#Visual Studio 2008 Interview Questions and Answers

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Interview Material is providing you the Visual Studio 2008 Interview Questions and Answers.

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Why the GoldenEye 007 Remaster Was Cancelled

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If you’ve been keeping an eye on video game social media over the last few days, you’ve probably spotted this video of a YouTuber playing a remaster of GoldenEye 007.

While many people were quick to call this remaster “fake” or merely a fan-made tribute, recent evidence strongly suggests that this is the remains of an official attempt to remaster GoldenEye 007. Naturally, that information has left many people wondering why such an incredible remaster of such a beloved game never saw the light of day despite the fact that it appears to be nearly finished.

The answer to that question is complicated, controversial, and heartbreaking for legions of GoldenEye 007 fans who have been waiting for the chance to play one of the best multiplayer experiences ever released on a Nintendo console. Ultimately, though, it’s a story you have to hear.

What is the GoldenEye 007 Remaster?

The GoldenEye 007 remaster is an updated version of the 1997 N64 classic. It appears to be the same game content-wise (aside from a few additional multiplayer maps and a couple of relatively minor features), but it has been updated to feature 60 FPS gameplay, a 16:9 ratio, and various visual improvements. It’s been said that the remaster was designed similarly to the Halo remasters, which is to say that a team essentially just swapped out a few parts of the original ROM. Like those Halo games, the Goldeneye 007 remaster even offers the ability to swap between the old and new visuals on the fly.

The reason we know so much about this remaster (and the reason it’s been in the news lately) is that a YouTuber called Graslu00 uploaded a full playthrough of the seemingly lost project. While footage of the remaster had been uploaded online before (more on that in a bit), this was the first time that most people outside of Rare had seen it played from start to finish.

The extent of that footage (as well as the quality of the remaster itself) inspired many fans to ask new questions about this canceled remaster that many people long suspected had been abandoned before it could be completed.

When Was the GoldenEye 007 Remaster Developed?

Before we go further, now is the time to clarify that some of the answers to these questions are based on loose information and more than a little speculation.

With that out of the way, the public conversation about this remaster really heated up in 2008 when EGM’s rumor mill turned out a brief mention of a GoldenEye remaster that had seemingly been canceled by Rare. A 2008 article from 1UP elaborates on this story by suggesting that the game was just a couple of months away from being released on XBLA for Xbox 360 before the plug was pulled. Uncovered files suggest that work on the remaster began as early as 2007.

However, there are a couple of details in that story that don’t gel with what we know now. For instance, the 1UP article notes that the “XBLA version would have featured the same graphics, maps, and weapons from the N64 version” and that the big selling point would have been the “crucial addition of online multiplayer over Xbox Live.” That doesn’t seem to describe the footage of the remaster that we’ve seen years later.

So far as that goes, there are two things to consider. The first is that some of the information available in 2008 was simply incorrect. This really seems like the most likely factor given how much information on this subject was known at that time.

It should also be noted that the remaster itself has been improved in some ways by modern emulators. While I won’t name drop some of the emulators and uploaders involved with this process, it’s clear that some of the visual fidelity that we see in these uploads wouldn’t have existed in 2008.

Still, the bulk of the remaster footage certainly seems to be based on the game that Rare quietly worked on sometime around 2007 and ultimately had to abandon just a few months before it could have been released.

Read more

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Why GoldenEye 007 James Bond Isn’t in Super Smash Bros.

By Rob Leane

Why Was the GoldenEye 007 Remaster Cancelled?

Unlike some of the details regarding the GoldenEye 007 remaster’s development, we actually know quite a bit about why it never got released simply due to the fact that Rare has talked about it a lot over the years.

For instance, in a 2008 interview with Videogamer.com, Rare engineer Nick Burton clearly stated that the game’s cancellation ultimately came down to licensing:

“I kind of wished that the differences got sorted out, but obviously there’s the licensing issue for Bond, even if it’s something that’s already come out,” said Burton. “It’s incredibly hard to solve because there are so many license holders involved. You’ve got the guys that own the license to the gaming rights now, the guys that have the license to Bond as an IP, and there are umpteen licensees. Me, just personally, I thought, ‘God, that’s a difficult problem to solve.'”

Over the years, the narrative regarding those licensing problems boiled down to the idea that Nintendo and Microsoft (who owned Rare by the time this remaster was in development) simply couldn’t agree on a deal that allowed either to re-release GoldenEye. This story is seemingly supported by a 2006 MTV interview with Reggie Fils-Aime in which the former Nintendo of America president stated that he’d “love to see [GoldenEye 007] on virtual console” but that “there are a lot of issues there.”

That quote reinforces the idea that between Rare being a Microsoft owned company, Nintendo publishing the original GoldenEye 007, and EA and Activision controlling the gaming rights to the Bond franchise in later years, there were just too many moving pieces that had to come together for the remaster or a re-release to ever happen.

What’s interesting is that many people seem to think that the reason Rare couldn’t release the GoldenEye 007 remaster on XBLA or as part of the Rare Replay collection is simply that Nintendo ultimately failed to give the port their blessing. That idea makes some sense as it would seem that Microsoft and Nintendo would be the two major players involved in a deal over that specific Bond game. On top of that, a remake of GoldenEye 007 that was published by Activision was released exclusively on Nintendo Wii in 2010. That remake reinforced the suggestion that Nintendo ultimately blocked the Goldeneye 007 remaster from being released.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Is Nintendo Really to Blame for the GoldenEye 007 Remaster Never Being Released?

While Nintendo does seem to be a factor in this story, leaker Graslu00 shut down the idea that this is all Nintendo’s fault in an extensive message that they recently reposted on Twitter.

I've updated the pinned comment on my longplay video regarding "Nintendo and the cancellation of XBLA". I'd appreciate it if you gave it a read before saying that Nintendo is the main issue and I misunderstood or simplified the problem, I did not. Thank you. pic.twitter.com/79wPyHEU8r

— Graslu00 (@Graslu00) January 31, 2021

If you can’t read that message, it basically says that even if Nintendo and Microsoft had struck a deal, they’d still have to deal with MGM and Eon Productions who had their own concerns about James Bond video games. Those concerns may have required Rare to alter the original GoldenEye in ways that would have almost certainly hurt the game in the minds of many fans. The idea of a remaster of GoldenEye with “no cheats, no use of Bond theme, and no good vs good characters in multiplayer” certainly doesn’t sound appealing.

While there is some debate regarding the exact content restrictions placed on Bond games, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard of such restrictions. In a 2020 interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Adam Foshko (Activision’s director of story development when they controlled the Bond gaming rights) explains that making Bond games requires adhering to certain ideas of the character.

“Bond is unique because the IP holders have a very particular view on Bond as a character and how he should be used,” said Foshko. “Having worked with them, it’s more about: ‘How does Bond get out of a situation?’ rather than: ‘Can Bond shoot a guy in the face?’ It comes down to the goals and things that are unique and special about Bond in particular — even though people would like to play Bond in a situation.”

Restrictions aside, the other factor that doesn’t get referenced all that much is Rare’s interest in such a project. In a 2015 interview with Polygon, Rare operations director Drew Quakenbush noted that one of the reasons GoldenEye wasn’t included in the Rare Replay collection is that the studio chose to focus on “characters and worlds that Rare made independently” when selecting the games for that collection. He says that the issue “wasn’t necessarily licensing” and that “GoldenEye doesn’t really fit tightly in with that particular boundary that we put on there.”

