Thursday, November 3 2011
‘Masters of Doom’ A Great Man History of Gaming
In recounting the rise of John Carmack and John Romero, Masters of Doom chronicles two of video games' most influential creators and documents pivotal years in the medium's history.
Thursday, October 27 2011
Various Artists: Golden Beirut: New Sounds From Lebanon
An eclectic and oddly put-together mixtape from an eclectic region, Golden Beirut is a very good cross-section of certain musical trends that are occurring in contemporary Lebanon.
Friday, October 21 2011
‘The Origins of Political Order’ Is Delightfully Bipartisan and Sure to Raise Eyebrows
The esteemed political scientist's latest book provides a thought-provoking look at the political history of past civilizations, and is sure to offer plenty of fodder for conversations about the present.
Thursday, September 8 2011
Telling Hamlet What to Do: Video Games, Art, and Cultural Hierarchies
Games have not stumbled upon a new way of creating and interacting with art, they have rediscovered an older system.
Thursday, July 28 2011
Youth in the Age of ‘Mortal Kombat’
Musings on Mortal Kombat's cultural significance from a biased observer. As absurd as it might sound, Mortal Kombat was a formative experience for me, both in terms of my relationship to video games and my broader cultural and political identities.
Monday, May 23 2011
Gazing upon the Bitch-goddess of Quantification: ‘The Information’
We are drowning in a sea of information. Shall we stop to count the waves, or try to make sense of it all? The first of these two is the way of information theory.
Friday, May 20 2011
Malika Zarra: Berber Taxi
The marriage of voice-and-keyboard jazz with gnawa, oud and various North African ideas is so deft that the joints never show.
Wednesday, April 27 2011
‘Revolutionary Deists’: Fanatics for a Reason
The story of deism proves that America has never been, in an absolute sense, a Christian nation.
Thursday, April 21 2011
Bjorn Torske: Kokning
At times Bjorn Torske's latest is so breezy that it almost goes unnoticed.
