This Friday, February 27, I am pleased to announce a new group exhibition in Wilmington in which I will be participating. Other artists participating in this show will include "Ryan Bates, Holly Nettles (...), Andrew Etheridge’s mixed-media, Clay Misenheiner’s self-portraits, Dixon Stetler’s woven baskets, Jennifer McGroarty’s jewelry and Andrew Jones’ recycled materials," writes Lauren Hodges in her timely Encore article for the show [Read the full article...]. You can also view the article by clicking the image above.

For more information about the exhibition, you can also go to the Facebook event page for it linked here. Feel free to RSVP, and invite all your friends! The opening reception will be taking place at The Soapbox Laundro-Lounge [map], from 7:00 - 10:00 pm. Hope to see you there!

A few days ago I caught an episode of Charlie Rose which presented guest Marc Andreessen. I found the conversation highly informative, and it got me to thinking about how the struggling anime industry could use online content delivery methods to do precisely what Andreessen was suggesting.

I thought to myself, "wouldn't it be great if there was a website that streamed all the anime for free?" Yes it would. But then somebody might say, "oh but then why would anybody want to pay for it?" The fact of the matter is that a lot of people don't pay for their anime. It's pretty easy to get it online for free already, and that seems to be one of the primary reasons why the industry is having a hard time.

Andreessen mentions how Napster, once the bane of the music industry, was really just an opportunity for the industry to cash in on the downloading rush. Instead, they shot themselves in the foot by crushing Napster. The same case can be made for the anime industry, in that they should use this as an opportunity instead of fighting it. If you end up distributing the content online, for free, and then offer the option of purchasing that content, you just might have a solution here.

That's when I remembered Hulu. I've already been watching a few things on Hulu now and then, and it seems that they are doing very well if they can afford those high-profile TV commercials. What I hadn't looked into was if they had any anime. It just didn't occur to me yet, but lo and behold, as of this time they have 23 anime series available!

Here is a list of currently available anime series on Hulu, which you can find in their Animation & Cartoons section. Listed alphabetically, the "watch" link takes you to the appropriate Hulu page, while the "info" link leads to the show's Wikipedia entry. Update: I went back and check which series where subbed or dubbed and made note next to each below. Enjoy...

• Astro Boy [watch] [info], dubbed.
  
• Black Blood Brothers [watch] [info], dubbed.
  
• Bleach [watch] [info], subtitled.
  
• Blue Gender [watch] [info], subtitled.
  
• Cosmowarrior Zero [watch] [info], dubbed.
  
• Death Note [watch] [info], subtitled.
  
• Galaxy Railways, The [watch] [info], dubbed.
  
• Gun Frontier [watch] [info], dubbed.
  
• Ikki Tousen [watch] [info], dubbed.
  
• Kiddy Grade [watch] [info], dubbed.
  
• Moon Phase [watch] [info], dubbed.
  
• Mushishi [watch] [info], dubbed.
  
• Naruto [watch] [info], subtitled.
  
• Naruto Shippuden [watch] [info], subtitled.
  
• Peach Girl [watch] [info], dubbed.
  
• Rumbling Hearts [watch] [info], dubbed.
  
• School Rumble [watch] [info], dubbed.
  
• Shikabane Hime (Corpse Princess) [watch] [info], subtitled.
  
• Shuffle [watch] [info], dubbed.
  
• Slayers, The [watch] [info], dubbed.
  
• Speed Racer [watch] [info], dubbed.
  
• Suzuka [watch] [info], dubbed.
  
• xxxHolic [watch] [info], dubbed.
  

Granted, they are not all full series. It also looks like they are all dubbed many of them are dubbed, while some are actually subbed, which makes it less appealing to me personally (thanks to Atwood for correcting me on this). Which doesn't mean that this won't change in the future. "Streaming rights to the subtitled/dubbed version of this series aren't available at this time, but we will continue to pursue both dubbed and subtitled versions of all anime series," informs a message at the top of some series' episode lists. If that is true, it is certainly good news to me. Admittedly, I haven't have at by now checked every single series for subtitle availability, but it is a safe bet at this point that looks like most are dubbed.

