so I spent alot of time deciding just what rant I felt like posting today, and it finally came to me: rating systems. Every now and then after watching a Youtube video I scroll down to see the comments. Pretty often if a user gets flamed, someone or other speaks up for them saying something along the lines of "you know, you didn't have to watch it." Sure, I'm a fan of the whole if-you-don't-have-something-nice-to-say-don't-say-anything-at-all philosophy, but the fact of the matter is that if you post something on Youtube, you are placing your work in a very public forum where it may become highly visible; all work on Youtube is subject to judgement and criticism. This should be fairly obvious, given that there is even a 5-star rating system in place, and posters even have the option to TURN OFF RATINGS ON THEIR POSTS!
One of the things I LOVE about the internet is how it has become a mechanism for self-publishment. I support a slew of musicians who distribute primarily online and are basically self-produced, I have a collection of video-comedy sources I frequent (see below), and I know plenty of people who publish poetry and prose online as well. I like to think that individuals who use the internet as a medium for expression aren't doing it in the hopes of categorically recieving positive feedback. It's one thing to give a paper to a friend and ask them what they think (honestly, if they're a good friend I'd hope they'd be honest...I only mention this because I've noticed livejournal often looks like a support group in the comments/replies section of posts), but if you are going to present your work to an incalculable population of strangers, you ought to expect it will be criticized. And if you are a viewer who appreciates work that is being criticized, you would be doing the artist a service by defending them in a more substantial manner than "if you don't like it, don't watch it."
I remmeber there was this one forum I was a member of that was, well....packed with "new agers" to put it lightly. I'm premed, so I gave them a lot of slack and put up with them for the most part. One day, someone came in talking about 12 stranded DNA. now, anyone who has taken high school chemistry ought to know this is absolutely impossible, and having taken much higher levels of chemistry and biology I can give very articulate reasons why. I decided this was just to tripped out to pass, and decided to correct the misinformation with a rather condemning reply, and was so anoyed with the bad science presented that I gave the poster "-1 karma," the karma system being a means by which posters could be rewarded or punished for their posts.
Apparently, although there was a negative karma button clearly available to me, I was the first person in approximately the 3 year history of this forum to do such an offensive thing. A huge argument broke out, ending with the abolition of the negative karma button, and a new convetion of tossing around karma points for no particular reason to the result that the mroe often you posted the more karma you got, regardless of the quality of the post.
The point of the story is that I feel that many individuals seem to have the impression that unconditional support is necessary for the existence of community and interpersonal relationships. But I mean, given the fact that most material placed online--be it blog post or video--is subject to being viewed by totally strangers, I think people ought to expect a little criticism, and constructive or not be capable of dealing with it.
there are trolls out there who enjoy starting riots. There are jerks out there who will be outright mean even if it's simply not their cup of tea but may be good anyway. And there are even a few people out there who enjoy giving constructive criticism. But if you are going to put something out there for the world to see, you shouldn't expect hugs all around.
I suppose that in context, it's not the posters of the material that are saying "dont like? don't post!" but other viewers. perhaps these are people who have been subject to critism and are trying to protect others, or perhaps they are members of lovey-duvey communities like the one I described who think the whole internet could and should be one big love-fest; maybe they're both. I've never taken psych, i'm jsut a philosopher. Whatever their reasons, these people need to reconcile the fact that although the internet operates and appears as though it were its own realm/dimension/enviornment/world whatever metaphysical term you want to throw out there (and it may well be that), the internet does still exist within the real world, and is inhabited by the same real people you find on the street.
We ought to expect the same kind of criticism online that we would recieve from strangers on the subway, because that is EXACTLY who the audience is. Moreover, due to the degree of anonymity available oinline, we should perhaps expect HARSHER criticism online than in the real world, yet the internet is still flooded with drek. sure, deviantart has tons of incredible art on it, but it also has lots of pedestrian stuff. we've all seen the kind of trash that is the majority of youtube. Most online literature sites are just mechanisms for high school students to say they've been published and have no review process for accepting material.
