There are no women in it.

I googled “Moneyball women” and what I get is even more disturbing. The movie producer and the studio head are both women. It’s not a secret that there are more men in Hollywood. We all remember that it took until 2008 for a woman to win “Best Director” at the Oscars. It’s frustrating enough that women have such a hard time breaking the movie-making glass ceiling. Then I hear statements like this regarding the challenges of getting the movie made, I can’t help but feel like we’re always one step forward and two steps back.

Doubling-down, another female specialty, Horovitz would argue. “It’s a fact of our species that women have to turn a no into a yes more often than men do,” she says. “Do you think my husband wanted to get married or have children?

uh what? You married someone who didn’t want to get married and had kids with someone who didn’t want to have kids? I can’t. That’s such a frustrating stereotype of a married couple.  It’s such a frustrating stereotype of a woman. I absolutely refuse to accept that women should accept that we get told ‘no’ more often. Like it’s something we should just laugh off? Oh dear me, silly world, always putting women last.

Others, like Laura Baudo Sillerman at Women’s Voices for Change hit the nail on the head:

Admittedly, it’s a true story that doesn’t lend itself to a big part for a woman, but it takes place in 2002. Is it really possible that the scene of the high-heeled, mature secretary arriving with two trays of coffee — one for Billy Beane, the modern general manager, and the other for John Henry, a supposedly progressive team owner — actually happened? And was this scene necessary? Was Beane’s relationship with his own secretary (again a mature woman) truly limited to barking the names of people to whom he wanted calls placed (and, oh yes, asking if the coffee was made)? Couldn’t the beautiful and gifted Robin Wright have been given more than just one scene during which she was restricted to indicating her loyalty to her supercilious second husband?

When this very pleasant very enjoyable film was finished (seriously, I liked it a lot) I wasn’t fixating on the number of women. I don’t love doing that, but when it’s this unequal and this over the top I feel like it creeps up on me and I cannot remain passive about it. Everything was amplified when this flashed across the screen:

Written by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin

JCPE and I both yelled “Ahhhhh THAT’s WHY it was so good! Goddamit Aaron Sorkin another great movie! Best screenwriter of all time!”

Then I started thinking almost exactly what Laura Baudo Sillerman said above… why can’t I remember more than three women characters? Why don’t I know their names?

See? Similarly why can’t I remember any women who weren’t crazy girlfriends or sluts from Social Network while I’m at it? You can argue that there weren’t that many women who were involved in the making of Facebook, but there have to be stories out there where genders are at the very least equally represented. I started thinking when will we start telling those stories?

Now I’ve let it sit for 24 hours and I’ve gone from sort of ok with it to actually angry about it. I believe that Aaron Sorkin is the best screenwriter of all time. I believe that whatever the future holds for the planet earth that it 100% will include people performing Aaron Sorkin scenes for hundreds of years. The West Wing is our Hamlet, The Social Network is our Macbeth. I’m not mad at Aaron Sorkin for being a man, I’m grateful that he’s a writer, it’s no exaggeration when I say that his work has changed my life. I am mad at Aaron Sorkin for not putting his money where his mouth is.

What makes me upset is this:

This made me cry when I saw it. He makes a point to say to his daughter that “smart girls have more fun, and you’re one of them!” That’s awesome, great dad stuff Aaron!

Now please, please write another strong woman. There isn’t a women I know who wouldn’t say she looks up to CJ Cregg.You have the talent and the power to create something truly remarkable for the next generation of women.

Seriously:

I’m upset with you, Aaron Sorkin. I don’t think that it’s unreasonable to ask the person who is the best at their craft to please take a moment to write us a strong female-lead movie. True stories of strong women DO exist, you have the talent to bring these stories to life in a way that no one else has.  Do it for me, do it for the women who became interested in politics because of CJ. Do it for the women who became television producers because of Dana Whitaker. Do it for your daughter.

So, picture it… Astoria 2011… It’s late and I can’t sleep and I’m reading my Everyday with Rachel Ray and come across an article on what our favorite not-household-name-but-hey-he-cloud-be dream boat Josh Charles likes to eat. It’s a monthly column where Rachael asks a famous person to talk about their favorite foods and food traditions (this month it’s Donnie Whalberg!)

Just because he’s not a household name yet doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve to be. This is him over there on the left.

Recognize him? He’s been on TV a lot – head over to his IMDB page HERE and then hop back here!

The man is from Baltimore so he loves crabs and old bay etc… I tweeted about his culinary tastes immediately, did you miss it? That’s cool man it was PRINTED IN EVERYDAY WITH RACHAEL RAY! (this is the first time we were printed for something we said on twitter)

Can’t sleep! Found the best thing ever! @BaltimoreJosh interviewed in @RachaelRayMag! #swoon

Get it? I tweeted @ Josh Charles at his name @BaltimoreJosh and noted that it was @RachaelRayMag. Rachael noticed and thought it was cute (presumably) and decided to print it in her magazine! I find printing a tweet to be hilarious! Tweets are by definition short and immediate and don’t take time to go to the printers! I LOVE that someone loved one of our tweets enough to take the time to print it! It blows my mind!

We knew it was going to be printed last week when @RachaelRaymag tweeted that we were going to be printed in the October issue! We were SUPER excited! And then a few days later, social medial tragedy struck. SOMEONE in Josh Charles’ camp decided to take a ‘Social Media 101′ course* learned about personal branding and changed his twitter name to @MrJoshCharles. It’s literally the first thing you learn in seminars, get your name as your twitter handle, get yourself some google alerts and OWN your name! Good decision PR team, terrible timing for us!

The magazine comes out and it looks like we tweeted to nobody! If you thought it was cute and typed it in to see who we were tweeting at it would go to a broken profile! We look like the asshole here! When it COULD be argued that it’s the other way around! So we did the only thing that seemed to make sense. We ‘bought’ @BaltimoreJosh:

For the record I absolutely LOVE Josh Charles. He really did win us over as the cutie patootie ice cream man with the bitch sister with flat hair in Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, and we were happy to see he entered his 20s with style in Sports Night! Plus, The Good Wife is fantastic and we really think he kills it as Julianna Margulies’ boss/old-possibly-new flame. We need to watch more of his movies! Any suggestions? Let me know if you have a favorite!

That was super fun! Thank you Rachael Ray!

* We don’t know that for sure but we’re willing to bet it’s true

UPDATE 9/15: We were contacted by Josh Charles’ PR team and asked very nicely to return @BaltimoreJosh, which we did of course! We only needed to make sure that Rachael’s fans knew who we were tweeting at so we didn’t look crazy! Then I immediately hopped on twitter and grabbed my maiden name back! Lesson learned, when you change your twitter name (which I recommend you do only once at the most) get back in there and make sure your old name re-directs!  In related news: WE WERE CONTACTED BY A MAJOR PR FIRM! We’re wiping the dust off our tuxs with tails and ball gowns because the big time is legit right around the corner.

HK

By now, the inter-web is familiar with the likes of one Alexandra Wallace and her (not at all) intellectually sophisticated and nuanced take on cultural diversity on the campus of UCLA.  It’s completely offensive, yes.  But… she’s an idiot, so I don’t feel a particularly urgent need to respond with anger.

But comedy?  Always!  Check this guy out!  A few things should be noted:

1) UCLA has acquired many nicknames over the years.  During my high school days, it was known as University of Caucasians Lost among Asians.

2) There were tears of laughter while viewing this.

Attention Park Slopers!… Brooklynites!… New Yorkers!… really, anyone with a working cerebrum.  There is a weasel in our midst!

He/she calls him/herself Jennifer McMillen, and gained notoriety last week after posting a mind-numbing display of I-swear-I’m-not-racist racism on petitionbuzz.com.  In it, he/she urges fellow Park Slope residents to discourage the owner of a forthcoming neighborhood establishment from spinning hip-hop in the “family-centric” community.

…First, let me explain what’s at the heart of this conflict: I know for a fact that there’s no single type of establishment (or type of bar/club patron for that matter) that Park Slopers would inherently view as “undesirable.” I don’t think anyone would deny that Park Slopers are about the least “racist” people on the planet…

It’s not “racist” to equate hip-hop with an elevated crime rate vis a vi other types of musical genres – It’s just a statistical fact that crime is more likely to occur among urban audiences than among audiences of other demographics. R&B and rap happen to be my two favorite types of music, but no one (especially my African American friends and colleagues) would seriously deny that hip-hop’s violent history tragically precedes it.

In addition, conveniently(!), we also happen to be in the middle of an unprecedented drought of live music. Seventh Ave has ZERO venues for live music by indie artists, and is absolutely ripe for the right type of establishment to come along and breathe life into the live music scene. The business owner who is able to do THAT will reap financial rewards far beyond what they could hope to earn by selling Henessey/etc to basketball fans after a Nets game.

The whole thing is pretty gross.  First of all, there are like 11 false statements in this excerpt alone.  Also, why is racist in quotations?  Moron.

Needless to say, the internet is all a flutter!  Some are speculating whether McMillen is merely a humorless prankster, or a spineless interloper.  But most of the coverage is focused on the appropriate backlash that has erupted from the community, which has transpired in the form of some hilarious fake signatures being submitted to McMillan’s petition.

A sampling, for your reading pleasure:

“I love your hair, can I touch it?” – Separate but Indie

Birth of An (Indie) Nation

I love black people.  Just not “that kind”.

I paid too much for my house to see you people having fun.

Passive aggressive racism is my favorite kind of racism.

There are tons more to read through.  It’s awesome.  Also, the parody train is full steam ahead.

It’s not unlikely that the whole thing is a big hoax.

But if these words are, in fact, the ramblings of a misguided idiot who believes him/herself to hold the best of intentions, let their clumsiness be a lesson to us all when attempting any sort of civic involvement:

Sanctimony is a big, fat no-no.

Research in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, which is based on a 20-year study of 1,824 adults, has confirmed this amazing reality. While it turns out moderate drinkers outlive everyone researchers are still figuring out why heavy drinkers live longer than those who abstain. The answer to longest life is 1 to 3 drinks per day, but more isn’t so bad either. The researches controlled for nearly all variables — socioeconomic status, level of physical activity, number of close friends, and quality of social support. It didn’t change a thing.

For years Aloholics Anonymous has been trying to prove that this discrepancy has to do with heavy drinkers who later in life became clean and sober. They have health problems incurred from years of heavy drinking, and this throws off the study. However, this is not the case. Drunks just live longer period. While it’s unlikely that you should drink irresponsibly at least that DUI can be smugly taken in stride. While in prison you can ponder how you’ll be able to live out your full sentence.

In the eternal words of Ben Franklin, “There can be no good living where there is not good drinking.” Little did you know how right you were my long gone friend.

Bottom Line: If you’re interested in longer life, and generally being more social then snap it to a Zima or three (if you can still find one let alone a six pack or was it a four pack?).

So,  are you looking for that easy fix to prevent climate change?  Here’s a no brainer that can make a big difference: white roof paint!  What’s that? White roofs can make a big difference in the air temperature. That means a cooler city and climate change prevention.  Here’s the story:

What’s more?  There is already momentum behind white roofs.  President Obama supports them, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (stimulus) provides funding for green jobs including weatherization and initiatives like white roof painting that both create jobs and curb climate change.

So why isn’t every roof white? We’d like to know that too. You can help us fix the problem.

GO HERE TODAY.  Make a donation of time, money or knowledge.  You can be part of the paint-it-white-go-green movement!

There is something so satisfying about seeing aging juggernaut Microsoft fail on its feet so badly. Introducing and ending the Kin – In just 48 short days we have seen an abysmal product (marketed heavily on top 40 radio around the nation) that you may or may not have heard of go from being the latest effort in Microsoft’s restart to being its next massive disappointment. This company is having difficulty tying it’s own shoes when it wakes up in the morning! I can only imagine how disheartening it is to be so behind the curve while still throwing millions if not billions of dollars at the same problems year after year.

Guess what Microsoft: You are your own worst enemy. You’re scared of the market and making things that are built for people nobody. Why are you doing this? My best guess is you have incredibly smart people that are being given carte blanche on projects, and they’re finding the system that governs production and testing is incredibly outdated. It’s time to give up all that stored up pride all you unhappy Vice Presidents’ and get back to brass tacks.

I hope the success of an operating system (Windows 7) that isn’t completely backwards hasn’t made you too happy. Google is coming for you ~ and Apple beware. You’re not going to hold on to that #1 throne for too long.

So if you’re into discontinued products that have barely any use (and no cross platform appeal) then buy a brand new Kin at the Verizon store. I’m sure you’ll be as disappointed as they are at Microsoft. Dang guys, get your act together! Somebody might start taking notice… oh right… too late. Verizon slashed the prices of the phones to $50 from $200 for the higher-end model and to $30 from $150 for a stripped-down version. Verizon still claims they’re taking Kin seriously… although it seems like this device is having a fire sale. Watch for them to pop up at local dollar stores, Tru Value, and the Family Dollar.

Special thanks to I Can Has Cheezburger for the appropriate photo to describe what Microsoft needs right now.

Also, just to get the record straight, I have no big love for any of the major companies in the tech game. They’re just products and as those go I think Google has stepped up their OS game a lot with the Android. Now if they could stop randomly introducing weird things like Google Wave or Buzz to the market we would be square.

There are a few surprises in the fight for the Gulf of Mexico. One is that Kevin Costner is not only a humanitarian, but he has a plan on how to save us from the worst oil spill of all time. He teamed up with his brother after the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989, bought up a patented process from the Department of energy, hired scientists, and got to work. He invested 20 million dollars in the business, and developed something that cleans 210,000 gallons of oil-polluted water per day. Currently BP has bought 30 of these devices, and should be deploying them soon. Unbelievably there is no technology created by big oil to handle this kind of disaster except fish nets and long plastic devices that skim the surface.

