie-style city filled with pseudo-undead, and a gorgeous seaside road that reminds me of California's coastal Highway 1. I'm in awe of the designers who came up with all this.
OTHER THINGS I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO
Dexter. I was a bit underwhelmed by the third season - still, how could you possibly top the first two? I'll keep the third season in mind this time around and hopefully have my expectations surpassed.
Dragon Age. A Bioware RPG is the only game, other than Civilization, for which I will upgrade my PC. DA is coming out for all platforms, and at first I was thinking I might skip the upgrade and just grab the PS3 version. Then I remembered - oh, yeah, mods! Baldur's Gate 2 is one of the most perfect games I've ever played, and it exceeded perfection thanks to the amazing mods people put out for it. I never really got into NWN - never even beat the main game, and didn't play any expansion, although I hear that the expansions are better. Anyways. I've deliberately been avoiding reading about DA, but now that we're about 6 weeks out, I'm finally letting myself dive into the lore a bit. It looks really promising. I doubt I'll buy it on launch (unless there are REALLY GOOD pre-order specials), but it's the sort of thing where I expect that reviews will be good, and I'll pick it up soon after.
Venture Brothers. For some reason I thought we had to wait until November. But nope, it starts in October! Hooray! Just about three weeks to go. I have a friend who's really into this show, and she's been re-watching them to try and figure out the third season. There's a plot twist at the end which doesn't seem to make much sense. It'll be interesting to see if the creators address this head-on, sweep it under the rug, or pull one of their great switcheroos that changes everything.
That'll do for now, though there's still plenty more to come. Whee!
Thursday, September 27, 2007
End of the Line
Well! It's been quite a long time since I started on this trip, but I think I've finally reached the capstone: after viewing the complete televised works of Joss Whedon and Cowboy Bebop, last weekend I watched (or re-watched) their theatrical manifestations. (In the case of Whedon, that means "Serenity" not the original "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," which I had watched way back in 2004.)
Both movies were excellent and served their series well, although in different ways. In both cases there was a really comfortable feeling from seeing the cast again... it was almost like reuniting with old friends. Both maintained the themes from their shows while dramatically amping up the production values. One offered depth, the other heartbreak.
Let's dive in first with
COWBOY BEBOP MINI SPOILERS
I had known almost nothing about the movie prior to watching it, and was a little surprised that it takes place in the middle of the series. This was an interesting choice... one could argue that there really isn't any space for a movie after the series, and going the prequel route would mean losing half of the cast. That said, the move makes sense... it drops the viewer right into the middle of the action, without needing to go through the exposition of "who are these people."
I initially thought that the movie was probably much more rewarding for people who've seen the series than newbies. I'm less sure of that now, though... I'm almost tempted to say I'd use this movie to hook people into the series. Granted, new viewers might be a little bit confused about the characters, but frankly, they don't need to totally understand Faye or Ed in order to enjoy the kinetic force of the story. In all it feels like a good demonstration of what's best about the show without having a strong dependency on its backstory.
One final comment about the chronology: this has a big impact on the tension (or lack thereof) that one feels while watching it. I mean, think about it: you KNOW which characters are still going to be around for the television show, so you never really worry about any of them dying. That doesn't mean that there's no draw, of course... there's a compelling mystery, and plenty of surprisingly well-designed new characters to draw our worry. Still, it is an interesting effect.
As one would hope from a Cowboy Bebop movie, the music was EXCELLENT. The jazz themes seemed a bit less prominent than in the main show, but they made up for it with a variety of interesting pieces. As with the show, it simultaneously grabs your attention while fitting well with the action.
The animation was quite well done as well. The animation in the television show is good, but the movie adds an extra layer of polish and complexity that really benefits the show. There are some particularly compelling set-pieces, although frankly nothing that beats the amusement park setting from the show.
On the whole, this was a fully satisfying movie. It doesn't radically rework or extend Cowboy Bebop, it just serves up a particularly excellent offering. I'll gladly take what I can get.
SERENITY MEGA SPOILERS
This is the third time I've seen the movie, and the first time on DVD. It's less shocking now, but it still feels like a punch to the gut. Honestly, I would probably have watched this movie more often if it was less painful... it's incredibly good, but I always feel like a bit of a masochist when I see it again.
Many parts of the movie resonate more strongly and poignantly on subsequent viewings. Like the scene on Haven where Mal is talking with Book, and says, "One of these days, you'll have to tell me how a Shepherd gets to know so much about the Alliance," and Book says, "No, I don't." Or after they arrive on Miranda, and are standing in the middle of a dusty street, looking at the corpses that surround them, Jayne says something like, "They just died. Died for no reason," while the camera lingers on Wash.
It's bittersweet to view this movie in the context of its relationship to the 'verse. On the one hand, it's extremely unlikely that we will get to see that wonderful cast together again in... well, in anything. On the other hand, though, Joss's diverse interests and contacts can keep this extraordinarily rich setting from going entirely to waste. The first comic series was fine, but hopefully we'll have even more to look forward to. There's an MMO in the works that I personally don't have a lot of hope for, but it may well surprise me. There's a traditional pen and paper RPG that looks really cool, though I'm starting to despair of finding another good crew of RPGers. Actually, while looking for that last link, I stumbled across a page that shows an amazing collection of Firefly-related games. It's telling that so many of these are community-based, non-profit games. Telling, but not surprising. Throughout its (too bright, too brief) existence, Firefly has been marked by incredible fan devotion, as people embrace the 'verse and seek to make it their own.
The DVD itself is good. Video and audio transfer seemed great. The extras are decent - not amazing, like Lord of the Rings, but they do include interesting mini-features and such. It includes a gag reel, which I think I may start viewing at the end of the movie, to help lessen the sting.
On the topic of DVD: A few weeks ago they released a collector's edition of Serenity. It looks nice, though not revolutionary... a cast and crew commentary, the River Tam Sessions (which you can also find online), and some extra features and documentaries. They talk about "extended scenes", but I think that might be the same as what's on the disc I currently have. It's a superior disc so it's well worth picking up if you don't already own the DVD, but may not be worthwhile if you already have the old version. (If you do get the new one, let me know! I'd love to borrow it and check it out.)
It seems pretty remarkable that there's enough interest in this movie to bring out a new collector's edition, two years after the movie came out to disappointing performance at the box office. I don't know if that means Firefly fans are incredibly dedicated, or if we're just suckers. I'm sure there are plenty out there who feel, "If only I spend enough money on this, THEN the studios will bring back more Firefly and I can be happy again!"
END OF SPOILERS
See you, Space Cowboy.
Both movies were excellent and served their series well, although in different ways. In both cases there was a really comfortable feeling from seeing the cast again... it was almost like reuniting with old friends. Both maintained the themes from their shows while dramatically amping up the production values. One offered depth, the other heartbreak.
Let's dive in first with
COWBOY BEBOP MINI SPOILERS
I had known almost nothing about the movie prior to watching it, and was a little surprised that it takes place in the middle of the series. This was an interesting choice... one could argue that there really isn't any space for a movie after the series, and going the prequel route would mean losing half of the cast. That said, the move makes sense... it drops the viewer right into the middle of the action, without needing to go through the exposition of "who are these people."
I initially thought that the movie was probably much more rewarding for people who've seen the series than newbies. I'm less sure of that now, though... I'm almost tempted to say I'd use this movie to hook people into the series. Granted, new viewers might be a little bit confused about the characters, but frankly, they don't need to totally understand Faye or Ed in order to enjoy the kinetic force of the story. In all it feels like a good demonstration of what's best about the show without having a strong dependency on its backstory.
One final comment about the chronology: this has a big impact on the tension (or lack thereof) that one feels while watching it. I mean, think about it: you KNOW which characters are still going to be around for the television show, so you never really worry about any of them dying. That doesn't mean that there's no draw, of course... there's a compelling mystery, and plenty of surprisingly well-designed new characters to draw our worry. Still, it is an interesting effect.
As one would hope from a Cowboy Bebop movie, the music was EXCELLENT. The jazz themes seemed a bit less prominent than in the main show, but they made up for it with a variety of interesting pieces. As with the show, it simultaneously grabs your attention while fitting well with the action.
The animation was quite well done as well. The animation in the television show is good, but the movie adds an extra layer of polish and complexity that really benefits the show. There are some particularly compelling set-pieces, although frankly nothing that beats the amusement park setting from the show.
On the whole, this was a fully satisfying movie. It doesn't radically rework or extend Cowboy Bebop, it just serves up a particularly excellent offering. I'll gladly take what I can get.
SERENITY MEGA SPOILERS
This is the third time I've seen the movie, and the first time on DVD. It's less shocking now, but it still feels like a punch to the gut. Honestly, I would probably have watched this movie more often if it was less painful... it's incredibly good, but I always feel like a bit of a masochist when I see it again.
Many parts of the movie resonate more strongly and poignantly on subsequent viewings. Like the scene on Haven where Mal is talking with Book, and says, "One of these days, you'll have to tell me how a Shepherd gets to know so much about the Alliance," and Book says, "No, I don't." Or after they arrive on Miranda, and are standing in the middle of a dusty street, looking at the corpses that surround them, Jayne says something like, "They just died. Died for no reason," while the camera lingers on Wash.
It's bittersweet to view this movie in the context of its relationship to the 'verse. On the one hand, it's extremely unlikely that we will get to see that wonderful cast together again in... well, in anything. On the other hand, though, Joss's diverse interests and contacts can keep this extraordinarily rich setting from going entirely to waste. The first comic series was fine, but hopefully we'll have even more to look forward to. There's an MMO in the works that I personally don't have a lot of hope for, but it may well surprise me. There's a traditional pen and paper RPG that looks really cool, though I'm starting to despair of finding another good crew of RPGers. Actually, while looking for that last link, I stumbled across a page that shows an amazing collection of Firefly-related games. It's telling that so many of these are community-based, non-profit games. Telling, but not surprising. Throughout its (too bright, too brief) existence, Firefly has been marked by incredible fan devotion, as people embrace the 'verse and seek to make it their own.
The DVD itself is good. Video and audio transfer seemed great. The extras are decent - not amazing, like Lord of the Rings, but they do include interesting mini-features and such. It includes a gag reel, which I think I may start viewing at the end of the movie, to help lessen the sting.
On the topic of DVD: A few weeks ago they released a collector's edition of Serenity. It looks nice, though not revolutionary... a cast and crew commentary, the River Tam Sessions (which you can also find online), and some extra features and documentaries. They talk about "extended scenes", but I think that might be the same as what's on the disc I currently have. It's a superior disc so it's well worth picking up if you don't already own the DVD, but may not be worthwhile if you already have the old version. (If you do get the new one, let me know! I'd love to borrow it and check it out.)
It seems pretty remarkable that there's enough interest in this movie to bring out a new collector's edition, two years after the movie came out to disappointing performance at the box office. I don't know if that means Firefly fans are incredibly dedicated, or if we're just suckers. I'm sure there are plenty out there who feel, "If only I spend enough money on this, THEN the studios will bring back more Firefly and I can be happy again!"
END OF SPOILERS
See you, Space Cowboy.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Take my love, take my land
Sigh... yeah, Buffy was a good show. Angel was a good show. But watching Firefly reminds me of what a wonderful show is like. I knew that it was good, but it seems to get better each time I view it, and I don't hesitate to call it Joss Whedon's masterpiece.
This is a show that everyone should watch. Even if you don't enjoy science fiction, even if you don't enjoy Joss Whedon, the pure quality of the show demands recognition. I'm struck once again by how it WORKS on all fronts. The acting is great, with possibly the best casting I've ever seen in a show. The storyline is really cool, gripping and fun. The tone is pure Joss Whedon, a wonderful mixture of drama, mystery, humor, and just a twist of horror. Watching it again, I particularly appreciate the structure of the show. I've grown used to serial dramas, like "Lost" or "Battlestar Galactica", as opposed to episodic dramas, like "House". Firefly strikes a wonderful middle ground, with each episode completely standing on its own as a thing that can be appreciated, but combining to create a marvelous kinetic energy. There is so much I missed the first time around that I've been picking up on second, third, or fourth viewings. I love how Kaylee is complaining about an engine part in the early episodes, and later on, the captain's refusal to pay for a replacement leads to an entire episode of pain. As Whedon proved with his two earlier series, he is a master at constructing rich, intricate worlds that follow their own logic.
And there's the rub. The tragedy of watching Firefly is not just that it was so short-lived, but that it would have only gotten better as time went on. Just think of how much better Buffy Season Four was from the first season, or the last season of Angel was from its spare beginnings. Part of that is the accumulated potential a show acquires as it further expands its boundaries, but another part is Whedon's genius at playing with convention and digging into his characters. And frankly, this is a genre that would have gained greatly from the experience. While I enjoy a lot of sci-fi, it is generally not known for much experimentation within the medium: a show tends to set its place and conflicts early on and not vary far from them. By contrast, Firefly embodies Mal's free-spirited ethos, and one gets the feeling it would never stop wandering.
I should probably speak a little to the Firefly/Bebop link. You can't argue that it doesn't exist, but watching the two back-to-back, it's actually a weaker connection than I would have thought. Both series have the same two-word summary of "Space Cowboy," but beyond that, they seem like very different beasts. Spike is a man running from dishonor and searching for redemption; Mal is a good man who is trying (and failing) to become bad. Both ship crews function as families and are mildly dysfunctional, but the crew of Serenity tends to ultimately function as a unit, while the division within Bebop never ends. The messages of the show are ultimately different as well... Bebop ends with one man ultimately acting alone against all odds. Time and again, Firefly stresses the value of friendship, family, and community. That's probably the thing that struck me the most on this viewing of the show. While Firefly is, at its surface, a fiercely libertarian work of fiction (good folks fleeing the big bad government), the people who form close bonds with one another always win out against those who mistrust and go it alone. It seems to have an overall philosophy that, in an odd way, could almost be labeled family values. The key is that, in Whedon's world, everyone chooses their own family.
Thoughts on the show:
Favorite episode: Ariel. They're all really good, though.
Episode I'd show a newcomer: The pilot, ideally ("Serenity"). Failing that, "Shindig." (Why not "Ariel"? I think it's the one episode that demands some prior knowledge - specifically, you need to understand River and Jayne.)
Favorite character: Mal is the obvious choice. I have to go with Wash, though. He fits so neatly into my Horatio ideal of the sidekick.
Favorite villain: Badger is villain-ish, right? If he doesn't count, I'd have to go with Saffron.
Favorite supporting character: Badger is kind of supportive, right? If he doesn't count, maybe Nandi... she had spunk.
Favorite weapon: I think it's hilarious that the laser pistols always break. That's part of the genius of the show - sure, technology may be very advanced, but when you're scraping your existence off a rock, with years between contact with the rest of the 'verse, you'll want to stick with something that works. Horses don't break down or require fresh oil, and while you have a shot at repairing a jammed pistol you probably won't be able to repair a laser power cell. That being said, my favorite weapon is probably the pistol that Mal uses to pistol-whip people. Or the jet engine.
Favorite location: Besides "Serenity," of course, though that is one of the best-realized spaces I've ever seen on the screen. Hm... either the creepy Reaver-hit ship in "Bushwhacked" or the whorehouse in "Heart of Gold."
Favorite song: "The Hero of Canton."
Favorite fictional word: "Rutting." (Or, as they always say, "Ruttin'".)
Favorite line: Oh geez, how can I choose one? This show has some of the best writing ever. That being said, I'm partial to, "Dear diary, today I was pompous and my sister was crazy. We were kidnapped by hill folk, never to be seen again. It was the best day ever!"
Favorite costume: Jayne's cunning hat.
Favorite dynamic: I really like the Mal-Kaylee relationship. Zoe-Wash is great as well, and very unusual to be portrayed on television. Simon-Jayne is a great source of laughter.
Sigh... farewell, Firefly. Take me out to the black.
Next up: Space cowboy double feature.
