I Hear The Chiptunes Echoing Tonight

Africa  (Toto)
Produced in Mario Paint by Alec Britt
Thirty years ago today, one of the most beautiful rock songs ever recorded was released as a single.  Africa by Toto went on to reach #1 on Billboard's Hot 100.  In this video, Alec Britt shares his incredible recreation of the 80's classic using Mario Paint on SNES.

Happiness

Artwork by Gavin Aung Than, based on a quote from Henry David Thoreau.

Rubik's GameCube

Super Mario Bros sculptures
by Cube Works Studio
Nuit Blanche - Toronto, ON

A Fleet Of Hostile Hamburgers

Megamania
Activision (1982)

One of my favorite games in the Atari 2600 library is turning 30 years old today.  It was designed by Steve Cartwright, and has a play style similar to Space Invaders in that you control a spaceship at the bottom of the screen and the object is to shoot all of the enemies at the top before the time (or energy bar) runs out.  However those enemies differ quite a bit from the 1978 Taito classic.  They come in waves with each one behaving differently than the wave that came before, and they take forms that are very different from the alien spaceships that gamers were familiar with, including hamburgers, cookies, bugs, tires, diamonds, irons, bow ties and dice.  It's a hell of a lot of fun.

A Splendid Sweatshirt

Babe Ruth Sweatshirt ad
Grant's Merchandise (1932)
If you were a boy between the ages of 10-18 in 1932, you could win a Babe Ruth autographed baseball from your local Grant's store.  All you had to do was get an entry blank and write out why you love "this splendid shirt" in 20 words or less.  If you won the baseball, you would be entered into a second contest to win an all expenses paid trip to Babe Ruth's private box at the 1932 World Series, in which Ruth's Yankees swept the Chicago Cubs.  If you stayed in town for Game 3, you would have been in attendance to see Ruth's mythical "called shot".

If you were older than 18, younger than 10, a girl, or if you couldn't think of something nice to say about a 50 cent sweatshirt, you were out of luck.

It's A Sundae In A Slice

Ice Cream Pizza
Emack & Bolio's
I found this groovy ice cream pizza at Wegmans.  It's made up of vanilla ice cream with hot fudge, marshmallow cream, candy stars and moons, and raspberry filled chocolate hearts that the box calls "bleeding hearts".  This is arranged on a brownie crust and topped with a big chocolate peace sign.  Very groovy.

The back of the box has a brief history of the Emack & Bolio's company: