I’ve been sitting at an odd-smelling coffee shop, idly, for something like an hour now. It feels good: I’ve been getting some quality space-out time and I just received a free toddy because I was told the last was too “watered down” (though, to me, it tasted perfect). The current barista is a good chap in that he’s my kind of guy. The music is medium-loud, the sub is not too abrasive, and his taste is impeccable and eclectic. I’ve heard everything from Lou Reed to Ween to Louis Prima. And it’s being “djed” all hyperkinetic-like, with 8-minute epics being cut off at the halfway point, and obnoxious songs being quickly replaced. Three cheers, my friend.
The spacing out is allowing ample time for blog reflection, as well. I’ve been having thoughts such as: it’s silly to think of what constitutes a “good” blog. And this is very, very true in the most annoying way. I recently read a blog design site to get some ideas for, you know, design, but instead there was a Top 5-style list of “dont’s” for your blog. One of the top ones mentioned the importance of leaving out the mundane: Don’t tell us about your lunch, your walk to the bank, or your dental appointment. To me, this is silly. As a friend pointed out to me recently, many of the best writers allow a type of voyeurism. Bukowski, Fante, and Harvey Pekar came up. The three all write about the little details in ordinary life, just like the supposedly “worst” blogs do. Thing is, though, they write about these details beautifully. Voyeurism at its finest. It really makes sense, too, to write about these things. We can point out what is not apparently interesting about them. If someone takes a trip to Rome then, well, that’s obviously interesting. You don’t need to prove that to me. You need to prove that it can be written about in an interesting way. The topic can’t hold its own, bloggers.
If there’s any true blogging advice it should probably be something like this: Be you. Write yourself. Write Well.
But let’s talk about zombies, because they’re truly more important than something as trivial as blogs. A friend recently declared his dire need for some kind of zombie-based MMO (Massively-Multiplayer Online game). Luckily, the universe is well on its way to facilitating that need. Two luscious options have manifested themselves in the gray, unwelcoming mist of gaming:
The Last Guy
Expected to be released in North America sometime this year on PSN, The Last Guy is realistic in a very odd sense: it incorporates the magic of Google Earth. You’ll basically be killing zombies with a top-down view of the world itself. And that’s all I really know. That and it might just be an online multiplayer game.
Resident Evil 5
The next incarnation of the series looks exactly like the last, but that’s a good thing. Plus: there’s a co-op mode. An online one.
Yeah, neither of those games are MMO’s. But they do make me want to kill zombies. And they’re clearing a path towards a more complex game of the sort. Yes, I do believe we’re well on our way to kill the undead before we become unalive.
Could a video game be fun and have a voyeuristic quality like other art mediums?
Bukowski’s most boring book is Shakespeare Never Did This and Pekar’s is Our Movie Year and both of them had our heroes visiting Europe (Rome included from what I remember). Neither could make you feel dead but unalive.
Zombies your friend would want as players or NPCs? NPCs are pretty much zombies in any game. An mmorpg zombie game is hard to conceive.
I would consider this a “good blog.”
Yes, drinking good coffee, blog reflections, detailed video game analysis, and good photos make you a genuine blog master. I shall visit your sight regularly and seek inspirations and insight. I too feel it is one’s duty to right about the day to day existance of the common man, or the chicken man in my case.
Oh, pardon the freudian spelling slip.
Just peeking in from AG. Your blog amuses me thus far, and I shall continue to read. That is all.