06/04/06 10:22 - 65ºF - ID#34309
Buffalo Restaurant Review
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."
Permalink: Buffalo_Restaurant_Review.html
Words: 109
Location: Buffalo, NY
06/02/06 12:03 - 71ºF - ID#34308
Jesus Pan
Permalink: Jesus_Pan.html
Words: 21
Location: Buffalo, NY
06/02/06 10:43 - 69ºF - ID#34307
Poultrygeist at Cannes
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:
Permalink: Poultrygeist_at_Cannes.html
Words: 217
Location: Buffalo, NY
05/19/06 07:25 - 56ºF - ID#34306
Alternative Games
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
Permalink: Alternative_Games.html
Words: 322
Location: Buffalo, NY
04/09/06 01:34 - ID#34305
[spam]
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Words: 7
Location: Buffalo, NY
04/09/06 01:34 - ID#34304
[spam]
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Words: 12
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: interactive
04/02/06 12:07 - ID#34303
Amazing Sound Toy
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.
Permalink: Amazing_Sound_Toy.html
Words: 384
Location: Buffalo, NY
Category: poetry
03/30/06 10:05 - 47ºF - ID#34302
ePoetry Symposium and Updated Work
(e:Paul) and I will be reading. Well, and (e:Liz) also I believe. We'll be reading on Friday night (tomorrow) at 6:00 pm in the Center for the Arts room 232 (immediately to your left as you enter the Department of Media Study). It should be a cool reading. There are quite a few people reading and screening work (the Friday evening event will span the gamut of "media poetics" which is a term I like for its cosey ambiguity). There are also a bunch of things happening on Saturday, and I'm sure much more information will be available at the reading tomorrow night. Or drop me a message and I'll forward you a full agenda.
Permalink: ePoetry_Symposium_and_Updated_Work.html
Words: 177
Location: Buffalo, NY
03/23/06 08:45 - ID#34300
[spam]
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Words: 7
Location: Buffalo, NY
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And when Paul and I finally get user feedback running on the paper's website, you can boast that you beat us to it.
- Z
Good luck, with a restaurant review site, I tried it two years ago :::link::: and at first I got no ressponse followed by, restaurants posting negative reviews about each other with things like, "So and so's food sucks, you should try our certain thing - it's way better." I promptly removed it from estrip. My push was for mobile suers and I don't think Buffalo was ready for that yet.