I just finished work on a line of resin figures which I have put on display in the Gallery at American Greetings. They're called Nuubs (rhymes with "tubes") and, well, here are some shots. Click on a pic to see a larger image...
Buddy Boy
Sissy Girl
E Man
Shade
Doosh
Rainee
Loaf
I did a couple of acrylic pieces as well. Cork floating atop torn-up corrugated cardboard:
The Nuubs concept is something I've had in my head for nearly two years. Little, stubby, mushroom-headed kids who have fun doing random things. To me, this is a modern take on Charles Schultz' Peanuts. Now that I've put together a group of characters with personalities I am fleshing out more details to create a fully-developed property. I'm in the midst of writing a draft for an animated series for television which I plan to pitch to the networks hopefully next year.
Ubisoft is releasing a Wii game called We Dare. Calling it Wii Dare would seem to make more sense, but who am I to argue? In any case, the good news is, it is an amazingly raunchy concept. The bad news is, it is -- at least at this point in time -- only being released in Europe.
The thing is... if someone, if some company, would just release a game like this in the U.S. they would become a ga-jillionaire. Overnight.
Wait until you get a load of this game. Swingers will be on it like a fat kid on cake.
Keep in mind that this is an actual promotional clip for We Dare -- but! -- Ubisoft's legal department just pulled the original clips from YouTube today so only the mashups remain. Like this one. It is the same clip except it has Inception music behind it.
Okay, I don't know about you, but if I were a contestant on this Japanese game show I would probably lock-up on girl number four, at least, due to the density change in my swim trunks.
I know. I don't know a lot of things, but this is one of them.
Anyway, I did not know that back in 1997 an episode of Pokemon aired on Japanese television that caused hundreds and hundreds of little kids to be rushed to hospitals. The children had experienced seizures! When I read this, I was like WTF? Here's a link to the report.
So anyway, if you're too lazy to click on the link, here's the rundown. There is a scene in the episode containing rapidly flashing colors during a missile attack; specifically blue and red. This particular strobe effect was just crazy enough to F up more than 600 little ones who happened to be watching. The episode — which became known as the "Pokemon Shock" episode — was pretty much banned and later altered with slowed-down frames of animation.
And now — for the first time ever — here is your chance to watch the ORIGINAL, seizure-inducing scene from the infamous "banned from TV" episode of Pokemon. Just remember I am not legally responsible if your head explodes like in Scanners, okay? Watch at your own risk.
Well, I did it. I made the switch from standalone to software-driven DJ hardware. Numark had a rebate deal on the V7 over the holidays and I couldn't pass it up. Not only am I getting a check for $200, I'm also getting a free case valued at $200.
I sold my Denon DN-S1000 setup on Craigs. I bought a V7 and then went after an X5. The X5 is Numark's companion mixer for the V7 and typically sells for $400+ but some dude had one on Amazon marketplace — in brand new condition — for $300. I got real lucky with that one.
Now I am left with having to pick up a second V7 and a laptop to run it all. These purchases are probably not going to happen for a while; I've got lots of other financial priorities to block me on that front. But hopefully in due time.
Numark's V7 runs Serato Itch and provides a whole mess of effects options, definitely more than my Denons gave me.
Here's the V7 in action:
In the meantime I am running this setup through a dual core Pentium tower. Not very portable but until I can get myself a decent laptop it will have to do. Also, a single V7 unit is like having two decks in one — there's a second "virtual" deck in the unit — but it is a little unnatural for me. I miss the feel of being able to put my hands on two separate decks at any given time. This "Deck A" and "Deck B" switching is kind of obnoxious. So yeah, I will be hunting for a second V7 at one point.
I am hoping that by summer I will have everything in place so I can get back out there — 100% digital from here on — to do some gigs.
