Last night I was hanging out with (e:Paul) , (e:Terry) and (e:Matthew) (and Sarah ), and we were talking about their new mansion. What a cool building. I must have had too much Flying Horse at India Gate with dinner because I didn't notice it at the time, but this morning as I was looking at the photos again, I thought of something Matthew was telling us about how the house was haunted.

Now, you know me, (e:strip), and I'm not one for imaginary things like ghosts and god and all that. But today I noticed something really weird. I swear (e:Paul) took some strange photos at the house. I enlarged the photos so you can see the areas I'm talking about (since (e:strip) don't allow us to zoom on images...)


OK, so here's Exhibit A, a photo of the back of the new PMT Mansion. Notice the window in the middle of the second floor?



Here's a detail shot of just that window:



So WTF is that? huh?

And then this is the one I can't believe I didn't notice last night:



Can you see? In the left window? Here's a detail:




So now I have two mysteries on the table (e:peeps): What's the deal with the Buff Zoo Gate sculptures? And is the new mansion haunted?

OK, who in (e:strip) land knows about the Buffalo Zoo gate sculptures? I know others are familiar with the sculptures; at each of the old gates of the Buffalo Zoo there are these cool sculptures of different animals. The sculptures are pretty cool, and mostly intact. We've always wondered about them, so Sarah decided to take some photos (she's still playing with the Lensbaby a lot ). She posted up a bunch on her site. Check them out here:





I mean, c'mon, how tough is that sculpture? What is that, some kind of mountain lion? Couger?

What do you know about these sculptures?

I saw this bot contest online and I thought I'd post it up here for anyone toying with chatterbots on (E:strip). Or interested in doing such a thing...

Robots or "BOTs", are software programs that you can add to MSN® Messenger and Windows Live™ Messenger. If you add a robot to your contact list, it can chat, give you customer service support, perform searches, make suggestions, play games and more.

We're looking for the best new robot ideas for Messenger. And $40,000 in fantastic prizes go to the top BOTs!

I might try to work something up later this summer if I get out from under my pile of stuff I need to take care of...

And I did receive my Jesus Pans, like two days after I ordered them. I sent a phonecam pic to the 'Strip, but I think my messages are still being flagged as Spam. Damn anti-spam tools... I'm sure (e:Paul) will eventually rescue it.

I made a site using Ning. It's a Buffalo Restaurant Reviews site . Rappaport's site is good, but clunky. And I don't know of another site that allows user-reviews. So here is one with user-reviews and Google mapping built in. I have only added one restaurant so far, but feel free to sign up and pitch in!

I am so blown away by Ning. You can use it to make so many different kinds of site. It's the ultimate modular site and the ultimate Web 2.0 website. haha Really amazing stuff. Check it out. And review some restaurants. All the Natalie's fans on the site say "YEAH."

Wow, Two posts in one day, what a deal!

I want this. I want two.

Watching TV today, I saw Lloyd Kauffman and the Troma crew at Cannes promoting Poultrygeist. For those new to the 'Strip, my wife and I were extras in the protesting crowd scene, and we got to do a song-and-dance number, too. It was a lot of fun. I wish Troma made a movie in Buffalo every summer -- it was like a day camp for freaky adults.

The trailer is up on the movie's My Space site:

When the American Chicken Bunker, a military-themed fried-chicken chain, builds a restaurant on the site of an ancient Indian burial ground, local protestors aren't the only ones crying fowl! The previous tenants, fueled by a supernatural force, take possession of the food and those who eat it, and the survivors discover that they must band together before they themselves become the other white meat!

Film lovers have been starved for sustenance. The relentless diet of predictability and pretense Hollywood has been serving up just doesn't cut it. Poultrygeist is hearty food for thought. In Poultrygeist, Troma takes on the the fast-food industry-skewering the soulless restaurateurs-in the worlds first horror-comedy film to feature zombie chickens, American Indians and a bit of singing and dancing!

Its Poultrygeist! In theaters this fall!

Check out the trailer:

Calling all Alternative Gamers!




I just started a new webzine called Alternative Games. You can view it at (that's Alt - Games.com) and I welcome you to be among the first to browse around and offer some feedback.

I created Alt-Games because I really want to read a publication focused on the non-conventional, experimental, fine arts, and indy / student games that are continually released online. It is very easy to find mainstream gaming coverage, and occasionally those outlets cover all kinds of things I'd personally classify as "alternative" (Katamari Damacy is an obvious example, as is Shadow of the Colossus, Seaman and any of the other "cult" mainstream games).

As a gamer, I feel a bit torn. On the one hand, the conventionalization of gaming genres and forms has really done a lot to solidify the form, providing a transparency of convention that allows certain elements to be explored. However, I also don't think we've really scratched the surface of what is possible in the game medium, and I'd rather play a dozen "kinda-crappy" experimental student projects over a single "pretty good" sci-fi FPS any day. But give me excellence in either category and I'm very, very satisfied.

So here we have Alternative Games, founded in May 2006. We're currently looking for writers. Several of the GamesFirst! staff have signed up to participate, so I know there will be a core of some very good writers. We're pioneering a new idea in shared ad revenue: Each author directly earns a portion of the ad revenue generated by their articles.

I'm hoping this revenue-sharing proposition, along with a general love of games and interest in the less orthodox elements of game culture, will entice some great writers to step up and get published.

If you're interested in writing for Alternative Games, contact me at feedback@alt-games.com or send a writing sample to submissions@alt-games.com

Butt paste on sale at target...

Josephine and sarah performing a vr drama at the epoetry symposium

Wow! I'm blown away by this device, not so much because of what it does (although I think it would be a brilliant sound toy to have), but because of the way it makes me think of interactivity. Here's a link to the video:




view demo video

This thing is so cool, it's basically a little jar that the user speaks into. The audio is captured, and the lid is returned to the jar. Now the user can shake the jar in all different ways to make different sounds based on the recorded sample. Then, when the user is done with that sound, the lid is removed and the jar is tipped to literally pour the sound out of the device. You can hear the sound pouring out...

This is a revolutionary concept. I think a lot about interactivity and how to present a wide variety of choices to the user. This device captures a bit of elegant interactivity that I've never seen before -- it maps analog actions to digital functions in a very unique way.

Think about this: How hard is it to get water into and out of a sponge? Sponges are simple, useful devices, but they are also in many ways the equivalent of RSS feed readers: A sponge soaks up fluids, stores them for the user, then evacuates them on command (when the user squeezes the sponge). An RSS feed reader similarly soaks up information, stores it for the user, and evacuates the information on command (usually with a click of the delete button).

But I bet most people would say that a sponge is easier to use than an RSS feed reader. There is no "squeeze sponge" menu, no sponge preferences, no FAQ or wiki-based support community. The sponge works on basic physical principals, and we can grasp those intuitively once we've seen a single person use one.

I think this sound toy device is very much like a digital sponge: It utilizes a form of interaction that does not require an instruction manual to understand-- a simple demonstration and it is clear how this thing works. The elegance of pouring the audio out to delete it tickles my interactivity bone, and the physical shaking and movement that produces the sampled sounds is very attractive.