Happy Halloween!

Boo!

I've got to take the kids out begging for candy and have no time to be dashingly clever today, so please enjoy this short, poor-quality video. It's a live rendition of the Misfits classic, Halloween, from 1983 along with the bonus song, Bullet. Heading up the mic is a very young Glenn Danzig not singing about your mother. Happy Halloween!

Off the Rack

Electronic Games - Nov. '83 - Porn Not Included

Back when we were teens, my best friend and I used to sneak into my big brother's room when he wasn't around and rummage though his smutty magazines, mostly Playboy and Penthouse because those were considered classy (he even had the one with Vanessa Williams)! Of course being the crafty kids that we were, we knew we had to somehow disguise our fap-mags in case my mother happened to wake up from her out-of-sight-out-of-mindedness and stopped to ask us what nefarious schemes we were up to. The easiest trick, of course and known to all kids everywhere, was to slip another, more benign magazine's cover over the skin-rags thereby camouflaging them from prying judgemental eyes. There were quite a few varieties around to choose from as magazines were plentiful and still roamed the land in great herds - you see it was the 80s and there was nothing else to do but read by candlelight or play Trivial Pursuit. But just any old magazine wouldn't do since something like People or Newsweek was still likely to be picked up by an unsuspecting adult for his or her personal perusal, at which point, the proverbial jig would be up and we'd be sent to Catholic school as punishment. Luckily, I had one magazine on hand that always drove grown-ups away en masse and caused panic-sweats in the technologically shy. The magazine was called Electronic Games (not to be confused with the later publication, Electronic Gaming Monthly) and it was the perfect prop for our playmate purposes. It was an easy matter to pop the binding and slip that cover with some dork playing Space Invaders over the image of whatever scantily clad young lady that was being featured in that month's Playboy and thus grant us safety from any inquiring elders. We used this little trick for years and eventually, the name "Electronic Games" became synonymous to me and my friends with bare naked ladies sporting staples across their bellies. Ah, the salad days. Years later karma would get the best of me when I'd discovered that my mother had recklessly thrown away my entire collection of tech mags, which I was quite fond of. I'm still bummed about that.

Electronic Games magazine was created in 1981 by the publishers of Video Magazine, Bill Kunkel and Arnie Katz, just when the first video game boom was beginning the America. As the first monthly periodical to feature video and computer games as its central topic, Electronic Games quickly became the de facto standard for stats, reviews and exclusive announcements until the end of its run in 1994. Thankfully, the wonderful and increasingly-relevant Internet Archive now hosts nearly the entire collection of issues and has made it available to anyone who'd like to relive the early years of video game publications. Want to find out which home gaming platform had the best version of Pole Position, Joust or Mr.Do? Well then put your time-travel helmet on and click the link…

CLICK HERE TO READ ELECTRONIC GAMES ON THE INTERNET ARCHIVE

8-Bit Tattoo Roundup Numero Dos

Well it's that time again and I've got a whole new batch of 8-bit/gamer tattoos for you to enjoy. Check 'em out, maybe you'll get inspired! Have a good weekend and I'll see you Monday!

An Even Longer Time Ago...

Back in 1974, a young George Lucas, who was still feeling the high from his Best Director nomination for 1973's American Graffiti, had just completed his first draft of a film about space knights and starships called The Star Wars. You know how the story goes, Kane Starkiller and his sons Deak and Annikin all live on the fourth moon of Utapau but after a Sith Knight attack, they escape their self-imposed exile and return to their home world of Aquilae where the wise King Kayos and Queen Breha rule the galaxy. OK so that's not the Star Wars most people know, but it is the story featured in Lucas' first draft of what would eventually become Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, which we all know is really just called Star Wars. In fact, if you refer to the original trilogy by their correct titles, Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, thereby excising the Roman numerals, you can then neatly ignore the F**KING AWFUL prequel series and you're back to just episodes one, two and three. No Jar Jar...no J.J...just the classics. Wow, sorry for the rant. So anyway, Dark Horse Comics, known for having produced the Alien Vs. Predator series, which also lead to two F**KING AWFUL movies, just released the first comic books, sorry graphic novels, from their adaptation of the 1974 Star Wars rough draft. I've read the first book already and the differences are notable. It's an interesting story with a lot more talky talky than the original trilogy. In fact, it sort of resembles the prequels and…crap. Oh well, I'm enjoying it so far. Check out the video I lifted from an NBC affiliate, it explains everything nicely from the point of view of people who don't know jack about what they're reporting on.

Rubik-esque Art

Can you solve a Rubik's Cube? Me neither and I've been playing with the damned thing since 1980 and I'm ready to call it a day. But instead of throwing it against a brick wall and watching the colors fly, why not repurpose the frustrating geometry device into a tool for artistic expression? That's what Toronto, Canada's CubeWorks group has done and with great success. Utilizing the pieces of disassembled Rubik's Cubes, as well as delving into other mediums such as Lego bricks, dice and crayons, CubeWorks has created numerous works which can be seen in museums and galleries around the world. Earlier this year (2013) they even made it into the Guinness Book of World's Records with a portrait of the Macau skyline which took 85,794 seperate Rubik's Cubes to create! Check out some of their works and stop by their site if you get a chance, it's definitely worth a look.

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE CUBEWORKS SITE