All posts tagged: Master

Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol 2 is a remaster done right

Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol 2 is a remaster done right

Published by Daniella Wilson

For several years, I’ve had a PlayStation 3 in my front room for the sole reason of being able to play Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots whenever I want. You see, before this year’s Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol 2 release, it was nearly impossible to play MGS4 on anything but a PS3. For years, I’d hear about how difficult it was to make the game work on Sony’s console, due to the demands Kojima and the team had on the title to close out protagonist Solid Snake’s story in a satisfying way. Reception to the title since its 2008 debut has always been mixed, due to its very long cutscenes and environments that can make it easy for players to get lost or found. However, I’ve always had a soft spot for it, due to the game’s smart narrative on nostalgia. Now, having played it three times on my Nintendo Switch 2, here’s why the game, remastered for Master Collection Vol 2, along with Peace Walker and Ghost Babel that …

The Grand Master of Abjection | Coco Fusco

The Grand Master of Abjection | Coco Fusco

Published by Jenni Sidey

Pope.L, the African American performance artist who died in 2023 after a career that spanned five decades, is perhaps best known for crawling on his belly down the length of Broadway dressed as Superman, or for tying himself to a bank entrance with a string of sausages, or for literally chewing on The Wall Street Journal while sitting atop an elevated toilet wearing only a jockstrap. He was the grand master of abjection, who treated the most painful aspects of poverty and racism with unflinching irony. And he didn’t stop at performance. His explorations of being poor, marginal, and stereotyped took many forms, including drawing and painting, which are the focuses of a posthumous exhibition of his work at the Drawing Center. In Skin Sets, a series of textual works created between 1997 and 2016, Pope.L purposefully chose to work with humble materials at a humble scale: dozens of the pieces on view in the show were drafted on graph or office paper using ballpoint pen, markers, pencil, and correction fluid. Some are festooned with …

Abstract Expressionism’s Tortured American Master

Abstract Expressionism’s Tortured American Master

Published by Jenni Sidey

Pollock and Krasner moved to a house at 830 Springs-Fireplace Road in Springs, East Hampton, which they’d purchased with a $2,000 down payment from Guggenheim. Unlike today’s playground for the rich, East Hampton back then was rural, and the property had been a farmstead with a small barn that became Pollock’s studio. The barn’s interior was barely large enough to accommodate the canvases Pollock rolled out onto the floor, restricting him to working along a shallow perimeter between the walls and the painting. In winter he could work just a couple of hours each day, since the space was unheated. Pollock used household enamel diluted to a syrupy consistency, using stirring sticks as tools along with brushes. Thinned pigments and drips weren’t exactly new: Whistler had used a washy concoction he labeled “sauce,” while Max Ernst had developed a technique called oscillation in which he hung a paint-filled can above a canvas, swinging it back and forth as pigment trickled through a hole punched in the bottom. There was also the little-remembered, self-taught painter Janet …

Top 10 Summer Outfits All Men Should Master

Top 10 Summer Outfits All Men Should Master

Published by Akaay Pradhan

Dressing for cold weather is easy. Footwear choices are limitless, textures are plentiful, and the possibility of layering provides an additional sartorial dimension. Summer dressing, on the other hand, can present more of a challenge. The rising mercury brings with it many great things – barbecues, beer gardens and bronzed skin to name a few – but it also means that wardrobe options diminish significantly. Staying cool is the top concern, but looking good is a close second. Thankfully, there are a few tried-and-tested warm-weather outfits that manage to tick both boxes. Master these go-to, seasonal getups and you need never fall into a summer style rut again. From tackling the office in heatwave conditions to picking the perfect wedding guest attire – here we present Ape’s ultimate summer outfit hitlist. Breton With Chinos Closed Striped Longsleeve ISTO Chinos JAK Legacy White France has done a great deal for fashion, but one of its most timeless and versatile contributions is the Breton top. First introduced as a uniform for the French Navy in 1858, this …

Music the Master? – OpentheWord.org

Music the Master? – OpentheWord.org

Published by Sam Flores

By David Garratt    Who is the Master?  I don’t consider it particularly worthwhile criticizing what we do in church music because I have always taken the opinion that rather than say something negative it’s better to suggest a positive alternative.  However, in August 2003 a thought came to me, quite unprovoked, in fact it was in my mind as I woke: “The music has become the master instead of the servant”. For some reason I knew this thought related to worship in the church worldwide. Over the time since I had this impression, I have had many ideas including realising that it is not just the music that has become a master, but anything at all we do in a worship setting that doesn’t have, at its core, a dependence on God with a desire to bring him glory alone. I have also realised that this was a ‘word’ to me as well as others involved in encouraging worship. I need to constantly challenge myself as well. I will attempt to list a few …

You can only truly master one thing, according to Epictetus

You can only truly master one thing, according to Epictetus

Published by Jenni Sidey

When we say that we have “mastered” something, we typically mean that we have become highly skilled or proficient in it — we have a deep understanding of the subject or activity and the ability to perform it without difficulty. To master also means to gain complete control over something, such as emotions or situations — but can we ever truly master something in that sense?  According to the 2nd-century Stoic philosopher Epictetus, we actually control very little, but that little is crucial, as it defines who we are, deep down. At the beginning of the Enchiridion, a manual for a good life compiled by Epictetus’s brilliant student Arrian of Nicomedia, the philosopher says: Some things are up to us and some are not. Up to us are judgment, inclination, desire, aversion — in short, whatever is our own doing. Not up to us are our bodies, possessions, reputations, public offices — in short, whatever is not our own doing. He then proceeds to tell us that a good life is one in which we …