Archive for January, 2007

Ghost World

Not too much to say about this one. Two high school girls drift about the summer after graduation, meddling with people’s lives. It had the pathetic, depressed quality of American Splendor (also a comic-to-film), but I didn’t enjoy it as much.

1. Children of Men
2. Stay
3. Pan’s Labyrinth
4. Heavenly Creatures
5. Uzumaki
6. Ghost World
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At Last!

Finally, it’s here!

I received the sample unit of House of Whack today. I could hardly stand the anticipation all day long. It’s like my first child was being delivered to me via FedEx.

On the whole, the game looks fantastic. The cards are on that nice stock you get in quality Euro games or Fantasy Flight games. There are a few color issues, but I believe they can be easily resolved.

One rather large mistake was the printer misunderstood the instructions to score the tri-fold cards and instead PERFORATED them.  You know, for easy TEARING. So they need to clear that up.

Also, they actually randomly collated the sample just like a final game. There was one small error, but they otherwise deciphered my intricate collating instructions. This is a huge weight off my mind.

I played a game tonight with stavros and Jaqui (she creamed us). I couldn’t get over the quality of the cards. I just kept looking at them, you know, and touching them. I also discovered that the little wooden houses from Rio Grande Games’ Power Grid make excellent player tokens. I think I will recommend that people buy a copy of Power Grid or Caylus so they can use the tokens for House of Whack.

To sum up: I am very happy and excited and much closer to having HoW on the market!

Anyone care for a game of…

You can right click and choose “View Image” for a slightly larger version.

Cast a Net of Stars

I have launched 1000 stars.

500 to break atmo

490 just to get your attention

8 to call the others

1 to wish on

and 1 for you.

Incoming

8586 2252 0850

The Girl That’s Never Been

A friend of mine shared this song with me today and it just destroyed me. It resonates on so many levels. It seems impossible that someone wrote it without knowing me. I know the people in the song. I’ve been looking for her.

The Girl That’s Never Been
- Escape Key

It was sixteen years ago, outside an aging movie show
I was found not knowing where I was that night
Not a thing did I possess but an old blue gingham dress
And a faded photograph in black and white
Now my memories are quite clear, even if I still can hear
All the shrinks who said some trauma was to blame
Light another cigarette, breathe in deep, try to forget
That it’s a photograph of Dinah and that Alice is my name

Chorus:
Save me, save me, I’ve lost my memory
I’m outside the world looking in
Save me, save me, I’m lost in the memory
And I’d swear I’m a girl that’s never been

Now it’s all the life I knew, except I know it can’t be true
I’m not her– there’s no such thing as Wonderland
Hold a steady job somehow, three months clean and sober now
Oh, the ways I tried to get back there again
“Try to move on, don’t be sad–” so I placed a personal ad
I asked, why is a raven like a writing desk?
And on the phone, out of the past, so glad he’s found me now at last–
And I’m afraid to go and meet him but I know my answer’s yes

[chorus]

Just another city loner wearing sunglasses at night
Leather jacket, purple turtleneck and blue jeans worn too tight
Just a rummie by the jukebox in a casual curious pose
But I don’t know how he knows the things he knows

Well he sits down with a grin, “Why little Alice, where’ve you been?
Not so little, not so Alice, now, are you?”
As he sips my untouched drink, I say “I can’t be who I think”
He says “You are, and you’re not, and I am too.
Are we figments of our gin? Are we long-lost orphaned kin?
Or the mad descendants of a writer’s pen?
No one’s sane behind their mask. Ask what you really want to ask.”
And I close my eyes and whisper, “Can you take me back again?”

[chorus]

“Darling Alice, so bereft, there’s no back– you never left.
All the rhymes are still there waiting to be sung.”
And he holds up in the air a little picture paper square
Slips between my lips and underneath my tongue.
“Shall I tell you now, Miss Little, what’s the answer to the riddle
Of the raven that you used to send your call?”
He takes the glasses off to see, yellow cat’s eyes turn on me, and says,
“It’s nothing like a writing desk at all.”

Chorus:
Save me, save me, I’ve lost my memory
I’m outside the world looking in
Save me, save me, I’m lost in the memory
And I’d swear I’m a girl that’s never been
And he faded, leaving nothing but a grin.

Pan’s Labyrinth

A very dark fairytale. The two worlds of the film, 1944 Spain and the Faerie world are both richly textured and detailed. There are really two stories interwoven into one, each one equally engaging. The creature designs are gorgeous, with very little CGI for the main creatures. The violence in the film is extreme and gory, but it all occurs in the “normal” world, which makes it that much more horrific. The camera rarely ever looks away, even when you wish it very much would.

1. Children of Men
2. Stay
3. Pan’s Labyrinth
4. Heavenly Creatures
5. Uzumaki
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Spiral

Uzumaki didn’t have quite the same effect the second time around. Also, I saw it with a bunch of friends, so it didn’t seem as creepy.

1. Children of Men
2. Stay
3. Heavenly Creatures
4. Uzumaki
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10.

Heavenly Creatures

I’m not too familiar with Peter Jackson’s earlier works, so Heavenly Creatures was a bit of an education. It featured Kate Winslet in her very first role, a surprisingly mature and capable young actress.

1. Children of Men
2. Stay
3. Heavenly Creatures
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10.

Transition Complete

I’ve moved all the posts and comments from Blogger over to this new WordPress blog. I lost a lot of the images, though. As I come across them, I will try to replace them.