Sims Social

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Most teenagers in the United States who are on Facebook (which is mostly all) have either played or heard of the game FarmVille. Though I have never played it, I have heard that it is an incredibly addicting game which when started, is impossible to stop. This is one of the connections made in the article, A Game to Make Zynga Nervous by Seth Schiesel.

The article is about the new Facebook game, Sims Social, which is becoming perilous competition for the maker of FarmVille, Zynga. Schiesel explains that it is much like all the other Sims games in which you make your own character and control his/her actions and the world around them. The social aspect of the game is that fact that it is on Facebook and as a substitute for spending money, you can ask your friends to for example, give you a wrench to build a table.

The article is a general description of the game but what I found intriguing was the amount of connections that Schiesel was making to different games, shows, and other art mediums. For example, in the beginning he explained that over the last month about 65 million people have played Sims Social, which is more than double the audience that watched the new season of “Two and a Half Men”, roughly twice the number of copies of “The Catcher in the Rye” sold during the last 60 years and other comparisons. Later in the article he even makes a connection to one of the Nintendo Mario games.

I have been noticing a ton of connections in the recent articles and once I noticed them, they have been coming up everywhere. Essentially all these connections are made to further make the reader interested in the article. I, for one, loved the show “Two and a Half Men” while Charlie Sheen was on it and I tuned in for the new episode to see what direction the show would take. Now I feel part of the article because I was one of the 30 million people who watched the first episode. I feel like these connections are made by the authors to draw their audience and eventually leads to the reader clicking links and following more articles.

Needs vs. Pleasure

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We have the liberty of living in one of the most advanced countries in the world, and our style of living is quite high. Our daily lives are structured around comfort and well..  aesthetic purposes. A well designed house for us is pleasing to the eye, with unusual or advanced ideas for simple products such as the stairs or the bed, and the outside of the house would preferably have a lawn of grass and flowers with a nice pavement. However, there is a different design occurring all over the world right now – instead of serving the pleasures of a person, these designers are serving the needs of the people.

In the article Rescued by Design, designers are helping slums and communities living in poverty all over the world. And what better way of actually going to the people to find out what they want instead of assuming what they need? These designers are designing according to the needs of the people. “The poor… are the creators and implementers of the most comprehensive and far-reaching systems for solving problems of poverty, housing and basic services.” The best ides are the simple ideas, or solutions, that stem from the complexity of the living situations of the people. For example, architects were assigned to help devise row houses for those living in houses along the Canal in Bangkok, helping the families build steadier living environments based on what they wanted.

Now if you ask me, this is something worthy of reading. Instead of designs, such as apple, that serve to benefit our lives beyond our needs, these designers and architects are actually helping to improve the necessary needs and living environments of people.

Design For the Poor Exhibition

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In the article “Design for the Poor. (And Yes, This Is Serious.)” Michael Kimmelman writes about an exhibition at the United Nations that showcases designs that could help people living in poverty around the world. The review explains that, while the idea of the exhibition may “sound like homework,” the way its done actually makes it exciting. In the review, Kimmelman also points out that architects need to listen more to their clients to create buildings that will better serve communities in poor parts of the world, which is an important idea that the exhibition is attemping to convey.

I think that this subject is very important and I think it is great that this exhibition was created. There are many people in the world who are living in horrible conditions and are in need of help. The exhibitions not only informs people of ways that people in poor parts of the world can be helped, but it also gets people excited about the idea and may inspire them to come up with their own designs and creations that can help these people.

The article focuses on a few key points, which can be both good and bad. I thought it was good that it was very focused and conveyed Kimmelman’s thoughts in a clear and concise way. However, at the same time it did make me want to know more about the exhibition. Overall, I think this was well-written and did a good job of getting its point accross.

The crossroad of cultures

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Japan, ever since after World War II, has undergone major change in their culture and lifestyle as its “samurai” spirit merges with the western culture, creating something that is unique of modern Japan. Many books and movies have been trying to encompass an aspect of Japan’s cultural shift, from the epic battles in Tom Cruise’s “The Last Samurai” which depicts the fall of the ancient imperial warriors of Japan and the dominance of western military style, to serenades in Suzuka Ohgo “The Memoir of a Geisha” that takes a nostalgic steps back into what Japanese traditional form entertainment used to be like before and how it changed after the War, and to, the main focus of this blog post, the writings of Haruki Murakami.

