DocPop.org

Last week I threw out the idea of a documentary club on Twitter and my blog. Like a book club for docs. The idea generated a lot of interest, not just from friends but also on IndieWire’s Docsider blog and even on IMDB’s Indie Hit List
(I didn’t know IMDB blogged about things).

For those interested, www.documentaryclub.ning.com is online now, so feel free to sign up and start pitching ideas. The ning page was built by my friend Scott Stead who has also wanted to start some sort of documentary club for a while now. Thanks Scott.

It will probably take us a few days to figure out how we should move forward with the club, but the basic idea is that we’ll pick 2 films a month to watch and discuss as a group. We’ll probably build some sort of polling page and work on other bells and whistles. I think we’ll also try to find a way to work with the cool features on SnagFilms, the cool new documentary video site.

Whenever a bunch of cartoonists get together, they are going to make a bunch of jam comics. This weekend’s SF Zinefest was no exception. Kraig Rasmussen, movie buff and fellow Cartoonist Conspirator, just sent me a scan of a “poo” themed jam comic he started. See if you can guess which artist did what:

I was just going to post the poop jam, but then I noticed that Wired.com writer Emily Lang had posted her article on this weekend’s event along with some fantastic pictures. The article’s title, “Blogs for Print Nerds”, makes me so happy because I’ve always felt a connection between indie print media (like zines and mini comics) and online media (like this blog). I also happen to be working on an article about the “missing dog head” flier and how it was the first meme I encountered (way before I started using teh internets).

In case you missed it, I also got a little Wired.com loving last week with a detailed article about my “missing lolCat” fliers and new album. There’s also an upcoming Wired.com article about the Nerdcore for Life showing in SF and the afterparty that my band played at.

And to top all of that off, Cory Doctorow blogged about the Wired article and he used that sexy picture of me and Lori Stein at our Cartoonist Conspiracy table. I’ve heard that Cory has bought a couple of jeans from Self Edge. If he got them hemmed, there’s a good chance that the scraps from his jeans could be part of some of those wallets.

Several of the tables at this year’s Zinefest were offering “make your own buttons” services. The basic idea was that for one dollar, you could draw a little image and have it made into a little 1″ button. I did three water colored buttons before I remembered an old idea I’ve had about cutting up a dollar bill and turning it into buttons. The result worked out even better than I imagined, especially the pyramid and eagle sections which must have been designed with this idea in mind because they seem to fit so perfectly.

$4 yielded me 3 buttons. Considering the value of a dollar right now, I think this was a good investment. I’ve long been searching for a 1″button maker, but neither Craigslist or eBay have yet to turn up anything decent for under $200.

I spent the weekend with other artists, craftsters, and zinesters at yet another SF Zinefest. This years Zinefest was in Golden Gate Park and I would say most folks involved would probably consider it a successful event. I came within $30 of my $200 sales goal and actually managed to keep my spending low too.

As expected, the bulk of my money came from my crafts. At $30 each, the few wallets I sold were 60% of this weekend’s profits. I also sold out of my last copies of the Cartoonist Conspiracy tribute to Eric and sold all my remaining copies of Moebius Strip Tease. I sold a bunch of copies of Ideas and a few copies of The Hamster That Wasn’t There, but at only $2 each, those just covered my expenses.

One dude gave me $2 for “Ideas”, but seemed pretty disappointed to discover that “Ideas” was just the name of my comic book.

I shared my table with several members of the Cartoonist Conspiracy, but Mike Hales, Melaina, Jeff Plotkin and a few other conspirators had their own tables as well.

Michael Cappozola, who was also tabling there, gave me this sketch:

Jesse Reklaw’s watercolor techniques workshop was the first “extra-curricular” event I’ve ever attended at a comic convention. Unfortunately I couldn’t help but to spend the whole class painting with watercolors and missed out on what I assume where some really good tips from an accomplished artist.

