Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 23, 2009 in Television
Sadly Soupy Sales has passed away, born as Milton Supman he earned his nickname Soupy from his childhood. During World War II while serving in the Navy he entertained his shipmates by telling jokes and playing crazy characters over the ship’s public address system. After the war he became a disc jockey and used his material from the Navy to eventually launch a long lasting career during the golden age of television. A generation of children grew up with Lunch with Soupy Sales which launched in 1953 and lasted until 1966. Soupy did everything else from game shows to voice acting in cartoons in his life, but his pioneering work from that golden age of television put him into the hearts of baby boomers who thought of him as family.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 23, 2009 in Science
In this video Bethany Cobb does a great job of explaining how astronomers search for planets in orbit of stars. In the full video she further explores NASA’s Kepler Mission and its search for Earth-like planets in other solar systems. Here’s a previous video with Cobb talking about the expanding nature of the universe: Read more…
For the fourth year in a row Portland, Oregon will celebrate Wonder Woman Day and use the day to raise funds for three local domestic violence prevention-intervention agencies. The popularity of the day has inspired Stacy Korn, co-owner of Comic Fusion in New Jersey to do an east coast event by having local artists do sketches for charity. I have to say that I love the idea of taking Wonder Woman who is an icon of strength and equality — and using her to raise awareness for a good cause: Read more…
The thing that makes this commercial for me is seeing Sally from the Peanuts gang scratching records — and of course having Snoopy, Marcy, Peppermint Patty and Lucy back up J-pop star Kaela Kimur (木村カエラ) singing her Hot Pepper song pushes this advert to the next level. And so what is Hot Pepper? It seems to be some sort of food website which is sponsored by Recruit which is a job placement service. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 21, 2009 in Comic Books
Shown above is the cover for Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #59 by Skottie Young which is due out in January. I never get tired of looking at Skottie’s work, it always pops out from the pack every time I see the Marvel previews. I like the fact that by taking a cartoony approach with the classic Marvel characters that he’s able to give them some personality that you never see in the more serious action packed and over photoshoped covers you see elsewhere.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 21, 2009 in Videogames
Shown above is the trailer for The Beatles: Rock Band Abbey Road download which is available on Xbox LIVE (and will be available later this week PlayStation Network). Watching this footage I realized why from a conceptual point of view that I hate this game: The Beatles started life as a “Rock Band” but when they made it they really became a pop music act. The quality of their work is second to none, but it’s unfair to call them a rock band when other acts from that era really did earn the title like the Rolling Stones: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 20, 2009 in Animation
On the surface Soul Eater looks amazing, in fact the animation in this clip is very well constructed. Yet for me it feels like the studio isn’t taking any chances or trying anything new: For starters the plot is pretty much Bleach and the character designs remind me a great deal of One Piece with just a dash of Jamie Hewlett thrown in for fun. The show looks entertaining yet it’s evolutionary not revolutionary in terms of the field. Frankly is it just me or is the character of Black Star very similar to the character 2-D from the Gorillaz? Read more…
As an old time anime fanboy one of the greatest pleasures I take is in seeing just how far anime fandom has come in the United States from the 70s when it first started. Back then anime fans would meet up at local clubs or science fiction conventions and if 100 people showed up you were blown away. So when I look around at cons today I love the fact that there might be 100 fans standing in line waiting to get badges at a convention. But one thing breaks my heart: The fact that those who killed themselves with little reward to help popularize the medium can too easily be forgotten. Read more…
Back in the day my friend Ardith Carlton (who now lives in Japan) would keep telling us about this amazing anime series called Tomorrow’s Joe (あしたのジョ) which she claimed at the time was one of THE best anime series of all time. Of course none of us believed her because the subject matter in the show was boxing and this being the 80s our obsessions at the time were giant robots and cool looking spaceships and of course Joe offered none of that. Little did we know what a cool series that we were missing out on! Ashita no Jō is now seen as one of the heavyweights of its genre. And in celebration of the series Kaitendoh is releasing a huge 1/6th scale collectable statuette which will come out in December: Read more…
The Star Wars Battlefront videogame asks the big question: What’s it like to be an everyday character in the Star Wars universe? The answer is that it looks action packed! This is a teaser trailer for the latest chapter in that series which is titled Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron and is designed for the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS. Of course what you’re seeing above sadly isn’t the actual gameplay, but it shows the level of love that Lucasarts has put into this game which is due out on November 3rd. Below is a beautiful promotional illustration followed by actual screenshots from the game (which feature a nice variety of settings): Read more…
Back in the day my friend Ardith Carlton (who now lives in Japan) would keep telling us about this amazing anime series called