Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Pharrell Williams It Girl Video Is A Japanese Dating Sim
It's a good month for Japanese dating sims as Pharrel Williams brings the culture closer to widespread audiences being featured in his newest music video done by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. Earlier this month the cartoon Gravity Falls had their monster of the week be a dating sim girl, Giffany, designed by pixel artist Paul Robertson.
Korra Comes Back Oct 3
The last season of Korra comes online starting Oct 3rd, remember to circumnavigate Nick and download and torrent the show.
V/H/S: Viral Review A Horror Comedy Anthology
V/H/S: Viral
October 23, 2014
(VOD)
November 21, 2014
(Theatrical)
Worrying that your short term memory might be gone during the third act, when you can't remember the first act isn't a good sign. Neither my cameraman and I could remember the "Dante the Great" segment of V/H/S Viral and it has me perturbed and questioning how memorable the film was and my memory? We weren't on any substances before the show. For it's Beyond Fest screening, the audience was invited to make a snuff film with director Nacho Vigalondo. It was a joke; poor Nacho and myself snorted snuff with other audience members in order to win posters and t-shirts. Silly and strange, it was how the whole movie felt. V/H/S: Viral has become a comic anthology in it's third film.
V/H/S: Viral might have premiered at Fantastic Fest in Texas, but a few days later LA got its view at the Egyptian Sunday night, part of the second year of Beyond Fest's out there programming. Most of the directors were in attendance except Justin Benson and Todd Lincoln. Directors in attendance came up after the film to answer some questions and back-pedal on why the film was so different.
The film's become a horror comic anthology this year. Either by the film directors chosen or that Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett weren't part of the film this time; see The Guest. The film is the weakest in the series sticking to the found footage mentality. Greg Bishop went on a short explanation of how the film cheats. When it does cheat, it cheats the audience, many times accompanying music and camera footage that shouldn't exist is used all too often.
If you take the film as a comedy it works. Fans of the series, like myself, were not entirely into that. There's always been something to chuckle at for a second or from a line from a victim in the previous films. This time it's just too comedic to be seen as a real horror movie.
"Vicious Circles", which I'm sad to write was directed by Marcel Sarmiento of Deadgirl infamy fails as a uniting wrap-around story. It has nothing to do this time with finding found footage, instead it's about a young man trying to make his own successful viral videos in a loving relationship with his girlfriend that gets taken by an ice cream truck. The ice cram truck drives around in circles in LA causing mayhem; and looks like bad CGI. Going way out there, a viral virus that has come from phones is causing people to act strange and bleed from the ears along side this and made his girlfriend get into the ice cream truck. It's a commentary on the concept of people going viral and taking too many videos today.
Something I won't go further into because it's not a totally thought out idea and comes off as comical. In the Q & A, it was mentioned by Gregg Bishop that "Vicious Circles" was along the lines of replacing the people in 80's horror movies who are about to have sex at make out point with anyone taking video on their cell phone. It's an odd choice among other ideas like comical interludes that have nothing to do with the young man trying to save his girlfriend. He merely passes by a family/gang party gone awry and a perverted cab scene. The ending makes the least sense of anything of the film.
"Dante the Great" by Gregg Bishop is a magician's battle we've all been waiting to see. Shown like a" where are they know show" , we get into the story of a magician not worth his top hat until he acquires the "Cape of Houdini", so evil Houdini got rid of it. With it, he pushes his way to stardom as the world's greatest magician. It comes at a great cost, the cape gets hungry. One of his charming assistants see through his act and after a confrontation with the police it's up to her to have an all out magic battle with Dante the Great. The special effects are all top notch, it's so over the top. The problem is that it's not something you find as an underground video. A world renown magician going on a rampage? That's not really viral.
My favorite, of course, comes from Nacho Vigalondo. His "Parallel Monsters" makes for great comedy sci-fi. A scientist has a doorway to somewhere strange in his basement. Is it to the future, another world, another dimension? Another dimension where he meets his double. They look similar enough and our both filled with great joy over their accomplishments. They decide to take a 15-minute jaunt into each others world. A picture on the wall at first is the only subtle change that the scientist from our world sees. Then it gets strangely sexual and what's that burning and creaming on the TV?
Nacho, who was at odds not to fall over from taking so much snuff and tearing up tried to expalined how one universe had no sex in it to hyper-sexual tendencies of the other. They he joked about how not having sex is common for many, adding, "This is too confessional."
When I asked him how tired he was from just doing Fantastic Fest, Beyond Fest and being at The Cinefamily in the next few days he said, 'My mother's worried about me."
He revealed to me he's working on a second draft of a Kaju film with a twist. Can't wait to see how Nacho tackles giant battle monsters.
