iPad: Once again, I’ll be honest and say that if it has the Steve Jobs stamp of approval on it, chances are damn good that I’ll own it. This device, however, was even a bit of a stretch for me in terms of justifying a purchase. My initial reaction to it, like so many others, was one of “I have this already. It’s my iPhone”. However, over the months since it’s April 2010 launch, I’ve found it vying for the spot as the single most used piece of tech in my household, second only to the television. For being something that I don’t “really” need, the iPad has managed to ingrain itself into the very fabric of my daily routine. It’s first thing I take out when I get to work, it’s the first thing my daughter asks for when I get home and it’s very often the last thing I see while reading a book in bed or watching a late-night television show with my wife. Say what you will about it, the iPad has managed to exceed my expectations by doing the impossible: carving out a niche in my already over-filled tech life.

Twitter: I was a fan of Twitter in 2009 (and put it on my best-of list then too, I believe) but this simple program has continued to show it’s usefulness in 2010. Part of what makes it so fantastic is it’s simple core structure; 140 character messages, nothing more. With this simple premise, however, Twitter has become my major news source, a vehicle for communicating with podcast listeners and keeping tabs on people I find interesting or inspirational. Hell, it’s even becoming a great vehicle for promoting your movie in the hands of Kevin Smith. Twitter shows that a simple, cleanly executed idea can become so much more when in hands of a creative and active user base. Let’s also mention that the fantastic mobile twitter app, Tweetie, was acquired by Twitter and their subsequent iPad and Mac offerings have become my favorite way to access the service.

Dropbox: This may go down as the most important program I installed on my devices this year. Simply put, Dropbox is a spot on the cloud where I can put my shit, to be accessed by all my devices that need said shit. While other programs and services do something similar, it’s the way in which Dropbox does it that sets it apart. It’s clean and simple with an interface that requires little thought. It’s automated, so it never feels like an FTP program and it’s fast so that uploading things isn’t a pain in the ass waiting game. The simplicity and ease of use make it a program that entered my workflow right away and stayed as an integral part of accessing things from anywhere. It’s a service I simply can’t live without now and it’s saved my ass a number of times. It’s my favorite new discovery of 2010.

The Social Network: I’m not sure, exactly, why I found this movie so inspirational. By all accounts, Mark Zuckerberg is I guy I just couldn’t stand to be around for more than 5 minutes. However, the story of how a college kid and his buddies managed to create a computer program that would embed itself into the very culture of America is a fascinating one for me. There is something about the story of an idealistic young man that takes a risk and becomes a success with that vision that really appeals to me. Sadly, it’s probably just me wishing I had the balls to do something similar but David Fincher’s film really spoke to me. It was also shot in such a warm and beautiful way, using the old Harvard campus to great effect, that it really sucked me into the world. Add the fantastic performances by the principle actors and the eerily quiet score by Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross and it was film that set the bar for me in 2010.

Cooking/Mexican Cuisine/Rick Bayless: In November of 2009, I had a rather life changing moment when I ate at Topolobompo, a gourmet Mexican restaurant owned by chef Rick Bayless. After eating what still stands as one of the most interesting and delicious meals of my life, I walked over to a counter that held a series of cookbooks by the chef. Standing there was a member of the cooking staff on break, reading one of the cookbooks. He spotted me browsing, turned to me and pointed at the book “Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen” and simply said “That one’s the best”. I took his advice and proceeded down a year that was dedicated to not only cooking traditional Mexican food but one where food was finally put into perspective in my own life.

I had cooked off and on over the years but never in a purposeful way. 2010 became the year where I dedicated myself to the idea of good food, prepared simply and in my own kitchen for my family. I wanted to capture the feelings that had been awakened during my meal at Topolobompo and by February, I had hosted my very first dinner party featuring Mexican cuisine. 2010 was the year of cooking meals for my family almost every day and with each new dish, my confidence as a cook grew stronger and stronger. I began consulting my mother on recipes she used to regularly make for us as kids, adding them back into the fabric of my life and passing those flavors onto my own children. In addition to meals for my family, I had the joy of cooking Paella with Moe on an outdoor brick oven for 30 friends, and serving Red Mole to a couple who understood it’s significance and history. Be it meals for everyday or celebratory moments of my life, 2010 was the year where I began to dedicate life to food and it’s proper place in my world. It has been one of the most joyful and satisfying endeavors I have ever undertaken.

