Mobile Updates; Laptop Death?

I’m computer-less and streaming live from the kitchen table on my mobile device. It’s an odd thing, and something I’ve never done before. My laptop screen has been shitting out on me for a few months now; I finally broke down and sent it in to (hopefully) get fixed. The bottom quarter or so would pixalate and warp, making certain normally meanial tasks feel like lower back pain. At some point I should just get a new one.

I’m running the free WordPress.com application for the Android OS, it’s decent considering. They’ve seemingly understood that a mobile device app’s greatest strength is its simplicity. Underneath where I’m typing right now (on a pull-out keyboard; I can’t do touc screen keys) are your standard text mods: bold/italics/underline, hyper-link, and block quote. Below that is a button labeled “Add Media”, which I’m guessing works well for on-the-go bloggers who photo with their phones.

Blogging is changing. If The Social Network taught me anything, it’s that once upon a time blogging was reserved for bitter computer nerds who used their simplistic code to complain about fractured relationships (or lack thereof). Now those of us sitting at home, staring into a monitor connected to a computer seem like we’re gaming on a Genesis. Mobile blogging — reporting from the field — can only help. Both with the serious (say, live from a peaceful protest in Cairo), and the trivial (live from a music festival).

-SonnyW.

Blog-Health-O-Meter Reads “Wow”.

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

I’m hoping to have another great year of blogging at The Sonny Wilkins Chronicle.  I will still provide links to very neat art and artists, cool tech/nature stories, pop cultural skewings, and I will keep my pledge to never talk about politics on this page.  Thanks to anyone who reads anything here.

-Sonny

Dead Homer Society.

Dead Homer Society calls Seasons 12+ of The Simpsons “Zombie Simpsons”.  Meaning, the current iteration of the show only resembles The Simpsons we know and love and grew with throughout those wonderful years superficially.  The likeness stops at yellow skin, familiar characters (even if they’ve been trashed; looking at you Moe, Comic Book Guy, Cletus the Hillbilly, and Ralph Wiggum), and the town of Springfield.  What remains is the corpse of a once great show, long dead and buried in the pantheons of popular culture beside slap bracelets and tube-televisions.  It’s a shame.  But every once in a while I go against my brain, and follow my heart to my local channel 9, where reruns from just one year ago play back-to-back… and it is unbearable.  It is painfully unwatchable.  It’s one of the greatest tragedies we have ever faced.  Screw “The Man of Steel“, whatever happened to The Simpsons.

Again, the LINK to Dead Homer Society; a fellow WordPress page fighting the good fight.

-Sonny

Blue Pen Blackouts.

Someone started a WordPress page called Does Rihanna Have Herpes?.  I’ve been e-mailing the WordPress site and administrators petitioning  for it to be taken down.  I’m all for absolutely no censorship at all, but isn’t this slander if said poster does NOT know if the claim is indeed true or not?  Regardless, this is what I wrote to the bastard (I’m only mentioning it here because, as you can ascertain from it, it’ll likely be removed):

sonnywilkins Says: Your comment is awaiting moderation.
February 11, 2009 at 2:26 am

You started a weblog entitled “Does Rihanna Have Herpes?”?? Are you fucking dense? If the administrators of WordPress don’t take this site down I’m going to be quite crass. The reality and irony, of course, is they’ll remove my comment because I used the word “fuck” but not this God-awful excuse for a page which honestly could be categorized as slander. I’m not here to defend anyone, especially this Rihanna chick; I’m here to try to bring some form of sanity back to American Popular Culture. I know… good fucking luck.

-Sonny

In a related story, I’ve been censored on another site simply for submitting my opinion on a comic creator’s (self-made) public remarks on the nature of ambiguity in comic books.  This guy, who can’t stray from those plot-devices which have been used since the 40s, claims that “ambiguity is the new hip in comics”.  Which is so funny because the medium itself is perhaps the most ambiguous of all art forms (we’re forced to imagine what happens between panels).  Not to mention the fact that comics, since their inception, have presented ambiguity on nearly every aspect of human life and universal law to the point of it could never possibly be “the new hip”.  It’s been there always, and will remain forever.  I also took this as quite the slap in the face to anyone who thinks Watchmen is the greatest comic of all time, on top of a kick to the balls of Alan Moore. His name is Chuck Dixon.

Wikipedia is not a reliable source.  But in doing research on the cockbag I stumbled across this:

Dixon, a well-known political conservative, offended some groups of the buying public by announcing his views regarding the depiction of homosexuality in comic books aimed at younger readers. Allegedly, he felt that homosexuality and other material with sexual undercurrents was not appropriate for what he identified as comics promoted as “all-ages material.”

