I just drank a lot of coffee and I'm trapped at work, which means I'm bummed that I can't be working on music or something right now...so as an antidote to frustration I will post about the new collaboration tape between me (Anthro Rex) and my pal Scott (Id M theft able). It is now available from www.breakingworldrecords.com and the cover is a silkscreened drawing that me and Geo did. I'm really psyched about this cuz I'm proud of the tape itself, but also just happy to have a tape with Id M, cuz he is one of my favorite performers EVER!
Check the style:
This is what I do when not watching exploitation movies, DJing, cleaning the hummus factory or hanging out with Madeline.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
Ralston/Purina Cereals Pt. III
Around 88-89 is where R/P really came into their own if you ask me. In addition to the fine bowl-fillers that I'm about to tell you about, Ghostbusters (my favorite of all mid-80s cereals) was still going strong. What a fine time to indulge in preservatives,sugar and corn.
Nintendo Cereal System fucking ruled for the most part. Employing the dual-bag set up from Nerds, we get both a fruity Super Mario and berryish Zelda cereal. I remember that meant a little less net weight, but I didn't fucking care; this was intellectual property synergy at it's finest. I recall watching that shitty saturday morning show, Captain N: the Game Master and eating me some Mario cereal and feeling like I was really being taken care of. The lame part of the cereal was that the box advertised tips and secrets on beating NES games. Seeing that Nintendo Power was only a monthly jolt, these little tid bits were quite exciting to me, but they were all the outdated well known stuff. Aww well...the cereal was pretty good. The commercial had maybe the catchiest jingle for a cereal ever...
Uh oh, I think I have to say that this is THE catchiest jingle for sugar-meal ever:
I don't a week goes by without me singing this song in my head. This cereal, the NCS and Dinersaurs all had the same kind of taste if I remember right...a kind of Trix-ish meets BerryBerry Kix thing. This is fine, but it isn't the awesome eating experience that I rememer most about these brands.
The only thing I can think of to say about Dinersaurs was that it had pretty oddball concept (Dinosaurs running diner) and that it figured prominently in a kindergarden schoolplay my sister was in. For whatever reason, the kids eating Dinersaurs were sent back in time and turned into dinosaurs...I'm surprised the teachers approved of it, but it was cute nonetheless.
Nintendo Cereal System fucking ruled for the most part. Employing the dual-bag set up from Nerds, we get both a fruity Super Mario and berryish Zelda cereal. I remember that meant a little less net weight, but I didn't fucking care; this was intellectual property synergy at it's finest. I recall watching that shitty saturday morning show, Captain N: the Game Master and eating me some Mario cereal and feeling like I was really being taken care of. The lame part of the cereal was that the box advertised tips and secrets on beating NES games. Seeing that Nintendo Power was only a monthly jolt, these little tid bits were quite exciting to me, but they were all the outdated well known stuff. Aww well...the cereal was pretty good. The commercial had maybe the catchiest jingle for a cereal ever...
Uh oh, I think I have to say that this is THE catchiest jingle for sugar-meal ever:
I don't a week goes by without me singing this song in my head. This cereal, the NCS and Dinersaurs all had the same kind of taste if I remember right...a kind of Trix-ish meets BerryBerry Kix thing. This is fine, but it isn't the awesome eating experience that I rememer most about these brands.
The only thing I can think of to say about Dinersaurs was that it had pretty oddball concept (Dinosaurs running diner) and that it figured prominently in a kindergarden schoolplay my sister was in. For whatever reason, the kids eating Dinersaurs were sent back in time and turned into dinosaurs...I'm surprised the teachers approved of it, but it was cute nonetheless.
Ralston/Purina Cereals Pt. II
Even though I was one of those boys who thought Cabbage Patch Kids were strictly girl shit, I kinda liked their cereal namesake. This 1985 cereal was one of those mom-friendly deals with low sugar,kinda like Kix or Crispy Critters, but with bigger pieces, giving it a more Honey Comb like texture. Definitely not a cereal I'd pick on my own, but I wouldn't complain if it was picked for me. With cereals like this, you gotta make sure you eat it while crunchy, cuz hi-sugar sog-muck is way tastier than it's healthier counterpart.
I never got to try Nerds Cereal(I think), which I'm okay with, since the idea of orange flavored cereal never sat well with me. But it's important for it's introduction of the idea of a dual-bagged box with two distinct flavors. Maybe the orange would be more enticing to me if mixed with it's cherry-flavored neighbor. This design would be employed in three short years with the NCS (details to follow). Also, mail in bowl with the "nerds gate" is pretty rad...check the vid.
