So when I got this game for my Nintendo DS called Scribblenauts, I did not expect much. It seemed like a decent side-scroller, and since I am too old to play 3D games without getting motion sickness (at this young age I have been trapped in the age of Mario), I thought I’d give this a try. To my pleasant surprise, Scribblenauts turned out to be one of the most impressive games I have ever seen. The premise is that your main character Maxwell has a magic notepad (shown above), in which you can write ANYTHING and it will produce it for him. For example, in order to get the star from the picture above, you could write “ladder,” “box,” “trampoline,” or anything you might step on. I’ve tried a couple really random ones like “triceratops” and “evangelist,” and the game did not fail me. As long as the word is not a proper noun or vulgar, the notebook will grant your wish in lieu of Japanese cartoon icon Doraemon. And it made me say, good golly, games have evolved.

I absolutely love trivia. I especially love to learn about the origins of things, like where the expression “balls to the wall” came from, what movie Family Guy is referencing, etc.. So you can imagine  my excitement when I happened across The Planets Suite by composer Gustav Holst. I first learned about the work from a recent Japanese hit that set words to “Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity,” but what really got me giddy was a riff from “Mars, the Bringer of War” that sounded familiar. It is used by Boston College marching band (which I almost joined) during football and hockey games to intimidate the other team during offense, and learning where it came from really struck that nerdy chord in my heart. I am also convinced that the piece is either used in Gladiator or at least provided a heavy inspiration for the soundtrack.

It took me shamefully long to blog about this awesome film. As an avid classic rock fan, Pirate Radio hit all the right notes for me. The very minimal plot line – a bunch of music fanatics struggling against the government – holds up with interesting subplots that never bore, but honestly, who could resist such an awesome soundtrack? The opening sequence is set to the Kinks’ classic “All Day and All of the Night,” which could not be more fitting, as the Davies brothers are the true pioneers of rock who are often credited with introducing the distorted guitar sound to the genre (the myth has it that Ray Davies took a knife to a poor amp, shredding the speaker cones to create that crunchy riff). The opening is very classy even from a designer’s point of view, with well-timed cuts and simple graphics.

While the entire movie is set to a commendable catalog of early, foundational rock bands such as the Turtles, the Yardbirds and the Who, they do stretch the plotline a little bit by never explaining exactly how they evade the government plots to destroy them. The ending credits did include a Taylor Swift album cover, a blasphemy in my opinion to include among actually great albums like the Who’s Tommy and Queen’s A Night at the Opera, but I liked the film so much that I decided to let it slide. Go see it! Oh, and it will make you wanna smoke cigarettes.