DING DING DING!

Congratulations to myself!

I just leveled my first World of Warcraft character to the level 70 cap. Carrigan lvl 70 Undead Shadow Priest on the Shattered Halls server.

Now I’m completely lost as to what to do next. I had always planned on going Holy spec post-70…but now I’m thinking I might stay Shadow for a while. Either way I obviously need to get some gear that doesn’t suck…but should I concentrate on BGs and getting S2 gear? If so I should probably stay shadow. Other people have encouraged me to just start doing high level instances (Holy). Maybe I should just focus on maxing my tailoring profession and crafting some decent stuff first. Any suggestions?

Anyway, I may be lost but I’m pumped. Yay for wasting countless hours of my life! Thanks World of Warcraft!

Wipeout/I Survived a Japanese Game Show: Racist?

In an hour and a half my best friend and I will begin our Tuesday night ritual. What does this entail you might ask? Usually we get some kind of food that will clog our arteries (Checkers is a favorite) and alcohol (Dogfish Head 60 min IPA)…and then we watch ABC’s Summer lineup of Wipeout and I Survived a Japanese Game Show (we might nix this one though).

Now both Wipeout as well as I Survived a Japanese Game Show draw heavily on classic Japanese tv shows such as Takeshi’s Castle (MXC) and Ninja Warrior. I’ve always been a fan of MXC, Ninja Warrior, Unbeatable Banzuke, etc, but an Asian friend of mine reprimanded me for watching those sorts of shows very recently. He claimed that the only reason American’s like to watch those sort of shows is because of the humor. They think it’s funny watching people do ridiculous things, fall in mud, and get hit all while the announcer is screaming loudly in an Asian language. He went on to say that American’s simply like to laugh at Asian people and even more…at Asian cultures. Sure a lot of these shows are meant to be humorous even in their native countries, but Americans aren’t laughing at those jokes. They’re laughing at the entire Asian spectacle.

I must admit, I believe there’s a lot of truth in what my friend had to say. Asians in American pop culture have been traditionally the butt of many jokes. They’re nerdy, bad drivers, and have a really smallll penis. But is that why we find these shows so funny? I guess I think it’s different on a show to show basis.

In the case of Most Extreme Elimination Challenge, I would say that the humor inherent is definitely racist. MXC is a dubbed over version of the original show Takeshi’s Castle in which contestants have to do ridiculous, embarrassing, and often dangerous stunts. It’s in the dubbing that I find the inappropriate humor. For those that haven’t seen the show, imagine watching a lot Asians getting hit, kicked, and falling all over the place while listening to dubbing that makes them sound completely ridiculous. The in-game correspondent’s name has been re-dubbed “Guy Le Douche” for example. While it’s really funny to watch, I think my friend is correct. It’s humorous for all the wrong reasons.

On the other side of the spectrum lie G4’s Unbeatable Banzuke and Ninja Warrior. These shows aren’t usually that funny and often feature contestants perform amazing, if at times random, acts of human strength and agility. The dubbing is a straight translation. I would say there’s not really any racist humor in these shows…although there’s not much humor at all. They’re just entertaining.

ABC has jumped on this bandwagon with two shows (Wipeout and I Survived a Japanese Game Show) for their Tuesday night lineup. My favorite of the two, Wipeout, is almost the same as MXC with one exception: it’s all in English and the contestants are American. Turns out it’s just as funny to watch Americans get hurt while commentators make fun of them. However there’s still a different feeling in Wipeout than in MXC. The humor is slightly different. I’m not sure how I feel about the show. On the one hand, it proves that the same formula is still funny without Asian jokes. On the other hand, by using the same formula it’s in a way still supporting the old show.

I Survived a Japanese Game Show kidnaps 12 Americans and forces them to compete on a real authentic Japanese game show. I was going to write about how I thought that this show could also be considered racist for the humor. But then I just realized that the reason my friend and I might not continue to watch this show is because it’s not funny…so maybe the point is moot.

