God Bless the Japanese. Here is an indie animation short that is breathtaking in both its simplicity and its complexity – and the music is fabulous. I have watched this far too many times. (Huge props to Mack at Twitch for this.)

As Mark Wahlberg asked in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening, “You’re not interested in what happened to the bees?” So too does Douglas Coupland, but with a bit more poetry and style. His loose sequel to iconic 1991 novel “Generation X” which not only coined the phrase for his generation, but also came up with catchy monikers for concerns within that generation, for instance, the ‘McJob,’ is the first of his novels that is set actually ‘in the future’ and has an actual post-apocalypse bent to it. The world and society may still be there, but fuel, food and pharmacology are different than 2009. Twenty years (or more) since the setting of Generation X and things have gotten a lot more global and environmental. Fears and national anxieties have moved away from cold or nuclear war, and more into territory of genetically modified foodstuffs, environmental apocalypse, economic outsourcing, and the narcissistic malaise of digital communication.

Personally, the latter of that bunch seems to be the most interesting and Coupland uses his signature ‘storytelling’ of his characters within in the novel as sort of a communal weapon against vlogging, facebooking and blackberries. Despite the author pushing into well into his 40s at this point, he manages to remain a vital voice for the new ways in which we process the world. His characters, a hobby farmer in Iowa, a Kiwi whose parents have lost god, an Abercrombie and Fitch telephone operator in Sri Lanka, a World of Warcraft addict in Paris and a Canadian dental hygienist with Tourettes, all come together when they each are stung by a bee. This is remarkable in the world of Generation A, because the bees have thought to have been extinct for some time and the world has ceased to produce food naturally (or enjoy wild flowers) due to the loss of pollination. Thus, military, scientific and private study, instant celebrity, and their lives as they knew it are shattered as the world turns its eye and hope towards the so-called ‘Wonka children’ (whose golden ticket was an insect bite).

There is a certain irony in the author of Microserfs and the (detestable) JPod lobbying for a less connected world. Or perhaps it is the more physical and emotional direct communication by way of narrative – making stories of our lives – that Coupland has been an advocate all along (it resonates throughout all of his novels). Generation A may not delve too deep into the human condition or even flesh out believable characters, but it wrangles with western societies fascination with isolation. Good enough for me.

From a video and graphics design point. I’m digging this little video, I can even get by the hamfisted narration. Scratch that, it is kind of endearing.

While we aim to be a bit better around here and Rowthree.com with the ads and all the social media and other clutter. The below graphic pretty much says it all – most particularly in regards to the gigantic movie and pop culture blogs (McSweenies and Boing Boing excepted).

I am not normally one to post YouTube compilations, but this reminds me. We should make a couple of good promos for RowThree.com

and the trailer for the 2009 NYAFF rocks the casbah:

An interesting quirk about Google’s minimalist search engine page is how they often use their iconic logo as an informational nod to a famous painter, author, world event when an major anniversary arrives, or to simply make a cute riff on a holiday.

I am not one to tell Google how to run their business or their politics, however their unofficial corporate policy of ‘Don’t Be Evil’ had its first public ethics crisis a couple of years ago when Google sanctioned their search engine to the Chinese government and allowed them to drop in all sorts of censorship algorithms. Clearly not a good way to do business for one of the 21st century leading companies. China may just be Google’s Kryptonite.

It would have earned them a little kudos to drop a variation of the above with a link to the Tiananmen Square Massacre today on its 20th Anniversary.

Talking to a co-worker today, he opined that you bet your ass there will be a modified logo celebrating the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Just Sayin’

New Year’s Day is a quiet one in our household. A family day if you will. And with the boy, we decided to grab a cheap puzzle game for the Wii gaming system via their online “WiiWare” client. The bright bubbly graphic and fun problem-solving nature of World Of Goo was apparent from the quick blurb there, so it was a snap judgment, but quite a lucky one too. Now really, this is a video game, so what is it doing on Row Three?

Well, besides a potential no-brainer film adaptation (which could make it one of the first truly good video game adaptations, another discussion which does not interest me so much), the raw cinematic nature of this video game is often breathtaking. This is in no small part due to a rich soundtrack (best video game soundtrack ever?) and visuals are clean and simple yet also silly and epic. Showing clear influences from Tim Burton and Dr. Seuss (and perhaps a bit of Neil Gaimen and Dave McKean) there is a narrative here that goes beyond puzzle solving and great game play. Taking more-than-just-potshots at consumer culture and the recycling of ourselves into ourselves (reminiscent of the designer soap in Fight Club) malaise of youth and beauty obsession, World of Goo takes a big page out of The Lorax with its anti-corporate, growth-for-growth sake message. It also reminds of the gooier Bartholomew and the Oobleck.

The game has a story (of sorts) that follows the downfall of civilization via consumer products in four chapters (Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring) and an epilogue. There are similarities to Pixar’s Wall-E in that a man-made thing evolves out of consumer waste to a point to both collect and replace human endeavors. This makes for the third post-apocalyptic narrative aimed at the younger set (although City of Ember didn’t really light any fires in the pop culture) with enough wit to attract adults as well. A chapter where the ‘goo’ go through the evolution of computers from NASA gravity simulations to social networking is particularly inspired both in terms of what can be done with puzzle game-play but also how diverse science and capitalism and human endeavor can play off one another in exciting ways. Kind of like the game itself. In terms of video game culture, I am no expert, but I know art when I see it. It is curious that this is a full ‘independent’ video game, rather than one of the monster video game studios (Electronic Arts, Blizzard, etc.). I find it most exciting that a game can be fun, deep, subtle, breezy full of sly wit all at the same time.