Even if licensing is more of an issue than Rare was willing to suggest, this idea that Rare wants to somewhat distance themselves from GoldenEye certainly isn’t new. In that 2008 interview with VideoGamer.com, Nick Burton is asked “Does GoldenEye almost haunt the studio?” Here is his response:

“No, not at all. I wouldn’t say indifference. It’s nice to see people still talk about it. But I also think, and a lot of us think this, that you look back at it and it’s still good fun to play, but if I played it now with my gaming tastes as refined as they are now, would I still have the same reaction or have I really got rose-tinted spectacles on? It’s almost impossible to separate one from the other. I still look at it and think, no, it’s got great level design for instance, but then you think I’m saying that because maybe the control feels really good, but it’s not perfect. But it’s not perfect because the frame rate wasn’t high enough. It’s very difficult to separate your memory. As someone coined at work the other week. ‘You need some brain bleach’ so you can get rid of the memory.”

From everything I’ve seen, the issue basically comes down to a combination of licensing problems, content restrictions, and willingness. The long and short of it is that many people see GoldenEye 007 as a time capsule that has proven to be especially difficult to dig up and preserve.

Can You Play the GoldenEye 007 Remaster?

Recently, outlets and players have revealed that a full, working version of the GoldenEye 007 remaster has been leaked online and is currently playable.

While the process of downloading and playing the game is complicated and almost certainly wouldn’t be approved by anyone with controlling interest in this game’s license, it’s already clear that the game files are rapidly spreading online and is generally well-received by fans so far despite its obvious rough edges.

It should also be noted that those interested in playing a more modern version of GoldenEye should absolutely check out the GoldenEye: Source fan project which remakes the N64 game using Valve’s Source engine. It’s a brilliant experiment that almost perfectly captures nearly everything that made GoldenEye 007 special while updating the game in ways that even this remaster necessarily does not.

The post Why the GoldenEye 007 Remaster Was Cancelled appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[undttype]

Interview on practice

1. Can you give me a brief summary of your professional persona? Who you are, what education or experience do you have? I am a type designer, graphic designer, tutor and researcher based in London. I have been involved in a wide range of graphic design projects, in both commercial and cultural spheres. I have also developed and participated in projects that critically challenge the relationship between intellectual property (e.g. copyright) and creativity. This has included collaborations with The Libre Society and Remix Brighton as well as being partner/art director of LOCA Records. The works produced by these collectives was released under copyleft licences, which means they are free to copy, edit, and distribute, the only condition being, any derivative works must remain equally open and attribution is given. From 2001–2009 I worked with the internationally renowned Barnbrook studios, designing cultural identities, numerous publications and several typefaces. In 2006 I returned to university, completing an MA in Cultural and Critical Theory (2008) and later a Post Graduate Certificate in Education (2011). This lead to a shift in my career, as I became much more interested in research and education. I am a senior lecturer on the Graphic Design BA at Kingston University and Associate Lecturer on the MA Visual Communication at Royal College of Art My work, both as a practitioner and researcher, explores the contemporary and historical interplay between typography, technology, and society. I am especially interested in the discursive norms of three distinct groups: typographers (type designers); graphic designers; and coders and the effects that has on the visual-materialisation of language. This research draws on the theories and practices associated with these fields, including: History of Typography, Graphic Design, Media Theory, Communication Theory, Cybernetics, combined with insights from Critical Theory, Digital Humanities, Critical Code Studies, and Aesthetic Philosophy. This research has been published and presented at a number of international conferences, including: McLuhan Galaxy: Understanding Media, Barcelona, ATypI Reykjavík; xCoAx in Porto; and more recently at Face Forward in Dublin. 2. What are your strengths? 3. What are your weaknesses? I’m not interested in responding to these questions as they are part of a managerial interviewing system that is geared towards identifying a candidates capacity to manipulate language and their experiences so that they are always positive. I have interests that I consider important and that informs my research and work. See previous answer. 4. Are there any highlights from your career so far?/ What are some of your greatest accomplishments? To date, the highlight is undoubtedly my work with LOCA Records closely followed by my teaching/research. LOCA was a project instigated by musician and critical thinker, David M Berry, that I got involved with at the outset. LOCA was very much a laboratory for exploring methods and approaches and building communities and networks–and in that sense it was as much about the people/culture as the work we produced. It radically reshaped my understanding of design and transformed my career. From a personal perspective, it gave me the confidence to do an MA in a subject that I had very little knowledge of which in turn lead to me getting involved in higher education. From the perspective of graphic design discourse, it remains one of the most profound critical approaches, and one largely ignored by the design press. 5. What design software are you most familiar with and which one do you wish to experiment with further? Adobe Illustrator is my go to application. I do more or less everything in there. I have been thinking a lot about this recently, as tools shape what we communicate. I have recently begun to invest more time in InDesign, as I want to explore the epub format and digital publishing more broadly. I always liked print because as a designer I had control over the elements I worked with. Digital books have come into their own and I am interested in looking at them in more detail. 6. What have you learned from your mistakes as a graphic designer/ designer in general? My mistakes was to think of design in solely critical and aesthetic terms with little regard for finance or business more broadly. In the commercial environment I found it valuable to have a working knowledge of contracts, budgeting and planning, as it informed my decision making more.

7. What are your graphic design career goals? Finish the projects I have started. Write more, publish more. Pursue collaborations. 8. What has been your favorite project, brand or company in which you have worked with or for? LOCA – see above. 9. What have you done to improve your knowledge of graphic design? - e.g. Books, Websites, Tutorials and classes? I have a working knowledge of graphic design (albeit one that is Eurocentric and Modernist). That said, I find it a challenge to read graphic design texts as there are not that many that are written from a critical position and those that are often confuse criticality with superiority. Indeed, the emergence of a certain judgmental/moralising attitude is something I have become aware of in many younger critiques. They rely too much on secondary research and fail to analyse the contexts and conditions which produces the work they condemn.

That said, teaching a subject is a great way to learn about it. 10. What kinds of print media have you worked with? If not any which would you like to? Heavily involved with print a large array of formats and techniques (stationary, editorial, book, poster, etc.). While a lot of my research explores computational  techniques I am less familiar with contemporary approaches to design (coding a website). 11. What type of media is your favourite and why? I am interested in the transmission of ideas and so I remain fascinated by books (print and digital, audio etc.) and other reading and writing platforms. I still think there is more to be discovered, particularly from a postdigital perspective and in a time when attention is being stolen by the stacks. 12. What made you chosen this career in the first place/ why did you want to become a Designer/ Artist? When I was younger I understood world problems as design problems. That is, problems could be overcome if things (such as products like chairs, cars, etc.) were designed more thoughtfully. To give you an example, I remember designing an automated braking system when I was about 10 years old. It would have worked by emitting an infrared beam that would automatically adjust the speed when it came too close to an object in front of it. It would save lives by making decisions based on objective reality not human judgment or desire. I was highly idealistic and wanted to impose order through design, technology and systems. I am now critical of such positions. The second, more recent, aspect was an interest in exploring forms of communication. I am interested in texts, but also in the medium that transmits them (language, history, bodies, books, typography, print etc) and how these have changed over time. While many of these techniques are designed to be efficient or confer certain symbolic value, I am interested in using things that goes against that intentionality – that flags up the conventions, norms and infrastructures that construct it in the first place. 13. Finally, to you, what separates an artist from a designer/ what is Art and what is Design? While they may share certain formal similarities, their differences are much more interesting. Indeed one could go further and say that equating them is part of an ongoing trend to make all things equivalent, and so exchangeable. I find the critical theorists, Theodor Adorno’s notion of art useful here. His argument is extremely complex and builds on work of other philosophers (particularly Kant and Hegel) to argue for art that is critical of society, not just in its content but also in its form and its method (mimetic). Design has a different discourse and often attracts students backgrounds and educational experiences that diverge widely from those of fine art. Our tools, technologies, techniques differ also, producing methods and approaches that frame how work is produced. Designers tend to facilitate others content, whereas for artists content and form are entangled. I could write a lot more here, but I simply don’t have the time..

