Round Two with David Pogue

Two years ago I worked with New York Times technology columnist David Pogue to produce the animation for his Video Recorder Deathmatch, a battle between TiVo and generic DVR. And last week we followed up with a new epic battle, the Kindle 2 e-Reader vs. ... a Book! The video aired on CNBC last week, and can also be seen on JetBlue flights. You can also watch it on the NYTimes.com video website, and download a hi-res version from iTunes.

Concept, script, voiceover and video by David Pogue
Illustration, animation, and sound design by Macboy.com (me)
Edited by Ben Thompson at CNBC.

In the (Server) Closet

Speaking of cartoons from the Artist Formerly Known as Macboy, here's an old Flash cartoon greeting card for the holidays, Xmas, made especially for hardcore Macintosh nerds. The cartoon depicts a server closet with thirty, count 'em, thirty stacked Apple Xserve rackmount computers, and what might happen when the office shuts down for the holiday break. And for the server stickler, I programmed the light show to correspond exactly with the actual LED layout of the original Xserve computers. All illustration, animation, and music arrangement by me.

Happy Holidays from Macboy, a.k.a. The Jewish Robot!

GAG me with a toon

Dad, getting ready to go to minyan, in Dad vs. AOL
A few years ago, before all this Jewish Robot business, when I was known simply as Macboy, I figured a good way to promote my Macintosh consulting business would be to post cartoons about Macintosh computers on my web site, macboy.com®.

Now, several years later, with all the attention on ShaBot, and my MacToons all but forgotten, I am pleased to announce that two of my old cartoons have resurfaced and will be featured in The Graphic Artists Guild's New York Chapter "Wanna See Our Shorts?" 2006 Animation Festival.

Dad vs. AOL, my personal favorite, is a cartoon animation featuring a an actual, desperate phone message from my dad, asking for tech support. And NYMUG, which stands for New York Macintosh Users Group, is a true story and interview with my friend, Heath Gill, who was mugged for his Macintosh computer. Both of these cartoons were produced when I was just learning to animate, and they each took several weeks to produce. Nowadays I could knock them out in less than a week, so these old works are truly a labor of love.

If you are in NYC and would like to check out the show, here's the info:

The Graphic Artists Guild's 2006 New York Animation Festival

December 21, 2006, from 7-9 PM --reception with the filmmakers to follow.
Pratt Manhattan Campus
144 West 14th St., Room 213

$15 members
$20 non-members
$10 seniors (65+)
$5 Student member*
$10 Student non-member*
*Students must show current school ID
Free to Pratt students, faculty and staff. You must bring your Pratt ID.

If you can't make the show, don't worry, you can still see my old Macboy MacToons online.