On March 17, Erykah Badu and a small crew went down to Dealey Plaza to shoot a very naked video for "Window Seat."
Earlier this morning, Pete posted the evidence to DC9: Erykah Badu's "Window Seat" video, the latest informercial for New Amerykah Part Two: The Return of the Ankh, in stores tomorrow. Since its release in the wee small hours Saturday morning, the video -- filmed entirely in Dealey Plaza in one take on March 17 -- has become the subject of much controversy, not only because of where it was shot, but because of Erykah's decision to take it off take it all off (Matt & Kim-style) in front of Grassy Knoll bystanders on her way to the X-marks-the-spot where John Kennedy was shot to death in November '63. Then, in the end, there's a shout-out to The Organization Man himself, as the word "groupthink" spills out onto the asphalt.
Erykah's having fun with the attention as the video transitions from music blogs to news sites. Says she via Twitter, "ive been punished AND rewarded enough times by love and life to dedicate the whole thing to EVOLVING. i am happy. i expected the gossip blog sites to spin it negatively. i expected people to ride with me."
Except, maybe, Dallas City Hall. Schutze's bestest bud Frank Librio just sent an e-mail in which 1500 Marilla Street says no way no how did it approve the video shoot.
All commercial film/video or photo shoot projects must be permitted through the City of Dallas Office of Special Events/Film Coordinators. The production company that produced this video never contacted the City to seek the proper permits. This is known as "guerilla filming" where production companies circumvent the proper permitting procedures and usually shoot these scenes in one take knowing that if they are discovered they would face arrest and/or penalties.
Update: Since the video keeps coming and going from YouTube, you'll find it after the jump. For now.
It was reported a few days ago that Michael Jacksonspent insane amount of money on videogames. He was reported to had spent over $500,000 on video games alone. An inside scoop of his arcade room has been revealed!
As you can see from the virtual tour and the screenshots there are enough arcades and Star Wars props to make any geeks drool. Lets all just hope that they will start letting the public play in there instead of just closing it up for good.
Get ready to ejaculate as you feast your eyes on this new mod known as the PC VR Game Gun. You can now get your lazy a** off the couch and get in some real live action. Can you say, real life video game simulation? Perhaps Project Natal and Nintendo can learn a thing or two here.
Some features include low-cost, dual-axis miniature rate gyroscope that is fully self-contained for easy integration into human input devices such as the PC VR Gamegun. A unique electromagnetic transducer design and a single etched beam structure utilize the Coriolis effect to sense rotation in two axes simultaneously. Operating between 2.3 and 3.6 volts. 1K of available EEPROM storage on board. Low drift.
Full Motion Tracking - Move the gun and it moves the mouse.
Specs
7″ Widescreen Active Matrix TFT Display
Sleek, Stealth Design
Emulates as a Windows Mouse 100% compatible
Built-in Game pad 3 triggers and dual axis no drivers
High-Quality Black Finish with Black Shroud
High Dot Resolution: 1440 (H) x 234 (V)
3 Selectable Screen Modes (Full, Wide, Normal)
Wireless Remote Control with Front Panel Controls
On Screen Display (OSD)
Power Supply: 12 VDC
Standard RCA Composite Video Input (NTSC only)
Dimensions: 5″ H x 9″ W x 0.7″ D
Plug ‘n play USB, no special drivers or software needed
Check out the video below for more details.
If you’re interested in picking up one of these bad boys, check out blackhall.net.
The Beatles: Rock Band will allow fans to pick up the guitar, bass, mic or drums and "experience The Beatles extraordinary catalog of music through gameplay that takes players on a journey through the legacy and evolution of the band's legendary career," according to the release.
The game will also have a limited number of new hardware offerings modeled after instruments used by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr throughout their career.
The game will be sold as standalone software and hardware as well as a limited edition bundle. It will also be compatible with all Rock Band instrument controllers and other current music-based video game peripherals.
Available on 9/9/09: • The Beatles: Rock Band Software - Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3, Wii: $59.99 MSRP • The Beatles: Rock Band Standalone Guitars - Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3, Wii: $99.99 MSRP • The Beatles: Rock Band Limited Edition Premium Bundle: Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3, Wii: $249.99 MSRP
The pricing for the game outside the U.S. have not yet been announced.
Giles Martin, co-producer of The Beatles LOVE album project, is providing his expertise and serving as Music Producer for the game, which is being developed by Haromonix, published by MTV Games and distributed by Electronic Arts.
