My Magical Place: Disconnect Review

“We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity; more than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.” – Charlie Chaplin

If there is one thing you should learn in this digital day and age (albeit not as digital as science and science fiction speculated in the 20^th Century) it’s that social networks will undo you in a matter of seconds if you are not careful. Look at what happened to model, Jessica Leandra Dos Santos on Twitter last year – two racist Tweets out of anger and her modelling career went down in flames. Disconnect looks at how our online activities affect our everyday lives over time.  The film is centred around the idea of how people’s online lives spill over into their ‘real’ lives and how, ironically, being connected via the Internet people have actually become disconnected from each other.

The plot follows the stories of four different sets of characters and contains a number of interconnections between the different story arcs. Disconnect is not the movie I expected from what was revealed in the trailer and I am glad it isn’t. I was expecting a feature with a strong focus on cybercrime in terms of fraud and paedophiles preying on children by means of social media and sinister chatrooms. The latter issue is a very important to address but usually movies deal with it in a manner that freaks viewers out in the same way slasher movies do. Disconnect deals with all these issues in a very human way. The story is simply about people who are drifting further and further apart as a result of being too connected to the communication platforms that the Internet and the technology surrounding it affords. Henry Alex Rubin’s (Girl, Interrupted, 1999) direction is brilliant in terms of how the story is paced and how it develops. Many of the scenes are very quiet and all you can hear is the sound of people typing away on keyboards and when they do talk it’s usually over the phone or via a webcam. All these methods of communication feel very natural to the viewer because that’s how we communicate on a daily basis. Reading a fairly large portion of the movie’s dialogue onscreen as people text each other becomes second nature. The film reaches a dramatic climactic point that you just don’t expect and blows you away for a few seconds – especially after how calm everything has been more or less up to that point.

Andrew Stern (Nurses, 2007) wrote a good story that will stay with you for a while after seeing the movie and the ensemble cast delivers some good performances. The initial story is that of Kyle (brilliantly played by Max Thierot), an underage chatroom worker who meets a reporter, Nina Dunham (Andrea Riseborough), in one of his chatroom sessions who wants to help him leave that world behind by sharing his story. The question, though, is does he need her help?  There is the story of teenagers, Jason (Colin Ford) and Frye that deals with the issue of cyberbullying and its outcomes. Ben Boyd (Jonah Bobo) is the victim of the cyberbullying by the two boys and the plot also centers on the fragmented lives that he and his family lead. This arc of the story deals a lot with loneliness as one of its major themes. Jason Bateman (Horrible Bosses, 2011) and Hope Davis (About Schmidt, 2002) play Ben’s parents and Frank Grillo (End of Watch, 2012) plays Jason’s father. The last story is that of a couple, Cindy (Paula Patton) and Derek (Alexander Skarsgård) who have become distant from each other as the result of having lost a child and how they cope with having their credit card details stolen online as a result of them spending so much time on the Internet in an attempt to find refuge from their problems. These stories are all cleverly and subtly interwoven throughout the movie and at times you are given glimpses of how things could have gone in another direction instead of the one the plot follows. Things could go horribly wrong or they can go right.

I enjoyed Disconnect a lot. It’s a very apt story in our digital age and hits home with its message. I highly recommend that you go see it.

Horses and Getting Back On Them

Now that I think about it (I've been putting this off), moving down to Cape Town at the drop of a hat has been quite a mission. Most of my experiences for the last three weeks have been new to me: new job, new location (this is still not settled yet), new people, new Apple Mac to get used to at the office (I still want to throw it out of the window) and some other things I can't think of now. All this means that my routines and structures have been thrown out of the old window.

Road down to the Promenade, Bantry Bay

I've been very into gym but that's on hold now till I finally move into the place I'll actually be living in in the Gardens/Vredehoek area. I tried setting up some sort of routine but between living in a guesthouse for a week and now a backpackers that's failed miserably. Running's been my only salvation in terms of exercise even though my plan was to kick up the gym thing a notch and tone down on the running. But I need some sort of outlet and running along the Promenade for the first week in Cape Town and now having discovered a mountain route near Observatory has been and continues to be very scenic. My diet's also shot to hell! I've been living on cereal and take out food for three weeks and I've only cooked once. First of all I'm very lazy to cook, I've been busy and lastly it's a waste for me to go stock up on groceries when I am going to be moving in a few days time. I try at least make the food I eat be clean in terms of nutrition but it's not working out all that great.

