It’s September 9th, which means….
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOE/HILARY/THE SEGA DREAMCAST!!!
- As noted last time, this past weekend was Joe Simko’s birthday get-together. The funny thing was how Joe, myself, and every single other male in attendance was either working at home as a freelance artist or simply out of work, while each of our significant others was out there everyday, gainfully employed and bringing in a steady paycheck (which only dawned upon me when all the dudes started talking about their daytime talk show habits). Take that women’s lib!
Anyhow, the day consisted of everyone just sitting around, shooting the shit, munching on goodies, and playing Loaded Questions, a favorite board game of Joe and June’s. Basically, a person draws a card from a pile, asks a question that everyone must answer, and then the first person must figure out who said what. If successful, he or she moves their piece along the board, then the process repeats. Not surprisingly, each round consisted of mostly Jew jokes, since Jay was in attendance, who thankfully has a sense of humor about such things. Afterwards we went to check out SonicVision at the Museum of Natural History’s planetarium. Basically, it?s this show where they play various electronic and alternative music animated with “trippy” computer graphics (simply image the iTunes visualizer, but on steroids).
It was actually really awesome! Despite the fact that I wasn’t such a fan of some of the music (sorry, but Coldplay simply blows). Though the visuals were fantastic… and being drunk really helps. While waiting in the outside area for the doors to open, I really had to be pee badly (because I “broke the seal” as Bryan noted), which meant a quick trip back upstairs where the restrooms are located. Once in the elevator, I decided to chit-chat with the elevator operator, and kicked myself afterwards for making an ass of myself, till I realized that she probably only deals with drunks, that its precisely the type of folks who come out to such things. But yeah, the show was neat, and not nearly as cheesy as one would it image it being (though them unearthing Prodigy’s Firestarter got a good laugh, as did it’s early 90′s computer demons running around, which I want believe was on purpose). The mix was by Moby, whose work I don’t mind and even dig on occasion, though I still wanted to see his ass get kicked by Eminem that one time. At the very least, he didn’t go “Hi, this is Moby” like when I saw a presentation at the same place years back on the solar system, narrated by Tom Hanks, who right in the middle of explaining the big bang, had to let everyone know “Hi, this is Tom Hanks.” I think that’s when I started to dislike the guy.
- Real quick, back to Bryan Green: a recent side project of his has been creating paper-craft versions of those alien dudes from the old 80s television mini-series, V…
… Simply head on over to My V Friend for more pics, and links so you cane make your own!
- Oh, and I spotted this on the train ride up to Joe’s earlier that afternoon…
… Last time I mentioned how annoying local sports teams are when it comes to living in NYC. Well on the flip side, always hilarious and sometimes genuinely inventive subway graffiti is easily one of the best parts about the Big Apple. Anyway, that’s almost as funny as this, which I snapped at the station near Dave Mauro’s a while back…
… I forget if I passed it along once before, via my now long dead cell phone blog, which I really miss, though mostly because the pay was fucking unbelievably good.
- Speaking off, I also met up with Joe yesterday to work on…. stuff. Many folks have been asking me, since they know that I’m now full-time freelance (aka an unemployed bum), what I’ve been up to. And thing is, I’ve been super busy will all sorts of really wacky and totally awesome projects, which I’m absolutely dying to talk about. But, as also previously noted, I simply can’t, due to NDAs and the such. I keep waiting and waiting for the day in which I can not only speak of them, but also show them off… though truth be told, in some cases, there’s a chance that the final “thing” may never come to light, but that’s just the way it is.
Most of what I do these days could be classified as “consultation” and its loads of fun. Truth be told, and perhaps my output in this area in other parts is already indicative of this, I’m beginning to lose the passion for writing about games, at least on a professional level. And its not just because that the market is flooded with too many other aspiring game journalists, and how its increasingly difficult for me to make a buck from it… though it’s all that too. Make no mistake, I still enjoy doing it, but it’s the whole marketing aspect, selling one’s self and ideas, that’s becoming increasingly tricky, annoying, and tiresome. Many have asked how I’ve gotten work in the past. Well, it?s by going to message boards like Gaming Age or commenting on blogs. Which in turn leads to interest towards what else the author (in this case, myself) has to say, translating to not just readership to this sight from whomever but potential work from editors. Yet as I become increasingly involved in other projects, the interest, nor patience, when it comes to becoming a stable of NeoGAF continues to vanish. And as already noted, there’s just too many voices out there jostling for attention, while I begin to wonder if I’ve basically said all that needs to be said, at least on a relevant level, in the game criticism/analytical space.