This is a step in the right direction, however. If anyone has the resources to pull it off, it's Hulu. While not exactly the implementation I envisioned for this service, it's close enough for now. I still think that a purchasing option for both DVD and digital format for home computers and mobile devices is the way to go. In the future, I imagine they will be adding more shows to their library at as well. It would only make sense.

It's hard to say whether this will have any impact on the anime industry, especially since there's no purchasing options at this stage. Only time will tell, and if enough people start watching anime in this manner, rest assured the folks at Hulu would notice. For now, we can just sit and wait. Or maybe create our own more competitive service?

One of my Facebook friends posted a link to an excellent New York Times article this morning. Titled "The Boom is Over. Long Live the Art!" it lays down a little bit of recent art history and shows us how the art world has gone through several other similar economic busts in this country.

Anyone with memories of recessions in the early 1970s and late ’80s knows that we’ve been here before, though not exactly here. There are reasons to think that the present crisis is of a different magnitude: broader and deeper, a global black hole. Yet the same memories will lend a hopeful spin to that thought: as has been true before, a financial scouring can only be good for American art, which during the present decade has become a diminished thing.

And what does Holland Cotter, the article's author, suggest to bring about change in this time of need?

Will the art industry continue to cling to art’s traditional analog status, to insist that the material, buyable object is the only truly legitimate form of art, which is what the painting revival of the last few years has really been about? Will contemporary art continue to be, as it is now, a fancyish Fortunoff’s, a party supply shop for the Love Boat crew? Or will artists — and teachers, and critics — jump ship, swim for land that is still hard to locate on existing maps and make it their home and workplace?

I’m not talking about creating ’60s-style utopias; all those notions are dead and gone and weren’t so great to begin with. I’m talking about carving out a place in the larger culture where a condition of abnormality can be sustained, where imagining the unknown and the unknowable — impossible to buy or sell — is the primary enterprise. Crazy! says anyone with an ounce of business sense.

Right. Exactly. Crazy. [Read the full article...]

I don't know about you, but I'm on board. The only trouble is, where the hell do we go? That's the hard question. I'm all about trying something new, and as far as I'm concerned we all have got to change our tune in order to turn things around in the world, but first I have to figure out what it is. Guess I'll have to get back to you on that one...

Since Wii Music's release there have been a lot of mixed opinions about this game. I personally am quite impressed with the innovative qualities of this title, and secretly conspired to buy it for Christmas. Every year I have this romantic notion that I'll get my family to have some fun during the holidays with the Wii. Every year we eat too much, and are too exhausted after opening presents to think about doing anything other than going to sleep. The day after, however, Nikki and I put Wii Music in and began to explore for ourselves this source of some disagreement among video game writers.

My first brush with the naysayers came in the form of the IGN review, which gives Wii Music a feeble 5 out of 10, and bluntly warns with "Our condolences to the two-and-a-half million people who buy this game." Frankly, I don't agree with much of what is denounced in the article, and choose to disregard it. I would later find one of my favorite gaming blogs, The Brainy Gamer, to be also somewhat skeptical. Michael Abbott focuses on the question of "Why does Wii Music contain unlockables?" as the main point of contention in his writeup. His argument revolves around the lack of necessity for such a mechanism with the game's target demographic being a considerably younger audience.

That may be true, but as J.C. Rodrigo points out in the video above, this game is equally suitable for an older audience who appreciates music. I'd like to think of myself as part of that group, and I frankly don't care about the issue of unlocking content, or how little kids might perceive that attribute. That being said, I did experience a moment or two of confusion because of this feature. After first playing the small selection of instruments and songs, I soon realized that just doing that didn't unlock anything. Proceeding onto the mini-games and lessons, a few things were unlocked, but those resources were quickly exhausted as well, and I still had very little content to work with. The misunderstanding arises because the game does not initially tell you in explicit terms what you must do to unlock more content, being the recording of your jam sessions, and saving the videos.

