Half Life, Full On

If you're a fan of the Half Life titles, I think you'll find this pretty cool... two commercial directors and brothers from Toronto got motivated and put together this mini-series based on the games. They shot with no script (sound familiar?) and no crew and completed the first two episodes from start to finish for less than $500 in production costs. Which shows remarkable restraint for directors used to working in the commercial world.

Episode one is online now. The description on their youtube page says that the execs from Valve Corporation have already met with them about the project. Could a Half Life movie be coming soon? 

You'd like that, wouldn't you?

Killer Spots: Dante's Inferno

Was poking around the other day and came across Psyop's new trailer for EA's upcoming release, Dante's Inferno. Yes, it's based on the poem.

I love what they did with the EA logo at the top, and really dig all of the liquid smoke effects that they created as well. It's also pretty hard to argue with a game who's tagline is GO TO HELL.

Sounds like it's going to be a pretty epic experience... this spot definitely sets the bar. Here's hoping they don't F it up and piss off a bunch of English Lit majors when it hits the shelves.

Thanks, North Carolina...

Good shows, good crowds, good food... thanks to Zach and his team for putting together another great festival. We've got some video from the show that we'll put online soon, and we're trying to get in touch with the photographer who was roaming around during our set for pics. Stay tuned!

Press and comments about the fest in general have been scarce so far, but we did get a quick interview and mention here... it's nice to know that our love for TimeOut is officially on the record now.

If anyone else comes across any post-show buzz, let us know about it!

I <3 Southern Food

The Festival Formerly Known as Dirty South has always been a favorite of mine and I'm happy to say that this year continues that legacy. WIT had an overall outstanding showing and I'm really grateful that Superbest got to be a part of it.

If you saw the show but are not familiar with Katamari, it's probably easiest for you to just watch this video.

See? Makes total sense now, right?

It's The Final Countdown

...until Saturday's show. At what the kids used to call the Dirty South Improv Festival. We're part of a killer lineup, and all kinds of ready to hit the couch and get it on.

The pic above? That would be the band Europe, the vessel through which God delivered His Word in the form of The Final Countdown in 1986. You might act like you don't fucking love that song, but come on, dude... you know you do.

In case you need reminding, flashback to Stockholm. See you Saturday night.

News Fail

I know the subject matter isn't funny. At all. But seriously... what the hell happened here?

Everything Dies Eventually

I've recognized for some time how lucky I have been. Over the past few years I've seen a good number of friends experience loss but have never really planned for it to happen to me. I guess in a way I expected it to last forever. Of course I knew it would not be that way, but I wasn't prepared for it to strike home so suddenly, this evening, after a really lousy long day at work.

My 360 has passed on. Its parting words filled a screen in multiple languages and crazy moon-speak, just one decipherable-yet-cryptic fragment for me to ponder: "E74. System Error. Contact Xbox Customer Support."

"Why?" one asks. "It was young and vibrant, and had so much more to accomplish."

Not really. This was a launch console purchased in November of 2005 -- one of the first available on the market, at a time when an estimated 30% of the consoles were defective and destined to fail within weeks, sometimes hours. It's actually kind of miraculous that I've never had a single problem before tonight.

What's the solution? Well, to spend more money of course! The out-of-warranty repair/replacement is $100, so I placed that order tonight. I'll pick a new one up tomorrow so I don't have to go 360-less for the weeks it will take to get repair completed. Once the replacement arrives it will live over by the TV (instead of by my monitor in my gaming corner) so Marjorie can use it to watch instant queue Netflix movies and documentaries whenever she wants rather than waiting for the one console to become free.

Is that sinking in? I'm buying an extra 360 because my wife wants her own.

Yeah, I'm okay with that.