Crystal Dynamics’ new game Tomb Raider (2013) adopts the strategy of the film Star Trek (2009) in using a prequel-cum-reboot to revitalize a franchise that had run out of steam: You play the game as a version of Lara Croft far younger and less experienced than in her previous 10 iterations, whose experiences in the game are meant to be her “formative” experiences…
Features
Posted inArts & Entertainment
A beginner’s guide to collecting art
For some, art collection is an economic game. For others, it’s a lifestyle veneer covering other lifestyles. Do you love art? Do you like art staring back at you? Do you like being watched sometimes? Consider being a collector.
Posted inFood & Drink
The Iowa City Beer Riots of 1884
In the second half of the 19th century three breweries operated along Linn and Jefferson streets. Their money and influence ruled much of the Northside’s economy, and they were known as the German Beer Mafia. Hundreds were happily employed in their operations but it all turned very dark one day in 1884. In the worst […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Screenshot: Revelations from the Abyss
To my mind, the best director in contemporary Hollywood—for our purposes, let’s say post-Star Wars (1977)—is the Dutch import Paul Verhoeven. While Verhoeven was working in the United States he gave us trashy, excessive Hollywood films we could sink our teeth into. More than that, if you look closely at these ostensibly paradigmatic examples of Hollywood’s deleterious product (e.g. Showgirls (1995)), Verhoeven was also the most subversive of genre auteurs, directing the spectacle back in at itself, parodying the absurdity of U.S. culture.
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Prairie Pop
Prairie Pop: For those about to pop
Regular Prairie Pop columnist Kembrew McLeod has turned over this month’s edition to Umläut Nideldick—the famous German song doctor and rock and roll life coach. The following text is drawn from Nideldick’s keynote address at the 2012 conference of the Eurovision Academy of Musical Arts.
Posted inCommunity/News
A guide to the recently-saved pieces of Iowa City history
In the old residential neighborhood located along the 300 block of East Jefferson Street and the 200 block of North Gilbert Street is a concentration of some of the city’s most notable historic homes. This winter, in the face of potential redevelopment, the City Council voted unanimously in favor of designating the neighborhood a local […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Prairie Pop
Prairie Pop: Jonathan Richman’s playground punk
Most proto-punk legends don’t write songs like “I’m a Little Dinosaur” or “Ice Cream Man,” but Jonathan Richman isn’t your typical rock ‘n’ roll dude. Since forming The Modern Lovers in 1970, he has made a career out of defying expectations.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Screenshot: Saving Private Rohrer
At the 2009 Game Developers’ eXchange (GDX), indie developer Jason Rohrer gave a unique talk that you should definitely check out on YouTube, whether you are into video games or you think they are just stupid entertainment for teen boys and young adults, called “‘Game’ and Other Four-Letter Words.” Rohrer is mostly known for Passage, […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Screenshot: Welcome to the New Dungeon
Repeat after me: Gary Gygax. Again: Gary Gygax. If you know who Gygax is, you’re probably smiling; if not, here’s a clue: Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), the fantasy role-playing game that rocked the gaming scene in the 1970s and ’80s. You know, best board game e-v-e-r: nerds impersonating elves and dwarves stranded in a dungeon […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Screenshot: Level Up
1981 was the year of the cyborg. Three year’s before Gibson’s Neuromancer, at that moment, the word “cyberpunk” didn’t exist and most people knew the “mouse” only as a puffy mammal, but the explosion of arcade games was accelerating the blend of man and machine through increasingly intimate human-machine experiences. Still, at the end of […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Prairie Pop
Prairie Pop: The Chump and the Champ
At the beginning of his professional boxing career, Cassius Clay was primarily known for winning an Olympic gold medal and possessing a loud mouth. Most sportswriters hated him, especially the old guard, who felt he was not properly deferential. The racist treatment by boxing crowds and journalists certainly would have justified Clay throwing his Olympic […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Prairie Pop
Prairie Pop: The Iowa roots of the “Paul is dead” hoax
Did you ever hear about the “Paul is dead” rumor, involving the Beatles’ Paul McCartney? Did you know it originated in Iowa? Back in 1969, news spread that he died in a car accident and was secretly replaced by a look- and sound-alike. The story originally appeared in an Iowa college newspaper and fanned out through the counterculture’s
