The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Thursday, September 25, 2008 - 38

COURTESY OF BBC
Replacing guilty
pleasures with books

Faces of "TRL''s golden age.

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946, George Orwell wrote last year, one in four American
essay called "Books v. Ciga- adults read no books at all in 2007.
ttes," in which he evaluated The average person claimed to have
t of his two main vices. read four.
sing up his book habit cost What are we, troglodytes?
imately £25 a year, a figure Granted, the survey concerned
arrived at by tallying books "adults" in general. I'd like to think
his possession (including the average university student, by
oks, used ones and library virtue of being a university student,
ptions) and averaging over reads more than four books a year.
s (his estimated time spent But on second thought, how
ng much further does the average col-
ooks). lege kid branch out from his or her
ed for required course'reading list? If yes
.n and -'s add up enough blog posts, can you
n aver- ii count them as one book? (There
nings are blogs that have spawned book
, £25 deals, after all.) Orwell didn't have
tes OnDemand and RSS feeds compet-
hly K jMERY ing for his leisure time.
89, or CHOU A fair amount of University
67. It students smoke, and almost all Uni-
like a lot, at least until you versity students drink or "party"
r his other expenditures. to some degree. How much money
ell estimated that he spent do you think you spend a year
ear on cigarettes, which, boozing or going out, compared to
d in the same terms as buying books - not counting those
comes out to about £3,819.03 required for class? In this case, I
or $6,991.49. only wish the Ann Arbor business
figures for "today's" num- bureau kept a tally of revenues
ay seem high, but let's take from beer, wine and liquor sales as
count higher prices in the well as funnels, Solo cups, Hawai-
I some other conversion ian Punch and other products that
that the math-minded contribute to the activity of getting
rs of MeasuringWorth. drunk.
which I used for calculating What would happen if you didn't
hange and inflation - can get that extra pitcher at Domin-
much better than I can.) ick's ($22.00 for sangria) this week
ell, considering himself or skipped a pack of cigarettes
with the average British (around $6 for a pack at Maison
rightfully bemoans in his Edwards tobacconist in Nickels
hat he and his compatriots Arcade)? You could buy a paper-
back from the Book Guy, Wystan
Stevens, on State Street; his used
be sh uld books, sold out of his van, are all
y e shoud $5 each.
ink a bit more Erasmus reportedly said, "If I
noe have a little money, I buy books;
re 'we buy that and if any is left, I buy food and
clothes." Face it, the guy was prob-
k of cigarettes. ably exaggerating. But there's
something noble in the idea of
thinking like him about the love of
reading, and of knowledge. Try it
nore on tobacco and booze for a week.
soks, "which includes nov- Perhaps it's too soon to give up
try, text books, works of the bevvy (Dominick's closes after
ce, sociological treatises Columbus Day), but there's another
.ch else." With so much to expense that's been eating into
from, why did cigarettes wallets more than usual - gaso-
its at the pub take up more line. At more than $4 a gallon, it's
ypical person's budget in a good idea to drive less if you can.
fhat are we, troglodytes?, Everyone wins: Walking or riding
seems to ask in the essay, a bicycle instead will boost cardio-
s included in the recent col- vascular health and lessen human-
of his newspaper columns, kind's death campaign against
1 in Tribune: 'As I Please' the environment. A recent study,
her Writings 1943-7." according to Harper's magazine,
Orwell on book consump- even reported that 1,000 fewer
et us admit that it is people per month are dying in car
e reading is a less exciting accidents because of fewer cars on
e than going to the dogs, the road due to increased gas pric-
ures or the pub, and not es. Get a bike or walk; spend some
e books, whether bought or of that former gas money on books,
ed, are too expensive." which you can read between class
be the average American now that you're not spending extra
n't caught up in "going to time locating street parking close
's," though it's safe to say to the B-school.
quenting the pub trans- Of course, there's always the
ross time and geography. library- and if you go to the Uni-
sk consumption of any kind versity libraries, considered some
ome startlingly low on this of the nation's best, everything is
the pond, so much so that free. And I'm sure you can get all
s ghost would be lucky to kinds of editions of "Animal Farm."