So why do these support groups form? it's obvious really: the internet is packed with amateurs. that's ok; that's the point. the amateurs support each other and that's fine. it's great when small artistic communities form around which these people can thrive in their self-expression, like groups of mutually subscribed directors on youtube or deviantart-ists who keep up with each others work like bloggers, and of course let's not forget the livejournal communities. but many of these smaller supportive communities exist within more public frameworks, and certainly even the more private ones are still open to being stumbled upon by the occasional kid who just doesn't get it.
so what's the point? if you're going to express yourself through a medium as visible as most websites are, be ready for criticism and keep a stiff upper lip. keep in mind, are you making your work for yourself or for your audience? Do you just like doing what you want to do or do you want to get better at it? considerations like these should determine to what degree criticism effects posters, and under no circumstances should people expect to be necessarily well recieved or liked and similarly if you encounter someones work who is being heavily criticized, you shouldn't feel the need to defend them because it's unlikely to change anything.
If you're going to post online, fine, but expect some bad reviews. If you're going to browse online, fine, but you're not the fucking lorax and these trees can speak for themselves.
this post is more than long enough. as a reward for reading through it (which you probably didn't), here's a collection of what I consider to be some high quality sources of comedic videos online:
Youtube users who produce some solid sketch comedy:
-brookers
-leftofcentercomedy
Online "TV stations" whose series compete monthly for syndication, keeping the quality surprisingly high. you remember that family guy joke where the dud ein the red wig kicks peter in the nuts and then points to a hidden camera and says "you jsut got kicked in the nuts" like it's the name of a TV show? that's from channel101. if you want to participate ina live screening, the sites are LA and NY based respectively
www.channel101.com
www.channel102.net
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
New computer vs. Spring break
Since none of you have ever seen it before, I'll just come out and say it: my computer kinda sucks. It's your typical Dell POS I got freshman year and has lasted me through college, but it's jsut real bent outta shape. Moreover, I just haven't been taking care of my baby. I've never reformatted the harddrive. I've maybe repaired the OS once. I haven't used windows update in a WHILE. I've downloaded mroe than a few corrupted files, which has given my computer a few...let's call them neuroses. At times, in fact pretty often, it takes forever just to load a program or a webpage.
My computer just isn't in the best shape. I've erecently been trimming down the files on my computer in the hopes that more space might help (even though it still refuses to defragment properly), but ultimately I'm going to buy a new computer. In particular, I'm going to MAKE my new computer. This scares me. I know some theoretical stuff about computer structure, I used to know how to program, and I know my way around windows pretty well, but I definitely don't know much about components.
Suffice it to say, I'm going to need to do some reserach. But moreover, I need to save some money. My hope is that building the computer myself will save enough money that I can afford the thing soon, build it before school let's out (I wanna get ahold of my friends' music), and hav a computer powerful enough that I can use it to game with. however, saving up this money is going to be a bit of a sacrifice. Currently, I'm approximately halfway there. I just got a 3rd part time job, which pays significantly more than my other 2, which should put me over realtively quickly. The only problem is that spring break starts this weekend, and I now have 2 jobs I would need to get subs for (the third is on campus). I'm a supervisor at the first job, so it's not the easiest thing in the world to get a sub to begin with, and I just GOT this other job, so I'm definitely not in a position to ask for vacation.
So in case you couldn't read between the lines, I'm not going anywhere for spring break. Really, I only have to actually WORK 4 days over my 2 weeks of vacation, but they're spread out enough that I can't really go too far away. I mean, I'm in southern california already, AND I have a car so I guess I shouldn't really complain, but this is my last semester in college and I was really looking forward to going on some epic trip with my friends. I've stayed on campus for spring break before and immediately regretted it afterwards (cabin fever). My only hope is that I remember to get off campus and have some fun. Maybe road trip it up to the bay area or the grand canyon. Worse case scenario I'll go snowboarding alot (rough life for Dave, right?). I guess I shouldn't mourn my vacation too much, I just sorta feel like this is one of the last vacations i'm going to get. My older friends always tell me how hard it is to make your own time once you're out in the real world, and that's where I'm presumably going to be hanging out from this summer onwards.
This computer had better be worth it.
My computer just isn't in the best shape. I've erecently been trimming down the files on my computer in the hopes that more space might help (even though it still refuses to defragment properly), but ultimately I'm going to buy a new computer. In particular, I'm going to MAKE my new computer. This scares me. I know some theoretical stuff about computer structure, I used to know how to program, and I know my way around windows pretty well, but I definitely don't know much about components.
