In Limbo

It's now clear to me that we are in a videogame renaissance, aided in part by XBLA and the Playstation Store. "Artsy videogame" is no longer an oxymoronic title.

This bizarre little nightmare of a game, called Limbo, should convince a few remaining non-believers.

Meaty

This Video of Super Meat Boy came out the other day. Looks like a winner - be sure to check it out once it's released.

I would've loved to be at the sales pitch for that one... "A glob of meat leaps over buzz saws and dodges projectiles in an attempt to save his girlfriend from a nefarious cyborg in a tuxedo"

- if you can sell that idea, you can sell anything.

Anti-feminist

I've added a link to In These Times after reading an article by author Susan J. Douglas.

Most of it isn't news to me, especially after Levy's Female Chauvinist Pigs. The statistics are very revealing - "White women still make 75 cents to a man’s dollar, and it’s 62 cents for Black women and only 53 cents for Latinas. The majority of families with children in poverty are headed by single women..." - bad news for women in the workforce, despite portrayals in entertainment media that may suggest otherwise.

The works by both Douglas and Levy are lacking, however, in a definitive call to action, or even a suggestion for individual activism on any level above "awareness."

So, ladies, what do you want to do? Burn bras? Stop shaving? Dance naked in the streets to Bikini Kill and Le Tigre?

I'll definitely join in on that last one.

Born Again

In case you can't read the type, it's an advertisement for plastic surgery.

Nice.

Thanks to Pete Rollins for the image.

graff(argentin)iti

There's a new FatCap interview with Maxamiliano Ruiz, author and editor of Graffiti Argentina.

Really unique stuff is coming out of that country, both high and low brow. Throw ups, abstract works, murals, political pieces, sketches and gallery showings are all represented in this volume. Check it out and see what the streets of Buenos Aires are made of.

It's Lonely in the Modern World

Got this from Unhappy Hipsters:

"Anything to avoid returning to the zero-energy, cold-concrete, corrugated-metal death sentence."

Well put. Not everything on Dwell's website makes you feel "at home." It's been a few decades since those modernist fanatics really screwed up public housing in a bad way, and you'd think architects would have learned their lesson.

But sometimes even the best forget that their buildings are for people. And those people have lives; lives that aren't always shiny and squeaky clean. Houses can be places of solace, comfort, and warmth, but also chaos, coldness and anger - I mean, who has a family that doesn't quarrel? Who hasn't found their home to be oppressive and suffocating at some point in their life?

Even though Unhappy Hipsters is satirical, it brings up an important point that architects seldom consider; homes aren't for families who get along all of the time. The dining room isn't just for eating and communing - its also a battleground for the passive-aggressive wars of attrition that will inevitably take place, even in a "healthy" family unit.

Architects set the stage for the drama of everyday life. The successful house, like a successful set design, becomes an active participant; it's an omniscient cast member who takes on a constantly morphing role, pushing and pulling the action in subtle ways - some predictable, others not.

This isn't to say that everything on Dwell is bad news (a number of featured works are fantastic). No architecture can anticipate the full range of it's human inhabitants' behavior. Just remember that a house is meant to be lived in - life is not always pretty or happy or peaceful.

I saw the sign

The Revolution Began...

And Dada rides again!