Last Friday I was a part of a panel discussion about arcades at NY Comic Con. It was an amazing time. Somehow, at 11 am on a Friday, we filled the room with people eager to hear a talk about arcades. Leaves me feeling hopeful that the movie will receive a lot of attention when it is finished! The panel was moderated by Tal Blevins who has been at IGN since the early days, 13 years and counting! He was the perfect host. Seth Killian was there providing an incredibly unique perspective (As far as I can tell he has one of the coolest jobs in the world). Jamin Warren was beyond articulate, as always. And let me state this here: In 20 years, Kill Screen will be the Rolling Stone of video games. The Harlem Hero, Norman Burgess, was there waxing poetic about Chinatown Fair. And the star of the panel, Henry Cen, “Golden Cen” aka 50 Cen, was wonderfully cynical and cracking up the audience with his musings.
Thank you all for coming and saying hi. I met some new friends and look forward to continuing this discussion!
-Kurt
So, as you may or may not know, NYC Comic Con arrives at the Javits center on Thursday, October 13th. ARCADE is happy to announce that we were selected to host a panel on Friday October 14th at 11 AM to 12 PM. The panel will be moderated by Tal Blevins and participants will include: Seth Killian, Henry Cen, Norman Burgess, Jamin Warren, and our very own Kurt Vincent.
If you don’t already know who Seth Killian is, he is the face of CAPCOM and a Street Fighter bawse (no literally, the SFIV boss Seth, is named after him).
Henry Cen is a New York City arcade legend and former manager of Chinatown Fair— he has played in every arcade in the city and lived through the golden age and downfall of arcades. Against all odds, Henry opened up his own Arcade, Next Level, and he will be discussing the role of arcades past, present, and future.
As arcades were dwindling in number, pockets of gamers were gathering in living rooms and basements. Norman Burgess’s uptown apartment is Harlem Arcade. Every Friday night, Norman hosts a gaming night with a dedicated group of gamers. These nights usually end around 7 am Saturday morning.
Gamers Don’t Read. This is the misconception Jamin Warren is out to dispel with his groundbreaking quarterly, Kill Screen Magazine. Jamin was an arts and entertainment reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was a columnist for GOOD magazine, and in addition was also a music critic for Pitchfork. The director of ARCADE, Kurt Vincent will be answering questions about our film.
See more about our Panel, Meet Me at the Arcade: here.
5/25/2011 - Notes From A Kickstarter Project
We have 6 days left until our Kickstarter deadline at 11:59 PM on May 31st. Some good interviews I did last week should be posted on the net this week. Hopefully the project will get a few more boosts from the press and we will eclipse 30k.
I just finished my submission to IFP’s Documentary Showcase for this fall. If we are selected we get to share the movie with a ton of really cool people in the film industry during a week long event at Lincoln Center. Film festival directors, distributors, tv networks, etc. Some of my favorite documentary films have gone through the festival. My fingers are crossed.
Last week Irene and I had the pleasure of meeting Matt Hunter and Steve Haske, two of the hosts of the excellent podcast, A Jumps B Shoots. They were in town from Portland, Oregon to cover Blip Fest 2011 and record some podcasts. I was honored to geek out with them. It was a lot of fun talking with them. I think the podcast should hit itunes next week.
Irene and I also met Jamin Warren, the founder of the magazine/blog KILL SCREEN. It was great meeting him after having communicated via email for the past few months. He was one of the earliest supporters of the movie and has some ideas of how we can work together in the coming months! Very cool ideas.
I was also interviewed by Ben Gilbert, Joystiq’s writer in NYC. It was great to sit down with him. I think I learned more from him than the other way around! He is currently writing a feature piece about the movie that will be posted this week.
We rocked out at Blip Fest on Thursday night. My two highlights were TALK TO ANIMALS from Baltimore and NYC’s own ANAMANAGUCHI. I have listened to “Airbrushed” at least 200 times since the show. I was moshing and dancing so hard during their set that I got a cramp and had to ease up. Looking forward to hearing recorded versions of their new songs that they played at the show.
I’ll be posting some more tomorrow.
-K
