Favorite comic book covers

As part of celebrating 70 years, Marvel is having a Favorite Covers Countdown.

I can only pick 5, which is nowhere near enough, so I'm listing my favorites here, instead. Oddly, they don't have every cover online, so I'm just listing the ones they do -- so you can look at them, and not realize how much of a geek I am digging into my collection (what, no Alien Legion? No Deathlok?).

In no particular order:

• Alpha Flight #1 -- John Byrne sentimentality.
• Amazing Fantasy #15 -- First appearance of Spider-Man.
• Astonishing X-Men -- #3 (John Cassaday's leaping Wolverine, back in the yellows) and his #4 (return of Colossus).
• Avengers #503 -- The "Avengers Disassembled" cover, with Captain America sitting on the floor amidst Ant Man's helmet, Mjolnir (Thor's Hammer), Hawkeye's bow and arrows, the Scarlet Witch's headband, Iron Man's helmet, and the visions cape. Sad and weighty.
• Captain American -- #248, #250, #254 are John Byrne covers and Roger Stern arcs. Ish #248 was actually one of my first comics as a kid (and then I went back-catalog as an adult), #250 is the "Cap for President" cover that graces one of my favorite political Ts, and #254 is Baron Blood and Union Jack. Oh, and Mike Zeck's Annual #8, with Wolverine in his brown duds sparking off of Cap's shield.
• Captain America (2004 series) -- There are sooo many good Steve Epting covers here. I'm particular fond of the gravitas of Captain America at the graveyard in #4, the powerful S.H.I.E.L.D. cover of #9, both the bloody jersey and newspaper Epting variants of #25, and the Alex Ross variant of the not-yet-release issue #600.
• Daredevil -- #183, with Punisher unloading into Daredevil, shortly before Punisher crossovers became obnoxious. And there's David Mazzucchelli's excellent #228, which vividly shows Frank Miller's deconstruction of Matt Murdock, and his cover for #233, which is a powerful issue where Daredevil gets done with the Kingpin.
• Devil Dinosaur #1 -- Another of my first comics as a kid, and Jack Kirby owned me.
• Excalibur (first series) -- Wow, Alan Davis, Ron Lim, and Rick Leonard did some great, fun covers. I really dig Davis's #1 (team intro) and his wraparound #4 (first of the cross-time caper arc). Oh, and #23's riff on "Days of Future Past".
• Giant-Size X-Men -- First of the new team, and the long-time core members many of us remember as "the" X-Men.
• Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #1 -- I can't remember who painted this cover, but it is gorgeous.
• Howard the Duck #1 -- I think this is a Frank Brunner cover, and it's got Howard, Red Sonja, and Spider-Man. Yes it does.
• Immortal Iron Fist #1 -- Dunno, but for me this David Aja cover just captures who Iron Fist is.
• The Incredibly Hulk #340, #345 -- I dig both McFarlane's Wolverine cover, and his gray Hulk smashing through the logotype.
• Iron Man -- For me, John Romita's cover of issue #126 is the Iron Man armor, and Bob Layton's gutsy alcoholic Tony Stark cover for issue #128 really sticks with me. I like Mark Bright's cover of #225, because even though I don't like the silver centurion armor, I'm oddly sentimental about those issues. Maybe because that was the height of my collecting before it went near-dormant for a few years (girls were prettier).
• Mighty Avengers #2 -- It's a Frank Cho female Ultron.
• New Avengers -- They're missing virtually all covers on Marvel.com, including some Frank Cho covers. Egregious.
• New Mutants -- All of the Bill Sienkiewicz covers (18-25). I would add his Daredevil graphic novel cover, but it's not listed.
• Secret Invasion #8 -- Can't remember the artist, but it's a great nod to New Avengers to Avengers proper.
• Secret Wars #5 -- Spidey's black costume!
• Spider-Man: Blue #2 and #3 -- Man, I love Tim Sale's 60s spy movie poster sexy vibe.
• Spider-Woman #1 -- Another of my first comics, with a cover by Joe Sinnott, so sentimental as hell. I just realized this is the only comic from my initial collection I haven't re-purchased.
• Stormbreaker: The Saga of Beta Ray Bill -- I'm a ridiculous Beta Ray Bill fan, and while this series ultimately let me down, the covers of #1 and #2 -- by Andrea Vito and showcasing the raw majesty of this character -- certainly did not.
• Thor (first series) -- Sooo many good covers, but none (none!) like Walt Simonson's #337 (intro of Beta Ray Bill) and #366 (Frog Thor). (I like the Olivier Coipel covers of the new series ok, too.)
• Uncanny X-Men -- Long ride here, but I remember Dave Cockrum's #100 (Charles Xavier standing), #101 (Phoenix), #109 (intro of Alpha Flight), and #112 (why Wolverine should never fight Magneto). And John Byrne's "The Day the X-Men Died" cover and death of Jean Grey (#114 and #136) are alternately very sad, simple and powerful, angsty covers, as opposed to his very dynamically powerful "Days of Future Past" covers in #141 and #142. Paul Smith's cover for #167 (death of Professor X) is a solid nod back to #136. Alan Davis's cover for #213 is what I always think of as Wolverine versus Sabertooth. I so dig Jim Lee's cover to #268, which is a powerful portrait of Captain America, Wolverine, and Black Widow.
• Web of Spider-Man -- The Mike Zeck covers for issues #31 and #32 of the "Kraven's Last Hunt" arc (some of my favorite writing from J. Dematties) really capture the essence of that twisted story.
• Wolverine #1 -- Frank Miller's beckoning cover paints a portrait of the deadly, off-kilter canuck.
• X-Men #1 -- I so like how this Jim Lee cover brought Magneto back as the terrifying force of nature he should be.
• X-Men: Magneto Testament #5 -- This Marko Dhurdjevic cover is heartbreaking, and is for me the best in the series.

