Per Wes’ mention earlier, here’s the late Chris Hitchens on religion.

And that article I mentioned about how we’re really all terrible racists. 😛

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/03/millenials-race-115909.html?cmpid=sf#.VP7vgvmsU1I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKNYJx9Ekpw

Here is the Richard Foreman scripts

http://www.ontological.com/notebooks.html

So I’ve had this blog idea for a while. But I’ve been letting it stew because I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to say…
Space.
A couple of weeks back now we did the exercise where we recreated a film scene live on stage. Bryony’s group recreated the famous ear cutting scene from reservoir dogs. It was in this performace where something lit a spark in my mind, in terms if staging. At one point Hal removes the camera from it’s fixed station and follows bryony through to the workshop,whilst the scene in front of us was still alive. It sounds simple but it’s stuck with me for so long because it was so effective, and I think I’ve nailed down why so… 1) it did something the film couldn’t, it gave us an extra scene. Even though not much happend to tied up chole. The fact we got two simulatinous veiws of the same time, within the same narrative unlocks the potential to discover more story within the same time. A sense of dramatic irony maybe? 2) live gets a whole other meaning. “Live perfeomance emerged not as a condition of physical proximity and co presence, but as a correlate of time” is written by sarah bay-cheng, this technique not only exemplfyes this quote but it also adds to it, not only do we have a co presence to the stage, but the fact that the camera lead us to a place out of sight gives us another co presence. As we saw action transport from stage to off stage (whilst stage was still being used) it became a more incluvise experience. We we’re let into the secrets of the character. 3) it was tidy. One thing that bugged me about the hotel is how out of place the camera looked on stage around this 1930 esque look, it became distracting. Potentially having the camera ready to go just off stage and follow characters to different rooms. Gives us more space and doesn’t harm the overall look of what’s on stage. This technique has so much potential to play with… Let’s not forget it.

https://www.unrealengine.com/

Above is a link to the unreal engine website, and gameplay of ‘New Retro Arcade.’

A few days ago digital cyber-cherries released ‘New Retro Arcade’, a new game, where users are placed within a fully immersive 80’s style arcade, packed full of playable arcade cabs and classic games. Made using the unreal 4 engine, a game development software, that has recently been made free by the unreal engine company, the game contrasts stunning the high definition graphics present within the modern day, with classic 80’s games such as ‘Pac-Man’, ‘Space Invaders’ and ‘Donkey-Kong.’
Interestingly, this game can be viewed as a representation of meta-theatre, reproduced in a game. As the user, you control an ethereal type being, disembodied, you float around the ‘games room’ with the choice of playing any of the surrounding arcade machines like ‘Pac Man’, classic games consoles such as the ‘SNES’ or even bowl at the bowling alley, or play darts. The concept of playing games within a game is in itself Meta theatrical.
This game is a great example of how the use of modern, digital technology, can challenge the traditional conventions of gaming. Showcasing a variety of ‘retro’ games encased within an environment created with modern technology, the game is consciously referencing how far we have come, not just in graphics, but with development itself. As if to say ‘Look at what we had, and what we have now!’ the very name, ‘New Retro Arcade’ is allusion towards the contrasting nature of the game.
As a result the game is a showcase, of the stunning graphics available today, the new free to use game development software ‘Unreal 4’ and a timeline of classic games whose legacy will reside forever, cemented in virtual reality with ‘New Retro Arcade.’