Mike Schiller

PopMatters Multimedia Editor

About Mike Schiller

Mike Schiller is a software engineer in Buffalo, NY who enjoys filling the free time he finds with media of any sort -- music, movies, and lately, video games. Stepping into the role of PopMatters Multimedia editor in 2006 after having written music and game reviews for two years previous, he has renewed his passion for gaming to levels not seen since his fondly-remembered college days of ethernet-enabled dorm rooms and all-night Goldeneye marathons. His three children unconditionally approve of their father's most recent set of obsessions.

Features

Music

David Bowie and the Crisis Pentalogy

[4.Jan.08] :. The recently-released David Bowie Box documents the ten years or so before Bowie's heart attack, during which he worked his way through his midlife crisis.

Recent features

Featured Article

Music

Foo Fighters: The Colour and the Shape

[23.Aug.07] :. For anyone who experienced the heyday of Nirvana, it's still surreal that the lanky, string-haired drummer is the guy who'd be on magazine covers and writing #1 rock radio hits 15 years later.

Recent features

Columns

Moving Pixels

Zarathustra-speak

[3.Jun.08] :. Let's set aside judging a game purely by the game play or plot, and analyze the actual experience of the game, instead.

Recent columns

Moving Pixels

The Game World / Real World Interface

[1.May.08] :. "Interfacing" is Moving Pixels' way of taking a look at the tenuous relationship between the gaming world and the real world, and the awkwardness and enlightenment that the intersections between the two can achieve.

Recent columns

Reviews

Multimedia

Deca Sports

[14.Jul.08] :. There's a psychological advantage to a game that allows you to play as yourself, or at least as someone created by yourself, as opposed to one that simply offers someone who looks a little like you.

Recent Multimedia reviews

DVDs

Sam & Max Freelance Police: The Complete Series

[9.Jul.08] :. Loud and brash for the Cocoa Puffs crowd, this also makes obscure references to pop culture that only adults will understand.

Recent DVD reviews

Multimedia

Kung Fu Panda

[9.Jul.08] :. It's actually really refreshing to find this kind of difficulty in what is ostensibly a kids' game.

Recent Multimedia reviews

Music

Haale: No Ceiling

[11.Jun.08] :. Haale's music is a bit like Tori Amos using her belting voice over Middle-East-influenced rock 'n' roll.

Recent Short Takes reviews

Multimedia

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games

[9.Jun.08] :. Seeing Sonic and Mario alongside each other in the same game is still a synapse fryer along the lines of seeing Mickey Mouse guest star as a cadaver on CSI. Something about it just...ain't...right.

Recent Multimedia reviews

Featured Article

Multimedia

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES

[2.Jun.08] :. While our blue-haired hero is essentially a blank slate, you actually feel something like sympathy for him, and, by proxy, for any high schooler with too much to do.

Recent Multimedia reviews

Music Scald: Fluke

Music Brooke Fraser: Albertine

Music Ming & Ping: Causeway Army

DVDs Walk the Line

Music Cirkus: Laylower

Music Nine Inch Nails: The Slip

Music Kamera: Resurrection

Music AGF: Words Are Missing

Music Michael Gordon / Alarm Will Sound: Van Gogh

Multimedia Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors

DVDs Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who

Music Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band: 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons

Music The Residents: The Voice of Midnight

Music Ilya E. Monosov: Seven Lucky Plays, or How to Fix Songs for a Broken Heart

Music Nicky Click: I'm On My Cell Phone

Multimedia My Horse & Me

Music Gregor Tresher: A Thousand Nights

Music Bauhaus: Go Away White

Music Decomposure: Vertical Lines A

Music Kate Walsh: Tim's House

Music Love Spirals Downwards: Idylls

Music Chairs in the Arno: File Folder

Multimedia Mario Party DS

Music Pretendo: II

PopMatters Pick

DVDs

Into the Wild

[5.Mar.08] :. A "follow your dreams" narrative in a package that belies the cliché that it expounds upon.

Recent DVD reviews

Music Supreme Beings of Leisure: 11i

DVDs The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

Music Euphon: A Brief History of the Future

Music British Sea Power: Do You Like Rock Music?