Arcade Fire-The Suburbs: This disc captivated me during the summer of 2010 in a way that no other album did. It spun in my car, streamed off my iPod, iPad and Mac at every given opportunity. These songs had hooks and chord progressions that kept me engaged and they even managed to make the whole “concept album” idea palatable. Add to that the fact that they represent an Indie band that managed to reach the pinnacle of the venerated Top 10 list and you have something special. Now, if only everything hadn’t been ruined by their Saturday Night Live appearance which revealed just how goonie that lead singer guy is. Seriously, it’s like Lurch meets Kraftwerk.

I realize there are no videogames on this particular list and it’s not because I didn’t play them. I just feel like I’ve said all that on the podcast, so you can check that out if you’re curious as to my top 2010 games. With that, I’ll close by simply saying a big thank you to all the folks who have listened to us this year, helped celebrate our 5th year of podcasting and continued to make the show a fun thing by writing in and leaving us fantastic voice mails. 2011 represents the third year of Robot Panic’s existence and as such (if we stay true to form) it’s about time for us to start blowing shit up. I just want to thank you for being the kind of people who are mostly cool with that kind of thing and it’s nice to know we have such fun people along for the ride.

ESPN 30:30 Box Set - ESPN has been running this incredibly awesome series of thirty sports documentaries this year to celebrate 30 years on the air. ESPN reached out to some of Hollywood’s top directors to create these films that celebrate some of the most talked about and under-appreciated moments in sports. The first box set just went on sale last week, and it collects the first fifteen films of the series. This collection covers such memorable spectacles as the OJ Simpson car chase on June 17, 1994, the rise and fall of the USFL, the Wayne Gretzky trade to LA and the tragic death of Len Bias.

No more Lost - I had a very strong love/hate relationship with Lost. For every good episode that saw a major plot development or great moments, it was usually followed with an episode that killed off one of your favorite characters or added yet another unneeded question to keep the WTF balance in check for the series. With Lost finally ending after six seasons in 2010, I am grateful that I will no longer have to anticipate any more episodes of this bizarre program that sent me on a whirlwind of emotions like no other show before it. I promise to never waste another moment on this show again…unless ABC will somehow manage to re-release the entire series in chronological order.

The Book of Basketball - This was actually released in 2009, but the paperback edition just hit shelves a couple weeks ago and it includes all kinds of bonus content! I finally finished the hardcover edition of this book a few months ago, and even only being a casual hoops fan I found it to be an extremely informative and entertaining read. Bill Simmons knows his hoops, and his humorous writing style features all sorts of imperative footnotes that makes catching up on basketball history fun for everyone!

Season Two of The Tester & WCG Ultimate Gamer - As much as it pains me to lay this out there, I love both of these shows. Say what you will about reality television and the usual hi jinx that it contains, but I was entertained by second seasons of The Tester and WCG Ultimate Gamer this year. Both shows are eight episodes and features video game themed challenges where the goal is to win to become either the next PlayStation game tester (yes, really), or for a one year roster spot on WCG USA. There are a few characters and moments on each show that are pretty groan inducing I will admit, but that is par for the course with almost any reality show. If you can manage to stomach that, than you will be in for a fun ride that brought back memories of old video game contest shows like Video Power and Nick Arcade.

Heavy Rain, Alan Wake & Red Dead Redemption - If you happen to remember my article half a year ago here ranking the top 10 games for the first half of the year, you may recall that it was a particularly strong first half of the year for games. Rest assured, now with 2010 nearly in the bag, I can say without a doubt that 2010 is the first year where the first half year of releases easily outclassed the second half. It outweighed it so much so that my top three from the first half of the year are my top three for my overall game of the year. And I hold all three of these games on a high pedestal with not much ground separating them in my rankings. Pardon the cheap plug, but to hear my final top 10 rankings, please subscribe to my podcast where we will be having our game of the year episode within a few weeks.

Pinball FX2/Marvel Pinball - Hats off to Zen Studios for their consistency at pumping out nonstop awesome video game pinball tables! Almost every time I sit down to play games, I tend to warm up with a couple of runs on a pinball game made by Zen Studios. Whether it was them supporting Pinball FX and Zen Pinball with frequent DLC tables throughout most of 2010, and then proceeding to blow us away with Pinball FX 2 and its amazing evolution of table design and leaderboard upgrades. They did not stop at Pinball FX 2, because just a couple months after that fine release, they pump out Marvel Pinball, with four more addicting tables themed after some of the best superheroes in the Marvel Universe…and Blade. I dare you to download a table or two and not get hooked to the amount of sheer fun each table provides and the addictive nature of score chasing everyone on your friends list.

Miz as WWE Champ - This just would not be a “stuff of the year” list from me without a couple wrestling mentions. Mike “The Miz” Mizannin had quite an interesting journey to becoming the current WWE champion. From debuting in the entertainment world ten years ago on The Real World, to riding the MTV reality circuit for a few years until finally debuting in WWE in 2004 on its Tough Enough competition. Being one of the few Miz fans from his early beginnings in WWE when no one thought he would last a year in the company, I nearly lost it when he finally proved all the doubters wrong and  won the WWE championship.

The Nexus John Cena Beatdown - Just one more wrestling moment to add to this list. If you used to be a wrestling fan, odds are you watched during the WCW/WWF Monday Night Wars when each company was raising the bar each and every Monday to get you to flip the channel. With no real competition, WWE has become complacent with its storytelling and features less and less must see moments each year. In 2010 they managed to capture some of that old fire with the debut of the Nexus stable. Here they made an impact with an 8-on-1 beatdown on John Cena and literally tore apart the ring and beat up the entire ringside staff in a moment completely unprecedented. The Nexus has since become one of the most interesting stables of wrestlers in quite a few years.

The Story

For those of you following the DGR Twitter feed, you are probably aware (whether you care to be or not) of my summer decree: learn to feed self.  Seriously, it’s like I just moved out of my parents house.  I realize how juvenile it may sound, but 12 years of living alone and working hours that almost never allow for a self-prepared meal make for some pretty stupid eating habits.  Fortunately, my job provides some down time in the summer, which I will use this year in what will surely be an embarrassing, if not exciting, attempt to learn how to cook.  And I mean REALLY cook.

Of course, there is  the running joke on the Robot Panic site about me asking John how to cook SpaghettiOs in college.  Sadly, while slightly misrepresented (barely), it is mostly true… entirely.  Since that time, I had learned to make my own pasta noodles, ravioli, various sauces, seafood, etc., but those are extremely time intensive meals that only appear for special occasions.  In the meantime, I was throwing away piles of produce that I couldn’t eat before it went bad and stocking up on processed food (because it lasted forever), which is terrible for your health.  After spending some time with a few people who genuinely cared about their food, I began to develop an appreciation for eating better and also noticing the general benefits that followed: higher energy levels, improved physical health, etc.

All that aside, I have begun with a few new tools and am about five weeks into my little, but increasingly expensive experiment.  Fortunately, it’s worth every penny.  Probably by a factor of ten, if I can keep it going.  So far, I am very much enjoying the change of pace and loving the results.  The first purchases were the following:

(more…)

Hello again, dearest Robot Panic readers. I have returned from my far too long hiatus that may or may not have involved secret ninja training, world domination planning or seeing how many bags of Goldfish brand crackers I could ingest before my stomach ruptured. During my awesome and very hush hush ninja training, I have discovered something that I felt I need to share with all of you. It is a book, nay, a tome of collected literature/art hybrids. I shall call them…”comics”.

This particular collection is dubbed “Wednesday Comics”. A little backstory, if I may. About one year ago, a bunch of DC wiseguys put their artsy fartsy heads together and came up with an idea that would harken back to the early 1920′s and 1930′s, when a reader of the daily or in those days, weekend, newspaper would be entertained by pages of adventure comics featuring superheroes and other various kinds of heroes. This concept proved to be hugely successful, that is until it stopped being successful and became unsuccessful. So like many people before them that have fallen victim to the old addage of “History repeats itself”, DC has decided to bring back a form of entertainment that has been the way of Gary Coleman (too soon?) for decades. So DC decided to bring some of their most popular characters, with a few less popular, give each a team of great writers and artists, print each issue on shitty classic newsprint paper and ship em out every Wednesday for 12 weeks straight. It was a huge success and as of this day no word on whether or not another series will happen again. (I guess that DC doesn’t like money.)