Since most of our first attempts were pretty bad, we didn't bother saving them. I didn't think there would be a point in saving every single botched performance, and I certainly didn't want to be replaying the memories of such failures. Eventually, I got better, and decided to save it. Suddenly, the conductor pops up and says something about "oh and you should save more videos because they'll unlock more stuff!" Now he tells me! Well, better late than never I suppose.

After that it was pretty smooth sailing. The song library got bigger, the instrument repertoire did too, and lessons galore were unlocked. I started to play a bit more on my own, and learned how to use what I consider is the best part of Wii Music: over-dubbing. This subtly disguised feature is the key to the game's hidden depth and fun factor. The ability to make original arrangements of songs, in whatever musical style desired, is where the real strength of this title becomes visible.

Some time ago, The Brainy Gamer commented on Spore. Another game which got mixed reviews, some dismissed Spore for being too simple. This started a lengthy discussion, in which blogger Leigh Alexander made an excellent point about the judging of complexity and depth in games [via The Brainy Gamer]:

I have noticed lately that the primary reason some major titles -- Spore, for example -- have suffered in reviews is because they lack complexity in certain areas of the design; "complexity" is often substituted for "depth."... I wonder, from what perspective are reviewers judging complexity, in the broader sense? Are we talking about controls, the sophistication of the game mechanics, the game's length, its plot, characters, what? ... It's got me wondering -- why has simplicity become a dirty word, and why does an absence of complexity seem to translate automatically, in reviews, to a lack of depth? [link]

Seems to me that the same error has been made in a rush to judgement against Wii Music. Somehow the lack of eye-popping, adrenaline-inducing, and seizure-triggering action-mechanics has left mainstream reviewers of the game in a state of "meh." That's fine, but it doesn't mean that we all feel this way. One writer that seems to be in my camp is Stephen Totilo over at MTV's Multiplayer blog. He too felt somewhat unsure at first, but soon enough found the joys of sticking it out with Wii Music and learning it's intricacies, in a post aptly titled "I Think I Finally Get It," [link].

The bottom line is that Wii Music doesn't use the traditional mechanics of goals and rewards that we have become used to in games. There's no score, and you can't really fail. The judgement of failure is entirely yours, and in a way, so are the rewards. It's the same as why any of us should choose to play an instrument, since doing so doesn't get us tangible effects in itself. Totillo writes "This isn’t the kind of game that I see myself playing to win. But I’m driven right now by an oddly distinct goal: to make what I play sound better, and to hope against hope that I have the musical skills to keep up." What a novel idea. Play the game because it brings about enjoyment, and not on account of some masochistic reward-and-punishement mechanic (see Mighty Jill Off).

The new British flag was voted in an online poll at the Telegraph.co.uk to be inspired by the anime Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. This is surely a sign of how popular anime has gotten in the world.

The Norwegian designer, who wishes to remain anonymous, said he intended the flag to represent the union of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in a modern, cool light.
The dragon itself was inspired by a Japanese anime television series.
"It represents shouting "UNION!" and joining together; kicking reason to the curb and doing the impossible; fighting the power, and piercing the heavens," he said.

Read the entire article, via Telegraph.co.uk.

One day, while using Google Maps, I got nostalgic and started looking up old places we used to live in Germany and Poland. One thing lead to another, and the miracles of technology filled me with nostalgia as I became a voyeur via satellite. I then began making custom maps, while marking places where my memories were triggered.

Of course it's kind of a narcissistic endeavor, but I thought maybe if I shared these it wouldn't be quite so selfish of me. I made several maps, starting with the locations of refugee camps that we stayed in while fleeing Poland during the '80s. They are spread over four countries, beginning in Austria, then moving on to Denmark and Norway, before ending in Germany.

