My name is Music journalism is the new boring challenges the notion that music was boring in 2011 by pinning the blame on journalists for not finding and sharing better music. Good things to keep in mind for all culture journalists. (0)
The Luckiest Dessert in History, about how a surprisingly high number of people won a particular American lottery draw in 2005. This related TEDx talk, linked within, is also worth watching. One article from dozens that I could link from Now I Know, an email newsletter of daily, incredible trivia and stories that Tom recommended. (0)
Wonderful, life-affirming New Yorker article about Don Colcord, a local druggist who holds the small community of Nucla, Colorado together. It paints a romantic picture of small, important work.
Don’s collection of certifications is impressively esoteric. He has taken CPR courses, and he’s qualified to use an electric defibrillator. He has a pyrotechnics-display license, so that Nucla can have fireworks on the Fourth of July. When he heard about a new type of hormone therapy, he flew to California to attend two days of classes, and now he compounds medicine for four transgendered patients who live in various parts of the West. Every three months, Don talks with them on the phone and prepares their drugs; he finds this interesting. On Friday nights, he announces Nucla High football games. They play eight-man ball, although if a bigger school comes to town they switch numbers with every possession, so that each side can practice its plays. When Nucla is on offense, it’s eight-on-eight, but it becomes eleven-on-eleven when the other team has the ball. Occasionally, somebody gets confused, and Don’s voice rings out over the loudspeakers: “There’s eleven white guys and eight blue guys, and that won’t work.” The football might not be first-rate, but the players’ names are a novelist’s dream. Nucla has Seth Knob, Chad Stoner, and Seldon Riddle. Dove Creek has a player named Tommy Fury. Blanding has Talon Jack and Sterling Black, Tecohda Tom and Herschel Todachinnie. Shilo Stanley, Terrance Tate, Dillon Daves: if alliteration ever needs an offensive line, recruiting should begin around the Colorado-Utah border.(0)
The text of a 2009 lecture on Solitude and Leadership, but which is really about how to think and why to work. (0)
Jon Ronson's story of one public sector cut, and the people affected. Surprise ending. (0)
PC Gamer Issue 233 is huge
I don’t normally post about the magazine here, but the latest issue of PC Gamer is something special. Here’s the cover:
For a start, there’s a small picture of me on the cover, in the lower right. “Cover model” is totally on my CV now.
This issue of PC Gamer is especially great because it’s the first without the coverdisc. I was Disc Editor when I first joined the magazine, producing two CDs and a DVD every month, and I second Tom’s sentiments when I say that I am glad that it is now gone. There are two great advantages: we’re no longer sealed in a plastic bag on shop shelves, and we now have more pages.
Having so many pages suddenly frees us up to do a lot of big, silly, fun things we normally wouldn’t have space for. This month, that’s produced a ludicrous amount of great writing: Tom’s Skyrim diary and interview with Todd Howard, Owen’s interview with Gabe Newell, Craig’s huge feature on Firefall, large previews on Planetside 2, World of Warplanes and half a dozen others, the Making of Shogun: Total War, a free and exclusive TF2 hat and lots, lots, lots more. It is probably the best issue of PC Gamer I’ve ever worked on.
My favourite piece is the entire team playing Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator together, which is why I’m dressed as a Vulcan on the cover. It’s a multiplayer game where everyone controls a computer terminal on the bridge of a Star Trek-style spaceship, and everyone should make their friends play it with them immediately.
You can buy the magazine on shop shelves and from Apple’s new Newsstand, where it was very briefly the top grossing magazine. It’s now about 12th, which is still great. Buy it buy buy it buy it.
Chat History, from GOOD's Data Issue, about how the internet will remember us even after we're gone. (0)
A 1989 article from the New York Times about a new computer game called "Sim City".
"Sim City was designed by Mr. Braun's partner in Maxis, Will Wright, a computer programmer who specializes in games. About three years ago, Mr. Wright ''began reading about cities and became totally fascinated,'' he said."(0)
I love this short blog post from Run Of Play about Italian footballer Fabio Cannavaro. It's been years since I've been in to football, but I remember Cannavaro from when I was. What I like about the post though, is that it provides insight into what was interesting about a player in just five short paragraphs. Is there anywhere else that is doing this for esports players? I've been watching GomTV, and Day[9] Daily, but is there anyone writing consistently, and well, about the people playing the games? (0)
Lost in Liberty City
I am obsessed with Grand Theft Auto IV, and not for the first time. The first time it hooked me, it was the chaotic, aimless multiplayer we were playing at work. The second time, it was Liberty City; a game world that’s exciting just to walk across. The third time, it was gravity guns and first-person perspectives. I don’t know how many more times it’s called me back since, but now it’s Batman, Superman, the DeLorean, and the endless screenshot and video opportunities.
These are still nothing compared to what Duncan Harris is doing, but I’m getting better. Click to make them bigger.