Enclosed in this HUGE hardcover book, are the originally released 15 character based stories, plus 2 unreleased stories. And who might these characters be? Well, has anyone ever heard of Metamorpho? Or the Metal Men? Or Kamandi? Yes! These DC flagship characters are all in this collection, featuring new stories and collaborations from the top writers and artists that DC keeps locked inside a small, poorly lit basement surrounded by a chicken wire fence at an undisclosed location. Oh, and some jerks like Bat-something, Superbro and the Green…um…Giant are also in there, but no one cares about them. They suck and will probably never be heard from again after this. (more…)

Bloom County represents one of those comics that has always seemed a part of my childhood days, even though I didn’t understand a lick of what I was reading at the time. Berkely Breathed’s seminal comic strip of the 1980′s lampooned just about every facet of entertainment and politics of that decade. While Opus and Co. were taking jabs at Reaganomics, the Iran Contra Affair and Jimmy Swagert’s infidelities, I was simply entertained by a talking Penguin and a guy in a wheelchair who pretended to be playing out Star Trek. I remember two of my uncles were big fans of Bloom County and I would take time at family gatherings to pour over the collections that sat in their bookshelves. As such, when it comes to the culture of the 80′s it seems pretty well captured in every line of Bloom County. Now, thanks to IDW and their fantastic new hardcover series, I get to have the whole series from the very start.

For a start, the collection is presented in a beautiful hardbound book with heavy weight paper that really shows off the comic strips nicely. The book is the kind of thing that would look fantastic on your coffee table. The comics are laid out in chronological order with a few that have never been in print or haven’t been seen since the seventies. The books begins with a brief interview with Berkely Breathed regarding the start of the series and even has some of his old comics from his college strip to show where some of the Bloom County characters originated.

Admittedly, some of the early comics don’t look as fantastic as those in other collections you might already own. The Calvin and Hobbes books are a few that come to mind. Both Breathed and the editor mention this in the preface to the book as well. The reason for this is that many of these old strips had to be pieced together after being found in old newspaper archives. For something as awesome and important as this comic was, it’s almost shocking to find out that Breathed never took care to save his Bloom County work. Many of the comics in the collection had to be pulled from cardboard boxes in the creators garage. The result of this is a collection of comics that visually appear uneven throughout the book. Nothing that makes it unreadable or not worth the price. However, for those looking for a pristine presentation, you’re not going to find a set without visual flaws here.

However, I’m of the opinion that these visual faults actually work in favor of the set. Breathed’s early work is a study in inconsistancy and creative direction finding. Breathed himself notes this in many of the sidebar comments he’s added on every page. Many of these comics were finished on the plane ride to the editor as he made a last second dash to meet his deadline. Many of the jokes and characters are complete rip-offs of early Doonsbury, one of Breathed’s biggest influences. The great part is, he doesn’t hide it and even takes great pains to tell you just how rough and early these comics are. I think one of the greatest things about this collection is how much of an open window this is into a creators mind as he develops his work in the early stages. It’s candid, raw and ultimately brilliant.

A great study in the early run of Bloom County and a must own for any fan of the comics scene in the 80′s, IDW did a fantastic job on this set. The best part is that we get more volumes in which we see the true zenith of Bloom County. Rumor has it that Breathed’s follow up, Outland, will also be getting a similar treatment. We can only hope.

The best price for this book can be found at Amazon.com. Follow the link below to check it out:

Bloom County: The Complete Library, Vol. 1: 1980-1982 (Library of American Comics)

I guess it’s no secret that I’m a pretty big audio junkie and when it comes to recording things my curiosity seems to be insatiable. Ever since we started doing our little experiement, I’ve become obsessed with the idea of recording sounds. So this book was right up my alley and it’s one of the more candid looks at the art of sound recording.

For those who don’t know the name (and I was one of them), Bruce Swedien is a five time Grammy award winning audio engineer who has worked on almost all of Michael Jackson’s seminal recordings, including the ground breaking “Thriller” album. I don’t know where you were in 1984, but I remember “Thriller” hitting like a damn hammer when it hit the airwaves. To this day, it has one of the most distinctive sounds and it’s sonic impact has not diminished one bit over time. That sonic impact is the direct result of Bruce Swedien’s work and in his book “In the Studio with Michael Jackson”, he tells you exactly how he did it.