My next map took a lot longer to put together, and consists of the several places that we lived in over an approximate eight year period in the German state of Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony in English). This includes the towns of Gnarrenburg, Nieder Ochtenhausen, and Bremervoerde. We lived in each town in that order, and all of them were quite small. While the northern German countryside was quite beautiful, encounters with people there have left me with many sad memories.

On a happier note, I put together a final map of the places we visited on our most recent trip to Poland in 2008. The map includes all the towns, cities, and tourist attractions we visited, generally located in the Southern half of Poland. Photos of our trip can also be viewed in a rather large album here.

The 2008 Presidential Election was a first for many things. Among them, it was the first time I have ever voted, but not by choice. I received my US citizenship about two years ago, and so I had not been able to vote in any previous election.

I am happy to have been part of this historic moment, and am also happy about the result of that election. That being said, I don't think I ever became emotionally involved in this process. However, when I saw Maya Angelou on air, and heard her recite that poem, it touched me deeply. And so I wanted to share this with those who read my blog. Thanks to the availability of that interview online, you can now view it as well. Angelou comes on at about the 3:15 mark, which is almost half-way through the video.

During the time when Steam was having its holiday sale, and when I also purchased Audiosurf, I found myself unable to pass up Aquaria. Since its release in December of 2007, I had been meaning to get this game. It made quite a lot of headlines back then, with it being an indie release. Not only that, but it was developed entirely by a team of two people. That in itself isn't unusual for an indie, but it isn't often that we see a result of this quality and magnitude.

Derek Yu's visuals are one of the things that make this game. While the mechanics are solid, it's the artistic direction that serves in large part to distinguish this title from others of its kind. And by others, I am referring primarily to the Metroid and Ecco franchises, yet we should also consider that Cave Story was probably some inspiration here as well. Truth be told, while playing Aquaria I often had moments of thinking how much this game reminded me of Super Metroid. I would say that this was primarily due to the tiled graphics and ambient audio. However, considering that Aquaria was created with a fraction of the Metroid team's manpower makes me have a lot more respect for this game than any Nintendo title.

It's true that I am somewhat biased these days. My interests have shifted over the years from mainstream commercial games to the indie scene. I somewhat regret that I haven't stayed as active there as I was a couple of years ago, around the time that I was contributing to Indygamer (now the Indie Games Blog) and working on Copic Fighter. After that, I got a "real job" and began to focus more heavily on my art again. But I digress. The point is, that I became disillusioned with commercial games and decided to follow the independent gaming scene. So it should come as no surprise that I'd be fond of Aquaria.

This game is of epic proportions, and yet it is concise enough so that someone with limited free time such as myself can get through it. I think I managed to finish this in a about 25 hours, but would have done so faster if I hadn't taken my time to get all the extras. For those who know me, saying that I actually finished a game is enough of a statement in itself!

I could go into detail about how great the hand-drawn art is, and how beautiful the music is, or how enjoyable the mechanics make this game to play and explore. But I doubt I could say anything that hasn't been said already. In the end, this is just a really good game. A solid indie title that rivals any exploration "platformer" out there, and knowing that a purchase of this game supports innovation and change in a stagnant video game industry is even stronger incentive to give it a go. Grab it on Steam and enjoy this gem. Something that comes along so rarely these days.

Losing your job seems to be par for the course these days. I've certainly had plenty of them over the years, but I have never been fired. Well, there's a first time for everything. Getting fired certainly isn't a pleasant experience, and it generally feels like betrayal. Having some random person come along and cost you your job sounds like a cruel joke, and it doesn't say much for the employer either. Time to take advantage of JobVent.com once again.

At the same time, I am glad to have this opportunity to move on. While this is not a good time to be jobless, especially considering that my wife lost her job over two months ago and still hasn't found another, I am trying to maintain as positive of an outlook as possible. Realizing that every end is merely the beginning of something else, I choose to think of this as an opportunity for something better. We'll see how long I can maintain this position.

