LIGHTS OFF!! PLEASE AND THANKS!

Thanks Craig McEwen!

Is there not a better way to make you want to go green and conserve electricity?

TODD RAMSAY'S ANIMATED LOGO FOR MY TOONS

My buddy Todd Ramsay (Honkbarn!) just completed a short animated logo thingy-ma-bob for My Toons...

KEVIN GAMBLE - NYC'S NEWEST HERO

So here it is in a nutshell. Kevin Gamble (AKA Tiki Bar TV's Johnny Johnny) jumps into the subway tracks to save a woman's life from an oncoming train and basically ruins a good winter coat. Head off to NAKED SPONGE to hear his story! AWESOME WORK BROTHER!!!

RYAN HESHKA'S RADIO SCIENCE FUNNIES INC.

Starting Feb. 1st, Ryan Heshka will be showing off his comic book inspired art work at L.A. comic shop The Secret Headquarters. I'd love to see what he's got cookin' and as soon as there are some images, I'll post 'em!

DRINKBOT DECANTER NOW AVAILABLE

Stupid humans! It's here! Colin Beadle's Tiki Bar TV character Drink Bot is now a boozy decanter and it's available at the TBTV store!

STREET BONERS & TV CARNAGE

Vice co-founder Gavin McInnes (and the man behind DO's & DON'T's) has left Vice and is moving on to do his own thing with "smarmy shitstain" Derrick Beckles at Street Boners & TV Carnage. If that's not enough, one of the blog contributor is David Cross!

MITT ROMNEY IS SO COOL

There are many people in America who actually want this guy to be their leader...

AREA 51 HAS A NEW NAME

Super-radical Area 51 has a bunch of names like The Box, Niner-Base Stink-Eye, Alienville and Camp Jesus Christ Central 2000 but now it seems to have a new official name: Homey Airport. And according to civilian GPS systems and flight planning software, Homey Airport goes by the code KXTA. XT...Extra Terrestrial?? Anyone? Cue the mysterious sci-fi music! LINK!

DRINK-BOT MADNESS

Your and my pal Beadle (The real Drink-Bot) sent me this YouTube link of a guy building his own Tiki Bar TV Drink-Bot costume for Hallowe'en. It's a pretty awesome likeness!



I've been noticing on YouTube lately that Tiki Bar TV's Drink-Bot episode has been milling about in the "promoted videos" section...makes me think that we're going to be seeing a whole lot more of Drink-Bot sometime soon!


See the original Drink-Bot in action!

THE RUG ART OF MARK MOTHERSBAUGH

"When I was a kid, I loved rugs, but carpeting freaked me out." --Mark Mothersbaugh


In November and December of last year, Mark Mothersbaugh showed off his Rugs During Wartime and Peacetime series at Scion Installation, L.A. in Culver City. You can see some pictures of the opening with Mark mingling with other artistes such as Coop, Shepard Fairey, Jason Lee and more by clicking here! Most of these rugs are fantastic!

Click here for a PDF bible of the series

All of these rugs in the RDW series were constructed one or more at
a time on a computerized weaving machine in the United States. They
are made of nylon fibers with customized coloring to match the original
art. There are some finishing discrepancies between the different
rugs, even within the same design, most notably some are backed
with a waterproof rubber backing and finishing edge that make them
more suitable for outdoor and/or indoor use, whereas others have a
fabric backing that while it could leave them more susceptible to the
elements, may be a more permanent backing material. These rugs also
have a serge border of stitching that is a different look than the black
rubber edge. Some rugs have been constructed with one or the other
backing and border, while a few have been built in both styles. Where
this information is relevant, it is duly noted in text and documentation.
This rug series was conceptualized and constructed starting in 2004,
and are a continuing series.

“Wartime Rugs” available in 2 sizes; 4’ x 6’ and select rugs 22” x 34”


Did you know... A quick and easy booby trap can be constructed using a rug to conceal a hole or pit beneath it. Often times sharpened sticks or dangerous animals can be placed inside the hidden pit, so as to enhance the effectiveness of the trap.