If you’re a gear head and are interested in the tools of the audio trade, particularly those now classic analog pieces that were used in the early eighties, Bruce devotes a section dissecting everything from the microphones used to the compressors and reverb units that went into creating some of the best sounds laid to tape. If you’ve ever wondered how the “Thriller” album comes by that distinctive sonic presence and how it has managed to retain it’s poignancy over 25 years later, Bruce devotes page after page to the subject. For the aspiring audio devotee, the secrets that Bruce reveals so willingly and candidly are akin to going to school with the most gifted teacher you can imagine. With little held back, Bruce paints the picture of a group of creators at the top of their game and invites you along for the ride.

However, if audio isn’t your thing but you just can’t get enough of Michael Jackson, then this book relates some very interesting and endearing stories regarding the King of Pop. From candid stories about the recording and creation of his greatest songs to tales of the young man’s interaction with other musicians and fellow pop stars, Bruce tells them all with a warmth and honesty that is rare in any book on Jackson. If you’re looking for any of the “freak show” accounts of Michael Jackson’s life, you won’t find it here. This book is a simple testament to Jackson as an artist and it really gives you a window into a master craftsman at the top of his game.

A physical copy of this book may be a bit difficult to get your hands on, if you’re interested. The book was published around the same time that Michael Jackson died and was criticized for “cashing in” on the pop star’s death. As such, many stores either didn’t carry it or the supply they did have was bought up in a hurry in the wake of Jackson’s passing. I found mine at a local half-price bookstore and this might be where these things show up after Michael Jackson fans realize it’s more about recording than a biography. If you don’t have one of those near you, I know Amazon has it here: In the Studio with Michael Jackson (Book)

For those of you who consume your books digitally these days, you can also find it for the Kindle here.

I find Twitter to be an amazing thing. What once struck me as a half hearted attempt to cash in on the whole Facebook craze has turned into nothing less than an instrumental communication tool for our podcast, this website and our readers/listeners. While I once struggled with figuring out just what I was supposed to do with Twitter, these days it seems the sky is the limit. That’s what makes this whole One Book, One Twitter idea such an interesting thing.

Jeff Howe, a contributing editor over at Wired Magazine, was inspired by the collective reading exercises in cities such as Seatle and Chicago to create a “book club” of sorts via Twitter. His premise was simple: “What if everyone read the same book?” The theory of these types of things is that by reading the same book, strangers from all walks of life will have something in common. Pretty noble and neat idea, I say.

Well, the voting has been going on for some time as to exactly which book will be read by the Twitter populous and the winner has been announced today. One of my favorite authors, Neil Gaiman, has been selected as the author with his book “American Gods” receiving the most votes.

So, let’s all join in! The book is pretty easy to find, especially if you like reading your books digitally. I know both Amazon the Apple iBook store have copies. I’m sure you can find them readily available at your local bookstores and libraries as well.

If you’re into it, read the book and follow the #1b1t hashtag on Twitter for what other folks are saying. Head on over to Crowdsourcing.com as well for all the information on 1b1t so far, as well as any new information as it happens. You can also follow Jeff on Twitter by hooking up with @crowdsourcing.

Happy reading!

The much anticipated Mass Effect 2 is being released this week and I’ve seen and heard a lot of buzz for the game across the Facebook/Twitter feeds and coworkers/friends. I am at an odd crossroads from where I stand with Mass Effect. In the original game from 2007, I made it about ten hours before I was drowning in an overflowing pool of primary quests, side quests, planet exploring and my horrible obsession to talk with everybody I run into.

I still fondly recall my time with Shepherd and Co. and want to beat it before eventually starting the sequel. However, an attempt to put some progress in finishing one quest several months ago resulted in me picking up several more side quests along the way and just throwing my hands up in the air two hours into that save without finishing a quest.

I did discover two items in the past several months to keep me immersed in the Mass Effect lore, and those are the two novels by Drew Karpyshyn: Revelation and Ascension. Usually I am not one for science fiction (I am just now remembering getting bored and giving up on a Star Trek book report several pages in during the 7^th grade), and was surprised I actually got into the game itself. Just as Bioware’s game reeled me in, as does the novels.Mass Effect

Revelation starts off detailing the origins of humanity’s discovery of Prothean technology that led to the First Contact War against species of the Citadel. Within pages I was instantly hooked because I could not remember for the life of me how much I learned of humanity’s Citadel origins in the game. Revelation does a fantastic job at filling me in about humanity’s place in the Citadel, and almost every other race I recall from the game such as the Protheans, Geth, Turians, Collectors, Krogans and many more.