Anyway, I’m just intrigued by this new trend in television…Are these shows racist? Maybe. Maybe not. But I do think that everyone should occasionally put down the fries and beer and evaluate what exactly it is that they’re laughing at.

These are a few of my favorite links

This is the first of a new series in which I highlight a website that I like. For my first entry, I’d like to talk about my favorite website, ExplodingDog. ExplodingDog is a website run by an artist by the name of Adam Culbert. His alias on the website is Sam Brown. Every day, readers of his website send him possible titles for drawings and Adam/Sam uses them as inspiration for the art he creates.

He paints a picture of a very specific world inhabited by robots, dogs, stick figures, and monsters. The simplicity and cartoon nature of the drawings is juxtaposed with ominous environments. Also, what happens to these cute characters can at times be gruesome. While this juxtaposition might sound depressing, there’s an odd hope present throughout the work. In addition, Adam/Sam often takes an interesting twist on a title taking the picture in an entirely different direction from what you would expect.

Adam/Sam’s art creates a universe which, if it had a soundtrack, I believe it would be dominated by music from Say Hi to Your Mom. I can’t say I can explain why I feel this way, but I really feel these two artists have a lot in common. I encourage you to check his website out. There are about 2-3 new pictures every day so it makes it a good website to add to your daily checklist.

Internet killed the video star…

Recently, while watching an episode of Weeds on an online site called www.surfthechannel.com, I came across a song by Page France. The particular song, entitled “Jesus,” was positively mesmerizing and so I logged onto youtube to find a video of the song. While there wasn’t an official video, a young girl made her own music video for the song that was particularly sweet.

I could go a couple different directions from this point. I could talk about the show Weeds and how amazing it is and how the music they choose for the show is generally stellar and how I really envy the person that has that job. Or I could talk about Page France and the recent influx of Christian artists into the indie rock scene a la Sufjan Stevens. But I’m not. Instead I want to talk about the state of the music video and my first instinct to turn to youtube.

Whenever I want to watch a music video, I simply log on to youtube and find what I want. I believe that’s a pretty common instinct. Last night, after my internet roaming ceased, I turned on the TV. VH1’s show “Nocturnal State” (basically just music videos) was on. While falling asleep I lay there hoping to come across some Vampire Weekend or…I don’t even know what I was hoping for actually…of course, after a video by Usher, Duffy, and Gavin Rossdale, I clicked off the tube and went to sleep unfulfilled. Today I was thinking about the state of the music video. What place do cable stations like MTV, VH1, and CMT have in the world of youtube? Why would I watch “theirtube?” Perhaps this is why these television stations have turned to trashy reality and dating shows instead. If that’s the case why do they still cling to outdated programs such as TRL and Nocturnal State? Obviously television is no longer the appropriate medium for the music video.

Perhaps, I thought, MTV and VH1 have great resources for watching music videos online. However, upon further investigation I was once again disappointed. Their sites were poorly designed, extremely hard to navigate, and lacking in diversity of artists. Have they given up? Why can’t they come up with a youtube specifically for music videos? Perhaps a program that plays music videos based on other ones you like Pandora. Now that’d be cool.

The bigwigs over at MTV need to take notice of what is happening. Seriously. Music is moving online and they are doing nothing to keep up. As someone who grew up watching MTV in order to watch music videos, it saddens me that the station no longer fills the same niche.

First of all

This being my first post, I’m putting an enormous amount of pressure on myself for it to be something of meaning…if not in the most universal sense, then at least something meaningful to me. Unsurprisingly, I’m unable to produce anything at the moment…which is oddly typical of “First”s.

Everyone celebrates the first time…baby’s first word, child’s first day at school, etc. This celebration of beginnings puts a strange emphasis on “First”s. What’s even stranger is that the first time is most often the worst because we don’t know what the heck we’re doing. As such, we find ourselves in a cycle of celebrating these flawed disappointing beginnings over and over.

Perhaps it’s depressing the way in which our “First”s will never live up to the hype. On the other hand, maybe it’s admirable that we continue to celebrate the moments when we are at our weakest in the face of these disappointments.