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April 11, 2008
FRIDAY
1. Lowrider Arte magazine is pretty fuckin rad. The "check out what I can draw" feel to the submissions is really attractive to me and it's a lot of fun to get lost in their archives amongst all the tigers, dragons, beatific women, and fresh rides. I especially like the Future Artists section, which features dope work like this from youngsters.
2. Ever hear of the New York Guard? Dude. You can join here. My mind's telling me "Hey, awesome! It'll be like Stripes - starring YOU!" But my body... my body...
3. I'm late to this party, but still: Is that really a naked woman in Dick Cheney's sunglasses?
4. Super interesting interview with video game producer Morgan Gray on what it's like being an African-American in the gaming industry. It's an extremely wide-ranging interview, and all the more worth reading therefore, but perhaps the most interesting is Gray's takes on recent games and their treatment/acknowledgment (or lack thereof) of race. Gray gives Bioshock and Crackdown kudos but is critical of Gears of War and GTA: San Andreas. I fully cosign his take on Gears of War:
Here's the thing: Cole Train on his own, no harm no foul. But what is Cole Train? Cole Train is basically like every other effin' black character in a video game. Like here comes the urban stereotype. Where is this 1990's - not even 2000 - black slang, where does this fit in this futuristic world that doesn't even take place on Earth? They go really far to do a lot of fictional justifications for this culture that they've built, and they go right back to this urban stereotype for the black character. I'm not knocking Epic; the game was fun and gorgeous. But it's just a lack of thought, right? All it does is reinforce dumb stereotypes and it sort of reinforces casual racism. It's almost like, "Cue the drum beat, here comes the black character." It's fucking Arnold from "Good Times." [laughs] So I think if the dev teams, and marketing teams and PR teams teams were more diverse, and better thought was given towards staying true to their fictional narrative, that once you say you're in the future and you're in this alien world, is this really how this person is going to talk? When can we have the black guy that walks on to the screen that doesn't sound like the black guy? [laughs]
And while I'm sympathetic with his take on the problems presented by San Andreas -
"San Andreas" gets scary because it's basically what people think black people are. Like obviously not everyone is Tupac, not everyone is like N.W.A. gun-toting. But the greater society still said - I guess maybe there's not enough time between the height of gangster rap and that game. Because it basically affirms society's present belief that all urban black guys are just like this. I don't think the global expectation that all Italian people are mafiosos has existed since the '30s. But it did at that time. And if ["Grand Theft Auto III"] came out at that time, it'd be a hundred percent "Yup! It's just a game about the Italian guys." So that's just the risk, the scary thing for "San Andreas" in that it's too soon and it's too close and it's going to be consumed by people with no proper filter, right? There are already a bunch of suburban kids trying to emulate this fantasy that came from rap music. It's a fantasy - Dr. Dre came from a middle class home. These guys were making money, they were making product. The real guys, the real OGs, probably not so glamorous. [laughs] A little scarier actually.
But the fantasy world, it just reaffirms their thinking and now they're playing it, and there's no way to parse the parody aspects, the subtle commentary. I'm not saying Rockstar is a bunch of racist evil dudes, but other games are like: here are a bunch of stereotypes, both cultural and racial and we're going to embrace them, lampoon them, parody them, overemphasize them. "Grand Theft Auto" represents the world that should not be. [laughs] Like it's the worst of us, right?
I'm not 100% there with him. Maybe because I'm not black, maybe because I've been critically engaged with gangsta rap since I was 10, maybe because I think I "get" the jokes Rockstar is working with in GTA:SA, maybe because I think each GTA is more a take on different Hollywood fantasies (with those attendant problems) than anything else (e.g., Scarface = Vice City, Boyz in the Hood / Menace II Society / Don't Be A Menace To South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood = San Andreas), maybe because I am wary of crucifying a producer because of the (unintended) reaction of a portion of their audience, maybe because I think by and large people are more attuned to parody and satire than Gray gives them credit for, maybe because I'm just amped for GTAIV. But I certainly hear Gray's points, even if I'm not right there with him, and as games continue to assume/share the cultural mantle once held solely by TV/movies, this kind of inquiry is increasingly useful and necessary.
5. Obama vs. entrenched Philadelphia political culture and "street money."
6. Speaking of the good Senator, Bill Burton, Obama's national spokesperson and fellow City Honors High School alumni, gave a speech today to the young Centaurs.
7. Lassie through the years.
8. David Rees is WINNING BIG on his blog. His fighting technique is unstoppable - it's the real reason Mark Penn quit in shame! Plus, dude uses bold better than Mad magazine.
Posted by caps at April 11, 2008 10:16 AM