This is a show that everyone should watch. Even if you don't enjoy science fiction, even if you don't enjoy Joss Whedon, the pure quality of the show demands recognition. I'm struck once again by how it WORKS on all fronts. The acting is great, with possibly the best casting I've ever seen in a show. The storyline is really cool, gripping and fun. The tone is pure Joss Whedon, a wonderful mixture of drama, mystery, humor, and just a twist of horror. Watching it again, I particularly appreciate the structure of the show. I've grown used to serial dramas, like "Lost" or "Battlestar Galactica", as opposed to episodic dramas, like "House". Firefly strikes a wonderful middle ground, with each episode completely standing on its own as a thing that can be appreciated, but combining to create a marvelous kinetic energy. There is so much I missed the first time around that I've been picking up on second, third, or fourth viewings. I love how Kaylee is complaining about an engine part in the early episodes, and later on, the captain's refusal to pay for a replacement leads to an entire episode of pain. As Whedon proved with his two earlier series, he is a master at constructing rich, intricate worlds that follow their own logic.
And there's the rub. The tragedy of watching Firefly is not just that it was so short-lived, but that it would have only gotten better as time went on. Just think of how much better Buffy Season Four was from the first season, or the last season of Angel was from its spare beginnings. Part of that is the accumulated potential a show acquires as it further expands its boundaries, but another part is Whedon's genius at playing with convention and digging into his characters. And frankly, this is a genre that would have gained greatly from the experience. While I enjoy a lot of sci-fi, it is generally not known for much experimentation within the medium: a show tends to set its place and conflicts early on and not vary far from them. By contrast, Firefly embodies Mal's free-spirited ethos, and one gets the feeling it would never stop wandering.
I should probably speak a little to the Firefly/Bebop link. You can't argue that it doesn't exist, but watching the two back-to-back, it's actually a weaker connection than I would have thought. Both series have the same two-word summary of "Space Cowboy," but beyond that, they seem like very different beasts. Spike is a man running from dishonor and searching for redemption; Mal is a good man who is trying (and failing) to become bad. Both ship crews function as families and are mildly dysfunctional, but the crew of Serenity tends to ultimately function as a unit, while the division within Bebop never ends. The messages of the show are ultimately different as well... Bebop ends with one man ultimately acting alone against all odds. Time and again, Firefly stresses the value of friendship, family, and community. That's probably the thing that struck me the most on this viewing of the show. While Firefly is, at its surface, a fiercely libertarian work of fiction (good folks fleeing the big bad government), the people who form close bonds with one another always win out against those who mistrust and go it alone. It seems to have an overall philosophy that, in an odd way, could almost be labeled family values. The key is that, in Whedon's world, everyone chooses their own family.
Thoughts on the show:
Favorite episode: Ariel. They're all really good, though.
Episode I'd show a newcomer: The pilot, ideally ("Serenity"). Failing that, "Shindig." (Why not "Ariel"? I think it's the one episode that demands some prior knowledge - specifically, you need to understand River and Jayne.)
Favorite character: Mal is the obvious choice. I have to go with Wash, though. He fits so neatly into my Horatio ideal of the sidekick.
Favorite villain: Badger is villain-ish, right? If he doesn't count, I'd have to go with Saffron.
Favorite supporting character: Badger is kind of supportive, right? If he doesn't count, maybe Nandi... she had spunk.
Favorite weapon: I think it's hilarious that the laser pistols always break. That's part of the genius of the show - sure, technology may be very advanced, but when you're scraping your existence off a rock, with years between contact with the rest of the 'verse, you'll want to stick with something that works. Horses don't break down or require fresh oil, and while you have a shot at repairing a jammed pistol you probably won't be able to repair a laser power cell. That being said, my favorite weapon is probably the pistol that Mal uses to pistol-whip people. Or the jet engine.
Favorite location: Besides "Serenity," of course, though that is one of the best-realized spaces I've ever seen on the screen. Hm... either the creepy Reaver-hit ship in "Bushwhacked" or the whorehouse in "Heart of Gold."
Favorite song: "The Hero of Canton."
Favorite fictional word: "Rutting." (Or, as they always say, "Ruttin'".)
Favorite line: Oh geez, how can I choose one? This show has some of the best writing ever. That being said, I'm partial to, "Dear diary, today I was pompous and my sister was crazy. We were kidnapped by hill folk, never to be seen again. It was the best day ever!"
