Ch-ch-changes
Working on some layout/format changes on the blog give me a minute to get that up!
P.S. this is a no no:
‘08 wrap up
Let’s do a quick run down of things before we get back to talking about shirts for another year ha!
I’m not a movie guy. I usually can’t even name movies I really liked unless someone brings it up first. So I don’t really remember anything from the beginning of the year (I have Wikipedia open right now so I can see what came out haha). I’m just gonna list some things I liked for one reason or another:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Speed Racer (amazing visuals don’t front), Iron Man, The Dark Knight (enough with the voice for the next one please), Wall-E, Be Kind Rewind, Pineapple Express, Tropic Thunder, Burn After Reading, Role Models
So bad it’s good award:
Wanted, Punisher: Warzone, Rambo, (Haven’t seen it but, I have a feeling) Death Race
Stupid garbage award:
Quantum of Solace, Crystal Skull (seriously fuck that movie), Marley and Me (I haven’t seen it, but fuck this movie too), 10,000 BC, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Max Payne, That movie with Dane Cook and the dude from American Pie
I still need to see The Wrestler , Slumdog Millionaire, and JCVD!! I don’t know anything outside of commercial American releases so I feel dumb talking about movies in general. On to things I ‘know’ about!
Already did a wrap up post on this but a few random thoughts…
Oddest Moment award:
Fable2 - Having a unprotected sex with 3 pirate hookers in a complete strangers house. Video games are getting weird dude.
Best game on the shittiest system award:
No More Heroes - Yay Suda 51! Boo ‘jobs’ that you HAVE to do! Boo terrible graphics and underwhelming input system Wii!
Not my game of the year, but actually is the game of the year award:
Metal Gear Solid 4 - I mean outside of part one I never really liked PLAYING this series, but watching it (as you’d be doing whether you’re playing it or not) is amazing. Kojima tries things others would never think of and that has to be commended. Obviously, the graphics are amazing I don’t need to say anything about that. It moves games ahead as an art form and will hopefully make people approach the story telling side of things more seriously, while keeping the game functional and fun to play.
Game you couldn’t ever convince me i’d like, but I did…I did:
Pure - Yeah…what the hell? ATV racing game? Normally i’d say no thanks, but throw in some really good graphics and track design and make it basically play exactly like SSX and i’m in. Great (random) character art too!
Back-handed slap in the mouth award:
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix - Capcom is, without doubt, my favorite company and to see their classic art contorted and twisted into such a ugly hi-res mess is really not a good look. It sold really well and people seem to really still be into Street Fighter so that’s awesome though. I feel like they’re mostly doing everything right with part 4 and it should be a huge release!
It needs work Japan award:
JRPGs - Square released 2 rpgs (Infinite Undiscovery and Last Remnant) on the 360 and Mystwalker released 1 (Lost Odyssey) and none of them worked quite right. I think it’s time to reboot the whole style of play and storytelling. It’s really stale at this point and the unfortunate thing (for people like me who want quality JRPGS) is Square still seems to be dead set on continuing the trend created by the last few Final Fantasys’. No thanks!
What we still need award:
A good new Pro-wrestling game! Soooo much untapped potential here it’s crazy. Really why hasn’t any of the big name developers jumped on this wide open market yet? The Smackdown series is such hot garbage and the TNA game was OK but needs a lot more time to cook. It’s attachment to a working fed will only hold it back as well (just like the Smackdown games even though there’s a whole other set of problems there) since most of the dev. time is spent getting characters and specific move sets in. I hope someone takes the initiative this year as it’s really begging for it.
I’m getting weird with music…maybe i’m falling victim to the singles culture digital downloading is nurturing? There aren’t a whole lot of albums I liked end to end or felt like I needed to hear all of outside whatever singles a band threw up on their myspace. Maybe I’m too busy to check it all out? I dunno. Polar Bear Club put out a very early ‘08 release that I’ve listened to consistently throughout the year and honestly that’s the only thing that comes to mind when you ask me for an album of the year. Gaslight Anthem is the only other album I can think of rolling with all the way through. I can’t name a single rap album I liked all the way through and that’s definitely weird.
I did listen to tons of music though, maybe i’ll probably throw up a year end mix next week or so. Lets group Comedy Cds with music and I’ll recommend Louis CK’s awesome ‘Chewed Up‘. Also, not an album but Patton Oswald’s set at Blizzcon was amazing. Listen to it here!
“Streetwear”…Whatever you wanna call it…Cotton based apparel with printed graphics. Mishka, Gold Coin, Franco Shade, Rebel 8, MethodsNYC, and 10 Deep continued to kill it, lots of new not so great brands popped up, I saw lots of random Japanese stuff I liked but can’t order, however I gotta give it to Triumvir as my personal fav. brand of the year. Not only did they secure a crazy collab with fuckin’ CAPCOM they actually created garments with the SF universe in mind rather than just printing tees with SF drawings on it. All of their own brand tees and cut and sew garments were top notch as well. Really good consistent branding and thought delivered without beating you over the head with the concept and shying away from any of Streewears current subject matter (girls, drugs, hip-hop references, sneakers, etc.).
Outside of ’streetwear’ anyone in the A-OK MART is killing it (look for our 3rd feature this month!), Meatbun is fresh, Terratag is making dope anime inspired tees, NotBadForAGirl makes tees i’d wear if I was a girl, 410BC is only getting better, Electric Zombie isn’t for me but is doing a fantastic job for his audience, same goes for Linty Fresh, Freegums is really hip (too hip for me to wear), and Built By Wendy continues to be pretty much what AOK would be if I ever turned it into a full on apparel line.
