Greg Sanders

Review: The Revisionists by Thomas Mullen

"You know what a president actually is?" he asked. "An unreliable narrator."
"Really." She sensed a speech coming.
"He's the one who tells us how it is, right? And we fall for it, we read along with his story and let him construct the reality around us. We want to be entertained, soothed. Until one day, we hit that certain chapter, right, an suddenly we see the light and realize, Holy s***, we've been lied to the whole time. Reality ain't like that all. His story was bulls***. But by then, it's too late. We've all been suckered, and we just have to follow along with his little plot."

The Revisionists is a quintessential D.C. novel, from the setting to the fact that whole acts' titles refer to jargon such as 'green badges' in reference to contractors. This fact may be remarkable, given the sci-fi framing of a story about a man sent back in time to ensure that the right calamities happen in order to ensure his future. However, as Moti notes in his review, they don't really clash. I suppose D.C. takes all sorts from all places, so why should the future be any different?

The book tells the story of four characters, the aforementioned time traveler, an Indonesian maid, a lawyer who recently lost her brother in the wars, and a former spook now working for the aforementioned contractors. The first act, before they really become enmeshed in one another's stories, is somewhat slow going, leavened by the sci-fi storyline. Once they start interacting and complicating one another's lives by trying to do the right thing in a compromised way, the story kicks into gear. The characters all face alienation and come to realize that they aren't quite as clever as they think they are, but the book doesn't counsel despair so much as the realization that hard choices are not so easily dodged.

I think a real strength of the book is that it actually grapples with last decade as lived by many middle-class D.C. types. This isn't a war novel so much as a homefront novel, as the lawyer's loss of her brother draws her into becoming a whistleblower and the former intelligence agent recounts the story of how he was drawn into the national security apparatus because he found the world common to many literary novels to be unreal. This is a world of moderates making questionable decisions and leftists that are so far out of the system to be ineffective, with little middle ground. While the prose didn't always have me enraptured, I enjoyed the match between the conflicting viewpoints and think the story managed to be unblinking without being merely cynical.

I liked the ending more than Moti, although we both interpret a key ambiguity of the book in the same way. My only notable critique is that I think the decision to go with a possible tech transfer to North Korea as a key plot element was a mistake. The DPRK model is one with no appeal outside their borders; they offer neither freedom, nor growth, nor an appealing market for sales. I could see going with the PRC in the relevant role or an authoritarian ally of the U.S.  Not every element of the North Korean plotline was bad; one dark chapter told a story coming out of the DPRK that definitely added to the book. But I think their involvement undermined the believability of the villains as it makes them not just evil but also quite foolish.

Source: Moti, thanks Moti!

Film Review: Les Miserables

We were pleased. Lowered expectations at the outset, based on criticisms from varying reviews, may have helped. Neither of us had previously seen a live production, although Kate had watched the 10th anniversary concert.

In general, I'd call this an actor's production. While there was spectacle, the director had a remarkable cast and emphasized that by making heavy use of close ups. The common observation was that Russell Crowe doesn't quite have the lungs for the traditional Javert, but he acted the role well. My favorite portrayal versus my beloved CDs was that of the urchin revolutionary Gavroche who had a few expanded songs and was very much a character in his own right rather than just a mascot.

I think the biggest risk the director took was being heavy-handed with his cinematography. There are a fair number of ensemble songs and the camera work, not just the voices, makes clear where our attention should be at any moment. I think that's simply necessary with disparate medleys like One Day More!, but I suspect those more familiar with the show might be a bit put off to not have the freedom to focus their attention as they like. I know I habitually pay more attention to the actors in minor roles when I've seen a play a few times.

From a political science perspective, I enjoyed Charles Walton's take in Foreign Affairs and do agree that it did have a notably pessimistic take on revolution. The revolt was exciting but from the size of crowds and the numbers of the soldiers it was easy to tell that they never had a chance.

"Hooper’s cinematic rendering is stunningly staged and brilliantly performed, but it cuts the author in half: it gives us the religious Hugo, not the revolutionary one. It tells the story of individual redemption through an odyssey of Catholic conscience, not of France’s collective redemption through political violence."

From a Kate perspective, the most entertaining part of the film is Enjolras' expressions as he listens to Marius moon over Cosette.  Our sympathies are totally with Enjolras.

Review: Twilight of the Elites by Chris Hayes

The book has already been ably summarized by Aaron Swartz over at Crooked Timber (worth reading the whole thing):

Our nation’s institutions have crumbled, Hayes argues. From 2000–2010 (the “Fail Decade”), every major societal institution failed…

Hayes pins the blame on an unlikely suspect: meritocracy. We thought we would just simply pick out the best and raise them to the top, but once they got there they inevitably used their privilege to entrench themselves and their kids (inequality is, Hayes says, “autocatalytic”). Opening up the elite to more efficient competition didn’t make things more fair, it just legitimated a more intense scramble. The result was an arms race among the elite, pushing all of them to embrace the most unscrupulous forms of cheating and fraud to secure their coveted positions. As competition takes over at the high end, personal worth resolves into exchange value, and the elite power accumulated in one sector can be traded for elite power in another: a regulator can become a bank VP, a modern TV host can use their stardom to become a bestselling author (try to imagine Edward R. Murrow using the nightly news to flog his books the way Bill O’Reilly does). This creates a unitary elite, detached from the bulk of society, yet at the same time even more insecure. You can never reach the pinnacle of the elite in this new world; even if you have the most successful TV show, are you also making blockbuster movies? bestselling books? winning Nobel Prizes? When your peers are the elite at large, you can never clearly best them.

The result is that our elites are trapped in a bubble, where the usual pointers toward accuracy (unanimity, proximity, good faith) only lead them astray. And their distance from the way the rest of the country really lives makes it impossible for them to do their jobs justly—they just don’t get the necessary feedback. The only cure is to reduce economic inequality, a view that has surprising support among the population (clear majorities want to close the deficit by raising taxes on the rich, which is more than can be said for any other plan). And while Hayes is not a fan of heightening the contradictions, it is possible that the next crisis will bring with it the opportunity to win this change.

My favorite points:

Meritocracy and Equality of Opportunity do not deserve the moral weight we give them:

Hayes draws on Robert Michel's iron law of oligarchy as an inspiration for his theory as to  why meritocracy fails:

"The Iron Law of Meritocracy states that eventually the inequality produced by a meritocratic system will grow large enough to subvert the mechanisms of mobility. Unequal outcomes make equal opportunity impossible. The Principle of Difference will come to overwhelm the Principle of Mobility. Those who are able to climb up the ladder will find ways to pull it up after them, or to selectively lower it down to allow their friends, allies, and kin to scramble up. In other words: 'Whoever says meritocracy says oligarchy.'" p. 57.

In comments, people often say that the American system is not genuinely meritocratic. I put as much weight on that as those that say the Soviet Union wasn't really communist.

Meritocracy gives the education system an impossible task:

Freddie DeBoer further develops the interaction of meritocracy and education (note that I disagree with his conclusion in the piece on the grounds of practicality and desirability):

Because our system now depends on the idea that children are universally capable of being educated to certain necessary levels to benefit our economy. Globalization and neoliberalism — the basic economic consensus of policy elites — destroyed working-class jobs and incomes and sparked a furious attack on labor’s ability to unionize and collectively bargain for better conditions. Yet the neoliberal policy apparatus still needs a mechanism to improve wages for those at the bottom, in part to improve their living conditions and in part because the economy requires them to be consumers as well as producers. Having cut the legs out from underneath the traditional mechanisms of social mobility for uneducated Americans, the necessary step becomes plain: educate all of them. Questions about whether everyone can be educated to the necessary level cannot be countenanced, to say nothing of whether this system breeds zero-sum competition for limited “skilled” jobs.

Our vexed arguments about education reform stem from our refusal to acknowledge that we are constrained by reality, regardless of the needs of our economic system.

Matt Yglesias regularly notes the incongruity of teachers arguing that students' socioeconomic traits are the main factors determining their success. However, that is not primarily an argument that teachers don't matter; it is just an explanation as to why even good teachers cannot boost up their students sufficiently that education can get the median wage going again. Good teachers might be a jet engine lifting up students, but that doesn't mean they have the power to get them into orbit. This does not mean that money spent getting better teachers is wasted. I believe the marginal returns on education to be quite high; it just means that even valuable education reforms won't do for workers what strong unions once managed. I do think that DeBoer overstates the "zero-sum" nature of competition for skilled jobs. There are a fair number of skills still in fairly great demand that may not be able to replace the unskilled work of yesteryear, but are still at a point where adding a worker increases the demand for other workers. However, there are also fields like law, where the education system at large is rooking people into accumulating great debt for often dubious job prospects. I think that situation has persisted as long as it has because LSAT-ing your way to success is entirely in line with the myths of meritocracy.

Look for fraud, not bubbles:

Eager to avoid repeating their mistakes, many pundits constantly ponder whether this or that is the next bubble. Chris Hayes shows that why this is mistaken. The problem with the housing boom wasn't excessive enthusiasm, it was widespread fraud. The basis of the problem has been understood for centuries:

Thomas Gresham: "In this wild, unregulated monetary world, you had two different type of coins floating in circulation: "good" money, which was pure and properly weighted, and "bad" money, which was debased and did not contain the amount of it purported to contain. In such a situation people got pretty good at identifying what was good money and what was bad;  what they'd do was use bad money for exchange while having the good money. Eventually bad money became the only money in circulation… fraudulent actors drive out the honest if fraudulent actors receive no sanction for their action." p. 92-93

Hayes also notes this pattern in the steroid scandal in Enron, Major League Baseball and cheating under Michelle Rhee's education reforms in Washington D.C. (He contrasts that with Chicago where Steven Levitt was hired to monitor for cheating and managed to prevent widespread scandals.) Hayes cites William Black's description of these cases as "Criminogenic environments" where corruption became endemic. To me, the connection to bubbles is obvious, as providing an easy path to success feeds on itself and in business or financial sectors may redirect resources from legitimate enterprises.

The term Fractal Inequality:

It's a lovely term that updates what Lewis Carroll called the inner ring phenomenon. Status competition is like an onion: as you manage to break into one layer there's always another inner ring. What's changed in my view is globalization: elites now compare themselves to others at events like the World Economic Forum at Davos, not just those in the same town, state, or even country.

The book left me with three questions:

How important was globalization to this phenomenon? I think there is a cosmopolitan global elite in a way there really wasn't in prior eras. But even if I'm right, how big of a driver of inequality is this phenomenon? Similarly, what's the relationship between trade and inequality, and can trade deals be fashioned such that all the gains don't accrue to the top?

Do civil service barriers help? In the think tank where I work, the difficulty of corporate-government cooperation and of hiring government workers from the outside is regularly decried. This may lead to you correctly pegging most think tank as meritocratic (note: I'm speaking for myself here as always on this blog). But this leaves me curious: to what extent do civil service rules actually manage to put a break on the emergence of a meritocratic elite? Or have they been made obsolete by a churn of employees departing for better-paying corporate work and an increased reliance on contractors?

How does our present situation compare to pre-WWII history? I'd take meritocracy, with all its faults, over aristocracy in a heartbeat, although I suppose there's something to be said for competing sets of elites. Hayes does note that the meritocracy manages greater diversity than older forms of elite governance, but I'd be interested in a bit more history which might reveal to what extent the vaunted American 1950s were a postwar aberration or a phenomenon that had been replicated in other times and places.

The Magician King by Lev Grossman: Review

I enjoyed the language and the world of the Magicians, but I was left cold by the lead. Quentin was a privileged git who was realistically sketched, but who angered me with his judgmental moping. He's still the lead, but now that he's become one of the four rulers of the magical alternate dimension of Fillory he's actually grappling with how he should live his life rather than bemoaning his failure to find happiness. He also shares this story with the extended flashbacks of Julia, a childhood friend he left behind when he was accepted into the arcane boardinghouse Brakebills. She is now also a Queen of Fillory, but hers was a black market education, attained through hustling and without the safeguards of the academy. While her story is not without happy moments, the end of the flashback is enormously dark. The end to the book I will not spoil, but I found it far more satisfying than the ending to the Magicians which notably suffered in its final chapter.