Favorite costume: Jayne's cunning hat.
Favorite dynamic: I really like the Mal-Kaylee relationship. Zoe-Wash is great as well, and very unusual to be portrayed on television. Simon-Jayne is a great source of laughter.
Sigh... farewell, Firefly. Take me out to the black.
Next up: Space cowboy double feature.
Friday, October 20, 2006
If I Ever Meet You, I'll Ctrl-Alt-Del You
Wow... that took a lot less time than I had expected. I've been living in California for just over a year, and already I have lost my hardy Midwestern constitution. Lately I've been waking up when it's around 45 degrees outside and thinking, "Gosh, it's cold!"
I distinctly remember my amusement soon after moving here last year. I was constantly hearing complains from native Californians: "Oh, it's so hot!" "Oh, it's so cold!" As a lifelong resident of states where winters regularly dip below 0 degrees Fahrenheit, and summers can easily reach 100 of the same, the idea that anything within the 40-to-90-degree range was a trial was simply laughable. I took quiet pride in the fact that I never turned on my air conditioning for the first 10 months I lived here, and very rarely indulged in the heater.
And now I've lost it! Sigh. I haven't actually turned on the heat yet, but it's probably just a matter of time. Once I do, I will have admitted defeat, and my inexorable move towards becoming a soft and pampered Bay Arean will take another step.
Other, unrelated thoughts:
The November elections are coming up soon! The races I'm most excited about are elsewhere in the country. Most of my family is elegible to vote in the Tammy Duckworth - Peter Roskam race. Duckworth was actually my least-favorite of three Democrats in the primary, but I like her more and more as I find out more about her. She would be a really solid choice. On the downside, I'm pretty sure that the Earth will start rotating in the opposite direction once DuPage elects a Democratic representative to the House, so I suppose there are risks involved in both ends.
I'm delighted by the prospect that we will soon have a Senate without Santorum. He has a permanent seat of my personal list of Five Least Favorite Senators*, and the benefits of his removal are myriad: better policy, more civil debates, and fewer public insults to my religious beliefs.**
For the nation as a whole, I dunno... it's amazing that the Democrats have made such huge strides in catching up, and I will be thrilled if they actually pull off a big enough win to recapture one or both Houses. If they do, I hope that Howard Dean gets the credit he deserves - almost all of those wins will be in places that traditional Democrats had given up, like Tennessee and DuPage County. I'm not holding my breath, though. The GOP is great at playing hardball, and I won't be at all surprised if we see slime flying fast and furious in the next few weeks.
Closer to home, I still haven't decided who to vote for as Mayor. I think Cindy Chavez is closer to my political beliefs, plus she has a get-it-done attitude that, for better or worse, will keep things moving in San Jose. Still, I really do like Chuck Reed, and despite some recent mini-scandals I think he is the more ethical candidate. (As usual, both sides are exaggerating - neither is corrupt - but Reed has shown a deep-seated tendency to playing it by the book.) Plus it seems like he's the more cautious on growth, which may be enough for me to tip my vote his way. Honestly, whatever endorsement the Mercury News makes will probably be a huge factor in making up my mind.
(As an aside: Cindy, you aren't doing yourself any favors with all the glossy brochures attacking Reed that you're stuffing in my mailbox. It just makes you look mean, and does nothing to erase questions about your own conflict with openness. Focus on selling yourself, not smearing your opponent.)
There are too many propositions for me to keep track of. I will probably do the alternative energy one, and just check out the endorsements on the others. Oh, and I'm supporting Measure A, which adds more controls to land use in Santa Clara. As you know, I'm all ABOUT protecting our pristine hillsides.
I'm even more embarassingly uninformed for the smaller local races. City council, stuff like that. I always try to read as much local news as I can, but even so, it's hard to remember who's who.
In the other direction, pretty much everyone knows about the governor's race. I'm almost certainly voting for Angelides. Schwarzenegger is almost certainly going to win, and honestly, that scares me much less than it did a year ago. He has proven himself to be the consummate politician since his initiatives went down to defeat, strongly allying himself with progressive causes supported by most Californians, and as a result will most likely get another four years at the helm. Plenty of people decry him for cynical political posturing in a blatant attempt to win votes. I'm actually inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. After six years of Bush, it's quite refreshing to hear a politician say, "I was wrong, I hear what you are saying, and I will work to make it right."
