Posted via email from Sean Sullivan

For those of you unfamiliar with the title, it was released back in the 90’s as what is now toted the predecessor to physics puzzle games.  I’m anxious to get my hands on it and start building some Rube Goldberg goodness.

Considered by some to be the grandfather of the Physics & Puzzle game genres, The Incredible Machine pitted players against a series of Rube Goldberg style devices which were composed from a wide range of objects such as ropes & pulleys, bowling balls, and even cats and mice.

The Incredible Machine was the winner of several prizes due to its innovative style and simulation abilities. A spin-off of the series, Sid & Al’s Incredible Toons earned Jeff Tunnell and Chris Cole a patent for their game design concepts.

The series is available for sale at the time of this release and can be found online at: http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/the_incredible_machine_mega_pack

New Album from Sullivan DeMott Proves That You Can’t Stop Rock, Even When Separated by 2500 Miles

The debut release from rock duo Sullivan DeMott has been released for sale through their website, www.sullivandemott.com. The product of a melting pot of influences, with a brand of rock ‘n’ roll that’s injected with groove and ruckus, the group puts it all on the table for the listener. “Really at the heart of it it is good, solid, straight-up rock ‘n’ roll,” notes Sean Sullivan, vocals and guitars. “However, there’s no shortage of that R & B throughout in the album. With plenty of in-your-face vocals and harmonies layered in there, it’s really a cool blend when you start digging in. You have your surf style back-beat drums, funk influenced bass, and plenty of juicy guitar licks.”

Live for Today is a full-on rock album filled with ample ruckus and groove. The style ranges from hard-driving guitar anthems to melodic and soulful ballads and loose- and open-format grooves. A highlight on the release is “Beatin’ Hearts With Broken Heads,” an eerie, but faithful anthem of being down and out but believing that there are bright times ahead. Sullivan, a Michigan native, wrote the song as a look at the automotive industry in his hometown. Also featured on the album are tracks “Miss You Already,” a song for your sweetheart that’s sure to last, and “Way Back Home,” a soul-searching groove about finding your place in the world.

When asked how he could best describe the band’s music, Sullivan responded, “Imagine Bob Seger buying Weezer a beer while Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello give them a heads up on women, the good ole days, and growing older.”

Close friends since their youth, Sean Sullivan and Casey DeMott have been writing and developing their blend of rock ‘n’ roll for over 14 years. Through those years, they faced many obstacles including band and personnel changes and career moves that led to being separated by 2500 miles, but opted to forge ahead and take advantage of technology to record the album that had been a decade in the making. Rock bands are traditionally a local thing, with members practicing in person and gigging around town, but Sullivan and DeMott believe that trend is changing. Just as it has impacted how media is consumed, the internet has now changed the way music is made. Today, the technology exists for making music a long distance affair and the members of Sullivan DeMott say the proof is in the product.

A web programmer by day, Sullivan stays current with the technologies available to those who are working together remotely and says that taking advantage of tools like Skype, Dropbox and Google Documents were key to the planning and recording process and, most importantly, allowed him to work with DeMott, rather than having his creative resources limited by geography. “The world has gotten much smaller … you can get so much done without having to actually be in the same vicinity. Musicians often have their trusted group they want to work with and geography is becoming less of an obstacle to making that happen.”

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If you’re interested in picking up the album Live For Today, head here to learn more and listen to song samples.

Entitled “Live For Today,” this is the full-length, debut album of band—Sullivan DeMott. Our band is established with a well-rounded rock ‘n’ roll sound, stemming from an eclectic selection of influences. Combining the spirit and tones of blues, boogie-rock, Southern rock, funk, and punk, we dish out a brand of no bull music that is rich in swagger and soul.

“The rock duo, Sullivan DeMott, is a dynamic fusion of blues, rock, funk, and punk, together materializing in an eclectic brand of music complete with powerful and harmonic vocals, hard-rocking guitars and contagious grooves.”

We’re really excited about the collection of songs on this album. The music ranges from hard-drivin’ rock ‘n’ roll, to funkier grooves, to soulful and melodic tunes. The album features myself on vocals and guitars and Casey on vocals and bass. My brother, Ryan, sat in on a few tunes to lay down some fat Hammond B3 parts, which added an awesome texture to those songs. All thirteen tracks on the album were written by Casey and I.

The album is due to be released in the month of August. You can visit our official website to check out some samples of the songs and join the mailing list (or our Facebook fan page.)

When we went to the shelter to meet Zelda, we took Oscar. Now, if you’ve ever thought about setting foot in a shelter with any intention of getting a dog, let me tell, once you see their eyes looking up at your from their pens, it is next to impossible to leave without bringing them with you. Zelda’s handler brought her out into a fenced area for all of us to get to know each other and we decided we needed to take her home with us.

Adopting Zelda has been a great addition to our household thus far and we really love the way she greets us when we come home from work (if you haven’t been exposed to hounds, they love to howl.) If you’ve ever thought about adopting a dog, I highly recommend the experience. Giving a home to a lonely dog is right there at the top of my list of greatest feelings I have experienced!

Angus Young put it best when asked why AC/DC isn’t on iTunes.

Our real reason is that we honestly believe the songs on any of our albums belong together. If we were on iTunes, we know a certain percentage of people would only download two or three songs from the album - and we don’t think that represents us musically.

Now, of course, the AC/DC crew can get away with this, because there is a strong fan base that will buy their album no matter where they have to go to get it. However, from an artistic standpoint, it makes all the sense in the world to me. When an artist is creating an album, they are often times choosing and writing songs that collectively set a mood or paint a picture.

In the pop-infested world of singles and filler tracks, I completely understand the notion of not buying albums. So, maybe my love for albums and records is due to the types of music I listen to.

My argument has many points. First of all, I can name numerous bands whom I become interested in through a single and ended up buying their album. Buying their album, which I admittedly did for a song or two, led me to discovering all kinds of potential in this band that I would have never discovered otherwise. It’s common knowledge that usually a band’s singles aren’t completely representative of that band; the record companies find the tunes with the most “sticky” factor and that’s what gets shelled out to radio stations, etc.

Also, I need to have the pure format. I admit, buying and collecting compact discs and albums is a matter of clutter, but formats change. Albums these days are mastered to CDs, that is the media. Those masters are then compressed to all hell and thrown on Amazon and iTunes. I don’t claim to be an enormous audiophile or quality snob, but if a new and better compression scheme comes out five years down the road, by owning the CD you can bet I’ll be ready for it. I don’t have to battle with DRM. Also, don’t you remember the days of being young and being so excited about the music that you’re listening to that you would sit in your room and read the album booklet? There’s something to me about that presentation. With all the words and art together in one package. It just makes sense to me.

Shopping for records is fun. I don’t know about you but I spend many many of my waking hours sitting in front of a computer. I enjoy going to record stores. It’s a change of pace for me. A chance to go somewhere and take in an experience. It’s exciting to see all those albums in one place and search for the sales and look at all of the great music I could be listening to. I really hate to see record stores close. When I’m on vacation or in an unfamiliar place, I often like to stop into record stores and see their old vinyl and concert posters. There’s something about the vibe.

Tomorrow is National Record Store Day. For most, it will be just Saturday like any other, a chance to mow the lawn and listen to your iPod. But I think it would be cool to take that time and visit a record store, especially if you haven’t been to one in a while. Step inside. It will take you back to a place, help you remember the way most artists want you to experience their music—as an entire album.

I’ll leave you with this great quote from Joe Satriani,

Musical trends are confirmed at the local independent record store, by you and me. Hanging out, listening to something you’ve never heard before, being enlightened by the staff, getting into something new, finding that old recording you’ve been searching for, having your local band’s newest offering stocked right next to major label stuff, it all happens at the local indie shop. Why would we want to do away with all that?

We certainly didn’t invent this dynamic motion thing here at Broke Ass. There’s definitely a name or two of companies out there in the industry doing the same thing we’re talking about, but the difference is they’re not providing it to the little guy.

Upon making a stop at the local home improvement store, we found out that you can’t just buy a kit to throw one of these into a cabinet. And besides, why would you want to? Most projects like this in kit form are of cheap construction and the hardware is usually a joke. In addition, I figured by choosing the right wood and finish, I would be able to get it to match the look and feel of our cabinets. So, I decided to do the DIY thing and buy the materials and bust out the tools to do this thing right. Also, with Rob’s help and Alex’s plans for inspiration, I had built a new workbench in the garage a couple weeks ago, so this was a perfect opportunity to put it to use.

As far as materials, I was able to get away with doing this project for pretty cheap. The two main materials were a sheet of Birch plywood and the track and roller hardware (capable of holding up to 100lbs of weight.) After adding a few pine boards to the cart and checking out, it was time to get to work.

Probably the hardest aspect of this project was the fact that I would be building it inside of the cabinet. It was definitely a little tricky getting the exact measurements for all my cuts. I ended up redoing a couple of my cuts to ensure that the final product would come out flush. Also, the inside of the cabinet was wider than the opening, so I had to cut a few pieces of pine to push in the tracks so they would clear the opening and doors.

After getting the front piece of the trim cut to sit on the shelf as both a ledge and an underneath handle, I cut a few side rails. When I was done finishing all the wood with a light coat of finish, I glued and screwed it all together. Getting it installed the cabinet was a little tricky and required some precision with the level and tape measure.

Overall, I’m really happy with the way it all turned out. I think this will be a great addition to our kitchen cabinet configuration and I definitely recommend this as a great project for anybody looking for this kind of utility out of a deep cabinet that is otherwise hard to use.

On that note, I was resistant to the iPhone keyboard as a method to accomplish a lot of typing originally but I find myself getting increasingly faster.

I haven’t really found too many applications I couldn’t live without so I would be curious to hear what peoples favorite apps are. The games all appear to be one trick ponies.

Also, the forums over at OnePress are starting to get some activity now that I fixed a permissions issue for registered users. Be sure to hop on those to get involved or speak your mind.