Spring  2001

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Each seasonal list is updated periodically; newest entries at the top...

DOT : To freedom of choice: in this case, an expansion pack and a patch. More often, when a game is offered as an expansion pack, any and all new perks must depend on you buying that pack. Furthermore, anyone who buys the pack, cannot play games with the people who're still playing the basic game, without the pack, further coercing them to buy the additional item. Very rarely does a game company offer the best of both worlds...then Activision/Raven, the makers of Star Trek Voyager : Elite Force, uploaded a FREE patch, before releasing their expansion pack in stores. While the patch obviously doesn't include everything the expansion pack does, it does allow anyone without the expansion pack to play games with those who buy it, as well as the most intriguing of the added bonuses; a voice pack, finally allowing Jeri Ryan to portray her Seven of Nine character in the single-player game. While there's still more than enough reason to buy the expansion pack (like new single player holo-missions, and multi-player character options), the freebie-patch makes it an option to do so, not a necessity. Humility like this is unseen in the game world most of the time, and it's nice to see when it happens.

DOT : To unexpected generosity. Rosie O'Donnell's show, the week after the finale episode of Survivor: The Australian Outback, had the typical all-contestants-as-guests, near the middle of the week. What was not so typical, was Rosie giving so many gifts to the contestants. Rosie had heard one of Colby's comments near the end of the show, that one of the reasons he allowed Tina to be in the final two was because she promised to buy him a Harley Davidson Motorcycle if she won. Rosie, during the show, decided to give him one herself (I suppose she, like everyone else, isn't expecting Tina to give him that bike anytime soon). She also gave a car to first-cast-off Debb Eaton, and, hearing that Elisabeth was engaged, gave her an all-expenses-paid honeymoon to Paris. Such generosity, quite frankly, even rivals the actual Survivor show. It was also nice to see the nicer contestants get something extra, which is probably what Rosie O'Donnell wanted as well...

DOT : To a never-saw-it-coming plot twist...for once. May 6th's episode of ABC's The Practice had a finale unlike anything anyone would expect from the show, where, apparently, the actor playing Richard Bay is leaving the show at warp speed. However, talk about your exits! Huzzah to the Napoleon-sized D.A., for sticking to his guns and telling a criminal in court --after his friends threatened him to back off from the case-- that he was not afraid of him, or his friends, and he's going to receive justice. However, a small, miniature Slash, for the rather overdone, Sopranos-like implications, when he actually does win the case. On the other hand, I'm sure nobody saw it coming from a hundred tabloids away.

Slash : To myopia in the history of martial arts films. Sure, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a foreign-film masterpiece, worthy of the Oscar nominations and wins it received. However, it seems like every time a new film does a snazzy one-on-one fight scene, some critic muses, "Oh, they're just copying Crouching Tiger..." Hardly; it's not like that was the first use of martial arts in film! In fact, if anything, Crouching Tiger owes a great dept to martial arts legends like Bruce Lee, and with some credit to Jackie Chan, for keeping martial-arts-savvy films in theaters to this very day. The only uniqueness here was in Crouching Tiger's use of epic grandeur in a martial-arts film, when most people would have treated it as "just another cheesy action film." It's this epic respect for martial arts that earns the film worthy respect from the viewing audience. However, is every film that includes martial arts fight scenes since its release, a mere "copy cat" of Crouching Tiger? I don't see how, when such films existed long, long, long before that film was even a gleam in the director's eye. Give it a rest.

DOT : To anyone who sends letters into Techtite.com! Thanks! Yeah, I know this is a little bit over-the-top in sugary-sweetness; I just felt bad that its been so long since finding anything worth giving a "Cheer" about, in Dot's & Slashes.

Slash : To yet another entrant in the "art film" gambit: Josie & the Pussycats! See, Josie and her Pussycats, allegedly, are not just a non-event for old Archie comics fans. Suddenly, there's this gambit being played, that there's a big, artistic message against commercialism here, and if you don't like the movie, you just don't get it. Nice try...even if it is slightly working! As of this paragraph's posting online, half the critical comments surveyed by  rottentomatoes.com, all imply something similar; if you don't like the film, you're just not getting the bigger message. Yeah, I got the message; I just don't agree with it. Likewise for the people who imply the film's subliminal-messages plot is unique and inspired; Off the top of my head, TV's Buck Rogers, and John Carpenter's film They Live, did the same story, with far more intriguing results than this. Sorry.