I LOVE Indiana Jones.  Truth be told I want to be Indiana Jones.  I was 8 going on 9 when Raiders of the Lost Ark hit the big screen.  My childhood home had huge boulders and trees in the backyard that were constantly being used to recreate scenes from the movies.  When I was preparing for my trip to Australia I found out that the original Indy hat was made from an Australian Akubra.  So I made sure to track down a shop and buy a hat there.

Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings is a new game for the Wii and the Playstation 2.  My wife bought it for me for Fathers Day and double checked with the store clerk to confirm that the game was NOT available for the Playstation 3.  The PS2 game looks like they made the game for the Wii and then just ported it to the PS2 so they could sell a few more copies.  The game runs pretty linear and keeps you from fully exploring the pixilated environments.  When ever you get into a situation that you don’t know what to do to continue, you just wander for a moment and in the right location the Action button will appear leading you to continue on your quest.  The camera angles and character animations are set to remind you of Indiana Jones, but really, the only reason that I’m still playing the game is so I can get through the story. This Trailer looks good, but I’m not loving the game…yet.

On February 7th, 1964 The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite ran a story about The Beatles’ United States arrival in which the correspondent said “The British Invasion this time goes by the code name Beatlemania”.The fifteenth American album by The Beatles released in 1968 is commonly known as The White Album because it has no text other than the band’s name on its plain white sleeve, and on the early LP and CD releases, a serial number.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Forty-five years ago, The Beatles invaded America, bringing with them a sound and attitude different from anything any of us had seen or heard before. They challenged and inspired us, forcing us to think about how things could be if we would only realize the importance of love.

Its now 2009. Although ts been nearly forty years since The Beatles broke up, and yet their message is as relevant and influential as ever. The greatest band in history is still inspiring hope and dreams, still changing lives and fostering creativity, still shaping the way we look, listen and think.

Announcing THE WHITE ALBUM: A Collection of Images Inspired by the Music of The Beatles.

Compiled and introduced by writer and illustrator Russell Walks, and showcasing work by artists including Spencer Brinkerhoff III, Matt Busch, and others, THE WHITE ALBUM presents an exciting array of dynamic, emotional works of art, each of has been inspired by a song from The Beatles extensive catalogue.

THE WHITE ALBUM looks at the work of The Beatles through a kaleidoscope of artistic styles and viewpoints.  THE WHITE ALBUM will be available for the very first time ever this summer at the San Diego Comic-Con (July 22 -26, 2009). Dont miss your chance to pick up a copy at the only location where every artist will be available to personalize your book.

Participating Artists Include:

Spencer Brinkerhoff III

Matt Busch

TC Cor

Nicole Falk

Grant Gould

Gabe Hernandez

Paul Michael Kane

Leah Mangue

Meghan McMahon

Jeff Pittarelli

Jamie Snell

Russell Walks

John Watkins-Chow

 The White Album.net

Here’s some of the awesome items over at the Brothers Brick.

My 2 year old son loves to take a little bag of Legos to Church.  My older son made a ship for him to play with but the canopy kept coming off, so I decided that I would try and build something a bit sturdier.  I think that I did a pretty good job, and I stretched my imagination a bit, but there’s no way I can compete with the mastery on display at the Brothers Brick website.

I’m working on a project to make some toys.  I can design then, and write about them and even make cartoons about them.  I’m spending so much time working on the toys that I haven’t done all of the animation and other supporting components.  BUT WAIT!  What comes first?  The cartoon or the toy?  The animated movie or the Happy Meal toy?  I think that things go both ways.  There’s a huge community around vinyl toys that have a wonderful cartoon or animated look that exist solely as toys.  It’s a fairly large expense to make your own toyline so I’ve been wondering if it’s really worth it.  I’ve been wondering if I can make the money back, whether it’s good business.

Then I watched this interview with a young filmmaker named George Lucas over at Binary Bonsai.  He said that “Making film is an art. Selling film is a business.”  So I guess that as long as I start with the art, and I make something that I like and want, then I can share that with others.  If I make something just to sell it, I don’t think I’ll be as successful as if I make it for the art.  Lucas commented that he once got into an argument with someone who thought that the phrase “Filmmaker” simplified the art of making movies to something akin to a toymaker, to which Lucas replied, “I like being thought of as a toymaker who makes films.”

