Zero Punctuation

Most critics take years to reach the level of trust and endearment they need to develop a large fan base. This convention was shattered when Ben Croshaw's release his review series, Zero Punctuation. The series has achieved notoriety essentially over-night and Croshaw has the following to say about his newly found fans: "Fans are clingy complaining dipshits who will never-ever be grateful for any concession you make. Incidentally, why not buy a Zero Punctuation t-shirt?" Corshaw has become famous for this sort of rapid-fire humor, much of it backed up by witty and profane observations. Croshaw or “Yahtzee”, as he is better known by his fans is a critic and amateur game developer, as well as the originator of the popular series Zero Punctuation.

Zero Punctuation began its life humbly-enough as a simple YouTube upload. Croshaw had posted up the video as new content for his website. The video was a review of “the Darkness” for PlayStation and Croshaw decided that he would try a new approach this time. Rather than simply film himself talking, he began using common tools like Windows Movie Maker and Photoshop to create an animation, which would run with his audio as the narration. The cartoon imagery was placed on yellow background and used to illustrate what is being said in the narration or to provide an ironic counterpoint to it. The videos are typically no more than five minutes in length. Once the Darkness review was finished, he moved straight to Fable: The Lost Chapters. Within a month of releasing the Fable review, several organizations approached Ben with offers for him to produce exclusively for their network. Croshaw decided to partner with The Escapist, an online magazine covering video games, gamers, the gaming industry, and gaming culture.

Croshaw's typical review consists of pointing out the flaws in large commercial games that he says 'mainstream' critics don't bring up. Things like a blatantly cliché storyline or plots with holes so large you could drive a truck through them. Although the reviews are not universally negative, the vast majority certainly are. Corshaw shuns certain die-hard staples of the gaming industry like fighting games or the corporate mascot reinventions like Mario or Sonic the Hedgehog. Being an amateur game developer himself, Corshaw continually preaches his disdain for certain game mechanics such as timed-events; it is partially this level of interest, which has earned him notoriety among hard-core gamers.

Many gamers also know Corshaw's history as a game developer and now gaming-insider. Corshaw recently admitted that Duke Nukem Forever's developer, 3D Realms, had approached him to write a script for the upcoming game. Two of the lead developers, Brian Hook and Jay Brushwood pushed for Corsaw's involvement in reinventing the game, but the lead designer claimed it wasn't the right fit for the Duke Nukem fans. It is difficult to speculate on events, which did not occur, but while the Duke Nukem release bombed in sales and received mediocre fanfare at best, Zero Punctuation has continued a dramatic rise in popularity. Most of his videos achieve a half million hits on YouTube, and even more for The Escapist.

So can you rely on Zero Punctuation for all your game reviewing needs? To put it frankly, no. Corsak is far too hard on games and it seems that some of this negativity is generated primarily to sell the jokes. Almost all games receive negative reviews, so even that game you spent a hundred hours devoted on will certainly be torn apart. While he may hint occasionally that he is being nit-picky with certain titles, it is so brief that no one notices and after that it is straight to the funny insulting bit. While I enjoy the series just as much as any other gamer, it is for the entertainment value and not for the game reviews themselves.

Top Gear

There are a number of questions surrounding the History channel's recent Top Gear spin-off. Exactly a year has passed since the History Channel premiered the 'American version' of the classic English Top Gear and a great deal has already been said online about why the new domestic offering fails to deliver when compared to the quirky antics of the original U.K show. Comments fill the internet ranging in tone from “give them a chance” to “too scripted, not funny.” For anyone not familiar with Top Gear, it is an automotive show, which began its life in the U.K. during the late 70's. It was later revamped in 2002 it has since then won much critical acclaim and fans. It won an International Emmy for best non-scripted show in 2005 and continues to be one of the world’s most-watched television shows. So should we be giving the American Top Gear a chance?