Running route in Newlands Forest

Having a new job that I spend most of my day at actually doing things (and adjusting to speaking Afrikaans all day) also means that my freelance and recreational writing pursuits have been benched for a while. This has been upsetting me the most as I was starting get my writing out into the media world and people were responding positively to it. This morning I told myself that it's best to accept that till I move to Gardens and get settled in my writing will be on hold. I think I've even managed to convince myself to look at it as a little holiday. I was looking forward to covering some E3 news for Xbox 360 Gamer SA and that didn't happen but hey! It's the gaming industry and till the Xbox One and Playstation 4 actually do get released there'll be lots of news to dig up for speculation's sake.

I'm a movie fanatic and even that's taken a knock. I still haven't seen Star Trek: Into Darkness and Man of Steel :( and I had the time this last weekend but then I was broke from just living in good ol' Cape Town. I'm even sad about things like Oblivion (Meh, Tom Cruise) and After Earth (Yay, Will Smith).

My bookworm ways haven't deteriorated to naught at least and that's a good thing. When all else fails in my life there's always J.R.R. Tolkien to read more about. I'm reading Tom Shippey's Tolkien: Author of the Century and after getting passed the rather tedious Foreword I'm enjoying the book. Everything by Tolkien and about Tolkien is food to my soul and I happen to be in possession of a very ravenous soul.

That's more or less what's happening with me and it's amazing and frustrating all at once. As Fall Out Boy (those amazing boys) would say, let the good time roll in case God doesn't show.

Settling In

I'm a hobbit at heart, soul and feet. I love food, warmth and comfort. I tend to dislike new experiences and new places because it means I have to take some time getting used to them and I feel weird during that whole process. My Tookish side, which is to say my adventurous side sees me through such times and when I am at the other end I'm not sure how I got there but it feels like home.

I arrived in Cape Town last week Sunday to the most dreadful weather possible! It was just hail and wind that threatened to sweep me off of my feet. The city was still very beautiful though and I couldn't wait to explore it and get to know it. I lived in Bantry Bay for the first week, near the sea and that was lovely! I got to run along the coast and watch waves when I came from work. Some really nice folk even took me to Stellenbosch to do some wine farming over the weekend and that was just beautiful. I'm earnestly considering moving to Stellenbosch for a while after getting to know Cape Town intimately.

Work has been nice and confusing at times but I'm getting the hang of it and will be a rockstar at it. The people are uber friendly and Afrikaans so my Afrikaans brain is kicking in full force and I will be a chocolate boertjie very soon.

I've moved again, to a backpackers in Observatory this time and it's an odd experience living with so many people from so many different countries. I got to talk to some cool people though and that's great.

That's me still getting the lay of the land and laying down a framework for the future :).

Audio Slave: Slaughterhouse's Our House, My Battle Song

"Rap is the only thing that I was ever really bad to the bone at
Guess I'm similar to gangrene when I'm angry then I'm
Hulk Smash, so much passion but no compassion
If eyes are the windows to the soul
Then it's broken glass and there's no trespassing"

Farewell to My City

 “Destiny is usually just around the corner. Like a thief, a hooker, or a lottery vendor: it's three most common personifications. But what destiny does not do is home visits. You have to go for it.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

Let me point out from the outset that I have no idea what I'm doing. Let me also point out that I'm the best person in the world at doing what I don't know - I spend at least two hours a day wondering what the hell is going on around me and still pretty much being kickass. I am going on a journey and leaving behind everything I hold dear in order to become a better Charlie and thus best serve everything I hold dear. I am not prepared for this but at least I have a green towel to see me through. I'll be fine.

“For those who are lost, there will always be cities that feel
like home.” ― Simon Van Booy, Everything Beautiful Began After

Ladies. Gentlesirs. I am moving to Cape Town. This is not something that I planned like I do so many things. This one's just a happening and I am the willing victim. I've been struggling to get into the publishing industry for the last year or so and every door I've been knocking on seemed to yield no response. My long-time companion, Varsha and I went through hope all the way to despair and then back to hope again. Of all the people I know I don't think anyone knows more how I feel than she does. Follow your dreams they said but no one ever told us how quick those fuckers run! But we've caught up now and the buggers are in for a beating. Varsha landed a gig at Jonathan Ball Publishers as a Sales Assistant and seems as happy as punch (I honestly think I don't know what that means) there. She also gets free books, which is always nice.

Just before I got too depressed and almost started on my plans to become a super villain hellbent on revenge against literary establishments Varsha sent me an email from NB Publishers looking for an Editorial Assistant. I met all of their requirements and they set up an interview, which I thought was in Jo'burg but turned out to be in Cape Town. It was an amusing situation of me thinking they're here and them thinking I'm there. After some back and forth communication they suggested I move to Cape Town. I thought about it and realised I have nothing keeping me here except everything I love so I said yes, let's do that.

