Yorkton This Week鈥檚 editorial staff takes readers on an explorative journey around the Internet, searching out the best in videos, podcasts, webcomics, music and anything else that catches their collective eyes which might interest our readers.
Film critic is a hero
When it comes to movies, it鈥檚 hard to shut me up. I love discussing films with people. I spent most of my first year in college arguing about James Bond movie with my British roommate.
Above all else, I love writing about movies. I鈥檝e been doing it, off and on, for nearly 10 years now. Last October, I started reviewing movies for Yorkton This Week on a regular basis, which has been a blast.
As a semi-professional film critic, I read a vast swath of other reviewers鈥� materials for inspiration. One of my biggest film criticism heroes is Nathan Rabin.
Rabin is an absurdly prolific writer who鈥檚 been working since the 1990s. He鈥檚 worked for the AV Club, Rotten Tomatoes, his own webstie, and countless other publications. He鈥檚 written more articles just about movies than most people will write in their entire lives.
Perhaps most famously, he coined the phrase 鈥淢anic Pixie Dream Girl,鈥� a stock character who, in Rabin鈥檚 own words, 鈥渆xists solely...to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures.鈥�
Rabin shows how film criticism can be incisive, thoughtful, and hilarious. He鈥檚 a writer I always try to emulate.
Rabin loves discussing 鈥渃inematic failures,鈥� movies that weren鈥檛 critical darlings or legendary disasters, but rather mild duds. He reevaluates these clunkers to see what we can learn from them. It鈥檚 a cinematic autopsy.
The best place to start with Rabin鈥檚 large body of work is with his short-lived column 鈥淔orgotbusters.鈥� The feature ran on the now-defunct website The Dissolve from 2013 to 2015. Luckily, the entire series is still available online, providing a quick snapshot of Rabin鈥檚 style.
In 鈥淔orgotbusters,鈥� Rabin examines movies that were box-office hits when they were released, but have since faded into obscurity. He studies everything from action-packed flops like 鈥淩ising Sun鈥� to animated abominations like 鈥淪hark Tale.鈥� With every entry, Rabin brings his trademark wit, sarcasm, and critical eye to the table.
鈥淔orgotbusters鈥� is an excellent entry point into Nathan Rabin鈥檚 work. It鈥檚 a humorous look back at the (mostly) terrible movies that ruled the box-office over the decades.
You can find 鈥淔orgotbusters鈥� at thedissolve.com/features/forgotbusters.
鈥� Sean Mott
A kick out of MASL
It鈥檚 always intriguing for me to root out new sports to watch. I watch the usual mix of baseball, Canadian football, hockey and Saskatchewan Rush lacrosse, but finding something new is always fun.
Several months ago I came across a post somewhere, the exact spot long forgotten, which mentioned the Major Arena Soccer League (MASL), would be expanding with a Toronto-area franchise for the 2018-19 season.
At the time, I knew very little about arena soccer, past that it is placed on a hockey-rink sized court, with a player set up which basically mimics a hockey team.
But it was still soccer, and I have never been a fan of the outdoor game, being generally more excited by the grass growing on the front lawn, even though I have tried to get into Toronto FC since they are so successful.
Still, I searched out the MASL, and found that they broadcast games on their own TV channel via www.maslsoccer.com/masltv
The great thing about MASLTV is that if you miss a game live, they remain available via On-Demand.
Arena soccer is outstanding. Goals come often, thanks to the ball being live off the boards, creating very dramatic ball movement.
Granted the quality of video and play-by-play varies greatly among the various teams, Mexico-based games are not in English, so to enjoy the sport I recommend Milwaukee Wave games.
The Wave do great broadcasts and Ian Bennett the team and league鈥檚 best goal scorer just happens to be a Canadian, as is talented forward Robert Renaud and netminder Josh Lemos.
I will of course switch allegiance to TO when they take to the floor next season.
If you like quick, exciting play in your sport entertainment, the MASL is worth following, and the games are free to access as well which is a nice bonus.
鈥� Calvin Daniels
Playstation nostalgia
This series is definitely going to highlight my own incredibly nerdy habits, and I have made peace with this.
Take, for instance, PlayStation Year One, an ongoing series highlighting the first year of Sony鈥檚 landmark game console. You have to be a very specific person to be really interested the series. You would have to be someone who spent a great deal of time with a PlayStation whirring next to your television, someone who is charmed by 鈥�90s low-polygon graphics and full-motion video, someone interested in the history of games and the people behind them, and someone just as amused by the really bad games 鈥� like the hilariously inept Power Serve 3D Tennis 鈥� as they are by the landmark titles.
In short, it seems as though the two men behind RetroPals, who produce the videos, made the series entirely for me. Danny and Alex, as they are known to the Internet, have poured a great deal of time and effort into the series, which makes me assume that there are possibly other people just as interested in this less-than-mainstream topic, but every time they release a new episode it feels like a gift.
Take the newest entry, Cyber Sled, an arcade conversion by Namco. Nobody cares about Cyber Sled, the game鈥檚 box haunted the clearance bin in every game store back in the day, the crazed eyes of the man on the box staring at everyone who was more interested in buying something else. I was always curious what Cyber Sled actually was, while also being mostly uninterested in actually spending the five dollars it would take to actually buy the game.
Now, I know all about Cyber Sled, its evolution from an arcade game to PlayStation title, the game鈥檚 near release for the competing Sega Saturn before that version was ultimately cancelled because, as it turns out, nobody cares about Cyber Sled. After years of mild curiosity, I now know everything I could possibly want to about Cyber Sled.
For that alone PlayStation Year One has provided a valuable service.
Find it at www.youtube.com/retropals.
鈥� Devin Wilger
