Art Gallery: A Tribute to Jasper Johns

A Tribute to Jasper Johns (2003)
Digital media

The second (in alphabetical order) piece in my 2003 Digital Painting series. This one was very clearly a tribute to one of my favorite abstract artists. I don't remember how this one came about, or how long it took to discover and refine the image. These pieces were very often a journey of discovery for me, like riding along a long jazz solo. There was always a degree of intention, but also combined with intuition. Very often, the most important editorial decision was to know when to stop.

It was always my intention that these digital paintings would be blown up to a much larger size and printed on canvas. That remains the vision in my mind. If we were to display these in a gallery exhibition on digital screens at their native resolution (512 x 512), that would translate to 5.5 inches square. Unfortunately, every one of these paintings was created at too low a resolution to be successfully printed and expanded. You need at least 300 dpi (dots per inch) for that, and these are roughly half that. If you blow them up, they'll become pixelated and fuzzy.

I'll have to work out a solution to this problem. I have a couple ideas.

Art Gallery: The Cookie Incident

The Cookie Incident (2001)
Watercolors and liquid paper on canvas, 18" x 24"

I wrote the following description for this painting's page on my old arts website, DanielThomas.org in 2003. Enjoy:

So, now, what is "the cookie incident?" Here's the sordid story. In early 2001, a restaurant called the Loring Pasta Bar was opening in Dinkytown (where I live). The Pasta Bar was an offshoot of the Loring Cafe, one of the more well-known upscale-hipster places in Minneapolis, and the owner was expanding. Anyway, I arrived for the "open auditions" for waitstaff. When I came inside, the owner greeted each person in line with a cookie from a large bowl of homemade cookies. After having my picture taken, I filled out the application, and then took my turn taking a "mock" order; listen to an order, then carry a tray around the restaurant and return, reciting the order back. I didn't do too well; I think I remembered one or two of the items, but for the most part, this was food I had never heard of.

Oh, well. I stood in yet another line, this time to wait for interviews. While I was waiting, I saw the large cookie bowl. Most everybody who wished to apply had already arrived, and the bowl was still half full, so I walked up and grabbed another cookie. Apparently, this wasn't only my idea; as the restaurant owner grabbed the bowl and offered everyone another round. Good news for me!

That's when he noticed the other cookie in my hand.

So what does this owner do? Nothing much. He only starts bawling out loud, "Hey! You've got a cookie!" This grown adult then starts running around, finding any employee who will listen. "This guy has another cookie! He took a cookie!" This went on for at least a minute.

Turns out he was the owner of the place. I didn't get the job. Go figure.
 

I Have New Books Coming Soon!

Good News, Everyone! I have three new books coming out this year! I'm not sure if anyone is still around to be reading this, but I wanted to share my current plans with you. Each of these books are based on my writings on this site, with heavy revisions, rewrites and expansions, and I'm very excited to share them with you.

Right now, I am planning to move my family from Minneapolis to Chicago, so my money is being saved up for that. Hopefully, I will be able to find a good apartment and a new job, and will then be able to hire cover and layout designers to finish these book projects. Expect this to happen this year.

Now here are my new books:

Zen Arcade: Classic Video Game Reviews - A collection of 140 classic videogame reviews for NES, Super NES, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, NEC Turbografx-16 and SNK Neo-Geo. These are based on my review column for the Virtual Console service on Nintendo Wii. These new essays have been almost entirely rewritten, updated and expanded to reflect current trends and my current moods. I'm really excited to see how this book is received. At least two more books in the series are planned, as I wanted to cover every game released on the various Virtual Console platforms.

Pop Life - An anthology of essays on all aspects of popular culture: film and television, music and audio, videogames, current events, and the joys and sorrows of life. These essays began as online articles on various websites, including this one, and now they're all collected together in one double-album volume (120,000+ words). Everything has been revised and expanded, as well. This book is more personal for me, and captures a writing style that I've pursued since my high school days.

Greatest Hits - A "greatest hits" anthology of chapters from four of my books, including Zen Arcade and Pop Life. Also included are two book projects that are still in production, Videogame Classics (reviews of the greatest videogames of all time) and Conversations on Ghibli (essays on the films of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata). The e-book edition will be "perma-free" on Amazon and similar vendors, and also given as a free gift to everyone who joins my mailing list.

In addition to all of this, I am also building my own indie publishing label, DT Media. A website will follow, which is likely where this blog will migrate. Ghibli Blog, my other website, will continue at its current home, and I'm very busy everyday on Facebook and Twitter.

So, anyway, those are my current happenings. Oh, and I also worked on the DVD and Blu-Ray of Horus, Prince of the Sun, wrote essays for a two Studio Ghibli books in Spain, contributed to a Time Out London article, and wrote essays for a Lupin the 3rd DVD set. Whew.

Art Gallery: A Love Supreme

A Love Supreme (2003)
Digital media

The first (in alphabetical order) of my Digital Artworks 2003 series, which was created entirely in Paint Shop Pro on a standard desktop PC. The title refers to the 1964 John Coltrane album, one of the true masterpieces of jazz music. As you can see, my titles often aimed towards popular culture, usually film or music. All part of my long impulse to marry Andy Warhol pop art with abstract expressionism. Or perhaps I just always wanted to play in a rock band. Either explanation works.

One more point about the 2003 Digital series: many, if not most, of these pieces were created as tiles. This means that multiple copies could be connected to create a large, seamless pattern. I spent an enormous amount of time in those days playing Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament on my PC, and was especially inspired by the thriving fan community, who created their own levels and worlds for everyone to play. These user-generated maps were immensely inspired, far more creative and inventive than anything seen in the official videogames. It was like running through an endless array of virtual art galleries by underground digital artists.

Art Gallery: The Cocoanuts

The Cocoanuts (2000)
Watercolors and liquid paper on canvas, 18" x 24"

Third in the "watercanvas" series (I'm working through my photos in alphabetical order). This piece, like Animal Crackers, is also named after a Marx Brothers movie, and both were created in successive order. This has always been one of my favorites from this series, with multiple layers of paints and water, and a richly colored landscape with a decidedly cosmic flair.

Art Gallery: Untitled

Untitled (2005)
Digital media

The first of ten pieces for my "Digital 2005" series. I created a large collection of digital paintings in 2003 and 2004, and wished to continue the series for a third year. Unfortunately, I either ran out of time or fresh ideas for new pieces, so we only finished with ten.

I wish I could remember how these were made. I had a solid technique for creating these on Paint Shop Pro, but it's mostly forgotten. Maybe one day I'll give another go, but I've always been inspired by new ideas and styles.

Art Gallery: Animal Crackers

Animal Crackers (2000)
Watercolors and liquid paper on canvas 18" x 24"

Part of the "watercanvas" series of watercolor paintings on canvas, and one of my favorites. The title refers to the Marx Brothers movie. I was a big fan of their movies in those days.

Art Gallery: MAY 2107

MAY 2017
Pens and markers on paper

Here's the latest piece in my long-running "Desk Calendar" series. Think of this as a mashup of desk calendars, high school yearbooks, indie comic books, abstract paintings, street graffiti, and Scott McCloud.

Ideally, these will be blown up 2x-4x and printed onto canvas or paper stock. I've always envisioned them being a larger size, but even at the standard size, it's very readable and densely packed. All the monthly pieces in the 2017 series will follow the same visual style, with blue pens and red highlight markers. Each of these are also being completed in the month seen on the calendar, which means JUNE 2017 will be completed by the end of this week.

Art Gallery: All Your Base Are Belong To Us

All Your Base Are Belong to Us
2000, watercolors and liquid paper on canvas

Yes, I've decided to dust off my ancient (and long dormant) blog, Daniel Thomas Vol 4, once again. If nothing else, I wanted to post my artwork on this site, if for no other reason than to show off to potential galleries and patrons.

