The Republic of Thoronia

• The new Girl Talk album Feed the Animals is totally hot. It’s the same old fun and weird clash of songs into ridicuous mashups as Night Ripper and Unstoppable, but Girl Talk gets at least three or four of these before it gets old.
• I never saw Iron Man. Which is really dissapointing, because I really wanted to see it — as stupid as it sounds. But you know what. I’m going to go see Wall-E this week. That’s right. Fucking Wall-E. Apparently it’s pretty good, no speaking for the first 40 minutes, hardly any pop-culture references, no celebrity voices, and the object of Wall-E’s desire, some female robot, was designed by one of Apple’s lead designer’s Jonathan Ives (and apparently the movie is filled with Apple eye-candy and easter eggs).
• Call me pretensious, or a nerd, or boring (like some of my more, eh-hem, effeminate coworkers), but I love NPR. I love it so much, and I am really sorry to see Fair Game, with the lovely host Faith Sallie going off the air. Right to your local station, send money to support podcasts, protest! Bring Fair Game back wih it’s hilarious new-programming, satire, interview magic. Please?
• I am absolutely in love with Metal Gear Solid 4. Yeah, it’s linear, it’s got 45-90 minute cutscenes. It’s only about 20 hours long (although I haven’t actually finished it yet, I’ve been savouring it). But, it’s got some of the best control, weirdest plots, and is by far the most ambitious video game series of all time. You can argue that the voice acting isn’t that great, or the plot is convulted like a David Lynch film — but the point is that Kojima is trying. He is one of the few producers/designers that understands the potential complexity and interactivity of video games and their place in the future — oh, and it’s always fun when video games break the fourth wall
• MGS4 is only taking up my time until Fallout 3 comes out. Which happens to be around the same time I will also be: working 40 hours a week, going to grad school, planning the Republic of Thoronia Museum Exhibit, writing my usual freelance crap, finishing all the work on the Game, playing shows (supposedly), losing friends, and sleeping less.
• Some of the clients have great names.
• Just an update on the RoTExhibit: We now have a large selection of artists interested in contributing. Including, but not limited to (not all have confirmed that they can locate their exhibit pieces, several have stressed the desire to showcase some of their artifacts, but are still weary of showing them to the public for fear of destruction, so this is a “possible” list of donors), Brent Neustiffler, Joe Flores, Jeremy Peterson, Bryan Danknich (waiting on confirmation), Rich Ryon, + silk screen prints, possibly a battle axe, furniture from the revolution of 1623 (contributed by Elliot Leslie), the original tote, Christiné Friberg’s stuffed Thor doll(s), diarama’s by the residing King, and a possible appearence by the Good King Thor himself. Also being worked on is a comprehensive history graph and chart depicting major events as well as where each piece of art was created, by whom, and when. Exciting!
• Bill Gates retired this week. Maybe Microsoft will start making a worthwhile operating system now.

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