Are your bucket loads of money 2 ply BP? Couldn’t you spend at least $50 million a year on developing new technologies such as this one? Gross negligence the live camera footage of the broken pipe is just appalling.

Christ after all the horrifying imagery I’ve been looking at, and the press statements by BP/Halliburton… it’s enough to make a grown man cry. We need something hilarious and cathartic to even believe there is a God. And just like that thank you Upright Citizens Brigade for taking these knuckleheads to the cleaners. In this sketch BP is at a board meeting where one of them spills a cup of coffee, and they all try to join forces to fix the disaster together.

Okay ~ back to why we need to do something about all this right now. We need some harrowing looks at how bad things have gotten. We’re responsible for this atrocity.

After that we need something to bring us back up. Well thank Jesus we still have Costner. At another press conference he goes hero, and tells us what he’s done and why he took matter into his own hands.

Costner takes center stage at 4:32

Coster had this to say: “It may seem an unlikely scenario that I am the one delivering this technology at this moment in time,” he said. “But from where I’m sitting, it is equally unfathomable that these machines are not already in place.”

Which leads me to a simple thesis statement I would like to present to you all: Fuck BP

**AUDITORY ADVISORY:  SKIP TO 4:00

Ugh, she’s so good when she’s just singing.  Christina, I know you think you’ll get bored sitting on a stool with only a microphone to wield.  But your powers lie within.  And if you just indulged this lyrically/melodically minimalist awesomeness that you CLEARLY have an ear for, you’ll win over EVERYONE and no one would ever ask you to ‘explain’ that video anymore (which, btw… is it doubling as an ad for your PERFUME?  Cause, that’s weird annoying).

To end, I will just say: I SO do not support this Christina vs. Gaga nonsense.  But seriously… Lady Gaga can’t do that shit.

What if one day you woke up after the apocalypse and had to put the world back together again? Would you be able to do it?

In 2009 Substitute Materials set out to test whether they could re-create a telegraph without using modern tools. The only resource they gave themselves was whatever they could find on the ground. By using sticks, stones, and other grounded objects they could have constructed a complex telegraphic network back in the stone age!

The question Immaculate Telegraphy hypothesized is this:
Could humans at any point in history, given the right information, construct an electronic communication network? To test this hypothesis, Substitute Materials will attempt to build a functional electric battery and telegraph switch from materials found in the wilderness, using no modern tools except information from the internet. The telegraph will be a first step towards an ahistorical internet.

Below is the first of several “How to” videos. I love that the guy in the video is wearing a suit in the wilderness. Nice touch.

I always wonder what I would have been able to invent or do had it not been given to me already. Computers… probably not. Light… nope. Light a fire… probably could figure that one out. When I think about who I would want to have around me if I were to survive an apocalypse I always end up thinking: I wouldn’t have picked me. Don’t get me wrong ~ I think I’m a pretty cool guy, but I have no idea what kinds of things I could eat in the wild, nor do I cook very well, nor do have a green thumb. So even on the simplest terms I’m not super useful. Then there is building technology from scratch, and well I’m a semi-lateral thinker… Probably could be a decent philosopher.

Suffice to say that our society is interdependent, and basically everything I do is built on constructs that have been in progress since thousands of years ago.

As Ming says from his blog:
It was hundreds a years ago since there last were people around who were experts in all major fields at the same time. Today we’re a society of specialists who most of them would be helpless and useless if it weren’t for a whole bunch of other specialists. It is a fragile system. Civilization could very well collapse if it got a big enough bump.

The simplest things seem ludicrously difficult, and I’m not sure anybody at Intel could put Humpty back together again. I mean if you got some of the old boys from Sun Microsystems, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs ~ could they make computers from scratch? How about making copper? That’s what they do in the video below.

Thinking about it now: We  really should be giving people basic tutorials on restarting civilization. We should be able to, as a society, at least get back to 1880 in a as little as a decade if we lost everything. Maybe that’s too lofty of a goal, but the people who supported this project at the Eyebeam Honorary Residency seem to see the value. Found the original article that interested me in the subject here.

Last night I saw Alice in Wonderland (awesome) at the 2nd Ave movie theater in NYC. I chose it because (1) it had “IMAX”, (2) it is next to my friend’s house, and (3) it is less gross and sticky than the Lincoln Center theater.

During the movie I felt like the screen was smaller but just chalked it up to the fact that the seating was different. Then, this morning my friend (total movie nerd) told me that I should have checked to see if it was a real IMAX. I didn’t know there were real ones and fake ones. AWFUL! Freakin $20 for a ticket to see something that’s only slightly larger. I know I’m not the only one who’s been financially affected by the recession, but that roughly equals two fancy lunches or 6 PBRs with tip. I’m annoyed.

After hearing that I’ve been duped, I found this and this posted on the interwebs. Most importantly, kudos to Aziz Ansari for blowing this story wide open.

Ok, ok, so maybe I’m the last to know. But whatever, I’m still enraged.

Ansari does a great job of summing it up when he says “Basically IMAX is whoring out their brand name and trying to trick people. These new “IMAX” theatres are really just nice digital screens with good sound, but they ARE NOT IMAX, in that they don’t have the huge 72 ft gigantic screen which people would expect. However, they still charge $5 more for tickets as they would for the regular IMAX.”. He then goes on to describe a hilarious argument he has with the Guest Services and Manager. But I digress…

The Big Screen Cinema Guide says that “Ansari’s mistake when he attended the movie was not to walk out immediately after seeing the size of the theater he entered. By watching the movie in its entirety and then complaining afterward, he had little ground to stand on when it came to wanting his money back.” Call me a trusting consumer, but the moment I entered an IMAX labeled theater I automatically assumed that I would be a part of “the IMAX experience”. True, I saw the smaller screen. Did I think to leave? No. Did I think my eyes were playing tricks on me? Yes. In fact, just now I queried my movie-going buddy and she agreed…she though it was because she’s used to sitting directly in the center, and not on the side where our seats were.

So, what can we do about it? We all know that Hollywood has made its mistakes in the past, and (fortunately) the consumer has had some recourse. (For the record, I watch A Knight’s Tale every time it’s on TBS). But in this case, Ansari (hilariously) tried to get his money back, to no avail. Note: Not the full cost of the ticket, just the big-screen-IMAX-experience surcharge. I want my five dollars back!! How do we band together to stop this abuse of the trusting consumer? Should we demand our money back en masse? Should we boycott? Or, should we post a group on facebook? Hey, it’s worked before !

In any case, heads must roll for this! (yuk yuk, get it? No? Sigh…)

Short and sweet. Part 1 of the Heavy Rain discussion.

Upcoming interactive drama, Heavy Rain was a substantial reason why I bought my PS3. Heavy Rain premiered at E3 2006, via a tech demo called The Casting. Then in 2008, Heavy Rain reappeared with a new demo that featured a now-false release date of 2009. My interest was piqued with the release of the GamesCom 2009 trailer.