Though that being said, if you’re an editor reading this who was about to offer me a sweet gig to write about games, don’t let me stop you! As for this place, I’ll keep doing what I’ve doing, even if no one is around to read it (yet I still get a decent about of hits at the moment… surprisingly). There’s actually something else that was also once super involved in, that being game design, which I’ve tried to get back in, but with no much luck it would seem.
I guess it’s true what they say: you just can’t spread yourself too thin. One prime reason why my game design efforts originally fell by the way side was that I became too busy writing about games. It’s also why my game writing began to suffer when I began to concentrate on cell phones. Anyhow, I recently had a meeting with a firm about a position, to provide support for an upcoming title in a genre I’m well versed with (hence why the head of the firm, a colleague of mine from the IGDA scene, brought me in to meet his crew, since he knew of my background). I was asked what I would do with the current iteration of the project, which is still in a prototype phase, and wouldn’t you know, I immediately got into an argument with one of the programmers, who took offense to my changes. But that’s hardly a surprise of course… programmers rarely play games (a fact that even this particular person’s boss reminded him of). Either that or it was my exemplary people skills once again at work! So yeah, I’m not holding my breathe on that one.
While it also doesn’t help that I don’t have the most stellar of track records to refer. The biggest game I oversaw would be a total piece of shit for Ubi Soft, which I don’t even know has my name on it, and my most popular game is all about jerking off.
- Anyway, onto more lighter developments, Joe also gave me a status update regarding Magama, the big Japanese punk rock fest that I was a part of last year. Magma 08 is going down later this year, though Joe might be going alone solo, since it’s going to be a much smaller affair as compared to last year’s. But Magma 09 is also on the drawing boards, which is gonna be another big one, taking place in exclusively Yokohama, and I will more than likely be going back for that one! Apparently, it’s Yokohama’s 100-year anniversary or something, so lots of stuff will be going down, with the punk rock fest being a part of the festivities. I’m really hoping that they doll up the town like Macross City.
Also, the Magma website has been updated! Please don’t ask me why the URL still says Magma 2007.
- Now onto the birthday girl, Hilary! Though nothing too exciting to report, simply helped her migrate data from her recently busted mirrored drive door G4 tower to her shiny new iMac last night. Since I simply could not stand the thought of yet another person going to that pice of shit place that is Tekserve and handing over good money for overpriced, shoddy workingmanship. I also love to show people all the neat little tricks that OS X can do, even stuff that’s been around forever, yet most don’t know about, like the application switcher (that’s apple key/command + tab, then keep hitting tab to cycle through all open programs).
During downtime, as we waiting for programs to install and the such, I also pointed out some of the most awesome recent posts over at Sankaku Complex that’s she missed out on in recent time. I know the place gives some folks migraines (sup Mike), but what else can I say? We both love batshit-insane, creepy sexual manage and anime! Though here’s something that is completely safe: a totally WACKY JAPPY, yet also SUPER KAWAII video featuring cats!
Meanwhile, this one is indeed their usual 11 on a 10 scale for creepy, yet I can help but share it: their otaku terror ranking!
- BTW, here’s a totally hawt image from Katie, that might be making its debut at SPX as a silkscreen or something…
And because I’m behind on such things, Heather was kind enough to let me know that her online digs is finally done with the reconstruction, and it’s nice! Plus, now there’s shark comics…
- Finally, onto video games! And what have I been playing? Well, earlier this morning I gave the always amazing Sega Rally 2 a spin, as well as some Daytona USA 2001, Jet Set Radio, Soul Calibur 1, and Sonic Adventure 1 (which I still actually enjoy). Why? Because its nine year anniversary of the Sega Dreamcast’s release in America! So once more, time to pull this image out of the drawers…