.. all the best,

Marcus Leis Allion

[love-startups]

Interview with “The Carrot” founders

Introduction

This is an interview with Armand Bogdan and Ricardo, two entrepreneurs from the United States that founded a dividend tracking application called “The Carrot”. During the interview, we will ask them about their background, then about their current application and where they want to go moving forward.

Questions / answers

What is your background? Where are you guys from?

(Ricardo) My name is Ricardo, I’m a software developer from Chicago. In the past, I started a digital design agency called Neutral Design Studio, and I helped start a small coffee shop in Champaign-Urbana called BrewLab Coffee.

(Armand ) I am a recent college graduate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a major in Economics and a minor in international development economics. I’m originally from Romania but moved to Evanston,IL in 2008.

What were you doing before working on “The Carrot”?

(Ricardo) Before Carrot I worked as a software developer and analyst at a construction company called Trice Construction. My job was mainly building software around productivity and product management.

(Armand) Prior to joining Carrot, I was a full-time student at UIUC. In the past, I’ve had internships ranging from logistics associate to project manager. One of the biggest projects I worked on was implementing a company-wide security keys database at Chicago Transit Authority.

What is “The Carrot” idea about?

The Carrot App is a tool aimed at making dividend investing easy and fun for many novice investors. This type of investing was previously limited to older audiences, but now the barriers to entry have been lowered, allowing a whole new class of investors to get in the space.

When did you guys start the project and how did you get started?

(Ricardo) The project initially started as a fancy spreadsheet that I used for myself. As I found my needs growing and changing I started experimenting with building a site that handles everything I need. Slowly scratching my own itch became what is now The Carrot App.

(Armand) I joined Carrot about a month after Ricardo had made the website. Browsing IndieHackers I looked at new startups that were located in Chicago and found Carrot. The idea instantly sparked an interest since I knew the hardships of tracking your dividends from experience. I signed up for the website and decided to send Ricardo a message, especially after I found out we graduated from the same university. Little by little we got to know each other more and I asked if I could join the team.

What were the biggest challenges to overcome?

(Ricardo) Balancing growth and development is always a challenge. When you’re not coding you’re selling and when you’re not selling you’re coding. One of those things is always taking priority over the other so balancing the two is the hardest.

(Armand) As a new graduate that only had internship experiences at corporations, my biggest challenge was the lack of experience at a startup. Usually, in my past work experiences, I was given a set goal and I had to come up with the steps to get there. In a startup environment, there are many goals that need to be achieved simultaneously with no set guideline on how to get from A to B. Ricardo became my mentor in this process and would always share his past experiences with me to show what has worked in the past and what hasn’t. I was able to morph my technical experiences in order to better suit a growing startup.

Where are you guys at now? and what is the next goal?

We just launched so now we’re in the process of collecting feedback, doing a bunch of customer support, and we still have to keep growing and reaching out to more users. My main goal is to build the best possible product I can. When people use the Carrot app I want them to ask themselves “Wow, why hasn’t someone done this sooner?” By being maniacal about collecting customer feedback and constantly iterating I can slowly but surely build a product that people love.

A little more about “The Carrot” from Armand and Ricardo

Homepage

This is our main homepage. A user can see the most important aspects of their dividend portfolio such as the portfolio yield, next payment date and your annual income. Carrot aims to make dividend investing as simple as possible thus we try to integrate easy to interpret visuals as the one above. This way you can see what assets hold the most weight in your portfolio.

The Scenario Builder 

The scenario builder is a great tool to answer any questions that a dividend investor might have regarding future investment. We understood how tedious it was for an investor to see where he should invest more money. The scenario builder allows the user to better visualize and understand where their money would get the most returns.

Visit their website

https://www.thecarrot.app/

Conclusion

This was a really interesting interview with Armand and Ricardo, it was great learning a little more about what they did before, what they are doing now and how they handle the difficult steps toward building a great product. If you want to contact them please reach Ricardo and Armand here:

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin

Indiehackers

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chelsea tv live stream online free - chelsea tv live streaming free

chelsea tv live stream online free - chelsea tv live streaming free

chelsea tv live stream online free - chelsea tv live streaming free

Chelsea TV : Live | Videos | Official Site | Chelsea ... - Chelsea FC

Home; Chelsea TV : Live . Champions Cup we are unable to show the pre-season games against Bayern Munich and Inter Milan live on Chelsea TV. There will

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Chelsea TV is a British membership based games TV slot, committed to the fanatics of the English Premier League football club, Chelsea. The direct first propelled in August 2001 on Sky Digital. The station is enrolled with Ofcom as Chelsea Digital Media Ltd.[1] It communicates day by day from 10:00am to midnight. Until the point when it was expelled in mid 2010, it used to be communicated in Channel 427 on UPC Ireland. 

Chelsea TV communicates live ordinary from 10am to midnight from the studios at Stamford Bridge. 

Top shows incorporate Friday Night Live which communicates every Friday with previous players Kerry Dixon and Jason Cundy. Friday Night Live enables fans to bring in and share their perspectives on everything Chelsea. The show frequently has first cooperative individuals join the telephone in, the 2009/10 season has seen Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, Mikel, Malouda and Kalou all answer the fans' inquiries. 

Live develop to midweek amusements is on Matchnight Live which communicates from 6pm and has sneak peaks to the diversion, group news first and investigation. Each midweek amusement takes after with an experience fans' telephone in from 10pm. Chelsea TV is the main place to watch the Chelsea Reserves and Academy Teams in real life. Holds Live has full scope of each Reserve diversion some of which occur at Griffin Park in the London Borough of Hounslow, the home ground of Brentford. 

You can discover the most recent news on Blues News. This is the day by day news program with features at 1pm and 5pm took after by a full news notice at 6.30 pm and 10 pm. Paper View communicates live from the studios each Thursday with the finest Fleet Street columnists talking about the news encompassing the club. Inside Cobham demonstrates the week's instructional courses and restrictive players interviews from the Chelsea's preparation ground in Cobham, Surrey. Selective meetings from the principal cooperative people and administration can be seen on The Big Interview. Numerous new shows and arrangement are appeared consistently. In 2009 another fans' post-coordinate telephone in was presented called "Additional time at the Bridge" this enables fans' to share their perspectives after consistently home diversion by calling the studio or messaging Chelsea TV.[2] 

In December 2007 the station needed to make an open conciliatory sentiment after previous Chelsea player David Speedie, who was a visitor on the Big Match Countdown appear, continued interspersing his examination with swear words. With the program screened pre-watershed at 6 pm, it prompted moderator Neil Barnett making rehashed apologies.[3] 

The channel has different moderators, including previous players Jason Cundy, Tommy Langley, Scott Minto and Kerry Dixon. Customary hosts incorporate Gigi Salmon, Alison Bender, Ben Andrews, Lee Parker and in addition Neil Barnett. 

Chelsea matches are essentially commentated by Trevor Harris, Ben Andrews (who facilitated the 2007 League Cup Final, 2007 FA Cup Final and 2008 UEFA Champions League Final), Mark Tompkins, Dan Roebuck and Gary Taphouse. Cundy is regularly co-observer and is exceptionally eager when Chelsea score in enormous games.[4] 

Gigi Salmon at present displays many shows on the channel and has been a Chelsea TV station moderator since the direct was propelled in August 2001. A portion of the projects she displays incorporate Blues News and Matchnight Live and Paperview.[5] Neil Barnett has been introducing since the dispatch of the direct in August 2001. He started working for The Blues in the 1980s written work articles for the club's magazine. 

In the UK Chelsea TV can be seen on Sky Digital channel 421. 

Chelsea TV can be viewed in numerous locales around the globe including: 

North America : http://ift.tt/2wGGjX2 (Setanta Sports) 

Africa : www.supersport.co.za (Supersport) 

Container Middle East : www.art-tv.net (ART) 

Australia : www.setanta.com.au (Setanta Sports) 

Container Asia ex China, Korea and Japan : www.goal.tv (Goal TV) 

Bulgaria : www.btv.bg/don (Ring.BG) 

Cyprus : www.mivision.com.cy (CYTA) 

Denmark : www.viasat.dk (Viasat/MTG) 

Estonia : www.viasat.ee (Viasat/MTG) 

Finland : www.viasat.fi (Viasat/MTG) 

Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia : www.sportklub.tv (IKO) 

Greece : www.skai.gr (SKAI) 

Iceland : www.stod2sport2.is (Digital Iceland (IBC/365) 

Kazakhstan : www.football-tv.ru (Loranza) 

Latvia : www.viasat.lv (Viasat/MTG) 

Lithuania : www.viasat.lt (Viasat/MTG) 

Malta : www.melitacable.com (Melita Cable) 

Malta : www.go.com.mt (GO) 

Norway : www.viasat.no (Viasat/MTG) 

Poland : www.polsat.com.pl (Polsat) 

Russia: www.football-tv.ru (Loranza) 

Sweden : www.viasat.se (Viasat/MTG) 

Switzerland : www.swisscom.ch (Swisscom TV) 

Turkey : webspordvu.tk 

Propelled on 1 July, Chelsea TV Online is another approach to see Chelsea TV by means of a PC or Mac, regardless of the possibility that you don't have a membership to Sky. 

Chelsea TV Online is fueled by the club's web accomplice Perform, with content from the Sky channel, Chelsea TV and incorporates restrictive meetings, live question and answer sessions, Bridge Kids and numerous off camera highlights, selective to Chelsea TV 

Surprisingly, Chelsea TV Online empowers fans to observe this and that's just the beginning, from anyplace on the planet, utilizing their PC or MAC and a 16:9 fantastic glimmer player. 

Notwithstanding the live occasions and video on request content, fans are likewise in for a treat when the season commences. For genuine Blues fans that can't make it to the diversion, Chelsea TV Online makes its mark with an online match day encounter second to none including match sees and expanded features in addition to a phenomenal Match Live focus empowering fans to tune in to live editorial of each amusement. A visual portrayal of key occasions, incorporates live content editorial, intuitive match details and live photograph refreshes and while fans can utilize long range informal communication apparatuses to talk to each other about the in diversion activity 

Memberships begin from £4.49 a month and permits worldwide fans get to content that generally would not be accessible to them.

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[nofomoartworld]

Hyperallergic: Beer with a Painter: Suzanne Joelson and Gary Stephan

Suzanne Joelson “Crackrakecrate” (2016) paint, vinyl graphics on wood panel, 50 x50 inches (all images courtesy the artists)

Gary Stephan and Suzanne Joelson live and work together in a building in TriBeCa. Within the building they each maintain individual floors, so my suggestion of a “couple” interview was a bit of a radical experiment. We had to decide how and where to stage our visit. Luckily they were game, ready with Captain’s Daughter IPA, and an array of cheese and snacks.

Their zones are distinct: Stephan doesn’t keep anything extra around — leaving only some minimal, modernist furniture, a vintage rowing machine for exercise, and a fantastic rotating easel. Joelson’s area is full of color, with layered collections of fabrics, textiles, and clippings in full use. Stephan says he’s lucky that he can borrow supplies from Joelson when he needs them; he refuses to buy anything in advance. They use examples from domestic life to illustrate their aesthetics: Joelson apparently doesn’t like closing closet doors — it denotes a system of closed deductions. More than anything, I’m struck by their open, inquisitive nature with each other.

This rigorous but open questioning permeates both of their practices. Joelson asks what happens when two unexpected elements or techniques bump up against one another: collaged, industrial fabrics  and the painterly, handmade gesture. Stephan refers to a formalist vocabulary, but turns any lingering obsession with the “framing edge” upside-down. There’s a curiosity in their work about different permutations of “meeting in the middle,” which is, in fact, echoed by the terms of our three-person conversation.

Stephan was born in Brooklyn in 1942, studied at Pratt Institute, and received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1967. He has had solo shows in New York at Susan Inglett Gallery, Bykert Gallery, Mary Boone Gallery, Hirschl and Adler, and Marlborough Gallery; in Los Angeles at Margo Leavin Gallery and Daniel Weinberg Gallery. He is currently represented by Kienzle Art Foundation in Berlin, where he will be the subject of a solo exhibition in the fall.

Joelson was born in 1952 in Paterson, New Jersey. She received her BA from Bennington College in 1973. She has exhibited at galleries including Nature Morte in New Delhi, Fernando Alcolea in Barcelona, and White Columns in New York. She was the subject of a solo exhibition, Slipping Systems, in the fall of 2016 at Studio 10, Brooklyn, New York.

*   *   *

Jennifer Samet: Suzanne, can you tell me about any childhood memories you have of making art?

Suzanne Joelson: My mother was a painter. When I was twelve I helped her paint scenery for a local theater group and got to keep the paint. When friends came over we painted the walls of my bedroom with stripes and dots in clashing colors right over the patterned wallpaper. My parents were fine with this and I continued to alter the room until I left for college. All these years later I am back to combining paint and print.

Suzanne Joelson  “First Back” (2012) interior of wood panel/hollow core door, 40 x 30 inches

I did not have many toys but I remember breaking, cutting, and reassembling the ones I had. Doll houses got major overhauls. At some point my mother hid the nicer dolls either to protect them or avoid cramping my style.

In high school I had a geometry teacher who did not like me. But I was oddly good at geometry. I just got it and did not need the class so she let me spend the time in the art room.

I went to the Noguchi Museum recently and thought that it was a bit like the art that I grew up seeing. It is beautiful and essentialist, and yet it’s not enough.  There’s always a sense of Noguchi being a little too good.

JS: Gary, where did you grow up? Were you into drawing as a kid?

GS: When I was a kid living in Levittown, on Long Island, like a lot of guys, I loved drawing planes and cars. I remember that in the fifth grade, I was very enamored of this other kid’s drawings. His planes looked so much better than mine, but I couldn’t figure out why. I befriended him and finally said, “Bill, let’s be candid, your planes are much better than mine. Why?” He said, “Rivets. I draw all the rivets.” I realized that was it. He had all these little dots, so it felt like it had been built like a real plane.