This painting is part of my "watercanvas" series, created from 2000-2002. It uses watercolors on primed and stretched canvas. The canvas is laid down flat on the ground (with plenty of paper or plastic to protect the floor), and the paints are layered directly onto the canvas. Various amounts of water are required, depending on the effect you want to achieve. The water and paints usually require a few hours to fully dry. "Liquid Paper," or correction fluid (my favorite was the Kinko's brand) is often used as a top layer, drawn out in Jackson Pollack style.

Creation of a watercanvas painting is very quick and fluid, much like Japanese calligraphy art. If you move too slowly or too quickly, mix too many paints, use too much water, you'll end up with mud. What can I say? It's an art.

Super Tempo (Red Company, Sega Saturn)

Super Tempo was one of the later Sega Saturn titles, released in 1998 by developer Red Company. A sequel to a Sega 32X game, this is a rare 2D side-scrolling platformer from the age when 2D platformers became persona non grata. Once, these kind of video games were a dime a dozen; then, suddenly, the Sony Playstation dropped like a ten-megaton bomb, and 3D polygons were the new hot thing. Everything else was given a swift kick in the rear and shoved out the door. Sprite graphics were out. Texture-mapped polygons were in.

I'm reminded of the great Genesis action-platformers, games like Aladdin and Earthworm Jim that played like living cartoons, but also games like Castle and World of Illusion, and their masterful level designs. Super Tempo has that excellence in design, the variety in levels, goals, gameplay styles. Most of the action is run-and-jump, but there are plenty of twists and turns to keep you on your toes. And everything is presented with an absurdist sense of humor; probably closer to Dave Perry than Treasure.

Visually bold, endlessly clever, and packed with a wicked sense of humor, Super Tempo is a standout title in the Saturn library. It's also a testament against the absurdity of the herd mentality. Who decided that 2D games were suddenly terrible? Look at all those once-beautiful Playstation, Saturn and Nintendo 64 games that have aged terribly. All those gouraud-shaded polygons don't look so hot today, do they? And yet, the more traditional sprite graphics still look lovely. Funny how these things work themselves out.

How many great Sega Saturn games were left in Japan? Far too many to count. This system has one of the deepest software libraries in history. I've been digging for years and I'm still discovering gems. True, not everything out there is a masterpiece, but something like Super Tempo doesn't have to be one. It just has to be very entertaining and very fun. Thank God for Internet Downloads!*

(*Now there's something you'll never read from another videogame critic. Hah!)

Classic Video Game Price Gouging

Back around 2008-09, I got back into collecting physical video games again, after a decade of playing classic games exclusively via PC emulators. I think it was the arrival of Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console that reminded me of just how much fun it was to play the actual video games and systems connected to a picture-tube TV. At that time, Sega Genesis cartridges and Saturn discs were dirt cheap, and barely any title ever creeped above $10. I passed on a lot of titles that, frankly, weren't worth that kind of money. They were "rental games" at best.

So what the heck has happened? Across the board, classic videogame prices have skyrocketed to ludicrous levels. It's becoming difficult to find anything under $20, but what's really shocking are the large number of games being sold for $100 or more. And we're not talking about extremely rare, limited-edition cartridge games. We're talking about videogames that sold very well, are available in ample supply, and often available on modern formats, including XBox Live Arcade, Playstation Network, and Steam.

My guess is that Ebay sellers and retro game stores are caught in one massive circle jerk. The first joker who successfully sold his mint copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga for over $250 inspired everybody else to furiously jack up the prices. Hey, if that guy on Ebay is selling these games for $100, I can too! And so everything except sports games (which, thankfully, are still dirt cheap) gets priced through the roof.

Perhaps the younger Millenium Generation hasn't been taught the value of old computer hardware and software. And perhaps they haven't been clued into modern digital services. And certainly nobody has informed them that every classic videogame ever made is freely available on the internet. I have over 300 Sega Saturn games copied onto CD-R, and this ridiculous price gouging will only inspire me to burn more.

In any case, this is becoming a joke, and if retro videogame stores believe they're sitting on a gold mine of Sega and Nintendo titles, they're in for a shock. No, Galactic Attack on Saturn is not worth $70, Gaiares on Genesis isn't worh $100, and Mortal Kombat 2 is definitely not worth $150.

