- Finally got to see MK for the first time in almost two weeks. Last I saw her was the night before I flew out to Washington; since my flight was so early, we decided to stay up the whole time. So while I did some last-minute work on the computer and packed, MK played Wind Waker while cooking brownies for me to munch on in the west coast. She was also going to drive me to the airport, and wouldn’t you know, just as we hit the road, one of her tires developed a leak! Fucking Brooklyn roads, which have been slowly destroying her car ever since I’ve moved there.
… Oh, I forgot one key detail of the story about me and my dad getting the Seattle Seahawks’ cheerleaders’ autographs: another reason why I didn’t mind stick around for that about thirty minutes after they were set to appear, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were supposed to make an in-store appearance as well! But they were running late or something, so I never did catch them (I wonder if they all showed up, and if not, who? Donatello perhaps?). I’ve also yet to see a single episode of the new series, but I’ve heard from various folks that it’s pretty good…
Anyway, while I was away, MK went skiing in the Great While North, and just got back. While in Montreal, she was awesome enough to pick me up the season 4 DVD of Trailer Park Boys! As mentioned numerous times in the past, its by far the best comedy series that no one (at least Americans) has hears about. I wonder why Comedy Central hasn’t picked it up yet? Cuz if they did, it will be fucking huge I bet.
Back to yesterday: after dinner, we went to Cosmic Comics, then hit the subway, to Jeff Rovin’s for another movie night. Got on the 6 train at 23rd St, and then got off at Union Square to transfer to the 4 or 5. While waiting, MK spotted some crazy old woman who’s face was totally painted white (almost like a mime) and who was on a higher platform, waving to the subway as it passed her underneath. And she was doing it very slowly, and sad like, as if it was the dramatic end to a movie (or maybe just like a mime). Fucking bizarre. Then I turned around, and saw a guy almost fall off the platform!
Those who have been to the Union Square station might already know that for the 4/5/6 line, the platform is curved, so parts of it will move when trains arrive to allow people to get on and off. Well this guy was standing right on one such section (which is like a huge, interlocking metal grate) as it moved, just as a train arrived, so he tripped and fell, and had one leg literally trapped between a car train and the metal grate. I saw this happening and yelled out “WHOA!!!”, I guess due to the shock (it was a pretty scary scene). And I immediately felt rather embarrassed afterwards, maybe because I called attention to something really bad happening without rushing to help (I was quite a few feet away, and was literally frozen in my tracks), though thankfully, there were tons of people around the guy to help pull him out. And despite being pinned in there fairly tight, it wasn’t as if his leg was ripped off or something.
MK & I later got on the train, and the dude also got on, but he sorta gave me a weird look (maybe because I was the guy that yelled “whoa” which may have made an already embarrassing situation for him even worse), so the ride was pretty awkward. But then I began to wonder, why in the hell was this guy standing on the moving platform, especially when everyone else knows better, plus why did he seem totally oblivious to everything, even when he was pulled out? I only realized then, while standing next to the guy, that he was super drunk and high.
As for movie night, we saw the Office Special and Midnight Cowboy. Afterwards, I asked Jeff, who was wearing a Superman sweatshirt, if he knew if DC had any plans to create a shirt with the Earth 2 Superman logo (which as some might recall, I am a bit obsessed) with, and if so, why the hell not? I also wondered once again why the new movie going with such a lame-ass new logo, and why they didn’t choose the Earth 2 variant, which would have been a very subtle, yet awesome nod to Superman canon (which would, at least in my eyes, justify the need for a whole new origin of Superman flick). To that, Jeff mentioned that he’s having a meeting with some folks at DC Comics about their next round of licensed merchandise, and promised to bring up for me. Yes!
- Unfortunately, due to movie night, I had to miss Katie’s new radio show. But for those who are interested, you can check it out here. It’s called THE PHYSICAL ASSESSMENT and is on 4-7 pm on Wednesdays. She plays mostly bizarro beeps and boops, which is my kind of music, and I was delighted to find out that she’s using some of the songs from the mix CDs I made a short whiles back.