REMINGTON EYEBALL R-1

This little bad-boy video camera (made by gun manufacture Remington) can be thrown through windows, down a flight of stairs, into a person's face, you name it and it'll right itself and begin transmitting video footage and audio to your base up to 125 meters away. Check out the cheesy video below and/or their website.

SHROOMS

I'm looking forward to this. It'll probably be a typical teen-slasher stinker but at least it's got some wavy-gravy goodness...

GARTH MARENGHI'S DARK PLACE

I just finished watching this BBC series and loved it. The idea is this: In the 1980's horror writer Garth Marenghi (Matthew Holness) and his publisher Dean Learner (Richard Ayoade) created an extremely low-budget tv series with the BBC. Garth Marenghi plays Dr. Rick Dagless, MD, an ex Vietnam veteran and occult warlock who now works at Dark Place Hospital in Romford, England. It's Dean Learner's first time acting and his role is Thornton Reed, an administrator at the hospital who tries his hardest at keeping Dr. Dagless from using unorthodox methods (unsuccessfully). Alongside Rick Dagless is his old buddy Dr. Lucien Sanchez. Sanchez is extremely handsome and is a real smooth talker. His voice is amazing. Finally we have Madeleine Wool (Alice Lowe) who plays Dr. Liz Asher a newcomer to Dark Place hospital whose psychic powers come in handy.

Many strange happenings go on at Dark Place hospital and lucky for everyone Dr. Rick Dagless, MD is on hand to deal with these situations. From mutated eyeball babies, mysteriously tainted water that changes people into apes, an exploding patient whose explosion opens a demonic portal and bad cosmic broccoli.

The show is hilariously awful. From shitty lighting, crap sound, piss-poor dialogue, sloppy ADR, cheap cheezy FX, jump cuts, bad acting, continuity errors--basically EVERYTHING is shite and that's what's awesome.

Garth Marenghi's personal site
and below is a clip from the series to give you a better idea...

You Suck at Photoshop #3

OPTIMUS MAXIMUS VIDEO

OREO PRANK

So I just had an After Eight chocolate mint wafer thing and it reminded me of a successful prank I pulled a couple of years back while working at Mainframe.

It was Hallowe'en and Mainframe was having a little Hallowe'en party thing in the cafeteria. People were asked to make teams and then they'd carve theme-pumpkins and the sort. I really never participated. One year however, I did...in a sense.

Prior to the party, I went into the cafeteria with a bag of Mint Oreo (white icing) cookies. I took half of the bag and put them on a plate. I then took the other half and diligently and carefully removed the icing.

TIP: Microwave a couple of cookies for
a few seconds and the chocolate wafer
peels off of the icing much easier.

With the icing properly disposed of (you can choose to either eat it or, as I did, throw it away), I now had some blanks which were then re-iced with a mint toothpaste--I think I used Colgate. The choice is yours.

Then I mixed the "tainted" Oreos in with the real Oreos and put the plate of cookies on the counter with all the other snacks and goodies that the party planners had prepared. I then took a seat on the couch with a buddy and watched.

Why didn't I do the whole plate? Ah, this is where the prank sings. Two guys help themselves to a cookie. By chance, one guy gets a regular cookie and the other gets the tainted one. The "mark" bites into his cookie his face contorts and he politely tries to evacuate the contents of his cookie into a napkin while looking over at his friend who happily munches on his cookie. Priceless. "Does your cookie taste weird? Like toothpaste?" "Huh? What are you on about, mate?" The "mark" sees that there's nothing wrong with his friend's cookie and with all luck, gets another crap-job. Bwa-bwa!! (like the sound of a horn)

