Entries tagged with “WWW” from World Wide Wang

So one of the biggest falling between the Wang & the WWW blog here, is the frequent posting on Twitter. It is probably why this blog hasnt gotten many posts in the last few month. Perhaps its laziness. Though reading this article kind of made me feel that i need to write something slightly longer than 140 characters.

Activities of self-realization are subject to increasing marginal utility: They become more enjoyable the more one has already engaged in them. Exactly the opposite is true of consumption. To derive sustained pleasure from consumption, diversity is essential. Diversity, on the other hand, is an obstacle to successful self-realization, as it prevents one from getting into the later and more rewarding stages.

Its made the Wang think about how we just consume everything from music, movies, web memes, to nodes of information, that we barely even absorb them into our reality. We r so set on the process of getting access to stuff, when we do get stuff, we dont really do anything useful w/ it. The Wang blog here is clearly a culprit. In the days of old, The Wang did nothing here but aggregate stuff. We rarely commented, besides the minor snide quips. Still, the move to more written post was one of time constraint rather than profound observations. I guess its one of those old issues about content vs. the aggregation of content.

Wang thinks that in the end it is about critical thinking. Its an amazing ability. And The Wang think it is mostly a absent talent on the internet, or in this day in general. The Wang hopes that it is a skill that is practiced more by everyone, including the Wang himself.

But The Wang still will be posting random stuff on the micro blogging sites, perhaps we'll reserve this old fashion ( I like that...) blog for more detail thoughts... So until something fascinating sparks the mind of the Wang, u can follow us here for the mindless stuff:

The Wang @ Twitter
The Wang @ Tumblr
Or just feed it all from FriendFeed

It has been soo long since the Wang's last post, that even the Wang himself don't remember much. But since u gentle readers all sit patiently glued to ur RSS feeds of WWW, The Wang figures its about time for another infamous update. Of course, like a good blogger, the Wang keeps notes for things he wants to blog about. But as a bad blogger the Wang will dump the entirety of 1.5 month of stuff in one giant post. This might get long... That's what she said!! (and it might include a lot of random links like that one there.)

First off, the almost two month old post that the Wang should of wrote for Coachella 08'. Since it is very late, The Wang will cut it short.

It was fun.

Here are more photos than u can shake a stick at:
-The Wang's Flickr Coachella 08 Set
-Sunggnus' Flickr He Haz a photo pass.
-Ourcommon's Flickr stuff, very pretty.
-Miss Black's I'm w/ the Band Set
-Girl from Long Beach
-Jackiebutler's Coachella Group.
-Lastnightsparty's photoset (some NSFW stuff)
-LAist's coverage Day 1, Day 2 & Day 3
Damn it, I truly miss the LAist. They were nice enough to post a "where to eat" @ Coachella list. That's right SFist u've been warned, shape up or u r losing ur spot in the Wang's RSS feed.

Some of the memorable moments include The Flogging Molly Mosh out, the Gogol Bordello Mosh Out, which lead to famous drum riding, and yes, you r right, one of those hands holding up the drum is, in fact, of the Wang. The Wang was up front and right. When the the drum flew, the Wang brought forth his super human strength and carried the Gogol Bordello Dancing girl, by himself with the aid of a few. The Wang and friends, camped this yr @ Tent City which basically involve staying up late and waking up tot he heated tent fighting for a shower spot. Mr. Starfizzy did battle with the electronic charging wall daily. He is an avid documentor with a very small battery.

Other things of note:
-Best Video Ass Shaking.
-Roger Water Lost his Pig and then found it.
-Prince did his "Second Coming" thing and played for like 3 hrs. The Wang Squad enjoyed it from a distance, safe from the rabid fans. But we did miss the epic music momemnt of him covering "Creep". being Prince, he proceed to remove every video on Youtube of it... thank god the internet is beautiful place. So here it is: Prince Covering Creep.
-The Wang does regret not being able to be at multiple places at once... or to have the willingness to stay late enough to see Fatboy Slim




Of course the rest of today's Giant Panda Post will be paw style... one after the other. A lot of crap. Feel free to skip around or go back to your pron. Also, some of these things might be month old news.

