Million Dollar Gamer

For those of you who’re still in an Oscar mood, Susan and I made this fake movie preview that asks: what if the plucky heroine from Million Dollar Baby was into the Dance Dance Revolution videogame instead of boxing?

This is one of the pieces from my new video series about videogames, Pleasure Circuit Overload. I’m looking for screening possibilities over the next little while so let me know if you know of a good series — I have DVDs I’m sending out. I’ll be posting other new shorts from the series in the next few weeks so stay tuned!

Click through to watch the three minute vid.

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Posted March 05, 2006 | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) |

Creampuff and Red Licorice

Lisa Smolkin is a friend who’s responsible for some of the funniest and saddest drawings I’ve seen. Simple graceful lines and watercolour give her illustrations a beautiful and fragile quality, but they’re grounded in her rough-hewn style of zine-making. So when she asked me earlier this year if I wanted to collaborate on something, I was delighted. We ended up making this little piece that you can launch full-sized in its own window or click here for the direct link (you need Flash).

It’ll also be on display tomorrow (Dec. 6, 8pm) at the Toronto launch for Lisa’s Apology Accepted, a book of new drawings being published by 2x4 To The Forehead. It’s at the excellent venue Cinecycle (129 Spadina, down alley) and features the band Pink Leotard and special guests. Free.

Posted December 05, 2005 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) |

Mario’s Pain

Novel Amusements #5, my DVDzine, is available online now. This issue’s theme is “Games and Shames,” and it’s the biggest issue yet: 85 minutes of short vids, two digital toys to play with, and comes with a 16 page booklet with interviews with the creators. Click for a close-up of the front and back covers, featuring art by Shannon Gerrard.

I’ve got two vids on it, Yoga Deathmatch and the brand new Mario’s Pain. To watch the played-out plumber talk about his back problems, click on through.

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Posted November 10, 2005 |

Time Management for Anarchists: The Movie

I’ve just finished a Flash adaptation of my Time Management for Anarchists seminar. I started doing the talk a year and a half ago at Canzine and have done it a half-dozen times since, mostly at infoshops and political bookstores (Austin, Montreal, Berkeley, Vancouver) and also at a couple of events (New Orleans Book Fair, the Vegetarian Food Fair). It’s based on the paradoxical notion that anarchists have to be more organized than average if they don’t want to depend on power structures, and presents some ideas on how to kick the boss habit.

To see the eight-minute presentation—complete with cartoon sounds, fake graphs and historic guest stars—click on. Feel free to add your tips and opinions to the comments afterwards.

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Posted April 27, 2005 | Comments (48) | TrackBack (21) |

Yoga Deathmatch

I’ve just finished making a video about the similarities between the ancient Hindu art of spiritual discipline and the rather more modern art of online gaming. Watch the higher self rack up high scores getting to the next level of consciousness in the transcendentally physical world of Half-Life 2: Deathmatch! It’s a little over four minutes and change, keep reading for the download links and screenshots.

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Posted February 27, 2005 | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) |

Tearful Collaboration

My new DVD zine is out, nine weird and wonderful vids on the theme of Tears on the Pie—you can buy it online here. My most interesting experience with this issue was putting together one of my own shorts with Creative Commons-licenced music. On the excellent Opsound website was an mp3 posted by a fellow in Japan that was perfect for the tone and tension of the piece. After I screened it I sent Yosuke a link of the finished piece, and he wrote back to thank me! Click on to see the two minute short.

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Posted January 10, 2005 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) |

Novel Amusements Goes DVD

I’m kind of sad to leave behind the CD-ROM format for my digital zine, we’ve had some good times together, but with more and more people owning DVD players and burners and media costing less and less, it was a no-brainer. Not to mention that a poll on the site indicated that given a choice between a $5 CD-ROM and a $15 DVD, twice as many people prefered the new format.

The format change’s slowed me down a little, so the new deadline for submissions has been extended May 1st. Check the submissions page if you have an odd or interesting vid you want to be considered for the new disc. It doesn’t pay anything, but these damn things have a way of getting around — thanks to Astria a bunch of the vids from #2 and #3 are being screened in Germany at Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, My Trip to Liberty City among them. According to my stats counter, it’s been viewed 20,000 times so far. Not bad for something I made last minute because it fit in with the Dress Up theme of #3. If you’d like to see it, keep reading…
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Posted March 03, 2004 |

My Vidz Attack New York

Pretty crazy. Earlier this summer My Trip to Liberty City was part of the New York Video Festival, and got blurbed in the New York Times.

Then some lunatic tells me he wants to show >interactive on a rooftop in Brooklyn. We decide it’s a sign — this is the second screening I’ve had in NYC this season, for cryin’ out loud — and we go down. Rooftop Films turns out to be a supercool project: a technically tight and tweaked showcase of indie flix in a surreally beautiful locale.

We’ve been inspired ever since. Here’s one of the vidz we made for the upcoming “Tears on the Pie” theme of Novel Amusements #4.

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Posted September 26, 2003 |