September’s article, Sword of the Valiant, is a critique of the ’80’s film of the same name.

How about a little wine with that cheese? Sword of the Valiant, produced in true 80s fashion, is laughable. The movie claims to be the tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. I am not sure what copy they read, but I can assure you, this movie had nothing to do with the title other than the main character being named Gawain and the opening scene- sort of.

August’s article, Tilt, Game 6., is a short story on life, death, and the road in between.

I grabbed my computer and stuffed my trunk full of documents and booze and books and clothes. I opened the mapbook to a random page and pointed to a random destination. There. I drive.

The landlord didn’t much care. I found someone else to take over my lease.

I told my boss I’d be gone for a while. I didn’t tell him exactly how long, though, so it could be forever, right? He probably thinks I’ll be gone a week. Anyway, it was a shit job. Fuck him, that prick.

July’s article, In Defense of Domesticity, is a short piece on domestic labour and feminism.

Because of some crossed wires, I’m taking this month instead of johnmoon (he’ll be up for August). Since I’m in the middle of moving, I’m going to shamelessly plagiarize my own comment from a thread over at reappropriate. On our blog, I argued for the ability for people to choose what, if any, parts of traditional femininity and masculinity are right for them. Taking the argument to its logical conclusion, everyone should have the right to choose what kind of life is right for them whether it be working a job or taking care of the house and kids.

When I was younger, I was pretty much against anything feminine. My personality, combined with my having a backlash against what was expected of me, caused me to get into a “male-normative” mindset (meaning that I thought that traditionally male things were “normal” and traditionally feminine things were “bad”): I hated makeup, and “girly” clothing like dresses and skirts, and, yes, I looked down on people who aspired to the domestic. It took me a long time to step away from that mindset but it wasn’t until I got a big dose of feminist theory that I really understood why it’s so important to see things such as domestic labour as valuable.

June’s article, The Mummy, is a review of the 1999 movie with an Egyptology bent.

While The Mummy is an enjoyable two hours, Egyptology 101 it is not. Okay, yes, there are a few other oversights that are not related to Ancient Egypt, but most of the glaring problems were based there.

The first thing that I noticed was the setting itself. The virtual reconstruction was beautiful, but two major issues jumped out at me- the Sphinx and the Pyramids. Both of these objects, while certainly personifying Ancient Egypt, are located at Giza. The scene was supposedly taking place at Thebes. This is nowhere near Giza and could not, therefore, have either of these objects in the skyline.

May’s article, Gaming Communities: Real or Imaginary?, focuses on communities in online games and is a critique on a newspaper article on the same issue.

Why is it that the most visible critiques on video games come from people who are obviously not even casual gamers? I always hear “violence” and “sexually explicit content” thrown around without the writer having an understanding, or offering an in-depth critique, on what those words mean for video games. I find that these so-called “anti-game crusaders” often buy into alarmist extremes, thereby misrepresenting the influence of videogames, without ever asking why such a correlation exists. Most times, this perspective misses the intricacies of the games and, in the case of online games, the gaming communities.