Per Request I added Gone Hollywood to our community. I also added Monitor Duty, though they didn't ask.
We still need a "logo" for our community. Any volunteers?
If not, I'll have one up by the end of next week.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Weekend Update and Recent Purchases
I, like 12 million other Americans (based on $10 a ticket), went to see X-Men III this weekend. Geek that I am, I had already read the novelization
by Chris Claremont (Chris Claremont!) so I knew what to expect which was both good and bad. My opinion of the film is largely the same as Bill Cunningham's over at DISContent so in the effort to avoid redundancy I will only describe where my opinion expands on his own.
Matt Forbeck has a recommendation post on "Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids by David Kushner. It’s the story of how Jon Finkel, a Magic: The Gathering player, went from high-school nerd to world champion, joined a casino blackjack card-counting team." Sounds like the next book to be added to my reading queue. I used to work at a casino, I play a lot of games as you know, and I am a fan of poker books.
As you may have noticed, I have updated the sidebar to include The Flash television series, a Cure anthology CD set, a novel by James Barclay, and a wargame based on Lord of the Rings. Quick rundown...
I loved The Flash television series when it came out and the life and death of Barry Allen frame my favorite era of comic books. When Barry Allen died in 1985 it, among other things, heralded the era of "important" comics and the slow death of comics that are fun. To often comics have lost their sense of providing pleasure and have replaced it with a desire to create "art." This has led to many very good series, but it has also relegated the medium to obscurity. The television show was a reminder of those old, good times. I hope when I get around to watching the episodes that they will hold up.
The Cure anthology is a collection of the band's B-Sides and it constitutes 4 of the six slots in my cd changer in my car.
James Barclay is one of the few authors who could base a series of novels on a roleplaying campaign and have it be entertaining. His Raven series is based on his old Dragonquest campaign. It is fun and imaginative fluff and I have "borrowed" liberally from it in my home campaigns.
War of the Ring is a very good wargame based on the Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien. You can play the game with simplified or advanced rules (I recommend advanced). The most innovative feature of the game is the need for both players to keep track of how well the Fellowship is doing, in addition to strategic decisions.
by Chris Claremont (Chris Claremont!) so I knew what to expect which was both good and bad. My opinion of the film is largely the same as Bill Cunningham's over at DISContent so in the effort to avoid redundancy I will only describe where my opinion expands on his own.As Bill states quite convincingly, the movie lacked texture. Where I most agree with this assessment is in the "cure" storyline. While Storm assures the audience, and her fellow mutants, that "there is nothing wrong with us," she is only correct with regard to a certain group of mutants. There is nothing wrong with mutants who have a beneficial mutation, like the X-men and the Brotherhood of Evil mutants. Her statement is important from a Civil Rights perspective, which has been the undercurrent of the X-men since day one, but from an evolutionary/medical one it is folly.
The movie attempted to show some of the potentially detrimental effects in it's highly underused Rogue narrative, but failed to represent the stakes properly. While there is tragedy in Rogue's inability to touch anyone without possibly killing them, she does also benefit by the temporary assimilation of their superpowers (if they have any) as well. Her mutation is a mixed bag, both benficial and detrimental. This lowers the emotional impact of any conflict she may be experiencing regarding wanting to "kiss her boyfriend." The impact is even less for fans of the comic series, in which Rogue has already "assumed" the power set of Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers) in addition to her own and has fragments of Danvers' personality as well. The audience needed to see mutants with truly detrimental mutations, things that would make them evolutionary dead ends. While fear of power in wrong hands is one motivation for anti-mutant racism, mere difference is another and the most dramatically compelling. Thus the movie should have also included neutral, but cosmetically unappealling, mutations as well.
To be fair, the comics are rarely better than the movie was with this issue. In fact, the best example of this kind of social commentary is in the Wild Cards series edited by George R.R. Martin. In that series, there are three sets of mutations caused by an alien virus. The first creates what are known as Aces, your typical superheroes. The second creates Jokers, people with physically negative or even detrimental mutations. Lastly come the Black Queens, those who are killed by the mutation they acquire.
If not all mutations are beneficial, you have room for drama. If that is the case there is a legitimate reason for the creation of a "cure" but tension is created when that cure is then used as a weapon by intolerant leadership.
I also thought the movie dropped the ball on the tension hinted at at the end of X-men 2 where the Professor had essentially almost killed all non-mutants. That and a couple of editing/dialogue problems and the possible need for more creative use of special effects funds.
Other than that, good stuff. Fast, Furious, and Fun.
Matt Forbeck has a recommendation post on "Jonny Magic and the Card Shark Kids by David Kushner. It’s the story of how Jon Finkel, a Magic: The Gathering player, went from high-school nerd to world champion, joined a casino blackjack card-counting team." Sounds like the next book to be added to my reading queue. I used to work at a casino, I play a lot of games as you know, and I am a fan of poker books.
As you may have noticed, I have updated the sidebar to include The Flash television series, a Cure anthology CD set, a novel by James Barclay, and a wargame based on Lord of the Rings. Quick rundown...
I loved The Flash television series when it came out and the life and death of Barry Allen frame my favorite era of comic books. When Barry Allen died in 1985 it, among other things, heralded the era of "important" comics and the slow death of comics that are fun. To often comics have lost their sense of providing pleasure and have replaced it with a desire to create "art." This has led to many very good series, but it has also relegated the medium to obscurity. The television show was a reminder of those old, good times. I hope when I get around to watching the episodes that they will hold up.
The Cure anthology is a collection of the band's B-Sides and it constitutes 4 of the six slots in my cd changer in my car.
James Barclay is one of the few authors who could base a series of novels on a roleplaying campaign and have it be entertaining. His Raven series is based on his old Dragonquest campaign. It is fun and imaginative fluff and I have "borrowed" liberally from it in my home campaigns.
War of the Ring is a very good wargame based on the Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien. You can play the game with simplified or advanced rules (I recommend advanced). The most innovative feature of the game is the need for both players to keep track of how well the Fellowship is doing, in addition to strategic decisions.
Saturday, May 27, 2006
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.
Friday, May 26, 2006
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.
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.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
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.
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.
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