Without ruining too much you'll be seeing some monstrous action with love making in "Parallel Monsters", think Troma. Nacho's sci-fi horror short was my favorite for he's always likable leading man and the bizarre ideas he has that work.
Ending the film was a skater's horror movie, "Bonestorm" that didn't have directors Justin Benson and Todd Lincoln attending the screening. We were told how the cast their actors though. Marcel Sarmiento said, "Guys in their 30's going around to skate parks and asking, 'Hey, you wannabe in a movie." The film centers on two skater friends heading to Tijuana to finish their skating video with their awful director and "put-in-a-$20-for-gas" guy. They desecrate a sacred spot that they can shred in and soon have to battle a cult that becomes very skinless. They have to fight a skeleton army with nothing but their skateboards and illegal fireworks. You can't deny it's fun nature. Pounding anyone's head in with a camera attached to the skateboard for visuals only hurts the person get impaled by said skateboard. The skaters strangely had the realistic cussing that you found in Deadgirl that you didn't find in the comically bad Vicious Circles segment.
The advertisements may need to make it clear that V/H/S: Viral is no longer about the weird tapes you might find or weird videos you'll find in the corners of the web. I would argue it should be part of a different series, a comedy series and lose the V/H/S name as it's the weakest connection to the original idea. Each director, except Marcel, showed off great work, work that is way too funny to be scary.
The Q & A had much of Gregg Bishop defending the films new style with general questions directed to directors. "How much freedom were you allowed?, " Nacho replied, "You mean in life." Greg and Marcel answered that you could just pay yourself a high price or put what the producers gave you into the film. Greg kept bring up it was about enough money to shoot, "Three friends talking in a room for a one day shoot."
When asked about horror influences Nacho answered Alien and The Birds, an on The Birds said, "As a child it has a specific meaning, but as an adult it takes on a different meaning." Going into how films change after re-watching them over time.
Then, maybe forgetting those films in the process, he did a bunch of snuff with audience members. He did it so much he had to lean against the wall at some points. When you think of snuff, you think of Nacho after that night.Teary-eyed many of the "winners" got posters and t-shirts as the Q & A ended.
Beyond Fest continues until Oct 4.
October 23, 2014
(VOD)
November 21, 2014
(Theatrical)
Worrying that your short term memory might be gone during the third act, when you can't remember the first act isn't a good sign. Neither my cameraman and I could remember the "Dante the Great" segment of V/H/S Viral and it has me perturbed and questioning how memorable the film was and my memory? We weren't on any substances before the show. For it's Beyond Fest screening, the audience was invited to make a snuff film with director Nacho Vigalondo. It was a joke; poor Nacho and myself snorted snuff with other audience members in order to win posters and t-shirts. Silly and strange, it was how the whole movie felt. V/H/S: Viral has become a comic anthology in it's third film.
V/H/S: Viral might have premiered at Fantastic Fest in Texas, but a few days later LA got its view at the Egyptian Sunday night, part of the second year of Beyond Fest's out there programming. Most of the directors were in attendance except Justin Benson and Todd Lincoln. Directors in attendance came up after the film to answer some questions and back-pedal on why the film was so different.
The film's become a horror comic anthology this year. Either by the film directors chosen or that Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett weren't part of the film this time; see The Guest. The film is the weakest in the series sticking to the found footage mentality. Greg Bishop went on a short explanation of how the film cheats. When it does cheat, it cheats the audience, many times accompanying music and camera footage that shouldn't exist is used all too often.
L-R Nacho Vigalondo, "Dant the Great", Greg Bishop, Marcel Sarmiento, |
If you take the film as a comedy it works. Fans of the series, like myself, were not entirely into that. There's always been something to chuckle at for a second or from a line from a victim in the previous films. This time it's just too comedic to be seen as a real horror movie.
"Vicious Circles", which I'm sad to write was directed by Marcel Sarmiento of Deadgirl infamy fails as a uniting wrap-around story. It has nothing to do this time with finding found footage, instead it's about a young man trying to make his own successful viral videos in a loving relationship with his girlfriend that gets taken by an ice cream truck. The ice cram truck drives around in circles in LA causing mayhem; and looks like bad CGI. Going way out there, a viral virus that has come from phones is causing people to act strange and bleed from the ears along side this and made his girlfriend get into the ice cream truck. It's a commentary on the concept of people going viral and taking too many videos today.
Something I won't go further into because it's not a totally thought out idea and comes off as comical. In the Q & A, it was mentioned by Gregg Bishop that "Vicious Circles" was along the lines of replacing the people in 80's horror movies who are about to have sex at make out point with anyone taking video on their cell phone. It's an odd choice among other ideas like comical interludes that have nothing to do with the young man trying to save his girlfriend. He merely passes by a family/gang party gone awry and a perverted cab scene. The ending makes the least sense of anything of the film.
