Back to the daily grind. I absolutely recommend that anyone who can possibly manage to make it out to Iceland to do so when the Airwaves Music Festival is going on. It can best be described as a Sundance Film Festival but for music. Theres like all these venues with acts going on simultaneously and it was so cool to just hop around and absorb all different types of sounds. On Saturday they had a performance going on at the Blue Lagoon which was unreal, it was cool to be soaking in some thermal spring or whatever it is... and have all this music going on and shit.

I'll throw together a mini-photo gallery thing and plug it on my next post for anyone who regularly likes to monitor my activities. I think my favorite part of the trip was turning off my phone, my computer and any other form of communication with the western world. I recommend people do that atleast quarterly.... its like refreshing to not be tied down by technology and peoples need to get a hold of you. fuck em... get back to shit in a few days. The world will somehow manage.

In other news, I'm going to pick up where I left off in the sketchbook tour, I also have some stuff i owe TheBoogley and get back to my other shit going on.

Ok thats all for now, heres sumthin.

I am taking a vacation from the NG wars. Lmao bbl

also check out this cat, I've decided to stop making flash games and just post videos of cats all day. That's how they do it in ICELAND

I was poking around peoples userpages earlier and I always run into userpages with heavy forum goers who basically make a list of people they like on the forum or some shit and I thought that I'd be non-original and post a list of artists I like. Yeah I could just tell you to look at my favorites list. But thats just a list and I rarely update it and you never really get a jist as to why the person actually enjoys that persons work. So yea heres my current list at the time i wrote this anyway. Maybe ill hate all these tmrw when i wake up. In no particular orderererrr..

Kol-Belov: I normally tend to lean towards artists who have more of a hand-quality aspect to their works because it always felt to me that it was more indicative of the actual artists hands at work. This guy is far from that but the things he is able to do with his sharp-as-a-razor style is unlike alot of the things i usually have run into in the site. Really has a profound understanding of Flash in the animation realm. Tweening and the non fbf aspects of Flash always have gotten a bad rap from animation purists and yet whenever I look at a Kol piece it always reminds me that you can make successful and highly artistic pieces without having to necessarily use purely the techniques laid out by the pre-computer age. His typography is usually spot on too :3

Marc M: Ehh you probably saw this one coming a mile away since I always seem to drape my userpage in stuff from his pieces so I wont go too deeply into him. But basically I enjoy the crudeness of his humor delivery and animation. It just 'works' as this perfect marrage that compliments each other.

ZSL: Kind of an unusual choice of my bunch. I guess I enjoy the uncertainty of what Zekey you are going to get. Anytime I view one of his pieces I feel like I'm going on a Flash blind date. Where I could get this blond bombshell or some cambodian whore (sorry to any Cambodians I've offended). The point is, that sense of uncertainty carries a sense of excitement and anticipation to what this motherfucker is going to come up with next.
I have poked around through alot of his blogposts and its cool to see an artist in tune with the animation as a medium. I think too often artists get stuck in this bubble where they are so concentrated on their own work that they never really grow or find stuff out there that could potentially inspire something huge in themselves or those around em.

Anselina Jolie: Probably the youngest of my roster in here, he's like the posterboy of the new wave newgrounds talent coming in. Its kind of exciting to see these younger folks coming in and mixing it up with veterans of the scene. Its like an optimistic view of the day when the Adam Phillipses, James Farrs, whomevers... die off, theres this new breed of pubeless animators coming in and carrying on the torch for the ng animation scene.

Chamber: I think what I like most about this artists work is the kind of 'street cred' it carries in its style.. the line quality is really expressive and rough. He may live in Philadelphia now but his work still has that NY attitude to it. Its somewhat of a nice contrast to artists like Kol who are in the total opposite end of the spectrum. Maybe it was lucky timing or something but I've always felt like he created the swagger and attitude that Pico is now synonymous (sp?) for. Kinda wish he were more active but ya.

Hans: I've been starting to get into his more recent stuff. I think that he may lack the chops of some of the other artists on my roster and the site in general, but there is something refreshing about that 1920's constructivist flair to his work.

Ok thats all I can think of right now. I took the liberty to scan this picture from an erotic art history book that i have as a prize for you making it this farrrr.

FIRSTLY, do your duty to support starving artists by clickin on the links below:

my friends have a black metal band called Kastigation, and they're trying to get sponsored by this energy drink mix company called Crave. they really need this sponsorship, and to help, it just takes a few clicks. there's one poll, but on two sites that, for some reason, display very different results. so please vote on them both:

1) http://www.myspace.com/craveed - just scroll down and vote for Kastigation - Oblique. they misspelled it, i know \:

2) http://eggsandkegsradio.com/ - click the purple image in the top left corner, scroll down, and vote for Kastigation - Oblique (again, i know, misspelled).

thanks for the help! :D

LASTLY, I was talking politics with Tom two days ago and we started showing each other links and our dicks. And I came across the clip below which I found humorous and worthy of sharing.

Im not really a Sara Silverman fan but it was pretty goodddd and expressed my frustration with Florida.

LAST LASTLY JONBRO IS A THIEF!

I had a small and rare get together last night with my designer friends and we were talking about halloween and shit. At some point someone brought up that they heard about an independent french animation/film called Fear(s) of the Dark that's supposed to be showing at a small theatre in the city on halloween. I was intruiged, so I secretly took a mental note and looked into it when everyone had left.

The concept of it is pretty cool, its basically 6 artists telling these scary stories... they arent really related in any way and the styles are all vastly different and it made me think of how cool it would be to do that sometime. It reminded me of Newgrounds Jam Series.