Suffice it to say, I'm going to need to do some reserach. But moreover, I need to save some money. My hope is that building the computer myself will save enough money that I can afford the thing soon, build it before school let's out (I wanna get ahold of my friends' music), and hav a computer powerful enough that I can use it to game with. however, saving up this money is going to be a bit of a sacrifice. Currently, I'm approximately halfway there. I just got a 3rd part time job, which pays significantly more than my other 2, which should put me over realtively quickly. The only problem is that spring break starts this weekend, and I now have 2 jobs I would need to get subs for (the third is on campus). I'm a supervisor at the first job, so it's not the easiest thing in the world to get a sub to begin with, and I just GOT this other job, so I'm definitely not in a position to ask for vacation.
So in case you couldn't read between the lines, I'm not going anywhere for spring break. Really, I only have to actually WORK 4 days over my 2 weeks of vacation, but they're spread out enough that I can't really go too far away. I mean, I'm in southern california already, AND I have a car so I guess I shouldn't really complain, but this is my last semester in college and I was really looking forward to going on some epic trip with my friends. I've stayed on campus for spring break before and immediately regretted it afterwards (cabin fever). My only hope is that I remember to get off campus and have some fun. Maybe road trip it up to the bay area or the grand canyon. Worse case scenario I'll go snowboarding alot (rough life for Dave, right?). I guess I shouldn't mourn my vacation too much, I just sorta feel like this is one of the last vacations i'm going to get. My older friends always tell me how hard it is to make your own time once you're out in the real world, and that's where I'm presumably going to be hanging out from this summer onwards.
This computer had better be worth it.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Chiptunes
So one of my stranger interests is Chiptunes. Chiptunes is a gnere of music characterized more by the technology used to make it than by any particular style. The reason is because the technology places a huge limit on the music produced. Basically, huge nerds either dig the sound controller chips out of their old nintendos or use special software to hijack the chip in their gameboy (etc.) to make music.
It can get kinda strange sometiems, but in general I think the music is pretty cool, and the idea is really cool. One of the really neat things about the whole scene is that since it's such an underground (read as: "no one but them gives a shit") scene, just about every artist involved provides their music for free either through their personal or label webpages. one label I particularly like is www.8bitpeoples.com , a label that makes their entire discography available for free download.
I actually first discovered chiptunes through that label. I had just discovered the website www.rocketboom.com , a Vlog that sort of does the news and is responsible for that annoying "ask a ninja" podcast. I was watching a video on rocketboom where they were describing this neat experiment someone did with an NES game called Gradius where they overlayed 15 people playing the game to observe patterns and successful strategies (the experiment was published in a video game developers industry journal). At the end of the video were 2 website names, one of which directed me to 8bitpeoples. After rewatching the video, I'm fairly sure the music is from the original game, but whatever. I just figured this story was worth telling given how random my encounter with this music was. You can watch the video or read about it here: http://thenewgamer.com/content/archives/averaging_gradius
So I just embedded this flash player from Last.FM, which apparently has a shit-ton of chiptunes on it, to try and give you a taste of this stuff from the convenience of my blog. Ironically, the first song that came up after I put it up was a Venetian Snares song, which is NOT chiptunes (cool IDM, but not what I wanted). So as a disclaimer, if it doesn't sound like music you might find in an old NES game, just click the next button.
It can get kinda strange sometiems, but in general I think the music is pretty cool, and the idea is really cool. One of the really neat things about the whole scene is that since it's such an underground (read as: "no one but them gives a shit") scene, just about every artist involved provides their music for free either through their personal or label webpages. one label I particularly like is www.8bitpeoples.com , a label that makes their entire discography available for free download.
I actually first discovered chiptunes through that label. I had just discovered the website www.rocketboom.com , a Vlog that sort of does the news and is responsible for that annoying "ask a ninja" podcast. I was watching a video on rocketboom where they were describing this neat experiment someone did with an NES game called Gradius where they overlayed 15 people playing the game to observe patterns and successful strategies (the experiment was published in a video game developers industry journal). At the end of the video were 2 website names, one of which directed me to 8bitpeoples. After rewatching the video, I'm fairly sure the music is from the original game, but whatever. I just figured this story was worth telling given how random my encounter with this music was. You can watch the video or read about it here: http://thenewgamer.com/content/archives/averaging_gradius
So I just embedded this flash player from Last.FM, which apparently has a shit-ton of chiptunes on it, to try and give you a taste of this stuff from the convenience of my blog. Ironically, the first song that came up after I put it up was a Venetian Snares song, which is NOT chiptunes (cool IDM, but not what I wanted). So as a disclaimer, if it doesn't sound like music you might find in an old NES game, just click the next button.