Music VCV: 3753 Cruithne

Music Natasha Bedingfield: Pocketful of Sunshine

Multimedia Naruto: Uzumaki Chronicles 2

Music soso: Tinfoil on the Windows

Music Theory Hazit: Extra Credit

Featured Article

Music

Jonny Greenwood: There Will Be Blood

[28.Jan.08] :. There is only the stultifying loneliness, sadness, and occasionally the twistedness of the film to be found in its music.

Recent Music reviews

Multimedia Buzz! The Mega Quiz

Music Coburn: Coburn

Music Tom Middleton: Lifetracks

Music Alireza Mashayekhi and Ata Ebtekar: Persian Electronic Music

DVDs Vitus

Music Innerpartysystem: The Download EP

Multimedia Flipper Critters

Music Kim Hiorthøy: My Last Day

DVDs Sigur Rós: Heima [DVD]

Multimedia Lego Fever

Music Alter Ego: Why Not?!

Music Various Artists: Soundboy Punishments

Music Jars of Clay: Christmas Songs

Featured Article

Music

Dean Martin: Christmas with Dino

[3.Dec.07] :. Dean Martin's voice on Christmas with Dino is the perfect one with which to be trapped on a particularly snowy night when nobody's going anywhere.

Recent Short Takes reviews

Music Frank Sinatra: A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra

Multimedia Dancing with the Stars

Featured Article

DVDs

Ratatouille

[27.Nov.07] :. Ratatouille is wholesome entertainment that everyone's going to be happy with because it pulls off the feat of managing to be hilarious and engaging while offending pretty much nobody.

Recent DVD reviews

Music Various Artists: Christmas with the Rat Pack

Featured Article

Multimedia

Super Mario Galaxy

[26.Nov.07] :. Super Mario Galaxy might be the first time old-school gamers have to accept that, y'know, maybe gamers these days do have it better than they did.

Recent Multimedia reviews

Music Tony Bennett: Snowfall

Multimedia Ratatouille

Music The Goo Goo Dolls: Greatest Hits Vol. 1 - The Singles

Music Dirty Sound System: Dirty Space Disco

PopMatters Pick

Music

Jay-Z: American Gangster

[9.Nov.07] :. American Gangster may never be seen as Jay-Z's defining moment, but it marks his comeback far more effectively than Kingdom Come ever even tried to.

Recent Music reviews

Featured Article

Music

Lisa Gerrard: The Best of Lisa Gerrard

[8.Nov.07] :. Clearly, someone in Dead Can Dance was headed toward soundtracks. Thank goodness it was Lisa Gerrard.

Recent Music reviews

Music Bob Marley and the Wailers: Roots, Rock, Remixed

Music Hyperbubble: Airbrushed Alibis

DVDs Barenaked Ladies: Talk to the Hand: Live in Michigan [DVD]

Music DJ Alibi: One Day

Music Dälek: Deadverse Massive Vol. 1

Music Britney Spears: Blackout

Music A.R.E. Weapons: Modern Mayhem

Music Odd Nosdam: Level Live Wires

Music Porn Sword Tobacco: New Exclusive Olympic Heights

Music Luke Temple: Snowbeast

Music Tesla: Real to Reel

Music Alog: Amateur

Music ATB: Trilogy

Music KMFDM: Tohuvabohu

Music KT Tunstall: Drastic Fantastic

Featured Article

Music

Def Tex: Thanks But No Thanks

[28.Sep.07] :. Thanks But No Thanks might just be the most accomplished, accessible, and worthwhile album of Def Tex's long career thus far.

Recent Music reviews

Music Us3: Say What!?