I wonder if she played that Jacob ter Veldhuis piece that passed along last night (its this awesome mix of a saxophone and voice samples from Scared Straight.
- While I have been back for a few days now, I’m nowhere near caught up with the world of video game news. There’s like a million news posts on the front page of insert credit, including for a Silent Hill homebrew title for the Virtual Boy, which at this point is buried near the bottom (but you can find here).
Perhaps I should have waited till next week, as well as talk about Lethal Enforcers 3, for Fucking Konami Week, which is yearly IC tradition.
Though I have had time to peruse the boards and have come across some interesting stuff, including…
… a vid of some unfinished coarse that I guess it locked away on Mario Kart DS…
… a reminder of a really neat looking GBA title that I first heard about when I was working at Ubi Soft back in the day, and how its finally been revealed that its officially dead (despite being at the 98% mark or something)…
… word that the add-on D pad that Capcom had made for Street Fighter Zero/Alpha 3 for the PSP will now be available in the US if you buy the game directly from Capcom…
… a look at some neat game shirts…
… a look at very obscure Captain America villian who goes by the name of Gamecock:
… Plus, here’s a thread that has links to some pretty amazing ICO and Shadow of the Colossus fan-art. My favorites have to be…
And on a related note, here’s a cute little, and SoTC related, Valentine’s cartoon by this person…
- Speaking of cartoons inspired by video games, Lifemeter is now officially live. There’s some really neat stuff to be found, including this nice scene from Wind Waker…
This absolutely brilliant comic about the Mario-verse…
As well as this wonderful Katamari piece, if only for the fact that, unlike 95$ of all other fan-art inspired by the game, its nice and peaceful, and not all obnoxiously “OMG THAT’S SO WACKY-JAPPY!!!”
Now I really have to get off my ass and do that Dynamite Headdy drawing I have in my head. Plus I’m also thinking about doing something related to Sparkster. You know, from Rocket Knight Adventure? I sorta want to concentrate on forgotten characters from the 16-bit era, mostly from the Genesis side.
- So as for later this week, Robin will be celebrating his birthday on Friday night at Barcade, so that’s another chance to give the arcade version of Super Mario Bros a spin. And on Saturday is the aforementioned punk rock/comic show…
Seems that there’s going to be a ton of cartoonists on hand, about twenty I last heard. And I just realized that its taking place in the Bowery Poetry Club, which is somewhat of a cramped space, so I gotta wonder what its going to be liked with a bunch of tables filled with comics and live bands. Should be an interesting crowd; a mix of indie comic types and punk rockers, plus maybe some poet-beat regulars, one can only hope. Then later that night is a Valentine’s party (well, actually, its an “anti-Valentine’s” event, you could say) that my roommate is throwing at our house. I was originally going to stick around all day and help prep; even though its mostly Stephy’s thing, I will be helping to host the event, I’m still going to try and make the first part of the show. Because, goddamnit, I’ve been meaning to checkout Blackout Shoppers for fucking forever now, and things keep happening and getting in the way, but not this time!
On Sunday I hope to get at least some rest (and work on the book). Then on Monday, a coworker of mine, who’s a fine artist, is going to have a “painting conversation” with me. Basically, I’m going to say stuff, and he’s going to respond, but non-verbally. Instead, he will paint based up what I say, or what he thinks of what I said, or something. Plus its all going to be filmed. Should be interesting!
- Finally, this year’s ICON is almost here, and I’ll be appearing once again as a guest for the video game component of the show. And as before, I’ll be talking about game development, as well as video game history, plus gender issues, as well as general internet habits. And Star Trek’s George Takei will be there as well, so now everyone has a reason to go! My schedule has not been finalized, but once it is, I’ll be passing along.
