Entertainment & Sports: December 2004 Archives

USA Today ran a front page story about teens playing poker -- an emerging hobby that the subheadline declares is "Not just another teen fad". That certainly remains to be seen, but I hardly think it's the beginning of a new gambling craze that's poised to ruin the next generation.

Now kids as young as 10 are being dealt hands, often with parents' approval. Poker paraphernalia is being hawked everywhere from supermarkets to kiddie emporiums such as Toys R Us. All of which rings alarm bells for gambling addiction experts who warn that poker could be a slippery slope into other high-risk activities.

I play poker, often with teenagers, and we rarely play for any money at all and never more than $5 or $10. Among the people I play with no one really cares about money, they care about winning, beating their friends, and the excitement of making a good hand. Even when you lose you can get the satisfaction of knowing that you played your cards the best way possible.

Barry Shulman understands the game's siren call. “It's so fun it can consume you,” says the real estate developer turned tournament player and publisher of Card Player magazine. “I get e-mails from kids all the time. I'm impressed at how focused they are, how much they ask about statistical aspects of the game.”

Shulman says poker offers teens five things: social interaction, especially for the socially awkward; help with math and other numbers-related skills; an understanding of risk/reward scenarios; lessons on how to read looks and gestures; and insights into your own limits of self-control.

“Gambling is a part of life, at the card table or in business,” Shulman says. “That said, poker is a stupid way to make a living. The correct way for a kid to be taught poker is to learn that it is a very difficult game with a high degree of risk.”

I think that's about right. Kids that learn how to play early are likely to realize early that you lose far more often than you win -- and winning depends largely on luck, no matter how good you are.

Plus, I think the social aspects of the game make it far more beneficial than watching television or playing video games. People get together to socialize and snack, and playing poker is really just an excuse to hang out.

What's interesting to me is that women appear to be much less interested in the game than men are. Most of the time I play it's all-male, and the women really couldn't care less about being included. I guess they're off sewing or cooking or something.

Eugene Volokh points to a story about an inadequately diverse performance of The Vagina Monologues but misses an opportunity:

They silently stood hand in hand with gray duct tape pasted across their lips and "Vagina Warriors" emblazoned on the back of their white shirts. The front of the shirts had different messages: "Warning: Hostile Vagina," "Not all vaginas are skinny, white + straight" and "My cunt is not represented here."

About 10 people gathered in front of Agate Hall on Friday to protest what they called a lack of representation of different kinds of women in "The Vagina Monologues" production, which ran Thursday through Saturday at the Agate Hall auditorium.

In flyers handed out to audience members at the show, University graduate Nicole Sangsuree Barrett wrote that while there was "diversity" in the show, it was minimal. Women of "a variety of skin colors, body sizes, abilities and gender expressions" were not adequately represented, she said.

"I would just like to call attention to the fact that this could have been a more diverse cast, but a safe and welcoming environment was not created for people that I consider to be 'underrepresented,'" Barrett said in the statement. . . .

Professor Volokh neglected to advocate the inclusion of the largest minority group in America: men.

My favorite Stupid Evil Bastard points to the trailer of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory remake that casts Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka. (No word on John Kerry co-starring as an oompa loopma.) Now, I liked the first CatCF, and I enjoy Johnny Depp as an actor (something I say about very few of the most left-wing jesters Hollywood spews forth), but why isn't Tim Burton putting his considerable creative skills towards a more original project?

It's easy for me to imagine being in Mr. Burton's shoes and getting a thrill from the opportunity to remake one of my favorite movies. Heck, if I had a billion dollars I'd love to take a stab at Star Wars or Raiders of the Lost Ark, even though it'd be a given that I couldn't make anything to compare with the originals. So maybe that's the explanation. You can't get big doing remakes, but once you are big you can indulge yourself.

As for Hollywood in general, it's inevitable that big-budget movies will get less and less creative. No one wants to risk capital on a new idea that might not fly. As I've written before (though I can't find the link) the modern movie industry treat books as a sort of minor league for ideas. It's far cheaper and easier to publish a book than to produce a movie (though publishing a book still isn't trivial), and any idea that can carry a movie can also carry a book (though not vice-versa, obviously).