TRL
From Page 1B
LFO: "Summer Girls"
Debuted: 08/10/99
Thanks to "TRL," "Summer
Girls" by LFO became the anthem
- albeit a meaningless one - of
my summer 1999. The three-
man boy band faux-rapped about
everything from Cherry Coke and
Fun Dip to Macaulay Culkin and
The Beastie Boys, all while pining
after girls donning Abercrombie
& Fitch. It sounds like a bad com-
mercial, but watch the video and
you will find no sarcasm. They
"bounce and a-wiggle" to their
hip-hop song sincerely, surround-
ed by tweens wearing (ironically)
not much of anything, let alone
the brand name they neme-drop.
SARAH CHAVEY
Mariah Carey f/ Jay-Z:
"He frthreaker"
Debuted: 08/23/99
Who even remembers Jay-Z
was in this damn song or video?
"Heatbreaker" was four minutes
of S-E-X. Only Mariah Carey could
make a movie theater job look as
steamy as this. Every gyration
and touch of the ground, matched
with the refrain of "Gimme your
love," absolutely throbbed with
sexual energy. And, my God, the
pink top. Mariah owned that
video with her voice, her charm
and her, um ... screw it: This video
was hot. From the catfight scene
to the shots of Mariah crawling
toward the camera, this video
was going to sell albums. And

Jerry O'Connell ended up in the
video. So that probably sold a
record, too.
MATT EMERY
Bloodhound Gang: "The Bad
Touch"
Debuted: 03/21/00
Whose parents didn't hate this
song? With its stupidly porno-
graphic subject matter and juve-
nile music video that managed
to offend just about everyone, it
must've been public enemy num-
ber one at PTA meetings. Own-
ing a copy of Hooray for Boobies
- yep, that was the name of the
album - in 6th grade was as big a
score as getting your friend's older
brother to buy you a fifth of Bac-'
ardi O three years later. Too bad
most of the song's NC-17 wit was
lost on middle-schoolers. But they
should grasp it now: "And then
we'll do it doggy style so we can
both watch X-Files." Brilliant.
DAVID WATNICK
Eminem: "The Real Slim
Shady"
Debuted: 04/27/00
How many kids learned what
head actually was after watch-
ing Eminem's "The Real Slim
Shady?" A lot. Between rhymes
about Christina Aguilera blow-
ing Carson Daly and saying "fuck
you" to Will Smith, this violent
and sexual video was overtly
anti-"TRL" ("I'm sick of you little
boy and girl groups / All you do is
annoy me / So I've been sent here
to destroy you"). Its appeal, how-
ever, was anything but. Whether
you loved or hated Eminem, you

couldn't look away. Eminem was
the bad boy of the "TRL" era and.
definitely had the "balls to say it."
ZACHARY MEISNER
soulDecision: "Faded"
Debuted: 10/15/00
Canada's answer to the boy
band, soulDecision was more
Monkees than Backstreet - they
played their own instruments and
wrote their own songs, including
breakout popjam"Faded,"penned
by indistinguishably dreamy front
man Trevor Guthrie. And what
songs they were, with lyrics made
for whispering awkwardly in the
ears of dance partners at middle
school dances by pre-teens who
weren't quite sure what "faded"
meant: "Every night when we say
goodbye / I can't help looking in
your eyes / Wondering why you
and I haven't hit it / Can we get
it on?" (Of course, "on" is sung as
two syllables.) The video, shot in
multi-colored rooms in a Vancou-
ver apartment, wasn't so dynamic
as to keep your attention for lon-
ger than a verse and a chorus,
which made it perfect for TRL
and the show's blink-and-you'll-
miss-it style of videos.
KIMBERLY CHOU
O-Town: "Liquid Dreams"
Debuted: 01/18/01
If there were any doubters,
O-Town proved once and for all
that, yes, boy bands were that
synthetic. Created in front of the
world's eyes on the then-revolu-
tionary format of reality TV, the
"Making the Band" product was
primed to conquer the "TRL" mar-

ket before its members were even
chosen. Built on a groove as arti-
ficial as the band itself (the music
video graphics weren't much bet-
ter, either), "Liquid Dreams" cap-
tivated tweens everywhere and
kept O-Townon"TRL"for54 days.
But it wasn't a surprise, what boy
or girl of any age isn't obsessed by
the notion of a "dominatrix super-
model beauty queen"?
DAVID WATNICK
Britney Spears: "I'm a Slave
4 U"
Debuted: 09/26/01
In light of Britney Spears's
recent deranged episodes and her
current attempt at a comeback,
the singer's former listeners may
have lost track of how undeniably
poppy the 26-year-old performer
was. While she firsthit the "TRL"
scene with her 1999 hit "Baby One
More Time," the singer finally
matured beyond her bubblegum
pop days with the 2001 club-
banger "I'm a Slave 4 U" -.despite
what its web-speak-influenced
title suggests. The song premiered
during Spears's 2002 VMA per-
formance, which showcased a
giant python wrapped around her
neck: Phallic references aside, the
Neptunes-produced track was.
Spears's most risque effort to date,
complete with a hushed whisper
that sounds vaguely like a direct
sexual advance. The music video
premiered at "TRL" 's number
one slot and was the first video in
the singer's history to not "retire"
from the program. Clearly her
steamy vocals and gyrating hips
influenced somebody.
SASHA RESENDE


