My friend and the editor of my Idiot’s Guide books, Kris Oprisko of IDW fame, just started a new audioblog: Gomek Soundbombing. Kris is a huge music fan and has spent the last couple years living in Spain with his wife and kids, broadening his horizons, along with his musical tastes. Check it out!
Libraries and Games
The Arizona Daily Star has an excellent article about how libraries are integrating video games. Better yet, it mentions how the ALA (with funding from the Verizon Foundation) has launched a $1 million research project about how playing video games affects players’ literacy. One of the librarian members of the study’s national panel is my friend Liz Danforth. Besides being …
Atomic Array Podcast
Ed Healy (who sometimes comments around here) just launched Atomic Array, a new podcast about tabletop games. First up, Ed and his partner-in-crime Rone Barton tackle Colonial Gothic, an alternate history RPG from Rogue Games. It’s worth checking out.
Games for Educators
Games for Educators is a cool site to show teachers how to integrate tabletop games into the classroom. I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the convergence of education and games lately. Dr. Jim Gee at the University of Wisconsin has a lot to say about how this works with video games, but it’s great to see some low-tech, …
Free Battlestar Galactica Novel
Tor has been making e-books versions of some of their novels free for a week at a time over the past few months. This week, they actually have a tie-in novel available for free: Battlestar Galactica by Jeffrey A. Carver. Just go to Tor.com to register and get your copy. Each novel is only made available for a week at …
Mix It at CauseIt
My friend Wes Harris (from waaay back in the early White Wolf days) just showed me something cool. His company, EdgeDriven.com, has just launched a new political website: CauseIt.com. It’s a fun, easy tool that lets you create your own politically oriented video mix-clips in your favorite browser. I tossed one together in under five minutes, just for fun. The …
Jones on Gygax
Jeremy Jones, who sometimes posts comments around these parts, recently had an article on Gary Gygax’s influence published in the Spartanburg Herald-Journal. It’s a nice bit of writing, and it features quotes from several industry folks, including Lisa Smedman, Doug Niles, Jared Sorenson, Harley Stroh, and myself.
Local (National) Politics, Set to Music
A group of locals here in Beloit got together and made a music video for the Barack Obama campaign called “It’s Our Time Now.” Rob Tomaro–music director of the Beloit-Janesville Symphony Orchestra–wrote the song, and Nicole Waters of the cover band the Orphans performs it. The song was originally created for a documentary, but when Obama spoke here at Beloit …
Stackpole Rocks–No Joke
Last week, my pal Mike Stackpole revealed that he’s had an asteroid named after him. It’s known as 165612 Stackpole (2001 FP86). How very cool is that? Here’s hoping it orbits forever.
Szymon Says
Szymon Kudranski, the artist who created the interiors for my Dracula’s Revenge comics, has a new website filled with his ever-improving artwork. If you like unique, dramatic illustrations, it’s well worth checking out.