… That was maybe my best joke all weekend. It was directed at the guy at the Clam and Jam on Saturday night who looked like Albert Einstein, if he was 100 pounds heavier.
So yeah, the Clam and Jam took place Saturday night, which is this huge BBQ/folk music/booz and potfest that brings out an army of old hippy and biker types (some of the dudes also look like pro-wrestlers btw, mostly either Stone Cold Steve Austin or Goldberg) which MK’s boss, back during her days of dealing Italian ices, throws each year. The best part of it all, aside from the mountain of delicious food is the gigantic bonfire, specifically watching dumb kids unleash their pyromaniacal tendencies by throwing shit into the flames and waiting for one of them to fell in. Though on the negative side, it’ll burn your face off if your less than 12 feet away from it. Also this year I didn’t get goofed on my Curly Joe (or Lester, or whatever the fuck his name is… he’s just Goldberg #4 in my mind) who last year gave me shit since they can all sniff out city slicker blood quite easily (my hipster-ish glass also played a huge part).
Plus MK was the star of the party, since her shirt design (each year the fest has a theme and an accompanying shirt) was a huge hit. I took several pictures of it, including the keggerator (which is an old rust fridge that’s been converted into a keg, with the nozzle right slapped right on the door; its really awesome, you just have to see it), but none of the pictures came out all that hot (once of the improvements that Jason noted for this site last week was to get a better camera, and I can’t argue with that). I also didn’t anything handy when MK & I were at the mall looking for birthday present for her friend Morgan; the highlight of the entire visit had to be the stuffed Big Bird toy at the Build A Bear center which looks like he’s screaming with look of absolute terror in his face. Also MK & I maybe annoyed the customer of the Disney Store as we went around and making fun of stuff; would you believe with all the hoopla surrounding the Little Mermaid, you’d think they’d have tons of “regular” cashing-in shit like mugs and the such, but the best they had was a fucking Little Mermaid voice-activated remote control car (for girls only). Lame.
We also went to the Tower Records near where MK lives since they were having a store closing sale and everything was on sale. But since it’s Tower, and everything costs an arm and a leg there anyway, the discounts didn’t amount to much. Oh, and when I asked the manager when they were closing exactly, he mentioned not in the immediate future, so I responded with “Oh, cool” (which was just a figure of speech), and the guy total flipped out. He began with “No, it’s not cool!” then went on and on about how, when the store closes, where will people go to get music and movies? Like people don’t know about Amazon; to further make the (rather idiotic) analogy that Tower is some sort of hip, indie record store, he also asking where people will get “rare”, “hard to find”, and “import” CDs; I’ll feel sorry when Tower’s definition of CDs includes World’s End Girlfriend, and not the same Britney Spears album you can get in the states, but with some Kanji on it, and $25 extra. Sorry, but that dude really got on my nerves; that fact that he wouldn’t shut up or stop bitching at me didn’t help…
Anyway, I also got the chance to see the Worlds of Warcraft episode of South Park, and it was pretty fucking awesome. I also find it funny that the only one who are really bitching about it are hardcore WoW players who seem to fail to understand what a parody is supposed to mean (either that or just can’t take a joke).
And speaking of video games….
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- First, a couple of YouTub vids, including…
… A Japanese commercial for Final Fantasy V for the GBA. The commercial itself looks like nothing special, but it does warrant some investigating. First off, you’ll notice that the game is being played on a DS instead of a Game Boy Advance. The thing is, right now the DS is white hot in Japan (I’m guessing that about 55% of the entire nation’s population owns at least one system), while the GBA market is totally dead, even though new GBA games are still being produced, with Final Fantasies IV, V, and VI being obvious examples, so now they are being marketed for the DS specifically (sorta like Rhythm Tengoku already has been). Anyway, take a very close look at the game as its running; it fills the screen! For those who don’t know what I’m pointing towards, since GBA games have a different screen ratio, there’s a black border surrounding the image. But not this one! This could be something similar to Final Fantasy Tactics, which also filled the screen when playing it on a television with the Game Boy Player.
… Get ready for Street Fighter, the ride!
… Michele passed this along earlier this morning: Mister Rogers playing Donkey Kong.
… And on a similar note, here’s an old Inside Edition report on the NES hosted by Bill O’Reilly. It’s funny hearing Inside Edition ask the Nintendo rep the tough questions, like what is Mario’s last name if him and his brother are called the Mario Bros, the response being that there is no answer and its no big deal, which is an answer they would be forced to address in the live action movie, and this was before the advent of fan fic on the internet!
- Plus, I highlighted the game Aquaria not too long ago, and here’s a video of it in action.
- Also, remember that one NeoGAF thread of the dude de-glossing his black DS? Well, for those not brave enough to take a nail file to their system (gee, I wonder why), here’s a better solution I guess.
- So with so much stuff going on, its sorta impossible to keep track of every single game in development, and as a result, a few have fallen into the cracks and its taking me a while to notice certain key titles. Blue Dragon is one of them, which is the new RPG from the creator of Final Fantasy, for the 360. Actually, I’ve known about it for some time while now, even seen various screenshots, and am also well aware of the claymation-esque graphics. But it’s this following screenshot that has finally made me take serious notice of the game…
… Yet another reason why a Japanese 360 might not be such a bad investment after-all.
- Halloween is just around the corner, and you know what that means. Yup, more late video game related costumes. Though its going to take a lot to top this one, and its an “adult” costume too: the Super Snake Arcade machine.
- Meanwhile, I finally got around to checking out that monster cosplay thread over at the Gaming Age Forums (which some of my Otakon pics made a nice splash, I’m happy to say), which try I do every once in a while, and here’s one from the recent Tokyo Game Show which I thought was pretty nifty.
- And here’s an awesome pice of Shadow of the Colossus cosplay that I spotted over at Jamie’s LiveJournal.
- Finally, someone over at the Insert Credit boards passed along a ton of awesome images from SoTC from its early stages of development, featuring not only Colossi we are all familiar with but earlier and rougher, but a few of those that didn’t make the cut. And they’re all so amazing that I just have to share…
… There’s also one that’s like a wild boar, which is in the final game, but the enviroment is much different, he’s seen running around a grassy field, which gives it a more grander feel, like a scene right out of a cowboy flick, though I can see why they went with what they did. Plus there’s another human-type Colossi, but MUCH creepier. But I’m also rather lazy, so instead of posting each one, I’ve simply created a zip file that has them all. It’s only about 2 and a half megs, so click away!
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Oh, and one more thing, happy birthday Marion!
