Nerdier Than Usual

"It's so stupid. First of all, how do they understand that walking bear they hang around with all the time? It goes '*GRROWWW*' and they're all like 'That's a good point, Bear. Let's try that.'"

- a review of Star Wars from How I Met Your Mother

"Go away. I can't pollinate with you looking at me."

Last weekend was Comic Con, which means that lots of people dressed up as sexy anthropomorphic animals, listened to nerdcore, and watched the trailer for the new Spiderman reboot. The first-person sequence at the end is pretty sweet, right? Well, the world has seen something like that before. In a video game. Mirror's Edge came out in 2008 and presented revolutionary gameplay coupled with gorgeous effects. You play a courrier, running across rooftops parkour-style, delivering illegal goods. Check this out:

I think it's awesome that there's this kind of cinematic cross-over happening with experiential storytelling. Immersive 3D movies like Avatar and the fluid storytelling and cinematic gameplay in video games like Unchartered represent a convergence of media, moving towards virtual reality. It's exciting to watch it happening from both ends and I think too many people refuse to acknowledge that video games are carrying the greater load. In terms of the development of complex, interactive storytelling, games like Mass Effect (which will use vocal cues by the player to steer dialogue) and L.A. Noir (a detective game in which the player must interpret the subtle facial expressions of suspects) are pushing boundaries faster than POV web-slinging. That said, I've never felt anything onscreen as viscerally as Jake in his avatar taking flight for the first time— and I know kung fu.

I said I was writing a song about thunderstorms (one word; look it up!) and I did. I know I posted it to Facebook, meaning you've already had a chance to listen to it, but I'm posting it here for archival purposes. With a little discipline, I should have a more polished version of this and all my other songs up soon.

Summer Thunderstorm by Good for Hummingbirds