Features

Laura Jane Grace Isn't Going to Ruin Against Me, She's Going to Reinvigorate Them
Morning Glory's Recent Tour Felt Like a Symbolic Farewell to Ezra Kire's Past, Invitation to his Future
Handling Hecklers with MC Chris: An Exploration in Putting Up With or Putting a Stop to Bullshit

Recent Reviews:  To the Moon | Huebrix | Minus the Bear | Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD | Awesomenauts | The Real McKenzies | Breton | Suzanne Ciani

Subscribe to our Podcasts: Sophist Radio | Unoriginal Soundtracks | Shuffled

June 29, 2011

Unoriginal Soundtracks Podcast: Psychonauts Edition


Every other Wednesday I share a playlist of songs tangentially related to a single game or series. Songs about alien sex for Mass Effect, songs about world leaders for Civilization, and so on. Searching for random terms on Spotify is a great way to discover new music and rediscover old classics.

So Double Fine's catalogue began. Psychonauts was an inconsistently brilliant charmer of a cartoon/adventure game/platformer that set itself up for a sequel it has yet to be followed by. While you're waiting, enjoy this mix of rock, rhythm and blues, rap, soul, and IDM all about Psychonauts' subject matter.

June 28, 2011

Movie Review: Green Lantern


It's understandable that most comic book movies begin as an origin story. Mainstream audiences who are unfamiliar with a character or setting need to be briefed on all the basics of motivation and circumstance that spawned the creation of a superhero. The problem with this is that it leads to “creation fatigue” for comic book fans who are already well-versed in the complete histories of most heroes.

There are only so many reboots of Batman or Spider-Man we can be subjected to before audiences will start thinking, “We get it, already!” Therein lies the problem with Green Lantern: just telling his origin story involves much more than just introducing Hal Jordan and showing how he comes to possess his all-powerful ring. The Green Lantern Corps (an inter-galactic police force) and the Guardians of Oa who are responsible for the creation of the Corps must be introduced as well, in addition to explaining the power that fuels the Green Lanterns and their rings. If you over-simplify these things, what you're left with is pretty lack-luster.

Movie Review: X-Men: First Class


I can't imagine that there was a lot of need for an origin story concerning Professor Xavier and Magneto for the audiences that never read the comics. For fans of the comics who already knew the story, it couldn't have been too exciting given that the movies have taken so many liberties with the canon already. Despite all this, Matthew Vaughn (who impressed with Kick-Ass and Layer Cake) has managed to create a prequel to the X-Men trilogy that not only gives fans a solid schooling in history but is damn entertaining to boot.

June 27, 2011

Video Round-Up: E3 2011 Edition

Video Round-Up is a weekly post collecting an assortment of videos from around the web. Whether they be music videos, creative viral marketing, just plain cool, or just plain ridiculous, they will all be found on Video Round-Up.

For June's first (and only) Round-Up, I wanted to look back at this year's E3 highlights. The turnout was good for 2011: a few excellent interviews about games we were familiar with (like Skyrim), some new games we did not (Tomb Raider), and one pretty massive surprise--the Wii U. Even El Shaddai, a smallish game from a smallish publisher, got a lot of coverage and has me interested in its Metatronyness. Here are four of my--and the press'--favorite trailers from E3 2011.

June 25, 2011

Netflix Minute: America: The Story of US

Netflix Minute is a weekly feature highlighting a title from Netflix's catalog of instant view films. If you want to spend a night snuggled up with a bag of popcorn and don't want to drive to the video store, this is for you.

America! Apple pie, football, and... barbwire? Yes, the US of A is known for a lot of innovations, famous people, and milestones in human history; a melting pot of cultures from across the globe with a past that is at often times inspiring but also horrifying. History, the basic cable network that recently discover the goldmine of reality TV, sees it as an opportunity for some entertaining programing to make a twelve episode mini series.

