Archive for: March, 2009

We have seen some blatant rip-offs in our time (like when Sony Bravia pilfered directly from our friends Kozy-n-Dan), but this is right up there.  It appears Nine West and New Balance have teamed up to shamelessly steal from one of our favorite Japanese artists, Takashi Murakami.  Not only do they pluck his signature eyeball, there’s a sub-par animation explaining the birth of their new mascot, NWBI.

But it gets better, Nine West and New Balance even go so far as to create a video of the “designers” thinking up the concept, and then name the shoe the same name as one of Murakami’s most famous characters, Kiki!

Oh, the shame.  But Murakami is still untouchable.  There is nothing that could water down his art.  Seeing this piece up close at the MOCA was a sight I won’t soon forget.

It’s “super cuts” like Street Fighter Stupidity HD Remix that make me so pleased that I wasn’t emotionally invested in Street Fighter II and knew that USA was running a cartoon based on the series. I’d watched (and loved) some loathsome half-hour toy commercial cartoons in the eighties (MASK, Silverhawks, C.O.P.S., G.I. Joe, etc.) but I’d also watched a lot of Robotech, making me a young animation snob. In hindsight, most of what I liked was pretty rotten stuff.

But this…

Today Oxygen Games released a rather disturbing press release, announcing their new game for the Wii, DS, and personal computer entitled Hysteria Hospital: Emergency Ward.

In addition to it’s “Endless Mode” as seen above, the warning went on to explain, “Hysteria Hospital may cause your blood pressure to shoot sky high” and “may cause you to become over excited and turn you into a bundle of nerves!”

Luckily they make a cream for that.

Wow, just now finally able to catch my breath.  Things have been a whirlwind as of late.

We last left you with an invite to the MOCA to celebrate the release of SF4 (on Capcom’s dime, of course).  Holy shit, dude… we didn’t think ALL of you would show up.  It was a madhouse!  It got so bad our friend/guest artist Steve Barron, who worked his ass off for three days on our Akuma-themed cabinet, was denied entry.  Fire-marshals with axes were calling the shots.  By 8:30 PM, if you were outside, you were toast.  At least you were in good company.  G4 couldn’t even get back in.

Then we headed to the annual fashion trade show in Vegas, MAGIC.  Las Vegas is funny.  It’s the city you are most excited going to, and the most excited to leave.  At least we got to hang with Greg and Ease from Mishka, and Simone from Tokidoki.  We also got to see one hell of a burlesque show at Forty Deuce (on Ben Sherman’s dime, of course).

Back in LA, I ran into Greg and Ease in front of Johnny Cupcakes (with Johnny himself) on Melrose.  They extended an invite to their little going away party before they fled back to NYC.  Luckily they left behind their personal DJ, Gina Turner.  Not only did she rock the house that evening, she protected it brilliantly from an onslaught of underage ravers.  By dropping the beat and turning on the lights, she snapped them out of their K-holes and shipped them right out the door.