Ready To Friday: It's Been Real Edition

This week has been a real show-stopper. I'm not really going to go on about myself through these things, but you wouldn't believe the kind of things a person will go through only to be whisked away by fate and luck alone. Remember folks, the world works in unpredictable ways, unless it always happens the same way. I don't want to lean on luck, but it's so reliable. So good.

Changing the subject, how's your weekend looking to be? I can tell you this, it's not going to be anything like this.

The Edit

These here are the specific interests and perks of the weekly adventuring. Everything from tunes to articles or almost-lost files can be found below. Hopefully some of it will be recent, whereas some of it will be less so. But all of it I think is worth sharing with you; which is my gamble that you'll like it as much as I did.

This week, the Electronic Entertainment Expo began and ended, and a lot of things happened that soaked up all of my attention. So if you don't care about video games and such, skip all this boring crap. If you do care about that sort of thing you probably already know about this stuff, so you might want to skip this anyway.

• The 3DS is a thing now, it's apparently amazing and has plenty of games planned for it. My mind is blown and I think it's time I upgrade my DS Phat for one of these once we get a date and a price.
• Sony, unfortunately, had a pretty unexciting press conference this year, despite needing to make up a lot of ground in the console race. Twisted Metal and LittleBig Planet 2 were both cool, despite not really resembling a surprise. Portal 2 coming to the PS3 as the definitive console version was the best thing they had going for them. The PSP got a new ad campaign, featuring this angry black kid called "Marcus." Does associating the PS3 with some obnoxious cretin seem like a good idea to anyone? It's not even a nut you can play with outside.
• Project Natal is now Kinect. And there's a new shiny Xbox model hitting stores soon. Excuse me if I seem underwhelmed by these two things. I'm not really sure if Microsoft has what it takes to succeed with motion control, or if they're even right to try to capture some of Nintendo's new "casual" gaming audience. Let's assume they're trying to sell an Xbox to somebody out of this fresh market with the promise of motion control. That person will need an Xbox to play games, $200, a Kinect device for motion control, rumored at $150, and one of these Kinect-specific games a "casual gamer" might enjoy, $60 (for real!?). I think the Wii had a chance to succeed in a lot of homes with people who normally didn't play video games because when it launched it was $250, it came with a game to play and it had the benefit of being this new phenomenon few people had experienced before. Microsoft doesn't seem to understand that following the market leader so many years after both companies have established themselves will not yield the same profits that Nintendo made. I'm not sure if this uphill struggle will be as disastrous as it could turn out to be, but I don't think there's even a slim chance they will truly succeed the way Nintendo has.
• What did Microsoft do right, though? Metal Gear Solid: Rising looks to be cut-and-snatchingly good. Halo: Reach is still my franchise fan-fave. Gears of War 3 will also probably be fun. So why the hell were Kinect and sports the biggest parts of Microsoft's conference? Maybe they didn't expect Nintendo to wipe the floor with everyone this year the way they did. I'll admit, I was surprised too.
• Speaking of Nintendo, even without the 3DS, they brought their A-game this year. Kirby's Epic Yarn is the most amazing thing I've ever seen, new Donkey Kong Country is incredible, new Legend of Zelda is all kind of cell-shaded brilliance, and new Goldeneye is so much nostalgic bliss. With all these retro-mazing announcements, I can even momentarily forget that Metroid comes out in a couple of months and Epic Mickey is hitting this holiday season. Can anyone possibly deny Nintendo now?

Video game business is done now. Feel free to start your regular RTF reading here.

• Normally I don't promote other people's endeavors that aren't going to benefit you or I in some way. But let's call this an exception, not the rule, because honestly, I think you'll get a kick out of it (and not purely in one of those emotionally heart-warming ways that no one really cares about). The story goes like so: Oprah (let's hope I'm not going to name-drop her on any future RTFs) is holding a contest to discover an individual to host their own television show. So this is where we found Zach and his audition tape. He's got Cerebral Palsy and he wants to host his own unique idea for a travel show. My first reaction to finding this audition on the recommendation that Zach is a bright, funny and charming individual despite being somewhat physically disabled might be similar to yours now: Well good for him, but he's probably getting a lot of praise just because he's disabled. After watching the clip, my conclusion was that I'm a dick and this guy is way more talented and clever that I'll ever be. So if you manage to watch it too, give this guy your vote. I'd watch the hell out of his show.
• GOOD provides, like they do, another interesting study through an infographic, showing an interesting development that tracks crime rates and unemployment rates over the last two decades. Naturally, many of us would expect that higher unemployment means higher crime rates, right? Wrong, apparently. Even with jobs dipping lower and lower, crimes rates in this country seem to follow them down.
• Now if everything else this week hasn't interested you, I think I have the cure for your boredom. The answer is Cageflix. Oh yes, you know you want it. Cageflix is a website that, with the click of a button, will add as many of Nicholas Cage's available movies to your Netflix que. It's so easy! Cage it up!
• Obama gave his speech on Tuesday to encourage a national movement away from foreign energy and towards alternative methods of power in response to the Gulf spill. That's cool. Now look at these pictures of the spill still being huge on its 60th day!

Hearing Things

For my own reasons, I've decided to process the music appreciation of my weekly culture bomb into its own section. Hopefully this means you won't miss out on whatever I feel like highlighting here. But it also means it will be much more obvious when I don't have any musical suggestions.

• There's not a lot of music I look forward to during the year. It's not like movies or video games where I'm very aware of dates or new releases. This kind of stuff just comes in under the radar nine times out of ten, even with bands I happen to like. This year, The National and LCD Soundsystem were both interesting enough that I caught wind of their newest albums before they hit stores. And there's still one band left I'm watching in 2010.
  Arcade Fire is set to release their latest album this August, and even before I got my first sampling of a track from The Suburbs, I was pretty excited. But now that I have a taste, my appetite for more is substantially whetted. It's a case of "that track I'm gonna listen to another dozen times before I go to bed", because with each play, I get more and more into that melody. Check it out here.

Tumblr that Mattr

Assuming you scour the minimal blog oasis less than I do, here are my picks for the most bizarre, relevant and clever Tumblrs on the web. Satisfaction is not guaranteed.

Dethjunkie scares me something serious. At the same time, it's also one of those Tumblr's whose purpose and theme is so clear and interesting that I can't help sift through pages and pages of honestly creepy and intriguing stuff. Definitely check this one out.

English Language of the Week:

This segment is based around my personal love of the modern english language, where, each week, I'll nominate my favorite phrase, sentence or paragraph that I have personally heard spoken in that time.

Well, it's been real.

The end of an age.

On Your Way Out

Let's make it wrap. No lengthy exposition this time. Just go out and make something wonderful happen. It's a brave new world and you're the best part of it. I'm not kidding. You can't tell when I'm kidding.

Peace out.

-stg