"Dante the Great" by Gregg Bishop is a magician's battle we've all been waiting to see. Shown like a" where are they know show" , we get into the story of a magician not worth his top hat until he acquires the "Cape of Houdini", so evil Houdini got rid of it. With it, he pushes his way to stardom as the world's greatest magician. It comes at a great cost, the cape gets hungry. One of his charming assistants see through his act and after a confrontation with the police it's up to her to have an all out magic battle with Dante the Great. The special effects are all top notch, it's so over the top. The problem is that it's not something you find as an underground video. A world renown magician going on a rampage? That's not really viral.
My favorite, of course, comes from Nacho Vigalondo. His "Parallel Monsters" makes for great comedy sci-fi. A scientist has a doorway to somewhere strange in his basement. Is it to the future, another world, another dimension? Another dimension where he meets his double. They look similar enough and our both filled with great joy over their accomplishments. They decide to take a 15-minute jaunt into each others world. A picture on the wall at first is the only subtle change that the scientist from our world sees. Then it gets strangely sexual and what's that burning and creaming on the TV?
Nacho, who was at odds not to fall over from taking so much snuff and tearing up tried to expalined how one universe had no sex in it to hyper-sexual tendencies of the other. They he joked about how not having sex is common for many, adding, "This is too confessional."
When I asked him how tired he was from just doing Fantastic Fest, Beyond Fest and being at The Cinefamily in the next few days he said, 'My mother's worried about me."
He revealed to me he's working on a second draft of a Kaju film with a twist. Can't wait to see how Nacho tackles giant battle monsters.
Without ruining too much you'll be seeing some monstrous action with love making in "Parallel Monsters", think Troma. Nacho's sci-fi horror short was my favorite for he's always likable leading man and the bizarre ideas he has that work.
Ending the film was a skater's horror movie, "Bonestorm" that didn't have directors Justin Benson and Todd Lincoln attending the screening. We were told how the cast their actors though. Marcel Sarmiento said, "Guys in their 30's going around to skate parks and asking, 'Hey, you wannabe in a movie." The film centers on two skater friends heading to Tijuana to finish their skating video with their awful director and "put-in-a-$20-for-gas" guy. They desecrate a sacred spot that they can shred in and soon have to battle a cult that becomes very skinless. They have to fight a skeleton army with nothing but their skateboards and illegal fireworks. You can't deny it's fun nature. Pounding anyone's head in with a camera attached to the skateboard for visuals only hurts the person get impaled by said skateboard. The skaters strangely had the realistic cussing that you found in Deadgirl that you didn't find in the comically bad Vicious Circles segment.
The advertisements may need to make it clear that V/H/S: Viral is no longer about the weird tapes you might find or weird videos you'll find in the corners of the web. I would argue it should be part of a different series, a comedy series and lose the V/H/S name as it's the weakest connection to the original idea. Each director, except Marcel, showed off great work, work that is way too funny to be scary.
The Q & A had much of Gregg Bishop defending the films new style with general questions directed to directors. "How much freedom were you allowed?, " Nacho replied, "You mean in life." Greg and Marcel answered that you could just pay yourself a high price or put what the producers gave you into the film. Greg kept bring up it was about enough money to shoot, "Three friends talking in a room for a one day shoot."
When asked about horror influences Nacho answered Alien and The Birds, an on The Birds said, "As a child it has a specific meaning, but as an adult it takes on a different meaning." Going into how films change after re-watching them over time.
Then, maybe forgetting those films in the process, he did a bunch of snuff with audience members. He did it so much he had to lean against the wall at some points. When you think of snuff, you think of Nacho after that night.Teary-eyed many of the "winners" got posters and t-shirts as the Q & A ended.
Beyond Fest continues until Oct 4.
Labels:
event,
Halloween 2014,
horror,
movie hype,
movie review,
review
DVD Reminder: Reign, Arrow, Galactic Monsters, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: 40th
Reign: The Complete First Season
Ever since Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, was a little girl, the English have wanted her country and her crown. As a teenager, Mary is sent to France to wed its next king to save herself and her people. Waiting at the French Court is the gorgeous Prince Francis, his illegitimate half-brother Sebastian, a king on the brink of madness, a scheming queen, and the seer Nostradamus with a devastating prophecy.