My advice for consumers: Don't believe the hype, and don't feed the trolls.

World Series Baseball 98 (Saturn) - Still the Greatest Nine

Whenever I'm feeling the itch to play Sega Saturn, I always have a short list of "must play" games to play, and World Series Baseball 98 is always near the top of that list. Back in 1997, I was convinced this was the greatest baseball videogame ever created, and in the year 2015, I still hold to that belief. I don't think this sports title has ever been surpassed.

One of Sega's greatest strengths during the 16-bit era was their stellar lineup of sports titles. If you wanted to play sports games, you had to have a Genesis. On Saturn, however, Sega struggled and stumbled for years, as Sony and Electronic Arts dominated the sports arena on the Playstation. It remains a cruel irony that Sega finally regained their mojo just as the Saturn was being phased out in the US; the '98 sports lineup - World Series Baseball 98, NBA Action 98, NHL All-Star Hockey 98, Worldwide Soccer 98 - proved to be their strongest in years. It may have been Sega's best sports year ever.

World Series Baseball 98 looked stunning when it was new, running on Saturn's high resolution mode (Sega's ace in the hole that was criminally underused). Graphics are clean, clear, sharp and detailed. Colors are bold, confident and smooth. In other words, what we've come to expect as the "Sega Look." It's a good preview for what would follow on Dreamcast. All the official ballparks are realsically rendered and in the proper proportion (you'd be surprised how many old baseball games screwed this up), and the polygon players are confident, solid. There's that squarish, slighly chunky look that comes with Sega Saturn, owing to its use of quads instead of triangles; as a visual style, it was widely criticized by software developers, but I personally enjoy it. It gives Sega Saturn's best games a unique charm and adds to the mystique.

All in all, this game looks fantastic on Saturn, one of the system's finest hours, and a far cry from those early roughshod days in 1995, where everything looked ugly. Sega clearly needed two more years added to Saturn's lifespan: one at the start, and one at the end. Fortunately, I think a lot of this momentum carried through to the Dreamcast, where Sega was creatively unstoppable.

Now we come to what really makes World Series Baseball 98 great, why it's still the video game baseball king: the pitcher/batter duel. The pitcher chooses from his aresenal, aims the pitch during the windup, and lets it go. Available pitches are based on the real-life players' skills, making their curveballs, sliders and sinkers very unique (and lose their effectiveness as the pitcher tires). The batter has two methods of attack. He can attempt to follow the pitch with the cursor, where it will "lock on" at the correct destination. Precise swings can result in fly balls, grounders, or curves, depending on where the cursor strikes.

The batter's second option - and this is the masterstroke - are the quadrants. The batter's box is broken into four quadrants, and each player has their unique "hot" and "cold" zones. By selecting a quadrant before the pitch is thrown, the batter will focus their attention on that area. If the ball travels towards that quadrant, the batter will "lock on" the ball, guaranteeing a hit. These are essentially the "power" swings. If the batter guesses wrong, he regains the batting cursor, but with only a fraction of time to attempt a swing.

This is the genius of Sega's design. They've turned the pitcher/batter duel into a strategic series of mind games and shootouts. No longer do you swing at every pitch, or just throw the ball wildly. The pitcher tries to get the batter out of his zone, away from his power swings that could result in home runs. The batter tries to wear the pitcher down, drag out the count, wait for that arm to get tired. A tired arm results in bad pitches. Those lead to "lock on" power swings.

For the pitcher, your strategy is to keep your opponent guessing, try to make him swing at a bad pitch, try to keep away from his strong side. For the batter, the strategy is to know when to use your normal swings (cursor), and when to aim for the power swings (quadrants). Get a hit, get a man on base, then try for a bunt or steal. It's difficult to move around those bases. This game doesn't make things easy. And home runs are, thankfully, uncommon. You can't rely on them to win games.