I can’t really think of anything else to recap and i’ve got work to do so…I’m finished!
2 last minute sale codes
Digital Gravel still has 2 days left on their 50% off sale. Get in where you fit in! Use the code: 2008 at check out.
Karmaloop is upping the ante with 60% off your order. Use the code: HOLIDAYS at check out. This one is only active for today so don’t sleep!
Get that person you don’t really like, but forgot to get a gift, something cheap!
TDL: Meatbun
Meatbun is a fairly new video game inspired tee brand out of Cali that takes ideas from classic games and transforms them into something that still looks fashionable as a graphic tee. Besides the clever twists on classic games what I dig about them is that if someone doesn’t know the game reference their designs don’t end up looking like geeky gamer tees which allows their product to work on multiple fronts.
I picked up their 1942/Street Fighter inspired design which is a great take on the old school top down shooter and mixing it with Cammy from SF and turning her into a bombshell pin-up like a war plane would have painted on the side. That’s where Meatbun is doing something better than say slapping a drawing of Mario on a shirt or just printing a games’ logo on a shirt like you would find in a Hot Topic or the like.
I’m not entirely sure what kind of tees they’re printing on since they’re (nicely) relabeled, but it looks and feels pretty much exactly like American Apparel. I’d wager they are relabeled AA tees, but all the same it’s a nice slim fitting 100% ring spun cotton tee. When I picked this up they were sold out of the super appropriate olive colorway which is what I really wanted, but the gold looks pretty sweet too. The graphic on the tee seems to be 4C process print which leads to some pretty serious ‘hand’, but generally this is how these prints always end up so I can’t fault them too much for it. I do think the graphic is printed a bit too small or if they had printed the same size graphic a bit higher on the chest it would’ve looked nicer. Check out this pic from their site and you can decide for yourself:
While it’s pretty normal to get freebies in your order, and Meatbun is no different with some buttons and stickers thrown in, they went that little extra bit and made some super nice die cut stickers in the shape of their logo and a button pack instead of the normal loose buttons. Customers remember special additions like this!
Moleskine not included
Apart from my review of this tee I should mention they just recently put up their newest set of tees and I really really like what they’re are doing with the brand and doing flips on well known gaming icons/elements and incorporating their name/brand. The 1942 tee was a part of their first ever set of tees and i’m guessing internally they wanted to push the brand a bit now that they’re gaining some attention, it’s easy when you’re starting out to get caught up in putting out cool ideas and forget (or feel unsure) about pushing the brand name. It’s great to see young brands form in front of you and be there at the beginning of it.
VERDICT: 4 out of 5
Buy Link
Louis CK droppin’ knowledge
I was trying to see him live for a new years show he’s doing down here in Miami but tickets are 80 bucks (+ a 2 drink minimum) yikes!
I know!
need updates…we are working though!
Games played through a TV!
SERIOUSLY.
March is gonna rule.
So get ready to enter the nerd zone a quick recap of video games this year. let’s get disappointments out of the way…
MIRRORS EDGE
When the first trailers for this popped up I was hyped a studio was trying something so opposite of the current look of games and seemingly having some gameplay to match. I’m not really into first person games at all so for one to get my hyped it actually is a big deal. Well, and it seems to be a thread that runs through a few games this year trying mostly new ideas, the game ended up being more thoughts than actions. I see a lot of people giving this game a pass only based on the what it did right, for me what it did right (art style and sense of movement) isn’t enough to excuse how bland, boring, and frustrating it ended up being. Oh, and that screen shot you’re looking at? You never do that in the game. It basically never really delivers on making you feel like a free running action hero instead I mostly felt like a jumping box that never really knew where to go unless I used the magic ‘tell me where to go’ button. Also, what about those lame cutscenes?
PRINCE OF PERSIA
The PoP reboot was another game that had me hyped based on the art style alone. Liking the first PoP on the last gen systems and thinking there were some good things about assassins creed I thought there might be something really great in the works with this game. I’m not really sure how so many things about this turned out so weak. It’s hard to tell what the team was aiming for because this game doesn’t make you feel anything. The biggest problem is it’s easy to a fault (aided by the checkpoint/you aren’t allowed to die system it employs) and the platforming feels like a quicktime event rather then anything that requires timing or finesse. The dialogue and voice acting seems completely out of place, I think they were shooting for ‘cool’ like what Devil May Cry achieves, but mostly it just sounds like Saturday morning cartoon nonsense. You also only fight one character at a time and that COULD have been really cool if the game had some kind of deep fighting game-like combat system, but all you really do is button tap in random orders to ‘trick’ the enemies. It’s never satisfying and feels very automated just like the platforming. It seems to take inspirations from games like Okami, Ico, Devil May Cry, and Shadow of The Colossus but none of it ever comes together.
There were probably some other games that I didn’t like nearly as much as I thought I would have (or rather how much reviews/people said they were), but these 2 stand out as huge let downs. On to the good stuff.
Read more…
Interview over at Art Of Apparel
I just sat down w/ Hillman of TAOA to talk about the AOK brand and the apparel game at large (by sat I mean I was sitting in a chair while answer his questions over email). Check it out: http://theartofapparel.com/index.php/alrightok-interview/
I’ve been in contact with Hillman for a little while now as he’s one of the few people I know in the state that’s also currently knee deep in the apparel thing and making moves. Expect to see some guest posting from him down the road!