Quantic Dream and Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) are really going all out for the title. I personally can’t remember any other game that’s had more English promotion online. SCEE (Europe) has set up Four Days, an alternate reality game (as Kotaku calls it), that plays out over 4 days from sign up on the Precinct 52 website.

Completing Four Days gives you (at time of this writing) early access to the European demo, which is scheduled to be released on February 11.

Gabby and I both got the demo, and the following conversation occurred (You’ll see why this is just part 1). (As with last time, my replies are in bold, while hers are in quotes.):

“Yeah. I downloaded and played the demo the other day. It was heavy, no pun intended. I had to stop part the way through because I was so overwhelmed. But not in a bad way.”

“Just…the control on that game is so vast”

How so?

“Every little thing…You control when your character asks a question, the manner in which they ask it. Which way they look. Whether they lean over the bedpost in an imposing manner or sit down on the bed. And you know somehow, every last one of these little actions affects something.”

Yeah…

“It’s almost like the game is here to remind us how wide our options are and how little we, ourselves matter in the grand scheme of things.”

Damn, well put.

“I need a day off in order to play that demo. My mistake was trying to play it while I was sleepy, so I was missing things.”

lol

Part 2 will be when she has that day to play the demo. But for now, here’s the trailer that’s included in the demo:

Update: I was mistaken. Four Days is a 3-week-long alternate reality game, occurring on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (4 days) every week. Early access to the demo was the reward for successfully completing Week 2 (February 2nd – 5th).

With female characters, why does Hollywood fear that the stronger they are, the harder they fail?

I had been ruminating (read: seething) on this for a while now, and was already sufficiently annoyed by a lot of things in this article, when this happened… all in a row:

Needless to say… I have thoughts.

First of all, with respect to what I’m sure were the best of intentions, it must be said that even Hornaday’s take on the female dilemma in Hollywood is laughably simplistic and, at the risk of sounding harsh, incredibly shallow.  And that in itself is a very large contributor to the continued and systemic absence of quality female-driven narratives in mainstream Hollywood.

Case in point:

To earn her two Oscars, Hilary Swank went mano a mano with Clint Eastwood in a boxing ring and sucked face with Chloë Sevigny. But her toughest test yet might be this weekend, when box office numbers for “Amelia” come in. The historical drama, about the pioneering aviatrix Amelia Earheart, represents a major risk in Hollywood, where studio executives have been increasingly chary of making movies about strong women.

So… apparently, an underdog boxer and a courageous transgendered youth fail to qualify as strong female characters.  I might have less of a problem with that theorem if, say… they had appeared in a Michael Bay film.  But Million Dollar Baby and Boys Don’t Cry are both highly respectable achievements, boasting complex narratives and fully developed characters.  I don’t applaud these films simply for featuring women.  I do so because the women are presented as real people; people who feel the pain of compromise and the very human shame of circumstance, people who experience pivotal moments of self-loathing and extraordinary strength, people who would not so easily –at least not in the real world, as it is now– find themselves on an Earheart-type pedestal within modern society.  But it is because they are women, that they are summarily dismissed.  Women are rarely embraced without the sheen that results from a Hollywood focus group.  Men do not have that cross to bear.  Hannibal Lector, Rocky Balboa, Michael Corleone, Travis Bickle, Tyler Durden, Kyser Söze… etc.  None of these characters are model citizens.  Yet they are permitted to exist, uncensored, and are thus made thoroughly engaging.  But most importantly, male roles are never accompanied with the ‘strong’ qualifier.  They’re simply men.  Good or bad.  Now, I haven’t seen Swank’s latest, but judging from the trailer, I can pretty confidently guess that any box-office disappointment had absolutely zero to do with the fact that Amelia Earheart is a woman.  It’s the fact that it looks like a Hallmark presentation of  A Lifetime Original Movie, written by Nicholas Sparks (the trailer, I mean).

Which brings me to:

To cries of “I call sexism!” most insiders agree that it’s more complicated than that. “I don’t think it’s sexism,” says writer-director Rod Lurie, whose films “The Contender” and “Nothing but the Truth,” as well as the television series “Commander in Chief,” all featured strong female leads. “Because Hollywood will do whatever it takes to make money. They are not taking a principled stance against women. They just don’t see the audience as going there.

Hey.  Hollywood.   I know most of you are dudes with lush offices and giant egos.  But since I have a vagina and you don’t, how about you knock off the trying to tell me what a woman is.  I’ve really had enough. What is often lazily crafted as an homage to ‘strong female characters’ is, in fact, an utterly sanitized incarnation that does not (and frankly should not) exist in reality.  It’s an incredibly condescending attempt to resolve the Madonna-Whore dilemma, and a creation that is solely manufactured to feed the misguided –and still often gluttonous–  notions of female empowerment.

These are films made in the hopes of appealing to a select block of consumers, which is a reasonable business goal, and certainly not illegal in a free society.  But spare me the obligatory hemming and hawing ‘oh-it-IS-unfair-but-I-don’t-think-it’s-sexist’ song and dance.  No one has to be trying to be sexist to actually be sexist.  I like movies.  I’ll see a lot of things, if I can reasonably expect to be at least 70% pleased.  So you can play up the chicken-or-the-egg argument all you want, but for me, it’s irrelevant.  Modeling and perpetuating the cycle of shallow empowerment does not necessarily indicate malevolence.  But it is, above all else, cynically lucrative.  And the selection of profit over, and at the expense of social advancement is absolutely a principled stance.  Gordon Gekko doesn’t become any MORE greedy just by wearing an ‘I Hate Poor People’ sign on his back.  But he’s still a greedy motherf***er.  So shut up.  You’re playing the game.  I see that.  Just stop lying about it.  You’re like Jim Cramer going on The Daily Show, claiming maybe you could do a better job.  Maybe??  YOU ALL KNOW.

What women will go see, observers agree, are groups of women in comedies, a la “Sex and the City,” “Mamma Mia!” and “He’s Just Not That Into You.” (Each of them, it bears noting, was based on a popular TV show, musical and book.) “Women like going out in groups to watch women interacting in groups,” says Paul Dergarabedian, box office analyst for Hollywood.com. “And they are very loyal. If they discover something they like, they tell their friends about it. Women were social networking way before Facebook.”  And what women like, at least for now, Dergarabedian says, are traditional narratives. “There’s no ‘Bourne Identity’ with a woman starring in it right now,” he says. “It’s almost as if in real life, women want to be empowered and in control, but on-screen they seem to like the old-fashioned damsel-in-distress, love-struck female.”

I never (ever… ever, ever) thought I would think this, let alone write this.  But Manohla Dargis is right.  Paul Dergarabedian, you are an asshole.  That’s the most bullshit thing I’ve ever read.  ‘Women like going out in groups to watch women interacting in groups’??? Here’s hoping I run into you in a dark alley someday.

The upshot, Obst says, is that “it’s easier for male executives to get jobs now, because they want to develop male-oriented material. Girls don’t grow up reading comic books or playing video games, or with Transformer or G.I. Joe toys. So the material they’re looking for isn’t necessarily as familiar to female executives who read books, which is becoming practically a liability. That’s a real problem. That’s how it becomes systemic.”

Becomes systemic?  Generations of women and men championing freedom of choice and self-determination and this is where we are?  ‘Men don’t read books.  Girls hate video games.’…?

I quit.  Not really.  But I’m feeling a wave of saltiness that, at the moment, knows no end.

The other night, Gabby went on the ESRB website then IM’d me. I was intrigued by her findings, and so the following conversation occurred. (As with last time, my replies are in bold, while hers are in quotes.):

“lol…I’m on the ESRB website. Never noticed the progression in Persona‘s ratings. The original Persona was rated E. Eternal Punishment went T. 3, FES and 4 all got the almighty M rating (which in my opinion 3 and FES only got because of the Evokers. 4 actually EARNED that rating through content alone). And SMT: Persona, a remake of an E rated game, got upgraded to T.”

“Some of these ratings and the criteria that got them there make me wonder. Demon’s Souls was rated M. Difficulty-wise and in terms of the general IDEA of the game, I could see why it would go M. But content-wise, I’ve seen much more go T.”

“So I have to wonder if ESRB ratings are completely dependent on the presence of offensive content.”

“Comparatively, it slightly offends me that games like Persona 3 and Demon’s Souls share a rating with something like Grand Theft Auto and Saint’s Row.”

“And I think there’s a degree of leniency in handheld titles…”

Demon’s Souls is such a T.

“It really is. Like, based on the content descriptors, it’s a solid T. Based on the content, to me, it would even still be a T. There’s not THAT much blood, and there’s no more violence in that than there would be in, say, G.I Joe or your standard RTS or T-rated adventure game. The difficulty tier, I would put at 15+. Definitely requires a lot of patience and strategy.”

P3… ok, M I can see

“Yeah… P3 gets an M. Evokers aside, it would be a real stretch to classify that as a T-even. It’s a weak M, though.”

“To me, none of the Halo games deserved M-ratings, either”

Halo? What’s that? *kidding*

“rofl I’ve watched most Halo games being played, and there’s nothing M about them to me. Halo games are solid T. Mirror’s Edge was a weak T. So I wonder what other criteria the ESRB uses.”

CONTENT-WISE, back in the day, stuff like God of War, Heavy Rain, etc, would’ve been AO.

“I think there should still be AO, but all the stigma taken off of it. Like…I think Retailers should still have the option to sell AO games. But the point of that is: They can’t be displayed on shelves: who cares?”

agreed. …Wait…

“Because like I said, it’s bullshit that Demon’s Souls, Persona and GTA all share the same rating. And Halo…lol”

AO go poof? I mean I know we don’t sell AO, but did they do away with AO altogether?

“No, It still exists. It’s just not worth it for publishers. It can’t be put out for display, and I don’t think it can be advertised. I think that AO is like the equivalent of porn, like… gotta keep it secure, can’t be easily accessible to minors and there’d probably have to be some rules regarding not only sales, but trade-in of it, too.”

“But the thing is: games that would go AO, people would know about them already. A lot of games don’t get heavy advertising but still sell. Borderlands was a decent example of that. I saw more advertising after it came out.”

Inglourious Basterds

It’d be awesome if it was as much a shoe-in to win as it was getting nominated.  The Academy likes to screw with QT a lot.  But I lurve this movie and have now re-watched it about 4 times.  It’s spectacular every single time.

The Hurt Locker

My personal pick.  Bigelow’s such a rock star.  On behalf of women everywhere, I thank you.

The Blind Side

Really???  I seriously feel like I’m taking crazy pills.

Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire

Right on.  This film is equally expected and a pleasant surprise.  The Academy usually gets uncomfy with this kind of material.  But with performances this daring and a narrative this brave, it’d be ridiculous for them to ignore it.

A Serious Man

The Coens rule!

An Education

Haven’t seen this yet.  But I read good things.

Up

Surprising, but not offensive.  This movie is delightful.

Up in the Air

The Cloons turned in a reliably restrained and evocative performance.  I’ve engaged in some private discussions regarding the ending, but overall I think it smells like roses.

District 9

Netflixed.  But if fellow Tenner V-I-C-tor would like to weigh in, I’m all ears.

Avatar

Crash 2.0 — my brain has split open and my thinking-cells are attacking each other.  Makeitstop, makeitstop!

The feeling is an unscratchable itch in the meaning-making center of my brain. It’s the feverish, joyous desire to make sense out of chaos. It’s a creative urge to theorize, call the twist, guess the killer, to discover the meaning before it’s handed to you.

Lost tapped into that urge better than any show I’ve ever seen: it’s the great serialized mystery of our time. And with the final season hours away, it struck me: This is it folks. Our very last chance to speculate. To make those wild guesses. To claim, loudly, that “Libby’s not really dead” and “The polar bear is Jacob’s father.” I, for one, am going to take full advantage of this final opportunity.

Here are ten theories I’ve come up with, adding up to one Grand Vague Conjecture about where we’re headed. Most of these ideas border on or occupy the realm of nonsense, and I fully expect 2/3 of them to be shot down THIS VERY NIGHT. But, they’re my best attempt to reconcile the things I’ve seen in a fun, interesting, non-cop-out way. This list is my love letter to you, Lost. This is me at my absolute fan-dorkiest. In the coming months, prove me right, or prove you can do better.

[Oh yeah… SPOILERS THROUGH SEASON 5 AHOY]

10. Libby was a Widmore Girl.

Sadly, I doubt we’ll get much of a real conclusion on this, as apparently there was a Libby episode slated for Season 4 that was cut due to actor/strike issues. But here’s my best conjecture, especially in light of what we’ve seen since. Libby was working for ol’ Chuck Widmore as part of his project to find the island. She sent Desmond on the boat race, and when Hurley got rich by cashing in on the Island’s numbers, she was sent to tail him. During that shadowing, she crashed on the island. Whether she actually managed to send a message back, and play a real role in the freighter’s arrival, or whether she was killed (by Ben’s machinations) before she could, we may never know.

9. Jacob isn’t immortal… he’s just unstuck in time.

I just don’t buy the whole “two angels on a beach” thing in a literal sense. I think/hope it’s a red herring. Sure, Jacob, like Richard Alpert, appears in strange places, all across the face of time. Sure, he seems strangely omniscient. What could explain this? Season 5 can. We saw characters jump from 1950 to 2007, looking exactly the same age. You think they’re the only ones who have experienced that phenomenon? I don’t.

Imagine for a second that Jacob has been jumping through time for quite a while. He’s seen the past, the future… and he’s started to understand a desired pattern. He makes slight moves to affect the course of events. He’s weaving a tapestry out of time.

Having seen the flow of time, backwards and forwards, he would have an incredible perspective on life. No wonder Smokey, in the form of some dark-clothed man, is so desperate to kill him. He wants that knowledge of the future. He wants to know what Jacob knows. But I’m getting ahead of myself… more on that in theory #2.

8. “The Magic Box” is a time machine/teleporter.

Ben Linus, via Wikipedia: “Let me put it so you’ll understand. Picture a box. You know something about boxes, don’t you John? What if I told you that, somewhere on this island, there is a very large box and whatever you imagined, whatever you wanted to be in it when you opened that box, there it would be?”

With what we’ve seen, I think the “Box” is in the center of the (still unseen) temple, and it’s some sort of window, or door, into other times and places. Things from the past, or possibly even alternate pasts, can be pulled through and studied. You know, things like Locke’s Dad.

My guess is that the Egyptian walls and stylings are the equivalent of the beards, a disguise to keep the modernity of the device from being visible to visitors from the far past. I’d guess, at its center, the “temple” is a piece of modern machinery. Only Season 6 will tell, though.

7. Walt was “special” because he distorted electromagnetic fields, disrupting the natural flow of the island.

I had to get my Walt theory in there. No, I don’t think we’ll see the kid again, at least not in a major role. I’m guessing, based on the cameos he had, that it’s a sad case of growing pains. But they have to explain why the hell he got taken, and how he was “special”. Our main clue is the birds, flying through windows. My guess is that this has something to do with their navigation via magnetic fields. Given the strange EM fields through the island, that might mess with whatever is at work below the surface… and it might even disrupt that Magic Box. That would explain why the Others took him, for study (if we take their role as custodians of whatever “it” is seriously) and also explain why they ultimately shipped him back home.

Admittedly, it doesn’t explain why he reads comics about polar bears, or talks backwards sometimes. For that, I’ve got nothing.

6. Hurley is the one who sent the first broadcast of the “numbers”

Before there was Rousseau, there was a voice on the radio, repeating the numbers over and over. Those numbers started a chain of events that drove men crazy, and made one good natured dude an unhappy millionaire.

There’s such a thing as poetic justice. It has to be Hurley himself, broadcasting his greatest fear from the past, that sets it all in motion.

5. As a child, Ben saw himself die.

This is my pet Ben theory. Why are you such a weird dude, Ben? No one seems to believe you’re all that important, and yet you’ve inserted yourself into positions of incredible power. You constantly, CONSTANTLY, get beaten to a pulp, but somehow manage to make it through. How?

Ben, the pathological liar, is constantly claiming that “he has a plan”… partially because it makes him seem special. I think that plan is just another lie. I do, however, believe that Ben has a secret. As a child (perhaps just a little past the age we’ve seen him) I think he watched his future self die.

What would it do to this strange, disillusioned kid, to know the time and manner of his own death? It would turn him into a nihilist… because what’s the point? It would make him deathly afraid of facing the facts straight on… because that one fact is always there, just beyond the edge of his vision. And it would also make him fearless, eerily aware that nothing can truly end him until that impending moment. Check, check, check. Yeouch, Ben… looks like you saw your own death! Sorry bro, that is an unenviable situation.

4. The Hatch is constantly resetting a pocket of time to the moment before the nuke went off, to prevent a temporal paradox.

True enough… if the island was destroyed by a nuke, none of what we saw happened. In the short run, that might appear to be the case. But my guess is that they’re not going to jettison the characters we’ve gone five seasons with in favor of some alternate world. My guess is that via some outside force (see below), we instead get the construction of the Hatch, a containment unit that, somehow, prevents a time-ending paradox by moving that bomb backwards 108 minutes, over and over, to prevent it from ever going off. Push the button to save the world, friend.

A grim note to this theory… if it’s true(ish), then Juliet is behind the concrete, in a constant loop, forever tapping that rock against a nuke. Sad.

3. The constantly-referred-to “war” is a fight over the existence of the island.

Now despite what I just said, I’d be surprised if we didn’t see someone step off flight 815 in episode one. Or at least, they’ll butter us up to think that’s what we’re seeing. Either way, my guess is that the question of what it means to “change the past” will be a big part of the last season.

In Lost, there are constantly references to a larger conflict/game being played. I believe that this contest is over the very existence of the Island… this odd place that is situated outside the normal flow of time. It could even be that there are two groups fighting for their own existence: one world without the island’s influence, and one with it. Some of the rules of this engagement are set by the universe: you can’t kill certain people, because doing so would create a temporal paradox (which the universe will not allow, just as it won’t allow births, the introduction of new essential elements, on an island of questionable existence). Other aspects of the timestream are preserved by people such as Jacob, with his lists of people who can and can’t die. This is why children are important, too… for a young person to have formative experiences on the island is to increase the island’s influence on events, to make it more real…uh…

You know what, I’m going to stop trying to explain this one. It makes sense in my head. War between two groups, one wants to remove the island from time, the other (probably the Others) want to use the island for good. Next.

2. The “Smoke Monster” is an AI running on Ashes.

By now, it seems pretty clear that Monstro is connected to something that assimilates the memories of the dead. So that grey stuff, swirling around inside him? I think it ain’t smoke. I think it’s dead folks.

And while I forgot this before, I noticed it on rewatch… the last thing fake Locke (who I believe is Smokey, in some form) does is throw Jacob into the fire. I doubt that’s an accident… I think it wants more ashes for the pile, pronto.

Specifically, in my overactive imaginings, the Monster is an observing AI (or a Wizard-of-Oz-style human-controlled system OPERATED BY AARON Dun-Dun-DUN!) that’s gone haywire. The system is basically a sentient electromagnetic field, crackling across the jungle, that analyzes samples of dead human tissue (the bits of ash), and can then recreate all their memories (and an image of their form).

When Eko faced the Monster and saw flashes of memory, was he seeing his own memories? Or memories OF him from his brother? Same question for Ben, facing the departed (and absorbed) Alex. I’d venture that this creature can only collect (and replicate) the past of the departed.

What’s the point of this? Why would this exist? Well, it could have been put in place to explore objects from the past with minimal invasiveness (via the Magic Box). At this point, however, some Incident made it malfunction. It’s hungering for knowledge… it wants only to gain more memories, and it will kill to do it (see: Eko). However, there are rules (without rules, we get Cyberdyne). There is a list of people it can’t kill. One of these people is Jacob. It desperately wants him dead because of his extraordinary knowledge, but he is on that pesky do-not-kill list. That’s why Smokey needs a “loophole.” It concocts a plan to have Ben kill him, by assuming the form of the known-to-be-dead Locke. Then, at the end of Season 5, it triumphs, gaining all Jacob’s sweet sweet knowledge from across time.

Or maybe it’s just an angry Egyptian god. Please, writers, don’t roll that way. It’s not that I hate Egyptians. It’s just I don’t think they make that awesome a punchline.