That's the list for now. Too many covers aren't listed on Marvel for the vote, so I'm bummed to not be talking about some of my other favs.

But this is a good nod to people who have inspired be over the years.

Loss and Jesus

AUDIO: Victor Wallace Tirabassi: Loss and Jesus


This is a follow with some of my thoughts about my recent dad-in-law's death. For the original audio, please see Victor Wallace Tirabassi (1946-2009).

Victor Wallace Tirabassi (1946-2009)

AUDIO: Victor Wallace Tirabassi (1946-2009)

Here's the to-brief obituary, but please listen to the audio.

My dad-in-law, Victor Wallace Tirabassi (1946-2009) 63, went to be with Jesus April 2, 2009. He was surrounded by all of his kids, his wife, and his sister.
Born in Lynn, Mass., he was the son of Irene Tirabassi and the late Frederick Tirabassi.
Victor shined Christ, and was a model of generosity, hard work, holiness, and good humor. He was a U.S. Marine Corporal Vietnam Veteran, and 20-year Nucor Steel employee.
Victor is survived by his wife, Elaine Tirabassi (Johnson); his children and their spouses Dan & Kate Tirabassi, Joanne & Adam Creighton, & Anthony Tirabassi; his four lovely grandchildren Kiera, Gianna, Isabella & Carina; his siblings and their spouses Frederick & Pat Tirabassi, Maria & Steve Segars; and his mother, Irene Tirabassi.
His Funeral Service will be held on Monday at 11 a.m. in the Nardolillo Funeral Home in Cranston, RI, followed by Military Honors in RI Veterans Cemetery in Exeter, Rhode Island.
In lieu of flowers, the family is asking donations be made to:

Hope for the Hungry
In support of Randy Sperger
PO Box 786 Belton, TX 76513
254-939-0124

Vic wasn't my father-in-law -- he was my second Dad.
He said he'll greet us at heaven's gates.

Now, you have to do something.

Battle o' the Songz (Round 3)

If you're not up to speed with "Battle o' the Songz", go here, then here, first.

Due to the craziness surround GDC prep, this round actually took two weeks before we called it a wrap. And in honor of GDC, we're making our next battle video-game-themed -- which makes both chaining and theming required for the first time.

You ready to rock?

'Cause here's round 3 play-by-play!

Opening Round 3 strongly with Joey Scarbury's "Believe it or Not". Yeah, Real American Hero fare.

↓

Office mate Dan firing back with "Midlife Crisis" (Faith No More), and I counter with Blink-182's "What's My Age Again?", which is countered with Winger's "Seventeen". He loses points because the answer is "23".

↓

I answer with "Foolish Beat" from Debbie Gibson, who at 17 wrote, produced, & performed a Billboard Hot 100 number 1 hit.

↓

Chaining the title, Dan sends me the Go-Go's "We Got the Beat", and I bring the hammer down with "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" from Wham!. I am all that.

↓

In an anemic response, Dan sends me Finger Eleven's "Awake and Dreaming", but I give Gary Wright's "Dream Weaver". Classics have weight (Even before Wayne's World).

↓

Got "Mad World" from Gary Jules as a response to Gary Wright's "Dream Weaver". "Gary" and "dream" linkage - Not bad.