Revelation primarily revolves around Commander David Anderson, a respected leader of humanity, attempting to track down and rescue Kahlee Sanders, a scientist gone AWOL and suspected for treason as her classified base on Sidon is assaulted and with all her comrades killed in the ensuing carnage. Anderson forms an uneasy alliance with the renowned Spectre, Saren in a attempt to rescue her and track down a mysterious Prothean Artifact another scientist at Sidon was obsessively researching on. Revelation unfolds almost like a stereotypical action movie, but there is something about Karpyshyn’s storytelling and taking in the roots of the Mass Effect lore in the process that makes this first book an addicting page-turner from beginning to end.
(more…)

Recently I received a Kindle as an early Christmas gift. Given last week’s talk of e-readers and comic books (and John’s inexplicable urge to put anything I write on this website), I thought I’d give you some impressions.

Overall: The new Kindle is about as thick as a cheap pocket calculator and roughly the size of a larger paperback. For an easy reference based on this audience, roughly the length and width of the paperback zombie survival guide. The viewable screen is about 2/3s of that, meaning you can get as much on a page as you would with a cheap paperback. A large version is available, which has more buttons and such, but that’s about all I got on it.

Cases are available, but I’ve had mine bouncing around in my manpurse with a netbook and a number of notebooks, power adapters, etc. and it’s held up just fine. The screen is slightly recessed from the outside casing, meaning that something is much more likely to come against the white plastic case or (relatively scratch resistant) metallic backing. Overall the device is pleasing to the eye and inoffensive, which is what you want from something you’re going to stare at for hours. I got a number of impressed comments while reading in line.

The USB cable with power outlet dongle is also slim and easy to store. Kindle can charge off the wall socket or your PC. I let the power adapter live on my nightstand because I never really plan on merging my Kindle and PC.
(more…)

“How’re you feeling about the PSP comic store/digital comics in general? Me? I think I’m sticking with paper. I’m fuckin old school!”

-John via Twitter

I think publications on PSP are a great idea. I’d totally get into books and such again if they were actually available on devices I’m always carrying on me. Does the iPhone do ebooks? Probably some kind of rigged app or a few standalone apps, but on no universal book reader, right? I can settle for comics. One thing on comics is I like to sit there and examine the art in great detail. The PSP comic viewer let’s me do that. I can zoom out or in as I please and pan the page around to study every which way. There’s even this Autoflow thing where mashing L & R Buttons automatically zeroes in on all the relevant screen placements, making reading these things as lazy as you wish. Button config is even available.

A massive plus is the custom soundtracks function that somewhat works with this comic viewer. Too many times I’m walkin’ somewhere with my PSP music goin’, then when I go to sit down and switch to a game, I have to stop the good sounds for crappy game music from R-Type Command. Say I’m in a podcast I want to listen to but don’t want to sit there and stare at the wall, I can whip out a comic instead without holding up my audio. The music player is limited though. There’s no fast forward function for picking up where you left off in a long track and it doesn’t support PSPgo very well, so the player can only read from the system storage but not from the expandable cards (where I keep all my music). I’m not even sure it supports playlists. Thanks Japan!

Either way, the big draw for me on PSP comics is portability and hiding what I got. I work with baby boomers. They’re not very smart. I got the heavy stink eye when I sat in the public commons and had a lunch while reading Watchmen. I’d much prefer masking what I’m looking at and maintain the privacy. Sure I’m 20-something years old and it’s not a big deal for me to defend what I’m into, but I also value solo downtime above most things, so avoiding possibility of needless conflict with nosy old people idiots with high judging and poor listening skills is a selling point. Since I don’t do a lot of reading when I’m at home, I pretty much have to bring whatever I intend to read with me somewhere else. At home I’d prefer the music, gaming, or time with the pre-wife, so books are right-out. I’m not owning a man-purse ever, so that leaves me with whatever fits in my pocket. PSP works, a tube hanging out a foot above my back pocket doesn’t.

(more…)