On Sunday, you come across a ruined church, hidden among the hawthorns behind a church currently active in the neighborhood. I was stunned: I had passed this cemetery thousands of times without realizing it. In this case, I happened to take a different route around the cemetery. The old church is roofless and barred, but I managed to insert my phone through a grate and take photos of a pointed mausoleum crouching in the middle of the transept crossing, as well as the glistening beehive embedded in the arch of a window. Magic. Anyway, here are some articles mostly about video games.
Dr. Emily Price writes about how Titanium Court’s humor pulls you out of its depthsin a reading filled with spoilers. I still haven’t played it, but I wonder if dismantling or overcoming the sincerity/insincerity binary is somehow part of the game’s agenda.
I do not want to suggest that this distance was accidental or unconscious. In fact, it seems intentional. But the humorous side of the game often felt defensive, as if, by switching from serious to humorous, the game was trying to control my experience, to keep me happy or perhaps keep me away from something vulnerable. I can understand that, or at least the last part. But if you’re afraid of getting too real, then why be vulnerable? I know this game can be sincere. This sincerity comes out from time to time. But it only lasts a moment; then it’s joke time.
Stephen Gillmurphy has some characteristic skull openings “simple reproaches” this, I think, aligns with some of Emily’s thoughts above.
conscience is not reformist, it is not satisfied with compromises and half-measures that we could describe as reasonable, all that we can hope for. we think we’ve made peace with our limitations, we settle down to live our lives in a little corner of carved out autonomy, and then we wonder why we still find ourselves banging our elbows against the walls. there is a tendency to look at previous generations and say: let’s not go crazy. we just want what they had: stable employment, home ownership – the other things, the big abstractions, we can give up, if we have them. and then we return to inhabiting a world already poisoned by the rage and denial of those same generations, the complex systems of punishment and illusion that they constructed in the effort to convince themselves that the tradeoff they had made for the possibility of something better was worth it. the old machines are still hammering away, without everything they were built for. Is this all we ask to inherit the machine?
Kerry Brunskill writing on “perhaps the ultimate girl’s game”, Angelique Special 2, “the prettiest nightmare I’ve ever had”.
Special 2 makes a real effort to avoid getting bogged down in traditional game language and presentation as much as possible, the manual – ah, I mean “Queen Candidate Guidelines” – choosing to open with a series of gorgeous color plates explaining the setting (the queen of the universe is going to put two queen candidates to the test to find her successor, but no one knows why), the information delivered as if I were hearing the cast discussing it among themselves. The rest of the 60-page book continues in the same manner, with advice often presented in a more conversational manner. In fact, much of what I learn comes directly from the actors themselves, via their one-on-one interviews. Despite appearances, I would actually say that it is a more intense, more “hardcore” way of doing things. There’s a presumption that the kind of person who plays Angelique is inquisitive and thorough, that I will read the whole thing alertly and curiously and extract the information I need from it myself, without needing everything to be broken up into explicitly instructive “If here, do this” chunks.
Juliette Jacques writing on trans segregation becoming UK law in the form of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s new code of practice on ‘single-sex spaces’.
For young trans people reading this: don’t despair or give up, but don’t feel the need to dedicate every hour of your day to fighting this particular piece of legislation. One way to respond to people motivated by hate is to outlive them: not just by outliving them, as you probably will because British transphobia is driven in part by late middle-aged people who look down on young people and can’t admit how far to the right they’ve moved, but also by having more vibrant, creative and exciting lives. At a protest last Saturday, I quoted writer Toni Morrison’s dictum about how racism wastes your time and how that code is designed to suck all your energy away from opposing it. People must of course fight it and will have to do their part by taking up this fight in the mainstream media spaces that have hurt us and trying to change their editorial lines where possible. But you can get around the tedious arguments whose terms are set by our appalling billionaire-owned media by creating art or music, writing, performing, or just existing—ultimately, this will win hearts and minds as much, if not more, than getting bogged down in arguments with bad faith actors.
I’m late, but Tom Burgis has a very good investigation of crypto fanboi Nigel Farage receiving millions from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne. It was released ahead of the recent local elections in the UK, in which Farage’s Reform Party made serious gains, and also draws links to the Trump family’s embrace of crypto. There was more reports on Harborne since.
Harborne does not give interviews. His lawyers at London reputation management firm Schillings said he would not “reward” me for my previous coverage by granting any. “Our client has not sought to influence, nor has it influenced, any politician to support cryptocurrencies or any other of his business interests,” they wrote. “The prime ministers and senior politicians you refer to are fully capable of making their own informed decisions on issues such as cryptocurrencies.”
Harborne seems to believe that – on other occasions – it is whoever pays for the sound who sets the tone. The lawyers said his only official response to my questions was a line from media critic Upton Sinclair: “It’s hard to make a man understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding it.” » (The inference: my employer wouldn’t want me to treat him fairly.)
As the unseasonable warmth of May gives way to drizzle, the mind turns sadly once again to Jank.cool, the site founded by a band of second-rate Lucifers who fell from the light of Rock Paper Shotgun and are now reduced to fomenting controversies over, in this case, whether cats are better than dogs. Yes, it’s this absolute creature, Brendy, who takes a chance with an article in Versus format in this year 2026. And then, move on to video? Don’t cry for him. Instead, please become an animal.
It’s a conflict that has raged for as long as humanity has had a piece of mammoth salami it doesn’t want to eat. Who will get the leftovers: man’s best friend or his greatest enemy? One of them is known for his enthusiasm, his strength, his boundless loyalty, and also for going “bee-woop-dee-boop” while beating up gas masked idiots. The other is known for putting small dead rodents in your slippers, and saving an entire city of robots from an endless night. It will be a tragic fight, because in another world, in another time, Dog and Cat would have been inseparable friends. But not here and not now. It’s the dog of Half-Life 2 versus the cat of Stray. It’s now or it’s never now. Select your character!
Today’s music is either Creedence Clearwater Revival run through the jungle or Judy and Mary’s 90s pop number Sobakasuwhich you may remember from Rurouni Kenshin. I hope this weekend finds you well. Please let me know if you discover anything interesting in a cemetery.