Traditionally, nearly every baseball game followed a basic formula for pitching and batting: you just press a button. Press a button to throw a pitch (and maybe weave it side-to-side in midair); press a button to swing the bat. Whether it's Home Run on Atari 2600, RBI Baseball on NES, Sports Talk Baseball on Genesis, or Ken Griffey Baseball on Super NES and Nintendo 64, the gameplay remained extremely basic and simple. WSB98 on Saturn smashes that paradigm to pieces. Thank God for Sega and their eternal underdog spirit. Something special about videogames died when they were forced out of the hardware business.

For reasons I have never understood, Sega never used the WSB98 pitcher/batter model again. Nobody did. If anything, modern software developers have only succeeded in making baseball games needlessly complicated, without adding anything to the strategy. Heck, we hardly even have baseball video games anymore. The modern scam of "one developer per sport" is a sick, demented joke. Thank God you can find a Sega Saturn and WSB98 for less than the price of dinner.

I'm serious. Get yourself off the couch, step away from the desk. Find yourself a Sega Saturn, a couple controllers, and copies of Sega's '98 sports lineup. It's the best bargain any videogame sports fan will find.

Pebble Beach Golf Links (T&E Soft, for Sega Saturn)

Pebble Beach Golf Links was one of the early titles from Sega Saturn's notoriously early launch in the summer of 1995. An installment of the popular golf sim series by T&E Soft (which appeared on the PC), this was the very definition of a "launch title." That is, it's a videogame that is servicable, not very impressive, and largely present to satisfy early adopters before the real software titles arrive.

My first impression with this game was at a local Funcoland (remember those?), and was none too impressed. With the imminent arrival of Sony's Playstation taking all the buzz, Sega's early Saturn launch felt like a desperation move, and such wimpy titles were not winning us over. However, first impressions can be deceiving, and once I bought a Saturn myself (because of Panzer Dragoon, which just knocked my socks off), I picked up Pebble Beach, and it grew on me. Within a few weeks, my opinion completely turned around, and I saw this humble sports game as one of Saturn's early triumphs.

Pebble Beach Golf Links is still easily available at retro game stores for very little money, usually under five bucks. I think that's a great bargain, and heartily recommend it to any Sega Saturn owners or classic videogame collectors. It just plays a very solid game of golf, and even if only one 18-hole course is available, it's a very nice course, one of the best. You can't do much better than Pebble Beach.

One of the main selling points to this game is the inclusion of PGA golfer Craig "The Walrus" Stadler, who appears in video clips, narrating each upcoming hole on the course, and even competing against you. Now this is where I really love this game, and not for a reason you'd expect: Stadler is a real jerk.  He's a selfish, condescending know-it-all who knows you'll never play at his level, and we're all just lucky to bask in his greatness. And we all know that Stadler himself will never reach the heights of a Tiger Woods. Especially him. And so Walrus takes it out on us.

Playing against Stadler definitely brings out his bad side. I know the developers wanted to inject some friendly competition, but his snide comments and taunting just become comical. "You're gonna have to practice a lot more," he sneers when you botch that third hole. "Think you can beat that?" he boasts when his tee shot on the seventh lands inches from the hole. I suppose it's meant to inspire me. But I just want to whack him with my club and knock him into the ocean. In that sense, yes, it's very satisfying to beat him.

The graphics in Pebble Beach Golf Links serve as a time capsule of that era, when 3D polygon graphics and CD-ROM technology were new, and software developers had yet to figure it all out. There are digitized graphics and full-motion video clips (which Americans were obsessed with at the time), pre-rendered CGI sequences, and even some rudimentary polygon graphics that never quite held up. I tend to turn off the "ball cam" when playing, and stick with the basic view. Graphics are quite colorful, richly textured, and sprites of your golfer and other objects are very large. Much of the background artwork is pixelated, and this is, again, a snapshot of that era. It would have been nice if T&E Soft had rendered new graphics for the Saturn, instead of a simple PC port. But this is what launch titles are often like. Again, we're only passing time until Virtua Figher 2 drops.

