Showbits

Spring has sprung, summer looms, and Hollywood blockbusters abound — though you may not want to spend the season in a movie theater… so don't! Instead, take in your movies in the great outdoors by patronizing your local drive-in.

It's easy to forget this artifact of a bygone era. The first drive-in movie theater opened on June 6th, 1933, in Pennsauken, New Jersey. Though that theater no longer exists, the second-oldest drive-in opened in 1934 and is still in operation, as are 393 others in 48 of the United States (sorry, Alaska and Louisiana).

I was plotting my own upcoming trip to the drive-in when, coincidentally, Major Nelson pointed out the venue's recent 75th anniversary. I thought I too would do my part by again highlighting this oft-overlooked alternative. I've previously written about the draw of the drive-in, and those attractions are no less true now. Most such theaters are open on Friday and Saturdays only, and it's tempting to fill those few weekend nights with expensive outings — but the more affordable drive-in needs your support today. So enjoy the great weather and some big-budget films in what's sure to be a memorable night.

The writers' strike has left many Hollywood denizens with plenty of time on their hands. So, like the rest of us slackers, they're playing video games — except when they do it, it's newsworthy.

Jesse Alexander, co-executive producer of Heroes, was recently on Major Nelson's Xbox Live podcast. From time indices 1:51:06 to 2:32:15 of this 53-megabyte file, Mr. Alexander talks about his past writing video game scripts for Activision; why writers are king in television, but not movies; why the upcoming Heroes game won't suck like the Alias game did; and the similarities and differences between, and the convergence of the television and gaming media.

Personally, I'm not sure just how similar the two media are. They've been talking about "episodic gaming" for awhile, but we've not seen anything approaching 22 installments of one-hour weekly morsels. Though a single game might last longer than that, its cinematic experiences have been achieved only via pre-scripted, non-interactive sequences that take the player out of the game. It doesn't seem anymore effective going the other way, either: the interactive features offered by next-gen DVD formats are garnering little enthusiasm from consumers. It seems cinephiles want cinema and gamers want games. Astonishing!

Convergence overlooks the unique strengths of each genre. I enjoy television and games for different reasons and would hate to find them lost in a hybrid exhibiting the strengths of neither.