Das Befriedigt Meine Triebe…

You know the BPjS, the infamous German department that “censors” violent video games? Well, they’re actually overseeing all media, not just computer games. Including music. And Die Ärzte, a German Punk band that’s been active since the 80s, used to be regular customers of the BPjS. Honestly, I can’t think of a single Ärzte song that was actually harmful to us kids (broadening our horizon was more like it), but charming stories about a girl named Claudia and her dog/stallion, a teenage brother/sister duo having sex when their parents weren’t home, and a monster under the bed that ate a boy during the night didn’t sit well with the authorities back in the days. Go figure.
Much more importantly, though, the band’s music kicked ass (and their live concerts are legendary). Very catchy punk/rock songs that all of Germany’s generations X and Y can recite in their sleep. Now in their 40s, “The Doctors” (the German translation of the band’s name) are still going at it, and if their latest single/video is any indication, they haven’t lost their touch one bit. This is the uncensored version of the video, but it’s nothing you couldn’t see in an R-rated Zombie movie. Don’t be scared to click the play icon above! (Thanks to Wolfi for the tip!)

R.I.P. Suzanne Pleshette

Actress Suzanne Pleshette died today . She was 70 years old. I would have found out about this by reading the news, anyway, but I’d already noticed earlier today when checking my site stats. I keep getting Google search hits for “Suzanne Pleshette” and “Birds”, which is somewhat unusual When I checked her Wikipedia entry it all made sense…
Just for the record, I don’t have any information (or pictures) on Suzanne on my page. The newpost from last September, in which I detailed my field trip to Bodega Bay and the Birds schoolhouse, mentioned her name, and I guess the search engines associated the name with one of the pictures. I’m not sure where exactly the links is, I can’t find it when I do the search myself. Interesting how those things work… I’ll think of Suzanne the next time we go to Bodega Bay. May she rest in peace.

Flickr Page

I have started a travel log of sorts on Flickr where I’ll upload photos from wherever Victoria and I might have ventured. Check it out! Just for fun, very random, it’s generally in low quality (iPhone camera). But being on a trail somewhere, taking a picture of something cool and uploading it to the net on the spot is kinda cool. I added some pictures from Bodega Bay today.

Juno

Would you rush to the theater if I recommended a sort of art-house (Fox Searchlight) movie that deals with teen pregnancy? Not really? Yeah, I don’t blame you.

What if I told you that said movie was written by an ex-stripper who adapted the name “Diablo Cody“, detailed her work experiences on a blog called “The Pussy Ranch” and later wrote a book about it? That this is her first screenplay and that it’s probably the best movie that Victoria and I have seen this year (which means something considering, you know, that it’s December 29)?

Not that her past job experience defines Diablo Cody in any shape or form, of course. It just demonstrates a relaxed and groovy outlook on life. And that shows in the movie, which is funny most of the time and emotionally moving when it needs to be. Slang and teen speak run rampant and could have badly derailed the movie, but somehow they didn’t.

Jason Reitman (Ivan Reitman’s son) directs, Ellen Page puts on a great performance as Juno, and Michael Cera will no longer be stuck in my head as “the guy from that Superbad movie”. Which is good, because I really didn’t like Superbad too much.

We watched the movie at the Lark Theater, a setting that certainly didn’t hurt the reception. But no matter where you watch it, Juno is a cool movie, and I urge you to see it. Films like these often rely on brilliantly orchestrated grassroot campaigns in which unsuspecting bloggers tout the virtues of the movie until everybody who wouldn’t have gone to the theater otherwise goes to see it after all. You know, people like me. Who have no idea how they’re doing what the marketing department was hoping they would do right now. Good thing that ignorance is bliss…

IndyCar Test at Infineon Raceway

My latest video is now available for public view on the official Infineon Raceway website. IndyCar drivers Scott Dixon and Ryan Hunter-Reay visited the racetrack on December 6 and 7 to test for the new season, and I was there to document those two days.

Expect more of these kind of videos in the 2008 season. The Infineon Raceway staff are giving me great behind-the-scenes access, so the videos should turn out even nicer than the ones I already made this year. Go to my Youtube page to get your additional fix of IndyCar, NASCAR, Karting etc. at Sears Point

One of the necessary but unfortunate side effects of creating video for the web is the resolution. The movie is usually tiny and heavily compressed to account for bandwidth and dial-up users. So I thought it would be fun to post a few fullsize frames from the IRL Testing video posted recently.

As a sidenote, I’m still working fulltime on new game projects for our company. But you shouldn’t expect any announcements for quite a while, it’s still too early.

NCK Road Racing at Infineon Raceway

This is a music video that I created for Victoria’s dad and the Northern California Karters. Gokart racing around the big track at Infineon Raceway!

I wanna be inverted!

I’ve finally had some time to try out the Ratched & Clank: Tools of Destruction demo on the Playstation 3, and it’s exactly what I expected. And hoped for: a great-looking iteration of the established franchise for the PS3. Not much more I can say about it that hasn’t already been said – Ratchet & Clank has always been great, and the new game is no exception. It’s fun. It’s addictive. It works. Well done, Insomniac!

