GREAT REVIEWS POURING IN FOR FIRST iPHONE GAME LAUNCHED BY METAMOOREPHOSIS TEAM OF FLASHPOINT ACADEMY GRADUATES

bitFLIP Review

One twist turns this puzzler from average to fun.

by Levi Buchanan

November 3, 2009 - There are a few constants in this life. Death. Taxes. A new match-three puzzler in the App Store every week. Many of these puzzlers tread familiar waters. And for the first few minutes, Hands-On Mobile's new bitFLIP looks like it will simply blend into the pack. But once you discover that the tiles in the field are two-sided and can be flipped with a simple double-tap as well as swapped like a Bejeweled pair, to make additional matches and rack up mega-combos, bitFLIP takes on a whole new life.

bitFLIP offers three play modes: Quick Jam, Endless, and Forever Jam. (Forever Jam is unlocked by playing Quick Jam five times.) There is also a tutorial I recommend playing through to teach you the essentials, from the ability to direct the way tokens are switched by dragging your finger across the field to explanations of the extra tokens bitFLIP throws into the field. Tap the extra tokens to fill up a special power bar along the top of the play field. When it is full, tap the bar to either tilt the board and let pieces automatically slide into cleared sections of the field or cause random pieces to vibrate. Tapping the vibrating pieces makes them disappear without having to match them with at least two other pieces.

Now, I recognize that so much of this sounds like a typical match-three puzzler. What saves it is the flipping. This effectively doubles the number of tokens in play and opens up tons of extra matching options. Once you learn what colors are paired together on the two-sided tokens, you really can enter a groove and get on some hot streaks. I really enjoyed mixing this up with Endless Mode, which stacks pieces on top of each other. You need to watch the background of the grid squares for indications of when the stacks are almost too tall, such as flashing oranges and reds. That groove I mentioned can kind of turn into a panic from time to time in Endless Mode, but taking the puzzle back from the brink is quite satisfying.

The fact that bitFLIP is flanked by a killer soundtrack is just icing; it will appeal to any genre fan (like me). It's too bad that the bitFLIP soundtrack is not tied to the gameplay like the Groovin' Blocks' electronica score, but that doesn't lessen its effectiveness. Extra bonus: you can download it for free. I highly recommend doing so.

bitFLIP was reviewed with version 1.0.


Closing Comments

bitFLIP is a great surprise. At first, it looked like a basic match-three game with a great soundtrack. But flipping the tiles as well as swapping them adds a needed wrinkle to the genre. Throw in a free soundtrack download and bitFLIP becomes a good download for puzzle fans looking for both fun and a bargain.

IGN Ratings for bitFLIP (iPhone)

TULLMAN COLLECTION ARTIST PHYLLIS BRAMSON HONORED WITH "ANONYMOUS IS A WOMAN" GRANT - BEAUTIFUL NEW SHOW CATALOGUE

MISSION STATEMENT OF THE GRANT PROGRAM

“Anonymous Was a Woman” is a grant program focused on supporting individual women artists. The phrase is taken from A Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf's classic statement of the challenges facing females seeking to create art. With these four words, Woolf succinctly and powerfully evoked the centuries long struggle of women to gain recognition as artists. Yet there is much more to this innovative grant program than its thought-provoking name. Anonymous Was a Woman was created to fill a national need. In 1995, the National Endowment for the Arts, under intense political pressure, discontinued funding for individual artists. This galvanized an unnamed woman artist in New York to take action. “It was obvious there was a need for more private support,” she later wrote. So she used her personal funds to help fill that void. Since 1996, Anonymous Was a Woman has awarded ten grants of $25,000 each per year, except one year when eleven were given. The purpose is to support women visual artists over the age of forty-five who are at a critical juncture in their lives or careers. The overriding purpose of the grants is to allow the artists to pursue their work.

TULLMAN COLLECTION ARTIST TERRI THOMAS INCLUDED IN CORCORAN ALUMNI EXHIBITION

Corcoran College of Art + Design
2009 Juried Alumni Exhibition



Terri Thomas, "Mounted Pussy", Swarvoski Crystals over form 2009.


The Corcoran College of Art + Design is proud to showcase our alumni and their artwork with the 2009 Juried Alumni Exhibition. The show will take place September 23–October 18 in The Corcoran Gallery of Art’s Gallery 31. The Corcoran will host an opening reception on October 16 from 6–8 p.m. as part of Corcoran College of Art + Design’s Family and Alumni weekend festivities.

This year’s juror is George Hemphill. Hemphill opened his contemporary gallery in the fall of 1993 with a focus on 20th-century fine art, including painting, sculpture, printmaking, and photography. The gallery’s expertise in photography includes work from the medium’s invention to the most current forms of digital photography and printing.

Prior to opening Hemphill Fine Arts, George Hemphill worked at the Middendorf Gallery in Washington, DC, playing a crucial part in the development of the current fine art photography market. Hemphill represented the work of such artists as William Eggleston, William Christenberry, and Joseph Mills, building the foundation upon which these artists’ fame has grown. In addition to photographic exhibitions, Hemphill supervised exhibition installation and graphic design for Middendorf Galley and worked with collectors in assembling high quality photography collections.

Now the founder of his own gallery, Hemphill assists in the acquisition of photography as well as consults with collectors on the donation of work to museums (including the National Gallery of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and The Phillips Collection). The exhibition program at Hemphill incorporates both one person and thematic shows. Hemphill continues to supervise selected printing projects for photographers such as Godfrey Frankel and William Christenberry, and represents the work of photographers Colby Caldwell, the Estate of Eliot Elisofon (Life Magazine), the Estate of Godfrey Frankel (NY Photo League), Paul Fusco (Magnum), and Lucien Perkins (Washington Post), among others.

