Sony has unveiled their next-generation platform at today’s much anticipated Playstation meeting event.  You can guess the name they went with.

In a two-hour event live-streamed through every major media outlet, the new console, its UI, its core features and its first games were shown off to the world for the first time.  Let’s get to all the meat unveiled today.

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There’s a lot of folk out there, and in the OL community, looking for jobs.  Part of the challenge of finding one is finding one that you won’t want to murder things at.  So in my second to last High 5 I’m going to pose a question.  That question is, what job(s), training and skill aside, would you dream about having?  Here’s mine, feel free to share yours.

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Aloha! Welcome to the Monday Morning Commute! What is it that I do here at the MMC? Well, first I gather up all of Spaceship OL’s passengers – nerd-culture slovens and amigos and infidels alike! Then, I show `em the various bits of art and trash and fast-food debauchery that I’ll be devourin’ during the course of the week. At this point, I deactivate the laser-shackles and let the wayfarers bludgeon one another with their prospective plans for destroying ennui and undermining workplace productivity.

It’s a thing of goddamn beauty.

C’mon, jump in and join the madness!

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Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. That is if you consider midnight a corner. So today’s High 5 will deal with movie couples. The problem is, most movies that I watch and enjoy have very little to do with the courting process. So from my “Dude-Bro” point of view, these are the movie couples that I root for.

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Welcome, friends. This is Monday Morning Commute, the column that details the various music, movies, books, and general chicanery that we as a collective are basking in on a given week. I am currently typing this bad boy from the empty confines of a general writing workshop I run at State University Y. This lovely University that employs me is one of the few actually open in the greater Boston Area after this weekend’s blizzard, which means that I have trekked onto campus for one meager hour (all of my other students cancelled). None the less. What can we do? So I will make use of my time, penning this paean to to the things I dig.

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Hey you! Yeah, the turkey holdin’ the comic book! Why don’t you c’mon in? Oh, you’re not hungry? Well that doesn’t matter – you’re goin’ to want to check this place out. Of all the dining halls on Spaceship OL, this holodeckin’ eat-a-torium is most guaranteed to satiate your fanboy-cravings.

This is, after all, the Comic Book Café.

Now, I feel obligated to offer a word of warning. In spite of the innumerable perks that come with eating in a livin’ and breathin’ paneled-page, there’re some definite drawbacks. The lunchladies are cranky. The pizza’ll burn the roof of your mouth. And the cliques are unbearably divided.

By the Coca-Cola machine sits the Marvel crew – Peter Parker and Joe Quesada are trading yogurts, Betty Banner is smashing a watermelon with her fists, and Tony Stark is sneaking rips of gin out of a Gatorade bottle. At the top of the café is the DC posse – Wonder Woman is givin’ catty glares as Clark Kent sucks on Lois Lane’s bottom lip, Dan DiDio is nose-vomitin’ milk while he guffaws at Plastic Man, and Swamp Thing is tryin’ to extol the virtues of using a canteen instead of Styrofoam cups. And if you look between these two, you can see the IMAGE gang hanging by fire exit – Brandon Graham and Jonathan Hickman are hackin’ away at sketchbooks, some nutjob wearin’ headgear is claiming to be a prophet, and baby Hazel is cryin’ for milk.

It’s quite the scene.

But it’s not the whole scene. Sure, these three tables are the most jam-packed and rambunctious, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re the most exciting. If you’re lookin’ for a bit of adventure, why not take your tray to one of the other tables? What’s that? You thought that those three cliques were the only patrons of the Comic Book Café? Way wrong, bro!

Hey, take a seat at that small table next to the Art Club sign-ups. Yeah, the table with the dudes that don’t really look like anyone else in the cafeteria. This squad goes by the name of 215 INK, and they pride themselves in their independence from the other three. Once you get situated, you should strike up a conversation with the dude rockin’ the beautiful beard.

His name is Mauricio Pommella and he’s the illustrator of TRANSMEET, a comic about trying to grow love in the depleted soil that is our inevitable dystopia.

