picture courtesy of IGN.com

Hello friends! Do you like free things? How about free things which are flammable?

Starting at 6am this morning, the Mobil station at 8489 Beverly Blvd will be giving away free gas to promote the video game Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.

1up.com explains:

Gas plays a key role in Mercenaries 2, which hits store shelves next week. The story centers around military struggle for control of the country and its valuable supplies of oil and gas. At a more practical level, players must collect fuel to be used to call in their weapon and supply drops. We’ve been playing it furiously over the past couple weeks to have our review ready for you when the game ships.

So go check out the madness that’s sure to ensue and pick up some sweet, free gasoline on EA Games dime!

Hello friends! Here at the Mark and Steve Video Game Testing Center, driving games are often ignored in favor of games that are actually fun. Midnight Club: Los Angeles, however, piqued our interest. We posted about it awhile back, but since then, Kotaku has written a nice hands-on impression of the game and a second trailer has been released!

A new release date in October has been solidified, pushed back from September and the L.A. in the game is looking even more accurate than before. We personally are looking forward to reenacting the many accidents at the cursed corner of La Brea and Fountain.

How many L.A. landmarks can you spot whizzing by in the new trailer?

Hello, friends! We were on hand for The Dark Knight midnight movie madness at the spectacular Cineramadome/Arclight! Crowds abound and news crews were there to point bright lights and cameras at them with the intent to annoy and interview those of us in line. There was also some kind of butt-tasting ice tea drink being bandied about, but the price for tasting it was to pretend on camera that the vile liquid was indeed delicious. It was not.

While we were in line, waiting patiently for our free shirts, which is the only reason to ever line up at the Arclight (what with it’s assigned seats and all), Steve spotted a familiar face strolling on by; Odd L.A. Spotlight Superstar - Andrew Goldenberg!

We hung out a bit, spoke in tones only nerds can hear and before Andrew split to meet up with his posse, Mark-and-Steve-keteer Jody snapped a pic of the three us and recorded the moment for the ages.

Click all pictures for Bat-ification

Here stands the Dome, in all it’s glory. That big pole-thing with the wires wrapping around is one of the many news crew antennas. Clueless pedestrians ambled by and queried people standing in line, dressed as the Joker, who were standing directly underneath a poster promoting the movie, a poster prominently featuring the character whom they were dressed as, “What’s this all for?”For proof, look below!

A closer view of the front of the line. There walks a face-painter, fresh from being asked what all these people were lining up for. We still didn’t really understand why so many people showed up with suntan lotion on their faces. I mean, it was 10pm. Were they afraid of the harmful night time UV rays!?

When we got there, the line wasn’t all that long, so we ventured into the lobby for a bit to see what they had on display.

Batman’s new duds. Kevlar dipped in awesome.

Joker gang masks… kinda like the Insane Clown Posse, except not totally stupid and lame.

And last but certainly not least, The Joker costume. All custom made, complete with knives and lint!

Finally the nerds have something else to shabbily recreate and don for Comic Con, besides shitty Jack Sparrow.

All that was well and good, so we decided to head back outside and secure our standing in line to ensure we got a free t-shirt, the paramount prize at any sort of large event.

We were lucky enough to stand behind this cancer conscious Bat-fan. Can you guess what he smelled like? Hint: It rhymes with “shit”

Batman himself showed up and decided to teach everyone the only proper way to display bed sheets in public.

During the demonstration, some heavily lotioned man sneaks up from behind to crinkle and crease an otherwise immaculate bedspread… and possibly, to rub suntan lotion on our hero’s otherwise unreachable areas.

Batman leaps into action! Gently rubbing his assailants slippery chin with his knuckles and silently cooing, “There was a time when men were kind…”

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a disheveled Queen Amidala Razored over and pleaded with the crowd to donate money and help free Naboo from it’s unlawful occupation by the greedy Trade Federation. Local Gungans were not on the scene to comment…

At this point, the theater began to let everyone in. You know what comes next! We received our awesome, free t-shirts, piled in to the coconut-scented theater, removed each others pants and proceeded to allow Christopher Nolan to fuck our eye-pussies with his throbbing, veiny bat-peni!

July 4th is another factor, fireworks go off, dogs get scared, run off and wind up in a shelter.