So the SF Zinefest was announced a couple months ago, but it wasn’t until a few minutes ago that I actually got excited about it. What happened in that time? I dug up my old comics and found a bunch of copies of my first zine, Moebius Strip Tease, and now I’m feeling all nostalgic. I guess I usually have new things to show at these fests, so I don’t bother going through my zine graveyard, but I’m glad I did. Not only did I find 12 copies of MST, but I also found some old copies of various Cartoonist Conspiracy books and whatnot.

Moebius Strip Tease was self published in 2002 with stories, drawings and interviews by me and my friends (Schalicto and Titifreak). I had previously posted my MST interview with Jim Stensland here, but I’m now adding another story from MST titled “Penis” as a downloadable pdf here.

I’m sharing a table with my buddy Mike Hales, from IgorLabs, who’ll be pushing copies of his two newest comics (and handing out tons of business cards). I’ll mainly be pushing copies of my 24 Hour Comics and trying to convince people they need to buy as many of my wallets as they can afford, but I’ll also be selling some of my old comics and zines as well.

Apple has finally released their new iTunes app store and everyone is racing to release the hot new game for the iPhone. Although I’ve been eagerly watching the results, I have yet to purchase any of these new games. As a matter of fact, I haven’t even upgraded to the 2.0 software yet. As far as I can tell, it’s going to take a few generations of bad games before we really figure out how to design games for the iPhone. To put it simply, you can’t just port Pac-Man to the iPhone and expect it to work. The iPhone is a powerful machine, but it’s lack of tactile buttons is going to make games (particularly platformers) difficult and the accelerometer is just not going to work with every type of game play.

Although developing games for the iPhone may be hindered by it’s lack of controls, the iPhone itself could surprisingly make for an awesome game controller itself. Imagine controlling the avatar on your computer over WiFi with your iPhone. Tilting it to move forwards or backwards, selecting weapons from your touchscreen, controlling your weapon via swipe motions. The iPhone could make a great game controller, hell it’s even got a built in rumble pad!

Below I’m going to explore the “iPhone as a controller” concept slightly further with two fictitious examples. I n the first I’ll describe taking a current first person shooter and creating an iPhone controller for it. After that I’m going to describe the possibility of merging the iPhone with a laptop to create a totally unique game play.

Let’s look at a traditional FPS like World Of Warcraft and see how we could enhance the gaming experience using an iPhone as a controller. The accelerometer would lend itself well to navigating in WOW’s 3D environment. Leaning forward would make your character walk, leaning would turn, etc. The iPhone’s screen could be utilized for various displays. Shown in the picture above is an inventory of spells that could be left open during a fight. Whenever an item is selected, a sound could come from the iPhones speaker. Whenever a player is damaged, the rumble pack will shake in their hands. Another display could display a topographical map with locations of nearby friends. In this screen, the player could drop pins to make it easier to find for later. Different finger motions could be used to trigger different actions. Swiping a finger from left to right on the iPhone’s screen could wield a weapon being held in your inventory. Swiping forward could jump, etc. All of the swipe motions, inventory displays, and maps could be customized by the player to however they feel.

Tank Buggy is a game I made up to demonstrate another type of game play using the iPhone. T.B. is a cooperative 2 player game in which one player navigates a fast moving tank (using a laptop or desktop computer), while another player mans the tank’s turret (using only an iPhone). The 2 players will be synced up by using a WiFi network. To encourage interactivity, the driver will have a radar screen that shows the location of targets and the gunner will have a map to navigate the course with. This will require communication and teamwork. For the driver, the goal will be to navigate the course quickly, while working with the gunner to help get good clean shots. For the gunner, the goal will be destroy any other tanks in the drivers path and help navigate the course. The gunner will have access to 3 weapons; long range, close range, and remote control missile (which will give the player a first person POV while heading towards it’s target).