One brick
at a time
By JAMIE BLOCK a bit more surprising. These are
DailyArts Writer popular franchises, of course, but
with so many licensed games out
A new genre of video games has there already, why is there still
been born, and its name is "Lego." demand for Lego versions?
Successful action movies have Parents are an important fac-
always been turned into video tor. As'the graphics ofvideo games
games, and the masses have become more realistic, the quan-
flocked to buy them. Now these tity and quality of bloodand guts
same gamers must make a poten- increase. Lego games are always
tially life-changing decision: "Do rated E (Everyone), while many,
I buy the normal version or the other recent games in these fran-
Lego version?" Lego video gaming chises are rated T (Teen) or even
has grown to the point where it M (Mature). Adolescent males
could even be considered its own are one of the largest demograph-
genre. Lego games share a consis- ics for games in these franchises,
tently playful vibe, a quirky sense and Lego thrives off the worries of
of humor and a lot of gameplay their parents. In a few years, these
mechanics. preteens will probably all be play-
This emergent gaming genre ing "Grand Theft Auto VI" any-
began over a decade ago in 1997 way, but until then Lego games
with the releases of "Lego Chess" can keep their innocent eyes pro-
and "Lego Island," the latter of tected.
which introduced many mechan- Nostalgia is another major sell-
ics that are still staples of Lego ing point for Lego games. Many
games to this - day. In "Lego of the gamers who pickup "Lego
Island," the player travels around Star Wars" will fondly remember
an island doing various mis- seeing the giant Lego Millennium

Maybe Lego could remake "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" too.

are actually fun. It only makes
sense that they would be,. see-
ing how enjoyable and beloved
the original toy is. With so many
video games based on pop cul-
ture staples turning out horri-
bly these days, it's refreshing to
see Lego get it right. Because so
many of the popular aspects of the
Lego toy are kept in the games,
they appeal to basically the same
market. You can still construct,
destroy, play and pretend all you

n American reading his 148-
nimal Farm."
rding to an Associated
psos poll from August of

Chou really needs to stop spending
$200 a day at Dominick's. E-mail
her at kimberch@umich.edu.

DO YOU LIKE TENNIS?
GO WRITE FOR SPORTS.
DO YOU LIKE "VI RTUA TENNIS"?
COME WRITE FOR ARTS.
E-mail arts@michigandaily.com for an application

sions for different people - from
pizza delivery to crime enforce-
ment. Throughout the game, the
destruction of objects is illus-
trated by Lego bricks flying off
in every direction. There is also a
fair amount of building and cus-
tomization. While Lego games
have come a long way in terms of
plot since then - mostly by unit-
ing with popular movie franchises
- they have kept their endearing-
ly playful nature that began on the
beaches of "Lego Island."
While the appeal of Lego games
to younger children is evident, the
success of games such as "Lego
Indiana Jones," "Lego Star Wars"
and the new "Lego Batman" are

want in the virtual Lego world.
Often Lego games allow players to
Hollywood is do all the things with Lego bricks
they couldn't do otherwise. The
getting the Lego success of "Lego Creator" is based
solely on the fact that most people
treatment. are too clumsy, impatient or lazy
to get all the bricks they need and
assemble them into something
cool. In the games, finding the
Falcon in a toy store and beg- right brick and attaching it where
ging for it. Those who gravitate you want is as easy as a few mouse
to "Lego Racers" will recall the clicks.
Lego cars they used to build and Lego is enjoying immense suc-
race through the living room with cess withits take on popular movie
their friends. For seemingly every franchises, which could lead to
Lego theme, there is a video game creative stagnation if the company
out there to bring it to a screen. becomes content with its recent
Most importantly, these games success. Fortunately, Lego doesn't

seem to have fallen into this trap.'
The toy brand has teamed up with
software developer NetDevil for
an ambitious new project, taking
Lego gaming in a potentially epic
direction. The game in progress,
entitled "Lego Universe," is going
to be massively multiplayer online
(MMO), allowing Lego-loving
gamers around the world to work
together to build their own Lego
world. From the few images and
videos currently available, it looks
like the game will have stunning
visuals, somethingsomewhat new
for a Lego game. Lego has stated
that all player interactions will
be cooperative, not destructive.
The project is slated for release in
2009.
Lego gaming has come a long
way since leaving the shores of
"Lego Island." Lego games now
consistently rival their counter-
parts, and the genre is developing
at an unprecedented pace. With
the release of "Lego Batman" the
brand has shown its ability to keep
up with current trends. At this
rate there could someday even
be games like "Halo 4: The Lego
Hordes." Cross your fingers.

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