On the other hand, I found the film to be fantastic; stylish, gritty and darkly witty, it’s everything I expected executed with the slick visual style which has been the target of much praise. As for the comment regarding the film’s “degrading” nature – I couldn’t disagree more. The prostitutes of Oldtown are dangerous, ruthless, and determined to protect their business and their truce, which is all but shattered by Rafferty’s death. These whores aren’t the subject of objectification; they’re businesswomen, exchanging services for cash with no judgement from others or accusations of moral depravity, much superior to the dirty reputation of Amsterdam’s red light district or Hamburg’s Reeperbahn.

The film’s nudity is barely ever in a sexual context; the most sexually charged scene in the film is Jessica Alba’s dance, which oddly enough also has no nudity at all. No, the use of nudity here is purely artistic, a supplement to the already unique and eye-catching visual aesthetic of the black-white-red-blonde colour scheme. Everything is exaggerated, even the plot and the animated gore, and the film’s protagonists are primarily strong, self-sufficient women. Degrading? No, Sin City is nothing but empowering to women, and you’d think the film would have some reputation for that. But no, my sister, so thoughtful and educated thinks that Sin City is a shitty, degrading film, and her mind is set on that notion before she’s even seen the film – which knowing her stubbornness, she probably never will.

London’s current rendition of the musical sees a few modifications to bring it up to the times: a reference to George Bush is changed to a reference to BP, alongside a few minor removals of comments deemed slightly too racist for the show – although, as explained in the song “Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist”, perhaps people are taking the show a bit too seriously if they find it racist. After all, the performance is largely carried by puppets, albeit extremely expressive ones. It’s hard to describe the visual aspect of Avenue Q; suffice it to say that it’s seamless and filled with character.

Despite the use of puppets, the show remains targeted at a mature audience, not at children; repetitive use of profanity and one explicit puppet sex scene (including a variety of types and positions) should deter you from bringing any children younger than 13 to the show, even if there is no real age restriction. All in all, I recommend Avenue Q to anyone with an open mind and a great sense of humour: it’s officially my favourite musical and it was one of the best live performances I’ve ever seen (and while I can’t speak for the Broadway production, I’m sure it’s just as good, if not better). See it now!

The completion of this task, the so-called “inception”, is vital for team leader Dominic Cobb; unable to return home to his children because of legal complications, he is forced to stay on the run, taking jobs to attempt to buy his way back home. Client Saito’s job offer is irresistible: a powerful figure in the energy market, Saito promises to use his connections to let Cobb return home, presuming the inception is successful. What is already a difficult task is complicated by the presence of Cobb’s subconscious projection of his dead wife Mal, seemingly intent on sabotaging his missions to convince him to stay in the dream world with her forever.

Cobb and Mal’s relationship and the circumstances surrounding her death are key plot points in the film; explained through dream sequences, snippets and emotionally charged flashbacks, Nolan does an excellent job of teasing us with the details and leaving us to guess the rest as he returns to the mission. Perhaps most interesting about the situation is that Mal is only a projection of Cobb’s subconscious, and her anger and attempts to trap him are influenced primarily by the guilt with which he is wracked over the notion he is responsible for her death. His physical conflict with her in the dream world represents his internal turmoil; reconciliation would be akin to coming to terms with her death, and the plot accurately depicts the difficulty involved in forgiving oneself.

A definite master of intrigue, Nolan’s primary policy appears to be that of hiding the secrets until the very end; he lets the film become serious and dark before adding a dash of humour to bring the audience back into the action. There’s no break for thinking: in flashbacks, you’ll be lost in the plot, deeply analytical and trying to guess the meaning; then you’ll be thrust back into the action and the accompanying state of awe as we enjoy fast-paced, gravity-defying fight scenes rivalling those unreal, carefully choreographed scenes seen in The Matrix. His preference for practical effects over computer-generated is admirable; even the most complex fight sequences were patiently shot over and over, take after take to match his artistic vision. There’s nothing trivial about the 100-foot motorised hallway set built in-studio, turning at a speed of eight revolutions per second to simulate shifts in gravity; this is the way special effects should be done.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt skilfully navigates the spinning set, throwing his armed assailants against the wall as gravity changes to his advantage; his character is Cobb’s curiously-mannered point man; perhaps even more curious about the character are the similarities in his mannerisms to those of Gordon-Levitt’s last role, Tom in Marc Webb’s (500) Days of Summer. Undoubtedly a unique and talented actor, it is somewhat interesting to note that he isn’t engaging his full potential here. The fight scenes are awe-inspiring and epic, but in brainstorming sessions it’s easy to forget you’re meant to be watching a trained extractor and point man, not a smitten greetings card writer.