↓

Responding to "Mad World" from Gary Jules with "Mad Mad World" from Tom Cochrane. His world is more mad than Gary's. (It was that or Shaggy.)
↓

In one of our few highbrow response's, Dan uses the "Adjective Song" from the Connells in trade for "Mad Mad World". Extra points.

↓

I send back The Idoru's "Behind Words", which has weirdly similar lyrics to the Connells "Adjective Song".
↓

Getting The Velvet Underground's "All Tomorrow's Parties" in response to my "Behind Words" (The Idoru'); All Tomorrow's Parties is the sequel to William Gibson's "Idoru". Erm.
↓

Returning U2's "Party Girl" for Velvet Underground's "All Tomorrow's Parties". And then Dan bad-mouths U2. Yeah, he's a hater. And he loses points.

↓

Receiving Dan's "Solitary Man" Johnny Cash cover for U2's "Party Girl". Kind of the "anti-link", and I'm giving him extra Johnny points. (Heh. I said "Johnny points".)

↓

Sending Neil Diamond's "I Am ... I Said", another loneliness song from the guy who wrote the Johnny Cash covered "Solitary Man".

↓

Getting Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy" back for "I Am ... I Said". This is tenuous at best, and I would have given more points if the link was "Neil Diamond is too sexy".

↓

I return Hannah Montana's "Who Said" for Right Said Fred. Feeling dirty. Dan fires back Billy Ray Cyrus's "Achy Breaky Heart" in response to my Hannah Montana play. Wait, Hannah Montana's secret identity is Miley Cyrus?
↓

Thinking I'd already gone to the dark side, I volley Hillary Duff's "Break My Heart" to Cyrus's "Achy Breaky Heart". She's a contemporary of Hannah Montana, there's a title link, and it hs the same lyric line. Boo-ya.

↓

Dan "Control+Zs" my attempt to "Break My Heart" with Toni Braxton's "Un-Break My Heart". Brilliant!

↓

I end this round with Riddlin' Kids "Pick up the Pieces" (they're there to pick up the pieces from the floor of Toni Braxton's "Un-Break My Heart"; they're helpful like that).

(Now, on to video-game greatness.)

Battle o' the Songz (redux)

Not satisfied to call it quits after our latest high-brow culture battle, co-worker Dan and I continued our song battle at a reduced rate.

To recap: We trade song volleys back and forth, and they have to be linked by artist, lyrics, themes, or other meta-context. The greater the link, the more “points”.

Here's the round #2 blow-by-blow.

Dan opens and wows me with the Transformers theme remix from Vince DiCola. I keep my cool and fire back the safe-but-appropriate G.I. Joe animated movie theme song from Ford Kinder. Dan responds with Joe Satriani's "House Full of Bullets" (because "G.I. Joe's fire bullets"). And it is on.

↓

Finding the previous volley too easy, I fire off the Jimmy Hendrix riff "Red House" covered by Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and Eric Johnson. It's a sharp retort, but it softballs my office mate a bunch of options for response. He answers with The Streets's "Get Out of My House".

↓

I answer with U2's "Where the Streets have No Name", and he answers with Eddy Grant's "Electric Avenue" (because his street has a name). Not bad.

↓

I answer with Amy Grant's "Big Yellow Taxi" (boo-ya!), appropriately making it hard for Dan to respond. After taking a day to recover, he fires back with Vince Gill ("What the Cowgirls Do") in response to yesterday's Amy Grant song. (They're married.)

↓

I retaliate with Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive" ('cause he's a cowboy, and -- let's face it -- in his heyday he looked like a girl; keep your hate mail to yourself). Dan sends back Stone Temple Pilot's "Dead and Bloated".

↓

Seeing my opp to get Weird Al Yankovic in the mix, I lob over "Happy Birthday". Dan is appropriately non-plussed, and lobs back barely linked "Gangsta's Paradise" from Coolio. I fire back with LL Cool J's (the Original West Coast Gangster) "Mama Said Knock You Out. And I'm in high school again.

↓

In perhaps the best volley so far, Dan (springboarding off of "Ladies Love") plays "Laid" from James, and I blast back with the Rebecca St. James abstinence song, "Wait for Me" -- the I'm - not - getting - laid (yet) song. Poetry.

After regrouping, Dan sends REO Speedwagon's "I Can't Fight this Feeling", and while losing points for moving away from the sexual motif, he gets points for it being REO Speedwagon.

↓

I try to bring us closer to the gutter by firing back Blink 182's "Feeling This". Dan plays into it and answers with the Divinyls "I Touch Myself".