STAN LEE ART TRIBUTE

Ryan Heshka - Traitor's Revenge - mixed media on board

Gallery 1988 (L.A.) has a great show "Under The Influence: A Tribute To Stan Lee." I had the pleasure of meeting Stan Lee in 2001 while I was working on Spider-Man: The Animated Series for Sony/MTV. Stan was the perfect gentleman and very gracious. I even sat in with him during a radio interview and I couldn't believe how charming and enthusiastic he was despite the fact that the interviewer asked THE MOST ridiculous mundane questions that Stan's probably been asked 1000 times (i.e.: "What's it like creating something that's so popular?", "How did you come up with the idea for Spider-Man?" "Why do you think people like Spider-Man?" and "Are you happy people like Spider-Man?")

EXCELSIOR!
Check out the show's artists' work here!

RASPYBOY REVIEWS HALFSQUATCH TRAILER REVIEW

Wow! I got a review!

from Raspy’s Trailer Review Reviews:
I recently had the pleasure of reviewing Johnny Darrell’s review of the
trailer for Hancock. It was a pleasure for a number of reasons, not
least of which is I have NEVER EVER reviewed a review of a trailer. Now
I’ve been in the business of reviewing trailer reviews for 12 years,
but no one has ever bothered to review a trailer before. So I was
doubly pleased that the very first trailer review that I got to review
was so excellently put together. I don’t know what pleased me more -
Darrell’s expert dissection of the trailer itself, his scientific
comparisons with Fantastic Four (which I didn’t personally understand
but they sure looked scient-errific with pictures and everything!) or
his obvious yet downplayed attraction to Jason Bateman. I also found
his SPOILER alerts extremely helpful, as I planned on watching the
trailer myself at a later date and was able to avoid reading those
sections. Overall this trailer review has reaffirmed my belief in the
trailer-review-reviewing business and I just might stick at it for a
few more years. Now if only someone would review the trailer for Alvin
and the Chipmunks! (I bet Dave screams “Alllviiinnn!” in there
somewhere!)

HANCOCK: MOVIE TRAILER REVIEW

Okay, when I saw this title I thought "FINALLY! A movie biopic on Herbie Hancock!" Boy was I wrong! The trailer for Hancock couldn't be more opposite. It stars the charismatic Will Smith (The Legend of Bagger Vance) as a slacker super-hero and am I severely disappointed. The special effects for this trailer were sub-par in most cases as was the music. I'm not much of a rap fan to begin with but I imagine if you are a fan of rap, you might like the trailer a bit more than I as it plays a major, and I mean, MAJOR role. I was extremely excited and surprised (SPOILER ALERT) to see Jason Bateman play some friend of Hancock and of course Bateman was "on point". Is Jason Bateman enough to make me want to see the trailer again? I don't know? I don't think so. I've seen the Juno trailer maybe 4 times now and Bateman killed every scene he was in, but it was more than just Bateman that kept me returning to the Juno trailer.

Jason Bateman steals yet another scene in Sony Pictures' trailer for Hancock.

What I did like about the Hancock trailer (SPOILER ALERT) were the impacts whenever Hancock touched back down to Terra Ferma. It seemed as though he was landing at a terrific force which made for great eye-candy and needless destruction of civic property. Could he land more carefully? I don't know, and I don't care! WHOOOOM!

Will Smith as Hancock lands with some 'umph' in Sony Pictures' trailer for Hancock.

One scene in particular bugged the crap out of me (SPOILER ALERT!). Hancock lands in the middle of some freight train tracks and the train collides tremendously against our hero, causing the freight train to derail itself. The thing I hate about this is that the film makers think its cool to take liberties with simple physics!

Will Smith as Hancock prepares for impact in the trailer for Sony Pictures' trailer for Hancock.

Michael Chiklis as The Thing prepares for impact in 20th Century Fox's trailer for Fantastic Four.

Will Smith as Hancock bullshits the viewers in Sony Pictures' trailer for Hancock.

