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San Francisco, 12:53 AM
Sun Nov 8
11 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/04/09
The live-action series wasn't much of a much, but the cartoon was surprisingly awesome, in part because it deviated from the movie and series by showing apes using more advanced technology; the bit that showed a good ol' ape driving a truck while listening to a country & western song called "I'm Going Humanoid Over You" remains burned in my brain. #michaelchabon
11/03/09
11/03/09
I'm adding this to my wish-list.
Also this: "...one of the constants in Chabon's essays is the primacy of play..."
reminds me of this:
[go-play.org]
11/03/09
11/04/09
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11/03/09
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11/03/09
Lloyd Dobler, in 'Say Anything...' [en.wikipedia.org] :
"I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career.
I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed.
You know, as a career.
I don't want to do that." #michaelchabon
11/03/09
11/03/09
11/04/09
Also, I love Chabon's genre-busting mentality when it comes to publishing and marketing.
I was never so suspicious as to think, "Oh, this is too well-laid-out," or, "this is too Geekcredgineered," especially while I was busy enjoying the books. #michaelchabon
11/04/09
I never thought Lloyd's aspirations were childish. They seemed born of undiminished expectation.
So often, the loftier the ambition and the more elegant the execution, in that we see around us, the more precarious is the equilibrium between our satisfaction and disappointment.
Nagging unease, at the edge of insight, that something, somehow, doesn't quite 'sing'. #michaelchabon
11/04/09
11/03/09
10/16/09
10/15/09
Go Play!
[go-play.org] #starwars
10/15/09
But the bit about his kids sticking it to the corporations is a nice touch. #starwars
10/15/09
It was awesome.
10/15/09
10/15/09
10/16/09
They did for the first few years of the theme. I remember specifically that one of the first wave of sets had a picture on the back of a lifesize lightsaber hilt built from the bricks in the set. #starwars
10/15/09
It sure rang true, as I remember going through an educational system worked very hard to beat the creativity out of people.
I know others who feel this way as well, but did anyone have a different experience growing up? #starwars
10/15/09
(Says the person who mostly bought LEGO sets for the minifigs so they could be used to make custom characters for tabletop gaming. SO MUCH EASIER than painting lead figurines.) #starwars
10/15/09
10/15/09
It is a challenge to do certain things with certain sets but you aren't too limited by even a very small set.
The thing is, Lego does sell creator boxes with no instructions, just a themed figure (Pirate, Knight or Fireman) and lots of bricks. You don't have to buy Star Wars you know... #starwars
10/15/09
10/15/09
Dude, your kids aren't as amazing as you think. All kids with Lego did the same thing (even 30 some odd years ago.) What makes Lego great was that you could do whatever the hell you wanted with it. #starwars
10/15/09
Also, aside from that, it's the merchandising. When I was a kid, I had a bunch of sci-fi themed Lego sets. But they weren't licensed from any specific franchise. That left me free to make up my own stories and my own world. With Lego sets based on Star Wars or whatever else, I can see how there would be a tendency for creativity to be a bit more restricted, since you already know the narratives the set is supposed to fit into. So I am guessing the author finds it interesting that children find ways to be creative despite these restrictions, which were not necessarily there in the Legos of decades past. #starwars
10/15/09
10/15/09
My favorite LEGO as a teen were the Adventurers sets. Some of the peices were just generic sandy-coloured six-peg pieces. Some were Pharonic statuary with trapdoors. Nevertheless, I got some pretty rad Egyptian temples out of the deal.
Nowadays, I just use all those bits to make little Steampunk things. I still need to get an AT-ST Walker so I can cannibalize the legs for my own contraption. #starwars
10/15/09
Older sets used to just use bricks to make the roof of a house. Then they came up with the sloped piece. The slope pieces are more specialized than the regular bricks but that doesn't necessarily limit the number of things that they can be used for. #starwars
10/15/09
THIS. Goodness, people-- all of you in this thread who don't get what Chabon was saying, he's saying THIS.
Legos in the 1970s, back when I was a kid? The same pieces were used for everything. The space sets, the police sets, everything. Since they were all clearly interchangeable, you quickly just messed around with them, and creativity flourished.
Then somewhere along the way, you started seeing the "specialized" sets that no matter what you did always looked like what they were supposed to be-- pirates, medieval knights, now Star Wars. Yes, you can make your own creations, but it's clearly designed to *start* from a more specific place than before.
Personally, I just want a giant box of Legos. (Lego-- whatever, I'm not f'ing Danish). No plans, no suggestions, simply freedom.
THAT'S what Chabon is getting at. #starwars
10/16/09
Screw that. If all I had was a box of generic LEGO bricks, I never would have been able to build this:
[sluggy.com] #starwars