Now
What is it about people like me who have a soft spot for all things 80’s? Maybe it’s because life seemed so simple when we were growing up in this suddenly-hip-again decade. Maybe we have more fond memories of that time than we do right now. Or maybe it’s just fun to feel like a kid again.
So if you have fuzzy acid-wash memories of the 80’s like I do, I recommend picking up the independent rock documentary a title=Buy it! href=http://www.amazon.com/Rock-afire-Explosion-Brett-Whitcomb/dp/B002QTL48A target=_blankfont style=position: absolute;overflow: hidden;height: 0;width: 0a href=http://www.videnov.com/#1089;#1087;#1072;#1083;#1085;#1080; #1082;#1086;#1084;#1087;#1083;#1077;#1082;#1090;#1080;/a/fontemThe Rock-afire Explosion/em/a on DVD. If you don’t remember what the Rock-afire Explosion was, then I just feel sorry for you. They were a great animatronic band featured in Showbiz Pizza Place restaurants across the country. They were also, for a time, a direct competitor of Chuck E Cheese before consuming that franchise, only to be completely replaced by them several years later.
It’s a complicated story, but the DVD explains it all.
As a young tyke (did you know tyke can also mean “mongrel”, which is an animal resulting from interbreeding? Gross) I was fascinated with animatronics. And by fascinated I mean terrified. I used to go to Pizza Time Theater and Showbiz Pizza place to admire the singing robots from afar. If I got too close to them, I was pretty sure their eyes were going to turn red, their heads would crane in my direction, a giant mouth would open, and I would be devoured by electrified metal fangs. That didn’t ever happen (unless I have blocked out those memories), but regardless, I wanted to own one someday. Maybe I thought that if had one of my own and treated it with care, it would fend off any other murderous robots that wanted to kill me. This is true today, as I am currently in the process of building my own singing animatronic, but I’ll post more on that later.
The point is that this DVD tells a funny and surprisingly emotional story about a guy who had the same dream as me and bought the original Rock-afire band. In parallel, it also tells the bittersweet story of its inventor, Aaron Fechter. Compelling stuff folks, I promise you.
In the interest of full disclosure, I must add that I had some involvement with this independent documentary. I first saw it at a film festival in San Francisco, dragging my wife along while saying, “If you want to fully understand me, you need to watch this.” I loved the documentary, but there were parts of it that seemed a bit rough. The man running the festival commented that the filmmakers were in the process of revising some of the motion graphics for a DVD release.
I went home that night and volunteered my services to Brett Whitcomb, the director of the documentary. I told him I’d do his motion graphics for free, and he accepted. It was a fun little side project, and I’m glad the DVD is out so everyone else can enjoy it… hopefully as much as I did.
On a somewhat related note, a title=Unholy THIS! href=http://www.telltalegames.com/monkeyisland target=_blankemTales of Monkey Island/em /awrapped up its season with a really a title=Critically acclaimed! href=http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/pc/talesofmonkeyislandchapter5rise target=_blankgreat finale/a. How is that related? Well, it really isn’t… although the previous Monkey Island game did end with a giant monkey robot. So there you go.