I Love Bees (also known as ilovebees or ILB for short) was an alternate reality game (ARG) that served as both a real-world experience and viral marketing campaign for the release of developer Bungie's 2004 video game Halo 2. The game was created and developed by 42 Entertainment, by many of the same people who had previously created an ARG for the film A.I. titled The Beast, and would later create Why So Serious? for the Warner Brothers film The Dark Knight. I Love Bees was commissioned by Microsoft, Halo 2's publisher.

I Love Bees was first advertised by a subliminal message in a Halo 2 trailer; players who investigated the titular website discovered that the pages appeared to be hacked by a mysterious intelligence. As players solved puzzles, audio logs were posted to the ilovebees.com site which gradually revealed more of the fictional back-story, involving a marooned artificial intelligence stranded on Earth and its attempts to put itself back together.

I Love Bees was a marketing success; 250,000 people viewed the ilovebees website when it was launched in August 2004, and more than 500,000 returned to the site every time the pages were updated. More than three million visitors viewed the site over the course of three months, and thousands of people around the world participated in the game. I Love Bees won numerous awards for its innovation and helped spawn numerous other alternate reality games for video games.

Overview

Alternate reality games or ARGs are designed to involve fans of video games or other media in a form of viral marketing which CNET described as encompassing "real-life treasure hunting, interactive storytelling, video games and online [communities]". I Love Bees began when jars of honey were received in the mail by people who had previously participated in alternate reality games. The jars contained letters leading to the I Love Bees website and a countdown. ostensibly a hacked site related to beekeeping.

Both events, not connected publicly for several weeks, caused the curious to visit the website ilovebees.com. The site, which appeared to be dedicated to honey sales and beekeeping, was covered in confusing random characters and sentence fragments. Dana, the ostensible webmaster of the ilovebees site, created a weblog stating that something had gone wrong with her website, and the site itself had been hacked. Suspecting that this was a mystery that could be unraveled, Halo and ARG fans spread the link and began to work on figuring out what was going on.

The gameplay of I Love Bees tasked players around the world to work together to solve problems, with little or no direction or guidance. Players eventually figured out the coordinates referred to pay phones and the times to when the phones would ring; one player in Florida stayed by a phone while Hurricane Frances was minutes away in order to recite answers to prerecorded questions. Other players treated the corrupted data on ilovebees.com as encrypted files to decipher, or used image files found on the web server to solve puzzles. After players completed certain tasks, they were rewarded with new installments to an audio drama which revealed the reasons for the ilovebees.com malfunction. The game culminated by inviting players of the game to visit one of four cinemas where they could get a chance to play Halo 2 before its release and collect a commemorative DVD.

Plot

The game's plot begins with a military spaceship crashing to Earth in an unknown location, leaving the craft's controlling artificial intelligence or AI damaged. This AI, known as the "Operator" or "Melissa", is not alone; other AI programs share its system. In an effort to survive and contact any surviving allies, Melissa transfers herself to a San Francisco-area web server, which happens to host a bee enthusiast website known as I Love Bees. To the distress of Dana Awbrey, the website's maintainer, Melissa's attempts to send signals began to appear largely as codes, hidden in images or other text, interfering with the operation of the I Love Bees site and corrupting much of the content.

Dana, attempting to regain control over the corrupted website, accidentally erases data which comprises part of Melissa's memory. Furious, Melissa lashes out at the webmaster, obtaining pictures of her using the webcam on her computer and promising to take revenge. Alarmed, Dana announces that she is removing herself from the situation and is taking a previously planned trip to China earlier than expected.

While one AI program, called Spider, attempts to fix Melissa, random dumps from Melissa's memory began to spill into the website, largely detailing Melissa's history and revealing the presence of a malicious Trojan-horse virus known as the "Pious Flea." The Spider tries to erase the Flea but is outwitted, as Melissa erases the Spider instead of the Flea. The events of I Love Bees were, therefore, originally not considered to be Halo canon. In a 2006 interview, however, Bungie's content manager Frank O'Connor expressly confirmed that I Love Bees is part of "things that we embrace as canon." References to elements of I Love Bees have since appeared in the 2006 Halo Graphic Novel and the 2009 Halo Encyclopedia, both of which are official canon.