Michael Chiklis as The Thing bullshits the viewers in 20th Century Fox's trailer for Fantastic Four.

I don't care how super-strong you are, if you're going to get hit by something it's going to move you if you're not securely planted or restrained! They did the exact same thing in the Fantastic Four trailer with The Thing stopping a truck. I'm not saying that Hancock or The Thing can't stop these grand forces of nature, but at least have the train or truck push them back a bit. I didn't like it in Fantastic Four trailer so why would I like it in Hancock?

Personally, I wouldn't watch the Hancock trailer again. If it were to pop on a television set while I'm taking in all the fine culture that Muggs & Juggs has to offer, then maybe, just maybe I'd take another gander at the effects and subtle Bateman nuances, but otherwise, you'll find me steering very clear of personally clicking on any link to this trailer ever again and I don't care if I ended this review with a major run-on sentence.

VideoTrace

VIRTUAL CABLE

Check out this navigational heads-up display by a company called Making Virtual Solid. They have some video mock-ups of their product showing how the virtual cable looks. For the night-shot they've just put a black gradient filter over a daytime shot for a cheap day-for-night effect. Don't know why? I'd like to see the real thing in action.

From their site:

Virtual Cable

Our invention, called Virtual Cable is a unique display for a car navigation system. The driver sees the Virtual Cable image through the windshield. It appears as if suspended over the road, similar to a trolley cable. The image is in true 3D and appears to be a natural part of the landscape. The driver uses only peripheral vision to follow the Virtual Cable.

The Virtual Cable is so powerful, intuitive, unambiguous and safe because it appears and behaves with true 3 dimensionality within the landscape.

J.J. ABRAMS TALKS ABOUT MYSTERY BOXES

YOU SUCK AT PHOTOSHOP #1

While watching this last week I thought to myself...hmmm...this guy sounds like Dane Cook!

YOU SUCK AT PHOTOSHOP #2

No wonder he sounds like Dane Cook...

JUNO OPENING CREDITS

I really can't wait to see this movie. Meanwhile, here's the opening credits to the film done by Shadowplay Studios.

POOR GAMBLE...

Poor Kevin Gamble. Head over to his Naked Sponge site to read more about this dire, vile and godless travesty. Isn't there a law or something against this?

ALAN CROSS (AND ME) ON MUSIC

I listened to another episode of the Ongoing History of New Music last night and the topic I chose was Secrets of Album Cover Art. Very cool insights on lots of artwork including Nirvana's Nevermind, Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique, U2's Joshua Tree, New Order's Blue Monday ep (which was so expensive to create that the label and band lost 30 pence for each unit sold. The Blue Monday ep is the top selling ep of all time selling over 3 million copies).

At the end of the program, Alan brought up something interesting--Alan states:

"The music industry continues to undergo some major, major changes--very, very quickly. And as more and more of the business goes digital and virtual, the physical continues to disappear. And look at all the record stores that have disappeared. Sam The Record Man used to run a hundred outlets across Canada and it was THE place to acquire music. They're now down to just two tiny stores and who knows how long they'll last? Tower Records in the United States; gone.

Meanwhile the number of CDs being sold continue to drop. The industry will have us believe that it's all due to piracy and illegal downloads--and that's true it has had an effect--that sort of thing has had a big impact on sales. Things are not the way they used to be back in the day. But at the same time consumers have never ever ever had so many choices when it comes to spending their after-tax money on entertainment. I mean 15 and 20 years ago we didn't have things like DVD's and computer games and X-boxes and Play Stations or high-speed internet or 30-screen cinemas or pay-per-view TV, hundreds of digital channels, on-demand TV, satellite radio, cell phones, ring tunes and millions of other things that have come to the market over the last 10 years. Billions of dollars that used to be available to buy records and cds are now being allocated elsewhere--

Meanwhile, access to music has never been easier or cheaper. I mean, in the old day, you have to save up money, go downtown to the record store, park, find your record, line up at the cash, drive back home, put the record on the stereo before you could actually enjoy it. The record cost you, let's just say 20 bucks, plus the cost of parking and gas and the cost of your time--then you realize that out of the 14 songs on that record you only like 3 of them! The other ones were crap! But it still cost you 20 bucks plus parking, gas and your time. Today, using a computer or a cell phone, you can get just the songs you want for 99 cents each. Add in the sales tax and you're out what? $3.50 and you have everything instantly? If you only have so much money to spend on entertainment which route would you take?

