I'm disappointed in my Bay Area buddies! Why oh why are they not talking about Jeremy Lin? This 22-year-old Asian-American basketball player will be a walk-on rookie on the Golden State Warriors this up-coming season. The majority of my college buddies happen to be both asian and avid sports fans and yet NONE of them have given me the heads up on Jeremy Lin. C'mon fellas!

After discovering his brief co-interview with teammate Udoh on ESPN's series of NBA rookie interviews, I had to do a little digging to find out a bit more about Lin. This 6' 3" guard took his high school team to a Division II state title. Despite that, none of the top colleges cared. He ended up going to Harvard University where he majored in Economics and played for their Basketball program. Even though he was chosen to the All-Ivy League First Team he was undrafted by all NBA teams.

Fortunately, the Dallas Mavericks invited him to walk-on and play for their summer league team. In the summer league, Lin proved he could compete on an NBA level with his efficient play. The highlight of his Summer Play was an impressive performance against the #1 pick, Wizards' John Wall (highlight clip below).

At the end of the summer league, Lin got contract offers from a few teams including the Mavs, Lakers, and Warriors. Jeremy Lin ended up signing with his childhood favorite team: the Golden State Warriors.

It'll be fun to see if Jeremy Lin will be able to make his mark while playing for the Warriors. Coach Don Nelson isn't really known for playing his rookies much... but Lin's quick play could fit in really well with the fast paced 'Run-N-Gun' Warriors game.

Being half-Japanese, I learned to play basketball for a Japanese-American Community Center league at the age of 5. The Asian in me is cheering for Jeremy Lin's to find success in the NBA game and prove that it's possible for an Asian to ball with the best of them!

I love, love, LOVE this Air Force One sneaker designed by Bespoke, a fashion retailer in Japan. Everything starts with a strong idea. But what takes a strong idea and makes it a great final product is in the implementation of the details. The way Bespoke took the key materials and visual cues of a jean pants and implemented them into the classic form of the Air Force One sneaker is an excellent example of that. I'm not all to sure that they'd look good with a pair of jeans, but damn they're might sweet on their own!

Fabien M. took things to a whole new level with his King Katch box design. It's so beautiful on its own that we'll be adding nothing to the design. Here's how it looks as one flat image:

So, yeah, the thinly veiled secret was that Tequila made a cameo in the MACHETE film fighting Jessica Alba in a fake Wii Punch-Out/Lucha Libre game. How the hell did that happen? Well, it all starts HERE (Extra Spicy Tequila's appearance in the GRINDHOUSE art book). As fate would have it, Jerry and I crossed paths and became friends with writer/editor/filmmaker Aaron Burns. Aaron used to work at Troublemaker Studios. We mentioned the picture in Troublemaker's Grindhouse art book. Aaron said the dude in the picture with Tequila was his mentor, Mr. Rod Brunet. What a small world! A couple of months later, we get an email from Rod via Aaron asking if we'd be interested in having Tequila cameo in MACHETE. Uh...HELL YES!

I had no clue that Rod meant a fully animated computer rendered Tequila fighting Jessica Alba (okay, it's in a video game... but that's still beyond cool!). Thanks and shout outs to Aaron Burns for bringing us all together, Rod Brunet for the love and energy spent bringing Tequila to life, and Robert Rodriguez for letting it all happen!

Having seen Tequila evolve from a sketch by Gobi to a comic book (published by Humanoids) and designer toy (manufactured by Muttpop) it's surreal to see him "alive" as he fights Sartana (Jessica Alba's character in MACHETE).

As I continue revisiting many of the games in my collection, I've been spending quite a bit of my free time playing GOD HAND on the PS2. GOD HAND was a beat-em-up made by Shinji Mikami, creator of Capcom's super popular RESIDENT EVIL series, that was released in 2006. It's a game with a very passionate cult following that sold miserably. Many of the initial reviews for the game complained about it's ugly graphics, extreme difficulty, and Resident Evil-like "tank controls".

It saddens me that more people have not played GOD HAND as its one of the most entertaining times to be had playing a videogame. It's true, there are better looking games out there... but the character designs BENEATH the mediocre polygons is consistently clever. Also, from a utilitarian standpoint, the game models flow smoothly enough to make the fighting dynamic and intuitive. More than any of the recent batch of beat-em-up games, it's the most satisfying to play. There are tons of moves to purchase and modify your character with. That alone would make for a fairly satisfying experience. But when you add the superhuman roulette moves and zany finishing moves, it takes the experience of fighting to a level rarely seen in videogames.

Probably the wrongest and most satisfying move in the game is the spank. When male characters are tired, you are encouraged to use the special "o" button to "pummel" the opponent. Repeatedly pressing "o" makes your character do a rapid-fire sequence of punches, kicks, or stomps that wear down the enemy until they explode. If you're fighting an exhausted female enemy, the "o" becomes a "spank" button. When you press "o" you take the female enemy over your knee and spank her until she explodes. Yes, it's sexist and wrong... but it's absurdly funny and fits in with the quirky comedic tone of the game.

In general, I'm starting to feel that people have a hard time comprehending things that are violent and comedic. That's a damn shame. For me it's tough to beat something the deftly blends intense action with comedy. Video game wise, there's few that do it better than GOD HAND.

Below are some nice clips from GOD HAND showcasing it's tone. The MAD MIDGET FIVE is what the POWER RANGERS are like in the GOD HAND universe. I also HAD to include some spanking... and two of my favorite bosses in the game.

MAD MIDGET FIVE:

SPANKING:

GORILLA BATTLE:

LATINO ELVIS:

NEVER in a million years did I imagine a film with a cast that included Robert Deniro, Don Johnson, and Steven Seagal. It's great to see Robert Rodriguez and Troublemaker Studios go back to doing a spiritual successor to EL MARIACHI and DESPERADO. What I love about the character posters included below is that you can easily imagine each character as the star of his/her own film. Tomorrow could not come sooner!