Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 22, 2009 in Tech, Videogames
If you’re a retro computing fanboy like me on Saturday you were devastated to learn that Apple denied permission to the developer who created a Commodore 64 emulator for the iPhone. Now normally this news wouldn’t surprise me, but what broke my fanboy heart is that the developer jumped through all the right hoops: Not only did they get a license from the owners of Commodore but they even got positive signals early on from Apple. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 22, 2009 in Television
Phil Rizzuto: An ace ball player.
My father was a hardcore New York Yankees fan his entire life — and being of a younger generation THE voice of every Yankees broadcast was Philip Francis Rizzuto loving known as “The Scooter”. Phil’s trademark expression during a game was “Holy Cow — I think he got it!” Now not being a sports fanatic I had no idea growing up that Rizzuto was in fact an ace ball player from 1941 until 1956, you see to me Phil always a gentlemanly sports announcer whose personality filled the air. It should be noted that this in itself is a real talent, and looking back at it my ignorance of his first career is a tribute to just how good a presenter Rizzuto was on the air. Read more…
At my local Korean food mart I came across these devastatingly sour and sweet candies from Japan called Shigekikkusu (シゲキックス) which are produced by UHA Mikakuto. I picked up two flavors, the first (shown above) was soda flavored and the second was cola flavored (shown below). The candies were small but packed a punch — the outside was coated with a light dusting of super sour dust, after a few seconds this wears off and you can taste the very sweet inside of of jelly like candy. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 21, 2009 in Comic Books
This amazing rare video shows illustrator Al Hirschfeld in action drawing a caricature of Paul Newman. Hirschfeld was born on this day in 1903 and lived to be 99 years old (he passed away in 2003). His legacy of drawing Broadway stars was so strong that they named a theater after him, and he honored his only daughter Nina by sneaking her name into each illustration (often doing it several times). What’s amazing to me about this video is that it was shot when Hirschfeld was 99 years old, yet the detail and quality of his draftsmanship looked as good as ever. Read more…
Recently I was wandering through a Korean food mart and I came across this very cute package design for Japanese animal crackers: Aside from the captivating colorful characters the first thing that blew me away was that the crackers are actually teaching kids to understand English, not Japanese! I started to suspect that this was something just done for the American market, but the package actually comes from Japan (produced by Ginbis). The back of the box even had a cute mini-dictionary of animal names (my favorite touch are the cartoons of each creature next to the name): Read more…
Every character in the Nendoroid series of action figures always picks up that extra bit of moe that makes you want to take it home and adopt it: And in this case this Usakottsu cyborg bunny looks as cute as can be! Our demon clawed rabbit friend is from the light comedy anime series Tentai Senshi Sunred (天体戦士サンレッド). Usakottsu is available from entertainmentearth.com and sports interchangeable parts including demon claws. Here are the opening titles from Tentai Senshi Sunred although sadly our cyborg bunny friend isn’t in them: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 20, 2009 in Fandom, Star Trek
John Hodgman is always fun to watch, but in his speech for the 2009 Radio and TV Correspondents’ Dinner he really excelled. Hodgman roasted the president for being a nerd in a long illustrated slideshow that included Superman and Spock references! My personal highlight comes at the 9:29 minute mark where President Obama flashes Hodgman with a Vulcan salute:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 19, 2009 in Animation
Clockwork is a short animated film that stars a cute robot girl named Hina. Being a caffeine addict the idea of robot making a morning brew caught my attention right away, but I have to say that the design of the robot is great and the animator did a great job of picking a refreshing soundtrack for this sweet little short. Here are some wonderful photos of Hina: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 19, 2009 in Japanese TV, Tech
I don’t know the exact date of this advert but looking at a primitive cell phone my guess is that it’s from the late 80s. The spot is for KDDI who entered the cel phone business in in 1987 and are still going strong today. The music in the advert is by Yuming (Yumi Matsutoya) who hit her career high point from the late 80s until the early 90s which is why her music seems to dominate the spot.
If you take the J train over the Williamsburg Bridge, get off at Kosciusko Street and walk a few blocks west, you’ll come to a storefront that looks like it’s home to a going out of business sale, with benches and various other effluvia out on the sidewalk. Inside is a bar and club called Goodbye Blue Monday that’s most definitely in business: the place is decorated not unlike Pee-wee’s playhouse or the home of some mad collector of antique TV sets, mountains of action figures and bizarro furniture (the rocking chair made out of two motorcycle gas tanks was pretty impressive). Read more…