Development

I Love Bees developer, 42 Entertainment, was founded by Jordan Weisman, the former creative director for Microsoft's Xbox division. 42 Entertainment had previously created the first ARG, The Beast, which had been used to promote the movie A.I.. Other members of the I Love Bees team included Sean Stewart, a World Fantasy Award-award-winning author who served as I Love Bees writer, and Jim Stewartson, I Love Bees technical lead who produced the first commercial 3D game delivered by the internet. Weisman stated that the goal of I Love Bees was to utilize every person who interacted with the game, and to use any electronic resource to do so: "If we could make your toaster print something we would. Anything with an electric current running through it. A single story, a single gaming experience, with no boundaries. A game that is life itself."

42 Entertainment conceived I Love Bees as a radio drama, and used the pay phones as a way to excite players. Chris Di Cesare, Microsoft's director of marketing, stated that the radio drama's similarities with War of the Worlds was intentional, and that "[ILB] remains true to the radio drama tradition of Orson Welles that we were shooting for and also allowed us to tell the story in an unorthodox way." Stewart described writing for the game as more enjoyable than writing printed fiction, both for the money as well as the unique experience of ARGs as opposed to other media:

The audiences that we built for those campaigns are having a different experience. They’re having a collective experience in which they literally bring different pieces, one to the next, swap them back and forth, gossip about them. They have an element of cocreation and a collaborative nature that doesn’t really have an analog that I’ve been able to think of in the arts.

Reception

I Love Bees is credited with helping drive attention to Halo 2; former Electronic Gaming Monthly editor Dan Hsu stated in an interview that "I Love Bees really got existing gamers and other consumers talking about the universe of [Halo]." Billy Pidgeon, a game analyst, noted that I Love Bees achieved what it had been designed to do: "This kind of viral guerrilla marketing worked... Everyone started instant messaging about it and checking out the site." I Love Bees not only received coverage from gaming publications, but attracted mainstream press attention as well. At its height, ilovebees received between two to three million unique visitors over the course of three months. The players of I Love Bees themselves were quite varied. The target demographic for the promotion was younger males, but one player noted that even middle-aged men and women were engaged in the game.

I Love Bees received several awards for its innovation. I Love Bees was also announced as the winner of a Webby Award in the Game-Related category, presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.

Legacy

Along with 42 Entertainment's previous ARG known as The Beast, I Love Bees is credited with bringing greater attention to the fledgling marketing form; I Love Bees not only helped assuage fears by marketers about the costs of ARG failure, but attracted interest from other game developers in using alternate reality games to promote their own products. Before I Love Bees, The Guardian stated that "ARGs were destined to join Letsbuyit.com and Barcode Battlers in the e-dustbin of nice ideas that never really caught on"; the explosion of broadband internet access and a renewed interest in codes allowed I Love Bees to become wildly successful. Bungie would later use another ARG called "Iris" to promote Halo 2s sequel, Halo 3.

I Love Bees also attracted attention in the wider discussion of user-based marketing and cooperation. Author Charles Leadbeater argued that I Love Bees was an example of "We-Think" collective thinking; Leadbeater noted that after the "puppet masters" began the game, I Love Bees "displayed all the characteristics of a mass movement, propelled into existence in a matter of weeks simply by collective enthusiasm guided by a few cyberspace 'avatars'". The game proved successful with gamers, as well as attracting nontraditional players who had no experience with Halo before joining the game.

See also

Iris, Bungie's Halo 3 ARG

Radio drama — the genre of the audio files released as part of I Love Bees.

References

External links

Official Site

Halopedia's I Love Bees article

Netninja ILB archive

Extrasonic ILB wiki

All text revealed in-game, in chronological order

Audio drama MP3 clips compiled into full chapters

Audio drama MP3 clips organized by scene

Audio drama transcriptions

Category:Alternate reality games Category:Halo (series) Category:Viral marketing Category:American radio drama

Name	Sarah Silverman
Caption	Silverman at the 2010 Brooklyn Book Festival
Birth name	Sarah Kate Silverman
Birth date	December 01, 1970
Birth place	Bedford, New Hampshire, United States
Pseudonym	Big S
Medium	Stand-up, television, film, music
Active	1992–present
Influences	Steve Martin
Notable work	Saturday Night LiveSarah Silverman on The Sarah Silverman Program
Domesticpartner	Jimmy Kimmel (2002–2007; 2008–2009)Alec Sulkin (2010)

}}

Sarah Kate Silverman (born December 1, 1970) is an American comedian, writer, actress, singer and musician. Although usually credited as Sarah Silverman, she is sometimes credited by her nickname, Big S. Her satirical comedy addresses social taboos and controversial topics such as racism, sexism, and religion.

Silverman first gained notice as a writer and occasional performer on Saturday Night Live. She starred in and produced The Sarah Silverman Program, which ran from 2007 to 2010, on Comedy Central. She often performs her act by playing a caricature of a Jewish-American princess, mocking bigotry and stereotypes of ethnic groups and religious denominations by having her comic character endorse them in an ironic fashion.

Early life

Sarah Silverman, the youngest of four daughters, was born in Bedford, New Hampshire. Her mother, Beth Ann Halpin, was George McGovern's personal campaign photographer and founded the theater company New Thalian Players. Her father, Donald Silverman, was a social worker by training who ran the discount clothing store Crazy Sophie's Outlet. Her family is Jewish, the descendants of immigrants from Poland and Russia.

She appeared in community theater at age 12, most notably with Community Players of Concord, New Hampshire in Annie and also appeared on a local television show in the Boston area called Community Auditions at age 15. At seventeen, she performed stand-up comedy in a restaurant, singing a song she called "Mammaries."

After graduating from The Derryfield School in Manchester, New Hampshire, she attended New York University and continued her stand-up in Greenwich Village.

Career

Silverman first received national attention in the 1993–94 season of Saturday Night Live (SNL) as a writer and featured player. She was fired after one season because only one of the sketches she wrote survived to dress rehearsal, and none aired. Bob Odenkirk, a former SNL writer explained, "I could see how it wouldn't work at SNL because she's got her own voice, she's very much Sarah Silverman all the time. She can play a character but she doesn't disappear into the character — she makes the character her." In 2007, she placed #29 and appeared on the cover. She made the cover of The Observer in the United Kingdom, with an article naming her "the world's hottest, most controversial comedian".

In June 2007 she hosted the MTV Movie Awards. During her opening act, she commented on the upcoming jail sentence of Paris Hilton, who was in the audience, "In a couple of days, Paris Hilton is going to jail... As a matter of fact, I heard that to make her feel more comfortable in prison, the guards are going to paint the bars to look like penises. I think it is wrong, too. I just worry she is going to break her teeth on those things." In September 2007 she appeared at the MTV Video Music Awards. Following the comeback performance of Britney Spears, Silverman mocked her on stage, saying: "Wow, she is amazing. I mean, she is 25 years old, and she has already accomplished everything she's going to accomplish in her life."

In January 2008 she appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to show Jimmy Kimmel, her boyfriend at the time, a special video. The video turned out to be a song called "I'm Fucking Matt Damon", in which she and Matt Damon sang a duet about having an affair behind Kimmel's back. The video created an "instant YouTube sensation". Kimmel responded with his own video a month later with Damon's friend Ben Affleck, which enlisted a panoply of stars, to record Kimmel's song "I'm Fucking Ben Affleck". On September 13, 2008, Silverman won a Creative Arts Emmy for writing the song "I'm Fucking Matt Damon".

In October 2008, Silverman visited the United Kingdom to promote the release of The Sarah Silverman Program on Paramount Comedy, but her media and stage performances failed to impress audiences. Her debut stand-up performance at the Hammersmith Apollo was widely panned by the critics and audiences alike. The performance bombed when Silverman's warm-up act failed to appear and Silverman rushed through a short 35–40 minute set. The heckling audience, who had been charged £40–50 a seat, refused to leave the theatre and Silverman, sporting a pair of after-show slippers, was forced to return to the stage for an impromptu question and answer session. Steve Bennett from comedy website Chortle declared that "minute for minute, there are sex phonelines that are cheaper than Sarah Silverman."