Ben 10 Omniverse - Galactic Monsters
Sometimes it takes a real monster to defeat a real monster. So Ben is transforming into some awesome monster heroes in the latest DVD release “Ben 10 Omniverse: Galactic Monsters”.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: 40th Anniversary Collector's Edition [Blu-ray/DVD Combo]
It has been called grisly, sick, and perverse, , as well as raw, unshakeable, and the movie that redefined horror. It was attacked by churches, banned by governments, and acclaimed by only the bravest of critics. It stunned audiences worldwide and set a new standard in movie terror forever. Today writer-producer-director Tobe Hooper s dark, visionary tale remains unparalleled in its impact as perhaps the most frightening motion picture ever made.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of this beloved horror classic, MPI Media Group presents the original restored film in an all-new 4k scan authorized by Tobe Hooper, featuring a dynamic new 7.1 surround sound mix and never-before-seen outtakes!
Ever since Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, was a little girl, the English have wanted her country and her crown. As a teenager, Mary is sent to France to wed its next king to save herself and her people. Waiting at the French Court is the gorgeous Prince Francis, his illegitimate half-brother Sebastian, a king on the brink of madness, a scheming queen, and the seer Nostradamus with a devastating prophecy.
In the season two premiere, Diggle and Felicity travel to Lian Yu
to convince Oliver to return home to Starling City, where he finds
things much worse than he imagined.
Ben 10 Omniverse - Galactic Monsters
Sometimes it takes a real monster to defeat a real monster. So Ben is transforming into some awesome monster heroes in the latest DVD release “Ben 10 Omniverse: Galactic Monsters”.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: 40th Anniversary Collector's Edition [Blu-ray/DVD Combo]
It has been called grisly, sick, and perverse, , as well as raw, unshakeable, and the movie that redefined horror. It was attacked by churches, banned by governments, and acclaimed by only the bravest of critics. It stunned audiences worldwide and set a new standard in movie terror forever. Today writer-producer-director Tobe Hooper s dark, visionary tale remains unparalleled in its impact as perhaps the most frightening motion picture ever made.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of this beloved horror classic, MPI Media Group presents the original restored film in an all-new 4k scan authorized by Tobe Hooper, featuring a dynamic new 7.1 surround sound mix and never-before-seen outtakes!
Monday, September 29, 2014
How Does Human Flesh Taste;Walking Dead PR In England Rules
Taking a step further than any other marketing here in the US, British marketing for the new season of The Walking Dead is going a step further. James Thomlinson, a British chef, will be cooking food that he's researched to taste like human flesh, at a secret pop-up diner for the newest season. His research comes from a 1920's entry from a man who did eat some flesh and the account from a cannibalistic murderer from Japan who still lives, but can't find work.
more info
more info
IndieCade 2014 Update: Mountain, Crawl, Hack 'n' Slash ...
The following are more games to be found at this year's upcoming IndieCade Oct 9-12 in Culver City. TTDILA hasn't seen any titles that have blown away our minds, but we are looking forward to playing a new demo for Hyper Light Drifter.
Mountain by David O'Reilly, maybe best known for his game work on "Her" and his full episode of Adventure Time, is a very strange game You seemingly have no control over a mountain and it does things like contemplate it's own existence. Weird.
Some nominees up for awards for the event have some eye-catching titles with some re-imagined dungeon crawlers.
Crawl by Barney Cumming and David Lloyd of Powerhoof is a multiplayer dungeon crawler with a twist. The other players are the monsters. You play as both a hero and fiends. Your friends are monster trying to kill you during your quest, if they kill you, they become the hero and you can try and kill them as a wondering spirit that can set traps and inhabit monstrous beings.
Mountain by David O'Reilly, maybe best known for his game work on "Her" and his full episode of Adventure Time, is a very strange game You seemingly have no control over a mountain and it does things like contemplate it's own existence. Weird.
Some nominees up for awards for the event have some eye-catching titles with some re-imagined dungeon crawlers.
Crawl by Barney Cumming and David Lloyd of Powerhoof is a multiplayer dungeon crawler with a twist. The other players are the monsters. You play as both a hero and fiends. Your friends are monster trying to kill you during your quest, if they kill you, they become the hero and you can try and kill them as a wondering spirit that can set traps and inhabit monstrous beings.
Hack 'n' Slash by Double Fine Productions has gained much regard for it's publisher's history. You'll be changing the game as you play by learning to actually hack game code. Make an enemy smaller, make them weaker, make the environment easier for you in this puzzle action game.
Mini Metro by Dinosaur Polo Club, where do I get a shirt? This simple looking strategy simulation game has you trying to set up a perfect subway system that gets harder to maintain as the game goes on. No crime rate or graffiti problems, just moving people from one location to another in a timely way. Shapes count as people, right?
Metrico by Digital Dreams was already released on the PS Vita and made for the system, platform with info-graphics you create with weird task the game designers have come up with using the abilities of the Vita.