They certainly have gone to great lengths to impress us with the Americanized show. The three hosts were handpicked after nearly 2 years of casting. They consist of professional racing driver Tanner Foust, actor and comedian Adam Ferrara, and automotive/racing analyst Rutledge Wood. The first show in the series was extremely over the top, starting off with time trials in a trio of Lamborghinis and driving a Dodge Viper being chased by a Cobra attack helicopter. Although these aspects/stunts may be seen in the UK Top Gear , how can you compete with the original show that has already sent the first ever automobile to the North Pole? Or invented the combine snow-blower? How can you show-up the show whose hosts managed to cover the entire country of Vietnam on $100 scooters which were then converted into boats in order to reach the bar at the end of the trip?

It is an entirely valid question. Nothing else really sets the new version apart from its parent show. Both shows feature cars being driven, tested, and occasionally destroyed. Both shows feature 'The Stig', an anonymous race car driver in a white race suit. Not only do they feature a similar stage and set for both shows, but the format for each is nearly identical. However, anyone familiar with the classic episodes will quickly point out that the new hosts don't have the same chemistry of their across-the-pond counterparts. This is a point which is hard to argue when you watch the first episode. While they had likely rehearsed their banter in some respect, they came off as three people in a rather awkward situation. The chemistry improves a bit as the season moves forward, but the cast is a far cry from what the existing fan-base is comparing them to. Rome was not built in a day, so should we be so quick to blame the shows presenters?

The real question at hand is why this show even needed to be created in the first place. The English version was already immensely popular in the USA, with prominent placement in the BBC-America prime time line-up and millions of hits on YouTube. The only logical answer for the shows existence lies in the only reason anything exists on television--money. It is no wonder that the show is being poorly received by the existing fans since it is entirely disingenuous from its conception. Following the Emmy win in 2005 NBC and Discovery channel both tasted residual cash in the air and began producing pilots which they hoped would win them the licensing rights from the BBC. Several reasonable people asserted that the show would never be a success without the original hosts, and the project was abandoned to the television-producer limbo. There it would have rightly stayed until the History Channel came and decided Top Gear would fit in nicely with their current line-up of quality programming such as Ancient Aliens andHairy Bikers.

So History started out their capitalization efforts by alienating the gigantic existing fan-base they had created their show for in the first place. The American show is not a labor of love caressed gently into existence by three friends over many years, rather it was conceived to target 'core demographics', fill appropriate time-slots and leach from a something generally regarded as artful. Similarly, the Australian version of Top Gear which has run for a couple years is apparently canceled as of 2011. The Russian version was so poorly received that after only half-a-season, they began airing the British episodes in its place. So far, it has been pretty clear that even if you take the proven, segmented scripts, and formulaic approach; portraying the genuine relationships in Top Gear is not as easy as it sounds. While the American Top Gear was recently renewed for a second season by History Channel, it is also worth noting that Ancient Aliens, a show dedicated to examining the role of aliens in history, has also just entered into its third season this past July. While there are still many questions to be answered about the American Top Gear, for now it seems the fans have spoken.

The Aqua Tower – Architecture Review

Chicago was, and will always be a modern city. The roots of the modernist movement still grow deep here along every street from 31st to Sheridan Avenue. Occasionally these roots will sprout massive steel buildings into the sky like grapes growing on a vine. The seeds of these buildings can be traced back to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, one of the members of the Bauhaus and a founder of modernism. Van der Rohe fled Nazi Germany before World War II and found his way to Chicago where he founded the Chicago's Armour Institute of Technology, now known as IIT, to continue the work he began at the Bauhaus. From this school the modern style of architecture known as the International or Chicago style was born. One of the most recent additions to this proud architectural heritage is Jeanne Gang's Aqua Tower. This building is a shining example of how far architecture has come since the invention of the modern skyscraper nearly a century ago.

The Aqua Tower sits near a large park in the Lakeshore East area of downtown Chicago. At 86 stories, the building feels right at home nestled inside the endless rows of International Style towers which stretch off to either side of the Chicago River. The form of the building is similar to its neighbors, yet at the same time entirely different. Not one floor plan is identical and the abstraction of the glass seems to fill in between the concrete like water rushing to fill the low parts of a valley. The play of the forms are rather subtle as each floor changes shape slightly to suggest flowing forms. The description sounds like a hiking trip rather than a building, and this is what makes Aqua Tower something special. The harshness of the lines and materials of construction are still present, yet they intertwine with the fantasy of the shape so effortlessly--so organically--that the suggestion of the movement in form is always present.