The article The Fierce Imagination of Haruki Murakami narrates the strange journey that the writer took while interviewing the fame author of Norwegian Woods. What catches my attention is how the journalist intended to find himself in the middle of a new-york-city-like metropolitan Tokyo like in the many publications that he had read and ended up finding a place that is “intensely, inflexibly, unapologetically Japanese.” This element supports my claim above in a strange manner, arguing that the culture shift between traditional and modern culture is interchangeable through different lenses and mediums, through the movies and real life. What’s even more real about the nature of modern japanese culture is represented in the biography and works of Murakami. He’s a native in the Kobe region who has been immersing himself in American culture since he was a kid; he grew up defying his parents’ wish to become a corporate person and opened a Jazz bar, which he randomly closed up to pursue his writing in a secluded location and in a monkishly regimented lifestyle. In his writing there are countless references of Western culture: “Lassie,” “The Mickey Mouse Club,” “California Girls,” Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto, Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye, Elvis Presley, the cartoon bird Woodstock and absolutely no reference about Japanese culture. He even speaks english perfectly with a extemporizing accents, mix-and-matches japanese and american accents Murakami-style.

His readings are one of the best readings you will ever have read in your life, covering a wide range of genres and intensifying one of the most creative and peculiar imaginations you can encounter. His next book, “1Q84,” will be published tomorrow and expected to be THE literary event of fall 2011 like its predecessors “Norwegian Woods” and “The Wind-up Bird Chronicle.” I pre-ordered it 2 days ago and cannot wait for its delivery on the 27th.

And here’s the question I have for you guys: have you ever experienced cultural swap in your life? how did it affect you?

Bad Beginnings Don’t Foreshadow Bad Endings

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Weddings never seem to be accompanied by fitting events, since something always goes wrong.  Personally, I love the drama and conflicts that arise during weddings, mostly because I’m a spectator and never involved.  That’s why when I saw the clichéd title “A Wedding and an Unexpected Guest” I thought: this ought to be fun. 

            Reading the first half of the review of “We Live Here”, I was questioning my decision.  The first paragraph was followed by five paragraphs dedicated to the character of Maggie, played by Amy Irving.  At first I viewed this as a poor critique because the details of one character were dragged out for too long.  However, after I finished the critique I realized I gave Charles Isherwood too little credit.  After thinking about it for some time I realized that Maggie most likely invoked the most feelings in him.  He states that Maggie is a “passive-aggressive mother, too busy to really bother with the passive part.”  That note and the length of his description of her acted as a deeper analysis of the character.  He was able to depict Maggie as a character that is so controlling she drowns out the other characters.

            The latter half of the critique was very good.  I began to see Isherwood’s disdain for the unoriginal plot and theme.  In his review he made a comment about the ending being “a rookie mistake that someone at Manhattan Theater Club probably should have flagged.”  Before that, he gave Zoe Kazan the recognition she deserved for her previous works, which proved his disappointment in Ms. Kazan’s latest work.  His disgruntlement with the play’s ending was also reflected in his view of the characters, mainly the women who were ” emotionally troubled young women wreaking various forms of havoc as the wedding bells threaten to peal.”  The men were “mellower and more playable” to him.

            While I thought Mr. Isherwood wasn’t an interesting reviewer at first, I realized it was because of the play which he was reviewing.  Mr. Isherwood gave the play a review that was unbiased review deserving of the credit he gave it.  The lack of originality also spurred him to give the close with “for a change of pace it would be nice to see a movie or play about a less venerated but more stress-free marital tradition: elopement.”  To me this seemed to be a recommendation to the general public, but after I let it sink in I realized he was fed up with the unoriginality of producers hoping on the wedding train.  Chris Isherwood ended up being the type of reviewer I like: unbiased and calls for reading between the lines. “We Live here” is now showing at the Manhattan Theater Club.

 

Shakespeare A Fraud?!

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Roland Emmerich, director of Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, and 2012, is coming out with a new movie called Anonymous. This movie brings up the controversy around Shakespeare’s writing. Was he the one who actually wrote all those plays and sonnets? Or did he steal them from someone else like Emmerich’s movie says? This movie pulls away Shakespeare’s reputation and pushes doubt into people’s mind, especially since no one knows what happened in that period and can only base their ideas on recorded text.

I came across this movie from NYTimes.com’s ad. At first I paid no attention to it, thinking it was just another movie trailer, but then I saw that it was about Shakespeare. Learning about Shakespeare throughout my high school years and reading his plays, I was curious to see what kind of movie could one make about Shakespeare! (Not that I hated him or anything.) After watching the trailer though, I was amazed and excited for it to premiere Friday, October 28, 2011. What made me really want to watch this movie was that it made me think about what had happened during Shakespeare’s time and whether or not he wrote all those plays and sonnets.

For those of you who have not seen the trailer yet here you go!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHA-7CMCppM&feature=fvsr