Monday, February 19, 2007
hyperreality on Youtube
So my favorite concept related to post-modernity is hyperreality:
"Hyperreality is significant as a paradigm to explain the American cultural condition. Consumerism, because of its reliance on sign exchange value (e.g. brand X shows that one is fashionable, car Y indicates one's wealth), could be seen as a contributing factor in the creation of hyperreality or the hyperreal condition. Hyperreality tricks the consciousness into detaching from any real emotional engagement, instead opting for artificial simulation, and endless reproductions of fundamentally empty appearance. Essentially, (although Baudrillard himself would perhaps balk at the usage of this word) fulfillment or happiness is found through simulation and imitation of a transient simulacrum of reality, rather than any interaction with any "real" reality." -From Wikipedia Hyperreality.
I'm bringing this up because well, I find myself encountering hyperreality on a regular basis online (in fact, I first encountered postmodernism in general when doing research on internet-related philoisophy about 5 months ago: the term "hyperreality" came up in a JSTOR search and the rest is history). Story time.
So everyone remember that shitty "Man of the Year" issue time released last year, where it turned out to be "YOU."? Well, in one of the articles on Youtube it mentioned the SNL digital short "Lazy Sunday." At work about a week ago I let slip that I hadn't seen it. Apalled, one of my co-workers demanded that we find it on Youtube. Little did he know, I tried that and it has been absolutely BURIED under imitations and parodies. I brought up hyperreality, and my friend commented, "This is the most post-modern thing that has ever happened to me." After a while he found it posted on a blog somewhere under a different title, a title I certainly would never have guessed having not seen the video. I challenge you to find it. Seriously, poke around; it's not as easy as it sounds.
For a different hyperreal experience, check out these videos in sequence.
Citi Bank Identity theft commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGPBRXKuoMc
Youtube Identity theft
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCDccnwgJdY&mode=related&search=
Re: Youtube Identity theft (1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTor_JGxIHc&mode=related&search=
Re: Youtube Identity theft (2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25Wc7e0QYKo&mode=related&search=
The same thing happens to every video posted online.
>>EDIT: I decided this waws as good a post as any to link to GAM3R 7H30RY http://www.futureofthebook.org/gamertheory/ . It's a book/forum sorta. This Media Studies professor at New School is offering up a full draft of his upcoming book for public viewing and commenting. It's an interesting idea, an open source review. The book is an application of critical theory to video games. Check it out. Also, if you're interested, there's an interview of the author on This Spartan Life (I think it may even be the video I linked to in the TSL post).
"Hyperreality is significant as a paradigm to explain the American cultural condition. Consumerism, because of its reliance on sign exchange value (e.g. brand X shows that one is fashionable, car Y indicates one's wealth), could be seen as a contributing factor in the creation of hyperreality or the hyperreal condition. Hyperreality tricks the consciousness into detaching from any real emotional engagement, instead opting for artificial simulation, and endless reproductions of fundamentally empty appearance. Essentially, (although Baudrillard himself would perhaps balk at the usage of this word) fulfillment or happiness is found through simulation and imitation of a transient simulacrum of reality, rather than any interaction with any "real" reality." -From Wikipedia Hyperreality.
I'm bringing this up because well, I find myself encountering hyperreality on a regular basis online (in fact, I first encountered postmodernism in general when doing research on internet-related philoisophy about 5 months ago: the term "hyperreality" came up in a JSTOR search and the rest is history). Story time.
So everyone remember that shitty "Man of the Year" issue time released last year, where it turned out to be "YOU."? Well, in one of the articles on Youtube it mentioned the SNL digital short "Lazy Sunday." At work about a week ago I let slip that I hadn't seen it. Apalled, one of my co-workers demanded that we find it on Youtube. Little did he know, I tried that and it has been absolutely BURIED under imitations and parodies. I brought up hyperreality, and my friend commented, "This is the most post-modern thing that has ever happened to me." After a while he found it posted on a blog somewhere under a different title, a title I certainly would never have guessed having not seen the video. I challenge you to find it. Seriously, poke around; it's not as easy as it sounds.
For a different hyperreal experience, check out these videos in sequence.
