From the monthly archives:

December 2010

Now You’re Playing with Power

December 19, 2010

The Mario crime family enlists their bazooka-wielding gangster friends Yoshi and Toad in order to retrieve Mario Mario’s goomah from the clutches of Bowser the crime boss.  Enjoy this amazing mock trailer for The Brothers Mario created by a filmmaking duo called The Country Club.

If you passed your oldest and most beloved NES franchise through [...]

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Synthetic Substitution

December 17, 2010

If Not a Real Thing were to have a theme song, it’d be Melvin Bliss’ obscure 1973 B-Side “Synthetic Substitution”. Not only is a fantastic groove, but it’s so wildly out-of-print that no one’s ever gonna sue me for using it.

You’ll instantly recognize the drum beat from the intro to just about every hip hop [...]

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Imaginary Ad Men Wanted

December 1, 2010

The huge online multiplayer game City of Heroes is now about five years old, and its pixelated landscape has always been splashed at every turn with posters and billboards for fictional products.

As the game’s map expands ever further into cyberspace, the task of conceptualizing and designing these ads has become a full-time job. The [...]

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Smolder and Rapunzhair

December 1, 2010

Set to a sexy slide guitar riff resembling Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game, this ad for the imaginary men’s fragrance Smolder was aired during last week’s Saturday Night Live to promote Disney’s Tangled.

Also walking the edgy line  for a kids’ movie ad is another “product” showcased on SNL – Rapunzhair. Apparently a panacea, Rapunzhair (blondetine rejuvenous [...]

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