1. The island is a huge research station, a temporal experiment, and Locke is its central creator.

OH! Just when you were starting to wonder if I was crazy… I prove that I am, in fact crazy. Seriously, how could this theory be #1 on my list? Because it’s so fucking fun to explain.

The Island as a time-travel experiment, perhaps situated “outside of linear time” somehow is the easy part… it’s the central hinge point of the rest of my recent ideas, and I’ve been buttering you up for it since #10. It’s important to realize that in this theory, the Island was FIRST created in an alternate future… one in which it, itself, never existed, and Oceanic 815 therefore landed safe and sound. The nature of the experiment is to use the island to peer through time, back to the dawn of civilization, even, to see if the past is, in fact alterable. Or maybe just to observe.

But who would be behind this ridiculous project? A bunch of strangers? Too easy, and we’ve had too many mystery men introduced for that answer to have any punch. So let’s have some fun and say it’s folks we’ve seen before, creating an eerie alternate-world familiarity. Faraday? Yeah, he’s probably involved. Christian Shephard, Charles Widmore? The more the merrier! Jacob? Naturally, he’s getting sent back in time. But who’s in charge of it all? Locke, baby. Locke, who would have excelled at science if Alpert hadn’t tried to push him in that direction as a child. Don’t tell him what he can’t do, he’s going to create a time machine goddamit.

Alternate reality Locke as a “man of science,” the ultimate puppet as the man behind his own curtain… I love it. And who is sweeping the floor at experiment central? An alternate reality Ben Linus. A nobody who’s going to set out to become the ultimate cog in the machine. And Jack? Jack, the rebel son, wants the thing gone… he sees it as a problem, and wants to fix it. He’s the leader of the other side. Because let’s be honest, that damn Jack’s got to be involved somehow.

Allright, it’s getting too complex even for me, I’m going to stop myself there. It’s late. I’ll see you all in the comments, for the initial shredding of these theories and hopefully the addition of some new ones. Let Season 6 begin.

Seriously, think about it.  What agenda do the Republicans have right now?  Really.  Block healthcare reform which helps big corporations and screws the average American?  Block financial regulations so the fat cats on wall street don’t have to change shit?  How are they getting away with populism!?  as far as I can tell, the Republicans in Congress have one real agenda – lets see how hard we can screw this country, not get anything done in a time of crisis, and then get reelected so we can keep getting paid. Seriously.

And trust me, I’m not happy with the Democrats either.   They’re acting like a bunch of fucking juveniles too.   Great.  You won.  Congrats.  Now you can wipe that smug little smile off your face Nancy Pelosi and start to fucking work with the other side.  It’s like the Democrats have been walking around the house in their boxers after fucking the Reublican’s ex-wife.  Have some class guys.  Be the bigger people here.  Stop trying to make the Republicans eat fucking dirt.  Channel a little Teddy Kennedy and treat the other side with some fucking respect.

Let’s review this again!!!! We just had a massive financial crisis that almost blew our nation out of the water.  This was caused by widespread problems in the structure of our economy and government.

Uhm.  How is the status quo a viable option!?  Really?

GUYS!!! If you don’t have a job, something needs to change.  If you got kicked out of your house, something needs to change.  If you lost your savings, if you can’t feed your kids, if you can’t afford your rent, if you can’t pay for gas, if your living in fear that tomorrow will be the day that you just can’t hang on anymore,

SOMETHING.
NEEDS.
TO CHANGE.

This is not a political agenda, this is not some secret conspiritorial plan to taker over the world.  THIS IS JUST GETTING REAL.  We have a system that BROKE.  We need to fix it.  Right now, Obama and his administration are the only guys in town who seem to want to do this.  Everyone else seems to be a bunch of fucking scared assholes who watch poll numbers and try to figure out how not to fuck up.  And now we’re in an election year, when most of Congress will be campaigning instead of legislating.  What the fuck?

WE HAVE A REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY SO THAT WE CAN ELECT PEOPLE TO DO A JOB. THAT JOB IS GOVERNING OUR NATION.  THAT REQUIRES DOING SOMETHING.

CONGRESS:  GET TO FUCKING WORK!

And his reward is Senate  Majority Leader so he can decide where we spend our money?

WTF?

And you wanna know the sad thing? He could easily get reelected. That’s bullshit. We pay this man.

He froze our governing body in a personal power play so he could control more of our money in the middle of an economic crisis. Now the state budget is fucked and we’re seeing cutbacks on trains and schools right when we don’t need another fucking headache.

Why don’t we expect competence from our leaders? We yell and scream about how government spends our money and then we elect these douchebags who could give a shit about getting things done. We should be fucking offended. It should piss us off, and then we, the people, should hire someone else to do a better job. That is called democracy.

But instead of caring, we just forget to vote and they stick around for another few years while no one pays attention to all the fucked up shit in Albany.

There are politicians out there who really care.   Who want to do something.   Some of them are working for us right now.  Problem is… they learn quickly that getting elected doesn’t depend on doing their job.  Thats fucked up.   And it’s our fault.  They get away with it because who really gives a shit about state politics anyway? They control billions of dollars of our tax money, but most of us don’t even know their names. We need to raise our voices and demand better.

After all, they work for US.

(If you are into doing something about it, get involved with the Manhattan Young Democrats – they’re actually getting things done)

The title refers to this cutscene:

Fair warning, expect more Persona posts in the future.

On Wednesday, January 20, Atlus announced the North America release of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable (P3P) for PSP (Boxart and Opening movie at the bottom of this post). Now, this is a significant announcement for me and Gabrielle (henceforth shortened to “Gabby”), because we met in 2007 thanks to our love for the original P3.

As we are living in an age where information is easily obtainable thanks to the Internet, she and I have been keeping a watchful eye on Atlus’ releases on both sides of the Pacific. So when the news broke, last August, that there would be a PSP version of one of our favorite RPGs, Gabby and I started guessing when Atlus USA would bring it over.

Then Wednesday, she sent me a text saying “Sooner than I thought. P3P coming July ’10.” I replied to this with “I really need a [PSP]Go then.” (I traded my PSP in because the newer games needed a higher firmware than I had and at the time, I couldn’t upgrade and continue to use my PSP. The Go however, has the ability to be controlled natively with a DualShock 3. This does away with my need to have custom firmware, RemoteJoy, Xpadder and a computer just to play.)

The following conversations occurred from Thursday morning up til Saturday night. (As with last time, my replies are in bold, while hers are in quotes.)

2010.01.21
Have you guys ever had used Go’s?

“Nope.”

Why am I not surprised?

“lol Because nobody’s buying them new from us, really. And for what you get for it on trade in, it’s nowhere near worth it. That, and the one kid who I know bought one from us, he broke his so he just bought a 3000. Apparently, don’t drop it while it’s slid open or else it’ll break right in 2.”

I wonder if I can find one from a friend…

“Possibly.”

I really doubt they dropped the price and 250 is a bit much.