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Mother Nature is at it again here in New England. Though She can be a dependable source of sunshine and sustenance in many parts of the world, She tends to be fickle in my neck of the woods. One moment she is warm, hospitable; the next She is cold and treacherous–out to get you if you even try to go out. It’s all part of the plan, really. She likes to keep us on our toes, never allowing anyone to be too comfortable with how things are, and I like that about Mother Nature, honestly. I welcome this aura of irregularity because inconsistent states (be they nature-based or otherwise) can be conducive to creativity and productivity: you have to deal with all the contending elements, make the best of what’s at your disposal, and hopefully something interesting comes out of it. And when this great, big storm finally hits the ground and piles up all the snow and logistical problems that come with it, we can plow and pack and shape that snow into salutatory snowmen, serene snow angels, and epic snow forts. We can sled and ski our way to freedom in a winter wonderland. And if you choose to stay inside, you can finally do all those things that you’ve been meaning to accomplish (read that book everyone’s talking about, watch a classic movie, do some writing, etc.). Once the snow is given by good ol’ Mother Nature, it’s ours for the taking. So go ahead and make good on this, just like these fine examples of snowman fecundity.

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It’s a spectacular time to be a Star Wars fan.

George Lucas, perhaps after being visited by some benevolent omnidimensional sojourner, has sold his most beloved franchise. The moment that fans realized Lucas was finally out of the picture, we began to dream. To wonder. To flirt with the idea that the piss-taste that’s been lurking in our mouths since 2005 may very well be washed away. New Star Wars films could be treated with the respect they deserve.

So, what’ve we been promised thus far? A new trilogy. Kasdan and Kinberg. J.J. Abrams. Cameos from members of the original cast. The interest of Hollywood’s finest actors and directors and other personnel. Spin-off, stand-alone movies.

In short, we finally have a newer hope.

Yesterday’s confirmation of the stand-alone flicks was the final nail in the coffin for my cautious optimism. I am now, for the first time in years, reveling in full-on nerdlust at the thought of new Star Wars. And while I have quite a bit of faith that a new trilogy could be beyond excellent, I’ve always loved the idea of free-standing movies taking place within the galaxy that Uncle George introduced back in `77!

Join me as I take a moment to geek-out about the prospect of new Star Wars movies! I’m going to fanboy my way through some of the premises I’d like to see materialize, no doubt getting so excited that my retainer spills onto the keyboard and my Diet Shasta bubbles over. After you check out my ideas, hit up the comments section and describe what you’d like to see during our next voyages to a galaxy far, far away…

Punch it, Chewie!

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I don’t want to alarm anyone, but it’s time we had a serious talk.  Climb on up on ol’ Uncle Dude’s lap.  It’s time to hit you with some reality.  Everyone dies and no one will ever love you, they will just pretend because they are afraid to be alone.  Wait, no, that’s not what I wanted to say.  I know what it was, I’m quitting.  In one month’s time I will have done 1 year of High 5s.  So starting in March I will be leaving the High 5 game behind me and doing a new weekly column, and hopefully I will keep that one up for a year as well. I now return you to your regularly scheduled High 5.

One thing about the Dude you might not know is that I LOVE board games. One of my closest friends has a weekly scheduled game night where we play a variety of board games.  We’ve been doing it for years.  Because of this, I have played more board games than most of you probably thought existed. I am cocky about a lot of things, and my knowledge of board games is no exception.  So here we are, my favorite board games.

(Side Note: I’m not counting CCGs like Magic or Pokémon)

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Now begins the dark age, when the football fiasco pop-culture zeitgeist begins to slumber until September. Without any weekly caloric-crushing, fantasy football fist-pumping, the average male wanders around lost. Not me. No way. Thanks to the courtesies extended by the various arts that I indulge in on a weekly basis. This is Monday Morning Commute, the column where we gather to discuss these interests. Look at that fucking segue, and fondle me. As you do so, I’ll pat you gently and caress your soft face. We are in this together.

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