"The city is a sorceress, you know, Daniel? It gets under your skin and steals your soul without you knowing it..." ― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

Here I am two weeks later scrounging money together, making travel arrangements, finalising places to stay and saying farewells. I'm pretty much doing everything on the run and I'm still in shock. I'm excited most of all. I remember the strangest thought that popped into my head when it all became a reality was: "Shit! Now I have find a new place to gym and new routes to run." That made me laugh. I'm going to miss so much of Jo'burg though. This place is home and all I know about life comes from these grimy streets: family, friendship, love, sex, alcohol, crime, hate, fresh fog fuckery, pain, joy. It all happened to me here.

Jozi. My fair city. I love you and all the life I've lived in you.

Xbox One Reveal – A Summary

Xbox One Reveal – A Summary

Me summing up the Xbox One reveal from last week for you. I do these things because I love you :).

The Gig Life: Fractured Lives Book Launch 08/05/2013

Attending a book launch at Love Books is always a treat. The store is beautiful and the owner, Kate Rogan, and her staff are some cool human beings. If you love books you really should stop by and say hello; and if you end up buying a book (or ten) and a cup of coffee that's good too. My lovely companion, Judy, says attending book launches and comic book stores with me is bad for her wallet. What she doesn't know is that I'm looking out for the well-being of her bookshelf. I really am. I digress though.

Wednesday, 08 May 2013 saw the launch of Toni Strasberg's memoir, Fractured Lives, published by Modjaji Books. The book documents Toni Strasberg's life as filmmaker covering wars in southern African countries in the '80s and '90s. The book offers a female perspective on the senseless nature of war, which is often seen as 'the province of men'. Toni focuses especially on the effects of war on women and children. From what I saw of her on the night of the launch Toni is a very formidable woman. Her demeanour is that of someone who will not take nonsense and is not to be trifled with. I imagine that these are some of the character traits that allowed her to be a woman in charge of a film crew covering some of humanity's most inhumane actions at the time. Fractured Lives is a documentary of Toni as a woman and as a human being who has witnessed war in its many terrible forms and even in its exhilarating forms. The book provides social commentary on war in general and our fascination with it. Toni admits to not being a writer in the traditional sense of the notion as she is primarily a filmmaker and sees the world more visually than in terms of words. Fractured Lives is her written account of all she has seen and lived through.

Toni Strasberg was born in South Africa and went into exile in Britain in 1965, following the Rivonia Trial. She studied in Britain where she eventually became a filmmaker. Toni's responsible for award-winning films like Chain of Tears, Chain of Hope and A South African Love Story. In addition to making films and dabbling in writing Toni has served as an International Peace Monitor and Election Observer for the United Nations. She was also involved in NGO work for UNESCO and other similar bodies. At the launch she pointed out that she's old now and that, of course, she's done some things in her life.

Toni was in conversation with Hamilton Wende, a journalist and writer who has also seen and experienced many of the brutalities of war on the African continent and has added his voice to the literature that documents these conflicts. As formidable as Toni is she is also quite humorous. She regaled the crowd with funny stories about the slow and arduous process of shooting a film and meeting flamboyant political figures. As a white woman documenting war in Africa she did find herself in many humorous and even unsettling situations. Toni and Hamilton also spoke at length about child soldiers in many African wars and how, as the title of the books suggests, war fractures people's lives. As a result of war many families are scattered across the globe and it's difficult for them to stay in touch. War takes lives and ruins those it leaves behind. Humans are also very resilient in that they find small things to hold on to in times of conflict, things like a music teacher charming Toni and her crew into filming a boy he taught to play the piano. War is also exciting and addictive Toni points out. She has made a career out of documenting war because all those stories need be told but also because it got her adrenalin pumping.

War is hell as is always said but as humans we are ever drawn to it. 

Pick up a copy of Toni Strasberg's Fractured Lives and Hamilton Wende's Only the Dead on sale at Love Books.

As per usual, thanks to Joostenberg for providing the wine to fuel an amazing literary evening.

Go see Iron Man 3

I continue my slutty ways (risking some sort of digitally transferred infection) and write a review for Bizcommunity.com explaining to you why you should go see Iron Man 3. As if you needed any reason to begin with, you sly dog of a comic book nerd ;).

Go see Iron Man 3

JoyStiq: Injustice: Gods Among Us XBox 360 Review

DC goes Battle Royale!

