PLAY
screen
THEATERS
On_Line
The obvious pitfall of a movie about cybersex: It's one more step removed from the real thing. But first-time director Jed Weintrob uses webcam feeds to visual advantage in this joyfully raunchy tale about sex portal manager John Roth, who lives vicariously through users. Roth pines after a mysterious girl (actress Liz Owens, whose scenes were actually filmed over the Net and directed by instant messaging) and gets drawn into a virtual love triangle (hexagon, really) that keeps threatening to breach the boundaries of fantasy.
- Beth Pinsker
DVD
Disinformation: The Complete Series
At long last, Richard Metzger's extreme reality programming resurfaces. The UK TV series, which began as an ezine, was repackaged for US audiences by the Sci Fi Channel but got shelved in 2002. The show makes Jackass look tame, exploring fringe tech and freak science, from erotic time machines to radionics and urban Satanists. Though the two-disc set brims with shock value, what makes it compelling and hilarious to watch is the genteel manner of host Metzger.
- Xeni Jardin
games
PS2
Xenosaga
An RPG like this isn't just a fleeting distraction, it's a way of life. The game's cinematic 3-D world is so massive and rich that it fills an 8.5-gig dual-layer DVD. The searchable database helps you keep track of thousands of objects, people, and places you'll encounter in the more than 50 hours of play. And to really sink into scientist Shion Uzuki's journey as she and her companions fight mysterious life-forms throughout the galaxy, use the email system to communicate with other characters.
- Chris Kohler
PC
Shadowbane
Two years late and better for it, Shadowbane redefines the massively multiplayer online role-playing genre. Downplaying the usual monster murders, it encourages players to join guilds and kill for political and social gain. In this system, personal discord fuels wars among empires. The result is a shotgun wedding of an RPG and a strategy game - think EverQuest meets SimCity. It's an inspired match: The vulnerability of player-built cities gives the basically immortal heroes something to lose.
- Thomas Claburn
music
Tosca
Dehli9
Even in a recession, Richard Dorfmeister and Rupert Huber can transform your Ikea-clad living room into an opulent bo�te. Though named for the Viennese duo's childhood experimental noise band, Dehli9 is all grown-up. A pulsating bass line stimulates the kinky "Every Day & Every Night," while bossa nova rhythms lay satin sheets beneath "Oscar." An intriguing second disc features 12 avant-garde piano compositions, but that's just brain candy - it's the first disc's grooves that'll get you in the sack.
- Eric Demby
Cat Power
You Are Free
The "next big thing" hype that followed Chan Marshall's previous release, The Covers Record, belies her music. "Big" isn't the word for her fragile folk songs. Beginning with the sleepy, pulselike strum of "I Don't Blame You," You Are Free is a celebration of longing whittled down to the barest necessities. With only a guitar, a piano, and a delicate voice, Marshall bravely summons a closetful of emotional ghosts, sits them down, and turns them into fans.
- Dwight Fenton
Dead Air
Iain Banks
Banks leads a double life writing post-cyberpunk novels and primal-fear thrillers. Dead Air falls squarely in the creep camp, as London shock jock Ken Nott's big mouth and rampant prick set gangsters and ex-spouses on his trail. Nail-biters often rely on missed signals - say, characters trying to communicate but being blighted by service outages or hardware failure. Here, everyone carries a cell phone, and they all key SMS. Banks creates entirely new classes of tension that revolve around end-to-end knowledge.
- Cory Doctorow
Gearheads: The Turbulent Rise of Robotic Sports
Brad Stone
Stone's book lurches like a dented mini-tank through robot combat circles as he checks in with everyone from art terrorists to BattleBots impresarios. The story could use some WD-40 in places, but it moves fast and offers high-rpm clashes: A lawsuit-slinging exec reduces Robot Wars founder Marc Thorpe to financial ruin, and supergeek Dean Kamen weighs in with dismay as cash and TV deals go to Segway's crude cousins. Still, the robots multiply, undeterred by human frailty.
- Josh McHugh
PLAY
Hacking the Matrix
Genre Bender
Is It Live, or Is It CopyMax?
What's on your iPod?
Say It With Pollen
Blog Party
England's Power Bar
reviews
fetish
60 Gigs to Go
Do-It-Yourself TiVo
Cut a Virtual Rug
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