The One Up Grand Opening, Does It Score?
What will most likely be called the Space Invader by locals finally had it's grand opening Friday night, September 26, in Sherman Oaks. The One Up, the arcade bar that residents have been waiting for since they spotted something looking like a pixelated alien on an empty building months back, finally opened. There was much fanfare as swarms of invading Los Angelenos made there way into a possible new bar run base.
We were able to grab one of the owners, Murphy Micheals, for just a second to give us some background on the new drinking destination with arcade machines in the back and an eye-catching bar. He started with his feelings about the opening. "Insane, " he said followed by, "we're at capacity within an hour of opening."
Murphy told me a short background about how he and another co-owner developed games for sixteen years and that work led his game company into film, they're called Deep Studios. His grandfather owned a bar too.
What was deep was the meaning many might not get from the setup above the bar. A mix of high-end looking furniture, cabinets and side tables, filled with nick-knacks from child-hood; a dinosaur, robot and He-Man lunchbox are above your head. What might this represent in a arcade bar? Murphy explained, "Do you remember in adolescence moving into the basement and getting all the hand-me down furniture?" Whatever adolescence Mr. Micheal's had must have been nicer than ours, because that furniture looks high-end enough to make anyone's basement pad very livable.
Behind the bar are two paintings title Drinking Buddies, featuring Jack Torrance from "The Shining and "The Dude" from "The Big Lebowski", picks of Micheals. Before Micheals went to help getting food to hungry customers and entertaining his guests he said the bar was for, "People who actually played games in the 80's and are grown up... and for everybody."
Everybody who drinks, they have a wide selection at the bar and not the worst priced beer at $6 bucks a bottle or on tap. The cocktails lack names that go with a gaming bar, you can still try them as a name doesn't make a drink.
For the foodie, this is a place to grab snacks with friends, not dinner. A big menu of small portions to share had a fellow writer and I sampling the menu. Captain Crunch Chicken Wings ($10), Chocolate Croissant Bread ($9, in an absurd giant bowl) and Deconstructed 7-Up Lime Twinkies ($8) filled us up and emptied our wallets. We couldn't taste the Cap'n, only a sweety fried skin that was lip smacking good with our chick wings.
A starry-skied arcade is in the back with pink neon written out as "I'll stop the world and melt with you", made me remember a M & M's commercial. Arcade cabinets are free to play, they don't take any quarters, the staff just asks after your game ends you let someone else have a shot. Each machine has a number of titles to try, they say on their website they have four hundred games to play.
We would have liked if each machine could stand out more, they don't have any distinguishing art and look like they belong in a dry cleaners more than this newly opened bar.
We played some unfamiliar titles, with classics like Pac-Man. Mr. Shaolin had us high kick our way through a temple, Mr. Do was a rip-off of Dig Dug, Gunsmoke was a non-stop shooter set in the old west. Kickrider was exactly as it's name sounds. A game where you ride a motorcycle and try and kick off other riders while dodging barrels. A game that doesn't teach children a thing. Kickrider is just one of those strange games you find and have to wonder what they were thinking when they made it. Then you just keep kicking people and seem to be humping the seat when not aiming the direction of your kicks. Two player Robotron was a fast one as one player controls movement and the other where you shoot laser to fend of bad guys. Kickrider and Congo Bongo, a game where you have to get past a monkey throwing coconuts at you we're our favorite titles.
Players were a bit dismayed by the lack of two-player machines. Many of the arcade units we're one player only.
Don't worry about your drink they have shelves in-between units for you to keep them safe.
The arcade can get a bit crowded when many people are up to play. A low level, used be a Tekken-unit, needs to either be raised up or get some seats near it for it to be played. None of the machines we played on past the small Tekken unit had any new arcade titles, almost all the games are from the 80's, forget anything 3D.
Passing a secret entrance that's an empty book shelf and a lounge area with a big window to see the cooking staff, passed one birdcage seat hung from the ceiling, it's hard to see what the exact vision of The One Up is other than out there.
As I left I talked to someone having their birthday, Randy Coombs and his friend J-Ty Robinson. Coombs, when asked about The One Up went into talking about the crowd, "Like, the crowd, it's very diverse, weird gastro pub fans, video gamers that drink and hipsters looking for a place to grab a drink, " as he pointed to the line waiting to get in. He added, I don't want to drive to 82 right now, " in response to why he came.
The One Up has its game ready to play with two other major arcade bars coming out this year. Hollywood and Highland's Dave & Buster's and downtown LA's 82 both have their own idea of what arcade bar means. Will distance be a factor in having fun? Time will tell.
