Also, I posted about the public beta release of the v002 Rutt/Etra software synthesizer on CreateDigitalMotion.com. I’ve been an alpha tester and helper on the project, even putting my meager Illustrator skills to use recreating the RE logo. It’s a beautiful tool — check it out.

And I picked up my girlfriend from the airport, who was down in North Carolina getting out the vote. Now she’s glued to television, radio, Twitter and NYTimes.com while I make dinner. Ah, domestic bliss. Later we might go by 3rd Ward’s election party to agonize over the returns among like-minded Brooklynites.

You can read the list of Mackie winners on Machinima.org.

We won! Tonight at the Machinima Filmfest 2008, This Spartan Life won a Mackie for Best Series. Woohoo! Thank you to the Academy, the judges, the festival sponsors, our friends on the forum who help us shoot every episode, and Chris for getting me involved in the show.

If you’re a fan of the show, here’s a sneak peek at the as-yet-unreleased Episode Six that we submitted to the festival. If you’re new to This Spartan Life, watch the trailer for some context, and then our past episodes if you’d like to see more. Oh, and here’s the award itself, which was made in Eyebeam’s 3D printer. It’s more red in real life and is made of plastic, not cheese.

WTF? TSL and machinima explained

If the paragraph above means nothing to you, let me explain. This Spartan Life is a talk show set in the game Halo 3 on XBox Live. We interview real life guests (artists, musicians, academics, entrepreneurs) using Halo as our soundstage. In plain English, we sit our guests down, slap a controller in their hands, and walk around the online gamespace with them while discussing their work — it’s animation on the cheap, using off-the-shelf game consoles. We record the audio and video straight out of the XBox and edit it into episodes that we distribute online. The show has music, dancing, and storylines from a cast of recurring characters (myself included) and devoted fans of the show as extras and bit players. I do the cinematography with Chris.

My favorites

There were some amazing, beautiful films in the festival this year. Here are some of my favorites.

The Ship, Egils Mednis (Latvia): A stark, restrained vision of two hungry wanderers in a bleak Arctic landscape, well deserving of the Best of the Fest Mackie it won. In the field of machinima, which frequently leans towards pastiche and self-reference (to gaming), this beautiful film stood out.

Ignis Solus, Zachariah Scott (U.S.A.): Like The Ship, Ignis Solus told a wordless, visual story, with wit, charm and “invisible” cinematography: so good that you didn’t notice it.

Clear Skies, Ian Chisholm (U.K.): Excellent voice acting and a tight script full of deliciously dry British sarcasm and wit.

A Day in the Life of a Turret, Smooth Few Films (U.S.A): I don’t know if this one will make sense to people who haven’t played Portal or follow Internet memes and I don’t care: it’s really funny and the music perfectly underscores the mood and timing.

Apocalypsis Ex Machina, Andrzej Kozlowski (Austria): Purely on a mind-bending, symbol-jamming level, this is worth seeing. On top of that, it’s got the technical wow factor for the intricate workings of its churning, glowing machine.

Race to Equality, Virtual Video Project, Global Kids (U.S.A.): I was a bit disappointed that my students from the Virtual Video Project didn’t win for Best Student Work, but happy to see them honored for all their hard work and study. They also spoke on one of the panels with my co-teacher Tabitha Tsai.

The Device Has Been Modified, Olli Viljanen (Finland): A fun, stylish music video that mashed up imagery and dialogue from Portal with video shot in World of Warcraft.

The Blue and Red 3D Spectacular
Nullsleep
Anamanaguchi
Cheap Dinosaurs

Friday, 9 pm
Lit Lounge (2nd Ave between 5th and 6th St)
$6 cover (I think)
Ages: 21+

The latest and greatest version of my demo reel, edited by the fantabulous Benton-C Bainbridge. Watch it in HD!

Music: “Compressoratorer” by Lucky Highstepper.

Just got back from a lovely vacation in Fort Worth, TX, Eugene and Portland, OR. Emily’s cousin Sarah got married in Fort Worth, hence the new suit! Beautiful wedding, wonderful people. Eugene: wonderful family, beautiful country, good times. Portland: good hotel, beautiful city, wonderful company. Inching myself back into work mode now like a hot tub. Or maybe a cold shower. :X

Beautiful new site design by Mary Ann! It’s been in seekrit development for some time now. Thanks for putting it up, MA.

best,Mary Ann

testing:

Hey everyone, I just wanted to spread the word that the feature length documentary [Reformat the Planet] that I directed is now streaming off of the mega hipster site Pitchfork Media…

http://pitchfork.tv/week/blip-festival-reformat-the-planet

the whole movie. for one week only!