↓

I pole vault over the line with Harvey Danger's "Flagpole Sitta". Look, he went there. I just followed. And escalated.

↓

We call a mutual truce on the self-pleasuring theme, and after getting Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy", I counter with the Alanis Morissette cover of Seal's "Crazy". That's meta-funny. "Insane in the Brain" (Cypress Hill) is the response. I'll take that.

↓

I backhand with Public Enemy's "Get The F --- Outta Dodge" (read the lyrics of both if you don't get the link). Dan comes back with a solid "My Own Worst Enemy" from Lit (with a private enemy making a good comeback to a Public Enemy).

↓

I send back Something Corporate's "I Kissed a Drunk Girl" (they're Lit, for pete's sake; plus I think the girls in both songs are the same kind of person).

↓

Dan finishes with "Santana DVX" from The Lonely Island -- and we mutually call it a fitting enough response to "I Kissed a Drunk Girl" to close this song volley round.

(Oh, and you people who think this is "stupid"? Please stop Emailing me to tell me. You're obviously reading. You're stupid.)

Battle o' the Songz

Alright, in the midst of a company-wide working weekend, a coworker (Dan) and I were having a “Battle o’ the Songz”.

Basically, we traded song volleys back and forth, and they had to be linked by artist, lyrics, themes, or other meta-context. The greater the link, the more “points”.

We set up speakers, blasted songs at each other, and gave rough weightings to each volley.

If it feels a bit like an ad hoc game from Where I Met Your Mother .. I'm honored.

Anyway, below is the summary. It's arguably a bit of a aural Rorschach (or MMPI) test, so let me know what you think it says about me.

I counter the opening volley of Dana Dane ("Rollin’ wit’ Dane") with The Soup Dragons ("I'm Free"). Granted, it's a bit of a tenuous comeback, but I linked it by (A) “Free” and the “whatever I want” message in Dana Dane, and (B) DD says “lyrics” like 13 times, and The Soup Dragons song, uh, has lyrics.

↓

Piggy backing off of "Freedom" (and partying), my office mate lobs back DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince ("Parents Just Don't Understand"), with gives me an easy way to answer with Roxette ("Joyride"), because DJ and the Fresh Prince go on a joyride in their parents’ Porsche. He takes the driving theme to Sammy Hagar ("I Can't Drive 55")

↓

I blast back with the Rolling Stones version of "Route 66", one of the most covered driving songs ever (it was that or Depeche Mode's cover), and thereby chain the 3 previous car and joyride themes (you get points for continued chaining), "Route 66" also winds up in Cali, and I get the additional double digits link ("55" / "66"). Dan answers with Chicago "Saturday in the Park"), because the Hagar and Stones entries start in Chicago, and he wanted to break from the driving theme.

↓

I counter with Soundgarden's "4th of July", with a lyrical link from Chicago's "You'd think it was the Fourth of July" to Soundgarden's "I thought it was the 4th of July".

Heating things up (sorry), Dan volley's back wtih DJ AL-B's mashup of Audioslave Vs. Busta Rhymes ("Woo Haa I Got The Gasoline"), with Chris Cornell (in both Audioslave and Soundgarden) as the link.

↓

Temple of the Dog seemed like an obvious retort, but I responded instead with my college thesis theme song from Mc 900 Ft. Jesus: "The City Sleeps", and definitely felt like I was winning the Battle (“Gasoline” in the title of theprevious song dovetail with the lyrics in the pyro song: “clutching the tools of my trade in my hand / an old box of matches and a gasoline can”).

In response, I get Guster ("Jesus on the Radio"),which links “Jesus” and has the nice meta link of Mc 900 Ft. Jesus (kind of) playing on my "radio" (it was an MP3, but whatever; he gets style points).

↓

In a bit of a lackluster return, I spin up eighties darling Dead or Alive's "Spin Me Round", since the Guster tune says “go around” several times.

Honestly, Dan's response metaphorically jump-kicks me (Kosheen / "Damage" -- from the Dead or Alive video f****** movie!). It's brilliant, becasue “Dead or Alive” the band links to “Dead or Alive” the movie, which is a VIDEO GAME movie, and Dan's real (and my toy) job is in video games.

↓

Gathering myself, I see an opportunity (and a willingness to stay stuck in the 80s) and lash back with Culture Club's "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?"

Link #1: DOA → (The Movie) → "Damage" / Kosheen (lyrics “I know I hurt you" / I didn't mean to”) → "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?" (title from Culture Club).

Link #2: DOA → (The Game) → Crying Game (The movie) → Boy George (the artist, who was in ...) → Culture Club, the band, who sung) / Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?