( photo by: [Zakkaliciousness])


This of course is the artistic mindset left by the music of one of the Wang's favorite movie of the year, Juno. The general gist of the movie is that 16 yr old, sarcastic high schooler, Juno finds out she's pregnant and goes on the movie length journey of understanding love and maturity. Director Jason Reitman of Thankyou For Smoking fame, brilliantly delivers this indie darling of a film with a witty script and slightly off-the-wall comedy.With Quotes like these gems:

Rollo (Rainn Wilson): That ain't no etch-a-sketch. That's one doodle that can't be un-did, homeskillet.

=========================

Juno MacGuff: You should've gone to China, you know, 'cause I hear they give away babies like free iPods. You know, they pretty much just put them in those t-shirt guns and shoot them out at sporting events.

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This movie comes around the corner with its witty, brilliant acting from everyone; from Allison Janney, J.K. Simmons, & even Jennifer Garner, in seemingly small role that turns a whisper of a character into a pretty nice side plot of the story, that seems to comment on the whole question of maturity and relationships. J.K. Simmons as the funny and understanding dad has got to be one of the best dad's in movie history. The Wang only wishes that his future father-in-law would have that kind of humor and open minded-ness. Of course seeing that the title character Juno is pretty much the witty equivalent of a wet dream center fold, plus indie guitar playing skills.



This leads us to the soul of our musing, the soundtrack. The sound track is mainly filled with the works of Kimya Dawson, in her many guises. She's either performing with her old claim-to-fame, The Moldy Peaches, or her solo stuff, or her recent co-lab with The Antsy Pants. Kimya Dawson is labeled as Anti-Folk. Which at first, the Wang was lost to the labeling and genre. Of course after an evening with the Moldy Peaches titular album, smack the concept home in its wordy, witty, & experimental sound. Though overall, the music used in Juno tend to be what the Wang originally felt as some sort of kiddie-folk or twee-folk. With lyrics about love, life, hamburgers and vampires all fueled by Kimya Dawson's childish voice. Her seemingly young and innocent voice is instantly shattered when one noticed the lyrics and topics that smartly flow off her folk-style guitar like verbal syrup.

Also included in the Juno soundtrack is a few songs the movie use to hammer home the character's love of music. Juno of course prefers the 1977 punk era, as her counter point, Jason Bateman defends the grunge era of 1993. Songs include "All the You Dudes" by Mott the Hoople and "Superstar" by Sonic Youth. Check out this great entry by Indiemuse.com which include a few tracks. (SPECIALLY check out Kimya Dawson's Loose Lips) Kimya Dawson really adds to the movie, from its title-opening track to the ending song which cements the movie, "Anyone Else But You" cover by Ellen Page and Michael Cera, originally a Moldy Peaches song by Adam Green and Kimya Dawson.

This leads us to the interview with Ellen Page by Pitchfork, where we learn that:

Ellen Page: [Juno director] Jason Reitman and I were meeting for maybe the second or third time and he simply said, "Well, what do you think Juno would listen to?" Immediately I said the Moldy Peaches, and he, I guess, wasn't familiar with their work, so I hopped on his computer and I played the Moldy Peaches for him. The next thing I knew he'd fallen in love-- rightfully so, they're awesome-- and he was in contact with Kimya Dawson, who is the female in the band, and he added the song at the end of the film, which is a Moldy Peaches song. That song's been in my life for years, actually; there's a lot of sentimental value there. And the next thing we know Kimya Dawson is doing the music for the film. It was really incredible how that all worked out because it just feels perfect.

So the Wang puts two paws up on Juno, and the soundtrack which is now available on iTunes, and in Jan. in hardcopy. Of course you can just get some Kimbya Dawson stuff to work you over till then.

The Moldy Peaches - Nothing Came Out (MP3) : Inspiration for the opening pic..
The Moldy Peaches - Anyone Else But You (MP3) : The song that sets the mood for Juno.

And just to catch up on the old days of WWW glory, a few recent things on the Wang's RSS reading list, paw style:
Tad Safran of the Times stirs the British Hen House with this Op-Ed on how American Women groom themselves better. Of course this lead to a nation-wide (British Nation) fervor and scorn by the ladies, which earned a second article.


Tabula Rasa may not be the best MMO around, nor may it be top dog, but the Wang donated some time, and gives it its just deserves. But what really hits the sweet spot is the fan base that took Richard Garetts new world to heart and created more fanfic and roleplaying than any Tauren cow cosplay will ever do. Here's an example from Massively on Remembrance Day. And from tabularasaroleplayers.com of their fan gathering on Dec. 21, Remeberence Day, basically a memorial honoring the day when Earth fell to the alien invaders, The Bane.


