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	21 June 2005 GAME: PSYCHONAUTS (2005). Battle through mental training landscapes to become a member of the elite Psychonauts force. Now, there was a reason I bought this game...oh, right: because 1) Nicki's been complaining that there are no good platformers to fill the gaps of time between Ratchet & Clank releases, 2) I'd heard that Psychonauts was fun and quirky, and 3) its "top notch" level, character, and weapon design was "innovative." Silly me, it is none of those things. It's not just the buggy camera, cutscene tedium, or repetitive jump-n-shoot gameplay—the aesthetic itself, a C-minus art school dropout's imitation of Tim Burton, is merely spray-painted onto banal landscapes filled with game elements whose overly literal reliance on psychoanalytical metaphor render them unsatisfying. Collecting Figments of Imagination (translucent, amateurishly drawn bitmaps) and shooting a Psych-Attack (simplistic flamethrower) against Crises of Conscious (men in suits who shout deadly "NO!" icons) feels more meaningless than fun, just as asking someone to brain a hunger with a dog-flavored ambition would. (See what I mean?) Being random for randomness' sake might appeal to the geeky, monkey joke loving crowd (Escape from Monkey Island fans, rejoice), but not for the rest of humanity. As the game relentlessly piles on the "jokes," it becomes annoying like that twelve-year-old boy who's just seen Jackass with his older brother and won't shut up about it. Simply put, Psychonauts is mediocrity disguised as auteurship. Note to self: avoid anything that says "From the Mind of So-and-so" on its cover. GAMEPLAY: Crude, beta-class 3D platforming. REMINISCENT OF: Nothing special. LIBRARY WORTHY? Non. Nein. Nyet.   Back to main 20 June 2005 MOVIE: BATMAN BEGINS (2005). A billionaire orphan begins his quest to fight crime in chaotic Gotham City. Summer is starting to look good, I have to admit. After a spate of embarassingly bad franchise flicks (baddies on Rollerblades? Schwarzenegger?), Batman re-emerges triumphantly cloaked in a gritty realism worthy of comparison to Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. From his secret training in the Tibetan alps to his crude Bat Cave prototype, which looks more like a garage workbench than a superhero lair, Batman Begins paces slowly, considering each moment of each scene with the amount of care necessary to give an otherwise ridiculous story geniune emotional heft. Given enough time, I suppose any good writer could draw an artful line sewing together Batman's childhood fear of bats, guilt for his parents' murder, and stubborn rejection of simple vigilantism. What's remarkable is that someone actually bothered to do it, and turn out major summer ass-kickage in the process. The film's journey from artful realism to flat-out comic book fantasy ramps up gradually and invisibly. In fact, the word "Batman" is scarcely even uttered. By the movie's end I found myself thinking that given enough technology and training, Batman could actually exist. Compared with a lesser action film like, say, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Batman Begins lights all of its ammo with fuses long enough to make the subsequent fireworks actually feel significant in a satisfying, "Holy shit" kind of way: the training monastery explodes into splinters; Batman's SUV from hell, a cubist nightmare of faceted graphite and dragster tires, rockets across rooftops and smashes across a highway divider. And the James Bond, Q-like scenes, in which Morgan Freeman introduces admittedly rad gadgets in that genial manner of his? A schtick, sure, but a good one, and in good company—the excellent Christian Bale, Michael Kaine, and the chameleonic Gary Oldman add pedigree to the mix. Despite a handful of slightly rushed scenes and the unfortunate inclusion of a sideways-smiling Katie Holmes, Batman Begins has finally brought the writers back to Hollywood. Does it come in black?   Back to main 19 June 2005 PHOTO DIARY. Spotted in Marina Del Rey: possibly the only remaining original Taco Bell signage in existence. Somehow it managed to survive the Taco Wars of the 1970's completely intact.   Back to main PHOTO DIARY. We stumbled across an awesome house in Culver City that's straight out of Lord of the Rings. According to a brass plaque in front, it was designed by Lawrence Joseph between the years 1946-1970, and was declared a historic cultural monument by the City of LA in 1996. It's called Storybook Style.   Back to main PHOTO DIARY. Had a barbecue at my brother's house yesterday. Flame on! We went a little crazy with the smoke chips. Afterwards, we played poker. Badly.   Back to main PHOTO DIARY. There's an old-fashioned mail chute that runs through all eleven stories of my office building. It has a little drawing of Mr. Helpful Zip Code Reminder Man: the legacy of one artistically gifted postal worker from long ago.   Back to main PHOTO DIARY. Fellow Gifters tried out my scooter on Friday. Here's Anita, who feels silly driving three miles to work every day. 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