Mugshot - Frederik Sisa
Frederik Sisa, arts/entertainment/politics/culture: Resolved to use his powers of writing for good instead of evil, long-time contributor and assistant editor Frederik Sisa is The Front Page Online’s resident art critic as well as a political/cultural observer through his column The Recreational Nihilist. He also edits The Front Page Online's fashion blog The Fashionoclast. When not writing, he writes more, whether working as a marketing professional for a local architecture firm or feeding his blog. Want to drop him a line? Write to: fsisa@thefrontpageonline.com.
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The Malgrave Incident: A Video Game for People Who Don’t Play Video GamesBy Frederik Sisa @ 2:00 PM October 28, 2011Building on their expertise with casual games delivered through the internet, Big Fish Games’ first foray into development for the Nintendo Wii console is a successful example of video games not named Angry Birds attracting an audience beyond a niche demographic. read |
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‘The Robber Bridegroom’: Amusing, but a Barn Short of a HootennanyBy Frederik Sisa @ 9:00 AM October 19, 2011Based on the 1942 novella by Eudora Welty, which itself is a relatively cheery adaptation of a gruesome tale from the Brothers Grimm, The Robber Bridegroom took on life as a musical in the 1970s with producer Stuart Ostrow’s Musical Theatre Lab. read |
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‘Excuseman’ Only Tortures ReadersBy Frederik Sisa @ 11:00 AM October 14, 2011In an age saturated by scandals, what we apparently need is a superhero wielding a very large needle to pop the ballooning delusions of celebrity apologetics. Unfortunately, “Excuseman” (aka Chicago trial lawyer Jordan Margolis) is too busy indulging himself to stay focused on his mission to save the world from “insincere apologies for bad behavior from celebrities, politicians and general ne’er-do-wells.”read |
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Steve Jobs, Visionary Merchant of GadgetsBy Frederik Sisa @ 1:00 PM October 06, 2011...there’s no denying the genius and vision Jobs brought to an impressive array of endeavours, from popularizing the accessible personal computer through the Apple II – an admitted milestone that stands with the efforts of IBM and Microsoft in transforming information technology – to Pixar’s evolution into the animation powerhouse it is today. Nor can we underestimate his accomplishments in turning flabby, out-of-breath business ventures into roaring successes. Yet for all his genius and impact on the technology and entertainment industries, the value of his iconic legacy is questionable.read |
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Cowboys & Aliens: The Year's Most Underrated Blockbuster?By Frederik Sisa @ 1:00 PM August 26, 2011As tempting as it is to label Cowboys & Aliens a genre mashup, that path leads to confusion – which goes some ways to explaining the mixed reviews and box office performance. Viewed as a seemingly irresolvable chimera, reactions to the film are akin to the befuddlement that the Saturday Night Live’s “It’s Pat!” sketches exploited for laughs, only with less amusement and interpretive acuity. For reference, consider Firefly, a bona fide mashup of two genres that the San Francisco Chronicle’s Tim Goodman, in his review of the cult TV series, described as “alarmingly opposite.” Here we were presented with an aesthetic that jammed together Western and sci-fi tropes, leading to scenes that played out as Westerns with ray-guns and hovering vehicles. Whedon’s blending of visual vocabularies from two strongly defined genres yielded results akin to the Spanglish that comes from the meld of Spanish and English. It worked, albeit very creakily, but the show’s appeal ultimately emerged from the strong storytelling and compelling character archetypes drawn from Western rather than Science Fiction sensibilities. read |