In the bigger scheme of things, this is just another story of unemployment in the current economic downturn. The news is littered with accounts like mine, and the unemployment office is inundated with claims. Each day a line goes out their door to the sidewalk. Next week, I'll be standing in that line too. Things are steadily going downhill for everybody, and we are all left wondering when this is going to end. I know it won't be for a while, but we've already been tightening our belts over the last few months. I'm not sure just how much more we can tighten them, but other options are still available at this stage.

Finding the above pictured comic strip in the paper a while back made me think about whether some of us are really losing our jobs for legitimate reasons. Sure, there's always the official line. The company has to cut costs, the economy is bad, blah blah blah. Yet I'm not sure if things are really adding up under closer scrutiny. I'm not seeing the managers, directors, and CEOs giving up their summer houses. Or their third Mercedes, or their Harley, or the boat. I don't see any cuts to their six figure salaries.

Like the comic strip says, the only place that they can find to cut back are those expendable positions under them, and the economy seems like a perfect excuse right now. God forbid they take a cut to save their employees jobs. I mean, who cares if us lowly underlings can pay rent or buy food tomorrow. Not their problem. So while they continue to spend company money on business trips, superfluous equipment and "improvements" to the facilities without checking to even see if it's the most economical solution, some of us have to contend with loosing our places of residence.

We all want the economy to level out, and start improving so we can go back to the way things were. Somehow, I just don't see that happening. It's "the way things were" that got us into trouble in the first place, and until a good chunk of the population stops wasting resources, I'm not sure that there is going to be much of an improvement to our situation. So far I'm lucky not to be on the street yet. But I have to consider the possibility that I'm going to have to start selling everything I own and move someplace where I'll have the prospect of surviving more sustainably.

Over the holidays I decided to grab another little indie title called Audiosurf. I couldn't resist the special they were having on Steam and decided to get it while the deal lasted. I had played the demo before and already knew I enjoyed the game, but having the full version's features made it that much better.

Audiosurf is an interesting hybrid of three different genres. Part music & rhythm game, part puzzle game, and part racing game, make for a very unique concept. Though it may sound like a bit of chaos when you think about putting those three play mechanics together, Audiosurf does manage to pull it off with surprising ease. The best part of this game, however, has got to be the personalization aspect of the play experience.

Audiosurf will use your computers music library to generate its tracks. We all have those songs that evoke specific memories or emotions, and when you combine your psychological associations with the visuals and mechanics of this game, the results are rather interesting. In faster paced songs, which are automatically more difficult, a high degree of concentration is required. This may in turn serve to override, or at least ammend, the mind's associated content with the music in question.

In the end, everyone will have a uniquely tailored experience with Audiosurf based on their music library. That is what makes this game immediately exciting, because of wanting to see how your favorite songs will "play." For those with sufficient levels of awareness, the mental effects of these experiences are also worth some consideration.

Having watched Black Lagoon, on loan from a friend, I am not quite sure what to make of it. Meaning, that I am unclear as to the premise of this anime. What is Black Lagoon trying to be? Initially, it would appear that it is an action series set out to romanticize the outlaw life, glorify organized crime, and generally make heroes out of bullet spraying criminals of questionable psychologies.

On the other hand, throwing in a main character who isn't really down with the kill-everybody lifestyle does change that a bit. Rock isn't a criminal, and starts out as a hostage in fact. Through a lack of choice he become the unwitting new member of Lagoon Company, and a dualistic relationship between him and Revy is established that lasts for the entire series. Like Yin and Yang, Rock and Revy are essentially opposites that feed off each other.

The episodes delve into most of the unsavory aspects of violent societies in the world today. From drug and arms trading, torture and racism, to human trafficking and child pornography, Black Lagoon tackles some pretty hot issues that few anime have dared to include in the past. At least not all together. Mix in a gratuitous amount of blood and violence, and you got yourself a show that isn't for the faint of heart. This is why it becomes easy to think that the underlying idea is one of glorifying violence and its perpetuation.


Every once in a while, however, the characters are brought back to reality from their action-thriller rides with the rawness of their actions. The brutal outcomes in some of the episodes and the characters they add serve to offer an alternative interpretation of Black Lagoon. Could it be that this is really an anti-violence anime?