So there you have it, the possibilities of the iPhone are not just limited to puzzle games or casual games, but can be adapted to all sorts of new game interfaces. The screenshots used  in the WOW photo are from www.WorldOfWarcraft.com. This idea was heavily inspired by the awesome Remote app by Apple for wireless iTunes control. If you are a game developer and are interested in talking more about iPhone UI, leave a comment below or contact me directly if it’s for professional purposes. The controller ideas listed above are free for anyone to use, but if you do use any of them, I would appreciate a mention in the game credits and link to my site (www.DocPop.org).  In case you are wondering, working on or planning on creating any iPhone games or controllers using any of these ideas because I’m too caught up with IgorLabs working on our new X-Box title. The goal of this post was just to give developers some new ideas (with examples) of new ways to use the iPhone with the way we interact with our computers. Again, if you have any constructive comments, please post them below.

I’ve seen a ton of good movies this year. While I’ll admit feeling shame for not yet catching Indiana Jones, Kung Fu Panda, Wall-e, Wanted, Hulk, The Happening, Hancock, or Hellboy, I have watched some of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen. Although I twitter about most of them, 140 characters is just not enough room to wax film with friends. Last night I proposed an online Documentary Club and started seeing interest right away, so I decided to move the conversation to somewhere that we could all hear each other on (in the comments of this post).

The basic purpose of having a Documentary Club is to be able to find and watch new documentaries, and then discuss them with friends. To run a group like this, we would need to figure out a few things;
1. where the group is located on the web and how we communicate
2. selection process
3. how can we ensure that everyone can see a film
4. what is the best way to get enjoyment out of the whole group process

I’d like to hear suggestions and ideas from everyone interested in the comments below, but here is one way I see this going; We create a yahoo group as a hub for conversations. Anyone in the group is allowed to suggest any documentaries for the whole group, if anyone else seconds a suggestion we add it to a poll. At the end of each month the two highest polled films will be the films for the following month. Each month we have two suggested films for discussion, but nobody is expected to watch both films. Then at the end of the month we start sharing our thoughts on the films (production, story, charm, filmmaker’s bias, etc). An alternative to the yahoogroup thing would be doing a live chat thing once a month and discussing the films on there. Somebody please give out some better ideas on what they’d like to see for a documentary club. If there is still enough interest, and we all seem to be on the same page, then I’ll start the process up and we’ll pick some movies.

I saw my first can of Organic Batter Blaster, the pancake mix in a can, a few months ago at an “Ask Dr. Hal” show. Chicken John was whiping up pancakes with them, but I have to admit I was too scared to try one. There’s something about the Cheez Whiz can and name, which I kept mixing up with the phrase “baby batter”, that just turned me off.

So I was surprised that when I saw a can on a shelf in a nearby corner store today, I had sudden urge for pancakes. I just had to try it. The instructions are simple; prepare your pan, hold the can upside down, press the nozzle, eat pancake. Although the color of the cakes was just a little off, the texture seemed right one, and the pancakes were easy to flip and cook. After experimenting with different shapes (circle, theta, zig zag) my first short stack was ready for taste test.

They weren’t the best pancakes I’ve ever made, but they certainly weren’t bad either. Of course, with enough syrup and butter anything tastes good. They had a bit of a buckwheet flavor, and I usually prefer buttermilk, but I was pleased with the results. If these are truly are as organic as they say, I think it’s well worth the price (roughly double the cost of pre-made pancake mix) for convenience and fun. If you see a can at your local store, try it out. Maybe if ever get my computer’s video issues worked out, I’ll interview Organic Batter Blasters inventor, an SF native one-time co-owner of Thee Parkside.

I don’t know about you, but I’m completely fascinated with BoingBoing’s deletion of nearly 100 posts (and even some comments) that were in any way related to the San Francisco blogger and sex columnist Violet Blue. Silicon Valley gossip site Valleywag first broke the story last Wednesday (with a very speculative/juicy follow up here) which spread like a wildfire across the web.