L.A. Animal Services is having a huge, super-reduced fee, Adopt-A-Thon this weekend:

Saturday July 19th, 8am-5pm & Sunday July 20th, 11am-5pm

Cats & Kittens will be $28 (usually $68)

Dogs & Puppies will be $43 (usually $91)

includes: microchip, spay/neuter, vaccines, license (when applicable)

All six La City Animal Service Centers will be participating in this Adoption event. There are over 1000 dogs and 700 adoptable cats that need homes.

Click here to check out the animals and find out where to pick them up!

British rockers, The Who are playing a private show at the Orpheum to promote the coming of Mark and Steve’s new favorite game; Rock Band 2! Also, you can download a Best of the Who song pack for Rock Band right now!

From Reuters:

The party and concert, organized by the game’s developer Harmonix Music Systems and publisher MTV Games, will take place at the 82-year-old Orpheum Theatre, which holds about 2,000 people.

The Who’s 1971 anthem “Won’t Get Fooled Again” is among the 58 tracks on the set list of “Rock Band,” which was released to great acclaim late last year.

UPDATE 7/17/2008: Brian Crecente, from awesome gaming site, Kotaku, attended the concert and posted lots of pictures, impressions and even some videos here!

From his article:

Later Townshend said that everyone should buy their children the new Aerosmith Guitar Hero bundle, then a second later added, oh, that’s the other one.

This guy!

Who is this masked, singing wonder and where did he get those wonderful toys?

His name is Andrew Goldenberg, and we want you to do us a favor. We want you to tell all your friends about him.

Steve happened upon our fancy featured gentleman whilst par-oozing the interweb during a slow work afternoon. Having two million plus views, Andrew Goldenberg isn’t just another viral 1-hit wonder. A double-click here a single-click there… and we were smitten with the twenty-something LA local, whose magical riffery warmed our hearts and our computer monitors.

When we got a hold of Andrew, he was more than happy to provide a little insight into the methods and to spill the goods on the movie music of today. Being the huge movie nerds that we are, we jumped at the notion of interviewing Andrew for the betterment of the World Wide Web, and beyond.

Andrew began,

Okay. So I’m in Colorado in the middle of nowhere in a hotel room that’s not really even part of the hotel I’m staying at. I was just coerced into taking an off-road trip into the mountains with maybe two gallons of gas in the car, with my two buddies I am filming a web series with. That’s called Comedy Road Trip on Maniatv.com. I am also part of the National Lampoon Lemmings on that site.

Mark and Steve: To start things off, what was your inspiration when you did the first video, Superman Theme Song?

Andrew Goldenberg: The idea came to me when I was filming a short called Nails with some friends in Van Nuys. I started singing to the instrumental part of some song and my buddy remarked how much he hated when people did that. I laughed because I always sing random words at the instrumental parts, even if it’s just making noises for the instruments. So I thought hey I haven’t seen anybody put words to theme songs before. My girlfriend was out of town for July 4th and I wrote the Superman theme song, filmed it, and edited it within that week. Now, each one takes me about five months.

I now know that Bill Murray did Star Wars on Saturday Night Live twenty-five years ago.

M&S: Tech question: What equipment did you use to make the videos? Camera/Tripod/Adobe Premiere/Wrinkly Green Sheet?

Andrew: I use a Panasonic PV-GS 120, Final Cut Pro, a wrinkled green screen I bought off Craigslist and a work light from Lowe’s.

M&S: Have you considered taking your parody theme songs on the road, in front a live audience?

Andrew: I never really thought about taking my theme song act on the road, but I have been offered places to stay by some of the people who watch them.

M&S: What’s your favorite musical/movie score?

Andrew: I’m a huge fan of John Williams, obviously. I have such huge respect for all movie composers though. I don’t know about favorites but Rent for musical and Star Wars probably. I mean, come on, that had the main theme, Vaders theme, that great finale. All somewhat different and completely recognizable.

M&S: On your Myspace page, it says you’re an “Audience Recruiter”? Does that mean you can hook us up with free movie screenings?

Andrew: I am privileged to no longer be an Audience Recruiter, so I can’t give you passes. I edit with Steele Pictures and write for the National Lampoon Lemmings. And every once in a while, yes, I actually get paid to act.

M&S: Two months ago, you unleashed Indiana Jones and The Song of the Theme, what else do have in store for the coming months?

Andrew: Star Wars is next on my list as of now. It’s been requested a lot and it’s a challenge. It’s about a five-minute song but I think it’ll be fun.

