Entries for March 2012

March 30, 2012

Protect Abed

I saw this ad on the subway yesterday. I haven’t visited the site, but I assume it’s part of a viral marketing campaign to keep Community on the air.

Protect Abed

Okay, now I’ve visited the site. They’ve built a pitch-perfect imitation of a mattress-cover company’s website. I’m not sure what it has to do with Abed, but I’ll bet if I dig deep enough I’ll figure it out. It must be some sort of meta-ironic-pop-culture-referencing thing. That’s so Abed.

#sixseasonsandamovie

Posted by David at 7:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under: Advertising | Entertainment

March 6, 2012

Inventor Portrait: Ralph Baer, video game inventor, who turns 90 years old this week

[cross-posted from my photography blog]

Ralph Baer, the father of video games, turns 90 years old on Thursday. One of his early inventions, the Magnavox Odyssey, was the first home video game system. It turns 40 years old this year. I photographed and interviewed Ralph over the summer for my ongoing Inventor Portraits Project, and this seemed like a good time to share some of the video in which we discuss, among other things, why he’s still inventing at 90 years old.

At one point in our interview he expressed frustration that modern kids don’t read anymore because they’re too busy playing with their smartphones. So I asked him if he thinks kids play too many video games today. Did he accidentally unleash a monster with his invention? His answer:

Yeah. I did a bit. What I thought I unleashed was a family game. If you’ll stop to consider for a second, what’s the ping pong game? You can’t play ping pong with yourself. It was meant to be played by two people. And we had four-handed ping pong and hockey games early on, also. I always thought of it as a family game. And it just sort of degenerated into a one player type thing which was never in my mind.

I thought that was interesting. I think I see a pendulum swinging back in Baer’s direction with consoles like the Nintendo Wii, which put an emphasis on group play.

Anyway, Happy 90th Birthday, Ralph!

Posted by David at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Filed under: Art | Entertainment | Games | Interview | Photography | Technology