Silverman sold her idea of a book of humorous essays to HarperCollins for $2.5 million. The Observer reported that David Hirshey was her editor. The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee was released in April 2010. In early May 2010, the book made The New York Times Best-Seller List. Critic Julian Heller said of her book, "This is the single best collection of personal essays ever conceived. I plan on starting a new religion, and The Bedwetter would be our bible. 8 thumbs up."

She also appears in Strange Powers, the 2009 documentary by Kerthy Fix and Gail O'Hara about cult songwriter Stephin Merritt and his band, the Magnetic Fields.

Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic

Silverman's concert film, Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic, based on her one-woman show of the same name, was released in 2005. Liam Lynch directed the movie, distributed by Roadside Attractions. Rotten Tomatoes gave Jesus Is Magic a "fresh" rating of 64% with 54 positive reviews and 30 negative ones, with the "cream of the crop" giving it a rating of 67%. It made US$124,475 on its opening weekend, showing on seven screens. The box office performance led to an expanded release in as many as 57 theaters, resulting in a box office take of more than US$1.3 million. The DVD was released in June 2006. The soundtrack featured songs and standup from the movie, and previously unreleased songs.

The Sarah Silverman Program

Silverman's television sitcom, The Sarah Silverman Program, debuted on Comedy Central in February 2007. The show proved to be a ratings success, scoring the highest premiere ratings of any Comedy Central show in three years, with 1.81 million viewers and the highest 18–49 rating of the night on cable. It portrays the day-to-day adventures of fictionalized versions of Silverman, her sister Laura and their friends. A number of comedic actors from Mr. Show have reappeared on The Sarah Silverman Program. Silverman was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for her acting on the show. At the awards ceremony, she wore a fake mustache.

Comedy Central canceled the Sarah Silverman Program after three seasons.

Controversy

In a July 2001 interview on NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien Silverman used the ethnic slur "chink" explaining that a friend advised her to avoid jury duty by writing a racial slur on the selection form, "something inappropriate, like 'I hate chinks.'" Silverman said she decided that she did not want to be thought of as a racist, so "I wrote 'I love chinks' – and who doesn't?" Silverman said that the joke satirizes the racist thought process. Guy Aoki, of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA), objected to her use of the slur. NBC and O'Brien apologized, but Silverman did not, later appearing on Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher in July and August 2001. Silverman questioned Aoki's sincerity, accusing him of exploiting the opportunity for publicity. On an episode of the show, Aoki appeared with Silverman, and stated that he did not accept Silverman's explanation, saying that it was not successful satire and that comedians should consult with groups such as his before performing such material. Silverman stated in an NPR's Fresh Air interview that she was asked to repeat the joke on Politically Incorrect, among other places, but she eventually dropped the joke from her act because she felt it was becoming stale.

A minor controversy also arose over Silverman's performance in the documentary film The Aristocrats (2005). The film shows Silverman giving an apparently autobiographical account of her life as a child sex performer and mentions how Joe Franklin, a New York radio and TV personality whose nostalgic programs have aired since the early 1950s, would ask her to perform privately for him in his apartment. Silverman looks at the camera and, in a deadpan voice, accused Franklin of raping her. The film was edited in such a way that it appears as if Franklin knows what Silverman said about him. Later, after her clip, Franklin is shown stating "Sarah Silverman is a young lady to watch". After the film came out, Franklin took offense to Silverman's using his name and considered suing her. A month later the New York Times noted he remained undecided, but said, "the best thing I could do is get Sarah better writers so she'd have funnier material."