(There's seriously still a flow chart in my office.)

↓

(We ended the day calling it a draw. Grudgingly, but a draw.)

↓

(Starting Sunday.)

↓

My opening volley was Johnny Cash's cover of "Personal Jesus" from Depeche Mode (Since it was Sunday.), and Dan followed up with exactly what I would have -- Nine Inch Nails "Hurt" (which Johnny Cash also later covered).

↓

I follow up with the band - unknown - to - Dan - but - blasted - on -a - regular - basis - at - several - guys - I - accused - of - stealing - my - girls tune, "Under" from Filter, because it was another drug song, and from a band made up of sometime NIN touring and album members (oh, and the song I usually blasted was "Hey Man Nice Shot").

He was less impressed that I was with my response, and volleyed with Huey Lewis and the News ("I Want a New Drug"), which both maintained the chain, and lifted us (a bit) out of the somber.

↓

I had been waiting for two days to aurally assault Dan with some NKotB, and Huey let me leverage New Kids on the Block ("I Wanna Be Loved By You") via “New(s)” / “New”, the same insecure love vibe, and I’m sure Jordan did drugs.

Not missing a beat, Dan spun out Marky Mark's "Good Vibrations" for the Wahlberg-to-Wahlberg equal assault. At least he's a good actor. (Really good, IMHO.)

↓

I bounced back with Bob Marley ("Positive Vibration"). Duh -- “positive”; “vibration”; dancing; drugs; and I loves me some Marley. This also felt like the first legitimate volley return of the day.

Sliding deeper into the drugs connection, Dan sends over Sublime's "Smoke Two Joints" (Marley / Rastafari / Marijuana).

↓

This let me fire back another entry I wasn't sure I was going to get to leverage -- the odd LazyBoy "Underwear Goes Inside The Pants", partly because I wanted to see if I could get a quirky response into our battle, and partly to softball 6-8 launching points so we could get away from drugs.

I'm sure just to screw with me, Dan hits me with Electric Six (which I like) and "Down at McDonaldz" (which I don't, but at least it links LazyBoy's “I’m pretty sure even McDonalds has a ‘underwear goes inside the pants’ policy”).

↓

I end the day with Phantom Planet's "Leader", linking the two songs via cult leadership vibe (dude in “Down at McDonaldz” sounds like a cultee). I almost went with a song about Marilyn Manson, or from the Marilyn Manson Band, which would have been creepy clever. And cults are better than drugs (??).

↓

We kind of fizzled at this point (late on a Sunday night on a working weekend), and Dan said he didn't buy the cult angle, but if he did, he would have responded with Guster's "Red Oyster Cult".

↓

(So ends the day. And the initial battle.)

And now we've turned this "Battle o' the Songz" into an ongoing thing. As part of keeping our heads clear (and improving company morale and culture by creating a lighthearted betting pool rivalry), once or twice a day (we figure we couldn't keep up the previous pace and still justify our paychecks) we crank the speakers and fire off tunes at each other.

Where are we now? Obcure 80s cartoon themes (Vince DiCola and Frank Kinder, you are masterful).

Rock on.

New podcast (toy job)

Blergh.

I've got too many important things to blather about to not post on this particular blog for so long.

This is not one of those important things. ;-)

I've got a new podcast up for the toy job over at my Emergent Game Technologies Product Management podcast / blog site.

This is a "preview" podcast for Gamebryo 2.6, but 2.6 released last month, and I'm just now getting around to posting the audio for the interview with Dan Amerson, technical director for Gamebryo.

It's not all that sexy, but it's audio, and it's out in the wild.

Adam in Austin for AGDC

Starting today, I'll be in Austin for a week for the Austin Game Developers Conference (the conference proper starts next week).

It's hopefully going to be wicked busy, but you can track me via Twitter and Brightkite.

I'd like to meet up with you if we can.

Of course, this is all pending Hurricane Ike (especially since I connect through Houston this morning).

http://twitter.com/adamcrei
http://brightkite.com/people/adamcrei/

Adam's POV

Casting Director Bonnie Gillespie told me the first of my guest columns is now live at "The Actors Voice - POV".

It's entitled "Living a Life of Desperate Creativity (Take 1)" It's tertiarily about my recent move from my established acting scene in Austin and my trying to make inroads in North Carolina. What it's really about is how important this whole acting thing is to me and about personal accountability in my craft. Wonderful, scary stuff.

