Like Zombie Movies? Try Xombie!

Every now and again, I find some treasure that has been sitting in the interwebosphere for sometime. After finding these treasures, I am usually baffled at how I could ever have missed the treasure in the first place.

Xombie is one of those little treasures and I have Matt Forbeck (one of my favorite game designers) to thank for the introduction.

Xombie is a flash animation film about a world taken over by zombies and her search for who she is, where she is from, and where the heck other humans are. She is aided by a self-aware Zombie (and his dog), among others, in her journey. The self-aware zombie bit is very reminiscent of George Romero's comic Toe Tags (which featured awesome Bernie Wrightson covers) which featured a similar character. Though Xombie's first chapter predates the Romero comic series.

Xombie creator James Farr's release schedule is a little on the slow side, but all in all this is light-hearted zombie goodness.

When Fantasy Baseball Isn't Enough

I love Fantasy Baseball, as you know I put out a public invitation a while back for anyone who wanted to join my Yahoo! league. No, I'm not a master level rotiserrie player who plays for real money. I would be pwned so fast it wouldn't be any fun. I am, however, a person who likes to fantasize about being a big league GM like Paul Depodesta and Fantasy Baseball is one of the ways to meet this fantasy.

By the way, Fantasy Baseball, in no way encapsulates the fantasy of actually playing Major League Baseball. That fantasy is manifest in peoples obsessions with Orosco Numbers (the number of players your age or older still in the Major Leagues) and agressive participation in Fast Pitch Softball Leagues.

For all that I love the way Fantasy Baseball enhances the pleasure I get from watching baseball, it does have its weaknesses. For the past couple of years three pitchers in the Major Leagues have performed well, but been less useful than one would imagine in fantasy leagues. The pitchers are Brandon Webb, Tom Glavine, and Jake Peavy, especially Peavy and Webb. The fact is that these pitchers have "earned" an insuffient number of wins based on ERA performance. In other words, if they played for different teams they would have won more games. Take Jake Peavy 2004 and 2005, for those years he went 15 and 6 in 27 games and 13 and 7 in 30 games. Winning records to be sure, but his ERA's were 2.27 and 2.88 and these were with having to face a healthy Bonds in 2004 and make a few healthy visits to Denver for the duration. Sub 3 ERAs in the modern era are something to be awed by and shouldn't result in sub-20 win seasons. Chris Carpenter, who played for a better team, had a 2.85 ERA in 2005 and won 21 games. A similar story for Roy Oswalt who won 20 with a 2.94 ERA (though he also lost 12). As an aside, those who think great pitchers are a thing of the past you really ought to look at the birthdates on these guys, only Carpenter is over 30.

Needless to say, the pitchers stats don't reflect their individual quality, nor do they reflect how they would perform if they were backed by the supporting team I selected on my fantasy team. So Fantasy Baseball is a less than accurate simulation of GM activity, it is a great fan supplement, but not a fantasy fulfiller.

The diligent GM fantasist goes out and buys APBA baseball and/or Stratomatic Baseball, or one of a cadre of similar products. These are great products to be sure, but there is one step beyond these. There is a product that not only allows team selection, uses park modifiers, but also includes computer based trades and the ability to control concession prices. I am, naturally, refering to the excellent Baseball Mogul series of games.

I have been playing the Mogul series of games every baseball season for a few years now and I find it to be entirely engrossing. It captures not only the fantasy of being a GM, but of being an owner and on the field manager. Each season the program has evolved leaps and bounds over the previous season and the program was robust to start. At $19.95 the game is a steal.

When I first played the game you could make decisions about lineups on a day by day basis, make trades, and modify the financial aspects. Since that time the game has evolved so that you can "call" individual pitches for your pitchers to throw (with pitch placement) and have batters guess what pitch and where the opposing pitcher is going to throw. The level of detail is amazing and it is truly a fantasy version of being a GM. You can play "what if" seasons for the entire history of baseball (up to the year of the edition of the game) for the price of $19.95. To play prior years in APBA or Stratomatic you must buy prior year card sets, though they allow for inter-generational fantasy play which Mogul lacks as a "hard wired" function. You can use old players, but you have to enter their stats manually which takes about a minute.