A better example of acting talent well explored is in the case of Ellen Page, perhaps best known for her role as the eponymous heroine in 2007’s drama-comedy Juno, who portrays architect Ariadne, hired to design the levels within the dream to create the impression of realism for the subject they are attempting to deceive. Nolan’s idea here is wonderful; the world, designed by the architect, is populated by projected manifestations of the subject’s subconscious after they are drawn into the dream. However, if the dreamer changes the world of the dream too much, the subject will subconsciously attempt to find and eliminate the dreamer through whatever means possible. In some cases, the subconscious projections are militarised thanks to training by another extractor, making the process more difficult.

Inception is, without a doubt, the best film of the year so far, and is far more impressive than Nolan’s last work, The Dark Knight. Combining a clever plot with strong, emotionally-charged acting and some breathtaking action sequences, Inception will probably go down as one of my favourite recent films. If you haven’t already seen it, see it now; if you have seen it, you’ll know exactly why I’m such a fan of this film.

I’m not going to talk about gaming as an art form, or how hardcore gamers are no longer the target market; no, I’m going to talk about how the morals of the gamer – you and I and everybody else reading this – have changed. Let’s take a look at some classic games which I’m sure you’ll all remember. I’ve picked a wide range to illustrate my point in the most cohesive way possible. I’ll start with an old favourite: The Legend of Zelda. Alright, here we go, it’s a basic enough premise: you’re a hero called Link, there’s a princess called Zelda that needs saving, so you gotta go do what you gotta do. You can’t just stroll up to the castle and demand her back, however. First, you’ll need to collect weapons, talk to wizards in caves, defeat bosses and traverse some fairly treacherous terrain. It’s all very epic.

Let’s cycle back in time a little bit and go to Space Invaders. It’s a very basic game in all respects; visually, it looks like nothing more than some squished flies descending from the top of the screen to the bottom of the screen, with a green triangle throwing rectangles at them to block their progress. Of course, in your head, you’re defending planet Earth from invading aliens. You are a hero, saving the world from these little bastard sky-bugs. Right on. Of course, nobody plays Space Invaders any more. You want to save the world from aliens, you’ll play Half-Life 2, which puts you in the shoes of physicist Gordon Freeman, defending the world from the Combine, who have appointed Dr Breen as ruler of the now very dystopian Earth. Once again, you play the hero, and you’re killing alien invaders to save the world.

Do you see what I’m getting at yet? The most traditional form of narrative in video gaming sees you play the hero, saving the world, a village, or even just a petty little princess. The gamer feels empowered. Virtual people are praising him for his deeds, and that’s a great form of escapism: you’re escaping to a world where you’ve done something impossible, and everybody loves you for that. Let’s go accelerate into the future and take a look at Red Dead Redemption. You’re an outlaw in the Wild West, but not the loveable anti-hero type you’ve seen Clint Eastwood play. In fact, you can earn an achievement for successfully killing a woman by tying her to train tracks. That’s not heroic at all, that’s bloody villainy.

You couldn’t get away with that back in the ’80s; what kind of gamer back then would want to play a game where you can slaughter innocent people without remorse? Games have continued to evolve to the point where they’re beginning to attract a completely different kind of audience, one that is perfectly willing to break their moral code in a virtual world, and that has created the demand for games like Red Dead Redemption. I’m not in any way damning games like this – hell, Grand Theft Auto is one of the finest sandbox series ever, and the latest instalments have a much stronger narrative than most people give credit. In fact, this new evolution of gamer has given us a wider range of games to play, so for that, I reckon we ought to give credit to these depraved souls. Next time you play BioShock and come to the point where you can choose to harvest or save your Little Sister, remember that someone, somewhere, always chooses to harvest, and it’s thanks to them we have Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, All Points Bulletin and Manhunt.

Of course, this is a double-edged sword, as poorly-educated fools with a thin grasp of the English language can in some cases serve as an annoyance so powerful, not even disembowelling their virtual avatar can appease the recipient of their whiny pleas. It’s ridiculous to even assume that such poor players can disrespect your playing ability with a straight face. They’re lying to themselves, and no matter how many times you kill them or explain to them the farce that is their ability to suck, they’ll continue to rub in your face that time they barely killed you because you went to make a sandwich and left yourself in a vulnerable position. Damn them.

And the language, too; trash talk begs originality, as an over-use of the F word bounces off most targets in very much the same way a rubber-coated bullet doesn’t. Terms like “faggot” and “bastard” get thrown around almost as frequently, as does the more British and surprisingly potent combination “faggot bastard”, whereas “arsebag shitehook” is somewhat more rare. Adjectives are equally important in trash talk, with adjectives describing actions second most prevalent, behind “fucking” and its millions of potential uses. Consider how many times players online have called you a “fucking noob”. It gets dull, doesn’t it? Now consider how many times you’ve been called a “cow-fingering arsebag shitehook”. It’s a significantly lower number, isn’t it?

Like I’ve said, trash talk is important for keeping players in the game. A careful balance is required in order to keep the player determined to prove himself to the other players – after all, true gamers don’t game to prove themselves to friends or family, they game to prove themselves to absolute strangers – while not frustrated enough to ragequit. Originality in trash talk helps: more original slurs can be more entertaining than aggravating, helping both sides of the balance, whereas the more vulgar and “traditional” comments tend to be seen more as bad sportsmanship and the mark of a sore loser, ruining a game experience for all involved.

Post sponsored by zConnection.

If you read the title of this post and instantly know what I’m talking about, you’re awesome. Invasion was a television show that started back in 2005 on ABC; the premise was simple, and something of a twist on the classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Without giving too much away, the show was set in an American town which is suffering after an unusual hurricane. During the hurricane, a hell of a lot of strange orange lights fall from the sky into the water. What are they? Well, it’s never quite made clear. It’s possible they’re aliens, or maybe just biofluorescent (or is that bioluminescent?) fish tossed up by the storm. At first, they’re just dismissed, but eventually some of the characters begin to take notice, and these are the show’s primary characters.

We’ve got Russell, a park ranger, married to Larkin, a news reporter on a cable television network. The sheriff in town is Tom, who’s married to Russell’s ex-wife Mariel, a doctor at the local hospital. Larkin’s brother Dave is unemployed, although he appears to run a blog, where he posts his latest conspiracy theories for the world to read. Russell and Mariel have two children, a teenage boy called Jessie and a young girl called Rose. It’s Rose who first spots these mysterious lights coming from the sky.

Now that I’ve established the show’s premise and introduced most of the ensemble cast, let’s move onto the show’s history. It was a fantastic show, I must say. I thoroughly enjoyed it; the characters were likeable and the story was gripping. Unfortunately, even after a strong start, Invasion was cancelled after its initial twenty-two episode run, ending on a cliffhanger. It took over a year for the studio to release the series on DVD, even after huge fan efforts to have the series restarted. It’s quite similar to the attempts to have Firefly restarted, a show with a similarly premature conclusion. It seems that television network executives don’t like me enjoying their stations.

I leave you with just this piece of advice: go to your favourite DVD retailer, online or physical, and grab the first season of Invasion on DVD. It’s an incredible show which is under-appreciated due to its age and status that does not deserve to be overlooked. It’s quite easy to imagine the show becoming as popular as Lost had it premièred before J.J.Abrams’ brainchild.

It’s through Amie Street that I discovered a little alternative/acoustic band called Minor Kingdom. At first I only downloaded one track, Choir of the Lilies. I was hooked, so I downloaded another. Before I knew it, I’d actually paid money to Amie Street for the first time in exchange for $10 of credit, which I promptly used to buy their entire album and recommend as many tracks as I could. If you’re a fan of the genre, I strongly recommend checking out Minor Kingdom on Amie Street, and then becoming a fan on Facebook.

Hopefully I’ve brightened up your day by bringing these two things to your attention. See you soon!

You can check NaNoWriMo out at the official website here. It’s definitely worth a shot, even if you are coming in three or four days late. Who knows, you might get your mini masterpiece published. If not, at least you get a pretty certificate.

From: Vodafone
Time: 19-10-2009 16:51:33
Great news, Free
Weekends has been added
to your account. There’s
no charge, spend just
£2.50 in the week and get
free texts all weekend.
Call 2345 for info

http://live.vodafone.co.uk/

zr/friday To stop
textSTOP to9774

From: Vodafone
Time: 22-10-2009 14:31:25
Sorry for the Free
Weekends message sent in
error. Free Weekends has
successfully been added
to your pay as you go
account. Sorry for any
confusion caused.

From: Vodafone
Time: 23-10-2009 17:30:10
Sorry,due to a system
error you were charged for
SMS sent between 2-3pm
today that should have
been free.We’ll refund you
and let you know when this
is done

I’ve heard reports that this is slowly happening to other accounts too, although seemingly I’ve been one of the first to turn. Curious.