Sony held a partyrecently in which a decapitated goat served as the centerpiece:

Guests were enjoined to pull (and then eat) fake entrails out of the goat’s carcass. The party stuck closely to the theme of ancient Greece, as a way to promote their Greek-themed game, God of War 2. There were topless chicks in togas, too. I don’t know if those were common in ancient Greece parties, but they’re not nearly common enough here.

Personally, I don’t see what the big deal is. Goats and other animals are killed every day. I would be willing to bet that the number of killed animals every day is in the high hundreds, and perhaps even in the thousands (especially on game day). It might be in bad taste, but that certainly is not unique to Sony’s video game promotion parties.

Most of us eat animals. In order to eat an animal, you have to kill it. It’s one of those immutable laws of nature, and also the reason why carnivores tend to have sharp teeth.

Is killing an animal an act of cruelty? I think most people would qualify their answer based on the intention. If you’re killing an animal in order to give yourself an erection, that’s probably cruel. If you’re killing an animal in order to eat the meat on its bones, that’s probably ok (to most people). If you’re killing an animal so jaded entertainment journalists can laugh and giggle while they put their hands in the cold void that once held its beating, thriving heart…well, I don’t have an answer.

And maybe I just convinced myself that what I said earlier is wrong. Maybe I do have a problem with Sony using a dead goat to promote its video game. Maybe killing animals just for our pleasure is wrong. Maybe we should leverage our technological know-how and ingenious American spirit to create foods that taste and feel just like meat, but necessitate no dead animals.

Shit, gotta go. My burgers are ready.

Somehow, the creators of the Iron Man movie made Robert Downey Jr. look like a badass:

He’s constructing the Iron Man armor. That’s iconic.

Link to my most recent Metroblogging Pittsburgh entry (this is a long one).

“On Monday, April 23 2007, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences screened Star Wars as part of their Great to Be Nominated series. Before the start of the show, they showed this special clip as a message of warning to members in the audience.”

Link to my latest blog entry at Metroblogging Pittsburgh.

(I had to repost this entry because somebody posted a spam comment that filled the entire screen with an ad for ringtones. Have I mentioned that I don’t like this site?)

Though my birthday falls smack in the middle of next week, there is a small celebration being held in my honor on the following Friday evening (May 4th).

Location: Dave & Busters, in the little piece of retail heaven known as the Waterfront (get directions here)
Time: Seven PM ish.
Duration: until they kick us out.

Completely against my will, I’ll probably get drunk. This doesn’t happen very often.

So, if you can read this assume you’re invited. And bring your single, female friends. Or, if you’re single and female, come out and bring yourself! Actually, bring as many friends (single, female or otherwise) as you’d like. It’ll be fun.

I promise.

One small request: send me an email or a MySpace message to let me know if you’re coming. If you prefer, you can instead contact the chief organizer, Sara.

She’s Alexyss Tylor, and I want her:

Enjoy your juvenile, inane, self-marginilized-yet-stupidly-pedestrian subculture, stoners!

The Onion launches another amazing satirical salvo (link here):

“We’ve done it,” said senior producer Julie Snyder, who was personally interviewed for a 2003 This American Life episode, “Going Eclectic,” in which she described what it’s like to be a bilingual member of the ACLU trained in kite-making by a Japanese stepfather. “There is not a single existential crisis or self-congratulatory epiphany that has been or could be experienced by a left-leaning agnostic that we have not exhaustively documented and grouped by theme.”

I love it when they make fun of something that most people wouldn’t even consider making fun of.