Jeanne Gang feels just as at home in Chicago as her Aqua building. She was born in Illinois in 1964 and leads Studio Gang Architects, a Chicago-based architecture and design firm. The Aqua Tower is the tallest building in the world designed by a woman which holds the promise of opening the field of architecture, dominated for so long by men, to young women in the future. Jeanne was recently honored with the very prestigious 2011 MacArthur Fellow Award for her ground-breaking work in architecture. She has brought a holistic approach to the art, combining the principals of the Chicago Style with concern for the environment and the people who will use the structure. All of her projects make use of 'green' building techniques and employ things like recycled or recyclable materials, energy conservation, and sustainable construction methods.

Modern Art always begs the question of what is next, and in the case of architecture the answer can be found in the pursuit of nature. Chicago has seen several buildings attempt to take this path. The Trump Tower plays with sweeping curvilinear lines which seem to catch the setting sun from any angle, while buildings like Bertrand Goldberg's Marina Towers have been experimenting with the organic floor plan idea since the 60's. What separates the Aqua Tower from these other attempts is the execution. While the Marina Towers is using the same principals, each floor is identical which creates the never-ending vertical structures we all expect when we look at a skyscraper. The Aqua destroys this barrier by eliminating any vertical continuity between floors. While the this topographic approach has surely been conceived before, it was not until computer and material technology advanced to a point that the execution was financially viable to produce. In this way, the Aqua Tower still embodies the essence of modernism and the International Style even though it appears so radically different from its predecessors.

The Aqua Tower will prove to be a crowning jewel for the city and one of the most significant architectural advancements to grace the Chicago skyline in many years. Not only is it fantastic to look at, but the implications for international architecture and the culture of Chicago are wide-reaching. Mies van der Rohe is known for coining two phrases: “less is more” and “God is in the details”. While Mies van der Rohe may not have been able to foresee a woman designing such an important architectural work, both of his phrases certainly apply to the Aqua Tower. You could even make the case that in exploring the ties architecture has to nature, the Aqua building is indeed finding God in the details.

Willem De Kooning's Excavation

In one of the most prominent areas of the Art Institute's modern wing hangs a work of abstract expressionism, which was inspired by the 1947 Academy Award-nominated, film Bitter Rice. The scene which served as the inspiration for this painting involves a woman toiling in the rice fields of northern Italy. The painting is the work of Willem De Kooning and is entitled Excavation (1950). Viewers will understandably be struck by the lack of a rice field, a woman, or anything that could be a shape of a person. There are, however, abstract images of animals and human body parts like noses, eyes, teeth, necks, and jaws.

Willem De Kooning's Excavation is joined in its long-term home with other works from the same movement, like Jackson Pollock's, The Key (1946). These artists use large and expressive brushstrokes coupled with various background textures to portray an overall mood. These techniques define abstract expressionism. It is easy to feel the tension present in De Kooning's painting, not only in the line-work itself, but also in the overall visual atmosphere they create. It isn't entirely pleasant and it isn't meant to be. The woman is not there because the piece is not about her physically, but about the mental disillusionment the field workers feel. Although a human figure is not directly discernible in the painting, the human presence is implied.

Those who would contend that the layout is arbitrary need only seek out De Kooning's other works, they would then understand that this is an odd piece for his visual style. It is strangely structured, and while De-Kooning is known for visually separating his subject matter into imaginary planes, there is something else going on here. It only seems appropriate that the overall structure of the painting is vertically aligned into approximate rows when the subject matter at hand is a rice field. None of De- Kooning's other works exhibit the intentional vertical alignment like we see in Excavation. Each individual feels the tension when they look at this piece, even though they may not understand why. This contention and the extent of abstraction used by the artist are both reasons why this work of art has stood the test of time.

