Tag: Interviews

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Books

Vintage Interview: Al Jaffee From 1998

 

Since 1955, writer and cartoonist Al Jaffee has been contributing regularly to Mad, appearing in over 450 issues, far more than anyone else. Along with illustrations and such regular columns as “Snappy Answers To Stupid Questions,” he’s also done the “Fold-Ins,” many of which were collected in the book The MAD Fold-In Collection: 1964-2010. But Jaffee has led a fascinating life outside of Mad as well, as chronicled in Mary-Lou Weisman’s excellent biography, Al Jaffee’s Mad Life.

In 1998, I had the opportunity to interview Mr. Jaffee for the pop culture magazine Bikini. And while the interview was for an advice column called Tips From Pops, we still covered a wide range of topics, including the pressures of living up to a legacy, keeping things fresh, and living the life of a freelancer.

What follows is a slightly edited version of the interview, most of which has never been published before.

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PC Video Games

Exclusive Interview: Dawngate Composer Jeff Broadbent

Photo by Portland Oregon Photographer Craig Mitchelldyer www.craigmitchelldyer.com 503.513.0550

 

Jeff Broadbent is no stranger to games. A composer and sound designer, he’s worked on the post-apocalyptic single-player-focused I Am Alive, the sci-fi online-only Planetside 2, the movie-inspired Transformers: Dark Of The Moon, the upcoming near-future military skirmish Tom Clancy’s Endwar Online, as well as his most recent work on the fantasy multiplayer online battle area game Dawngate. But in talking to him about that latter game, Broadbent went into how a game’s setting and genre can influence the music he makes for it.

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PC PlayStation 4 Video Games Xbox One

Exclusive Interview: Zen Studios Pinball Designer Peter Grafl

 

If you’ve been to this site more than once, you might’ve noticed that I have an affinity for the pinball games made by Zen Studios. Be they based on the Star Wars movies, Marvel Comics, or an original idea, Zen’s pinball tables always manage to mix realistic physics and sounds with physic-ly impossible mechanics. Which, for a gamer who grew up on pinball, hits a real sweet spot.

I recently had a chance to pick the brain of Peter Grafl, one of the pinball table designers at Zen Studios, and asked him who decides what tables they’ll make, how they’re designed, and what tables he’d like to make.

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iOS Video Games

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Toy Rush Project Lead John Comes

In many tower defense games, your towers are defended and attacked by characters of the sci-fi or fantasy persuasion. But in the iOS tower defense game Toy Rush, your attackers and defenders are toys…adorable, adorable toys. I spoke to John Comes, the design director from Uber Entertainment and the project lead for Toy Rush, about what inspired this game, why they went this cute route, and is that a shark with legs and a top hat?

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Books

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Dualism Author Bill DeSmedt

To fans of sci-fi thrillers, Bill DeSmedt is the author of Singularity, the first book in the “Archon Sequence.” But to me, Bill DeSmedt is my friend’s dad. With a second book in the series, Dualism, hitting bookstores and eReaders, I spoke to Jeff’s dad, I mean Mr. DeSmedt, about the impetus for his new book, the importance of science facts in science fiction, and the future of his series.

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TV

Exclusive Interview: NCIS Star Brian Dietzen

"Anonymous Was a Woman" -- Gibbs and McGee travel to Afghanistan when a murder case leads them to an Afghan women’s shelter Mike Frank’s secretly supported for years, on NCIS, Tuesday, Oct. 15 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Pictured left to right: Brian Dietzen and David McCallum Photo: Sonja FlemmingCBS ©2013 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 

As Jimmy Palmer on NCIS, actor Brian Dietzen has gone from a one-time guest to one of the stars of the show. But while he’s gotten this career boost on one of the biggest shows on TV, that success thankfully hasn’t gone to his head, as Brian has remained the same down-to-Earth guy he was when the show started eleven years ago. Or the same as he was when I met him seven years ago at a party for the video game Assassin’s Creed.

A few days after he finished filming the last episode of NCIS’ eleventh season, Brian and I had brunch at Home Café in Silverlake, where we talked about the season just past, how he went from a one-time guest to one of the stars of the show, and what his costar Pauley Perrette, who plays Abby, really thinks of him.

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iOS Video Games

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: TownCraft Creators Leigh & Rohan Harris

With a name like TownCraft, you might expect this crafting and village building game to be completely unoriginal shovelware made by a couple of unscrupulous developers who have no problem ripping off someone else’s hard work. But TownCraft is neither a Minecraft clone nor a riff on Animal Crossing. Instead, it takes elements of both and other games — games that help inspire Minecraft and Animal Crossing — to make an interesting hybrid.

With TownCraft, now available on iPhones and Macs — and, apparently, coming to PCs at some point — after already been available on iPad, I spoke to lead designer Leigh Harris and his brother, lead programmer Rohan Harris, of Flat Earth Games about how TownCraft came to be, how it came to be on iPhones and Macs, and why they couldn’t come up with a better name.

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Categories
Music

Vintage Interview: Sonny Rollins From 1998

 

Sonny Rollins isn’t considered a saxophone colossus just because he named an album that in 1956. It’s because of the music on that album, as well as such other jazz classics as 1966’s East Broadway Rundown, 1998’s Global Warming, 2001’s Without A Song: The 9/11 Concert, and on up through his latest, Road Shows Volume 3.

In 1998, I had the opportunity to interview Mr. Rollins for the pop culture magazine Bikini. And while the interview was for an advice column called Tips From Pops, we still covered a wide range of topics, including his penchant for practicing, his place in jazz history, and even The Simpsons.

What follows is a slightly edited version of that 1998 conversation, most of which has never been published before. You can also read an interview I did with him in 1996, for the music magazine Huh, here.

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iOS Video Games

Exclusive Interview: Blast Zone!’s Christopher Pfeiffer

 

One of the irritating things about being a game journalist is when developers say their game is unique when it clearly isn’t. “Yeah, it’s a sci-fi first-person shooter, and you wear power armor and talk to a blue hologram lady…but it’s nothing like Halo.” Which is why it was a relief to interview Blast Zone! executive producer Christopher Pfeiffer about his — by his own admission — Bomberman-esque game for iOS, Android, and Amazon devices.

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