The year end round up video games and games of the year is too long to keep track of. But the Wang was sorely entranced by the Gaming Club on Slate.com.  The Gaming Club is a mimic of Steven Totilo of MTV's Multiplayer Blog and N'Gai Croal of Newsweek's  Level Up Blog 's usual vs Mode. Its normally a series of emails that would debate/discuss a specific game or video game related subject. This time for their big year end round up they included Seth Schiesel of NYT and Chris Suellentrop (most currently of Slate) into their mix. They brought forth an email roundtable that talks from everything from game design to the criticism of video games. Specially in the light of the recent events involving Jeff Gerstmann, which promoted the entire industry a new to critically comment on the field of Video Game Journalism. None the less, this was a great read about video games, industry, and and what it means to be critical.


Also related to video games, the MTV Multiplaer Blog's Tracey John also wrapped up last weeks great series of article of Women Working in Games. Tracey goes off and interviews Morgan Webb (X-Play/G4TV), Janet Pickard (Game Girl Advance), Elspeth Tory (Ubisoft), Brenda Brathwaite, and Tali Fischer (Sega). Of course hidden under the subtlety of the general interviews is the questions about the recent Jade Raymond incident. But overall it's a great set of interviews about the whole industry from journalists to developers to PR. Sure the topic is about women, but it gives a nice view of the field and the people in it. Personally, the Wang comes to the conclusion that the industry seems to be embracing the female influx, but the it's the webtard players that seems to be dumbing it up for the male populace by scaring off most of these women from forums and comments.


On that note, here's a nice review of Bioshock from the Mighty Pony Girl. Yes it has a female perspective. I give her credit for reading Fountainhead before playing the game, just to get the full experience.


And since the Wang hasent been blogging about everything that was cool of recent, here's a cool link to the semi-spoiler-best-ending-ever-for-a-video-game-credit-sequence of Portal: GlaDOS - Still Alive (Youtube link). Of course if you have not experienced it, please give it a try, Portal is one of the best games this past year. Plus its short, fun and well written. It comes in slightly around 3 hrs. (without the repeatable time trials) and packs a great subtle story telling all wrapped in witty dialog. Of course the entire Orange Box is pretty worth it, for it contains Portal, Half Life, HL: Episode 1 & 2 and Team Fortress 2. TF2 is the bastard child of The Incredibles and online multiplayer mindless fun. Plus if you have the time, you should check out the "Meet the ____" videos on YT. Some of them are hilarious.


THANKYOUs:
Level Up Blog, Massively, MTV's Multiplayer Blog, [Zakkaliciousness]

So, the Wang's been busy trying to upgrade this sad lonely excuse of a blog. Ever since last week, a few minor details involving MySQL to Movabletype stupidities has  seriously intensified the Wang hatred of not just simply using blogger or some other hosted blog site. Still the Wang pushed through and eventually got to the point now where all the entries are nicely back. (Though the Wang can't seem to get the dynamic publishing bit of the new system to work... ) Still the blog works and looks prettier. Mean while the Wang will have to focus on hard hitting contents to bring the blog back to posting glory.

The Wang can never claim to be a good blogger but it is still nostalgic and nice to read some of the old posts. Even if it means nothing to u the gentle readers. But still personally, it is always cool to dig up an random archive and just go, "wow i remember that!"

Back to new system complaints...

So the because of the export/import tactic that the Wang finally used to get the Blog to work again, Comments r completely F**ked up from HaloScan. So they r not being used right now... which also means the Wang lost like 2 ish yrs of comments from HaloScan. Oh its still there, just not linked correctly to the correct entry. And due to the new numbering, I'll get comments for like the next 100 posts i put up, from posts from before. Talk about entry identity crisis. Still since the new MT4.0 system has a nice LJ authentication feature, and most of the Wang's friends use LJ, the Wang figure thats not a bad way to swing it... So i'm going to give the MT commen t system a try and see how it goes. Or more so, how well it holds up against spams. (the reason the Wang went with haloScan before was due to the massive Spaming that was happening with the MT comment from 3.0.

And just to leave u off with something prettier than just words... enjoy this hawt and simple photo of Naomi Watts: