Willie Nelson and Steve Colbert: Ice Cream Wars

See it HERE.

Frickin MORONS….(and you leave out PONG) ?…

MIA:

Asteroids, Space Invaders,Frogger,Moon Patrol, Duck Hunt,LIFE,DONKEY KONG…..

Stanford , another reason not to go to THAT COLLEGE…..

10 Games That Belong In A Museum — ‘Pac-Man’ and ‘GTA’ Not Included

SAN FRANCISCO — Who makes a list of 10 all-time great games and leaves “Pac-Man” off the list? Henry Lowood and four of his friends did.

Lowood is the curator of the History of Science and Technology Collections for Stanford University. More relevant to gamers, though, is the fact that Lowood recently got together with another game researcher, a blogger and two highly respected developers to come up with a list of games they feel should go in a museum.

“The video game canon is a list of 10 games that are important for history and all of game culture,” he said when the five-person panel sat down with MTV News at the Game Developers Conference earlier this month in San Francisco. “The reason we wanted to put a canon together was to jump-start efforts to preserve the history of digital gaming.”

Last July, the Library of Congress put out a call for suggestions on how the institution could preserve digital content, including “interactive games.” The Library collects important cultural and literary works from throughout the world, but so far hasn’t archived games. “I believe that was the first time a major American cultural institution said, ‘Games belong on that list,’ ” Lowood said. He decided to make a list, a suggested starting point of what should be saved.

A few months ago he roped in game designers Warren Spector (“Deux Ex”) and Steve Meretzky (“Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”) along with fellow academic Matteo Bittanti and gaming blogger Christopher Grant of Joystiq.com. Their mission, at first just by e-mail, was to submit two games apiece for the proposed museum list. Then they argued. Then they presented at GDC.

The list:

“Civilization” (series)
“Doom”
“Sensible World of Soccer”
“SimCity” (series)
“Spacewar!”
“Star Raiders”
“Super Mario Bros. 3”
“Tetris”
“Warcraft” (series)
“Zork”

(Watch these guys explain their selections — and explain why they left out a certain world-famous game — right here.)

Those 10 games weren’t the first ones the group selected. At least one major argument ensued when Bittanti initially nominated the “Call of Duty” series. “I was attacked by everybody,” he told MTV News. “Not too many people consider ‘Call of Duty’ a masterpiece.” He does, referring to the second game as a masterpiece of “merging cinema and games.” He argued that including the game would also touch on the close historical ties between the games industry and the military. The four others didn’t care; he was talked out of it. “Doom” would be the first-person-shooter on the list.

Grant was the one who officially backed “Doom” as one of his two choices. He too had considered a different first-person shooter. “My next game that I would have added that would have been hard to leave out was ‘Half-Life 2,’ he said. “I wanted to get a game that had been made more recently. The latest game on our list is from 1994.”

Meretzky was sympathetic. “I was actually pushing to have ‘Half-Life’ on there instead of ‘Doom’ because I thought it was a better example of the first-person-shooter genre.”

Spector didn’t care. “I would have resisted having a game that recent on the list if only because we don’t have the perspective to know what is going to have lasting value and what is going to change things.” He said “Grand Theft Auto” would surely make a future list, but games that recent need more time to settle in proper historical context.

The group debated whether recent games should go in. They pondered which versions of a game would go into a museum. If “SimCity” gets preserved, then which version? If “Doom” is preserved, then should the game’s most popular mods be as well? Should special credence be paid to what was first or is it more important, since these are games, after all, to preserve what was most fun? “This is the real question,” Bittanti said. “Do you select a game that was groundbreaking because it was the first of a genre or do you pick a game like ‘Call of Duty’ or ‘Half Life 2’ which perfected the genre?”

Grant settled that debate for himself when he went about picking which Mario game to nominate. “We were looking for originators, so I didn’t want to jump to Super Nintendo, and I didn’t want to jump to the 3-D games,” he said. “I wanted to stick to the original Mario series on NES. ‘Mario 2’ automatically kind of gets booted — sorry, ‘Mario 2.’ So it’s between ‘Mario’ 1 and 3. When it gets down to games you want to play, ‘Super Mario Brothers 3’ added more levels, more creativity, more power-ups, better graphics.” Plus “SMB3” was marketed more extravagantly — it was featured in a movie, for one thing — than many games of its time, making it a precursor for the blockbuster treatment many more recent games get. So he picked that game, the one with Mario sporting a raccoon tail.

The group of five all emphasized the major impetus of this exercise: Games need saving. Digital entertainment doesn’t have the lasting power of books. A novel printed a decade ago may be dusty; its pages may be crumbling. But it’s not hard to preserve. A game made for an early 1980s video game console doesn’t get made anymore.

“I felt a little guilty talking about ‘Tetris’ because it is so accessible and it is so easy to play, easy to find, and so not in need of preservation,” said Spector. “But ‘Star Raiders,’ I can’t play it.” The game was released in 1979 on the long-defunct Atari computer. “Someone asked me, ‘Well, what was it like to play?’ I honestly have vague memories of it. I have memories of emotions it evoked. The fact that we can’t play that game anymore speaks to the importance of preserving our history and starting to do that right now before it’s all gone.”