Oh and if you fantasize about playing the game, you can enter your high school statistics and draft "yourself" onto the team you are managing.

Good stuff.

An Image of Oreo

David Chute asked if my wife had drawn any pictures of our dog Oreo, so here is a picture Jody drew of her not too long ago. Jody drew the picture from memory. Oreo died on August 1, 2002 at the ripe age of 20, she would have been 21 in a couple weeks. We loved her very much and still miss her. Oreo would love Glendale.

My Anniversary Was Magical and So Was The Magic Castle

Last Thursday, as you all know, was my wife and my ninth wedding anniversary. Before I went to work my wife recommended that I wear a suit and tie to work so that I would be ready for our dinner. In years past I have planned the anniversary dinner, but this year Jody "demanded" the privilege. She then asked me if I was "excited" about our dinner. I responded calmly that I was very much looking forward to a romantic evening with my wife.

She scowled and said, "but are you excited about where we are going?"

I told her that I didn't know where we were going and I once again assured her that I was looking forward to a very romantic evening.

Once more the scowl.

So I asked, "okay...where are we going?"

"It's a surprise," she giggled, then she hugged me and skipped off to her car. All of which left me wondering what she had planned. Too be honest, I didn't put much thought into it for most of the day. It wasn't until I was on the road from Glendora to the Paramount Lot (the Marx Building for JC and Wolf) that I began to really attempt to guess at the surprise.

Jody called my cell while I was on the road, "any guesses?"

"Do you really want me to guess or do you want me to be joyously surprised when I get to your office?"

"I want you to be joyously surprised."

"Then I'll wait until I get to your office and react to the news." I can hear the grimmace on the other end of the cell.

All of this has finally caused me to really think about where Jody has planned for us to go to dinner. What could be this important? Think, think, think. We went to Spago for Jody's birthday and it was great, but even that wasn't as big a deal as Jody was making this evening. Hmm...other than Disneyland, for which one evening wouldn't be enough, what place would be special enough to make Jody giggle?

I finally decided that it must be the Magic Castle. I am a big fan of magic and have always wanted to go there. Jody received an invitation from a member over a year ago and we have been unable to use it. It was featured in a Columbo episode (Jody's favorite show ever). I hoped I was right and tried to brace myself for any disappointment.

I arrive at her boss's office and Jody is busy in the phones, but she has time to hand me a hand made anniversary card. She smiles broadly and says, "open it!"

This is what I see.



Well, this and the invitation to the Magic Castle. I had been right and I laugh out loud, "Awesome," I am Gen X after all, "I hoped this is where we were going to go."

"Good thing we are then," she laughed.

Jody's playfulness was fun, but the Magic Castle was better than I expected. We ate dinner at their steakhouse. It's no Spago, but eating there meant we didn't have to pay for the "Palace of Mystery" show.

When you go to the Magic Castle, which requires an invitation and reservations, there are basically four venues where performers baffle and amaze you. At least they try to baffle and amaze you.

There is the Close Up Gallery where magicians give performances every 45 minutes or so for the duration of the evening. This is where you will see card tricks, sponge ball manipulations, and coin tricks. You know what I am talking about, all the slight of hand trick you can imagine might be performed here.

There is the Parlour of Prestidigitation where everything inbetween close up and stage performance is done. In the Parlour you will experience Mentalism and the types of tricks you might imagine experiencing in a Victorian living room.

Then there is the Palace of Mystery where stage magic is performed. This can be everything from "large" slight of hand tricks and animal tricks to large mechanical tricks like the famous sawing the woman in half trick.

Finally, there is the W.C. Fields bar where the bartender does a continuous demonstration of barside magic. As you can probably guess the majority is close up magic, but humor is a big part of this experience as is drinking.

