All posts in Geek

2008 Movie Wrap-up

by Drey on December 28, 2008 in Movies with 1 Comment

I don’t expect to see anything else this year to break into the top ten, so that leaves us with:

1. The Fountain
2. Brothers Bloom
3. Blade Runner
4. The Dark Knight
5. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
6. There Will Be Blood
7. Batman Begins
8. Justice League: New Frontier
9. Moulin Rouge!
10. Ghostbusters

And for the movies that were released in 2008, there’s a list for that as well:

1. Brothers Bloom
2. The Dark Knight
3. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
4. Justice League: New Frontier
5. Slumdog Millionaire
6. JCVD
7. Zack & Miri Make a Porno
8. Wanted
9. Hancock
10. WALL-E

Retrogasmic 1.3 – My Primitive Ancestry

by Drey on December 15, 2008 in Geek, Video Games, Writing with No comments

My latest article is up at Secure Immaturity. It is on early, pre-graphic games and their modern descendants.

I’ve closed comments here to encourage responses at the Secure Immaturity site.

Earworms

by Drey on December 1, 2008 in Music with 6 Comments

We all get songs stuck in our head. Here’s my mental soundtrack of tunes that got stuck into heavy rotation this year.

So to Speak – DJ? Acucrack

Falling Slowly – Glen Hansard

Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well – Mike Doughty

Tender – Blur

Lollipop – Mika

Going On – Gnarls Barkley

Chase the Morning – Sarah Brightman

That’s Not My Name – The Ting Tings

BoardGameGeek.con 2008

by Drey on November 26, 2008 in Board Games with No comments

Along with Fantastic Fest and, recently, GenCon, BGG is something that I now look forward to every year. A comparatively small convention (only about 700 people this year), the Dallas-based convention focuses exclusively on board games.

The highlight reel:

Although Agricola is still hugely popular, it came out at last year’s BGG. This year the new hotness was definitely Dominion. When describing the game, most people reached for the easiest comparison: Magic the Gathering. More specifically, the deck building mechanic and the strategy of playing from your graveyard. You essentially build your deck as you play, trying to saturate your deck with certain cards in order to increase the odds of drawing specific combos. Your victory points are also cards, effectively useless for anything but points at the end. So you have to decide if you want to go for a bunch of the low hanging 3s and fill your deck with cards that do nothing, or hold out for more valuable but more expensive single cards.

Continue reading →

Retrogasmic 1.2 – Once Upon A Time There Was No World Wide Web

by Drey on November 17, 2008 in Geek, Writing with 2 Comments

I’ve posted a new article for the Secure Immaturity podcast and website. This one is about life online pre-World Wide Web.

Read it here.

Retrogasmic 1.1 – Your Adventure Begins Here

by Drey on October 20, 2008 in Geek, Writing with 5 Comments

My first column for the Secure Immaturity podcast and website is now online

Read it here.

A Blooming Porno

by Drey on October 1, 2008 in Movies with 3 Comments

Brothers Bloom and Zack & Miri topped my list at Fantastic Fest. Brothers Bloom is a perfect movie which I fell head over heels in love with. Rian Johnson has now made two of my favorite all time movies.

Zack & Miri is probably the most consistently funny Kevin Smith movie, if not the most clever or geeky. It isn’t just a good Kevin Smith movie, it is a good *movie* in its own right.

1. The Fountain
2. Brothers Bloom
3. Blade Runner
4. The Dark Knight
5. There Will Be Blood
6. Batman Begins
7. Ghostbusters
8. Barton Fink
9. Old Boy
10. Zack & Miri Make a Porno

Fantastic Fest 2008 Top Ten

by Drey on September 26, 2008 in Movies with No comments

A running tally of my Fantastic Fest faves.

1. Brothers Bloom
2. Zack & Miri Make a Porno
3. Not Quite Hollywood
4. JCVD
5. Astropia
6. Repo! – The Genetic Opera
7. Sauna
8. The Good The Bad The Weird
9. The Burrowers
10. The Substitute
11. Fanboys
12. Short Films of Nacho Vigalondo
13. Chocolate
14. Kingz
15. Let the Right One In
16. RocknRolla
17. Eagle Eye
18. The Chaser
19. Tokyo!
20. Role Models
21. Santos
22. Your Name Here
23. Fears of the Dark
24. City of Ember
25. Seventh Moon
26. Terra
27. Deadgirl
28. Alien Raiders

Cosmic Redux

by Drey on August 14, 2008 in Board Games with No comments

As some of you know, Cosmic Encounter is one of my favorite board games of all time. My geek heart nearly exploded with joy when I learned that Fantasy Flight, one of my favorite companies, had secured the rights and was going to release a new edition. Upon entering the dealer’s hall at GenCon, I made a beeline to the Fantasy Flight booth. “Encampment” might have been a better word, given the enormous area they took up.

The guy running the demo (drat, forgot his name) was one of the main designers involved in the new edition, if not THE guy. I chatted with him a bit about his vision of the game, what they were keeping, what they were throwing out. Then I got to play a few rounds! Continue reading →

Baby I’ve got to prove it

by Drey on August 8, 2008 in Geek, Life, Movies with 1 Comment

This guy on the right is Scott. He graciously allowed my friends and I to invade his boat at Marina del Rey. Scott makes movies. It would behoove you to get to know him while he is still an indie filmmaker. See what is up at Sirena Studios.

As you can tell from the pictures, it is impossible for us not to document our activities to the rest of the world via Twitter and digital photos.

That was a good time. Chilling on a boat, drinking beer, talking movies and games.

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