In enjoying the end, I disagree with Alyssa Rosenberg (important spoilers abound) who has an excellent suggestion for a narrative change to the final chapter, but finds that Quentin's changes are largely derived from Julia's suffering in an old and unfortunate trope. I think multiple reasons are established, but I don't have much to add beyond what I put in the comments on her blog.

I would recommend the book to anyone who enjoys Grossman's writing and characterization, even if they weren't fond of some of the characters in the Magicians. The thornier question is do I recommend the pair of books to someone who has read neither? While my endorsement isn't as strong as Moti's, I'm going to go with a hesitant yes for fans of modern world fantasy and stories that lean heavily on the interior lives of their characters. On the latter point, it may be simplest to just check out the first book and read a chapter or three. If you don't get the urge to quote lines to other people in the room, then put it down and don't look back.

Source: Recommended by Moti and checked out by Kate from Howard County Libraries, thanks to all three.

Quick Review: Hamlet's Hit Points

Hamlet's Hit Points by Robin Laws is a book that proposes a system for analyzing fictional works as if they were story-oriented role-playing games. The core system is breaking the story down into beats which involve procedural and dramatic ups and downs for the protagonists. There's more breadth than that summary implies, but on the whole it's a fairly simple system and along with the commentary is definitely inspirational. The phrase 'hit points is more there for alliteration, the system does not examine any such values for characters but instead looks at the ebb and flow of their fortunes.

Are you interested in the theory of RPGs? If so, do you think of the system as primarily a conflict resolution mechanism in a cooperative game? Are you unsatisfied with your ability to emulate some of your favorite stories using present tools and want to understand the why (if not necessarily the how)? Then I'd say buy Hamlet's Hit Points. It's a fairly swift read, available in print or a variety of electronic forms, and a fairly unique form of criticism to boot.

For more, including applicability to running RPGs, check out the Hamlet's Hit Points entry on the Inherent in the System wiki.

[Updated: Grammar fixes.]

Lincoln: Review: A good film about Lincoln and Congressional politics

As is often the case, I found that Alyssa Rosenberg summed things up nicely.

Lincoln is at its most clear-eyed, and its most-effective, when the movie tackles the question of how to muster votes, and bipartisan votes at that, for the end of slavery, a section of the film dominated by Stevens and Secretary of State William Seward (David Straitharn). The two men begin the movie in very different positions, Stevens as a life-long advocate for the end of slavery and racial equality, Seward unconvinced of the Amendment’s viability or necessity. “Since when has our party unanimously supported anything?” he asks his president, particularly given the prospect of the South suing for peace. “Why tarnish that luster with a battle in the House?” But Lincoln makes himself clear: he will have the Amendment in January of 1865, even if it means buying off lame duck Democrats who need employment when they leave their offices in March. “If procuring votes with jobs is what you intend, I’ll procure from Albany the skulking men who are suited to this shady work,” Seward tells Lincoln, resigned to his task.

I think that there is a fair case to be made that it doesn't do a great job telling the larger story of abolition as with the exception of a great corporal at the start, the African American characters are often passive in an ahistorical manner. However, the film is called Lincoln, after all. It might be best viewed with Glory for the time being although I think there's also room for a great film about abolition.

I actually would prefer to be writing about how I liked the film's portrayal of politics: rough and tumble at times but also requiring genuine skill and yet historically offering a means for progress. I think it also did a reasonable job of depicting politics in wartime. Corey Roberts above cites some unfortunate statements by Tony Kushner; I thought the film itself fairly clearly favored pushing for the 13th Amendment even if it meant possibly delaying the end of the war and the subsequent death toll at Petersburg. I also thought that the relationship between Lincoln and Stevens was one of the more interesting ones of the film and that it noted the importance of principled radicals in politics even if arguing that at times they should compromise if only for appearance's sake.

However, I think the importance of African American contributions, which the film points to at several times but does not accord a main role (e.g. one that could be filled by Fredrick Douglass) deserves enough mention that I'm closing by linking to Ta-Nehisi Coates' discussion of the Civil War as having three factions. The reason I think this is so vital is that the Civil War, the war to end slavery, is often used as a moral benchmark when considering other wars. However, our use of it is highly damaged if we forget that slaves and freemen and women were vital to victory. It was not a humanitarian intervention on their behalf; it was a war that they vitally committed to the extent they were allowed to do so.

Update: Kushner clarified his meaning in a manner I found quite satisfying and in keeping with the film. I don't want to endorse his viewpoint necessarily, but it's a perfectly reasonable one. It also was in keeping with my reading of the film.

Deadly Premonitions: Horror Game Critique

Deadly Premonitions is a trailblazer. The genre is a new medley: open-world horror. I'd say the medium was No More Heroes driving and Laura Bow (or Sleep No More) adventure games voyeurism on a bed of a Shenmue style of world. The feel was David Lynchian, I think; I'm not actually a big David Lynch fan. I saw Inland Empire with friends for much the same reason I played this game and I'm glad I did but I haven't felt any desire to repeat the experience.

So why play the game? Well, it's more fun than the one David Lynch film I've seen. That doesn't compel you? Well try this on for size:

So who should play this game (or more likely wait until March 2013 to play the director's cut)?

 

Skyfall quick review: Variations on a theme

My friend Omar's immediate response to the film was that it evokes the Bond franchise more than the past two Daniel Craig films. I had replied that for me it evoked classic filmmaking more and thus early Bonds.

However, on further pondering, I do think that it did quite clearly pick up themes toyed with by both Goldeneye and Die Another Day as well. Alyssa Rosenberg has a review that covers most any point I'd like to make, and I'd emphasize her mentions of the National Gallery and Severine.

So what to add, I think I will wander into spoiler territory here:

1. As an international relations type, I should mention that cyberwarfare does not work that way.
2. I did not actually find M's are you afraid speech especially compelling. Well delivered to be sure, but the 'everything is cyber' parliamentarian is rather a strawwoman. I'm not really sure what real world argument the film tracks to if any.
3. However, I think the choice of strategy at the end was interesting and telling. Bond went low tech and low armament to fight on home turf instead. That strategy worked to minimize the civilian and police casualties that had been ramping up earlier in the film. That strategy was also effective, albeit with a real cost. It was a choice I found to be more interesting than the earlier debate.
4. Wonder how this film plays in the Scottish independence vote. Interestingly enough, Bond tends to say England rather than Britain, despite being born in Scotland. I have no special insight here, I'm just curious.

As for the review, if you enjoy Bond films or action heavy spy films, I suspect you'll find this quite satisfying. I've drifted away some from the genre over the years and that doesn't seem to be changing, but this was still a fun visit for me. I feel the film respected me and  merits some respect in turn. Finally in Bond's first confrontation with his nemesis he used a line that will enter the top 10 Bond quotes.

Extra Lives by Tom Bissell: Review

Tom Bissell's recent post on Dishonored reminded me that I should stop taking the easy road with books I had mixed feelings about and actually review something I loved. His book Extra Lives qualified. This review comes perhaps a bit late, even the backlash against Bissell, or at least his imitators, is now a fading memory over at Critical Distance. Nonetheless, I devoured his book of essays about video games and I  wanted to specify why.

First off, the man has style. The book's nine essays each using a different game as a framing mechanism and say something different about the medium. It is perhaps warrants a demerit that he tends to write about his experiences with games rather necessarily critiquing them in the manner of a game designer, but I think that better positions him to write out about larger questions that designers by necessity put aside. The most extreme example is the essay that ends the book and is available from the Observer on Grand Theft Auto and Cocaine, but this book should not be mistaken for a memoir and while that essay entranced me when I first read it, it was not my favorite.

What drew me to the book was Bissell's firm command of why I enjoy game but also why they are problematic. Even most of the best games often use violence as a crutch and have their stupid moments. As a English major, he naturally has a particular interest in those games with poor writing, but he also works through the wide array of reasons for that. Comparatively few of them, at least amongst the better games, could be solved simply by hiring more and better writers. That said, he certainly does not wish to abandon story:

Yes, as difficult as it sometimes is to believe, games have authors, however diminutive an aura he or she (or frequently, they) might exude. What often strikes me whenever I am playing a game is how glad I am of that hovering authorial presence. Although I enjoy the freedom of a games, I also appreciate the remindful crack of narrative whip–to seek entertainment is to seek that whip—and the mixture of the two is what makes games such a seductive, appealingly dyadic form of entertainment… I want to be told a story, albeit one I happen to be part of an can affect, even if in small ways. If I wanted to tell a story, I would not be playing video games.

Ultimately, the book raises more questions than it answers and undercuts itself with harsh realities nearly as often as it enchants. That is inevitable, it is the state of the medium. When he does provide answers, I don't even always agree them but perhaps especially when I disagree I feel I've learned from grappling with his suggestions.

The book helped me work out my theory of why I rather enjoy videogames, as well as various forms of RPGs that Bissell was not trying to address but that he speaks to even so. They give experiences, a chance to test out strategies towards living, try out paths not taken, or better yet chase down dreams that were precluded by detail birth or utterly impossibly to begin with. When other players are involved, some of the weaknesses fade away as there is another human that can react directly to the ways you try to affect the story and that can shatter the pleasing illusions of uber-competence bred by single player, particularly when quick loads are at hand. Travel appeals to me for much the same reason, I find that to be a more fulfilling habit on the whole, but also a far more expensive one. Thus, as for my favorite games, I must agree with a line from chapter one: "It was a an extra life; I am grateful to have had it."

The Magicians by Lev Grossman: Critique

[Updated with valuable comment] The Magicians is a literary novel about a boy who discovers that he's a wizard and goes off to an exclusive magical academy instead of college. Capfox gets at what's best about the book (read the whole thing):

If you've heard about this book, you've probably heard that it's like Harry Potter or Narnia but more grown-up, where grown-up is generally taken to mean it has more drinking and sex. And to a certain extent, that's true: our hero, Quentin Coldwater, finds his way out of a normal, humdrum life he's unsatisfied by, and into Brakebills, a magical university where he makes new friends, masters a lot of magic through lots of discipline and hard work, and has a variety of adventures. And yes, there is drinking and sex. You can see where the comparisons came from…

The writing is fluid and evocative, and there are definite deconstructions and take-offs from Narnia and the Harry Potter books. The characters are well-sketched, for the main ones, and are complex enough to feel both likable and not likable at the same time. The choice of themes and the building of the relationships really resonated with me. It took a bit for me to get set up in the story and feel attached to everyone, but I ripped through it afterwards. The very end part of it was a bit odd, as it didn't feel as earned as the rest of the story, feeling more like a sequel hook, but I'm very much looking forward to reading the sequel, so I can't punish it too much. In fact, I think I will go start that now.

For me, the end of the novel was actually an anti-sequel hook. The main character, Quentin, was often pretty unsympathetic and while that turned around some during the finale the last chapter settled my opinion that he was an entitled prig and the chapter before that wasn't so much better. That said, I do agree on the writing; I found the characters plausible and the world well-thought through, although your mileage may vary there as it left a writer friend of mine cold.

In any event, my big problem with dear Quentin is that he wasn't ambitious enough to be a failure. Life keeps handing him prize after prize and he makes no real effort at contentment nor chasing a greater good. Alyssa Rosenberg points to the lack of career counseling, and I suppose that's true enough, but it seems to me that by the time you get to college you should have picked up that once your subsistence and higher needs are covered you should make some effort to help people or otherwise make the world a better place even if it doesn't get you the crown of a magician king. I know lots of bright people that I see parts of in the book, including myself, but they all managed to at least make a good faith attempt at enjoying their circumstances and/or pursuing a vocation. As for Quentin, I feel like those ridiculous schools that try to ban the Potter books should instead substitute The Magicians; it might be a far better way of convincing children that magic is a tool of an entitled elite that's everything that's wrong with America.

I'm somewhat curious about The Magician King. I liked some of the ensemble - admittedly most of all those who came to bad ends [with one notable exception] - and I found the portrayals empathetic and the language alluring. But unless the proletariat of the Narnia-analogue have a chance at revolution against these privileged bright young things, I will come away most dissatisfied.

