Dojo of Fame – Ben Burtt

Ben Burtt is a legend.  He is most widely known for giving R2D2 his voice.  (well, beeps) He was the sound designer for Star Wars.  He created the humm of lightsabers, the chilling sound of Vader’s mask, and the iconic sound of blaster fire.

Now, this alone is enough to make him awesome.  However, it is not all!  Ben Burtt also was the sound designer for Wall-E.  (probably his biggest achievement)   He has also worked on several other ears and even helped decide wich audio compression method is used for digital television!

When it comes to sound, Ben Burtt is the man.  He has been making movies sound better for years, and for that I salute him!

“In Star Wars, I wanted to come up with a very massive rumble for a spaceship flying overhead… I recorded the air conditioner in my motel room, slowed it down so it was even deeper and that became the rumble for the spaceships”   – Ben Burtt

Academy Awards 

• Sound Effects Editing in 1982 for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
• Sound Effects Editing in 1989 for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
• Special Achievement for sound editing in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
• Nominated for:

• Sound and Sound Effects Editing in 1983 for Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
• Sound Effects Editing in 1988 for Willow
• Sound in 1989 for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
• Documentary Short Subject in 1996 for directing Special Effects: Anything Can Happen
• Sound Effects Editing in 1999 for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

(information stolen from Wikipedia, picture and quote from Silicon Valley Radio)

Emperor Norton

Joshua Abraham Norton – Emperor of the United States of America (and Protector of Mexico).

It started out normal enough, it was the mid 1800’s and due to a famine in china, all rice exports were banned.  The price of rice in the San Francisco rose from 4 to 36 cents per pound.  Norton, seeing a business opportunity, bought 200,000 pounds of rice for $25,000.  The next day, several shipments of rice came into San Francisco, lowing the price of rice to 3 cents a pound.  Norton had to declare bankruptcy.  Then, suddenly, he vanished.

Then, a few years later, he returned and sent letters to local newspapers declaring himself emperor of the United States of America.

At the peremptory request and desire of a large majority of the citizens of these United States, I, Joshua Norton, formerly of Algoa Bay, Cape of Good Hope, and now for the last 9 years and 10 months past of S. F., Cal., declare and proclaim myself Emperor of these U. S.; and in virtue of the authority thereby in me vested, do hereby order and direct the representatives of the different States of the Union to assemble in Musical Hall, of this city, on the 1st day of Feb. next, then and there to make such alterations in the existing laws of the Union as may ameliorate the evils under which the country is laboring, and thereby cause confidence to exist, both at home and abroad, in our stability and integrity.

NORTON I, Emperor of the United States.

After a while, he also added Protector of Mexico” to his title.

Now, going crazy and declaring yourself emperor is one thing, but the amazing part of this story is that people humored him.  Not only did he eat at all the restaurants for free, but he had reserved seats.  All of the plays and musical had balcony seats reserved for him.  He was given free clothes.  The money he printed was even used as valid currency!

He would declare laws and decrees.  The most famous of which was to build a bridge connecting Oakland and San Francisco.  (which happened years later) He also commanded a creation of a league of nations.

He would also make inspections of the city and would give long philosophical talks to anyone who would listen. It is even said that he once broke up a riot by standing in the middle of it and saying the Lord’s prayer over and over.

It is also worthy of mention that in San Francisco there was another man by the name of Frederick Coombs who thought he was the re-incarnation of George Washington.  He, for a time, had the same high status as Norton until he left town after a fued of Norton.  (Fredrick thought Norton was jealous of his reputation with the ladies)

Norton proves that you can make a living off of being crazy.  That is why he is my favorite historic figure, and why he deserves a place in the Dojo of Fame.

Guybrush Threepwood

In honor of Talk like a Pirate day, I am adding Guybrush (fancy pants) Threepwood to the Dojo of fame. He is the first (and possibly only) fictional character to be inducted.

Not much is known about Guybrush’s past…exept that he wanted to be a pirate and ended up getting washed up on the shores of Melee island. Soon he falls in love with Elaine Marley, becomes a pirate, and defeats LeChuck…..quite a few times…

Ok, you may be wondering why he has such a goofy name…well, here is what wikipedia has to say about it:

The origin of the name “Guybrush” comes from Deluxe Paint, the tool used by the artists to create the character sprite. Since the character had no name at this point, the file was simply called ‘Guy‘. When the file was saved, Deluxe Paint automatically appended the extension ‘.brush‘; before the designers could think of a proper name they got used to referring to ‘Guy.brush‘ when talking about the sprite and decided to use it as the protagonist’s actual name.^[1] “Threepwood” was the name of Dave Grossman’s RPG character and was picked through voting. The name comes from P. G. Wodehouse’s family of characters including Galahad Threepwood and Clarence Threepwood, 9th Earl of Emsworth.

Gameography:

The Secret of Monkey Island (1990)
Monkey Island 2: Lechuck’s Revenge (1991)
The Curse of Monkey Island (1997)
Escape from Monkey Island (2000)

So today, on National Talk like a pirate day, lets show some respect for the greatest, funniest, best dressed pirate in history! Then, lets show some respect for Guybrush Threepwood star of the greatest, funniest, incredibly clever video game of all time!

