Concerts Great and Good

In the last week and a half or so, I've been to two concerts. One was good, the other great.

The good one was Flight of the Conchords. They were hilarious and wonderful. What kept it from being great was the crowd. For whatever reason, the (large, sold out) crowd was loud. Various (likely drunk) people would continually shout out stupid things. You could tell it put Bret and Jemaine on edge. Their style, when not singing, is very quiet and full of awkward pauses. This gave the crowd too many opportunities to make asses of themselves. Way too many. Which was a shame, because it's the funny bits in between the songs that I really went for (the songs are great, don't get me wrong). But in the end, the performers handled it, and still put on a really good show. I highly recommend going to see them. Maybe just not here.

The great one was the Swell Season. Although they have a full band now, basically the Swell Season is Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, who also starred in and did all the music for the wonderful movie Once. (I'll offer a very high recommendation for Once as well). When you see performers live for the first time, it's always a bit of a crapshoot. Some are just not as good as their recorded work. Some are as good, and a few are better. But the Swell Season is much better, and that's saying a lot. Glen Hansard may be one of the most passionate, emotional singers... well, ever. But what really put the concert way over the top was just how charming and likable they all were--again, particularly Glen. He offered up long, interesting stories and ideas regarding what was behind each song. They played new songs and they made mistakes--which made the audience feel all the more a part of something. It was just all so sincere. Perhaps the highlight of the night came when Glen told the audience that a local musical group emailed him to tell him that they would be performing "Falling Slowly" (the Oscar-winning song from Once) and if he and Marketa had the time, would they like to come and see. Glen had emailed back that they didn't have the time, but why didn't this local group perform the song with them, in concert. And so then he brought out the Whitefish Bay 8th grade choir to sing with them. Their biggest song. And then he asked them what other songs they knew and they ended up performing the Pixies' "Gigantic" together. It was all pretty cool (and how amazing for those kids).

I ended up buying the solo album of band's violinist, Colm Mac Con Iomaire. Sue got  a t-shirt. We were raving about the show for days afterward.

  

God, I'm too brain wibbly to work right now, yet here I am, at work. Not working.

Tell me again why I'm doing grad studies?

In an attempt to do something vaguely productive, posting!

1. Played Pathfinder yesterday. We didn't do much, per se, as there were only two players. Boy, do we need new players. It was kinda gonzo and casual, definitely funny. More on that at some point. Tall Man, I'll let you know when the next game is. Should be in two weeks.

2. Made a Mutants and Masterminds character. The chargen process was very good, the way it was organized. More on that later, but the short of it was an emphasis on making connections between characters. I made a redeemed supervillain whose major fault was a sort of arrogant naivety and disregard for others. She's fashioned a little after Edna Mode. (Heh.) She a rich business woman/gadgeteer type. The other characters made were:

- the sword Excalibur transformed into human form
- the living embodiment of Fate
- a kid fresh out of high school with a power suit
- Prometheus (yes, the Titan with the liver problem)
- a girl who has the totemic spirit of a raven rather than a soul

Wacky!

3. More dancing last night. The music kinda sucked, but the dancing I did was good. I like dancing, even if I do look like a major goof.

4. The owner of the Adventurer's Guild is willing to order IPR stuff for me. Yay! I'll have to give him my list. And money. Next goal, Happy Harbor....

5. I'm taking tomorrow off, dammit. Okay, maybe not. I might do some computer work. I more or less have to, actually. But there will be resting! And a nap!

So, I'll miss Eurovision next week as I'll be in...

...Germany. The Ex-NFLE weekend of fun starts when I arrive on Thursday and by the time I fly home on Monday I'll have been to a BBQ under the bridge, on a boat to Cologne and back and been at the Knoten for far too long. It will be great to see Oliver, Robert, Dario, Yvonne, Gudrun et al. as well as Ralph, Sausage, Isa and the usual Scottish clowns such as Preston. :-)

All brought to me by my new passport.

In other news I'll be in Oxford again this week before I go abroad. That's two weeks in a row, with another trip in early June too. I am single-handedly killing the planet (though the Company's carbon neutrality sorts out the business flights, I'm sure).

Then next year I really do drop the hammer on Mother Earth. My list of overseas weddings tops out at 4, so I'm looking for a funeral too. Please, no one oblige.

January: Morgue and Cal, Wellington, NZ.
July: John and Jean, San Francisco, CA, USA.
August: Paul and Shannon, Seattle, WA, USA.
September: Brian and Meg, Atlanta, GA, USA.

Throw in GenCon in August and I simply don't have the holidays to spend more than a week or so at each wedding... so, that sorts my plans out for me, really. I'll be at all the weddings but none of them will lead on to a longer holiday or road trip.

Maybe it's a blessing that my sister makes no mention of wedding dates. If she has any plans that way then please hold off till 2010 at least. K Thx, your b(r)other.

Oh, I think I have to start saving now (and my incentive from work will help when it rolls around in July).

So I want to run this. On the day it comes out. Because I have nothing better to do that day.

I asked my FLGS to stock it 2 months ago. They were noncommittal at best. Turns out their ship date is a few days *after* said product comes out.

I was loathe to pre-order things that might not come the day of release at multiple gaming stores, so I held off. Now it is getting close to game day, and I have no sure sign of a supplier.

Is anyone else trying to pull this? Alternately, are there any gaming stores you know of in Eastern PA/Western NJ who *have* ordered this for the 20th?

Would hate to have to delay a 'release party' on the grounds that nobody near me is releasing it that day...

The Sons of Kryos's latest episode is the second half of the Dreamation 2008 Game Designer's Roundtable. I talk about Misspent Youth at about the 45 minute mark.

So you know how when they made the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe movie, they stripped out the abhorrent theology and produced a sanitized and somewhat vacant fantasy epic? Well, they learned their lesson: in Prince Caspian, they kept all the abhorrent theology in -- and this time, it's not vacant, just disgusting. What an upgrade!

...every spell can be improved with the indiscreet use of Latin and a few superfluous adjectives."
-GURPS4e Magic, p.201

Gamers' Breakfast (now including non-gamers ... H & me, the only non-Sunday-gamers at the table(s)) was weird ... for the first time in a long time we couldn't all sit at one table. Still, I got to spend time with C&H, and I like C&H, so it's not like it was a disaster or anything.

Losing ground on The Crows. Everything was so clear in my non-recorded (curse my idleness) visualizations last night. This morning? All I can see is problems. Is GURPS the way to go? In the end mechanically The Crows is about the magic system. There certainly is a robust amount of Magicy (sic) stuff in GURPS to work with. And on one hand ... spending the time and effort to hodge-podge together a chimera-system is an excuse to avoid the one thing I really need to to to run a game ... and that's involve myself with a detailed setting crammed full of intrigue and a little bit of wonder. On the other ... GURPS? Who am I kidding. I don't really like GURPS.

Addendum: Or do I? Man, some of this stuff in right in line with what I've been thinking of:

Ceremonial Magic and detailed Alchemical and Herbal systems? Check!

Ritual Magic where the character has "core skill" and each College has single skill where the "core skill" acts as a prerequisite and the actual spells can: a) be purchased as Techniques; and b) be cast on their default value. Check!

My addiction to Warcraft seems to have ended with a bang. I haven't even logged "to just check stuff" for two weeks. I haven't done anything drastic there yet, though. We'll see how I feel when I return from tasking in July, but either way I've got another month and a half before I can really sit down and play again.

Doug.

Since I don't have a cross-posting plugin for my blog yet, and this also relates to writing and not just to gaming, here's a manual crosspost.

The other night at the dinner table, Aidan (my four-year-old) decided that each of us should tell a story. When my turn came, I told the following.

Once upon a time, there were two mice. They went looking for cheese. They looked in the cupboard: no cheese. They looked in the oven: no cheese. They looked inside the TV: no cheese. (And so on.) Finally they were so hot that they decided to cool off in the fridge. And you know what they found there? Cheese!

To get this out of the way: repetition is a great tool for children’s stories, and he cracked up every time I said “no cheese.”

Now, to get to the point of this post: the story was completely spontaneous. But did you notice how it had a conclusion that was satisfying to the whole story? It worked out very well: the mice were searching in vain, but the act of searching made them hot, which led them to the place where they could fulfill their goal.

( Read more... )

I didn't see a movie this week. I am going to see Prince Caspian but the weekend was not right for it to happen. I did finally get to see the last half of Stranger then Fiction. That was a good movie. I found out I'm not supposed to say a four year old's show are ugly even when they are. I think honesty is the best policy especially when it isn't my kid. The mom scowled at me, but the kid didn't even care.

51) Dime Store Magic: As I continue with these books I noticed there is a bit more sex in them. It doesn't bother me but it's pointless. I don't need a scene telling me what they are doing when in the other books they just have two characters go off and then start a new chapter. It was only one scene and it just should have been cut. Good book otherwise except for the roles of the Sorcerers turning out to be exactly like the main character expected. At least the writer could have thrown in a little twist with them or something.

52) Wrath of Malgarath: This was a good way to finish up the Spiderwich chronicles. It ends with a little adventure that is almost a small dungeon crawl. I think even grown ups should read them and if you can probably read them all in an afternoon. Nice well put together story with none of that extra crap and pointless scenes the adult oriented novels get.

53) Adam: This is a suspense thriller I guess. I like the way it is put together with new paper articles that showcase the complicated life of the killer. They did a good job of that. They did a shity job of forcing in the supernatural when it was completely not needed. It would have a been a good book otherwise.

54) Industrial Magic: Another Kelly Armstrong book and a little less sex so that was nice. She is really broadening up list of characters. So far so good on this series.

does anyone know how many different movies servo/crow sing Ave Maria in?

just a slightly drunken question =D

Book 14/50 The Subtle Knife

There are some neat bits here. But I didn't like it. Maybe if I was more aware of the parallels between it and Paradise Lost, I wouldn't have found the whole "kill God" thing so heavy handed. And maybe that's my personal problems leaking into my reading. Perhaps you all (will) think it's the neatest thing since sliced bread. More power to you.

I suppose that I'll read the third, since I have it, but it's been officially demoted to the "permanent bottom of the queue."

You know how I always gush about all the books I read? This is the combo breaker.

... to the One Who Would Share "Happily Ever After" with Me,

If you sincerely believe that you and I might have a chance at seeing the End of Our Days together, as partners, lovers, and friends, I ask that you consider these words and search your heart thoroughly to determine if you want what I offer, and can sustain yourself happily with what I bring to a relationship.

I am a loving man. A deeply passionate man. I have the capacity to commit myself utterly and completely to someone. As injured as my heart has been, time and time again, I have an unyielding drive to offer all that I have to another and to seek a true commitment that is designed to go all the way.

I am giving. I am kind. I am attentive. I will think of you all the time, every day, and will want to reach out to you constantly. You will be a part of my thoughts. You will be in my soul. Your name will be on my lips whenever any thought or discussion of the life I live is at hand.

I am selfish, and self-centered. I very easily get caught up in my own stuff. I will assume you are OK with things that make me happy without always grasping how these things may make you unhappy.

I am open and honest. I hold nothing back. If I have a thought, I want to share it with you. If I have an emotion, I will express it to you. I will not just "shut up and go away." I simply can't let things go when pain or anger is involved; I must struggle for a resolution, even when it's not always the best choice for the moment.

You will sometimes think I have a fragile ego, and if you do not constantly stroke me, I will fall apart. I will give you this impression because I will give you so much access to my feelings and my emotional well-being. You will have an unprecedented capacity to affect my mood. I will truly care what you think and feel, and if you express negative feelings about me, I will feel those things deeply and you will know.

And you will feel like you have too much control over how I feel.

And while that may be true to a point, it will not be true at the level that you will assume.

I do not have a fragile ego. I allow access to my center to the one who I would put at the center of my world, but that is my conscious act, my decision. And that which I grant, I can just as easily take away, when I must, from one who would abuse it or not treat such access with the respect they should.

I do not have a fragile ego. Anyone who has known me for any real length of time can tell you that, if they've been paying any attention. I could not have accomplished the things I have with a fragile ego. I could not have survived the things I have with a fragile ego. I would, right now, at this very difficult stage in my life, be a complete and utter basket case if I truly suffered from a fragile ego and a tenuous grasp of self-definition.

I am the "Ego That Ate Athens." I am Sean Patrick Fannon. I reach my hand out to strangers without hesitation. I stand before crowds and issue proclamations, shout about things I believe or think are funny, and toast the moment with gusto to anyone who will listen. I have "no shame and less fear," wearing ridiculous clothes and dancing like no one is watching whenever the moment strikes me.

I will embarrass you because I have no capacity to embarrass myself. I will drag you along in the wake of my enthusiasm for life, not always aware that you may not share such enthusiasm at the time.