[Comment from Mai-Anh on my Google Plus feed: "In the end, I liked it better once I reframed it to look at Quentin not as a hero or even a protagonist, but as the "representative symptom", almost." I completely agree. I'm not sure to what extent that was what Grossman intended but he did reveal just how entitled Quentin was in a variety of ways, most notably the reappearance of a character who wasn't so lucky/skilled as to make it into Brakebills.]

Death Note Manga: Critique

Death Note's core starts with a fairly simple premise: A top high school student named Light comes into possession of a notebook with the power to kill anyone he wants, as long as he knows their name and face. He uses that ability to kill those he deems criminals, choosing most of his targets based on the television news. He is soon opposed by L, a mysterious master detective facing a particularly daunting challenge as Light's supernatural methods are exceedingly difficult to trace back to him and have an initially unknown methodology. This challenge is compounded by the fact that Light is quite willing to kill anyone who gets in his way, a murderousness limited only by his desire to avoid raising suspicion to himself.

This is a rather well known series, which is part of the reason I read it. I worked through books 1-7 (of 13) because Kate was going to donate them to the library and I was curious. The writing does make for an effective cat and mouse thriller, there's a nice ensemble of supporting male police officers, and the character design is quite effective at differentiating the players, which is vital when dealing with a more realistic setting. That said, I was content to skim at points and to stop reading after a logical breakpoint in book seven. See subdee over at Hooded Utilitarian for a trenchant critique that does reveal the ending.

The key excerpt:

There was so much bad faith moralizing in that series. A single sociopath high school student was going to make the world a better place by killing already-apprehended criminals, who were waiting in jail for their sentences to be decided, using a magic notebook. This would deter other criminals from committing crimes, leading to a better, crime-free world. Because it’s the countries that have a transparent, (semi-)functioning justice systems and active, (semi-)free cultures of journalism, that report on crime and imprison criminals according to the rules of law, that are the worst off, am I right?

The thing is, while Death Note did a pretty good job of painting Light, the [megalomaniacal] serial killer high school honors student who lucks into the possession of an instrument of mass murder, in a negative light (because power corrupts and only the corrupt seek power), it didn’t really have many characters who were much better – who were morally upright and competent.

Light's plan was incredibly simple-minded while surrounded by incredibly sophisticated measures to save his own neck. I think the book failed to address, in even the most general way, the second-order effects of such a campaign on criminals and the issue of wrongful accusation. Nonetheless, like subdee I think the series has its points. It does a fairly effective job of being a thought experiment on the dark instinct that 'we just need to kill criminals'. The series answer seems to be "I'll do you one better, let's have one of the smartest guys around implement your clever plan and see how it works out." Turns out wielding that sort of power unchecked makes you a monster even if you stay somewhat sane and that when ideological allies gets involved things get very messy very fast. Similarly, the characters with consciences will line up against that plan and be willing to risk their lives to stop it. I think this may be diluted by later manga - from what I understand of the actual ending it probably could have played out with serious time skips in the back half of book seven - but there's no real point commenting on books I haven't read.

That said, I have largely lost my patience for characters that are extremely clever about manipulating convoluted rules that are specific to the novel or series. The final Harry Potter novel was particularly bad about this when it came to wand rules. Death Note isn't quite as bad; it sets up new rules every chapter with key ones coming in place well before they get used, but I still just stopped caring about the new rules and Light's elaborate explanations of how effectively he exploited them. No doubt he's a terrific rules lawyer, but I only give big points for cleverness when there's a simple set of starting rules or the rules have some metaphorical or literal basis in the real world. To be fair Death Note actually pulls off most of its cleverness without relying on rules of transfer and its use of memory loss led to a great plotline with a sympathetic Light.

In the end, I think Death Note 1-7 delivers on its cat and mouse thriller promises. That said, if you already get that it's wrong as a general rule to go around killing criminals, then I'm not sure there's much to learn from it.

Source: Kate, thanks Kate!

Review: Guidebook Android App for 2012 Otakon

Are you the type that's always desperately searching through a convention/conference schedule? Hopping from a panel to a screening in search of a free seat or more exciting content? Addicted to your smart phone and wanting to apply it to ever more aspects of your life? Then I heartily recommend the Guidebook Android app. It may also be available for the iPhone; I haven't checked.

I'll be attending Japanese anime/manga/culture convention Otakon this weekend up in Baltimore and downloaded the app after hearing about it from Omar. It has exceeded my expectations: the schedule is searchable, you can easily add and remove events from your own personal schedule, and it even offers reminders. However, the best part is that it seems both fast and robust. Even the slightly clunky bits, like the listings for fan parodies and AMVs which presumably had to be updated at the last minute, aren't really a problem.

While I'm writing this up in the context of Otakon, I think I'd find it handy for professional conferences as well.

Feature for which I'd be willing to buy a premium version: The main additional feature I would like would be the ability to share schedules and maybe check-in to events. I'd put my price point for such a feature at $5 for a premium app or the like. I some how doubt that there's enough demand to make it worthwhile, so for now I'll appreciate the features that are there and try to remember to "like" my favorite panels as I go.

Sleep No More (3 of 3)

After wandering away from the bar, my last hour began watching a scene in a bedroom and coming to the increasingly strong and eventually undeniable realization that there was a secret passage in the room. I feel a little silly in my hesitation to use it; the elevator operator introducing us to the show encouraged boldness and if the chance to follow a secret passage isn't the time to be bold, I don't know what is.

That said, this was perhaps my most conventional hour. This definition of convention includes nudity, male nudity at that, so worry not, we're still talking experimental theater. However, I have taken to heart out of context advice from over at L'Hote: don't be afraid to do something even if it might make you look like a stereotype or a naïf. So, after my sojourn through a hidden gateway I resumed exploring and travelled down to the lower levels of the Hotel. There's a grand ballroom that was at the time of my arrival functioning as Birnam Wood. Rather cleverly, the ballroom is surrounded by a balcony which makes it one of the better spots for mass gatherings and having one's choice of multiple scenes. Passing through the mobile forest, I walked into an altar to see MacBeth praying. Rest assured, his dear wife soon arrived to put a stop to that in a manner that was perhaps more vampiric than traditionally seductive.

While both impressed me - playing the dead as MacBeth did briefly can under circumstances look as challenging as playing the quick - I chose to follow Lady MacBeth into the ballroom as she readied the space for a dance. That proved to be one of my more memorable choices, as she came walking in my direction and after I made one small step out of the way I realized she was headed towards me rather than past me. She took my hand, stroked my palm briefly, gave it a light kiss and then closed it around nothing at all. This is not one of the vaunted one on one scenes - the cast do choose people for simple interactions as I witnessed a handful of times later that night - but I'll admit, the odd sensation of interacting with a character probably hooked me into seeing that particular plotline through.

If you don't know the rest of the tale of the Scottish play, you probably shouldn't hear it from me. Suffice to say the cleaning off of blood was handled quite well and left MacBeth as exposed as his wife had been earlier, but for him it was at a far lower point in his life. The downside of following one of the main plots is that there are far more observers about, but the principles made use of all of the space available to them and I never felt crowded out of the action. The show ends as the ghostly guests are gathered together, for a scene that I'm told plays different for the final iteration of each set. We were then let out to live music at the initial bar to discuss what went down and gird ourselves for the long trek back to Brooklyn.

So after that show, my main gameplay tip would be to focus on big picture exploration. I might also recommend leading off with a more conventional experience of picking an actor or perhaps an object to follow and then setting of on your own after you come to recognize a few more of the players and how they fit together. On a more practical note, a watch that lights up can be quite handy and contacts are to be preferred to glasses if at all possible. Finally, I largely avoided spoilers, but if you're likely to only go once it may well be worth finding some online playbill or the like. I generally found the experience was enhanced when I knew who someone was. For tips on performing well as an observer and getting a one-on-one scene you'll have to go elsewhere, but I think it is safe to say that being an active observer and being quick to follow things that catch your eye is quite often rewarded.

Source: Bought my own ticket, but only made it up because Matt suggested it and did most of the driving. Thanks Matt and thanks Brainy Gamer for initially piquing my interest. Also, thanks to Ian and Kris for the lodging!

Sleep No More (Part 2 of 3: Here there be spoilers)

At midnight, the story began anew in the Hotel McKittrick. I was wandering the third floor cemetery and discovered that pointing statues are oddly capable of evoking my fear. Perhaps because I was never certain that there would not be a living statue - a legacy of too much D&D and the odd street performer I'm sure - and because of a sense of dread at what they might be pointing out. The ambient music largely heightened the effect, although the number that Lady Gaga sampled to start the extended video for Born this Way may have subsequently lost its power to frighten me. Regardless, the musical cue and the actions of my fellow masked guests drew me to the main bedroom of the MacBeth's.Continuing into what might be considered spoilers, a nurse came in and prepared and laid out a dress for Lady MacBeth by the bath. Multiple copies of a letter were also left waiting for her, describing the recent good news her husband had received. Or at least that's what I thought it said; cursive has long been my nemesis and the darkness doesn't help, but a working knowledge of the Scottish play will do wonders.

The Lady's scene left her quite exposed physically as she prepared for her bath and emotionally as she danced with her joy at her husband's advancement. Upon his return the mood stayed celebratory for a time, but again through dance they argued and made up, came together and clashed. I am no connoisseur of dance, but could pick up the gist of scenes in plays I knew, even when they weren't necessarily occurring in order. Similarly, while the show made some use of side rooms guarded by black-masked staff, the sheer agility required to run dance scenes amongst observers is truly impressive.

As the MacBeths went about their business, I decided to go exploring and went up to the fifth floor: the hospital and forest maze. The hospital itself was quite fully-realized, although I don't think it drew me in quite as much as other settings. I'm not entirely sure, but I suspect both from personal experience reasons and because they are a common setting for survival horror, few of my favorite stories or moments have taken place in such. Watching the nurses was interesting; they had their own fairly creepy routine which was fun to watch in short snippets but I wasn't tempted to follow them. That changed when I was walking in a room with cut pages hanging off lines of strings, taking up much of the corner. I had studied them for a time, not divining their meaning, when a nurse walked in and revealed several of the secrets of the room. Even better, she then proceeded to the forest maze, climbed through a gate, and found a fellow nurse in a locked hutch in the corner of the maze. While this was happening the number of people observing the scene steadily increased - big moments typically happen in accessible spaces - but witnessing the prelude made it all the more thrilling. I have no idea what any of it meant, but watching the dance of the two nurses was the weird and wonderful moment that most defined the show for me.

Satisfied with my exploration of the fifth floor, I proceeded back to the fourth, where the elevator first let me off before I chased after an actor. This was the town of Glen Gallows which was home to a number of small shops and two rather different classes of bar. A second of hesitation in following an action scene I stumbled across cost me the chance to witness an interrogation scene, but there was some consolation in wandering into Hecate's Bar and witnessing a dance by the character known as the sexy witch. This was followed by an encounter between two characters that was almost normal by comparison and a valuable reminder that when sharing a drink with a suspicious person, make sure they take the first sip. Subsequently, I enjoyed the puzzle-solving satisfaction of helping fellow observers try to piece together a torn-up note. I never actually pursued this strategy, but I do wonder if following items rather than people might be a good way to learn more about how the various stories interwove.

I'm not sure of my timing, but I think around this moment, the the clock struck one and the final hour began.

Sleep No More: In which my adventure gaming heritage distracts me before midnight (part 1 of 3)

Sleep No More is a form of theater as immersive setting: actors rush between intertwined stories while visitors navigate the ambient gloom. It takes its inspiration from Macbeth and Hitchcock's film version of Rebecca, but the real romance of it is getting to see a play where the backstage is just as fully realized as what is typically shown to the audience, a sort of survival horror version of the conceit behind Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. The audience members all wear white-beaked Venetians masks, ones that may startle you if seen in the mirror and that helps your fellow voyeurs fade into the background as ghosts of lesser importance.

The nominal Hotel McKittrick, location of the show, is in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. The show is up to three hours, but you may need to arrive well before your ticket time in order to get that early call to the elevator. The check-in process was pleasingly efficient; the coat check fairly mandatory if you have any bags, but it would be a good idea even if it wasn't. The hotel lounge was a fully realized velvet room that left me vaguely apprehensive that the protagonist from Bioshock would be bursting in at any moment to slaughter us all. The bar is a pleasant place to wait for your card to be called, and you do want to be called earlier. The start times are necessarily variable to avoid overcrowding but the end time is fixed. We arrived at the hotel at eleven and discovered a substantial line; I think I made it to the show itself less than a half hour before midnight.