DC Comics continued to assign him work on titles that featured openly gay super-heroes. Some believe, without being able to cite to anything concrete, that Dixon used his position as writer of Batman and the Outsiders to send a message to gay readers when he published an out of context preview of his first issue on the internet. This preview appeared to paint Batman as homophobic. He then went online to announce that the preview had been intentionally misleading and that he and several other unnamed DC staffers found great humor in the outraged reactions of gay readers who viewed the preview.

So I guess that explains that, eh?  Homophobes do HATE ambiguity…

-Sonny

Futurists Abound.

If the Internet really is an honest, complete representation of the worldwide human-scape, then these numbers are stunning.  Not just for the year 2008, or the month of December, etc, I’m talking ALL TIME here: the number one search term in relation to THIS page (Sonny Wilkins), by far is “future city”.  That term is approaching 6 thousand total searches; the next closest is… drumroll… simply the term “future”, which currently clocks in at 2.5 thousand; followed closely by “walking dead 51″ just passing the 2 thousand mark.  Every time I log in to explain how I think C-3PO from Star Wars is a glowing golden bastard who spits upon the stench of the living, I come across my Dashboard.  And every time I come across my Dashboard it hits me:  over 50% of the links coming in stem from Google Image linking peeps to “Future City“.  Every, single, day.  It never ends.  Total views, every single day: future city- 43, Krasner’s “right bird left”- 10.  Next day: future city- 64, nighthawks – 17.  It is consistently, without a doubt, my most viewed post.  Most searched, most linked to.

What the hell does this mean?  I’ve been asking myself this for a long time.  The first thing that hits me, the obvious, is that human beings are inherently interested in the future.  Everyone wants to know what’s going to happen next, both in short and long terms.  If we didn’t, we’d live terribly until we died, or worse yet, killed ourselves.  And I don’t even think it’s hope (for a better world/society).  I’d liken it more to wonder; like when we’re inhaling a story of some kind (film, novel, stage, concept album) into our heads, we want to know, we wonder, what the story will lead to.  Regardless or a good or bad, happy or sad, ending, we want to know because of our natural wonder.  It’s got nothing to do with hope.  Hope can only stem from the present.  Ironically, hope is the language of the present.  Without the present there is no hope.  I suppose I could say the same thing about wonder, too.  Hmm.

Whatever the nature of the beast, this interest in the Future is NOT new.  Not one bit.  In fact, Science Fiction has been around for a LONG time.  Granted, what we deem Science Fiction has been constantly shifting since the dawn of fiction.  Maybe the first example of Science Fiction, some heiroglyphic in some Lion cave in East Africa, has never been discovered and never will?  Throughout all this, I discovered a great Webpage full of a bunch of visions of the future from the 20s, 30s, at the latest the 40s.  Of these, the Cityscape from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis makes an appearance.  I’m going to try to feed all those futurists out there more, here.  I know… “[I'm] doing it for the sole purpose of more traffic”.  Well, at least I’m not asking anyone for money or putting up advertisements (which WordPress users do both of often).  I’m simply providing the “visions of the future” drug to all those addicts in the world.  The Futurists of the world.  If statistics mean anything, there are billions of them.  Here’s how the human race thought 80 years ago:

This is my favorite.  An idea for an inverse Skyscraper which digs its way into the Earth (might come to fruition when we’re devoid of decent atmosphere in 200 years):

-Sonny

Heavy Rain: Gamer Noir.

A lot of gamers thought 2008 was THE year for the PS3.  Sony released everything from Metal Gear 4, Resistance 2, Fallout 3, to Little Big Planet last year.  They got murdered in shipped units however; not by Microsoft, but by the Wii, which is another can of worms for another day (if ever).  I discovered a few WordPress Gamer pages this morning which are discussing the big, BIG titles being released for the PS3 in 2009.  One of which, cited these games as examples (I’m not going to link anyone to this site however, because these assholes have the balls to ask people for “donations”.  That’s right, they want your fucking money so they can tell you about video-games):

• God of War III. Of course this game’s getting all the attention.  It’s on the verge of becoming the FRANCHISE exclusive for the Playstation brand.  No doubt it will kick a whole lot of ass.  Many people stake the “God of War II= the best PS2 game ever” claim still; I disagree.  The first was better.  We’ll see if III can live up to 1.  Typically “no”: Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Prince of Persia, even the Nolan Bat-Films (I’m guessing obviously).
• Killzone 2. I’d give this more of a “meh”.  The first Killzone was cool, I’m not gonna lie.  But as far as MMO-Shooters go in 2009, I’d be more on the lookout for a game like MAG, which promises to be one of the grandest undertakings in online gaming history.  50 bucks says they fuck up the programming and interface though.  They’ll still release it, then a patch, then an upgrade, then they’ll charge us for new maps.
• Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. The original Uncharted game delivered a punch to the gut of anyone who doubted the PS3′s sheer power compared to the 360.  For a launch title, that game was one of the best there was at pushing a brand new, uncharted, beta, system to its very limits.  Not to mention the game had a super sweet story and overall ambiance which flipped it from the “Industrial Light & Magic digital effects fest” side to the “holy shit these guys take game making very seriously” side.
• Gran Turismo 5. What else could possibly be said about the Gran Turismo brand.  This is the top of the line, the bar, for all realistic driving games out there.  Me personally, I’d chose Wipe-Out before this in a heartbeat.  I don’t like having to get my permits and license all over again in a virtual world.  However, I’ve played lots of Gran Turismo in the past and will in the future.  This will be perhaps the most realistic looking game ever when it’s released.

All these titles have three things in common: they’re all sequels of some sort, they all slip into the “been done before” file, and none of them really seem to be taking any chances.  Now, this unnamed WordPress Page DID include a 5th “most anticipated 2009″ PS3 game in its list; one that surpasses all four of these titles in imagination, ambiance (which oddly reminds me of the German film “M”), risk-taking, story, and originality.  The game is called HEAVY RAIN.  It’s made by a French studio called Quantic Dream.  This will be QD’s 3rd title after Omnikron: The Nomad Soul and Farenhiet.  Little is known about the game, but creator David Cage has been quoted as saying “[it] will be a very dark film noir thriller with mature themes”.  One very interesting little tidbit to the game is that it will supposedly feature NO super-natural elements at all.  Themes, places, people, nothing.  This is very interesting considering the game’s trailer.  OK- wow, just read that the game’s trailer, below, is NOT a part of the game and is only a demo to provide a preview into the game’s content, visuals, and gameplay.  Here are some Heavy Rain links:

WikiPedia Page – IGN Page – Giant Bomb Page – And here’s a great article on evolving video games, and Heavy Rain especially, from the Salt Lake Tribune.  I know, odd.  Excerpt:

Developers still are trying to produce the one game that breaks the barrier between just playing a story and actually experiencing it.  Later this year, Sony plans to release “Heavy Rain” for the PlayStation 3, a murder mystery that touts detailed facial animation for characters.  Also eagerly anticipated by gamers is “Alan Wake” (PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360), an adventure game about a man who visits a new town that some are comparing to the TV series “Twin Peaks,” in the way that series created a mysterious place.  “It’s just going to evolve. It’s getting better,” Dille said.

And here’s the 2008 E3 Trailer for Heavy Rain I referred to:

-Sonny

Pop Cultural Decline For The Ages.

I’m getting pretty excited (as early as it is), and curious, to see TV On The Radio tonight.  My curiosity comes in the form of how exactly their material off Dear Science will sound live.  Last time I saw this band, many of the songs from both Cookie Mountain and Bloodthirsty Babes sounded very different from their studio counter-parts.  From my experience, the band is much more loose and free-flowing live than their albums might show.  Part of this must stem from the fact that live, there is simply no way for the overall sound to be as Electronic.  Now, the newest CD is even more tight, programmed, looped than their previous albums.  Will they sound differently now than over a year ago?  Will their old stuff change slightly?  I’ll report back later.

I logged into my account yesterday to a mother fuckin’ joke.  At the WordPress.com homepage/log-in screen the site gives visitors and users a list of it’s Top Posts currently.  I’m not exaggerating here, about 80% of these posts included two titles: “SNL” and “Sarah Palin”.  Someone PLEASE start talking about outer-space… please?!  The number one film for almost three weeks in a row was the American cinematic experience known as “Beverly Hills Chuhuahua”; now the talk of the town is this miserable excuse for a piece of the Executive Branch and this pile of shit sketch show??  Saturday Night Live has not been good for over a decade now.  It’s pathetic.  This only proves that Palin is an American CELEBRITY at best, not the savior or “new face” of Conservatism as many are making her out to be.  The next phase of Conservatism is ISOLATIONISM.  On top of that, no one’s discussing the biggest story of the weekend, which involves an endorsement from a certain ex-cabinet member to a certain campaign.

But I won’t.  Because this isn’t a political page.  There are enough of those who are posting right now, for the third or fourth time, about horrible television/comedy merging with horrible politicians.  Who, what, in the name of Burroughs, is going to save Popular Culture in America from this downspin into stupidity?  Someone.  Something.  Please.  I’m dying here.

-Sonny