Check out the column, let me know what you think, and take advantage of all of the wonderful resources Bonnie provides across her myriad sites. She's one of those precious ones that loves the Biz and loves actors, and is busy in the industry six ways to Sunday -- but it's not in a "frantic, scattershot, undirected way"; rather, it's a focused, "I'd rather burn out than fade away" kind of way. Bonnie's a gift.

Enjoy ...

Adam travelling to LA

I'm off to Los Angeles for a whirlwind trip for the toy job (EGT), and likely won't be fitting in any auditions or even game developer / publisher meetings while I'm there (and likely couldn't give you any deets if I was).

But for those Web 2.0ers who want to keep lightweight track of me (and for the moderately stalk-y minded), you can follow me on brightkite or twitter (no need to use both - they should be in synch).

http://www.twitter.com/adamcrei
http://www.brightkite.com/people/adamcrei

Regardless - it's LA, and that's a recharge.

Another place to catch my voice

Besides auditions, gigs, and related out-takes, for the voice acting side of my acting, there's kind of another place you can catch me.

Over at the Unofficial Emergent Game Technologies Website, I've posted the first of (hopefully) many podcasts I'll be doing for EGT.

This is part of how I'm merging my acting and toy job, in hopes of staving off the insanity that could be brought about by double-mindedness.

So, if you're into video games, podcasts, snarkiness, or all of the above, check out the post (you can also subscribe to the RSS/Podcast feed here).

Actors, don't be putzes

This ticks me off.

Are you video game fan? Are you an actor (similar to me) who at least partially got into the voice acting side of the Biz to do video games?

Then don't be this guy -- someone who spills the unannounced beans on a video game sequel.

Hey, it's a brave new InterWeb 2.0 world, but that doesn't abdicate the actor's responsibility to protect a potential client's intellectual property. And I wouldn't be surprised if this violates the Breakdown Express terms of service (the audition notice service for which he's a subscriber).

If you're a client, wouldn't this make you think twice about posting your breakdowns? If you're Breakdown Express, wouldn't you be worried that this yutz could cost you business, because clients would inappropriately paint you with the same distrust brush?

Hey, I'm an actor, and a blogger, and a subscriber -- but I don't blab.

On creativity and composition

My last post was pretty hefty, and there's no easy way to step down from it in a measured way that wouldn't be more orchestrated than it was genuine.

So, instead, I'm goning to dive right in with my next post and talk about boobies.

OK, not per se, but at least I've set an appropriately low bar on the thematic weight side of things, and have much more ceiling.

Moving on.

I so dig snorgtees.com. I'm not associate with them in any way, but I've been a fan of the package that is their company and offering and product for a long time.

They make hilarious T-shirts, riffing or springboarding off of retro and pop culture love, and they do it in creative (if not brilliant) ways.

An all-black shirt that says, "There are 3 ninjas on this shirt [try to find them]".

"Your epidermis is showing."

(Two pictures of bags of ice and a picture of a baby.)

But like I said, it's not just the logos and the products -- it's the package that is the company.

Take this shirt, "I drink your milkshake":


(If you're unfamiliar with the deriving song, I envy your blessed naïvité.)

The shirt is funny by itself; it plays on pop culture, and has an odd, stilted old-school graphic juxtaposition against what's in essence a jug-happy metaphor.

But what finally prompted me to write about these folks are there ads (which I usually see on Kotaku.com).

I snagged a pict of this ad, because you could take almost any of them, and match what works alone in the graphic above, magnified with A) an appropriately attractive (but not stereotypical) model, who's B) animated and bought in during the shoot, but in a C) realistic, living, non-posed way.

Tie to acting? Creativity and "being" (not faking).

(Let along the obvious example of smart branding and leveraging pop culture.)

Kudos!

The Other Side of Something Horrible

I haven't posted on the acting side in a while.

I've had good reason.

Here's the MP3 -- and remember, this is my "Ramblings" blog ...

The-Other-Side-of-Something-Horrible.mp3

Voice acting in Condemned 2

Video games and cartoons got me into voice acting.

Condemned was one of the best (and under-rated) launch games for the Xbox 360 (playing in the dark with surround sound almost made me soil myself).

Now, Condemned 2: Bloodshot is on its way, and SEGA's released a very cool VO session video.

Check it out to see VO Director Art Currim (Black Powder Media) work his magic with some talented folks.

Enjoy performances from André Sogliuzzo (protagonist Ethan Thomas), Dave Mitchell (Agent Dorland), Phil LaMarr (Lerue/Bum), Henry Dittman (SKX/Pilot), Keith Szarabajka (Inferi), Angel Parker (Agent Rosa), and Michael Bell (Magic Man/President).

