Look at the theme he chose for his blog!
In all honesty, Joe Bob's Week in Review has been long in need of the kind of interactivity that blogs allow. Go on over and give him a holler.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Community Rundown
Here are the stories being covered by the Pop, Pop, Pop Culture Community this week so far.
We, of course, have discussed X3 and Xombies and will soon discuss the Wild Cards series in greater detail.
- Perrero has their usual blogburst, expect the unexpected.
- Shouting Into the Wind discusses why Taylor Hicks Matters.
- DISContent discusses Memorial Day and Hershel Gordon Lewis
- Monitor Duty discusses Strangers in Paradise
- News on the March discusses Google, the Simpsons, and Jules Verne.
- Gone Hollywood disses Michele Rodriguez for being released from prison and praises Naomi Watts for her philanthropy.
- Our friends at the Ziggurat of Doom discuss propaganda, X3, and how vampires are protesting hamburgers at White Castle
- The Shelf apologizes for the lack of a Memorial Day post on Memorial Day and has a few comments about his opinions regarding An Inconvenient Truth
- The Hungry Ghost reminds us to read the Axis of Time series and presents an opportunity for all you burgeoning 35mm Hong Kong Print collectors out there.
We, of course, have discussed X3 and Xombies and will soon discuss the Wild Cards series in greater detail.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Added Community Members
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.
We still need a "logo" for our community. Any volunteers?
If not, I'll have one up by the end of next week.
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.
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