4 Year Anniversary Celebration of Step Brothers

!!!UPDATE!!!
The Framed artwork is sold out, but prints are still available to purchase:
Super Step Bros. is available to purchase HERE
Prestige Worldwide is available to purchase HERE
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2008 was an interesting year. The Economy was just on the verge of going down the toilet, Flo Rida had the number one song in the country, I left my full-time job at Electronic Arts to return home to Southern California (really good timing Joey...), and a lovely little movie from Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly came out. Only one of these things can we look back on fondly and laugh.

Gallery 1988 is paying tribute to a very funny movie with "The Four Year Anniversary Celebration of the Cinematic Classic Step Brothers"

Funnyordie.com posted an excellent preview of some of the work from the show: http://www.funnyordie.com/articles/a7a2dc72b4/step-brothers-honored-at-gallery1988

Huff and Doback are one of the best comedy pairings in recent memory. Both of these actors are excellent on their own

So when I heard these two guys were making a movie together, I was pretty excited! Gallery 1988 is known for putting together interesting art shows that people didn't realize they wanted and they never disappoint. The artwork from this show is incredible, and the inspired artwork shows what a great movie Step Brothers truly is.  

I created 2 different pieces for the show. I am a fan of NES box art and always love the challenge of simplifying something into the iconic pixel art. For this show I thought it was only appropriate that Huff and Doback replaced Mario and Luigi:

But then I also thought it would be appropriate to continue my series of retro children's albums with Prestige Worldwide:

The show will open Friday, August 31st and run through September 22. If you're a fan of this great movie, you should head on down to Santa Monica and check it out!

A limited number of signed and numbered prints of my artwork will be available exclusively through Gallery 1988 at the gallery as well as through their online store: http://nineteeneightyeight.com

"The Four Year Anniversary Celebration of the Cinematic Classic Step Brothers"

Opening Friday, August 31st 7-10pm

Gallery 1988 Venice

214 Pier Avenue

Santa Monica, CA 90405

http://nineteeneightyeight.com

EPISODE 74: "Rusty Pipes"

A few weeks ago, my colleague Jim Sterling did a video on what he so as the waning (or, at least, "water-treading") state of the Super Mario Bros. franchise which, along with a general sense of "I've gotta get to this at some point" regarding the matter, inspired me to undertake this episode... which is NOW SHOWING on ScrewAttack!

ALSO! The "wraparound" segmentsof this episode includes, among other things, a Golden Age enemy, my terrible impression of Sean Connery and the ultimate reveal of what The AntiThinker's return means for the continuing adventures of The OverThinker.

Embedded video (and SPOILER TALK) after the jump:



SPOILERS BELOW

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So... "gotcha," I guess. The AntiThinker WAS back... for about five minutes. I've been planning this bit, broadly, since before shooting wrapped on "War of The Thinkers." AntiThinker was always going to go away for at least two "arcs," then come back but in an unexpected context. Not long after that, the notion of adding "evil robot" ("RoboThinker," who you'll probably see in the metallic flesh next episode time permitting) to the evolving bad guy character-roster (alongside "ninja" and "demon") and "Terminator parody" seemed like a logical way to go about doing it.

THEN it occured to me that A.) I hadn't really done a Dragonball Z parody yet, either, and it seemed like a natural fit for the show; B.) DBZ's Androids/Future-Trunks/Cell episodes WERE a Terminator riff and C.) a version of The OverThinker in Trunks' purple hair, blue coat and sword ensemble would (hopefully) be inherently funny... it was suddenly an obvious manuever: Let "OmegaThinker's" debut be taking out AntiThinker in a parody/recreation of the "Oh no not MORE Frieza epis-OH! Frieza's DEAD just like that!?" debut DBZ gave Trunks.

What Is Sony's "Console Wars" Movie?

Sony Pictures, you may have heard, has bought up a bunch of domain names relating to a movie project called "Console Wars." Yesterday, HitFix's Kris Tapley ambiguously tweeted that he'd heard of the project before and described it as "The Social Network" but for video-games.

So... a non-fiction drama about corporate-rivalry in the video game world? Interesting. But what would it be about - which "war" are we talking about?

