PopCult: February 2004 Archive Page

--Star Trek Action Figure Collection (NubiNubsUniverse.com)

The really sad thing: I recognize most of these characters. Okay, the aliens from "Star Trek: The Next Generation" sort of blend into one another, but for the classic series, the episodes have been so firmly imprinted on my brain for decades that I can name most of the characters and episodes without much thought.

[O]n Feb. 20, 1954 -- President Dwight Eisenhower interrupted his vacation in Palm Springs, Calif., to make a secret nocturnal trip to a nearby Air Force base to meet two extraterrestrial aliens.

Or maybe not. Maybe Ike just went to the dentist. There's some dispute about this. --Peter Carlson --Ike and the alien ambassadors (M$ NBC)

A precious quote, from the author of a book on the political implications of an extraterrestrial presence on Earth: "There's a lot of stuff on the Internet," he says, "and I just went around and pieced it together."

Journalists aren't supposed to editorialize while covering the news, but the use of this quote pretty much says all that one needs to know.

A close second is the following:

Mixson's article "A History of Dwight D. Eisenhower's Oral Health" -- published in the November 1995 issue of the Bulletin of the History of Dentistry -- is the definitive work on Ike's teeth. [Some tooth-related info here.] That may be more than you wanted to know about Ike's dental work. If not, Mixson goes on at some length, quoting a long, lyrical passage written by Fairchild on this troublesome presidential incisor.

All of this carrying on is fine, but if Spike really wants shows men like to watch, they've missed a few great concepts. Here are ten new programs that appeal to real men:

• The Explosion Show - Every week, the hosts fill some interesting object with black powder and then, well, you get the idea...
  
• Crank Callers - Contestants harass strangers and win prizes
  
• Celebrity Mud Wrestling - The name says it all
  
• Target Practice - Like those hunting shows on the Outdoor channel, except that the big game they're after is the neighbor's lawn ornaments
  
• Psycho Friends Network - Wisecracking comedians staff fortune-telling phone service
  
• Pick-Up Truckers - This is our reality show: Blue collar guys are taken to a real bar and compete to see who can be the first to convince a female patron to come home with them
  
• Mug Shot Makeover - Fashion experts visit the drunk tank with timely grooming advice
  
• Riding Lawnmower Demolition Derby - OK, it's sort of a sport, but it's not on ESPN
  
• Cheer Factor - Adult cheerleader routines are rated by regular guys with number cards
  
• Simian Nightly News - The events of the day are reviewed by chimpanzees dressed in designer suits

Are you listening, Spike?
--Driving the Spike [Scroll down a bit] (Every Fool's Guide to the Universe)

This site seems to archive only by page, so I can't send you to the entry I'm quoting from. It's the one posted at 9:58PM.

More than 150 Lego builders and collectors converged on Portland over the Presidents Day weekend for BrickFest PDX, a celebration of all things Lego. While plenty of individual work is on display, the big draw is the chance to interact with like-minded folks.... In one of the smaller conference rooms, a team of 10 guys, mostly young men and two preteens, attempt a speed record for assembling an Imperial Star Destroyer, a 3,000-piece Star Wars monstrosity that usually takes a single builder about a week of spare time to construct. The team wants to do it in less than an hour, but the record is 13 minutes more than that. --Marty Cortinas

--If You Come, They Will Build It  (Wired)

Sorry, the title just doesn't... click.

Some of the new questions in a very young field: How do you judge a game? As you would a novel? Should we think up a whole new vocabulary for evaluating games? What do the social dynamics of online worlds — those massively multiplayer games — tell us about human behavior?

In Copenhagen, Denmark, the IT University has established the Center of Computer Games Research, which just graduated its first Ph.D., Jesper Juul.

Juul appears to be the first person anywhere to ever get his doctorate exclusively in video game studies. His dissertation "Half-Real: Video Games Between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds" seeks to define what video games are, and how academics ought to go about studying them.

"There is an interesting naughtiness in taking something that many people consider unimportant and frivolous and then creating very detailed theory about it," Juul said. But, he added: "I would say that video games merit much more analysis than novels or movies simply because they are less understood." --Nick Wadhams --Academics get serious about video games (Mercury News/AP)

It's not news that academics have been studying computer games, but it is news that the study of computer games is developing into a scholarly field of its own (rather than being situated within existing fields, such as literature, cinema, artificial intelligence, and so forth).

Besides Juul, this article also mentions Janet Murray, Espen Aarseth, Henry Jenkins, and Gonzalo Frasca. It also mentions next month's Princeton conference on Form, Culture, and Videogame Criticism.

Jill Drake, from Tenterden, Kent, will fly to Los Angeles and scream for an hour to promote Disneyland's new Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. --Terror task for screaming champ (BBC)

Thanks for the suggestion, Rosemary.

[I]t seems the media (TV and newspapers) are just now picking up on the "Beyonce Knowles as Lois Lane" rumor from earlier this week, and even though the rumor has been shot down as being false, various TV news programs and newspapers are running with the story.

It also appears that Johnny Depp is not connected with the role of Lex Luthor as previously rumored, but that he is supposedly trying out for the role of Jor-El.

As always, take these as purely rumors. Nothing is official until Warner Bros. announces it... actually, believe nothing until you actually sit in the cinema and see it for yourself. :)

Media Rumors (www.supermanhomepage.com)

My former student Bobby Kuchenmeister sent me this item. The underground fan network has already deflated this as a rumor, but the mainstream media haven't noticed.

It's not unheard of for a PR campaign to "leak" something that is still under negotiation; when politicians do it, it's called a trial balloon. If the public response is too negative, the informal report can be disowned as premature.

Unless we get an influx of suggestions within the next three hours, I'll have no choice but to watch this year's Super Bowl. I write this post from the living room of Vidiot Emeritus Peter Ko, and if the prospect of sparing me from the tedium of this year's game isn't enough to spur your creative suggestions, the least you can do is spare Pete from the tedium of my company. --Super Bowl Weblog XXXVIII (Tee Vee)

An interesting site... the Tee Vee bloggers are commenting on the commericals. (How far did you get in Colossal Cave Adventure, Monty?)

My kids are sick, so Leigh and I planned to go to church separately today. I tried to go to an early mass at a different church, but couldn't find the church... my wife had given me directions that she later admitted weren't very good. So I decided to go to the latest mass in the area -- the 7:00pm service at the cathedral. But apparently the bishop is a football fan -- mass was cancelled.