I believe "Vincent Price" is the desired look. And I am perfectly okay with that.

I also have to chime in as a fan of Blue Valentine. Foreign Affairs is my least favorite Waits album, and I guess I can see how BV is musically similar to FA, but I'm with Dr. Teeth. "Red Shoes," "Romeo is Bleeding," "Christmas Card," and "Blue Valentines" itself are all standout songs. "Blue Valentines" is probably…

Fringe Plausibility
"Plausible? No way. But definitely cool in that Fringe-y 'Hey why not?' kind of way that has made the show such a pleasure so often this season."

The hug machine exists — invented by Temple Grandin, who's on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum, and who gets a chapter in one of Oliver Sacks' books. Apparently, many people with autism find the simulated hug very soothing.

I think I agree. You're right, it would definitely lose something key if the whole thing played out like the Grandmother's House sequences, where you just click to move to the next step forward. So, yeah, I think the problem lies in an awkward ratio of new to repetitive content. (Though the repetitiveness is one of…

Though the game implies violence towards children, it doesn't *celebrate* it. The user isn't supposed to pump their fist in delight when one of the "Red Girls" meets her fate. In fact, the whole protracted (and after you've done it a few times, tedious) the-girl-limps-traumatized-into-Grandmother's-house sequence that…

Here's where I think you run into the hybrid-genre issues. Would people play a "game" for this experience? No. But would people read a novel or watch a film that explored violent childhood traumas, wrapping them in surrealist imagery? Sure they would, and do. Maybe not the same readership that just reads on the beach…

Whoops, I didn't see that. Total typo. I meant to say, "I *wouldn't* say my money was wasted." I can see how that would be confusing.

I agree, and as I said I don't regret the purchase at all — and I'd encourage anyone interested in this type of genre to buy The Path, too.

Yikes. I didn't realize how long an essay I wrote until I saw it posted. If anyone actually reads it, thanks for your patience!

Maybe _too_ gamelike?
So I downloaded this when it was on sale on Steam awhile back. I'm interested in the idea of "interactive fiction." I've read a couple of hypertext "novels"; I love old-school Sierra and LucasArts adventure games; and I grew up with text adventures (though I haven't actually returned to that…

Walt's moral dilemma
Despite the killing of Crazy-8 in the first season, this season has really driven home just how far Walt is willing to go to pay for his treatment / secure his family's financial future. He seems to have gotten pretty comfortable with the idea of killing. Note that he's not entirely opposed to the…

Olive vs. Olivia
So any significance to "Olive" as Olivia's past moniker? Has she been called Olive before? It kind of has me worried that there might be a clone plot line (she's Olive "A") reminiscent of the old speculation about Obi "1" Kenobi. Is her inability to remember the testing not amnesia but because it was…

You know, I haven't watched any Golden Age Disney on DVD, but just looking at the clip from Sleeping Beauty posted above, it's shocking how cheap and crappy our feature cel-animation looks today.

I know humor is subjective and all that, but it would be nice if one of you "I loved the episode" people could actually provide a little bit of analysis and explanation of what made it so great to you. And if no such argument gets made, then I think balancing that against Josh's analysis makes it a safe assumption…

"Funny, random weirdness"? Wasn't that kind of comedy the target of the whole anti-FG manatee episode? Well, if you cross out the "funny" bit? I'm not sure Parker and Stone would actually be very happy to hear randomness being lauded as a virtue.

A couple of points
I'm a bit surprised Scott doesn't address the very Eastern Europeanness of this film. In my view it's not just an adaptation, it's a kind of cultural translation of the images of the book. The musty, dessicated, and claustrophobic world of this Alice is not just psychological metaphor — it's a…

Voices?
Did anyone else think that the voice work was a little weak this episode? Cartman's voice in particular seemed to slip up into Stan territory at quite a few moments. I mean, I realize the voices are especially sophisticated or anything, but they seemed unusually "off-model" to me tonight.

On comedic vs. dramatic acting: it's not a matter of more or less talent, it's a matter of a different set of talents. So being able to do both does in fact indicate the quality of an actor's range.

Previously on South Park Queefs (Queeves?)
The definition of "queef" was a plot point in the Brown Noise episode way back when.