A couple of years ago I started getting emails from E-Rod – also known as – “The Blockbuster Buster”.  Every week or two, I would get an update, letting me know of a new review of his that had been released.  I watched a couple of his reviews, and encouraged him.  I thought that he had a nice flare in his presentation, and his character was fun to watch.  Recently I was so happy to learn that he has been brought onto the ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com team.  TGWTG is a website dedicated to online video reviews of all kinds, and The Blockbuster Buster is a great addition to their lineup.

His first review was the recent feature length movie – Astro Boy.  For those who don’t know, let me tell you, Osamu Tezuka is one of my favorite artists/animators.  Specifically for his work on Unico.  As a kid we would get the Disney channel for free for one week every year.  The cable company and the channel would do this as an incentive to make you want to purchase the channel all year, similar to HBO or Showtime.  One year, during this week, they showed Unico, and my life was never the same.  Since then I would desperately try to seek out what it was that I had seen.  The animation was so different, it reminded me of Voltron – another favorite – but different.  I loved the characters so much.  It wasn’t until much later that I learned about anime, and that many of the cartoons that I loved as a kid were created in this art style.  About 14 years ago I learned who created Unico, and began watching as much of Osamu Tezuka’s work as I could find.  Back then, it wasn’t as easy as it is now.  I would save my pennies and purchase import VHS tapes of Kimba and Astro Boy, just so I could see more.

When I went to watch E-Rod’s first review as The Blockbuster Buster on TGWTG, I was so happy that he chose Astro Boy.  I agree – the film just does not do justice to this amazing series.  Eric takes his time in the review, sharing some history about the series, and going in depth into the plot points of the film, and it’s successes and failures.

I’m so happy to see The Blockbuster Buster getting picked up by this larger site.  When I was creating videos regularly I would get quite a few emails from folks asking how to get started.  The best advice for anyone wanting to do anything is – keep going, be consistent, and let people know this is what you want to do.

Congratulations E-Rod!

Tonight = me, Chad, and our Xbox in what I am hoping will be the amazing continuing saga of my love affair with Portal.

Eep!

If any of you live in or around NYC, or will be visiting anytime between now and the end of the Summer, I highly recommend that you check out Sleep No More.  It’s a completely interactive immursive theatrical experience – better than any virtual open world video game you could imagine.  A huge warehouse, with multiple floors, all available for you to explore and discover.  All of the audience members wear masks and are directed not to speak.  The performers are scattered throughout on all of the floors, each as a different character, with their own story that is intertwined in different moments with other characters story’s.  You can choose to follow performers or not, choose to open drawers and explore or not.  Complete free will.  You forget that you are attending a piece of theater, and become part of the experience.  The attention to detail with the props and design of all of the room is just stunning, and the soundscape throughout is one of the things that really makes you feel like you are in a whole other world.  The performers are amazing dancers, with movement being key throughout.  Loosely based on shakespeare’s Macbeth, with some Hitchcock thrown in as well, I couldn’t recommend this enough.  I’ve been twice now, and both times were just amazing.

After a bit of a much needed break, I’m slowly making my way back into the gaming world.

Sometimes life happens and you can’t play as much as you’d like.  Mind you, I still found time to have fun and play some games here and there, but my ability to play games in such a concentrated manner and then report on them has been quite limited over the last year.  I’ve been busy building and creating puppets for my puppet company, and also pursuing more opportunities within puppetry to further my art.  My guess is that many of you have had this come up at some point as well, maybe not as long as a year for some, and for some of you, even more than a year.  It’s a funny thing, when you realize you have some free time once again, where do you begin?  What do you play?

I’ll tell you, I feel like I’ve definitely missed the boat a bit on many of the games that have come out since last Spring.  I’ve never been one who really needed to get a game and play it when it comes out, but I do like to try to stay in the loop.  So, here I am, at the beginning of an awesome Summer that promises to be full of greatness.  That greatness wil include video games.  It will also include taking advantage of all the amazing things that happen in NYC in the Summer.  I will be reporting on both here, and hope to find some time eventually to make some videos again.  But I thought that writing consistent blog entries would be a good way to start.

More soon!
-z.

If any of you are in Manhattan around the Lower East Side and want to check out a cool exhibit, look no further than: Deluxx Fluxx. I hope to be able to check this out soon, and I promise to report back.

as you were,
-Little Miss Gamer

One of my best friends is Jenna.  Jenna is awesome.  Jenna’s partner is Gabrielle – he is also awesome.  Over the last few years Gabrielle has found much joy and solace playing Battlefront 2 with a great group of people from all over on Xbox Live.  When I heard the other day that Xbox had decided once and for all to end it’s live support for the original Xbox – I immediately thought of Gabrielle.  In many ways this is the end of an era for him, and unfortunately he had no control over its demise.  This video is a tribute to Gabrielle and his fellow gamers.

In hanging out with some friends a week ago, I realized that the reason I can participate in a discussion about the sports in the Winter Olympics is because I played this Atari game as a kid.

The snow has been falling in New York City. It’s time to go talk to some old friends, and maybe even do some weeding.

http://rinrygamegame.blogspot.com/

She’s just awesome.

As many of you know – there is one video game store that is the mecca for all gamers – and that my friends, is Digital Press in Clifton, NJ.  I was tooling around on Facebook this morning and I saw that Joe, the owner of Digital Press had posted a commercial that had been shot there for the new MTV Card from Capital One.  It’s funny because it could have been any store, or a set even, there is no reason it needed to be a game store – but who cares.  Our friend’s store is in a commercial and that’s awesome enough for me: