Guitar Hero III

One of my favorite songs of all time on Guitar Hero III. I can't wait to dominate people on it.

It was a dark and stormy night...

And Tom Everhart was at work in his studio creating his beautiful renditions of Charles Schulz' Peanuts characters, one of which is the title picture to my blog about which one of my readers inquired.  I believe I first saw Mr. Everhart's work at an art gallery in Monterey, when I was visiting the aquarium and picking up some calamari steaks.  I've always liked the technique of pointillism, and here it was combined with vibrant colors to recapture some of my favorite cartoon characters of all time.  What's amazing is the size of Everhart's canvasses.  Paintings such as my title picture ("As the Sun Slowly Sets We Bid You A Fine Farewell") stretched over 6 ft x 12 ft.   You can see the rest of his paintings here.

While on the topic of Peanuts, how awesome would it be to have a statue of Snoopy and Charlie Brown in your hometown?  Santa Rosa, I'm jealous...

Mr. Mustache

For all of the great games that are coming out this holiday season, one has kind of fallen off of my radar that really should not have: Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii.  After watching the videos I've included below, I am extremely excited for this game.  It really reminds me of Mario 64, not only in the gameplay, but just in how fresh and exciting it looks.  The visuals look astounding for the Wii, which so far has been pretty disappointing to me.  However, this game should turn things around.  The vibrant colors and all of the interesting characters in the game make it feel as if you were in fantasy land, akin to being in Disneyland.  It all seems so refreshing, like it will be so much more joyful to play than the dark, grim games I have been playing as of late, such as Bioshock, Gears of War, Halo 3.  I love Mario, he's so funny, he makes funny little noises.  I'll just have to add this game to the growing list...  I can't get all of them, but as of now, I think Super Mario Galaxy's place is secured.

• Project Gotham Racing 4, Today
• NBA 2K8, Today
• FIFA 08, Oct 9th
• The Orange Box, Oct 9th
• Guitar Hero III, Oct 28th
• Call of Duty 4, Nov 5th
• Super Mario Galaxy, Nov 12th
• Assassin's Creed, Nov 13th
• Mass Effect, Nov 20th
• Rock Band, Nov 23rd
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Dec 3rd