Personal life

Silverman has said that she does not consume alcohol, because it nauseates her. She is open about her lifelong battle with clinical depression, crediting her subsequent emotional health to taking prescription drug Zoloft. She struggled with bedwetting from the time she was young until well into her teens and has stated that the last time she wet her bed was when she was fired from Saturday Night Live. She referred to the relationship in some of her comedy, "I'm Jewish, but I wear this Saint Christopher medal sometimes; my boyfriend is Catholic — but you know... it was cute the way he gave it to me. He said if it doesn't burn a hole through my skin, it will protect me." The couple attended the wedding of Howard Stern together, but split again in March 2009.

Silverman has stated she does not want to get married until same-sex couples are able to. She has also stated she doesn't want to have biological children to avoid the risk that they might inherit her depression.

Silverman's biological sister Laura plays her sister on The Sarah Silverman Program. Another sister, Susan, is a rabbi who lives on a kibbutz in Israel with her husband and five children.

Silverman is a fan of Jenny Lewis and appeared in Lewis' music video for the song "Rise Up With Fists!!" She is also a fan of comedian Steve Martin who was one of her major inspirations as a younger comedian. She credited comedian Tig Notaro as one of her best friends in an interview in The Advocate. and does not follow the religion claiming, "I have no religion. But culturally I can't escape it; I'm very Jewish." Her humor has also touched on other religions. In 2009, she suggested the Pope sell the Vatican and use some of the money for luxurious housing and the remainder to stop world hunger saying he would "get crazy pussy."

As of January 2010, Silverman was dating Family Guy producer/writer Alec Sulkin. By October 2010, they had broken up, but remain good friends.

Filmography

Features:

Who's the Caboose? (1997)

Overnight Delivery (1998)

Bulworth (1998)

There's Something About Mary (1998)

The Bachelor (1999)

What Planet Are You From? (2000)

Screwed (2000)

The Way of the Gun (2000)

Black Days (2001)

Say It Isn't So (2001)

Heartbreakers (2001)

Evolution (2001)

Run Ronnie Run (2002)

School of Rock (2003)

Bad Santa (2003) (deleted scene)

Hair High (2004) (voice)

The Aristocrats (2005) (documentary)

(2005)

Rent (2005)

I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With (2006)

School for Scoundrels (2006)

Fired! (2007) (documentary)

Certifiably Jonathan (2007) (documentary)

'' (2007) (voice)

Super High Me (2008) (documentary, cameo)

Funny People (2009) (cameo)

Saint John of Las Vegas (2010)

Short subjects:

Strippers Pole (2002)

Nobody's Perfect (2004)

Supermarket (2004)

Give The Jew Girl Toys (satirical music video)

Confetti

Television

Community Auditions (1985)

Saturday Night Live (writer & cast member, 1993–1994)

Mr. Show (featured performer, 1995)

The Larry Sanders Show (1994–1996)

Star Trek Voyager ("Future's End", two episodes, 1996)

Brotherly Love (pizza parlor waitress 1997)

Seinfeld ("The Money", 1997)

Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist (voice as herself, "Alderman", 1998)

Smog (unsold pilot, 1999)

Late Last Night (1999)

Futurama ("The Cryonic Woman", 2000; "Futurama: Bender's Big Score, 2007)

Super Nerds (unsold pilot, 2000)

Rocky Times (unsold pilot, 2000)

Greg the Bunny (2002–2004)

Crank Yankers (voice, 2002–2007)

Frasier (Jane, "Maris Returns", 2003)

Pilot Season (miniseries, 2004)

Entourage (herself, 2004)

Aqua Teen Hunger Force ("Robositter", 2004, credited as Big S)

Drawn Together ("The Other Cousin", episode 1.5, 2004, Cousin Bleh)

Monk (Marci Maven, "Mr. Monk and the TV Star", 2004)

American Dad! ("Stan Knows Best", 2005, voice)

Tom Goes to the Mayor ("Pipe Camp", episode 11, 2005)

Celebrity Poker Showdown (twice, 2003–2004)

''Comic Relief (stand-up segment 2006)

Monk (Marci Maven,Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan, 2007)

The Andy Milonakis Show (herself, 2007)

The Sarah Silverman Program (2007–2010)

Monk (Marci Maven, Mr. Monk's 100th Case, 2008)

8 out of 10 cats ("Herself", 2008)