NetherRealm Studios has decided to give our favourite DC heroes and villains a stage on which to beat the snot out of each other and it sure does look pretty and is loads of fun to play. Injustice: Gods Among Us is the new kid on the block in the fighting games arena and it holds its own against the big boys like its stablemate, 2011's Mortal Kombat. In fact it’s pretty much Mortal Kombat with new mechanics added to the gameplay. DC has never had its own brawler unless you count Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, which you should seeing that it’s still fun to play. Most gamers grew up on fighting games. I remember running to the ‘games shop’ (we never called it an arcade) near my house after school with a pocket full of 50 cent coins with the aim of kicking butt. Most of the fun in fighting games comes from mastering all of the characters’ hellishly difficult moves and stringing a bunch of cool combos together. Looking back I realise that this was actually an achievement on the same level as attaining a PhD. Injustice allows you to spend hours mastering a character like Batman’s moves so you can kick Superman in the head in a showdown.

I’ve yet to meet a fighting game with a storyline that actually makes sense and Injustice doesn’t stray from this time-honoured tradition. The story in Injustice exists solely to give you a rather flimsy reason as to why DC’s roster of characters are all standing around beating the nonsense out of each other. This isn’t a bad thing because you’re really only playing to beat up a bunch of virtual people. The plot explains things like how Batman is able to beat Superman into a Kryptonian pulp. Everything kicks off with in an alternate reality in which the Joker tricks Superman into murdering a pregnant Lois Lane, which results in the destruction of Metropolis because the Joker linked bombs to her heart beat. Superman loses his mind and kills the Joker in fit of super rage. Batman witnesses this and because of his moral inclination cannot stand for it. This results in two sides being established; evil Superman and those who side with him and Batman and his side of good guys. Add an incident that allows travel between alternate universes and you have Injustice: Gods Among Us. It’s all fun.

As I’d mentioned earlier, Injustice looks pretty. The characters are well designed and they look good. The Joker looks especially creepily crazy, which we like. The game levels look amazing and are interactive. Each level is tiered and you can beat your enemies through walls and such to launch them into the next tier in a spectacular fashion. The fighting stages include classic locations like the Batcave, Superman’s Fortress of Solitude and the Justice League’s Watchtower. You get to battle it out on many of the places in the DC universe where you’ve ever wanted to see a showdown between DC’s finest or worst – depending on your inclination.

The gameplay in Injustice is all the things you’re used to in fighting games with cool twists added. Every match consists of only one round and each player has two health bars and the match ends when both those bars run out. The four-button control scheme consists of light, medium and heavy attacks. The fourth button activates an ability unique to each character. This is one of the features in the game that levels the battlefield for characters like Batman and Green Arrow against behemoths like Superman and Doomsday. Characters are divided into ‘power characters’ and ‘gadget characters’. The former use their brute strength and super abilities to bash your skull in and the latter rely on weapons and other external mechanisms to defeat their opponents. Speaking of external mechanisms, each level is littered with interactive elements each character can use differently. Superman can throw a car at his enemies whereas Batman can use that same car to launch himself into the air and pull off a combo. Players also have super meters that you can fill by pulling off cool combos against enemies or by getting clobbered. You can use the meter to either to perform special attacks or to compete in wager battles by means of the Clash system. When you go into wager mode a cutscene pops up to interrupt the current play and each player has to put a portion of their meter energy on the line. The player whose wager is the most wins the clash. The clash can only be activated when you’re down to your second health bar. This adds a great strategic element to the game in addition to the interactive elements littered around the levels. I like this system of gameplay as it makes every fight more exciting. The game isn’t difficult to get a hang of but mastering it is a different matter – that requires some effort. The game doesn’t have much of a tutorial system so players have to master character moves during actual combat. The game does include different game modes in addition to the Story Mode and sparse Training Mode. These are Battle Mode, Versus Mode and S.T.A.R. Labs (missions that consist of Batman using S.T.A.R. Labs facilities to complete objectives).

Online multiplayer options consist of King of the Hill and Survivor modes. In the latter mode players spectate matches whilst awaiting their turn. This mode supports up to eight players. Survivor Mode consists of players carrying over whatever health they had left from previous battles throughout as many fights as possible. Playing through all of Injustice’s modes unlocks artwork, new costumes and music.

Pick up Injustice: Gods Among Us for approximately R600.00 at your nearest games retailer. Injustice is nowhere near being a great fighting game but it’s fun to play and because it’s not as technical as Tekken or Street Fighter anyone can pick it up and have a great time fighting against their favourite DC characters. The roster is on the skimpy side but DLC will probably fix that soon enough.

