Authoritarian regimes maintain power by cracking skulls and giving exactly zero fucks.

Remember that time Napoleon rewarded Boxer’s ceaseless efforts with a trip to the glue-factory? Or how about when Grand Moff Tarkin blew up an entire goddamn planet? And who could ever forget when the children of Panem murdered each other for entertainment?

The reason that all of this wonderful brutality occurred was because those in power didn’t have to justify their actions. Without checks and balances, these motherfuckers were able to do as these pleased, whatever the consequences. And although freedom fighters occasionally inspire resistance, there are still plenty of totalitarian forces at work today.

Even in the beer world.

Tonight I’m drinking a limited edition Russian Imperial Stout from the folks at Otter Creek Brewing. Having had my interest piqued by the Soviet-styled design on the label and box, I wanted to learn more about this stout. Hell, I even compiled a list of questions. But when I went to the brewery’s website, I was greeted by nothing more than an “under construction” declaration and the encouragement to visit the Otter Creek Facebook page.

Thanks but no thanks, Otter Creek! I haven’t been on Facebook in years, and I ain’t fallin’ for your ruse! It’s pretty obvious what’s goin’ on. The Otter Creek Elite wants me to join Facebook and “friend” them, and then they’ll monitor my beer-drinkin’ habits (via status updates and photo evidence) to target me more directly! Before I know it, Otter Creek shadow agents will be infiltrating the parties I throw, telling revelers about the newest promotions available from a beloved Middlebury, Vermont brewery.

Insidious.

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If you folks are anything like me, you’ve often thought how cool it would be to have super powers.  You also love avocados.  However this Opinions Vary has nothing to do with super powers … avocados might play into it later on.

This week’s Opinions Vary is about Time Travel.  More specifically, where would I like to visit in the sands of time?  Hit the jump and let’s do this thing.

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Hello, comrades. It has been quiet around the Spaceship as of late, and for that I apologize. This week marked the beginning of Umass  Boston’s Big Mistake. Otherwise known as my first week of teaching. As such, I’ve been embroiled in lesson plans. Rambling about peeing my pants on the highway to my students. And other misgivings. So anyways, I figured I’d post this up here.

It’s a general.

Hey.

How are you doing?

Type thing.

Hit the comments, so we can all catch up.

Hope everything is wonderful. Things will begin spinning up around here shortly.

Let’s talk about how important Monday was for determining the game industry’s narrative for the coming months.

Let’s also talk about what it means to gamers like you, and me, and how industry giants like Microsoft and Sony communicated with us via the grand stage of E3.

Monday saw PR-beleageured Microsoft take the stage first, around 9:30 a.m. Pacific Time. There’s no beating around the bush – they had an uphill battle to wage, one very much set up by their own PR snafoos over the last month.

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The Monday and Tuesday of the annual E3 week are always a fascinating pair of days to watch unfold from a PR perspective. The show floor opens its doors to attendees on Tuesday afternoon, but by then, an entire story has been told to the media through a series of conferences, briefings and events that kick off the week.

E3 seems unlike any other industry trade show on the planet. It’s equivalents in other industries, from television, to film, to fashion, to food, all seem tame by comparison. At least, from the perspective of public relations.

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There’s a lot of mixed reaction to this finale on the web. After a kick in the nuts right off the bat with the aftermath of the Red Wedding massacre, the final episode of this season of Thrones brings things down a notch to a very steadily paced character piece. Longer, drawn out conversations between sometimes-unlikely pairs of characters round off the episode before ending on a strange note of Disney-esque triumph, instead of the standard game-changing fare that past finales of Thrones have employed.

More than ever, it’s palpable just how constrained the show feels by its 10-episode limit every season. There’s barely enough time in this extended finale to visit every character just once or twice and quickly touch base to set things up for Season 4.

The back half of Martin’s third novel, a Storm of Swords, will likely serve as the backbone for Season 4, while elements from later books are already creeping into the show all over the place. It’s difficult now to even decide ‘where’ in the book we are at this point; every story has stopped someplace different. It’s become a truly fascinating experience to watch how things are adapted, and if Season 3 was a good indication, the rules are quickly becoming loose with the adaptation of the rest of the saga.

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Imagine, if you will, the following scenario: You’re sitting in a movie theater, enjoying a nicely constructed action sequence on screen. Everything is working and you know the stakes involved because you’ve been paying attention the whole time and the present action, to its credit, is coherent. However, just for good measure, punctuating the sequence, some guy next to you starts to narrate the events, giving a play by play of every punch thrown, every kick dropped, every daring move displayed. And, to top it all off, he’s even thoughtful enough to add some recaps and character motivations, just in case you’re confused about what’s going on or you missed something that happened earlier in the proceedings.

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Friends, the newest installment of OMNI is here. Led by rocket-riding cowboy-maniac Sergio Mahmoud Jonas, the pioneers come to realize that the fourth rock from the Sun is filled with miracles and horrors inconceivable by the leadfeet stuck on Earth.

In the early years, death cults and the monsters they worship descend from the mountains to wreak havoc. Later, corrupt statesmen misappropriating the Martian dream have to be assassinated. But these are small prices to pay for the benefit of an otherworldly home that produces genuine wonder and challenges us to reconsider the very parameters of possibility.

Hit the jump to check out Rocket Man, a five-page short illustrated by Steven Walters that shows us why Jonas decides to take humanity to the Red Planet!

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Hello, friends. This is Monday Morning Commute. Within these walls, we share the various functions and safety valves we’re utilizing to get us through the daily week. Not only that, it is a post used as a general “this is what’s up in my world” sort of bullshit community building exercise. I hope you’re all well.

Let’s party.

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Astute viewers knew something was wrong when the wedding musicians started playing the Lannister song of war and battle, ‘The Rains of Castamere’.

I remember feeling physically ill for an hour after reading the chapter in George R. R. Martin’s ‘A Storm of Swords’ that corresponded to the end of tonight’s episode.

The interesting conversation is: what happens now? What’s become of the North? The Starks are dead or scattered all across the world. Winterfell is in ruins. Where are all of Robb’s generals, like the Blackfish, and the groom himself, Edmure Tully?

The still-more interesting conversation: will viewers be encouraged enough to hang on, persist, and see this story through? Many people I know felt completely gutted after this chapter years ago, and the ones I saw watching tonight seemed doubly so – it’s quite something to see these events play out visually.

How do you hang on when the good guys get torn apart so viciously, so brazenly?

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