"The NSA would like to remind everyone to call their mothers this Sunday. They need to calibrate their system."
(via Bruce Schneier. Image via boingboing)
roll another number for the road
A lot of people have asked me about Americanizing Shelly, the film I worked on last year as director Alan Smithee.
I haven’t said much about it, because I didn’t know what I could talk
about and what I had to keep on the down-low, but I just read this story from the swnewsherald about the production:
The film tells the story of a wannabe Hollywood talent manager’s quest
to Americanize an Indian girl from the Himalayas. As he teaches her
about the “American way of life,” they begin to see the world through
each other’s eyes.
I didn’t know this when I worked on it, but one of the co-producers was
just seventeen years-old! I’m totally blown away; we only spoke on the.[1] Good on ya, Natasha!
phone and via e-mail, but if I hadn’t read this article, I would have
thought she was a typical, experienced film-maker
I also just discovered that the film has a website, which currently features a teaser trailer that includes me, in all my "incompetent director" glory. Right on.
[1] Oops. Mistaken identity. We never spoke with each other. However, it’s still incredibly cool that a seventeen year-old got involved with the making of a movie (which I’ve just found out looks great and is cracking up all the people who have seen it during editing.)
Primus Gives Master Track to Guitar Hero 2
My quest to play Guitar Hero 2 at E3 was a success! I played bass and I played lead in co-op mode on Van Halen’s "You Really Got Me" (at the Vans Warped Tour, because they’ve licensed some real locations this time around) hitting 97% and 98% respectively. "Strutter" by KISS seemed to be the most popular song for people to try out, with "War Pigs" by Sabbath coming in a close second. I could have easily spent the entire day there, rocking all eight songs they had available for demo play, but there was a growing line of other wanna-be rockers waiting, and I didn’t want to bogart the whole stage, man.
While I waited to play, I talked with some of the developers, who were all really, really cool guys, and told me something rather exciting about GH2:
Les Claypool gave RedOctane the master tracks for John The Fisherman, so when you play it in Guitar Hero 2, you’ll be playing along with Les, Larry "Ler" Lamond, and Tim "Herb" Alexander, just like you were with them in the studio recording Fizzle Fry.
It was so nice to meet developers who aren’t completely in love with themselves and appreciate geeks like me who play their games, you know? Their entuhsiasm reminded me of the entuhsiasm I felt when I worked at NewTek during the launch of the Video Toaster 4000: we all knew we were working on something totally cool and unique, but we still got excited when someone who used it geeked out at us about it. I know there are pictures of me getting my rock on, so if I can track them down, I’ll post them here for maximum goat-throwing.
If you’re going to E3 and you want to play GH2, don’t bother fighting the crowds in the Sony booth (after you get past the 6 hour-long line of people waiting to play with the Wii). Go down to the Kentia Hall, and find the Red Octane booth. The lines are shorter, you can talk with the developers, and they’ve got GH2 posters and pins to give away. When you’re done rocking out, you can stay in Kentia hall and see an absolutely amazing history of video games exhibit, featuring playable Colecovision, Vectrex, Intellivision, Apple //e, Atari 2600 and other console systems, as well as look-but-don’t-touch collections of classic handhelds like the Tomytronic Pac-Man and Milton Bradley’s Macrovision. There are also about 20 arcade games down there, set for free play, including Tempest, Black Widow, Stargate, Tron, Gorf, and Crystal Castles.
UPDATE: There’s a picture of me in front of the Gorf, Donkey Kong, and Tempest machines from Ars here. For those of you scoring at home, of the machines in that picture, I played Gorf and Tempest, and I was incredibly sad that Gorf didn’t have any sound. It implied that I was a Spaaace Ca-det, though, which I answered by blasting the Flagship out of the sky. Who’s laughing now, Gorf?! Me! That’s who! Me, baby! ME!
In the picture, I’m wearing a shirt featuring the code from Konami, which I got from Think Geek. I realized as I was parking my car for E3 (I missed the train so I had to drive. Yay.) that I was kind of wearing the band’s T-shirt to its concert like a total dork. However, I got my rock on so hard on Guitar Hero 2, I’m really okay with that.
i’ll be on livewire at e3 today
I‘m getting ready to hop on the train and go down to E3, to do an hour on GameSpy’s Livewire program with David Lawrence. I’ll be on at noon Pacific time, and you can tune in for audio goodness through the Livewire website, but you have to register for the video goodness. Sorry about that; it’s beyond my control. I’m pretty sure it’s an interactive show, too, so come out and represent the posse if you’re in a representin’ mood, dogg. Uh, yo. Word. Westsieeeeeeeed.
When I’m done with that, my official quest to play Guitar Hero 2 will begin, which makes this the first time in three years that I’m actually excited to go to E3. Rock.
keep on jammin’ the rhino
Activision bought RedOctane, the company responsible for Guitar Hero. Hopefully, this means more money for development, and not a bunch of corporate idiots screwing up my favorite game of 2006. Whatever comes of the partnership, epic congratulations to everyone at RedOctane (edited to add: and Harmonix! How could I forget Harmonix? -2 for me) who worked so hard to make the greatest fucking game in the history of me rocking out in my living room. You guys rock at least 97% of Cowboys From Hell on Expert, and I hope to throw some goats your way on Wednesday (which officially begins here in Los Angeles in 40 minutes) at E3.
Ryan and I have been having some serious Guitar Hero jam sessions recently. Last night, I finally five-starred Killer Queen and Fat Lip, and Ryan five-starred Stellar and Unsung (on medium; the kid slows down so he can play with the old man, which the old man appreciates.)
After I’d pulled a 99% on Killer Queen, I unwound with some Godzilla. As the song started up, Ryan said, "Dude, I think I hear cowbell in this song!"
I laughed a little bit, but maintained my focus: Yellow, blue, red green, yellowblueyellllooooowwwwww red yellow greenred . . . ROCK!
Ryan hopped up off the couch, and ran into the kitchen. A few moments later, he appeared back in the living room, a saucepan in one hand, and a wooden spoon in the other.
"What are you doing?" I said. Yellow, blue, yellowwwwwwww redyellow greenyellow rest yellowblue yellooowwwwwwww Star Power!
He held the saucepan about chest high, and began to tap it with the wooden spoon. "This song needs more cowbell," he said, "and this the closest I could get."
I played about twelve more notes before I collapsed into song-ending giggles.