Pick up Injustice and button mash your way through the ranks.

JoyStiq: Far Cry 3 XBox 360 Review

A Nightmare Get Away

There's a reason why first-person shooters are the most popular gaming genre and the Far Cry series is one of them. The original title blew our minds to teeny-tiny pieces back in 2004 with its amazing visuals and fun gameplay. The Crysis series may be Crytek's flagship series now but Far Cry was its heart. The guys over at Ubisoft Montreal are doing great things with the license though and Far Cry 3 is clearly a result of a labour of love. Someone over at Ubisoft Montreal's studio must have said, 'Guys, let's take all the best bits of Far Cry and Far Cry 2 and make a new game.' This simple equation works and makes Far Cry 3 one of the best shooters currently on the market. The game is set in a gorgeous tropical environment that's as dangerous as it's visually appealing. Add elements of insanity and drug induced delusions and you're good to go.

You play as Jason Brody as he tries to escape the clutches of drug dealing pirates lead by a charming and insane guy called Vaas, the game's primary antagonist. After Jason escapes he must survive and try and save his friends who were captured along with him. He goes about this task with the aid of the Rakyat, a tribe native to the island he finds himself on. The Rakyat are adversely affected by Vaas and his cronies' drug dealing activities and adopt Jason in order to groom him into a fierce warrior. While I never got too invested in the previous games' stortlyline Far Cry 3 makes you care about the people you meet and makes you despise many of them too. Vaas is an unstable individual and this makes him the most interesting person in the game. He is a lunatic and embodies the game's theme of insanity in terrible and twisted ways. There are moments in Far Cry 3 that make little sense because you experience them through Jason's drug addled state. This is executed well and the sense of disconnect makes playing the game more interesting. The story is similar to Lara Croft's escapades in Tomb Raider in that both stories are about survival and going from a normal person to a warrior capable of dealing out death. Where Tomb Raider is intense and focused Far Cry 3 is massive and allows players a great deal of freedom.

The Far Cry series has the reputation of setting graphics benchmarks for games and Far Cry 3 doesn't drop the ball in this regard. The Dunia 2 Engine gives Crytek's CryENGINE 3 a run for its money in producing a lush tropical setting that's stunning to see. I think we've come to that point in gaming where great visuals are standard in any game. Far Cry 3's visuals are still exceptional though and the manner in which the tropical setting, characters, fauna and flora are presented is amazing. Far Cry 3 is a sandbox game and its beauty makes its open world fun to explore; experiencing the sounds, feel and general atmosphere of the tropical jungle. The animals are spectacular in how they look and behave and it's possible to interact with almost everything in the game's open world.

Vaas, the face of insanity.

Far Cry 3 is more than just a shooter, it has some RPG elements in that you can level up according to three skill tree options: the Spider, Heron and Shark. Your progress is depicted on your arm in the form of tattoos, which is pretty cool. You can approach combat situations stealthily like a spider would, attack from long range much like a heron or go in guns blazing and use aggressive tactics like a shark is more inclined to do. The combat is rather difficult to get used to, even on a lower difficulty setting and it’s frustrating. The game has a steep learning curve to players new to the genre. Once you get the hang of it combat is fun and you can use the environment to assist you in eliminating enemies. You can use elements like fire to flush enemies out of hiding or even set loose captured wild animals to take down bad guys for you. You pick up and buy guns and ammo as you progress and can upgrade your weapons. The in-game economy is your usual FPS fare. Most of the fun lies in the sheer amount of things you can do. The side quests are fun – whether you’re hunting animals for their pelts, taking down pirate encampments and turning them to safe zones or just transporting medicine. The game world is massive and you can spend 30+ hours just on the single player campaign.

Far Cry 3 offers great value for your money in terms of how much it has to offer. There are two multiplayer options: co-op and your usual free-for-all mode. Both modes are loads of fun to play but the co-op mode stands out. You can embark on a campaign with up to three of your buddies helping you out. It’s definitely a case of ‘the more the merrier’ as the campaign can be hellishly difficult.

In an on-going spirit of saving you money you can pick up Far Cry 3 for as little as R550.00 if you browse through most of the local e-tailors. This is a great thing for our struggling wallets.

Far Cry 3 is a great game but got relegated to the background with all the big releases we’ve been seeing lately. It’s one of the most solid games on the market today though and its large scope means it will keep you busy for a good while. It does get buggy but that’s easily overlooked.

A Nightmare Get Away

This game is well worth any serious gamers’ time and is very satisfying to play.