The elevator let me off on the fourth floor, the town of Gallows Glen, and I looked around a few of the rooms before I gave chase to an actor who went flying through to the stairway. I successfully arrived at the places of rest floor (bedrooms and a cemetery), but I lost the actor. Exploring the bedrooms was an excellent consolation prize as they managed to be creepy using a variety of approaches from bizarre to insidious. Some of the advice I heard suggested treating the Hotel McKittrick as an adventure game setting (sans kleptomania): appreciate the amazing staging by rooting through drawers, glancing through books, and seeking out what is hidden. However, while I found little details like an array of letters scribed on a bedframe, I came to reject that strategy. If a letter, a mirror, or a wardrobe draws your eye, by all means take a closer look, but unless you've planned multiple trips there is far too much going on to spend time on a pixel hunt. Instead I alighted to the cemetery which soon enough led me to my first scene.

2012-06-30 Journey to the Northwest

We were extraordinarily lucky in our vacation timing, as when we left the D.C. area there were temperatures above 100 degrees and thunderstorms causing widespread power outs. During the first few rainy days locals were apologizing for the weather; we gladly informed them that no apology was necessary. Our flight out to Seattle was straightforward; the only point of note is that this was my first flight where Southwest had both the technical capacity and legal authority to offer wifi on the flight. I passed on this revolutionary opportunity as I didn't feel like paying the fee, $5 if memory serves, although some future flight will no doubt dun me for my internet addiction. The airport itself was a bit more exciting as we got our Seattle transit smart cards:  One Regional Card for All (ORCA). That said, we misused our Orca cards on our maiden trip and managed to miss the validation stations. We felt chagrined about that we docked our cards on the way out rather than the way in.

We used a Budget rental car place off 4th Street; it was a great location and we were relieved that they let us immediately leave our car in their garage as parking in Seattle starts at $4 for a half hour. We walked over to the Seattle Public Library on advice of Kate's coworker. The design is quite distinctive and modern with curves on the outside and any number of observation points and views out as well as towards the often open architecture on the inside. My favorite gimmick was the book spiral, depicted on the left. The hallway gently ramps letting bibliophiles walk through the entire Dewey Decimal System without needing to use stairs or elevators.

After seeing the library we walked down to Pike Place Market, known for its fresh fish and produce and thus quite a pleasing olfactory experience. We bought groceries and flowers and walked by the shops on the lower level. Kate was excited to see the original Starbucks, although she put off her pilgrimage through the line until later in the evening when the line was shorter. After seeing the market we enjoyed a late lunch at the nearby Crepe de France, which surprised us by the ampleness of their entrees. Our lodging was a timeshare in Birch Bay, some hundred miles to the North near the border, so we did not stay too late in Seattle. The journey up was  beautifully adorned by fog which clung to the hills in a manner that I found difficult to capture on camera despite reminding me of Kurasawa films.

Review: Founding Farmers in Rockville

My family went to Founding Farmers near Rockville a month or two back for the first time. It's a chic new chain known for its emphasis on organic and local produce. It can be rather busy on a weekend afternoon. We'd made a reservation but despite accidentally arriving rather early we had to wait to be seated until a bit after our reservation time. Similarly, we waited for forty-five minutes for our entrees to arrive; that was partially due to a miscommunication about whether we wanted beignets as an appetizer or dessert but was still a bit frustrating. Our one other problem was the noise level; the place is fairly wide open in a way that makes conversation more difficult without the benefits of live music or the like.

Those complaints aside the food and drink were both quite good and did live up to the promised local and organic appeal. I thought the entrees ranged from good to great. Portion size was variable, my grandmother's macaroni and cheese was overly abundant by my mother's dish was a bit small. Also I did like that that the standalone meals weren't too expensive; the costs come more from the enticing selection of drinks, appetizers, sides, and desserts. I don't think all restaurants need to do that, but I like when the more frugal and the more extravagant can dine together without too much fuss.

All and all, not a bad experience, but I'd recommend sticking to times when they're less busy.

Review: Half Revolution

Half Revolution tells the story of a group of friends living near Tahrir Square at the start of the Egyptian Revolution. They all have strong ties to Egypt, although they do represent a mix of nationalities. The story they tell is an interesting one: they are quite supportive of the revolution and do go out into the streets; however, their role is unsurprisingly more that of the documentarian than the full-on revolutionary. This isn't to say that even though they eventually leave, they aren't taking real risks when they're out filming. One of the group  is beaten by Mubarak's thugs and all of them become increasing fearful as the hardliners take the streets near them.

Note at the start that I do say it is the story of the friends, not the revolution. This isn't to say that they don't try to tell the story of the revolution; they get the reactions of people on the street and do get footage of the action. However, I think the cosmopolitan nature of the group of filmmakers works  against them to an extent as the full story of the revolution ultimately belongs to those that couldn't leave. Similarly, while we got a variety of expressions  from people on the street, we didn't get much in the way of interviews with key leaders or representative samples.

This not to knock the filmmakers. I think they had two choices: to go with a short  film, perhaps less than a half hour, that just told the story of the revolution and relegated themselves to full observer status, or to tell their stories, which does add to what we know about what happened while also giving us characters to relate to a sense of the fear they were working under. Directors Omar Shargawi and Karim El Hakim have done Egypt a service in my view and may well represent the start of what I suspect will be a larger phenomenon of filmmakers with the necessary talent and skill to record events that they happen to be on scene for. Likely, future key events may even have multiple such filmmakers on hand, and they will have the option of working together to give an even wider lens to such key events.

Photos of Tahrir Square and the burned National Democratic Party headquarters by myself and my mother. Available under a creative commons license.

Source: Silver Docs Tickets from my mother. Thanks Mom!

Review: Tea or Electricity

The documentary opens on the mountain village of Ifri in Morocco. There's minimal agriculture and no industry of note: mostly breeding and herding of livestock with some collecting of nuts and timber. We soon cut to a government crew coming out to the village after stopping in the market of a nearby town stocked with consumer products likely in their second or third lifetime. The government electricians make it out to the village with some difficulty - the last part of the journey is on foot - and tell the residents that they'll be back to bring electricity when the seasons allow. They don't have time to stay for tea, but do have the opportunity to hear that while electricity is fine what the residents really want is a road.

My mother and I wanted to see this film after witnessing a similar tale in Egypt. Director Jerome Lemaire's motivation was similar but much more audacious; he went into the extraordinary four-year film project after observing the electrification process in other places. As you might guess, getting on the grid has a wide variety of implications: it requires improvements to the road with free labor from the villagers, it adds light to the nights and learning to read need no longer be done by candlelight, cell phones become a practical possibility albeit with poor reception, television arrives and with it knowledge of a wider world and consumerism, and the minimum expectations for life change as even the poorer residents add a few light bulbs. Part of what makes this story fascinating is that the people of Ifri are not naïfs; the men of the village are well aware that change will come and that some of the changes will exploit them. One of the residents and more interesting characters argues for bargaining for lower prices and no flat fees by adopting village-wide solidarity as he has heard has been done elsewhere but there's few takers.

The film is done in the modern style where the director takes a light hand and his voice is rarely heard except when he's asking the locals questions. I think this approach works well, as we get a fuller picture of the villagers in their own words and it greatly reduces the temptation towards didactic story-telling. I'd say the only weakness of the style is that it denies us some pieces of the larger context and at times reduces the amount one can learn from the first viewing. Seeing a map would allow us to better track the villagers use of local government equipment for road building and track the progress of the electrical towers. An interview with electrical officials would reveal that the villagers are right and that the electrical project will pay for itself from the government's perspective after five years of use, a fact that only came out during the Q&A. Finally, name and date overlays would help us track a wider range of villagers and better understand the pace of change. That said, I think it can be reasonable to use footage out of sequence, so perhaps clear divisions between the four years would not have been possible.

This film is effective, well-organized primary source material; it allows anyone interested in development see it in progress in a way that even many field workers may miss. Just imagine gathering footage over four years in a village that lacks electricity! For me the key takeaway is that this is how a transition from a informal economy to a formal economy works. The villagers of Ifri ended up trading their labor to make infrastructure improvements as well as some of their farm animals to pay the connection fees and buy light bulbs and such. Poorer villagers could effectively  get discounts, not just by having fewer light bulbs but also by doing some of the installation work themselves and by disguising their limited ability to pay as long as they could. The rural poor often have more localized assets than you might imagine - that's a good part of why they haven't left for areas with better condition - but in the Q&A Lemaire said that he expected with the arrival of television more of the children would head to the cities to get work. That said, the downsides of rural life are not glossed over: we see funerals during the film and the work of the parents, both male and female, looks arduous and in the long term backbreaking.  I'd gladly see a sequel to this charming, humorous, and often lovely film that looked at what happened over the next four years to Ifri after the initial glow of the television had faded.

Source: Silverdocs tickets from my mother. Thanks Mom!

Image credit: Promotional poster taken from Cinenews.be. Remaining photos are of electrification in rural Luxor, Egypt. They were taken by myself and my mother, available under a creative commons license.

Review: Harold Goldberg's All Your Base are Belong to Us

All Your Base are Belong to Us is an interview driven account of the rise of videogames. Each chapter focuses on a small set of key figures or companies and tells their story in a manner that reminds me of long form pieces in the Washington Post's Business section. I don't think it breaks new ground when it comes to well known feature such as Nintendo's Miyamoto, but most of the industry does not hold such a celebrity status so I learned more even about companies and designers I'm quite familiar with. For those that aren't newcomers to games journalism, I'd recommend skimming the selected notes chapter in the back to determine which chapters are most likely to be of interest based on who is interviewed.

On the downside, the prose of the book was more likely to push me away than draw me in. It often has an overly-familiar style that can be tricky to pull off, particularly when the videogame invoked emotions and sentiments described in first persons passages didn't tend to match my experience with the games in question. Similarly, while I think Goldberg is probably dead on when he emphasizes the importance of salesmanship by indie game designers, I didn't come away from the book bustling with new ideas or with a notably different take on videogames. He also sometimes falls into the trap up game triumphalism, while he willing to critique the widely acknowledged failures of those he interviews, his description of the strong points of their successes tends to be unalloyed. Picking an example from near the end of the book, his write-up of Shadow Complex makes no mention of the controversy regarding Orson Scott Card. A long discussion was not necessary, but the subtitle of the book is "How Fifty Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture," the boycott attempt driven by a reaction to Card's social conservative activism seems well within its purview.

So in short, I think this book is a best fit for those curious about the corporate and entrepreneurship side of things; that have a lot of interest but a little information about some of the games and companies profiled; or that enjoy Harold Goldberg's prose in his online game journalism. Those primarily interested in games criticism should probably look elsewhere, although I'm grateful to Goldberg for mentioning Ian Bogost's persuasive games which apparently argues that games have a procedural rhetoric that can be convincing in a different way than other forms oratory rhetoric. That's a concept I'm quite interested in and a book I'll have to add to my wish list.

Source: Borrowed from my mother-in-law. Thanks!

Just had my first experience with Capital Bikeshare

Capital Bikeshare is a subscription system in D.C. which allows you to check out bikes at one location and return them to another. If you check the bike in again fast, in 30 minutes I think, there's no charge. I got a subscription when I saw a discount for them earlier, it took a few days to get my pass so you can't just grab and go when first you feel interested. Anyways, this is the first time I've used them in large part because during my earlier attempts I underestimated the force it took to remove a checked out bike.

There is an app called spotcycle that helps you find stations, although it doesn't seem to be integrated into Google Maps in such a way that helps you pull up directions. I ended up just running spotcycle while walking and then pulling it up again when pulled over at a corner near my destination. To the degree that your cycling between familiar locales this won't be a problem but it can be a bit trickier when first starting out.

On the whole I found biking in D.C. and easier prospect than I expected. There's a reasonable number of bikers about and a fair number of bike lanes if you're willing to adjust your route a bit. Tonight, I'd been making a trip to Adams Morgan, a neighborhood notably without a Metro stop, and bikeshare really does seem like a great way to do it.