“They most definitely didn’t drop the price. Something that made me curious was that a couple of weeks ago, we dropped our used price for the Go, despite the fact that I don’t think that many are getting traded in. So I don’t understand the motive behind that, because if they dropped the price, chances are they dropped the trade-in value as well. They’re not even offering used ones on the website.”

New is still 250?

“Yep. That price hasn’t moved.”

Welp, I have til July 7th to get a Go. [We know that we usually get games a day after its listed release date, because that is the shipping date.] “July 6″ riiight…

“It’ll probably get pushed back a week or two.”

This is Atlus.

“That seems to be the Atlus trend as of late. ‘Let’s add something! It’ll take a week!’”

lol But in all honesty, Atlus’ delays are damn worth it.

“My boss is plotting getting his PSP now. Since they announced it. And I know when I tell [name removed] tonight, he’ll probably start saving up for it.”

XDDD

“He was going to reserve SMT: Persona just for the soundtrack. I was like ‘…I can burn it for you.’”

“Reserving a game for a system you don’t have just for the soundtrack… We still have like…7 copies. Even if he waits until July, we’ll still have that one, too.”

I -AM- biased: I’m getting it because it’s P3.

“Same here. I <3 me some P3.”

So do I.

I will admit though, if they did make one, I’d buy P4P too.

“I’d probably lose my mind.”

XD Why?

“Because I love P4. I want to have P4‘s babies.”

xD

Honestly, I hope P3P‘s manual control is -an option-.

“I’m sure it is. One I’ll be utilizing as little as possible.”

Unlike some people, I’ve had no problem with P3‘s AI.

“EXACTLY!”

“I’m sure most of those people bitching either didn’t make it through the game and are trying to blame the AI or had a harder time than they feel like they should have and are blaming the AI.”

“Regardless, I made it through the game three times and the AI has never screwed me over. This is the only game I’ve ever seen where if one member uses an attack and it doesn’t work, they announce that to the rest of the party and NO ONE ELSE USES IT TOO!”

EXACTLY!

“The AI is smart. That’s all there is to it. They did a good job.”

Semi-Learning AI, I call it.

“Precisely. They remember what’s worked on enemies they’ve fought before, use trial and error on new enemies.”

“Only thing I’ve seen is that, at least in P4, characters don’t use their buffs and debuffs as much as they should. At least mine never did. Chie never touched Power Charge or Tarukaja the entire time she’s had it unless I made her.”

*Manualed P4*

“I only used them once I got up into the tougher battles where strategy was needed.”

“Persona 3 introduced a revolutionary social element to role-playing games,” explained Aram Jabbari, Manager of Public Relations and Sales at Atlus. “Players weren’t just progressing through a story; they were a part of it, and their decisions and the relationships they chose to foster or neglect became a powerful complement to the game’s satisfying combat.[...]“

EXACTLY!

“Yup!”

P3P will be fucking EVIL. “Why?”? P3 on the go? Yeah…

I’ll play it on the bus…

“Hell yeah.”

Even if the story is 99% the same, I’ll still dive in.

“Me too.”

2010.01.22
GABBY! GABBY!!

“Hm?”

“Maximum Persona 3—The RPG that captured critics and fans alike achieves a new level of excellence. Built upon an enhanced version of the game, players will find numerous significant improvements, including the addition of Skill Cards, part-time jobs, a total of five difficulty settings (ranging from the newcomer-friendly “beginner” to the ultra-hardcore “maniac”), and most importantly, the ability to directly control your teammates in battle.”

Enhanced!! Which, in my head, says The Journey (FES)! If The Journey isn’t “enhanced,” I don’t know WTF is.

(*I read down that page*)

CLARIFICATION! YES! “For clarity, all that P3P is missing from FES is The Answer, but has all of the content and improvements from FES’ version of The Journey.”

OMGSQUEE!!

“lol”

I was hoping it was The Journey. I mean, I’d still play vanilla P3 too, but…

“Yeah, I would play through it again if it was vanilla, but I’d be nowhere near as out of my mind about it.”

“I knew it was gonna be Journey+ from what I was seeing that they added to it. There was no way they weren’t gonna make it worth it. There’s even P4 cameos in it. That severely kicks up the fangirl in me.”

Um, Gabby? P3 period, is worth it lol

“lol I mean REALLY worth buying a third time.”

For me, 5th.

“I know they’ve said there won’t be a P4:FES, but I fucking want a P4P after this!”

XD

But yeah, I bought vanilla P3, three times. One copy to play, one which is STILL in the shrink-wrap, and one as a gift.

“I…too bought it three times. Once for myself, then traded it in and re-bought it later when it had dropped to like…14.99 used, and the other as a gift.”

And FES once.

“I bought FES twice. Once on day 1 and then a replacement copy, which I bought because I lent my initial copy to a friend and was afraid I wasn’t going to get it back. He then bought that copy off of me.”

So, P3P will be your 6th… Wow.

2010.01.23
Plz Atlus, Spoil us http://playstation.joystiq.com/2009/09/21/persona-3-portable-dx-bundle-bonuses-revealed/

“I know, right?! That shirt is 100% cottony sex.”

lol Yeah.

“Even though the year will be half over by the time it comes out, I’ll even take the damn calendar!”

Same here!

“I could feasibly only see them giving us, if anything out of that bunch, the mini-posters, which I’ll also gladly take.”

They could probably feasibly give us the shirts too. I mean, while not Spoils, they did have P4 shirts…

“True.”

[Later that night, I go over what I'd written with her.] “As we are living in an age where information is easily obtainable thanks to the Internet, she and I have been keeping a watchful eye on Atlus’ releases on both sides of the Pacific. So when the news broke, last August, that there would be a PSP version of one of our favorite RPGs, Gabby and I started guessing when Atlus USA would bring it over.”

I said ‘one of’ because I think P4 outranks 3 in your books.

“It indeed does. Like…they’re equal for different reasons. But in terms of comparing the two, I just prefer 4‘s storyline, and a few of the minor adjustments they made to it in comparison to 3, ie: your options for furthering Social Links (S. Links).”

P4 = MUCH more human.

“Very much so. Everything was so much more believable. And they didn’t leave a lot of holes in the storyline.”

More opportunities to further your S. Links too.

“Yeah. I liked the ‘make lunch for your friends’ aspect, because it allowed you to boost the S. Link within its level without taking up your whole day.”

Yeah.

“You could boost the link so that when you did see that person next, you could level up and still do a different SL after school if you wanted.”

“With P3, you had one shot during that day.”

Yeah.

“I also find it entertaining that if you max out a S. Link with a girl in 4, she will still come and cockblock your date with another girl.”

YES!!

Yukiko and Rise rolled up on so many of my dates with Ai. Ayane even showed up for one. Completely screwed my night.”

That’s funny as hell!

“It was. She was so mad! And Rise was mad! And Ai was mad! And Yosuke was there, but there was nothing he could do.”

lol
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