For right now, The One Up is worth your experience for at least one night to see if you can enter your initials on at least one game. It needs a few weeks to settle in and work out some kinks, from there it can get as big a high score as it wants.
We were able to grab one of the owners, Murphy Micheals, for just a second to give us some background on the new drinking destination with arcade machines in the back and an eye-catching bar. He started with his feelings about the opening. "Insane, " he said followed by, "we're at capacity within an hour of opening."
Murphy told me a short background about how he and another co-owner developed games for sixteen years and that work led his game company into film, they're called Deep Studios. His grandfather owned a bar too.
What was deep was the meaning many might not get from the setup above the bar. A mix of high-end looking furniture, cabinets and side tables, filled with nick-knacks from child-hood; a dinosaur, robot and He-Man lunchbox are above your head. What might this represent in a arcade bar? Murphy explained, "Do you remember in adolescence moving into the basement and getting all the hand-me down furniture?" Whatever adolescence Mr. Micheal's had must have been nicer than ours, because that furniture looks high-end enough to make anyone's basement pad very livable.
Murphy Micheals, one of the owners |
Everybody who drinks, they have a wide selection at the bar and not the worst priced beer at $6 bucks a bottle or on tap. The cocktails lack names that go with a gaming bar, you can still try them as a name doesn't make a drink.
For the foodie, this is a place to grab snacks with friends, not dinner. A big menu of small portions to share had a fellow writer and I sampling the menu. Captain Crunch Chicken Wings ($10), Chocolate Croissant Bread ($9, in an absurd giant bowl) and Deconstructed 7-Up Lime Twinkies ($8) filled us up and emptied our wallets. We couldn't taste the Cap'n, only a sweety fried skin that was lip smacking good with our chick wings.
A starry-skied arcade is in the back with pink neon written out as "I'll stop the world and melt with you", made me remember a M & M's commercial. Arcade cabinets are free to play, they don't take any quarters, the staff just asks after your game ends you let someone else have a shot. Each machine has a number of titles to try, they say on their website they have four hundred games to play.
We would have liked if each machine could stand out more, they don't have any distinguishing art and look like they belong in a dry cleaners more than this newly opened bar.
We played some unfamiliar titles, with classics like Pac-Man. Mr. Shaolin had us high kick our way through a temple, Mr. Do was a rip-off of Dig Dug, Gunsmoke was a non-stop shooter set in the old west. Kickrider was exactly as it's name sounds. A game where you ride a motorcycle and try and kick off other riders while dodging barrels. A game that doesn't teach children a thing. Kickrider is just one of those strange games you find and have to wonder what they were thinking when they made it. Then you just keep kicking people and seem to be humping the seat when not aiming the direction of your kicks. Two player Robotron was a fast one as one player controls movement and the other where you shoot laser to fend of bad guys. Kickrider and Congo Bongo, a game where you have to get past a monkey throwing coconuts at you we're our favorite titles.
Kickrider |
Players were a bit dismayed by the lack of two-player machines. Many of the arcade units we're one player only.
Don't worry about your drink they have shelves in-between units for you to keep them safe.
The arcade can get a bit crowded when many people are up to play. A low level, used be a Tekken-unit, needs to either be raised up or get some seats near it for it to be played. None of the machines we played on past the small Tekken unit had any new arcade titles, almost all the games are from the 80's, forget anything 3D.
Passing a secret entrance that's an empty book shelf and a lounge area with a big window to see the cooking staff, passed one birdcage seat hung from the ceiling, it's hard to see what the exact vision of The One Up is other than out there.
As I left I talked to someone having their birthday, Randy Coombs and his friend J-Ty Robinson. Coombs, when asked about The One Up went into talking about the crowd, "Like, the crowd, it's very diverse, weird gastro pub fans, video gamers that drink and hipsters looking for a place to grab a drink, " as he pointed to the line waiting to get in. He added, I don't want to drive to 82 right now, " in response to why he came.
The One Up has its game ready to play with two other major arcade bars coming out this year. Hollywood and Highland's Dave & Buster's and downtown LA's 82 both have their own idea of what arcade bar means. Will distance be a factor in having fun? Time will tell.
For right now, The One Up is worth your experience for at least one night to see if you can enter your initials on at least one game. It needs a few weeks to settle in and work out some kinks, from there it can get as big a high score as it wants.
Captain Crunch Chicken Wings ($10) |
Chocolate Croissant Bread ($9) |
Deconstructed 7-Up Lime Twinkies ($8) |
Labels:
arcades,
arcades and video game stores,
game hype,
gamer stuff
Halloween Update: Gaming
Resident Evil Revelations 2'S teaser trailer just begs for the movie series to have a facelift and actually be scary instead of an action movie mess that doesn't make sense.
