Author: Bob Benz

Building an empire …

Post author By Bob Benz
Post date February 26, 2004

I recently picked up a copy of Civilization III, a computer game that allows you to build an empire. It didn’t take long for me to get addicted. My fledging Roman empire already has wiped out the hated Egyptian and I’m now battling Greece. Those bastards. They sacked and pillaged one of my southern cities, took my catapults and used them against me and have cavalry units that are causing me no end of pain. I become so obsessed that I’ll sit down and start playing and realize several hours have passed.

It’s really a mix of chess, Risk and Dungeons and Dragons without all the tedious dice throwing. Some of the subtleties they’ve built into the game really are impressive. Attacking armies gain advantage based on the terrain they hold, and units gain power with each victory they score. It also allows for building monuments and other features that add a neat dimension.

I learned quickly that it’s important to build features that help ensure domestic order or your cities will dissolve into revolt and disorder. After a few failed attempts, I built my next city near vineyards and immediately built roads to them, giving my Roman citizens an ample supply of wine. That’s keeping those suckers happy while I wage war against Greeze.

Apparently, you can take a civilization all the way up to the modern day. I’ve never been much into computer games. Until now.

Today, Greece. Tomorrow, the world.

Web Bob

Death of a monkey …

Breaks my heart to see Web Monkey die. That was a site I relied on heavily back in the day. It taught me to swing from the Internet’s trees on tenuous threads of HTML. It was an inspiriation. I quit following it when I started writing less code and Web Monkey evolved into something more complex than an HTML geek’s heaven.

Rest in peace, noble monkey.

Art Bob Top Bob Transcendental Bob Travel Bob

Tesoros Modernos …

Post author By Bob Benz
Post date February 16, 2004

We went to the San Antonio Museum of Art yesterday to see Tesoros Modernos (Modern Treasures), a collection of Latin American masterpieces from the Monterrey collection. It was impressive and included a lot of artists I wasn’t familiar with and a few I was. I think my favorite was Alejandro Colunga’s “La Muerta de un Loco.” Very dark, even disturbing. They also had a piece by Diego Rivera, something from his Cubist period, and a work by Orozco, whom I’ve always liked.

We took our friend Anita’s six-year-old with us, and as we drifted through the gallery, Emma’s pink, glitter-splattered shoes clicked across the marble floors in staccato bursts.

“That’s pretty,” the tap-dancing art critic decreed.

More clicking. “That looks like nothing,” she said, standing in front of Cesar Paternosto’s “Inti,” which is basically an orange canvas with orange rectangles on it.

Then more clicking, and a slip.

“These floors feel like butter.”

Emma’s antics definitely made the exhibit more fun.

Overall, I really was impressed by the museum. It’s one of the best I’ve been to, probably because it caters to Latin American art. After we looked at Tesoros Modernos, we went through the Nelson Rockefeller Center for Latin American Art. It’s an awesome collection that includes pre-Columbian, revolution era and modern works. Several nice pieces by Rivera and Orozco, including Orozco’s “Martirio de San Esteban I.” It features Saul watching as St. Stephen is stoned to death, suggesting a link to what the church was doing during World War II while Jews were dying in concentration camps. Very moving.

The folk art section also was great. They had molas from the Kuna Indians and lots of Day of the Dead stuff.

I came across one piece that I really liked, though I’m not sure how to categorize it other than to call it contemporary. It had a Pop Art feel to it. It was Enrique Changoya’s “Les Adventuras Des Cannibales Des Moderinistas.” I made a mental note to look up Changoya and see some of his other work.