By Drew Grant, Noam Cohen and Alex Bedder 2/25 11:22am

girls

Illustration by Alex Bedder.

Five Essay Prompts for Girls 2×7: ‘Video Games’

These questions regard last night’s episode of HBO’s Girls. Please answer the prompts with specific examples from LAST NIGHT’S EPISODE, though supplementary material will be accepted as a secondary source. Please write legibly. No. 2 pencils only. You have an hour to finish this test. See below for questions and sample responses.

1. The celebrity cameos on Girls are starting to seem fraught with significance. Is this an attempt to subtly imply that Petula (played by Rosanna Arquette) is–behind the literally bunny boiler faux-hippy persona–“desperately seeking” a different life? Her flirting with her (maybe) gay son’s (maybe) boyfriend seems to suggest a flipped version of her role in The Executioner’s Song. Read More

By Foster Kamer 5:20pm

NEAT NERDY THINGS!

Stephen Merrit Video Game

The Museum of Natural History’s 200 Person Video Game, Starring Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt

If you’re of the persuasion that, as great as they are, most planetariums need some spicing up, The Museum of Natural History now has you covered. In collaboration with Babycastles, New York City’s own D.I.Y. video arcade collective, the museum is presenting a one-night-only group video game, which stars—ahem—legendary indie rock group The Magnetic Fields’ singer-songwriter Stephin Merritt.  Read More

By Gillian Reagan 6/02/09 12:00pm

Can Games Save the News?

News junkies are gamers.

Ask your friends a question about the latest news tidbit—say, where President Obama and the First Lady went on their dinner date this weekend. Then watch them whip out their iPhones, flip open their laptops, racing to find the right answer. Within seconds, they’ll emerge from the scrolling sea of Google Read More