It would be almost comically cynical and gauche for Sony to make a movie about a business they are one of the three major players IN - even in a "names changed" fictionalized version everyone would be able to tell which one is supposed to be Playstation, making it impossible not to be looking for moments of self-aggrandizement. Also, the movie would probably be current-gen because that's when the mainstream audience/press started caring about the games industry... and most of the "drama" in Generation 7 has involved Sony tripping over it's own shoes in some way.

I'll get called "biased" for this, but the only remotely movie-worthy console-biz story of Gen7 is the Wii: a company that used to be on top, now struggling on the verge of collapse, making a hail-mary pass that everyone says is insane and will fail based largely on the ideas of it's chief creative guy (Miyamoto as Billy Beane from "Moneyball," basically) ...only to see it become a giant restorative success. Like The Wii or not, that's the story.

The "Great" Console War, of course, was Nintendo vs Sega in the 80s and 90s (back when consoles actually had totally different sets of games and such) but I agree with Devin at BAD that it'd be hugely unlikely for Sony Pictures to be so gun-ho to make an 80s period piece featuring almost-exclusively Japanese actors.

That said, if Sony really does want to make a movie about the game business where their brand gets to be the underdog turned conquering hero, the "birth of the Playstation" would be the way to go: Screwed-over in a VERY public and humiliating way by the industry's top dogs, turning the remains of that screw-over into thier own brand, ultimately getting-over on aforementioned top-dog by innovating where they refused to? That's a movie. On the down side, there's no way Nintendo is going to agree to let their logos, names, products etc. be seen in that movie; which you'd kind of need...

Episode 74 ANNOUNCEMENT

Episode 74: "Rusty Pipes" - which will deal with whether or not the Super Mario Bros. series has overstayed it's welcome and that other thing that was revealed at the end of last episode - will make it's debut on Thursday 8/30. ScrewAttack Advantage members can get an early look on Monday 8/27.

Power Drain

It's been a long time coming, but now it's here: Nintendo Power Magazine is shutting down after 24 years. If nothing else, a lot of people's magazine collections are about to become really valuable.

I am feeling about as rotten about this as I did when Dr. Seuss and Jim Henson died. Yes, Nintendo Power was a nakedly commercial corporate thing - a singularly genius bit of marketing by Nintendo of America in realizing that there was going to be a "gamer culture" and getting in front of it with a big, glossy fan magazine of their own. (You can read the first issue in PDF format HERE.)

But it was a HUGE deal, legitimately, as well: Pre-internet, I don't think a lot of gamers (myself included) would've become gamers without NP to show them that there were others and that codes, strategies, maps, fan-art etc was meant to be shared. Having this magazine showing up at my house every month for a decade or so did more to make me a better reader than almost any book did, and I can say for a fact that there were a lot of NES/SNES games now considered benchmark classics that I don't think a lot of people would've connected with without NP "covering" them. A whole generation of (American) gamers were introduced to JRPGs when Nintendo Power gave away a free copy of DragonQuest (as "Dragon Warrior") as a re-subscription bonus. I myself got my first internet connection - and first exposure to the "medium" where I now make my living - in order to use the Nintendo Power AOL site. The AVGN once summed up the memories thusly:



I hadn't subscribed in years - like everyone else, The Internet replaced magazines for things like that for me - but it's still pretty sad to see it go. This is real end-of-an-era stuff - another huge part of the Golden Age of Gaming is gone. In my mind, this is as quietly-devastating a loss as when Sega abandoned consoles.

Rest in peace, old friend.

The Breaking Bad Art Project @ Gallery 1988

**I was interviewed by CNN about this artwork. Yes, that CNN! Check it out HERE**
Prints are now available for sale by clicking HERE :)
Wow! Sold out, that was quick. Thanks to everyone who bought a print!
A few artist prints are available HERE 

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The hits just keep on coming for Gallery 1988!! Just weeks ago was the Arrested Development show, then they packed up and headed east to NYC for Crazy 4 Cult. Now they're back at home and ready to cook! Next up, Gallery 1988 presents "The Breaking Bad Art Project".

