Video Games:

Duke Nukem

This one’s actually more of the “not hotness.” 3D Realms shut their doors this past week, leaving behind a legacy of great shareware and…not too much since then. Uh…Max Payne and Prey, I guess.

When I first saw these advertisements at GDC09 (before the city took them off their bus stops, it seems), I was excited that, just maybe, we’d hear something something about Duke Nukem Forever. If you go to the website, though, it’s a casting call to be the spokesmodel (a la Lara Croft) for Deep Silver’s upcoming Duke Nukem Trilogy of portable games.

I still have my fingers crossed someone will pick up the project. I don’t think we’re holding our breath any longer, but there are still plenty of gamers out there eager to see the final product.

Television:

Southland (NBC)

I’m not normally one for cop shows, but about a month or so, I kept the television tuned in to NBC’s Southland after it’s Thursday night full night of comic goodness.  They’ve been promoting it as from producer of E.R. (a show I didn’t watch, either) and plastering the Ben McKenzie’s (Ryan from The O.C.) face all over the promos.

I was pleasantly surprised.  While on the surface it’s a show with cops doing cop things, it’s more of a character drama than about fighting crime.  There’s a rather large cast, and each week the show does a series of intertwining vignettes on a small handful of them rather than trying to make up some token thing so each cast member gets screen time.  It’s a true ensemble piece, and no individual character is being singled out as the “star” or center of the spokes.  The policework plots tend to merely serve as a framework to enable us to get a sense of each character’s personality and individual personal struggles in and out of the uniform.

Music:

Kylie Minogue North American Tour

Kylie Minogue, international pop mega-star (in all places but the US…), just announced her very first North American concert tour in her over two decades of performing.  She’ll play seven dates in September and October across the US and Canada, of course none of the stops near me.

You US folk may be familiar with her songs “Locomotion” from the late ’80s and “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” from the early ’00s or her role as Cammy in the ’90s Street Fighter live-action movie and the (Absinthe) Green Fairy in Moulin Rouge.  Apparently later this year she’ll be starring in the biggest-budget Bollywood movie yet and record a song with A.R. Rahman, the guy who scored the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack.  Hmm.

Now if only Michael Jackson would come back and tour the US.  Or rather, the US let MJ come back.

Her 2008 album X is on my list of perfect albums.  A collection of pop perfection you can get lost in but sung a variety styles so that none of them sound like a rehash of each other.

Movies:

The Wackness

I’ve already written a review, which you can read here. In short, it’s a coming-of-age story with drama and humor supplied by the bro-mance between an old psychiatrist and his young pot-dealing patient/dealer. Cinematography is like a dreamy summer day, and the film is supported by an old-school hip-hop soundtrack. I would say its surreal visuals and bittersweet coping plot is reminiscent of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Gadgets:

Samsung Alias2 (U750)

When you hear about e-ink, I bet that the first thing you think of is the Amazon Kindle or some other e-book reader. Or maybe the Esquire magazine cover from last year. This dual-hinge phone uses the technology for dynamic keypad/keyboard layouts, switching between vertical/horizontal layouts and numeric/QWERTY modes depending on context.

The backlight shines through the clear portion of each key behind the labels, and though B/W is high contrast, I think that much light might with such small fonts might actually make it difficult to see the proper keys. I’m only guessing, however, since I haven’t seen the phone in person.

As much as I applaud this innovative use of the low-power dynamic displays, it still comes at the expense of an ergonomic no-look layout. Aside from the space bar and a few menu buttons, the face keypad is one large grid of same-size keys, making it near impossible to accurately navigate without looking at your finger placement. This probably won’t be the best phone for people who like to T9 text on the sly with their phones kept in their pocket or by their side.