Saturday, September 27, 2014
Cake Ahoy, Queen Mary Turns 80
To celebrate the Queen Mary turning 80 a 600-pound cake replica of itself was served up last Friday, September 26.
more info
more info
Friday, September 26, 2014
ADVENTURE TIME - Launch Party!! Oct 2
Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Adventure Time and Iam8bit combine to ruin my calendar. It's the same night at the Dark Harbor launch and Delusion's only press night.... h, it's too meta for you. Whatever, here's all the events going on. There's a book signing for The Art of Ooo, a new book coming out Oct 14 that goes through all the art of the series, pending a review, TTDILA got its copy today. A strangely worded "a chance to play" The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom, the newest Adventure Time game out this November, from Little Orbit, it looks a lot like Zelda. Art from unknown artists (at this point) and "limited edition" prints of rare production paintings and drawings. Giveaways, trivia and much wanted cosplay.
Once again, like Nucleus gallery, naming for an Adventure Time exhibit sucks.
*Meta-I assume the people behind the show just don't care enough to name these things.
ADVENTURE TIME - Launch Party!!
Thursday, October 2 7:00pm - 10:00pm
Once again, like Nucleus gallery, naming for an Adventure Time exhibit sucks.
*Meta-I assume the people behind the show just don't care enough to name these things.
ADVENTURE TIME - Launch Party!!
Thursday, October 2 7:00pm - 10:00pm
2147 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, California 90026
Free
All ages
Sponsored by:
Cartoon Network
Abrams
Little Orbit
Cartoon Network
Abrams
Little Orbit
Murder LA 000058
Jane Doe 52 via Homicide Report |
A conveyor belt churned along at the LA Recycling Center at 1000 N Main St in Downtown LA, carrying recyclables to be sorted. A quarter past 3pm one employee opened a bag and found a naked woman inside.
To this day, Jane Doe 52 has yet to be identified. She was so badly decomposed that fingerprints couldn't be taken and even her eye color is unknown. Her age range is given as between 30 and 80 years old. A forensic anthropologist identified her as caucasian. She would have stood about 5'4" and had recent dental work, in the form of a crown. Authorities hoped the California Dental Association could help but so far no dentists have recognized the work.
via the LA Times |
Investigators suggested early on that she came from a blue recycle bin somewhere in Hollywood but apparently can't narrow it down much.
---
ALSO, MORE RECENTLY
via KTLA |
The NBC reporter on-scene speculated seemingly from nowhere that this involved a love triangle, despite the involvement so far of only two people. An officer speaking for Riverside PD looked surprised and said he had "no information on that whatsoever," but the report goes on to immediately suggest that it could be that, "or something else."
An autopsy performed the following Monday morning did not find a cause of death. Note that the car is a 1999 model and car manufacturers were not required to include trunk escape handles until 2002.
Waggin' Ball Z, Funimation Loses It
Funimation has a bizzare new content to coincide with the upcoming release of Dragon Ball Z: Battle of the Gods out Oct 7 on DVD and Blu-ray. It involves pets. We want to see full episodes now.
Vote for cats or dogs via:
Vote On Twitter
- Send a tweet using the hashtag #dragondogz (to vote for team dog) or #dragoncatz (to vote for team cat)
- Example: “All hail our kitty overlords! Cats > Dogs forever. #dragoncatz"
Vote On Instagram
- Take a picture of your beloved pet, or use one of the million you already have saved on your phone.
- Post it to Instagram using the hashtag #dragondogz (to vote for team dog) or #dragoncatz (to vote for team cat)
Vote On The Web
- Go to http://dragonballz.com/
battleofpets/ and click on the ‘Vote #dragondogz” or “Vote #dragoncatz” button to cast your vote. - Note: This method still uses Twitter, but will create an auto-generated post for you.
Halloween Update: When A Scary Farm Dies
The Halloween
Harvest Festival and FrightFair Scream Park at Pierce, starting this Friday, will be the last in Woodland Hills. Pierce has ended it's contract with Farm Center, which is privately owned. For horror fans, that means it's your last chance for getting lost in corn mazes and being spooked by them in SoCal. Though not one of TTDILA's favorite haunts, the scream park had some impressive scares in its run.
On a deeper scale, it's the questions of how poorly run Pierce is. Pierce doesn't own or operate the farm, that's news to TTDILA and many others. Many speculate it's a land grab to sell off the area for more dorm space. Pierce may have learned from a prior deal gone awry that as an affiliate of colleges in SoCal it doesn't get all the money for itself it has to share it among the colleges.