Vince Gilligan is one of my favorite people working in television. Not only did he write and produce some of the most excellent episodes of The X-Files (quite possibly my favorite show of all time), He has also given us the best drama currently on television. To say that Breaking Bad is a great show is really a huge understatement, Vince Gilligan and his writing team are beyond brilliant and continually out-shine every other dramatic series currently on TV. 

I've been watching Breaking Bad since the pilot episode hooked me back in January of 2008. I've had to wait through very long breaks between seasons to find out what's going to happen next. I LOVE Breaking Bad, so when I heard Gallery 1988 was going to be doing a small group show, I really was beyond thrilled to be a part of it. 

I am extremely excited to be a part of this show, so without further ado, I present my artwork for "The Breaking Bad Art Project" at Gallery 1988:

"Walt and the Bad Breakers have been cooking up something extra-special in New Mexico. The hit new album "Blue Sky" is loaded with the purest music your ears have ever heard. One hit of their first single "The One Who Knocks" and you'll be hooked. With catchy songs like "Better Call Saul", "The Ballad of Skinny Pete" and "Lily of the Valley", you'll never feel blue again. So get cookin' with Walt and the Bad Breakers today!"

Tracklisting

Along with prints, one lucky person will be able to purchase this one-of-a-kind framed album complete with a crystal blue vinyl record!

Available exclusively at Gallery 1988

A very limited number of prints of the album cover (signed and numbered) will be available at Gallery 1988 in person as well as through their online store: http://nineteeneightyeight.com

Album front/back Artist Prints will be available in very limited quantities through my store (After the gallery show has closed) by clicking HERE

This is an extremely short show, it opens Monday, August 20th and is up for only a week I believe. So if you're in Los Angeles, and you're a fan of Breaking Bad or just awesome art in general, head over to Gallery 1988 and check it out!

"The Breaking Bad Art Project" - Presented by Breaking Gifs

Opening Monday, August 20th 7-10pm

7020 Melrose Avenue

Los Angeles, CA 90038

www.nineteeneightyeight.com

You can just show up, you don't even have to knock. 

A special thank you to Gallery 1988 for letting me a part of this awesome show. They continue to do shows that i'm super excited to be a part of, and I am so honored that they continue to have me.

*******UPDATE*******

On Saturday Aug 18th, Gallery 1988 held a private VIP event with cast/crew and artists. I got to meet a very lovely former high-school chemistry teacher and his son:

Walter White: High School Chemistry teacher, a classy gentleman all around.

...and his son Walt Jr. sometimes goes by the name Flynn, lover of breakfast. 

Very, very kind hearted guy.

 A very nice lawyer offered to help me sort out my financial issues. He suggested I purchase an arcade, I like the way he thinks:

I think he stole my wallet. 

And this very fine gentlemen is the whole reason this gallery show exists. Creator of the greatest show on television, Vince Gilligan! Writer of some of the best X-files episodes and new proud owner of the Breaking Bad album artwork I created for this opening! It's such an honor to have someone who's work I appreciate so much, appreciate my work.

Thank you Mr. Gilligan

Will Apple Be The Game-Changer?

I've been saying this for years, and I'll keep saying it until I get either the satisfaction of history proving me right or the lesson of history proving me wrong: The end of dedicated gaming-consoles is coming soon, and it will be heralded by games becoming a regular feature of streaming-enabled TV devices. Whether it will be the Ouya, OnLive, or something else... it's coming, and it will change everything.

Lately, I've added a caveat to that, only half-joking: In the near future, there will not be ONE device for all of your movie/music/game/etc content - there'll be two: The one that holds a solid majority of your stuff... and the Apple one that holds all the Apple-exclusives. Okay, maybe an excessive "dig" at the late Mr. Jobs' "keep it in he family" approach to technology, but you get the idea.

According to the Wall Street Journal, though, my "joke" is inching closer to reality: Apple may be developing a "next gen" successor to it's thus-far modestly-recieved "Apple TV" set-top device that would allow it to stream cable TV and "other content." Presumably, "other content" mostly means movie/music delivery a'la iPads comes to TV... but the i-devices are ALSO a big part of gaming. It wouldn't be TOO difficult (just figuring out how to control it, really) to bring iOS gaming to TVs via such a device; and if Apple DID do that and it "clicked" with people... they could become to the streaming-age of home gaming what Nintendo was to the console age via the NES.