Oh, and there are some interesting bits from Associate Producer Marty Caplan, Lead Designer Frank Rooke, Cinematics Director Rocky Newton, and heaven forbid we forget the ADR Group

Don't necessarily take technique tips from all of the performances. While they're all talented actors, voice over is a unique skill set, and some of these folks aren't necessarily experienced in voice acting -- but kudos to them for getting the chance to leverage their acting chops in new ways, and watch Art give concrete microphone technique and acting direction.

On voice acting and pole dancing

A week ago, I was at the Game Developers Conference, which turned out to create multiple unexpected opportunities on the acting front.

Now that I'm formally in the video game industry, the weeks up to, during, and after GDC have been a new level of insane as I transition from outside-in hobbyist to lifestyle professional.

And it's been really, really good on the acting front.

A quick summary of acting-related events in and around GDC:

Voice Acting:

My company did a tech demo for this year's GDC that is, in essence, a mini level of an on-rails shooter game. There is a lot of voice over, which I stayed out of even though I'm (A) a professional voice actor, and (B) know the audio house in LA to whom we subcontracted for the voice over work.

This about drove me insane to not be involved. In some ways it should have been a lock for me to exploit the opportunity to get my voices all over the project. But I made a professional decision to stay out of the way, avoid any conflict of interest issues, and support the teams in my official capacities to make the project successful (which it was -- beyond expectations).

Soooo hard.

But, I was inadvertently rewarded when -- the Friday before GDC -- the team wanted a voice over intro for the game. With no time to ramp up the contract house, I grabbed my home recording equipment and put down a track (after spending way too much time trying to find an XLR cable, since mine are in storage, Chapel Hill is no Austin, and it took our phenomenal office admin Brady to save the day and chase down a cable).

The game is an homage to video games and 1950s B-movie horror flicks, titled "Forbidden Terror on Space Station Z!", so my voice over is cheese ball, AM-style schlock (I even compressed it a bit so it had the AM-radio crackle vibe), and a lot of fun. You'll be hearing it soon in various places, and I'll put a version on the site here, too.

I also was able to provide reference audio for a little boy audio clip that -- recorded by a voice actress and missing the creep factor -- was too bright and girlish, and didn't work for its place in the game. So I edited it closer to what we wanted, and our audio contract folks were able to take the original audio and match it more closely to my reference audio.

Theater Presentations:

Part of my job as a product manager for my company is to be a public face at events like GDC, so I did about ten theater presentations over the few days of the show. I totally dig emcee gigs, so I enjoyed the chance to present to the masses and do some carnival-style barking to fill our theater when attendance was low.

I also got the chance to practice my actor listening chops in a new way. I was co-presenting with a Swedish licensee for one of the presentations, and we did the presentation differently every time. I reacted well off of him, because I knew my part cold, but listened to what he had to say, and responded accordingly (and freshly) each time. That was an unexpected opportunity to practice my madd acting skilz.

Pole Dancing:

The GDC Microsoft XNA party started out far too slowly. When this kind of thing happens, I have a tendency to work to make something happen. Sometimes that manifests in different ways.

Turns out the party venue had mini stages with brass poles on the third floor (no, I don't know why).

Regardless, since things were moving slowly on the entertainment front, a co-worker turned to me at one point and said, "I bet you won't pole dance for twenty dollars."

He then proceeded to pull out $40, then $60, at which point I stopped the bidding war, pocketed the money, strode across the dance floor (after a brief hug with the technical director of a huge entertainment company), hopped up on the stage, and shook, shimmied, and spun around the pole like the pretty, pretty man I am.

I then hopped down, handed his money back to him, and ordered a drink.

Because, sober as I was (and as much as I like money), the truth is he had me at "I bet you won't" and "pole dance". I didn't feel good taking his money.

I'd already decided I'd do it without any additional incentive.

Over think it? No. Be scared or embarrassed? Why?

"I bet you won't" to me as an actor is like saying "don't" to a two-year-old -- it goads me into action.

I'm an actor. Bring on the pole.

On faking it

I like the commercials for the new 2008 Cadillac CTS.

A man or the woman, calmly driving, talking about turning on their car, and being turned on, with subtle through-line undertones of power and sexiness that aren't overdone.

That is, I like most of the commercials. One is a horrible example of faking in acting, and it possibly damages the Cadillac brand subconsciously for viewers.

If you haven't seen the commercials, there are those with actors, and those with actresses.

One of the actresses is phenomenal. Poised, sophisticated, in control, and high-class sexy. Her commercials are fun to watch.

The other actress might be all of the same, but I can't get past the fact that she's faking. Horribly.