June 22, 2011

Movie Review: Midnight in Paris


Woody Allen puts out a movie a year, a fact that puts him at an immediate disadvantage. While most of his films have good central ideas, they tend to get clouded by mediocre details due to what I can only imagine to be grossly insufficient time and effort. “Midnight In Paris,” however, is an example of what Allen can do when he takes the time to really polish a script and work out the nuances. This film is filled with several familiar Allen tropes, but here he makes them work. This may be because the story is such a perfect vehicle for his style.

“Midnight” is beautifully shot and really low-key, never careening into the melodrama or high-camp comedy that has been his downfall in the past. Rather, “Midnight” feels like a comfortable, leisurely stroll through the very city of its setting. What a great surprise for the early Summer season.

Shuffled Podcast #12: Umlaut Editiön

Every other Wednesday I share my love of music in an assortment of ways. Shuffled is a podcast whose format is as varied as my tastes in music, so hopefully you won't ever be bored and everyone can find something to enjoy.

It's another solo show, shuffling through my music library and sharing a bit about why the songs are in there. It has been a hectic time and a fried laptop harddrive was at the top of the pile for preventing me from getting a guest, but don't worry because I'm back in business and ready to pump out some shows. This week we bookend a goofy song and a dancier song with some rock, metal, and German punk. And there are plenty of umlauts. Enjoy!

June 21, 2011

The Great DC Superhero Reboot


If you're not an avid comic reader you probably have no idea what's going on in New York at the DC Comics Headquarters. But whether you read comics or not and don't know about the ruckus DC stirred up a few weeks ago, I'll quickly summarize.

DC Comics announced their decision to renumber their entire line of comics. A landmark 52 first issues starting at the end of August 2011. Along with the new first issues comes drastic changes to the history and canon of a majority of the DC characters, including younger looking superheroes and even some old faces returning to their infamous cowls.

The Internet and comic book community has been ablaze since this announcement. Many with very passionate opinions against the decision and some with passionate opinions for it. But as I've been following these developments and seeing the different reactions, I started to think about what wasn't being said or spoken about. Although trust me, I could rant for days about it, I wanted to focus on the big question on my mind; why?

June 19, 2011

Sophist Radio Episode 48: Mo Jizz Mo Problems


This week the guys merge together and roll out like some sort of video-game-podcasting machine. In keeping with traditional Sophist Radio tropes, the guys kick things off with a discussion of the music career of the band Bush before moving on to the video games they've been playing. It is a nice mix of old and new games this week; or in the case of Duke Nukem Forever a new-old-game? Aaron and Harold share their thoughts on inFamous and inFamous 2, respectively, and James relates his adventures in Crysis 2. The crew then does its best to sum up gaming's SuperBowl: E3.

June 16, 2011

Movie Review: The Hangover Part II


Films rely on surprise to engage their audience. Much in the way that a horror movie wouldn't be scary if you saw the killer stalking his victim for five minutes in broad daylight, a comedy must rely on the unexpected to garner a laugh. Perhaps you see a punchline coming and it's more over the top than you expected or it zigs when you expected a zag. Revisiting a comedy you love is more about reliving the moments you found so hilarious the first time and still finding joy in them. But what if someone took a previous movie, reworked the barest of specifics in the plot summary and then slapped a “2” on it? You'd be expected to pay full price for a sequel that really plays like reheated leftovers...that were left out to get cold again. This is how it is for The Hangover Part II.

June 15, 2011

Unoriginal Soundtracks Podcast: Plants vs. Zombies Edition


Every other Wednesday I share a playlist of songs tangentially related to a single game or series. Songs about alien sex for Mass Effect, songs about world leaders for Civilization, and so on. Searching for random terms on Spotify is a great way to discover new music and rediscover old classics.

Plants vs. Zombies is a cute, 2D examination of environmentalism -- the braindead waves of meat throwing themselves against peaceful plants; the silent, still, but strong confidence of mother nature's stance against those who would destroy her. Also, it's an excuse for some classic rock and some horror punk.