For more information contact Allison Long, Coordinator of College Exhibitions at along@corcoran.org, or Shahdeh Ammadi, Alumni Relations and Development Officer at sammadi@corcoran.org.

FLASHPOINT ACADEMY WELCOMES WRITER, ACTOR AND DIRECTOR LIEV SCHREIBER FOR Q & A SESSION WITH STUDENTS

TULLMAN COLLECTION ARTIST JACOB PFEIFFER IN NOVEMBER ISSUE OF AMERICAN ART COLLECTOR

TULLMAN COLLECTION ARTIST ERIC WERT IN NOVEMBER ISSUE OF AMERICAN ART COLLECTOR

TULLMAN COLLECTION ARTIST BO BARTLETT IN NOVEMBER ISSUE OF AMERICAN ART COLLECTOR

TULLMAN COLLECTION ARTIST RENE LYNCH IN NOVEMBER ISSUE OF AMERICAN ART COLLECTOR

FIRST REVIEW OF NEW FILM "DARREN & ABBEY" WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY FLASHPOINT ACADEMY ALUM MICHAEL NOENS

"Darren & Abbey" Review



STARRING
Mark Stewart Iverson, Annie Rix

DIRECTED BY
Michael Noens

SCREENPLAY
Michael Noens

MPAA RATING
NR

RUNNING TIME
72 Mins.

DISTRIBUTED BY
Independent


In Michael Noens' "Darren & Abbey," two teenagers thrust into each other's lives spend an unexpected Christmas Eve together discussing five major human desires: power, money, family, sex and time.

Darren (Mark Stewart Iverson, "Dorm Life") is a somewhat reserved young man in town to spend the holidays with longtime friend Eric (Matt Drake), while Abbey (Annie Rix), Eric's younger sister, is largely avoiding the holidays thanks to a bad break-up the week before. When Eric abandons Darren with Abbey to run off with a beautiful girl, the stage is set for a simple, honest and life-changing evening of conversation, confession and a few other amusing diversions.

Currently getting ready to hit the film festival circuit, "Darren & Abbey" is somewhat reminiscent of Travis Betz's beautiful "Sunday," an indie flick that found its way to my annual Top 10 list last year largely owing to its wondrous simplicity, amazing tenderness and vibrant performances by Devin Barry and Sarah Larissa Deckert. While "Darren & Abbey" isn't likely to enter my Top 10 for 2009, it does continue Noens' impressive ability to tap into generational dialogue, human intimacies and insecurities, the joy of everyday life's quirks and a wondrous ability to put pen to paper and create relationships that feel rich and authentic.

On the surface, Darren and Abbey would seem quite different.

Darren is quieter, more contemplative and seemingly guarded with his inner workings. Darren thinks, then speaks, then thinks, then speaks, then thinks and speaks again.

Abbey, on the other hand, is a more vibrant young woman whose soul is fed through her stage work and whose heart is seemingly worn on her sleeve. Abbey believes wholeheartedly in breaking the rules and taking risks.

Together, at least initially, there is an unconvincing awkwardness as both Darren and Abbey go for simple cordiality to burgeoning friendship to, perhaps, a flicker of chemistry between them. The relationship, indeed, does not always convince because the two themselves are not easily convinced. Yet, as the two discuss those ever present human desires of power, money, family, sex and time it becomes abundantly clear that underneath Darren's guarded facade and Abbey's faux bravado exists two souls who may very well need each other.

"Darren & Abbey" is most beautiful to behold when Iverson and Rix are beginning their dance of emotional intimacy, scenes that blossom because Noens has the patience as a director to allow the scenes to unfold without killing the mood with dialogue and distraction. It is in these scenes when both Iverson and Rix appear to be the most relaxed, emotionally and physically. While Iverson's Darren is a man of few words and describes himself as nervous around people, he's played with enough humanity and heart that it's easy to see and understand why Abbey becomes closer to him over the course of the unexpected evening together. Mostly known for his work on Hulu's web-based "Dorm Life," Mark Stewart Iverson nicely blends strength and sensitivity as Darren and, wisely, Noens never takes Darren down a path that feels unnatural or insincere. Instead, as he did with his last film "Coasting," Noens trusts his characters and the relationship that manifests between them.

As Abbey, Annie Rix has the difficult task of bringing to life a young woman who is both vibrantly alive and yet fully and richly human. As the relationship between Darren and Abbey becomes more and more grounded, it is Rix's Abbey who exhibits the most visible changes as her verbal cues and body language become more expressive and even her eyes seemingly soften. The film's closing scenes, in which both Darren and Abbey simply yet beautifully reach out to one another, work wonders because both Iverson and Rix allow themselves to become vulnerable.

Noens' camera work is solid throughout "Darren & Abbey," while the original music by Theadore complements the changing relationship between Darren and Abbey quite nicely. The production design of Patricia Noens is simple yet effective in the way it illustrates the different worlds of Darren and Abbey without ever jarring one's senses.

An up-and-coming writer/director from the Chicago area, Michael Noens serves up another modestly budgeted feature film with heart, humor and refreshingly real humanity. Watch for "Darren & Abbey" at a film festival or theatre near you! For more information on "Darren & Abbey," visit the film's website.

© Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic