Why Does the Media Hate Me?

According to Court TV, a defense attorney is claiming that it was obsession with Dungeons and Dragons that made James Flemons walk into his workplace with a Samurai sword and slash a co-worker to death. You see, according to the defense, Jack Chick was right and D&D, is corruptive and evil (you can read an MST3K-esque parody here).

As you know, I hate the association that is constantly put in front of the public that roleplayers are "deviants" and "outsiders" who don't merge well with society and are in constant danger of committing homicide. I wrote about it last year when discussing Anti-Harry Potterism and when discussing Penny Arcade's charity.

This is just another one of those ploys. ICV2 describes many of these "rpgs-are-evil" types as small time Savonarola's and I'm just wondering when Americans will really evaluate the claims made by the press regarding rpgs and give them the same amount of credence as the "Twinkie Defense." When are we going to come to understand that storytelling and catharsis aren't action? When will we come to learn that the News Media is so obsessed with sensationalism that facts don't matter? When will we learn that these modern Brother Girolamo Savonarola's are manipulating us and making a Bonfire of the RPGs? Do we really need Court TV to save our children's souls? And to be fair, though we may have disdain for Savonarola's attacks on art and games he was opposing actual corruption in the Church. So let's not give him a worse name by associating it with people who just want to remove any sense of personal responsibility from the actions of their clients.

This very night, I am opening up my first edition Dungeon Master's Guide and putting a hex on the attorney.

Why the first edition? It's the one with the real hexes!

On the Horizon

Next spring will see the release of a Pokemon based collectible miniatures game. I hate Pokemon's premise, that being slavery. I hate the show. I hate the card game. But I might just be interested in playing this miniatures game. Have you looked at the Charzard?

Marvel Comics is developing a TV series based on my favorite Batman ripoff Moon Knight.

Fantasy Flight Games' Marvel Superheroes Boardgame should be coming out any day now. You can look at some pictures here.

The boardgame based on Wizkids' popular "Pirates of" constructible card game series of games was just released, "Quest for Davy Jones' Gold."

Eden Studios will no longer be producing game products based on the Buffy and Angel licenses.

How Are You Ringing in All Hallow's Eve?

This weekend, my wife and I are inviting some friends over to watch classic horror films and play one of my horror themed boardgames. This year's likely candidate is The Fury of Dracula by Fantasy Flight Games, it's actually a new edition of a classic Games Workshop game from when they did more than miniature wargames. We'll likely slide in an old Vincent Price or vintage Hammer film and have a roaring good time.

That is, if we don't go over to the Alex Theater to watch Vincent Price exact revenge in larger than life fashion in House on Haunted Hill. In a move that would please Tim Burton, the Alex screening includes the EMERGO effect where the skeleton emerges from the screen and floats over the audience. At least that's what the website promises.

What About Frankenweenie?

The Calendar section of the LA Times has a nice bio of Tim Burton and his return to Los Angeles for the 3-D opening of his classic Halloween musical The Nightmare Before Christmas. The bio is filled with some interesting Angelino nostalgia points that are useful to LA Implants like me, for example the location of a historic restaurant in Burbank or discussions of how Hollywood's facelift might affect an aging goth.

The article is quite good, but the intro paragraphs focus on Tim Burton's "dark side" and how it is evident in films like Edward Scissorhands or The Corpse Bride, but what isn't mentioned is how Burton's dark side is only dark in appearance. His films are about outsiders, who often misunderstand normal society, whose attempts at kindness often appear frightening to those around them. His films are a wonderful expression of the desire of a person to love and be loved, but who doesn't understand or value "normal" society.

Besides, the article didn't mention my favorite Tim Burton film Frankenweenie. How can you say that someone has a frightening dark side when he makes a film that is a tale of wish fulfilment for any child (or adult) who has ever had a dog die. His combination of the Frankenstein story with the "terrors" of suburbia is genius. Go watch it on your The Nightmare Before Christmas DVD and you can see what I am talking about.

Entertainment News Rundown 10/25

I am thinking of doing a new feature, similar to Fishbowl LA's rundown of LA news. I'd like to do a quick stroll through entertainment news.

Anne Thompson has a good post on how the NYT is covering the box office results for Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers. She also has an excellent article on Aronofsky's upcoming fantasy The Fountain.

TV Critic Ray Richmond weighs in on the Madonna adoption.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Borat will no longer be a wide release, rather it will open on 800 rather than 2000 screens demonstrating just how much Americans don't pay attention to foreigners. Ah, the power of YouTube...show the first four minutes of a major studio release and have to cut back the number of theaters.

Patrick Goldstein, unlike the NYT, understands that October is also early Oscar season and not just when we worry about grudges.

You too can be baffled as to why the best new show on television was ranked 24th last week.

Shawna Benson keeps us appraised of the state of the fall lineup. I know that you can get info from the Futon Critic as well, but I like the way Shawna structures the results and predictions.

Bill Cunningham gives us the lowdown on Drive-in studio AIP. Bill's comments on how direct to dvd is the new AIP is very informative.

Construct Your Own Cylon for Halloween

Thanks to the folks over at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories, you can now build your very own Cylon Jack O'Lantern for Halloween.

Before you do though, I would like to add the following cautionary note. Be sure that your household does not have a wireless ethernet router. It is one thing for sinister alien androids to take over your neighbor's computer, or even the city's computer system. One might even argue that alien androids taking over city computers might be a good thing, but one's own computer? Nay, I say!

Oh, and after the holiday, make sure that you have a class V disruptor as the combination of plant matter with computer circuitry makes the Cylon O'Lantern resistant to Classes' I through IV.

Titanic: Two the Surface

In a world gone mad with sequel-mania, one man had the courage to go where no sequel had gone before.