Exclusive content created by Apple Corps, MTV Games and Harmonix will be made available to people who pre-order the game over the next few months. More details on The Beatles: Rock Band game and pre-order will be revealed in the coming months.
March 3, 2009 | Can Californians help dig themselves out of their historic fiscal crisis by getting high? Tom Ammiano thinks so, and he isn't smoking a thing.
On Feb. 23, the California State Assembly member introduced legislation that would regulate the cultivation and sale of marijuana, and then tax it. By legalizing pot, the San Francisco lawmaker argues, the state could reap huge new revenues. Currently pot is California's biggest cash crop, with annual sales reaching $14 billion. Vegetables, the state's second hottest agricultural product, take in a mere $5.7 billion. And California's famous grapes? A piddling $2.6 billion.
If passed, the Marijuana Control, Regulation and Education Act would give California control of pot in a manner similar to alcohol, while prohibiting its purchase to citizens under age 21. The state's tax collectors estimate the measure would bring in about $1.3 billion in new revenues a year.
Ammiano, a former schoolteacher and stand-up comedian, has been one of the most famous activists and politicians in San Francisco for decades. In the late '70s, he jump-started the movement against the Briggs Initiative, which would have banned gay teachers in California (he appeared as himself in the film "Milk"), served on the San Francisco Board of Education, and later was president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Salon recently spoke to him about why he thinks making pot legit would have California smiling.
Why legalize marijuana in California now?
There's gold in them thar hills! We have one of the worst budget situations we've ever had, and it's a $14 billion industry that's not going away. Everybody knows this and nobody has wanted to go after it. I, frankly, think the time has come.
Even if California did regulate and tax selling marijuana, wouldn't it still be illegal at the federal level?
Federal law preempts a lot of things we've done in California, anyway -- domestic partners, gay marriage, the medical use of marijuana. Certainly the Obama administration has been telegraphing they'd like to revisit the failed war on drugs. New Attorney General Eric Holder just issued an edict: No more raids on medical marijuana dispensers. And, man, if that doesn't reinforce what I have been saying, I don't know what does. Of course, everyone likes to be in the position of saying, "See, I told you I was right."
In many ways, it's common sense. You have drug cartels growing marijuana in our national parks. It's no more the hippie-dippy guy or woman in Humboldt. This is organized crime with no morality and no value of human life. Look at the money you would save in law enforcement by regulating marijuana, decriminalizing it and putting those resources into serious crimes. The black market and the street sales would decline. Pumping $1 billion into our economy is going to provide a lot of green jobs. No pun intended. Obama seems to be a bright-enough guy to realize that.
How would your legislation affect the people in prison for nonviolent drug offenses related to marijuana?
That would be another cost savings. If it's decriminalized, the source dries up, and you stop the flow of people into prison.
How do you imagine marijuana being sold? Would it be in bars and restaurants and corner stores?
All of that is to be determined. We don't want it to be for anyone under 21. You still can't drive under the influence of it. But the broader thing for me is getting it decriminalized, through the law, and then coming up with the regulations.
Do you think legalizing it endorses its use?
It's use is there anyway. People do it everywhere. It's better if you have a situation, like with booze, when you regulate it. If you're smoking the legal product, you're an adult, and it's not full of pesticides, additives or other crap. The environment would benefit because a lot of these rogue plantations pollute the water source and deplete the soil. The growers pull up and walk away without any kind of remediation. You have to admit to reality here. I think everyone has been on this big denial trip.
Don't you think you're going to see resistance because of the idea that pot is a gateway drug that leads to other illicit drugs?
A lot of those issues came up around medical marijuana, and most of them were put to rest. But there are always going to be people who believe that no matter how many statistics you give them.
Would legalizing pot create new smokers?
I have no idea. But I know there are a lot of statistics around marijuana usage, and a lot of the reefer madness fears are not substantiated.
Do you really expect this bill to pass? Or do you want to spark a debate and get a conversation going?
Getting the conversation going is definitely part of it. But getting it passed is my goal. I do have support from a lot of colleagues, who say: "Oh my God, I think this is great, but I don't think I can vote for it." So it's going to be my job, even in conservative areas, to say: "Vote for it. This is something that will help your community. You may be a Republican, you may be conservative, but your health clinic just closed, your husband just go laid off." These are the kind of bread-and-butter issues that are going to be very seductive to people.
Have you smoked pot?
I certainly experimented. But I'm more of a martini guy.
What do you say to the Bill O'Reilly types who will protest that "San Francisco values" will infect the whole state and even the country?