Multimedia rhacp

Music 108: A New Beat From a Dead Heart

DVDs Offside

DVDs Rabbit in the Moon: Decade [DVD]

Music Project Jenny, Project Jan: XOXOXOXOXO

Multimedia Brain Age 2

Music Angels of Light: We Are Him

Music Digitalism: Idealism

Music Au: Au

Music PTV3: Hell is Invisible…Heaven is Her/e

Music Ozma: Pasadena

Music Strategy: Future Rock

Music Svoy: Eclectric

Music Apparat: Walls

Music Veil Veil Vanish: Into a New Mausoleum

Music Moka Only: Vermilion

Music Nico Muhly: Speaks Volumes

Music The Young Gods: Super Ready / Fragmenté

DVDs The Last Mimzy (2007)

Music Guitar: Dealin with Signal and Noise

DVDs U2: The DVD Collectors Box [DVD]

Music Thilges: La Double Absence

Music Kiko Navarro: Perceptions of Pacha

Music Smashing Pumpkins: Zeitgeist

Music Tiësto: Elements of Life

Music Gudrun Gut: I Put a Record On

Music Tomahawk: Anonymous

Music Bunny: Play to My Own Tune

Music Beastie Boys: The Mix-Up

Music Mark Ronson: Version

Music Fridge: The Sun

Music The Polyphonic Spree: The Fragile Army

Music Glint: Mode to Joy

Music Satanicpornocultshop: .aiff Skull

Music Noctorum: Offer the Light

Music Vandaveer: Grace & Speed

Music Yvat: Chroma

Music Throbbing Gristle: Part Two: The Endless Not

Music Alias: Collected Remixes

Music Mnemic: Passenger

Music Sage Francis: Human the Death Dance

Music Static of the Gods: Cycles Follow Signs

DVDs The Loop: Season One

Multimedia Lumines Plus

Music Xbxrx: Wars

Music Kilo: Kilo

Music Sia: Lady Croissant

Music Vega4: You and Others

Music Ollo: The If If

Music Timbaland: Shock Value

PopMatters Pick

Multimedia

Super Paper Mario

[9.Apr.07] :. It is Super Paper Mario's quick wit, above all, that makes it such a joy to play.

Recent Multimedia reviews

PopMatters Pick

Music

Fort Knox Five: Reminted

[5.Apr.07] :. That Fort Knox Five can wrap so many sounds and styles into such a consistent, dancefloor-friendly package shows not only serious instrumental and production skills, but a remarkable consistency of vision.

Recent Music reviews

Music Naked: Lets Get Naked…and Start a Revolution

Music Minmae: 835

Music Post Industrial Boys: Trauma

Music Roxette: A Collection of Roxette Hits

Music The Prize Fighter Inferno: My Brothers Blood Machine

Music Hella: Theres No 666 in Outer Space

Music Panacea: Ink is My Drink

DVDs Laibach: Divided States of America [DVD]

Music Zoodrive: Not Fully Medicated

Music Aereogramme: My Heart Has a Wish That You Would Not Go

Music Maps: Start Something

Multimedia Football Mogul 2007

Music Radicalfashion: Odori

Multimedia Naruto: Uzumaki Chronicles

Music Bloc Party: A Weekend in the City

Music Tia Carrera: self-titled

Music Laibach: Volk

Music Tor Lundvall: Empty City

Music Dead Voices on Air: From Labrador to Madagascar

Music Copeland: Eat, Sleep, Repeat

Books Gaming by Alexander R. Galloway

Music Deerhunter: Cryptograms

Music The Penny Loafers: Quicksand

Music Tor Lundvall: Yule

Music Teitur: Stay Under the Stars

Music Shawn Lees Ping Pong Orchestra: Voices and Choices

Music Gescom: MiniDisc

Music Sparta: Threes

Music Eliot Morris: Whats Mine is Yours

Multimedia Glow Worm

Music 2 Bit Pie: 2 Pie Island

Music The Panic Channel: (ONe)