Miró's Chicago

In 1963 the Brunswick corporation commissioned Spanish artist Joan Miró to design a sculpture for their new skyscraper in downtown Chicago. Unfortunately, the Brunswick corporation suffered sticker-shock at the prestigious bill they received from Miró and decided to cancel the order. The original plaster Maquette entitled The Sun, the Moon and One Star is currently owned by the Art Institute of Chicago. A full twenty years after the original design the city decided to revive the plans and place the work in its originally intended location. Miró was so proud of the work that he never bothered to name it so it was named Miró's Chicago. Not really a good set of working conditions by any stretch. The finished piece is a towering 40 foot concrete and iron monster with colorful ceramic insets in various, 80's styled, shapes. Organic shapes of the concrete base are offset by harsh linear lines of the iron crown.

In the final decades of Miró's life he had begun to explore daring color schemes and ceramic as a medium making his work much more subjective. This is in sharp contrast to some of his earlier works like the elegant Moonbird (1966) sculpture in New York, which was designed a year after Chicago and is generally viewed as one of his best works. In contrast, you might make comments about the Chicago piece like: “It looks like a bird with a fork in it's head” or “Is it supposed to be a woman?”. Those people probably don't fully appreciate the finely-tuned aesthetic language Miró worked his entire life to create. Regardless of the intentions of the artist, Miró's Chicago is one of his least aesthetically pleasing and confounding sculptural pieces on display in any large city. Houston's Persona of Birds has us beat fair-and-square for the number one spot, but Chicago certainly lacks the grace of Spain's Dona i Ocell (woman with Bird), which was finished around the same time as Chicago. Ultimately, the sculpture that almost wasn't is an interesting piece of Chicago lore, but ultimately fails to evoke the sort of passion we hope to see from our public landmarks.

Black Dogs: The Possibly True Story of a good book

The tag-line for Jason Buhrmester's first-time literary entrance, Black Dogs, reads like he has set himself up for an easy win. “The Possibly True Story of Classic Rock's Greatest Robbery”. It sounds like the best mystery novel ever made. The anticipation grows more when we learn that the story is based on the true-life events of a 1973 robbery involving none other than classic rock legend Led Zepplin. During a three-day concert at Madison Square Garden $203,000 is stolen from their hotel suite and no arrests were ever made in connection with the robbery. Robbery mystery? Check. Classic rock legend Jimmy Paige? Check. True story? Possibly. This back-story is better than anything CSI could ever have hoped for.

The story soon gets better with sex, drugs, and rock n' roll. Patrick and his friends Frenchy, Keith, and Alex quickly scheme to rob Led Zepplin after their famous concert in New York. In addition to scheming, the boys also smoke pot, listen to Black Sabbath, and engage in sex acts with various women. An unfortunate series of self-inflicted events deteriorate the character's situations to the point where they have no choice but to pull off the most rockin' heist the world has ever seen.

Once the reader begins to realize what is going on, it is too late. You are several chapters in and nursing a wicked hangover. In this sobering state you begin to fully take stock of the situation. You may stop several times and ask yourself, “Wait, is this really a true story?” You flip the book over and examine the tag-line on the cover to re-read a critical word: “The possibly true story.” Turns out a “possibly true story” is the same as a fictional one. While Led Zepplin did loose a load of cash in New York, the Baltimore teens who rocked out so hard in order to pull off the heist are fictional. Now everything begins to make sense.

Lets get back to the gratuitous drugs and sex at the beginning of the novel. On one hand, it is perfectly understandable why this material was included, and it makes sense with the 'rock and roll' lifestyle the story is trying to portray. It also makes sense as an easy lure for 16 year old boys to keep turning pages. From a female reader's perspective it seemed a bit like a highschooler's wet dream and with one-liners like: “'No problem.' She giggled cooly, sipping her beer. I lay down next to her and by 'Ruby Tuesday' we were making out.”, it's not exactly classy. That wasn’t even the largest problem with it. We are not taking a peek into the notoriously devious lifestyle of classic rockers like Paige or Osborne. These are run off the mill deviants, retail workers, and small-time criminals we are talking about here. If we can take anything from these scenes, it's that stealing stuff and smoking pot will still get you laid.

