blog

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

the warriors videogame: 'Gangs of New York'

article by SETH SCHIESEL here.

WITH his T-shirt-and-jeans demeanor, thick build and pale head of stubble, Dan Houser hardly looks like the mastermind of a plot to corrupt the youth of America. But listen to certain politicians and advocates and one might think Mr. Houser, the 31-year-old creative vice president of Rockstar Games, is a threat to national security.

Since Mr. Houser founded Rockstar with his brother and three friends in 1998, the company has become one of the best-known and most successful video game developers, largely on the strength of its wildly popular Grand Theft Auto franchise. Propelled by street humor and a modern style, the series provides a wide-open stage for urban mayhem. Grand Theft Auto games have sold more than 50 million copies since 2001, generating more than $1 billion in revenue.

...

Despite all the controversy - or perhaps because of it - Mr. Houser seems focused and confident these days as his company prepares to roll out its next big project, the Warriors, a fighting game based on the 1979 cult film directed by Walter Hill. The game, which is scheduled to come out on Tuesday for PlayStation 2 and Xbox, is expected to be one of the top sellers of the year.

'Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Hollywood Franchise'

article by SHARON WAXMAN here.

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 17 - The book has "franchise" written all over it. For 42 years, Encyclopedia Brown, boy detective, has been one of the literary world's best-known children's protagonists. And yet, despite Hollywood's fervor to mine popular literature for the movies (paging Harry Potter), it has never made it to the silver screen.

On Monday, agents for the producers Howard Deutsch and Ridley Scott sought to change that by setting in motion what they hoped would be a lively auction of the movie rights to "Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective," a trove of some two dozen books. The agents began calling all the major Hollywood studios with a package offer that included the movie rights, an action-adventure script, the rights to ancillary markets, like video games and merchandizing, and the cachet of the powerhouse filmmaker Sir Ridley.

'Doomsday: The Latest Word if Not the Last'

article by MICHAEL LUO here.

WORD spread quickly in some conservative Christian circles when Israeli troops captured the Old City of Jerusalem from Arab forces in June 1967. This was it: Jesus was coming.

But Jesus did not return that day, and the world did not end with the culmination of that Arab-Israeli war.

Neither did it end in 1260, when Joachim of Fiore, an influential 12th-century Italian monk calculated it would, nor in February 1420, as predicted by the Taborites of Bohemia, nor in 1988, 40 years after the formation of Israel, nor after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

'Court Nominee Backed Anti-Abortion Amendment in 1989'

article by DAVID STOUT here.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 - President Bush's Supreme Court nominee, Harriet E. Miers, pledged support in 1989 for a constitutional amendment that would ban abortions except when necessary to save the life of the woman.

Ms. Miers expressed her support for such an amendment in an April 1989 survey sent out by Texans United for Life. The disclosure virtually guarantees that Ms. Miers will be questioned heavily during hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee on abortion rights and whether she can separate her personal views from legal issues.

As a candidate for a seat on the Dallas City Council, Ms. Miers answered "yes" to the following question: "If Congress passes a Human Life Amendment to the Constitution that would prohibit abortion except when it was necessary to prevent the death of the mother, would you actively support its ratification by the Texas Legislature?"

Ms. Miers answered "yes" to all the organization's questions, including whether she would oppose the use of public money for abortion and whether she would use her influence to keep "pro-abortion" people off city health boards and commissions.

Ms. Miers also said she would refuse the endorsement of any organization that supported "abortion on demand," would use her influence as an elected official "to promote the pro-life cause," and would participate "in pro-life rallies and special events."

christopher walken's cowbell skit on SNL

watch the video here.

'Crises Raise Criticism of Bush's Chief of Staff'

article by ANNE E KORNBLUT here.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 - With Karl Rove distracted by the intensifying C.I.A. leak scandal, some of the Bush administration's other challenges in recent months have cast a longer shadow on Andrew H. Card Jr., for years a guiding force as the White House chief of staff.

interesting profile of michael bloomberg: 'Bloomberg Lives by Statistics and Gives Aides a Free Hand'

article by JIM RUTENBERG here.

Mr. Bloomberg's close circle of advisers got an early indication of what the next four years would hold one December evening in 2001 when they to took him on a secret, late-night tour of his new work environment at City Hall.

Wandering through the cavernous Board of Estimate chamber on the building's second floor, Mr. Bloomberg said he would make his office there, forsaking an ornate private enclave that was the inner sanctum for previous mayors and their closest aides. The mayor-elect said he would create a huge workspace that would be just like the open-air trading room in which he worked at Salomon Brothers and later recreated at his private company, Bloomberg L.P.

He would put his desk in the middle of the room and seat his top deputies and staff members around him, he said. Dozens of other aides would sit at cubicles placed side by side, ensuring the access of lower-ranking managers to the mayor's inner circle and bringing with it more accountability.

The aides recoiled, telling him that to put his office there would be to break with 190 years of history.

"This is the mayor's side of the building, right?" he said, according to Kevin Sheekey, his chief political strategist, who recalled the conversation during a recent interview. "I'm the mayor, right?" In short, a Wall Street sensibility had arrived at City Hall.

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During the interview at City Hall, Mr. Bloomberg said the office setup had been critical to his management style. "It promotes cooperation," he said. "When people aren't happy, you see it. When people aren't getting along, you see it. People also want to feel included, and everybody wants - I keep saying this - recognition and respect."

Just as Mr. Bloomberg's bullpen has eliminated privacy for his staff, it has also eliminated privacy for him. He is there for all to see, sometimes shoeless, barking orders from his chair, asking a deputy mayor for information or asking his assistant to place a call to his mother or two daughters.

And he is on public display for his occasional fits of temper, as when he snaps over an open refrigerator door or a dirty fish tank in the bullpen, according to one staff member who has had an up-close seat for outbursts. This person, who agreed to speak candidly on condition of anonymity to avoid the mayor's ire, said Mr. Bloomberg was more a cranky uncle than an abusive father in such moments, which, this person added, have grown less frequent as his comfort level in the job has risen.