Whether intentionally or no, the series succeeds in proving one simple fact: that violence begets only violence. Character after character, from Revy, to the unnamed twins dubbed "Hansel and Gretel," and particularly Yukio Washimine, demonstrates that they are mere products of violence filled circumstances. While these characters may enjoy momentary heroics and excitement, they all result in being emotionally or physically dead. Or both.

Ultimately, I commend Black Lagoon for tackling issues which American animation wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. That in itself is quite a feat. In retrospect, it doesn't seem as though the original intentions were to either condone or condemn violence, but rather to demonstrate a bit of cultural relativism by doing neither. Yet it appears not to have done so well in remaining neutral, with emotionally pulling the viewer back and forth, and does go a long way to proving that you cannot fight fire with fire. The series begins violently, and ends violently, without any indication of things having changed for the better. That, is the self-perpetuating cycle of violence.

However, one cannot overlook the well hidden message behind Black Lagoon's lessons. Though it appears to be hopeless in light of every episode's death and destruction, the final plot arc reveals the only remedy to this chaos. That remedy, is choice.

A topic that I was able to touch upon in a conversation Friday night at a local event, the role of the arts is something that is greatly underestimated and misunderstood. When times get tough, the first thing to get cut are the arts.

Little do many realize that it's the propagation of the arts that helps our society to thrive. An art education serves to create people better equipped to deal with challenges, solve problems, and enrich a community.

National Endowment for the Arts chairman Dana Goia gave a commencement speech at Standford about this very subject, and I couldn't agree with him more.

The loss of recognition for artists, thinkers, and scientists has impoverished our culture in innumerable ways, but let me mention one. When virtually all of a culture's celebrated figures are in sports or entertainment, how few possible role models we offer the young.

There are so many other ways to lead a successful and meaningful life that are not denominated by money or fame. Adult life begins in a child's imagination, and we've relinquished that imagination to the marketplace.

Of course, I'm not forgetting that politicians can also be famous, but it is interesting how our political process grows more like the entertainment industry each year. When a successful guest appearance on the Colbert Report becomes more important than passing legislation, democracy gets scary. No wonder Hollywood considers politics "show business for ugly people."

Everything now is entertainment. And the purpose of this omnipresent commercial entertainment is to sell us something. American culture has mostly become one vast infomercial.

[...]

The role of culture, however, must go beyond economics. It is not focused on the price of things, but on their value. And, above all, culture should tell us what is beyond price, including what does not belong in the marketplace. A culture should also provide some cogent view of the good life beyond mass accumulation. In this respect, our culture is failing us.

There is only one social force in America potentially large and strong enough to counterbalance this profit-driven commercialization of cultural values, our educational system, especially public education. Traditionally, education has been one thing that our nation has agreed cannot be left entirely to the marketplace—but made mandatory and freely available to everyone.

At 56, I am just old enough to remember a time when every public high school in this country had a music program with choir and band, usually a jazz band, too, sometimes even orchestra. And every high school offered a drama program, sometimes with dance instruction. And there were writing opportunities in the school paper and literary magazine, as well as studio art training.

I am sorry to say that these programs are no longer widely available to the new generation of Americans. This once visionary and democratic system has been almost entirely dismantled by well-meaning but myopic school boards, county commissioners, and state officials, with the federal government largely indifferent to the issue. Art became an expendable luxury, and 50 million students have paid the price. Today a child's access to arts education is largely a function of his or her parents' income.

In a time of social progress and economic prosperity, why have we experienced this colossal cultural and political decline? There are several reasons, but I must risk offending many friends and colleagues by saying that surely artists and intellectuals are partly to blame. Most American artists, intellectuals, and academics have lost their ability to converse with the rest of society. We have become wonderfully expert in talking to one another, but we have become almost invisible and inaudible in the general culture.

Click here to read the entire article, via the Standford News Service.