I miss Westley. And Pandori. Kind of depressing that, in a mere eight years of voting, I've assembled such a long list of favored candidates who didn't make it past the primary.
Final unrelated note: like a lot of folks, I've listened to White And Nerdy way too many times recently. Oddly enough, though, the song has not gotten stuck in my head. What's constantly running through there instead is his excellent It's All About the Pentiums off the great 1999 album Running With Scissors. This earlier song is, in summary at least, virtually identical to White And Nerdy: Both parody aggressive hip-hop songs by changing the perspective to that of a technology-obsessed nerd. Both are also extremely funny, and I see nothing wrong with stealing from yourself. I've also been reminded of some of the amazing rhymes off that first song:
Hey Fella,
I bet you're still livin' in your parents' cellar
Downloadin' pictures of Sarah Michelle Geller
And postin' "Me Too" like some brain-dead AOL-er
I should do the world a favor and cap ya like Old Yeller
You're just about as useless as JPEGs to Hellen Keller.
or:
In a 32-bit world, you're a 2-bit user
You got your own newsgroup, alt.total.loser!
Good times. I'm amazed and delighted that Weird Al's career has lasted this long. He was the first popular musician I ever liked, and to this day far too many of my brain cells are devoted to retaining the memorized lyrics of virtually every song he has done.
* It's a rotating list, but currently, in addition to Santorum, it's Lieberman, Stevens, Cornyn, and Coburn. Wait, I take that back... Coburn gets off the list for the work he's doing with Obama on the deficit. I'll award his seat to Chambliss.
** As a Christian, I cringe every time Santorum's twisted views are depicted by the media as being representative of my faith. I imagine Muslims probably feel similar when Farrakhan is trotted out.
UPDATE 10/24/06: ... and, yesterday, I received a similarly distasteful mailing from Mr. Reed which brings up the Tropicana controversy and falsely implies that he has the Mercury News's endorsement. (Which he actually does, as of this morning, but that's not the article showing on the mailer.) The same rules apply for Reed: I know it's hard, but stop slamming your opponent and give me positive reasons to vote for you. If the two of you don't knock it off, I'm turning the election right around and voting for Pandori again.
I distinctly remember my amusement soon after moving here last year. I was constantly hearing complains from native Californians: "Oh, it's so hot!" "Oh, it's so cold!" As a lifelong resident of states where winters regularly dip below 0 degrees Fahrenheit, and summers can easily reach 100 of the same, the idea that anything within the 40-to-90-degree range was a trial was simply laughable. I took quiet pride in the fact that I never turned on my air conditioning for the first 10 months I lived here, and very rarely indulged in the heater.
And now I've lost it! Sigh. I haven't actually turned on the heat yet, but it's probably just a matter of time. Once I do, I will have admitted defeat, and my inexorable move towards becoming a soft and pampered Bay Arean will take another step.
Other, unrelated thoughts:
The November elections are coming up soon! The races I'm most excited about are elsewhere in the country. Most of my family is elegible to vote in the Tammy Duckworth - Peter Roskam race. Duckworth was actually my least-favorite of three Democrats in the primary, but I like her more and more as I find out more about her. She would be a really solid choice. On the downside, I'm pretty sure that the Earth will start rotating in the opposite direction once DuPage elects a Democratic representative to the House, so I suppose there are risks involved in both ends.
I'm delighted by the prospect that we will soon have a Senate without Santorum. He has a permanent seat of my personal list of Five Least Favorite Senators*, and the benefits of his removal are myriad: better policy, more civil debates, and fewer public insults to my religious beliefs.**
For the nation as a whole, I dunno... it's amazing that the Democrats have made such huge strides in catching up, and I will be thrilled if they actually pull off a big enough win to recapture one or both Houses. If they do, I hope that Howard Dean gets the credit he deserves - almost all of those wins will be in places that traditional Democrats had given up, like Tennessee and DuPage County. I'm not holding my breath, though. The GOP is great at playing hardball, and I won't be at all surprised if we see slime flying fast and furious in the next few weeks.
Closer to home, I still haven't decided who to vote for as Mayor. I think Cindy Chavez is closer to my political beliefs, plus she has a get-it-done attitude that, for better or worse, will keep things moving in San Jose. Still, I really do like Chuck Reed, and despite some recent mini-scandals I think he is the more ethical candidate. (As usual, both sides are exaggerating - neither is corrupt - but Reed has shown a deep-seated tendency to playing it by the book.) Plus it seems like he's the more cautious on growth, which may be enough for me to tip my vote his way. Honestly, whatever endorsement the Mercury News makes will probably be a huge factor in making up my mind.
(As an aside: Cindy, you aren't doing yourself any favors with all the glossy brochures attacking Reed that you're stuffing in my mailbox. It just makes you look mean, and does nothing to erase questions about your own conflict with openness. Focus on selling yourself, not smearing your opponent.)
There are too many propositions for me to keep track of. I will probably do the alternative energy one, and just check out the endorsements on the others. Oh, and I'm supporting Measure A, which adds more controls to land use in Santa Clara. As you know, I'm all ABOUT protecting our pristine hillsides.
I'm even more embarassingly uninformed for the smaller local races. City council, stuff like that. I always try to read as much local news as I can, but even so, it's hard to remember who's who.
In the other direction, pretty much everyone knows about the governor's race. I'm almost certainly voting for Angelides. Schwarzenegger is almost certainly going to win, and honestly, that scares me much less than it did a year ago. He has proven himself to be the consummate politician since his initiatives went down to defeat, strongly allying himself with progressive causes supported by most Californians, and as a result will most likely get another four years at the helm. Plenty of people decry him for cynical political posturing in a blatant attempt to win votes. I'm actually inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. After six years of Bush, it's quite refreshing to hear a politician say, "I was wrong, I hear what you are saying, and I will work to make it right."
I miss Westley. And Pandori. Kind of depressing that, in a mere eight years of voting, I've assembled such a long list of favored candidates who didn't make it past the primary.
Final unrelated note: like a lot of folks, I've listened to White And Nerdy way too many times recently. Oddly enough, though, the song has not gotten stuck in my head. What's constantly running through there instead is his excellent It's All About the Pentiums off the great 1999 album Running With Scissors. This earlier song is, in summary at least, virtually identical to White And Nerdy: Both parody aggressive hip-hop songs by changing the perspective to that of a technology-obsessed nerd. Both are also extremely funny, and I see nothing wrong with stealing from yourself. I've also been reminded of some of the amazing rhymes off that first song:
Hey Fella,
I bet you're still livin' in your parents' cellar
Downloadin' pictures of Sarah Michelle Geller
And postin' "Me Too" like some brain-dead AOL-er
I should do the world a favor and cap ya like Old Yeller
You're just about as useless as JPEGs to Hellen Keller.
or:
In a 32-bit world, you're a 2-bit user
You got your own newsgroup, alt.total.loser!
Good times. I'm amazed and delighted that Weird Al's career has lasted this long. He was the first popular musician I ever liked, and to this day far too many of my brain cells are devoted to retaining the memorized lyrics of virtually every song he has done.
* It's a rotating list, but currently, in addition to Santorum, it's Lieberman, Stevens, Cornyn, and Coburn. Wait, I take that back... Coburn gets off the list for the work he's doing with Obama on the deficit. I'll award his seat to Chambliss.
** As a Christian, I cringe every time Santorum's twisted views are depicted by the media as being representative of my faith. I imagine Muslims probably feel similar when Farrakhan is trotted out.
UPDATE 10/24/06: ... and, yesterday, I received a similarly distasteful mailing from Mr. Reed which brings up the Tropicana controversy and falsely implies that he has the Mercury News's endorsement. (Which he actually does, as of this morning, but that's not the article showing on the mailer.) The same rules apply for Reed: I know it's hard, but stop slamming your opponent and give me positive reasons to vote for you. If the two of you don't knock it off, I'm turning the election right around and voting for Pandori again.
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