See, these people obviously aren't actually driving the CTS when they're filming the commercial. But this second actress -- you can tell she's not actaully driving.

How?

Watch her hands. Watch her wiggle the steering wheel back and forth as she vaudeville mocks driving a stationary car. Which is faking in acting, and that irritates me as an actor that doesn't want to fake. But it also damages this high brand.

Think about it -- if the steering is that loose, and you have to work that hard to drive a CTS -- why would you pay that kind of money for that kind of car.

Faking. It's not just bad for actors who care about good acting -- it's bad for products those actors represent.

Love ya! Mean it!

I just got back from a week in the Big LA, Los Angeles -- La La Land, Latte Land, HueyWould, GlitterTown, etc.

I really like that burg. I like the glitz, the glamour, that it feels like everyone (CEOs to baristas) work really hard to keep up appearances -- hell, I even genuinely like driving in LA (other than in torrential rain).

I met with a lot of brilliant people at a bunch of different (and different types of) companies. I'm a studier of people, and I'm fascinated by people navigating (or navigating badly) perhaps the weirdest social network in the world.

Here are some of my observations.

Treat receptionists, administrative assistants, and personal assistants well. I'm a firm believer in being a respecter of persons independent of role, folks in these roles work ridiculously hard, and I'm grateful for the work they do. Add to that the power these people have in this geography, and you'd be hard-pressed to justify abrasiveness in these situations. I literally shook my head at a visitor blowing off someone behind the front desk, and then almost laughed out loud when they didn't get in to their scheduled appointment.

There was even a scenario where I let a PA set up my laptop for a presentation. I'm super tech saavy (and obviously know my own computer), so while this was a no-brainer for me, this was part of his job for this meeting. Me canning my ego and getting out of his way made the setup faster than it would have been with us both trying to do it, and showed his competence to the bigger group.

Get names right -- especially names of important people in the Biz. Say you're talking to "Grand Pooba A" for a media deal, and you keep miss-calling him "Grand Pooba B". And it turns out "Grand Pooba B" is his peer, and they're at odds with each other as to how they each see the project moving forward. Mixing up names is a bad move anyway (it implies you don't value the person), but in this glitterati scenario, it can remove you from the game.

Leverage the superficial. People in the Biz are some of the most brilliant and creative folks anywhere. But I've been in conversations where they've dismissed me, and doing something like pulling out a super-sexy, little-known phone (not the iPhone -- that's so last year), can bring attention back to me. I don't want to manipulate, but I do pay attention to subtle cues so I can leverage common ground that we're all excited about.

Love the franchises. The meetings I took last week were gifts. Part of what made them gifts (aside from busy, talented people taking time out of their production schedules) is the meetings were all built around creative franchises core to how I grew up or where I am now. Being able to connect with artistic and technical folks at a fanboy level made the conversations more exciting, collaborative, and productive. Plus, in many ways, I am arguably the target audience for at least three of the projects, so that sanity check validation was key for them and for me. This is my personal favorite, as it's so fun. To get to work on the stuff I love? True giftage.

I got a ton more out of last week, but this post already has the double whammy of being a bit preachy, and overly vague as I steer clear of exposing the actual meetings or franchises.

So I'll call this bit o' rambling good for now, and hope it was helpful for folks who maybe dismiss the importance of these little social bits.

Another reason to be unafraid

I was at my brother-in-law's gymnasium the day after Christmas, and I watched various kids of various ages try various things, interested in what they were trying, when, and why.

Turns out the more comfortable a kiddo looked, the more likely she was to try something daring (hanging from the higher of the uneven bars, jumping from stacked mats into a foam pit, sliding on the big slide -- whatever).

The more secure they felt, the more gutsy stuff they tried.

This got me to thinking about adults in general, and me in particular, and the fact that the more secure I feel, the more gutsy stuff I'm comfortable trying.

And since everything comes back to living, and the more I learn about life the more I learn about in my acting, I was struck with some life/acting lessons from the observations.

Taking risks while comfy -- having supportive cast mates, coaches, directors, and so on -- is great, but it's kind of the low bar for me. I work to train myself to take risks when I'm not comfortable.

This means while I can do daring stuff in a comfortable place (supportive director, professional working environment, etc.), I don't need that comfortableness.

If I train myself to make gutsy choices and "tear it up" without the crutch of security, I'm much more useful in the industry (being an actor is a freaking uncomfortable gig).

And when I am working with a supportive director and professional cast and crew (which, frankly, is way more fun)?

Watch out for the fireworks.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays, and Best Wishes to You Yours for the Coming New Year!