Friday Night with Jonathan Ross ("Herself", 2008)

JAG (Blind Side "Lt. Schiparelli", 1997)

The Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget (2008) (pre-recorded video message)

The Simpsons ("Stealing First Base", 2010, voice)

Vitamin Water Commercial (Voice, 2010)

Warren The Ape ("Black Lotus", 2010 as Herself)

References

;Notes

External links

Sarah Silverman Online

in 2010 in 2007 in 2005

TheJC.com: Interview with Sarah Silverman

Sarah Silverman's Guest DJ Project on KCRW KCRW Guest DJ set

Sarah Silverman questionnaire November 2007

Sarah Silverman interviewed by Antonella Gambotto-Burke

Guardian interview

AV Club article

Nerve article

Category:1970 births Category:Living people Category:American agnostics Category:American comedians Category:American comedy musicians Category:American female singers Category:American film actors Category:American guitarists Category:American Jews Category:American stand-up comedians Category:American television actors Category:American television writers Category:American actors of Russian descent Category:American actors of Polish descent Category:American vegetarians Category:Jewish comedians Category:Jewish actors Category:Jewish agnostics Category:LGBT rights activists from the United States Category:Actors from New Hampshire Category:Women comedians Category:People from Manchester, New Hampshire

Name	Justin Bieber
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Justin Drew Bieber
Born	March 01, 1994
Origin	Stratford, Ontario, Canada
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, piano, percussion,
Genre	Pop, R&B; ( , born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian pop-R&B; singer. Bieber was discovered in 2008 by Scooter Braun, who happened to come across Bieber's videos on YouTube and later became his manager. Braun arranged for him to meet with Usher in Atlanta, Georgia, and Bieber was soon signed to Raymond Braun Media Group (RBMG), a joint venture between Braun and Usher, and then to a recording contract with Island Records offered by L.A. Reid. His first full studio release, My World 2.0, was released on March 23, 2010 and has since received similar success; it debuted at number one and within the top ten of several countries and was certified platinum in the United States. It was preceded by the worldwide top-ten single, "Baby," in January 2010.
Name	Bieber, Justin
Short description	Canadian singer
Date of birth	March 1, 1994
Place of birth	Stratford, Ontario, Canada

Category:1994 births Category:Living people Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:Canadian child singers Category:Canadian dance musicians Category:Canadian expatriate musicians in the United States Category:Canadian Internet personalities Category:Canadian male singers Category:Canadian pop singers Category:Canadian rhythm and blues singers Category:Hip hop singers Category:Island Records artists Category:Musicians from Atlanta, Georgia Category:Musicians from Ontario Category:People from Stratford, Ontario Category:Canadian people of German descent

Name	Dan Deacon
Background	solo_singer
Born	August 28, 1981West Babylon, New York,
Origin	Baltimore, Maryland,
Instrument	Effects pedals, wave function generators, keyboards, trombone, tuba, voice, computer
Genre	Electronic, electropop
Years active	2003–present
Label	Carpark Records, Mistletone, Wildfire Wildfire, Psych-o-path, Standard Oil Records, Comfort Stand
Url	http://www.dandeacon.com
Time traveler	No

Dan Deacon (born August 28, 1981) is an American electronic musician who originates from Babylon, New York and Baltimore, Maryland.

Life and music history

Dan was born and raised in suburban Long Island, New York. Dan graduated from Babylon High School in 1999. Dan attended the Conservatory of Music at State University of New York at Purchase in Purchase, New York, where, in addition to performing his solo material, he played in many bands, including tuba for Langhorne Slim and guitar in the improvisational grindcore band Rated R, and had a small ensemble. He completed his graduate studies in electro-acoustic and computer music composition. He studied under composer/conductor Joel Thome and Dary John Mizelle.

In 2004 he moved to Baltimore, Maryland and moved into the Copycat Building and, along with friends from SUNY Purchase, formed Wham City, an arts and music collective.

