Game creators crave validation


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Video game designers — especially those looking to produce something truly meaningful — must have some self-esteem issues. After all, their medium simply doesn’t command the same level of respect as film. Just read Roger Ebert’s creakingly unprogressive columns about the inability of video games to attain the same art and business status that film […]

Californians turn to missions for history


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In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. We all know the grade-school rhyme that helps children everywhere remember just which Italian explorer planted a little European flag in the North American continent, bringing with him horses, coffee and smallpox. Americans even observe a holiday in his honor by closing down post offices on the second […]

Rites of passage come in various disguises


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Amid gold confetti, topless figureheads and raging techno, I experienced my first encounter with San Francisco’s LovEvolution last weekend. In an extravagant parade down Market Street, I saw pink elephants and cage dancers, penis balloons and some Amazonian wilderness. I even witnessed at least eight nude men, each posing for pictures with girls young enough […]

Google makes waves of progress


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Every day I check my email, hoping a certain message is there. No, it’s not an acceptance letter, a message from my boss or a shipping confirmation for those amazing shoes I just ordered. It’s my Google Wave invitation — and it still hasn’t come. Of course, I could get one on eBay for upwards […]

3-D effects detract from cinema’s artistry


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Cinematic spectacle is on life support. In some ways, the death knell of grand, eye-popping feats of onscreen ingenuity and artistry was finally sounded this year by the hack trio of Michael Bay, Stephen Sommers and Roland Emmerich. With Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra and the upcoming 2012, […]

Standardized testing takes a toll on students


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For a lot of people, sanity resurfaced at about 3:00 p.m. Saturday afternoon. The LSAT, a monster of an exam, came and went — and left thousands behind exhausted yet soothed and suddenly unsure of what to do with the open pockets of time they now saw in their schedule. It is ironic, then — […]

Online games allow social interaction, valued entertainment


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I have recently come to terms with one incredibly embarrassing fact about myself: I rock at online games. When it comes to the digital world of gaming, I consider myself quite the expert — I was taking “Serial Killer or Kindergarten Teacher?” quizzes and playing the Helicopter Game while the rest of the world was […]

Office dating a recipe for disaster


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Love in the workplace is usually frowned upon — and for good reason. Innocent flirtation and casual eye sex with a foxy coworker can be fun and harmless. Intraoffice dating, however, is an occupational hazard destined to end in catastrophe. While the ill effects of the office relationship are widely known, even the best and […]

Women directors break out in 2009


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In the film industry, the battle of sexes might better be regarded as a massacre in favor of the men. This year, however, is arguably one of the most productive for women directors in recent memory. At face value, the distinction “women directors” seems condescending — a “good for you” kind of backhanded compliment that […]