Filmed in Astounding Blacklight-O-Vision

A couple of things happening recently. This afternoon I dropped into the University Library's AV department and told them to go down into the basement to dig up their tape of Tron, a film which perhaps does not age as well as others. I admit to not having seen it in its entirety before today, which I believe is one of the capital sins of Geekdom. I rather enjoyed it for what it was, and I can never say no to Jeff Bridges (especially when he's so young and sexy), though watching the film did make my eyes hurt (though perhaps I was seated to close to the TV in my little library cubby). I feel like the film had some directorial issues which were less forgivable than the ridiculously illogical setup (but then I'm willing to suspend my belief at the drop of a hat).

Still, putting people into videogames is totally awesome, and nobody can argue with it. That said, I think I may enjoy the universe of Tron viewed through the lense of Kingdom Hearts II more than I enjoyed the film itself. KH2 is actually the reason I sought out Tron, as the 1982 classic is the only film involved in Sora's next adventure that I had not yet seen. I'm very excited to see what they do with it. If I have to choose an '80s film about out of control computers, though, my vote still goes to 1983's WarGames, starring Matthew Broderick.

Don't think I don't perceive this as a personal failing, however.

There are certain games which I think are made especially for me, whose appeal to other parties must be virtually nil. Atlus Games' SkyGunner is just such an entertainment. It involves airships, adorable anime protagonists, steampunk design, and a beautiful city by the sea that appears to be modeled after early 20th century Europe. Did I mention their were colossal airborne fortresses? My kind of thing. I have picked up SkyGunner recently because I've felt the need to blast some squadrons out of the sky, and have found much to my delight that in the year or so since I've put this game into my PS2 I have become very good at it. How this happened exactly, I am not sure, but it's a surprise and a delight nonetheless.

I met with my film comedy professor today, and he seemed to really like my essay thesis, which is encouraging. I intend to examine the relation of gags and jokes to narrative context in terms of protagonists whose "otherness" is the primary source of humor in Back to the Future and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.

God, I better make this a good essay, because if it sucks it's gonna suck hard.