I'll keep experimenting with the system. I'm curious whether I can use it to get to my occasional appointments at Georgetown University Hospital or as a means of reasonably reliable conveyance to Union Station when the hour is late and Metro trains are less frequent. Time will tell, but I had a good time riding so I'm happy to experiment. Now I just need to bring my helmet into work.

The destinations themselves, Bourbon and Bier Baron, were quite pleasant. I'm not a huge bar person but they both offered a pretty good experience on a Wednesday night.

Legend of Korra continues Avatar's tradition of excellent antagonists

Sympathetic antagonists are one of my favorite things in fiction, if for no other reasons then that they add variety to the stories. If the enemy is nihilist or totalitarian evil then their degree of success is just a matter of how dark the pieces is. However, if the threat actually has a sympathetic cause, in this case standing up for ordinary people in a city largely run by those with special bending abilities, then it is far from clear how things will shake out.

I don't want to get into too much speculation at this point. Let me just say instead that if you were a fan of the first series be sure to check out Legend of Korra. This is particularly easy because the episodes are available, with commercials, for free online. Coming in without having seen the first series won't tell you as much about the world and will indirectly spoil some things about the ending. However, if you don't have an easy means to get a hold of it then I'd say that the core plotline should be perfectly enjoyable and the 70 year time skip means that the world in question is a very different one.

Review: The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss

Post-Revolutionary War America isn't a setting I've read much about before, let alone as the basis for a novel that is in part a financial thriller. The Whiskey Rebels trades off between a disgraced Revolutionary War spy and an upcoming would-be novelist.  The former primarily stays in the great-ish east coast cities of the day while the latter travels with her husband into the wilds past Pittsburgh. The actual Whiskey Rebellion itself doesn't play that big a role, as the period is wrong, but that's no demerit to the story.

Both the leads are good characters, with a plausible mix of flaws that I felt the novel sometimes forgave but rarely whitewashed. The prominent supporting characters include a slave whose promised freedom was wrongly delayed, a lady whose high stature provides her little protection against her husband, and a vicious Jewish special agent working for Alexander Hamilton. As that list should show, the characters come from a variety of backgrounds which enriches the historical setting of the novel.

The story is a mix of conspiracy thriller and frontier adventure with the rise of the Bank of the United States, hated by the eventual Whiskey Rebels, being a core plot element. I rather liked this as it was a part of history I knew a bit about but was on the balance more ignorant than informed. At the same time, it was quite relevant to our modern era.

Almost to my surprise, the ending was particularly solid. I don't want to give anything away, but I'd say it managed to stay true to the values and cleverness common to the rest of the book. That can be particularly hard to pull when the main characters can be tricksters in their own right, which makes the successful implementation all the more satisfying.

Source: Moti, thanks Moti!

Things other games should steal from 4th edition DnD

I've actually been playing some version or other of the venerable system since college. However, I'm not really the target demographic of the next edition as I'm not that into fantasy and quite like non-combat mechanics, and D&D Next aims to be the arch-typical version of the system rather than moving in a new direction. There will doubtless be modules of interest to me, but this seems like a good time to say my goodbyes. The points below are meant to be my favorite parts of the edition, not the best in any objective sense. 

Special powers that can be used freely (encounter powers and at-wills): 4th edition made fairly heavy use of powers that could be used at will or once per scene. If I'm playing in an environment where supernatural abilities are in play, I like to be able to use them freely. The once per scene (or encounter to use the technical term) powers did this particularly well, because they could be substantial without being game breaking. This combined well with 4th edition's encouragement to freely reflavor things: the mechanical effect may be defined but it is easy enough to ascribe the source to anything you desire.

Mechanically meaningful non-attack powers (utility powers and themes): As I mentioned above, I'm not quite a stereotypical story gamer. While I enjoy challenge and conflict, I'm just more interested in confrontations that aren't violent, let alone lethal. 4th edition D&D offered two notable new sources for such abilities: utility powers, which came along every few levels, and themes, which help define how a character starts out. Good flavor and mechanical matches particularly matter here and D&D delivers with powers like allowing rangers to keep someone from falling over a ledge by catching them with an arrow or allowing those skilled in the ways of magic to use technobabble to help get them out of a social problem once a scene. This is a mechanical space that could in theory be filled by feats, a game element that sometimes involves prerequisite but is typically chosen from a vast list. The selection of utility powers is more limited; you have to qualify for them via class, theme, or skill. This encourages them to be more defined, easier to balance, and makes their numbers less overwhelming. Also critically, neither utility powers nor themes are charged with doing the heavy lifting of making a character effective, which gives more room for flavorful selections.

Digital tools: I think the character builder and online rules compendium has been rather game changing. I've paid the subscription fee happily and haven't even minded that much when the character builder went from desktop client to web tool.

Design that draws from a wide range of games: This is sometime mentioned as a knock against 4th edition, particularly in reference to video games. However, I'd say that video games and board games have both advanced greatly over the past decades. Not all changes have been for the best, but I think we have a much better idea of what it means to get the underlying math right. This matters to me as a player, because knowing that I've checked the box when it comes to effectiveness gives me freedom to be playful. This matters far more as a GM, as getting a solid balanced system should be one of the big perks of going to larger companies for games. Playtesting, R&D shops, and system updates all take hard work and are well worth paying for.

Things other games should steal from Mass Effect 2

I just finished the game with my femShep paragon sentinel. I enjoyed it, although I think its best thought of as a series of episodes rather the stronger mini-arcs and main arc of the first game. In keeping with my recent post on pop culture dominance, I'm not going to go with a full review or even a critique. Instead, I'll just emphasize those elements I'd like to see used in other games.

But first, here's my favorite character doing Gilbert and Sullivan:

1. Having a small number of well defined powers with clearly labeled interactions. Some people have complained that Mass Effect 2 was dumbed down; that may be true.  However, having a smaller number of powers and clearly labeling when they would be effective allowed for a wider range of mechanically distinct characters. In addition, I think I actually used all of the powers available in the game fairly often. Similarly, the original game was vastly improved upon by dramatically reducing the number of guns while making them actually feel different.
2. Evocative hacking mini-games: There were two hacking games: one involved selecting matching source code, the other involved linking circuits on a board. They were both quite simple and actually could have used a steeper difficulty curve. However, they were enough to make the hacking feel genuinely technical in no small part thanks to good visual design. The probe mini-game does fairly well too in that regard, but I disapprove of that form of resource gathering because it's ultimately a mechanic that lets you trade your time for more in-game resources.
3. The conversation interrupt mechanic: The alignment system is nothing spectacular: you get paragon or renegade points based on your choices, although nicely enough you often can get some of each from the same conversation. That said, I was pleased by the way the plot mandated that being a paragon required some standing up to your patron. In any event, those points are spent by allowing you to interrupt a conversation; for example, a paragon might convince someone not to do something stupid while a renegade might shoot them before they had a chance to draw. In Star Wars terms, Han Solo was able to shoot Greedo first thanks to all of the mouthing off he does elsewhere in the series.
4. Reasonable chance of a few support characters dying: I hope I'm not being too bloody-minded here, but people die in war and its important to remember that. One of the real strengths of the first two games of the series is that your choices directly impact who dies. I particularly regret the character who died in my playthrough; he might have had an important future, but I think some regret is appropriate for this sort of tale.

(Mild outcome spoilers on my playthrough: lost Grunt, dating Garrus)

Origin: Gift from Ryan, thanks Ryan!

Update: Noted origin and moved spoilers to the end to get them out of the google plus preview.

Review: Carcassonne add-on Traders and Builders

Carcassonne is a fairly well-known European-style-tile laying game. The players take turns placing squares to expand a map of fields, roads, monasteries, and walled cities meant to evoke a region in France. As they do so, they place their little wooden pieces, called meeples, to score points based on a variety of terrain features. This review will be most interesting to those that have played the original game, but I'll discuss a few general design features at the end.

This add-on struck our fancy because it fits well with my wife's preferred play style: filling in gaps in the map rather than sprawling off to the sides. This is an aesthetically pleasing play style and one that fits the theme of the game as to my knowledge there are no gaping holes in reality in the French countryside.

Traders and Builders uses multiple methods to achieve this goal. First, it reduces the incentive to block other player's cities by providing a reward in the form of trade goods to any player that finishes a city. Second, it adds a "builder" piece that allows a second turn each round if you lay your tile in a way that connects to an existing city or road. This has the virtue of focusing one player's attention and keeping the game from slowing down despite the addition of new pieces. Third, a new "pig" piece increases the bonuses received from a single field. Fields are one of the mechanisms from the original game that encourage players to play in a concentrated area, either to reap points from ever-expanding pastures or to firmly enclose the grasslands of another player. Finally, the new tiles, in addition to introducing trade goods, seem well-chosen to match up with difficult-to-fill spots from the base game.

Traders and Builders could be fairly critiqued for adding three new elements, and thus sacrificing some of the original game's simplicity. However, I think all the pieces interlock well and show signs of carefully considered balance and play-testing.

I might not have noticed Traders and Builders if not for the advice of a clerk at the Family Game Store at Savage Mills, who broke out the virtues in a way that made the choice over "Inns and Cathedrals," another add-on, an easy one. Typically, I think of game add-ons as introducing a new element to an existing game.  I think it's a far rarer breed that also reinforces the core game while adding a fun new aspect.

Fellow players for the review: Kate, Andrew, and Monica. Thanks all.

Image from BoardGameGeek.com

Source: My mother given to Kate. Thanks Mom for the gift and Kate for letting me play!

Review: Azul 17

Last night, Kate treated me to Azul 17, a higher-end Mexican restaurant in Howard County. We had a good time and were particularly impressed by our helpful waiter, who when asked gave advice on a variety of matters and made up the guacamole we ordered as an appetizer. That is actually one of the gimmicks the restaurant is known for; it was indeed fresh and tasty although I think the price is primarily justified by the chance to see it made up. The process didn't seem that hard if you have the right ingredients, so perhaps I'll give it a try someday.

The menu we ordered off is more extensive than the one online, but roughly Kate had a seafood casserole with shrimp, clams, snapper, and scallops in a tomato broth. We both found the red snapper to be particularly exceptional and I loved the rice. I'd ordered an enchilada with mushrooms and huitlacoche. The latter is also known as corn smut, but tastes far better than it sounds. Kate says if you are already eating mushrooms, what's one more fungus? She's right, the disparate elements of the enchilada made a great light vegetarian dish and the leftovers were terrific today.

Finally we had a flight of tequila. That was reasonably fun; the more whiskey-esque variants seem to be our speed. That said, I don't think either of us feel the need to make a habit of it. As Azul 17's tequila specialization suggests, many of the dishes and sauces were quite spicy, including the palette cleanser drink.  We got by all right, so if you're a spice fiend you may wish to check it out and if you are not be sure that you've got some tamer dishes in the mix.

Source: Picked by Kate when she saw a LivingSocial deal.  Thanks, Kate!

Review: Code of the Woosters, P.G. Wodehouse

This was my first Wodehouse book and it was a reasonable starting point to the Jeeves and Wooster stories. It was a fairly quick read and in my view really got going around page 100 as the action came to a head, specifically as a painting was used for some fairly ineffective head-cracking. The zaniness continued largely unabated from that point onward, which did heighten my enjoyment as the relentlessness of the plotting meant that the underlying absurdity of the problems was overwhelmed by the urgency of dealing with them.  I enjoyed the whole thing, although I fear my comparatively weak background in the western canon meant that I was missing how some of the classical quotes were being tweaked. My only real takeaway about the culture being described was a curiosity about whether the characters' willingness to prank the police was primarily an upper-class thing or whether it reflects differences between British and American culture. Cops are often buffoons in American comedies, but characters don't go around stealing their hats or the like unless avenging a particular slight. Come to think of it, more than anything else the attitude reminds me of that of the Phoenix Wright games.

I'll run down the rest of my book backlog  before returning to the series, but I do have definite hopes that the humor of the series will be cumulative as I get to know the characters better. I often end up turned off by series that revolve around the suffering of a foolish main character, but Wooster is shown to have a healthy dose of humanity and wit if not wisdom.

Source: Recommended by Andrew and Monica, loaned to me by my father-in-law; thanks all.

