Difficult to watch, but impressively acted, directed and produced, and – rare for a Hollywood film – thematically significant. You should go see it, just don’t expect a popcorn movie … ‘Nuff said
Addendum: After it’s well-deserved Academy Award for Best Film, and further reflecting on the movie, I’d have to remark that being a non-white in the 19th century American South was the closest thing to a living hell on earth. In every way as horrifying, de-humanizing and fundamentally evil as the Holocaust.
Tags: 12 Years A Slave, Academy Award, Best Film, Brad Pitt, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Oscars, Solomon Northup, Steve McQueen
In recognition of the Queen’s birthday this weekend, I’d like to offer hearty congratulations to whoever is running PR for the Mountbatten-Windsors (or more accurately, the house of Herzogtum Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha); in the past few months they’ve had the fairytale fluff of The King’s Speech sweep the Oscars (in front of many more deserving and artistically important entries), and the wedding of Will and Kate went off without any embarrassing ‘hitches’ or soundbites, which meant among other things The Crown Prince Charles and The Royal Male Concubine Consort Philip kept their mouths shut!
There’s no end of controversy surrounding this family.
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Tags: Australia, constitution, King's Speech, privatization, Royal Family, user pays
Entertaining take on the Facebook creation myth, with everyone a devil and no redeemers. Good movie, relevant since it captures part of the Web 2.0 zeitgeist, but not a great classic – Citizen Kane for the millennials this ain’t. Clever dialog from Sorkin, clearly researched for geek authenticity (slipped up on “m-y-s-q-l”), but no movie-making lines such as in his earlier scripts (A Few Good Men). Women will also be unimpressed by the lack of strong, sympathetic female portrayals (a hallmark of Sorkin’s prior work).
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Tags: Aaron Sorkin, Academy Award, David Fincher, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, movie, Oscar, The Social Network
Welcome to WetWareGames, and pleased to make your acquaintance! This a personal blog for sharing thoughts and discussions on hopefully interesting topics with friends and colleagues – and perhaps make some new friends along the way. According to Wikipedia, the fount of all human understanding, “wetware” refers to 
both the physical brain and the human mind. So the name “WetWareGames” covers a breadth of subjects on which I might write:
- Games, especially unplugged, acoustic or analog games (aka boardgames, cardgames or tabletop games) – since these are games that can be played with just your wetware
- Passive Media (books, film, TV) – as the most intelligent media can set off a around of mental gymnastics (wetware games)
- Tech Disruptions – while tech is about software and hardware, in the end it’s wetware that drives the biggest innovations
- Social Commentary – as not everything is a game
- Cognitive Development – with a young family, it’s fascinating to watch a child’s wetware develop, and for them, learning is play!
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Tags: Age of Empires III, Agricola, Apple, Ascension, Caylus, Christopher Nolan, computer games, Dominant Species, Dominion, Facebook, Glory to Rome, Google, IBM, Inception, Microsoft, mobile games, movie, Nightfall, politics, Puerto Rico, Race for the Galaxy, religion, Settlers of Catan, social games, The Prestige, Thunderstone, Twilight Imperium, unplugged games, Verräter, video games, Zynga
In recognition of the Queen’s birthday this weekend, I’d like to offer hearty congratulations to whoever is running PR for the Mountbatten-Windsors (or more accurately, the house of Herzogtum Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha); in the past few months they’ve had the fairytale fluff of The King’s Speech sweep the Oscars (in front of many more deserving and artistically important entries), and the wedding of Will and Kate went off without any embarrassing ‘hitches’ or soundbites, which meant among other things The Crown Prince Charles and The Royal 
WetWareGames 
12 Years A Slave (2013, dir. Steve McQueen): showing us the closest thing to a living Hell on earth
Addendum: After it’s well-deserved Academy Award for Best Film, and further reflecting on the movie, I’d have to remark that being a non-white in the 19th century American South was the closest thing to a living hell on earth. In every way as horrifying, de-humanizing and fundamentally evil as the Holocaust.
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Posted by Jokersmiley on January 25, 2014 in Film Reviews, Passive Media, Social Commentary
Tags: 12 Years A Slave, Academy Award, Best Film, Brad Pitt, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Oscars, Solomon Northup, Steve McQueen