If you haven’t yet seen it, or have been waiting for a copy that I never got around to sending, please check it out now. for those of you who aren’t familiar with the movie, a little history lesson: i’ve spent the last few years documenting (with pals Asif Siddiky and Paul Levering) the Chip Music scene, which is an underground music movement based around using old videogame hardware (gameboys, nintendo, atari, etc.) as musical instruments.

Eventually we realized we had captured enough footage to make it into one of those feature length documentary-type things. Taking a year to compile the footage, we eventually premiered the film at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin in March. It also recently played in Melbourne, Australia and will be seen in Seattle, New York, and Amsterdam in the coming months. But who cares about that? Just go watch it now.

This Saturday at The Tank, we’ll be doing a live This Spartan Life show, hosting Pulsewave, the monthly chiptunes event. Is machinima. Is funny. Has live music. Hope see you there.

Info:

This Spartan Life Hosts Pulsewave at The Tank July 26 with 3 live chiptune acts!

Please note new address for The Tank, below

Damian Lacedaemion will be joined by AeroMC, Fyb3roptik, Dan O’Conduit, Amber of the Solid Gold Elite Dancers and 8 Bit Collective forum members, live on screen via XBox Live!

In gamespace, no one can see you sweat.

Pulsewave is the monthly live chiptune music event in NYC. This Spartan Life is the award winning “talk show in gamespace.”

Your host, Damian Lacedaemion enters the unpredictable multiplayer universe to interview various guests and luminaries all within the 3D gamespace of Halo 3 on Xbox Live.

This time, Damian and the crew from This Spartan Life will be on screen live to host a special Pulsewave with musical guests from the upper reaches of chiptune Valhalla:

8GB
Unicorn Dream Attack
Neil Voss

Visuals by the incomparable No Carrier!
Special machinima videos!
Live interaction between avatars and audience!
The bizarre and frightening world of the ub3r 1337 on graphic display!

All with a heavy dose of CHIPTUNES and EXPLOSIONS!

Don’t miss it!

Saturday, July 26, 2008 at The Tank
@ DCTV
87 Lafayette St @ White St
New York, NY, 10013
Cost : $10
Doors open at 9PM

**info page

The Tank Loses Its Home…Again
Sudden Move Highlights Challenges To NYC’s Independent Arts Scene

The Tank, a non-profit venue that has been providing a creative, collaborative home for emerging artists for the past five years, is about to need a new home of its own. But for this young company that moved 3 times in its first 3 years, this is familiar, if undesirable, territory.

Forced to leave its current home by July 31st, The Tank will continue presenting in this period of transition. But by August, this collective of performing arts and public affairs will move into a temporary space, while it searches for a more stable, long-term venue for 2009. As of now, neither the transitional venue nor the next home are determined.

Damage caused by massive plumbing problems, compounded by irreconcilable issues with the building’s owner, has created a costly, unwelcome and untenable situation at 279 Church Street in Tribeca, where The Tank had made its home with the performing arts presenters Collective: Unconscious (C:U) since January, 2006. At this time, C:U also intends to continue presenting, although is unsure where.

“After we lost our original home on 42nd Street, it wasn’t clear if we’d survive the transition. But we’ve been on Church Street longer than we were on 42nd – we not only survived, we expanded,” explained Founder and Managing Director Mike Rosenthal, who has curated two of The Tank’s most successful offerings: the annual Bent Festival of experimental music and Blip Festival of Game Boy generated music. “It’s a shame to move so suddenly after all the work we’ve put into this space – but we need to feel our artists and audience are coming to a welcoming, healthy setting…and we’re going to make that true.” [...]

We’re relatively new to cat ownership. One thing we learned after we moved to Williamsburg last fall was that nearby birds and other prey can make our cat Lila Brown make a strange cracking/clicking sound, as if she’s imagining crunching their tasty bones. Recently I caught this behavior on video. You’re welcome, Internets.