New Turtle Pond VideoMaker Launches!

Now you can make a custom video mashup using video clips, text, and music, from the entire Turtle Pond library, featuring Owen and Mzee, Miza, and Winter!
Registered users can save their creations and share them with friends.
The new Videomaker is available at winterstail.com, miza.com and owenandmzee.com – just click on the VideoMaker icon and unleash your inner Kubrick.

Hot Stuff - Safety Games For Kids

When the educational company we all used to work for finally went belly-up amid corporate downsizing and synergizing, we kind of thought learning through game play went with it. Not so, as it turns out.

We just finished a set of games for Weekly Reader on behalf of their client, the Home Safety Council. Forget those posters and washed out videos you had when you were a little kid – now Pre-K and K kids learn about home safety through the magic of games.

Two dalmatian puppies, Wiggle and Giggle, bring basic, important home safety tips to life in four animated games involving sorting, dress-ups, mazes and puzzles. Good fun, and good for you.

Play HSC Games

Weekly Reader Global Warming E-Issue Launches

Did you know Antarctica is classified as a desert because it receives less than 10 inches of precipitation in a year?

Weekly Reader Month continues as we launch "A Matter of Degrees," an electronic issue of the Weekly Reader Current Science magazine.  Designed as a teaching aid, it illustrates the history, causes and impact of global warming - and what we can do about it.

The horizontal-scrolling Flash website we built featuring our custom Content Management System allows Weekly Reader editors complete control over almost all the content on the site. This was invaluable to both Artgig and Weekly Reader – we didn’t have to make all the small changes, and they could perfect to their heart’s content. Especially since there isn’t just one editor in the WR newsroom; there are many, ranging from science to pedagogical specialists, along with art directors and project managers from all departments.

The media-rich site features images, videos and interactive animations to demonstrate concepts, and the text instruction is multi-leveled; as much or as little info as you require.

Section quizzes reinforce learning along with a Sci-Triv game.

Go on try it – are you smarter than a fifth grader?

Global Warming E-Issue

Kick Grass! A Green Game For Earth Day

Who wouldn’t want to save the world alongside a cartoon dog named TurfMutt?
And what better way to introduce kids to the idea of greening up to save the planet?

We just launched another Weekly Reader game – this time for their client, the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute (OPEI).

Using the art and branding from a poster Weekly Reader created for OPEI, we created an awesome four-level platform game for kids aged 8-10. Keyboard controls move TurfMutt around the screen to collect all nine grass seed packets, meanwhile avoiding the bad guys and their obstacles: Heat Freak’s hot-spots, Dr. Runoff’s mudballs, Dust Demon’s dusty whirlwinds, and Carbon Creep’s smog. Collect all the seed packets and the environment is saved! TurfMutt can enjoy his doggy green paradise.

We built this game on the engine we used for our Holiday Card last year – a few adjustments, a new skin, and presto! TurfMutt, the Environmental Avenger, is born.

Play TurfMutt!

Artgig and Chris Tarry Win a Webby!

Congratulations all around.

You may have noticed I can’t go very long without bringing up Chris Tarry. Mainly because he’s about the coolest dude we know. When we first met him we just liked him because he’s funny, and a fantastic musician. Then we liked him because he never stopped thinking about how to make his music better, and he brought us along for the ride. Then we liked him because he’s not just a great musician, he’s also a writer! Who knew? Then we were amazed because he won’t let things grow old and forgotten – he’s constantly upping the ante, using new ideas and techniques without fear. Today, it's no surprise his never ending quest for website domination has earned one of the highest industry awards – the Webby Official Honoree.

With all of this history between us, we thought it would be fun to look back at the evolution of christarry.com. So here it is – the official Tarry Timeline, so far…

Oct, 2007 - Unhappy with his website, Chris spots a little Artgig site credit on Dave Binney's site - he picks up the phone...

Nov, 2007 - We do a bunch of designs

Dec, 2007 - The new Christarry.com site launches

July, 2008 - Add downloads from a voucher

Dec, 2008 - Gifts for everyone and Radiohead "pay what you want" feature

 Mar, 2009 - Endorsements

April 2009 - Not just a bassist and composer anymore

April 2009 - Needs a blog for all the writing

Sep, 2009 - And then, of course, a book (which needs a website)

Dec, 2010 - New Home page and - "I was thinking we should enter the Webbys..."

Yesterday - Polish it off with the biggest and best award on the web...

Artgig - The Week In Pictures

Bad, bad, blogger.
I assure you the lack of posts is not due to laziness - actually, quite the opposite is true.
We've been very busy, working under a cloak of secrecy on various projects over the last couple of months with many launching, or about to, as I type.
Do you hear that?
It's the sound of the floodgates opening for lots of blogging with plenty to talk about.
Until then, here's a little sneak peek behind the scenes at Artgig last week to whet your appetite.
It was a week that trumpeted the welcome arrival of wonderful Spring here in Pleasantville, with the flowers in full bloom, the bees as big as small birds out and about, and a Barcelona beating for Arsenal in the Champion's League that drove us to drink.

Enjoy!

MUSE LIVE NYC

I gotta say, I had mixed feelings going into this one.

I like Muse, but it's far from an unequivocal love - I probably skip as many songs as I listen to.

Their sound is typically big and heavy and undeniably catchy, but it too often slips into full-blown opera (think Queen)–and that's where they lose me.

On the plus side:

• There are few songs better for late night driving on the West Side Highway than "Map of the Problematique." 
• I saw them perform on television at last year's VMA's (yes, the one hijacked by Kanye West) and I was struck by the precision and confidence of their crunchy performance.
• Ever since, the buzz has been building, culminating in a glowing firsthand concert report from Artgig Australia at Big Day Out in Sydney just a couple of months ago.

So when the Garden gig was announced, I felt an immediate tug and grabbed some tickets.

If I had any doubts going into Friday night, Muse smashed them to bits with a powerhouse performance that quite simply kicked ass.

This is a band made for the big stage and they used every inch of it, up and down, to put on one hell of a big show.

See them now if you can.

You won't regret it.