His first two albums as a solo artist, Meetle Mice and Silly Hat vs Egale Hat were released on CD-R on the Standard Oil Records label in 2003 while he was a student at Purchase. The albums are both collections of computer music and live recordings of ensemble pieces. They are markedly different from his first popular record, 2007's Spiderman of the Rings, in that they contain almost no tracks where Deacon sings or uses vocal manipulation. Most of the pieces are instrumentals or sound collages.

Following those two albums came another set of records that were pieces of sine waves. "Green Cobra is Awesome Vs The Sun" is a 42-minute piece of six sine waves that slowly drift. "Goose On The Loose" is a 60-minute piece of Wavetek 180 signal generator being processed through a Digitech Whammy Pedal and a Line 6 Loop/Delay pedal.

His next two releases were the EPs Twacky Cats on Comfort Stand Recordings and Acorn Master on Psych-o-path Records. These were the first releases that contained material with which most of his current listeners would associate him.

Spiderman of the Rings was Deacon's first commercially distributed full-length album, released by Carpark Records in May 2007. The album was well received by the press and was included in the Best New Music section of Pitchforkmedia.com. The album was also ranked as number 24 on the website's "Top 50 Albums of 2007".

Ultimate Reality was released as a DVD in November 2007. It was a return for Deacon to composing music for others to perform. The pieces for percussion and electronics were performed by Jeremy Hyman of Ponytail and Kevin Omeara of Videohippos. The pieces were set to collaged and heavily altered video created by Deacon's long time friend and collaborator Jimmy Joe Roche.

Deacon has performed at several leading art centers including Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, Getty Center in Los Angeles, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC.

Originally to be released in the fall of 2008, Deacon's new album entitled Bromst was released on March 24, 2009. It was produced by Chester Gwazda at Snow Ghost Studios in Whitefish, Montana and features live instruments including player piano and a variety of percussion instruments. It was also very well received. Pitchfork gave it an 8.5/10, and it made it to the "best new music" section. Bromst also ranked #46 in Pitchfork's Best Albums of 2009.

Live shows

Dan Deacon is famed for his live shows. When playing solo he performs on floor level within the audience, his musical devices being set up on a low table, and surrounded by the crowd.

In stark contrast to Deacon's electronic performances, the Bromst tour was with a 14-person ensemble of members of various Baltimore bands including So Percussion, Future Islands, and Chester Gwazda. He was accompanied by various acts including Nuclear Power Pants. This tour is also notable for the musicians' use of a veggie oil powered bus.

In the summer of 2009, Dan Deacon went on tour with two other notable acts, Deerhunter and No Age, on the "No Deachunter" tour.

In the fall of 2009, Dan Deacon was forced to cancel the small remainder of his North American tour, which included shows at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY and Connecticut College in New London, CT due to health complications involving a battle with acute sciatica, all of which were rescheduled in winter of 2010.

Viral video

Deacon recorded the track "Drinking out of Cups". In 2006, Liam Lynch created a video to accompany the piece. The compilation has been viewed more than 12 million times on YouTube. As the video spread, rumors of what the video was and how it was made quickly began forming. One popular rumor is that it is a recording of someone on LSD locked in a closet. Deacon has stated numerous times that this is "not true, in fact I've never done acid."

Discography

A Green Cobra Is Awesome vs. the Sun (single EP) (2003)

Goose on the Loose (2003)

Silly Hat vs. Egale Hat (2003)

Meetle Mice (2003)

Live Recordings 2003 (2004)

Twacky Cats (2004)

Porky Pig (Standard Oil Records New Music Series) (2004)

Acorn Master (2006)

Spiderman of the Rings (2007)

The Crystal Cat (single) (2007)

Ultimate Reality (soundtrack) (2008)

Bromst (2009)

Media appearances

July 23, 2003: performed on WFMU

February 21, 2004: performed again on WFMU

February 2005: performed "Ohio" on WSAV, Savannah, GA's local NBC affiliate

February 13, 2006: featured on Liam Lynch's Podcast Lynchland. Portions of Deacon's song "Big Big Big Big Big" are also used for Lynchland's opening and closing credits on each episode.

May 26, 2006: performed again on WFMU

October 25, 2007: featured on Public Radio International's The Sound of Young America.