Except…

Where in Quark’s name is the option to invert the camera’s Y axis? I can’t believe that this isn’t included in the demo! If you’ve worked on a 3rd person control schemes (and who in this industry hasn’t?) you know that this issue splits games right down the middle: 50% of the development staff wants to push the stick forward to look up, 50% wants to pull the stick backward. So where in this demo is the option? Unfortunately Ratchet does exactly the opposite of my preference (I’m a “stick-puller”), and it’s screwing with my head big time. I keep looking down instead of up.

This isn’t the first high-profile title that does this kind of stuff. I remember almost quitting KOTOR because the camera controls were backwards for me. My brain/hands just couldn’t grok the controls, and the fact that the inversion option seemed like such an easy thing to do only made matters worse. I’m hoping this this was just an oversight for the Ratched Demo – and that the final game will fix the problem. It would be a shame if it didn’t.

Music Associations

I’ve often thought that music is the only form of expression that transcends its original purpose – and influences many other forms of art. Every other form of entertainment is usually absorbed in isolation, but music is complementary. You listen to it when writing, when making levels…when working on any piece of art. Every couple has “their song” that reminds them of a emontional time. Crafts are the same, and the music that you listened to gets forever associated with what you were creating at the time.

I can think of several music albums that have a connection with something I was working on:

Depeche Mode – Violator
The good old days. I was working on my Burg Schreckenstein level in the 3D Construction Kit (and in particular the hills to the lake and the boat house) at the time.

Deine Lakaien – Winter Fish Testosterone
I was working on The Troopers’ Playground, and in particular level 05 (the Underground Temple) when listening to this album.

Marilyn Manson – Antichrist Superstar
I really got into Marilyn Manson when making Beyond Belief – really the only Marilyn Manson album I ever got into (more for a lack of trying than for dislike of his music, though). I also listened to Depeche Mode’s “Ultra” a lot during this time.

Toto – Dune Soundtrack
I started he Armageddon 3 level for Quake when I was visiting Ritual Entertainment in Dallas for Quakecon 97. Something of a prolonged job interview, I stayed an additional week in the office afterwards and got to use the computer of Joe Selinske (who was on vacation) to make some Quake levels. I also got to listen to Joe’s CD collection – and the Dune soundtrack was prominently featured.

Ace of Base – Cruel Summer
Yes, I know – it’s Ace of Base. But just having moved from Europe to Texas I was looking for anything that reminded me of home, and the new (and AFAIK final) album by Ace of Base fit that bill. I was listening to it a lot when working on my Sin levels, particularly cleanup work on the chase through the abandoned buildings (2nd mission – started by Mike Wardwell).

Smashmouth – Astrolounge
Another guilty pleasure album. But what can I say, it sticks out in my mind. That album was actually a lot of fun to listen to, and I particularly remember creating the fireball traps in The Vault under the White Tower listening to the first track (“Who’s There?”)

Depeche Mode – Exciter
This is probably the weakest Depeche Mode album of recent times, but it’s Depeche Mode! So I played it a lot when working on Unreal 2. Particularly Mission_04, a set of levels that never got finished and didn’t make the final game. Mission_04 was a mining planet similar to Total Recall with a surface bases and some deep underground tunnels.

These days, I don’t have a favorite albums anymore – because the iPod shuffle has replaced the CD player. Whatever new albums I buy go straight into the shuffle and are rarely listened to as a whole. That’s kind of sad when you think about it…but kind of cool at the same time as well! The shuffle keeps digging up songs that I’d almost forgotten. Like the song Fighting TheGreen (from “Winter Fish Testosterone”), which played as was driving home tonight.The music reminded me of making TTP – and inspired me to write this post.

Got any music albums that remind you of a certain time in your life? Post them in the comments!

P.S.: For our wedding this Saturday, we’ll play Vanessa Carlton’s “San Francisco”. That’s the song that Victoria and I associate with good times

Video Awards

My Indy Car video has been nominated for the (probably-not-so) prestigious WeShow Awards. It won the first round and is now running in the Auto Sports category. It’s an interesting experiment, I wanna see if I can get enough votes to get this video on top of the main Sports channel.

Please take a second and vote for my video! Just find the “Motorola Indy 300 Test Session” video, move it to the top of the chain and submit you vote (you have to register first, but it’s a minor hassle). All the other nominated stuff is lame TV captures, it would be nice to see some original content win this thing!

Inside Nextel Cup

Victoria and I have made a habbit of watching “Inside Nextel Cup” on the Speed channel every week. A little bit to recap the race. But mostly to watch the panel, and more specifically to see Michael Waltrip be his usual crazy self (and to see everybody else’s reactions).

Each week the panel answers a bunch of viewer-submitted questions, most of them kind of dull. So, being my usual self, I wanted to see what it takes to get a question on the program. I submitted one, not tied to a specific race, a few weeks ago – imagine our surprise when it actually came on tonight. Victoria got a kick out of it, and I’m getting a kick out of it. I’m not exactly defining myself by having my questions featured on a TV show (having people play my games and read/watch my stuff is a bit more rewarding), but it was fun to see nonetheless

The question was “Do crew chiefs ever get in the car themselves?” To be honest, I kinda knew the answer, but that wasn’t really important. I just thought that this one would be a good conversation starter. And it was. I uploaded the clip to Youtube, see below!