"Mario's Gonna get his F**cking Head Kicked In" | December 2001 | View Large PDF (3 MB)
An in-depth piece for Arena on the making of "Hooligans: Storm Over Europe," a real-time-strategy game from
the boys at DarkXabre in Amsterdam. Delves deep into how hard games get tweaked to create a seamless gaming
experience. And posits the theory that gameplay-vs-realism is the essential tension of game development.

"Pretty pretty bang bang" | September 1999 | View Archived Web Pages (120 MB)
For Salon.com, I examined the hype as "Quake 3" neared release, and the concerns veteran Quake
players had about whether the game had been prettied-up and simplified to attract new players.

"Making Hoop Dreams Come (Almost) True" | May 10 , 2000  | View Archived Web Page (120 KB)
A review of "NBA2K," probing "telerealism" in sports videogames, for the New York Times Circuits (RIP) section.

"Brutal Charm for Both Players and Spectators"| April 2000 | View Large PDF (957 KB) | View text-only PDF (22 KB)
A review of Soul Calibur, the best mano-a-mano fighting game around then, for the New York Times Circuits (RIP) section.
(Adult content warning: Contains the phrases "horned-skull codpiece," "go-go dancer," and "restraint devices.")

"Devil in Details" | October 1997 | View Archived Web Pages (150 KB)
Media criticism, Suck.com style, and the only comic strip I've done since college.
Terry Colon's illustrations are hilarious.

"La Dolce Viacom" | June 1997 | View Archived Web Page (105 KB)
In which I deconstruct the Viacom media empire's first flagship store, soon proved to be a laughable failure,
which amply demonstrated that selling viewers gewgaws is a bad tactic for creating brand synergy.

"News of the Weak" | October 1997 | View Archived Web Page (50 KB)
A bit of pseudo social science, in which I mock Time and Newsweek, by comparing them
to the National Enquirer. The other Suck pieces, frankly, are much funnier.

"Lady's knight" | October 2000 | View Large PDF (754 KB) | View text-only PDF (18 KB)
A piece in Arena on She'kspere, the male songwriter who produced man-trashing songs
such as TLC's "No Scrubs" and "Bills, Bills, Bills," by Destiny's Child.

"Justified and Ancient" | June 2001 | | Link
A preview for a Bern show on old-school computers. Something weird happened when I scanned it,
but the images of the old computers still look cool.

"Zine Spleen" | August 1995 | View Archived Web Page (50 KB)
A riotous rollercoaster piece I wrote on the 1995 Zine conference in Chicago for NewCity. This was right before zines
metamorphosed into web pages, then blogs - in many ways a more interesting era, because people would come up
and try to hand-sell you their zine, rather than just spamming and blogrolling.

"Asphalt Gallery/Strassenaesthetik" | September 2004 | View PDF (365 KB)
In German and English. An essay- timed to an exhibition called Wordless, organized by my atelier-mates - surveying
the relationship between galleries and urban streets. Of course, it's always hard to define "street." (A few things that
are not street: $400 limited-edition sneakers. Jean-Michel Basquiat. Skateboard parks. Paying for breakdancing lessons.)

"Tobin Yelland" | June 2004 | View PDF (305 KB)
In German: A brief intro for a set of photos by Tobin Yelland, the truth of whose photography often
less apparent than its seemingly simple subject matter suggests.

"Trucker hats: Just say no" | April 2004 | View PDF (148 KB)
In German: As trucker hats invaded Switzerland, Der Fashion Killer used a locally influential mag to try and stop the surge.
Things I discovered: Slaves to fashion apparently cannot read; my German still sucks; people don't like being called posers.