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Why do you need to go to Universal Orlando? Do I have to ask why? If you are a true Harry Potter fan then a point of destination is the land of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando. The buildings, all the details, it just looks and feels you’re in that world. Amazing. Check out this video walkthrough of Diagon Alley by Inside the Magic!
Here’s more videos from FanimeCon 2014! Interview with Hayashi from Akai Sky an indie-American Jrock band.
Look fly with this NEW ERA’s Artist Series collab with musician/actor Kid Cudi. It features a couple of cool looking snapback hats and urban-style backpack. Check this video as Kid Cudi explains his vision and thoughts about his NEW ERA Artist Series Collection.
Built for the Sony’s iconic driving-game franchise Gran Turismo, this a sneak tease of the Nissan Concept 2020 VISION. Is this next generation Nissan GT-R?
Summer is beach parties, barbecuing meats of all kinds and ice-cold beer. Keeping the beer cold is the key, and this portable beer cooler is the answer – The JamCooler.
This week is Dwell on Design LA at the LA Convention Center in downtown Los Angeles. The home living/modern design hipster chic event will take place from June 20-22, 2014. Our Retrenders Spotlight will be back in action to cover the 3-day event and bring all the cool stuff from Dwell on Design LA.
FanimeCon 2014 had their own mini-Street Fighter Tournament over at Stage Zero. Ramen & a Half host Eddie Ballar grab Julio Fuentes aka MMG Julio for a quick interview on plans and prepartion for EVO Championship Series in Las Vegas, July 2014.
Our Ramen & a Half host Eddie Ballar does a mini jam session with the talented Anton Bex. We sit down and talk about his latest project, the fan film Dragon Ball Z: Light of Hope. Anton plays “Future Gohan” in this YouTube web series.
Just what does it take to become a Comic Artist? Tomas Overbai explains everything to Ramen and Half‘s host, Eddie Ballar, what got him into comic art and eventually comic story telling with his upcoming Book One of ICHIDO – a post apocalyptic science fiction fantasy comic where a threatened Empire goes to war utilizing the traditions of kung-fu fighting and futuristic advanced robot warfare. The comic is like the battles of a Shogun Empire meets Robotech! 
LINK: http://www.fallensunasylum.org/ facebook/TomasOverbai twitter/TomasOverbai
At FanimeCon’s Artist Alley we find artist Ben Costa with 2 published comics already. His Xeric Award Winning Web Comic follows Pang, a Shaolin Monk in 17th Century China.
If you ever wondered how Pokemon animals would look like in real life? Well, artist RJ Palmer draws many of the Pokemon animals in a real-world realistic way. A mix of art, imagination and paleontology by artist RJ Palmer.
Our host Ramon Angel interviews RJ Palmer at FanimeCon 2014.
You can follow RJ’s work at: arvalis.deviantart.com
Carhartt is known for their blue-collar working man’s clothes like jackets, jeans and overalls. Over the years they branched into skate/street wear and now Carhatt WIP will introduce their very first ladies’ capsule collection. Carhatt WIP will team-up with fashion label Perks and Mini (P.A.M.) for this women’s apparel line. The collection features graphic tees, shirts, dresses, jackets, pants, caps and VANS shoes.
On this side of the pond, usually what comes to mind when you think Ford racing cars? The American pony, the Ford Mustang. There is a different story in the UK and Europe, where they love smaller cars and rally performing hot hatches. XCar Films gives us a little 4-1-1 on two iconic Fast Fords, in the ’80s the Ford Sierra RS Cosworth and in the ’90s the Ford Escort Cosworth.
Ramen & a Half host Jonelle interviews her favorite cosplayer idol Yaya Han at FanimeCon 2014. Yaya kind of admitted that this might be her last appearance at FanimeCon. She also talks to Jonelle about Heroes of Cosplay tv show and cosplaying in general.
The sizzling pulp novel “Borderline” by prolific American crime author Lawrence Block sees the printed pages once again after 50 years of being out of print. Four lives intersect on the border towns of El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico.
Marty is a smart professional gambler always looking for a good card game in Juarez. After a couple of years spent in a failed marriage, Meg is looking for some fun and action. The beautiful blonde Lily is looking to make money and get out of the border towns. The insane killer running from the law, Weaver is looking for his next bloody victim. These 4 characters ultimately cross each others’ lives in “Borderline.” The book also includes 3 Lawrence Block short stories: 1) The Burning Fury (1959); 2) A Fire At Night (1958); and 3) Stag Party Girl (1963).
I look at my cousins now who grew up in the 2000s, I know that technology has spoiled them from the sleek smartphones, the sexy iPads, the 4G speed, and the big-screen LCDs. I grew up without the internet and like many kids went out to the playground or played baseball with my brother. But the most enjoyable memories was waiting to get our hands on the Sunday newspaper with my siblings. Of course, we would dig through all the cool Toys R Us ads, the Sports Section, but also the Sunday comics section. One section was just dedicated to cartoon strips like Peanuts, Garfield, Doonesbury, Hagar, Beetle Bailey, and others. Out of all the comic strips we liked was Calvin & Hobbes. I used to cut out the strip from the newspaper and collect it into a photo album, until they published trade paperbacks of Calvin & Hobbes. Every time my family was at the mall, I would directly head to the bookstore like Barnes & Noble and make my mom buy me a Calvin & Hobbes trade paperback.
In revamping the successful Tomb Raider franchise – we got a re-boot! Just when we thought Lara Croft would move forward from her ninth adventure to another artifact finding mystery, we get to find out about her – the origins of Lara Croft. We’ve all read her back story, but where was the episodic adventures that led to the skilled, acrobatic, and duel pistol-drawing heroine – Tomb Raider?
Meet the Power Girl from Vegas – Vegas PG! We swung by her booth and asked if she could give our Ramen and a Half crew a shout out – Mary Jane Watson style! She happily replied, “Well of course I can”.
If Vegas PG is not enjoying the comic convention strip, you can find her being as spokesperson for events and entertaining the world commercially or artfully as an actress.
I picked up this game a few days ago and I was a bit excited to see how this game was going to be. Played the game for a whole day and came to the conclusion that this game is exactly like another popular game – Infamous. Now I’m not saying that that’s a bad thing. I love the three Infamous games and they’re a ton of fun to play, I just didn’t expect Watch Dogs to play like them.
The two main differences between the games are 1) you traded in your superpower abilities for some awesome hacking abilities and 2) that you can drive a car in this game which is, oh boy, let’s just say the driving feels awkward. For instance, the first time I hit the gas I crashed into a wall. I thought I’d get better as time went on, but even as I got near the end of the game, I still can’t drive from point A to point B without crashing into a minimum of five things. You will be driving to a lot of places since there are a total of 39 missions in the game split into five Acts. Frankly, this is probably one of the longest games I have played so far this year, which is a good thing since most games you play nowadays can be beaten in a little over ten hours.
If you read lots of science-fiction books from authors like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Ben Nova, Orson Scott Card and John Scalzi, there is usually a beautifully painted cover book art of the galaxy, outer space world or spaceship and that artist is John Harris. The Art of John Harris: Beyond The Horizon is a collection of his many works since the 1970s.
The video game media went bonkers when Ubisoft unveiled Watch Dogs at E3 2012. The much anticipated and delayed game is now finally out and does it live up to the hype? I don’t know yet, but will get on my hands on a copy for my Xbox 360 soon. Just a quick note, you can also look for our review of Watch Dogs by our Retrenders video game guru Ramon Angel soon. But for now, I’m reviewing the release of The Art of Watch Dogs published by Titan Books.
In Watch Dogs, the GTA-type game, you play hacker anti-hero Aiden Pearce. Now on the path of revenge he uses Chicago’s Central Operating System (ctOS) to hack into security cameras, lock doors, control traffic lights, locate targets of interest and grab information on his enemies. The city of Chicago is now your playground.
I usually do a Viral Video Friday, but this is our Viral Video Friday – a video tour of FanimeCon 2014! Our Ramen & a Half crew takes you around what is the biggest anime convention in NorCal every year – FanimeCon. We take to the Dearlers Hall, Artist Alley, Game Room and more! We also interview Vice-Chair of FanimeCon 2014 Gary de Guzman and the man in charge of Stage Zero – Wendell Nacnac.
Here’s the first trailer for the much anticipated anime Sailor Moon Crystal. Look for July 2014 release in Japan. The trailer maybe only in Japanese, but I’m already very excited.
“Fossils are evidence of prehistoric life written in stone.” Dr. David C. Evans
Dinosaurs and extinct animals have always captured my imagination as a child. I’ve played with dinosaur toys, pretended to be a dinosaur, drew dinosaurs and read lots of dinosaur books. Plus I’ve spent many hours watching dinosaur specials on National Geographic and Animal Planet. The kid in me always wondered how an artist can draw extinct animals so realistically and prehistoric landscapes? This is where Paleontology comes in, the merging of art and science to paint an ancient environment. “The Paleoart of Julius Csotonyi” collects the top works of Paleoartisan Julius Csotonyi.
I enjoy reading Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins crime/pulp fiction books. Just like Dirty Harry, shoot first and ask questions later, that’s the Mike Hammer way.
In “King of the Weeds,” Mike Hammer and long-time partner Velda Sterling look to ride off into the sunset with marriage and retirement, but an decades old murder case looks stir things up with his old buddies Captain Pat Chambers and Army pal Marcus Dooley.
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