BoingBoing’s official response, written by BB moderator Teresa Neilsen Hayden on behalf of the BB crew, did little to put out the flame(war)s. It seems that BoingBoing’s strategy is to just hope that everybody will ignore the whole debacle. Even the blog post’s title, “That Violet Blue Thing“, screams to the reader to just move on and forget about the whole thing. Unfortunately, the tone that Teresa has chosen sounds exactly like the type of corporate spindoctor speak that BoingBoing readers are taught to ignore. Instead of saying these posts were deleted for personal reasons that we just don’t want to get into, Teresa decided to focus on using the word “unpublished” and further stating “There’s a big difference between that and censorship.” Teresa also stated “Boing Boing’s past content is indexed on the Wayback Machine, a basic Internet resource; so the material should still be available for those who would like to read it.” In other words, “here is a link to the stuff that we couldn’t delete from the web”.

I’m obviously not the only person who is captivated by BoingBoing’s actions. By the time I post this, That Violet Blue Thing will probably have reached 1,000 comments. I was strangely captivated as I watched the posts accumulate yesterday, especially when they surpased BoingBoing’s second and first most commented blog posts. At this rate, ” “That Violet Blue thing” will probably have more comments by the end of the week than ALL the other BoingBoing comments totalled!

So, why is this thing pulling out such emotion from all across the internets? Probably because BoingBoing is seen by many as the great bastion against censorship, so the “unpublishing” of any posts pertaining to Violet can obviously by interpreted as hypocrisy by many of us who have bought into that philosophy. While I’m sure, BoingBoing had it’s reasons, there is a lot of good perspective in the comments (mixed in between a bunch of douchery [from both sides]). Check out this comment from Joel Johnson in which it sounds like he’s not totally inline with the official stance.

Personally, I don’t think there could have been a worst time for BoingBoing drama. At a time when half of BB’s posts seem to be reposts of MakeZine links (which are often just reposted from CraftZine) and the other half are plugs for Cory Doctrow’s books, it sometimes feels as though BB is fast becoming “a directory of wonderful things… that we can sell you”.

The irony of all this, as Tom Phillips from Flashboy.org points out, is that if Teresa Neilsen Hayden had been able to FOLLOW HER OWN ADVICE regarding straight talk and pr, this whole kerfuffle would probably have been nothing more than a flash in the pan.

Hell, BoingBoing is still a wonderful directory of the internets, and I doubt in the grand scheme of things this issue will hurt their traffic. I’m sure that both sides are benefiting from the extra site hits they’ll see throughout the week. Although I’ve be bored silly with Monochrom videos, daily Cory Doctrow readings, reposts from other O’Reilly blogs, and Russel Porter interviews, the site’s rss feed is in no danger from being unpublished from my news aggregator anytime soon.

Helvetica is tearing our country apart. Some people love it, others not so much. Critics say that Helvetica is overused (in fact, you may have seen it on Nestle Bars, American Airlines planes, or Crayons), but I love it’s elegant design and nostalgic appeal.

So I created my own hand drawn version of Helvetica that I call Hellavetica. I created it using a web site called Fontify.com and a Pilot V.5 pen. Fontify is a cool service that I highly recommend. Simply print their font layout sheet, fill it in with your own handwriting, scan and upload it, and Fontify will do the rest. You’ll get a chance to see what your font will look like before you commit to buying it. Yes, it does cost money, but $9 is a small price to pay for your own font. I created a font called Doc Pop Brush a few years ago and I still use that shit. Money well spent.

On the down side, Fontify is an automated process, but it isn’t perfect. Spacing can be a bit wonky, fonts often don’t look great when enlarged, and you may want to try changing your font in photoshop a few times and checking it closely before commiting to the purchase.

For the hell of it, I posted Hellavetica and Doc Pop Brush in my store for real cheap if anyone wants to use them.