We're a city that has done a lot of progressive things that have been beneficial on a social justice level, and the world did not end. So we have nothing to be defensive about. In fact, other countries laugh at us for our drug laws. Britain, Canada, the Netherlands and most of Europe have very liberalized drug laws in and around harm reduction.
God knows what Bill O'Reilly does. I'd hate to see his pharmacy bill.
This story may explain why Nintendo is overly careful with the casual audience and has announced services to help them out with technical procedures. One woman who purchased a Wii for her children this Christmas jammed not one, not two, but three credit cards into the system. The woman had asked a neighbor about the Wii, as she only purchased a few controllers with the console. Inquired about which games are recommended, the neighbor suggested purchasing a few retail games in addition to classic games from the Wii Virtual Console.
Naturally, the woman was also unclear about how the VC works, and the neighbor noted that “all she needed to do was put in her credit card when prompted on the Shop Channel.”
It shouldn’t be a surprise what happened here. The woman later called up the neighbor, and complained that the Wii wasn’t working. What did she do? She put three credit cards into the Wii disc slot. You might be wondering why she put in three. She put the first one in, thinking it couldn’t be accepted, so she tried two other credit cards.
Apparently the woman is now expecting the neighbor to pay for the damages. You can take this story for what it is, though. I don’t necessarily think that this was fabricated, but there are no pictures to prove otherwise.
Late last night, broadband-connected TiVo Series2/3/HD owners may have stumbled upon the new Domino’s widget. While we first caught wind of this in regards to the Austrailian TiVo service, US TiVo subscribers are first to tap into Domino’s online ordering system - requesting pizza from the comfort of their couch. However, I imagine online ordering via a web browser will still be more efficient. And my laptop is usually with me on the couch. (Not to mention, we haven’t ordered Domino’s in years. Though their new subs got my attention.) In a vacuum, this functionality isn’t so compelling. However, as part of the larger picture these sorts of practical (?) interactive experiences expand TiVo’s value prop and competitive differentiation. When giving the app a spin this morning, I discovered one of the first areas in need of improvement… Where’s the scheduled delivery option?
Gaming on the iPhone and iPod touch comes in many forms, but a lot of genres still lack representation on the mobile platform. Cross one more off that list as Tricky Software, Inc. introduces Armado, a 3D platformer for Apple’s handheld devices.
Tricky Software is a new development studio staffed by former EA employees, including devs who worked on games like the Tiger Woods series, Godfather, and Spore Origins for the iPhone/iPod touch. Armado is their first release developed and published under the Tricky Software banner, so there’s a lot riding on the success of the game for the fledgling company.
Spore Origins is one of the most lauded games on the iPhone/iPod touch platform, so I had high hopes for Armado. What made Spore so successful was its intuitive controls, which showed that it was obviously designed specifically for the accelerometer-sporting device, instead of merely shoehorned to fit as an afterthought. Could Armado live up to its predecessor in this regard?
Upon launching the app, I was impressed immediately with two things. First, the soundtrack that greeted me even on the initial menu screen was professional and pleasant. Second, when I started the game, an illustrated cutscene with professional narration played, setting up the backstory of the character without being over laborious or involved. Additional cutscenes between levels continue to expand the story. Basically you’re trying to save eagles from ants. And you’re an armadillo. I think they’re going for realism.
In-game 3D graphics are good, though there is little variety in level design. Essentially you’re either going up or down a mountain, and movement is restricted to forwards or backwards only (like a simplified Crash Bandicoot), which you control by tilting the device. You can jump to avoid obstacles by tapping the screen, and two taps results in a double jump. I found jumping on enemies very hard to do, even after I discovered that you can control your in-air movement by tilting as well, although they also aren’t very good at striking you, so it sort of evens out.
Overall, the game is difficult, and the controls are not as intuitive as they are in Spore Origins, and the occasional crash put a damper on my enthusiasm. That said, it’s an impressive and well-designed example of what the iPhone/iPod touch are capable of, and if you’re willing to deal with a little initial frustration, once you get the hang of the controls it becomes a very fun time-waster indeed. Look for more exciting things to come from Tricky Software in the future, since they seem to have a good grasp of what the platform needs.
Armado is available from the App Store now for $4.99.
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All you art collectors out there. Here is a chance to get a Giclee copy of some of Ian M Sherwin work. Ian is planning on doing a whole series of Marblehead, Massachusetts paintings. His work is amazing.
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