June 09, 2011

Music Review: The Donkeys' Born With Stripes


After my initial listen, The Donkey's newest album, Born With Stripes, didn't really connect with me. It was good, sure, but that's all. Then, on a warm weekend day as I was changing the brakes on my car and my kid was playing in her sandbox with the album as our soundtrack, it clicked on a whole new level. A few bands have had a similar feel lately -- one that makes me think I should be listening in a rocking chair on the front porch of a house on a hot summer day -- but The Donkeys encapsulate it perfectly.

June 08, 2011

Shuffled Podcast #11: Rock Out Edition

Every other Wednesday I share my love of music in an assortment of ways. Shuffled is a podcast whose format is as varied as my tastes in music, so hopefully you won't ever be bored and everyone can find something to enjoy.

Its been almost two months since the last "normal format" episode of Shuffled. Hopefully you've enjoyed the experimentation, but I figured we should probably get back to actually putting my music in Shuffle mode, since it's kind of the name of the show. On this episode, Shuffle decided it wants us to rock the hell out. So, crank it up.

June 07, 2011

Social Networking Responsibly


Almost exactly two years ago Twitter finally clicked for me. I'd had it since the beginning of the year and had never bothered to check it or ever tweet anything, but with the Electronic Entertainment Expo looming I got an idea. I connected my phone to my account and started subscribing to people who might be sharing and talking about the announcements coming out of video games' biggest event of the year. It was the only way I could know what was going on at the show while I was at work, and it was the beginning of an addiction.

After E3 was over I started to use Twitter a little bit more since it was already tied to my phone. I shared random thoughts I had throughout the day and made stupid jokes but no one ever responded. It wasn't until the fall came around that I followed some actual people who I'd begun to know a bit through Bitmob, a gaming site I'd started frequenting when it launched in May of that year. Now I was starting to have actual exchanges with people via tweets and it took things to a whole new level.

As I added more real people and had more actual conversations, my heart grew increasingly fond of Twitter. I now loved the site and began tweeting much more frequently. I would constantly be thinking of ways to share whatever I'd just seen in a humorous way, or be voicing complaints that would normally be ignored. By early this year, I was out of hand. Twitter had become such a huge part of my life that I'd pretty much share everything. Nothing was off-limits, and it was likely just hurting me.

June 05, 2011

Insufficient Funds: Childish Gambino EP

Insufficient Funds is a weekly post in which we feature a free, or very close to it, piece of media that you can enjoy without over drafting your bank account. So if you're low on funds, stay tuned to Cerebral Pop every Friday morning.

It seems the biggest enemy to Donald Glover's music career is the perception that the entire thing is some sort of joke. Whether it's the fact that everything else he's done is comedic (writing for 30 Rock, starring on Community, or performing with Derek Comedy), or the fact that everything he has released has been free, people just can't seem to take him seriously.

Maybe the release of this new self/titled EP, proving the whole music thing wasn't just a one-off experiment, will silence some of those voices. Though, even his music has never been completely serious. Just like with his full length the EP has some pretty amusing lyrics, they're never played as silly though.

Sophist Radio Episode 47: Ponycorn Police Force


Taking video game discussion to new heights (and lows) the Sophist Radio guys unite again to chat your head off about video games. This week the guys avoid most of the big console releases to focus in on some lesser known titles: Bart Bonte's 14 Locks, and Cassie Creighton's amazingly adorable adventure Sissy's Magical Ponycorn Adventure. The mainstream titles get some love too, though. Aaron shares his thoughts on Witcher 2, and James dives deep into the Professor Layton canon, exploring the recently released Layton animated movie as well as the last two games. All that and one of the and guys reveals his secret ex-con past.

June 01, 2011

Unoriginal Soundtracks Podcast: Halo Reach Edition

Every other Wednesday I share a playlist of songs tangentially related to a single game or series. Songs about alien sex for Mass Effect, songs about world leaders for Civilization, and so on. Searching for random terms on Spotify is a great way to discover new music and rediscover old classics.

Halo isn't just about shooting aliens. It's about sacrifice, loss, and the futility of religious wars. Really, it is.