M&S: Will you ever take requests? If so, might we request Jerry Goldsmith’s Gremlins theme?

Andrew: Gremlins is a good suggestion. I don’t think I’ve gotten that yet. The most requested are Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Rocky, Mission Impossible, and Spider-Man.

M&S: We’re clearly movie score fans, and feel that there hasn’t really been any new iconic themes since Lord of the Rings back in 2001, do you agree? If not, are there any themes of late worthy of your particular brand of parody?

Andrew: Interesting question. I honestly don’t really think I have heard an iconic theme song in a while. I have to think about it longer but it seems that they are too convoluted and the ones that were so classic a decade or two ago were simple progressions. That being said, the music at the end of the Dark Knight trailer makes me want to stand up and cheer every time I see it.

M&S: Awesome,thanks Andrew!

And with that he was gone, apparently he was off to wrestle Alligators! No lie.

We hope you enjoyed this Odd L.A. Spotlight!

Except where otherwise noted, all photo and video credit: Andrew Goldenberg

Driving by the Beverly Hills Police Department this morning, the Mark and Steve surveillance system picked up something very odd… you know those statues of owls people put up to scare birds away so the birds don’t poop everywhere? Well, it seems the BHPD have adopted a similar tactic and have created these decoy police cars to frighten and dissuade common criminals, speed demons and any other non-law-abiders… they are a cowardly and superstitious lot, are they not?

Our question to you is, do you think it really works? Sure, a statue might fool our feathered friends, but have any of you ever mistakenly asked a mannequin how it got those rock-hard abs? Would a clearly fake police car with some eerie stickers on the windows make you think twice about gunning it on a yellow?

As always, click to have a closer look

Hello friends! Do you like art? How do you feel about Asians? What about crazy Asians, or Crazians? We here at the Mark and Steve Center are feverishly pro-Crazian and can’t help but urge you all to attend an awesome art show at the always entertaining World of Wonder, located at:

6650 Hollywood blvd. Suite 400

Hollywood, California 90028

Opening night is this Friday, 7/11 from 8:00pm-12:00am take advantage of the free drinks and enjoy some art!

So Steve managed to land himself a starring role in the latest Buckcherry music video called “Too Drunk…”! Now I know what you’re thinking: “Too Drunk?! Isn’t that a Dead Kennedy’s song?” Well, yes it is. But this particular song has nothing to do with that song… Though, both songs deal with issues of being too drunk to perform sexual acts, the difference is this song happens to have a video to go along with it. And it just so happens, Steve is the above mentioned “Drunk” person…

What can I say, I’m a ham! The video was shot in Burbank, Valley Village. Nice place, curiously scattered framed pictures of Chuck Woolery adorned the walls of the house we shot in. Very curious…

Anywho, hope you enjoyed Steve’s craziness, and Buckcherry’s signature rockedness! Truthfully here at Mark and Steve labs we’re not big Buckcherry fans… But Steve is a big fan of being payed to act like a bafoon! Everyone wins!

In case you are a fan, or are interested in checking out a rockin’ show, Buckcherry and others will be playing here in LA on the 2nd of August at Crue Fest at the Glen Helen Pavilion.

Rock on!

Hello Friends! If you go and check out Spaced Invasion, you’ll find some details for two awesome Spaced-centric events happening in Los Angeles! There’s a signing on the 23rd at Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash – West, and a free screening of some choice episodes at the Arclight followed by a Q&A with Simon Pegg, Jessica Hynes and Edgar Wright moderated by Kevin Smith!

What’s Spaced? You mean, you don’t know? Understandable, I suppose, because the  series hasn’t been available stateside, until now! On July 22nd, you and all your friends ought to make haste to your local DVD retailer, throw down some dollars and rush home to experience some of the funniest TV ever! Here’s a more thorough description from the press release:

Spaced: The Complete Series, a 3-disc set from BBC Video, features all 14 surreal episodes of the award-winning show, described by Pegg as “a cross between The Simpsons, The X-Files and Northern Exposure.” Boasting over eight hours of content, the DVD set features bonus material including the original commentary from the UK release plus all-new commentary from Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill), Kevin Smith (Clerks, Dogma), Matt Stone (South Park, Team America: World Police), Bill Hader (Superbad, SNL), Patton Oswalt (King of Queens, Ratatouille) and Diablo Cody (Oscar®-winning writer of Juno).