Music Of Montreal: Satanic Twins

Music Thumbtack Smoothie: Fall Back

Music Johan: THX JHN

Music Sister Hazel: Absolutely

Music Incubus: Light Grenades

Music Various Artists: Jukebox Buddha

Music Seht: The Green Morning

Music Tony Lucca: Canyon Songs

Music Faithless: 3D

Music The Crash: Pony Ride

Music Snoop Dogg: Tha Blue Carpet Treatment

Music FM3 and Dou Wei: Hou Guan Yin

Music Darc Mind: Symptomatic of a Greater Ill

Music Two Five: Who is Two Five

Music Rock Star Supernova: Rock Star Supernova

Music Foo Fighters: Skin and Bones

Music Swollen Members: Black Magic

Music Inca Ore: The Birds in the Bushes

Music Hotspur: Beta

Music The You: For the Masses

Music Autovaughn: Space

Music Zea: Insert Parallel Universe

Music Yip-Yip: In the Reptile House

Music Tears for Fears: Gold

Music Fuckpony: Children of Love

Music Chingy: Hoodstar

Music Steril: Realism

Music Headman: On

Music Trivium: The Crusade

Music James Kochalka Superstar: Spread Your Evil Wings and Fly

Music Wordburglar: Burglaritis

Music Polyphonic: Abstract Data Ark

Music Harper Lee: He Holds a Flame

Music Uton: Mystery Revolution

Music Crackhaus: Spells Disaster...

Music Michael Zapruders Rain of Frogs: New Ways of Letting Go

Music Massiv in Mensch: Klang der Unterblichkeit

Music Dan Bern: Breathe

Music Boy Eats Drum Machine: Pleasure

Music Mr. Tube and the Flying Objects: Listen Up

Music The Penny Loafers: Side A

Music Akron/Family: Meek Warrior

Music Alien Ant Farm: Up in the Attic

Music Sleepthief: The Dawnseeker

Music Alias & Tarsier: Plane That Draws a White Line

Music The Never: Antarctica

Music Sublime: Sublime

Music Rasmus Møbius: Medicine Walk

Music Helios: Eingya

Featured Article

Music

The Mars Volta: Amputechture

[13.Sep.06] :. Go ahead. Give it the patience it deserves.

Recent Music reviews

Music Mint: Magnetism

Music Lotterboys: Animalia

Multimedia Super Dragon Ball Z

Music Audioslave: Revelations

Music Psalm One: The Death of Frequent Flyer

Music Orbit Service: Songs of Eta Carinae

Music Darker My Love: Darker My Love

Music The Slow Signal Fade: Steady

Music Pan•American: For Waiting, for Chasing

Music Sumo: The Danceband

Music Jandek: What Else Does the Time Mean

Music Hoobastank: Every Man for Himself

Music Zox: The Wait

Music Rachael Sage: The Blistering Sun

Music Matthew Friedberger: Winter Women / Holy Ghost Language School

Music Ani DiFranco: Reprieve

Music The Polkaholics: Polka Über Alles

Music Ryuichi Sakamoto: Bricolages

Multimedia Super Monkey Ball Adventure

Music The Class of 98: Touch This and Die

Music Powerman 5000: Destroy What You Enjoy

Music Tony Bennett: Through the Years

Music Lisa Germano: In the Maybe World

Music Cex: Actual Fucking

Multimedia Cars

Music The Buttless Chaps: Where Night Holds Light

PopMatters Pick

Music

Camille: Le Fil

[5.Jul.06] :. As far as pseudo-a cappella experimental pop albums go, Le Fil is undeniably excellent.

Recent Music reviews

Music Scientific Lifestyle: Modern Sounds for the New Era

Music Keane: Under the Iron Sea

Music Codec & Flexor: Killermachine

Music Klimek: Music to Fall Asleep

Music Sofa Surfers: Sofa Surfers

Music Prototypes: Prototypes

Music Tolcha: Gestalt

Music Mugison: Little Trip

Music Peeping Tom: Peeping Tom

Music Smoosh: Free to Stay

Music Sophie Barker: Earthbound

Music Phoenix: Its Never Been Like That

Music Moov: The Arrivant Volume 1

Music Lansing-Dreiden: The Dividing Island

Music Smoking Popes: At Metro

Music Guitar: Tokyo

Music Shalabi Effect: Unfortunately

Music Super XX Man: X

Music CacheFlowe: Automate Everything

Music Gotan Project: Lunático

Music Rah Bras: WHOHM

PopMatters Pick

Music

MONO: You Are There

[10.Apr.06] :. MONO catches up to its legendary live experience not via brute force, but through an exquisite display of melodic and dynamic subtlety.

Recent Music reviews