you kids get off my lawn

[I hate it when an article caters to my prejudices.]

[Specifically, I hate it when I have to stop halfway through my rant on a particular topic because there’s a nagging voice in my head going ‘Is that REALLY what happened?’ And it turns out that it didn’t. It’s galling.]

[Case in point: this Ars Technica article. Shorn of its extras, the gist of it is: if you didn’t buy a digital copy of Doom 1 or 2 for the XBox 360 and keep it on your XBox One console, the versions currently for sale on the Xbox One don’t have the multiplayer options available on the original. If you did buy some version of them, you can still get the games; in some cases you may just have to take an extra step to get them. Which is probably annoying, but if you’re not being annoyed sometime during the process of buying and downloading video games then there’s probably something really bad going on somewhere and you just haven’t noticed yet.]

[I’m a big believer in the attitude that, if you want to own something, buy a physical version of it — but don’t take advantage of that attitude when you’re telling me something.]

Moe Lane

[PS: And get off of my lawn!]

@Salon film reactionary terrified of current indy movie paradigm.

Don’t let the snide references to Reaganomics and Walmart fool you: this is straight up, 100% freeze-the-market-because-I-fear-change reactionary thinking. The problem? Salon feels that it’s too easy to make an independent movie, these days: and that all those people who work on independent films aren’t getting enough money (despite the fact that said people keep doing it, which at least suggests that maybe they’re still getting something out of participating). The solution? Continue reading @Salon film reactionary terrified of current indy movie paradigm.

I have an urge…

…to run through this video and smack EVERY LIVING THING* in it upside the head with a halibut. Seriously, I have never wanted to drink Perrier water less than I did after watching this thing, and I never understood the appeal of designer H2O in the first place.

And you kids get off of my lawn!

Moe Lane

PS: Morbid curiosity; it was up on the main YouTube page.

*Except for the albino snake. It’s clearly being held hostage.

I would like to thank every pomo litcrit idiot out there…

…who helped exile lyric poetry in our culture to the genres of science fiction and fantasy. If you’re wondering why kid’s television programming typically has horrible song lyrics that don’t scan, it’s because of that. Although I would have expected The Jim Henson Company to have escaped the rot.

Moe Lane

Pity, really: Sid the Science Kid seems otherwise unobjectionable.

Pluto is a planet, dammit.

Not a ‘dwarf planet.’ It was a planet when I was born, it’s a planet now, and it’ll be a planet after I’m dead. I don’t care what the International Astronomical Union has to say about it.

And get off my lawn!

Moe Lane

PS: Sign the petition!\

PPS: No, the Yuggoth
thing has nothing to do with it. Really. Honest. Not a thing.

PPPS: Via Fark Geek.

Hip-hop steadily losing its bling.

Cruelly, the WSJ provides the real names of its interviewees whenever possible.

We must be in a recession: conspicuous consumption in hip-hop / rap / whatever they’re calling it this week is down. Way down. Via Mickey K:

Culture of Bling Clangs to Earth as the Recession Melts Rappers’ Ice

After years of starring in rap-music lyrics and videos, “bling” is losing its ring.

The recession is cramping the style of hip-hop artists and wannabes — many of whom are finding it difficult to afford the diamond-encrusted pendants and heavy gold chains they have long used to project an aura of outsized wealth.

In an attempt to keep up appearances, celebrity jewelers say rappers are asking them to make medallions with less-precious stones and metals. Some even whisper that the artists have begun requesting cubic zirconia, the synthetic diamond stand-in and QVC staple.

Can you hold in your disappointment? Try to hold in your disappointment.
Continue reading Hip-hop steadily losing its bling.