In Syndication

In Red Dead Redemption, the build-up to crossing over from the United States to Mexico is tangible. Up to this point you’ve been confined to New Austin, the mythical 1911 region of south Texas that is your training ground. Like Grand Theft Auto, RDR funnels movement cleverly. The player is faced with a region that is expansive but just a slice of the broader world that is waiting to be populated on the large but empty map. The brilliance here is in the tease. A blank map waiting to be populated. A glimpse of the modern city of Blackwater in the opening cinematic. ... read more »

For anyone keeping track, this blog’s hiatus is a sad signal that it’s been a busy couple of months for me re-entering to real life in Vermont, what with teaching, chairing my department, taking care of lots of personal projects, and obsessing over the election. (And thankfully, Super Storm Sandy had little personal impact on us here, and my family & friends seem to be in fine shape.) ... read more »

On Friday and Saturday I was lucky enough to attend two feminist cultural events in LA: one centered on a double revisit to the feminist art scenes of the 70s and early 2000s (“Revisiting the revisiting of feminism,” part of a fifteen day celebration of the fifteen years of X-tra in LA,) the other an organizing meeting for feminists in the UC system working in and around technology (UCFemTechNet, a local initiative ... read more »

Fan Culture book cover ... read more »