April 5, 2009: featured on National Public Radio's All Things Considered.

May 29, 2009: featured on American Public Media's Sound Opinions.

December 4, 2009: named artist of the year by The Athens Blur Magazine in Athens, Georgia

Charts

August 1, 2006: Acorn Master hits #162 on the CMJ Radio 200 charts.

March 24, 2009: Bromst hits #199 on the Billboard Top 200 charts.

Awards

Silly Hat vs. Egale Hat #18 in Top 30 most played albums on WFMU in November 2003

Meetle Mice Third Best Album of 2003 on Top Ten Albums by OCDJ

Best Solo Performer 2005 Baltimore City Paper Critics Poll

Best Solo Performer 2006 Baltimore City Paper Readers Poll

Acorn Master #1 in Top 30 played albums on WFMU in July 2006

Spiderman of the Rings named Best New Music on Pitchfork Media in May 2007 with a 8.7 rating

Bromst named Best New Music on Pitchfork Media in March 2009 with a 8.5 rating

Awarded "Best Awesome" by COOL! Magazine

Spiderman of the Rings named one of the best records of 2007 by CMJ New Music Monthly

Crystal Cat Single listed in top 100 singles of 2007 by Rolling Stone Magazine

Spiderman of the Rings named one of the 25 best records of 2007 by Pitchfork Media

Festival Appearances

SXSW 2007, Austin, TX

NXNW 2007, Portland, OR

CMJ 2007, New York, NY

Virgin Festival, Baltimore, MD

Pitchfork Music Festival 2007, Chicago, IL

Laneway Festival 2008, Australia

Coachella 2008, Indio, CA

Future Days Festival 2008, Dublin, Ireland

Dot to Dot 2008, UK

Electric Picnic 2008, Ireland

Sled Island Music Festival 2008, Calgary, AB Canada

Bumbershoot 2008, Seattle, WA

TIM Festival 2008, Brazil

Fun Fun Fun Fest 2008, Austin, TX

Langerado Festival 2008, Big Cypress, FL

Fuck Yeah Fest 2008, Los Angeles, CA

Golden Plains Festival 2009, Australia

Transmodern Festival 2009, Baltimore, MD

Primavera Sound, 2009, Barcelona, Spain

Lollapalooza 2009, Chicago, IL

Villette Sonique 2009, Paris, France

Big Ears Music Festival, Knoxville, TN

Treasure Island 2009, San Francisco, CA

Campus A Low Hum, Bulls, New Zealand

Transmediale 2010, Berlin, Germany

MtyMx 2010, Monterrey, Mexico

Sperm Festival, Prague, Czech Republic

Donau Festival 2010, Krems, Austria

Bonnaroo 2010, Manchester, TN

Whartspace 2005-2010, Baltimore, MD

Haldern Festival 2010, Germany

Incubate 2010, The Netherlands

High Zero 2010, Balitmore, MD

Moogfest 2010, Asheville, NC

Iceland Airwaves 2010, Iceland

Museum and Art Institution Performances

National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest Romanian, April 2010

Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD USA, July 2009

Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA USA, June 2009

Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH USA, June 2009

Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit, Detroit, USA, May 2009

Fort Worth Museum of Art, Fort Worth, TX USA, April 2009

The Hirshorn Gallery, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC USA, November 2008

Detroit Museum of Modern Art, Detroit, MI USA, October 2008

The Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA USA, July 2008

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY USA, February 2008

Model Arts Centre and Niland Gallery, Sligo, Ireland, December 2007

Corcoran Museum, Washington, DC USA, November 2007

The Walters Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD USA, February 2007

References

External links

Wham City video profile

Dan Deacon interview for the New York Times

Dan Deacon's electronic jungle — A June 2007 Associated Press interactive piece with Dan Deacon explaining his instruments.

Dan Deacon article April 2009

Pitchfork article

Music Towers article

Muso's Guide live review - Fabric London

Photo gallery of live performance

Channel 59 official band website

Category:American electronic musicians Category:State University of New York at Purchase alumni Category:Living people Category:People from Baltimore, Maryland Category:1981 births