I completely agree with him about the fact that people have more choices on what they're going to spend their money on. If I think about the people that I've been working with for the last 10 years, it is apparent that gaming is more important to people than music. The convenience of buying one's music on-line is truly that--just convenient. But where's the thrill of the hunt?

I used to work about 4 blocks from Zulu Records in Vancouver. It is essentially Vancouver's top source for finding alternative music. At least twice a week, I'd spend my lunch hour perusing the discs, sampling this and that--constantly finding new bands that are doing cool things. I felt like I accomplished something when I would walk back to work with a new CD or two. Now, on-line, I listen a 30-second sample and if I like it, I download it and add it to the other files. There's no ripping open the package and checking out all the artwork. There's no reading the credits and thank-yous while listening. There's little connection to the product as the product is completely intangible.

I don't want to sound like a "record snob" but I really appreciate an album in its entirety. Sometimes the song that moved me to buy the record in the first place turns out to be my most least liked song. I love it when a song I didn't really find catchy or good at first turns out to be my most favourite on the album. When I was a kid I bought The Clash's Sandinista. It was 3 LP's for 20 bucks and I thought to myself "there's gotta be at least 15 cool punk-rock songs on this!" I put the record on and was so upset that in all the 30 tracks, there wasn't one single song that was punk. I listened to the record maybe twice and thought I had wasted my money. As it turns out, this album is now by far one of my all-time favourite albums. There isn't a song I dislike on it. The WHOLE recording kicks ass.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Most people don't know what they like. The like what they hear. That's why Top 40 is so popular because it's just a single or two from a bunch of sound-alikes rammed down lazy people's throats! They wouldn't dare go and hunt for something on their own.

I was at an x-mas party last month and the people there were a little older than me. Not much, maybe 3-5 years older. Everyone there were parents and somehow the topic of music and iPods came up. Pretty much everyone there said that an iPod would be useless for them because "I just listen to the radio" or, "I'd have to figure out how to download something" and the most sad "I don't like anything I hear today--I just listen to the stuff I liked when I was a kid." WHAT? That's what your parents said about the music you listened to when you were growing up. People who listen to the radio and HATE the music they hear settle for listening to the good old oldies of their youth. COME ON! I hate what's on the radio today too but it doesn't mean good music doesn't exist! It means that I have to work a bit harder to find the good stuff! I have to go out there and find it! I have to go on-line and read reviews in the back of cool magazines and hunt for the stuff. To find like-minded friends and hear their recommendations (John Dryden introduced me to one of my all-time favourite bands Tapes 'n Tapes--at first, only one song on The Loon caught my attention. Now the whole CD ROCKS!) and it's such a great feeling to sit down and listen to something completely new and fresh. Blah blah blah...

DUDE, WHERE'S MY CONDOR?

The first episode of Storm Hawks that I directed has finally aired. Watch the episode below to see what all the hub-bub's about! ENJOY!

OH! I also just finished a sound mix on my second episode "Stratosphere" and it really rocks! The sound guys said that it's their favourite episode so far! SWEET!

GOOGLE'S BETA AUTO LANGUAGE TRANSLATOR

click the above image to see my first translation

I just stumbled upon this! I don't know how long it has been out or if I'm the last person to know about it but man, oh man, I would have aced advanced french in high-school if this were available!

The service allows you to translate a multiple of languages such as Spanish to English, German to French, English to Arabic and more. Here's the LINK so you can start languaging more.

DECENT LOOKING PET SUPPLIES

Finally, a cat house (or small dog house) that doesn't look like some scrap-carpeted hobo shack. Check out the entire line from Scandinavian Details here!

I know for a fact that my cat Robot would love this and look smashing in it.

Retarded Policeman (Episode 4)

Josh "The Ponceman" Perry's little YouTube videos scored him a role in a feature film with Rip Torn, Peter Falk, and Val Kilmer (among others)! When these videos came out I bet $1,000,000 that they'd land him a role in a major feature so you'd all better pay up! Nice work Josh! Congratulations! Now where's my money?

NEW COMPRESSED AIR VEHICLE

Moteur Developpement International is going to launch a new line of automobile this year called "the Air Car" which is a car that runs entirely on compressed air.

Roll up to any service station with a compressed air unit and in 3-4 minutes your car is "refueled" to travel for another 200 km at speeds up to 110 km/h. The cost of one of these puppies is about 3,500 Euros!! How awesome is that? For more info watch this little news clip from the BBC.

OPTIMUS MAXIMUS KEYBOARD

Pre-order your Optimus Maximus keyboard now for only $500 US (approx.). Each key on the keyboard has a small LCD screen enabling it to display whatever graphic you like. The keyboard is fully programmable to not only respond to CTRL, COMMAND, SHIFT, OPTION, ALT, etc. commands but to correspond to whatever program you bring forward. Want all your shortcuts for Final Cut Pro displayed on your keyboard? No problem! Then when you switch over to Photoshop, the keyboard automatically changes its display icons like as if an elf-like magic-wizard was living right inside your keyboard! I'm going to try and steal one because I don't want to pay $500. They're due out in March.

ALAN CROSS

I am watching The Hour right now and Alan Cross from The On-Going History of New Music is on. If you haven't heard Alan's syndicated radio show, you're totally missing out. Alan is THE MAN when it comes to music (I've posted about his show in the past and you can get to his most recent shows from his official site here). These hour-long radio shows (he's done about 500 of them) range in a variety of topics and he gets to the dirt of any issue. Even if he's talking about the worst band in the world (Red Hot Chili Peppers), the show is engrossing and even, dare I say, mind-blowing. What's great about listening to his shows on-line is that when he plays some music to accompany the topic and it's shitty, god-awful music (System Of A Down or Nickleback) you can just scrub over the song and get back into the meat of the program). Where he gets his information from I don't know but he seems to find out some of the most obscure and interesting information about a band that makes you at least gain some appreciation for them in some way--I still hate the Red Hot Chili Peppers' music, but seeing as most of them should be dead, literally, dead, it's amazing to see that they're still putting music out--see RHCP: Drugs, Despair, Redemption Pt. 1 & 2. Other shows' topics include "Before They Were Famous," "10 Weird Things About Oasis," "Bad Career Moves" (Pete Best), "Drummers Who Made a Difference" (not Pete Best), and "Alt Rock's Greatest Instrumentals."
There's soooo many shows it makes me want to puke! I wish I could download them all for my iPod. Well...
...Alan has just released an audio book that I'm going to have to download/order called The Alan Cross Guide To Alternative Rock and it can be found at all your major sources. At Chapters, one listener's review reads (and I quote...err...cut-and-paste):

Alan Cross is a GOD among the other Rock Gods!!!

WOW! This first volume was amazing and I definately was on the edge of my seat listening to each word that Alan uttered. As a graduate of history I enjoy reading and listening to other historians talk about things and Alan has my attention. He personalizes the muscians that he discusses and makes you feel part of the scene and the life of the muscian! This history is all about the 25 most influecial musicians on the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's. Alan encourages us to discuss his picks and even disagree with them, but never assumes that he is right in the decisions that he has made! He is refreshing and open about his opinions and completely unassuming.

He's absolutely right! Count me in!

New York Airplane Flight