Video Games | Observer

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

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!

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 Dan Duray 7/28/11 12:55pm

Art

Bleep-Bloops and Balzac! Highbrow Nerds Party With Video Games at MoMA

“Hey does anybody have an extra ticket?” asked a man in a white button-down and a backpack outside MoMA last night. He walked down the line that stretched from the entrance closer to 5th Avenue to well past the former home of Folk Art Museum.

“Anyone?” he asked.

Near the front of the line, a Read More

By Dan Duray 7/08/11 11:02am

video games

Bros, Brews and Foos’ Reign at Kill Screen’s First Issue Party

The first-ever issue party for Kill Screen magazine, the n+1 for the video game set now on its fourth issue, brought supporters to a small space next to the Music Hall of Williamsburg last night for free beer, Foosball and, notably, no video games. If you’re unfamiliar with Kill Screen, it’s not as marginal as Read More

By Foster Kamer 6/14/11 7:40pm

But Is It Art?

Game Boys: Cory Arcangel and the Art World’s Delicate Dance with Video Games

Depending on whom you ask, the cutting-edge of fine art’s collision with video games is either incredibly difficult or very easy to miss. Babycastles is easy to miss, perhaps because it’s difficult to find. The D.I.Y. arcade is nestled in a basement space in Ridgewood, Queens, beneath the indie music venue Silent Barn, which in Read More

By Mike Taylor 11/15/10 2:36pm

Fiscal Responsibility

Check Boxes, Solve Deficit

As it turns out, solving the Federal deficit is not at all difficult and is in fact merely a matter of checking off certain boxes on a form.

In stark contrast to the ineffectual checkmarks presented to the American electorate on November 2, a feature on The New York Times‘ website is now Read More

By admin 1:44pm

Gaming

The Amazing New York Public School Taught By Space Aliens

Over the weekend the The New York Times Magazine featured a story on the pretty much the luckiest bunch of middle schoolers ever. The students at Quest to Learn. a digitally focused academy on East 23rd, spend their days playing video games, hanging out in a giant virtual reality laboratory and 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

By Dana Rubinstein 5/12/08 4:04pm

And the Survey Says… New Yorkers Don’t Got Game

New York City may be the star of the Grand Theft Auto IV, but from a business standpoint, New York isn’t investing enough in the gaming industry, according to a study released today by the Center for an Urban Future, a Manhattan think tank.

In fact, New York City, whose gaming industry Read More

By Lysandra Ohrstrom 3/21/08 6:22pm

Wii! Free Video Games at Libraries Citywide Today!

Since your sullen, media-addicted teenager clearly isn’t going to go to the library to read (God forbid!), the Humanities and Social Sciences division of the New York Public Library is hoping Wii, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3 stations might entice them.

More than 20 NYPL branches in the five boroughs are participating in Read More

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

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

Bleep-Bloops and Balzac! Highbrow Nerds Party With Video Games at MoMA

Bros, Brews and Foos’ Reign at Kill Screen’s First Issue Party

Game Boys: Cory Arcangel and the Art World’s Delicate Dance with Video Games

Check Boxes, Solve Deficit

The Amazing New York Public School Taught By Space Aliens

Can Games Save the News?

And the Survey Says… New Yorkers Don’t Got Game

Wii! Free Video Games at Libraries Citywide Today!

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