You may be inclined to think the Ocean's Eleven style assembly of would-be theifs is a clever plot driver. It could be argued that Mr. Buhrmester came to this same conclusion after watching 2007's Ocean's Thirteen when it arrived with his other Netflix selections. By the third installment of the Ocean's series, nearly every one of Buhrmester's readers been thoroughly desensitized to this approach. It could still work, but where Ocean had a group of well-prepared, interesting, and skilled people from around the world Patrick has a group of seemingly inept local misfits with the only interesting thing that defines them is highly amplified distortion and extended guitar solos.

Despite everything that is going on around them, there is very little growth from these characters. The uninspiring descriptions used at the start of the book are as true at the beginning as they are at the end. The person best suited to this novel is someone who will enjoy anything where Jimmy Paige makes an appearance. Connoisseurs of grit will be disappointed by the detail, mystery lovers will be let down by the mystery, and everyone else will probably continue reading hoping for more sex and drugs.

The Green Hornet

Many of us have fond memories from our childhoods of the dashing superhero, classic villains, and observant detectives. The most common place to find these characters was often the local comic book shop. Within the next year there will be an influx of movies adapted from comic books such as The Avengers, Captain America, Cat Woman, Batman, Tin Tin and Superman. However, where is this new fad going? Are these movies examples of Hollywood gone sour, or can the child-hood inspired superhero win their way back into the hearts and minds of a new audience? When one thinks of comic books that are successfully adapted for the big screen they may think of Batman, Blade, Spider Man or Men in Black. However, the recent movie Green Hornet does not immediately spring to mind as a movie which will go down in history as a great adaptation of a once famous comic book.

The Green Hornet is based upon an American radio and comic book masked vigilante created by George Trendle and Fran Striker. The story begins predictably with a prelude of the main character, Britt Reid, who as a child has an ambition to be a super hero. His father, the owner of the major newspaper in his city becomes disappointed in him when he continuously gets in trouble at school for trying to stop fights. This then leaves the son feeling like a failure throughout his life growing up to be surrounded by women and wild parties, now played by Seth Rogan. Meanwhile the city has a new mob boss in town named Chudnofsky, played by Christoph Waltz who is most notable for his role as the villain in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards. However, in the Green Hornet he doesn’t seem quite scary enough to be the villian. The first scene sees him being introduced to a new drug dealer and club owner Crystal Clear, played by James Franco. Clear makes fun of him for not being ‘scary’ throwing such insults as  ‘Disco Santa’ and ‘passed his prime’ while all the while pronouncing his name incorrectly. Chudnofsky becomes extremely upset by this so pulls out his double barreled gun shooting four guys in two shots leaving just Clear. He then continues to ask how he could be scarier, asking if his gun is scary enough and going into details on how it was made. It’s as though Chudnofsky is experiencing a midlife crisis. He then leaves the club blowing off a bomb inside, pulling the typical bad-ass move of not looking back when an explosion goes off.

Just as anticipated something unfortunate happens leaving Britt to run his father’s company and ‘clean up the streets.’ At first Britt rebels against this by chopping off the head of his father’s statue and firing everyone who worked for his father. However, knowing he cannot work alone he befriends Kato, an employee of his father. This friendship leads to the beginning of the green hornet with several more explosions and other ridiculousness. At one point they are driving around the top floor of a skyscraper with the entire back of their car missing. Anyone over the age of eight might suspect this scene would not end so well in real life.

Adaptions of comic books to movies do not need to be ‘realistic,’ however there is fine line between a childhood hero fantasy and pure absurdity. After the movie was finished it was hard to determine whether the director wanted to impress, alienate, or directly insult its core audience. At times it seemed that the movie was trying to be the next greatest superhero and other times it had the mental capacity of Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle. It will probably make millions for Hollywood as a big budget blockbuster full of an impressive cast and explosions. However, it wasn’t a reminder of the comic books many of us read as children. So here is hoping that the new movies, based on adaptions of comic books, will be much more impressive and allow new generations to enjoy the heroes of the past.