Two of my favorite features in this game: the music, which is laid back, mellow, almost like "elevator music" but without the "please stay on the line" irritation; and the mid-game break, which shows off a series of digitized postcards of the Pebble Beach clubhouse, then allows you to get up and stretch your legs for a "coffee break." It's a very nice touch. This is especially helpful for a long session with your friends.

The only real complaint I ever had with Pebble Beach Golf Links was that judging the power of your swings was difficult to gauge; but that's true of just about every golf videogame ever made. This genre has barely changed at all since US Gold dropped Leaderboard Golf onto the 8-bit home computers 30 years ago. The Nintendo Wii Remote offered some needed innovations, but even then, the core gameplay hasn't budged. This is probably why I remember this title for its little intangibles; the little touches are all you've got. Pebble Beach is the textbook definition of "hidden gem," and Sega Saturn owners should definitely scrounge up the five bucks to add it to their software library.

DTVOL4 and Writing Update

This is just a quick message for my followers on this blog (all three of you). I've been telling myself to write more regularly on this site, but 2014 proved to be rather busy for me as a writer.  I'm going to try to publish more frequently, write more about turntables and music and videogames.

I'm also working towards publishing several manuscripts, all based on my blog writings since 2003. This is something that I've threatened to do many times, but always held back because of my own insecurities. I never felt that I had enough content. Well, nuts to that.  And so I'm working on a couple videogame volumes, one on Nintendo's "Virtual Console," another of critics' rants and raves. I definitely want to write a "Videogame Classics" book, but that requires a lot more work to complete, so it will have to move to the back burner for now. I also want a "kitchen sink" book that combines my essays on music and movies and politics and whatnot.

I always had this idea of stealing the album covers from Black Sabbath's Master of Reality and Vol 4. I just liked the graphic design of those two, and the way they complimented one another with the purples, oranges and blacks. Add in the Virtual Console book (now tentatively titled, "Zen Arcade Vol I"), and we've got the beginnings of a little publishing empire. Add in a book of essays from Ghibli Blog, and we've got the first four volumes.

Anyway, this is just an update for anyone lucky enough to stick around. My thanks to everyone who visits Vol 4 and Ghibli Blog. Now let's all take a break and play videogames!

You're Never Too Old to Play Sega Saturn

I've been pretty busy on the writing front lately, between Discotek Media's Horus, Prince of the Sun DVD and Ghibli Blog. This weekend, I put away the work and spent my time slacking off and playing video games. This becomes a rare luxury when you reach my age; being a grownup is a full-time job.

I dusted off my Sega Saturn, the Japanese model in the eggshell white, and spent most of my time playing through Steep Slope Sliders, Cave's excellent snowboarding game from 1997. The graphics still look wonderful, in that squarish Sega Saturn style; the gameplay is still sublime. I find myself competing endlessly for higher scores on the courses. Another hill over here, another drop over there. I could work in another 720 backflip over the railroad tracks if I time it right...

I can only imagine what today's teenager, with a new Playstation 4 and its earth-shattering technology, would think of this. Could they even stand to look at these old, blocky, chunky, ugly graphics? Could they bear the horror of a controller that doesn't have dual analog sticks and 18 buttons? Do they even have the gameplay skills, after years of sitting quietly, idly watching the millionth Call of Duty movie cut-scene? Who knows? Who cares. If they can't grok greatness, then it's their loss. I feel sorry that they missed out on arcade video games.

It's probably true that, as the old folks say, "you had to be there." Playing Sega Saturn in the Year of Our Lord 2015 is one part nostalgia, one part defiance. I'm rebelling against the passage of time and its erosion of all things I hold dear. But I'm also having a lot of fun playing Sega Saturn, and enjoying myself in the present. These are the greatest toys ever invented, and when its creators became obsessed with "creating art," something very crucial was lost in the equation.

Why can't Sega release a new video game system that plays all the old hits from their classic consoles? There has to be a market for a "Netflix of Video Games." Somebody just has to get off their butts and remember what video games were like, before the industry was taken over by Hollywood Envy. And I'll bet I could win those teenagers over to the charms of Sega Saturn. Just a couple runs on Steep Slope Sliders, enough to get the blood pumping. That should do the trick.