Restaurant Review: East Moon in Columbia MD

East Moon Asian Bistro is a local chain serving a mix of Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and Vietnamese food. We've been to the Columbia location twice and were pleased with our meals both times, as were family and friends that went separately. I particularly liked the way they handled their modernist décor, a neat mix of art with a colorful theme and only a moderate visual distraction if you're facing in the direction of the bar and thus a few televisions.

The first time we went for entrees, the second sushi. I'd say the entrees seem to be their strong point; I had pad se lew and Kate had the lemon grass chicken. Quite tasty and substantial for prices in the low teens. Tonight, the sushi was reasonable, we both left satisfied and I particularly liked their Tokyo roll. However, if you're dining in Howard county you have a rather wide selection of sushi restaurants and we're likely to stick with Hanamura or Yama Sushi as our default traditional and fancy place respectively. For the record, East Moon is more in the fancy camp and does a good job with the appearance of their platters.

So if you want an affordable restaurant that provides a mix of Asian cuisines, I'd say East Moon fits the bill. I'm not sure how well they handle larger groups, but from a price perspective you really can't go wrong if you bring more people and split a smaller number of their big dishes.

[Updated to add photo.]

Quickie review: Indie RPG buying

Both Indie Press Revolution (IPR) and Evil Hat are good places to get a variety of Indie RPGs and unlike many other sources will often include a PDF at the same cost as a print purchase. In both cases I went with the low end shipping option.

With Indie Press Revolution I placed the order on 12/16, got the PDFs nigh instantly, shipping notification email received 12/20, and it arrived via media mail on 1/4. 

With Evil Hat I placed the order on 12/16 as well, got the PDFs nigh instantly, I got the shipping notification email on 12/20, but the package arrived on 12/21.

When I checked in with the Indie Press Revolution guys, they were fairly responsive and apparently it had accidentally been sent media mail by USPS rather than UPS (or priority mail with USPS). So apparently the length of the delay was a fluke, although in any event they didn't send tracking info which has been sadly reminiscent of the bad old days of having no idea when a package would arrive.

I'm up for using IPR again, but for now I'm definitely going to err towards Evil Hat on future orders if time is at all sensitive. Particularly since the interface is a bit less glitchy in the later case.

Review: Assassin's Creed 2

I'm well-suited to the core gameplay concept of Assassin's Creed: it's a sandbox where you get to use major historical city, in this case primarily Florence and Venice, as your own parkour playground. I'm not actually so keen on the Assassin part, but there's enough fun running, climbing, racing, and exploring to keep me interested.  Speed and stealth are both fairly effective ways to avoid combat and in a pinch you can always beat someone up with your fists, although it's fairly tedious.

The game wasn't particularly hard. I never really got frustrated although as a downside I didn't always feel challenged. I've yet to finish the puzzle-oriented 'truth' unlocking session but I'm likely to soon enough. Similarly, one of the biggest delights of the series is climbing up to high points and looking around and I've got about a half dozen viewpoints left to find. I can live with games that are this forgiving; I think the key is trying to play with style rather than simply achieving your objectives. The dialog feedback from passersby and the notoriety system both do a reasonable job of docking you if you get too sloppy.

Assassin's Creed probably won't make my all time top 10, but I think the gameplay in many ways takes some of the mechanics of Thief while making them a lot more fun. I'd rather play a Thief than an Assassin, but I'd take Assassin's Creed's jumping and climbing over the jumping puzzles in Thief any day of the week. Also, amusingly, I think the death toll in Assassin's Creed is still a fair amount lower than in Uncharted despite the latter being about a fortune hunter and not nominally a killer by trade.

If I could add one thing to the series, it might be to provide a bit of parity between the deaths of assassin targets and the nameless guards that you may kill on the way. The targets all get a benediction, specifically set up as the way your character shows respect for the dead. However, no such privilege is extended to the average guard, who presumably is actually a better person than most of your targets. There's already an option to loot bodies; I don't think showing respect for them would be all that hard and it would decrease the disconnect between the gameplay, characterization, and story.

Source: Loaned to me by my friend Ryan, thanks Ryan!

Review: Starship Catan

Like many people, we are Settlers of Catan fans. A few year a game store clerk advised me that while he was not a fan of Seafarers of Catan or Starfarers of Catan, somehow their elements combined to make an make a great two player game called Starship Catan.

This is a classic Eurogame: the production values are good, you're vying for victory points, and most of the competition is indirect. Specifically, you can forcibly buy resources off each other and compete to get to upgrades or missions first but your ship's beam weapons are just aimed at space pirates. As a Catan game, your main path to victory is accumulating colonies that can net you resources, but buying unique upgrades to your ship, getting trading colonies, and meeting the objectives at adventure planets all offer alternate paths to winning. I'll leave additional summary to the experts over at BoardGameGeek.

Leading with the bad news, the game does take a bit of time to set up each time. There's cards to organize, the two shipboards to setup, and enough rules that you'll probably want to refresh yourself if it's been a while since you last played. I will note that the game provides a great tutorial to ease you into the first play through. Our games tend to play over an hour or two, although we may be slow. So there's a bit of time investment for a two player game for each match and the way the cards work you'll have to re-sort when done. Happily, I think the time is well worth it for three reasons.

First, the game has many of the benefits of randomness without feeling too swingy based on luck. Each game is different because instead of having a game board to explore, there are four quadrants of 10 cards each. After each trip through a quadrant the 10 cards are reshuffled and any removed cards, such as newly acquired colonies, are replaced. As a result, you learn most of the make up of a quadrant over time, but you don't know which planets you'll get to in a given turn. For example, in our most recent game one of the quadrants had two mission planets and another was known for being a good place to buy cheap resources. The roll to determine your speed also determines economic production. The die ranges from 1-3. As in Catan, you can have multiple colonies producing when a 2 is rolled, but you only get resources from one of them each turn. Thus, unlike Catan, there's not much room for attributing the outcome of a game to the unusual number of 4s that came up. The small value on both the engine and the pirate fighting die also mean that the attributes of your ship, which starts with two blasters and two engines, are more important than the roll of the dice.

Those ship attributes are also what I really like about the game. The ship boards are well put together and have excellent labeling making it easy to tell what various options cost. More importantly, the six different modules allow players to pursue markedly different strategies. I tend to go for sensors that let you look at and reject the first two cards in a given quadrant. Kate likes going for logistics first which allows her ship to carry three of each resources type rather than the default two. The other four modules are similarly useful and while the level 1 version of each component is available to both players there is only one version each of the upgraded modules. As a result your ships differentiate themselves fast and stay different. Happily,different strategies seem robust; both Kate and I have won two matches and despite my faith in my approach I never really got my economy going and lost our most recent match.

Finally, I just like the theme. While more mercantile in feel, the game is probably going to appeal to Star Trek fans. There's fighting with space pirates, but exploring different parts of the galaxy and solving problems is a big part of the game. Science is a resource that becomes more valuable as the game progresses as it helps with key missions and is necessary to upgrade your blasters or engines to their second level form. My only objection with the theme is that they don't quite manage to provide a solid technobabble exploration for the randomized navigation. It's a critical part of the gameplay, but it still is a bit odd. Perhaps instead of being so planet-oriented there could also be other ships you are encountering who thus would not stay still between visits. The shipboards add a great visceral element that's really handy when playing without a game board. In theory, the game could benefit by taking that physical feel of modifying your ship even further, but most any ideas I can come up with would unnecessarily add to the cost.

On the whole, if you want a two player game that's challenging without being highly confrontational and has a great space theme, I'd definitely recommend Starship Catan.

Origin: Bought it myself thanks to good game store advice. Sadly, I'm not sure which store. Side note, the nice thing about losing to one's spouse is that it's a reminder that you found a smart person to marry. Box art grabbed from BoardGameGeek.

Review: Feed by Mira Grant

Feed is a story about what happens after a zombie apocalypse, but it isn't post-apocalyptic as such. Instead humanity has retrenched behind sealed doors, protected by blood tests and automated systems. It's a world where many of our current issues have lost their salience but security threats and perhaps security theater are everywhere. It's a tale told to us by the bloggers that venture out into this world and thus has an innate appeal to those of that send our thoughts out into the net.

The story focuses on siblings Georgia and Shaun Mason, respectively a reporter ("newsie") and a daredevil ("irwin"). Together with their tech genius story writer, a "fictional" nicknamed Buffy, they get the story of their lives when they imbed with a Republican candidate seeking his party's nomination for the 2034 election. On the whole it's a good premise and a neat world. The writing was reasonable, the characters could be fun, the plotting a bit predictable at times, and the politics perhaps a trifle naïve. If the premise appeals, I think you'll be satisfied if not necessarily blown away.

Starting with the parts I found a bit less satisfying, I'm not quite sure I see media evolving into collections of "newsies", "irwins" and "fictionals". Print and television journalism now has any number of people willing to risk extreme danger to bring home stories and who too often die in the pursuit. The lack of risk aversion of the bloggers and the licensing process were all interesting but didn't quite work for me as media critique. The overall media environment had elements that rang true - an obsession with ratings, the management of support staff, the jump from an existing website to independent operation - all of which gave the characters' jobs more solidity although I'm not quite remembering how the business model was detailed.

Slightly less plausible was Sen. Ryman's campaign. He had some good speeches and a strong staff support but I don't quite buy his rocketing to political prominence. The bloggers were accurate enough in seeing through much of the artifice of the campaign, but with one notable exception I didn't really see the horse trading or rhetorical tradeoffs that seem as relevant to the world of 2034 as the world of 2014.  Amusingly, though, one of Ryman's opponents appears to be a version of Texas Gov. Perry, which has made his official announcement for President all the more frightening.

I think the strongest of the political elements was the focus on security measures. The bloggers were a bit more necessary for investigations than seemed plausible to me, but the range of security measures, often redundant and obnoxious, all rang true. To a fair extent the zombie-terrorized world does work as our present day fears taken to a logical extreme. The best political issues of the book, like the question of how to handle animals that were large enough to zombie, stemmed from these issues. I don't think the first novel of the series full explores that theme, but it's a good start and at some point I think I'll pick up the sequel.

Origin: Gift from Kate, a particularly well-targeted one.

Image from Mira Grant's website.

Review: Summer Wars

The alternate reality social network in Summer Wars is no more plausible than any number of other fully immersive sci-fi social networks. Ubiquity seems to require a fairly simple feature set and not a visually rich Second Life style experience. However, films find such a setup fairly irresistible because of the visual possibilities. I'm happy to report that the animation justifies the conceit: the digital  world of Oz provides a suitably diverse mix of avatars and any number of dramatic renditions of cyberspace. However, the real meat of the story is a Jinnouchi clan reunion to celebrate the 90th birthday of Jinnouchi Sakae. While there, the characters just happen to access the network through their computers, phones, and game systems.

Happily, while a hacking-related crisis quickly emerges, the story is conservative but not a luddite jeremiad. While Sakae's old school social networks prove vital, everyone has something they can bring to bear on the problem, with the technophiles in the lead. As the director (Mamoru Hosoda) comments in an extra, he's focused on "the vitality of a rural Japanese family." The Jinnouchis, while no longer the samurai clan of their stories, are a force to be reckoned with against modern threats.  Perhaps surprisingly, Kenji, the male lead, has a local rival in a cop whose portrayal echoes the police in the Ace Attorney series: bumbling if typically well-intentioned. A somewhat more malign presence is the U.S. military who are seen as powerful but reckless.

The story fits its theme well, the family is diverse and interesting, and the number of important but distinguishable characters is impressively high. Most important, Sakae is a great character with her mannered but demanding presence and red-rimmed glasses. There are some underlying class issues that aren't really explored; the Jinnouchis have an old rich vibe, even if much of the money is now gone. Kenji expresses a respectful envy of their family size compared to what sounded like a somewhat lonely only child latchkey existence for him. I wonder to what extent the differences in family structure are a class issue, an urban versus rural thing, or if the Jinnouchi clan is a bit of a relic regardless of what part of Japan you are from.

The plot itself was at times fairly silly and the likelihood of success for any given plan seemed fairly dependent on how much time was left in the movie. Nonetheless, I was fairly happy that Natsuki, the female lead, did have a fairly fleshed-out role and an important part to play. That said, my viewing companions were rather disappointed by the support she got from the flying whales that defended Oz and were rather skeptical about the technological basis of many of the twists. So I do recommend it as an enjoyable film, just go in expecting a fantastical tale of family and social networking rather than anything approaching hard sci-fi.