Citi Bank Identity theft commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGPBRXKuoMc
Youtube Identity theft
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCDccnwgJdY&mode=related&search=
Re: Youtube Identity theft (1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTor_JGxIHc&mode=related&search=
Re: Youtube Identity theft (2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25Wc7e0QYKo&mode=related&search=
The same thing happens to every video posted online.
>>EDIT: I decided this waws as good a post as any to link to GAM3R 7H30RY http://www.futureofthebook.org/gamertheory/ . It's a book/forum sorta. This Media Studies professor at New School is offering up a full draft of his upcoming book for public viewing and commenting. It's an interesting idea, an open source review. The book is an application of critical theory to video games. Check it out. Also, if you're interested, there's an interview of the author on This Spartan Life (I think it may even be the video I linked to in the TSL post).
The library
I should really just stop borrowing books. I get most of the info I need from articles that are readily available through online databases my school subscribes too, but every now and then I'm just too tempted by some juicy piece of book I have to read. Often, the book is relatively rare making it expensive.
A few months ago I checked out 2 books. I renewed them over winter break, and they were due at some point in late jan/early feb. I just checked my school eMail account (an account I rarely look at since I have about 10K pages of eMails and well...suffice it to say I can't send anything from that account) and not only are those books late, I'M BEING CHARGED $100 PER BOOK. On Saturday I earned $120 snowboarding, and recently got a paycheck from one of my other jobs (i'm currently working 3). I'm trying to save up for a new computer; I really don't need these book fines.
There's nothing worse than getting excited over a paycheck only to realize you have to blow the whole thing and-then-some on bills. Well, no... plenty of other things are worse, like cancer, but I mean it's pretty frustrating. i guess working 3 jobs means this computer will happen eventually, but the sooner I can afford it the better. I'm planning on building it myself from components, and I've never done that before, so the project alone is kind of intimidating without the added frustrations of me being a flake with library books.
I mean, come on. The books are lying right there by my desk. Every evening I see them and think, "Fuck. Today should have been the day. It's late now, I don't wanna walk over, I'll do it tomorrow." They're going in my backpack pronto. Time to go to the library and plead with whoever is at the desk to cut back the fines. Otherwise I'm keeping those suckers (and losing some bank).
A few months ago I checked out 2 books. I renewed them over winter break, and they were due at some point in late jan/early feb. I just checked my school eMail account (an account I rarely look at since I have about 10K pages of eMails and well...suffice it to say I can't send anything from that account) and not only are those books late, I'M BEING CHARGED $100 PER BOOK. On Saturday I earned $120 snowboarding, and recently got a paycheck from one of my other jobs (i'm currently working 3). I'm trying to save up for a new computer; I really don't need these book fines.
There's nothing worse than getting excited over a paycheck only to realize you have to blow the whole thing and-then-some on bills. Well, no... plenty of other things are worse, like cancer, but I mean it's pretty frustrating. i guess working 3 jobs means this computer will happen eventually, but the sooner I can afford it the better. I'm planning on building it myself from components, and I've never done that before, so the project alone is kind of intimidating without the added frustrations of me being a flake with library books.
I mean, come on. The books are lying right there by my desk. Every evening I see them and think, "Fuck. Today should have been the day. It's late now, I don't wanna walk over, I'll do it tomorrow." They're going in my backpack pronto. Time to go to the library and plead with whoever is at the desk to cut back the fines. Otherwise I'm keeping those suckers (and losing some bank).
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Grammar flaming
In my opinion, one of the most dissapointing things about Computer-Mediated-Communication outlets is that there are always those individuals who instead of addressing the content of a discussion attempt to discredit a poster ad hominem by highlighting poor spelling or grammar. Take this post for instance from some random forum at (i just learned that " 'learn to spell' + forum" is a fun search) : http://www.girlslearntoride.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=869&whichpage=2
"how old are you? edit: I'M confused and misdirected? how about learning how to spell, then you can propose a worthwhile argument."
In the 'real world,' grammar and vocabulary are used as metrics for education; this is why verbal reasoning figures so highly on standardized test such as the SAT, GRE, MCAT, and LSAT. But the fact of the matter is when people communicate online, be it on a BBS style forum or live chat, people are often in too much of a hurry to get their ideas out on the table that they simply don't care neough to significantly review their posts before tossing them out. Folks who have clumsy typing ability end up getting the ass end of the stick.