Ace is asking for conservative rock anthems, and I'm no music aficionado but there's one song that comes immediately to mind and wasn't mentioned by him or any of his commenters: Dead Kennedys' Kill the Poor.

KILL THE POOR LYRICS

Efficiency and progress is ours once more
Now that we have the neutron bomb
It’s nice and quick and clean and gets things done
Away with excess enemy
But no less value to property
No sense in war but perfect sense at home¡­

The sun beams down on a brand new day
No more welfare tax to pay
Unsightly slums gone up in flashing light
Jobless millions whisked away
At last we have more room to play
All systems go to kill the poor tonight

Gonna
Kill kill kill kill kill the poor¡­tonight

Behold the sparkle of champagne
The crime rate’s gone
Feel free again
O’ life’s a dream with you, miss lily white
Jane fonda on the screen today
Convinced the liberals it’s okay
So let’s get dressed and dance away the night

While they¡­
Kill kill kill kill kill the poor ­tonight

Maybe it's supposed to be ironic or something, but whatever.

Although it's not rock, there's always Political Science by Randy Newman.

POLITICAL SCIENCE LYRICS

No one likes us-i don’t know why
We may not be perfect, but heaven knows we try
But all around, even our old friends put us down
Let’s drop the big one and see what happens

We give them money-but are they grateful?
No, they’re spiteful and they’re hateful
They don’t respect us-so let’s surprise them
We’ll drop the big one and pulverize them

Asia’s crowded and europe’s too old
Africa is far too hot
And canada’s too cold
And south america stole our name
Let’s drop the big one
There’ll be no one left to blame us

We’ll save australia
Don’t wanna hurt no kangaroo
We’ll build an all american amusement park there
They got surfin’, too

Boom goes london and boom paree
More room for you and more room for me
And every city the whole world round
Will just be another american town
Oh, how peaceful it will be
We’ll set everybody free
You’ll wear a japanese kimono
And there’ll be italian shoes for me

They all hate us anyhow
So let’s drop the big one now
Let’s drop the big one now

If I don't get a link for these, I'm gonna be pissed off -- but even if I do, it'll be on a Friday night when no one is reading. Sigh.

While searching for gifts for my youngest brothers I came across a new 4th edition of one of my favorite role-playing games ever: Gurps, the Generic Universal Role-Playing System. The 4th edition incorporates a lot of material from 3rd edition supplements which is great for me, considering that I haven't followed the game for probably nearly a decade. I own quite a few 3rd edition source books, and they'll all be compatible, but I haven't gotten any of the more recent material from the late 90s and early 00s.

The new Basic Set is split into two volumes, the 336 page Gurps Basic Set: Characters and the 240 page Gurps Basic Set: Campaigns; they can be bought together for a total price of around $56 from B&N, including whatever taxes and shipping options I ended up with. I also picked up the Gurps Mecha: Mighty Battlesuits and Anime Fighting Machines and Gurps Space: Roleplaying in the Worlds of Tomorrow modules, and I really should get Gurps Vehicles : From Chariots to Cybertanks...and Beyond! just to get a good foundation going.

The interesting thing is that I've only actually played Gurps a few times, and never in very prolonged campaigns. I'd love to, but it's just never happened. What makes Gurps so fun is that the rule books are such a blast to read and really stimulate my mind. They've got (and I own) modules for everything from high fantasy settings to time travel to ultra-tech to illuminati to dragons to superheroes, and they're all engaging and deep treatments that can be combined consistently into a single game. There's no reason your battle mech can't fight against cabals of wizards! Plus, they release a new module every month! (Why don't they have a discounted subscription service?!)

When I finish my PhD I'd like to invest a few nights a month into a neato Gurps campaign. I just gotta find other people to play with me....

(By the way, here's the official Gurps forum.)

(By the way again, yes, I signed up to be a B&N affiliate, so if you follow the links above -- and like, spend money -- I think I get a kickback or something... just as if I worked for the UN! (But unlike as if I worked for Friends of Iraq.))