Daniel Johnston’s recent outing at the fantastic Laneway festival reminded me of a little something I saw at the end of last year.
It’s hard to believe at first, but in our iPhone obsessed world there is even an app dedicated to the music and art of Johnston. It’s entitled, ‘Hi, How Are You‘; and suprisingly is not just a vanity project, but a well thought out puzzle game that is pretty fun to play!
Hi, How Are You the game features classic Johnston characters like Joe Boxer and Jeremiah the Innocent; the stalk-eyed-froggy-creature who is famously depicted on a mural in Austin, Texas, Johnston’s adopted home. The game focuses on a couple of motifs common to Johnston’s work – fighting the evils of the outside world, and searching for the girl of his dreams through that quagmire.
The game itself was created by two Austin based developers and costs around US$0.99 (or a more splashy NZ$4.50) – it’s an affordable, fun experience for any technologically endowed Daniel Johnston fan.
I like words. Very much. It’s no surprise to anyone that Scrabble is my favourite board game. I like my Scrabble to be adventurous, no “moon”, and certainly no “nice”. Words like “narwhal” and “cocaine” are much better. Depraved language is encouraged.
So naturally I was totally down with Scrabble’s new ad campaign. It’s genius! A mix of illustrative filthiness (the style reminds me so much of Robert Crumb) and obstreperous words…
For a small pixelated guy wearing a pink sweater, you sure changed the course of my life.
I understand your very first appearance was in “Marooned on Mars”, as part of the Invasion of the Vorticons episode. It gave me a whole new lexicon; of guns, lasers, alien planet, pogo sticks and shareware – all perfect for a 6-year-old girl. Playing alongside my brother, we took on yorps and took to gaming with gusto – a hobby that has shaped my life in rather interesting ways.
You need the red key, Keen.
Ah Keen, I am amused to look back and understand the subtleties of your world. I particularly enjoyed your worship of the anonymous cola, and Dopefish? Oh, a big dumb beast that blows bubbles, is always hungry and has a 2 second memory. Stoner much? The Dopefish is also “mentioned to be the ’second dumbest’ creature in the whole universe, referring to the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. Clever.
Anyway, you know you’re still in our hearts – especially judging by this rad series of wheat pasted Commander Keen posters in Adelaide. Now that’s a sign of influence.