Personally, I could care less. Whether someone abbreviates the word whatver as "wtv," (maybe 1337 speak isn't quite as pertinent to this discussion), or just types so fast that tehir wodrs come out all jmubled, the content of their posts ought to be the focus of attention. Perhaps we ought to treat spelling variations and irregularities like accents expressed through ones fingers. I have friends who drawl and slur words together, and I myself am a fan of words that don't really exist in the english language like "howdy" and "ain't," but these types of speeking patterns don't pose a problem in day-to-day communication. Anyone who has ever transcribed a verbal interview knows that people often speak with awful grammar and throw sentence fragments around like confetti on new years. The double standard must end!
Forums are typically not homes to polished essays, and I posit that we should not expect them to be. Poor grammar is not indicative of an immature poster, just sloppy typing. Keep the ideas and arguments central people, lay off the spelling and grammar.
"how old are you? edit: I'M confused and misdirected? how about learning how to spell, then you can propose a worthwhile argument."
In the 'real world,' grammar and vocabulary are used as metrics for education; this is why verbal reasoning figures so highly on standardized test such as the SAT, GRE, MCAT, and LSAT. But the fact of the matter is when people communicate online, be it on a BBS style forum or live chat, people are often in too much of a hurry to get their ideas out on the table that they simply don't care neough to significantly review their posts before tossing them out. Folks who have clumsy typing ability end up getting the ass end of the stick.
Personally, I could care less. Whether someone abbreviates the word whatver as "wtv," (maybe 1337 speak isn't quite as pertinent to this discussion), or just types so fast that tehir wodrs come out all jmubled, the content of their posts ought to be the focus of attention. Perhaps we ought to treat spelling variations and irregularities like accents expressed through ones fingers. I have friends who drawl and slur words together, and I myself am a fan of words that don't really exist in the english language like "howdy" and "ain't," but these types of speeking patterns don't pose a problem in day-to-day communication. Anyone who has ever transcribed a verbal interview knows that people often speak with awful grammar and throw sentence fragments around like confetti on new years. The double standard must end!
Forums are typically not homes to polished essays, and I posit that we should not expect them to be. Poor grammar is not indicative of an immature poster, just sloppy typing. Keep the ideas and arguments central people, lay off the spelling and grammar.
Thursday, February 1, 2007
This Spartan Life
Machinima: a portmanteau of "machine" and "cinema," machinima is a broad genre of animation chracterized by the use of videogame engines as 3D rendering platforms. A classic example of machinima is the video series "Red vs. Blue", which is filmed and about the game HALO.
"This Spartan Life", TSL, also filmed in halo, is at the top of my list of favorite machinima. It has one various awards within the machinima community, and has a rather original format for a machinima: most machinima are science fiction chronicles, TSL is actually a talk show. Topics on the show generally are focused around the general theme of emergent media particularly machinima, and are not above touching on the postmodern. TSL guests run the gamut from media theorists to multimedia artists and video game designers. They even got Malcolm Maclaren. Here's one of their most recent interviews, it's pretty good: http://www.thisspartanlife.com/1004_mod3.html
One other reason I like the show is that they feature some excellent 8 Bit music, AKA Chiptunes. More on chiptunes later, but for now feel free to check out the playlists available through TSL at http://www.thisspartanlife.com/8bit.shtml or go straight to the source and check out on of the most active labels, http://www.8bitpeoples.com (their entire discography is available for free download, but don't be afraid to show them some support).
I guess i'm just that big of a nerd.
"This Spartan Life", TSL, also filmed in halo, is at the top of my list of favorite machinima. It has one various awards within the machinima community, and has a rather original format for a machinima: most machinima are science fiction chronicles, TSL is actually a talk show. Topics on the show generally are focused around the general theme of emergent media particularly machinima, and are not above touching on the postmodern. TSL guests run the gamut from media theorists to multimedia artists and video game designers. They even got Malcolm Maclaren. Here's one of their most recent interviews, it's pretty good: http://www.thisspartanlife.com/1004_mod3.html
One other reason I like the show is that they feature some excellent 8 Bit music, AKA Chiptunes. More on chiptunes later, but for now feel free to check out the playlists available through TSL at http://www.thisspartanlife.com/8bit.shtml or go straight to the source and check out on of the most active labels, http://www.8bitpeoples.com (their entire discography is available for free download, but don't be afraid to show them some support).
I guess i'm just that big of a nerd.
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