I found out about PayPal mobile today on PayPal’s homepage and went on to read some more about it here.  I could have used this information over the weekend.  So for Father’s Day my brother and I took my Dad out to Joe’s Farm Grill (they grow their own food and grill and WOW, but that’s another story).  Because I’m a struggling artist, I knew that my Dad or my brother would try and cover the bill for me.  I didn’t want them to do that so I brought some cash with me and when my brother jumped in front of me to pay the bill, I slipped the cash in his pocket and called it good.  One of the promoted uses of PayPal Mobile is “Split the Bill”.  You can send money through PayPal on mobile web at mobile.paypal.com or you can activate your phone and send money by text.

Another “fun” feature that they are trying out is called “Making an offer”.  How many times have you sat around and said, “I’ll give you $20 if you go eat that corn dog off the ground”.  Now with the PayPal offers you can make this game into a reality.  Here’s a real sample from the website.  Victor propositioned Domenico $7 to “Stop being such a creep”.

Also available as an iPhone and Android application making spending money and double-dog daring your friends to do stupid things all the more easier.  :D

Just finished another marker commission.

I’ve got a few commissions on my list, so it is with great pleasure that I can announce that these 2 are DONE.

The Science fiction website io9 had an interesting post about which live action shows could make the leap to animated shows.   I posted some information about different TV shows that were being cancelled.  They went a step further and listed the pros and cons of the cancelled shows living on as an animated show.  Here’s two cancelled shows and their take on a possible rebirth  

Firefly
Why it’d work: High adventure on the space waves with a band of colorful characters risking life and limb as they try to survive? It’s like Dungeons and Dragons grown up and transplanted into orbit.
Why it may not be the best idea: Would it hurt too much? Perhaps - or maybe we just wouldn’t be interested if we couldn’t see Jewel Staite on a regular basis. But Whedon’s series work in large part because of the actors as much as the writing, and it just wouldn’t be the same without them.
Verdict: Sadly, we’re saying that the Serenity should stay grounded.

The Middleman
Why it’d work: From its origins as a comic book to its broad cartoony comedy as a television show, this is another series that has always felt like a cartoon despite its flesh and blood stars. Plus, as a cartoon, imagine everything it could get away with but couldn’t afford on an ABC Family budget!
Why it may not be the best idea: We have no reasons why. Seriously, this is a no-brainer.
Verdict: Did you miss the part where we called it a no-brainer above?

When I first started drawing sketch cards I looked at them as a way to make my own animated version of the film properties. So which shows would you like to see animated?

I really enjoy the idea that anyone of us can sit down and write a story and then make something out of it.  We could Blog about it, or make some drawings and turn it into a comic strip or comic book or even turn it into a movie.  We have the technology to run our own TV station out of our garage.  I wanted to work for Disney, or sculpt special effects, or be like Spielberg and be be a visionary storyteller.  Well, I have a stack of rejection letters and a very short list of film credits.

So I never made it to Hollywood.   Oh well.  I like to imagine the day that Hollywood makes it’s way out to me.  I’m not alone in this line of thinking.  There’s quite a few Web Shows out there that are making their own stories outside of Hollywood.  Some of these shows are even blurring the lines a bit.

In 1982 Ridley Scott made a movie called Blade Runner.  In the far distant future of 2019, Los Angeles has flying cars, skyscraper advertising, and genetically manufactured humans called replicants.  Some of these replicants escape their off world jobs that they’ve been created for and seek to be real people.  Here’s the trailer for the movie.

The movie has a cult following that has resulted in many releases of the movie with slight variations each time.  The 25th Anniversary edition sought to put an end to some of the debate around the story and titled, The Final Cut.  Now that everything is final, Ridley Scott is working on a new WEB PROJECT. He is working with an independent studio called Ag8 and a number of Ad Agencies to produce a new sci-fi webisode series titled Purefold.

Scheduled to start in about 3 months, Purefold will take place 2 years in the future and run for a series of of 5-10 minute shorts that will be set some time between now and the beginning of Blade Runner’s story in 2019.

Ag8’s founding partner David Bausola said, “We don’t take any of the canon or copyrighted assets from the movie. It’s actually based on the same themes as Blade Runner. It’s the search for what it means to be human and understanding the notion of empathy. We are inspired by Blade Runner.”

It would appear that they are also inspired by the skyscraper adverts in Blade Runner because they intend to bring in advertisers whose products and brands can be featured in the series - just like the advertising you see featured in Blade Runner, but that’s not all. They’re thinking quite creatively about brands and marketing and integrating these ideas into the stories. Here’s a quote from their site. “Taking place in the near future, Purefold enables participating brands to take an alternative route to brand integration than traditional product placement and embrace invention within a narrative framework.” They also have a 28 minute elevator pitch at their site.