BOOK REVIEW
Attack Poodles and Other Media Mutants: The Looting of the News in a Time of Terror (4 stars)
By James Wolcott; $22.95
Sentence by sentence, James Wolcott may be the most entertaining writer in America. Every paragraph is a spritzer blast of metaphor, allusion and zippy wordcraft. And his wit is as deadly precise as the laser whip in Johnny Mnemonic—you don't realize you've been sliced up until your chunks start sliding wetly away. In Attack Poodles, he smart-bombs Fox News, MSNBC and the rightward-tilting media—"attack poodles" is his term for yappy conservative pundits—for assorted crimes of cheerleading, distortion and derelicted duty in the ramp-up to war. It's not exactly a new thesis, but what the book lacks in depth it makes up for in surface: the bravura performance of his prose taking apart smug media nabobs. Underlying the gleeful carnage, though, is his genuine dismay that our media chose to unleash its inner yahoo, pandering to our emotions rather than feeding our head.
Scott Dickensheets
BLACK & WHITE BALL TIDBITS
|
18 Years parties have been held
31 Participating businesses and restaurants
01 Booths giving out spankings (Virgen Advertising)
1,500 Guests expected
1,500 AFAN clients
2,832 People in Clark County who are HIV-positive
4,322 People in the county with AIDS
40,000 New HIV infections nationwide each year
50 Percentage of which are under the age of 25
70 Percentage of whom are women
40 Dollars, the cost of one ticket
LOCAL CD
Various artists (2.5 stars)
Support Your F****'n Local Scene
The titular sentiment is admirable, and it's nice to see someone other than web guru Jeff Higgenbotham (www.yourlocalscene.com) putting out a local music compilation. But this disc mostly demonstrates why more people don't support the local scene, with weak songwriting, cheap production values and little originality. There are a few bright spots, including Zerofingers and Vandelay Industries, and a better representation of hip-hop than on other compilations, but overall, the disc isn't worth your support.
VIDEO GAMES
Pikmin 2 (E) (5 stars)
Nintendo
GameCube
Over the course of two games, Capt. Olimar has seen thousands of color-coded creatures get burned, drowned, blown up, electrocuted, poisoned, stomped and eaten.
Once more, he enlists the Pikmin's help, with new poisonous white and burly purple versions, to combat ferocious insects and gather knickknacks. The combination of strategy, exploration and action, along with new multiplayer ability, makes this a must-own title.
Nascar 2005: Chase For The Cup (E) (4 stars)
EA Sports
GameCube, Xbox, PS2
EA's annual sports titles are like NASCAR vehicles, running laps, with pit stops too short for reinvention. While updated rosters and marginally improved graphics may be enough for fans, the casual gamer prefers something more. Chase for the Cup gives it to us with a new Intimidation Control. Drive too aggressively and the A.I. drivers will let you know.
DVDs
Angels in America (NR) (5 stars)
$39.98
Someday, if we're lucky, future generations will watch Angels in America and come away with little more than curiosity about a time when love could kill. Until a cure for AIDS is discovered, HBO's star-studded presentation of Tony Kushner's much-honored play will continue to inform us of the divisiveness and mystery that characterized the worst of America's plague years.
THX 1138: Director's Cut (R) (4 stars)
$26.99
Two years before American Graffiti and six before Star Wars, George Lucas turned his student film into THX 1138. The austere sci-fi drama imagines an emotionally sterile and sexually ambivalent society, dominated by a centralized computer system and made secure by robots and soma-like drugs. Rebellious humans THX 1138 (Robert Duvall) and LUH 3417 (Maggie McOmie) test the system by falling in love.
50 Years of Playmates (NR) (2 stars)
$24.98
At a time when hard-core porn is easy to find and the actresses are mainstream beautiful, it's amazing that Playboy's comparatively tame videos continue to sell so well. Nostalgic fare like 50 Years of Playmates will appeal to men who can recall which issue saw the first flash of pubic hair or a black centerfold. Younger eyes might prefer Snoop Dogg's Buckwild Bus Tour, also available this week.