The Big Ragu…

Has his own website HERE.

RIP: Eric Medlen

DRIVER ERIC MEDLEN SUCCUMBS TO INJURIES SUFFERED IN TESTING ACCIDENT

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Eric Medlen, 33, who had emerged as one of the most popular young drivers in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, succumbed Friday afternoon to injuries suffered when his race car crashed into a guardwall during a Monday test session at Gainesville Raceway.

The talented Funny Car driver never regained consciousness. After being treated at the track, he was transported by ShandsCair helicopter to Shands at the University of Florida medical center where medical staff treated him for days for a severe closed head injury.

“Eric suffered from severe traumatic brain injury with diffuse axonal injury, or DAI,” said Dr. Joseph Layon, Professor of Anesthesiology, Surgery and Medicine and the Chief of Critical Care Medicine at UF. “Survival rates associated with DAI are low.

“On Tuesday, UF and Shands neurosurgery team performed a cranjectomy and removed the front portion of the skull to relieve pressure and attempt to improve blood flow to the brain,” Dr. Layon explained. “Despite receiving the most aggressive treatment, Eric continued to have uncontrollable intracranial pressure. His body lost the ability to manage it’s salt and water levels and he began displaying the complicating factors associated with DAI.

“That is when Eric’s family elected to honor Eric’s wishes and remove him from the artificial life support systems. Our hearts go out to Eric’s loved ones.”

“On behalf of the family, I want to thank the medical staff at Shands not just for giving Eric the very best care he could have received, but for the compassion it showed for Eric and all those close to him” said his father, John Medlen. “I also want to thank the thousands of people who offered their prayers and support to us during this very difficult time.”

As recently as Thursday night, more than 100 drivers and crew members representing every Indianapolis-based race team attended a prayer vigil organized by Kelly Bustos, team manager for Tuttle Motorsports, which fields Top Fuel dragsters for 2006 Rookie-of-the-Year J.R. Todd, one of Medlen’s closest friends in the sport.

At Louisville, Ky., where BP/Castrol had set up booth space for the Mid-America Trucking Show, fans and well-wishers filled up two giant posters with get well wishes Thursday. Moreover, more than 4,500 individual messages of support were left at a special e-mail address on the first day it was activated.

“Eric Medlen was the son I never had,” said team owner John Force. “He was the leader of my next generation of drivers. Robert Hight, my daughter Ashley and I were with the family throughout this very difficult time. This loss is a huge blow not only to the Medlen family, but to drag racing and to John Force Racing. I just want to thank everybody for their support, from Larry Smiley with Racers for Christ to the hospital staff to the whole drag racing community. Our prayers go out to the family.”

Little more than three years ago, Medlen took over driving responsibilities in the Funny Car in which Tony Pedregon won the 2003 championship. He had distinguished himself as one of the brightest young stars on the circuit, winning six times in his first three seasons and never finishing outside the Top 5 in driver points.

A graduate of Oakdale (Calif.) High School, where he was a high school rodeo champion in calf roping, Medlen trained under the watchful eye of two-time PRCA World Champion Jerold Camarillo and had contemplated a career in pro rodeo before his father called in 1996 to offer him a mechanic’s job at John Force Racing, Inc.

After spending one season on the team on which his father was crew chief, he moved over one pit stall in 1997 to work on the car driven by 14-time NHRA champion John Force. Serving first as the supercharger technician and later as a clutch specialist, he was a member of a team the crewed Force to 50 tour victories and six championships in seven seasons.

When Tony Pedregon left after the 2003 season to form his own team, Medlen was Force’s surprise pick to fill the seat, a move that re-united him with his father on the No. 2 team at JFR.

He was the sport’s top Funny Car rookie in 2004, winning at Brainerd, Minn. He won three races in 2005 and two in 2006 including the race contested closest to his hometown – the FRAM/Autolite Nationals at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.

Mr Woodcock

Seann William Scott stars as John Farley, a self-help author who returns to his hometown only to discover that his mother (Sarandon) has fallen in love with his old high school nemesis, Mr. Woodcock (Thornton) – the gruff, no-nonsense gym teacher who had put him through years of mental and physical humiliation.

In Theatres: May 11th, 2007

Comedy
Rating: Not yet rated

Craig Gillespie (dir.)
Billy Bob Thornton
Seann William Scott
Susan Sarandon

See the TRAILER HERE.

The peculiar pleasure of earplugs…

Read about them HERE.

Music for the Ages…

Once an Outlaw, later a Highwayman, now an elder statesman, Willie Nelson joins forces with Merle Haggard and Ray Price (both of whom have recorded duet albums with Nelson) in a celebration of the classic country song. Everything about this is defiantly old school, from the production by veteran Fred Foster and the musical support from steel guitarist Buddy Emmons and Texas Playboy fiddler Johnny Gimble and vocal backing from the Jordanaires to songs from the likes of Harlan Howard, Leon Payne, and Lefty Frizzell. For all of the artists’ generational ties, their differences are what distinguish the project: Nelson is the reediest and most conversational vocalist, Haggard the bluesiest; and Price remains the quintessential countrypolitan crooner. Whether they’re harmonizing on Mickey Newbury’s “Sweet Memories” or trading verses on Howard’s “Pick Me Up on Your Way Down,” the vocal blend suggests old friends having the time of their musical lives. Guests include Vince Gill (on “Heartaches by the Number”) and Kris Kristofferson (on his Why Me Lord”), but a trio like this doesn’t need much outside assistance.

Let’s be clear: Last of the Breed is a story – actually, a novel, if not an epic – unto itself. The title sums it up pretty well: On these two discs three classic performers, Ray Price, Willie Nelson, and Merle Haggard, band together on songs they’ve known and loved for years.

Their contributions don’t need elaboration. Each is a legend. All three hark back to a time that’s in some ways gone. When you consider the lives they’ve lived, the world that formed them as artists, and even the landscapes they knew as they began playing in beer joints and backwater clubs long ago, then the truth of those four words, Last of the Breed, comes clear.

Look a little closer, and they take on another reference, to the songs as well as to the giants who celebrate them here. Whether drawn from deep in the tradition, back from the well of Gene Autry, Lefty Frizzell, and Floyd Tillman, or picked from the more recent catalogs, this music conveys a feeling that might be mistaken for nostalgia but is in fact a timeless eloquence.

They don’t write or sing `em like this anymore.

Listen to it HERE.

Porsche dealer – "I got it wrong with the buy one get one free card".

Glen Fergusson – Sales and Marketing manager for a brand new Californian Porsche dealer. Has lost his job and faces possible legal proceedings as the company strives to reclaim the costs of the 18 Porches given away free under Glen’s Opening day “buy one get one free promotion” “I admit I didn’t really do the numbers properly on this one” said Glen who told reporters that he had “seen the concept work really well for coffee stores” and in terms of numbers you could argue that Glen’s campaign worked. As the new Porsche dealer sold 18 Porches in the first hour of the store opening.

It took the head office a full hour to realise what was going on and subsequently shut the store.

Local man Bruce Stepper took out a second mortgage on his home after getting a promotional flyer in his mailbox. “I am ecstatic – I brought a shiny red Porsche today, got another one free and I have sold just sold it on EBay, all up I end up getting a Porsche 911 for $5000”

Jane Cameron was arguably even more entrepreneurial. The local Janitor purchased a Porsche using the dealers “no deposit finance plan for low income earners”, sold both cars, paid off the finance account and walked away with $120,000 profit. The finance plan was another one of Glen’s initiatives that has now been cancelled.

A red faced Glen stated “I have never really been too good at Math and I was sure the whole time we were making money – I was initially blown away by the amount of cars we were selling in that first hour. I had seen the “buy one get one free card” work extremely well for the new coffee shop down the road and thought what a great idea I will try it here.”

National spokesman for the dealership chain was quoted as saying “We are just glad that the idiot didn’t have time to run with his ‘test drive 5 cars, get one free loyalty stamp card’ campaign.

Dennis Miller: Moments of Zen

Looks like they found evidence of water on Mars, but unfortunately, they also found a sucker fish in water, so we’re not allowed to study it any more.

Do you know why I’m no longer liberal? Because I wanted to stop my sentences one word short of the word “but.” You know, as a liberal, I found myself using the word “but” more frequently than a proctologist filling out his day planner.

Let’s see, maybe it’s time for a Democratic president. Stay with me. Because the next step in the inevitable escalation in this war with radical Islam is going to involve us being appreciably more brutal and ruthless than we have been to date. And I think the left’s cronyism with the mainstream media will provide cover for someone on that side of things to up the ante.

You know, I’m pretty sure the phrase life is too short doesn’t exist in Islam.

Castro, Castro is one true genius at keeping Cuba so far down that a Category Four hurricane can hit the island head on and they still suffer almost no property damage.

You know, the interesting thing about diversity training is that 99.9 percent of the people who are ordered to take it are white.

They say that Wal-Mart will be the death of small town America. If small town America is so great, why is every third person in Hooterville hooked on meth?

To all the eco-nuts out there, I can’t worry about the earth right now. I’m too worried about the world.

Hillary Clinton can afford to decry rich people at every turn. She’s been on the public’s dime since the dawn of man. She’s had all the trappings of wealth without all the messy earnings that it takes.

You know, the Saudis are just the grown up equivalent of your childhood imaginary friend.

I’m toying with the idea of turning all of my money over to the state of California, because theoretically, I’d have more access to it as petitioner than I do as the actual proprietor.

Once again, let me proclaim that my main reason for being pro-choice is that I am not a fetus that’s about to be aborted.

And lastly, just as the Titanic ramming the iceberg led to the obvious practice of having enough life boats for all the passengers, fighting a politically correct war in Iraq will remind us that you only, only fight wars to win.

The Better way to Fly…

See Sky High Airlines innovative approach HERE.