I love people. I surround myself with them, and I seek opportunities to gather with friends and family often. I love parties. I love conventions. I love gaming.

I have, however, reached a point where I am perfectly content to retreat, with the one that I love, to the sanctuary of our home and just enjoy simple, relaxed moments away from everything. Turn on a good show, eat some Oreos and milk, and enjoy the unconditional love of our dogs and the warmth of being truly together.

I love sex. I remain a very passionate person, and I am very motivated to seek intimate contact with my One as often as possible. I love spontaneous, passionate kisses, long embraces, and constant flirting. I love the promise of more, and I love having a life where that "more" happens frequently. I do not seek "pain = pleasure" encounters, the domination or submission of others, and the use of accessories in excess. Two bodies in loving motion with one another, seeking to please one another, is the ultimate expression of my fantasies.

(I am open-minded, though, and will never say "no" to something that pleases my One if it's within my power to give; there are some things that are not in my power to give, though...)

I do not want to share. I have "played." I have cheated. I've had polyamorous experiences. These are paths for some. They are not for me. I respect the choice of others, but when it comes to having a relationship for myself, I seek monogamy and commitment.

I can be a big baby when I am sick. I like to be taken care of, and made to feel special (even when I am not sick).

I will make you feel like my Princess Bride. When there is a crisis, you will be able to utterly and completely depend on me; collapse in a heap, cry until your eyes run dry, and you will know absolutely support, love, and strength from me all the way through it.

Don't lie to me.

More important, don't lie to yourself and, while you're at it, lie to me. Don't pretend at what you don't feel. Don't waste our time hoping things will get better if they aren't good. Talk to me, damn it, and we will work on it together.

Will I whine about it some? Yes, I will. Will I argue, and say you're not being fair? Most likely. Will I talk to you about it? Yes, that's the point. And through struggle, communication, and effort, we can fix just about anything we both care enough about to try for.

Like who you are. There may be things you want to change, and that's fine. But when I tell you that you are beautiful, let my eyes and my heart have their moment, and let yourself be beautiful to me. I will let myself be beautiful to you, as well.

It won't be perfect. We will grow accustomed to one another, and we will become entrenched in patterns, and get bored, and wonder if there shouldn't be more.

Of course there should!

That's when one of us gets up, grabs the other one's hand, and says "Let's go!" And off we should go, either to visit someplace new, or see someone we haven't seen in a while, or dance in the middle of the living room, or tear each other's clothes off, or play a game, or just talk about something that is important and needs to be expressed.

It's about commitment, sticking through the bad and trying for the good. Being there for one another - partners to the end.

If you're not in it for that, then we might have some fun for a while, but I am not, ultimately, the one for you.

This isn't everything. It isn't even close. There's so much about me for you to learn. There is so much about you I want to know. The subtle nuances as well as the Big Stuff. Exploring that will define our first days, and will be a part of all of our days.

But this is a place to start. If you get it, and you like it...

... maybe we can really live Happily Ever After.

So I head over to IPR recently to get myself some indie gaming goodness. And what do I find?

Contenders is out of stock.

Perfect was pulled pending a second edition in the works.

Do you people not want me to buy your games? Those were two out of three I was sure to order (the third one being Shooting the Moon, but given shipment costs, I'll wait until I order it with a couple of other things). Grrr.

(And I better send them some more Beast Hunters, cause they only have 10 left... oops.)

Recently, I've been playing Revolution! by Philip duBarry. A hand-made labor of love, Revolution is a "Euro" complete with scoring track and bid mechanic. What makes it fun, though, is that feeling of "damn, you!" that I get every time I tie someone for control of one of the game's locations (which are actually characters). The game's enough fun that I played twice on Friday (but then, I also played Can't Stop twice on Friday so maybe two plays in a day isn't that big of a deal).

Anyway, it's a cool game. It's completely hand-made. I'm having fun with it.

Happy birthday, msminion, mtgat and zubkavich!

Yesterday, Gina and I bought a Wii. And then we proceeded to blow about five hours playing the Wii with friends. The best game of the day? Boom Blox. Definitely Boom Blox.

Watching Alex and Pat play, two people who are as non-gamer as you can get, I could immediately tell why the Wii is a success. This is a system for those who want to dive right in and have fun.

So is there anything left to do of any particular interest with Romero's mythos of the living dead? And is there anything left to do that's worth bothering with when it comes to mock-verite film making? Yup. This is not a great movie, but it is a good one with some outstanding moments, and I'm glad I saw it.

The framework is exactly what Romero's been using all along: one day right about now, for no reason anyone will ever learn, the dead start coming back to life. They're mindless, slow, and completely focused on eating other people, who will join the slow carnival in their turn. "Now" back then was the late '60s; now it's the mid '00s, but people are still people and they still use whatever tools come to hand, in whatever ways seem wise and moral to them when they're driven mad with fear and can't think straight and are watching their own friends and loved ones become the enemy too. In this case the group of protagonists is a bunch of film students making a cheap horror movie for one of them to direct as his senior project, and their advisor. They trek from University of Pittsburgh across Pennsylvania in search of home and imagined shelter.

The film is presented as the edit made by one of the survivors, for information and warning. What distinguishes it from works like Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield is that these folks have good gear and know how to use it pretty well. (These are in general people at a higher level of self-awareness and competence than in other films in the same general category, without the particular intensity of revealed whacked-out-ness that makes The Last Broadcast such a thing.) There's very little tilting or zooming, and the editing actually does juxtapose multiple sources in the interests of clarity, where possible. The narration is too heavy-handed for its own good, alas; it would have been better with half the voice-overs stripped out, and perhaps some brief comments from others besides the main assembler added to the mix.

The major theme of Romero's life work is, I think, that while we don't exactly deserve painful death at the hands of the walking dead, we don't especially deserve anything better. Never mind potential, look at what we're actually doing, what we're always actually doing, and say with a straight face that we deserve the mercy we never bestow. No change in that here, but the manner of presentation is different. The story ends on a different kind of a beat than his previous work, almost a dialogue.

There's lumpy stuff in the mix. Besides the narration, I have real trouble believing some of the character backgrounds, some of the pacing feels draggy or rushed. But there are some really marvelous pieces, too. I am glad to have the emerging community of black survivors, and the note-perfect argument between the lead documenter and his girlfriend, and the limits of the panic room, and a bunch else. Very much worthwhile for horror fans.

Weekend's been fairly good so far. Friday night at the pub was very good fun - even if conversations did get a bit railroaded by going OTT on our silly song naming quest (repacling 'Love' with 'Slug' and 'Heart' with 'Fart').

Yeah, we had plenty of new and amusing song titles for a group oif slightly tipsy people in a pub...for example...

Listen to Your Fart by Roxette
The Fart's Filthy Lesson by david Bowie
The Last Beat of my Fart by Souxsie & The Banshees
Achy Breaky Fart by Billy Ray Cyrus
Fart Shaped Box by Nirvana
Two Farts by Phil Collins
Fartbreak Hotel by Elvis
Somethings Gotten Hold of my Fart by Gene Pitney
Sergent Pepper's Lonely Farts Club Band by The Beatles

Slug Bites by Def Leppard
Slug Shack by The B52's
When You Slug Someone by Bryan Adams
Whole Lotta Slug by Led Zeppelin
Hounds of Slug by Kate Bush
Modern Slug by David Bowie
Where is the Slug by Black Eyes Peas
Slug Me Tender by Elvis

...you get the drift I'm sure...

After which we returned home and watched Ichi The Killer before I crashed out for a very restless night sleep of not feeling all that great. Luckily I was sans headache on saturday morning and after dropping off three large boxloads of videos to some local charity stores Jasmina and I headed into town on a fruitless birthday shopping trip (fruitless because there wasn't anything I really wanted so we settled on her treating me to a meal and aiming to get me to decide by next weekend and try then instead). Last night was spent doing a bit of C7 work and watching Hellboy with Natasha as she'd watched the Hellboy 2 Trailer I had up here the other day and thought it looked good but had never seen the first one. Still very enjoyable even on the 6th or 7th viewing for me :)

Becky then joined us and watched Natasha's 15-20 minute slot on Film24 the other week where she interviewed Stephen Morris (Joy Division Drummer) and the main man behind the films creation (who's name I can't remember :/) on the enw Joy Division documentary which I really want to see (being a big Joy Division fan).

Today is Gameforce day at The Black Horse in London Town for an afternoon of game playing before heading off for a bite to eat at Oriental City. Then the weekend is somehow over once again and it's back to work tomorrow... these things always seem to disappear so quickly!

Good night, everyone! Old women are evil!