photo via Kotaku

Angry Zen Minion Tyler Anderson writes in with news that should bring a smile to the hearts of gamers even in this time of financial crisis:

Oh happy day! He’s crusaded after video games since Hot Coffee and he tried getting the Penny Arcade boys arrested without ever leaving his living room. But today, the games end as Jack “Hot Coffee” Thompson, the Tipper Gore of the video game industry, has been disbarred from practicing law for life by the Supreme Court. The official report reads as follows;

“The Court approves the corrected referee’s report and John Bruce Thompson is permanently disbarred, effective thirty days from the date of this order so that respondent can close out his practice and protect the interests of existing clients. If respondent notifies the Court in writing that he is no longer practicing and does not need the thirty days to protect existing clients, this Court will enter an order making the permanent disbarment effective immediately. Respondent shall accept no new business from the date this order is filed.”

On top of all of this, Thompson has been ordered to reimburse Florida bar fees in excess of $43,000.

Gamers all over the globe rejoice.

But Battlin’ Jack Thompson ain’t going out without a fight! In fact, he’s filed an emergency motion with federal court alleging the Florida Supreme Court’s rush to disbarment is retaliation for Thompson’s activism:

The timing of this disbarment transparently reveals its motivation: This past Friday Thompson filed a federal civil rights action against The Bar, the Supreme Court, and all seven of its Justices. This rush to disbarment is in retribution for the filing of that federal suit. With enemies this foolish, Thompson needs only the loyal friends he has.

Ugh. Long ass court battle it is. The good thing, even if a federal court agrees to hear Thompson’s motion, he’s out of gamers hair for a good long while.

So here’s the question, now that Jacky boy is on the outs, who’s coming in to replace him? I fear that this is a short lived victory. In this time of rampant idiotic fear, I bet there are lawyers just chomping at the bit to take Thompson’s anti-gaming crusade to the next level.

[Via Kotaku]

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Mighty finisher: the nutbreaker(kinda like a back breaker only its your nuts)

How did you discover the Angry Zen Master? a friend said “check this out!”

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Dear Boulder,

I heart you so much I forgot to update my blog on Monday. Rather, I forgot to tell everyone on Friday that I couldn’t update my blog on Monday because I would be at an airport all freaking day with no laptop. Ah well. Someday, I shall return to you when I grow real man balls to climb your glorious flatiron mountains and boulder on your, um, boulders.

Sincerely,
Jami

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Last night, Jim, Nelly, Nick, and I brought Super Art Fight to the JapaNoodle Fever at the Ottobar. JapaNoodle Fever unites Bakubeni, Quaff, TsuShiMaMiRe, Zazen Boys, and Peelander Z into one night of J-Rock madness! Seriously this is the best rock show I’ve ever seen! Okay, so I don’t go to many rock shows. But I’m so glad I got the chance to live in a time when such things are possible and that I got to participate in the show in some small way.

I don’t know how it all started, but at some point, someone brought up the idea of drawing with Peelander Yellow at their Ottobar show since it was only a few days after Super Art Fight. Got in touch with the Pee People and Yellow agreed. When we showed up last night with our 4′x6′ battlefield, Yellow told us that the girls of TsuShiMaMiRe wanted to draw as well. Hells yeah! It was going to be a big freaking J-Rock art jam.

The Zazen Boys are only performing at the last stop on the tour in New York so we didn’t get to see them. Bakubeni kicked things off with a bang. Watching their lead singer Rayla kick the shit out of the stage and scream her little lungs out was amazing! She really got the crowd going and she even taught us a little Japanese so we could scream along.

Bakubeni’s set ended and we got started with the canvas. Nick and I took the left half while Mizue, Mari, and Yayoi of TsuShiMaMiRe attacked the lower right. Nick and I paced ourselves because we wanted to give ourselves enough room to go nuts later when Yellow joined up. The ladies took up an entire canvass and drew three cute cats, one with gigantic fun bags. The session ended fairly quickly as Quaff took the stage.

I was really looking forward to seeing Quaff. They far exceeded my expectations and just rocked the shit out of the bar! After they played “More than Blue” (which will easily stick in your head) MC Ukisemi (who wears a fucking awesome mask) got on the mic and started rambling in Japanese. His band mates held up signs with subtitles translating Ukisemi’s story about how he comes from heaven’s paradise and that he knows all the songs because he’s old. He asked if we wanted to hear a new song. Hells yeah! He got the drummer to kick out a beat, told the bass player to just hit an A, got one of the guitarist to jam on an A, and all of a sudden, they launched into “Beat It.” That’s right, “It doesn’t matter, who’s wrong or right. Just beat it!” The crowd went fucking nuts! They closed their set with another cover, and absolutely rocking version of “You’re Just Too Good To Be True.” God, I heart Quaff quite a bit.

As Quaff walked off the stage, Yellow ran up to the canvass and along with Nick, the three of us attacked. I can’t tell you how awesome it was to art jam with Yellow. It was like we were possessed by this strange spirit of awesomeness. No words, no plans, just throwing up as much ink as we could. It all worked. We somehow made Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re’s cats fit into the whole composition. It was over before we knew it. Yellow had a giant smile on his face and gave Nick and I huge hugs. Wow, if I could do this for the rest of my life it would be a dream come true!

TsuShiMaMiRe took the stage. Those three chicks fucking wail! I still have “Aircontrol and remote control” swimming in my headmeats. They’re working with cartoon network on the anime version of Power Puff Girls so they played the theme song they wrote for the show, Hyper Sweet Girls,” as well as Mojo Jojo’s theme. At one point, lead singer and guitarist Mari jumped into the audience while still wailing away as an audience member held the mic for her to sing. They’re amazing cute and badass at the same time.

After a short break, Peelander Z took the stage. Honestly, words cannot capture the absolute insanity of a Peelander Z show. Highlights include Pee Red hanging upsidedown playing bass, turning the entire audience into the rhythm section during “Mad Tiger,” some lady from the audience playing tonsil hockey with Pee Green, grabbing Makito from Quaff to play guitar and Kozaken from Bakubeni to play drums, Red stage diving and crowd surfing, turning the audience into a giant conga line/mosh pit, and of course, human bowling!

Goddamn, what a goddamn genius show! If you live in Philly, you can catch the tour tonight at the Khyber. If you’re in New York, you can catch the last show Sunday at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. If you’re anywhere near there, get your ass to the show.

I’m sure there will be more floating around out there, but for now check out this sexy photo from Nick!

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Set for release on his 100th birthday in 2010, Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon is getting a U.S. remake. Also planned for release around the same time is an animated feature, the Masque of Black Death, based on a script that Kurosawa originally wrote for Osamu Tezuka to make but never went into production. The new Rashomon brings the crime drama to modern day America.

The original is quite brilliant. It centers around the rape of a woman and the murder of her husband told from four different perspectives including a truly bizarre scene in which the spirit of the murdered husband tells his story through a medium. Each version has aspects that agree with each other, but their conclusions are so disparate, you can’t quite figure out what’s ultimately true which is my favorite aspect of the original.

Normally, I’m opposed to remakes, but in this case, I’m some what interested. Hero borrowed heavily from Rashomon in terms of story telling and I absolutely loved the film. Kurosawa’s work has influenced so many directors that it’s not surprising to see a remake every few years. My one hope is that they retain the ambiguity of the ending. I love the fact that we’re left questioning just what happened. Our own interpretation of the truth becomes a sort of fifth story. I fear Hollywood thinks American audiences are too dumb to appreciate that subtlety, but Rashomon would be ruined if the truth was bashed into our heads. Cautiously optimistic on this one.

[Via Variety]

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It was earlier reported that Tony Stark, aka Robert Downey, Jr., would be playing Sherlock Holmes in an upcoming drama directed by Guy Ritchie. Holmes needs a Watson and it looks like Jude Law is up for the role. Sounds fine to me. I’m looking forward to this version much more than the Cohen and Farrell comedy interpretation of Holmes. Not that I don’t think there’s a lot of comedic potential, but I’m kind of burnt on Farrell. We made the mistake of seeing Stepbrothers opening night and it just stunk like rotted scrotal remains. I do think he’s funny as shit, but his movies are hit or miss with me and lately, mostly miss.

Anyway, yes, Tony Star and Jude Law. I’m there.

[Via Telegraph]

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In the same vein as PiKA PiKA and Kaki King, animator Ryan Cashman created this little guy playing an original composition on the piano. Cashman recorded the music first and then used a camera with a 20-30 second exposure frame rate to create the light animation. I love the bit at the end where the little guy runs his light fingers across the entire keyboard.

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Trisha Helfer voiced Black Cat for Spectacular Spider-Man (can you say “mud pie“?) so it’s only fitting for her to return to the role for the upcoming Spider-Man: Web of Shadows game. I was already sold on the insane gameplay footage for this game. Hot Cylon action is a definite bonus! One of Black Cat’s powers must be chesticals of steel because there’s no way real or silicone breasts could stay that taut in that costume while kung fu fighting. But I’m glad Trisha gets to do more than just bounce on Baltar all day. Black Cat kicks ass and if they introduce the character into the fourth movie, I would certainly love to see Trisha in the role.

[Via Kotaku]

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Angry Zen Minion Kensei sent along this insane trailer for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II. Chainsaw sword FTW! I’m a sucker for robots, even if it looks like a Macross Destroid knockoff. And that freaking flying Cthulu death demon at the end is freaking amazing! Looks like I’ll have to add another RTS to my gaming rotation.

[Via Dawn of War II]

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“What the shit taco just happened, man?”

Angry Zen Minion Kevin Bahrt sent along this Flash animation parody of the Power Rangers. It’s actually quite entertaining and reveals many of the plot holes of the first series. So far, there are three episodes.

• Episode 1 - The old Power Rangers were killed. So it’s up to Alpha to recruit new Rangers.
• Episode 2 - The Green Ranger cometh, the rangers get new powers, and some random monsters attack.
• Episode 3 - It’s a new season, Super Freaking Parody Rangers in SPACE! Duhn duhn duuuuhn!! I love the new Zord designs, mostly because there’s a yellow Mazinger Z.

[Via Kirbopher]

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