From the official Devo website:

McDonald’s & American Idol Go Low
By Co-Opting DEVO’s Energy Dome

We recently discovered that DEVO has once again unwittingly intersected with mainstream pop culture.

McDonald’s fast food restaurants are offering a series of American Idol TV show themed toys in their children’s Happy Meals. One of the toys is named "New Wave Nigel", who sports an orange jumpsuit, punk shades, and an unmistakable DEVO Energy Dome. Flipping a switch plays a DEVO-esque song (which sounds a bit like a mutated version of DEVO’s Doctor Detroit.)

See video here.

Was DEVO ever contacted by McDonald’s, American Idol, or anyone else involved in making and distributing this toy wearing their trademark headgear?
Of course not.

Pioneers who got scalped….again.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out our interesting interview with Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo!

Ever wonder what you, or someone close to you, might look like as a zombie? Zombieportraits.com is a website that can provide the answer. For $80, artist Rob Sacchetto will work from a supplied photo to create an original, hand illustrated portrait depicting the subject as a brain-eating member of the undead. We emailed Sacchetto a few questions about the service, and here’s what he had to say.

What made you decide to pursue zombie portraits as a business?

Well, i’ve been a freelance illustrator for quite some time, and before the zombie portrait thing, I really did a lot of technical heavy jobs and straight portrait work. Now, this stuff is great and all, but being a horror fan, and comic book geek, I really wanted to find a way to mesh the two and have a lot more freedom and fun drawing. It was the suggestion of my friend and webmaster, Joel Pednaud and support of my wife Andrea that really got the whole thing going.

Have you found any trends among purchasers?

Mostly, the zombie portraits are gifts, but some horror lovers or art lovers or both just get them done for the fun of it. As far as who and types, it is virtually everyone from every walk of life, from ministers to musicians, couples in their wedding garb, to tattoo enthusiasts.

Any particularly strange requests so far?

I’d like to think that any request to be turned into a zombie is kinda strange, but yeah, there have been some especially strange ones - there was a guy pulling a cocktail umbrella out of his nose, which I turned into brain matter covered in maggots - there was a couple with their newborn which I also zombified - one couple unknowingly got each other zombified for Valentine’s day. I just recently had a wrestler biting his championship belt… To me, the weirder, the better!

Have you considered doing any other customized products?

We aren’t offering specific ‘customized’ cards for each person, but on our website, we do have a variety of products available. We have four greeting cards for different occasions (get well soon, valentine, Christmas, and birthday), which are just the grossest things you’ll ever see… and offer three different zombie posters!

Are there particular characteristics you look at when trying to find a person’s inner zombie?

Yeah, some people are just naturally inclined to look like zombies, like myself, so it’s a lot easier to zombify them. Others need a little extra ‘umph’, so I’ll concentrate on maybe the eyes or jaw, teeth or nose and really open up these areas with an excessive mangling!

• Go to zombieportraits.com

Yesterday I got to attend Sonic The Hedgehog’s 15th birthday celebration in NY (part of the annual Digital Life consumer electronics show.) Sonic had a huge cake, which he generously shared with industry and media attendees. In recent years, a few people have asked if I got the name “Chaos Control’ from the games, as the term is used in them to describe powers related to the “Chaos Emeralds.” However, this is not the case, The hedgehog was a decade old when ‘Chaos Control’ was introduced (in the game “Sonic Advance 2.”)

Mike Goldstein of RockPoP Gallery (rockpopgallery.com) just tipped us off about an interesting Devo video now on YouTube. Created by Mr. Bonzai, the video was shot during a 2002 rehearsal and features “all the hits in less than 7 minutes.” It also includes an interview with Mark Mothersbaugh. The YouTube settings for the clip prevent us from displaying it here, but you can click here to view it directly in a new browser window.

A few years back we got a chance to speak with Dustin Diamond, better known to most people as Screech from the tv show “Saved By The Bell.” Why were we interviewing Screech? Well he’s also a musician, and his project at the time, Salty The Pocketknife, was actually pretty good. Diamond has unfortunately fallen on some difficult times, and is faced with the possibility of forclosure on his Wisconsin home. To help raise the $250,000 he needs, Diamond is selling “I Paid $15.00 To Save Screech’s House” t-shirts on his website for $15. And he’ll autograph them for an extra $5. To get the whole story, and order shirts, check out his website at getdshirts.com.