We would go to Mass in Levittown Hall, where local artists put their work up on the walls. The work was full of the tropes of late 1940s art: caulk balls dipped in white paint, held together with sticks, on a ground of sandpaper. It was slightly Miró-ish, or like Picabia drawings — quasi-mechanical things. I did not understand what they were but I was attracted to the physicality of them, and the curious form-making. So the plane drawings and my interest in that work run along next to each other.

Gary Stephan “Untitled” (2008) acrylic on canvas, 32 x 32 inches

I had flunked 7th, 8th, and 9th grade. Eventually I got an art teacher who saw me drawing cars all the time and said, “You know, there’s a name for that. It’s called industrial design.” I decided that was it, and that I would go to Pratt for it. But then I fell in with the painters and, before graduating, I went out to the West Coast. I went to the San Francisco Art Institute for my Masters.  Eventually, the two forces came together. A lot of my approach to painting is still with that clear, coherent, “What’s the project?” mindset of a designer.

JS: Gary, I wanted to ask you about your Catholic background, because you have said Catholic imagery, like the cruciform shape, has infiltrated your painting.

Gary Stephan: Although I’m now an atheist, I still have some of the Catholic furniture. Every once in awhile, its forms appear, or ideas about above and below: the spiritual plane and the bodily plane. I don’t resist it, but I don’t embrace it. I just let it roll into the mix and then it rolls out again.

When I was in first grade at Catholic school, I read a story called “The Prince’s Dessert,” which was the beginning of my fascination with paradox. The prince asks for a dessert that’s hot and cold at the same time. The punch line was that it was a hot fudge sundae.

I was disappointed with the outcome of the story — because a sundae is alternately hot and cold. It isn’t simultaneously hot and cold. As a boy I felt tricked by the answer. Anyway, these kinds of polarities have interested me since childhood.

As a Catholic, I never thought of the concept of shades of gray in ethical, moral, or emotional questions. That idea did not occur to me until I was well into my second year of college. It was uncomfortable for me, because it didn’t come to me naturally. I was constructed by my parents and by my church to be fundamentally binary. I know the world is not like that. It is fascinating how disappointing that is.

JS: Did the two of you meet originally through art? Suzanne, you were working for Robert Rauschenberg, right?

SJ: I worked for Merce Cunningham as the liaison between Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, and Merce. I was hanging out in that period with Ross Bleckner, Julian Schnabel, and David Salle. Gary had an opening at Mary Boone, and I went to the opening with Julian. Gary and I talked for about an hour. I was completely smitten and thought I’d made a big impression. But I wasn’t even invited to the after party.

Then, two weeks later, Gary came to a Cunningham event at the Joyce Theater.  I was with Ross, and after we took him to Studio 54, I took Gary home. He didn’t even remember me.

GS: It took a while for it to click, but once it clicked it was crazy great. We’ve been together for an amazing amount of time — 38 years. I’m incredibly lucky.

JS: Suzanne, do you think your use of recycled fabrics and materials from the street is related to the experience of doing costume and set design?

Suzanne Joelson “Broken Cocoa” (2016) paint,vinyl graphics on wood panel, 24 x 54 inches

SJ: I hadn’t thought about it but one of my favorite tasks working for Cunningham was recreating Rauschenberg’s set for “Winterbranch” (1964). At some point in the nocturnal piece Rauschenberg would drag what we called “the monster” across stage. It was usually a rolling ladder with an array of battery-operated lights and things he would find on the street. I loved doing it, even though I wasn’t as good at it as Rauschenberg was. He always had a more unlikely thought.

There is something about working with preexisting materials, adapting things outside one’s control. After Hurricane Sandy, I carried my wet paintings up six flights of stairs in the dark, with two assistants. The paintings were on hollow-core doors and water was sloshing around in them. When I ripped off the backs, a roughly applied cardboard substructure was revealed. Its diamond pattern was almost like African Kuba cloth but by different means. We arranged the paintings around the loft to dry with all the backs ripped off, and took photographs of the arrangements.

The effect of that experience was an idea of being very transitory about the work: being less caught up in the craft of it, less concerned about permanence. For a long time, I was a “pure” painter. At some point I started bringing the world back into the paintings. I don’t believe in zero-degree formalism.

JS: I am curious what you think about this, Gary: the idea of pure painting and formalism.

Gary Stephan “The Future Of Reading 5” (2016) acrylic on canvas, 20 x 20 inches

GS: My elevator pitch for my work is that I am using the tools of formalism to build the house of surrealism. I see formalism as a set of appearances designed to create something that’s visually dependable. The contribution of Surrealism is that it problematizes the reading of the world. If you take the appearance of formalism, but bang the cues into each other in such a way that the picture space wobbles or flickers, or doesn’t work properly — you are making a surreal proposition about formalism.

When I came to New York, the big division was between the sharp guys who made serious, formal objects, and the crazy aunt in the attic — of surrealism. Richard Serra would say, “The problem with Donald Judd’s work is that it is surreal.” He was referring to the concealed surfaces – things you can never know. Anytime you conceal, you’re essentially making a surreal object. That’s why Serra’s sculptures are solid steel. Anything that existed outside our vision would become secretive, mysterious, and romantic. The work has to be in plain sight and experiential.

But I could not just blow off de Chirico and Magritte. The contribution of de Chirico is that, for almost the first time in history, aside from Caspar David Friedrich, concealment is content. It is subject matter.

In my work, I try to have enough dependable information that there is a way to compare it to the missing part. The purpose is to re-engage viewers so that instead of them passively taking in the work at the level of style, you offer them the opportunity to engage the problematics of the picture space. In engaging them, they become co-constructors.

SJ: There’s also a lesson in that: that nothing is reliable. Your paintings seem like an inoculation for our collective anxiety about the contradictions of the world. You practice not being able to depend on a predictable space.

GS: Absolutely. It gets to the Russian idea of defamiliarization and the Brechtian idea of alienation. What they want to do is get the viewer into the pain of responsibility in a difficult world at the level of play. You are making art, so it should be fun, but it is also dealing with essentially difficult questions.

It has to do with the citizen’s relationship to the world. For example, I think one of the reasons Trump is appealing to people is that he is saying, “Only I can solve this problem.” It is essentially a paternalistic model. The academic model of painting was essentially paternalistic. It says, “We’ve got all the cards; we know what art looks like; we’re in charge; you’re in good hands.” It’s very Trumpian. What happens with the Impressionists is they say, “Who knows how this works? Get involved, maybe you don’t like it, maybe you don’t trust it. You can co-construct this if you’re so inclined.”

JS: Suzanne, can you tell me about how you deconstruct order and sequences? I know you utilize the Fibonacci cycle in constructing your paintings and multi-panel pieces.

SJ: I tend to start with an order, which I resist. But sometimes it is the other way around and I tug the visual cacophony toward a system. I utilize the Fibonacci cycle, but contaminate it with a degree of lived life.

Suzanne Joelson “Massaging Kale” (2016) paint, vinyl graphics on wood panel, 48 x 84 inches

My cousin who lives in Paris visited recently and we had a sort of French night out in Soho. On our way from Lucky Strike to dessert at Balthazar, we passed the biggest mass of rats I have ever seen in New York. On a shop-filled block we crossed the street to get out of their way. In the context of that evening it was the most exciting part.

GS: Wow. There’s a unique take — “Dessert was great, but the rats were even better.”

SJ: I’ve had lots of great desserts but how often have I seen that many persistent rats? They were undeterred by gentrification. I think about the fact that now, psychologically, so much is colored by what is happening with the Trump presidency. I constantly contend with the question of how much news and information I can digest.

GS: I’ve thought for a long time that if I paid really close attention to politics and then didn’t say to myself, “How can I consciously translate this into a work of art,” but let it leach into the groundwater of my brain, it would show up on some level. I think it does. The conversation I’ve been having with friends is basically, “What can be the relationship of abstraction to politics?”

Gary Stephan “Untitled” (2009) acrylic on muslin, 60 x 42 inches

JS: So this has to do with an idea about incorporating experience and contaminating “pure painting” with daily experience?

SJ: The interest in the Fibonacci sequence and spiraling goes back to the way I have thought about experience, which is as a coil. You go on a route and arrive at a shard of light, and recognize where you are. Then you keep going, and get back to that part again. But you are not going in circles, you are constantly staging a step up…or down.

In Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past, the narrator describes traveling from Balbec in a stagecoach. The coach is going up the hill and away. As it turns along the switchback, he can see back toward the town he has just left. He keeps looking back toward it, but from a little farther, as he is heading toward the future. Then, on the switchback, yet again, he looks back on where he just was, but now he is turned even more. That becomes a metaphor for how memory works.

Thomas Nozkowski came to my studio once when I was working on something that was overly coordinated and he said, “Jump cut.” That was all he needed to say. Now it is my mantra.

GS: It is related to the mosque you loved so much in Turkey, I’ve also always thought that a lot of Suzanne’s work had to do with translation.

SJ: Yes, the interior of the Rüstem Pasha Mosque in Istanbul is beautiful and perfect. There are four doors outside, and the door farthest from the entrance is completely broken up. The original tiles were found and put back on, but not in the original order. I love that kind of patching. It is similar to the Winchester Cathedral in England, where one rose window on the north transom was broken into smithereens and reassembled out of broken bits.

I consider different materials and methods of application in terms of translation. The model is conversation. For example, this format of today’s conversation is unusual for all of us. We can’t anticipate each other’s questions or responses, or the gap between what is said and what is felt or experienced, and how it will read on the page or screen. These change in the context of the situation. I am interested in how the familiar becomes strange, and the structure becomes fallible. A new thought emerges or an old thought can be re-imagined.

JS: Gary, you have described having “two masters”: the object and the painting. Can you explain what that means?

GS: That phrase, “serving two masters,” came from a chapter heading in an old fundamentalist Christian primer that I found. In terms of painting, at one end of the spectrum, you have the master of the concrete object — someone like Robert Ryman. At the other end of the spectrum, you have somebody like Frederick Church — the illusion of a space that can be entered. With Church, you want to experience Niagara Falls uncontaminated by the resistance of the object. With Ryman, you want the clarity of the object without any of the froufrou of the picture space.

Everybody conducts his or her practice along that continuum. That is what is meant by the serving two masters. Anytime you show fealty to one, you’ve weakened your fealty to the other. I was once given a hard time in print for “being compromised”: for the work vacillating between its allegiance to objects, and its allegiance to picture space. That vacillation was seen as a failure of nerve. I think times have changed enough that now it is considered a good way to look at things.

JS: You work on paintings from all directions and sides, and use a rotating easel to turn them around. Is that related to these ideas of concealment and moving between the object and the image?

Gary Stephan “Untitled” (2017), acrylic on Canvas, 30 x 30 inches

GS: The circular easel allows me to mess with expectations about gravity and the punch line. Sometimes I give way to the more obvious expectation, because I don’t see any reason to be obscure. Sometimes, it is too easy, so I turn them backwards, so to speak. Then they are slower. When you finally get to the punch line, it is more of a surprise.

JS: You think of the paintings as having punch lines?  What does that mean?

GS: I definitely do. It is a term I got from Tom Nozkowski years ago. He would say, “Well, the gag of this painting is…” Some people see them right away, and some people never see them. I’ve had any number of people think they’re simply delightful, flat designs, and I think, “Okay.” I’ve gotten over the artist as educator part of my life.

SJ: Whereas Rothko hoped that people would fall to their knees and start to cry in front of his paintings, you want to hear people chuckling.

GS: Yes. I want them mildly chortling under their breath.

The post Beer with a Painter: Suzanne Joelson and Gary Stephan appeared first on Hyperallergic.

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[symbianosgames]

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

We’ve all heard the question.

What’s your game about?

After all, that’s why you asked for the meeting in the first place, to be able to answer that question. But if you need to set up a laptop, queue up the dancing bears, or perform any other gyrations before you answer the question, then you already come off as unprepared. Don’t get me wrong, visual aids are important, but only after you have established a mindset where the potential buyer wants to see them. So, ideally, you are answering that question clearly and concisely in one minute or less, and thirty seconds is even better. You cannot get there without practicing with others and refining your message.

Try it right now, and time yourself. How did it sound to you? Pretty good? Now ask yourself the following question, since you are intimately familiar with your game and have likely been working on it for months, how much of your evaluation of your own pitch is biased because you can mentally fill in the gaps in your presentation?

Now go to someone, anyone, who knows nothing about your game and is also not pre-disposed to tell you what you want to hear, and do the same exercise. Typically, you will find that your presentation time will have doubled or tripled, because you have to give them more information to get that look of comprehension on their face. You will also, without them saying a word, recognize gaps or flaws in your presentation that you need to correct. Don’t worry, that is to be expected and part of the whole point of practicing.

Next, before going deeper into any of your follow-on material, ask them to recap to you what they understand about the game so far. This accomplishes two things. First it helps you determine how much of the message you want to convey is getting through. Second, their answers will naturally be even briefer and to the point than your presentation, and those answers will give you great clues about how to further tighten your messaging. You may even stumble upon the perfect one-line response to the question of what your game is about.

Lots of folks in our industry poke fun at the Hollywood method of pitching movie ideas, ala “well it’s like Bambi meets Godzilla.” Even if you haven’t seen the animated clip of that mash up idea, it immediately conjures visuals and sets an expectation in the mind of the listener. Taking that same line of thinking into the game space, how would you describe the original Puzzle Quest, from our client Infinity Plus 2? In 2006, when we began pitching what would eventually become the 2008 Mobile Game of the Year, there was nothing like it on the market. We distilled the essence of the game to this: “Puzzle Quest is a fantasy RPG battler that uses match-3 gameplay as the primary combat mechanic.” Short, to the point, and the listener knows what to expect next even though they have never seen anything like it before because you gave them points of reference to things that are familiar to them. Keep refining and distilling the opening of your pitch until you can reach a similar level of clarity, and this will also give you a consistency of presentation thereafter.

The same approach applies to how you present your company or your services. There are tons of developers and outsource providers in the world, so your opening statement needs to go beyond the simple facts of who you are to answer the unspoken question they really want answered, which is, “why should I pay attention to you?” Describing the special sauce of your company needs brevity as well, but less than distilling a game down to its core. Give yourself a paragraph rather than one to two sentences. Be sure to highlight what sets you apart from your competitors without saying anything negative about them in the process.

If you are struggling to come up with those points, ask yourself the following questions:

What are the highest profile titles your team has worked on?

What is my longest term or highest volume customer relationship?

How did that become a successful repeat business relationship?

How many of my customers come back more than once, and why is that in general?

What kind of references can these partners give me to use in my presentation?

How flexible are we in terms of work hours/overlap with global partners?

How do we typically communicate/provide transparency to our partners?

How does our pricing compare to market expectations for these services?

Why should someone be willing to pay more, or LESS than the norm?

What creativity do you bring to the process?

What awards or critical acclaim have you received?

What success stories can you share later in your presentation? Can you tease them in your opener?

Which do you think is the stronger of the two openers below:

Joe Blow Studios is a game developer based in San Francisco whose mission is to create great games for PC and Console. We make the games that we want to play, so it’s all about fun. We published our first title, Super Fun Guy, in 2011 with Publisher X, but they really didn’t promote it well so it never took off. So we started doing work for hire to keep the doors open and get enough money together to make this demo for Super Fun Guy 2, which is what we want to show you today.

Please understand that this is a real opener pitched to us, but obviously the names and locations were changed for this article. After interviewing this developer further, we learned the following relevant points.

Their fifteen person team was 80% veterans, with an average of over ten years experience working at other firms

The main reason it was four years from their first game to their second publishing attempt was because they were so in demand as code fire-fighters for other people’s projects, and they had almost an 80% repeat business rate once people worked with them the first time.

The first title wasn’t ever really shopped to publishers, it had been placed with a friend of one of the founders, and when that friend left the publisher during development, it lost its internal champion and was relegated to filler status in an otherwise crowded publisher line up.

So here is the opener they should have given.

Joe Blow Studios is an in demand veteran game development studio with an average of 10+ years experience. Our team comes from a console background, having worked on over fifty console games between us, including 6 of the top 20 gaming franchises of all time. Since we were founded in 2010, we have worked as external developers on major releases for EA, 2K, Activision, and Microsoft, primarily on UE4 programing, networked multiplayer and level design and building. 80% of our customers are repeat business customers and the primary reasons they tell us that they keep coming back are our quality and impeccable communication/customer service. We aren’t happy unless they are happy. Today, we would like to show you the game we want to make next, Super Fun Guy.

See the difference? Go find your difference and polish it until it flows smoothly from your lips time after time. Good Hunting!

[juliayepes]

Blood of a Poet

Through fleeting glimpses and a studio visit, a portrait of a singular songwriter and musician emerges.

On the song "Supreme Being," Will Roan, singer and keyboardist of the Brooklyn band Amazing Baby, experiences a transcendental moment. It's an everything's-okay, no-one-ever-really-dies moment, in which everyone and everything in creation is revealed as mysteriously connected. Steeped in mysticism, tracks like "Supreme Being" (a trance song composed on the xylophone and a highlight of the group's self-released 2008 EP, Infinite Fucking Cross) convey a sense of wonder and a longing to return to paradise. Lyrics about "digging up the pearls from years gone by," returning to "salt of the earth," and a "big, black phantom love [that] floats over it all" contribute to the impression of a universe governed by some kind of cyclical, eternal return.

The group’s first tracks sound as joyful and cohesive as Led Zeppelin songs, only half the length, and recent songs are awash in a sweeping but pleasingly off-kilter grandeur. Their potency boils down to an inspired pairing of Roan, a literate preacher’s son, and Simon O'Connor, a virtuoso hard rock guitarist. The bands they had been in before Amazing Baby were good, but very true to a genre. But the project the pair formed together was a hybrid of influences (mutual favorites that included T. Rex and Queen), resulting in soaring melodies and full-bodied, boundary-pushing art-rock. In August 2008, a writer for the popular British music magazine NME raved about their first batch of songs, “Truly great rock bands don’t usually just fall out of the sky — they evolve slowly, meticulously and sometimes downright painfully over time. But don’t expect Amazing Baby to be paying any such dues... These Brookynites have been together since Christmas..., but somehow, they already sound like they could take on the world.” With the release of their first album Rewild due in the first half of 2009, Amazing Baby seemed on the precipice of a breakthrough after a near overnight success story.  

When I arrive at Electric Lady studios at 4pm on the first Sunday last February, the band is putting the finishing touches on their debut album. It's the second-to-last day of recording and a 15-piece orchestra is coming in today to record their parts individually. Bassist Don De Vore—pale blond, handsome, silent—sits in the recording booth nearly the whole afternoon, overseeing the recording of the string and brass parts. Matt Abeysekera, the drummer, pops into the booth and excitedly chats about the soundtrack to Polanski's horror movie The Fearless Vampire Killers. Shy, stringy-haired rhythm guitarist Rob Laasko hangs in the green room for a while, in between long spells in the recording booth. He seems like the mellowest member, but like De Vore, he has the air of a longtime studio musician, who is used to being ignored. Roan and his girlfriend arrive last, after a late night of DJing at a Greenpoint warehouse.

Confused, insulted, and dazzled by Will

With his self-assured manner and clean-cut features, Roan could easily pass for a cultured character in a Wes Anderson movie. Today, after weeks of nonstop recording for the band's debut album, the idiosyncratic singer-keyboardist seems to be running off of a streak of final-stretch adrenaline. In the green room, he drinks Sparks, a caffeinated alcoholic beverage, which keeps him on an even keel between seeming wiped out and alert, relaxed and lucid. He possesses a precise eye. During our interview, he’s polite but brisk, not finicky but quick to correct me when I’m wrong. When I ask him what the song "Headdress" is about, he tells me it’s about "holding onto somebody really tightly" and then tries to explain the title in visual terms. "It's supposed to evoke—I wish I could illustrate this better in words—a distraction, a trick of the eye, a false part of your body. A decoration."

While the teenage O’Connor was into hip-hop, graffiti, and punk music as a teenager, Roan immersed himself in art rock like David Bowie, John Cale, and T. Rex. He was born in Waterbury, Connecticut and his family moved four times before settling in Martha's Vineyard. Roan, who is also interested in design and visual art (he co-designed Rewild's cover art with a friend), majored in creative writing at Bard. After graduation, he moved to Brookyn, where he formed Lions & Tigers, a glam-rock/post-punk outfit that recorded arty, avant-garde songs, filled with images of oceans, fire, and blood. On the tracks, his characters are alienated and often remorseless, dwarfed by a surreal and desolate New York City. They're in precarious and desperate situations. But the songs have the surreal enchantment of a Cocteau movie. Singing about watching the green light die, his girl’s grey eyes, and how she’s “never gonna wake up,” Roan evokes an arresting vision of youth in limbo and casual peril.

He's a gracious host, happy to show me around, introduce me to his friends, and to answer questions. But as polite and friendly as he is, Roan remains inaccessible, even mysterious. Alone, he answers every question I ask. But if other bandmates are around, he lets them handle questions. He seems relieved when he’s surrounded by his friends, as if it’s only when he’s in their company that he can really be himself.

Most people can't be creative on command, but so far that hasn't been a problem for the scattershot singer or his songwriting partner. One reason the band has been so prolific is that they can be productive, and even thrive, in the midst of chaos. (One episode of the Village Voice’s Indie Cribz features a neatly dressed Roan giving viewers a tour of his horrifyingly messy apartment. In the video, he glances around his forsaken-looking bedroom. “I don’t spend a lot of time here,” he says mildly. “This is more like a storage space.”) If anything, he seems more comfortable in a hectic environment. As I interview Roan at Electric Lady studios, string players practice warm-up scales in the room next door. It nearly drives me out of my mind, but it doesn’t seem to distract Roan at all.

While O'Connor rallies me with his raucous energy, Roan is matter-of-fact, precise, guarded. He doesn't like to talk about his band, but he calls MGMT drummer Will Berman who helped write and produce Amazing Baby's first songs "one of the most talented people I've ever met" and predicts he'll put out "a brilliant solo album one day." He encourages me to check out his girlfriend's band (the spooky, shambolic Golden Triangle). And his face lights up with a quirky, genuine smile when he tells me that bassist Don De Vore was in Ink & Dagger "a really incredible, influential vampire-themed band from Philadelphia in the ‘90s." ("Don could do so much better," one diehard Ink & Dagger fan complained on Amazing Baby's Last.fm page.) I learn more about Roan when I'm not asking questions.

For one thing, he’s a good friend. A month earlier, when I run into him at Glasslands, a Brooklyn bar and performance space, I mention that I was surprised by the dizzying heights that MGMT-mania had reached. “Good for them, though,” Roan says pointedly. “Great for them,” I answer. Once he sees that I genuinely mean it, he lets down his guard. I’d seen Amazing Baby at the Mercury Lounge in November 2008 and had asked Roan if he could make me a CD of Lions & Tigers tracks, but he hadn’t had his phone on him. “I wanted to make you a CD, but I didn’t have your phone number,” he explains. He tells me Amazing Baby is recording the next week and that his old band, Lions & Tigers, is mixing an album. “Can I invite you to the studio? Can I invite you to a mixing session? How about if I e-mail you tomorrow?” he says, as he punches my contact info into his iPhone. I tell him that I thought the Lions & Tigers songs I'd heard were great. I love the post-punk sound, I say, and I love post-punk in general; Wire is my favorite band. He brightens. “I love Wire!" And then, in regard to Lions & Tigers, he laughs. "I thought we were good, but no one liked us!” he says.

The first time I saw Roan, he was wearing a shirt that declared “THIS SHIRT SAVES LIVES.” It was November 2008 and I was at the Mercury Lounge for my first Amazing Baby show. Onstage, an impish Roan pranced around the stage with the pomp and exuberance of Jarvis Cocker. After the show, I introduced myself and asked if he could make me a CD of his former band, Lions & Tigers. He cycled rapidly through an array of thoughts like only an overeducated man can. "Sure, I'd be happy to," he answered with a typically cheerful smile, but then he grilled me: “What do you want it for? You just want it? What’s the angle?” He asked me what I thought of the show, knowing it was imperfect. And before I left, he inquired whether this was my first time seeing Amazing Baby live. I told him it was. “You should have come last night!” he admonished me.

Needless to say, I left confused. I was taken aback, even offended, that he was dismissive of his older songs, which I adored. At the same time, I realized that if he didn’t want me to hear his old tracks, then that must mean his new songs sounded a lot different than Lions & Tigers—and that he thought they were really good. Later I realized that he wasn’t being combative because he was a control freak. He simply didn’t want Amazing Baby to be judged by his old band’s tracks. "That was more like a project than a band," he told me, gesticulating. "I was proud of it at the time, but I don't want that to represent me. I don’t want to make that kind of music anymore. That’s why—“ he smiled—“I’m not making it."

His fear of pretension, stutter, and religious connection

Roan cuts an imposing figure. I think twice before crossing a crowded room to talk to the singer—and even after being acquainted with him for months, I find it hard to know how to interpret his sunny, aristocratic charm. It's disconcerting to try to reconcile Roan's bold aura with what he actually says. He is rigorously style-oriented with keen, intelligent eyes that appraise everything. He cannot help but move with a flourish. But in conversation he never says anything remotely audacious or flamboyant. His speech is peppered with prefixes (They're "mega busy," Electric Lady is "super cool") and friendly surfer-stoner affirmations ("totally," "definitely," "rad").

But despite the swashbuckling aura, Roan also has a vulnerable quality. For one thing, his expressive face broadcasts his emotions. And for another thing, he stutters. Though his stutter seems mild (it doesn't surface til the third time I talk to him), one can imagine it’s a source of anxiety for the frontman, especially when he's expected to participate in video and radio interviews, which may catch him when he's tired or ill at ease. (Both states seem to exacerbate the speech disorder.) In one video interview, there's a moment when Roan realizes he's not going be able to get through his sentence without stuttering unless he skips some prepositions, so he starts stringing key words together. It's a heart-rending moment. His bandmates are silent, but it's clear they're in solidarity with the singer.

I would normally think it inappropriate or even disgraceful to ask a stranger personal questions, but Roan is so restrained that I am even less inclined to pry. When I mention that I've noticed a lot of images of eternity in his lyrics, the tone of his voice shifts slightly and there's a flicker in his eye like I'm on to something. "Yeah," he agrees. "Or infinity," I venture. "Yeah," he repeats, in the same tone. "There’s a lot of stony-baloney in there, too," he remarks. Then he lowers his voice and adds evenly, "They’re very personal, but they’re not super specific." I wonder if he means he'd rather not get super specific. (I'd speculate that he wrote "Supreme Being" for his first (or true) love—because on that song he sings "I would die for you,” but in other songs, it's "pump your brakes and leave me alone.") When I ask if Berman will be writing songs with Andrew and Ben in MGMT, he politely answers the question. Suddenly he looks weary. He sighs and shakes his head as if to rouse himself out of a daze. “What else is up?" he asks quickly. Then he corrects himself, as if that way of putting it sounded rude. "Anything else I can tell you?”

In conversation, Roan seems so afraid of coming off as pretentious, that, if anything, he overcompensates for his dandyish hauteur. The boldest statement I ever see him make is in a video interview from their tour of Japan, which took place shortly after Rewild’s release. He says he's proud of the album (though he looks disappointed)—it's been a learning experience (he looks very unhappy)—but it's definitely the best thing he's ever been involved in.

(In fact, I think his newer lyrics also reflect this desire not to seem pretentious. Rewild's new songs don't have big words, and in avoiding them, his lyrics turn absurd and playful. Roan's word play comes off like an inside joke with himself. The title of the album, for example, seems to be a composite of a line on "Kankra": "Turn off your mind/Relax a while." (Get it? Re-wild.))

Once you learn that Roan’s father was a preacher, suddenly everything about Amazing Baby makes sense: the singer's giddy stage persona (shades of a raving evangelical preacher), the Garden of Eden allusion, and the infinite cross imagery. But it also lends pathos to his story. Roan told FAQ Magazine that the first time he got high he had an internal dialogue with himself about how there was no going back, adding that he "continually thinks ... about things I told myself I'd never do." The debut album by San Francisco band Girls is touching because of its sincerity; when former Children of God member Christopher Owens sings that he doesn't want to cry for his whole life, it sounds genuine. There's a similar wistfulness about Roan's longing to return to innocence. Roan has characterized himself as "super emotional" and "messed up." But he seems like a conscientious guy who wants to believe in a higher power and tries to be a good person.

That’s the thing: He has a conscience. More than six months after sitting in with them at Electric Lady, I see Roan at a show at Webster Hall (his friend Max McDonald’s band, Psychic, is playing) and I tell him I'm sorry my story hasn't been published; I'm still going to do a story about the band. "It's okay, it's cool," he says, but he's a person who values honor, and as long as you try to do the right thing, he will be as personable as possible. Suddenly, he’s smiling.

—Julia Yepes

editor: Maura Whang

February 21, 2010