In lieu of my regular non-existent contribution to Techland, classic Simpsons writer and lovable polymath Mike Reiss has something he’d like to get off his chest:
One of the frustrations of writing children’s books – besides the fact that no one buys them any more – is that you’re competing with celebrity authors. …
Driving down Los Angeles’s lovely Pico Blvd., I saw that The Last Airbender billboard had been defaced thusly:
It immediately brought to mind the a billboard I’d seen for Iron Man 2, which had been similarly altered:
To my thinking, each billboard looks much, much, cooler with the spray paint addition. The giant posters …
On the evolutionary ladder of human creativity, the internet mash-up rests on a fairly low rung. All the “creator” of the mash-up does is combine two things that someone else came up with. It’s hard to respect the creativity of someone whose only skill is to edit together stuff which already exists.
Pop Culture Thing 1 + Pop Culture …
The big story on Day One of E3 2010 was the Xbox 360’s motion capture gaming device, the Kinect. Eager crowds jammed their faces up to a row of Plexiglas chambers, as demo guys showed off new titles for this ground-breaking entertainment experience.
One of the most impressive titles was Kinectimals. A demo guy stood in front of …
• The Techland Interview – L. Frank Baum, Part 2
We continue our chat with fan favorite, as he gives us a peek at the latest Oz sequel, The Tin Woodman of Oz. Baum takes on his controversial decision to bring back the ditzy Polychrome, the Rainbow’s Daughter, and finally dishes the dirt about the dark past of everyone’s …
Years back, if you were a member of the Los Angeles comedy-nerd-art-dork-hip-oisie, you would be lucky to receive an invitation to SUPERBALL. SuperBall was the brainchild of Mystery Science Theater 3000‘s Joel Hodgson and his brother Jim, and it was always the party of the summer, if not the autumn as well. Located deep in the deepest …
When The Game Was Ours by Larry Bird and Magic Johnson with Jackie MacMullan
A forward who hailed from French Lick
That a Lansing kid thought was a hick
Great rivals in sport
On and off the court
But if they wrote this book I’m St. Nick
Strange Things Happen: A Life with The Police, Polo, and Pygmies by Stewart …
iPod OB
The Starbucks Attention-Getter
iTouch Maximum
iMac Minimum
Apple Newton v2.0
iPlacemat
The Procrastinatrix
Whammo Novelty Throwing Square
Zune Blaster 3000
Matthew McConaughey’s Virtual Bongos
Crotch TV
One More Thing For Your Kids To Endlessly Bug You About Then Break
$800 Coke …
Young daughter watches her father play “Assassin’s Creed 2” on his Xbox 360.
DAUGHTER: Daddy, are you killing that man with a sword?
HUSBAND: Sweetheart, it’s not a sword. It’s a hidden wrist-blade handed down from generation to generation by a league of secret assassins.
Wife Enters.
WIFE: What is that?
HUSBAND: …
Josh Lieb, Executive Producer of the Daily Show, has just published his debut novel, I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be Your Class President. I know him and he agreed to write a fake interview with me so I wouldn’t have to write my blog. What follows is my fault as much as his.
SELMAN: Josh, thank you so much for …
Writing about the Grand Theft Auto video games for the Time 100 issue, I unpersuasively argued the following semi-flippant point: the Houser brothers who write and create these games are the spiritual successors to Balzac and Twain and Wolfe. They are societal super-reporters, stuffing the gaming experience with detailed observations …