We had a great time. We watched two perfomers in the Close Up Gallery (Paul Green and David Stryker) one "early" performer and one "late" performer. At the Palace of Mystery show we saw Shoot Ogawa and George Saterial. We even hung out at the W.C. Fields bar for a while. Sadly, we weren't able to catch one of the shows at the Parlour, it was a Thursday and there was no midnight performance in the Parlour.

All the magic was excellent, but the magician who most impressed me was David Stryker. He performed a couple of "classic" manipulations, but with awesome fluidity. He was worth the very late stay and was not only a skilled magician, but an approachable and friendly one as well.

Oh...and before I forget. In addition to the magic, Jody and I were able to do some gawking as well. Neal McDonough was there with friends, as was Sam Jones III. If you are a comic book geek, you might appreciate that McDonough was the voice of Firebrand on an episode of Marvel Action Hour: Ironman and was the voice of Bruce Banner on the 90s animated series. Thought I was going to mention Smallville, didn't you.

Sofia Coppola Panned at Cannes

Anyone who has seen Lick the Star will not be surprised to read that her latest film, Antoinette, was booed at Cannes.

I have always wondered why anyone could have liked the Oscar Award Winning film Lost in Translation, which I always thought would be bettered titled Sofia Coppola Thinks Japanese Are Weird. I found it to be an almost intolerably shallow and self-centered film. Some of the "deep thoughts" I was taught by the film include:

1. Look Japanese go to weird strip clubs that make Sofia feel uncomfortable.
2. When in one of the most exciting cities in the world, it is best to stay in your hotel room and mope.
3. Even your Japanese friends are weird.
4. Bill Murray is a good enough actor to make people like a poorly directed film

Bad News Bears Go To Japan showed a more sympathetic and subtle representation of Japanese culture than Lost in Translation. In fact, if you seen Lick the Star you see that the themes of Translation are pretty much the same as those of Star, namely alienation and loneliness. Translation was directed at the same slow, dull, pace as Star and I have never thought that drawn out and boring meant subtle. The Academy obviously disagreed.

When I first saw a preview for Antoinette, I was watching Tristan and Isolde, I burst out laughing at how absurd the film was advertised to be. What I saw was a pretentious couple of minutes of direction in the style of Star that was supposed to be about Marie Antoinette. I guess my imaginings of the film were not far off base, given the reaction at Cannes. I don't know. I'll have to see for myself. The question is whether the "rollicking rock-n-roll" soundtrack is enough to get me to see it in the theater or whether I will wait for Netflix.

Hmm...I wonder if this film will be about a young woman who feels alienated and alone?

British Computer Animation Company Opens Santa Monica Office

Image Metrics (founded in Manchester, England), the leading provider of computer-based facial animation solutions to Hollywood and the digital entertainment industries, announced their arrival in North America on Tuesday with the opening of a new office in Santa Monica, CA. Image Metrics technology has been used in many motion picture and gaming projects including Polar Express and Grand Theft Auto. Company CEO Andy Wood discussed the growth of Image Metrics.

"Over the Past 7 years, Image Metrics has quickly evolved from a company providing image analysis solutions for the medical industry into a specialist in entertainment facial animation technology. The opening of our offices in Santa Monica signifies our commitment and desire to be a part of the future of digital animation and to share our technology and knowledge with those who also seek to push the boundaries of this ever-evolving space," said Wood. "We provide the actor and director the missing tools they need in the animation process to communicate with a strictly non-creative entity such as a computer."

The company was founded in Manchester, England and has developed the only technology that digitally maps a human performance to an animated character. This technology supersedes contemporary motion capture systems because it is not reliant upon traditional techniques such as markers that restrict the performance of an actor and limit the creative control of the director. Image Metrics claims their technology "has simplified a traditionally labor-intensive, time-consuming, and expensive process while enhancing the artistic skills that exist within that process."

Pop, Pop, Pop Culture Community Membership Rules

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