Dunkin Donuts cereal came in two flavors, "glazed" and "chocolate." I only had the glazed kind, and it was a rather unique taste experience. The glaze was an intense frosting (by that I mean "more intense than usual for sugar cereal") that had a kind of strawberryish flavor. Because it was soooo frosty I liked it, but I always knew it was a little "off." It has been 20 years though, and this cereal memory isn't that strong. Ralston had Dinky Donuts cereal in the early 80s and I can imagine that it was basically the same, but we may never know.
Morning Funnies cereal had the cool concept of a gatefold flap on the box covered in comic strips. Now you'd have something more to look at over the course of a week of breakfasts, besides a crappy maze with Barney trying to get his pebbles or whatever. Unfortunately the comics were mostly of the pre-80s variety, which I hated at the time (now I have books of the stuff) and the cereal tasted mediciny. It was just like the Cabbage Patch Kids faces, but overly sweetened in a way remeniscent of cough medicines trying to taste good. I only dug this stuff in a masochistic way.
(commericial is at the 4:40 mark)
I never got to try Nerds Cereal(I think), which I'm okay with, since the idea of orange flavored cereal never sat well with me. But it's important for it's introduction of the idea of a dual-bagged box with two distinct flavors. Maybe the orange would be more enticing to me if mixed with it's cherry-flavored neighbor. This design would be employed in three short years with the NCS (details to follow). Also, mail in bowl with the "nerds gate" is pretty rad...check the vid.
Dunkin Donuts cereal came in two flavors, "glazed" and "chocolate." I only had the glazed kind, and it was a rather unique taste experience. The glaze was an intense frosting (by that I mean "more intense than usual for sugar cereal") that had a kind of strawberryish flavor. Because it was soooo frosty I liked it, but I always knew it was a little "off." It has been 20 years though, and this cereal memory isn't that strong. Ralston had Dinky Donuts cereal in the early 80s and I can imagine that it was basically the same, but we may never know.
Morning Funnies cereal had the cool concept of a gatefold flap on the box covered in comic strips. Now you'd have something more to look at over the course of a week of breakfasts, besides a crappy maze with Barney trying to get his pebbles or whatever. Unfortunately the comics were mostly of the pre-80s variety, which I hated at the time (now I have books of the stuff) and the cereal tasted mediciny. It was just like the Cabbage Patch Kids faces, but overly sweetened in a way remeniscent of cough medicines trying to taste good. I only dug this stuff in a masochistic way.
(commericial is at the 4:40 mark)
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Cruisebound
Hey,
I mean, what can I say, I haven't been writing. Duh. It's bad. Maybe right now I'll try and do part II on Ralston/Purina. In 24 hours I'm leaving with my rents and sis on a cruise to Mexico, tourist fat-ugly-American style. I'm really psyched, packing all my ridiculous tropical wear and putting together a sick sailing mix tape. I'm gonna post it up later so you can see first hand how bad my music taste can get when I don't have to please anybody (my coworker, my girlfriend, my "audience" as a dj)....but since it's a tape and I have a lot of shit to do tonight, I'm not gonna digitize it till I get back. Even though I've been trying to live the Yacht-rock lifestyle for a bunch of summers, this is the first time I'm actually going to wear the water is clear and the beaches are jammin. I plan to do kareoke every night, hopefully doing "Escape (the pina colada song)" at least once. Long live Rupert Holmes, fuck Jimmy Buffet.
See ya soon!
xo
Dan
I mean, what can I say, I haven't been writing. Duh. It's bad. Maybe right now I'll try and do part II on Ralston/Purina. In 24 hours I'm leaving with my rents and sis on a cruise to Mexico, tourist fat-ugly-American style. I'm really psyched, packing all my ridiculous tropical wear and putting together a sick sailing mix tape. I'm gonna post it up later so you can see first hand how bad my music taste can get when I don't have to please anybody (my coworker, my girlfriend, my "audience" as a dj)....but since it's a tape and I have a lot of shit to do tonight, I'm not gonna digitize it till I get back. Even though I've been trying to live the Yacht-rock lifestyle for a bunch of summers, this is the first time I'm actually going to wear the water is clear and the beaches are jammin. I plan to do kareoke every night, hopefully doing "Escape (the pina colada song)" at least once. Long live Rupert Holmes, fuck Jimmy Buffet.
See ya soon!
xo
Dan
Monday, February 2, 2009
Ralston/Purina Cereals
I have a special place in my flavor-heart for the various Ralston/Purina brand cereals from throughout the 80s. It also didn't hurt that almost all of their cereal line were tie-ins with intellectual properties that I was quite fond of as a kid. But they had an extra-mealy, corny flavor, that I really dug. And most importantly, the marshmallows softened up really fast, actually becoming 'mallowlike. The hardness of the marshmallows in more famous cereals can really detract from the experience, often giving the impression of sweetened styrofoam in yer mouth. R/P also has the gen-x nostalgia cred (oh wait, they don't have cred anymore) of producing Freakies. If you didn't know, Freakies (along with Quisp and Boo Berry) are the beginnings of cult interest in cereals. You can see the connection with Freakies being the tree dwelling hippies, Boo Berry being a stoned ghost who talks like Peter Lorre, and Quisp being a space alien with some whacked-out-drug-use-related-if-you-use-drugs-also-behavior.
Of course, I was born in 78, so I missed the Freakies as it ceased production in 76. A short lived remake never made it to my consciousness until seeing it on Topher's Cereal Guide. This is a great internet resource and helped me jog my memory or blow my mind on numerous occasions: http://www.lavasurfer.com/cereal-guide.html.
Here's a commercial for Freakies:
R/P is also the producers of Cookie Crisp, which I've never been that into taste-wise, though I do appreciates it's place in our culture. I also find it funny that CC mascot went from wizard (Cookie Jarvis) to Cookie Crook.
The first R/P cereal I remember really digging was Ghostbusters Cereal, which featured those smooshy marshmallows in ghost form. I think it's interesting that the song incorporates the suggestion for completing the "nutritional breakfast" instead of just giving the standard "part of this complete breakfast" line.
Donkey Kong cereal came a little earlier, and I enjoyed it, but more for my videogame obsession. If I remember right, it was a slightly less mouth-shredding version of Cap'n Crunch.
Donkey Kong Jr. had more of the feel of eating a cereal version of Fruit Runts, which was pretty cool.
Part II soon
Of course, I was born in 78, so I missed the Freakies as it ceased production in 76. A short lived remake never made it to my consciousness until seeing it on Topher's Cereal Guide. This is a great internet resource and helped me jog my memory or blow my mind on numerous occasions: http://www.lavasurfer.com/cereal-guide.html.
Here's a commercial for Freakies:
R/P is also the producers of Cookie Crisp, which I've never been that into taste-wise, though I do appreciates it's place in our culture. I also find it funny that CC mascot went from wizard (Cookie Jarvis) to Cookie Crook.
The first R/P cereal I remember really digging was Ghostbusters Cereal, which featured those smooshy marshmallows in ghost form. I think it's interesting that the song incorporates the suggestion for completing the "nutritional breakfast" instead of just giving the standard "part of this complete breakfast" line.
Donkey Kong cereal came a little earlier, and I enjoyed it, but more for my videogame obsession. If I remember right, it was a slightly less mouth-shredding version of Cap'n Crunch.
Donkey Kong Jr. had more of the feel of eating a cereal version of Fruit Runts, which was pretty cool.
Part II soon
Monday, January 26, 2009
Let's Groove Tonight
It's such a great feeling when the pieces start falling into place and knowledge warms you, even if it can take away some of the mystery. Let me tell you about it. In the past couple of years I've become interested and mesmerized by the early computer graphics used in commercial visuals from the 70s into the 80s. I'm particularly fond of this era in the combinations of opticals, models and cg, and the warmth that tends to eminate from this technique. It's no secret that I am a child of this era, and a child who was warmed and nurtured by this neon arcade asthetic, and it still gets me today. It's not just nostalgia, because a couple of my recent favorites are music videos from the era that I don't recall seeing as a kid, but whose artistry zings me. These would be "Let's Groove" by Earth Wind and Fire and various Yellow Magic Orchestra vids. The pieces fall into place as I find out this evening that the cg effects for those promos as well of lots of other faves were created by Ron Hays.
And on fucking youtube I find a demo reel of his stuff.
It's amazing.
Crystalsculpture3 has uploaded a ton of amazing early cg vids on his youtube account, including part II of this Ron Hayes demo. I implore you to check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/users/crystalsculpture3
And on fucking youtube I find a demo reel of his stuff.
It's amazing.
Crystalsculpture3 has uploaded a ton of amazing early cg vids on his youtube account, including part II of this Ron Hayes demo. I implore you to check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/users/crystalsculpture3
"Stevie, You Rodent!"
I never had a computer growing up. I fantasized heavily about having one from the time that I saw the segment on Sesame Street with the school kids and the Commodore Pet (I think), along with lots of stuff like this:
So I'm about 5 or 6 in 83/84 and now there is a character on practically every single cartoon or television show that is using a computer. By this time I'm already starting to feel like an outsider, so i consider being the token computer nerd as a way of fitting in. It seemed like an empowering path, with the smart kids solving all the crimes in cartoons and such. By this time I'm much more obsessed by video games in arcades and on the Atari 2600, and the ability of computers to play games is not lost on me. I start to gain limited access to the Commodore 64 in my friend Tina's house by 85. It's in her father's den and he was a pipe smoker, so now every time I smell pipe tobacco I think of her often unsuccessful attempts to boot up "Pogo Joe." "Pogo Joe" is a pretty good expansion on the Q-bert "tile touching hop" kind of game play and is worth checking out via emulation. I'm both fascinated and intimidated by the difficulty of interacting with the machine. Around this time, we are subjected to some Apple II's at grade school, primarily for using LOGO. You may recall LOGO as the tedious design program where a user gives commands to a small triangle/turtle, which leaves a white line trail. Using computers in this way solidified the idea that I did not want to use computers unless it was for playing video games. But my contact with computers (outside of "Oregon Trail") stopped for a bunch of years, not by choice, just cuz I didn't know any home computer enthusiasts.
The games only attitude towards computers lasted a number of years, until seeing this commercial in 89:
This little commercial was the impetus for me heavily fantasizing about having a computer to work on my great creative endeavors and meet some girls. Of course I had no great creative endeavors to work on, but I was convinced that once I had a video camera and a computer, those impulses would flow endlessly. By the time I enter High School, I'm using MacPaint in the Library, doing lots of cartooning, and nonsense flyers. I had also played Maniac Mansion and been on Prodigy at my friend's Dad's apartment. Because of my exposure to these programs, along with the games reviewed in "Video Games and Computer Entertainment," my desire for a computer ramped up. VG&CE was the best videogame magazine of the late 80s-early 90s era, and it definitely does not get the props it deserves. And I can't find any back issues anywhere! AGG. Anyhow, I did get a video camera when I was 15. That was awesome. My family didn't get a Home Computer until 97 or 98. I never got to play any of those LucasArts games from the classic era. Maybe I'll get to "Loom" someday.
So I'm about 5 or 6 in 83/84 and now there is a character on practically every single cartoon or television show that is using a computer. By this time I'm already starting to feel like an outsider, so i consider being the token computer nerd as a way of fitting in. It seemed like an empowering path, with the smart kids solving all the crimes in cartoons and such. By this time I'm much more obsessed by video games in arcades and on the Atari 2600, and the ability of computers to play games is not lost on me. I start to gain limited access to the Commodore 64 in my friend Tina's house by 85. It's in her father's den and he was a pipe smoker, so now every time I smell pipe tobacco I think of her often unsuccessful attempts to boot up "Pogo Joe." "Pogo Joe" is a pretty good expansion on the Q-bert "tile touching hop" kind of game play and is worth checking out via emulation. I'm both fascinated and intimidated by the difficulty of interacting with the machine. Around this time, we are subjected to some Apple II's at grade school, primarily for using LOGO. You may recall LOGO as the tedious design program where a user gives commands to a small triangle/turtle, which leaves a white line trail. Using computers in this way solidified the idea that I did not want to use computers unless it was for playing video games. But my contact with computers (outside of "Oregon Trail") stopped for a bunch of years, not by choice, just cuz I didn't know any home computer enthusiasts.
The games only attitude towards computers lasted a number of years, until seeing this commercial in 89:
This little commercial was the impetus for me heavily fantasizing about having a computer to work on my great creative endeavors and meet some girls. Of course I had no great creative endeavors to work on, but I was convinced that once I had a video camera and a computer, those impulses would flow endlessly. By the time I enter High School, I'm using MacPaint in the Library, doing lots of cartooning, and nonsense flyers. I had also played Maniac Mansion and been on Prodigy at my friend's Dad's apartment. Because of my exposure to these programs, along with the games reviewed in "Video Games and Computer Entertainment," my desire for a computer ramped up. VG&CE was the best videogame magazine of the late 80s-early 90s era, and it definitely does not get the props it deserves. And I can't find any back issues anywhere! AGG. Anyhow, I did get a video camera when I was 15. That was awesome. My family didn't get a Home Computer until 97 or 98. I never got to play any of those LucasArts games from the classic era. Maybe I'll get to "Loom" someday.
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