Origin: Borrow from Moti, thanks Moti!

Promotional Image acquired from Anime News Network. Image © Summer Wars Film Partners

Review: Ace Attorney Apollo Justice

The Ace Attorney series of legal adventure games has long been a favorite of mine because it offers the logic puzzles of that long-dormant genre while avoiding some of the silliness that results from a focus on inventory. As with previous games, our defense attorney hero uses items of evidence from investigations and trials to find contradictions in the testimony of witnesses. The series benefits from the move to the Nintendo DS, as was shown in the add-on mission to the first game, "Rise from the Ashes." As with that game, some of the puzzles involve checking for fingerprints or trace evidence using the touch pad. The tactile sections barely even qualify as puzzles but they're used sparingly and are just fun. While the four cases of this game aren't particularly long, they have a very handcrafted feel. Puzzle elements like a soundboard or manipulating a 3D model of the crime scene may be used only in a handful of times but they're highly appropriate when they are used.

My wife had been a bit dissatisfied with the sheer amount of plot development thrown at you in the first case. It's been more than seven years since the previous games and a fair amount has changed in unexpected ways that are not initially explained. I didn't have that problem, perhaps because I was warned or perhaps because it has been almost a year since I finished the last Phoenix Wright game. I'd even go so far as to say that Apollo Justice handles the transition from a beloved character pretty well. At this point, Phoenix is a cool and collected vet and (most of) his friends have started to work out the key issues in their lives. Apollo is starting from scratch with a new set of plotlines which gives the writers more to work with without having to undo the victories of previous games.

When it comes to the story, I still like the third Phoenix Wright game the best. However, in terms of actually thinking about criminal justice system issue I think Apollo Justice is the series standout. However, that's a discussion I think I'll save for a future post. To close out the review piece, I'll just say that once again the series finds ways to enhance the trial gameplay and if they ever decide to make more courtroom-based games I'll gladly pick them up.

Source: Borrowed from Kate. On her DS no less. Thanks Kate!

Epic[-length novel] farewell

[Update: Epics actually are a term of art, and not in the way I was using it here. Instead, most classically, think the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Aeneid. While I try to avoid jargon, I think that proper use of terms of art facilitates conversation, so I corrected the post below.]

Just in time for a Dance with Dragons, I've been reconsidering my relationship with epic[-length books]. Over the span of three months I got through the one of Steven Erickson's 1,000+ page tomes, Toll the Hounds. If you do the math, my pace wasn't that impressive which is more a consequence of the time I set aside than my speed. I enjoyed the book; one of the main villains was slowly humanized and much of the book was based in Darujistan which in the past has been one of Erickson's least depressing locales. However, I took a break or two while reading and breezed through His Majesty's Dragon and Halting State. Those breaks made clear the opportunity cost of [weight tomes]: so long as one has a reading backlog an epic must be as good as three other books and not merely enjoyable in its own right. By that standard, I'd say the first three Erickson books probably qualify, particularly The Gardens of the Moon and Memories of Ice (Deadhouse Gates is marred by a subplot that's too conventional adventure fantasy for my tastes).

Of course, books are not fungible. The stories one can tell in three quality novels tend to be different than the stories one can tell in an [grimoire-sized tale]. Bigger books can sustain more complexity and a larger cast. Neither point is necessarily a virtue in its own right. Instead, stories with grand scope or that incorporate a multitude of sometimes opposing viewpoints both can benefit from having space to develop. However, while I still disagree with some of the things Alan Jacobs says in this post I think there is a real risk that epics are becoming surprisingly limited. Certain stories, such as clashes between gods, continent sprawling wars, and tales of intrigue can all fit well within the epic[-length] genre but can crowd out everything else. This crowding out is worst when it leads to the undoing the outcomes of previous books or plotlines that feel like they're just filling space between more interesting viewpoints. There seems to be a rule that sequels to epics must also be enormous even when the best parts of the story would be better served by carrying their own 300 page novel.

Perhaps ironically, serials are another means that can support large-cast complex stories. I think by ensuring that each segment has a small self-contained story they buy time to tell longer arcs that couldn't be contained in an average novel. The Full Metal Alchemist manga is perhaps my favorite instance of this, although I've enjoyed some Dumas before and should try Dickens at some point. Of course serials, as with [giant novels], are notorious for not knowing when to end.

I suspect I will finish the last two Malazan books some day, if only because I do still on the balance enjoy them and know that they are the last two. But despite the risk of spoilers I don't think I'm going to rush to the new Song of Ice and Fire book. I actually have a bit of space on my nightstand for once and I intend to exploit that opportunity.

Review: Great Sage Restaurant in Clarksville Maryland

Eating twice at the Great Sage restaurant hasn't resulted in any vegan super powers, but it has gotten us two tasty meals. I'm not a vegan and despite a mix of voluntary and digestive tract-driven food restrictions I'd have a hard time seeing myself become one. However, the meals we've had there, particularly the  adult mac & 'cheese' and the zen udon bowl both showcased that gourmet cuisine is quite possible even with restricted ingredients. Unsurprisingly, the dishes can get at the appeal of the non-vegan version of a meal but they seem to prioritize flavor over simulation.

Both the udon, with its homemade pasta, and the macaroni, with its spice and mix of vegetables, were specifically recommended by our servers. So if you aren't really familiar with the details of vegan cooking, it can be quite rewarding to ask. They take pride in their food but were neither preachy nor condescending to non-vegans which helps explain why there seems to consistently be a wait to get a table at peak hours. On the whole I'd say the atmosphere has a pointedly natural vibe combined with elegance via well chosen wall pieces (how well chosen? I'd love to grab them for my house if I thought I could afford them).

Finally, the desserts we tried were quite refreshing and may be a boon for the lactose-averse who still get cravings. The coconut milk-based mint oreo shake was fantastic and I'm really not sure how they pulled it off. It's probably too much to hope that it was any more healthful than a non-vegan shake, but it was good enough that I didn't care either way.

Source: Kate saw their write-up in the Baltimore Sun and/or HowChow.

Quick review: His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik

The novel tells the tale of a British naval officer in the Napoleonic wars who through skill and circumstance ends up as an aviator in the royal dragon corps. The book successfully executes its premise. Despite some oddities, like language skills out of the shell, the dragons seem plausible enough and are well integrated into the larger world. I don't know my WWI history that well, but I'd say the dragoneers have the feel of pilots of that era, albeit with larger crews.

The book is the first of a larger series, although I'll probably stop here on recommendation of friends. I enjoyed the story, but I'm not so attached to the characters that I feel the need to stay with them as the story moves away from its ingenious twist on the naval tale.

Still, it was a good read and I'm glad my wife lent it too me. Thanks Kate!

The logitech harmony 300 remote has displeased me [Update!]

I got one for my mother in hopes that it could better handle complex operations. Cheaper universal remotes often have trouble bringing up the main menu or the like. Indeed, the Logitech's software recognizes all of our VCRs/DVDs/cable boxes/TV and presumably could support advanced functions with any of them. I wouldn't know for sure, as it's been completely unable to transfer that understanding to the remote. The tech support page just had the standard stuff about rebooting, turning off one's firewall and anti-virus, and the like. Not really what I'm looking for. I'm going to try to send an email in to tech support, this one might just have been a lemon. However, if they can't help me fix it or replace it, I'm switching brands and not coming back.

[Update: Swapping the batteries out seems to have done the trick. Which is a bit odd, as it was having problems from the start and lights on the remote were still blinking. I’m still not happy about my experience, but it looks like I might finally have a working remote.]

[Update 2: Fixed typo in title. Gah!]

Abortive review: Chasm City

I feel quite the slacker. Not only was I running behind in Alyssa Rosenberg's book club, I'm bailing out before finishing.  [I feel particularly bad, as I voted for it in the tiebreaker. I should have listened to my wife.] Chasm City is a reasonable noir/science fiction tale about a hard-bitten security expert out for revenge and a megalomaniac that had colonized the protagonist's world ages before. I think it manages to be fairly solid on the science; foe example, there's no faster than light drives. The novel has some interesting ideas, such as a cultist virus that can implant flashbacks and stigmata, and a city whose upper reaches have gone mad due to the combination of programmable growing buildings and a form of computer virus. The pacing, at least outside of the flashbacks, is fairly quick which kept me turning pages even when the content did not grab me.

However, while I could sense [Alastair Reynold's] creative, hard-working mind behind the book, I've chosen to put it down. As I mentioned in my review of Blacksad, I don't tend to enjoy straight noir and in this case science fiction wasn't enough of a twist. I didn't really care about the main character's underwhelming revenge motive and while I got attached to ancillary characters, they didn't stick around for long. Moreover, the wars and apocalypses of this universe distance us from the speculative future that undergirds it. Chasm City before the crash sounds like it would be something to see, although from what I've read of Rosenberg's posts on the book the life-extended aristocracy is consistently hateful so even then we'd be at a loss for interesting characters.

I like noir adaptations like Brick, Veronica Mars, Blacksad, and Cowboy Bebop because it is fun to see styles breed. There's nothing wrong with a hard-bitten hero, but that alone can't carry the story for me. Moreover, noir's love of pushing away or killing secondary characters and penchant for misogyny are both weak points of the genre that weren't overcome in the first sixteen chapters. On the upside, I was reminded of my love of Cowboy Bebop by comparison: the supporting cast that noir-émigré Spike can't get rid of, the vibrant world that stays grounded without being constantly run down, and of course the vibrant soundtrack that requires exceptional writing to match. Bebop's ending is pure noir and that's okay; in film-sized doses, as with L.A. Confidential, noir works for me. However, I don't think I'll be picking up another long form noir unless I'm confident that it transcends the genre.

Review: Adjustment Bureau

The premise of the Adjustment Bureau is remarkable yet straightforward: a Senate candidate played by Matt Damon meets the potential love of his life played by Emily Blunt, only to be kept separate from her by a group of mysterious hat wearing men trying to keep things according to plan. I'd say the film is smart but not especially deep.

I think the film really works first and foremost because it actually takes the time to develop the characters of the Adjustment Bureau. Bland men in black would be an easy choice, as would scenery chewing, but instead Anthony Mackie, John Slattey, and Terence Stamp play subtle characters with distinct outlooks that are just trying to do their jobs. Similarly the rest of the supporting cast often exhibits more character than you see in primary antagonists in other films. Damon's Senator is quite a distinct character and his love interest Elise has enough depth to avoid the manic pixie dream girl problem. However, for me it was the Bureau that really enamored the film to me.

There were also many funny moments. In some ways, large portions of the film were really a romantic comedy. As with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, there are genuine forces rather than plot-driven idiocy keeping the main characters apart. That intelligence, also shown in how the film plays around with its rules, allows for a fair amount of subtle humor and keeps us sympathetic to the drive of the main characters.

I don't think the film actually says that much about free will, but that's no surprise coming from me. However, I do think it is an interesting meditation on choosing a life in politics, authenticity, chasing greatness, and the opportunity cost of the big choices we make in life. The aspiring senator's political aspirations are fairly content-free, although that's part of the point. To some extent the public, and I definitely include myself and other wonks in that, may play the role of an Adjustment Bureau trying to build our perfect candidate at potentially great cost to themselves. I wonder to what extent that element resonates in countries that don't have a presidential political system.

Quick review: Blacksad

Blacksad is a graphic novel that takes familiar film noir story and character tropes and but presents them using a skillfully depicted mix of humanoid animals. Think Disney's Talespin but grittier, more nudity, less wackiness, and more death. I've seen the plot knocked for lack of ambition and that may be fair, but the real pleasure of the book is the rich visuals. Thus, if you're considering getting it, glance through a few pages and you should quickly have an idea of whether you like the art style enough for it to be worth it.

In some ways it reminded for being a genre piece with a critical twist in setting. I think that's a trick that's easiest to pull off with well developed and somewhat formulaic stories. I'm not sure to what extent such crossovers are on the rise, I suspect they've met with some commercial success and it's an easy concept to pitch if not to implement.

I think I will check out whether the artist has done anything else of note.

Origin: Moti. Thanks once again Moti.

The Second City does Baltimore: Review (open through 2/20/2011)

This was my first live comedy show in a while. It wasn't for lack of opportunities; comedy is actually fairly common for D.C.-area fundraisers and as a teen I got a fair number of Capitol Steps CDs. However, I fell out of the habit much as I fell out of the habit of watching TV news. Between the Daily Show, Colbert, funny things on the internet shared by friends, and the sometimes comedic stylings of a range of specialist blogs (for international political economy humor, Dan Drezner is your man) I could get great humor on topics of interest for free. As a result, my standards for humor I was paying for went way up and I let various opportunities pass me by.

The show this afternoon makes me think I may have made a mistake and not just that time when I missed a show by leaving my tickets at home. Second City is a well known Chicago comedy troupe that I'd considered catching on prior visits to the Windy City. They do a mix of scripted skits, songs, and improvisation with highly talented ensembles that are feeder teams to various television comedy shows. For this particular show, they sent two of their writers to get to know Baltimore to give the show a local flavor. I'd say about a quarter of the sketches felt like they could just be performed locally, another quarter might have worked elsewhere but were adapted to Baltimore, and the other half included shout outs but would have been funny most anywhere.

This was a formula that really worked for me. I got most of the local jokes; my mother and her family are from Baltimore and the suburbs and since I moved up to Columbia I hit the city more often for a range of reasons. The real advantage was that it forced fresher material without mandating the headline chasing that can be common for topically oriented shows. The advantage over your average locally-oriented show is that Second City brings consistently intelligent writing and a top notch ensemble. [For the scripted parts, the writers were Megan Grano and T.J. Shanoff. Their introduction to the program was also funny, so I think I will try to follow their work in the future.]

[Warren Johnson was my] favorite actor for his sheer range. His role in the first musical number was questioning some of the rose-tinted glasses nostalgia from perspective of African American Baltimoreans, but his subsequent roles were by no means token and included a wide range of impersonations and shticks.

Favorite bits: the musical numbers (A take on city nostalgia, The Wire: The Musical, a dirge on the fall of the Baltimore Sun set to a tune from Fiddler on the Roof, and a musical revue of Baltimore's past mayors; a real estate agent bit; a crowd feedback session featuring doctors (princes of the city), A-Rabbers (not to be confused with people from the Middle East), and seventh year MICA students. You will notice the local humor pattern here, but that shouldn't be taken as a slam on the rest of the material. Without the range of other bits, which had some of the strongest punch lines, the Baltimore stuff would have risked getting too [incestuous] and some of Kate's friends who didn't have strong local ties did get a bit bored. Overall, most of them had a good time too and I'm really glad they invited me.

This is not by any means a show aimed at children, but for anyone else with any Baltimore ties I'd recommend grabbing tickets while you still have a chance. The venue, Centerstage's Head Theater, offered a fair amount of seating while keeping an intimate feel. It did feel much more like a club than a theater; there was a bar in the back and there were tables with the chairs in the central seating area. We were all quite satisfied with our balcony seating: no tables but just one row so the view is great. If you pronounce Baltimore with the full three syllables and don't care about the local humor, than I'd definitely recommend catching a Second City show when they're doing a theme that grabs you. The tickets aren't cheap but it's an experience you aren't likely to get elsewhere. My only caveat: it is Baltimore by and large from the perspective of the reasonably comfortable middle class; they don't ignore racial issues but the Baltimore of Ta-Nehisi Coates' Beautiful Struggle is mostly seen through the filter of The Wire and a mocking of overwrought fears.

Buy tickets here. Prices go up some on February 11th and the show closes on the 20th.

[Update: Added in the names.]

Pittsburgh Museum Blogging: Heinz History Center 2010-01-05

I'm now on vacation in Florida, so I thought I should finish up Pittsburgh and get on with my current trip. My friend and I spent much of the morning of my other day up in Squirrel Hill where his mother continued to be most hospitable. My last foray into Pittsburgh was then a visit to the Senator John Heinz History Center. The admission cost was [$10] , [$5] student discount available, and that covers both the History Center and the Sports Museum. There was also a Treasures of the Vatican exhibit available at additional charge, but partly because I've seen the actual Vatican museum we didn't care enough to pay.

We ended up only going through the Pittsburgh history exhibit since I had a bus to catch. It was a fairly classical approach, artifact-heavy with a with special touches like a very in depth visitor director Q&A with John Westinghouse. That particular interactive video had an interface that lent itself to frequently asked questions but allowed for more detailed exploration which seemed like a good balance to me. It was titled Pittsburgh: A History of Innovation, that wasn't quite true but  [more history than innovation, but] the history of the city is [inexorably] linked with the history of its great inventors and industrialists notably Carnegie and Westinghouse. There's also a giant robot that smoked that's a holdover from a world's fair. All and all it was a satisfying way to spend a few hours and if you also want to hit the sports museum and other exhibits around the history center you could probably make a day of it.

After the visit we walked over to the convention center area, got lunch at a Subway, and then I caught the bus home. All and all a great way to spend two days.

Review: Where the Wild Things Are

I remember the pictures from the book more than I remember the story, so obviously I’m not a purist.  In event, I thought the adaptation was great but at the same time is certainly not for all kids.  That said, I know little about child development, so find some other reviewer if you need specific tips on if this is right for your kid.

There are rather scary bits as well as a heavy dose of psychological realism combined with troubled personality types.  The sugar that helps the dark parts go down is first and foremost appropriate absurdities of childhood combined with Max’s storytelling ability, Jim Henson studios created monsters, and to a lesser extent the neat backdrops.

My one sentence summary would be to take the comic strip Peanuts but merge the real life adults personality-types with the fantasies of the Snoopy oriented strips.  Thus, the joy of childhood oriented trailer is fairly deceptive though cool in its own right.

I’d say catching it in theaters is probably most important for muppet monsters/Dark Crystal fans.  If you care less about that sort of thing, it’s probably okay to catch it on DVD.

Review: Evil Dead, the Musical at the Landless in D.C.

The Evil Dead musical was an amusing little parody of the Sam Remi/Bruce Campbell horror films of that name.  There were also some references to Army of Darkness thrown in, but by and large no scenes from that film.

I hadn’t seen the Evil Dead movies although I am a real Army of Darkness fan.  Seeing them certainly wasn’t necessary, but interest in horror parody is.  So if you haven’t seen Army of Darkness, see that first really.

In any event, there was a good dozen songs or so with original tunes, the tunes sometimes showed up  more than once, but as far as I know they were all original to the musical.  The show had some different people than the original Broadway cast, but from what I’ve listened to on the Amazon page above, I think the singers compared well.  My favorite pieces were all in the second half: All the Men in My Life Keep Getting Killed By Candarian Demons, and the whole Necronomicon dance sequence.  That said, as the title of the last song attests, it’s worth noting that this song parodies the misogyny of some horror flicks more than it subverts it.

Beyond the singing, which to my pleasure was consistently easy to understand, the acting well suited the material and the lead did a good Ash.  The technical direction was definitely limited by the size of the tiny DCAC stage and I’m guessing a lower budget than the Broadway show, but on the whole it was successfully evocative and fun.  On the whole, at $25 and with the inconvenient but pleasant trek to Adams Morgan from Woodly Park Metro I’d recommend this for those excited by the idea of an Evil Dead musical. 

One practical note: there is some samurai film style blood fountains that splash the audience.  If you want to play it safe, you may wish to bring your own tarp.  They sell garbage bags with appropriate holes in them for $1, but if you’re my size those want cover your legs at all.  I used a newspaper for that purpose.

Image take by Laura Darby who had been kind enough to invite me

Quickie review: Demon’s Lexicon

Modern urban fantasy book with an interesting variant on an old staple that I won’t reveal in this review.  There will be an upcoming blog post describing how we got the book signed, but I’ll save that for my wife.

Basic universe setup: there’s a parallel demon universe and people with magical aptitude need to make deals with them if they want real power.  The deals involve sacrificing people to let the demons experience our world, which means the mages are pretty uniformly evil. 

Points of note: it’s a fairly dark book, not so much because of the fair number of evil magicians, but because the protagonists were willing to take fairly extreme measures.  Some of them I wasn’t comfortable with, but I don’t think we’re necessarily supposed to be. 

The magical sub-world was fairly well defined and made a good amount of sense, although the integration with the larger world wasn’t particularly covered.  That said, the failure to work out real world implications of magic tends to be a given in urban fantasy, so I’ll accept that. One oddity though, possession was fairly big in the book and caused rapid deterioration in the subject; however, the fairly logical albeit evil solution of chain possession to save the original victim was never discussed.  Maybe in the sequel.

Resident Evil 5: Follow-up failure

Downloaded the RE5 Demo and so far my main impression has been that I agree with Patrick Klepek that I don’t like the controls at all. (As a side note, I was sad to learn that Klepek was leaving the MTV Multiplayer blog, sounds like budget cuts.  I’ll miss his writing and hope to follow him elsewhere.   Here’s his twitter feed for any other fans out there.)

So far I’ve died a several times on the marketplace scenario and had the game crash twice.  Not the most auspicious beginning.    Part of the problem is probably that I don’t really know the RE4 controls, so I’m starting from scratch here.

I’d remembered to download the demo because the controversy around the game is flaring again.  I do like Coates rejection of the “it’s just a game” defense.  If games can’t handle critiques they don’t merit respect.  Having already critiqued the trailer, I’m withholding further judgment until I can get through the bloody demo.  That said, I do think the addition of the Sheva Alomar character certainly does help some.  It’d help more if both she were playable in single player mode, though at least she is available in co-op.  I do love the rise of co-op gaming even though I don’t tend to have guests over to play shooters with.

That said, even if things are better, I don’t buy that it means the original complaints were overblown.  I stand by my critique of the trailer for one.  For the defense, here’s a L.A. Times article that quotes Karen Dyer, the actress that played Alomar:

"When the clip came out, Sheva wasn't in it because she hadn't been created yet. Once people get to hear the whole story and meet Sheva, I think they'll see that there's nothing racist about it. In the game, she gets together with Chris Redfield to try to help her people. I think it's a balanced portrayal" of black people.

I hope she’s right, but even if she is, the fact that her character wasn’t created yet when the protest broke out shows the utility of complaining.  They may well have planned a local guide character anyways, but the criticism was early enough to have the potential to influence those decisions.  Raising warning flags gives developers the chance to correct course earlier in the design process.  The idea isn’t to score points, it’s to make a positive change.

In the Shadow of the Moon

In the Shadow of the Moon is a superb documentary about the Apollo project.  It features extensive interviews with ten astronauts (of the 24 ones that went to the moon).  They're all impressive and Wit a lot of them I feel I could sit and listen to their stories all day.  Particularly Mike Collins who is the funniest of the group and Alan Bean who often seems the most human.  Also, fun fact, Buzz Aldrin's other nickname is "Mr. Rendezvous" and it isn't because he's known for romantic liaisons.

The film weaves together all the Moon missions and there's a lot of great footage.  I really got a feel for the whole range of the Moon missions including the landing.  The landing was fairly new for me because I have seen Apollo 13 which of course didn't make the landing.  Also, all the footage is original, there's no CGI whatsoever, and that is of course much different than Apollo 13.

I'd recommend this film to any space buffs that want to know a bit more of the human side.  That said, this isn't a drama, it isn't about the families or the supporting engineers, its about the astronauts.  Another side note, not surprisingly these are all white men, there's a bit more diversity in the background shots and the control room though.  Not great, but a bit more than I expected given the time.  I suppose when we go to Mars the astronaut pool will be even more impressive as they'll have more people to draw from.

As a final note, I felt some sense of loss.  What the heck are we doing now that compares to that?  Although now that I've thought about it for an hour or so, I think in a lot of ways the internet is the Moonshot for my generation.  We all have seen it grow those who had the technology to do so have contributed some to its content or structure.  I think it's an accomplishment to be proud of.

That said, the space race will be back, its just hard to say how soon.  I figure the next round will have one of two triggers:

1. The PRC kicks America in the pants by getting to the Moon themselves.
2. Someone, quite possibly one of those entrepreneur burning money on the issue, figures out how to lower the price of breaking orbit by an order of magnitude.