I'm always kind of frusterated at the very basic level of collaborative projects in NG, it'd be cool to create projects like this where rather than base it on a Linkin Park song you just let people loose around a very broad theme. I dont necessarily think you'd have to create a full fledged feature film out of it like the animators of FotD but even like making a collection of 6 scary trailers would be neat.

Anywho I just thought I'd share that. No blatant plug to my own projects for a change! Tom does that plenty on his own.

Last year at about this time of year, I ran a DIY Munny Competition, it was a ton of fun and I thought it'd be cool to do it again with a different kind of figurine.

So its back for another go. You can check out the freshly made thread HERE

Like last year, you can Buy Your Own or you can win one by proposing your design on the thread at the Art Forum.

More updates on that later.

I SHOULD be wrapping up the Sketchbook Tour, next month which is part of the reason I felt safe to kick this one off.

Lastly, I'll be back in London for London meet 4 on January 17th. This is shaping up to be a good one as Tom will actually make the trip over as well as long time staffie LilJim. If you're in the area you should come onnn out.

Last lastly, I'll be in Iceland next month for NG Iceland meet. I dont think anyone actually lives in Iceland so it means im just going on vacation for a change.

I was stuck indoors most of the weekend thanks to whatever hurricane that was. I suppose that was a blessing in disguise considering I managed to finish the photo hub for the London Meet that took place last weekend. I've linked to it below. I'll be adding some video and other photos to it as I get them but its at a good enough state where it can go live.

In other news, I'm working on the Sketchbook Tour this week, mostly scanning the 110 entries I've gotten back. fun times. I've also got a shit game I'm also working off and on, on. K, thats all.

London Meet 3 Photo Hub

***senseless photo swap***

Well I'm finally back home after a brutal flight back from what has grown to become my favorite ng event of the year.

I'll punch in a legit breakdown of the whole experience once I manage to gather up the hundreds of photos that need gathering.

In the meantime all i can say is thanks for everyone that made it out. This whole ordeal went off about as smoothly as I could have ever even imagined. Its kind of amazing how large this event has grown in the 3 times its been beta tested.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Rather than talk about all my flash movies that I SHOULD be working on. I'd rather more or less hype up this week for the site. It's rare when theres so much going during the same week anyway.

This week Tom takes NG over to the west coast aka Seattle, for the Penny Arcade Expo. Meanwhile i'll be going in the opposite direction gathering NG personel over in Europe for London Meat 3.

Both events seem like a good finishing touch on the summer of 2008.

Not only that, but the heavily anticipated Castle Crashers comes out on Wed.

My flight out happens to leave that same day but I was planning on taking the day off and downloading a copy and playin on X-Box Live with fellow NG personalities before I head out. My Gamertag is LuisNG. Feel free to addz0rz.

One day i'll have news thats actually worth reading! I promise.

Having fun going back to school!!! Lol.

Why not pick up one of them new Black Angry Faic shirts from the store?

I wish those were around back when i was in middle school... nothing could express how i felt going back to school more than a big angry faic in the middle of my shirt.

Okay not really. But I was due for a fp post, Comic Con is waaaay over now. Anyway theres a few things going on.

First and foremost is that Sketchbook Tour 2008 entry turn-in phase, ends on August 24th.. if you have yet to get around to visiting your postal office.. now would be a good time if you are part of that project. That goes especially for international users. It takes roughly two weeks in some instances for it to make it to my hands. Plan Accordingly

I made some headway on getting the online version started while entries trickle back in. The neat thing about this year is that the shirts will be synced to the NG Store so if you so desire you can just get them through the new and improved store once they become available (and the new store is available for that matter). My guess is there will be a relatively low count of shirts that become available on the first run. I do this mainly cause the sketchbook tour itself is of limited scope and i dont want a ton of shirts sitting in my basement. Specially ones i cant fit into -________-

Speaking of which, I want to clear out the shirts from 2007, if you want one PM me, I'm going to get them out at $10.00 which I'll absorb the shipping on... so in some cases what youre paying me might cover the shipping. Its not really for profit anyway, i just want them out. I'm sure you've seen Tom and a few people wear em on a whole bunch of occasions. They are kinda rare and once these are gone they are gone foreverrrrrerererrr. Wether you participated or not I think is moot at this point, if you want to represent the community spirit of NG or you just want an NG-based shirt that not everyone already has then knock yourself out. I only have like 6 left so PM me with what size you need and I'll tell you if i have it.

That asside (yes i know i mispelled it), I wanted to also use this to plug two NG based events going on at different parts of the globe coincidentally on the same dates (thanks Tom for bumping heads with me)

You got Penny Arcade Expo going on August 29-31st in Seattle, Washington. Tom and his goons will be unveiling the MUCH anticipated (3 years anticipated) Castle Crashers XBox Live Game.

It's been a special journey watching that game come together at all sorts of NG-based gatherings that ive had a chance to attend to and I can confidently say that game is spectacular and has come a long way.

SIMULTANEOUSLY on the other side of the globe, I'm taking the NG caravan to the UK for the 3rd annual NG London Meet 3. Thats going August 30th, for more info click that link. This has grown to become one of the largest non-convention gatherings and I always look forward to it and in fact this year was a rare time when it happend two times on the same calendar year. (the first one was just my birthday party)

I assume Tom will have the stickam going for PAX, and i'll try and get another going for London meet so youll be able to experience third hand, two very different NG based events going on at the same time.

Lastly, I was going to bring back Pass My Flash this week, but its been too much shit going on and I may be wearing myself thin on this multitasking bullshit so for the sake of getting some sort of control back in my life, I'm going to just wait until September on that.

No Artist-of-theMonth this month either, again I'm in super busy mode doing a bunch of other shit and i'll have to make up for my routine tasks next month I promass.

for the sake of showing what the sbt 07 shirts looked like heres a pic of Fulp wearing one.