Either way we speculate the land being used poorly, not for the college community, not for better classrooms, just a quick way for Pierce to make money. How many Starbucks do you think they can fit there?
via
On a deeper scale, it's the questions of how poorly run Pierce is. Pierce doesn't own or operate the farm, that's news to TTDILA and many others. Many speculate it's a land grab to sell off the area for more dorm space. Pierce may have learned from a prior deal gone awry that as an affiliate of colleges in SoCal it doesn't get all the money for itself it has to share it among the colleges.
Either way we speculate the land being used poorly, not for the college community, not for better classrooms, just a quick way for Pierce to make money. How many Starbucks do you think they can fit there?
via
Re-Animator The Musical Returns Again
Probably one of the only musicals TTDILA could sit through other than Pokemon the Musical for LA's never ending play scene. Re-Animator returns where it all began at the Steve Allen Theater. Here's a TTDILA review of it from 2011. This is one of the best things you can do for Halloween in LA. Don't be fooled by it being a musical, it's bloody and gross and the songs, oh, the songs make it more bloody and gross. This is the play where they spray blood on the audience. Walking in I thought some chairs were just dirty, no, I was wrong.
Previews October 10th, 11th, and 12th, 2014. Opens Friday,
October 17, 2014. Runs through Sunday, November 2, 2014. Fridays through
Sundays at 8:00pm.
The Steve Allen Theater
4773 Hollywood Blvd.
Hollywood, CA 90027
Parking lot behind building
$25. Previews $20
"Re-Animator the Musical tells the story of Herbert West, a
brilliant young medical student who has created a glowing green serum that can
bring the dead back to life. What should be a medical breakthrough results in
hideous monstrosities and ghastly consequences. “I guess he just wasn’t fresh
enough,” is West’s constant refrain in his quest for fresh subjects. Graham
Skipper, who won a Best New Performer Award at the New York Musical Theater
Festival for his crowd-pleasing turn, returns as the demented young genius. And
operatic Jesse Merlin is back as Dr. Carl Hill, who loses his head for Meg, the
dean’s beautiful daughter, only to actually lose it at the hands of Herbert
West. But thanks to the glowing re-agent, Dr. Hill is still able to take his
curtain call with his head tucked underneath his arm."
Thursday, September 25, 2014
An Evening with Judd Apatow & Friends Oct 2
An Evening with Judd Apatow & Friends
Thu, October 2, 2014Doors: 7:00 pm / Show: 8:30 pm
Largo
366 N La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles, CA
$40.00
Usually sells out quick.
Thu, October 2, 2014Doors: 7:00 pm / Show: 8:30 pm
Largo
366 N La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles, CA
$40.00
Usually sells out quick.
Anaheim Closest To Go For Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS National Open Tournament
That is a very long name for a tournament. The ... my fingers have to catch a breath... Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS
National Open Tournament will start Oct 4 at participating Game Stops around the country, LA was not selected, Anaheim was.
That's the least amount of distance you need to go to participate.
Here's the rules:
Participants for the 64-player local tournaments on Oct. 4 are selected on a first-come, first-served basis with no pre-registration required. Participants may bring their own Nintendo 3DS or Nintendo 2DS systems and/or Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS games to the tournaments, but are not required to do so.
The winners of each local tournament will win a trip to New York to participate in the Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS National Open Tournament at Nintendo World on Oct. 11, which will be broadcast live on Nintendo’s channels on Twitch and YouTube starting at 6 p.m. ET. During the Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS National Open Tournament, character customization will play an important role in the action, allowing the top 16 players to engage in an all-out, no-holds-barred battle showcasing all the game has to offer.
The winner of the final tournament will not only bask in the glory of victory, but also win a trophy and champion’s robe.
Each local tournament will begin at 11 a.m. local time on Oct. 4.
more info
GameStop
Anaheim Town Center
|
2004 East Lincoln Ave. Anaheim, CA 92806 |
That's the least amount of distance you need to go to participate.
Here's the rules:
Participants for the 64-player local tournaments on Oct. 4 are selected on a first-come, first-served basis with no pre-registration required. Participants may bring their own Nintendo 3DS or Nintendo 2DS systems and/or Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS games to the tournaments, but are not required to do so.
The winners of each local tournament will win a trip to New York to participate in the Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS National Open Tournament at Nintendo World on Oct. 11, which will be broadcast live on Nintendo’s channels on Twitch and YouTube starting at 6 p.m. ET. During the Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS National Open Tournament, character customization will play an important role in the action, allowing the top 16 players to engage in an all-out, no-holds-barred battle showcasing all the game has to offer.
The winner of the final tournament will not only bask in the glory of victory, but also win a trophy and champion’s robe.
Each local tournament will begin at 11 a.m. local time on Oct. 4.
more info
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