One way or another, this is the future.

Film Crit Hulk Hulks-Out on ME3 once more...

Well, this should be interesting...

When the web-famous Film Crit Hulk took a break from movies to opine on the "Mass Effect 3" ending controversy, he was doing so as observer - he hadn't played/finished the game at the time, and (like me) wasn't critiquing the merits of the ending but the behavior of "Re-Take" - it didn't matter (and still doesn't matter) in this context what Hulk or anyone else "thought" of the ending itself, because good or bad it's a terrible precedent to try and make artists subserviant to the knee-jerk negative response of the audience.

Well, now he HAS finished the game, and offers up his critique of the ending(s) themselves; his main discovery and thesis being that three endings being essentially the SAME ending as-seen through the prism of different philosophies is the entire point that (in his opinion) people managed to miss. READ IT HERE. Money-quotes after the jump:

Choice bits from the article itself (all quotes in caps because Hulk is in fact a Hulk):

"YOU WERE ALL WRONG.
IN FACT, YOU WERE ALL SO WRONG THAT IT MAKES HULK HORRIFICALLY SAD."

"WE ARE TRULY IN A "GIVE US" CULTURE. WE WANT INDULGENCE. WE WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH STORIES. NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING. YOU CAN ARGUE THAT VIDEO GAMES ARE GROWING IN POPULARITY BECAUSE THEY "GIVE US" THE THINGS WE WANT IN TERMS OF EXPERIENCE INSTEAD OF HAVING SOME KIND OF RELATIONSHIP WITH SOMETHING WE CAN'T CONTROL."

"SO WHAT DOES MASS EFFECT ULTIMATELY HAVE TO SAY? HULK KEEPS HEARING THAT MASS EFFECT IS ABOUT CHOICE. IT ISN'T ABOUT CHOICE WHATSOEVER; CHOICE WAS SIMPLY THE NATURE OF THE MECHANICS."

"IF YOU WANT MASS EFFECT TO BE AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE CANON OF ART, THEN YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THAT ULTIMATELY THE STORYTELLING ELEMENT IS GOING TO HAVE TO GO AGAINST THE INDULGENT NATURE OF VIDEO GAMES."

Hulk goes on to say that his takeaway from all this is that the gaming community doesn't appear to be "ready" for the medium to reach the same level (of storytelling accomplishment) as other mediums; which I have a hard time disagreeing with. Not every game wants or needs to tell a great story, fine - but "Mass Effect" DID want to do that; and it's fans basically said "no thank you."

I don't WANT to get into this nonsense again, but the big reason video games (the ones that try to tell "cinematic" stories, I stress) are by-and-large inferior to, say, movies in the broad sense is that too many otherwise good ones are still wedded to gimmicks like multiple-endings and overly player-effected narrative.

A little update

When searching for my show I found that this is still the first link that comes up on Google (probably because Google own Blogger). Unfortunately every link on this page has been broken for over a year. So I've gone a ahead and fixed the links on the side bar to reflect the change in server over at RetrowareTV as well as adding the recently created Facebook page for the show which will sort of take the place of this old blog of mine. If you find this page in the future please follow those links to find out what I'm up to now. Thanks for keeping track of me for all these years. :) -Ben

Episode 73: "The Return" (aka "Going Hollywood")

Update: I am informed that the ability to post comments at ScrewAttack should be restored sometime Saturday morning. Stay tuned.

The OverThinker finally gives in and offers up the obligatory "what's wrong with video-game movies" episode; along with a quick-and-easy "jumping on" point for new fans and longtime viewers alike. Full episode (and semi-spoilers) after the jump:




Yup. Surprise ending. Not a dream. Not an imaginary tale. But if you think you know where it's going... you don't ;)

Crazy 4 Cult: New York @ Gallery 1988 - Wyld Stallyns

***UPDATE***
Prints are available to purchase by clicking HERE :)
Front/Back Artist prints are available exclusively in my store by clicking HERE!
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For the past 8 years, Gallery 1988 has existed solely in California, and they have done several Crazy 4 Cult shows. These Crazy 4 Cult shows have always been incredible shows full of extremely talented artists and amazingly great artwork, but this year is going to blow the roof off the place. Crazy 4 Cult is moving across these lovely United States of America to New York City!!!

Badass artwork by Jason Edmiston

This summer tradition for those of us fortunate (or unfortunate, depending on your views) enough to live in Los Angeles is packing it's bags and heading for Big Apple. Though the show may have left Southern California, I wanted to base my artwork off of a lovely little city near and dear to my heart, the City of San Dimas.

San Dimas, CA. According to Wikipedia, it was founded in 1887, incorporated in 1960, but was really put on the map in February of 1989 thanks to two young gentlemen that go by the name of Bill S. Preston and "Ted" Theodore Logan.

I'm still waiting for Wyld Stallyns to write the song that changes the world. But for now, I present the latest album from Wyle Stayllyns, "Be Excellent To Each Other"

"Wyld Stallyns"

"Straight from San Dimas and into the history books, it's Wyld Stallyns with their new album "Be Excellent to Each Other". Packed full of new songs like "Most Triumphant", "Dust, Wind, Dude", and their first single "Strange Things Are Afoot". San Dimas High School Football rules, and you will too when you listen to Wyld Stallyns!"

Tracklisting

Along with prints available will be this one-of-a-kind framed album. In continuing tradition with my other albums, the record chosen for this piece was hand-picked to be appropriately connected to the subject matter.

Available exclusively at the Crazy 4 Cult show.

The record used in the framed album. Rufus would be proud.

I was 8 years old when Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure came out. I grew up in the small town of La Verne. La Verne happens to be next door neighbors to San Dimas. Seeing this movie take place in San Dimas blew my 8 year old mind until I quickly figured out the locations in the movie didn't match up with what I knew San Dimas looked like. Our Waterloo is actually called Raging Waters (FACT: I once got chased by human poop in the lazy river at Raging Waters, I never returned) Sadly, the movie was actually shot in Arizona, my 8 year old psyche never recovered.

I brought the framed album to two very important locations in San Dimas, as I live only a few shorts blocks from these historic landmarks.

Strange things are afoot.

I hear their football rules...

A limited number of prints of the album cover (signed and numbered) will be available at Gallery 1988 in New York as well as online through their store: http://www.nineteeneightyeight.com 

Front and back Artist Prints will be available through my store by clicking HERE

"Crazy 4 Cult: New York"
Thursday August 9th, 6-9pm
Gallery 1988 NY Pop-Up Store
64 Gansevoort St.
New York, NY 10014

And please... Be excellent to each other.

EPISODE 73 ANNOUNCEMENT (SECOND UPDATE!)

UPDATE II: I've been made aware of a problem with the video re: a small chunk of video appears only as a green screen. Kind of embarassing for us, certainly, but a fix is being worked on as we speak. FWIW, there really isn't any "important" imagery there other than clips from the movie "Legend," but I apologize all the same. Everything will (hopefully) be fixed by the time this goes all-audiences on Saturday.

UPDATE I: The episode is now viewable for ScrewAttack Advantage members, and will become viewable by everyone else on Saturday. If you are an Advantage member, you may notice that commenting on the video on ScrewAttack is currently disabled - this is NOT permanent, nor is it an attempt to "avoid criticism;" my aim is only to prevent non-advantage members who click the link from any spoilers that might be posted before they have a chance to see it themselves. The comment fucnction should be restored when the episode gets "unlocked" on Saturday.

Episode 73 is now set to debut for all-audiences on Saturday 8/4; with ScrewAttack Advantage members having the option of seeing it one day early on Friday 8/3 (if you are an Advantage member, I ask that you please avoid posting/discussing spoilers without warning here or elsewhere.) The normal schedule of a week-long "break" between the two debuts will likely resume with Episode 74.

I've intended this as a "jumping on" episode for new viewers and viewers who maybe haven't checked in for a bit - the main discussion is LONG and the host-segments are short with the first being a quick "catch-up" as to what the show is and how things are done here. I like how it came out, and I hope you will too.