mbf tod@y

2009: My Top 13 Highlights (music, films, games, books, mags) - updated

- Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis - book (TBC) (never mind, release date is now 2010)

- The Informers by Gregor Jordan - film (MAY)

- The I.T. Crowd Boxset (MAR)

- The first new album by Grandmaster Flash in 20 years (FEB) - music

- Cities XL (FEB) - game

- The Road by John Hillcoat (FEB) - movie

- The launch of Wired Italy (JAN) - mag

- "Weather Underground" by Massive Attack (TBC) - music

- Lost, Season 5 (JAN) - television

- Manage by Ewan Morrison (JUN) - book

- DJ Hero by Activision (JUN) - game

- Free: The Past and Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson (JUL) - book

- Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon (AUG) - book

related links: Fiction 2009

Alex Galloway vs. Guy Debord

"Galloway’s scholarly pursuits were of less interest to Becker-Ho than was his apparent violation of the Debord estate’s copyright on Le Jeu de la Guerre. (Kriegspiel was made available for free downloading about two months ago, and now has a few hundred registered players. “It’s a smattering of, like, black-wearing English graduate students and sixty-year-old military-reënactment nerds,” Galloway said.) Through a law firm in Paris, Becker-Ho sent cease-and-desist letters both to Galloway and to N.Y.U. at the end of March, requesting that Kriegspiel be taken off-line." (Ben McGrath, The New Yorker) Read more

The Ferrari of table football

"For many of us, table football is a game that is close to our hearts, holding cherished memories of our childhood and youth. Its popularity also reflects the passion and love that millions of people around the world share for 'the beautiful game' of football."

See more (Via Gizmodo)

The Allure of RoboPets

"Carnegie Mellon University robotics Professor Illah Nourbakhsh has thought about why humans form attachments to what they clearly understand to be artificial constructs. It happens all the time, not just to people who buy Pleos, he said. It's the same impulse that drives some children to choose a favorite blanket or makes grown-ups unwilling to get rid of objects that hold special memories - like the dune buggy that may be sitting up on blocks in the backyard today but which once kicked up its share of sand. Nourbakhsh said such objects, by their mere existence, evoke feelings of comfort or memories of fun. The human-Pleo connection is different, he said. The Pleo can perform certain actions - it rolls its eyes and makes cooing sounds - which allows it to trigger associations in the mind of sympathetic observers. Pet or baby lovers may link the Pleo to memories or emotions important to them, he said, creating a new bond in the heart of the beholder." (Tom Abate, The San Francisco Chronicle)

Coming soon: Spore's robopets?

Read more

The Lego Zombie Survival Guide

by Keith  Goldman

See more

ToyGiants: When Art Meets Toys

"An illustrated journey into the world of toys." Daniel and Geo Fuchs star. Funky book + Exhibition.

Read more (via Valentina Tanni)

Product placement: the final frontier

"Transformers - with Spielberg reckoned by Hollywood observers to be very much the power behind the film - seems equipped for battle both at the box office and the aisles of Toys R Us. Last month, Hasbro revealed an entirely new line of movie-linked Transformers. And in an effort to make the consumer's world "more than meets the eye" (a longtime teaser for the toy line), it will have further spin-offs in stores at the start of June, such as the Optimus Prime Voice Changer Helmet, Optimus Prime Big Rig Blaster, and Starscream Barrel Roll Blaster." (John Anderson, The Guardian)

How Transformers took product placement to the final frontier.

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The mana of toys

"Children become emotionally attached to cuddly toys, blankets and even smelly old scraps of material because they intuitively believe they possess a unique essence or life force, psychologists said yesterday. In a study that will surprise few parents, it was found that children preferred their cherished comfort blankets or favourite raggedy bear over duplicates apparently identical in every way." (Steven Morris, The Guardian)

Which also explains why kids love video games: game designers can instill life into virtual toys, as Chaim Gingold recently suggested...

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Atari 2600 (working) KeyChain

"Atari ruled!! It's true and must be said. The games were simple but challenging and pushed the envelope with color graphics! Today, we enjoy taking aspects of the past and finding new ways to shrink them. With that in mind, we've taken some great Atari games and shoved them into little keychain versions of the controllers. Each controller comes with a 6 foot cord which you can connect to your TV and then play one of two games (or one of three, if you buy the paddle). Asteroids, Centipede, Pong... all the classics are here. Amaze your friends as you pull a little Atari controller out of your pocket. Then, you can kick their asteroid at one (or all) of seven (in total) Atari games. After all, that's what friends are for. " (ThinkGeek)

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Lost figures

"Slated to be in stores late fall, McFarlane Toys’ Lost Series 1 captures six compelling characters from the series’ first season: Jack, Kate, Hurley, Locke, Charlie and Shannon. Each 6-inch Lost action figure will come complete with a detailed base and photographic backdrop, capturing an episode-specific moment in the character’s story. In addition, each package will include a detailed prop reproduction, central to the character’s story, enabling fans to “own” a piece of the show’s mythology."

It had to happen, I guess. I guess I'll be spending the Summer reading the Lostpedia trying to understand the many elements introduced in the final episode. (spoilers). Funny how the last four episodes of Season 2 saved a narrative that was basically imploding.

Read more.