“I’m Guybrush Threepwood, a mighty Pirate”

Patrick Stewart

It was only a matter of time before I added him.  He is the single coolest man in the world, Patrick Steward.  His awesome acting abilities and extreme coolness have made him perfect for Star Trek: TNG, X-Men and Shakespeare.  Some of his most notable roles include:

• I, Claudius
• Excalibur
• Dune
• Star Trek: The Next Generation
• Robin Hood: Men in Tights
• The Nightmare Before Christmas
• Star Trek Generations
• The Pagemaster
• Star Trek: First Contact
• Conspiracy Theory
• Masterminds
• Moby Dick
• Star Trek: Insurrection
• The Prince of Egypt
• A Christmas Carol
• X-Men
• Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
• Star Trek Nemesis
• X2: X-Men United
• X-Men Legends (video game)
• X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse (Video game)
• Chicken Little
• Mysterious Island
• X-Men: The Official Game (video game)
• X-Men: The Last Stand
• Many Shakespearian Plays

The fact is all of those years in Royal Shakespeare Company — playing all those kings, emperors, princes and tragic heroes — were nothing but preparation for sitting in the captain’s chair of the Enterprise.

Patrick Steward, we salute you!

Tim Schafer

Ok, many of you know Tim Schafer as the evil robot who destroyed Atlantis, but this post is about another Tim Schafer.  This Schafer is a game designer who has worked on some of the greatest games known to man or robot.  Known for his ability to tell funny stories that make people laugh like hyenas, Tim Shafer is an exellent game designer who has earned a spot in the dojo of fame.

Selected Gameography:

• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade – Tester
• Maniac Mansion – not sure what he did…but he did something
• The Secret of Monkey Island – Co-Writer & Programmer
• Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge – Co-Writer & Programmer
• Day of The Tentacle – Co-Designer, Co-Writer, Co-Producer, Co-Director
• Full Throttle – Designer, Writer
• Grim Fandango – Designer

At this point, he left Lucasarts and formed his own company Double Fine Productions

• Psychonauts – Designer
• Brutal Legend (Still in Production)

(for the full thing, click here )

So if you have’nt played a Tim Shafer game, DO IT NOW!  (I am currently on Day of the Tentacle…it is hilarious)

Oh, and here is his site: http://www.doublefine.com/news.php

Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger

As a self proclaimed geek, I read Wikipedia. It is one of my favroite websites (alongside gamespot, hulu, and the blogs) and it is where I learned most of the useless things I know today. Most of my ideas and inspirations come from Wikipedia. When ever I need to know something, Wiki is my first source. Wikipedia is the cure for boredom. Heck, it is where I get 90% of the pictures that accompany my posts! What I am getting at is that Wikipedia has made a real impact on the world and on peoples lives.

That is why I am adding Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, creators of wikipedia, to my Dojo of Fame.

Rather than acually writing about each of them and how they formed Wikipedia, I think it would be appropite to link to the wikipages on the subject. (By that I mean that I am too lazy to write the whole thing by myself 😉 )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Wales

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Sanger

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_wikipedia

The Dojo of Fame – Jeff Bennett

Ok, I know that a lot of people have a “Hall of Fame” on their sites but, this is not a hall it is a dojo. In this category, I will be acknowledging people who, in one way or another, make the world a better place to be a geek.

I think this is gonna be my new favroite category…I already got a lot of ideas for who I want to write about.

My first inductee to the Dojo of Fame is Jeff Bennett. Now, most of you don’t recognize his face, but I bet you recognize his voice. Jeff is a very talented voice actor. Some of my favorite of his numerous roles include:

Cartoons:

• American Dragon: Jake Long – Mr. Jonathan Long, The Huntsman, Councilor Kulde, King Hammer, Additional Voices
• Animaniacs – Baloney, Baynarts “Charlton” Woodchucks, Henry III of France
• Dave the Barbarian – The Storyteller (Narrator), and Twinkle the Marvel Horse
• Dexter’s Laboratory – Dexter’s Dad, Adult Dexter
• Earthworm Jim – Peter Puppy, Narrator
• Freakazoid! – Lord Bravery, Candlejack, The Huntsman, Cave Guy
• Johnny Bravo – Johnny Bravo
• Lilo & Stitch: The Series – Dr. Jacques von Hamsterviel, Slick, Experiment 020
• The Replacements – Conrad Fleem, Shelton Klutzberry, Principal Cutler, Captain Jack Splatter, Mr. Winters
• The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius – Doctor Sydney Orville Moist, Travoltron, Additional Voices
• The Batman – Ragdoll, D.A.V.E. and Killer Moth
• The Emperor’s New School – Kronk’s Papi, Security Cam, Ipi, Topo, Tipo and Upi, Additional Voices

• The Spectacular Spider-Man – Montana/Shocker

Video Games

• Kingdom Hearts series – The Mayor of Halloween Town (Kingdom Hearts), Barrel, Smee, Lumière, Merlin
• Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy – Jedi Knight as Kyle Katarn and Star Wars: Force Commander as Brenn Tantor
• The Legend of Spyro trilogy – Cyril, Sparx’s Dad, Mole-Yair and Scratch

(For a complete list of his roles click here)

So to the man that has been everything from a jedi knight to Johnny Bravo, I salute you! keep up the good work.